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legionofpotatoes · 3 years ago

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I love your art, it is very detailed in a neat way. Was wondering how you got started making it as a source of income? How did you get your first paid work, I'd love some advice on how to get started, if that's ok

Thank you. Of course it's okay, although I doubt I have enough work experience in art to really delve into this. I only went full freelance this year, and had been juggling art as a side hobby until then. If you're still interested in my somewhat narrow perspective, and are okay with my long-winded rambles, I'll give it a shot:

So to answer your question fully, I'll describe how I started and move into personal advice and learnings later on. As a disclaimer, I am a white cishet dude in my late twenties with a moderate cocktail of mental illnesses, but overall I can pass for a functioning adult so a lot I have to say may come laced with privilege I cannot fully identify.

So uhh I began drawing in around 2012? I think? Maybe halfway through 2011? And I mostly made fanart for things I enjoyed and tried to branch out in communities that felt nourishing to my style and interests (I caught a bug for alt posters and enjoyed mainstream movies so I spent a long time on posterspy early on). There were a handful of opportunities that came from there but I could only accept a couple because of primary workplace commitments. Still, it showed that networking in a focused community was definitely a good place to start; I myself have huge trouble committing to social networks and really staying socially active, but I knew it was an essential ingredient in succeeding so I tried to make myself be involved in challenges and art support trains etc. as much as I could.

In parallel to all that I also ran a few third party online stores (redbubble, teepublic) for disposable income and would sometimes, if rarely, hit around $100-150 a month from those sources combined. It is a sort of thing that requires helper accounts on other social media sites to promote it on, because the stores themselves have a huge volume of content that translates into low organic discoverability. Obviously it was never gonna be the way towards financial independence through art, and with community projects being few and far between, I opened private commissions in around uhhh 2017 I think, focusing on offering a few styles I knew I could do well, and sometimes operating in individual fandoms (it was mostly a bioware thing to be frank). But I had to close them back down after a year or so, again because of work-life conflict and how badly it was burning me out. The reason I kept trying to monetize this hobby is because I honestly hated what I did for my main job and wanted to see a way out in some shape or form in the future.

And then in 2020 I had to quit my main job altogether because of *gestures at pandemic* and deal with a mental breakdown from all the wonderful things it did to us and me specifically. I took a short break and decided to give art a shot full-time, and that was around May this year. I was planning on opening up commissions again (and I still am), but a few sudden opportunities that fell in my lap moved that timetable down and now I'm grateful to even be doing something I am getting adequately paid for.

So, with that somewhat limited perspective, here's what I've learned that I'd tell myself if I was just starting out:

1. Being a fan of something can be a shortcut towards effective networking kickoffs. Which are important evidently. If you love something and enjoy making content for it, join communities, settle into a combination of social media websites that feel right for those interests + your body of work + your inner rhythm, and try to play to content discovery as much as your mental health allows you to. Like I said, I know that I myself am incredibly bad at self-motivating to talk to people, so I found that synergizing common interests into fanart - which I enjoyed making anyway - could be a way to give myself a gentle nudge forward and build those bridges leading to community activities, which then net experience and coverage. Sometimes even freelance projects from official avenues. Again; picking the right spaces for what you're after is key. Companies roam twitter, concept art recruiters scour artstation or linkedin etc, instagram can land you private commissions and collab opportunities, so on and so forth. Find your niche and try to kick up dust. However...

2. I do not believe that any social profile can replace a good portfolio. The thing that made an immediate difference to me this year was building a coherent, simple website with my best work front and center and a contact form on top. Every single opportunity I got came from that form (maybe via twitter or instagram initially, but always sealing the decision after going through the website), so I firmly believe that showcasing your skills and portfolio in a visually arresting and user-friendly way is a big priority. I had some reservations about tackling that task but fortunately I had help from a savvy life partner and we slapped it together via wordpress in less than a day. Twitter/whatever social media is prevalent in your target groups is definitely important to get the right eyes on your shit, yes, but those eyes will then look for a second stop where your work and rates are more clear and concise. Simplicity is key imo, I cannot overstate this. So make a cute, simple portfolio!

3. Your skills and rates will grow and change as you do. Let them. Over the years I built several lasting professional relationships from my obsession over mass effect and kept getting opportunities both from bioware and their partner companies, some small and some a bit bigger. A one-off job earlier this year opened an unexpected door to another much larger commitment, and then the work I did there brought some attention from small businesses looking for commercial commissions. These were all incredibly different projects in terms of scope and budget, and I've been tackling them all on a case-by-case basis and slowly coming into my own irt my needs, rates, and SOW thresholds. It is still a work in progress (and a LOT of literal work as well), and very much a thing I struggle with in publicly marketing, which is why I felt a tad underqualified to answer your question in the first place (obviously I did not let that stop me). But what it means for me now is that I am rapidly developing into whatever my "version" of a functioning freelance artist is, and when the conditions for that guy are met, I need to be able to confidently plant myself and operate from that space despite past precedents. Do not let anyone bully you into downpricing what you yourself perceive as legitimate products of personal growth and development. Speaking of which...

4. The shitty challenge of turning envy into inspiration, and paddling outside your comfort zones in full riot gear. it is hard, but realizing that being a miserable, self-hating artist in my early days got me nothing but more misery back was the first real step I took and what truly blew the hinges off. I was just not pleasant to be around, I would badmouth my work all the time, and it all somehow made sense in my broken mind because the validation I sought was purely external and the way I sought it was through eliciting sympathy via self-victimization (even when I made something objectively nice). It all led fucking nowhere. Except perhaps to my own narcissism that I one day managed to identify and start managing. So I started looking at things that made me seethe with envy and calmly deconstruct and figure out their inner workings instead, do studies, and find nuggets of inspiration or discover new ways to approach rendering or building up specific elements. It was an application of analytical diligence to what I wanted to be a purely emotional, esoteric workflow, but that I deep down knew wasn't. Art is a discipline and a skill, and maybe it isn't a straight line, but you gotta find some line to thread nevertheless. Being self-hating was almost an identity I had to break out of, and despite it still being like, 4-5% there? I realize its cause and effect on me, my work, and those around me, so it is with a conscious choice that I gently set it aside when I work and especially when I learn. It won't always stay quiet, but the effort is the difference. Your doors towards accepting true growth and venturing into uncharted territories, art styles, and networking will really open from there. But there's a huge caveat...

5. Toolsets, accessibility, privilege, and all the good things that enable artistic expression and profitability are not given equal to all. you might do all the mental work I mentioned to be ready to rock and roll and learn and draw your way out of anything, but digital art is a fucking money pit that asks almost too much at times. I don't got a good case study here but identifying and ensuring accessibility to the tools you need to do your best work is, like, super important. The ergonomics can improve as you make money and settle into the job, but the basics have to be made available to you. And some of that might not even be under your direct control. That can be anything from pen tablets to software subscriptions to opportunities in hiring sullied by sexism or what have you. You gotta navigate all that through careful networking and money/time management. I don't do a good job of devoting specific slices of time to work/study, and my primary clutch is iPad software which went from a good deal to a nightmare scenario over the years. So all I can say here is do what I didn't; network, invest in a PC/tablet, and pick a software you'll learn that won't burn a hole in your pocket.

6. Be nice to work with? This one is hard to articulate and has landed my own ass in hot water in my early years because of how socially inept I am, but nothing is more worthwhile than being.. like. a good person to work with. That can be anything like meeting deadlines, or sometimes missing them but eloquently articulating why, being generous in early stages, being communicable and not too wordy in your emails, having a good grasp on abstract artistic concepts and how to describe them in simple terms, having a clear, laid out framework of your working rates in commercial and non-commercial projects and sticking to those guns with grace, understanding when you need to say no and saying it well, the works. Just being nice. Sometimes that might mean going headstrong with something you believe in, or simmering down and sucking up to the big man, all relative and adaptive. Part and parcel of the service provision dance that we all have to do in order to make bank. Know your lines here, obviously, and don't like. work for nazis. or uh.. *shudders* exposure. but be nice and empathetic and communicable and word will travel eventually. Skill may be in abundance these days, but good people are most certainly not, and capitalism has a way of bubbling up scarcity. Grim, but uh, them's the breaks.

I know I'm ultimately telling you to like. Have a body of work, make a portfolio, grow, and network. But that's really how I see it for now. And being nice can be a cherry on top that sets you apart, along with the inherent irreplaceable voice of your artwork. I think I rambled on enough, but if there is something specific you need my help with, even if you want to come off anon and talk in private, please feel free.

#anon #asks #long post #sorry I cant actually condense ideas better :(

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lynxalon · 4 years ago

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Lynx!!! I arrive with asks to help! I'm still working on responding to your ask! :D We have a lot of similarities in music taste, I think!! Sending safety vibes!!! I really hope that person doesn't bother you,, For dsmp asks, would you like to talk about bench trio and their respective love languages?

I'm safe dw, it's just an icky situation and my paranoia has Not been great lately but OwO is me

Benchtrio love languages! I was kinda obsessed when I first found out about love languages, cause for once I could explain to people how I specifically felt loved, and I could also finally understand why what I did to show love didn't make Others feel loved. So, you have the classic five love languages: Words of affirmation, gift giving/receiving, physical touch, quality time, and acts of service. There are also nontraditional ones, which are niche and very person-specific but that don't quite fit into on of the classic five. My best comparison would be a uquiz I once took where someone assigned people niche love languages like remembering a person's order. What I'm going to do it talk about the classic love languages in order of Most to Least effecting, and then assign niche love languages to them that they've either portrayed or just have the vibes of lmao

Ranboo:

- Acts of service

- Gift giving/recieving

- Quality time

- Words of affirmation

- Physical touch

Starting off! Ranboo! I'm starting with him because I've been watching his streams everyday since early Feb, so I've had time to understand his vibes and just how he interacts with people. His main seems to be acts of service, very closely following by gift giving. He's often seen doing things for others, even going as far as grinding resources to Potentially do things for others. (I say others but. We know who I'm mainly talking about lmao...) He seems less concerned with receiving, and seems content to give out. Chances are the way he Shows love isn't the way he Feels loved. Anyways, his first two tie into each other really well, which is really interesting because tbh most have One main one that they show love with and feel loved with (mine is quality time, paired with a niche love language I like to call pestering). Next is quality time and words of affirmation. The first two were definitely how he showed love, but these two seem to be how he Feels loved. From him hanging out Tubbo, and us seeing how Tubbo's fixed sleep schedule affects Ranboo, it's clear that he very much enjoys spending time with people he cares about. (And by seeing how if affects him I mean. We have heard the dude bring up Tubbo so much the last couple of days, absolutely unprompted, like he talks more about Tubbo than I think about him which kinda says something cause my current hyperfixation is my fave streamers so. Huh.) Words of affirmation is in part tied with the last, cause sometimes people compliment him or something and mans really just goes 😮😄 Which, super endearing, hearing him smiling after Tubbo compliments him (which Tubbo does in a /j way but also a /hj way which is so funny to me). Lastly is physical touch, and tbh this is at the bottom cause we can't quite gauge if he's a touchy person and I don't think he is very touchy only cause the other four really stand front and center for him lmao. The niche love language I'd assign Ranboo? Pestering. I'm not biased, I'm just right OwO The way he pestered and messed with Tubbo saying he had the best mcc win rate? Yeah, that's something I'd do.

So, halfway through I lost motivation and confidence so I'll just be putting what I think Tubbo's and Tommy's are, cause I just do not have the energy to go as in depth as I would like! Rip to me lmao 😔😂 I hope the rest is still interesting though UwU

Tubbo:

- Quality time

- Acts of service

- Gift giving/receiving

- Words of affirmation

- Physical touch

So, quick run down! Tubbo's main is quality time! Unlike Ranboo, his first two aren't too terribly close. He enjoys spending lots of time with people, and I definitely understand as my main is quality time as well. One of the main examples of this I would point out would actually be streaming! Homeboy streams A Lot, like a lot a lot, to the point where it's a common inside joke that if you leave a Tubbo stream (especially alt) and come back later, he'll still be there. One of the main reasons I want to start streaming is so I can hang out and share stuff with others, cause I think there's something suuuper cool about playing games and sharing those experiences with others. Like, I remember watching Jacksepticeye play Life Is Strange, or Guardians (personal fave). It was like watching a friend play, which I really needed at the time. It was quality time without the anxiety of Being There completely. And Tubbo loves streaming, and has said it lots of times, and I think that it's really great ^^ Now, acts of service is one I think has definitely moved Up in the order, because of Ranboo specifically. Hear me out, hut something doing something for you because they want to can actually be so Loving and Tender... And no, I'm not jealous... But, Ranboo! Ranboo likes doing things for people he cares about and I think that for Tubbo it's a way he feels loved, and knows he's cared about. Gift giving and receiving was originally in second place, but has since went down one. I think this was used to be much more prominent, and I definitely think it still holds the same weight and value as it did before, but now it's vaguely overshadowed by acts of service. Fella enjoys receiving things, but also seems to be constantly getting people things (or similarly, influencing someone to get something that he thinks they definitely should have. lol). Words of affirmation is definitely a nice surprise kinda situation. Like, being complimented or someone being proud of him is Very pog. And, I, for one, am very proud of my streamer 😄 Sometimes I really be like. Head full... Tubbo. Lmao 😂😂😂 Anyways, he doesn't necessarily seem adverse to physical touch, it just seems like it's less important that the rest. I do think that for him he'd be more physically affectionate with someone who mains that (dunno how else to put it lmao) cause he wants them to feel loved in a way that makes sense to them! Hope that all makes sense! And tbh, I lied! I'm a liar! I fr thought I wouldn't open my big mouth and just gush about this some more but man. I really proved myself wrong OwO Also, I assign Tubbo the odd niche love language of sharing videos about things he enjoys as a way of affection.

Tommy:

- Physical touch

- Words of affirmation

- Quality time

- Acts of service

- Gift giving/receiving

Tommy is very interesting! Cause, the first is a little bit ahead of the rest, but all of these are very close together in value and importance. I haven't been able to watch as much from Tommy, so all of this will be very loose. The first seems most common as a way he shows love, and I think it's also how he feels loved. My reason for this, dude just trust me 😂 Words of affirmation for my boy plz, he is so loving and I just really love him. He reminds me of that meme where the landlord's like 'I don't allow pets' and the person sends a pic of their pet and the landlord's like 'Ok I'll allow him because he looks very polite' That is literally every inniter, anyone who watches Tommy, they're like 'I'll allow him because he looks very polite'. Is he polite? Eh maybe lmao. Also mans likes spending time with friends. Understandable. Likes hanging out doing silly stuff. People help him with things sometimes and that is Nice. Gifts are also neat but he's not a very material person is he. Hmm. I assign his niche love language to be sending pics of animals. Just think it fits him lmao. He likes cows and such a little too much, people who like cows often send lots of pics of animals, I know from experience OwO

This was fun to answer, thank you for this ask Lina! 💚💚💚 I enjoy personality analysis, things like love languages, enneagram types, mbti, and astrology charts. So yeaah this stuff is super fun to think about XD Also, this isn't like Entirely factual or anything like that, just mere observation and analysis for fun ^^

#lynx speaks #answered asks #lina my beloved ^^ 💚💚💚#ranboo #tubbo #tommy #benchtrio #big oof owo #this took me a shorter amount of time to answer than most asks so i am Proud OwO #this was fun to write out ^^#long post

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mthofferings2020 · 4 years ago

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thewaythatwerust

See thewaythatwerust’s existing works here.

