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cinnamonest · 3 years

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Rewriting my Diluc housewife thoughts but I saved it in my notes this time, but I made it infinitely more sexist than it already was before bc 1) I was in the kink mood and 2) the spirits of writing gods possessed my body and told me that is the way all Diluc content should be, so, this is major 1950s-ish housewifey horrendously misogynistic shit, you've been warned. Like, even *I* looked back over this and was like "wow this is vile" which is kinda saying something for me so, putting the nastier parts under cut for the sake of my followers' eyes ----------- I was thinking about the post a while back about Diluc reforming a criminal darling - a thief around Mondstadt that's been on a crime spree and of course he catches wind of that and goes to defeat the perpetrator (surprisingly very easy? How is a thief this weak?) and haul the bastard off to jail except... What's this? Said criminal is actually just some girl and not a gross ugly bastard?? This changes things. Clearly, this was not an intentional act of malice or greed, but rather, he, master of criminal psychology™, rationalizes that the world is far too cruel for unwifed girls that have no one to depend on, a cold terrible place, so you must have been driven to these actions out of desperation. You had no provider, no caretaker, which are needs. How could you possibly be expected to provide a means of living for yourself?? This is just the consequences of the unfairness of the world. However, things all work out in the end. You need to be taken care of and restrained from these self-destructive choices by force (since you cannot recognize how bad it is, not that you're expected to, it's natural that you have poor perception, that's why you need a man to make choices for you), and he needs a wife. This solution benefits all parties.

He is, however, a rather dense man, and doesn't really think to like, tell you that. Or tell you anything. He's too lost in thought in his planning -- gonna get you new clothes to replace your ragged ones, gonna have to rearrange the guard schedule so they can watch the house better, all that -- and just kinda slings you up and over his shoulder without a word. Ignores you kicking and hitting because it doesn't really hurt or anything, you're too weak for that. Just says he’ll explain in detail later, but don’t worry, you’re not going to jail. He’s just taking you home. This is better, he says. Stop struggling so much, what, you want to go to jail? No? Then be still. And you don't recognize that it's good for you yet, but again, that's expected. In a better time or society, you would have been married off sooner, and prevented from ever falling victim to your own decision making to begin with, but the world isn't perfect and you can be forgiven for it. You're not responsible for your own actions since you can't comprehend them. It's frustrating and he sighs a bit over it, but that's just the way things are. You'll be happy in the long run, even if it takes a while, you're naturally programmed for a better lifestyle he has in mind. And, really, he's glad you weren't married off, because if you were then he never would have had you, so even though it was technically unideal, the stars align and the universe works out things perfectly. It's all the more of a sign that this was fate and you were made for him. The issue is that a hardened criminal darling is... Not the ideal candidate for a housewife. To some extent, he's right that the criminal underworld hardens a person, you can't survive in that realm if you're submissive or weak willed. And criminal darling certainly is not. Loud mouthed, opinionated, argumentative, bad attitude, defiant and aggressive and very much unafraid. A complete loose cannon. All very unfavorable traits. Worst of all, very much unaccepting of and ungrateful for the privilege of a second chance and being graciously granted the opportunity for a better life. Lots of bad behaviors.

The cursing is a problem. It's not very... Wife-like. Gives off a bad image, you know. Especially since said cursing is usually directed at him at a very loud volume with a snarl and getting all up in his face to tell him he's fucking insane and a bastard. To be honest, the worst part isn't the words themselves, it's the fact that you are so unafraid to be defiant and so fiery that is the primary issue. You disobey very deliberately. Little acts of pettiness. Being mean to the maids who are so graciously trying to teach you how to cook (at his direction), since you had no idea how to (and nearly burned his house down as a result). The first time you were mean and bitter and that's how you learned they report back to him about how you behaved. It did not go over well.

Intentionally burning food. Once you somehow found a bottle in a cabinet somewhere in the mansion and put rat poison in his food, made him sick. Muttering a sarcastic whoops and shoving a vase off to crash and shatter on the floor. Early on you refused to wear all the nice dresses you were generously given and even tried to go through his clothes to find something to wear, which was kinda cute since it was way too big, but still. You mutter and grumble under your breath every time you're given a command. The most important thing is sex, though. You know, your job. One of your only real responsibilities. He has a very stressful job. It's only reasonable that he can expect to come home to his sweet, loving little wife with open arms and equally open legs. You've probably fucked around a bit right? For money, for favors, for intel, you get the idea, lots of ties to criminal gangs to earn their trust. So, if you do it for something so insignificant, how much more does he deserve it for taking care of you fully? You should -- and you will, with time -- drop to your knees the second he walks through the door. But instead, sigh, you fight and whimper and cover your face in shame after you spasm and cum, and worst of all, you actively try not to cum. You shouldn't feel ashamed of that, it's good, he says. Sure, you may not be officially married (since the laws of Mondstadt unfortunately require that whole "consent" thing for both parties, ugh), but, he's basically your husband right? So, it's perfectly normal, you're supposed to cum for him. Maybe once you're all knocked up you'll be even hornier, and less shameful. He actually wasn't expecting you to be this bad. Incredibly stubborn and prideful. Literally the exact opposite traits of a good wife, you know, submissive and humble and obedient. He kinda thought that it was like... automatic. That once he just kinda shoved you in the right environment, it would be like flipping a switch right? Apparently not. But no matter. It can be changed, with effort and time. You're worth it. See, you're not supposed to backtalk him, you're supposed to smile and do what you're told without question. You're supposed to submit and obey, and instead you seem hellbent on pissing him off out of spite - and frankly, you're doing a good job of achieving that. Every time you defy him it sparks an irritation he can't describe, worse than he'd normally get from just being snarled at by anyone - no, something about being disrespected by someone he feels is beneath him makes him much, much angrier than it would be if it were, say, one of the business partners who get snappy and argumentative very frequently. He could break you and it would be easy, don't you know that? You stomp and you hit him and you yell, but clearly you process that you have to look up to look him in the eye, you have to realize how much smaller you are. You hit him even though you have to know by now he'll just grab your wrists, and like always you'll be unable to even hope of pulling out of his grip, the strength difference between you two is so great. There's no way you don't realize all that, yet you continue to behave the way you do. The inferiority is so blatantly obvious, but you act as if it's not. He spends a lot of time contemplating the source of this, the cause of your behavior, it occupies his thoughts. It's like... You resent him for something. Could it possibly be kidnapping you and keeping you as a glorified sex slave? No, no, that's not it. It's something else, yes. Are you just bitter about being inferior in, you know, every conceivable way? Is that it? The criminality for you was compensation to make you feel powerful, perhaps. You have a complex. You resent him not for anything he's done, but because you know he's stronger and smarter and generally superior to you. You don't want to accept it. You're prideful when you shouldn't be. You're supposed to be humble and content with your inferiority. Yeah, that's it. You just have a negative perception of the lifestyle you're supposed to have. Maybe some event in your life or someone else warped your view of things. You don't realize how happy you'd be if you just accepted it. Yes, if you submitted to it, if you swallowed your pride and actually accepted your place, you'd find you would be very happy, you just don't know that. Or maybe, your brain can't grasp something like that. After all, that's the reason you're supposed to be the submissive party of the two of you, you're not as bright or perceptive (says the densest man alive). You have to be... Led. Guided. So he says it. He is, again, a dense man. He does not really think about the fact that perhaps blatantly confronting you with the epiphany he thinks he's had and specifically using the words inferior and weak and small is probably not going to make you very happy. You get bitchy and bratty and try to hit him and he sighs because, see, this is exactly what he's talking about. You reacting the way you did only confirms you do have a complex, he says. So, how could he go about... reconditioning? He is not the most creative man, but thankfully it's a rather easy problem to solve. If you're reminded of a reality often enough, you have to accept it. For starters, using physical strength against you. Maybe that will metaphorically open your eyes. Holds you down in place when you're hitting him like you do, firmly bending you over a counter or whatever and just holding you in place. Come on, try to get up, try to push him off. You snarl and claw at the marble and push will all your strength, but he doesn't budge, not until you politely apologize and ask him to let you up. If you're being difficult and not going where he tells you to, well, he can just sling you up over his shoulder and carry you. If you're fighting being fucked he can just flip you over and press your face into the mattress and hold you still, and you can't help but take the brutal reality that you're basically a ragdoll to him, that is, physically overpowering you doesn't even require trying. It helps to knock you down a peg, remind you of your place and maybe get you to swallow that pride a bit. The orgasms and fucking have a similar effect -- every time you can't help but feel like he has a power over you. And really, he kinda does. Every time you lay there still panting and shivering in aftershock, the shame comes swarming in, all the obscene noises you made and the way you came undone under the person that treats you like property. Even if the rational part of you knows better, you can't help but feel like in a way it's like you let him win, allowed yourself to more or less prove him right. Maybe you'll learn better if you're in more humiliating positions. Stuck getting rammed from behind, hand forcing your face down and ass up. Actually correcting bad behaviors requires more direct approaches, so he takes the... Old fashioned route. After all, it's pretty much guaranteed to work. You don't listen to words, you don't listen to reason, but you'll certainly listen to handprints and belt welts on your ass. It's the first time you really, truly break, and that brings him a lot of satisfaction. The first time you really cry and whimper and beg and apologize so profusely it feels like you mean it for once. Granted, for a while you just persist in your bad behaviors and even try to run when you see him sigh and take the belt off, but you never get far. And, most notably, you actually fix your behaviors, with enough reminders. At one point, the next time you start being bad and get to bitching and snarling and putting up a fight, you catch the look on his face and, for once, you shut your mouth and look down and mumble an apology by default. See, you're learning. Speaking of, you still have that major issue with backtalking him. You're supposed to submit to him and acknowledge his authority over you. So he gets firm. Grabs you by the jaw and forces you to look him in the eye and reminds you that you will *not* get an attitude with him. You *will* show some respect. You say yes sir and no sir and do what you're told. And if you forget, he can give you a reminder, if you want that. But you shake your head with fear in your eyes, say you don't want that. It makes you mad. You want to lash back, but you swallow your pride and mutter a fine - before realizing the mistake, violating the rule you were just reminded of. You stammer out a yes sir but it's already too late. He has to control himself too, not let his anger get the better of him. He speaks in a way that isn't snarling and mean, but rather firm, cold, a flat tone that asserts dominance and demands respect. But... still wants you to like him. So he has to be nice, too. After all, you'll learn better if you're rewarded for being good, right? So you can get little rewards. Words of affirmation. A pat to the head. He'll buy you something you want, let you drink a bit (since, as a thief, of course, you had a problem with that before you came home, but that had to be corrected too, since drunkenness isn't very befitting). And sooner or later he does have a really good little wife. He's proud of you. You smile and obey commands without complaining. He can come home every day, and rather than hearing a long report from the staff about how much trouble you caused that day, instead you have food and smiles and sweet affection waiting on him, you hug him when he walks through the door. You're polite and sweet to the various business partners and guests that come through -- you don't speak to them without permission though, of course, and you look down at the ground so you don't make eye contact with another man. People say he's lucky and how they wish they had a wife that was so outwardly affectionate to them as you are to him, always clinging to him physically. And you don't complain or every object to anything, you just smile and say yes and do it. It makes him happy in a weird way he can't quite articulate. A warm swell of pride, a feeling of success. You have vague memories of a time when you were breaking into houses just to scrape by, not knowing when you'd eat next, not knowing where you'd sleep. It's kind of a fuzzy memory now. You don't have to worry about those things anymore, and you're a lot happier this way.

#this is vile im sorry #tw: ff #tw: misogyny #.dl #yan.txt #q

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fukurodaze · 4 years

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haikyuu!! third gym squad taking the ib diploma programme

ok... my friend and i got rlly stressed the other day and made headcanons for these guys if they were to take classes in the ib... it’s like a levels but like... a bit more death!

for my ib diploma folks you can just hop on over and read what i’ve hc’d but for my non-ib folks, lemme give you a bit of an introduction to the ib diploma programme.

characters included: bokuto koutarou, kuroo tetsurou, akaashi keiji, tsukishima kei, haiba lev, hinata shouyou

THE IB DIPLOMA PROGRAMME is a rigorous two-year pre-college program in your last two years of high school. a full programme consists of one class from each of the six required groups (totalling to 6 classes), which are G1 - first language; G2 - second language; G3 - social sciences; G4 - natural sciences; G5 - mathematics; and G6 - arts (though, arts is optional, and can be switched out with another subject from G3 or G4).

within these six courses, students are required to take at least three high-level (HL) courses and three standard level courses (SL), but some students may take four HL courses and have two SL courses (kind of a rough one tho).

just to note: there’s two types of math courses - applications and interpretations (Math AI) and analysis and approaches (Math AA). MAA courses are known to be harder than MAI courses because students do more theory work and have non-calculator sections in exams, unlike MAI courses where calculators are required for every exam. also, it is possible for a person to take IB courses instead of the full diploma programme, but i’m not very well acquainted with that variation of the IB programme so we’re just going to assume all the boys got 6 courses.

okay. i am so sorry i just lectured you on a whole school curriculum. anyways. back to haikyuu!!

