#edit: okay so i changed stuff and updated it a bunch but i promise NOW im done. im goin to bed im not looking at it im not touching it

[camels-pen]

he never learns

bonus pathetic sanji

[the-darklings]

—𝗖𝗢𝗔 𝗙𝗔𝗤;

Hello, everyone! So with COA being such a long-running series and new readers finding it constantly, I have come to realise that a lot of questions I get often repeat. So to keep everything easy and clear and friendly for everyone regardless of whether you started COA at the very beginning of the story or just recently found it, I have spent the day relaxing, eating junk food, and compiling this FAQ. Please read through it because chances are the answers are here somewhere. I have sectioned the guide into following: general, story, ships, original squad (OCs), AUS, OC!V and tips/advice. If the answer to your question is not here, please feel free to send me a message and have a wonderful day! <33 - kat.

GENERAL:

when does this story update?

I try to keep a bi-weekly schedule (now usually Sunday updates). But I always let you know when the chapter is done by making a final word count post (pre edits). 

do you have a masterlist?

yes, you can find it here.

do you have a tag list?

not for COA. they’re very time consuming and I’m already really busy sorry :(

are your requests open?

I rarely open my inbox for requests. the only exception being the monthly blurb nights. then I reblog a prompt list and let people send some requests in for any fandom/ship. however, usually due to how many I get, it only happens every few months. that being said, you can still send me ideas/suggestions and if it inspires me, I will write it. that’s how the majority of the AUs have come about. but i’m also a very busy person so sorry if I can’t. 

can I make X or Y for COA and tag you?

yes. yes. yes. please, please, feel free to create whatever for COA (no matter how small or silly) because I consider it a great honour that I’ve been able to inspire someone else. whatever it is, please tag me. I wanna see.

okay, I made a thing and tagged you but you didn’t respond :(

Tumblr is notorious for eating my notifs. whatever it is (art/post/etc) if I don’t respond to it in a day or two, please give me a nudge. you’re not being annoying, I promise. chances are I missed it/tumblr ate it. 

I wanna scream/discuss/theorise about COA with others, is there any way for me to do that?

my amazing readers have set up this reddit page that is full of lovely people, theories, and memes etc. I check it often and interact on there, too, so feel free to drop by.

STORY:

how many chapters will COA be?

25. the last one being a very long epilogue.

have you decided on the ending yet?

yes. from as early as part 2. it's barely changed since. 

will we ever see more of Prague/Naples? hoe, please say yes.

yes. I plan to write both as COA bonus stories after the main story-line concludes.

will there be a sequel? 

depends. on two things: 1) if anyone will even care by that point 2) time. this story has consumed 5 months of my life entirely. i’ve been incredibly strict with myself when it comes to writing it (in a good way) but at best it won’t be finished till the end of august/beginning of september. so likely even if I do, there will be a break for a few months at least. I do have ideas though.

you promised us smut. where is it?

patience is a virtue. ;)

happy ending or tragedy? (please don’t say tragedy, you monster)

I would describe it more as “bittersweet” but whether it leans more towards bitter or sweet you’ll have to see.   

SHIPS:

any endgame hints?

you know more about the ending than you probably realise

can v/s finally go to Paris? for the love of GOD? pLEASE?

no

hector + v? powerful. will there be more of them in the future? 

agreed & yes. hector and v have their own arc to go on. it’s actually one of my favourites in this story. I don’t want to say more than that right now because I have plans for their dynamic so no spoilers. :)

please stop bullying john. give us some j/v content please? 

i, for one, adore john. it’s team S that’s bullying him lol. but wait till parabellum. i’ve always referred to that portion of the story as the second coming of j/v.

does lucien actually have a thing for v or is it a creepy obsession? 

it’s both.

I ship v with everyone :/ is that bad?

the sky is the limit. ship all the things proudly (but seriously, no, it isn’t. I ship all the ships, too, and that’s the fun of it) 

v/elder tho? 👀

🔫🤡

j/v or s/v? be honest.

you fool,,,, you buffoon. ot3 j/v/s is where it’s really at. imagine their POWER.   