Preferred contact methods: Tumblr: thewaythatwerust Discord: Issa#1507

Preferred organizations: - Anything from the list of approved organizations

Will create works that contain: So many things... Fluff, humour, human disasters. I love the 'Light Angst trifecta': Slow burn, Piiiiiiiining, and Miscommunication. Getting Together is my jam, pot, and spoooooon. Sign me up. I love most warm & fuzzy AUs and tropes. Hurt/Comfort, THERE IS ONLY ONE BED!, In Vino Veritas, Body Swap. Shrinkyclinks, shrunkyclunks, sexy fun times/smut, porn with (or without) plot, shifters|creatures, and ABO are all A-OK by me.

Will not create works that contain: MCD. Scat/watersports kink. Underage. Incest. Fix-it fics. EG-compliant fics. Sad endings. Hurt no comfort. Non-con. Unrequited love. Dark fic. HTP. Age play or aging-up or down. Full-on bestiality (tentacles are fine, they don't count). AUs: Time loops/travel, Historical, College/High school, Royalty.

-- Fic or Other Writing --

Auction ID: 1062

Will create works for the following relationships: Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers - MCU Bucky Barnes & Steve Rogers - MCU Bucky Barnes/Clint Barton - MCU Bucky Barnes & Clint Barton - MCU Steve Rogers/Tony Stark - MCU Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark - MCU

Work Description: I'm offering a minimum of 10k words. But, you know how it is—sometimes something hits you right in the feels, unlocks Pandora’s box, and you’re writing a 50k fic from a one-line prompt. So while the minimum will be met, depending on the prompt, I won’t put a cap on the max unless you request one (but please don’t *expect* an epic). Word count can also be divided into separate, smaller, ‘slice of life/one-shot’ prompts if requested to meet the minimum WC. (eg, 2 x 5k fics) If you’re interested in a sequel/continuation of an existing fic/set in the same ‘verse, please contact me first to avoid potential disappointment. :) I’m happy to grant you access to my bunny hutch if you don’t have an idea of your own, to see if any of those nibble at your wants. Alternatively, I’d love to have multiple prompts offered, or brainstorm with you to come up with something that sets us both vibrating with excitement. If you have one firm idea in mind or you’re not sure from my lists of wants/dnw whether or not I’d be a good fit for your prompt, please reach out. I promise not to bite. As far as speed is concerned, writing is very flood or drought, and sometimes the words flow, sometimes… not so much. After the initial planning/plotting stages, all I can guarantee is that it will be done by the deadline, but I’m happy to keep you updated during the process. Most likely looking at a 2021 posting date. One note about WinterHawk: though the universe listed is MCU, the Clint that lives in my head (rent-free, never cleaning up after himself, stabbing the soft, squishy parts of my brain with pointy objects) is somewhat of a human disaster, probably closer to a comic-heavy hybrid. Feel free to poke around my ao3 to see if my style and/or content I usually write is a good fit for your ideas. I’m happy to tackle most kinks if you’re looking for a sexy fun times fic, but if it’s a little niche or something I've not explored before and you have your heart set on it, please check with me first!

Ratings: Gen, Teen, Mature, Explicit

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#thewaythatwerust #auction: fic #mth 2020

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worryinglyinnocent · 4 years ago

Text

Fic: Forged Through Fire (2/13)

Summary: Amestris. Once democratic, now a military dictatorship. Prohibition is strict; personal freedoms curtailed. All alchemists must be state-licensed or face imprisonment. Foreigners are met with suspicion. It’s a grim place and a grim time, but there are some people able to bring a little light to the world. Behind an innocent-looking bookshop, speakeasy proprietor Chris Mustang has formed an unlikely alliance with unlicensed alchemist Van Hohenheim to provide alcohol to those who want it and medical care to those who need it. When Riza’s newly complete tattoo becomes infected, Roy brings her into this underworld, little knowing the way it will change their lives in the future – uncovering the secrets of the mythical Philosopher’s Stone and the schemes of a Fuhrer hell-bent on achieving immortality, all whilst navigating what they mean to each other.

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Rated: T

[One] [AO3]

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Content warning for this chapter: Discussion of domestic abuse – parent on child; implied self-harm and discussion of self-harm.

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Forged Through Fire

Two

The phone ringing startled Roy out of the doze he hadn’t realised he’d fallen into, and he jumped up out of his chair, massaging the crick in his neck as he went over to the phone on the wall.

“Mustang.”

“Hello Roy. It’s Riza. Riza Hawkeye.”

“Riza.”

For a good long while, Roy had absolutely no idea what to say to her. He hadn’t seen her since the day that he’d finished his training under Berthold and passed his state licence exam, although they’d kept in touch with the occasional letter. It was the first time she’d ever called him since he’d moved out of barracks and got his own apartment with his own phone line, and the novelty of hearing her voice again after all the time that had passed was enough to render him speechless. Finally he regained his tongue.

“It’s good to hear your voice again,” he said.

“Yeah. It’s good to hear yours, too.” She sounded quiet, her voice low and measured as if she’d been crying.

“What’s wrong?”

“My father died.”

“Oh. I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you.” There was a long pause on the other end of the line. “The funeral’s on Friday if you want to come. Please don’t feel obligated. There won’t be all that many people there. He wasn’t exactly a social man.”

“I’ll be there.”

“Thank you.” The relief in her voice was almost palpable, even over the phone. “So… How have you been?”

“All right. Not doing much, we haven’t been shipped out anywhere yet so it’s mainly just paperwork and patrols.” God, this was the inanest conversation ever. He hadn’t spoken to Riza for a year and a half, and this was what he was finding to talk about? “How are you holding up?”

“I don’t know how to feel right now if I’m honest. Everything’s so… weird. It’s not like when Mom died. Everything was easy then. I was sad because she wasn’t there anymore. This time…”

Roy knew exactly why she trailed off. Receiving letters from Riza in the time since he finished with Berthold had always been bittersweet. He knew the situation she was in, and he had no idea how to help her out of it. Now, she was out of it more by luck – if death could be considered luck – than judgement, and he still felt a stab of guilt that he had not been able to do anything for her.

“Yeah. I understand.” Did he really? “Do you need anything?” He didn’t want to think of her in that ramshackle old house all by herself. “Groceries, company, anything?”

“I’m ok. I’ve got everything sorted. I think I just need to know there’ll be a friendly face at the funeral. Thanks.”

“Any time.” He was reminded of the time he took her to the bar after her tattoo got infected. “How’s your back?”

“Sorry?”

“It was a long train of thought. How’s your back doing?”

“It’s fine.” For the first time, he thought that she might be smiling on the other end of the phone. “I’ve not had any problems at all since Trisha and Hohenheim fixed me up.” There was a pause. “Are they still there at Madam Christmas’s?”

“Yep. I don’t think they’ll ever leave.”

Riza laughed. “Well, send my regards next time you see them.”

“I will. I guess I’ll see you on Friday.”

“Till Friday. Thank you, Roy.”

They said their goodbyes, and Roy stayed staring at the phone for a long time after he hung up. It was only now that he realised just how much he had missed Riza in the intervening time. Perhaps it was because they had never completely lost touch with each other that the separation had not seemed as absolute as it did now; she had always still been on the periphery of his world, even if she wasn’t regularly in it like Aunt Chris and his new friends and colleagues within the military. Now he realised just how long it had been.

She hadn’t changed at all, and when he saw her standing in the cemetery on the grey and miserable morning of the funeral, he was almost relieved to see that she was still just the same Riza. Although, that said, not exactly the same. There was something behind her eyes, a little bit haunted. Maybe it was just grief, maybe it was something far more complicated. She gave a wan smile when she saw him, making her excuses to the scant other mourners and coming over to him.

“Hey. It’s good to see you again.”

“Likewise. Are you ok?”

She nodded. “I’m getting there. It’s still all so surreal.” She glanced over towards the grave and the drab preacher getting ready to intone the service. “Shall we go? It shouldn’t take too long, I don’t think. I mean, what is there to say about him?”

Roy would have given her the usual platitudes about Berthold being a good man and a great alchemist, but whilst the latter may have been technically true, neither really rang true to Roy’s ears in regard to Riza. Berthold might have been the one to teach him flame alchemy, but he had also been the one to permanently ink that flame alchemy on Riza’s back and shape the course of her life forever. The words she had spoken to him on that fateful day when she’d shown him the array had always echoed in his mind. What’s done is done. Nothing could change the fact that the tattoo existed, and that Berthold had been the one to put it there. Nothing would ever erase that. Nothing Roy or anyone else could do would ever be able to make that better. Did that mean he didn’t ought to try?

The service was short, just the usual empty words over a plain casket, and Roy hung back as Riza received the well wishes of the few other attendees until she was alone with the headstone again.

Riza sighed. “Is it bad that when everyone says ‘I’m so sorry’, there’s a part of me – a large part – that thinks ‘I’m not’?”

Roy shook his head. “No. I don’t think so. I think given everything, that’s natural.”

“When I looked in on him that morning and found him… I thought I’d feel sad, or that I’d panic, or maybe that I’d just feel numb. But honestly the thing I felt the most was anger. Not because he was dead, that he’d been taken from me in that respect. I wasn’t angry at the world. I wasn’t even really angry at him. I was angry with myself, because I hadn’t done anything, and now he’s dead and I don’t have the chance to call him out for everything he did.”

“It’s not your fault. What could you have done?” He paused. “It’s everyone else who should have been doing something.”

“Hey, don’t blame yourself either. He had just as much of a position of power over you as he did me. In a different way, but I’ve heard cynics say that apprenticing under an alchemist is equivalent to selling your soul to them until you pass your licence.”

“Yeah. But after I passed my licence. Anyway, enough about me. Do you want to come somewhere and talk about it somewhere that’s not a very windy cemetery with rain threatening any moment?”

Riza nodded. “Yeah. I could really use a drink right now.”

Roy smiled. “All right. Come with me.”

It was a quiet and contemplative walk through the city towards the bar, and Roy couldn’t help giving the odd glance sideways over at Riza as they made their way through the damp streets. It had rained earlier, and the clouds were still hanging dark and heavy in the sky. In a way, the weather reflected the entire city – dark, oppressive, unrelenting; constantly hanging over their heads like the Sword of Damocles.

Amestris hadn’t always been like this, according to those who’d seen it in its heyday. Roy was still too young to remember a time before the Fuhrer had come to power and democracy had given way overnight to the grim dictatorship they’d now found themselves living in, but Aunt Chris and Hohenheim remembered it. They’d made the best of things in the best way they knew how – defying the law and doing what was needed anyway.

A part of him wished that they didn’t have to do it, that he could somehow come into a grand inheritance and set them up comfortably for the rest of their days, but he knew them both and he knew they’d still keep doing what they were doing even if money was no object. There were some things that were more important than staying on the right side of the law.

Still, just because they had carved out their own little niche in the new world they lived in didn’t mean that they couldn’t be nostalgic for better times. Aunt Chris wasn’t one for reminiscing, but he’d found her and Hohenheim sharing the good Drachman vodka more than once after last orders had been called.

His thoughts ended up coming full circle round to Berthold and the many arguments they’d got into over Roy’s decision to join the military. Berthold could remember the time before and held no love for the military regime he was now living under. Roy had never known different but knew enough to be well aware that he was becoming part of the problem. With a problem like this, though, with something so well-established and deeply ingrained, it was impossible to effect any sort of change except from within, and when he had first joined the academy, Roy had been naïve enough to think he could be the one to make that change.

Four years later, he was not quite as convinced, but his determination still held fast.

Vanessa was on duty in the bookshop today, and if she seemed surprised to see them coming in at four o’clock in the afternoon then she didn’t show it, simply waving him through without a word. She gave Riza a little more scrutiny, but since she was coming in with him, there wasn’t a lot of point in giving her the third degree. Of everyone who was involved with Madam Christmas’s bar, Roy was the one who was most aware of the need for secrecy. One of the advantages of joining the military and becoming part of the regular city patrols was getting inside knowledge on which premises were about to be raided as suspected liquor hideaways and being able to subtly clear the bookshop from the records. If it was an abuse of power, well, at least it wasn’t hurting anyone like most of the rest of the abuses of power that the military undertook on a regular basis.

Aunt Chris was behind the bar as usual when they got down into it, and she nodded over to a corner table, where Armstrong and Hughes were already sitting with Gracia. Roy turned back to Riza as Hughes waved him over.

“They’re friends and colleagues. We don’t have to join them if you don’t want to.”

“No, it’s fine.” Riza smiled. “I think some happy company sounds like a good idea right now.”

“Roy!” Hughes grabbed the coats that had been holding the other chairs at the table. “Is this the girl you were telling us about?”

“This is Riza Hawkeye, yes. She’s Berthold’s daughter. Riza, this is Alex Armstrong and Maes Hughes, and Hughes’ girlfriend Gracia.”

“Actually, Gracia is no longer my girlfriend.”

Roy raised an eyebrow. Considering how giddy Hughes sounded, he highly doubted that there had just been a break-up.

“She’s my fiancée!”

Gracia gave a long-suffering sigh, but the smile in her eyes showed that she still found Hughes’ antics endearing after being with him for a year.

“Congratulations.” Riza took a seat beside Gracia and the two were soon deep in conversation as Roy went over to the bar to get the next round in.

Chris gave him a look.

“I’m glad you’ve turned up. He’s starting to be insufferable. Why did I let you persuade me to allow your friends in?”

“Because you love me.”

“Unfortunately, that’s true.” Chris peered over his shoulder at Riza. “How did it go at the funeral?”

“Much of a muchness, really. What can you say about a man who was a complete recluse dedicated to his research above all else, including his daughter?”

“Roy, you can’t keep beating yourself up about that. And for God’s sake, not now. She’s got enough on her plate; she doesn’t need to prop up your guilt as well. Don’t make her carry more than she has to. If she wants to be mad at you for not rescuing her then that’s her decision and she can do it in her own time.”

She continued to pour the drinks, and Roy leaned back against the bar, watching his friends.

“You’re not subtle,” Chris said behind him. “Who knows? Maybe now that you’re back in touch, you’ll finally ask her out.”

“Madam!”

“I call them how I see them, Roy-Boy. Remember you’ve always got the perfect date location right here.”

“Yeah, with Vanessa and Fiona teasing me every time I go in and out and you watching like a hawk.”

“Freudian slip there?”

“Shut up.”

He grabbed the drinks and brought them back over to the table, where Hughes was now expounding the current barracks rumour mill theory that Tim Marcoh had faked his own death and was now serving as personal physician to the Emperor of Xing. At least Riza was smiling, and although that tired and haunted look behind her eyes had not gone away, he could tell that the smile was genuine.

It was only later, once Armstrong, Hughes and Gracia had left them, that he could recognise the sheer exhaustion and the willpower it was taking her to hold everything together.

