#are true potentials supercharged elemental powers or just the ability to use them?

[ravenrambles6229]

The death of all Ninjago fic writers: the goddamn lore

I know that this wouldn't work because it literally prevents the use of elemental powers, but could you imagine if Cole could control vengestone? That would be crazy

[dailycharacteroption]

Prestige Class Spotlight 10: Holy Vindicator

 Between the paladin, antipaladin, the warpriest, the shifter, and even the occasional combat-focused cleric, holy warriors are well-represented in Pathfinder as a whole.

Today, however, we will be looking at a divinely-empowered warrior that is so supercharged on divine power that they literally bleed the stuff, which they do. A lot.

These holy vindicators are made for battle, eschewing more contemporary service to the church in favor of finding new foes to strike down in the name of the faith.

While this is very easy for the vindicators of evil deities, this can be difficult for overeager goodly followers of this path in times of peace, but the wise will recognize the need to either watch and wait for the next great threat in vigilance, or to wander the world, seeking new evils to fight.

Holy vindicators come in many shapes, but the only real requirements are that the aspirant be capable of both channeling energy in ways other than the standard positive or negative and casting divine spells, plus a decent understanding of how to wield weapons in combat. Because of this it is common for clerics seeking this path to take some training as a fighter or paladin so they do not have to wait till 7th level to tap into this prestige class. Alternatively, some paladins or warpriests might see becoming a vindicator as the path to becoming greater warriors of the faith.

Essentially, this prestige class revolves around entering a state of high risk for reward as well as sacrificing spell slots for other powers, which we’ll see below.

 As one might expect, the way of the vindicator continues the mastery of divine spells, but they do lose out on some mastery along the way.

Where they don’t lose out is their ability to channel energy, which continues to progress.

One of their first truly unique abilities allows them to expend channeled energies into their shield to strengthen and guide it, better protecting themselves until wounded.

Bloodshed in the name of their deity, be they divine or profane, is the name of the game for a holy vindicator, and this includes their own divinely-infused blood. With a bit of effort, these warriors can manifest spontaneous wounds, or stigmata on their bodies, which are located in religiously-significant areas of the body dependent on the faith in question. Regardless, as long as they are bleeding, the stigmata bolster them in some aspect, either offensively or defensively, though they cannot freely shift between bonuses.

To counterbalance the bleeding, the healing magic that these holy warriors use on themselves becomes more potent, even potentially healing beyond the maximum potential, though later on, it automatically maximizes.

When striking a critical blow, vindicators can sacrifice a minor bit of magic to lay a minor curse of doom on a foe, and can even do so when suffering such a wound themselves.

Midway through training in this path, they learn how to channel their energy through their weapon to bolster their strikes if they hadn’t already. What’s more, if their stigmata are active, their divinely-charged blood coats their weapons, bolstering the energy and potentially causing bleeding and debilitation in their foe.

Even when channeling energy normally, these divine agents have surprising amount of control over it, narrowing it into a cone or even a long beam as needed.

When bringing a foe to unconsciousness, they can channel spell power to finish off a foe and bolster themselves, the assumption of the righteousness of their judgement protecting them from negative consequences, though that could change if they use this power indiscriminately.

No matter if their channeled power is benevolent or vile, vindicators eventually learn to enhance it with their stigmata, sickening foes and causing similar blood loss in others affected by the power.

Finally, rounding out the ways they can sacrifice spells, these holy warriors can lay down a true curse on a foe they smite.

The sheer number of combinations of class and deity that can go with this prestige class is staggering, ranging from shining warriors of light to the foulest of antipaladins and other dark champions, all weeping blood and striking down foes. There’s a reason elemental channel or alignment channel is a requirement, and goodly holy vindicators in particular will want to make judicious use of them so their channeled smites work on something other than undead. Regardless, the general strategy and build for this prestige class is a weapon and shield combo, preferably with a holy symbol inscribed somewhere for casting spells, and bolstering oneself up defensively so that actual incoming attacks cannot add to the bleed damage that is constantly affecting them, healing up with superior heals whenever necessary. A few extra channel energy feats wouldn’t go remiss either.

 There’s a lot to be said about the apparent overlap of concepts that this prestige class has with paladins and antipaladins, but let’s focus for a moment on what makes them different. Holy vindicators are not protectors in the traditional since, as they are implied to only protect by seeking out the enemies of the faith. This would make them exceedingly rare in pacifistic faiths, for starters, to say nothing of some always needing a fight to feel validated. What’s more, these beings are constantly being supercharged with divine power in their very bloodstream. As a result, many may have interesting ideas about injury and mortal peril as a result which could make them unnerving to others, even among the good ones.

  Devoted to the Eagle-God of the sky, the aerieborn beastkin of Mt. Vushal have long held an enmity with the serpents to the south, everything from evil nagas to serpentfolk, all followers of the Endless coils. As such, the aerieborn and their wereraptor kin seek to oppose them wherever they find them, some even earning the title of “Bleeding Hawk” for those blessed by the Eagle-God.

 It is said that the shepherds of the auroch herds in the valley are more than mere animal-tenders, for the primeval bovines are considered sacred to the Defender of the Herd, a fierce and wild bull-headed god. If the herd is threatened by despoilers who take too much, these faithful leap into action, fighting like a wounded beast before even a single blow is struck, and all the more fiercely once they start bleeding.

 Tragedy has befallen the land, for a new dark lord has risen, a fearsome warrior who is infused with the power of The Blinded King, their own eyes weeping black blood when they stride into battle, or so the rumors go. Most think of them as just rumors, for now.

[triple-a-enderdragon]

Meet the Locals!

Hermits, in this AU, come in three different flavors; avatars, those who were given magic, and those who have magic of their own. 

Avatars: Hermits who have had the (mis)fortune of being chosen by an Element, beings who represent different aspects of the world (more on these guys later). Avatars can channel the power of their Element and have certain related abilities. This is elaborated in each individual avatar’s infodump.

Given: Hermits who have obtained magic via other superpowered beings other than the Elements. Their powers and abilities vary greatly.

Personally Obtained: Hermits who were either born with their magic or obtained it without the intervention of any superpowered being. Again, their powers and abilities vary greatly.

Hermits! In (kinda) alphabetical order!

Bdubs: Flavor 3; can manipulate space and distance, but in small areas. He can make these changes “permanent”, most prominently in his builds; or temporary. He mainly uses it as a way to travel more quickly and safely between locations. The larger the area, the longer the time held, and the more dramatic the change, the faster he tires out. However, the small area of his builds and the subtlety of the magic used makes these permanently sustainable.

Biffa: Secret flavor 4; but he’s the only one. He has no “real” magic, but his stubbornness to not die is magical on its own. Biffa originally came from an...interesting world. It was a hardcore world, meaning perma-death. This world had a gladiator-style arena that he never left (until he left that world). He was thrown into fights constantly, which led to the almost total (violent) removal and replacement of his fleshy bits. He is about 90% cybernetic and can become a bloodthirsty little monster. That’s why he’s on the Strike Team! Known as the Berserker, he is the frontal assault in most confrontations, drawing the attention away from the flankers, Iskall and Python. His fighting style may seem random and haphazard, but it is well structured and takes full advantage of his metal body. As an ST member, he has special weapons, two axes and a greatsword.

Cub: Flavor 2; Bestowed with Vex magic alongside Scar and is an OP. Cub, besides having handy mechanic-exploiting knowledge, has some control over the elusive magic of the Vexes. He knows not of the true nature of how he and Scar came about it. Cub’s speciality is utility magic and he mostly uses it to test the limits of the world around him. Because the magic can be volatile, he (and Scar) must use a focus or risk great damage to himself. Cub’s focus is a fairly small sphere of translucent quartz that, over time, has grown small cracks of a suspiciously light blue material.

Docm: Flavor 1; Avatar of Redstone, whether she knows it or not. Frankly, whether he knows it or not, either. ~Once upon a time~, Doc was a regular researcher, doing regular researcher things. Until one day. An explosion rips through the facility, fusing several things together. Two of those things being Doc and a creeper. Also, he lost some body bits as well. This explosion drew the attention of Redstone (an Element!), who had been watching him closer than she normally would (read: at all), took pity on him and replaced his lost body bits with some snazzy redstone bits. Needless to say she didn’t expect that would make him her avatar. She then went back to minding her own business. Or, at least, trying to. Something about Doc is just...captivating. Can’t be this avatar business. Oh no. ANYWAY. Doc can manipulate redstone. Fun! He can also feel the circuits and how they work, allowing him to make incredibly accurate diagnoses of other hermits’ redstone circuits. He also has a weird and exceptional way with a channeling trident...

Evil Xisuma: Flavor 1; Avatar of Void, kind of an accident. EX came into being when Void made a very bad mistake. Void saw all these Elements with their avatars and decided they wanted one. (bad reason, but oh well.) Xisuma just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It would have gone smoothly (if X consented. He probably would have), but someone else didn’t. The world guardian smacked Void back into their place, but not before they took a bit of X with them. The piece of X’s soul that Void stole became EX, kind of an avatar, kinda not. EX lives in the void of the End, between the death layer and Oblivion. He catches (and sometimes collects) whatever falls in. If hermits ask nicely, then he may return some items they have lost, but he rarely does this as most of their things aren’t collection-worthy. His favorite collection is of souls, those that somehow ended up below the death layer.

False: Flavor 3; Has powers over enchantments. False is the champ of PVP; the only other hermits that can hold their own against her is Iskall and Biffa. Her preferred weapon is the bow, in which she is unparalleled. Some time ago, between world 4 and 5, she (and Iskall) were pulled to The UHC to compete. False won (no surprise), but she was forced to stay behind to watch Iskall fight through (and win) the next round. During the upset of his “win”, she slipped away to the 5th world. False hasn’t told him what she saw in that 2nd UHC. Switching gears, False is Commander of the Strike Team, and so that is her alias. While very capable at PVP, she is the only member who can strategize on the fly; such that she takes her super special bow to high ground and controls the field as a chessboard. If things get really dire, she can supercharge the enchantments of one (or all) of the boys and essentially make them unstoppable for a short period of time. She cannot do this for very long and is completely vulnerable the entire time. That’s why Wels is there!