ORIGINAL SQUAD:

what do the Elites/Lovers look like/how old are they?

please refer to this

will there be more step??

of course. he’s my baby. :)

will we see more of camorra/learn more about the elite’s and their backstories?

while I would love to take the time and flesh them all out with full backstories, only hector will be getting his backstory explored in the main canon because plot.

does lucien care for mika anymore or has he replaced her with v?

lucien is a messy hoe. mika is his subject of “affection” but v is his foil and equal. he recognises the same hurt in her that he has gone through himself so it’s more of a fixation. with time, lucien would likely destroy v so no bueno. 

I ship our OCs.

I do, too.

can we write about your OCs/V?

so you would have to come to me and discuss this more in private but I’m fine with this sort of thing usually. in fact, a prequel hector story already exists so you’re likely good but please contact me first. 

AUs:

when/how often do you update the vampire!au?

whenever I have time/inspo. mainly time. so this means you can get it daily or not get it for several weeks because COA is priority. I keep you all updated on when I have something cooking tho.

what is the actual pairing for vamp!au?

undecided as of yet. i’m leaning more towards ot3 right now but we shall see.

how often do you update flowing in me?

same as the above. whenever I have the time but I will keep you updated.

how many parts will flowing in me be?

I have 5 parts(ish) planned.

do you have a tag list for flowing in me?

I will. please leave a comment on the story if you want to be tagged in future parts!

will flowing in me feature other characters (john, winston etc.)?

this story is mainly camorra-centric but I do plan for John to appear at some point.

how did you come up with your lore in vamp!au?

to be completely honest....I just wrote a bunch of stuff down and used what stuck. mostly the ideas were pulled out of thin air while still trying to keep within the spirit of the canon material (the high priest, the holy church, the twelve priests, john being the boogeyman etc). camorra as the natural enemy seemed fitting and santino as a vampire prince even more so.

can we send you new au ideas/expand on old ones (manager!V etc)?

yes, always. I always try my hardest to reply but ofc I can’t promise I’ll be able to use them all but thank you in advance.

OC!V:

who is the face claim for OC!V?

weronika spyrka

what is her real name?

clara

how old is she at the beginning of the story and now?

23 beginning of chapter 1, 30 beginning of chapter 4 (current timeline)

will/would you ever write an original story about her?

I have considered creating something original out of COA itself or one of its sister series/concepts (like FIM). since I really started working on COA during last year’s NaNo, that might be the time I create something original this year. 

TIPS & ADVICE:

how do you write so much, so quickly?

I don’t think that word count is really reflective of the quality work itself. I don’t think you should worry how much you write, either. 100 words can be just as valuable as 1k. most of them time I have a deadline breathing down my neck and I do work well under pressure so that inspires me to force the chapters out. I also do very long days because despite what it might look like I’m not a fast writer.

how can I improve my writing?

read and practice. I know it’s dumb and overused advice but it’s how I learned english and found my style (still a mess and WIP) but still this advice does help. 

how do you keep motivated?

spite, your support, genuine adoration for these characters/word, a lot of spite. 

do you plan? outline?

I have a vague story outline with specific scenes in mind as I go along (helps to set up foreshadowing, twists, and those ‘full circle’ moments). I also plan each chapter scene by scene and know what each chapter is meant to accomplish. So yeah in a sense. 

[movienotesbyzawmer]

April 10: Rocky II

(previous notes: Rocky)

When this movie came out I was a little kid living in Northern California, and we used to go to huge drive-in movie complexes that had like six screens. No matter what movie you were watching, you could see other movies from your lot. I don't remember which movie we were watching at the time, but I remember being distracted by a nearby screen showing Rocky II. I totally watched the ending in suspense. It was eventually on cable a lot so I was able to see it for real, but still like 40 years ago.

Anyway, I wonder if this movie will have the effect of dulling the charm of how the first movie ended, so climactically and with appealing suddenness.

Also, is this the only one of the first four movies that doesn't have a rollicking hit song emerging from its soundtrack?

Stallone famously wrote each of these movies all by himself, and starting with this one he is the director of a bunch of them as well.

Same kind of intro with the fanfare, except the music sounds very clearly, to me at least, to not be playing on real horns. I think it's synths. "Modern".

We're now just watching the end of the first movie. We get to relive the intense experience of seeing Adrian's face in closeup closing her eyes for one and a half seconds. The drama.

The whole first five minutes is the whole last five minutes of the first movie. That's weak. Cheap.

Then the whole opening credits follows, and it's following the ambulance that's taking Rocky to the hospital because of all the punchplay. Not a good use of this time. But more importantly: are they going to address the eyelid situation.