“Do you want me to take you home?”

Riza shook her head. “No. Not yet. I don’t think I can face that big empty house knowing that there’s no one else in it and there never will be again. And knowing that I’m going to have to sell it. It’s not the selling it that’s the problem really, I’m not so attached to it. It’s just all the paperwork involved.”

“Well, you don’t have to think about it right now. And I can always stay over if you want.” Riza gave him a sharp look. “I mean on the sofa!” He tried to backtrack. “So that it’s not so big and empty and lonely.”

She laughed. “No, I’ll be ok. I’m just not ready to face it quite yet.” There was a long pause. “Your friends are nice.”

“They can be a bit much, but they mean well.”

“I wasn’t being sarcastic; they really are nice. Although I think Alex’s goodbye hug might have broken all my ribs.”

“Yeah, he’s not good with ‘subtle’.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Riza sat back in her chair, looking up at the ceiling. “The weirdest thing is not knowing what comes next. I’ve never really had any plans. Well, I had plans but they’re not going to work out. I always just thought I’d end up keeping house for my father until… well, until he died. I just hadn’t reckoned on it being so soon. I’ve got my entire life ahead of me and I have no idea what I’m going to do with it. It’s scary, in a way.”

“What were your plans originally?”

Riza shook her head. “It’s stupid.”

“It can’t be that stupid.”

“Fine. I was going to follow in your footsteps. I wanted to join the military and help you do what you’re doing, trying to change the system from within. But then my back happened so that’s out now.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“I’m not really much good for anything else. What other careers require crack shot aiming skills?” Riza snorted. “Looking back I’m honestly surprised he let me near a gun. Maybe he was cocky enough to know I’d never turn it on him.”

Roy wanted to say something, the urge to apologise again bubbling up in the back of his mind, but he squashed it down. Like Chris had said, Riza was dealing with enough conflicted feelings of her own, she didn’t need his guilt as well.

They continued to drink in silence for a while, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Back when he’d first started learning under Berthold, they’d spent quite a lot of time together like this in the kitchen of the Hawkeye home, and it was surprising how easy it was to slip back into that familiarity despite the intervening years.

He was pulled from his thoughts by the drapes along the back wall twitching and Trisha coming out of the clinic. There was a flash of red lightning as Hohenheim transmuted the door into the wall, and then he came out too.

“We’re off,” Trisha said to Chris. “We’re not expecting anyone else tonight, but you know how to get hold of us if there’s an emergency.”

They left the bar hand in hand and Roy watched them go. When he looked back at Riza, her eyes were following them too, with a kind of longing. She had never given voice to anything, at least not in Roy’s earshot, but he’d often had the thought and he knew she must have had it too. Her back meant that she could never be intimate with anyone. Well, at least not without literally trusting them with her life.

“Roy… Would you do me a favour?”

“Of course.”

“Don’t agree yet, you don’t know what it is.”

“Ok. What is it?”

“Will you burn my back?”

“What?”

“I want to get rid of this thing.” Riza wasn’t looking him in the eye, just staring at the dregs in the bottom of her wine glass. “I want it gone so that I can have a normal life and do all the normal things I should be able to do. I’m sick of it. I’m sick of him having control over me even though I just buried him. It doesn’t matter that he’s dead, he’s always going to have this piece of me, and I don’t want it anymore. I just want it to be over.”

“Riza, maybe it would be better if you think on this without three glasses of wine in you.”

The thought of doing it made him feel sick. He was a state alchemist, and he was career military; he knew that he’d be called on to use flame alchemy on people in the future. He knew he would have to use it to kill people. He’d almost made his peace with that pre-emptively, knowing he would hopefully be able to atone for it once he’d worked to make everything better.

Burning Riza though, even at her own request… Hadn’t she already suffered enough at the hands of flame alchemists?

“It’s not a new idea, Roy. I’ve been thinking about it all week.”

“I still think this isn’t the best time to be discussing it. Maybe tomorrow. I’ll come over and we’ll talk about it then. Honestly, Riza, it’s a large area of skin and the damage I’d have to do to destroy it completely, I think it would kill you.”

Riza nodded. “I understand.”

There was a long silence after that, and in the wake of Riza’s request it was an unusually tense one; the uneasiness remaining long after Riza had changed the subject and they were talking freely again. By the time he was walking her back to the Hawkeye house, though, things seemed to have lightened, and Riza seemed to be feeling a little better.

Roy had managed to put the conversation to the back of his mind for most of the following day. He’d taken a few days’ leave for the funeral to be there for Riza if she needed him; she had no other relatives to help her out and she’d lived an isolated enough life not to have any real friends either.

It was only when the phone in the bar rang and Chris passed it over to him that he remembered with a jolt what Riza had asked of him, and his heart was in his mouth as he heard her quiet and hitching voice on the other end of the line.

“Roy, I need your help. I’ve made a massive mistake.”

#FMA Brotherhood #FMA Fanfiction #Royai #Riza Hawkeye #Roy Mustang #Fic: Forged Through Fire

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moviesrotbrains · 4 years ago

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FREAKY slashes up a piece of that horror-comedy pie

Hey, let’s remake FREAKY FRIDAY, but this time it’s about a middle-aged serial killer who swaps places with a 17-year-old girl. That simple yet ridiculous premise is the main plot behind a surprisingly perfect, and fantastically gory, horror-comedy.

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FREAKY is one of those movies that could have failed hard. It’s a brilliant idea that could have fallen apart in the wrong hands. Many films have tried to balance genres and get lost along the way. FREAKY is NOT one of those fails. It’s one of those films that had me rooting for it from the first 5 minutes and still had me pleasantly surprised throughout. In addition to being a great body-swap flick, it’s also an engaging horror flick. It’s like someone shoved your favourite FRIDAY THE 13TH scenes in a blender with MEAN GIRLS. It shouldn’t work… but it does. It’s an ode to 80s slashers, but it’s also an ode to high school-centred comedies? And it does all this while keeping hardcore horror fans pleased by giving it a hard R rating?!? And it’s actually really funny?!?

When they first announced this film, I was expecting a fun PG-13 flick in the vein of HAPPY DEATH DAY, and I was okay with that. I really liked HAPPY DEATH DAY (as with FREAKY, also directed by Christopher Landon). HAPPY DEATH DAY, was a smart spin on GROUNDHOG’S DAY that it did a lot of cool things while also being able to do so with a PG-13. It wasn’t trying to be MANIAC, nor did I ever expect it to. I’m an annoying purist, but I’m ok with light pop-corn horror if done right, and that film did it right.

So with that in mind, I was utterly blown away by the very, very R-RATED kills in the opening 10 minutes. It was a brutal onslaught of gore. It was Landon’s way of saying, “Relax, horror bros, I got you.” It was like a Greatest Hits from decades ago but with a fresh spin on it. Slashers got a little lazy in the last few years, and this film just let it all hang out in that opening scene. It was ballsy as all hell, and I was totally on board. And luckily it didn’t just stop there.

This one has all the tropes of classic stabby fright flicks. Huge emotionless killer? Check. Ominous mask? Check. St upid teenagers getting in trouble? Check. Inventive kills that make you cackle “Holy Shit”? Check. Twists and turns? Check. A growing body count? Check. Final girl? Check. And let’s throw in an occult artifact in the mix that swaps that final girl with that emotionless killer and that’s where you get something new and different!

And if you’re coming into this one from a comedy perspective, this one has all the tropes of classic high school movie. Insecure lead going through an awkward time? Check. Supportive comic relief friends? Check. Parents that just don’t understand? Check. Villainous teachers? Check. Mean girls? Check. Huge awkward misunderstandings? Check. And let’s throw in an occult artifact in the mix that causes said misunderstandings and that’s where you get something new and different!

That new and different wouldn’t be what it is without the standout performance from the two leads, Vince Vaughn & Kaythryn Newton. Vaughn is the aforementioned creepy masked killer. He’s wonderfully cast here as a towering, silent brute. Vaughn of course might be known for his comedic work, but he’s actually got an impressive range that’s very rarely utilized (see BRAWL AT CELLBLOCK 99 for more details). Here he excels as the Butcher. Effective, brutal, and cold. He’s been on a killing spree lately, which we see a bit of at the beginning, and he’s definitely looking to kill some more. And it looks like he found a spooky looking occult dagger

Newton, known to genre fans from her recurring role in SUPERNATURAL, is very likeable as the main lead, Millie. Having recently suffered from the loss of her father, Millie is currently dealing with the ongoing depression that the loss put on her mother, as well as her own struggles to return to normality. Can she survive a day at school from the usual trials, tribulations, bullies, and high school crushes, let alone a serial killer lurking nearby?

And thus their two paths meet in the most unexpected (or very expected) of ways. We soon witness a thrilling chase, very reminiscent of the best Michael Myers and Jason hunts-- in fact this whole chase actually takes place on the eve before Friday the 13th, a very knowing wink to the genre that birthed this film. And soon the Butcher, with Millie in his grips, claims his latest victim… only he doesn’t… darn those occult daggers!

And that’s when the two leads really showcase their acting chops. Vaughn is now a frazzled high school student, and Newton is the silent and sinister stalker. Both take on their new roles excellently and they both embody (heh) them flawlessly. Vaughn is awkward and fragile and Newton is menacingly fierce as fuck. Newton utterly transforms into someone else and her performance is a total triumph. Vaughn is adorable.

Seeing them both re-interact/meet with their friends (and foes) in their new forms is endless fun. You see Vaughn run like a girl and Newton go on a homicidal spree. You see Vaughn give off his best flirty eye and Newton’s best glare of doom. They both seamlessly fill their new roles.

But it’s not quite the seamless exchange for Millie and the Butcher. Millie clumsily gets used to their bigger and stronger frame… and the Butcher realizes they are not as strong as they once were. A lot of what works about this ride is seeing how they both adapt to their new struggles and use it to their advantage. The Butcher has a new mask, and Millie soon finds confidence in herself in her new self.

The supporting cast is used with great effect, too. They all get us to where we need to be. Everyone serves a purpose. From the mom, to older sister/cop, to the comic relief, to the love interest, and classmates of varying degrees of douchebagginess. Everyone is either likeable or unlikeable as they should be. There’s even a nice nod to previous academic farces with a cameo from FERRIS BUELLER’S Alan Ruck as an asshole shop teacher.

Director Christopher Landon is really slicing out a nice niche of off-kilter spins in the horror genre, and it’s reassuring that he knows what he’s doing. It truly is a well-crafted film. Not just as a horror film, but also from a technical standpoint. The pacing is dead perfect, every joke hits, the story beats and setups are well orchestrated, and not a moment is wasted. It’s tense when it needs to be tense, gory when it needs to be gory, and legit laugh out loud moments when it needs to have those LOL moments.

It’s such a great spin to the body-swap comedy genre, a genre that feels like there’s an endless amount where they all sort of felt very “samey”; especially in the 80s, where at one point three different body-swaps came out within 2 years of each other! This one takes the better elements of those, relishes in them, carves new ground, and adds a bit of Tom Hanks’ BIG in for good measure.

But homage to a decade old cinematic fad aside, at no point does it ever stop delivering on the humour and slasher content. It’s tight, daring, and keeps you enthralled throughout. Whether you’re a horror junkie, or into well-written oddball comedies, or even into clever thrillers, the end result has you covered.

There’s a great message in there too, as the film tackles school killings, social media, pc culture, and the general malaise many of us experience after the loss of a loved one. It’s about grief and acceptance and moving on… yet it’s very light-hearted. And you still get ample buckets of blood and splatter.

Yes, fans, there’s so many gruesome and cool looking on screen deaths your morbid heart’s desire. Amazing uses of wine bottles, tennis rackets, chainsaws, and industrial equipment. A creepy serial killer flophouse complete with creepy mannequins and various implements of torture. Possibly a severed head in a bloody toilet? Yeah, this film has that too.

You can currently rent this one on various VOD services. Hopefully this one hits the majority of streaming services soon, since it had the misfortune of opening late last year during the pandemic. It definitely needs a wider audience because it’s another one of those instant classics. It’s easily my favourite current horror-comedy, and I’m looking forward to more from Christopher Landon. A film that’s both goofy and gory with just enough twists to keep your attention and please jaded genre fans? That’s freaky.

#horror #horror movies #blumhouse #freaky #kathryn newton #vince vaughn #Christopher Landon #Slashers #movie reviews #film reviews #body swap #moviesrotbrains #movies rot brains #universal

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arecomicsevengood · 6 years ago

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A YEAR OF READING ACKNOWLEDGED MASTERPIECES #3: E.C. SEGAR’S POPEYE

So, while the original idea behind this series was for me to read an acclaimed comic I expect I’ll like but had not yet actually read, or to read something I’d read a little of but not its entirety, covering E.C. Segar’s Popeye is something of a cheat. When Fantagraphics began their reprint series, a roommate had the first volume, of what would eventually be six, and I read that; I later ordered my own copy of volume 3, and I own a copy of The Smithsonian Collection Of Newspaper Comics, which reprints the “Plunder Island” series of Sunday strips covered in volume 4. I enjoyed all of it, but didn’t feel a pressing need to acquire more, and now Volumes 4 and 5 are out of print and command high prices on the secondary market. This motivated me to get a copy of the still-available volume 6, which might seem less appealing because it’s the last stuff Segar did before he died, and health issues led there to be periods of time where the strip was entrusted to his assistants, in sequences not included.

The editors say those strips aren’t good, I’ll take their word for it. Other people have tried to sell other Popeye product, and I’m sure some of it is quite good: There are some people who take pains to point out that the Segar comic strips are not similar to the Fleischer brothers cartoons, but I’m sure those cartoons are good fun, I generally like the stuff that studio produced. I have seen the 1980 Robert Altman movie, starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall, with a screenplay by Jules Feiffer and songs by Harry Nilsson, which is a notorious flop, but with some admirers: Still, it’s a slog, which the comic strip never is. IDW’s comic strip reprint line put out books collection the late eighties/early nineties run of former underground cartoonist Bobby London, what I’ve read of that stuff (just previews online) is unfunny garbage. I think they also were behind reprints of comic books by Bud Sagendorf, and a revival written by Roger Langridge, neither of which I’ve read, though Langridge’s work is always ok; good enough for me to think it’s good, not compelling or transcendent enough for me to spend money on it. It’s all work done by those who have rights to the license, which makes me view it as essentially merchandise, like a pinball game or something. The Segar stuff is where it all comes from.

While other masterpieces of the first half of the twentieth century comics page, like George Herriman’s Krazy Kat or Winsor McKay’s Little Nemo are definitely acquired tastes, Popeye was not only popular enough to make its creator a rich man back in the day, it remains functional as populist entertainment today. I feel pretty “what’s not to like?” about it, and would recommend it to whoever. It’s funny, the characters are good, there’s adventures. The humor is three quarters sitcom style character work and one quarter the sort of silliness that verges on absurdism.