GTWScar: Flavor 2; Bestowed with Vex magic alongside Cub. Scar is the one to bring Vex magic down on him and Cub. He knows it is not a gift, but a pact. In order to gain the protection of the Vex, he had to essentially pledge himself to them. His relation to them is very Avatar-like in nature. Most of the time he can do his own thing, but occasionally the Vex will guide him to do something, as stated in the pact. Where Cub has the less intrusive utility magic, Scar has the more intense evocation magic. 

Grian: Flavor 1; Avatar of Air. Has wings! Now, I know what you’re thinking. ~Evo~, right? Well, I grant you but a taste and nothing else. Grian lived in Evo for a while, went through all that, became a baby watcher and everything, then vanished. A certain something has found the crown jewel to its collection. A trade, it proposed. You can come and join me. No unnecessary restrictions will be upon you. No benchmarks. No goals, other than your own. In return, you will be a blank slate. I will not tolerate a being tainted by Them. I guess it was a bit taken aback by how enthusiastically Grian agreed. He remembers nothing of Evo (except that something happened), or of the deal. He is the brand new avatar of Air, as he had shown exceptional flying skills and no fear of heights. Without the need for rockets to stay airborne and an inherently curious personality, Grian has very quickly become the air equivalent to Iskall’s ground scouting. 

iJevin: Flavor 3; Has various slimy powers. Slime has alchemical properties. Jevin is a slime. Full stop. Okay, not full stop. But he is a slime, just a really weird, blue, potentially one-of-a-kind one. He wasn’t created in a lab, but he was found and dumped in one to “be studied”. Unfortunately for the researchers, Jevin was also very sentient. And sentient slimes don’t like to be “researched”. So he left. He managed to (very poorly) disguise himself as human and waltz out the door. Whilst exploring worlds, he discovered some very interesting properties of his slime. When used in potion-making, it can enhance the properties of the potions significantly. To the annoyance of the other hermits, he prefers to make poisons and other negative-effect potions. They have to coerce him to make more beneficial ones. The other hermits don’t know their drinking Jevin-juice. Shh, don’t tell them.

Impulse: Flavor 2 & 3; Is an OP and has mob wrangling powers. More useful than it sounds. Impulse seems to just have a way with mobs. Unlike Ren or Cleo, he can’t control or talk to them; which makes this even more mysterious. Mobs just...behave differently around him. There’s a reason he always has a trading hall within days of getting to a new world.

Iskall: Flavor 1; Avatar of Diamond. A bit unhappy about it. (jus’ a bit). Iskall’s early days hail from hardcore worlds, where he had to hone his PVP and tracking skills to survive. Between worlds 4 and 5, he (along with False) were pulled into The UHC. He and False had two very different experiences. Long story short, in a battle against another skilled PVPer, Iskall lost his left eye. Upon winning, he became MIA for several hours before following a trail, left by False, to the hermits’ fifth world, now sporting a shiny new eye. This shiny new eye gives him control over all things diamond. If it’s gear he made, full control. If it’s gear someone else made, partial control. He can detect other people if they’re wearing diamond gear. He can also detect diamond ore in a 5 chunk radius around himself, 16 if he’s concentrating. All these cool abilities come with a downside; if his eye is removed, he will not survive long without it. Iskall is a member of the Strike team, dubbed the Hunter, due to his unmatched tracking skills. Along with Python, he is a flanker. Iskall’s preferred weapon is the glave, because polearms are awesome. Also, how can he thrive in such cold biomes? This man’s a walking furnace I tell ya. The downside is that he can’t stay in the Nether too long or he’ll start to overheat.

Joe: Flavor 3; Can cast Suggestion at will and always succeeds. Basically, Joe can subtly influence peoples’ emotions, always in the interest of safety and diplomacy. Okay, that’s not entirely true; he also does it to confuse and befuddle. He’s very good at that. Another thing he’s good at is healing. Joe is the resident medic. While other hermits, (Iskall and Wels), have rudimentary medical knowledge, it’s mostly field dressing. Joe has a more extensive knowledge of long-term treatments. He is the one wrangling Jevin to produce beneficial potions.

Keralis: Flavor 3; Hypnosis. Look into my eyes. Nothing but my eyes. Keralis can captivate one person at a time with his gaze, but once captured, he cannot look away without breaking his hold.

Mumbo: Flavor 3; Can alter reality, but doesn’t know it. Whatever he believes will happen (or not), will happen. Mumbo may possibly be the most powerful hermit; he can unknowingly alter the outcome of whatever he’s thinking about just by believing in his new reality. The catch? He can’t do it at will. Thus, he can never know about it. The only person who knows about it is Xisuma, and only after some intense investigation over several worlds. Aside from that Mumbo is well-versed in redstone, and is better at it than he thinks. His problem? What he thinks becomes reality.

Python: Flavor 3; If he doesn’t want to be seen, he won’t. No matter what. Not invisibility, I swear. Camouflage!! Python was apart of someone’s attempt to make attack creepers; an unsuccessful venture. You’d think he’d be more chameleon or something with how well he can blend in with his surroundings, but no. Python is a member of the Strike Team. While he’s not as good as Iskall at tracking, Python is (predictably) better in the stealth department, earning him the alias Assassin. He moves much like a viper, striking with his twin daggers before his target has time to react. He works exceedingly well with his fellow flanker, Iskall, to take down all sorts of enemies.

Ren: Flavor 1; Avatar of Life. Can speak with animals and can turn into a massive grey wolf. ‘S pretty cool. Ren came to be an avatar out of desperation, and Life was the only one who could help him. It’s not quite what he expected, but it’s pretty cool all the same. He can communicate with animals and can even, at the right moment, become one. His favorite shape to take it that of a grey wolf. 

Stress: Flavor 1 & 3; Lucky girl! Or is she? Avatar of Water and a certain magenta surprise later on. Stress became Water’s avatar almost as a second thought. There’s a reason she’s known as the Ice Queen and not the Water Queen; Water neglected to give Stress full access to her powers, as the Element is much like Redstone; keeping to herself. Not that this hinders Stress in anyway, she is still a force to be reckoned with. She doesn’t feel the cold and experiences no ill effects from prolonged exposure.

Tango: Flavor 1; Avatar of Fire. He ain’t too happy about it either. Tango became and avatar in a similar fashion to Ren, except he turned down Fire’s proposition, saying he’d rather die. To which Fire replied, “You are in the Nether. You die here, you are mine irregardless.” Needless to say Tango’s still a bit salty about that whole ordeal. At least he can spend more time in his favorite dimension, the Nether! Impulse and Zedaph often find him taking a dip in lava or sleeping in a bed of his own flames. On the heat scale, if Iskall is a furnace, then Tango is a miniature sun.

TFC: Flavor 1; Avatar of Earth; but at this point, they’ve pretty much become one. Tfc is the wrangler of the other Elements as Earth is the oldest one around. At this point TFC and Earth have bonded to the point where they are almost indistinguishable from each other. Of course, hermits can still tell if it’s TFC or Earth talking. Usually it’s TFC; Earth only comes out when absolutely necessary. Since they are bonded together so completely, TFC can bring out the pure, raw power that Earth has to offer, something that no other avatar can claim.

Wels: Flavor 2; Made a pact with an entity eons ago. He can never be defeated as long as he is protecting someone. Well, not so much a pact as a promise. Wels gave his word to this entity that he would always protect those who need it most, and in return the entity’s power would shield him from death for as long as he protects someone. Even with this protection, he has to be careful; once the conditions have passed, he will succumb to any fatal wounds he sustained over the fight. To counter this, Wels has gotten incredibly skilled at defensive battle. He may not be an attacker like the rest of the Strike Team, but his sword and board tactics have come in handy more times than one can count, earning him the alias Bastion. False owes him her life several times, when he protected her as she unleashed her magic.

Xisuma: Flavor 2; Admin! Admin powers are granted as host of each world’s resident guardian. Xisuma handles all of the behind the scenes, keeping an eye out for anomalies, sending Iskall to investigate “visitors”, generally making sure everything is running as smoothly as possible. A while ago, X had a runin with Void. Long story short, EX came into existence and left X missing a piece of himself. Because of this, he often finds himself forgetting simple things, like conversations or bits of projects. He has also had to enhance his helmet to help his breathing, as he now finds the overworld and Nether atmospheres to be too oppressive.

Zedaph: Flavor 3; No magic can affect him. That’s it. Even Mumbos’ reality-changing ability can’t touch him. Zed is the much-needed keystone in the midst of all the magic running around this world. Even he doesn’t know the full extent of his magic-negating ability, except that it hasn’t truly been tested yet.

ZCleo: Flavor 3; Due to a glitch years ago, Cleo is now a zombie. She can talk sense into undead mobs. Cleo was once a normal person. Well, as normal as she gets. What I’m saying is she wasn’t a zombie yet. But a glitch happened years ago at the exact moment when she (and other people in different worlds) died and respawned, trapping her between life and undeath. She took this very well, immediately trolling any hermit she could find. Cleo has expressed a preference to being undead, as the only mobs she has to worry about now are creepers and spiders. Occasionally a limb will fall off, but she takes it in stride.

[inhumansforever]

Inhumans: Judgement Day Review

spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers

The inhumans face off against the Progenitors in this grand finale, from the creative team of Al Ewing, Kevin Libranda, José Villarubia and Mike Del Mundo; cover by Daniel Acúna.  Recap and review following the jump.  

Let’s set the stage… The inhumans’ powers and culture are derived from the mysterious, mutagenic substance known as Terrigen.  Millennia ago, the space-faring Kree had come to earth and conducted experiments on a group go prehistoric humans, altering their DNA so that they could be changed by way of exposure to the gaseous rendering of Terrigen Crystals.  The subjects of these experiments would go on to found Attilan and call themselves Inhumans.  

