#but oops I wrote almost 800

[artsyhamster]

Hello, I wrote a lot this month! And illustrated it lol. So there you have illustrations from 4 different stories

If you're into angsty Edizzy stories, here you go: https://archiveofourown.org/works/59520157

Please read the tags/warnings carefully tho, they're angsty after all.

[roamwithahungryheart]

500 Word Drabble Challenge

Hi guys! I’m back on the writing contest circuit for the first time in a long time. This challenge also marks the first time I’ve written anything remotely smutty in six years. With that in mind, go easy on me folks. I’m a little rusty!

Thank you @happygowriting​ for hosting this challenge! x

Pairing: Andy Barber x reader

Prompt:  “Why am I always so horny when there are people around?”

Word count: 795

Warnings: 18+, sexual content, brief use of language, legal case referring to an endangered child

Monday morning. Middlesex County Courthouse.

There are murmurs in the lobby as you make your way inside. You scroll through your phone, taking one last look through the emails you’ve been sent about the case. It’s a tough start to the week.

This is the second time you’re serving as ADA to Joanna Klein, the top DA in the area. When she approaches – crisp white shirt, thick-rimmed glasses, grey hair pushed back harshly behind her ears – your hands instinctively ball up. When you first met, she told you she saw a piece of herself in you.

Flattering, but intimidating. She could shake the jury to the core with a single word. You don’t want to let her down.

“We’ve all had a difficult case to take on. You’ll be fine. I know what you’re capable of.” Joanna puts a hand on your shoulder, giving it a maternal squeeze.

“Thanks, Joanna.” You exhale slowly, put your phone in your handbag and readjust the binder wedged under your arm. “Did you hear back from the AFC yet?”

Joanna shakes her head. “No. He’s late.” She glances at her watch. “We need to check in with the CASA this afternoon. If they’re going to successfully take this to trial and win the guardianship then they need to try harder.”

Joanna’s eyes shift to the right. The familiar, mouth-watering scent of his vetiver-spiced skin makes you fight the urge to audibly hitch your breath. It’s him.

Andy.

“Sorry I’m late. Just got off the phone. Keisha’s still in temporary accommodation at Children’s Cottage. I spoke with Laurie and she’s provided a statement.”

Andy turns, a glint in his eye as he pretends it’s the first time you’ve met. His hair is longer now, or maybe it’s just the lack of product weighing it down. There are flecks of grey in his beard. His lips quirk up, smooth and full, and you remember their softness in a heady flash.

“Andy Barber, ADA. I’m the acting AFC for Keisha Taylor.” He proffers a hand, mischievously raising an eyebrow. “Want me to fill you in?”

You’re stammering a little. “S-sure. Go ahead.” You clear your throat.

Joanna gives you a knowing sideways glance. You twist your lips, trying your best to hide a smirk as your cheeks begin to burn. There’s a meeting room a few steps away.

The shrill beep of a phone silences the noise in your brain.

“I have to take this. Meet me back here in twenty minutes.” Joanna picks up her briefcase and hurries down the hall.

Andy’s warm hand grazes the small of your back as he opens the door. He immediately removes his suit jacket. His shirt strains against his muscles. Your eyes follow the tuck lines down to his belt. You unclip the links of your binder, fingers wrapping around the cool metal. You remember the night at the bar, the tang of beer in his kisses, how easily he brought you close….so close. You’re clutching the binder now. Andy’s eyes catch yours and you teasingly rub your fingers up and down the clasp.

Thick, electric silence fills the room.

“It’s been a minute.” Your voice is soft, low, disembodied. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Yeah.” A beat. “Wanna go for round two?” Andy’s arm drapes across your chair, his long fingers tracing circles on your shoulder.

“I’m not into repeats, sorry.” You shoot him a smirk.

“Who said anything about repeats? I didn’t get to do everything I wanted to do to you that night…”

You cross your legs as you feel that tell-tale twitch of desire. “Andy, we need to concentrate….”

“Am I distracting you?” His hand moves downwards with a tantalizing drag of his fingers across your bare arm. Your skin tingles, the simplicity, the softness of his touch sending shivers through every muscle and nerve.

You take a deep, shaky breath, your eyes flitting down to the documents in front of you. Then back to Andy. The broadness of him. Those strong hands...he’s mapped every curve and peak of your body, explored it, owned it…

“Fuck it.” You slam the binder closed and push it across the table.

Andy grins.

Your heart thumps wildly, the room beginning to blur. “Just…give me a minute.”

“God, you’re a tease.” He laughs, the sultry baritone reverberating through you, setting you alight.

You exit the room and rush to the bathroom, pacing up and down, hands fanning nervously as though you’re trying to cool the pure heat of your lust. Propping yourself up against the sink, you meet your reflection with a huff.

“Why am I always so horny when there are people around?” Your jaw tightens. “Fuck you, Barber. Fuck me.”

Joanna emerges from a stall.

“I knew it.” She chuckles.

“Fuck.”

Permanent taglist: @hiddelstannerbarnes​  @redlipstickandblacktea​ @just-one-ordinary-fangirl​ @optimistic-dinosaur-nacho​ @djeniiscorner​ @its-tortle​ @k347​ @ixalit​ @iguessweallcrazyithinktho​ @cevansfics​ @capchrisevaans​ @hawkeyeandthewintersoldier​ @musette22​ @mcubabydotcom​ @worksby-d​ @chuckbass-love​ @bluemusickid​ @fallinforevans​ @hellobeautworld​ @katiew1973​ @just-dreaming-marvel​ @disaster-dean​ @rebthom89​ @navybrat817​​ @just-dreaming-marvel-2​​

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[blubary]

Fanfic Requests

I write for The Dark Pictures Anthology, Until Dawn, and The Quarry. (And maybe soon Hidden Agenda)

I will write for almost any ship. I won't do ships these specific ships: Travis/Laura, Charlie/Du’Met (Any with Du’Met for that matter), and any older person/younger person ships.

No smut. However, I will do fluff, hurt/comfort, character death, funny silly goofy, blah blah wholesome stuff.

If there is anything specific you want to be included, like a small detail, some dialogue, or a headcanon, you can just let me know!

You can give me requests through asks, comments, or reblogs

The fanfics usually take more than 5 days to be written and posted. Sometimes it takes literal months, oops. (Rip all the requests I got that I never wrote, sorry.) Most Fanfic’s will be from 800 words to 1,600. It just depends😭

They will be posted on my AO3 account, BluBaryBoi.

(Currently taking requests)

[washymylifeaway]

Haikyuu Angst fanfic recs

EDIT: I added in the ships for each fic LOL, prolly should’ve done it like that from the beginning smh my bad :’)))))

EDIT 2: I made a pt 2 linked HERE

No one asked me to do this, but I’m providing it anyway because we all need a little angst in our lives. Right? Anyway, this entire thing is going to be something you need to read warnings, tags, and summaries in advanced because everything here will be angst. Anyhoo, in no particular order, here comes the sadness... And also don’t come at me for putting fics I’ve recommended in the past,,,, it’s an angst post I have to put all of them.

WARNING: Almost all of these fics deal with either some sort of death, trauma, or mental illness so please I BEG OF YOU to proceed with caution. Also in NO way am I romanticizing any of these things, these fics recs are merely pieces I thought were written extremely well, and that portray major events from multiple perspectives skillfully. If you are struggling, please contact a hotline and get help, you are never in this alone!

National Suicide Hotline: 800-273-8255

boiled frogs by reginagalaxia (E) 91.5k /MatsuHana/ is it possible to hate a character this much? I never realized how much hate/rage I had in me. Really. Like. Imma boutta fight this MF LIKE SQUARE UP. The way I tried to manifest a fake characters death like,,,, Anyway. If my RAGE doesn’t explain how good of a freakin writer they are, then idk what will. (PLEASE READ THE TAGS, THERE ARE SENSITIVE TOPICS!!!!)

In Another Life by LittleLuxray (T) 23k /BokuAka/ it’s a classic, what can I say? You into some BokuAka angst? Here’s the fic. Go right ahead. Don’t be shy :’)

the galaxy is endless (i thought we were, too) by cosmogony (T) 30.9k /KuroKen/ again, a classic. We do love a good soulmate AU tho :)))))))

^^ I didn’t write much here cause I wrote my general thoughts on a different post (linked here) so yea it’s not that I don’t like the fic, it’s just that I didn’t want to be more redundant than I already am LOL.

Oikawa's Last Wish/es by DanaiaCake (G) 5.1k /IwaOi/ this one, man it’s short but painful LOL. Proof that angst doesn’t have to be long to completely break you ahhahah. It actually has a sequel (which is less angsty), but yea if you like finish this fic and are like broken, read it for some.... glue?

The Sky and Guilt Are the Only Feelings I Have Left by oopsthisisqueertoo (NR) 267.7k /BokuAkaKuroo/ ngl I picked it up as a rec from someone else after misreading that it was THIS long haha. But like I kept reading, and the suspense omg. It HAS a happy ending, so if you’re reading it and you start to feel empty, push through (tho take breaks) and finish because it DOES end HAPPY. (PLEASE READ THE TAGS, THERE ARE SENSITIVE TOPICS!!!!)

Made to be Broken by todxrxki (T) 8.1k /KuroKen/ this one focuses more on the after than the build up, and it made me so sad (as it should cause this is literally an angst fic rec post smh @ myself). I usually don’t cry too much but this one made the waterworks turn ON. Sighhhhhhhhhhh. Bless Akaashi.

Even Though it All Went Wrong by plumtrees (T) 9.2k /MatsuHana/ THIS IS THE REASON THIS POST CAME TO BE. I love this fic with all my heart (or what’s left of it). Like LOVE as in, this fic really broke me beyond just breaking me. Like. When Oikawa says what he says to Mattsun after the thing (you’re sorry __ _____ __ ____) and the Iwa right after (we know __’__ ___ ______ to make you ____ __ ____) (if you’re wondering wtf I’m putting here, just ctrl F you’re sorry and you’ll see), you cannot believe how hard that hit. GOD. (I am okay if you’re wondering :’)) This is my #1 favorite angst fic of all time and if you are okay mentally and have read the tags and warnings and are fine with them, then please read it. (PLEASE READ THE TAGS, THERE ARE SENSITIVE TOPICS!!!!)

Better For Us Both by abrandnewheart (M) 15.7k /SakuAtsu/ THE MUG FIC. There was a sequel and when I saw that it took me another week to read it cause I was like,,, am I ready to have my heart break again? No LOL. But the sequel is actually not as angst, so if you want like a semi-broken whatever, just read the sequel LOL. It’s so sad and it made me physically hurt every time someone even mentioned mugs afterwards (LOL why am I so dramatic but it’s the truth :///). Go ahead and hurt with me.

Crumbling Foundations by Captain_Hughes_ZU, ToshiChan (T) 106.3k /MULTI/ I was debating whether or not to put this fic cause it actually doesn’t even have the angst tag (which I personally think it should). Honestly, it’s more a trauma fic than an angst fic idk I just wanted to put it somewhere because it’s written super well and although it was technically a ‘happy ending’ the interviews after prove else. Despite only being rated T, it’s got some intense TW so (PLEASE READ THE TAGS, THERE ARE SENSITIVE TOPICS!!!!)

arbitrary nature of thought. by wadingpool (NR) 5.6k /SunaOsa/ this....... ah... ahh.... The pain...... I really love the SunaAtsu friendship agenda. The ending was happy (I keep doing this LOL) but the build up to the break,,,,, AHHHH. Yea the ending was really heartwarming....... BUT THE BEGINNING. Yea it really jumbled me up..... JFLJDSFLKJHDLFHS

How To Be A Kick-Ass Brother: A Guide by Miya Atsumu by Egosdelirium (E) 25k /SakuAtsu + SunaOsa/ what personal vendetta do I have against Osamu? Nothing, literally nothing he just happens to always suffer in the fics I choose oops. This fic is one I really like, and it portrays the close outsider’s perspective on a horrific event really well. I was iffy on putting this in because it’s not really the angst type I was going for (more death less trauma?) but I really liked this fic, and while I was making my end note, I kept thinking about it so yea. Atsumu best boy. (PLEASE READ THE TAGS, THERE ARE SENSITIVE TOPICS!!!!)

You might be thinking, done already? Wellllllll there were a lot of fics where I decided against putting them on (cause I felt like it didn’t really match what I wanted to be recommending but idk what the theme was LOL oops but yea I would look at a fic and think well it is angst but not the right TYPE of angst y’know?) and I really hate reading angst (there’s a lot of days where I shouldn’t cause my mental health said no thanks LOL). Also I wanted like FULL angst fics, but most of them have like happy endings (which made some of these iffy and is good but also it wasn’t what I wanted to put :////) So yes, I may add to this post (we’ll see) but like it’ll depend on whether I can convince myself that reading angst at 4 am is a good idea LOL. (pls recommend me some too!)

[imjustmarcy]

My Ao3 review of the year??

So, because I have nothing better to do, here: have a list of every fic (mainly bnha, oops) that I posted this year, sorted by different AUs and plot bc holy shit I made like 4 series this year-

Endeavor-centric:

The day that wasn't (x) (5k) Gonna be honest, not a big fan of Endeavor, but my pal Platypus mentioned their dream they had and well, this was born. Basically Endeavor getting hit with a Quirk that turns him into a ghost and makes so he's forced to follow his children around and hear what they really think of him. With a sprinkle of DabiHawks

Hawks-centric:

The Discovery (x) (1k) so my brain decided to write aromatic bisexual Hawks bc self project much and this is just a small piece of him finding out he's aro.

Very self indulgent DabiHawks plus Mar projecting onto Hawks again:

The bird that forgot how to fly (x) (2k) just some hurt/comfort that I wrote to vent

Dabihawks as parents:

Yes I am indeed that bitch. Now prepare yourself bc I wrote A LOT about this...

Phoenix (x) (20k) basically the introduction to the story of Ryu, the DabiHawks kid, and chapter two goes more in depth about him and his best friends. Chapter one is more DabiHawks centric, and chapter 3 is just a mister dump of extra info.

A (not really) spooky Halloween (x) (3k) Halloween special of Ryu trying to sneak out to a haunted house with his friends. Spoiler: his dads know and just decide to fuck with him.

Ryu's little time travel adventure (x) (6k) Ryu gets hit with a Quirk that sends him to the past, before his idiotic dads were even together. There will be a next part to this but at this rate it will have to be posted sometime in January so...

The new League of Villains (x) (7k) so Mar's monkey brain wanted to make a part with Ryu becoming a villain so... He's vry badass and formes the Dragon Alliance, aka the new LOV, with the help of his best friends and with the purpose of destroying the Hero Commission :D

Dabihawks has Ryu, but it's crack:

There's a lot more crack works for the Dragon Verse than there is for the 'Canon' story... Oh well

Sneaky is my middle name (or not) (x) (4k) Hawks has a big ass mouth and lets it slip he has a son and is married. Dabi is not amused.

Who's the dad? (x) (4k) follow-up to that disaster and poor attempt at a social media fic. The internet is smart and everyone already suspects that #DabiIsTheDad

Should've keep it in your pants (x) (4k) inspired by the amazing fic 'Stolen Fried Chicken'. Where Hawks discovers that his son's dad is very much not dead. Ft Natsuo and Hawks being the best bros and having one braincell between the two of them.

Dabi's Biggest Secret(s) (x) (3k) the Todorokis find a bunch of old flash drives with their older brother's videos and discover he used to date Hawks and had a kid with him before they even graduated high school :D

Hawks makes a scene (x) (2k) complementary to the previous part, with Hawks finding out Touya is not dead and proceeding to scream at his face in front of the entire League because he left Hawks and his son to belive he was dead.