This light touch separates it from the first half of the twentieth century’s “adventure strips” that didn’t age as well, despite having well-done art that would influence generations of superhero artists. Segar’s art isn’t particularly impressive, but every strip tells a joke or two, and even if you don’t laugh at every joke, you’ll appreciate its readability, especially if you’ve ever tried to read a Roy Crane comic, or even Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy. I don’t want to praise E.C. Segar by merely listing works his comics read better than, but it really is notable how many people today are basically trying to do what he did, but are failing at least in part due to not understanding that’s what they’re trying to do. If you want to do a comedic adventure story that becomes popular enough for you to be financially successful, it might be worth reading a volume of Popeye and observing its rhythms. When I was reviewing Perdy a few weeks ago, I was thinking “This basically just wants to be a R-rated Popeye.” I recently found 3/4 of the issues of the Troy Nixey-drawn comic Vinegar Teeth for a quarter each; despite that comic’s high-concept pitch involving Lovecraftian monsters, it would probably have been better if it thought of itself as being a descendant of Popeye, rather than something that could be adapted into a movie. I’ll just phrase it in the format of a popular Twitter meme: Some of you have never read Popeye, and it shows.

Lesson number one, which just sort of emerges naturally from the format of the daily strip, is you’ve got to make jokes, and they can’t just be the same one, over and over again. To that end, you need a cast of characters, who each have their own bit, and who play off each other in various ways. It is easy to see why people don’t do this: Large ensembles grow organically, and most people start telling a story with either a central character or something precisely in mind they want to chronicle. The comic strip, with its long runs originating from a practitioner’s ability to tell a joke, can be a bit freer to stumble onto something that works, without even necessarily having a title character to return to. The collections might be named after Popeye, but the comic strip being collected in these books was called Thimble Theater, which ran for a decade before Popeye showed up and circulation sky-rocketed. For a while, I think the consensus on the early stuff was it was pretty boring and hard to read before Popeye came in and livened the whole thing up, but recently there was a reprint of this earlier material, and I know the dude who reviewed it for The Comics Journal liked it, though I’m sure it’s easy to find someone at The Comics Journal who will like an old comic strip even if it’s bad. Either way, modern cartoonists don’t have Segar’s luxury, or having their work run for a half-disinterested audience until something clicks so much word spreads.

The gag-a-day pace, built around getting into new situations and adventures, itself creates a pressure to be inventive today’s graphic novelists can’t really match. After Popeye is established as a good character, prone to getting into scrapes, Segar can show us the comedy of him caring for a baby. He can also introduce Popeye’s dad, Poopdeck Pappy, that this character looks basically exactly like Popeye but is a piece of shit is a funny idea that would not occur in the early days of planning a project.

One reason why you wouldn’t necessarily do such a design choice is because, if you’re thinking of different media as a way to success, having characters with the exact same silhouette runs counter to the generally accepted rules of animation. Thimble Theatre, as per its name, is based on theater staging, rather than the more expressionist angles of film: We’re looking at characters from the side, usually seeing whoever’s talking in the same panel unless one of them is out of the room. These characters tend to have the same height, basically. Someone once said that looking at Popeye, printed six strips to a page, is kind of like looking at a page of sheet music. It’s not a particularly visually dynamic strip, the amount of black and white on a page is close to unvarying.

This is why I don’t believe in prescriptivism, or a suggestion of rules: I’m pretty sure that Popeye works because it’s not working super-hard to be visually interesting. This would be the number two lesson of what there is to learn from Popeye. I think this transparency in style is what allows this comedy/adventure hybrid to work, though I know others would blanch at this. It’s going for a big audience, and while I think this visual approach serves that end, I know why others, especially those who’ve been struck by later superhero comics or manga, would see visual excitement as the best way to achieve that goal. The audience that read newspaper comics wasn’t necessarily adept at following visual storytelling, and the sort of relationship that newspaper strips could have with a wider readership is not going to be achievable now. The folks that ride for Segar these days are mostly alt-comics people, like Sammy Harkham or Kevin Huizenga, who aren’t attempting the sort of popular entertainment extravaganzas he trafficked in.

Reading Popeye feels like reading, basically, which is a nice, contemplative experience, that not all comics can capture. I read a few pages of it before bed. Obviously, this pace is not how people consumed it in its heyday, but the pace people took it in at, a strip a day, is even more deliberate and steady, and I think, was crucial to its popularity. For a comic to be popular, it has to have characters that are interesting, obviously; there is probably no better way for an audience to build a relationship with fictional characters than over extended periods of time. This speed corresponds to the pace it was created at, one that now seems insanely luxurious to anyone whose workflow is dictated by the internet’s demand for content. It’s a total crowdpleaser, but it existed at a time where crowds could slowly gather. Popeye’s a popular entertainment from an era of reading, listening to the radio, going to plays or movies. It holds up, owing to a basic pleasantness we can understand as low stakes, and that’s helped along by the restraint of the art. It’s telling a story. It’s not a farce, crowded with visual jokes, and it’s not dictated by characters’ emoting either. I love a visually expressive art style, but here it’s important that the visuals remain “on-model,” reinforcing the stability of the characterizations. This sort of thing is also evident in Chris Onstad’s Achewood, which I would argue is the preeminent 21st century character-driven comic strip, with an audience that feels relatively “wide” rather than pointedly “niche.”

Lesson number three to how to make a popular comic is the thought I find myself thinking all the time, which is “Everyone needs to chill out.” The number one impediment to making entertainment that just quietly works is the desire to stand out and make a name for yourself as quickly as possible. This is similar to how the number one impediment to a peaceful and contented life is the demands of a failing capitalism where we are all competing for a shrinking pile of resources. To read these books now is a luxury, an indulgence, and while I don’t much go in for those, reading older comic strips carries with it this sort of nostalgic appeal for an era where it didn’t feel like everything was screaming at you for your attention all the time. As broad as Popeye is, it now possesses a certain dignity, owing to this dislocation in time from its origin. I don’t know if this felt like a feature at the time. I do think that if you are an artist that wants to be successful now, you should do what you can for the sort of circumstances that allow for genuine, long-lasting success to build, which involves a certain degree of permission to fail. Mainstream comics companies, with their mentality of “we’re going to print hundreds of comics a month, in hopes some find a niche large enough to be briefly profitable we can then try to milk for their last dollar and they quickly become exhausted,” act against this. As in a garden, there needs to be space for things to take root and grow.

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imagine-loki · 7 years ago

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Fear and Other Related Emotions

TITLE: Fear and Other Related Emotions

CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter-18

AUTHOR: latent-thoughts ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine meeting Loki to interrogate him while he is incarcerated in the Helicarrier glass enclosure. He initially tries to scare you away but then becomes interested in you as you keep talking to him. RATING: NC-17/ MA NOTES/WARNINGS: Warning for explicit sexual situations and violence (combat/fighting/interrogations).

A/N: Ok guys, gear up and fasten your seatbelts. This is going to be a bumpy ride. A lot is happening in this chapter.

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Loki was feeling extremely exhausted. He had waded through the scree to reach the steep mountain on the edge of the capital territory, and now, he was just about to reach the top of it. It was proving to be a laborious task, and yet, he persevered.

He was desperate to get back to Earth. He wanted to go back to Reva, to see if she was coping well. He had done all that he could to ensure that she’d be fine. Doubt, however, had a way of creeping in.

Also, he knew that the longer he stayed away from her, the deeper her contempt for him would grow. He most certainly didn’t want that.

Breathing a bit heavily, he hoisted himself up over the edge of the mountain face and looked back at the city skyline, the palace looking very small and insignificant from his vantage point.

The Einherjar were still on the hunt for him, but he had managed to evade them thus far. Now, he was for headed for the passageway back to Earth. He felt the heavy strain on his seidr due to the sheer amount of infinity stones resting within his hold. It was the very reason he was having to toil this hard to escape.

“The Norns must hate me,” he muttered to himself as he entered the cave that contained the passageway, trudging onward towards the shimmering portal.

Suddenly, he was struck with a wave of dizziness, strong enough to knock him down on his knees. His vision blurred, and bright colours swirled around in front of him, very reminiscent of the Bifrost. Gritting his teeth, Loki tried to concentrate on his breathing to regain the use of his faculties.

The colours seemed to meld and mix, creating their own set of illusions for him. Now, he even began hearing voices. Familiar voices… a very particular one.

“My son…”

His eyes widened, and his mouth dropped in shock upon hearing the one voice he had thought he’d never hear again.

“My little raven…”

“Mother…” he whispered, his lips quivering in both shock and immense grief.

He heard a chuckle from her then. “But I thought I wasn’t your mother?”

Loki’s eyes felt as though they were burning, and his vision blurred further. He realized that he was crying. “I lied… it’s what I do.”

In this moment, he felt broken and damaged, never to be whole again. Like a piece of fine china after it was smashed into pieces.

“But you also speak the harshest truth, which no one pays any mind.” Gone was the mirth in his mother’s voice. Now, she sounded disappointed.

“Please forgive me,” he whispered again, not daring to look up at her. He had failed as a son; he couldn’t meet her eyes.

“You think your little outburst did anything to lessen my love for you?”

More tears streamed down his eyes as he finally looked up at her. She was an image of serenity, of peace. He wanted to touch her so badly, to seek comfort in her soothing embrace. In many ways he felt like a child in this moment, wanting to seek his mother’s doting touch to calm his anxiety and chase away the monsters of the night.

Alas, he was the monster himself… and comfort wasn’t really his lot in life. All he could do was to lament.

“Please�� mother, please. Come back,” he begged her brokenly, all his pride vanishing in this moment.

Frigga smiled sadly. “But you know I can’t. I’m… content where I am. I’m at peace.”

He had expected that answer. Still, it didn’t stop the blasted tears.

“I’m so… lost.”

“You’re not. You are strong, Loki. My little raven has grown up and now, it is time for him to spread his wings.”

He shook his head, disbelieving her words, wondering which part of his brain was responsible for these intense illusions. “It’s too much.”

“Your destiny awaits, my son, you alone have the power to make it yours.”

“But my destiny was… to die…” He repeated Odin’s words, even as they reopened the wounds which had barely begun to heal.

“You know that is not true.”

He shook his head wildly, unable to shake the feeling that this was his own mind playing tricks on him. “I’m alone… I cannot do this.”

“You don’t have to fight this war alone.”

“I have no allies!”

“And only you can change that. You’re not alone, my son, your victory awaits you.”

“My… victory?” he asked, looking up at her in wonder, feeling more confused than ever.

She smiled at him, though her image wobbled.

“And your family…” Her hand touched his cheek, though he felt nothing. He so badly wanted to feel it.

The strange colours saturating his vision slowly faded then, along with the image of Frigga. Cries of frustration and sorrow resounded from his throat as she was once again taken from him.

“Mother!”

But she didn’t come forth again.

Loki didn’t know if hours passed or merely minutes, but he stayed there in the cave, on his knees. A weighty feeling of defeat was threatening to take over his consciousness, with the thought of Reva being the only thing to keep it at bay.

He had to check on her. His instincts were compelling him to do it.

Hence, he rose to his feet and made his way over to the passageway.

Once he was through it, his seidr rippled and caught on to the wards he had put in place to contain the unruly mortal twins.

His eyes widened as he realized that the girl, Wanda, had broken through them somehow. It was, perhaps, an aftereffect of his weakened magic that she was able to do so.

Nonetheless, this new development meant that the twins were out now, and were most definitely wreaking havoc in some manner.

Loki closed his eyes and checked his reserves for residual magic. It wasn’t much, and he felt highly exposed for the lack of it, but he would have to make do with whatever he had. It would take at least a week for him to replenish it, considering the constant drain caused by the infinity stones. For one, it was a small mercy that he had just enough of it to summon the scepter from his interdimensional hold.

The scepter materialized slowly in his hand, his body shuddering with its power. It glowed a bright blue upon his regard, unsettling him.

A single thought trickled into his brain then, which he was able to trace back to the otherworldly weapon. A single thought that nearly made him collapse on his knees again.

Reva was in distress. He didn’t know how or why the scepter knew that, but he did know that he had to act quickly.

He first landed in her abode, which he immediately knew was empty. Logic told him that he ought to head over to the Stark Tower. Instinct, however, told him that it was not the place where Reva was. The odd message was still being relayed from the scepter… Reva was in some sort of trouble.

He closed his eyes for a moment, hoping to connect with the scepter in a manner that allowed him more clarity of vision.

The scepter hummed in his grip, the energy travelling up his arm, its strange magic at odds with his own. He had known it to contain magic, but it had never willingly interacted with him before. The sensation wasn’t pleasant, but he persevered. He had to… for Reva’s sake.

Suddenly, an image erupted in his mind’s eye, making him aware of a location he had seen before… somewhere he had been before.

Squaring his shoulders, Loki opened his eyes and teleported to the SHIELD headquarters.

———————————————–

Chaos was the one word that came to his mind as he arrived at SHIELD, with people running helter-skelter and explosions resounding all over. Usually, he quite enjoyed the nature of chaos, for there was a strange beauty to it, that which not everyone could appreciate.

However, right now, chaos was something that wasn’t matching up to his plans and he needed to be rid of it.

Loki had arrived on one of the lower levels of the building, having known it well from his last visit here in the guise of Nick Fury.

It was empty, everyone having evacuated rather quickly, he assumed. There was no sign of Reva here. Hence, he moved on, his eyes searching for her frantically in all the dark corners and niches of the building as he made his way up.

He desperately wanted to use magic to cover his tracks, to disguise himself, but he knew that he had precious little left of it; saving it was priority.

Perhaps the time was nigh to make it known that he was here, after all. He didn’t care for anyone’s reaction to it, just that Reva be safe and sound.

Suddenly, he heard the sounds of struggle, and a familiar voice made his ears twitch.

Reva…

He quickened his pace to that of a sprint, chasing the voices he was hearing somewhere at the other end of the long corridor he was in.

As he came closer, he saw her. She appeared to be frozen and struggling, with a robot trying to crowd her with its enormous metallic body. Wanda Maximoff stood next to her, her hands glowing red.

“You realize this is exactly what science fiction warned us about? These robots are mad!”

If it weren’t a situation so dire, Loki would’ve affectionately chuckled at her attempt to use logic to be free.

“Let her go,” he said as he stepped into the field of their vision, raising the scepter as a warning.

He needed to have Reva at a safe distance before unleashing anything from the scepter, hence, he was essentially posturing, hoping that the threat would be enough to force her assailants to retreat.

Reva’s gaze locked with his as she looked up in surprise. It twisted his heart to see that she didn’t seem pleased to see him.

“Loki…” she whispered, but said nothing more.

Suddenly, a blast of red energy came right at him. His quick reflexes aided him in stepped away from its line of fire just in time.

“Wanda, don’t do this!” he yelled as she sent another blast at him. “This isn’t the war you want to fight in!”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” she yelled back, adamant as ever.

“You shouldn’t be in a war! You are not old enough for it.”

“You don’t get to tell me that!”

“Uh, guys I think this conversation needs a hasty conclusion. I still hear explosions.” Reva exchanged a few glances with him and Wanda, her eyes furtive.

Loki decided to try and convince Wanda again. “This is madness, child, this automation isn’t your friend. He simply wants to use you to further his own endeavours. Please try to think what your actions are causing.”

The said automation laughed in response to his words.