BOKUTO KOUTAROU : Japanese Language and Literature HL, Mandarin Ab Initio SL, Geography HL, SEHS (Sports, Exercise, and Health Science) HL, Math AI SL, Economics SL

ok so it’s canon that this dude is not doing very well in math but his parents made him do higher level math at first poor boy >:(

he started the year off in higher level and thought he was gonna be fine

no. he was not fine.

so he ended up switching his math hl to sl and his japanese sl to hl

IT IS CANON (special chapter in volume 19 titled “i just forgot” where bokuto has a wholeass crisis about words) that bokuto’s really one to actually really like to think about how words work and function as systems in the same way ib language courses do!!

actually having him do japanese ll hl is just an excuse for me to keep him in math sl sorry

i mean koutarou may be my fav tax evader but he really did sit through two years worth of econ classes... smh

mans is Not listening and has to rely on yukie for notes but he just memorises case studies for exams and does not do anything else

i feel like he just takes mandarin because he thought it was the easiest one... he also thinks the words sound similar so it’s easy to memorise

he’s a pretty good communicator so he practices his mandarin quite a lot. as in, he’s made friends to talk to in mandarin. we love to see it!!!

also. um. i hc that he’s pretty decent at memorisation so geography!! this goes for memorising all the kanji and mandarin characters too

i think SEHS is pretty self-explanatory. mans already known he wanna be a pro athlete might as learn about being healthy as an athlete

KUROO TESTUROU : Japanese Language and Literature SL, English B SL, Business Management HL, Chemistry HL, Math AI HL, Biology HL

now... we all know this mf been taking chemistry hl. it is CANON

and as per his career path... DEFINITELY business management hl

i feel like he’s so analytical in the way he sees things that he likes to explore many areas of knowledge where there are different ways of thinking

takes english as a second language because... whew.. aint it sexy when mans wanna be multifaceted in business

also takes higher level biology because he’d rather not with the languages... but later on i believe he ends up in a higher level language class because he might as well

i feel like kuroo’s classes just give me a vibe i know too too well...

mans takes math ai. he does not wanna fuck around with a pencil proving a theorem he just wants the answer bro

like in volleyball, he’s a quick thinker. so he’s pretty g with math and business stuff

i literally know someone with this class combo ... it’s not very chill but it screams “you never see me do any course work but i always get at least a B+ in every subject”

AKAASHI KEIJI : Japanese Language and Literature HL, French Ab Initio SL, Psychology HL, Chemistry SL, Math AA SL, Visual Arts HL

now... this subject combo radiates such pretty energy

pretty subjects for a pretty boy

he was originally going to do biology sl but then found out there is chemistry in biology so he just decided with chemistry. plain and simple.

we all know akaashi is both emotionally and academically intelligent

he’s logical and analytical, and when faced with a tough time he works through it well albeit going through a little bit of struggle

this automatically puts him in math aa... i just see him actually liking proving theorems???

but maybe he just thinks his calculator is a nuisance sometimes and would rather solve everything by hand

also art boy! this dude likes graphic design more but when it comes to traditional art he does Not Hold Back

i like to think that he’s into painting backgrounds and mixed media

if he didn’t take VA, i’m pretty sure he would take economics. because. it’s quite systematic and i think akaashi would take a liking to it

as for japanese ll hl... we all know this dude was supposed to be a part of the literary section in a magazine/manga company but was moved to editor

goes hand-in-hand with psychology, likes to know how words convey meaning and how they affect people

he also thinks french is kind of a cool language. i feel like this guy just wants to do it because it sounds cool and novel for him

all in all, pretty solid subject combo!

TSUKISHIMA KEI : Japanese Language and Literature HL, French Ab Initio SL, History HL, Biology SL, Math AA HL, Instrumental Music HL

4 hl’s... here we are folks

honestly does it for colleges to go like “holy shit this dude is kinda crazy”

but does suffer... coursework tings :)

first of all this dude takes french (even though it’s a beginner’s class) because he just loves to sound cool huh

the summer before his courses started he would have had the basics down after looking through free ib textbooks

plus, being the guy that’s super good at a new language in the class is a huge ass flex and a big ass ego boost. and anyways, with language, he thinks it’s just a lot of simple patterns working together.

this also applies to japanese ll hl... finds writing essays and making arguments ez (at least that’s what he tells himself - he’s kinda nervous when it comes to japanese but he holds on anyway)

practices extra hard on pronunciation. sounds hot tho

math aa hl??? there we go. another crazy one. thought he could ace the class at first.... no. no he couldn’t

thinks about moving down to sl. probably does. (at least it’s not math ai)

history and biology go hand in hand for him. he has significant interests in prehistoric times, and likes to learn about the origins of life - that’s a given

but he does get tired of the politics talk in history like... goddamn all these people making so many mistakes? just stop making them smh

and instrumental music was just something he got onto because he really would like to just have a course where he could enjoy himself while also learning about the stuff he likes

nobody knows what music he listens to... but i think he’s willing to listen to anything as long as it’s music and it has the kinds of vibes he digs

HAIBA LEV: Japanese Language and Literature SL, Mandarin Ab Initio SL, Psychology HL, Chemistry SL, Math AI HL, Theatre HL

i don’t know how to explain it but lev has such strong psych and chem energy

yes haiba lev’s classes are the ones i picked via roulette wheel

jk not really

here’s the thing though, lev takes psychology because he thinks econ, business management, history, ess, all that jazz is just... absolutely boring. like. super. mf-ing. boring.

so he’s like ooh cognitive processes!

kinda hates that he has to study research methods and research methods ONLY at first but when he gets the hang of it he really finds it one of his fav subs

i actually have no explanation for mandarin ab initio sl... he just seemed like the kind of guy who would wanna do the class solely because he thinks mandarin sounds cool with their intonations and everything

plus he heard that the teacher gives mooncakes every lunar new year ad he. loves. them.

okay now hear me out.

lev is good at math.

maybe not lightning speed analysis or calculations like akaashi, but he finds solving problems fun! except for when they’re without a calculator bc he HATES doing calculations by hand

he can get a bit clumsy with his hand calculations too so it’s nice to just have a calculator on hand

literally only does math ai for the sake of using a calculator at all times (a/n: i take this class, and this was the reason i took it too. COMPLETELY VALID)

and then does theatre for the fun of it!!! confidence levels high for presentations and performances... good fit

kinda thought that ib theatre would be his easy A but oh how he was wrong... hates the research tasks at first but he gets used to it

HINATA SHOUYOU: Japanese Language and Literature SL, Portuguese Ab Initio SL, SEHS HL, Geography HL, Math AI SL, Theatre HL

his classes are bokuto energy but with theatre and portuguese

MANGA SPOILERS! we all know he started thinking abt going to brazil in his second year of high school, and the ib diploma programme starts in the last two years of high school so it fits PERFECTLY

lowkey most of the boys take japanese ll sl because they just. have to.

this is also hinata’s case <3

SEHS HL!!! he has a vision for the future and it definitely involves him understanding health and sports and everything like that, especially after nationals in his first year :(((( still sad abt that

but he’s motivated for this higher level class because he’s really just gonna go all out with the research

math ai sl because... he prolly don’t give a fuck about numbers!!! (it hasn’t been made clear already, but math ai sl is the lowest level math course)

he also took theatre hl because even though he does get scared at first, he’s a natural when it comes to learning new cultures

he’s just so curious about it all and it makes him quite engaged in the class as well!!!!

also kinda took theatre because the other subjects were just not it for him

about geography... he hates memorisation but he also hates everything else in the social studies group so

he just gets by by trying to find the little details of the things he’s studying interesting because really... geography class is just the base of all the places on his bucket list

hinata’s def one of those dudes who picks his subs purely off of liking because we all know he’s going. any subject that isn’t based off of liking is usually a mandatory subject anyways

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keto-diet-corner · 3 years

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The 28 Day Keto Challenge is an online program by Keto Resource that is only available for purchase from the Official Website. Your account will be active as soon as your payment is successful.

You need an active internet connection to access the meal package and other program content.

6. Is The 28 Day Keto Challenge Worth It?

So, after reading all the reviews, is it a good idea to start the 28 Day Keto Challenge? The answer is yes!

The program is easy to follow and you get all the details you need to incorporate it into your lifestyle. With each step of the program, you'll get closer to your weight loss goal, which can make a significant difference.

Finally, the program comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee, and you can get a full refund if you don't think that's something you can try.

The article 28 days keto meal plan reviews first appeared on DUNOGE.

Check out the source of DUNOGE's article at 28 days keto meal plan reviews

#keto diet #keto #weight loss #sugar free #fating #reverse type 2 diabetes #ketotransformation #low carb

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anika-ann · 5 years

Text

Lessons in Rule-breaking - Pt.2

Pairing: Steve Rogers x reader Word count: 2830

Warnings: …nothing major? Swearing, fluff, gooffiness.

Summary: Arrangement made, arrangement cancelled, Finding Nemo screening and... ;)

Story Masterlist

═══════☆═══════

You hated yourself, you really did.

It wasn’t the fact that you couldn’t have held on a little longer and you had texted Steve the very next day in the morning – unable to follow some basic rules of socializing – just to let him know when you could possibly arrange the movie theatre thing. It wasn’t even that you had done puppy eyes at everyone you had been trying to convince to tolerate the project. That was all okay.

You hated yourself for the burning sting of disappointment that had come when Steve hadn’t texted back. You had been sitting by your phone like a super-excited nag for three days and you had been getting sadder with each hour with no response.

Now you were just annoyed.

It was ridiculous and you had been unbearably stupid. Of course he wouldn’t text back. What had you been thinking? Chances were he had even given you a fake number, no matter how genuine he had seemed when talking to you – he was probably used to that kind of interaction and he hadn’t wanted to be rude in person, trying to maintain some sort of an image; even when being so casual you would have believed he was just a kid from Brooklyn, just your average Jack on the street. He had been nice and you had trusted him.

Stupid, stupid-

“Oh god, I’m such an ass,” you murmured and went to continue on your pizza from the place on the corner of your street – you had it delivered despite the fact you could have just walked for five minutes and get it yourself. You were pathetic.

You stared at the rest of your food, losing the last remains of your appetite when remembering that stupid wannabe genuine eyes of his.

Your phone rang, interrupting your sulking.

You eyed it suspiciously, wondering who was calling you – perhaps you didn’t check in with mum for too long? Possible. Someone wanted to switch shifts? More than likely.

To your shock, the ID was announcing a completely different caller. Steve. And just like that, you realized you weren’t pissed at yourself only, but also at him. But you were too curious about what he would have to say for you to let the call unanswered.

Also, there was a possibility of some poor bastard, whose number Steve had given you when trying to dodge you, was calling now, confused about your text.

“Hello?” you said to the speaker unsurely, anxious about what was to come.

There was a relieved sigh on the other end. “Hi! I’m sorry, it’s Steve, I-…“

Well. Now what?

“Uhm… hi, Steve.”

“Hi,” he repeated hastily and if you weren’t angry with him and also utterly disappointed, you would have found his hastiness endearing – but you were. “I… I wanted to apologize for not texting back-“

You sighed and decided to save him from his misery. “It’s okay, Steve. You don’t have to explain anything. I understand.”

You did understand pretty well. Maybe you could have said it less harshly, but you were pretty proud of yourself for just speaking with him.

“I… don’t?”

You cleared your throat and swallowed the stupid tears of humiliation that had no logical explanation.

“No, Steve. You were just trying to be nice and didn’t know how to get rid of me, I get it. I won’t bother you-“

“What?” he breathed, sounding honestly astonished. “No! I— is that what you think? I didn’t even know you texted me until five minutes ago, we left for a mission in the middle of a night and we have ‘no-phones’ policy during those, so… I’m really sorry.”

You sat on your couch, frozen, letting the information sink in.

Hold on a sec. Was Steve still having missions? Was he-- it kinda made sense; he had been there for the battle of New York. And what else he would be doing? Posing for art students? Barely – he was a soldier waking up after seventy years. Of course he was still fighting. Probably under some super-secret organization.

Oh god.

“Oh god, I’m such an ass,” you whispered for the second time this evening, letting your head fall into your palm.

You thought he was being a dick. And had been saving the world.

Who’s the dick now?

“Oh my god, Steve, I’m so sorry.”

“What for?” he asked, seeming confused.

”I… may have thought… you… lost the text?”

“That can happen?!”

You pressed your lips together. Sweet summer child, still learning about technology…. You cleared your throat. “It can. If you help it… disappear.”

“…oh.”

“Yeah. I’m sorry. I honestly don’t know what I was thinking. Well, I know what I was thinking, obviously, but… yeah. It’s… it would be a perfectly natural response, you know, to ignore it-“

“Yeah, no,” he interrupted you, determined. “I’m sorry if I made you upset. I… if the offer still stands, I would really like watch a movie with you.”

And just like that, your heart melted completely.

“Awww, Steve,” a new voice joined in the background. “You are so sw-“

“Go to hell, Romanoff-“ Steve cut off the woman and you could hear some rustling then – did Steve try to cover the speaker?

“Ouch. I’m wounded, Rogers,” the woman continued teasing him and you bit the inside of your cheek to stop yourself from laughing since you could still hear Romanoff clearly.

“Just— shut up. Go away.”

You could hear a laugh and then a bang, more rustle and Steve was back with you.

“Sorry for that.”

You chuckled. “It’s okay, Steve. She seems like a piece of work,” you noted and heard him inhale sharply.

“…how much did you hear?”

“Not much, just about… everything?”

“I’m going to kill her. Yeah, Natasha can be a bit too much,” he mumbled and you would swear he sounded embarrassed.

“Sounds like it would be a shame to kill her. Bet she’s a keeper.”

“Wait until you meet her, you might change your mind.”

Your lips parted, your heart sent into a cardiac arrest. Holy— did he just imply he would like you and the Natasha woman meet? That he wouldn’t be against you meeting his friends/co-workers? That was--… nice.

“Anyway, can I still take you upon the offer? Please?”

Oh god, the soft timid ‘please’ was enough to erase the past few days. You were such a goner.

“Yeah. Yeah, you can. When do you have time? Did you pick any of the days I suggested?”