Dabi the waking cryptid (x) (1k) modern college AU with no quirks?? I guess. So the league is all curious about why does Dabi never hangs out with them. Guy's just busy with his model and actor fiancé, his studies, and their son.

Again very self indulgent DabiHawks but it's Angel and demon AU.

Angel wings and demon instincts (x) (6k) Dabi is a demon and gets sent to earth to cause havoc, Hawks is an angel sent to find Dabi and keep him from causing havoc. They gay for each other. That's it.

An angel's first time (x) (1k) the first smut I write in the past 4 years or so, still demon and angel AU.

Shiggy, Hawks and Dabi being childhood friends <3

The Terror Trio (x) (2k) those three as childhood friends + their reunion, with a sprinkle or Shiggy/Natsuo and DabiHawks at the end.

The de-aged Terror Trio (or the little menaces, according to Aizawa Shota) (x) (5k) the Terror Trio get de-aged and found by Aizawa, who takes them to UA. They almost make class 1A have a heart attack.

Converting Eri to chaos, a guide by the Terror Trio (x) (5k) the de-aged Terror Trio bonds with Eri and they cause havoc at UA. A fourth and maybe last part on the works.

Yay for even more self indulgent DabiHawks:

The mysterious case of Hawks' boyfriend (x) (2k) Hawks is already dating Dabi, everyone at his agency are snoopy bitches and want to know the tea.

FINALLY, SOMETHING THAT'S NOT BNHA! My vld rewrite:

My Blood (x) (800) Lance is Altean and Allura is his cousing. Lotor is his half-brother. Klance and Lotura. The og version (the Spanish version, being published in my wattpad) is currently about halfway through the story, with 30 chapters. I'm working on translating this one and posting it on AO3, hence the low word count.

Aaaaand that's it. I just started writing in English this year, and that sort of really boosted my creativity, since I started posting stuff on AO3 just this past September, so to post this much fics in that amount of time... Damn. Will update the post if I manage to finish this I'm writing for Christmas/Ryu's birthday/Hawks' birthday.

[lukatheselkie]

HMC - “I’m so sick of lying. I have to tell you…”

@hetaliamondaychallenge

Sorry it’s a bit late! I got busy creating for a cosplay I’m super excited about, then I got stuck talking to my parents. BUT I’m finally finished with today’s challenge! I wrote this all today because I had no idea what pairing I would do, then my pairing actually changed about 200 words in, and, well... It became angsty at that point. Then it got out of hand and became about 800-1000 words longer than I had planned. Oops?

Pairing: DenFra

Warnings: Bar, alcohol, one “bad” word (it’s dick)

Human AU

    "Mathias!" Gilbert runs up to him excitedly. He tries to stop, but can't because of the speed he built up, and throws his arm out. He manages to drag the Dane down to the ground with him as he falls, both laughing. They get a few looks from the bar patrons, but overall their tumble goes ignored. Gilbert sits up, smoothing his hair down quickly. "Mathias! Zere's a really pretty woman over zere! I'm going to flirt vith her, und jou can't beat me to her!" He hops up and makes his way toward the woman, walking suavely. The Dane's smile drops, and he sighs heavily as he watches his friend make his move. He looks away and pushes himself up off the floor when she appears to flirt back.

    He trudges over to the stools by the bar, and plops down in one. He stares ahead miserably, heart aching. "Alright. Who broke your heart?" He jumps at the voice, then frowns down at the counter. "If I had any doubts before, they're gone now. Want to talk about it?" He jerks his head up to glare at the man, but finds himself holding back his shock. The man is absolutely stunning. "You'll catch flies, mon cher." There's a soft tap to his chin, and he closes his mouth, completely embarrassed. He turns his head away, cheeks flushed. The stranger chuckles. "I don't normally do this, but you're too adorable. Have a drink on me." Mathias swivels his head around.

    "You don't have to-"

    "Nonsense. I want to. Besides, it might help get your mind off the person that broke your heart. Oh, I do hate seeing that pitiful expression on anyone's face. Especially someone so cute." He winks at him, before turning to get him a drink. When he puts down a beer, Mathias stares at him in awe. "What's your name?" He tilts his head slightly at the question. Name? Oh! Right! His name!

    "My name is Mathias!" He says too quickly. "What's yours?" The man smirks playfully.

    "Francis. Now, I have other orders to tend to, but perhaps we can converse at a later date? Over some coffee?" He nods eagerly, watching the beautiful man scribble something onto a napkin before hurrying to the other side of the bar. It isn't until ten minutes later that he realizes he just agreed to a date. He glances around the room quickly, searching for Gilbert. Luckily (or unluckily) for him, Gilbert is parting the crowd, making a straight line toward him, beautiful woman in tow. His stomach drops to the ground again, and he remembers why Francis spoke to him in the first place. His stupid crush on his best friend.

    "Ve're going out~! Don't vait up. Und don't vait here, eizer. Go home vhen jou're done. I'll pay for jour drinks! Zanks for letting me bring jou out tonight." And with that, they're gone. He's gone. Mathias downs his fresh beer and lays his head on the counter miserably. He closes his eyes, just for a moment, allowing himself to wallow in his sorrow.

~

    "Hey. Wake up. Please." Mathias drifts into a drowsy state of awakeness, but keeps his eyes closed. Someone's running their fingers through his hair; he imagines it's Gilbert, though he knows it's not. "Mathias. Please. It's closing time." He opens his eyes with a groan. He lifts his head up, closing his eyes again at the bright lights. "You poor thing. How much did you drink? I'm sure you have a hell of a hangover. Alright. You can stay here while I clean up, then I'm taking you home with me. Lay your head back down." He does as he's told without arguing. Some time passes, though he's not sure how much. He feels a hand on his shoulder, and he looks up again. Thankfully, the lights are out now. "Come on. I can't leave you here, and I would like to go home." He stands slowly, and wobbles a bit. A hand presses into the small of his back, enabling him to steady himself a bit. He shuffles forward, letting the person guide him. He's almost certain it's Francis, so he's not worried about being kidnapped.

    "You're familiar," he mumbles out, leaning into him. He wants to place where he's seen him before. Stunning white hair and beautiful pale skin comes to mind. "Gil," he whines loudly. "You know Gilbert." They stop, but only for a second.

    "Oui, I do. He was here tonight. He told me he was with a close friend. I didn't know that was you." Mathias scoffs harshly.

    "I wish it weren't!" Okay, maybe he's still a bit drunk. He's not usually truthful about... this.

    "Why is that?" A heavy silence falls over them. He doesn't want to answer. It feels too selfish. They make it outside, and Francis leads him to his vehicle. He opens the passenger side door, helps him in and buckles him, all in the awkward silence. Mathias turns his head to watch him get in the driver's side, and decides he should say something.

    "He's the one that broke my heart," he whispers out. Francis freezes for a long moment, then looks at him, an unspoken question in his eyes. How? "I've got this stupid crush on him. It's not even because I have feelings for him. That would be better than this. At least then I would be able to tell him. But telling him 'Hey, I like how you look, you're absolutely beautiful, and I have feelings for that appearance. Not your personality because I only see that as my friend, but I'm absolutely in love with your body.' would be beyond insane!" He trembles, and forces himself to take a deep breath. "He likes women anyway. And even if he likes men too, I don't want a relationship with him. We're perfect as friends. I don't think anything more would be good for us. We're at our best as friends." He closes his eyes yet again. "Just... Take me home with you. Please. I don't want to think about this anymore. I want to sleep off this hangover."

    "I can let you do that. But you really should tell Gilbert about your attraction to his appearance. Maybe not everything you told me, but something." Mathias glares daggers at him. "It's just a well-meant suggestion." He starts the vehicle, and pulls out of the space. The Dane turns on some music for background noise as they ride. He's leaning against the window, half asleep, when the vehicle stops. He stumbles out of the seat quickly, and is met by Francis grabbing him by the waist. "You are hurting. Let me help." He doesn't protests as he leads him inside. He only takes note of how soft the couch is before his eyes are closed for the final time that night.

~

    Mathias sits up in a rush. He looks around the room frantically, heart beating fast. He had dreamed about... He flushes crimson at the fleeting images quickly leaving his mind's eye. Of course his subconscious has to tell him everything. He pushes the blanket off of him, furrowing his brows. Francis must have put it over him after he fell asleep. Where is Francis, anyway? It smells good in here, so he assumes he's making breakfast. He follows his nose to the food, and smiles when he sees the man in the kitchen. He's only wearing short shorts, and an apron. He's not sure if it's sleep or his dream, but he feels the need to say something. So, he does. "I didn't know I would get a treat before breakfast." He whirls around quickly. Mathias can't help but feel pride in his slightly pink cheeks.

    "I didn't hear you come in! You scared me." He gives a soft, shy smile. "You really think seeing me like this is a treat?" He nods eagerly.

    "Oh ja. You are very alluring. Both your personality and your body." Francis raises a brow, and steps toward Mathias. He doesn't stop until he's right in front of him. Before he can say anything, the Dane blurts out, "Please kiss me."

    "Gladly." He presses their lips together gently. It's a positively marvelous kiss.

~

    "Mathias? Jou're here!" Gilbert grins at him. "Jou're really here! Vhere have jou been? Ve haven't spoken in five months. Did I do somezing vrong?" He shakes his head slowly.

    "Nej, nothing like that. I had to think." The albino's brows furrow.

    "Are jou okay?"

    "That's not important. Francis and I are together. We have been since we last saw each other. He wanted me to tell you when I was ready. Don't get upset at him for not telling you. I asked him not to. He agreed it was best for me to wait to be ready."

    "Vhat's vrong? Jou sound drained." Mathias sighs heavily.

    "I am. I’m so sick of lying. I have to tell you... I stopped hanging out with you for my own good. I'm mostly over it now, but I used to be attracted to you. I didn't want to date, but I couldn't deny your beauty. Again, I'm mostly over it now, but it was only fair you know why I've been gone." A thick silence falls over them. It stretches out for a minute, then two. By the fifth minute, Mathias turns to leave, having told him what he needed to.

    "Vait! I'm glad jou told me. I zought I had done somezing horrible. Jou know jou could have told me, right? I vould have done everyzing I could to make myself less attractive!" He laughs, and wraps his arms around Mathias tightly. "I'm glad I didn't lose jou as a friend. Und I'm glad jou met someone to be vith! Vhen's ze vedding?" He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively. Mathias turns crimson, and pulls away from him.

    "Not for a long time!" Gilbert smiles fondly.

    "I know. But seriously, I hope jou have found ze ein. I'm rooting for jou two! Now go be vith him." He shoves him toward the waiting vehicle gently. Mathias is almost certain he recognized it, and that's why he's letting him go so soon after their re-connection. He hurries to the vehicle, and hops in. He sighs in relief the moment he's buckled, and Francis chuckles.

    "How did it go, amour?" He starts driving.

    "Much better than I thought." He feels his phone vibrate. It's a message from Gilbert. Get some dick! It reads. He groans, and puts his phone away without replying.

    "Things are exactly how they used to be between you two, aren't they?" He nods with a joking huff. "Good. I knew they would be. Now, how does a picnic date sound?"

    "You spoil me. That sounds perfect, and so wonderfully you." He glances at his boyfriend, watching the smile play at his lips and flush travel up to his ears. He's completely in love with Francis, and he's positive his feelings are reciprocated.

[fand0mfancies]

Came across this on Tumblr a few days ago, it amused me for a couple of hours or more, filling it in, while watching QI.

 Fandom Questions

 1. What was the first fandom you got involved in?

Star Trek: Voyager, I suppose at least for reading. Started writing with Stargate SG-1.

 2. What is your latest fandom?

I dip in and out of lots of fandoms on and off, the most recent ‘pick up’ is Ballam from Eastenders, I don’t watch soaps, but Robron and Ballam both appear a good bit on my tumblr, so I eventually gave in to checking them out via fic and youtube – thank god for youtube, lol! I still don’t watch soaps, but I watch those storylines!

 3. What is the best fandom you’ve ever been involved in?

Gosh, that’s... actually no that’s really easy. Primeval. For anyone not familiar, it’s a ‘silly little dinosaur show’ produced in the UK. It had 4 short seasons, with a somewhat revolving main cast – although they managed to keep 3 of them through all 4 seasons – but the fandom was/is amazing. I made life long friends through the fandom and even though I don’t write much any more I still read some and still talk with those people.

 4. Do you regret getting involved in any fandoms?

I would say no. I can’t say every fandom has always been amazing – ship wars anyone! – but mostly fandom has been a very positive experience in my life.

 5. Which fandoms have your written fanfiction for?

How long have you got... in genuinely no particular order (basically as they came to me) Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Star Trek (TNG, DS9, Voy, Ent & Reboot Movies), Marvel, Kingsman, Person of Interest, Due South, Quantum Leap, Firefly, Buffy/Angel verse, Harry Potter, The Sentinel, Torchwood(/Doctor Who), Hawaii Five-0, Shadowhunters, Sherlock, Primeval, Emmerdale (Robron), NCIS, CSI (Vegas, NY & Miami), White Collar, Empire Records, Bull, Diagnosis Murder, MacGyver (the original), 1-800-Missing, CHAOS, Without a Trace, M*A*S*H, Charmed, Queer as Folk (US), Will & Grace, Bring it On, Nash Bridges, Magnificent 7 (TV series), House, Babylon 5 – I think I got them all... a few of those were one time only deals, but a lot of them have more (anywhere from 2-52 (or more still!) ranging from 100 word drabbles, to thousands of words – hey I’ve been writing fic for 21 years... you tend to amass a lot of fandoms...

 6. List your OTP from each fandom you’ve been involved in.

Oh geez, here we go, lol! Okay...

 Stargate SG-1: Jack O’Neill/Daniel Jackson

Stargate Atlantis: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard

Star Trek: Elim Garak/Julian Bashir, Chakotay/Tom Paris, Jonathan Archer/Malcolm Reed, James Kirk/Spock – I don’t particularly have an ‘otp’ in TNG, the couple I’ve written were Picard/Data, I’ve also dabbled reading Data/Gordi)

Marvel: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark

Kingsman: Harry Hart/Eggsy Unwin

Person of Interest: Harold Finch/John Reese

Due South: Benton Fraser/Ray K

Quantum Leap: Sam/Al

Firefly: Malcolm Reynolds/Simon Tam

Buffy/Angel Verse: Buffy/Giles, Angel/Spike, Xander/Spike, Willow/Tara

Harry Potter: Harry/Draco, Harry/Hermione, Harry/Hermione/Draco

The Sentinel: Jim/Blair

Torchwood: Jack/Ianto

Hawaii Five-O: Steve/Danno

Shadowhunters: Magnus/Alec

Sherlock: Sherlock/John, Mycroft/Lestrade

Primeval: Nick Cutter/Stephen Hart, James Lester/Hilary Becker Emmerdale: Robert Sugden/Aaron Dingle

NCIS: Gibbs/DiNozzo CSI: Nick Stokes/David Hodges, Mac/Danny, Horatio/Speed White Collar: Neal/Peter/Elizabeth

Empire Records: Joe/Lucas

Bull: Benny/Jason

Diagnosis Murder: Steve/Jesse

 I’ve left a few out where I don’t have particular OTPs

 7. List your NoTPs from each fandom you’ve been in.

Here we go again... lol!

 Stargate SG-1: Jack/Sam, I just... no. I’ve read a few where it’s a background or secondary pairing, but it always makes me wince a bit. I’ve read a few with Sam/Daniel as a secondary pairing that didn’t make me react that way and I’ve read Sam with other characters, but Jack/Sam just is a nope for me.