“Less damage than what you caused,” Wanda countered, dislodging a piece of the ceiling to bring it down on Loki. He evaded it easily.

“And I paid a heavy price for it! Don’t make the same mistake.” He was being earnest here, and he hoped that she’d pay attention to what he was saying.

Wanda stared at him blankly, and for a moment, it appeared to him that she was thinking of heeding his words.

“You can end this campaign without causing further damage. You can—”

Suddenly, he was hit from behind, hard enough that it knocked him off his feet. The scepter flew from his grip, landing a few steps away. He groaned and picked himself up. As he did so, he was hit again.

Right in front of his eyes, the scepter vanished. That’s when he realized what was happening.

Pietro…

“I got a plane waiting upstairs!” he heard the boy shout, never once seeing his form in full as he ran away from him.

A blast of energy hit Loki then, who, in his distracted state, had taken his eyes off Wanda. A bad decision indeed. The attack was strong enough to shake his bones and disorient him, even if momentarily.

He heard more commotion as he tried to recover and stand up.

Reva was shrieking, the robot was talking. Loki was unable to get his bearings and understand what was being said.

“Wanda, no,” he groaned, knowing full well that she was going to follow her brother. The brother who was now in possession of the scepter.

Another blast of her magic was fired at him, and he was barely able to roll over to avoid it.

Norns… give me the strength… he prayed silently, picking himself up from the floor as Wanda and the robot went the same way as Pietro, with Reva still their captive. He could hear her screaming as she was carried upstairs, and he tried to give chase.

Dashing up the stairs that led to the top of the building, Loki tried not to think of the various scenarios where might find his beloved dead.

No! He had worked so hard to prevent it from happening. He wouldn’t let it happen… couldn’t let it happen. He had even promised her so…

When he reached the top, however, the flying machine was gone. There was no sign of Reva or the twins, nor of the murderous robot that held her.

Instead, Thor stood there now, his eyes wide, shock clearly written on his face.

Loki cursed his damned luck for the umpteenth time…

“Loki?” Thor’s voice held a tremor as he said his name, so unlike his usual self that Loki couldn’t quite believe his ears.

“Brother…” he murmured, feeling ripples of shock go through him as well.

This wasn’t the reunion he had planned for. Nothing was going as he had planned. Nothing at all.

“I know that this is quite the shock, but I need to leave,” he said, raising his hands in a peace offering, to demonstrate that he wasn’t trying to cause trouble.

He wanted to be out of this situation at the earliest, for he knew that time was not on his side. Reva was still very much in danger.

“No you don’t.” Thor’s visage changed suddenly, as anger took over the shocked and confused expression he earlier held. “You betrayed me that day on Svartalfheim… making a mockery of your own death!”

“I didn’t. I wasn’t trying to.”

“I mourned you!”

“I’m honoured.”

“I realize now that you’re not worth it.” With that Thor roared and slammed into him, mjiolnir ready to strike.

Loki feinted the attack by jumping aside, knowing Thor’s combat style and using the knowledge to avoid getting hit.

“Thor, we can do this later.”

“We’re not! I’m done mourning you, over and over again. I want answers!”

Thor let go of the hammer and grabbed Loki by shoulders, shaking him as his face contorted in anger. “You have no idea how it felt. How I blamed and tormented myself for your death… for everything that happened prior. I deserve to know!”

“It certainly wasn’t a waste of effort, brother.” Loki tried to get out of his hold, kicking him in the ribs to slip away.

Thor groaned as the blow landed but it didn’t deter him from going after Loki again. “It certainly feels like that, seeing you alive, hale and hearty!”

He threw a punch as Loki was backing away, catching his shoulder instead of his face. It was off the mark but still enough to knock Loki down.

“Will you ever not deceive me?” he asked, still full of ire as he called the mjiolnir to his hand.

Loki experienced something strange then… what the Midgardians often referred to as ‘déjà vu.’

He was on his back and Thor loomed above him, bringing the hammer to rest on his chest, pinning him to the floor.

“I’m not deceiving you,” Loki exhaled, feeling the crushing weight of the hammer on his chest once again. “I need to… I need to be elsewhere and I don’t have time for this. We can talk later, at length, as much as you wish.”

“You’d be a fool to think that I’d trust you anymore with anything, any word.” Thor looked down at him with sad, yet angry eyes. “It has happened one too many times, Loki. You have taken advantage of me.”

Rage boiled inside him, sudden and urgent, with the heavy weight of desperation.

“I saved your life, you thankless, witless oaf! And not just your own, but your beloved’s!” He grabbed the mjiolnir with both hands, his ire wanting a target. “I put myself in the line of fire for her, for you! You only wished to use me in your endeavour to save her and then throw me back in the dungeons to rot forever! And yet here you are, sermonizing me about taking advantage of you!”

Thor took a step back, surprised by the venom in Loki’s voice.

“I died Thor! I went to Helheim, as a monster is wont to do! All for you and your mortal!” He gritted his teeth and pushed at the hammer, tears of frustration forming in his eyes as the vision of Reva, dead in his arms assaulted his thoughts.

“Then are you—”

“Enough! If she dies, Thor, if she gets harmed, I will lay waste to everything. Everything! I swear on the Yggdrasil if you do not let me go I will—”

“Who are you even talking about?”

“I will not sit idle and let her die!” Something unexpected happened then, as Loki pushed at mjiolnir in his rage and desperation. It shifted in his grip. Shocked, he pushed again, and it gave, sliding off his chest to land on the floor with a thud.

Loki rose to his feet in a flash, watching Thor with wary rage, who returned an equal enough gaze of wariness.

“How did you… that’s not possible.”

“As much as I’d love to have a discourse on why and how, I don’t have time.”

Loki was preparing using his magic to escape Thor, when he spoke up again. “You’re… in love.”

“That’s also not possible, I suppose, given your low regard of me,” he responded, unable to help himself from using sarcasm.

“Where’s she?” Thor asked, stepping closer to Loki. “What happened?”

“They—Ultron and the Maximoffs—took her, in a flying… in a craft.”

“The quinjet.”

He looked at Thor sharply. “You know about it?”

“I’ve travelled in these things. Saw one taking off from here and fly north.”

Loki sighed wearily, wondering just how much magic it would take him to get there… if at all he was able to locate the quinjet.

“I’ll take you,” Thor offered with a nod. “It cannot have gone very far.”

Loki looked at him in surprise. “You really are offering me a helping hand?”

Thor gave Loki a knowing smirk, a sort of interaction that they hadn’t shared in years. “You did so with Jane. Besides, I’m curious to know her.”

——————————————-

Reva groaned and tried to sit up, her head throbbing after it had been banged against something hard.

Oh, she remembered with a wince… her head hadn’t been banged against something, but something hard had hit her head. She guessed it to be the bot’s fist.

She blinked several times to clear her vision as she tried to remember more details about her assault.

She had heard the girl—Wanda—gasp just before she was hit. She had also heard a few other explosions in the distance. Nothing else came back to her.

Trying to get her bearings, she felt the floor beneath her shake and hum. With a start, she realized that she in a plane, up in the air somewhere.

She looked up and found the girl—Wanda—staring at her as if she was trying to solve a riddle. Prying her eyes from her, she looked around the interior of the plane, trying to place the bot. She couldn’t find it anywhere near the girl, which was a relief.

“Dizzy?” Wanda asked suddenly, startling Reva as she was trying to sit up.

Well, it was an opening for a conversation, a possibility for a negotiation.

She nodded. “It’s not everyday that I get hit by murderous robots.”

“What else did you think was going to happen,” she said in caustic tone, “when you let that murderous alien into your bed?”

Reva ignored that jibe, instead, focusing back on Wanda. “I’m pretty certain that in terms of body count, you’re now ahead of him.”

Wanda glared at her but remained quiet. Reva tried to think of something to continue the flow of the conversation. The more familiar she made herself to Wanda, the more chances of survival she had. Rational people always hesitated in killing someone who had had some sort of acquaintance with them.

Of course, she was assuming that Wanda was rational…

“What’s your motivation even? Like, at least Loki wanted to rule the Earth. What’s your end game?”

“Revenge.” Wanda didn’t elaborate.

Reva sighed, then looked down. “Revenge from Loki?”

“No, Stark.”

That surprised her, but she didn’t let it show. “Then why take me?”

The boy—Pietro–entered the cabin then, and answered the question for Wanda. “Because Loki took us and kept us locked up all this time.”

“He didn’t want you to get involved, to be used as weapons.” Reva did wonder now if that was the true motivation of Loki for keeping the twins locked up.

After all, he wasn’t known to be truthful, and he had indeed lied to her.

“We want to be weapons, this is why we volunteered for Strucker’s experiments,” Wanda muttered, her eyes growing unfocused as she looked beyond Reva, most probably reliving certain memories from her time with Strucker.

“Of course, who am I to stop you from hurting yourself… or innocent people.”

“Do we really need her?” Pietro asked, looking at his sister with genuine look of curiosity.

Wanda shrugged. “Ultron wanted to.”

“And you obviously listen to him like obedient pets,” Reva muttered, losing her patience with the situation a bit. The kids were beyond reason.

Wanda seemed poised to tell her off, but then the cockpit door opened and in came Ultron. “Ah, the sleeping beauty awakens.”

“What’s with you and Disney references?”

“We all have our interests, likes and dislikes. Speaking of dislikes, your acquaintance is certainly on my strong dislike list.”

It was Loki he was referring to, and Reva wonder how he planned to use her to gain leverage over him. It made her very fearful for her safety.

“I don’t know why you are talking to me then, when your feud is with him,” she said, trying to gauge if logic worked with him, considering his very nature as a logic based computer program.

“Ah,” he said, then pulled the scepter from behind his broad metal back. “But here’s the beauty of it. You have a connection to him, whereby, if I hurt you, it shall hurt him.”

“What are you doing?” Wanda stood up suddenly, as Reva backed into the seat in reflex action.

“Hey, as far as we’re concerned, she’s of no use to us, really.” Now Pietro came up next to his sister. Reva noticed that he had put his body between her and Ultron, and realized that the twins weren’t fully confident in their friendship with the AI.

She just hoped that they kept bickering and didn’t pay her any mind. Then, maybe Loki would find her and… save her? She certainly hoped he would, though doubt was trying to claw its way into her mind.

“How about we step back from her and deal with this matter more efficiently?” Ultron motioned towards her with his free hand, a hint of sarcasm in his tone.

“More efficiently? How?” Wanda asked, her wary gaze shifting from Ultron to Reva and back. She did back away from her, though, and Pietro followed her lead.

“Well, since you are so correct in your assessment of not needing her…” he said, waving his hand in the air. “…we might as well get rid of her.”

And as he ended that sentence, he brought the scepter down on Reva. Her eyes widened, and she rolled away at the last millisecond, unsure how her reflexes even handled that situation.

She heard yelling, both the twins crying out and speaking in a foreign tongue. She wasn’t sure what was being said and really, that wasn’t even a priority, because she was certain that another attack was coming.

Her hands grabbed at the various contraptions attached to the interior of the plane as she tried to stand up and face Ultron. Just as she did, she was hit with a blast of energy from his palm… so strong that it knocked her against the metallic inner walls of the plane, causing a dent not unlike the table at SHIELD.

He looked poised to strike again, but then he was knocked down. Reva couldn’t even see clearly what exactly knocked him down, but it seemed like one of the twins had done it.

“Stop!” Wanda screamed at Ultron, her hands glowing and aimed at him. That… was a pleasant surprise to Reva.

“Oh Wanda, you cannot be serious,” he said, sounding way too calm for the commotion he was causing. “This is our chance at getting back at Loki.”

Wanda faltered, though her hands still glowed.

“It isn’t really on our agenda.” Pietro said from somewhere in the cabin. He must be zipping about, for Reva couldn’t see him.

“Well, it’s on mine.” Ultron threw the scepter at Reva once again, and as she was stuck against a corner, she couldn’t move away in time.

It struck her in the chest, going through and pinning her to the inner walls of the plane.

More screaming ensued, but it sounded distant as pain erupted in her chest, sharp and rippling throughout her body.

The plane tilted sideways and down, and sounds of metal being crunched and ripped rang about her.

Her vision turned blurry as she choked on her breath, knowing that it was worse… much worse than the last time Ultron had struck her.

Strangely enough, she felt the heat and energy of the scepter, now imbedded in her chest. It made her feel… calm. Weirdly calm.

On the very edge of awareness now, as her vision began to fade, Reva could finally understand the minds of the twins through the scepter. However, she couldn’t really focus on them… as she felt her own life force ebbing.

Blood churned in her chest and welled upwards, its metallic taste overwhelming her mouth.

More harsh noises reached her ears, slashing and clashing, screaming and chaos.

“Reva!” That was… familiar. Painfully so.

Maybe she was hallucinating, maybe this was how death played out. It tricked the mind into experiencing the scenarios it badly wanted.

For her right now, it was to hear Loki’s voice one last time… and hear him she did, even if it was an anguished cry of desperation.

#Loki #Lover #Angst #Submitted fic #submission #fear and other related emotions #chapter 18 #latent-thoughts #interrogation #incarceration #helicarrier #enclosure #ensnare #interest

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faninacan · 5 years ago

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#YouTube #Nathan Conner

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bestseoservicesglwn475-blog · 5 years ago

Text

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Based on the findings of a technical SEO audit, we recently made fixes to a site in the brewing industry.

After fixing all the errors, this company saw a 1,100 percent increase in traffic.

That’s the promise of technical SEO!

Become a Monetization Powerhouse

Read a step-by-step guide on how to find the most profitable niches, boost your organic traffic, and learn from your successful rivals. Powered by SEMrush.

Learn More

3. Keyword Research

The Process

Keyword research remains incredibly useful.

You need to understand how people search, what people search for, and how search engines use keywords to serve results.

I highly recommend reading Roger Montti’s excellent guide, How to Do Keyword Research for SEO: Everything You Need to Know.

The Promise

As I explained in 4 Pillars of a Successful Legal Content Strategy, keyword research helps you uncover which keywords are most valuable to you.

Optimizing your content around high-value keywords is what will get you in front of your potential clients or customers when they need you most.

If people can’t find you when they’re looking for a service or product you offer, then they can’t buy from you. It’s that simple.