Central to their customs was that each Inhuman would undergo Terrigenesis, transformation by way of the Terrigen Mist, at the time of their adolescence.  This continued on for thousands of years as the Inhumans remained isolated and sequestered from the human world.  

Only the kings and queens who ruled Attilan knew the secret truth that there were many other Inhumans living amongst the humans.  Numerous Inhumans had left Attilan over the years, integrating into human society and quietly passing along the genetic potential for Terrigenesis.  

When the world was threatened by Thanos and the cascade of encroaching alternate realities, King Black Bolt opted to take a drastic course of action.  All of the Terrigen was made into a bomb that, once detonated, created a set of Terrigen Clouds… clouds that would flow over the earth and would trigger transformations among a legion of new Inhumans all about the globe.  

It was a decision Black Bolt had made without his wife’s consort or consent.  Since childhood, Medusa had been much more than Black Bolt’s friend and later wife… she was his confidant, his voice.  Yet he took her for granted, keeping her in the dark over his ongoing affairs with The Illuminati and the dire threats they were seeking to address.  It took its tole on their relationship and his disappearance following the Infinity Event proved to be the final straw.  Medusa was made the new queen of a new Attilan and by royal decree she annulled their marriage.      

Catastrophe was ultimately averted, but a new peril soon came to pass when it proved that the Terrigen Clouds were deadly poisonous to The inhumans’ cousin race, The Mutants.  So to prevent the genocide of all Mutants, Medusa was forced to destroy the Terrigen Cloud, ridding the world of the last of the Terrigen… saving the Mutants but, in so doing, dooming the future of Inhumanity.    

In the wake of her actions, Medusa chose to abdicate the throne and dissolve the Inhuman Monarchy; selecting Iso as New Attilan’s leader until democratic elections could be held.  Medusa’s final order as queen was that the treacherous Maximus being exiled… not just from New Attilan but from Earth itself.  Maximus was to be sent to an ancient prison located on the far side of the galaxy.   Yet Maximus’ cleverness was once again his salvation.  Through trickery and guile, Maximus orchestrated matters so that it was his brother, Black Bolt, who was sent to the space prison whilst Maximus remained behind disguised as his as his brother.  

Noh-Varr, a Kree adventurer from another universe sought out The inhumans, informing them that all was not lost.  The Kree Empire that he hailed form was far more advanced, more knowledgeable over their own origins as well as that of the Inhumans.  He possessed an understanding over Terrigen that could be used to attain a new supply… a new future for Inhuman-kind.       A pilgrimage was set out on as Medusa led a team into the cosmos to obtain this new salvation.  She was accompanied by Noh-Var, her sister, Crystal, the empath Swain, the geokinetic Flint, and Medusa’s longtime friend and protector, Gorgon.  Black Bolt joined this mission as well, but it wasn’t long before his true identity was revealed and the team discovered that had unwittingly brought along Maximus the Mad on this most crucial of missions.  

A new development occurred that forced them to shelve the matters of dealing with Maximus and rescuing Black Bolt.  Medusa divulged that has recently discovered that she was dying.  Her strength had been waining ever since she destroyed the Terrigen Cloud, then her hair began to fall out and she could put the matter off no long.  Death was near.  

Noh-Var’s efforts to identify the etiology of Medusa’s illness proved to be just as quixotic, bizarre and difficult to understand as his explanation of what exactly Terrigen is.  Science, magic and poetry are not disparate entries in Noh-Varr’s philosophy, rather they are puzzle pieces that fit together to create a grander gestalt transcending the confines of conventional thinking.  The Terrigen was not sentient per se; yet also not completely without a sense of self agency.  It was Medusa’s hand that destroyed the Terrigen and now that Terrigen that remained within her was bringing about this terminal illness as a kind of ’poetic revenge’ ,,,a death by metaphor.  

Stubbornly, Medusa refused to die quietly and was intent on going out on her feet.  She led the team to Hala, the former home planet of The Kree, as well to NovaHalla, the new refuge for The Universal Inhumans.  Throughout their adventures they gathered the clues ultimately that ultimately led them to powerful race of space demigods known as the Progenitors.   Just as the Kree had utilized Terrigen to alter the evolution of The Inhumans, so too did the Progenitors done the same for the Kree, changing them from a primitive and savage race to a highly advanced and space faring peoples; although not with Terrigen but rather with the purified Primagen from which Terrigen is merely a diluted derivative.

Although an unwanted stowaway, Maximus proved to be very helpful throughout this endeavor.   Maximus was aware of this mysterious Primagen.  It is what his parents considered the ‘Prima Materia,’ the key to understanding and obtaining the true destinyy of their people.  As well as the reason why both Maximus and his brother were exposed to an ultra-purified strain of Terrigen when they were both still in the womb.  

The team ultimately made their way to The World Farm, the strange home of the Progenitors.  It was an unwelcoming world, a manufactured solar system where robotic-like beings cultivated mutated amalgams of science and nature as a means of furthering the advancement and of their own quasi-evolution.   Here the Primagen was shown to be The Progenitor’s life-blood, a complex compound of organic material infused with billions of microprocessors facilitating its mutagenic properties.   

The Royals arrival on the World Farm was viewed by The Progenitors as little more than an infestation of pests… inferiors beings who needed to be eliminated so to ensure the clockwork functioning of the farm.  The Royals had to battle off these beings in a desperate effort to obtain a cache of the Primagen and escape with their lives.  

They were no match for these awesome beings, yet managed to discover a weakness in them.  The Progenitors synthetic minds worked on a level of pure logic and rationality.  As such these beings had no concept of emotion, sentimentality and affect.  Swain and Maximus combined their powers to flood their attacker with intense emotional sensations, befuddling its circuits and left it vulnerable to being destroyed.  They Royals ultimately succeeded in fleeing the planet, but it came only through the noble sacrifice of Gorgon who remained behind to fight off the attackers whist his colleagues escaped.  

In the midst of trying to discover a means of returning home, Medusa granted Maximus permission to touch the Primagen.  Doing so acted to supercharge his mental powers, allowing him to experience his past, present and distant future all in the same moment.  As such he was able to gain access to his experiences some five thousand years in the future.  To this end, he came to realize the ultimate folly of The Royals’ actions.  

Thieving the Primagen, holding their own against The Progenitors merely acted to pique these beings’ curiosity… to view The Inhumans as possessing the potential for raw material that could be harvested, assimilated and utilized to further their own advancement.  The Royals had not only doomed themselves, but all of earth as well.  The Progenitors would return and the result would be the destruction of the planet and all life thereon.  

A desperate plan was devised once the Royals returned home.  The Progenitors were coming and they could not be allowed to set foot on earthly soil.  To this end, the battle station of New Arctillan was built on the oxygen rich Grey Area of the moon, located on the satellites’ dark side.   There the Inhumans would mount their defense against the Progenitors, doing all they might to prevent these nigh-powerful being from reaching earth.  

The task before them seemed all but insurmountable, yet Maximus had a plan.  The Progenitors had demonstrated an Achilles heel once before in their vulnerability to human emotion… perhaps once more this might be utilized to obtain victory.  

To this end, Maximus had assembled a crack team: Swain, who can wield and manipulate affect; Panacea, Swain love and anchor to keep her balanced; Frank McGee the detective whose analytic mind might compensate for the illogicality of emotion, Noh-Varr, the Master tactician; Crystal, whose abilities to harness and control the elements could loan itself well to the same flowing nature of emotion; and Reader, whose reality warping abilities will prove key to entering into a realm where the Inhumans and Progenitors might be on equal footing: The Astral Plain.  

Maximus’ mind bending strategy makes little sense to the others, especially Reader who insists that this is simply not how his powers work.  He can make real what he reads, but he has the actually understand such words… it needs to be a real world that his mind can truly comprehend.  

Maximus counters... summoning his inner-Jacques Lacan, he explains that words are inexact stand-ins, mere approximations of thoughts and feelings… notions that at their heart defy the limitation of speech or writing.   Maximus creature the nonsensical word, ‘floob’ presenting it as a shorthand for the neitherworld of thought and emotion.   He’d written this term on a Braille tile, insisting that reading this tile will succeed in allowing Reader to transporting them all to this conceptual plain.  

Reader remains unconvinced.  He’s not sure it could work and, more importantly, he has grown weak from using his powers to teleport to the moon.  He is going to need rest and recuperate his strength if he is to transport the entirety of the team to this  Ill-defined realm of Floob.  

Yet such time doesn’t exist.  The Progenitors have arrived, laying siege to New Arctillan.  Overlord Class and Exterminator Class Progenitors attack and it will only be a matter of moments before all of Arctillan and it’s inhabitants are eliminated.  

Maximus and Reader have to act quickly… there is only enough time and energy to transport one Inhuman to Floob and Maximus makes his decision in an instant, instructing Reader to send Medusa.  Before she can object, Medusa finds herself relocated to a mysterious and ethereal plain somewhere between thought and feeling (breathtakingly depicted by Del Mundo’s magnificent illustration).  

In the desert like atmosphere of this strange realm Medusa views the decrepit statue of her former husband, Black Bolt, looking down upon her, as well as the ruined stature of her one time lover, Gorgon, at her feet.  

Medusa is confused that Maximus had chosen her as the sole combatant sent into Floob... surely she is the least optimal candidate.  All that has transpired has been her fault.   She destroyed the Terrigen, she has suffered its revenge; it was her folly that brought earth into the crosshairs of The Progenitors, she who sacrificed Gorgon to facilitate their cowardly escape.  All of this guilt and self condemnation has hardened her, making her feel her heart has been rendered little more than a dead stone.  

Exposure to the Primagen had supercharged the abilities of her colleagues, but for her it had no effect.  She sees her gift, her very Inhumanity, as dead and gone and hence the Primagen can and has offered her nothing.  

Medusa has little time to wallow in her self doubt.  This realm is not without predators and a blackened serpentine energy ensnares her like a python, curling about her legs and pulling her toward a certain demise.  

She struggles against this force and as she dose her mind drifts to the man whom she had once so depended on, who in the past would always come to her aide when facing such dire circumstances.   As she does, the statue of Black Bolt begins to stir, fissures cracking over its surface.  