Stargate Atlantis: McKay/Keller – no, just no. that was horrible. She treated him like... awfully, trying to change him to suit her, just... no.

Marvel: Contentious, but Tony/Pepper, also Peter Parker/Tony Stark. Maybe because I saw the movies before I ever looked at the comics, but meh.

Due South: Benton Fraser/Ray V – again, contentious, but honestly I think Ray V was kind of a shit friend to Fraser.

Firefly: Anything with Jayne. No really, I just can not stand the character. I spent most of the series wanting to punch him in the face and sometimes you get characters you love to hate, but I just hated him.

Buffy/Angel Verse: Buffy/Spike, Willow/Kennedy

Harry Potter: Ron/Hermione, Ron/Harry, Harry/Ginny... basically, Ron and Ginny should just be loveless hermits who live by themselves. Ok, no, that isn’t fair... but as much as Ron was Harry’s first friend, he was selfish and bitter and Ginny/Harry just... never sat right with me. Ron literally says she spent ‘all summer talking about’ Harry, when she’d met him for all of three seconds. She didn’t know him. It always felt like she fell more in love with the *idea* of Harry Potter, than Harry Potter himself.

Sherlock: Sherlock/Molly, he’d eat her for breakfast. Serious, she’d never survive him.

Primeval: Oliver Leek and anyway. Arg. Creepy little dude is creepy and evil.

NCIS: Ziva/DiNozzo – ugh, just no.

 Again, I’ve left out ones where I don’t have particular NoTPs

 8. How did you get involved in your latest fandom?

Tumblr, god damned bitches posting gifs of pretty boys falling in love, roped me in!

 9. What are the best things about your current fandom?

I dabble in several fandoms at once... but if we go by ‘most recently picked up’ as ‘current’ we’re talking Ballum, which hey, it’s always fun to have an actual canon pairing be my OTP, that’s rare for me, lol.

 10.  Is there a fandom you read fic from but don’t write in?

Well (so far) I haven’t written any Ballum. (I say so far, because I’m a realist, lol). I rarely read in fandoms and not end up writing in them at some point. Although I have probably dabbled in a few I’ve not written for, but if I read it with any sort of consistency, I mostly end up writing it. I am weak!

  Ship Questions for your Current Fandom

 11. Who is your current OTP?

Okay, so that list above, just basically go with that. While I do drop in and hour of fandoms and some I certainly read in more than others, I do tend to go back to fandoms... If we were talking about what I’m mostly focused on writing atm... Steve/Tony, Mycroft/Lestrade, Harry/Draco and Robron are ones I’m currently working on most.

 12. Who is your current OT3?

I’m not currently writing anything that’s OT3 with any real focus. I have a couple of Neal/Peter/Elizabeth WiPs that I will at some point finish, but they aren’t a big focus just now. I did recently read a fabulous Neal/Peter/Elizabeth fic that’s been on my tbr list for ages.

 13. Any NoTPs?

Just... see above, lol!

 14. Go on, who are your BroTPs?

Harry Hart/Merlin, those two are Bro’s until the end and I will fight you on this. Also, Eggsy/Roxy! OMG they are such a BroTP! And Tony/Pepper/Rhodey – I may no like Tony/Pepper as a pairing, but I love them as best friends and of course, our Rhodes, because again, I will fight you on this, they are awesome and Tony needs his best friends!

 15. Is there an obscure ship which you love?

I’m not sure there is. I suppose I’ve read a few fics for some random pairings over the years, but nothing that’s made me really ship-ship them. I like Clint Barton/Bucky Barnes, after seeing it as a secondary pairing in a Steve/Tony fic, but I’ve seen that pop up a few times since, so maybe it won’t stay obscure for long!

 16. Are their any popular ships in your fandom which you dislike?

Jack/Sam, Tony/Pepper, Ron/Hermione, Harry/Ginny, Buffy/Spike – they all seem to be het pairings, oops. But I am mostly a slash fic reader/writer, so I suppose that’s not too surprising.

 17. Who was your first OTP and are they still your favourite?

Jack/Daniel from Stargate SG-1. I still love them. I still read them, although it has been a while since I’ve written them on their own (I have got some SG-1/SGA x-overs where they feature)

 18. What ship have you written the most about?

I’m genuinely not sure... without going and counting (and I’m not going any counting!) I’d guess Jack/Daniel, McKay/Sheppard, Jack/Ianto and Steve/Danno.

 19. Is there a ship which you wished you could get behind, but you just don’t feel them?

No, not that I can think off. I either like it or not. I do occasionally feel bad for not reading a fic if it’s an author I really like, but I don’t read that fandom or pairing, but nothing specific.

 20. Any ships which you surprised yourself by liking?

Robron and Ballum, lol. I do not do soaps!

  Author Questions

 21. What was the first fanfic you ever wrote?

 Stargate SG-1, Jack/Daniel, a story called The Dare, The Disaster, The Almost Happy Ending, And The Very Happy Ending – it was awful. Don’t go looking, lol!

 22. Is there anything you regret writing?

Don’t we all? No, I wouldn’t specifically say so. There are certainly fics, especially older ones, I wish I could have written better, but nothing I’d go, ugh I should never have done that.

 23. Name a fic you’ve written that you’re especially fond of & explain why you like it.

Uh... honestly that’s really hard. I... um... yeah, I don’t know, really. I wrote a nice little flower one in POI that I felt worked rather beautifully. The Language of Flowers. An I wrote an SGA fic for NaNo a few years ago, called A Different Life, but it’s not online, because I didn’t finish it yet and I knew I wasn’t going to finish it any time soon, so I didn’t feel it was fair to leave it up unfinished (there is a reason I don’t read WiP fics and I don’t post them either, because I know how much I hate unfinished WiPs) Edit: After writing this I reminded myself of a POI fic I wrote called Hours of Separation – It’s a Harold/John break up story that I always intended to write a sequel too where I ‘fixed’ them, but I just couldn’t do it. I broke them a little too well. But I really love it actually.

 24. What fic do you desperately need to rewrite or edit?

The afore mentioned A Different Life needs to be edited and finished, lol! Also a Primeval fic with the working title Crypt Keeper (don’t ask) that I worked myself into a bit of a corner on and I figure out how to fix it, but I haven’t done it yet, so it’s still needs fixing and finishing, lol!

 25. What’s your most popular fanfic?

I haven’t the foggiest.

 26. How do you come up with your fanfic titles?

Sometimes, really easily, a quote, a line from the fic, a song title... other times it’s like pulling teeth, hence working titles on things like ‘crypt keeper’ which is a reference to one scene near the very start and has no actual hint of the plot, lol!

 27. What do you hate more: Coming up with titles or writing summaries?

Oh the titles. Summaries you can just copy a few lines from the fic if you are desperate, if you had to post ‘untitled mcshep fic #67’ people would get cranky, lol, hell I’d get cranky!

 28. If someone were to draw a piece of fanart for your story, which story would it be and what would the picture be of?

Oh... I... huh. I mean who wouldn’t love fanart for their stories? Any of them honestly! But if I had to choose just one... I guess something in my Animal Instinct verse, which is Primeval (although I always intended to write other fandoms in the verse) where some people transform into animals, based on their ‘spirit animal’ and some art of the characters with their spirit animal form would be awesome.

 29. Do you have a beta reader? Why/Why not?

Sometimes, look if you’ve read this far, you know I write in a lot of fandoms, lol. In some fandoms it’s easier than others to find beta readers. Also, sometimes if it’s just something short, I won’t bother. But I do try for my longer fics.

 30. What inspires you to write?

That old adage, if you want to read it, sometimes you just have to write it? Spite? Boredom? Honestly sometimes I just have ideas I have to get out of my brain and it’s write or go mad(der)

 31. What’s the nicest thing someone has ever said about your writing?

That it inspired them to write something.

 32. Do you listen to music when you write or does music inspire you? If so, which band or genre of music does it for you?

Sometimes, sometimes I find it distracting when writing because I end up singing along and forgetting what I’m writing, lol! I do sometimes get inspiration from songs, I guess mostly from the lyrics, but no particular band or genre – although I listen to a lot of country music!

 33. Do you write oneshots, multi-chapter fics or huuuuuge epics?

Little from column a, little from column b... littler still from column c...

 34. What’s the word count on your longest fic?

Around 60k, I think.

 35. Do you write drabbles? If so, what do you normally write them about?

I have. Primeval had/has a week drabble challenge, mostly when I’ve written drabbles it’s been for a challenge, with a specific prompt.

 36. What’s your favourite genre to write?

Uh... I mean, my fandoms really span the genres, but I guess sci-fi or crime are probably my favourites.

 37. First person or third person - what do you write in and why?

Third mostly, I have occasionally written in first person, if it felt like the fic needed it.

 38. Do you use established canon characters or do you create OCs?

Little from column a, little from column b... it depends on the fandom and the story. Sometimes you just need more characters, mostly they are minor roles, I don’t tend to write much established character/oc fic

 39. What is your greatest strength as a writer?

Ability to convince myself people will want to read it, lol! No actually to be honest, I love to know people read and like my stuff, but I gave up a long time ago on trying to ‘please’ people with what I write. I write what I want to read.

 40. What do you struggle the most with in your writing?

Focus. The problem with 21 years of fandom history, is well... 21 years of fandom history. A lot of fandoms, a lot of pairings and as I say, I never really ‘leave’ a fandom, I just drop in and out and sometimes that means I’ll write on something consistently for weeks or months and then end up getting distracted by another fandom again and not touch it for weeks or months again. Hence, I don’t post WiP fics, because I know I’m easily distracted and don’t want anyone to suffer my lack of focus but me.

  Fanfiction Questions

 41. List and link to 5 fanfics you are currently reading:

I don’t read WiP fics, so yeah... but 5 I’ve recently read in different fandoms that I’ve really enjoyed

 Turns Out, I Have a Rose Garden by betheflame (Steve Rogers/Tony Stark)

Lucky by china_shop (Neal Caffery/Peter Burke/Elizabeth Burke)

Colors by Quesarasara (Sherlock/John)

Betrayal by Blackghost7 (Gibbs/DiNozzo)

Matchmaker (Part 1 of the Marmalade Series) by HastaLux, Mottlemoth (Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade)

 42. List and link to 5 fanfiction authors who are amazing:

See now this is hard, because... ahh so many...

 FredBassett – Primeval author, her Stephen/Ryan series is epic and brilliant and endless

https://archiveofourown.org/users/fredbassett/pseuds/fredbassett

 Keira Marcos – I know other people will have said her, I don’t care. I love all her stuff, across all the fandoms she writes in

http://keiramarcos.com/

 theapplepielifestyle – her Steve/Tony is amazing. Hands down some of the best I’ve ever read. I will fight you on this.

https://archiveofourown.org/users/theappleppielifestyle/pseuds/theappleppielifestyle

 JillyJames – her Tony DiNozzo is a real life grown up... exactly as he should be considered given he’s a goddamn federal agent!

https://jillyjames.com/

 missbecky – I’ve read pretty much all her Steve/Tony and Harry/Eggsy and it’s awesome.

https://archiveofourown.org/users/missbecky

 Honestly, I could have listed so many more, but, I’m being good!

 43. Is there anyone in your fandom who really inspires you?

Everyone. The thing is, fandom at it’s best is like crack, the more you get, the more you want. The writing, the gifs, the art... it feeds you and makes you want to make more of it, because more of it needs to exist and if that means you need to do it yourself, so be it!

 44. What ship do you feel needs more attention?

ALL OF THEM!

 45. What is your all time favourite fanfic?

Oh hell no, not even, I can not. It took me an hour to narrow down 5 authors, I can not narrow down one fanfic!

 46. If someone was to read one of your fanfics, which fic would you recommend to them and why?

I mean, it depends on what they like... probably the Hour of Separation I mentioned above, if they like the fandom/pairing, or my Animal Instinct stuff.

 47. Archive Of Our Own, Fanfiction.net or Tumblr - where do you prefer to post and why?

Archive of our Own. I haven’t touched ff.net in *years* since they started getting super restrictive about what you could post. I do occasionally post stuff to tumblr, but mostly I now post to AO3. I did have my own site and I’ve yet to upload a lot of stuff to AO3 – one of these... months... that will be a project – but it’s amazing. Seriously, having been in fandom 20+ years, going from having to search all over a million different places and now it’s all in one place, where we’re honestly, spoiled and protected. The kids now have no idea how crazy impossible that once seemed.

 48. Do you leave reviews when you read fanfiction? Why/Why not?

Yes, but not as often as I should. I love AO3s kudos button, so I can sort of say ‘hey I enjoyed this’ without having to comment, because I sort of hate leaving comments just going ‘hey I enjoyed this’ because I always feel like I should say more, like, oh I enjoyed this specific thing, which yes is an unnecessary hang-up, but there ya go.

 49. Do you care if people comment/reblog your writing? Why/why not?

Of course it’s nice to get comments, kudos, reblogs etc. I’m not as attached to them now as I was when I was younger, because I learned along the way that it was more important that I like what I’m writing than that other people do, but it’s still nice to know that something I’ve created is enjoyed.

 50. How did you get into reading and/or writing fanfiction?

I went looking for Star Trek Voyager stuff online, pics etc, waaaaaaay back when! And I came across fanfiction entirely by accident... and I read some – het stuff mostly, then I started watching Stargate SG-1, went looking for fanfiction for that, but was not on board with Jack/Sam, found Jack/Daniel went ‘huh really? That’s weird’ read it... and yeah... 21 years later... lol!

 51. Rant or Gush about one thing you love or hate in the world of fanfiction! Go!

Ship Wars. No seriously, just don’t. Like, who the actual fuck cares. I like my ship, you like your ship. I don’t care if it’s canon or not. I don’t care if it’s popular or not. I don’t read my NoTPs, but I’d never dream of telling someone else not too. Yes I think they are terrible, bad, no good pairings, but that’s *my* opinion. Don’t try to change my mind and I won’t try to change yours. I avoid them like the actual plague. If someone starts that shit around me, I will shut it right down. You are a dick. Go to Jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect £200.

[abalonetea]

Mmh can I get uuuuuuh hesitant kiss with any ship you'd like :'D

this took me 800 years and i ended up doing it for my nano story instead of what i originally had planned (which i may still write later oops) and it may or may not be considered canon but least i wrote something

also, thank you for the prompt!