Article Source:

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-process-promise/264047/#close

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seotipsandtricks-me · 5 years ago

Photo

At the end of Anti-Sell, there’s a ‘Further Reading’ section, recommending a bunch of books that the reader can check out beyond mine. And even though it might seem like a really lazy rather ingenious copy/paste job from the book (), I thought it made a lot of sense to share it on here, too. Throughout the book I’ve mentioned numerous books and resources that can help you on your Anti-Selling journey. Here’s a list, with a bit more info about each of them, plus a few more for good measure. A quick note: None of these authors paid me a fee to be included, nor do I get a commission if you buy any of them. I recommend these books 100% wholeheartedly – because I actually really like them.* ReWork by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson ReWork is probably my favourite business self-help book of all time, and a big influence on Anti-Sell. Why? Because ReWork is also quite rebellious in nature: it goes against the grain of traditional business advice but makes excellent recommendations in spite of that. It was recommended to me by a client (thank you Scott of TestLodge!) and on the first listen (I bought the audiobook), I fell in love with it. While listening to it in the car, I used to scream “YES!!!” after sentences I agreed with – which happened a lot. And probably sounded weird if I had my car window open. But there we go. Some of its takeaways include: Other people’s failures are other people’s failures, not yours. So when people talk about the survival rate of freelancers, small businesses and startups, just remember: if other people fail, that doesn’t mean you will too. Plans should be called “guesses.” I remember freaking out when I had to put together a business ‘plan’ for some funding that I was seeking in the early days of freelancing (if I remember correctly, it was funding to cover my first year’s membership at my coworking space). How do I know how my business is going to do next year or the year after that? And that’s precisely the point. Call them guesses. To quote the book: “Start referring to your business plans as business guesses, your financial plans as financial guesses, and your strategic plans as strategic guesses. Now you can stop worrying about them as much.” Everything you do is marketing. This ties in very closely to the message of the book you are currently reading. Marketing isn’t defined by adverts and promotional materials – it’s literally everything you do. Every. Single. Thing. You. Do. Every email you send is marketing. Every invoice you send is marketing. Just because you’ve won a client, it doesn’t mean that the marketing stops there for them. Every action you take can leave an impression on someone – good or bad. I could go on and on, but I’ll stop there (not-in-the-book note: I actually wrote about my biggest takeaways from ReWork – including the above points plus more – on this very blog a few years ago: here’s the link). If Anti-Sell has resonated with you, and you haven’t yet read ReWork, pick up a copy. I’m sure it will resonate with you as well. While writing this book, Fried and DHH released a new book: It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work, which – as you can probably guess from its title – addresses the sensitive subject of work-life balance. It’s worth checking out as well. > Buy ReWork on Amazon The Pumpkin Plan by Mike Michalowicz The Pumpkin Plan is a special book to me. Whether you’re just starting out, or you’ve been running a small business for a while and you’ve hit a rut, there are some great tips in it. As mentioned in earlier chapters of the book, it has advice on: How to go niche when it comes to targeting clients. Creating your own Assessment Chart, which can be used to score clients on certain criteria, in order to help you to detect which clients are the best-fit for you (not-in-the-book note: I’ve blogged about the Assessment Chart over on State of Digital). Tactics for cutting bad-fit clients in a way that won’t cause any animosity, fallout or professional embarrassment. Mike also has another good book called Profit First, where he recommends paying yourself first before paying bills, whereas typically we do the opposite (we pay our bills and then keep what’s left over as profit, however big or small that amount may be), so it’s worth checking out what he has to say on that as well. > Buy The Pumpkin Plan on Amazon To Sell Is Human by Daniel H. Pink “We’re all in sales now.” In Chapter 2 of the book, I touched upon the phenomenon of the ‘‘typical’ salesperson, citing the movie Glengarry Glen Ross as a classic example. To Sell Is Human further investigates this somewhat old-fashioned stereotype, suggesting that salespeople of this nature are near-enough a thing of the past. If anything, we’re all in sales – especially these days. While we still have ‘obvious’ types of sales, such as the process of asking a client to give you money in order to provide a service in return, we might also conduct certain tasks or habits that may not seem like sales but totally fall under that category. In a broader sense, sales is the process of asking someone to part with their time, money or resource somehow, in order to get something back that benefits you. So in other words, sales is essentially the process of moving or persuading someone to take action. When Daniel conducted a survey asking people if they work in sales, he found that while one in nine people considered themselves a salesperson in the traditional sense, when it came to ‘non-sales selling’ or moving/persuading others, the ratio was much higher. If Chapters 2 and 3 piqued your interest especially, and you’re interested in learning more about how sales has ‘shifted’ in its meaning and behaviour in the last few decades, then To Sell Is Human is worth taking a look at. A lot of what Daniel covers is backed up by psychological studies, and the book even includes selling tactics such as mimicry, the best style of positive self-talk, and in which order you should appear if you’re part of a series of agency pitches and you want the best chance to succeed. It’s an interesting read. > Buy To Sell Is Human on Amazon Start With Why by Simon Sinek “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” Simon Sinek’s TED talk covering this topic is the third most popular TED talk of all time, having been viewed more than 40 million times on the TED website. In Start With Why he explains that most people in business talk about what they do, before saying how they do it, then lastly say why they do what they do. He then goes on to argue that the most inspirational people and businesses – think Apple, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Wright Brothers – start with why they do what they do, and then talk about the how and the what, i.e. the reverse of the usual order. Effectively communicating the “why” part of your core marketing message can make a huge difference on how you are perceived by others. > Buy Start With Why on Amazon Youtility by Jay Baer “Smart marketing is about help, not hype” – this is the core message of Youtility. The book starts off with Jay using a real-life example of a swimming pool installation business coming close to going under as a result of the 2008 economic downturn. In an attempt to drum-up more business, the owner started writing blog posts that answered frequently asked questions and also covered issues and problems that his customers often had to deal with. He literally sat down and wrote blog content covering every single possible question someone might ask him. Over time, his website became a go-to source for all help on swimming pool purchasing decisions, with some arguing that its popularity has made it the world’s favourite go-to source on the subject. His efforts led to more customers for the business, and he also found that it led to better educated, easier-to-sell-to and therefore easier-to-convert customers. The rest of the book explains how you can utilise Youtility – in the same way as the swimming pool business – and why it’s the best way to market yourself now and in the future. > Buy Youtility on Amazon The Highly Sensitive Person by Dr Elaine Aron and Making Work Work for the Highly Sensitive Person by Dr Barrie Jaeger I only necessarily recommend these books to people who resonated with the relevant subsection of Chapter 6 of the book. When I first discovered that I was an HSP (a Highly Sensitive Person), it was life-changing – not only because I felt like a freak growing up and thought that I was the only person who felt this way (these books revealed that this is far from the reality), but because Dr Jaeger’s book has a chapter in it that recommends self-employment as a viable career option for HSPs. And now I can confirm that he was right. > Buy The Highly Sensitive Person on Amazon > Buy Making Work Work for the Highly Sensitive Person on Amazon When compiling this list, I realised something really sucky: it’s a very white male list, with only one woman author included. So if you can recommend any sales or freelancing books written by women and/or minorities then please do let me know, as I would love to read them. You can contact me at SEOno.co.uk/contact, tweet me at @steviephil, or leave a comment below. * Ok, so while nobody paid/pays me to be included in this list, and they’ve all been included because I genuinely recommend them, each of the Amazon links in this post is an affiliate link, so I make a teeny-tiny commission if you do end up buying through them. That’s fair enough, right? I thought I’d best be honest and upfront about it just in case it were to cause confusion. Cheers!

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gmbverificationgnfx938-blog · 6 years ago

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Why Nobody Cares About find my business

The Little-Known Keys to Google Insights

Meetings may be an efficient approach to address problems, or just an irritating waste of time. When you establish sensible goals to avoid failure, individuals will make only a tiny additional effortbut if objectives are unreasonable, individuals will make real changes in exactly how they function. Acting in the surface of possible turbulent dangers is demanding.

Google Insights Secrets That No One Else Knows About

Externally, it shows up to offer you a clairvoyance understandings right into task of any type of type. The objective is to take duty promptly as well as continue. Research studies reveal that limits are extremely crucial in human improvement.

While there's very little research on the subject, the audios are believed to promote leisure, decrease stress and aid the listener sleep much much better. Attempt to remember, you can start laying the basis for your item without constructing anything. Since you might see, you can acquire incredible concepts without needing to be imaginative.

Its development will trigger improvement of influencer advertising and marketing. Clearly, Facebook as well as various other social networking titans are prepared for to identify strategies to remedy the circumstance. As can be viewed from the Google Trends information over the past 12 months, the pattern began to obtain grip with audiences on YouTube at the verdict of last fiscal year.

Working with supervisors truly like to observe that. Social media influencers will be able to aid you acquire your audience's depend on utilizing authentic storytelling. You need to be rather mindful once you're picking influencers for your project.

A consider their social networking accounts will give you with an excellent suggestion regarding their niche. Our primary aim was to produce the flexible, simple to use eCommerce Framework for fast enhancement. Based upon the type of goals you havegreater brand awareness, development in social networking fans, web traffic increase, or enhanced conversionsyou needs to select a blend of those.

Ok, I Think I Understand Google Insights, Now Tell Me About Google http://www.pinnaclespcllc.com/activity/p/1275378/ Insights!

There are different social networking channels where folks post a vast option of content which vary from personal opinions to videos as well as photos. Ultimately, it's also so helpful to share. You could have heard of video marketing, and also may even have actually attempted your hand at a number of video clips, but quit afterwards because they don't appear to be bringing site visitors to your website and don't obtain any hits on YouTube either.

If people have a problem, they Google it. If you're able to find what other people have actually finished that are linked to your particular niche and afterwards use precisely the same essential terms, you will come up in the related videos on the proper hand side, which will certainly also lead to more traffic. After someone buys a product, they desire to recognize that it's going to get the job done.

What is Actually Happening with Google Insights

Simply see the homepage, kind your query, and you will certainly get quite a few on-line magazines and magazines. The web relies upon constant, new info to be able to remain updated. Level Money's first-run experience is meant to show you that worth instantly.

Most people who've been divorced would certainly agree. The sales people believe that caring for their existing customers and also being compensated through a part of the gross profit is the total degree of their responsibilities. The overwhelming majority of market research begins with discussing the idea for your merchandise or service with those in your life.

In either event a solid inspiration needs to be found to maintain the continuous stream of blog material essential to both attract readers as well as maintain them returning! Make sure you personally engage with customers sooner or later, too. You do not need to sink a great deal of cash right into it to test it out.

Type of Google Insights

The trick to Level Money's individual experience is the fact that it obtains people to offer actionable information regarding their personal funds their very first time using the thing. Content has the capacity to connect with your target market. To keep the best rates for your items, the data is brought from competitors therefore offering knowledge to give discounts on services and products.

Considering that you may see, there are countless wonderful keyword study tools out there. There are a lot of complimentary open source devices, and service tools which might be used by academics. On the other side, my prior attempts to correlate fads with device sales for a variety of products have actually been much less than exact.

As quickly as you choose you would love to move on with your suggestion, you are mosting likely to intend to begin market screening on a little scale. Hence, additional financing and time is mosting likely to be needed to carry out the research for those specifics of the brand-new local business approach. Again, the objective is to find recognition for your items, not to rip off your chums.

The Debate Over Google Insights

Since you may see, there's still a significant, but on top of that considerably sinking use of the prominent IDE. By making a couple of straightforward changes like adding punctuation to the search it will alter the outcome that will certainly appear. The possible problem, and the reason numerous suppliers simply pick to replicate one another, is that frequently emoji aren't used only for their main Unicode-sanctioned semantic meaning.

Key words choice itself will certainly be challenging, which I want to use freebase subject framework for but it's currently unavailable. Or, you might merely kind your unique query in the box as well as see success. Alternatively attempt the keyword phrase on SEMrush to find out just how the search quantity looks.

#gmb #googlemybusiness #verify

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werank · 6 years ago

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The 9-Step SEO Strategy for 2019 [NEW]

Today I’m going to show you a VERY effective SEO strategy for 2019.

(Step-by-step)

In fact, I recently used these exact steps to rank #1 in Google for “Video SEO”.

And “keyword research tool”.

Let’s dive right in…

Step #1: Find an “Opportunity Keyword”

Step #2: Analyze Google’s First Page

Step #3: Create Something Different… Or Better

Step #4: Add a Hook

Step #5: Optimize For On-Page SEO

Step #6: Optimize For User Intent

Step #7: Make Your Content Look Awesome

Step #8: Build Links to Your Page

Step #9: Improve and Update Your Content

Bonus Step #1: Increase Your Domain Authority

Bonus Step #2: Build a Community on Your Site

Step #1: Find an “Opportunity Keyword”

Let’s face it:

A #1 ranking isn’t what it used to be.

That’s because Google keeps adding stuff to the search results.

For example, look at the keyword “SEO Tools”:

Like most search results, you’ve got ads at the top of the page.

Plus, a Featured Snippet:

A “People also Ask” box:

THEN you get to the #1 result:

That’s why you want to focus on Opportunity Keywords.

Opportunity Keywords are keywords with a high organic click-through-rate (CTR).

How about an example?

I recently created a post optimized around the term “SEO Audit”:

And “SEO Audit” is an Opportunity Keyword.

Sure, there are ads:

But that’s actually a good thing.

(More ads=higher commercial intent)

Other than ads, there isn’t a lot to distract people from the organic results:

You can also estimate organic CTR with Ahrefs.

For example, when I put “SEO Audit” into Ahrefs, it says that 61% of searchers click on a result.

Not bad.

Which leads us to…

Step #2: Analyze Google’s First Page

OK, so you found an Opportunity Keyword.

Now it’s time to see what’s already working for that keyword.

To do that, just type your keyword into Google.

Scan the top 10 results:

And jot down any patterns that you notice.

For example, the first page for “SEO Tools” is PACKED with lists of tools:

So you’d want to jot down: “lots of list posts”.

Then, move onto step #3…

Step #3: Create Something Different… Or Better

When it comes to content, you’ve got two options:

Option #1: You can create something different.

Option #2: You can create something better.

Here’s how…

Different

Sometimes you want to create something bigger and better than what’s out there.

(aka The Skyscraper Technique)

But sometimes you’re better off with content that’s completely different.

Why?

Because it helps your content STAND OUT.

For example:

A few months ago I sat down to write a piece of content optimized around: “Mobile SEO”.

And I noticed Google’s first page was littered with list posts, like: “X Ways to Mobile Optimize Your Site.”

Now:

I could have created a BIGGER list post like: “150 Ways to Mobile Optimize Your Site”.

But that wouldn’t make any sense.

Instead, I created something totally different.

Specifically, I published an ultimate guide to mobile optimization.

And because my content stood out, it got a ton of shares:

Comments:

And most important of all, backlinks:

Better

This is a lot more straightforward.

All you need to do is find out what’s working…

…and publish something WAY better.

For example:

A while back I noticed that most content about “SEO tools” only listed 10-20 tools.

And I knew that publishing another list of 20 tools wouldn’t work.

So I decided to create a list of 188 SEO tools.

And it did GREAT.

In fact, it now ranks in the top 3 for the keyword “SEO Tools”:

Step #4: Add a Hook

Here’s the deal:

If you want to rank in 2019, you need backlinks.

Question is:

HOW?!

First, you need to figure out WHY people link to content in your industry.

(“The Hook”)

Then, include that “Hook” in your content.

For example:

Last year I noticed more and more bloggers writing about voice search.

I noticed something else too:

When people wrote about voice search, they linked to content that featured stats and data:

So I decided to do a voice search study that was PACKED with stats:

And it worked!

To date, this single post has racked up 848 backlinks:

And 90%+ of these backlinks cite a specific stat from my post:

That said:

Data is just one type of Hook that you can use to get links to your content.

Here are 3 other Hooks that are working great right now:

New Approaches and Strategies

Think about it:

What do bloggers and journalists LOVE writing about?

New stuff!

And if you create something new, you’ve got yourself a hook.