Rocky and Apollo confront each other in wheelchairs in front of the press at the hospital. They're still fired up.

After Rocky gets out of the hospital he rambles a lot and it's like an amateur improv scene where he's figuring out on the spot some things to say about where they are. He gets the idea to have Rocky propose to Adrian, then when she accepts he does a Tarzan wail. What a cheeky clown that Rocky is.

His eye seems fine now.

0:18:20 - the a cappela street musicians are still at it, still not very complex with the harmonies. Isn't Sylvester Stallone's brother a singer named Frank, and does he look like the guy in this scene? I bet it's him.

I'm pretty bored of this movie so far. It's like the people were clamoring for an answer to the question, "what happened after the fight", and Stallone's enthusiastic answer was "just regular stuff like you'd guess!!!!!"

Oh my. It's their wedding night and they talk like dumb, uninspired newlyweds and then kiss, and it's like the director, who remember is Stallone, directed the two of them, one of whom is also Stallone, to perform slow, exotic lip dancing and no one told him that's a thing called kissing which is normal and common.

Rocky has some money now so he and Adrian are looking at buying a house. The realtor is all "this whole place is supported by solid steel" and Rocky is all "yo Adrian that would be a great spot for a radio". It's like porn stars that have been told to ad lib for a few minutes in the beginning of the scene. Except that we aren't about to be rewarded with porno.

0:28:05 - Adrian is pregnant! They talk about it. They talk about it in small talk. "What if it's a girl" "Oh a girl I didn't think about that can you imagine".

So one of the adventures of post-the-first-movie Rocky is that he gets to do a commercial. They show the filming of that and that it doesn't go well because of his Rocky personality. And the next scene he has realized that he needs a white collar job so he's at an employment agency office and asks for a job where he gets to sit. But he's not a good fit there. So he goes and gets a job at a butcher place. He promised Adrian he was done with boxing so now we have this boring part of the movie which isn't short enough.

Okay it's definitely going in a direction of not-boxing-is-sucky-for-Rocky, because he lost the butcher job and had to sell his car to Paulie. He said "it's a great car, buckle up for safety!" Do you think Stallone actually scripted that line or did he improvise it and the director, who you may recall is also Mr. Stallone, thought it was really good and kept it in

0:46:30 - He goes to visit Burgess Meredith at the gym. BM is not helping Rocky's morale, tells him he's washed up POI-manently. He begs for a job doing menial tasks at the gym and BM tells him everyone will think he's a loser but okay. Stallone does okay looking humble about that.

When he comes in to the gym everyone is laughing at a very stupid editorial cartoon in the local news publication, it shows Apollo doing harm upon Rocky-as-a-chicken with the ingenious caption "APOLLO CREED VS THE STALLION CHICKEN". It was clearly "STALLION CHICKEN". That does not make any sense.

BM was easily persuaded by Apollo's cockiness and so he then shows up at Rocky's nad easily persuades him to accept the rematch deal. Feels like movie formula but at least it's about to be less boring.

I like BM's voice.

They're doing a thing going back and forth between Rocky training and Apollo training. Apollo's is going better, partially because his facility is kind of luxuriously spacious. Then they stuck a scene in the middle of that of Adrian working at the pet store all preggo, but having trouble lugging a weighty thing and listen my friends, I think Talia Shire acting is not good acting.

We're in a long sequence that's about how Adrian had the baby prematurely and she slipped into a coma or something, and it's made clear that she had health problems because she was stressed out and overworked because of the heavy things at the pet shop and the husband who went back to boxing. Big old guilt trip taking up a lot of the middle of the movie. Adrian is in a coma. They don't show the baby. It's all just sadness about comatosity of Adrian.

But! She eventually wakes up! And after the first ever conversation they've ever had about what to name their newborn son, Adrian inexplicably changes her tune and tells Rocky she wants him to win. "Win!" That's what she tells him. Then she says it again. Stallone writing, Shire acting, what more could you want.

Now an upbeat training montage that's more hopeful and he's obviously high energy. He must be hitting the punching bags better because just look at how confident he looks.

1:29:35 - It is the sequel to the famous running montage from the first movie. The inspired updates include a new recording of that same song but with children singing "flying strong now" or whatever, and also children following him on his majestic dash to the steps of that municipal facility. Someone probably said "do the running scene again just exactly like in the first movie", but no. Stallone was not satisfied. "We will change it a little," he proclaimed. And lo.