  Tano shifts, haulshimself closer to the human. There’s a chill in the air that shouldn’t existthis early in the season, but the entire forest seems to be trying too hard tosurvive. Nothing is matched up quite the way that it should be, and Tano  feels like he’s no exception.  There’s something crawling around inhis chest and coiled up at the pit of his spine. The rest of the pack is goingto kill him but – it’s not like Tano’s ever given a shit about that before.   “Somethin’ the matter, pup?” Lorittilts his head, just a little bit. His ear flicks and Tano should answer but he doesn’t.   Mostly because the answer should be: everything is the matter, the forest isdying and Lady Bain gets bolder every day and the ape clan is gone and there’s a way to solve all ofthis but Tano doesn’t know if he can do it.   But the answer feels like: no nothing is wrong because we both made itout of that alive and you’re still here and you tell great stories and have anice smile and I like being around you somuch that I don’t know what to do with myself.   “Nah,” says Tano, because tryingto put that warm feeling into words is way too difficult. He puts a hand on Lorit’sface instead, one on the human’s shoulder. Leans forward until he’s more in Lorit’slap than not, until their faces are just on this side of touching. “Hey. I likeyou.”   Lorit’s ears flick back. He’s pinkthrough the cheeks, over the bridge of his nose and it’s good. “Bah. Think we been over this a’fore, pup. I like you too.”   “Not what I mean.” Tano pushes theircheeks together, rubs his face against Lorit’s. Ducks his head under Lorit’schin, just for a moment, and then nuzzles the side of the human’s face.   It’s not new anymore. There’s amomentary pause and then Lorit returns the action, butting their faces togetherhard enough that it almost hurts.   That’s good, too, and so is the largehand that settles on the small of Tano’s back. Golden sunlight filters in throughthe trees, catches on the iron built into Lorit’s skin, the metal that wrapsaround his just. Lorit asks, “oh? Gettin’ at somethin’ specific, are you?”   “I like you,” says Tano, again. Hegets a hand on Lorit’s chest, heart thumping beneath his palm, presses their foreheadstogether and  stays there – because that’swhat wolves do, what Yaeba and Tallie do, what feels right deep in his chest.   And then he tangles his free hand in Lorit’shair, brushes finger tips over the place where the metal head piece meetsflesh. Lorit’s fingers rub lazy lines over Tano’s spine, and he looks likemaybe he’s about to ask something else but – Tano leans forward, kisses Loritinstead, because this is what humans do, and it feels right too.

tags list

@writings-of-a-narwhal​ @elaynab-writing​ @writer-grandma​    @cometworks​ @deadlyessencewhispers​ @nora-wrote-a-book​ @georgiacambrielwritblr @rmorada​ @simplelinesunfashiond​ @drabbleitout @inked-foundry @ruins-of-gold

[pennamenotplanned-blog]

The first eleven days of Camp NaNoWriMo

... and too many things that kept me from sticking to schedule (like not having a laptop and writing on the phone is kinda shite. Oh, excuse the language ^^). Damnit. Still. It should get better now... hopefully...

1/07

Antwerpen. Family time apparently. I have found that Liege Waffles are a beautiful thing. And i love decor shops. Otherwise little time on the phone. Sad, I know.

2/07

Packing bags, Checking out of hotel, driving, checking in to hotel. Wrote maybe 200 words. Travel days are horrible if the car seat doesn’t have cushioning. Yikes.

3/07

Center Parks are cool. So is the water park there. Meaning: I spend the whole day going on rocket-water slides. The adrenaline is still pumping.

4/07

One word: DISNEYLAND. In Paris. Saw The Avengers Theatre Play. Watched Loki try and steal an Arc Reactor. Knelt because Loki told me to. Still think it was one of the best things that have happened in my life until this moment.

Watched the parade and the fireworks. Write a tiny Disney snippet of about ... 100 words. This day was almost too much.

5/07

Spend the day hanging out in the hotel room and hiding on tumblr. May have written about ... 500 w. That’s fine. Started packing. Holidays with parents are probably the worst idea ever, even if there are some awesome moments.

6/07

Spend the whole bloody day in the car. My seat is horrible. On the bright side: I did churn out some words. Around 800 I think. On a phone that’s always a lot.

7/07

Remembered that I forgot to update my camp nano profile almost completely. Oops. Slept pretty much the whole day... did I write this phase of being awake? ... I don’t know. I don’t remember.

8/07

Need to unpack. Room is a mess. Wrote some 700 words so I’m good. Need to process holiday and Loki. I’m not fit for social contact. Good thing Camp NaNoWriMo can be done in silence in own room. Tumblr is fine though.

9/07

Help! Accidentally got into the Percy Jackson fandom again! Help!!!! ... wrote maybe 150 w. Damn you books of my childhood. And Jake Abel for being ridiculously gorgeous as Luke... must... not... start... shipping....

10/07

What’s this, what’s this? ... it’s a Percy Jackson musical. Oh. Luke is cute. Percy too. ... argghhhh *blubb* help, I’m drowning in the Lukercy ship!!!

*drowns*

*gets sucked down the Lukercy rabbit hole after*

Where am I?

*crash*

Shit, my fingers slipped.

Fanfiction Idea just took form. First chapter written, checked, published.

Wrote 700 words. Just not on what I WANTED to write for Camp NaNoWriMo. Blast it.

11/07

Churned our another 1000 words of Lukercy. Sassy Percy is awfully inspiring.

Gave up on doing only stuff for my original WIPs. Apparently my brain likes Lukercy. A lot. When will you go back to Kara, brain???

[caelenath]

A meets B in an airport

I answered a scene writing challenge a couple days ago. Wrote by the seat of my pants. Wasn’t bad. Stayed up too late. Had fun. Figured I’d keep a copy here. Comments welcome. 

The scene: Character A is standing at the counter (or in line at the counter) in a terminal at an airport.  They are NOT happy.  Character B is sitting in the waiting area.  They are perfectly content.  Both characters will be boarding the same plane.  Character A notices Character B at some point.  There's just something about them ...  1) Character A purposely seeks out Character B.  2) The two meet.  3) They exchange words.  Scene ends when the plane boards.

Parameters: Soft limit of 800 words. Avoid or replace fandom-specific names to make fandom-neutral. Can replace airport with world-appropriate alternative, e.g. train or space station.

The result: ~970 words (oops)

~ ~ ~

Airports were trash. Airlines were trash, connectors were trash, oversized terminals were trash, and headwinds most definitely were trash.

The thirty-minute layover would have been no problem if the universe hadn't been so stupid as to put a monorail in the middle of the terminal, and if the weather gods hadn't decided to break wind right on the nose of her first flight.

Now she had to wait in line to book a new connecting flight, the smell of burnt latte curling up behind her, and a wrinkled dress shirt the color of hospital scrubs in front of her. She didn't realize she'd been tapping her foot impatiently until Dress Shirt side-eyed her over his shoulder, and she offered him her toothiest 'You got a problem?' smile while shooting daggers with her eyes. She did stop tapping her foot though.

Two passengers plus Dress Shirt later, she got her new ticket and thought about searching for her own burnt latte. She liked them sweet and nutty, kind of the way she liked men too. The thought made her snort-laugh and several people looked at her strangely, but she ignored them. Except for one. He wasn't looking at her, but he was laughing. His haphazard brown hair stood out to her in the crowd, and she got the weird feeling that he was watching her somehow, like with the back of his head.

Which was stupid, but also not because something in the back of her mind was telling her she knew this man.

She almost brushed the feeling aside because everyone experienced déjà vu sometimes, right? But then the man straightened up in the low-backed chair, and the shape of his shoulders made her catch her breath.

She moved without thought, stepping over a child's playset and around the bank of seats until she reached the man. The face that looked up at her was like a flame, searing into her memory even though he should have already been there.

"Hi," he said when she opened her mouth, but couldn't find any words. "Can we talk?"

"Are you following me?" she demanded. The question made the people on either side of him nervous, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Technically no. I drove here from a completely different direction than you came from because I wasn't in that direction when I started. But you were. Obviously." He sounded exactly like a sweet and nutty person would sound.

"Who are you?"

His face crumpled, and that sudden sorrow made her insides do something similar. "You really don't know me?" His eyes searched hers, and whatever he saw, or didn't see, deepened his pain. "No, I guess you wouldn't." He stood up, slowly, unthreateningly, and for the first time, she noticed the black gloves he wore.

"Please, Z, can we talk?"

She only agreed because she was tired of people staring at them in alarm. They walked along the concourse where the surrounding bustle would mask their conversation.

"Why didn't you use your powers to catch your flight?" the man asked.

Z eyed him warily. "Because nobody's supposed to know about them. Why do you?"

"You knew about mine. And I'll show it to you now." He pulled a paper ticket holder out of his jacket. "I have a different ticket for you, and one for me too, for us to go back. I'll figure out what to do with the car later. We used to be a team, you and I, and—and everyone else. I know you don't remember because that was the point, and I know we promised to let you go, but the thing is, we really need you back."

She looked at the two tickets he handed her. The destination city sounded as familiar as his name.

He pulled out a third ticket. "I also have this one for me. Just in case."

Her mouth fell open when she saw it was for the new connector flight she had just booked, the one she hadn't even known she'd be taking until literally minutes ago. Even crazier than that, he had the seat right next to hers.

"How...?"

"I knew you'd be on this flight. I didn't know it would be a re-book, but I knew you would be on it. I bought this ticket a month ago."

"You can see the future?"

"Sometimes. If I try. Look." He veered off the concourse and motioned for her to follow. They were standing at the gate for the alternate flight he had bought. And the plane was starting to board.

"I can't force you to come back with me," he said. "But whatever you choose today, I'm coming with you."

She could have called security and told them this crazy future-seeing man was stalking her. All of it was true after all, but none of it was the problem either. She wasn't afraid of him, and in her heart she knew he wasn't trying to hurt her.

"Please, Z."

His soft plea made gossamer memories slither through her mind. The dimple she knew would show if he were to smile. The feel of those leather gloves against her palm.

"Are you doing this to me?" she asked. If he could see the future, who knew what else he could do? But his puzzled frown was sincere.

"Doing what?"

The attendant at the gate called their row, and when the man glanced away for a moment, she took the opportunity to grab his hand. The worn leather of his gloves felt exactly the way she imagined—remembered?—just a second ago.

The man turned back to her instantly, startled, and she held out his ticket to him. The alternate one. When he saw what she had chosen, he smiled and the dimple appeared in all its endearing glory.

end

[plogan721]

What the Heck is Well-nigh and Other Ponderings

                       Subtitle-how to use rewrite software

I want to interrupt your normal reading of this blog for a very important message:

THIS BLOG IS MOVING SOON!!

No, I mean it this time.  I have been meaning to move it to a WordPress platform for some time, made several announcements only to not do it, and frankly for even me, it is getting quite annoying.  This is one of the reasons why I do not have traffic on this blog anymore.  I am working on that.  Later on this blog post.  I promise…..

                                  That is not why this post is being interrupted

Disclaimer: P. Lynne Designs is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Today, I want to talk to you about one of the bad subjects in the writing world, and that is rewrites.  After all, the world is full of rewrites, redo, remakes, sequels, and so forth.  There is nothing so far that has been done that has not to be tested, tried, fried, dyed, laid to the side.  Oops, wrong subject and wrong blog (At Home with Tricia's Baskets needs to address this subject on hair).  But the point is that if it has not been on the market before now, THEN it is new.  Otherwise, it has been done before, EXCEPT in a different way.

I am currently working on a blog post called “How to write a 500-Word Blog Post” or “How to start a blog”, depending on which title I am going with.  It is my new, “I am not writing like I am mass-producing blog post” campaign challenge I am giving myself for 2020.  Here is the backstory:

    Image by skeeze from Pixabay

 (Pensive Female) 

I was feeling bored with this blog, all of my blogs.  One of the issues I am having is being honest with myself, and the honest truth is I was not liking my posts.  Some are great and I love them, it was the rest of the post from all three of my blogs that made me say, “ugh” to them.  It was a combo of things such as editing issues to I was not really feeling the subject I was writing about.  At times, I was feeling rushed, that “I got to make this deadline or else” feeling.  I did not like the links to a blog post, I did not like the photos, etc, and the low numbers from clicks proved it. So I decided to take the time to evaluate each blog and each blog post and main subjects. 

Tip:  If you are feeling bored with your blog, do a re-evaluation.  Do not beat yourself up about it, just find the places that need improving, even if it means to start over with a fresh blog. 

Now, before you start saying to yourself, “she is going in a different direction and talking about something else”, the answer is “no, I am not”.  I love all my subjects on all of my blogs.  From writing about “how to write a blog post” to “journaling” and now adding using planners with your writing with My Ambiance Life, Traveling to Disney to homelife and organizing with At Home with Tricia's Baskets, and finally crafting tutorials and product reviews with P. Lynne Designs, there will no change in that.  I was unhappy with my approach to these subjects.  If I change anything about the subjects it would be to split At Home with Tricia's Baskets to where the traveling would be separated from the homelife and organizing sections, making it two blogs again.

I decided that I did not like the flow of the “500-word blog post” post, so I turned to a blog post rewriting software program or site.  I must say that it was an eye-opener, and depending on how I feel, I may do it again.  Word has a feature now that allows you to rewrite a line or a whole post, but I do not think that is how this feature works, and I have to research it a little more.

This is when I came across the word, Well-nigh, which sounds like something that a British person would say, not an American, still wet behind the ears writer like me.  The word is an adverb, and it means “almost”.  So I am going to show you two sentences from my post that I am still working on to see how this word is being used.

This is the original sentence:

“Have you ever wanted to write something you are passionate about or have a unique skill that others crave they had?”

Now for the rewritten one:

“Have you overly wanted to write well-nigh something you are passionate well-nigh or have a unique skill that others require they had?”

 “Dear rewrite software maker:

I do not think that in my original sentence I did not have the word “almost” in it.  Why do I need to use the word, well-nigh”?”

This is what I would ask the website creators.   This is one of the sentences, and believe it or not, “well-nigh” is used a couple of times throughout the post.

Then I decided that I must replace the word.  Now, keep in mind that what I was about to use was Word’s synonym checker.  This was against the website’s rewrite copy of my post.  The words used were:

·         Nearly

·         Almost

·         Virtually

·         Just about

I am sorry to say this but just about every word in this word list does not match to what I was trying to convey in the original sentence or the entire post.

Tip:  The first sentence in a post after the title should set the tone for the rest of the piece.  It is not the means that ends it all, but it should give your reader some idea of what you are trying to arrive at.  Your title tells the reader about your subject matter.

So, what am I trying to say about rewrite software, websites, and all related items:

I have nothing again rewrites at all IF it is your original and YOU wrote it. What I have a problem with has to do with plagiarizing:  Those that do it are too lazy to come up with their own articles for their own blogs.  Now before I get any further, this is different from ghostwriting and guest posting.  

With Ghostwriting, the original author is willing to not take the credit for anything they produce for you or your company.  The only difference with the post, article, or book is the original author’s name is not on the byline, the individual or the individual’s company is on the byline.  This is not considered cheating at all, and in the contract, you draw up with the author, it states that the author is not allowed to use the copy on their blog o resell it if the post is in book form.  It is now considered the property of the individual and cannot be contested in court. 

Guest posting is when the author agrees to post an article for your site.  It works the same way as if the post was written on their blog.  It is not considered a rewrite, but the author can do a rewrite of that article for their own blog post.

Cons to rewriting a blog:

As I stated before, rewritten posts can be a problem if a person plagiarizes the original post. 

Say you want to write an article about cats and the benefits of being a cat mommy or daddy.  You have never owned a cat and you have not interviewed a person who owns a cat.  You just thought it was a good idea because cat ownership is a trending topic because everyone is doing it.   So, you decided to do some research on the subject of cat ownership, and in your research, you find this great article online about me loving being a cat aunt.  Gizmo is not mine, she belongs to my nephew and his girlfriend who both live with me. (True story) Instead of emailing me to as if I would give an interview on why Gizmo makes me happy (and I would be happy to do an interview, BTW), you take my article, use a rewrite software, and have it rewrite the whole article for your blog.  This is still considered stealing.  It may not look like the same post to the naked eye, but if I run across it, and it sounds like the same post I wrote, I could sue you.  This is one of the reasons why I do not like them.

So, use rewrite software and websites with a grain of salt.  Use them for your own posts to do a comparison on which version of your post you like better.  When you read the rewrite, make sure that the copy flows the same way that the original flows, if not, change it within the rewritten copy or be willing to combine the two. Never use it to copy someone’s idea and post. If you do, you could come off as a lazy writer, or you will be hearing from the original author’s lawyer.  If you are a writer, there are ways to check to see if someone is copying your work or if you have copied a passage that sounds like someone’s work. This will be the subject for this topic next time

That is all I have to say at this time.  Next subject….

Traffic and Promotion

This is one area that I have the most problems with.  It is not that I do not get it, it is… well…. Let me explain.