For example, a few years ago, I coined the phrase “Guestographics”.

This was a new strategy that no one knew about.

And because Guestographics were new (and had a unique name), 1,200 people have linked to my post so far:

Massive Guides

When you publish a massive guide, your guide itself is The Hook.

I’ll explain with an example…

A few years back I published Link Building: The Definitive Guide.

It was (and still is) the most complete guide to link building out there.

Here’s where things get interesting…

Every now and again a blogger will mention “link building” in a post.

But they don’t have room to cover the entire topic.

So they link to my guide as a way for their readers to learn more:

Very cool.

Case Study Results

Case studies are GREAT for getting links.

But to get links to your case study, you need to feature a specific result.

For example, a while back I published this case study:

This was a SUPER in-depth case study.

But I didn’t feature ONE result in the post.

Instead, I listed out 20+ results:

Which meant my case study didn’t have a single Hook for people to link to.

And very few people linked to it.

Flash forward to a few years later when I published this case study:

This time, I focused on ONE result (a 785% increase in my blog’s conversion rate):

And that single result was The Hook that led to hundreds of links:

Nice!

Step #5: Optimize For On-Page SEO

This step is all about keyword-optimizing your content for SEO.

And here are the 3 on-page SEO strategies that are working best for me right now:

Internal Linking

Yup, internal linking still works.

But you have to do it right.

Specifically, you want to link FROM high-authority pages TO pages that need authority.

For example, I published Google Search Console: The Definitive Guide earlier this year.

So I found a page on my site with a ton of authority…

…and linked from that page to my new guide.

Simple.

Short, Keyword-Rich URLs

Our analysis of 1 million Google search results found something that surprised a lot of people:

Short URLs crush long URLs.

That’s why I make my URLs either just my keyword…

… Or my target keyword plus one more word:

Either way works.

Semantic SEO

Finally, I optimize my content for Semantic SEO.

In other words:

I find words that are related to my target keyword.

Then, I use those terms in my content.

Here are the deets:

First, pop your keyword into Google Images.

And Google will give you words and phrases they consider closely-related to that topic:

Second, type the same keyword into normal Google search. And scroll down to the “Searches related to…” section.

Finally, sprinkle some of those terms into your content:

And you’re set.

Step #6: Optimize For User Intent

In other words: The Skyscraper Technique 2.0.

I’ll show you how this works with a quick example.

A few years ago I wrote a post about getting more traffic to your site.

It did OK.

But it never cracked the top 5 for my target keyword (“increase website traffic”).

And when I analyzed Google’s first page, I realized why:

My page didn’t satisfy user intent.

I’ll explain…

Most of the content ranking for “increase website traffic” listed bite-sized traffic tips.

But my post gave them a high-level process.

So I rewrote my content to match this keyword’s User Intent.

Specifically, I turned my process into a list post:

And now that my content matches User Intent, it ranks in the top 3 for my target keyword:

Which led to a 70.43% boost in organic traffic compared to the old version of the post:

That said:

You can also publish User Intent optimized content right out of the gate.

In fact, that’s what I did with my recent post: The Ultimate SEO Audit.

I saw that most of the content ranking for “SEO Audit” listed out non-technical steps.

So I included simple strategies that anyone could use:

I even emphasized the fact that my audit was non-technical.

(This hooks people so they don’t bounce back to the search results)

And this User Intent optimization (and my site’s Domain Authority…more on that later) helped my post crack the first page of Google within a month.

Step #7: Make Your Content Look Awesome

Design is THE most underrated part of content marketing.

You can have the best content ever written.

But if it looks like this…

…it’s not gonna work.

That’s why I invest A LOT of time and money into content design.

For example, you’ve probably seen one of my definitive guides:

These guides are designed and coded 100% from scratch.

(Which makes them super expensive to make)

That said:

Great content design doesn’t have to break the bank.

In fact, here are 4 types of visual content that are super easy to pull off.

Graphs and Charts

These work so well that I try to include at least one chart in every post.

Why?

Because they make data EASY to understand.

For example, take this stat from my mobile SEO guide.

I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time picturing 27.8 billion ANYTHING.

So I had our designer create a nice chart.

As a bonus, people will sometimes use your chart in a blog post… and link back to you:

Screenshots and Pictures

You might have noticed that I use LOTS of screenshots in every post.

In fact, this single post has 78 screenshots:

To be clear:

I don’t use screenshots just for the sake of using screenshots.

I only use them if it helps someone implement a specific step.

For example, these screenshots make the 2 steps from this guide dead-simple to follow:

That said:

Screenshots only make sense when you describe something technical.

What if you’re in a non-technical niche… like fitness?

Well, pictures serve the same purpose.

For example, my friend Steve Kamb at Nerd Fitness uses pictures to show you how to do exercises the right way:

Blog Post Banners

Unlike graphs and screenshots, blog post banners serve no practical purpose.

They just look cool

Depending on the post, I either use a right-aligned 220×200 image…

…or a giant banner at the top of the post:

Graphics and Visualizations

Graphics and visualizations are kind of like charts.

But instead of visualizing data, they visualize concepts.

To be clear:

These DON’T have to be fancy.

For example, in this post I explain how all 4 versions of your site should redirect to the same URL:

This isn’t rocket science.

But it’s hard to picture this idea in your mind.

So our designer made a simple visual that makes this concept easy to understand.

Step #8: Build Links to Your Page

Now it’s time to actively build links to your content.

Specifically, we’re going to tap into 3 link building strategies that are working GREAT right now.

Broken Link Building

Here’s where you find a broken link on someone’s site…

…and offer your content as a replacement.

For example, this is an outreach email that I sent to a blogger in the marketing niche:

(Note how specific I am. I don’t say “Please consider linking to me in a blog post”. I have a specific place on a specific page where my link makes sense)

And because I helped the person out BEFORE asking for anything, they were happy to add my link:

Competitor Analysis

This strategy is old school.

But it still works.

First, find a site that’s ranking for a keyword you want to rank for.

For example, I’m trying to rank for the keyword “SEO Audit”.

So I grab this result from the first page…

…and look at their backlinks.

I can see that this page has links from 160 domains:

So I should be able to get at least a handful of the same links they have.

To do that, I go one-by-one through their backlinks.

And find pages where my link would add value.

For example, this post mentions the Ahrefs content by name:

There’s no reason to link to my post there. So I moved onto the next opportunity on the list.

And I came across this post:

This time, the link to Ahrefs is part of a big list of resources.

A list that would be even BETTER and more complete with a link to my SEO audit post.

Evangelist Method

This strategy is less about links… and more about getting your content in front of the right people.

(Specifically: people that run blogs in your niche)

I’ll explain how this strategy works with an example…

A while back I wanted to promote a new Skyscraper Technique case study.

So I used BuzzSumo to see who recently shared content about The Skyscraper Technique.

And emailed everyone a variation of this template:

And when they replied “sure, I’ll check it out”, I sent them a link to the post:

(Note how I DON’T ask for a share. This is a Judo move that makes your outreach stand out)

Which led to dozens of shares to my brand post:

Step #9: Improve and Update Your Content

This is working amazingly well right now.

You might have read about the time that I used The Content Relaunch to boost my organic traffic by 260.7%:

And I’m happy to tell you that this approach still works.

For example, last year I relaunched this list of SEO techniques.

But I didn’t just re-post the same content and call it “new”.

Instead, I went through and removed old screenshots and images:

Added new strategies:

And deleted strategies that didn’t work anymore:

The result?

An 62.60% organic traffic boost to that page:

Bonus Step #1: Increase Your Domain Authority

This is the ultimate SEO superhack.

When you have a high Domain Authority, SEO gets A LOT easier.

For example, let’s look at the keyword “SEO audit”:

According to Ahrefs, you need backlinks from 108 websites to rank for this term:

But my content cracked the top 3 within weeks…

…with only 38 websites linking to me:

That’s the power of Domain Authority.

Here are 3 ways to increase your Domain Authority:

Content Partnerships

Partnerships can 2-5x the number of shares and links that you get from your content.

For example, my friend Larry Kim and I co-created this infographic:

And we both promoted it to our audiences on the same day:

Which got our infographic in front of thousands of people.

In fact, I still get links from this co-branded content… 2+ years later:

Publish Studies and Data

I touched on this in Step #4.

But it’s worth repeating.

In fact, if you look at my site, 3 of my top 5 most linked-to posts are studies or data-driven guides:

Guest Posts, Interviews, Speaking Gigs (and Yes) Roundup Posts

In other words:

Get your name out there… and the links will follow.

In fact, when I first started Backlinko, I guest posted like crazy:

I went on any podcast that would have me:

And I spent hours flying to countries like Romania and the Czech Republic to speak at conferences:

Even that wasn’t enough…

I was so determined to promote Backlinko that I added an “Interview Me” page on my site:

(That “Interview Me” page didn’t work. But at least I tried

)

Basically: I hustled to get my name out there.

It didn’t happen overnight.

But over time, all this work resulted in a ton of exposure… and links.

Bonus Step #2: Build a Community on Your Site

A while back Google said that comments can help your rankings:

To be clear:

I’m not convinced that blog comments are a direct Google ranking factor.

But I am convinced that a community indirectly helps with SEO.

(For example, community members are more likely to share your stuff on social media)

With that, here are 2 quick tips for getting more comments on every post:

Be Picky

This is counterintuitive.

But stay with me…

Imagine you just read an AWESOME post.

And you want to leave a comment with your two cents.

But when you hit the comments section, you see this:

Are you still going to leave that comment? Probably not.

That’s why I’m SUPER picky about the comments I let through.

And this pickiness fosters great discussions, like this:

Reply To Comments

I reply to 90% of the comments that come in.

And considering we have 24,189 total comments on the Backlinko blog…

…that’s approximately 21,000 replies.

Wow. That’s a lot of replies.

And I have ZERO regrets about replying to so many comments.

Why?

These replies show people that I care.

Which turns random commenters into active members of the Backlinko Community.

Now I’d Like To Hear From You

There you have it:

My 9-step SEO strategy for 2019.

Now I’d like to hear from you…

Which strategy from today’s post are you ready to try first?

Are you going to update and relaunch older content?

Or maybe you want to try Broken Link Building.

Either way, let me know by leaving a comment below right now.

[Read More …] Source: SEO News

The post The 9-Step SEO Strategy for 2019 [NEW] appeared first on WeRank Digital Marketing Agency.

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jeramymobley · 7 years ago

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10 Ways to Successfully Change Your Personal Brand

I’m interested in taking my personal brand in a new direction. What should I do first, especially if I want to bring my current following with me?

These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC has also launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Understand Why You’re Changing Your Brand

Dig into WHY you want to move away from what you’re doing. After you have your strong why, connect with your current following and talk to them about your why. Let them know about the changes. How will they be affected? Will it be better? Be clear and communicate the change. You will lose some people, and that’s OK since you are moving to a better you. – Jen Brown, The Engaging Educator

2. Hone Your Voice

When you’re developing your personal brand or changing the direction of an existing one, you should start with developing your voice. How do you want to be perceived? What is your brand messaging? Once you know what your voice will be, it will be easier to build your website, social media channels and blogs. – Kristin Marquet, Creative Development Agency, LLC

3. Expand Your Scope

Take a moment to evaluate why you want to make the change and how your new scope is going to meet the needs of your current followers. For example, if you are Elon Musk, you’ve moved on from PayPal but that doesn’t mean you aren’t using technology to improve the lives of others. Stay engaged with your existing followers as you broaden the scope of your brand to prevent dilution. – Tim Chaves, ZipBooks Accounting Software

4. Go Behind the Scenes of Your Life Changes

Taking your personal brand in a new direction means that you are moving in a new direction, and chances are your followers would love to get a behind-the-scenes look at your transformation. To that end, always be honest and open with your journey so that your followers get to really understand and love who you are. That way, they’ll continue being your fans no matter how much you change. – Peter Kozodoy, GEM Advertising

5. Build an Email List

One of the first things you’ll want to do is build an email list to let your followers know what you’re up to. You can do this by adding opt-in forms to your website and blog posts. Once you have an impressive email list, you’ll want to start segmenting it based on actions taken on your site to increase open rates. – Syed Balkhi, OptinMonster

6. Focus on What Makes You Different

In simple marketing terms, focus on your unique selling proposition. Determine what sets you apart from your competitors because that’s what your current following will remember. Build on what makes you different, and focus on building a strategy that can help you leverage that difference. – Derek Robinson, Top Notch Dezigns

7. Reach Out to Other Entrepreneurs for Advice

Make a slight adjustment to your content strategy so you reach a new audience without leaving your current one behind. Continue to interact with your current following no matter what other efforts you undertake. Reach out to other entrepreneurs in your niche to see what they’ve done as far as rebranding. – Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

8. Give Your Current Followers a Heads Up

Earlier this year, I changed directions with my brand and I had to let everyone know beforehand. I wanted to ensure they knew I was switching over. Then I wanted to see if they would follow me there before I made the official switch. After I received the consent from my top fans, I made the switch. It was peaceful to know that my fan base was going to come with me. – Sweta Patel, Silicon Valley Startup Marketing

9. Let Them Learn With You

Becoming a completely different person overnight would not be good for your image (or sanity). The best approach is to begin tiptoeing into the water you want to swim toward. Aggregate third-party articles, express your curiosity and let them watch you learn more about your expertise. This type of process makes the connection even stronger regardless of how drastic your new positioning may be. – Logan Lenz, PartsMarket

10. Make the Transition a Step-by-Step Process

Your fans follow you because of who you are right now, so don’t try to become something else overnight. Gradually introduce your changes. Give your fans a teaser, then an announcement, then content related to your new direction. Lead your followers step by step until a significant number of them are comfortable with where you are going. – Diego Orjuela, Cables & Sensors

The post 10 Ways to Successfully Change Your Personal Brand appeared first on Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career.

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onemoreepitaph · 5 years ago

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The Saga of the Swamp Thing and the trouble of writing comic book reviews.

So, I recently finished finished reading The Saga of the Swamp Thing (or as it’s known in more modern terms, Swamp Thing volume 2). As with every comic (and most things) I finish, I want to review it. This poses a problem, as Swamp Thing is 171 issues covered by a massive amount of different staff members with low cohesion beyond canon. Pasko’s Swamp Thing is vastly different from Moore’s from Collin’s from Millar’s and so forth. This makes it difficult to review as one piece even if I can define it with a beginning, middle, and end. I’ve reviewed comics before without problem. Even comics with multiple directions (such as Miracleman) but not on such a massive scale.

Really, the writing isn’t even the thing that makes it hard to review. I can cover disjointed writing. It’s the disjointedness of everything. In visual mediums, I like to review the visual design, and swamp thing has passed through the hands of so many artists that even recalling all of them is incredibly difficult. I can give kudos to Tatjana Wood’s coloring for by far being the most consistent thing in this comic book. So rather than formatting this like I like to on my other blog, I’m going to give this a more messy crazy whirl.