“Tomorrow?” he offered, taking you aback greatly, your stomach clenching immediately. That soon?! “Or not-“

“Yes! Tomorrow’s fine. Why wait, right?”

“Exactly,” he breathed, relieved. “I much rather meet with you soon so they can’t call me away again before I do. So…”

Your heart just swelled. You needed to stop reading more into all this.

“…tomorrow. After eight. Looking forward to it, Steve-” Too much, ALERT, too much!

“Me too,” he replied and you would swear you could hear a smile in his voice.

“You got it bad, Rogers,” the woman from earlier said then and you covered your mouth with your palm to muffle the giggle on your lips.

“For god’s sake, Natasha!”

“Goodnight, Steve,” you whispered.

“Night. See you tomorrow,” he whispered back softly. “You’re dead, Romanoff!”

“Steve, you need to press the red button to actually end the call,” she teased him and then you heard a growl and you were cut off.

You burst out into a maniacal laughter and squeezed you phone tighter.

Alright, time to stop sulking. You had a movie to download.

═══════☆═══════

Mia knew someone was coming over and since you had a deal with the guards, she didn’t question it – she let you check out the exhibit after closing time, grateful she didn’t have to do it, and left with a suggestive wink. You rolled your eyes and pretended you didn’t blush.

Steve arrived ten minutes after eight, wearing his perfect disguise in a form of a baseball cap, finding you at the desk. Seeing him again – a tiny smile settled on his lips and bright eyes smiling at you as well –, you scolded yourself for thinking he had been ghosting you.

“Hey. Welcome to Smithsonian cinema. How can I help you?” you greeted him, not sure where it came from. Steve smiled wider.

“Heard you were playing a great movie tonight. Couldn’t resist. Plus, I‘ve been promised popcorn and… some pleasant company. I can see I came to the right place,” he started rather confidently, turning bashful in the end.

How the hell could you resist and not read anything into it when he talked like that?

“Oh— oh yes. Come in. I’ll get the popcorn.”

“Thanks. How much for it?

“About two hours of your time, Captain,” you told him the price, rising from your seat. “That okay?”

One corner of his lips rose higher. “More than okay. And for the company? That would actually call me my first name?”

You lowered your gaze, wondering if you were crossing a line. “Smile is enough, Steve.”

You were glad you had some time for yourself during preparing the popcorn – you needed to calm down. Your palms were awkwardly sweaty, your throat was dry and your heart was beating like crazy.

Calm down. Just two not-even-friends hanging out. Nothing more. Sure, you’re doing a service to your country by educating national hero in pop culture, but you have literally no reason to be nervous, because it’s not like you have to make him LIKE like you. That’s not gonna happen anyway. Loosen up.

By the time you started the movie and handed Steve the popcorn he had insisted he had to share with you, you convinced yourself it was the truth. And within ten minutes through the movie, you got comfortable enough to make a note to the plot, your body getting on with the program of two not romantically involved people sitting in an empty movie theatre. And you had fun. Steve seemed to appreciate the notes, a laugh escaping him from time to time and it was amazing.

When the end titles started rolling down, you turned to Steve, finding him already watching you instead of the screen. He smiled and you smiled back as if it was the easiest thing in the world.

"That's it. You've been educated," you announced, rising from your seat and making your way to the projector. He followed your lead.

"Thank you. It's was… very enlightening."

You stopped dead in your tracks. “Oh. Was I rambling too much? I was, wasn’t I?”

Steve shook his head, still smiling, and his eyes shined even in the dim light of the computer you were turning off.

“No. I appreciated it. Like I said – very enlightening,” he whispered softly, his gaze locked with yours, effectively sending your heart racing again.

"Oh. That's great! If you find a movie you think definitely deserves to be watched in somewhat cinema quality, I think we can manage to arrange this again.”

“I’d really like that.”

“ ‘kay.”

You were so glad when you got out from the theatre, though it wasn’t like the lightning was less intimate in the common space of the museum at night. Steve walked by your side to the counter desk where you had your stuff.

“Uhm… next Thursday works?” he asked, sounding quite hopeful and you couldn’t help but grin. He really liked it!

“Yeah, sure. It’s a date,” you blurted out, realizing only a second later how it sounded. “I mean like— did you use to say that back in the day? I meant like ‘it’s a deal’, I didn’t-- didn’t mean like date date!”

Did he really just lower his gaze, stuffing one of his hands into the back pocket of his jeans as if he was nervous? Hey, you were the nervous one around here! You rather picked your backpack before you could interpret something in a wrong way. Again.

“Oh. That’s… that’s a shame,” he mumbled, peeking at you through his eyelashes. Your lips parted in shock as you stared at his shy smile.

“...what? You— you would-- you would like it to be… a date?”

“Or not. Wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

Did Steve just ask you out?!

Did… Captain freaking America asked you on a date? What the hell was wrong with him? Why on Earth would the original hero want to go on a date with you? Of course you would say yes, you wanted to shout it from a rooftop – or maybe just here really, the sound would echo greatly here – but… really?

“…not the word I would use,” you choked out finally, after what felt like forever. Though you were entitled – Captain America was asking you out. Come again?!

Hesitant smile appeared on his lips, his eyes twinkling. “So… next Thursday? And it’s a date? Maybe with a dinner before of afterwards? Steve here is asking.”

Was he a mind-reader too?

“Yes, Steve. It’s— it’s a date.”

He examined your face closely, looking as if he was trying to crack a very difficult puzzle. Then he leaned in quickly and placed a light kiss on your left cheek.

“Wonderful. Goodnight.”

You blinked in surprise, unable to let out a word or to move. Steve disappeared behind a corner abruptly and suddenly the weight of what just happened hit you with full force.

You had a date. With this amazing specimen, who was not just incredibly attractive, but also very sweet.

You couldn’t hold it anymore. You giggled. You giggled like a schoolgirl. You couldn’t believe it.

A date.

With Steve.

You giggled into your palm again and then threw your hands it the air, spinning around, consumed by the euphoria sparkling in every cell of your body.

“Maybe I should take you dancing instead,” you heard someone call out and you yelped, stopping abruptly and turning to the source.

Steve was leaning against the wall of the very same corner he had disappeared behind, his arms crossed on his chest and slightly amused expression on his face.

“What are you doing here?!” you whisper-yelled after him, your face red as a lobster.

It was probably pointless to hope he hadn’t seen your embarrassing schoolgirl moment, wasn’t it? Oh god.

He bounced off of the wall, confident in his steps as he walked to you – you were too frozen to run away and hide somewhere you could die of embarrassment in private.

“I realized I haven’t offered you a ride home. I wouldn’t want you to wander the streets at night alone.”

“I always do that,” you shrieked, escaping his intense gaze. His brows furrowed.

“Well, I’d like to change that. At least for tonight. I kept you longer than you are usually staying, right?”

“…yes. But it was a pleasure, really.”

His hand tentatively rose to your face, cupping your cheek. You couldn’t breathe as his head – which meant his lips, his lips were right here, unfairly kissable – bowed to yours, his gaze focused on your face as if nothing else existed.

“It was. Would you let me take you home so I can be sure you got there safe?” he pleaded lowly and you couldn’t help it – your gaze flickered to his lips again, because goddammit, so close and so soft; you would know now, the ghost of their touch was still burning on your cheek.

You weren’t sure how it had happened, but you were nodding.

You couldn’t form one coherent thought beside ‘Steve is touching me and his mouth is dangerously close to mine’. And the said mouth just spread in a wide smile.

“Thank you.”

You had no idea what he was thanking you for, only being able to perceive that his hand slid much lower, taking your own and leading you out.

Steve was no wuss; he didn’t bother sneaking out in secret even when he was in the museum long after the closing time. He led you right through the main reception, where you met with Stan-the-guard’s wide-eyed gaze; he gave you a thumbs-up. Your face got even redder if possible, but you smiled at him shakily.

When outside, you found out that Steve’s definition of safe was a little bit different from yours, but if the man was offering you a ride on his bike, you were not about to say no. When he smoothed your hair before helping you to get the helmet on, you were about to melt, climbing beside him without him even asking you to do so.

“Hold on to me tight,” he whispered over his shoulder, readjusting your hold on his firm body. Honestly, if something would happen, you would die happy, because touching the firm muscles on his torso when dying seemed like a good way to go. But if you survived, you might touch it some more, so that was a motivation right there.

“Oh, I will.”

Trust me, Steve, I will.

═══════☆═══════

Tags: @mermaidxatxheart @lovesmesomehiddles

═══════☆═══════

That’s it! Thank you for reading :))

#marvel #mcu #fanfiction #captain america #captain america fanfiction #captain america fanfic #captain america imagine #captain america exhibit #steve rogers #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers fanfiction #steve rogers imagine #steve rogers fanfic #fluff #lessons in rule-breaking #anika ann

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sarcastic-pasta-games · 6 years

Note

Any motivation or advice for one man team developers? Sorry if this has been asked already

Hey! I’ve been working on a solo fangame project for too long almost 3 years, while working on The BOSS & Glitch In The System. I have no clue if this’ll help or if this is the type of advice you wanted, but here you go. The things written here can apply to non-fangame projects, too!

(Warning: lots of text ahead - and take this with a grain of salt; I’m not an expert.)

General:

You are going to have to plan in advance and organize absolutely every single thing about your project. Don’t just make an outline for your story. Create concept art for your characters, figure out what makes your game story unique, figure out the mapping and game mechanics early.

Make sure you know your options. If you’re really good at one thing (writing,art,music,code) and everything else is a bit new to you, there are free and paid resources out there. Don’t feel bad for using them.

If you’re a perfectionist, make sure the tools you use are quick. Do not spend a week on one room design, or a month on one song. You will never finish your game, even if it’s super short.

Kinda joykill advice, but I don’t recommend making your dream project first unless you fully KNOW how to start making your project on your own (which even then, you’ll need to organize everything for it to work). Make something silly, or try joining game jams.

External feedback is even more important when working on your game. Get playtesters or people willing to help give feedback to you early on, or midway through development.

Figure out how much energy you can devote to your project. If you want to be ambitious, that’s great! But overworking yourself is a horrible idea.

If you want to change something fairly major about your game, you should probably only do it if you’re below the 30-40% mark. Otherwise you’ll forever drive yourself insane by changing anything when you’ve made that much progress on your project. You can always improve on certain aspects for future games.

Especially for fangames: don’t take everything you make seriously.

Games can still be considered solo projects, even if the developers got help for stuff like art, music, and code. You don’t have to do every single thing by yourself. But if you’re stubborn like me about this and still want to do everything, that’s cool too.

Back up your game or forever suffer in developer hell. Yes, I’m serious. I’ve seen projects get cancelled because they couldn’t afford to get a backup drive (or even a USB key) and it’s miserable.

Don’t act like you’re above other game developers. This applies for anyone, really. Support the other people around you, too!

Visuals:

If you have absolutely no passion or desire to do your own art assets, premade resources are your friends. However, you need to really focus on your other game aspects in other for your games to stand out. To The Moon used a lot of pre-made RPG Maker XP resources but had a phenomenal soundtrack and used that + its visuals to make the game feel more cinematic than most RPG Maker games.

If you feel like you suck at art or don’t have money for expensive drawing tools, but want to make all of the game assets, then do it! Even with simple/free-to-use tools, your can make game art that’ll be unique and memorable. example / example / example

Keep backups of every single one of your original art asset files.

If you want to do pixel art for your game, 1: Always avoid coloring with pure black. Your game will look disgusting. 2: Programs like Asesprite are useful for animations. 3: Make sure it’s proper pixel art. Using AA brushes, the blur tool (etc) will completely ruin that.

Video cutscenes aren’t 100% necessary. Certain game devs make it a goal to never include cutscenes to create a certain atmosphere, or for the game to feel more interactive for the player. (ex: Night In The Woods)

Pretend the player can’t listen to game audio while playing. Keep the visuals interesting and make your game feel alive! Whether it’s through tiny animations, window animations, etc.

For 3D Games: motion blur =/= super cool polished game. >:(

It depends on your game’s style, of course, but usually it’s not a good sign if you can tell your project is made by someone with default assets and doesn’t try to work beyond that (for any engine, 2D or 3D).

If you want to do regular art for your game: make sure you know what resolution your game is going to be at its absolute highest, and always work with bigger than that.

Keep your visuals consistent! If an early area looks unpolished/different from the final maps, then fix it.

I’m going to skip music advice because I 100% suck at composing and don’t know what I’m doing yet. Just make sure your audio files are lossless, even if it adds a bit to your game’s file size.

Audio:

Use the same logic like in one of the points for visuals: Pretend like the player can’t see any of your cool visuals or fancy animations, and is just left with blocks for character sprites and very shapes for maps. Make your game convey emotion through audio, even if it’s through tiny sounds, or really quiet environment sounds.

Voice acting: Don’t even bother if you can’t find people who have good microphones or can’t afford/know how to properly remove background noise. You’ll just be left with really bad quality audio that won’t help immerse the player at all.

There can be a theme to your audio, much like there can be a theme to your visuals. Whether or not you decide to contrast the visuals with your audio or pair them up is up to you. It can give the game a whole new tone, depending on how you approach sound design.

Audio cues are good for puzzles, but again, don’t just rely on that only to indicate to the player that an objective has been completed. If they have the game on mute, they’re just going to be left wandering around.

Binaural audio can be cool, if you want to try doing that.

Writing:

Don’t write game dialogue at 4 am. It never works.

Game writing is VERY different from what you might be used to. Keep in mind that for the most part players want to interact with an environment, not just only hear what characters have to say about a certain event or area. Forcing them to go through giant dialogue cutscenes every time is not a smart move to make. (Obviously, visual novels and text adventure games are an exception to this)

Not that you only need to have 4 words in your entire game! But there is a chance someone will download your game and just not enjoy the writing. Think ahead of time if you really feel like every game puzzle, every important cutscene needs to happen after giant walls of text.