I am currently on Blogger, in reality, it does not matter what platform you are on, as long as you do the following:

1)       Write

2)      Write consistently, meaning GET A SCHEDULE!

3)     Promote what you write.  Meaning promoting your work on social media, groups of social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram). Even YouTube and newsletter count.

OK, I get it.  What I do not get is how many subscribers, followers, viewers, or visitors you need to have on your blog visiting daily, weekly, and monthly in order for brands to even consider you to write a sponsored post.  For months, and sometimes even now, I am baffled to the number of clicks needed and so on.  On social media, you cannot lie about these numbers.  You can sometimes exaggerate the numbers on your actual blog, but not on social media.  The brand liaison can look at your profile and tell if you have over 1000 viewers or not.  My question is often, “why so many?” It is the same question I ask about my credit score, “why 800”, but that is another question for another day, and I am not a financial guru, so I will leave the question here.  But, if anyone knows to “why I need a score of 800 to have a chance to get a new home?”, comment below, and I will try to understand it.

 Image by Mary Pahlke from 

Pixabay (Marketing)

Tip 2:

Write

Write consistently, meaning get a schedule

Promote what you write

I want to go over this more in detail.

1)       Write

This is obvious.  Get into the practice of constantly writing something if you are not used to it.  It does not matter if it is digital (computer) or pen and paper, but write something.  This is where I suggest that you get a writing journal, and write down things such as goals you want to achieve in the year or in your life, a bucket list, decorating or organizing pieces in your home or office, even spiritual aspirations and affirmations. 

Write them in paragraph form, a proper paragraph form. This means correct spelling, grammar, and the whole nine yards.  The reason for this practice is one day you may have to write something for business, or you might get a promotion on your job.  Anyway, companies do not understand the need to write “Tyme” for “time” and other things like that.  It may be good for social media, but not good for business.  Plus, some readers do not like reading blogs that have mistakes in them.

2)      Write consistently, meaning get a schedule

One of the problems I do have is being consistent with my writing.  I get on a roll, and for a while, it seems like I have a habit of staying on that schedule.  Then I have a falling off period, and I do not write for a while.  This comes with discouragement. I want to have big numbers, but I also want to see the comments as well. One tip I find that helps with every time a person views a YouTube video in the comments.  The vlogger always asks viewers to like the video, comment, subscribe to the channel, and share the video.  Well, I am good at doing just that on my YouTube channel, but the same is not said on my blogs. 

For schedules, you do not have to write every day, which is what some bloggers strive for.  Do not kill yourself to try to get a blog post out every single day.  You also have a life as well.  For 2020, I am going to try to get both blogs and videos out on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of each week.

3)     Promote what you write:

Promote your writing.  It goes back to what I said earlier in this piece.  It also does not matter if you are an established author, guest poster, or even if you are a ghostwriter.  Use your social media outlets as mentioned before to promote your work.  It is crucial, especially if you are looking for clients for freelance writing, or if you are trying to drum up sales.  If you an author, have book signings.  People love getting that first edition of your book.  If you are writing more than one book in the future (think Steven King or a Star Trek series of books), your first edition could be worth some money before and after you have died.  It may not mean much to you, but it may mean something to the person who owns a copy of your first written a book or your family.

Wow, this was a long post, the first of many, many long posts.  Let me know in the comments what you think of my 2000+ words per post. I will not get mad, I promise.

Afterthought: 

Before I was about to upload this post, I was looking for some further inspiration for the word and meaning of the word re-write.  I failed to issue a positive aspect of the word. I ran upon several books on Amazon that suggests a different look at this word.  Look at the word and meaning of the word to make a character stronger than before.  In other words, in fiction and creative writing, if you made the character seem week to the reader, the rewrite would make that same character stronger. so in this case, a rewrite is warranted. 

from Blogger http://bit.ly/2tY2DeY via IFTTT

[tainghekhongdaycomvn]

The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition

The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition

Posted by Claudia0428

For most Moz readers, local marketing means content, reviews, AdWords, local listings, and of course citations. If you’re a larger brand, you might be doing outdoor, radio, print, and television advertising as well. Today we’re here to humbly submit that local sponsorships remain the most-overlooked and opportunity-rich channel, and they build real local connections for both large brands and small business alike.

This article is the second edition of the ZipSprout team’s guide to local sponsorships. We wrote the first edition in 2016 after a few months of securing local sponsorship campaigns for a handful of clients. Since then, we’ve tripled our client roster and we’ve worked with more than 8,000 local organizations, donating nearly $1,000,000 in local sponsorships to 1,300+ opportunities. Since then we’ve also learned how to build campaigns for local presence. So we knew the guide was due for a reboot. One of our most significant learnings of the past two years is the understanding of local sponsorships as a channel in their own right. They can be directed toward local SEO or local marketing campaigns, but sponsorships are their own breed of local connection — and just like content campaigns, local PR campaigns, or review management, local sponsorships have their own set of conventions and best practices.

This article is meant for anyone with an eye toward local sponsorships as a marketing channel. Agencies and enterprise organizations may find it particularly helpful, but we’re big believers in encouraging smaller local businesses to engage in sponsorships too. Get out there and meet your neighbors!

The what & why of local sponsorships

Local events, nonprofits, and associations constitute a disjointed but very real network of opportunities. Unlike other channels, local sponsorships aren’t accessible from a single platform, but we’ve found that many sponsorships share similarities. This makes it possible to develop processes that work for campaigns in any metro area.

Local sponsorships are also a unique channel in that the benefits can range from the digital to the analog: from local links to a booth, from social posts to signage on a soccer field. The common thread is joining the community by partnering with local organizations, but the benefits themselves vary widely. We’ve identified and track 24 unique benefits of sponsorships related to local marketing:

Ad (full or partial)

Advertising on event app

Blog post featuring sponsor

Booth, tent, or table at event

Event named for sponsor

Guest post on organization blog

Inclusion in press release

Link in email newsletter

Link on website

Logo on event t-shirt or other swag

Logo on signage

Logo or name on website

Media spots (television/radio/newspaper)

Mention in email newsletter

Mention in publicity materials, such as programs & other printed materials

Networking opportunity

Physical thing (building, etc.) named for sponsor

Social media mention

Speaking opportunity at event

Sponsor & sponsor's employees receive discounts on services/products/events

Sponsor can donate merchandise for goodie bags

Sponsored post (on blog or online magazine)

Tickets to event

Verbal recognition

There are probably more, but in our experience most benefits fall into these core categories. That said, these benefits aren’t necessarily for everyone...

Who shouldn’t do local sponsorships?

1. Don’t do local sponsorships if you need fast turnaround.

Campaigns can take 1–3 months from launch until fulfillment. If you’re in a hurry to see a return, just increase your search ad budget.

2. Don’t do local sponsorships if you’re not okay with the branding component.

Local link building can certainly be measured, as can coupon usage, email addresses gathered for a drawing, etc… But measuring local brand lift still isn’t a perfect art form. Leave pure attribution to digital ads.

3. Don’t do local sponsorships with a "one size fits all" expectation.

The great thing about local events and opportunities is their diversity. While some components can be scaled, others require high touch outreach, more similar to a PR campaign.

Considerations for agencies vs brands in local sponsorship campaigns

Agencies, especially if they’re creating sponsorship campaigns for multiple clients, can cast a wide net and select from the best opportunities that return. Even if a potential partnership isn’t a good fit for a current client, they may work for a client down the road. Brands, on the other hand, need to be a little more goal and mission-focused during prospecting and outreach. If they’re reaching out to organizations that are clearly a bad fit, they’re wasting everyone’s time.

Brands also need to be more careful because they have a consumer-facing image to protect. As with any outreach campaign, there are dos and don’ts and best practices that all should follow (DO be respectful; DON’T over-email), but brands especially have more to lose from an outreach faux pas.

Our process

Outreach

Once we’ve identified local organizations in a given metro area, we recommend reaching out with an email to introduce ourselves and learn more about sponsorship opportunities. In two years, the ZipSprout team has A/B tested 100 different email templates.

With these initial emails, we’re trying to inform without confusing or scaring away potential new partners. Some templates have resulted in local organizations thinking we’re asking them for sponsorship money or that we want to charge them for a service. Oops! A/B tests have helped to find the best wording for clarity and, in turn, response rate.

Here are some of our learnings:

1. Mentioning location matters.

We reached out to almost 1,000 Chicago organizations in the spring of 2017. When we mentioned Chicago in the email, the response rate increased by 20%.

2. Emails sent to organizations who already had sponsorship info on their websites were most successful if the email acknowledged the onsite sponsorship info and asked for confirmation.

These are also our most successful outreach attempts, likely because these organizations are actively looking for sponsors (as signified by having sponsorship info on their site). Further, by demonstrating that we’ve been on their site, we’re signaling a higher level of intent.

3. Whether or not we included an outreacher phone number in email signatures had no effect on response rate.

If anything, response rates were higher for emails with no phone number in signature, at 41% compared with 40.2%.

4. Shorter is better when it comes to outreach emails.

Consider the following two emails:

EMAIL A Hi [NAME], I sent an email last week, but in case you missed it, I figured I’d follow up. :) I work to help corporate clients find local sponsorships. We’re an agency that helps our business clients identify and sponsor local organizations like [ORG NAME]. We’re paid by businesses who are looking for local sponsorships. Often, local organizations are overlooked, so my company, ZipSprout, works for businesses who want to sponsor locally, but aren’t sure who to partner with. To that end, I'd love to learn more about [ORG NAME] and see what sponsorship opportunities you have available. Is there a PDF or list of cost and benefits you can share over email or a phone call? Thanks, ___

EMAIL B Hi [NAME], I sent an email last week, but in case you missed it, I figured I’d follow up. :) I'd love to learn more about [ORG NAME] and see what sponsorships you have available. Is there a PDF or list of cost and benefits you can share over email or a phone call? Thanks, ___

In an 800-email test, Email B performed 30% better than Email A.

Matchmaking: How can I choose a sponsorship opportunity that fits my brand?

There are many ways to evaluate potential sponsorships.

These are the questions that help us match organizations with clients:

Who is your brand targeting (women, senior citizens, family-friendly, dog owners, new parents)?

Do you want to tie your brand with a particular cause (eco-friendly, professional associations, awareness foundations, advocacy groups)?

Is your campaign based on location? Are you launching your brand in a particular city? A particular zip code?

What is your total budget and per-sponsorship range? A top max price or a price range is a useful parameter — and perhaps the most important.

Once the campaign goals are determined, we filter through opportunities based partially on their online presence. We look at Domain Authority, location, website aesthetics, and other sponsors (competitors and non-competitors) in addition to Reach Score (details below). Further, we review backlinks, organic traffic, and referring domains. We make sure that this nonprofit partnership is not spammy or funky from an SEO perspective and that is a frequently visited website. A small organization may not have all the juicy digital metrics, but by gauging event attendance or measuring organic traffic we can further identify solid prospects that could have been missed otherwise. We also look at social media presence; event attendance, event dates and how responsive these organizations or event organizers are. Responsiveness, we have learned, is a CRITICAL variable. It can be the determining point of your link going live in 48 hours or less, as opposed to 6+ months from payment.

Reach Score

From a numbers perspective, Domain Authority is a good way to appreciate the value of a website, but it doesn’t tell the whole story when it comes to local marketing. To help fill in the gaps we created Reach Score, which combines virtual measures (like Domain Authority) with social measures (friends/followers) and physical measures (event attendance). The score ranks entities based on their metro area, so we’re not comparing the reach of an organization in Louisville, KY to one in NYC.

As of March 2018, we have about 8,000 organizations with valid Reach Scores across four metro areas — Raleigh/Durham, Boston, Houston, and Chicago. The average Reach Score is 37 out of 100. Of the 34 types of organizations that we track, the most common is Event Venue/Company (average Reach Score of 38), followed by Advocacy Groups (43) and Sports Teams/Clubs/Leagues (22). The types of organizations with the highest Reach Scores are Local Government (64), Museums (63), and Parks and Recreation (55). Thanks to Reach Score, we’ve found differences between organizations from city to city as well. In Raleigh-Durham, the entities with the highest reach tend to be government-related organizations, such as Chambers of Commerce and Parks & Rec Departments.

In Boston, the highest reach tends to fall to arts organizations, such as music ensembles, as well as professional associations. This score serves as a good reminder that each metro area has a unique community of local organizations. (Read more about our Reach Score findings here.)

Fulfillment

Our campaigns used to take several months to complete, from contract to final sponsorship. Now our average fulfillment rate is 18.7 days, regardless of our project size! Staying (politely) on top of the communication with the nonprofit organizations was the main driver for this improvement.

We find further that the first 48 hours from sending a notification of sponsorship on behalf of your brand are crucial to speedy campaigns. Be ready to award the sponsorship funds in a timely manner and follow up with a phone call or an email, checking in to see if these funds have been received.

It's okay to ask when can you expect the sponsorship digital benefits to go live and how to streamline the process for any other deliverables needed to complete the sponsorship.

Applying these simple best practices, our team has been able to run a campaign in a week or less.

Two important concepts to remember about the sponsorship channel from the fulfillment perspective:

It’s difficult to fulfill. If your city project involves any more than two or three sponsorships, you're in for multiple hours of follow ups, reminders, phone calls, etc. There is the desire from most local organizations to honor their sponsors and keep them happy. That said, we've learned that keeping the momentum going serves as an important reminder for the nonprofit. This can involve phone call reminders and emails for links to go live and other benefits to come through. Again, be polite and respectful.

It’s SO worth all the effort though! It shows that your brand cares. A sponsorship campaign is a fantastic way to get in front of your target audience in areas that have a special meaning at a personal level. And not in a broad general scope, but locally. Locally sponsoring a beach cleanup in Santa Monica gives you the opportunity to impact a highly localized audience with a very particular cause in mind that would ultimately affect their everyday life, as opposed to partnering with a huge foundation advocating for clean oceans.

Enhancing a local campaign

Some prefer to use local sponsorships as a link building effort, but there are ways — and ample benefit — to going far beyond the link.

Local event attendance

So, so many local sponsorship campaigns come with the opportunity for event attendance. We currently have 11,345 opportunities in our database (62.2% of our total inventory) that feature events: 5Ks, galas, performances, parades, and even a rubber ducky derby or two! If you’re able to send local team members, find opportunities that match your target audience and test it out — and bring your camera so your social and brand team will have material for publication. If local team members aren’t an option, consider working with a notable and ambitious startup such as Field Day, which can send locals out on behalf of your brand. We’ve spoken with them on several occasions and found them adaptable and wonderful to work with.

Coupons/invitations

One client, FunBrands, used local sponsorships as a way to reach out to locals ahead of stores’ grand re-openings (read the full case study here).

For another client, we created unique coupons for each local organization, using print and social media posts for distribution.

An example coupon — use codes to track attribution back to an event.

Conclusion: Local sponsorships are a channel

Sponsorships are an actionable strategy that contribute to your local rankings, while providing unprecedented opportunities for community engagement and neighborly branding. We hope that this updated guide will provide a strong operational overview along with realistic expectations — and even inspirations — for a local sponsorship campaign in your target cities.

Last but not least: As with all outreach campaigns, please remember to be human. Keep in mind that local engagements are the living extension of your brand in the real world. And if somehow this article wasn’t enough, we just finished up The Local Sponsorship Playbook. Every purchase comes with a 30-minute consultation with the author. We hope everyone chooses to get out, get local, and join the community in the channel that truly benefits everyone.