(If you’re here after Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing and just want to know if you should read the rest jump down to the very bottom (past issue 171))

To start off, let me acknowledge that this is a sequel, and should be treated as such. Since the end of the first volume, Alec Holland is Swamp Thing again (this happens in Challengers of the Unknown, but for all intents and purposes treat the last 2 issues of volume 1 as non-canon, life will be better that way.) Swamp Thing finds a peculiar situation, a man trying to kill his daughter whilst declaring her the anti-christ. Swamp Thing saves her, and thus starts on his next great arc. Unlike the individual stories of volume 1, volume 2 is more arc based. This is for better and for worse, the stories have more character, more plot, and more impact, but also this can lead to dragging and near filler. Generally I’d say it’s just alright in the first few arcs, they’re interesting but unmemorable. The story really picks up in issue 16 with a few character reintroductions, and we’re off to the races from there. Swamp Thing is a famous comic book, and for good reason. The next arcs are a work of brilliance, taking the horror hero concept through some truly interesting reconstructions with absolutely brilliant writing and amazing visual design.

While it’s no painting, the cohesion between writing and visuals is near perfect. You can tell the team was skilled and in alignment. The Love and Death arc of this series is both an amazing story, and the arc that broke the comics code. This marked the evolution of swamp thing from the newspaper stand kids’ content to the saga of respectable storytelling we now hold comic books to be (at their best at least). But no gold rush lasts forever, and the other side of the 50 mark the series begins to cool down into an interesting but only somewhat above average niche it slides into by 100. After that, the series gets turbulent in some interesting ways, which each consecutive writer having drastically different visions and some moments that changed the story almost as much as The Anatomy Lesson did. Your mileage on the post-100 side of swamp thing will probably vary a LOT, with different tones both thematically and visually throughout the rest of the series. If you were to show me issue 166 and tell me it’s the same comic as issue 66, I would find it incredibly difficult to believe you (assuming I weren’t accustomed to these massive changes.) I can say however, that the final ending of the series is a true highlight. It pulls from the legacy of the character into quite a unique finale.

So, here’s the question. Do I recommend Swamp Thing volume 2? Short answer, yes. Long Answer, maybe? It’s status as an un-cohesive story makes it hard to recommend. Most people would recommend issues 21-64, but I’m not sure I agree. I do recommend it from the start, knowing that it will get better. Issue 64 is a great ending, and the only good drop off point until the very end. I can with little doubt recommend up to there. Beyond that is less of a solid go. I firmly believe if you carry on past that point, you will at some point grow distaste with the series. It can be all over the place, and at times I thought to myself “I’d enjoy this story if it were it’s own thing and not Swamp Thing” but I found the experience to be worth it in the end. The transition from 64 to beyond is a bit rough, as 64 feels like a good point to end end the series, but it continues on with a writer who’s clearly not as good as the writer before him. When Nancy A. Collins comes along in the early 100s, she drastically changes the tone, and with Millar starting work on the series it becomes almost unrecognizable as anything before it. I do think, despite all of this, it comes together as one good piece. I think most people will grow to dislike the series at some point, but only temporarily. So if you find yourself at issue 64 and want more, I advise you to carry on, but know it will be a crazy and imperfect experience.

Rating this series in final is difficult, at any point it was somewhere between a 6 and a 9, but usually floated around 7. Overall I think I’ll give it a 7.5, albeit a very interesting 7.5

So, here’s the gloves off spoilers in section. If you’ve never read any of swamp thing volume 2, I implore you to take your leave here. This is mostly for those who have read Moore’s run. I’m going to do a run by run break down. Martin Pasko’s run (1-19) is fine. I found it enjoyable, mostly towards the very end, and it lays the groundwork for some stuff that will pay off later. Really, throw issue 20 into this as well, as it’s just an ending piece for this run. I think it’s a fine enough lead up to the Moore run, but if it existed in isolation I wouldn’t remember it one bit. I recommend it for first time readers, but if you’ve already read beyond it there’s no real point in going back to it. The Moore run (20-64) explains itself. It’s famous. It’s pretty awesome. I generally liked it, even if I didn’t love it. It’s not my favorite Moore work because I don’t think it builds on itself all that well, but the good parts are damn good and art and prose are excellent. I really feel like the space arc was definitely in the territory of “more neat than interesting” but it was a good read nonetheless. oh god my cat wants attention he’s so adorable aaaaaaaa Everytime i type he paws at me for attention ok he went to go do something else. Okay so, Rick Veitch (65-87). Veitch worked as an artist with Moore, so he and Moore are very much on the same page. Despite Moore closing the book in 64, Veitch reopens it with something that feels consistent. The nearly logical next step, the problem is Veitch is not Moore. Veitch had a shitty job, of following that up. He did it the best he could, but he just wasn’t as skilled. If you want more Swamp Thing, it will give you that, but if you want more ground-breaking comics kino, you’re out of luck. It’s a fine read, but the gap is noticeable. The other problem with Veitch is that due to the issue 88 fiasco, his plot didn’t finish by his own hands. Some people read just Veitch, but his ending isn’t an ending. He was supposed to be followed up by Gaiman (who wrote the excellent annual 5), but the issue 88 fiasco made Gaiman also back out. While this was a pretty damn respectable move on Gaiman’s part, it makes me sad wondering what that run could have been. Doug Wheeler (88-109) came in and finished up the arc and then wrote his own war epic, Quest of the Elementals. While Wheeler is a lot of the times criticized as being the bottom of the barrel for Swamp Thing, I found him to be about on par with Veitch. Interesting, but not remarkable. I do give him credit for having an actual ending to his run, which I suppose could be used as an ending point for the series but it’s clearly an arc ending and not a story ending. Then Nancy A. Collins comes in (110-138). Her Swamp Thing is tonally quite different. It’s a much slower, toned down Swamp Thing. A lot of times people describe it as being closer in tone to the pre-Moore era. I liked how it spent more time developing the supporting cast and actually giving Swamp Thing time to be at home with his family. The run was almost comfy until right after the move to Vertigo, it stopped being so. I don’t know why, but on the way out Collins decided to break the status quo, leaving a really unhappy ending. The early parts of her run were some of my favorite parts of Swamp Thing in awhile, but the ending was just upsetting. This is followed up by a one issue Black Orchid crossover, which is neat I suppose. Then we get to Millar (140-171). He starts out his run working with Grant Morrison in this 4 issue story that’s almost pure insanity. It was interesting, but really was a prologue to Millar’s greater run to come. At first I did not like Millar’s run at all. A fuckload had changed. The art was in this simplified, dynamic style that contrasted abrasively with the prior style. The story had become lonely and quite a dark downer, but it picks up. The first real arc, Parliament of Stones, is the biggest offender of being both a downer and not very good. I think from here, it really starts to improve. It still is pretty dirty and down, but it’s got a bit more humanity to it rather than just being shitty for shitty’s sake. The last stretch, Trial by Fire, was quite fantastic. It makes real good on the size of the Swamp Thing legacy, running this clearly Alan Moore like story, and just keeps pulling brilliance out until it ends on an ultimately upbeat note.I see why Millar’s run is the most recommended past Veitch, but it really is rough getting used to. Ultimately though, it justifies both itself and a lot of the weight that the series has gained.

#dc #dc comics #swamp thing #alan moore #mark millar

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topicprinter · 5 years ago

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Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with Joris de Ruiter of ConvertCalculator, a brand that sells calculator form builder.Some stats:Product: Calculator form builder.Revenue/mo: $5,000Started: January 2017Location: RotterdamFounders: 1Employees: 1Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?Hi all! My name is Joris de Ruiter and I’m the founder of ConvertCalculator, a SaaS business that helps small businesses automate their sales processes and grow their business.I started coding the project in September 2017 and launched the MVP in one week. One week later, I onboarded my first paying customer.Since then 3500 businesses signed up which resulted in over 1 million calculator page views. Right now, the business makes $5000,- in monthly recurring revenue with 150 customers.imageWhat's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?I started my first business together with my roommate when I was at university; a creative agency. We started out doing social media and online marketing campaigns. We pivoted to web design when we were one year in. We mostly build simple marketing websites for small businesses, also doing SEO and online marketing.Besides client projects, I started over 10 projects to get out of the “money for hour” trap. All of them failed.After building websites for a couple of years, I realized my talent lay mostly in coding more complex web applications. I quit the agency to do web development contract work, all alongside my search for that one project which would take off.In September 2017 a client approached me and asked if I could build a “calculator” for their website. I thought about all those times entrepreneurs approached me wanting a “price quote calculator” for their website. In nine out of ten cases it was just too expensive to build.So instead of quoting my client, I suggested they pay $30,- per month for it. They said yes. This was my first validation for the product.I just listened to Tyler Tringas’ podcast on Indiehackers, which suggested to check Upwork for the demand of a potential product. I did that by searching for “price quote calculator”, and yes, I found several requests for developers to build custom price quote calculators. This was the second validation for the product.This was enough for me to get an MVP out. I created it in one week, launched my marketing website and showed the calculator to my client. They loved it, but the project was put on hold, so no paying customer yet. You can imagine that this really bummed me out.I decided to promote ConvertCalculator on Quora and Help forums for website builders.imageAn example of a Quora comment. Check it out here.One week later I got my first user ready to start paying. The problem was I didn’t offer a way to upgrade yet. I remember I was at the airport and getting a third email from that customer “complaining” that he couldn’t checkout yet.I was going on a surf trip and didn’t want to keep him waiting, so I started coding in the plane, pushing the update out when I arrived in Portugal. When I came back from my first surf, I got my first payment confirmation email from Stripe.That was the validation I needed to keep going!Take us through the process of building the product.So I got my first paying customer in the door, followed by a second one a couple of days later, but the product was still very early-stage.I knew I needed months of coding to get to real product-market fit. I learned from previous projects that the worst thing you can do is develop behind closed doors, so I started improving the product incrementally, with a lot of input from customers. In fact, I scheduled 2-3 calls a week to get more and more insights on my customer's real challenges.Two of my core values are freedom and independence, so you can imagine I am really big on bootstrapping. This meant that 2018 was a hectic year; building and growing ConvertCalculator and doing contract work to pay the bills.End of 2018 I was on $2500,- MRR, and I decided to go full-time; hoping I had enough runway (with my limited savings). That proved to be successful and I haven’t looked back ever since.Until today I do everything myself, development, design, marketing, and customer support. The only help I got (big help I must say) was from a startup advisor. He helped me prioritize, make better decisions and focus more on the customer. He is now a dear friend, and we created a side-project together called ContactBubble; a floating contact form for your website.Describe the process of launching the business.There is not a lot to say about my product launch. I don’t really believe in those “great moments that change everything”. In my view, it’s all about showing up every single day, making progress in small steps.I didn’t really have a smart launching strategy, I just pushed my website and app to production and started talking about it online. I initially didn’t launch on websites like ProductHunt or HackerNews. I never felt my product was good enough. I did get a lot of customers via Google, product forums, Quora. A year into it I decided to launch on ProductHunt and HackerNews. My product performed reasonably well there, but I didn’t get a lot of actual customers via these channels.When I “launched” I just picked a price that felt right and went with it. I had three plans (Hobby: €9, Pro: €20, and Premium: €60), but I hadn’t had time to build actual Premium features, so you can scratch the last one.Over time the product became more valuable, so I decided to increase pricing. That’s the best thing I could have done! Not only did revenue increase, but conversion rates did go up as well. My advice to anybody is to “raise your prices”.Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?The single most important thing related to growth to date is SEO.In my opinion, It’s the only truly sustainable way of growing a SaaS business that you can control directly. Another one is word-of-mouth, but that’s something you earn with creating a solid product and doing good customer service.imageMy main strategy for SEO was creating landing pages for every single use case of the product, such as lead generation, quote building, and order forms. This way I could focus every page on a small set of keywords, that all flow to the homepage, which is optimized for, the more general, term calculator form.Although this strategy worked, I realize I need to focus more on creating blog posts to cover niche subjects and provide my customers with valuable information on how to run their business online. Another opportunity is link building, on which I didn’t focus at all.I haven’t explored a lot of other growth areas yet (besides launching on ProductHunt and Hackernews). The reason being that I do customer support myself and I want to remain sane and grow calmly.Actually, The second part of 2019 will be the perfect time to explore other growth channels, especially advertising and content marketing. So exciting times ahead.How are you doing today and what does the future look like?I can’t complain! ConvertCalculator is profitable and growing at a steady (but small) pace. The down-the-line conversion rate is 1.1% (from visitor to paying customer), which is ok and the customer lifetime value averages around $700,-. I would say that I’m ready for the next phase: growing the business.I have two goals for 2019. The first one is growing too $ 8000,- MRR. As I mentioned earlier I can achieve this by experimenting with other growth channels and spending more time on marketing in general.The second goal is to phase myself out of the day-to-day operations, meaning that I can spend all my time on product development and strategy. To make that possible, I will need to (1) improve documentation and UX and (2) hire customer support and marketing specialist.I have a long-term goal as well, although not directly related to ConvertCalculator; I want to live a more balanced life. That means that I want to spend 3-4 hours a day on work, and leave enough time to spend on things and people that bring me true happiness.Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?Yes definitely! I’m a person with a lot of imagination and I’m always thinking and dreaming about big and crazy things. This is great for creativity, but you can imagine I have had real difficulty with productivity / sitting down and getting things done.Starting a business means you’ve got to carry your own weight. This pressure kept me in work mode and learned me to stay grounded. From the success of ConvertCalculator in particular, I learned that grit is the number one derivative for success.What platform/tools do you use for your business?For customer support, I used to use a chat app, but I didn’t like to be in “support mode” all the time, so I created my own tool called ContactBubble, making it easy for people to reach us and easy for me to answer questions. Because customer requests are just sent to email, I need a good email client/customer support platform to follow up. I use Front and I love it!For hosting, I use Heroku and MongoDB Cloud. The dev stack is based on MeteorJS, with React and TailwindCSS (love this!).For email marketing, I’m using MailterLite, but I’m going to try out EmailOctopus. I haven't found any good (and reasonably priced) tool for email automation, so this is all hard-coded in the platform.For productivity I use Trello.What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?The IndieHackers podcast helped me a lot! I remember countless times when I was in my car to go surfing and listening to another podcast and thinking: Yes I need to do this!Regarding books, I got a lot of guidance from Essentialism; this especially helped me to not do things, in order to focus on more essential things. I also get a lot of inspiration from reading books about eastern philosophy, especially Zen.Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?The absolute number one is “do fewer things”. Focus on the truly essential stuff, and do this right. Don’t put all that other stuff on a todo list either, maybe write it down somewhere if that helps, but I don’t do that either.Another important lesson I learned is that “done is better than perfect”. So let go of your inner perfectionist and get the work of the door.The last one, and I think that’s the major reason why all my other projects failed, is ** to talk to customers**. You don’t have to do everything (or anything) they say, but you will learn a ton. I scheduled 2-3 calls per week for a full year now, and I still get valuable insights from customers sometimes.Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?I’m about to fill the first position, so no. I want to be careful with hiring; I want to hire when it really hurts.Where can we go to learn more?You can learn more about ConvertCalculator via our website. If you are interested in ContactBubble, you can find it here.You can find more about me and the other projects I’m doing, you can go to Stay Bold.If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.For more interviews, check out r/starter_story - I post new stories there daily.Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM

#/r/entrepreneur #reddit

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