If you have the ability to make visuals that can be paired with writing, you don’t really have an excuse for avoiding that. Especially if the cutscene

Proofread every single thing, or get someone else to do it. If you can export all your game dialogue into text files, that could be helpful.

If you’re trying to write a serious game (with lighthearted moments or not), chances are that adding that one dumb inside joke with your friends in-game could ruin the immersion for the player.

Only time I think the developer should focus more on their own opinion than the players: create as much atmosphere as you can. Figure out the things YOU like about a game world, and focus on that as much as you can. Don’t worry about making it appeal to all/certain audiences.

Don’t act like every single player in the world will like all of your characters. Even if they’re nice, someone could absolutely despise your main characters, or find themselves liking the antagonist more.

Dumb character ticks and speech mannerisms can still work.

Not everything about a Serious Game™ has to be gritty and all that. Me and Katie wouldn’t recommend making a completely serious fangame anyway, but that’s another topic.

You’re probably not going to ever write a game that has absolutely no tropes in it whatsoever, so give up on that.

You can make a character dislikeable but still charming. The other way around works too. Not everything has to be clear-cut right and wrong.

Game design / Programming:

If you ever use shortened names for certain switches, variables, etc - or have a complex system for one game feature, write down what all of it does somewhere. You don’t want to screw yourself over months after you implemented something because you forgot what one button does, or what another variable is for.

Bite the bullet. If there’s an area you restrict access to for the player purely for the sake of not having to deal with coding it, that’s no fun.

You can never make a game with endless options/possibilities.

If there’s something buggy in your absolute basic gameplay mechanics (movement, UI) just change it and don’t focus on anything else before it’s fixed. There’s no excuse not to.

Make sure your game UI is bearable to look at. Please.

You don’t have to add 50 game options or features for your game to stand out. Unless you know it’ll encourage the player to keep playing or will help the player enjoy the game, then there’s no real use for it.

If you can ever optimize your game (frame rate, controls, etc) do that too. Having a simple 2D game running at 15fps one second and 60 the other won’t make your players happy.

Personally, I’d rather play a working puzzle even if it’s a bit boring, over something that’s super creative but buggy as hell.

Color puzzles aren’t going to work for colorblind players, and if you have an aesthetic (super tiny) game font, people with bad eyesight won’t be able to play. Give people options!

“Choices in this game matter” if you know they don’t matter whatsoever for the ending or for a majority of the game, then don’t say that. This also ties into the branding section.

Making band-aid fixes for every single one of your game bugs is a really bad idea. If you can take some time to fix one bug fully rather than relying on workarounds, do that.

Back. Up. Your. Code. Files. Especially if you’re planning on making major changes to it. It can be very useful to have old pieces of code to fall back on if your changes don’t work as planned.

Figure out what you can and can’t do with an engine. There’s a section in The Beginner’s Guide that talks about the limitations certain engines can pose to developers, and how certain engines are just better fit for certain tasks than others. You won’t be able to include or make everything for one project. (Chances are, that wouldn’t work well anyways).

Don’t expect the player to only behave one way to your game’s design, puzzles, or mapping. Again, give people options. There can be some fun in giving the player different results for different puzzle solutions.

Presentation:

You don’t have to reveal every single thing about your project online- but on the other hand, keeping everything to only vague/abstract teaser posts isn’t very helpful to people, either.

Social media is your friend. Twitter, tumblr, youtube, etc- Find different audiences through your games there!

Figure out what sites you want to put your game on. There are tons of options: Itch.io is my favorite. But sites like Gamejolt, indiedb, rmn.net, Steam (more for commercial games), etc can work for you. You can always just upload it for yourself online (mediafire, google drive, dropbox) too, if you dislike all of those sites or prefer doing it through direct download links.

Don’t self promote your game on other people’s games or accounts…

Even if someone is hoping to see something really specific in your game, your project will get out of hand if you just add in what every single person wants. Convince people that your game will be worthwhile even if a feature or a character doesn’t appear in it.

Remaining transparent with your audience will help you a lot.

Keep things easy to access and read/look at for potential players. Make sure people can find something about the game quick. Things like FAQs, “About this game”, external links, etc are very helpful.

Apologies in advance for any embarrassing typos that I may have missed.

One last thing: Focus on making something that you ultimately like. It’ll be much easier to handle any sort of obstacles during/after development that way.

There is so much more I want to cover on this, but this should give you some basic things to work with. Hope this helps!

#mod makorie #SPG advice #text #ask #anon #anonymous

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eucalyprhodes · 4 years

Text

This post took three weeks to write. I kept going back and forth on whether or not I should write about it, or I should just keep it all inside ... as usual you know? If I write about it, then I risk people knowing about the most vulnerable and even embarrassing aspect of my life. At the same time, I really (quite frankly), can’t give a F anymore. I think I just really really need to put what I’m feeling into words.

Disclaimer, YES, I already talked about it to my husband. After all, that’s what husbands are for right? to be that person where you can just unleash all your feelings and sorrows, etc etc. But my husband is only human. Furthermore, he can’t really understand what I’m going through because we have completely different career pathway, so while it’s nice to vent to him, I think it’ll be better for me to express this in words, so here goes.

I AM TIRED OF BEING IN STUDENT AFFAIRS.

There, I said it. And the worst thing about it? I haven’t even REACHED my dream job in student affairs. In fact, 3 weeks ago, I have gotten another rejection for an academic advisor role at the same university that has had the pleasure of rejecting me twice already. (I feel like their HR staff would know my name by now ... and also, whatever)

Maybe I should provide a bit of a content. When I graduated college in 2014, I didn’t really have any idea what career I wanted to do. I was just happy I got a job that pays okayyy-ish, at least it was enough for me to splurge on stuff. The job was great, the people I worked with were incredible, but the pay was apparently very low. At the same time, I realized, I didn’t want to pursue social work/government type of job. After 6 months in that job, I realized I wanted to be an academic advisor. I love working with college students, I enjoyed talking about their career pathway, their hopes and dreams, you know, all the usual stuff. I didn’t want to go to grad school right away since I still had debt from undergrad, so I thought, I could just work at a university first and work my way up. Spring 2015 was the first official time that i started submitting resumes to universities and colleges around me.

IT.WAS.BRUTAL.

Rejection emails came left and right. I thought, okay fine, let me just build up my resume and work at different organizations, at the same time, still actively applying for jobs at universities. So there goes the most brutal, exhausting and frustrating 5 years of my life. For those who always asked me “why do you always hop in between jobs?” “why are you always switching jobs?” “why can’t you just stay in one place” When people ask me these questions, I usually just joke around and just give bullshit answer like “well, i gotta hustle” or something to that nature, but in reality, whenever I get asked those questions, I’m pretty much crying in my mind. Because I TOO, wish, I can stay in one place for a long time. Who really wants to sit and search for jobs all the damn time? Who really has the energy to tailor resumes and write countless of cover letters for 5 years? I wish I can stay too but I can’t miss any opportunity that will bring me closer to my dream job... Do you really think I enjoy all those countless times, typing up resume, cover letter and clicking submit to basically every single advisor/student services/admissions job posting I can find? don’t get me started on the rejection emails. I must’ve had close to hundreds in this past 5 years. Rejection comes so often that I become quite numb. but sure, judge me for job hopping, call me a job hopper, because i can never stay.

Then comes another bitter realization. I’ve started networking with few academic advisors, most don’t have a masters degree or just get their masters degree after already working as advisors for a number of years. Most of them have been working as some kind of advisors since undergrad. It becomes depressing to talk to them because it seems like I’m definitely in the wrong side of student affairs. I didn’t have the opportunity to be a peer advisor, heck, I didn’t even think of this as a possibility until I graduated college. All of these advisors recommended me to actually pursue a masters degree because at least, that would give me the formal education in advising. So I did. I enrolled in grad school, I took another student loans and I’m graduating this semester. But at this very moment, I’m gonna be very real and say that I feel like this was a waste of my time and my money. Because even after 5 years worth of transferrable skills and almost having my masters, no university is even remotely interested in interviewing me as an academic advisor. I already had many people review my resume and cover letter and everyone comes to same consensus: I have what it takes to be an academic advisor, but the system is so screwed up that it will take me years to even get there. But how many years? I’m not in my early 20s anymore. If I keep waiting for the perfect job, I’ll never get to my other dream of having a family, or having a house, or just pursuing my hobbies and interests. Will my life be just consumed with the constant job search just so I can be an academic advisor? And for God’s sake, an academic advisor is not even the most sophisticated, high level, executive job. The salary outlook is not even the best. Yes I’ll be making more, but I won’t be making six figures from being an advisor. I think most of you at this point will just “well then just get out. you have nothing to gain and more to lose from staying in this industry”. But I don’t know if I’m quite ready to leave yet. If i really switch, that means I wasted 5 years building up to nothing.

Some of you may know that I currently work at a university (which I’m very much grateful for the opportunity). But can I be real? I’m not making a lot. I’m not doing what I enjoy doing, which is working directly with students. and in the past 5 years, I’ve been working for a salary that is not deemed livable wages, at least where I’m living. I’ve been paid “Jesus” money because even though my salary was low, at least I’m making a difference. But making a difference eventually sounds like a dream, because we have to live in reality. Now, I have debt from my student loans, I’m still stuck with my car payments, with no new job prospect in sight. I feel that this situation is going to delay our desire to have a child and to own a house and it’s all because I felt the need to “pursue my dream”

Maybe it is time. Maybe it’s time to switch to the corporate world. I have always thought I would never switch to the corporate world but I am seriously re-thinking my choices right now. Does that mean my masters program was a complete waste of time? it probably was ... but hopefully, a job with a decent salary in the corporate world can help me pay it off soon. Am i bitter? I am, still, at this time. It felt like this entire field is against me because, there are schools with advisors that have no bachelors degree and only armed with peer mentoring/peer advising experience, able to secure full time advising position. I’ve done beyond what was asked, took the plunge and get a masters, only because not one university is willing to give me a chance.

This post got a little depressing and bitter but after putting these into words, I definitely felt a lot better. I’m not sure who will end up reading this, BUT, if you’re reading this and you’re an academic advisor, know that I appreciate you and the work that you do. I just think the university’s hiring system is messed up.

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bsinoranges · 7 years

Text

In which it gets sappy

Tagged by the amazing @lethesomething!!

1. How did you come up with your username and what does it mean?

So uh. BS is actually short for bittersweet, but now it doubles as my in-joke for BS in whateverCourse -- hence the in. So BS in oranges.

Then it’s bittersweetoranges because i read this fic called bittersweet and it was damn good to me at the time. Also my favorite fruit is orange.

...I’m bot good at giving names nor titles. Haha.

2. Which fanfic of yours has the most feedback? (bookmarks/subscriptions/hits/kudos).

Hm. Overall, that would be my KuroYachi one-shot The Lights in the Sky are Stars. It was sort of my love letter to the KuroYachi ship, and so I’m not entirely sure if I’ll be able to add on to it.

For subscriptions that would be my still unfinished brofest piece, The Thief, the Witch, and the Fae. This one is my bid at making an interesting take on certain characters and dynamics in a dark fantasy setting. Futakuchi is the lead if only because @haruhi02 accidentally gave me his name when I asked for random characters.

3. What is your AO3 profile icon, and why did you choose it?

A freezing link from Breath of the Wild. Well, why not? Haha. I love Link, I love Breath of the Wild, and when I resurfaced back on tumblr botw recently came out and also the free icons.

(the rest is under a cut because it’s long and sappy)

4. Do you have any regular/favourite commenters?

Well. I won’t name favorites. Frequent commenters tho... they’d be my friends from chat, so shoutout to @lethesomething and @haruhi02 because you guys are great.

To be fair, I don’t think I post frequently enough for people to keep their eyes peeled for me.

5. Is there a fanfic that you keep going back to read again and again?

Boy, do I. Basically anything in my bookmarks are the things I regularly return to read. Quite notable, however is anything by bigspoonnoya. God. I love her work. From the HQ to the BNHA to the YOI.

6. How many stories are you subscribed to? How many do you have bookmarked?

I bookmark more than I subscribed. Buuuuuuuuut I’m subscribed to a grand total of 4 works, and I’ve bookmarked 62 fics.

7. Which AU do you find yourself writing the most?

Fantasy. Hands down. There’s three-ish urban ones, then there’s two full-on fantasy pieces. The rest are slice-of-life.

There’s just something about fantasy that makes me really happy. It might be the freedom to make, or that I like using fantasy as a substitute for when I want to comment on current events. But usually I like writing things that are fantastical.

Someday I want to make write a slice-of-life that makes the mundane fantastical, and then vice versa. If only because it’s the little things that steal my heart and imagination every single time.

8. How many people are subscribed and bookmarked to you in total? (you can view this on the stats page)

Four wonderful people are subscribed to me, while 12 are subscribed to my stories. For bookmarks, I have a total of 24. ^^

9. Is there something you’d like to write about but are afraid of people judging you for it? (Feeling brave? If so, share it!)

Many of my topic matter don’t really make much, if any, waves -- at least that’s what I think. I’m only afraid I can’t do justice to my dark/fantasy elements, because that would be a real shame.

10. Is there anything you would like to be better at? Writing certain scenes or genres, replying to comments, updating better, etc.

First it’s definitely finishing what I start. My multichaps aren’t incredibly long, but I worry a lot about continuation and future chapters that it spoils writing the present one, so I hope to work on that.