Oh I hope there will be a sequel to the shot of Adrian closing her eyes for considerably longer than a blink. Do you think when people stop her on the street they're like "do the eye close thing do the eye close thing! My friends will all ask if you did the eye close thing and I need to tell them yes she did I saw it and it was even better in person"

We're at the fight now. It's about to start. It's all going as expected. I truly believe that everything will be okay.

Before it starts, Apollo tells Rocky, "you're going DOWN". So maybe it will NOT be okay after all…

Seems like the shots of this fight are not as varied or interesting this time, and they're relying more on the announcer commentary telling us what to think compared to the first movie.

Now the obligatory montage to show us the rounds moving forward and them still going at it. Not the same style as the first movie, but whatever it's working fine. I'd maybe watch a boxing match if it were shot and edited like this so that it's just ten minutes.

I swear I remember seeing this imagery from across the drive-in way back in the 70s, I don't care if you believe me or not it's the truth.

Look, I know I don't know nothin' 'bout boxin' but it seems like you're supposed to use your forearms as shields kind of, and Rocky doesn't do that like at all.

The dialogue is telling us that Rocky is maybe losing going into the final round. I wouldn't have thought so… thanks dialogue!

"YOU'RE GOING DOWN" repeats Creed. Such writing I tell you. Rocky II - A Film By Sylvester Stallone.

I will never forget the carefully choreographed climax of the movie. They both crumble onto the floor and the one-to-ten countdown all slow-like as they maybe try to get back up and Apollo doesn't and Rocky barely does so he is the new world champion. Then the last couple minutes of the movie is the same basic energy as the first movie. It's like the first movie's ending was a template and they just replaced a couple of things.

They kept making more of these movies! I'm going to keep watching them! I'm going to do this notes-about-them thing!

(next: Rocky III)

[forever-forgotten-angel]

Little Acts of Anxiety

Warnings: Hints of Virgil having romantic feelings for Thomas towards the end, though it’s mostly platonic. 

Summary: Just a moderately fluffy pre-Accepting Anxiety idea that wouldn’t leave me alone. Hello, I was babysitting for a friend last night and the kid fell asleep. My phone was dead so I grabbed some paper and started writing and ended up with this story, well the outline anyway. I added a bunch of stuff as I was typing it up this morning. Hope you enjoy!

The first time Thomas had ever noticed was by complete chance.

 He had been up well into the early hours of the morning editing his most recent video. He only had a bit left to go, but his eyes were drooping. He stretched out his stiff muscles and lied down on the couch, promising he would just let his eyes rest for a few minutes. So of course, he promptly fell asleep.

 He jolted awake as he rolled over in his sleep and almost fell. He sat up and was confused to find himself in his bed. He hadn’t remembered coming upstairs. He was about to shrug it off as him just being too tired to remember coming to bed and go back to sleep when he heard noise from the floor below him.

 He stood up, grabbing his phone off his nightstand just in case he needed to make an emergency call. He crept warily out of his room and to the stairs, avoiding the places where he knew the floor creaked. Moving as quietly as he could, he descended the stairs and peered into his living room where the sound was coming from.

 He found Anxiety sitting on the couch and with Thomas’ open laptop on his lap, using it for, well Thomas couldn’t really be sure. He stood, just watching the side in shock for a several minutes, wondering if he was still asleep. But no, Anxiety was there. Thomas felt himself shift from shock to anger. Who the heck gave Anxiety the right to mess with his computer without permission?

 He was about to confront the hoodie clad man when he suddenly shut Thomas laptop, placed it gently down on the coffee table, and sunk out of the room. Thomas was tempted to call him back and demand an explanation, but decided to check the computer himself first.

 He opened the still warm laptop up again and turned it back on. He couldn’t find anything wrong. Nothing seemed to be altered, no embarrassing photos were pulled up for him to cringe at, no harsh reminders of upcoming events, nothing he would associate with the anxious side. He went to shut the computer down once more, figuring the man must have just been web surfing, which wasn’t too bad though he still should have asked before using someone else’s computer, when he noticed something. The video he was absolutely sure he hadn’t quite finished editing when he dozed off was now completed.

 But Anxiety wouldn’t have done that…right?