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bạn xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mXjlRS The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr xem thêm tại: https://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition https://ift.tt/2IplXDr Bạn có thể xem thêm địa chỉ mua tai nghe không dây tại đây https://ift.tt/2mb4VST

[dainiaolivahm]

The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition

Posted by Claudia0428

For most Moz readers, local marketing means content, reviews, AdWords, local listings, and of course citations. If you’re a larger brand, you might be doing outdoor, radio, print, and television advertising as well. Today we’re here to humbly submit that local sponsorships remain the most-overlooked and opportunity-rich channel, and they build real local connections for both large brands and small business alike.

This article is the second edition of the ZipSprout team’s guide to local sponsorships. We wrote the first edition in 2016 after a few months of securing local sponsorship campaigns for a handful of clients. Since then, we’ve tripled our client roster and we’ve worked with more than 8,000 local organizations, donating nearly $1,000,000 in local sponsorships to 1,300+ opportunities. Since then we’ve also learned how to build campaigns for local presence. So we knew the guide was due for a reboot. One of our most significant learnings of the past two years is the understanding of local sponsorships as a channel in their own right. They can be directed toward local SEO or local marketing campaigns, but sponsorships are their own breed of local connection — and just like content campaigns, local PR campaigns, or review management, local sponsorships have their own set of conventions and best practices.

This article is meant for anyone with an eye toward local sponsorships as a marketing channel. Agencies and enterprise organizations may find it particularly helpful, but we’re big believers in encouraging smaller local businesses to engage in sponsorships too. Get out there and meet your neighbors!

The what & why of local sponsorships

Local events, nonprofits, and associations constitute a disjointed but very real network of opportunities. Unlike other channels, local sponsorships aren’t accessible from a single platform, but we’ve found that many sponsorships share similarities. This makes it possible to develop processes that work for campaigns in any metro area.

Local sponsorships are also a unique channel in that the benefits can range from the digital to the analog: from local links to a booth, from social posts to signage on a soccer field. The common thread is joining the community by partnering with local organizations, but the benefits themselves vary widely. We’ve identified and track 24 unique benefits of sponsorships related to local marketing:

Ad (full or partial)

Advertising on event app

Blog post featuring sponsor

Booth, tent, or table at event

Event named for sponsor

Guest post on organization blog

Inclusion in press release

Link in email newsletter

Link on website

Logo on event t-shirt or other swag

Logo on signage

Logo or name on website

Media spots (television/radio/newspaper)

Mention in email newsletter

Mention in publicity materials, such as programs & other printed materials

Networking opportunity

Physical thing (building, etc.) named for sponsor

Social media mention

Speaking opportunity at event

Sponsor & sponsor's employees receive discounts on services/products/events

Sponsor can donate merchandise for goodie bags

Sponsored post (on blog or online magazine)

Tickets to event

Verbal recognition

There are probably more, but in our experience most benefits fall into these core categories. That said, these benefits aren’t necessarily for everyone...

Who shouldn’t do local sponsorships?1. Don’t do local sponsorships if you need fast turnaround.

Campaigns can take 1–3 months from launch until fulfillment. If you’re in a hurry to see a return, just increase your search ad budget.

2. Don’t do local sponsorships if you’re not okay with the branding component.

Local link building can certainly be measured, as can coupon usage, email addresses gathered for a drawing, etc… But measuring local brand lift still isn’t a perfect art form. Leave pure attribution to digital ads.

3. Don’t do local sponsorships with a "one size fits all" expectation.

The great thing about local events and opportunities is their diversity. While some components can be scaled, others require high touch outreach, more similar to a PR campaign.

Considerations for agencies vs brands in local sponsorship campaigns

Agencies, especially if they’re creating sponsorship campaigns for multiple clients, can cast a wide net and select from the best opportunities that return. Even if a potential partnership isn’t a good fit for a current client, they may work for a client down the road. Brands, on the other hand, need to be a little more goal and mission-focused during prospecting and outreach. If they’re reaching out to organizations that are clearly a bad fit, they’re wasting everyone’s time.

Brands also need to be more careful because they have a consumer-facing image to protect. As with any outreach campaign, there are dos and don’ts and best practices that all should follow (DO be respectful; DON’T over-email), but brands especially have more to lose from an outreach faux pas.

Our processOutreach

Once we’ve identified local organizations in a given metro area, we recommend reaching out with an email to introduce ourselves and learn more about sponsorship opportunities. In two years, the ZipSprout team has A/B tested 100 different email templates.

With these initial emails, we’re trying to inform without confusing or scaring away potential new partners. Some templates have resulted in local organizations thinking we’re asking them for sponsorship money or that we want to charge them for a service. Oops! A/B tests have helped to find the best wording for clarity and, in turn, response rate.

Here are some of our learnings:

1. Mentioning location matters.

We reached out to almost 1,000 Chicago organizations in the spring of 2017. When we mentioned Chicago in the email, the response rate increased by 20%.

2. Emails sent to organizations who already had sponsorship info on their websites were most successful if the email acknowledged the onsite sponsorship info and asked for confirmation.

These are also our most successful outreach attempts, likely because these organizations are actively looking for sponsors (as signified by having sponsorship info on their site). Further, by demonstrating that we’ve been on their site, we’re signaling a higher level of intent.

3. Whether or not we included an outreacher phone number in email signatures had no effect on response rate.

If anything, response rates were higher for emails with no phone number in signature, at 41% compared with 40.2%.

4. Shorter is better when it comes to outreach emails.

Consider the following two emails:

EMAIL A Hi [NAME], I sent an email last week, but in case you missed it, I figured I’d follow up. :) I work to help corporate clients find local sponsorships. We’re an agency that helps our business clients identify and sponsor local organizations like [ORG NAME]. We’re paid by businesses who are looking for local sponsorships. Often, local organizations are overlooked, so my company, ZipSprout, works for businesses who want to sponsor locally, but aren’t sure who to partner with. To that end, I'd love to learn more about [ORG NAME] and see what sponsorship opportunities you have available. Is there a PDF or list of cost and benefits you can share over email or a phone call? Thanks, ___

EMAIL B Hi [NAME], I sent an email last week, but in case you missed it, I figured I’d follow up. :) I'd love to learn more about [ORG NAME] and see what sponsorships you have available. Is there a PDF or list of cost and benefits you can share over email or a phone call? Thanks, ___

In an 800-email test, Email B performed 30% better than Email A.

Matchmaking: How can I choose a sponsorship opportunity that fits my brand?

There are many ways to evaluate potential sponsorships.

These are the questions that help us match organizations with clients:

Who is your brand targeting (women, senior citizens, family-friendly, dog owners, new parents)?

Do you want to tie your brand with a particular cause (eco-friendly, professional associations, awareness foundations, advocacy groups)?

Is your campaign based on location? Are you launching your brand in a particular city? A particular zip code?

What is your total budget and per-sponsorship range? A top max price or a price range is a useful parameter — and perhaps the most important.

Once the campaign goals are determined, we filter through opportunities based partially on their online presence. We look at Domain Authority, location, website aesthetics, and other sponsors (competitors and non-competitors) in addition to Reach Score (details below). Further, we review backlinks, organic traffic, and referring domains. We make sure that this nonprofit partnership is not spammy or funky from an SEO perspective and that is a frequently visited website. A small organization may not have all the juicy digital metrics, but by gauging event attendance or measuring organic traffic we can further identify solid prospects that could have been missed otherwise. We also look at social media presence; event attendance, event dates and how responsive these organizations or event organizers are. Responsiveness, we have learned, is a CRITICAL variable. It can be the determining point of your link going live in 48 hours or less, as opposed to 6+ months from payment.

Reach Score

From a numbers perspective, Domain Authority is a good way to appreciate the value of a website, but it doesn’t tell the whole story when it comes to local marketing. To help fill in the gaps we created Reach Score, which combines virtual measures (like Domain Authority) with social measures (friends/followers) and physical measures (event attendance). The score ranks entities based on their metro area, so we’re not comparing the reach of an organization in Louisville, KY to one in NYC.

As of March 2018, we have about 8,000 organizations with valid Reach Scores across four metro areas — Raleigh/Durham, Boston, Houston, and Chicago. The average Reach Score is 37 out of 100. Of the 34 types of organizations that we track, the most common is Event Venue/Company (average Reach Score of 38), followed by Advocacy Groups (43) and Sports Teams/Clubs/Leagues (22). The types of organizations with the highest Reach Scores are Local Government (64), Museums (63), and Parks and Recreation (55). Thanks to Reach Score, we’ve found differences between organizations from city to city as well. In Raleigh-Durham, the entities with the highest reach tend to be government-related organizations, such as Chambers of Commerce and Parks & Rec Departments.

In Boston, the highest reach tends to fall to arts organizations, such as music ensembles, as well as professional associations. This score serves as a good reminder that each metro area has a unique community of local organizations. (Read more about our Reach Score findings here.)

Fulfillment

Our campaigns used to take several months to complete, from contract to final sponsorship. Now our average fulfillment rate is 18.7 days, regardless of our project size! Staying (politely) on top of the communication with the nonprofit organizations was the main driver for this improvement.

We find further that the first 48 hours from sending a notification of sponsorship on behalf of your brand are crucial to speedy campaigns. Be ready to award the sponsorship funds in a timely manner and follow up with a phone call or an email, checking in to see if these funds have been received.

It's okay to ask when can you expect the sponsorship digital benefits to go live and how to streamline the process for any other deliverables needed to complete the sponsorship.

Applying these simple best practices, our team has been able to run a campaign in a week or less.

Two important concepts to remember about the sponsorship channel from the fulfillment perspective:

It’s difficult to fulfill. If your city project involves any more than two or three sponsorships, you're in for multiple hours of follow ups, reminders, phone calls, etc. There is the desire from most local organizations to honor their sponsors and keep them happy. That said, we've learned that keeping the momentum going serves as an important reminder for the nonprofit. This can involve phone call reminders and emails for links to go live and other benefits to come through. Again, be polite and respectful.

It’s SO worth all the effort though! It shows that your brand cares. A sponsorship campaign is a fantastic way to get in front of your target audience in areas that have a special meaning at a personal level. And not in a broad general scope, but locally. Locally sponsoring a beach cleanup in Santa Monica gives you the opportunity to impact a highly localized audience with a very particular cause in mind that would ultimately affect their everyday life, as opposed to partnering with a huge foundation advocating for clean oceans.

Enhancing a local campaign

Some prefer to use local sponsorships as a link building effort, but there are ways — and ample benefit — to going far beyond the link.

Local event attendance

So, so many local sponsorship campaigns come with the opportunity for event attendance. We currently have 11,345 opportunities in our database (62.2% of our total inventory) that feature events: 5Ks, galas, performances, parades, and even a rubber ducky derby or two! If you’re able to send local team members, find opportunities that match your target audience and test it out — and bring your camera so your social and brand team will have material for publication. If local team members aren’t an option, consider working with a notable and ambitious startup such as Field Day, which can send locals out on behalf of your brand. We’ve spoken with them on several occasions and found them adaptable and wonderful to work with.

Coupons/invitations

One client, FunBrands, used local sponsorships as a way to reach out to locals ahead of stores’ grand re-openings (read the full case study here).

For another client, we created unique coupons for each local organization, using print and social media posts for distribution.

An example coupon — use codes to track attribution back to an event.

Conclusion: Local sponsorships are a channel

Sponsorships are an actionable strategy that contribute to your local rankings, while providing unprecedented opportunities for community engagement and neighborly branding. We hope that this updated guide will provide a strong operational overview along with realistic expectations — and even inspirations — for a local sponsorship campaign in your target cities.

Last but not least: As with all outreach campaigns, please remember to be human. Keep in mind that local engagements are the living extension of your brand in the real world. And if somehow this article wasn’t enough, we just finished up The Local Sponsorship Playbook. Every purchase comes with a 30-minute consultation with the author. We hope everyone chooses to get out, get local, and join the community in the channel that truly benefits everyone.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

https://ift.tt/2pZ2a74

[christinesumpmg1]

The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition

Posted by Claudia0428

For most Moz readers, local marketing means content, reviews, AdWords, local listings, and of course citations. If you’re a larger brand, you might be doing outdoor, radio, print, and television advertising as well. Today we’re here to humbly submit that local sponsorships remain the most-overlooked and opportunity-rich channel, and they build real local connections for both large brands and small business alike.

This article is the second edition of the ZipSprout team’s guide to local sponsorships. We wrote the first edition in 2016 after a few months of securing local sponsorship campaigns for a handful of clients. Since then, we’ve tripled our client roster and we’ve worked with more than 8,000 local organizations, donating nearly $1,000,000 in local sponsorships to 1,300+ opportunities. Since then we’ve also learned how to build campaigns for local presence. So we knew the guide was due for a reboot. One of our most significant learnings of the past two years is the understanding of local sponsorships as a channel in their own right. They can be directed toward local SEO or local marketing campaigns, but sponsorships are their own breed of local connection — and just like content campaigns, local PR campaigns, or review management, local sponsorships have their own set of conventions and best practices.

This article is meant for anyone with an eye toward local sponsorships as a marketing channel. Agencies and enterprise organizations may find it particularly helpful, but we’re big believers in encouraging smaller local businesses to engage in sponsorships too. Get out there and meet your neighbors!

The what & why of local sponsorships

Local events, nonprofits, and associations constitute a disjointed but very real network of opportunities. Unlike other channels, local sponsorships aren’t accessible from a single platform, but we’ve found that many sponsorships share similarities. This makes it possible to develop processes that work for campaigns in any metro area.

Local sponsorships are also a unique channel in that the benefits can range from the digital to the analog: from local links to a booth, from social posts to signage on a soccer field. The common thread is joining the community by partnering with local organizations, but the benefits themselves vary widely. We’ve identified and track 24 unique benefits of sponsorships related to local marketing:

Ad (full or partial)

Advertising on event app

Blog post featuring sponsor

Booth, tent, or table at event

Event named for sponsor

Guest post on organization blog

Inclusion in press release

Link in email newsletter

Link on website

Logo on event t-shirt or other swag

Logo on signage

Logo or name on website

Media spots (television/radio/newspaper)

Mention in email newsletter

Mention in publicity materials, such as programs & other printed materials

Networking opportunity

Physical thing (building, etc.) named for sponsor

Social media mention

Speaking opportunity at event

Sponsor & sponsor's employees receive discounts on services/products/events

Sponsor can donate merchandise for goodie bags

Sponsored post (on blog or online magazine)

Tickets to event

Verbal recognition

There are probably more, but in our experience most benefits fall into these core categories. That said, these benefits aren’t necessarily for everyone...

Who shouldn’t do local sponsorships?1. Don’t do local sponsorships if you need fast turnaround.

Campaigns can take 1–3 months from launch until fulfillment. If you’re in a hurry to see a return, just increase your search ad budget.

2. Don’t do local sponsorships if you’re not okay with the branding component.

Local link building can certainly be measured, as can coupon usage, email addresses gathered for a drawing, etc… But measuring local brand lift still isn’t a perfect art form. Leave pure attribution to digital ads.

3. Don’t do local sponsorships with a "one size fits all" expectation.

The great thing about local events and opportunities is their diversity. While some components can be scaled, others require high touch outreach, more similar to a PR campaign.

Considerations for agencies vs brands in local sponsorship campaigns

Agencies, especially if they’re creating sponsorship campaigns for multiple clients, can cast a wide net and select from the best opportunities that return. Even if a potential partnership isn’t a good fit for a current client, they may work for a client down the road. Brands, on the other hand, need to be a little more goal and mission-focused during prospecting and outreach. If they’re reaching out to organizations that are clearly a bad fit, they’re wasting everyone’s time.

Brands also need to be more careful because they have a consumer-facing image to protect. As with any outreach campaign, there are dos and don’ts and best practices that all should follow (DO be respectful; DON’T over-email), but brands especially have more to lose from an outreach faux pas.