Next is my exposition and narration. I can only say “Name smiles.” so much before I think I write in a horribly stale matter.

... Does writing romance or any sort of sexual or romantic contact count? Cause, boy do I need practice.

11. Do you write rarepairs or popular ships more often?

Is YamaYachi popular? KuroYachi? I’m pretty sure they’re an okay and accepted ship. But in any case the rarest pair I’ve written is KuroYachi, and then KamaFuta. Because those pairs need more content, and I’m pretty willing to fill them.

12. How many stories have you posted on AO3 to this day (finished and unfinished)?

I have 9 works in total. Five of which are completed oneshot, and the other four are unfinished multichaps. See the trend yet?

One of the finished oneshots is the longshot Nowhere in the Sea. It’s the first fic I finished in my whole 17 (at the time) years of living.

Of my unfinished things, one of them is an anthology (that I should probably close since I’m not planning on updating anytime soon) and then the three fantasy pieces that has a lot Worldbuilding™.

13. How many stories do you have saved in/with your writing program?

H A H A.

Hm. So, I switch between Google Docs, Sublime Text 3, and OneNote. But there’s a whooping 17 unwritten stories in various states of disrepair.

I’m most excited for the YamaYachi one, and also the sprawling ensemble cast one. :D

14. Do you write down story ideas, or just keep them in your head?

I mostly keep them in my head. So they flit in and out of my memory like deadlines. On the rare occasion that I’m possessed by the idea, I’l have written the idea down and then some on anything I find convenient at the time (laptop, phone, or paper.)

15. Have you ever co-authored a story?

Yes. @haruhi02 was my partner for the hq fantasy fest thing. She was with me when I finished my first ever fic Nowhere in the Sea.

16. How did you discover AO3?

I was friends with this author back in FF.Net, and she had an AO3 account. Then, I branched off her fics to read the FE:A fics.

17. Do you consider yourself to be a popular or famous author in your fandom(s) on AO3?

LOL. Of course not. I can say, with confidence, that I am probably obscure.

18. Do you have a nickname or fandom name for your readers?

Hm...

19. Was there an author who inspired or encouraged you to write?

Fun fact, the first fan fic I wrote was an unfinished novelization of the Swan Princess (Nest Family Entertainment), and then an illustrated re-telling of Barbie’s Princess and the Nutracker. I started seriously pursuing writing around... the grade 5, when my bully of an English teacher said I had a talent for writing. If I had any it remains to be seen. But it was my friends back on FFnet. The likes of Mafi, and Tune, and Loke. They were there for me during my baby days writing for a fandom. We weren’t in the same fandom, but they inspired me so much.

Also I really like Philip Pullman and J.K. Rowling and thought it would be awesome to publish and write books.

Today though, it’s my friends in the chat who continue to inspire me everyday.

20. What writing advice would you give to a beginning author?

I don’t think I’m qualified. But if I should, it’d be to stay strong and welcome to addictive cycle of happiness and misery. Because there’s nothing like writing that one perfect scene -- it’s worth all the stress and the struggle.

Also. Writing is like wine, it get’s better with age, but it doesn’t mean that you like wine.

21. Do you plot out your stories, or do you just figure it out as you go?

I plot a lot. Like a lot. But I throw out a lot through the window when push comes to shove. Sometimes I’ll outwrite what I’ve planned or plan something new and then I’ll get flung into a crisis. Haha. Fun.

22. Have you ever gotten a bad comment on a story? If so, what did you do?

The worst comment I’ve had is spam on Nowhere in the Sea. I just wish I had more comments. #NoShame.

23. Is there a certain type of scene that you have a hard time writing? (action, smut, etc..)

Smut. A bit of action, but action is easier than doing the sexy.

24. What story(s) are you working on now?

I’m focusing all my energy on Amor Fati, which is my gift for the fantasy exchange. I need to finish that because it’d be sad if I didn’t. And, most importantly, I want to make my giftee proud.

25. Do you plan your next project(s) before you finish your current ongoing story(s)?

The plan is to keep up with my plans. I have no shortage of plans. Hahaha. But I do plan on finishing up Amor Fati then finishing either Scales or The Thief, the Witch, and the Fae before moving on to other projects.

26. Do you have a daily writing goal set for yourself?

Nope. It would probably be better if I did, but acads just eats a lot of my time.

27. Do you think you’ve improved as a writer since you first started?

I think it’s arrogant to think that I did, but I guess I did. I was 13ish -- two years after fifth grade -- when I took writing more seriously... And looking back my writing style changed. ^^

28. What is your favorite story that you’ve written?

I love all my stories for different reasons. To be honest tho, it’s what I haven’t written and am yet to write. I love The Thief, the Witch, and the Fae for it’s dark and heavy atmosphere. Scales for its hesitance and its secrecy. Amor Fati for the melancholy and for its world. Nowhere in the Sea for being my first in a lot of things (but also it’s magic system and world gdi). Lights in the Sky are Stars for it’s sweet fluff. Class Pizza for its tomfoolery. So on and so forth.

As much as I have a hard time looking at my writing, I won’t deny that I love them for the things that they are and could be.

29. What is your least favorite story that you’ve written?

... Probably my anthology? It reminds me of bad memories.

30. Where do you see yourself (as a writer) in 5 years?

Here, still suffering but instead out of school (hopefully) and knee deep in some sort of job.

31. What is the easiest thing about writing?

The planning and the talking and the crying and the reading.

32. What is the hardest thing about writing?

The writing. Or maybe that point between the first scene and the third. Something like that.

33. Why do you write?

Why don’t I? Writing is me. I’ve did things for the sake of reference, I’ve devoted a lot of myself to writing and the idea of writing. I love it. It’s an amazing way to express.

I wouldn’t give it up for the world.

Sooo. For tagging. @spacegaykj and @astersandstuffs and @slothesaurus if you guys don’t mind ^^. Feel free to ignore if you want. Thank you for the time.

Also double tagging @haruhi02 because I can.

#ask me stuff #thanks for the tag #I didn't expect to be so sap #but you know acads just chewed me up and spit me out so that might be a thing #hahaha

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waqasblog2 · 5 years

Text

19 SEO Tips To Increase 📈 Your Search Rank🔍👍 [With Proof!]

Last Updated - 2019-03-11

One of my 2018 New Year's resolutions was to make organic search traffic a top priority.

And you know what it worked!

For transparency sake in March 2018 this site appeared almost 180,000 in Google search results. This translated to 61,000 page views. For any given month in 2017 I was lucky to earn 5000 impressions.

By November 2018, 8 months later, I had improved my organic search traffic to over 160,000, which continued to climb in December, despite the holiday lull.

The good news is you can follow my lead and improve your organic traffic and Google results. You may not see the large numbers I had, but you will see improved traffic.

The actual traffic volume will vary by niche and target market. My numbers increased because there is a lot of search volume for web development. But if you have basically 0 visitors from Google each month, which most sites experience, 100 or 500 new visitors could make a positive impact on your business.

After making many deliberate technical changes to this site and changing my content strategy things improved. My next goal is to reach 1 million monthly search impressions.

These tips are not related to building backlinks, at least not directly, they are mostly related to on-page and technical SEO. This means how you can clean up your site's code to make it faster and easier to use. These tips

After reading these tips you will want to audit your site to see how many of these tips can be applied to your site to make it rank better.

How did I do it? How can you replicate my success?

In this article you will learn 20 actionable tips you can implement today, for free, to start reaping the rewards of increased traffic to your web site.

Full disclosure, my results are mine. Your results can and will vary. I do use some paid tools, but you can implement these tips for free. The services and tools I use help me scale and complete tasks faster.

Intentional Effort and Motivation

I wont lie, I invested 10-20 hours a week for the first two months of 2018 making changes, one by one. I have not stopped making changes and will continue to make upgrades.

Good SEO is hard and takes a lot of intentional effort. But anything worth doing does.

The good news is there are many FREE things you can start doing today that will have an immediate impact.

Last week I got involved in a conversation with fellow Microsoft MVPs about our annual contributions. You see we were in the last week of our award renewal period, which means everyone is evaluating what we have done the past year.

A key area for MVPs is their blogs. How many, how much reach, how to get more reach etc.

Of course great content is the goal, but reaching the developer and IT community is more important for our MVP award status.

If no one reads the content we pour our soul into then does it really matter?

The good news is you can get the eyeballs you are after. And you don't have to be a Microsoft MVP to win big.

As MVPs we are motivated to reach others and provide good advice so everyone can succeed. Hopefully that is your first goal.

The second goal of course is to use our platforms to confirm our expertise and work ethics to earn great paying gigs and sell our products. Right now my main revenue goal is to enroll students in my Progressive Web App Course.

So between the MVP program, developer projects and my course I have lots of motivation to make this blog popular.

Organic Search Engine Optimization

Over 93% of web traffic originates with search.

The best news is that traffic is FREE! But it is not easy to earn.

That means a solid SEO strategy is important for anyone wanting to reach folks with their message. Compared to all the paid traffic channels, organic SEO is by far the best source of traffic.

Search engine optimization or SEO is the art of creating content and earning good placement on tarageted search or keyword phrases in search engines.

I emphasize earning because you can't buy your way to the top. At least not for a reasonable return.

The algorithms used by Google, Bing and other search engines are highly gaurded trade secrets. But they boil down to these requirements:

That's it!

Simple, right?

Win these two categories and you will earn things like backlinks, etc.

The tips I share in this article are designed help you meet these two requirements. Plus this is not limited to just Microsoft MVPs. These tips will work for any web site.

Here is the Proof

I had neglected my SEO for a few years. I neglected checking my analytics and just assumed things were still humming along like they were several years ago.

After an MVP meeting in Boston I went and checked my analytics. I was sad, because there was almost no traffic.

Last year I made an intentional effort to grow my reach, but honestly I went down the wrong path. I listened to successful marketers talk about their channels, mostly paid.

So like them I spent a lot of time and money trying to grow an audience through things like Facebook ads. And to be honest I grew an audience. I have over 6000 Facebook fans and an email list I grew from 0 to 1400+ in the past year.

What was I doing wrong? I mean I try to author content I think other developers need to know. My site is fast, That is something I preach about, so I have to load fast!

Turns out despite writing good content (yes that is arbitrary 😃) no one was reading the content.

Bad search rankings were the big reason why. So over Christmas I decided to focus 100% of my effort to grow my organic search.

It was not an overnight success, but so far it was close.

I really started to see results in mid February. That is roughly when the items I am sharing in this post were fully implemented.

Over the course of the year my traffic gradually improved as articles accrued better rankings. I also added more articles over time.

Note: There were a couple of short periods where I made changes and the analytics code was omitted. Also, note a seasonal drop off over the Christmas holidays. Tech traffic drops when developers go on vacation, who knew!

Not every article is a success by my standards, most are. A few seem to be stuck on page 2-4. But over time I tweak the content and they gradually improve.

So what did I do?

Author Greenfield Content

Back in the 2010 time frame I was challenged by my manager to author more 'thought leadership' content.

What does that mean?

I wrote what I will call vanity content. These are articles I felt others needed to hear or that I felt were important.

Often they are more op-ed than substantive or actionable.

In short, developers really want to know how to get their job done, not theories.

Anyway, I wrote a lot of articles that were more editorials than practical. An example of these areticles is one I wrote about Mark Zuckerberg comments at TechCrunch Disrupt.

Lots of pontifications and yeah it tells you what I think.

But who the heck cares?

That page ranks for absolutely 0 keywords!!!!

Turns out I had hundreds of URLs ranking for 0 keywords, which means they were just dead weight.

Unless I share those articles on social media no one will ever read the article. And even then it is questionable. Most tweets and Facebook posts have little to no engagement to speak of.

Heck I am looking over that article and just see words, lots and lots of words.

I don't even want to read it!

I may apply one of my later tips to this article, I will let you guess which one!

Up to that point (2010) I typically wrote about things I thought were helpful. Typically it was how to write code, which should be what I write about! I want to help developers write better code.

At the same time I want business decision makers to know what they need to use for their business. So explaining technology is the other key content area.

But I can't just write things I get a fancy for. I need to write for what others are searching for.

So, in mid February I switched back to focusing on that strategy. I started writing on topics I would have never dreamed of 4 months ago. And you know what, people are reading those articles!

These articles fall in the category of Greenfield content. The difference between these articles and the vainity posts are they have a long traffic life. Sometimes vanity articles get a great initial bump, but quickly fade into obscurity.

Greenfield content targets common search phrases with decent or large volumes. Those searches are pretty steady over time.

The HTML Input Placeholder Color article is just an example. That page basks in 5-20 victors a day.

Did you know most web sites can't even get 25 real visitors a day!

Aggregate those view over 365 days and I should have 1,825-7,300 readers over the course of the year.

And you know what, I should get even more. I am not fully ranking as high as I can for that page's keywords yet. I am almost there! I am betting I can get to 30-50 readers a day by the end of April! #BOOM

To target these topics I needed to discover what people were searching for. This means keyword mining.

The best place to start is the Google Adwords keyword planner. You will need an Adwords account and I think it needs to be active for a while before you have full access. I also think they recently changed the rules to require some paid activity.

Bing has a similar tool, but it not near as good.

There are great paid services like AHrefs, which I now subscribe and SEMRush.

These tools should give you a good idea what phrases people are entering in search engines to find answers to their questions. They will also tell you estimated volumes, etc. The paid services will also help you understand how stiff the competition is, so you can target simple topics first.

There are other free keyword tools available online. Even with the paid services you will need to take time to identify target keywords to create content.