 The next day, Thomas made sure to mention to Patton his surprise at the video being finished as he thought he still had a it to go when he fell asleep. Anxiety was well within earshot, but did not claim credit. He just stared out Thomas’ window and quietly sipped from a mug. From the look on his face, he didn’t seem to be enjoying what he was drinking though.

 Thomas managed to get a hold of the mug when Anxiety set it down during an argument with Roman. He gave the dark colored beverage a taste, not particularly worried about catching germs from an aspect of his personality, and nearly gagged.

 It was coffee, completely black, no sugar or milk or anything else. It tasted awful, and Thomas had no idea why the side was drinking it since it was pretty clear he didn’t like it either. He pondered over this as he grabbed a piece of gum off of his desk and began to chew it furiously to get the bitter taste out of his mouth.

 There was no reason for Anxiety to be drinking that coffee. It was clear he didn’t like it. If he was doing it for aesthetic purposes he would have chosen a clear mug, or at least drawn attention to it. So why?

 It may have been a bit of a stretch, but Thomas was sure it had to be because he was up late editing Thomas’ video for him and felt he needed the caffeine. He didn’t have any real evidence of this, and it seemed like a silly detail to cement his opinion on, but he felt certain anyway. He knew he didn’t finish it, he knew Anxiety was on his computer, and he knew it was done when Anxiety got off. There was no other explanation.

 The question was, why? Thomas thought about confronting the side and asking but he was too anxious (hah) to do so, not knowing how the anxious trait would react. He clearly didn’t want it known, since he did it in secret and then never took any credit even when Thomas gave him a clear opening.

 In the weeks while he debated confronting the side, he started to take notice of more and more little things he never had before.

 Things he was pretty sure he’d forgotten were added to his grocery list. His sheets were changed. His desk was a bit more organized. His bathrooms looked cleaner. His bed was made when he was ninety nine percent sure he’d left it unmade. His videos were edited, if not finished because he left too much that it would be obvious a bit more was done than before he went to bed.

 He just knew the anxious side was responsible and it made no sense to him. He always seemed so cold and harsh, why would he be doing these things for Thomas? Especially without bringing it up to anyone and at least taunting Thomas for his inability to take care of himself. What was the motive? He didn’t know for sure the side’s reasoning, but he felt obligated to thank him in some way. So he went out to the store and found a cool kinda gothic looking journal and pen (Anxiety had mentioned he wrote poetry one, although he may have just been being sarcastic to Logan but Thomas took the chance) as well as a gift card for music and a small black cat plushie with deep violet eyes that he spotted on the way to the check out line.

He felt a little odd actually summoning Anxiety instead of the trait just showing up when he least expected and least wanted the side to do so. Anxiety himself looked quite surprised as well, though he quickly changed his expression when he saw Thomas looking at him. “Sup?” He held out the bag holding the gifts he’d bought to Anxiety. The side looked defensive as he peered at the bag. “What’s that?” Thomas shrugged awkwardly. “Just something to say thank you.” This time the surprise on Anxiety’s face stayed, despite the side clearly fighting to keep his typical demeanor. “For?” “For helping edit my videos, and making my bed, and changing my sheets, and keeping my grocery list updated, and cleaning the house up some, and-” Thomas was cut off by the darkly dressed man standing in front of him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about Sanders.” Anxiety was good. He really was. Thomas would have believed that. If he couldn’t one hundred percent see the pink hue blooming on the side’s normally pale cheeks. But okay, he could play along if that’s what Anxiety wanted. “Well, take it anyway. I bought it for you; I’ve got no one else to give it to.” He tried to keep the knowing smile from showing on his face, but he was pretty sure he had a gleam in his eye that the other could see. Anxiety looked at the bag hesitant but almost longing, still not reaching for it. Thomas stepped forward and pressed the bag into Anxiety’s hands and then, on an insane and sudden impulse, he reaches forward and hugs the side.

 He expects to be pushed back instantly but instead Anxiety freezes under his touch. He doesn’t think he’s ever felt someone so tense. He’s goes to pull back when arms wrap around him and squeeze him tight. He can feel Anxiety’s heart race against his chest and the side doesn’t seem to be breathing. As if any small movement will cause this moment to end and it will never come back.

 He eventually starts to grow concerned at the trait’s lack of breath and pulls back, looking at him. He isn’t entirely sure, but it looks like the side’s eyes are a bit shiny. His hands clutch the bag tightly as if any second now Thomas will snatch it back. Anxiety opens and shuts his mouth a few times before seeming to decide it’s better to just sink out. Thomas smiles when he hears a “Thank You” echo through his room in the side’s wake, in a smooth, soft tone he had never heard from Anxiety before.