Our processOutreach

Once we’ve identified local organizations in a given metro area, we recommend reaching out with an email to introduce ourselves and learn more about sponsorship opportunities. In two years, the ZipSprout team has A/B tested 100 different email templates.

With these initial emails, we’re trying to inform without confusing or scaring away potential new partners. Some templates have resulted in local organizations thinking we’re asking them for sponsorship money or that we want to charge them for a service. Oops! A/B tests have helped to find the best wording for clarity and, in turn, response rate.

Here are some of our learnings:

1. Mentioning location matters.

We reached out to almost 1,000 Chicago organizations in the spring of 2017. When we mentioned Chicago in the email, the response rate increased by 20%.

2. Emails sent to organizations who already had sponsorship info on their websites were most successful if the email acknowledged the onsite sponsorship info and asked for confirmation.

These are also our most successful outreach attempts, likely because these organizations are actively looking for sponsors (as signified by having sponsorship info on their site). Further, by demonstrating that we’ve been on their site, we’re signaling a higher level of intent.

3. Whether or not we included an outreacher phone number in email signatures had no effect on response rate.

If anything, response rates were higher for emails with no phone number in signature, at 41% compared with 40.2%.

4. Shorter is better when it comes to outreach emails.

Consider the following two emails:

EMAIL A Hi [NAME], I sent an email last week, but in case you missed it, I figured I’d follow up. :) I work to help corporate clients find local sponsorships. We’re an agency that helps our business clients identify and sponsor local organizations like [ORG NAME]. We’re paid by businesses who are looking for local sponsorships. Often, local organizations are overlooked, so my company, ZipSprout, works for businesses who want to sponsor locally, but aren’t sure who to partner with. To that end, I'd love to learn more about [ORG NAME] and see what sponsorship opportunities you have available. Is there a PDF or list of cost and benefits you can share over email or a phone call? Thanks, ___

EMAIL B Hi [NAME], I sent an email last week, but in case you missed it, I figured I’d follow up. :) I'd love to learn more about [ORG NAME] and see what sponsorships you have available. Is there a PDF or list of cost and benefits you can share over email or a phone call? Thanks, ___

In an 800-email test, Email B performed 30% better than Email A.

Matchmaking: How can I choose a sponsorship opportunity that fits my brand?

There are many ways to evaluate potential sponsorships.

These are the questions that help us match organizations with clients:

Who is your brand targeting (women, senior citizens, family-friendly, dog owners, new parents)?

Do you want to tie your brand with a particular cause (eco-friendly, professional associations, awareness foundations, advocacy groups)?

Is your campaign based on location? Are you launching your brand in a particular city? A particular zip code?

What is your total budget and per-sponsorship range? A top max price or a price range is a useful parameter — and perhaps the most important.

Once the campaign goals are determined, we filter through opportunities based partially on their online presence. We look at Domain Authority, location, website aesthetics, and other sponsors (competitors and non-competitors) in addition to Reach Score (details below). Further, we review backlinks, organic traffic, and referring domains. We make sure that this nonprofit partnership is not spammy or funky from an SEO perspective and that is a frequently visited website. A small organization may not have all the juicy digital metrics, but by gauging event attendance or measuring organic traffic we can further identify solid prospects that could have been missed otherwise. We also look at social media presence; event attendance, event dates and how responsive these organizations or event organizers are. Responsiveness, we have learned, is a CRITICAL variable. It can be the determining point of your link going live in 48 hours or less, as opposed to 6+ months from payment.

Reach Score

From a numbers perspective, Domain Authority is a good way to appreciate the value of a website, but it doesn’t tell the whole story when it comes to local marketing. To help fill in the gaps we created Reach Score, which combines virtual measures (like Domain Authority) with social measures (friends/followers) and physical measures (event attendance). The score ranks entities based on their metro area, so we’re not comparing the reach of an organization in Louisville, KY to one in NYC.

As of March 2018, we have about 8,000 organizations with valid Reach Scores across four metro areas — Raleigh/Durham, Boston, Houston, and Chicago. The average Reach Score is 37 out of 100. Of the 34 types of organizations that we track, the most common is Event Venue/Company (average Reach Score of 38), followed by Advocacy Groups (43) and Sports Teams/Clubs/Leagues (22). The types of organizations with the highest Reach Scores are Local Government (64), Museums (63), and Parks and Recreation (55). Thanks to Reach Score, we’ve found differences between organizations from city to city as well. In Raleigh-Durham, the entities with the highest reach tend to be government-related organizations, such as Chambers of Commerce and Parks & Rec Departments.

In Boston, the highest reach tends to fall to arts organizations, such as music ensembles, as well as professional associations. This score serves as a good reminder that each metro area has a unique community of local organizations. (Read more about our Reach Score findings here.)

Fulfillment

Our campaigns used to take several months to complete, from contract to final sponsorship. Now our average fulfillment rate is 18.7 days, regardless of our project size! Staying (politely) on top of the communication with the nonprofit organizations was the main driver for this improvement.

We find further that the first 48 hours from sending a notification of sponsorship on behalf of your brand are crucial to speedy campaigns. Be ready to award the sponsorship funds in a timely manner and follow up with a phone call or an email, checking in to see if these funds have been received.

It's okay to ask when can you expect the sponsorship digital benefits to go live and how to streamline the process for any other deliverables needed to complete the sponsorship.

Applying these simple best practices, our team has been able to run a campaign in a week or less.

Two important concepts to remember about the sponsorship channel from the fulfillment perspective:

It’s difficult to fulfill. If your city project involves any more than two or three sponsorships, you're in for multiple hours of follow ups, reminders, phone calls, etc. There is the desire from most local organizations to honor their sponsors and keep them happy. That said, we've learned that keeping the momentum going serves as an important reminder for the nonprofit. This can involve phone call reminders and emails for links to go live and other benefits to come through. Again, be polite and respectful.

It’s SO worth all the effort though! It shows that your brand cares. A sponsorship campaign is a fantastic way to get in front of your target audience in areas that have a special meaning at a personal level. And not in a broad general scope, but locally. Locally sponsoring a beach cleanup in Santa Monica gives you the opportunity to impact a highly localized audience with a very particular cause in mind that would ultimately affect their everyday life, as opposed to partnering with a huge foundation advocating for clean oceans.

Enhancing a local campaign

Some prefer to use local sponsorships as a link building effort, but there are ways — and ample benefit — to going far beyond the link.

Local event attendance

So, so many local sponsorship campaigns come with the opportunity for event attendance. We currently have 11,345 opportunities in our database (62.2% of our total inventory) that feature events: 5Ks, galas, performances, parades, and even a rubber ducky derby or two! If you’re able to send local team members, find opportunities that match your target audience and test it out — and bring your camera so your social and brand team will have material for publication. If local team members aren’t an option, consider working with a notable and ambitious startup such as Field Day, which can send locals out on behalf of your brand. We’ve spoken with them on several occasions and found them adaptable and wonderful to work with.

Coupons/invitations

One client, FunBrands, used local sponsorships as a way to reach out to locals ahead of stores’ grand re-openings (read the full case study here).

For another client, we created unique coupons for each local organization, using print and social media posts for distribution.

An example coupon — use codes to track attribution back to an event.

Conclusion: Local sponsorships are a channel

Sponsorships are an actionable strategy that contribute to your local rankings, while providing unprecedented opportunities for community engagement and neighborly branding. We hope that this updated guide will provide a strong operational overview along with realistic expectations — and even inspirations — for a local sponsorship campaign in your target cities.

Last but not least: As with all outreach campaigns, please remember to be human. Keep in mind that local engagements are the living extension of your brand in the real world. And if somehow this article wasn’t enough, we just finished up The Local Sponsorship Playbook. Every purchase comes with a 30-minute consultation with the author. We hope everyone chooses to get out, get local, and join the community in the channel that truly benefits everyone.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

https://ift.tt/2pZ2a74

[fairchildlingpo1]

The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition

Posted by Claudia0428

For most Moz readers, local marketing means content, reviews, AdWords, local listings, and of course citations. If you’re a larger brand, you might be doing outdoor, radio, print, and television advertising as well. Today we’re here to humbly submit that local sponsorships remain the most-overlooked and opportunity-rich channel, and they build real local connections for both large brands and small business alike.

This article is the second edition of the ZipSprout team’s guide to local sponsorships. We wrote the first edition in 2016 after a few months of securing local sponsorship campaigns for a handful of clients. Since then, we’ve tripled our client roster and we’ve worked with more than 8,000 local organizations, donating nearly $1,000,000 in local sponsorships to 1,300+ opportunities. Since then we’ve also learned how to build campaigns for local presence. So we knew the guide was due for a reboot. One of our most significant learnings of the past two years is the understanding of local sponsorships as a channel in their own right. They can be directed toward local SEO or local marketing campaigns, but sponsorships are their own breed of local connection — and just like content campaigns, local PR campaigns, or review management, local sponsorships have their own set of conventions and best practices.

This article is meant for anyone with an eye toward local sponsorships as a marketing channel. Agencies and enterprise organizations may find it particularly helpful, but we’re big believers in encouraging smaller local businesses to engage in sponsorships too. Get out there and meet your neighbors!

The what & why of local sponsorships

Local events, nonprofits, and associations constitute a disjointed but very real network of opportunities. Unlike other channels, local sponsorships aren’t accessible from a single platform, but we’ve found that many sponsorships share similarities. This makes it possible to develop processes that work for campaigns in any metro area.

Local sponsorships are also a unique channel in that the benefits can range from the digital to the analog: from local links to a booth, from social posts to signage on a soccer field. The common thread is joining the community by partnering with local organizations, but the benefits themselves vary widely. We’ve identified and track 24 unique benefits of sponsorships related to local marketing:

Ad (full or partial)

Advertising on event app

Blog post featuring sponsor

Booth, tent, or table at event

Event named for sponsor

Guest post on organization blog

Inclusion in press release

Link in email newsletter

Link on website

Logo on event t-shirt or other swag

Logo on signage

Logo or name on website

Media spots (television/radio/newspaper)

Mention in email newsletter

Mention in publicity materials, such as programs & other printed materials

Networking opportunity

Physical thing (building, etc.) named for sponsor

Social media mention

Speaking opportunity at event

Sponsor & sponsor's employees receive discounts on services/products/events

Sponsor can donate merchandise for goodie bags

Sponsored post (on blog or online magazine)

Tickets to event

Verbal recognition

There are probably more, but in our experience most benefits fall into these core categories. That said, these benefits aren’t necessarily for everyone...

Who shouldn’t do local sponsorships?1. Don’t do local sponsorships if you need fast turnaround.

Campaigns can take 1–3 months from launch until fulfillment. If you’re in a hurry to see a return, just increase your search ad budget.

2. Don’t do local sponsorships if you’re not okay with the branding component.

Local link building can certainly be measured, as can coupon usage, email addresses gathered for a drawing, etc… But measuring local brand lift still isn’t a perfect art form. Leave pure attribution to digital ads.

3. Don’t do local sponsorships with a "one size fits all" expectation.

The great thing about local events and opportunities is their diversity. While some components can be scaled, others require high touch outreach, more similar to a PR campaign.

Considerations for agencies vs brands in local sponsorship campaigns

Agencies, especially if they’re creating sponsorship campaigns for multiple clients, can cast a wide net and select from the best opportunities that return. Even if a potential partnership isn’t a good fit for a current client, they may work for a client down the road. Brands, on the other hand, need to be a little more goal and mission-focused during prospecting and outreach. If they’re reaching out to organizations that are clearly a bad fit, they’re wasting everyone’s time.

Brands also need to be more careful because they have a consumer-facing image to protect. As with any outreach campaign, there are dos and don’ts and best practices that all should follow (DO be respectful; DON’T over-email), but brands especially have more to lose from an outreach faux pas.

Our processOutreach

Once we’ve identified local organizations in a given metro area, we recommend reaching out with an email to introduce ourselves and learn more about sponsorship opportunities. In two years, the ZipSprout team has A/B tested 100 different email templates.

With these initial emails, we’re trying to inform without confusing or scaring away potential new partners. Some templates have resulted in local organizations thinking we’re asking them for sponsorship money or that we want to charge them for a service. Oops! A/B tests have helped to find the best wording for clarity and, in turn, response rate.

Here are some of our learnings:

1. Mentioning location matters.

We reached out to almost 1,000 Chicago organizations in the spring of 2017. When we mentioned Chicago in the email, the response rate increased by 20%.

2. Emails sent to organizations who already had sponsorship info on their websites were most successful if the email acknowledged the onsite sponsorship info and asked for confirmation.

These are also our most successful outreach attempts, likely because these organizations are actively looking for sponsors (as signified by having sponsorship info on their site). Further, by demonstrating that we’ve been on their site, we’re signaling a higher level of intent.

3. Whether or not we included an outreacher phone number in email signatures had no effect on response rate.

If anything, response rates were higher for emails with no phone number in signature, at 41% compared with 40.2%.

4. Shorter is better when it comes to outreach emails.

Consider the following two emails:

EMAIL A Hi [NAME], I sent an email last week, but in case you missed it, I figured I’d follow up. :) I work to help corporate clients find local sponsorships. We’re an agency that helps our business clients identify and sponsor local organizations like [ORG NAME]. We’re paid by businesses who are looking for local sponsorships. Often, local organizations are overlooked, so my company, ZipSprout, works for businesses who want to sponsor locally, but aren’t sure who to partner with. To that end, I'd love to learn more about [ORG NAME] and see what sponsorship opportunities you have available. Is there a PDF or list of cost and benefits you can share over email or a phone call? Thanks, ___

EMAIL B Hi [NAME], I sent an email last week, but in case you missed it, I figured I’d follow up. :) I'd love to learn more about [ORG NAME] and see what sponsorships you have available. Is there a PDF or list of cost and benefits you can share over email or a phone call? Thanks, ___

In an 800-email test, Email B performed 30% better than Email A.

Matchmaking: How can I choose a sponsorship opportunity that fits my brand?

There are many ways to evaluate potential sponsorships.

These are the questions that help us match organizations with clients:

Who is your brand targeting (women, senior citizens, family-friendly, dog owners, new parents)?

Do you want to tie your brand with a particular cause (eco-friendly, professional associations, awareness foundations, advocacy groups)?

Is your campaign based on location? Are you launching your brand in a particular city? A particular zip code?

What is your total budget and per-sponsorship range? A top max price or a price range is a useful parameter — and perhaps the most important.

Once the campaign goals are determined, we filter through opportunities based partially on their online presence. We look at Domain Authority, location, website aesthetics, and other sponsors (competitors and non-competitors) in addition to Reach Score (details below). Further, we review backlinks, organic traffic, and referring domains. We make sure that this nonprofit partnership is not spammy or funky from an SEO perspective and that is a frequently visited website. A small organization may not have all the juicy digital metrics, but by gauging event attendance or measuring organic traffic we can further identify solid prospects that could have been missed otherwise. We also look at social media presence; event attendance, event dates and how responsive these organizations or event organizers are. Responsiveness, we have learned, is a CRITICAL variable. It can be the determining point of your link going live in 48 hours or less, as opposed to 6+ months from payment.

Reach Score

From a numbers perspective, Domain Authority is a good way to appreciate the value of a website, but it doesn’t tell the whole story when it comes to local marketing. To help fill in the gaps we created Reach Score, which combines virtual measures (like Domain Authority) with social measures (friends/followers) and physical measures (event attendance). The score ranks entities based on their metro area, so we’re not comparing the reach of an organization in Louisville, KY to one in NYC.