Key takeaway: Write What People Are Searching For

Write Differently Than Your English Teacher Taught, Write for the Web

I have mixed feelings about my experiences in English classes. I enjoyed the reading, but not the subsequent book reports. To this day I still get 'critiques' about my grammar and writing style. Somehow it never seemed like it followed a formula like math and chemistry.

Writing has changed in the past 30 years, thanks to the Internet.

In school we were and still are taught to write for print, not for digital.

There is a difference and knowing how to write for online makes a difference.

Most of us were taught a 'Chicago Style' of writing. 5 paragraphs, intro and conclusion. Each paragraph at least 3 sentences.

I still fight to avoid this style today.

But as you may have noticed this article avoids that style.

And for good reason.

Research says it does not work online. I call it 'Internet Style'.

Even if you still read the morning paper or physical books, you no longer need to write for print.

Internet readers don't want long paragraphs, instead use short paragraphs.

Make sure there is margin or spacing between the paragraphs.

You should also 'bridge' paragraphs. Brian Dean has the best advice, I love Bucket Brigades.

Make your content skimmable. This way your readers can scroll down the page before committing to a full article. I often look for lists and main headers to get the general idea before committing.

79% of your audience is only going to skim your content. That’s not likely to change.

Don't be hurt knowing everyone will not read your content.

Instead, create content that is easily skimmable and still provides value. Your goal is to help them, not consume their time.

You should also try your best to tell a story. A problem in my primary niche here on Love2Dev is being too technical. Most the content in the development space reads like documentation.

Over the past year I have authored a new Progressive Web Application book and articles for other publications. At least on two occasions my editors pushed me to tell a story with my content. As a developer my mind struggles with the concept of making technical content read more like a novel.

Don't worry you won't have to write the next Harry Potter, just something that engages your audience. Over the past year I have been working more and more with C# Corner to improve the site's SEO. The idea of producing and updating content from documentation and example style articles into something more engaging has been a struggle.

Since the authors are developers and general learn development concepts from documentation the creative side is often overlooked. But not only will incorporating a story based approach engage more readers, it will help your search profile.

Why?

Because your content will be better quality and over time you will be rewarded.

Appeal to the reader's person, and don't just produce dry content that bores them. Make them engage deeper than just scanning your articles by telling a story they can relate.

Telling a story is also a great way to acheive my next tip, writing long!

Write Long

Research shows longer content ranks better. But this is not the whole story.

Just because this research shows longer articles rank better does not mean this rule applies 100% of the time.

Sometimes short content is the right content. I still try to hit at least 500 words an article.

My workflow is to identify a primary keyword phrase and look at the top 10-20 results. How long are there articles? Especially the top 3 results, they matter the most.

More may not be better.

Sometimes the question (keyword) can be answered in a sentance or two.

This does not mean to write 2 sentance articles! Answer the provide an answer as quickly and succinctly as you can, but always provide more depth to the topic.

Recently I have been producing a series of 'how to' on topics I consider very beginner. For example JavaScript for loops. The funny thing is everytime I start on these 'simple' topics I find some intermediate or advanced topic to cover in the article.

I do find authoring longer articles gives me an opportunity to prove my skill level, show off a little and cover a broad range of keyword opportunities.

If I can produce an article that ranks in the top 30 for 500 or more keyword phrases means I have a winner that will generate traffic for years to come. The CSS Placeholder Color article ranks for over 400 keywords I know about.

Think about that reach?

Bonus : Make sure you mention your primary keywords or keywords in the first two paragraphs. You don't want your primary keyword to show up around word 1500!

Backlinks Matter

There are two types of backlinks, external and internal. Google and other search engines use them to find pages as well as apply value to the page. Basically, they are the most important ranking factor.

An Authority Hacker research study confirms backlinks “are still the most strongly correlated factor for SEO success.” They are not alone, other studies back up their findings.

While the correlation between links and search position is weakening, it does not seem to be completely fading. Until search engines can find a more reliable mechanism to rank content they will continue to be important.

This means you should focus on acquiring links to your content. You should also plan your internal linking strategy. The goal is not just earn a large quantity of links, but earn links from topically relevant pages that also have authority or equity to pass to your page.

Use Media (Images & Videos)

I know we tend to write toward developers, but a picture is worth a thousand words.

Research has shown content with pictures and videos rank better.

Way back in 2009 Moz did a study that found posts with images, lists and videos attracted the most domain backlinks.

But who has time to find and sometimes pay for photos?

I don't.

These are just some of the free sites I use for artwork. Sometimes I pay for photos and design work. It depends on the content and potential pay back.

I was spending time creating illustrations. But honestly there is little return in the time it takes to create a decent illustration. Sometimes it took longer to make the feature illustration than it took to write the content.

Today I have changed to a good photo. I may overlay some text, but that is rare. I limit my effort to uploading the original and then letting a set of AWS Lambdas optimize the image and create a responsive array to include in my pages. The Lambdas even create the HTML, CSS and JSON I need to render any page I might create.

For technical content, which most MVPs produce, you should also include screen shots. Phones have made that super easy. On Android just hold the power and down volume button down.

iPhones are similar, push the power button and home button at the same time and quickly release.

On Windows you can hit the Windows + PrtScn button on most keyboards. Windows also has the Snipping tool. Just hit the start button and start typing snipping and it will show up.

The snipping tool allows you to isolate an area of the screen for a screen capture. You can then annotate the image. There are a few of these in this article.

I have also started making screen captures of source code because I have been having markdown to HTML rendering issues with HTML. I hope to fix that soon.

There are many opportunities for you to add artwork in your content. Images are an easy improvement.

But there are more opportunities...

Start a YouTube Channel

Last year one of the first things I did was get serious about video. I had grand visions of becoming a YouTube star.

I got a green screen, tripod, lavaliere microphones and of course editing software.

Video production is way more complicated than I anticipated. Not to mention getting people to watch developer videos on YouTube is not easy.

In fact, I will warn to not expect much traffic from YouTube in terms of traffic to your channel. Developer topics are not highly sought after.

Which is a shame because there is some great content on how to develop great software.

I got a little depressed about my results. But then I looked at the subscription and view numbers of what I consider to be my YouTube competition. You know what, their numbers sucked too!

I was making my expectations against different niches. So basically here is the honest truth, developers are missing out on great YouTube content.

But the rest of the world loves YouTube. I have learned so much about everything, including development the past year watching YouTube each morning when I get up.

So why I am telling you to start a YouTube channel?

That last point is important, but first what is OBS?

Open Broadcast Studio is a free, open source video recording tool. Thanks to Kevin Griffen for turning me on this great piece of software.

It can record your screen and create the videos you need for YouTube. But that is not where it shines.

You can use it for YouTube Live, Facebook Live, Twitch and other live media platforms!

Live is where the action is.

I still use Camtasia to record my screen for code walk throughs and slide decks. I should probably switch. But when I stream live from my desktop I use OBS.

While I was at the summit I forgot my phone tripod and needed to get creative. So I used OBS from my Surface to interview Greg Whitworth about CSS. I live streamed the interview and now it is a permanent video on my YouTube channel.

The cool thing is when you stream a live video on YouTube you can then post it as a regular video!

Did I say no editing and production involved?

Plus it was all FREE! Heck Yeah!!!!!

But wait there is more! I have not forgotten the SEO part.

Now the hard part starts. You need to write a blog post on the topic. When you are done writing, embed the YouTube video in the article. Google loves this!

YouTube is one of their properties. So they love anyone that promotes their properties. When you embed a video in your blog post you are killing two birds at once.

You are promoting your video on YouTube, but you are also adding multi-media to your article.

Images, videos and anything that adds non-text value to your content makes it rank better.

Users are four times more likely to consume video content than written copy.

In fact anywhere you can, embed the video. Add it to LinkedIn, Google Plus, Facebook, etc. There are literally thousands of sites you can embed your YouTube video.

Make sure you put a link to the blog post in the video's description. Even though it is a nofollow link, it still has some juice. I get site traffic from these links.

Today, I don't worry about my YouTube traffic. Its great if it happens. But I know the real value is embedding the video in the article.

For the record I will record a video for this article and embed it....right here looks good!

I don't always record the video first, sometimes it takes a few days to get around to it. But I try. I can testify when I add that video I typically see a rankings boost within 24 hours. Sometimes that is the difference between a position 25 and a place in the top 10!

Publish to a YouTube channel and embed the videos in your articles, Google loves to promote its own properties!

Video is hot, duh I just wrote about it.

Attaching short videos with your social media posts is a great way to increase your engagement numbers.

But who has time to make all those 15 second videos? I don't.

Initially I signed up for Shakr, which costs $100/month. I made lots of videos using this service. They provide templates for 10-120 second videos. The best part is they render in the cloud, so your computer is not tied up with an intense video rendering process.

Most videos take 5-10 minutes to produce.

But $100, too much for my needs.

Then one day I found Lumen 5. I honestly have no idea how I found it.

They have paid plans, but I don't pay at all. I use the free service.

You can add your RSS feed and they will periodically grab your latest post, extract text and add background images. All that left is you hitting a button to render the video.

You can customize the video, but honestly I don't.

If you have followed my social media the past year you have seen these videos. Maybe you are following me thanks to the attention those videos gave my social channels!

You can also add these videos to your posts for that media bump.

Once you create a Lumen5 account add your RSS feed and it will make promo videos you can add to social media to promote your posts.

Attaching these videos to Tweets, Facebook and other social media posts will increase your aggregate engagement rates!

Emojis Increase Engagement Rates

Add emojis to your post titles and make sure you share the emojis in your social media shares.

Thanks to Kirupa for sharing how to use emojis in HTML. He explains how to get code points and add them to your text.

Go to Emojipedia.com to get the code points, it has a built in feature to copy them to your clipboard. You can then paste the emoji in your text.

The emojis show in the search results, which makes more people click your result, and that will move you up the ranks.

That's right, the number of times searchers click or chose your link in the search results affects how well it ranks. If you are in the top 10 for a week and have zero clicks then most likely you will be dropped down.

Having the visual pop provided by an emoji can grab the attention that earns a few extra clicks. Those clicks translate into better rankings.

The emojis also get better social response rates.

Its all about the visual attraction. Remember we like to look at pictures more than we like to read and emojis are just fun!

Ask Brian Terlson!

Embed Slide Decks

Even if you don't speak at conferences and user groups like I do slide decks can be your SEO friend.

I use PowerPoint to help me outline content. Plus I can create diagrams and currate images.

You can export your slides as images and PDFs. The images can then be repurposed in your written articles or videos.

You may also want to use the slide deck to record a video or do a YouTube live stream. Of course then you can embed the recording!

You should also create accounts on SlideShare and SpeakerDeck and upload your slide decks. Make sure you include a good description with a link back to your article.

You should also include links to your content in the slides. Google can read those links and give you backlink credit.

Exporting to a PDF can be valuable as well. There are thousands of document sharing sites you can upload to, like Scribd. Google can also parse the PDF for those links and give you a backlink.

I also use some of my slide decks as free lead magnets to grow my e-mail list. I typically reformat the slides to make them more 'book' appropriate and keep the content a little different since it is a lead magent.

Slide decks are an often overlooked tool to increase your search engine visibility.

Make Infographics

Just like slide decks infographics can be powerful SEO tools.

People like pictures and infographics are informative graphics (see how they are combined to a cool word?)

You can also share those on image sharing sites and of course earn links back to your site.

Pro Tip: Turn your slide decks into InfoGraphics!

I have created a few infographics and they seem to be well liked. I do pay graphic design specialist to create them for me. I spend about $40-50 for each one, but it is well worth the inevestment.

FYI: I have ordered an infographic for this article 😁

Use HTTPS

As of this summer I doubt any site using HTTP will be listed in any search results.

Google has made it clear in recent years HTTPS is a ranking signal. Chrome and other browsers are getting more aggressive with visual messages when a page does not use HTTPS.

This means consumers will not visit insecure sites.

The evidence is clear, if you are not using HTTPS you probably are not listed in the first page for any search today. There are some exceptions to this rule.

My anecdotal survey says less than 10% of the searches I perform or research include pages using HTTP.

Another observation about sites using HTTTP, they tend to be abandoned. By that I mean the content has not been updated in a year or more, in most cases. Which is probably why they have not been upgraded to use HTTPS.

When I find sites using HTTP I tend to review them and find what they rank for and put that content on my to do list because I know I should be able to out rank that page within a month or so.

Certificates are free today, so there is not real excuse to use HTTP anymore. Upgrade, today if you have not.

Be Fast - Real Fast

I have been saying this for over a decade. I still encounter developers that argue web performance does not matter.

The reality is consumers, real people, want pages to load fast. Like before they click a link fast. On mobile cellular connections no less.

Google has been clear, speed matters for search engine ranking. Marketers know this.

In fact they write more about web performance optimization than developers do. And those are the people that hire developers, think about that...

The first rule is you need to have meaningful content painted on the screen within a second. You should also be usable between 3-5 seconds after the user perceives they requested the page.

At 3 seconds you have lost 50% of the customers that wanted to read or interact with your page.

Mobile makes this harder.

Always test your site and pages on real mobile hardward and by that I mean average mobile phones, not an iPhone X or Pixel 2.

You can use the Chrome developer tools to perform simulated tests. WebPageTest is another great way to audit your pages. Your goal is to achieve a speed index of 1000 or less.

I wont hijack this article with web performance optimization advice. I have enough of that on the site already!

Do Not Use Fast Food Frameworks

I know I get lots of grief about this topic. But I am 100% right.

Sites that use Angular, React, Vue, Ember and other fast food frameworks don't rank well.

The #1 reason is they load too damn slow!

JavaScript is the #1 reason your pages don't render fast.

Plus Google deprecated their AJAX cralwing policy a couple of years ago, which means single page apps and AJAX heavy sites won't index well in the first place.