    Virgil waited until he was fully in his room with the door securely locked before tearing into the bag like a four year old on Christmas morning.

 He feels his own anxiety trying to tell him this is probably just a trick. That Thomas found out about all the little things he’d been doing to try and help him and thought it was pathetic so he got something to make fun of him. He tried to choke that fear down. Thomas wouldn’t do that. He was far too good of a person for something like that. The first thing he pulls out is a little stuffed black kitty. He stares at it for a moment before hugging it to his chest with a smile. He gently places it down beside the stuffed dog Patton had given him when he’d found out that Virgil was the only side without a stuffed animal. Even Logan had a teddy bear dressed in a lab coat named Albeart Einstein, though he’d deny it if you asked. An odd thought that it was good the dog now had a friend crossed his mind, making him feel a bit silly. He shook off the ridiculous thought as he went to put the bag away. He knew the fact that he wouldn’t even throw the bag away since it was from Thomas was kinda sad, but he didn’t care. However when he picked it up, he was shocked to feel there was more in there.

 He hadn’t been helping Thomas out in hopes of receiving anything in return, on the contrary he’d assumed it would go unnoticed and he’d continue to be as hated as ever (not that he thought Thomas’ opinion of him was completely changed now, maybe softened a bit if he was lucky). He just wanted to do something, anything, to make up for all the times he had to cause Thomas pain.

 He hadn’t expected anyone to ever know. Yet his host had gotten him not one, but multiple gifts in return? As if Virgil needed another reason to love Thomas. He had actually been starting to feel like he could….not get over but at least push aside his less than purely out of duty feelings for his host. Then Thomas did something like this and they just came rushing right back. The YouTuber really had no idea what he did to Virgil, and Virgil was determined to keep it that way for the rest of their life.

 His already present smile grows more as he finds a gift card for some music tucked into a really neat looking notebook that has a pen hooked to it. He feels the urge to let out a few tears as he realizes Thomas actually put thought, thought of him, into picking these things out. It was something he would treasure forever.

 He put the now fully empty bag away in his desk drawer and sat down on his bed beside his stuffed toys. He grabbed his phone and headphones off his nightstand and activated the gift card before downloading a few new songs he’d been wanting. Once he had his tunes blasting in his ears, he opened the notebook and poised the pen onto the paper.

 The blackest sky can always see the sun Even in the darkness, after day is done

Though it’s only seen when the sun is not

The darkest sky is content to rot If it means the sun shines for eternity

As the dark sky fades into lost memory

Because nothing else matters to the sky of night

As long as the sun never loses its light

Taglist: @organizeddiscord, @lesliealiceinwonderland, @theagenderghost

[bbyboyjeonjk-blog]

Carrots and Cuddles 5

Part 4 | Part 5 / ???

Quick update right! ^^ yeah it’s almost 3am and I cant sleep so I just finished the chapter. Enjoy! Also, this is unedited cause it’s 3 and I’m gonna pass out soon :’)

——

It was night time and you needed to go to sleep because you had school the next day.

“Jungkook! Did you shower yet?” You yelled from the bathroom.

You didn’t hear a reply and went to the living room.

“Did you shower yet?!” You asked him again.

“...” Jungkook pouted and continued watching tv.

“Jungkook! Go take a shower! You have to sleep soon and you haven’t washed up yet!” You scolded.

He sighed and got up, making his way into the bathroom.

You went into your room and sat on your bed. You laid back and stared at your ceiling. You touched around your bed since you were cold but couldn’t grab what you wanted.

“My blanket...” you said to yourself as you got up and looked at your bed.

You shrugged it off and went to get another blanket.

-

6:45am

You sighed, got up from bed and went to the bathroom to do your daily morning routine.

You then quietly walked to the kitchen so you could make breakfast. Cereal? Toast? Cereal. You took out your milk and cereal when suddenly Jungkook came lazily into the kitchen, half awake.

“Good morning y/n...” he said quietly, yawning after.

“Morning, you want cereal?” Jungkook nodded and sat in the seat in front of you. You got him a bowl and spoon and let him pour his stuff.

You almost spat out your food when you looked at him. This boy was pouring... his... milk before his cereal... you stared at him in shock. How can he pour milk before cereal? How does he know he added enough milk for his cereal? What if he added too much milk?