Medusa’s desperation grows and acts as a kind of beacon, a doorway that invites in a new presence.  

The figure of Black Bolt bursts forth from the innards if the statue... leaping to action and coming to his love’s aide.   Fighting another’s demons can be much easier than facing one’s own and Black Bolt is able to make short work of the parasite of doubt and remorse that had so threatened Medusa.  

The predator defeated, Medusa and Black Bolt are unsure what to do and find themselves trekking through the etherial desert landscape for what feels like a veritable eternity.  Soon they come across another decrepit statute, this one of Crusher Creel, The Absorbing Man.  A one time foe of the Mighty Thor, Creel was Black Bolt’s cellmate and eventual ally whist he was incarcerated in that terrible space prison.  Creel helped Black Bolt, sacrificing himself to save Black Bolt’s life and bring about an end to the oppressive and despotic Jailer.  

Just as Medusa feels remorse and regret over Gorgon’s death, so too does Black Bolt feel similarly over Creel’s death.  They had both been leaders of their people, bared the overwhelming responsibilities of the welfare of others.  And both are bereft over the terrible decision of having to sacrifice their friends.  

Here Black Bolt realizes that he can speak in this strange realm, that his sonic powers have no effect and he and Medusa can communicate through words.  As they continue to trek onward, they talk about all that has transpired and how the two had grown apart.  Black Bolt pushes down his jealousy that his former wife had found comfort in the arms of their friend, Gorgon; though he also must come to terms that she sought out this comfort because he had for too long denied it to her.  Medusa had turned to Gorgon not because she had carnal needs but rather emotional needs… the need for comfort and security, the need to be treated as an equal and a partner.  Whatever envy or anger Black Bolt feels over the matter is pushed aside because he knows that she is right.  He hadn’t treated her as an equal, he treated her as a child who needed to be shielded and keep int he dark of terrible truths.   Might she forgive him?  Does she still love him?

Medusa isn’t ready to say, but does admit to missing him; missing the partnership they had, how they completed each other and how Attilan prevailed when the two worked in concert.  But they haven’t the time or luxury to dwell on the past, they must move forward into an uncertain future… a future that may very well entail a rekindling of what they once had.  

The two are attacked before they can discuss the matter further… The Progenitors have finally navigated their way into this strange realm, intent on eliminating this new a threat.  A maw opens up in the desert floor with the Overlord Progenitor within it, reaching up with to grasp Medusa with an intense gravity wave pulling her down.  

Black Bolt desperately holds onto Medusa’s arm, keep her from falling into this terrible pit.  Medusa struggles to keep her grasp, but she is still overwhelmed by her guilt and regret.  Suddenly she realizes that in her other hand she holds the Primagen Crystal, the crystal that failed to work for her.  In that moment, Black Bolt fades away, drawn back to his own demons of the trauma bestowed onto him by the sadistic Jailer.  

Medusa is left alone still grasping onto the seemingly useless shard of Primagen.  This powerful substance had not worked for Medusa… did not work because she would not let it.  She doesn’t feel she deserved it.  She brought ruin onto her people, banished her husband to a terrible fate, engaged on an odyssey that brought the Progenitors to Earth, sent Gorgon to his death.   In the moment of sadness and regret, Medusa finally lets in all of the feelings and emotion that she has tried so desperately to keep at bay.  She didn’t see herself strong enough to cope with these emotions and cut herself off from them, thinking that stoic repression was her only course of action.  In this moment, however, when all appears as lost, she lets those feelings in.  The emotion washes over her… she allows herself to be human as well as Inhuman, vulnerable as well as strong… and doing so facilitates the activation of the Primagen.  

Her body is infused with the mutagenic properties, enhancing and augmenting every fiber of her being…  Her illness abates in an instant and her hair grows back in red, flowing torrent.  

Suddenly, Medusa finds herself back on Ariclan.  Her hair has returned, longer than before so that it sweeps over the others like a flood of locks and curls.  It felt like she had been gone for centuries, but in reality the whole affair had transpired in a mere instant.  

In its wake, the marauding Progenitors had been reduced to destroyed empty shells.  The onslaught of pure affect and emotional catharsis that Medusa had experience in astral realm overwhelmed the circuits of pure logic possessed by The Progenitors.  It was too much for them, it did not compute, and resulted in their destruction.  

The world had been saved, the terrible future that Maximus had foreseen had been avoided.  Whether or not the stolen Primagen might indeed be utilized to create new Terrigen remains to be seen, but there is great optimism that The Inhumans have won themselves a new lease on a future.  

But what of the Progenitors?

Back on the World Farm, The Analytic Class Progenitors monitor the feedback coming from their fellow units who had traveled to earth.  The data suggests that a power was encountered that is antithetical to The Progenitor’s base philosophy.  It is a power that cannot be defeated, it is too dangerous a threat, and the Analysts make the prudent decision that the best course of action is to avoid Earth at all cost.  

A voice bellows out from off page, demanding that the threat cannot be avoided; for it is already here.  And the final page shows a Primagen-empowered Gorgon, still alive and ready to destroy these enemies once and for all.  And it is here that the tale, and the story of The Royals comes to to its final conclusion.    

Wow.  This was intense!  

I had been expecting an all-out fight with the full forces of all The Inhumans doing battle against a legion of Progenitors.  And I was surprised to find that instead we got an emotional journey where Medusa and Black Bolt battled their inner demons and doubts so to unlock the only thing that could possible defeat these godlike beings.  And though I was a touch disappointed not to see many of my favorite Inhumans in action, this narrative decision makes a great deal of sense.  Medusa and her journey has been at the heart of the series from the beginning and it’s a  suitable decision that she should be the focus of its conclusion.  …and it certainly helps that the other-worldly battlefield of this ordeal is so beautifully depicted by Mike Del Mundo’s peerless skill.  

Emotion, poetry and magic are matters that defy rationality.  Such matters can be understood, but only in a peripheral, idiosyncratic sense.  No one poem effects two people in the same exact way.  It’s a fundamentally human quality and a matter destructively foreign and unknowable to nigh-logical beings such as The Progenitors.  

Such a thing might seem a bit corny on its surface, but is also the central crux of outré fantasy fiction.  One must leap outside of the realm of logic into the loosely defined confines of madness and magic.  

It’s a bold and risky move for Mr. Ewing to choose to have ‘feelings’ be the ultimate weapon that defeats these Progenitors… and some might find it unsatisfactory.  Yet it is in absolute accord with the themes that have coursed throughout The Royals form the first issue.  The Inhuman are not Mutants, fictional outgrowths of the theory of evolution.  Nor are they characters of super science, engineered by far-out ideas over the outer limits of technology.   They are something in-between.  Science, mixed with evolution, mixed with magic, mixed with poetry… something just outside of the mind’s ability to comprehend.  They are ‘floob,’ a nonsensical word meant as a stand-in for a concept that simply cannot be accurate explained via the limitations of words.  

As a psychologist, and fan of the works of authors such as Frank Herbert, Michael Morecock and Ursula le Guin, this sort of stuff is right up my alley and I kind of love it.  Although I also appreciate that that this might not be the case for other readers… that some might find Ewing’s venturing into the land of the unexplainable uncanny to be something of a cop-out, denying them the standard issue knock-down, drag-out battle that these finales more often entail.   Still, The Royals has very much not been your standard issue super hero comic book, and an  wild unconventional conclusion actually fits quite well and makes a great deal of sense.  

So where does the story go from here?  We still have at least three more issues of Ahmed and Ward’s fantastic Black Bolt series… and the solicitations for issue 12th issue suggests that we will get further resolution on what the future holds for Medusa, Black Bolt and their relationship.  Perhaps this will also touch on what the future holds for The Inhuman as a whole.  Will they relocated to the moon city of Arctillan, or will they remain on New Attilan on Earth?  Will Iso remain the leader, or will the people reelect Medusa and Black Bolt as once more their queen and king?   Time will tell.  The important thing that this is not the end.  There is a new future in store for The Inhumans, a future not steeped in the past, but rather one whose trajectory is moving forward.      

Kevin Libranda, José Villarubia both bring their A-game for the sections they illustrate, depicting the less fantastical scenes with verve and electricity, and wonderfully lively facial expressions (especially Maximus who seems to be enjoying the prospect of total annihilation just as much the prospect of salvation).   Mike Del Mundo, meanwhile, absolutely excels in creating the weird netherworld where the action takes place.  I do miss Javier Rodriguez’s terrific work, but none can beat Del Mundo when it comes the impossible landscapes of a realm between science, magic and poetry.  It’s just a marvel to behold.  

As a franchise, the Inhuman failed to capture that sense of popularity and mainstream acceptance enjoyed by other groups like the X-Men or The Avengers.  And this one-shot aptly demonstrates exactly why that has been the case.  The Inhumans are weird.  Their stories are the essence of strange, they don’t always make sense and require readers to make leaps into the unknown that not everyone is capable of or comfortable with.  The effort to make The Inhumans more mainstream, more popular has already been abandoned and this offered Ewing and company free license to go all in, embracing the weird with both hands and offering up a finale that is… well, that is quintessentially inhuman.  

Of course recommend; Five out of five Lockjaws!

[mechagalaxy]

John T Mainer 28840: Care and Feeding of a Penner

Care and Feeding of a Penner

Much is said about the overwhelming superiority of the Novum. A 25ton creation of the long lost adversaries of the Forerunners, its ressurection by the mad genius Tory has been the talk of Mecha Galaxy as its has quickly proven to be the deadliest mecha under fifty tons in human controlled space. It hits harder and faster than anything mankind or the Forerunners ever created. While this was the pinnacle of mecha potential in the light class of mecha, it took the genius of one of Mecha Galaxy's greats to create its dark mirror, a super heavy with the same brutal elegance and synergistic amplification of effect that the Novum produces.

The late Mark Penner of Omega and Zeon fame was ahead of the curve of technology, for his vision of the future of Ultra Heavy mecha required elements that did not yet exist. His death caused those notes and designs he had already assembled to fall into the hands of the Craftsmen. What was beyond the Forerunners, what remained beyond humanity, was not beyond them. Building upon his genius, they made his design possible, and what is more replicateable.