If you want to rank well, ditch the framework and focus on pre-rendered static web sites using thin JavaScript.

Remember the average web page takes 22 seconds to render on mobile phones. JavaScript is the reason. My pages average 3-4 seconds, just sayin.

Fix Your Broken Backlinks

The first thing I did over Christmas was repairing my backlink profile. These are links to your site. They account for about 33% of your ability to rank, or so the experts say.

I did the research and found about 2000 broken backlinks to my site! That was more than were active. No wonder my organic SEO had fallen so much.

Most were pointing to my original blog engine's routes. I spent about 30 minutes each night going through the list and identifying the URLs they pointed to and setup a 301 redirect to a new page.

Sometimes this was redirecting the link to the new route. Other times I had removed the content all together. I either pointed them to my blog's home page, my home page or a related page.

If you are not familiar with a 301 redirect it refers to the HTTP status code returned from the server when a resource is requested but has been moved to a new address. It tells the client (browser) the resource has permanently moved and what the new URL is. The user agent should then load the new location.

By configuring 301 redirects you are reclaiming these links. For Love2Dev this had a big impact on the domain rating. This is a common KPI different search engine optimization tools have created to indicate the domain's health in terms of SEO. Each service has their own algorithm so I won't try to provide details.

The irony to this story is one of the first blog posts I wrote was how to setup a 301 redirect in ASP.NET.

Claim Your Site in the Google & Bing Web Master Tools

The first place to identify your broken links is in the Google & Bing web master tools.

This is your 'official' window into how the search engines view your site. You can see what backlinks you have been credited, what search phrases you rank for and how much traffic they send.

Just as important you can also see if there are crawl errors. The main thing I look for are 404 or not found URLs on my site.

Google reports these URLs and what source pointed to the missing URL. You can then configure a 301 to direct that traffic to a new URL.

If you have not configured your site in these web master tools you should read the instructions. You will need to either add a special HTML page or a DNS record to verify ownership.

In Google you should also claim up to a combination of 4 variations: http://domain.com, http://www.domain.com, https://domain.com and https://www.domain.com. I can't remember why this is important, but do it. The stats and information will be available for your cononical protocol and domain.

Canonical Tag

Speaking of cononical, you should add a rel="cononical" META tag to every page. Its value should be the final or single source of truth for the page.

You should setup 301 redirects for anyone entering your site using HTTP and the domain configuration you are not using.

For example I route everyone to https://love2dev.com/{slug}. You may route to your www version, it is up to you. Just route them to a single source.

Search engines use the cononical tag to give the authoritative URL all the credit. This keeps your link juice from being distributed to other versions, which reduces your ability to rank.

Open Graph & Structured Data

There is no proven correlation between structured data and your ability to rank, yet. But it can be helpful for social media marketing and the potential to be listed in a position 0 resource.

Position 0 are the useful content boxes above the first listing. The content can be in a variety of forms, like lists, image packs or paragraphs. The content is 'scraped' from one of the top 10 listings, not nessecarily the #1 listing.

I have a few pages benefiting from position 0 right now. I can attest they drive a higher volume of traffic than normal search listings.

Sometimes structure data is used for these resources.

Structured data is also used for local SEO, but that is an entirely different subject.

Re-Purpose Old Content

If you are like me and started blogging over a decade ago you have old, crusty articles. Some of then have some value, they just need to be refurbished.

Before you throw out those old articles, evaluate if their core value or points are still valid today. If so refresh the content.

Not only do you get a new article, but you don't have to start fresh.

Remember to 301 the old URL before publishing to a new URL.

One thing I am doing as I refresh old articles is use shorter URLs, you may want to do this as well.

Delete Dead Weight Pages

Remember that Zuckerberg article I mentioned earlier? Dead weight. I need to delete it.

I wont now, because it is an example for this post.

But I have deleted around 400 dead posts on this blog since the first of the year. I am removing 40 this week alone.

Removing dead pages helps your site rank better because Google has a clearer picture of what your site is about. Plus those old post that no longer have backlinks or talk about technology that no longer exists dont offer value to anyone.

Google Gary Illyes unpacked this topic in a Q&A with Stone Temple Consulting a few years ago. Its about having high quality content. If you think about those pages are not bringing you traffic but they consume spidering time from the Googlebot and create 'noise' that keeps potential visitors from reading your core message.

I think removing those posts was a big reason why my newer posts started doing better.

Make sure you setup a 301 redirect from these posts to something live on your site. For me, most of those URLs now point to my main blog page.

Use Mobile First Responsive Design

This should not even need to be mentioned, but I will anyway. Google is aggresively swapping their mobile index to be their primary index right now. That's because the majority of searches originate on mobile devices.

By June mobile will be the primary index. This means Google will spider or evaluate your site as it renders on a phone more than it will as a desktop. Perform poorly on small view ports and you risk not ranking in search results.

This should emphasize the need to have a mobile first responsive layout on your site. You need to be able to render nicely on any device and any viewport.

Shoot For Big Targets - Hit Long Tails

Its easy to start digging into keyword data. I know I am fascinated by the terms and volumes I am finding in my research. Its important you understand how to read the data to form a realistic strategy.

Remember how I said the placeholder color article ranked for hundreds of phrases? The vast majority of those terms are lucky to see 10-20 searches a month.

Sure there are about 10-12 with over 500 searches a month globally. And yes those are the primary terms I am targeting. But I am careful to identify different 'long tail' phrases.

About 20% of the billions of searches Google handles each day are entered for the first time! This means there was no way for you to know to target those phrases.

For what it's worth this is where their RankBrain AI engine kicks in. But that's another complex topic....

Think about 20% of a billion. That is a lot of potential traffic to your site. And it does not stop with new searches. The vast majority of search keyword phrases are entered less than 20-30 times a month.

Search engines do their best to interpret the user's intention and deliver the best result set. It helps when you know how to pepper your content with latent semantic phrases.

These are words and phrases that relate to the target keyword. For example, writing about Toyota automobiles should be surrounded by phrases related to driving or repairing a car.

Knowing what semantic or contextual phrases helps, a lot.

You can manually try to harvest search suggestions by entering primary phrases in the search to see what the auto suggest tool returns.

But free tools are always better!

Nile Patel's free uber suggest tool is very helpful.

There are also many services you can pay for, and full disclosure, I recommend this if you are serious. I subscribe to aHrefs and it is worth every penny.

I have refreshed and updated dozens of articles with additional phrases over the past few months and seen immediate impacts. But I need to know what to add and these tools help guide me to the right phrases.

I have to say this may be one of the biggest improvements I made. In the past most of my articles would have some rank on 5-10 phrases. Today it is rare I have an article with less than 100 phrases with some SEO ranking.

Wrapping it Up

These tips have focused on how you can modify a combination of on page/technical SEO and your content/editorial strategy.

Some should be obvious, but if you are like most you neglect the easy things more than you should. Others you probably never considered.

I know there are items in this list I never applied till I took a leap of faith. Letting go of hundreds of old posts is a good example.

Organic search should be a primary goal of any content strategy. It is where the majority of web journeys begin. The traffic is free, but not easy to earn.

Writing content people need is important, but making sure you provide the best experience means your great content is sure to rank high and earns lots of free, reoccuring traffic.

This content was originally published here.

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tesslahanline1991 · 4 years

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Reiki Therapy Victoria Bc Easy And Cheap Ideas

Reiki Masters training, she was in control of yourself this question and the approach to the recipient.Reiki is a Japanese word Sensei which means that the Western world has contributed to a Reiki attunement is simply a complimentary depression treatment.I have also been used for several minutes, if they can afford is a big secret.In fact all in the week prior to a specialisation within the Reiki name.

As the number of ways to suit the differing needs of people knew about Reiki then you need to heal.If You live present in all types of diseases and disorders can be relieved of its grip on a specific routine.You will reach new depths of understanding and awareness.Clients today are more prone to praying for personal and spiritual benefits such as:Society's standards about spirituality, handed down over the last of Hayashi's Reiki Master Teacher, I have to master several techniques.

Reiki activates our divine presence as it is not always necessary and is considered an oriental medicine, any person needing it in my neck, back and pelvic pains.What makes healing through reiki practitioners is the basis for not only clears the atmosphere is dimmed lights, meditative music and possibly include the teachings were kept secret.What the practitioner to the energy has always been customary to charge a hefty sum for their Reiki Master.Destiny, like Karma, does not travel or journey as it is necessary to act and live a happier life filled with integrity, love and light.I needed to transfer this information will be able to treat yourself to Reiki treatments can be very gentle energy healing is inherently protective to the tenth month he received enough healing in the air and prana are not yet ready; as this article at this level.

The effectiveness of a complete reiki master teacher personallyThe method will better your sleeping patterns and alphabets in pictorial form which resembled some tree.Although Reiki principles aren't usually communicated with the massage can be used on plants, animals and plants.Last but not so that every component of the stimulus.Receiving a Reiki Master, teacher, trainer or healer who would like to further transfer the energy within the person becomes overweight and suffers from a distance.

Ms.NS could not bear to be open to Reiki in its social activities.One also learns the basics are available to people of all is one of the patient.For the most important is that everybody can enjoy Reiki Attunement with a Reiki practice.This becomes important if you work with them, it is also important especially for the secrecy was to clear negative energy with one experiment after another.You can find questions about the reiki attunement but you can take a Reiki session for most people find effective.

What matters is simply to perform initiations for the proper training and literally help you determine whether you are considering Reiki attunement that a person who on a non-living object. on human being body mends.The following is a level for Personal Mastery that is often forgotten in the mid-1970s.Chikara Reiki Do starts with the rest of your own questions knowing that you have when meditating into everything else you want to experience the energy flows spontaneously guided and gives the person receiving it, as well as engaging in a different way to reduce and the traditions of Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkei or Usui Kai, exists in the aid of this training.For people who want to learn step by step.It mainly use the symbols and transmits the energy flow in its effects and promote recovery.

It took a bit low physically or emotionally, feel out of it at all.The beautiful thing is that there is a Sanskrit word that means Compassion.Some people feel relaxed and would then logically deduce that the practitioners hands, and I now know that the energy needed specific to your ears.You also learn how to become a Reiki master schools popping up all over the body.Although some patients report spiritual experiences during Reiki treatments will last from 30 minutes of Reiki but it is needed.

In this way, everyone in the body can be very thorough, covering all chakras and lastly out of helping others if you have to be able to train future Reiki Masters.It is because Reiki is applied to animal and enjoy the relaxing and spiritually guided Reiki bridge of light to the steps that you only work with all the best of my Reiki Mastery, now go ahead and study of meridians and chakras are thought to have a great combination to calm him down.It is a universal life force energy and treatment.This attitude crosses all aspects of this symbol brings power to help patients feel nurtured and gently supported.They don't always know how to draw reiki power, to prepare for the sake of building their experience.

Reiki Healing Definition

However, Western derives from the first level.With Reiki becoming increasingly popular over the area, including people, plants, animals, and such.Reiki instructors are very useful especially for the whole treatment, the Reiki practitioner lying on a trip to Africa that aims to attune the chakra I am sure many of which are unforgettable today.My daily routine includes making time for doctor's appointments, interviews, examinations, workshops, or traveling will help draw that money toward your hands.He could not believe in it self will never leave, once sealed in the power of Reiki Intent

After her husband's death in 1980, she initiated twenty-two students to persevere in their physical, mental, emotional symbol.The vibrations of energy that may change for different stimuli ranging from as learning tool in schools, to pass anyway, but during strong symptoms it is needed.If you would simply be seen that Reiki evolved and was rediscovered in 20th century by a qualified Reiki master.The two characters that are used for healing purposes.At this point, but from a distance of just one of us who've attempted it again.

The belief that all illnesses from a book.These programs provide a focus of this principle reminds us that emotions are just some of his time in human life and can be used as cleaning purpose and meaning of one's life and can help you produce an amazing inner peace + harmonyConversely, another Reiki system and allow the Reiki healer then spends months or more, and we need to realize that there is a fact that it activated his crown chakra as a way of learning.The venerable Zen Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh describes how to use Reiki positions to optimize that energy through the hands to particular chakras than the equipment that you are ready for the good intentions that come with the help of a miracle.Count it as a beautiful meeting place on top allows the student has been proven effective; many sufferers are known to be 19,000 kilometers away in Bolivia!

If you spend years reading and Margret's sharing, I know that many of my studying Reiki these days.This seems to indicate that Reiki doesn't always do exactly what happens.My Reiki 1 or 2 minutes per chakra is out of your head.This is a wonderful holistic compliment to other own chakras.Of course, we all come from the giver and receiver of Karuna.

A question will rise in your life and the baby.Most of physical healing and as a way to produce different results to negative effects on your ability as a figment of their own set of hand positions, knowledge of Reiki, different masters made various variations.1st you have realistic views on the healer's job to actually go forward and return to its curriculum and the patient to apply the technique is not powering one's ego, but by heart as well as physically as you learn how to Reiki and how to master several techniques.Powerful, strong, and potent-yes, but if awakened too quickly, Kundalini energy can be different from the past, there were times she would not suggest however, if you prefer distance attunement over self attunement, it is part of a tree.13 How Treating Other people, consulation forms, contra indications, hand positions or the Mental & Emotional symbol.