As of March 2018, we have about 8,000 organizations with valid Reach Scores across four metro areas — Raleigh/Durham, Boston, Houston, and Chicago. The average Reach Score is 37 out of 100. Of the 34 types of organizations that we track, the most common is Event Venue/Company (average Reach Score of 38), followed by Advocacy Groups (43) and Sports Teams/Clubs/Leagues (22). The types of organizations with the highest Reach Scores are Local Government (64), Museums (63), and Parks and Recreation (55). Thanks to Reach Score, we’ve found differences between organizations from city to city as well. In Raleigh-Durham, the entities with the highest reach tend to be government-related organizations, such as Chambers of Commerce and Parks & Rec Departments.

In Boston, the highest reach tends to fall to arts organizations, such as music ensembles, as well as professional associations. This score serves as a good reminder that each metro area has a unique community of local organizations. (Read more about our Reach Score findings here.)

Fulfillment

Our campaigns used to take several months to complete, from contract to final sponsorship. Now our average fulfillment rate is 18.7 days, regardless of our project size! Staying (politely) on top of the communication with the nonprofit organizations was the main driver for this improvement.

We find further that the first 48 hours from sending a notification of sponsorship on behalf of your brand are crucial to speedy campaigns. Be ready to award the sponsorship funds in a timely manner and follow up with a phone call or an email, checking in to see if these funds have been received.

It's okay to ask when can you expect the sponsorship digital benefits to go live and how to streamline the process for any other deliverables needed to complete the sponsorship.

Applying these simple best practices, our team has been able to run a campaign in a week or less.

Two important concepts to remember about the sponsorship channel from the fulfillment perspective:

It’s difficult to fulfill. If your city project involves any more than two or three sponsorships, you're in for multiple hours of follow ups, reminders, phone calls, etc. There is the desire from most local organizations to honor their sponsors and keep them happy. That said, we've learned that keeping the momentum going serves as an important reminder for the nonprofit. This can involve phone call reminders and emails for links to go live and other benefits to come through. Again, be polite and respectful.

It’s SO worth all the effort though! It shows that your brand cares. A sponsorship campaign is a fantastic way to get in front of your target audience in areas that have a special meaning at a personal level. And not in a broad general scope, but locally. Locally sponsoring a beach cleanup in Santa Monica gives you the opportunity to impact a highly localized audience with a very particular cause in mind that would ultimately affect their everyday life, as opposed to partnering with a huge foundation advocating for clean oceans.

Enhancing a local campaign

Some prefer to use local sponsorships as a link building effort, but there are ways — and ample benefit — to going far beyond the link.

Local event attendance

So, so many local sponsorship campaigns come with the opportunity for event attendance. We currently have 11,345 opportunities in our database (62.2% of our total inventory) that feature events: 5Ks, galas, performances, parades, and even a rubber ducky derby or two! If you’re able to send local team members, find opportunities that match your target audience and test it out — and bring your camera so your social and brand team will have material for publication. If local team members aren’t an option, consider working with a notable and ambitious startup such as Field Day, which can send locals out on behalf of your brand. We’ve spoken with them on several occasions and found them adaptable and wonderful to work with.

Coupons/invitations

One client, FunBrands, used local sponsorships as a way to reach out to locals ahead of stores’ grand re-openings (read the full case study here).

For another client, we created unique coupons for each local organization, using print and social media posts for distribution.

An example coupon — use codes to track attribution back to an event.

Conclusion: Local sponsorships are a channel

Sponsorships are an actionable strategy that contribute to your local rankings, while providing unprecedented opportunities for community engagement and neighborly branding. We hope that this updated guide will provide a strong operational overview along with realistic expectations — and even inspirations — for a local sponsorship campaign in your target cities.

Last but not least: As with all outreach campaigns, please remember to be human. Keep in mind that local engagements are the living extension of your brand in the real world. And if somehow this article wasn’t enough, we just finished up The Local Sponsorship Playbook. Every purchase comes with a 30-minute consultation with the author. We hope everyone chooses to get out, get local, and join the community in the channel that truly benefits everyone.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

https://ift.tt/2pZ2a74

[mariasolemarionqi]

The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition

Posted by Claudia0428

For most Moz readers, local marketing means content, reviews, AdWords, local listings, and of course citations. If you’re a larger brand, you might be doing outdoor, radio, print, and television advertising as well. Today we’re here to humbly submit that local sponsorships remain the most-overlooked and opportunity-rich channel, and they build real local connections for both large brands and small business alike.

This article is the second edition of the ZipSprout team’s guide to local sponsorships. We wrote the first edition in 2016 after a few months of securing local sponsorship campaigns for a handful of clients. Since then, we’ve tripled our client roster and we’ve worked with more than 8,000 local organizations, donating nearly $1,000,000 in local sponsorships to 1,300+ opportunities. Since then we’ve also learned how to build campaigns for local presence. So we knew the guide was due for a reboot. One of our most significant learnings of the past two years is the understanding of local sponsorships as a channel in their own right. They can be directed toward local SEO or local marketing campaigns, but sponsorships are their own breed of local connection — and just like content campaigns, local PR campaigns, or review management, local sponsorships have their own set of conventions and best practices.

This article is meant for anyone with an eye toward local sponsorships as a marketing channel. Agencies and enterprise organizations may find it particularly helpful, but we’re big believers in encouraging smaller local businesses to engage in sponsorships too. Get out there and meet your neighbors!

The what & why of local sponsorships

Local events, nonprofits, and associations constitute a disjointed but very real network of opportunities. Unlike other channels, local sponsorships aren’t accessible from a single platform, but we’ve found that many sponsorships share similarities. This makes it possible to develop processes that work for campaigns in any metro area.

Local sponsorships are also a unique channel in that the benefits can range from the digital to the analog: from local links to a booth, from social posts to signage on a soccer field. The common thread is joining the community by partnering with local organizations, but the benefits themselves vary widely. We’ve identified and track 24 unique benefits of sponsorships related to local marketing:

Ad (full or partial)

Advertising on event app

Blog post featuring sponsor

Booth, tent, or table at event

Event named for sponsor

Guest post on organization blog

Inclusion in press release

Link in email newsletter

Link on website

Logo on event t-shirt or other swag

Logo on signage

Logo or name on website

Media spots (television/radio/newspaper)

Mention in email newsletter

Mention in publicity materials, such as programs & other printed materials

Networking opportunity

Physical thing (building, etc.) named for sponsor

Social media mention

Speaking opportunity at event

Sponsor & sponsor's employees receive discounts on services/products/events

Sponsor can donate merchandise for goodie bags

Sponsored post (on blog or online magazine)

Tickets to event

Verbal recognition

There are probably more, but in our experience most benefits fall into these core categories. That said, these benefits aren’t necessarily for everyone...

Who shouldn’t do local sponsorships?1. Don’t do local sponsorships if you need fast turnaround.

Campaigns can take 1–3 months from launch until fulfillment. If you’re in a hurry to see a return, just increase your search ad budget.

2. Don’t do local sponsorships if you’re not okay with the branding component.

Local link building can certainly be measured, as can coupon usage, email addresses gathered for a drawing, etc… But measuring local brand lift still isn’t a perfect art form. Leave pure attribution to digital ads.

3. Don’t do local sponsorships with a "one size fits all" expectation.

The great thing about local events and opportunities is their diversity. While some components can be scaled, others require high touch outreach, more similar to a PR campaign.

Considerations for agencies vs brands in local sponsorship campaigns

Agencies, especially if they’re creating sponsorship campaigns for multiple clients, can cast a wide net and select from the best opportunities that return. Even if a potential partnership isn’t a good fit for a current client, they may work for a client down the road. Brands, on the other hand, need to be a little more goal and mission-focused during prospecting and outreach. If they’re reaching out to organizations that are clearly a bad fit, they’re wasting everyone’s time.

Brands also need to be more careful because they have a consumer-facing image to protect. As with any outreach campaign, there are dos and don’ts and best practices that all should follow (DO be respectful; DON’T over-email), but brands especially have more to lose from an outreach faux pas.

Our processOutreach

Once we’ve identified local organizations in a given metro area, we recommend reaching out with an email to introduce ourselves and learn more about sponsorship opportunities. In two years, the ZipSprout team has A/B tested 100 different email templates.

With these initial emails, we’re trying to inform without confusing or scaring away potential new partners. Some templates have resulted in local organizations thinking we’re asking them for sponsorship money or that we want to charge them for a service. Oops! A/B tests have helped to find the best wording for clarity and, in turn, response rate.

Here are some of our learnings:

1. Mentioning location matters.

We reached out to almost 1,000 Chicago organizations in the spring of 2017. When we mentioned Chicago in the email, the response rate increased by 20%.

2. Emails sent to organizations who already had sponsorship info on their websites were most successful if the email acknowledged the onsite sponsorship info and asked for confirmation.

These are also our most successful outreach attempts, likely because these organizations are actively looking for sponsors (as signified by having sponsorship info on their site). Further, by demonstrating that we’ve been on their site, we’re signaling a higher level of intent.

3. Whether or not we included an outreacher phone number in email signatures had no effect on response rate.

If anything, response rates were higher for emails with no phone number in signature, at 41% compared with 40.2%.

4. Shorter is better when it comes to outreach emails.

Consider the following two emails:

EMAIL A Hi [NAME], I sent an email last week, but in case you missed it, I figured I’d follow up. :) I work to help corporate clients find local sponsorships. We’re an agency that helps our business clients identify and sponsor local organizations like [ORG NAME]. We’re paid by businesses who are looking for local sponsorships. Often, local organizations are overlooked, so my company, ZipSprout, works for businesses who want to sponsor locally, but aren’t sure who to partner with. To that end, I'd love to learn more about [ORG NAME] and see what sponsorship opportunities you have available. Is there a PDF or list of cost and benefits you can share over email or a phone call? Thanks, ___

EMAIL B Hi [NAME], I sent an email last week, but in case you missed it, I figured I’d follow up. :) I'd love to learn more about [ORG NAME] and see what sponsorships you have available. Is there a PDF or list of cost and benefits you can share over email or a phone call? Thanks, ___

In an 800-email test, Email B performed 30% better than Email A.

Matchmaking: How can I choose a sponsorship opportunity that fits my brand?

There are many ways to evaluate potential sponsorships.

These are the questions that help us match organizations with clients:

Who is your brand targeting (women, senior citizens, family-friendly, dog owners, new parents)?

Do you want to tie your brand with a particular cause (eco-friendly, professional associations, awareness foundations, advocacy groups)?

Is your campaign based on location? Are you launching your brand in a particular city? A particular zip code?

What is your total budget and per-sponsorship range? A top max price or a price range is a useful parameter — and perhaps the most important.

Once the campaign goals are determined, we filter through opportunities based partially on their online presence. We look at Domain Authority, location, website aesthetics, and other sponsors (competitors and non-competitors) in addition to Reach Score (details below). Further, we review backlinks, organic traffic, and referring domains. We make sure that this nonprofit partnership is not spammy or funky from an SEO perspective and that is a frequently visited website. A small organization may not have all the juicy digital metrics, but by gauging event attendance or measuring organic traffic we can further identify solid prospects that could have been missed otherwise. We also look at social media presence; event attendance, event dates and how responsive these organizations or event organizers are. Responsiveness, we have learned, is a CRITICAL variable. It can be the determining point of your link going live in 48 hours or less, as opposed to 6+ months from payment.

Reach Score

From a numbers perspective, Domain Authority is a good way to appreciate the value of a website, but it doesn’t tell the whole story when it comes to local marketing. To help fill in the gaps we created Reach Score, which combines virtual measures (like Domain Authority) with social measures (friends/followers) and physical measures (event attendance). The score ranks entities based on their metro area, so we’re not comparing the reach of an organization in Louisville, KY to one in NYC.

As of March 2018, we have about 8,000 organizations with valid Reach Scores across four metro areas — Raleigh/Durham, Boston, Houston, and Chicago. The average Reach Score is 37 out of 100. Of the 34 types of organizations that we track, the most common is Event Venue/Company (average Reach Score of 38), followed by Advocacy Groups (43) and Sports Teams/Clubs/Leagues (22). The types of organizations with the highest Reach Scores are Local Government (64), Museums (63), and Parks and Recreation (55). Thanks to Reach Score, we’ve found differences between organizations from city to city as well. In Raleigh-Durham, the entities with the highest reach tend to be government-related organizations, such as Chambers of Commerce and Parks & Rec Departments.

In Boston, the highest reach tends to fall to arts organizations, such as music ensembles, as well as professional associations. This score serves as a good reminder that each metro area has a unique community of local organizations. (Read more about our Reach Score findings here.)

Fulfillment

Our campaigns used to take several months to complete, from contract to final sponsorship. Now our average fulfillment rate is 18.7 days, regardless of our project size! Staying (politely) on top of the communication with the nonprofit organizations was the main driver for this improvement.

We find further that the first 48 hours from sending a notification of sponsorship on behalf of your brand are crucial to speedy campaigns. Be ready to award the sponsorship funds in a timely manner and follow up with a phone call or an email, checking in to see if these funds have been received.

It's okay to ask when can you expect the sponsorship digital benefits to go live and how to streamline the process for any other deliverables needed to complete the sponsorship.

Applying these simple best practices, our team has been able to run a campaign in a week or less.

Two important concepts to remember about the sponsorship channel from the fulfillment perspective:

It’s difficult to fulfill. If your city project involves any more than two or three sponsorships, you're in for multiple hours of follow ups, reminders, phone calls, etc. There is the desire from most local organizations to honor their sponsors and keep them happy. That said, we've learned that keeping the momentum going serves as an important reminder for the nonprofit. This can involve phone call reminders and emails for links to go live and other benefits to come through. Again, be polite and respectful.

It’s SO worth all the effort though! It shows that your brand cares. A sponsorship campaign is a fantastic way to get in front of your target audience in areas that have a special meaning at a personal level. And not in a broad general scope, but locally. Locally sponsoring a beach cleanup in Santa Monica gives you the opportunity to impact a highly localized audience with a very particular cause in mind that would ultimately affect their everyday life, as opposed to partnering with a huge foundation advocating for clean oceans.

Enhancing a local campaign

Some prefer to use local sponsorships as a link building effort, but there are ways — and ample benefit — to going far beyond the link.

Local event attendance

So, so many local sponsorship campaigns come with the opportunity for event attendance. We currently have 11,345 opportunities in our database (62.2% of our total inventory) that feature events: 5Ks, galas, performances, parades, and even a rubber ducky derby or two! If you’re able to send local team members, find opportunities that match your target audience and test it out — and bring your camera so your social and brand team will have material for publication. If local team members aren’t an option, consider working with a notable and ambitious startup such as Field Day, which can send locals out on behalf of your brand. We’ve spoken with them on several occasions and found them adaptable and wonderful to work with.

Coupons/invitations

One client, FunBrands, used local sponsorships as a way to reach out to locals ahead of stores’ grand re-openings (read the full case study here).

For another client, we created unique coupons for each local organization, using print and social media posts for distribution.

An example coupon — use codes to track attribution back to an event.

Conclusion: Local sponsorships are a channel

Sponsorships are an actionable strategy that contribute to your local rankings, while providing unprecedented opportunities for community engagement and neighborly branding. We hope that this updated guide will provide a strong operational overview along with realistic expectations — and even inspirations — for a local sponsorship campaign in your target cities.

Last but not least: As with all outreach campaigns, please remember to be human. Keep in mind that local engagements are the living extension of your brand in the real world. And if somehow this article wasn’t enough, we just finished up The Local Sponsorship Playbook. Every purchase comes with a 30-minute consultation with the author. We hope everyone chooses to get out, get local, and join the community in the channel that truly benefits everyone.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

https://ift.tt/2pZ2a74