The Penner is not for junior pilots. Its machine intelligence was taken from a mirror of Mark Penner taken in the heat of one of his extended defenses in King of the Mountain. The mind of one of the elite pilots of Mecha Galaxy in a situation in which there are no friendlies, and everything that moves or stays still suspiciously is a valid target and there are no bystanders (ANN and Galaxy Gathering reporters have learned to arrive in mecha or leave in baggies filled by weight). This is not a pirate hunting machine, not a careful and strategic Clan War competitor, this is a berserker with chainguns for hands and enough targeting sensors and EM/ECM/ECCM feeds to overwhelm all but the most experienced and mentally balanced pilots with the flood of kill urge and target information.

Lets have a look at what this beast brings to the table before being equipped. Fully developed the Penner brings the following to the table.

Critical kill 10% 1.3x 30% 1.5x 30% 2x 30% 3x 30% Projectile +98% Precision 12 Dodge 6 Shield 150 Reflect 14% Med Bot 4

Cockpit slots 8 Chassis slots 7 Engine slots 8 Shield slots 6 Weapons every 2.5 levels

For members of the 300 club, this is a Dakka factory, you resemble an NRA wet dream where every free surface mounts a gun, targeting sensor or ammo bin. For members of the 400 club, you look like a Dakkagasm, a being entirely composed of gun mounts and red burning eyes above a howling and hungry mouth, a back swollen with a backpack composed of cellular ammunition storage tanks like missile silos, whose massive weight is required not just to hold the huge ammunition requirements of 110 tons of walking cannon, but to keep the mecha from falling face first as the mass of cannons on its front make it somewhat tippy.

This is the only machine in Mecha Galaxy that is designed to be stable ONLY when firing. The Penner is only happy when it is shooting high mach level guass rounds of various calibers, spraying death in front of it and brass casings behind; it is also only balanced when several tons of recoil are compressing the huge buffer systems, simultaneously powering its amplifiers and correcting its innate tendency to tip forward.

The recoil buffers are Penner's true genius. Unlike traditional systems that try to bleed off the recoil energy, keeping only a fraction to power the ammunition feeds of the guns themselves, the Penner absorbs rather than channeling into backblast. Every cannon cocker from the Imech to the Dreadnought or Justicar vents the backblast of the explosives of the initiating charge and plasma from the guass acceleration out the back to balance the recoil forces of the multiple foot-tons of force produced by the 90 point plus base damage weapons of the more potent cannons. The Penner does not. The Penner absorbs all that force into its niode-crystal torsion matrix, where the induced torsion of the crystal produces an energy that can be returned to the gun systems to amplify the discharge power by several magnitudes. Anyone who has been on the receiving end of one of these 1.3x 1.5x 2x 3x damage stacking blasts can tell you just how much of a game changer this is. A potato armed Penner can knock a Reaper on its ass.

Why hasn't anyone tried this before? Well Evil Santa pulled it off with his elves, and on Charon IV the Clark Federation attempted it. The low grade nuclear explosion that took out their research station on that world was the last attempt to use this technology. Without active energy matrix stabilization, the torsion-crystal energy absorption system has a tendency to fail catastrophically, leaving a thirty meter crater. The AI in the Penner instinctively balances the energy field in the crystal torsion matrix, allowing the niode core to channel all the power into the weapon charging systems seamlessly, balanced to supercharge rather that fry the guass accelleration systems of cannons, and to a lesser extent focusing elements of laser and plasma systems, magnetic launch assist for missiles and ice nano weapons.

Side effects of the energy absorbtion system are noted in the Penners defensive statistics. The recoil compensation system functions by absorbing incoming energy and channeling it back. This translates into a built in energy reflection rate of 14% and shrugs off the first 150 points of any hit as just a mild aid in keeping the mecha from tipping forward. Negative side effects of the system are that it does limit the amount of external shielding modules the system can employ (only six units at maximum development) and the extensive threading of the limbs with the linked buffer systems somewhat limit the chassis augmentation, with a maximum of seven units at full development.

The need to stop your Penner from slaughtering everything including your own command occupies a lot of the Penner pilots neural bandwidth. At low levels of development this imposes a -25 speed penalty. It should be noted that this is far less severe than having a contract on your life issued by the major governments of the land because you wiped out a shopping complex because your Penner detected a camera phone range finder and leveled a quarter acre of mall in reaction. As your Penner develops, a total of eight cockpit modules are able to link to the AI to help deal with the information overload and somewhat moderate the insane kill urge of the Penner to usable levels. Outside of the direct benefits of the cockpit modules themselves, this has the side effect of returning +23 of the -25 speed lost to the requirement to keep the gun loving fun machine from going full berserker outside the safety of King of the Mountain, the only true free fire zone in Mecha Galaxy.

Like the Novum, the speed of the Penner has to be seen to be believed. Everyone knows the Novums are insanely fast, but like the Penner their technical speed is only part of the truth of their functional speed. Both these designs grow guns at insane rates. The Penner grows guns at a rate of one per two and a half levels. Two guns per five levels. Forty guns per hundred levels, as opposed to twenty for the Surt or 33 for Specter or Xango. With eight engine amplifiers possible at full development, and growing more guns per level than any other mecha in its weight class the Penner has an overwhelming likelihood of firing first. Given its huge damage stacking capacity, and built in critical kill, even before any of its cockpit, chassis and engine system bonuses are added, the ability to fire first freqently makes the Penner's first shot the last of any exchange.

Downsides of owning a Penner. Look there is no way of getting around this, a Penner is top heavy. Watching a high level Penner advance is like watching Jessica Rabbit jog. There is a whole lot of motion up front, and the arms are carried high and way out to the side to prevent loss of balance. The Penner wiggles its ample ass at the run as well, to counteract the huge momentum of the weapon heavy arms and cannon bristling torso. On battlefield manover drills it is like watching a particularly well endowed stripper run without a sports bra. It is only saved from being ridiculous by the memory of seeing the same machine at full charge with arms and grinning death's head holding dead level as its body ran over dead Notas and Boreas like a steeple chase runner, with every muzzle dripping flame and a flow of steel connecting it to victims downrange that was so thick you could walk across it and never touch a molecule of air.

The Penner is expensive to own and feed. Its equipment is either niode or barely noticeable. There are almost no crystal options worth having. There is a very limited variety of equipment available in this weight class, so limits hit quickly. Its ammunition bill is terrifying, but so far in Mecha Galaxy, there has never been a beast this deadly.

My first sits about 325, doesn't have any of the fancy Vortex equipment, and still gives the following equipped performance. Some of the 400 club can swat it with theirs as it swats lesser mecha, so that weapon every 2.5 levels means this beast rewards advancement with advantage more than any other mecha in the game.

Laser Damage + 12%

Proj. Damage + 98%

Speed + 99

1.3X Damage 60%

1.5X Damage 30%

2X Damage 65%

3X Damage 77%

Reflect 14%

Med-Bot (9)

Crit-Kill 32%

Dodge (72)

Precision (104)

Shield (509)

Splash Shield 49%

Wide Fork Shield 34%

Fork Shield 23%

Laser Shield 25%

Missile Shield 29%

Ice Shield 6%

Fire Shield

Proj. Vulnerable 15%

Fire Vulnerable 2%

Class: Penner

Weapons: 142

John T Mainer 28840

[hafizhamza313]

Best website builder of 2019

Best website builder of 2019

Website builders have been around for decades but a new generation now exploits new technologies like responsive and mobile platforms. A website builder can help individuals or businesses build anything from a simple single-page site to a professional web store, even if you've no design or HTML experience at all. Whether you're a sole trader or a multinational corporation, just about every business needs an online presence – in other words, a website. A growing number are adding bells and whistles like an email list or form facility, domain name registration and much more. Even if you don't sell products online a site can help people find you, learn more about your skills and services, and provide a way to share your details with other potential customers. It's like having a permanent, always-on-call personal assistant, ready to answer queries. And it can even be free. More experienced users can customize and fine-tune the design to suit their own needs, or perhaps install a more traditional web design package that allows them to build the perfect site from scratch. There are free options, but these often have major restrictions, including limits on the size of the site and the lack of any ability to use your own domain. Fortunately, the commercial options are very reasonably priced, from around £5/$5 to £10/$10 a month, with hosting included. To help you decide which option is best for your needs, we’ve picked out the cream of the crop: these are the five top players in the website building world right now.  

Wix has more than 100 million registered users   Wix is one of the most popular online website creators, offering a range of plans and products. The free version has Wix branding, limited storage space (500MB) and bandwidth, but move up to the most popular plan (unlimited) and there are no Wix ads. You get unlimited bandwidth (hence its name) and 10GB storage, along with a free domain, Google Ad vouchers and much more. The e-commerce plan adds an online store along with 20GB storage for a reasonable $16.50 (£12.30) per month. An excellent collection of 500 plus templates gets the design process off to a quick start. The drag-and-drop editor gives you all kinds of tools and features to explore – an image editor, video backgrounds, animations, social buttons, an integrated site blog – and just about everything can be tweaked, tuned and restyled. Furthermore, as of recently, Wix introduced Wix Turbo, which increases the speed and performance of websites substantially. All the core editing functions are really smartly designed and operate more like a native app than your average website builder. Wix does have some weaknesses, with tech support seeming a little sluggish and limited in some respects. But there’s no denying that the superb editor and range of top-notch templates make it easy for web building novices to create something impressive.