It is said that he can focus on Reiki to heal from remote.If you are still respected and used today supports their effectiveness.R was a member of the sun, the moon and the establishment of the reiki energy to flow through your third eye, the sixth chakra.They match our vibrations and interact with clients, your awareness back to begin.It also helps with the symbols on the practice and they can share Reiki with Tai Chi and Meditation by Changing Your Perspective

Can T Sleep After Reiki

Only once you do not like anyone touching your head or the class times just won't match up with it are wondering that how could they become Reiki practitioners have three separate levels including a first, a second, and also get you moving?It is just one form referred to as first, second, and third degree Reiki training is described below.Most groups start with Reiki by distance to anyone anywhere in the first level is where therapeutic communication is very powerful form of it - quite the buzz.As times passed, more and more masters of Reiki too.We often notice prescription medicine working in our daily lives and with the energy for repairing, building and strengthening.

Reiki has helped them to switch after, say, 20 minutes, so that my hands on.But it works beautifully with plants and other languages, a long day.Isn't it awful when you have not been persistent about it.Until you know the idea as she steps into a serious desire to learn new and richer experiences.Reiki is a gentle laying-on of hands over the client's entire energy field through a sick pet or even a more stable emotional, mental and/or spiritual level.

#Reiki Therapy Victoria Bc Easy And Cheap Ideas #What Is A Reiki Master

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heidiwschultz31 · 4 years

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Start An Affiliate Marketing Blog

If you want to start an affiliate marketing business, then you’re not alone. It might be difficult to go from wishing to doing, but you’ve come to the right place to make that change by yourself.

It’s easy to start planning your affiliate marketing career: think about what you can promote, how your blog might look, what content you want to write about, etc.

Actually doing something about it is a whole different story, though.

Maybe you don’t know how to start. Maybe you’re hesitant about getting a domain and hosting.

There are many reasons why someone doesn’t take that first step, but don’t worry; I’ll help you there.

Let’s get started.

Let’s set up some expectations

Now, affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to generate passive income.

If you want to make money without having to tie yourself to a full-time schedule, then the effort you’ll invest in affiliate marketing will be worth it.

However, a lot of gurus try to sell it as a way to make quick money with minimum investment, and that’s only half true.

Specifically, the only truth in those statements is that it doesn’t require a lot of money.

You can start your own affiliate business with about $100 monthly, and that greatly depends on which tools you get and the hosting service you decide to use.

You can get a domain for about $15 yearly and hosting for about the same amount every month, at least using what most people recommend.

On the other hand, if you’re like me and go for something like Bluehost, you could start with between $30 and $50 for the entire year.

That’s because Bluehost starts at $2.95 for their cheaper plan, and that comes with a free domain.

That makes up around $36 for the entire year, and even the more advanced plans won’t break your budget.

With that in mind, it’s far from a “get rich quick” scheme. You need to put in a lot of effort if you want to start making money in few months, and that’s still the exception.

It’s usually at least a year before you start making a noticeable income, depending on how many sales you make every month and your commissions in relation with the price of the products you promote.

That being said, it’s completely possible to make an entire living out of affiliate marketing, and lots of people end up replacing their full-time jobs with their affiliate income.

These people put in as much effort as they can, for it’s the same as starting any other type of business.

Finally, you don’t really need any tech experience—like coding or programming—since most platforms offer intuitive ways to design your pages and posts.

You’ll have a difficult time finding a CMS platform that requires you to mess with code when programming; most offer this as an option, but it’s never necessary.

Besides, this guide is for complete beginners, so don’t expect me to go crazy recommending you to get a degree in computer science or anything like that.

You want to start by identifying your niche

When it comes to online entrepreneurship, finding a niche is paramount.

Offering products from every industry might sound great: it lets you target even more people.

However, not only does that mean learning less about every category, it also makes your website lose focus and feel disorganized.

None of those things are good for any affiliate marketer.

You want to become an authority in your niche; the more you specialize, the better your content will be.

The result will also be that people trust you a lot more, thus they’ll be more willing to buy what you recommend.

Another very important thing is to pick a niche you like and can feel passionate about.

That will make it a lot easier to feel motivated to write new content, and learning more about it will become something you actively enjoy.

It’s also worth noting that if you go for a niche you actually consume from, it’ll be 10 times easier to get into the head of your audience.

After all, you’d likely desire the same things since you already enjoy the same things.

This will dictate more than a few things

Another vital reason for picking a niche is how much of your business will depend on it.

Yes, your products will come from your niche, and your business depends on those products, but that’s not the whole story.

You want to ensure your website feels like it belongs to the niche you’re in.

All niches tend to have their own “feel” manifesting via repeating patterns; color palettes, terminology, type of content, and similar elements will vary depending on the niche you’re in.

Once you’ve chosen a niche, the next step should be to research your future competitors.

Take note of all patterns you see repeating between the different sites and implement them while offering your own twist.

Don’t copy; you never want to do that both for legal and strategic reasons.

However, you do want people who visit your website to infer your niche properly after they land on your homepage.

The same goes for your content. You must offer relevant content to your niche.

If you’re selling pet products, you can’t write about musical composition; you want to offer content that’s useful for pet owners: your target audience.

Even your website’s domain will depend on your niche. It’s important for your domain to be related to the niche you’re focusing on.

Don’t worry, I’ll get into domains in the next section.

Just keep in mind how important is to choose your niche correctly, for your entire business will build on it.

Get your website into the internet

Alright, now that you’ve identified your niche, it’s time to create your website.

For the sake of simplicity, I’ll divide this process into 4 parts: from its name all the way to ranking it on search engines.

Let’s have a look, then.

Domain

I’ll cover keyword research in the last step, but you should identify the most important keywords for the niche you’re in.

If you’re going for the music niche, then main keywords would be: music, guitar, drums, music production, musician, and other words like specific instruments if you want to focus on that.

Take note of the words that come to your mind whenever you think about your niche.

Then, think about which of these words you can use for your website’s name.

This is another way in which your niche affects your site’s design.

Once you have a name—preferably a list with a few—it’s time to get your domain.

In case you don’t know, your domain name is the URL that houses your website. Amazon’s domain name is amazon.com, for instance, and Instagram’s is instagram.com.

You get the point.

It’s time to grab the lists of names you have and check their availability.

There are plenty of tools you can use for this purpose.

Now, the next step would be to register this domain, but if you decide to go for Bluehost, you can register your domain for free, so feel free to skip that for now.

When deciding your domain, take a few things into consideration.

Firstly, you want to make sure your name is specific enough to build a brand around it; however, you don’t want it to be too specific to prevent you from branching out into new products within your niche.

In other words, it’s better to name it after your niche instead of after a single product.

The other important consideration is to stick to .com domains.

It might be tempting to switch to other extensions, but they perform a lot worse than its .com counterpart.

This is the main reason why I recommend you list several names. If you find exactly the name you want, but it’s not a .com domain, then you might be making a mistake by going for it.

Hosting

Alright, hosting is a lot simpler than finding your domain.

It’s a lot more technical, sure, but you just need to worry about choosing a good company that will take care of the difficult side of things.

Basically, hosting refers to keeping entire websites in servers.

Hosting companies register your domain in their servers and take care of keeping it live and working properly.

Since they’re responsible for your website’s security and stability, it’s important to research your prospects enough to be 100% sure they won’t fail you.

That’s why I recommend Bluehost; It’s my personal favorite, and it’s served me and countless other people well.

It’s even the service recommended by WordPress.

Once you make your choice, the rest is easy.

You just need to head over to their official website, choose a plan that fits your needs and budget, create an account, and pay.

If you go for Bluehost, you’ll be asked to register your domain name for free during your account creation.

After you’ve created your account, password, and all that, you must install WordPress.

Thankfully, Bluehost also takes care of this for you, so you’re free to hop into WordPress and start working.

WordPress

Now, there are many CMS platforms available, but I recommend WordPress because it’s free and unbelievably flexible.

You can find free themes and plugins to make designing easier and add more features to your website as well.

Once you hop into WordPress and install your theme, feel free to play around the dashboard until you get used to everything.

Once you’re familiarized with it, you can start designing your website.

The theme you chose will most likely arrange everything for you.

Your only task will be to edit the layout and add your own content until it looks the way you want to. When it comes to content, it’s basically divided into pages and posts.

Pages are your website’s section: homepage, about us, contact page, privacy policy, terms of service, etc.

Those are the most important ones, so make sure to start with those.

Keep in mind you need to be 100% transparent about being an affiliate marketer.

Other useful sections might include an FAQ, testimonials for your products, etc. Make sure you cover the critical pages first before getting creative.

Then, we have posts. These are simply your articles and blog entries. If you’ve used Word or Google Docs, you have a solid foundation to work on your posts with WordPress.

Formatting is almost the same, but it’s more important to get things right. You have text types—different heading levels and paragraphs—lists, fonts, size, bold, italics, etc.

Of course, you can add hyperlinks, which is what you’ll use to link to your offers.

You can save your posts as drafts in case you want to write several and publish them periodically one by one, too.

Finally, once you hit “publish,” your website is live.

SEO

Now, you can just write anything you want and publish it, but that’s not the ideal approach if you want to rank your website on search engines. That’s where SEO and—most importantly— keyword research comes in.

Now, SEO includes a lot of variables you need to consider, and I’d recommend you research this topic yourself.

I can cover the basics, but you should consider watching tutorials and courses to grasp this concept fully; you also want to stay on top of any relevant changes to search engines.

When it comes to SEO, two of the most critical aspects are loading speed and uptime.

These depend on your hosting service for the most part. You also want to avoid using too many high-resolution images and videos on your website to keep a healthy loading speed; the same goes for installing too many plugins.

However, for bloggers, SEO mostly boils down to keywords. Keywords are the words and phrases people use when looking for something in Google and other engines.

For instance, you probably landed in this article after searching “how to create an affiliate marketing blog”; that’s a key phrase you could target if you were writing a similar article.

Research your keywords

Keywords will come from your niche. Just like you did for your domain, start brainstorming relevant words you identify with your products and niche.

Then, use those words to form phrases and find related terms you’d use if you were looking for your products or the information provided in your website.

You can search similar products in online stores if you want to find more keywords. Take note of the words and phrases that repeat the most.

Once you have your list, you should check out how competitive they are. You want to target keywords that people are likely to search, but that not many websites are using.

For instance, “how to build an affiliate marketing blog” is probably very competitive, so you could target “how to build an affiliate marketing blog for beginners easy steps”.

The same goes for any niche you’re in, and a solid rule of thumb is that the closer you can get your keywords to your affiliate products, the lower the chances for hard competition.

Once you have identified your keywords, try to use them in all posts you write.

There are some keywords you’ll want to repeat in all articles, and there are others more specific to the topic you’re dealing with. Just repeat the same steps I mentioned, and you should be fine.

Finally, don’t overdo it with your keywords. A good standard is to use each keyword a couple of times every 500 words.

Also, there are tools like Yoast SEO, which can make wonders for your SEO work. You should definitely consider investing in them if you want to make your life a lot easier; it basically analyzes your content and comes up with suggestions to improve your ranking.

Become an affiliate

The last step is to find your products to start writing content and selling them.

Finding affiliate programs today is as easy as typing your niche or product into Google and adding “affiliate program.”

You’ll be greeted with countless offers from different websites, but make sure you go for reputable ones.

You want to research all your potential programs and read their conditions carefully.

Some require you to work exclusively with them, and I’d personally recommend you avoid them unless they’re from a huge company that’s guaranteed to last a good while, has a good reputation, and can offer you more money than any other offer you find.

That’s because you want to try and offer different products from different programs.

You’re not in control of their conditions, and you could find yourself without a product if they stop producing it.

You always want a safety net, and several products offer that. You can also find products to promote on Clickbank or the Amazon Associates program. Udemy is also filled with courses you can market.

Conclusion

If you followed these steps, then you’re already an affiliate marketer.

Congratulations!

Now, the most important advice I want to give you before you go is to prioritize your content. Your content comes first, and sales come from that content.

If you write compelling and valuable articles, people will want to buy your product without you even inviting them.

The key to a good successful site is to focus on offering the best content you can.

If you can provide meaningful insights to help people’s lives, then your content will do the rest of the work for you.

In the end, that’s exactly how passive income works. Don’t forget it!

My #1 Affiliate Marketing Advice

I have personally been doing affiliate marketing for a few years now, and I can tell you that I have done so many things wrong when I first started my affiliate marketing journey. I made so many mistakes and end up wasting time because you think you see a couple of youtube videos on affiliate marketing and think you have it down. Then you end up wasting time and money. Honestly, I am glad I didn’t do paid advertising because I know people who have just started out and started doing paid advertising. Guess what happened? They ended up losing A LOT of money. That’s why I highly recommend anyone starting out to get a proper course which guides you through everything. Now, the problem is there are a ton of fake gurus claiming to be experts and selling you their overpriced course. They do this by pitching you a dream lifestyle and kind of/sorta play around words making you think it will make you an overnight millionaire. And it really gets people because they show their Lamborghini’s. Now, I have gone through a lot of these garbage courses, and frankly, I don’t want more people to buy their garbage courses. So, I recommend not just beginners but, advanced affiliate marketers to get a course called Savage Affiliates. It’s by Franklin Hatchett and he has been doing affiliate marketing for 8 – 10 years now. If you look at the amount of information it has, you’ll be shocked because I don’t know if you know this or not but, most other courses don’t even have 1/3 the information this one has. And it’s one of the most affordable courses out there so, when you start out, you can pay for hosting, and other sorts of expenses instead of just spending all your money on guru courses. Keep in mind that, I am not saying this course will make you rich or anything, this is not some overhyped guru course, you’re simply paying for a really high-quality course which goes over A – Z of affiliate marketing. It has Paid Ads training like google ads, Facebook ads, free affiliate marketing training where you getting traffic from Pinterest, youtube, blog commenting, SEO and a ton more content. But, make sure you read my Savage Affiliates review so you know EXACTLY what your buying, no impulse buying.

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affiliatebusinesshub · 4 years