  1&1 IONOS is one of the biggest web hosting companies in the world   There’s a lot to like here in terms of a powerful drag-and-drop editor bristling with professional features and highly customizable templates, but at the outset, let’s make it clear that this isn’t the cheapest service around. There’s no free plan (or indeed trial – although there is a 30-day money-back guarantee), and the most basic plan is priced at $1 (£1 for the UK) a month for first six months, rising to $7 (£7 for the UK) afterward. That gives you unlimited pages and web space, a simple integrated blog, limited SEO settings, plus website backup and restore, so it’s a touch pricey for what you get. That said, 1&1 IONOS MyWebsite offers a wide range of responsive templates, and an editor which provides loads of potential adjustments and tweaks, all with plenty of visual feedback and context-sensitive menus to help streamline the whole process. What’s clever here is that the top-level stuff is easy to use and understand for beginners, yet expert users can dive more deeply into the menus to really play around and customize elements. You also get your own personal consultant free of charge. Other highly useful features include the ability to point to your old website in order to import media content from there straight into your new site. This could be a huge timesaver for some. There’s no e-commerce plan here, but there is a separate Pro plan for that functionality (starting at  $1 – (£1 for UK) – a month for the first six months, rising to $25 - (£25 for UK) a month).

  Weebly is one of the few website builders that offer a free hosting tier.   Weebly is another big name in the website building world which offers a powerful editor and capable set of features. There’s a free plan, which like Wix limits space to 500MB and imposes ads on your site. However, if you move up to the Professional plan – at $12 (£9.5)  a month – the ads and storage limit are dropped, plus you get a free domain, and even support for a web store containing up to 25 products. The supercharged Business plan lets you create sites with unlimited web store products and high-end store features like product reviews and discount coupons, retailing at $25 (£19) a month. The service offers hundreds of professionally-designed web templates, covering just about any site type. The drag-and-drop editor is neatly designed, although you don’t get full control over where you can position elements on the page, and the interface can seem a little cluttered. A further niggle is that there is no global Undo feature. Like Wix, we found tech support was a little wobbly in terms of sluggish responses, but Weebly offers a host of powerful features, some very stylish templates, and easy access to free images for your site is another definite boon.

    As we’ve seen, many a website builder pitch themselves towards novices and making life easy for the less site-savvy out there, but what about experts who want powerful low-level control? Those are the users Voog has in mind. So you don’t get many templates here, for example, and there’s the bare minimum of media support – but what you do get is a compact drag-and-drop editor which does its best to stay out of your way. There are weaknesses here, and the interface is somewhat clunky in respects – and it’s another which lacks a global Undo function – but it has some real power you can drill down into. For example, clicking a text box gives you the option to use bullet-point lists, insert tables or videos, or even edit the HTML source to customize effects. Voog also lets multiple users easily collaborate on a site project, and if you’re after nifty, unusual features like these, you won’t see them elsewhere. The entry-level Starter plan is priced at $7.40 (£5.30) per month (billed annually) and gives you 2GB storage, and all the core features you’ll need, including SSL security (although it’s limited to 30 pages). If you know what you’re doing in terms of website design, and want some true power and customization capabilities, there is a 30-day trial you can check out (no credit card details needed).

    Jimdo is a somewhat quirky website builder targeted largely at novice users, but it’s well worth your attention for a number of reasons, not the least of which is a free plan which boasts more than the average offering. Yes, there are the usual limitations including adverts, a 500MB storage limit, no custom domain, and very limited SEO. But there are a few features you won't get in other free plans, like a password protected area, for example. The site editor itself is simple and consistent, even if it’s somewhat unconventional in terms of its design. Also, the editor doesn’t have as many functions and features as some rivals. For example, there aren’t that many templates, and the widgets on offer aren’t as plentiful as you might find elsewhere – plus there’s no global Undo (although Jimdo isn’t alone in this respect). Another neat touch is a good web knowledgebase which means help is generally close at hand when it comes to troubleshooting. Overall, this is a compelling product, that is well worth giving a whirl. You might also want to check out our other website hosting buying guides: WordPress E-commerce Small business Google My Business Email hosting Source: TechRadar Read the full article

[namastefamily]

Happy advent folks.

Fortunately we are all becoming much more aware of how we live, how our thought snd feeling affects us and how we are much more in control of our lives than we have been led to believe.

This winter time in the Northern hemisphere brings with it shorter days and different light, winter light, which is beautiful and reflective…. It seems relevant then that we can use this time to also reflect, to take stock, to reconnect with the spiritual elements of ourselves and our world that we may have neglected throughout the year. Connecting to the higher consciousness, to our own spiritual light is something that is within reach on a daily basis. Sitting quietly in nature, being aware of our breath, walking amongst trees, being near water, listening to the sea or water flowing, observing life in nature…. All these opportunities to connect to our spirit of creativity and creation and tap into the source of our potential is uplifting and makes ripples of positive force.

Understanding who we are and what we can accomplish isn’t necessarily taught at school, certainly not in a spiritual sense and certainly not in the West. However it should be because it is essential to our development and also our evolution. Fortunately we can teach ourselves and there are so many great resources at our fingertips these days which is wonderful.

So just be yourselves folks, eat well, love well, get out in  nature, run, walk,  breathe. Love each other and appreciate each other, reach out and smile! We are beautiful beings with so much potential and we are evolving just as a rose opens up its petals.

Today presents an even better opportunity to light a candle and hold some positive thoughts.

‘Everything in Life is Vibration’ – Albert Einstein

So I borrowed this little article from the net as I thought it was helpful and easy to read…I hope it is helpful to you:

‘Once I understood that the universe is immaterial – it is mental and spiritual and the entire material world is nothing but vibration – I understood the importance of keeping my own vibrational levels high. When you have the right vibration you supercharge your ability to manifest.

There is no solidity in the universe. All life vibrates. Everything in nature vibrates at different frequencies. All colours and sounds vibrate to a frequency. Mind, Body and Spirit are all vibrating to the Universal energy field. So you can raise your vibration and frequency to create what you want – from good health to abundance in all things. Socrates knew this way back when – he believed that the universe was made up of pure energy which was there before earth and man came along.

The entire material world is nothing but vibration – the eternal dance of the countless vibrations within every atom in your body. We are made up of atoms and atoms emit waves of electrical energy that vibrate at our own frequency.

Everything is made up of atoms. Everything that manifests in your life is there because it matches the vibration from your thoughts. It’s been scientifically proven that our bodies are more influenced by our vibrational energy and thoughts than by DNA.

So examine your beliefs – you can send a faulty vibration out to the universe through faulty subconscious thinking. Challenge your thinking by getting to know yourself better. By choosing to think new thoughts you can change your reality. In the quantum worldview the observer is calling the shots – so make sure you are consciously creating what you want. Learn to harness the energetic power of your subconscious. Your life is reflected back to you by your vibrational thinking. The subconscious merely reflects your beliefs. Everything is created twice, first in the mind and then in reality.

Modern culture teaches us that life is difficult and stressful, but the ultimate demonstration of quantum law is that we can create a positive future that we have lived in our mind because vibrational thoughts matter and they become matter. So clear your resistance. Ask the Universe to help you – and listen to what comes into your mind – usually best just before you fall asleep.

Speak the language the Universe speaks – energetic vibration. The energy of your thoughts creates your reality. So become conscious of your thoughts. Everything you say, think or feel becomes your reality. So if you have a negative thought just tell it to go away. It’s that easy. The lower your vibration, the more likely you are to attract circumstances to you that mirror this and the higher your vibration the more good you attract and doors just open to all the positive stuff!

If you work too hard you make yourself stressed and unhappy which attracts the wrong vibration and understanding of the universe. Become the person who attracts what they want and connect to that energy field. Say/show the universe what you want.

Like energy attracts like energy – that’s physics. Struggling for abundance does not work. How to raise your vibration? Recognise the energetic power of you and what it offers the world. It’s all about vibrational alignment, frequency and harmony. The vibration of your thoughts create your life so I list below some ideas that have helped me supercharge my energy to it’s highest vibration – you then get a deeper, better connection with the universe:

1) Exercise – move your body – the human body is made to move. Walk, run, skip, jump, play sport, whatever makes you happy – this will uplift your body’s vibrational frequency and you’ll sleep better too – a vital part of making life grand. People who exercise regularly are fitter and leaner and always have that look of a winner – a spiritual warrior. Also learn about body language and consciously change yours – your thoughts will then reflect this – this will help in life and business.

2) Sing and dance – even if it’s just around the kitchen. Whatever makes you happy. Listening to great music and dancing is so uplifting.

3) See people you love frequently – tell them so and give them a good hug. It all helps to spread the good vibrational love. Being kind and generous to other people puts you in a high vibration.

4) Do things you love that raise your vibration – go to the theatre, cinema, opera, ballet, exhibitions and interesting talks about things that interest you. Travel – short or long haul – it doesn’t matter as long as you are enjoying yourself! Go to interesting places – learn about another culture – open your horizons to bigger picture thinking, even if it’s only to a local exhibition. Imagine you could travel to the future. What would you be doing?

5) Wear clothes and colours that uplift you and make you feel good. My red lipstick always makes me feel good – in fact I’m rarely without it! If you look good – you feel good and that increases your vibrational attraction.

6) Make your house wonderful to come home to – flowers, warmth, fresh, clean, uplifting decor and colours. Walls have ears and respond to the vibrational energy of the owner of a home. This is so true and has applied to every home I have ever bought – you feel a good vibration immediately you walk in the front door. The reverse is true too – always worth remembering when trying to sell your house!

7) Having gratitude raises your vibrational frequency because it makes you aware of all the things you love and how abundant you really are. Remember to keep writing that list and adding to it.

8) All foods have a vibrational energy so eat wonderful healthy primal foodsthat nourish every cell in your body. Cut out the processed foods if you can – they’ve proven not to be good for you and they are made to be addictive and have a low vibrational energy.

9) Drink water. It is an energetic life force that cleanses and hydrates your body. We are made up of about 70% water – so we need plenty of it to flush out toxins and keep our vibrational energy levels up.

10) Have frequent quiet time – meditate if you can or even if it’s just 30 mins with a good book and a cup of tea by the fire – it will keep you aware of the importance of solitude and quietening the mind. Or even a nap if you prefer – sleep is a form of meditation – whatever works for you and makes you happy!

Remember the Universal Life Energy describes your total well-being – may the force be with you!’

‘I think in metaphysical terms, I would call that increasing the speed of the vibration of life’ – Neale Donald Walsch

  Dimanche Happy advent folks. Fortunately we are all becoming much more aware of how we live, how our thought snd feeling affects us and how we are much more in control of our lives than we have been led to believe.

[etechwire-blog]

The best website builders of 2018

New Post has been published on https://www.etechwire.com/the-best-website-builders-of-2018/

The best website builders of 2018

Website builders can help you build anything from a simple single-page site to a professional web store, even if you’ve no design or HTML experience at all. Whether you’re a sole trader or a multinational corporation, just about every business needs an online presence – in other words, a website.

Even if you don’t sell products online a site can help people find you, learn more about your skills and services, and provide a way to share your details with other potential customers. It’s like having a permanent, always-on-call personal assistant, ready to answer queries. And it can even be free

More experienced users can customize and fine-tune the design to suit their own needs, or perhaps install a more traditional web design package that allows them to build the perfect site from scratch.

There are free options, but these often have major restrictions, including limits on the size of the site and the lack of any ability to use your own domain. Fortunately, the commercial options are very reasonably priced, from around £5/$5 to £10/$10 a month, with hosting included.

To help you decide which option is best for your needs, we’ve picked out the cream of the crop: these are the five top players in the website building world right now.

Wix has more than 100 million registered users

1. Wix

Quick, easy and powerful website creation

Huge range of powerful features

Yet still highly user-friendly

Question marks over support

Wix is one of the most popular online website creators, offering a range of plans and products. The free version has Wix branding, limited storage space (500MB) and bandwidth, but move up to the most popular plan (unlimited) and there’s no Wix ads. You get unlimited bandwidth (hence its name) and 10GB storage, along with a free domain, Google Ad vouchers and much more. The e-commerce plan adds an online store along with 20GB storage for a reasonable $16.50 (£12.30) per month.

An excellent collection of 500 plus templates gets the design process off to a quick start. The drag-and-drop editor gives you all kinds of tools and features to explore – an image editor, video backgrounds, animations, social buttons, an integrated site blog – and just about everything can be tweaked, tuned and restyled.

All the core editing functions are really smartly designed, and operate more like a native app than your average website builder. Wix does have some weaknesses, with tech support seeming a little sluggish and limited in some respects. But there’s no denying that the superb editor and range of top-notch templates make it easy for web building novices to create something impressive.

1&1 is one of the biggest web hosting companies in the world

2. 1&1 MyWebsite

A strong all-round offering, but not cheap

Really well-designed editor

Some nifty bonus features

Above average pricing

There’s a lot to like here in terms of a powerful drag-and-drop editor bristling with professional features and highly customizable templates, but at the outset, let’s make it clear that this isn’t the cheapest service around.

There’s no free plan (or indeed trial – although there is a 30-day money-back guarantee), and the most basic plan is priced at $3.75 (£2.99) a month for the first year, rising to $8.75 (£6.99) afterwards. That gives you unlimited pages and web space, a simple integrated blog, limited SEO settings, plus website backup and restore, so it’s a touch pricey for what you get.

That said, 1&1 MyWebsite offers a wide range of responsive templates, and an editor which provides loads of potential adjustments and tweaks, all with plenty of visual feedback and context-sensitive menus to help streamline the whole process. What’s clever here is that the top-level stuff is easy to use and understand for beginners, yet expert users can dive more deeply into the menus to really play around and customize elements.

Other highly useful features include the ability to point to your old website in order to import media content from there straight into your new site. This could be a huge timesaver for some. There’s no e-commerce plan here, but there is a separate 1&1 eShop range for that functionality (although it costs extra, starting at  $12.50 – £9.99 – a month, rising to $27 – £19.99 a month).

Weebly is one of the few website builders that offer a free hosting tier.

3. Weebly

Another powerful site builder with some smart templates

Great looking templates

Host of powerful features

Some interface niggles

Weebly is another big name in the website building world which offers a powerful editor and capable set of features. There’s a free plan, which like Wix limits space to 500MB and imposes ads on your site.

However, if you move up to the Starter plan – at $8 (£6)  a month – the ads and storage limit are dropped, plus you get a free domain, and even support for a web store containing up to 10 products. The supercharged Business plan lets you create sites with unlimited web store products and high-end store features like product reviews and discount coupons, retailing at $25 (£19) a month.

The service offers hundreds of professionally-designed web templates, covering just about any site type. The drag-and-drop editor is neatly designed, although you don’t get full control over where you can position elements on the page, and the interface can seem a little cluttered. A further niggle is that there is no global Undo feature.

Like Wix, we found tech support was a little wobbly in terms of sluggish responses, but Weebly offers a host of powerful features, some very stylish templates, and easy access to free images for your site is another definite boon.

4. Voog

Delivering the power that experienced site builders require

Powerful low-level controls

Free 30-day trial

Can be tricky to use

As we’ve seen, many website builders pitch themselves towards novices and making life easy for the less site-savvy out there, but what about experts who want powerful low-level control? Those are the users Voog has in mind.

So you don’t get many templates here, for example, and there’s the bare minimum of media support – but what you do get is a compact drag-and-drop editor which does its best to stay out of your way. There are weaknesses here, and the interface is somewhat clunky in respects – and it’s another which lacks a global Undo function – but it has some real power you can drill down into.

For example, clicking a text box gives you the option to use bullet-point lists, insert tables or videos, or even edit the HTML source to customize effects. Voog also lets multiple users easily collaborate on a site project, and if you’re after nifty, unusual features like these, you won’t see them elsewhere.

The entry-level Starter plan is priced at $7.40 (£5.30) per month (billed annually) and gives you 2GB storage, and all the core features you’ll need, including SSL security (although it’s limited to 30 pages). If you know what you’re doing in terms of website design, and want some true power and customization capabilities, there is a 30-day trial you can check out (no credit card details needed).

5. Jimdo

A quirky offering with an unusually generous free plan

Free plan has a web store

Good tech support

Less features than some rivals

Jimdo is a somewhat quirky website builder targeted largely at novice users, but it’s well worth your attention for a number of reasons, not the least of which is a free plan which boasts more than the average offering.

Yes, there are the usual limitations including adverts, a 500MB storage limit, no custom domain, and very limited SEO. But there are a few features you won’t get in other free plans, like a password protected area, and very basic e-commerce support for up to five products (the latter is very unusual for a freebie).

The site editor itself is simple and consistent, even if it’s somewhat unconventional in terms of its design. Also, the editor doesn’t have as many functions and features as some rivals. For example, there aren’t that many templates, and the widgets on offer aren’t as plentiful as you might find elsewhere – plus there’s no global Undo (although Jimdo isn’t alone in this respect).

Another neat touch is a good web knowledgebase which means help is generally close at hand when it comes to troubleshooting. Overall, this is a compelling product, and if you fancy experimenting with a simple web store without spending anything, Jimdo is well worth giving a whirl.

[mollydpowellus]

Top PR Predictions for 2018

The year 2017 redefined the importance of investing in public relations. Between the political atmosphere, corporate gaffes and blazing hot media circuit, it was a year for the PR history books.

So, what did we learn? The team at Tech Image pulled together their top predictions for the year to come, pooling their collective knowledge of what agencies will need to consider to pull away from the pack.

The PR Best Agencies Will Need to Integrate with Sales and Marketing Platforms by Andy Ambrosius, Account Manager

As more and more agencies tout an expertise in all things “digital,” it’ll be time for them to put their money where their mouth is. PR has always been very loosely tied to sales, but as we become more digitally savvy, how do we prove that stories actually influence sales?

Tools like TrendKite recently launched technology that tracks web trends, showing when someone reads your article and then visits your website, and integrating with platforms like HubSpot. It’s also fairly easy to create custom landing pages during product launches that integrate with sales platforms like Salesforce. You just need to get creative and have the know-how to get it done.

Invest in Original Content by Mary Beth Nevulis, Content Manager

Just like Netflix, Amazon, HBO and Hulu now produce their own television shows and movies, in 2018, more brands will make a push toward creating original content, reflective of brand voice and without a heavy sales pitch behind it. Credible, informative original content on important industry topics gains more trust than advertising in many cases, creating real value for a target audience through meaningful storytelling, while still planting a seed that may grow into a purchase.

Close the Diversity Gap in PR Agencies by Dan O’Brien, President

Most PR agencies continue to fall short of diverse employment, which impedes their ability to hire the best talent and represent the constituents that are most important to clients.

In today’s supercharged political climate, where race is at the center of the debate, it’s important for PR agencies – in fact, all companies – to review their hiring criteria with regard to diversity. According to the 2016 U.S. Census, African Americans make up 13.3 percent of the population, but they are only represented in eight percent of PR agencies. But I’m defining diversity beyond simply race; we need to increase opportunities for everyone, regardless of gender, LGBT, religion and socio-economic status.

Influencers Will Take a Front Seat by Dana Van Duerm, Media Relations Associate

The practice of using influencers to boost brand image will only continue to grow in 2018. However, before investing time and money, brands must realize how important it is to target the right influencers – and that includes doing research. Influencers should seamlessly align with a brand’s mission and values, so a relationship isn’t forced or portrayed poorly. Although we see big-name brands investing in their fair share of influencers to promote their message, products and beyond, B2B companies can leverage building relationships with niche, industry-specific bloggers, or key people who share common brand beliefs to build credibility.

Authenticity Will Be More Important Than Ever by Yvonne Gonzalez, Media Relations Coordinator

Countless studies have shown that people value a company that stays true to its brand standards and cares about its customers. Yet we live in a time where if a company is not fully transparent about a crisis or misstep to the public, this information can go viral via social and traditional media, resulting in the company losing its credibility and its audience’s trust. Companies need to push hard to stay authentic in their messaging and the services they provide, and PR professionals need to help keep them honest.

Expect Everything to Take On a Digital Component by Rachel Klein, Media Relations Associate

Today’s digital generation is redefining public relations. More and more, people expect digital, interactive and engaging content from brands, and we’ll begin to see this permeate public relations. Press releases, for example, are traditional, wordy and hard to look at. Future press releases will be more visual, embedding images, graphics or videos alongside text. Even campaigns are becoming more interactive. Many incorporate videos, infographics or landing pages that encourage a call to action. These elements make a brand more visually appealing and better allow consumers to connect with a brand.

PR Will Get Serious About Cybersecurity by Jeff More, Sr. Media Relations Coordinator

Every organization is a potential cyber attack target, and every year sees a new record in the ferocity of such attacks. Last year, DNS Registrar Dyn was hit with a DDoS attack driven by hijacked IoT devices with an attack strength of 1.2Tbps, disrupting a large portion of the internet. In May, the WannaCry ransomware attack infected nearly a quarter million computers in a single day, shutting down critical networks, including the U.K.’s National Health Service. More recently, credit reporting agency Equifax revealed the personal information it kept on nearly half the U.S. population had been stolen by cybercriminals.

We’re almost guaranteed to see another record-breaker in 2018. PR teams representing organizations that possess large amounts of personal customer data will need to get serious about having a response plan in place in the event of a cybersecurity crisis. Such plans will go beyond pre-drafted statements, and include systems of communication between cybersecurity, executive and comms teams to ensure that stakeholders and affected parties are promptly informed of the situation and adequate action is being taken.

Organizations taking responsible steps to protect their customer data can also look for PR opportunities around the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPF), which will take effect in May and affect all countries doing business with the EU. This presents an opportunity to put cybersecurity experts in the spotlight and highlight cybersecurity projects that bring organizations into compliance with the regulation.

Artificial Intelligence Will Reveal New Opportunities by Lydia Castillo, Digital Media Associate

AI and big data are the elephants in the room. Although there is a lot of talk about AI’s negative impacts, there is another side to the story.

As more AI is sewn into readership’s lives, it will give PR agencies quantifiable insight into their real interests. It will enable PR agencies to better process and understand data at a faster pace, and thus improve how they deliver their messages and what they choose to deliver. Agencies need to embrace AI and big data trends to experiment with new, strong stories that match data analysis.

#FakeNews by Katie O’Rourke, Account Coordinator

Considering all the events that took place in the mainstream media landscape in 2017, especially around the presidential election, in 2018, more news outlets will defend their research and sources. In 2017, The Wall Street Journal launched “The Face of Real News,” a campaign that features animated WSJ reporters telling the story of how they investigated their biggest stories, and other news outlets will soon follow their example in the race for credibility.

B2B Takes Center Stage by Harvey Henao, Account Manager

Consumer technology has long been the darling of tech PR. After all, who doesn’t like the flashiest new gadget or the latest home automation system? Consequently, tech PR has historically focused on reaching consumers. But lurking behind the curtain has always been business-to-business (B2B) communications. As more companies realize that what really moves the needle are enterprise customers, we will begin to see more dollars allocated toward B2B communications strategies. Marketers are projected to increase their public relations budgets over the next five years, according to a joint report from the Association of National Advertisers and the USC Center for Public Relations. With digital and social strategies becoming more prevalent and robust, marketers are realizing the power of smart PR strategies – for both consumers and B2B. 2018 will go down as the year B2B PR went from being an afterthought to the main driver of a company’s success.

Big Data Will Have a Big Impact by Matt Pera, Account Manager

The rise of Big Data has been fast and steep, and 2018 is almost sure to see that trend continue – and the next frontier is learning how to leverage that data with actionable strategies. In the world of digital PR, Big Data can provide predictive analytics and insights that are incredibly valuable for clients – such as which of their articles perform best and why, how readers find specific stories or press releases, or how share of media voice is distributed among competitors. Big Data affords a way to predict audience behavior and preferences that PR professionals would have never dreamed of as recently as five years ago. Welcome to the future.

It’s All Going to Be About Automation by Joe Calderone, Sr. Digital Media Coordinator

As many platforms have implemented algorithms in years past to manage what users see, 2018 will bring further automation into how users engage with brands. Right now chatbots are in their infancy, but as Facebook specifically increases their machine learning, we’ll see the capabilities of these bots increase tenfold. Also in the automation field, we should see an increase in proximity marketing through social media platforms. Look for increased capabilities around how low-energy Bluetooth beacons interact with social media platforms as well.

The post Top PR Predictions for 2018 appeared first on Tech Image.

from My Updates https://www.techimage.com/blog/top-pr-predictions-for-2018/

[euro3plast-fr]

LinkedIn, a B2B marketer’s dream?

Having trained hundreds of people over the years on how to get the most from LinkedIn, today I’ve shared some quick tips which you should find immediately actionable.

LinkedIn has had some bad press over the last few years. Too many recruiters, too many people spamming it with innocuous posts and too many people treating it like a more personal social network, which it simply isn’t. My experience of the platform has been far from that reality. I’ve had nothing but success from leveraging this corporate stage but I believe that has far more to do with my mind-set towards it and how I use it for the B2B business environment I operate in.

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Just a recruitment site? I don't think so

Over the last 5 years, I’ve been delivering LinkedIn training courses to everyone from students wanting to improve their employability, to salespeople looking to build leads to CEO’s looking to position themselves on. In this article, I’ll share some of the reasons I believe LinkedIn is worth your time and investment as well as a few quick tips for supercharging your usage.

Why is social networking in the B2B world even a thing?

Let’s start with a few fundamentals and reasons why I believe this platform stands head and shoulders above the rest in the B2B world

1. It’s not what you know

You’ve heard the saying a thousand times. LinkedIn is the social network that makes this come true, but only if you’re prepared to put the time in to build connections and work those connections to increase your business.

2. People are there to do business

The main reason people are on LinkedIn is that of business (ok there is the job hunting element as well but let’s put that aside for a moment). It’s your boardroom of connections not the coffee shop connections of Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. And if that is true then it’s the place you need to be for business. The challenge is, you can’t just expect to sign up a profile and for business to flood in.

3. Thought Leadership is the modern marketing

It’s all well and good saying you can help people. It’s all well and good saying you’re the best in the business, but can you prove it? Social commentary and thought leadership pieces prove you know what you’re talking about. LinkedIn provides one of the best platforms to showcase this.

4. People WILL be Googling you

Google has billions of searches a month conducted on it. LinkedIn is well respected and will show up in results for keywords, particularly your name. The next time someone is thinking of doing business with you they will probably google you. If you’ve got a cracking LinkedIn profile they will find it and you’ll stand more chance of securing their business. Conversely, if your profile is out there but unloved it's not going to paint you in the best light.

5. There are no gatekeepers

I remember when I started my business (1999). The first challenge to getting to decision makers was getting past the gatekeeper. There were even strategies for this and rebuttals you practiced. It was a dark world where rejection ruled supreme. LinkedIn cuts all that out. It puts you in direct contact with the people you want to be connected to. The question is though, are you making the most from it? Are you adopting strategies that help open doors, create conversations or are you trying to sell to people straight away and cold? Oh god please don’t tell me you are one of those.

Five tips for supercharging your LinkedIn usage

There are many ways of making use of this popular platform but here are my favourite five:

Tip 1. Ensuring you have the edge over your competitors

Think of your profile like a beauty parade, your potential prospects putting it up on screen alongside your biggest competitors. Does it set you apart, does it give you the edge? Ensure you cover off the basics, like having a quality photo and using the line below your name to say something a bit more about you than simply your job title. Unlike the rest of the population don’t use the summary section as a CV, think like the person reading your profile – what value can you bring them? How have you helped others? Use Rich media to help you stand out – you can upload PDF’s, Video and Slide Decks to position yourself as a real expert in your field.

Tip 2. Start building your connections

LinkedIn is going to be of more use if your numbers are larger. I don’t say that for vanity reasons, I say it because it’s true. Larger connection numbers mean greater reach for your content and a higher likelihood you’ll be able to ask for introductions from the mutual contacts you share with people. I’m not advocating adding your mother just to get your numbers up (unless perhaps she’s important to your business dealings in which case I hope you’re connected already!) I just mean that you need to get into a routine of adding people you meet at events, networking opportunities, and even sales meetings. Quick pause for a thought. How many of your current client base are you connected with? First, place you should probably start getting connected before your competitors do.

Tip 3. Speak up

Got something valuable to say? Say it. Use the update section on the homepage to keep people up-to-date with your relevant business news and when you’re ready to step up, start using the articles section to publish longer-form content. You’ll almost certainly find, as I have, that you get a decent amount of engagement from the business community if you take the time to create educational, interesting and valuable content which helps others. This is true thought leadership we’re talking about here.

Tip 4. Say hello

It’s called social for a reason but I think we forget that sometimes. The number of people I know who have a LinkedIn account but never check or login baffles me. If someone takes the time to send you an invitation to connect then perhaps it’s worth you reaching out. I’m not suggesting you have to do this with everyone but a simple conversation starter has been the impetus for creating business opportunities for me time and time again.

Tip 5. Running a group

Groups are great but there are so many and it’s hard to keep track of them. My best advice, if you can make it work for you, is to consider creating your own group. Perhaps you could look to create a space where your prospects gather and debate their industry? Maybe it’s a space for clients or strategic business partners. The best thing about being head honcho on a group is that you get to see who’s joining (and if they might be a good contact for you) but even better you can email them all once a week. What power. If your group has big numbers then this could be a real winner.

And lastly if you want to know how well you’re doing on this platform then check out your Social Selling Index (SSI), an algorithm LinkedIn have created to measure how you perform when it comes to four activities:

Your Personal Brand

Your ability to find the right people

Your engagement with insights

Your relationship building skills

You can find out your score and a bit more about it if you visit this article on LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index (SSI)

Good luck on your journey and I wish you every success in making LinkedIn work for you more effectively.

Thanks to Alistair Banks for sharing their advice and opinion in this post. Alistair has run Optix Solutions for 18 years out of Exeter in Devon. He has a personal blog over at I am Banksy, a YouTube channel at Alistair Banks and has recently launched a course of the effective use of LinkedIn for building your sales leads on Udemy.

from Blog – Smart Insights https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/linkedin-marketing/linkedin-b2b-marketers-dream/