He noticed you staring and gave you his cute bunny smile, causing you to snap out of your stupid thought and continue eating.

“Okay so, I have school today. Which means I’m not going to be here for the day, usually until 4 or 5. I got you this.” You handed him a new phone you bought when Jungkook was at his vet appointment. “My number is there and so is Jin’s, Tae’s and Jimin’s. I have rules okay, you can do whatever you want, don’t make a mess, if you do, please just clean it up, do not leave the house and don’t jump or thump around too loud, people might complain.” You said, taking the last bite of your cereal and putting your bowl into the sink.

You were going to go to your room to get ready but you looked at Jungkook and he was frowning, playing with the cereal in his bowl and not eating it.

“Jungkook...” you said, walking to stand next to him.

“Do you have to go to school? Can’t you stay and study here?” He asked sadly.

You realized that Jungkook hasn’t been separated from you for that long since you got him. Of course he would get upset or anxious that you were leaving.

“I can’t study here.. I promise to come back as soon as my classes are done!” You said with a smile, petting his head.

He pouted and continued eating his cereal.

You went back to your room and got ready.

-

You heard the door open and you quickly ran to the door.

“I’m coming I’m coming, I’m just looking for my-“ Jungkook gave you your phone. “Thanks, I’ll be back soon okay, promise! And Jin brought Taehyung so you guys can hang out.” You said, taking your phone and giving him a little kiss on his cheek.

“Bye! Don’t make a mess, Taehyung.” Jin said as he waved to him.

Tae nodded and went to where Jungkook was.

You waved goodbye to the two boys, noticing that Jungkook was looking away from you.

“Jungkook! Call me if you need anything okay!” You said before exiting your house and locking the door.

You and Jin got into his car to go to school.

“You think they’ll be okay?” You asked Jin worriedly.

“Tae is with him, at least he’s not by himself. They’ll be fine.” He said as he drove.

-

“You want to watch cartoons?” Tae asked Jungkook who was sitting on the couch silently.

Jungkook looked at him and smiled.

“Sure.. where is Jimin?” He asked curiously.

“Ah, he’s in heat right now so he wanted to stay at home and rest.” He said, flipping the channels for a cartoon to watch.

Jungkook nodded and got up to get snacks for the two of them.

“Do you know when you go into heat?” Tae asked, sitting on the couch and hugging a cushion.

“...” Jungkook opened his mouth to say something but closed it.

“You don’t have to lie. I smell it.” He said, patting the spot next to him so Jungkook could sit there.

Jungkook looked at him and scoffed.

“So why did you ask me if you already knew?” Kook asked.

“I wanted to see if you would lie.” He giggled, giving him a boxy smile.

Jungkook and Taehyung stayed on the couch watching their cartoons, Jungkook constantly checking the time to see how long it’s been.

Taehyung noticed Jungkook starting to get very anxious.

“Do you miss y/n?” Tae asked.

Jungkook looked at Taehyung and shook his head.

“O-of course not.” He stuttered.

Suddenly, you texted Jungkook which caused him to jump.

“Oh! It’s y/n!” Tae yelled.

“Are you two okay? ^^” You texted.

Taehyung took Jungkook’s phone and took a selfie with him to send to you.

Taehyung pouted and looked at Jungkook. “I’m sending this to Y/n! Look cute or decent. You look like you want to die.”

“You aren’t making an expression either!” Jungkook complained.

“I look good either way!” Tae yelled back.

Taehyung took another photo and sent it to you.

You looked at your phone and smiled.

“Jin look!” You whispered, showing him the photo.

“We’re okay! No need to worry!”

You were relieved when you saw the text. Jungkook seemed content.

“Told you they were fine.” Jin said while writing down something the teacher was saying.

-

“Taehyung... you love Jin right?” Jungkook asked.

“Of course I do! He’s my owner.” He replied while eating some melons you had cut the other day.

Jungkook wanted to bring up how he’s been feeling around you but he was afraid.

“Have you heard those stories about hybrids falling in love with their owners? Like... romantically..” Kook asked him.

Taehyung’s ears twitched and he laughed.

“I’ve heard those but I think they’re a bit odd. Society will think it’s wrong and look down on them. I think it’s selfish though, for a hybrid to fall in love with their owners.” He said. “I remember, one of my friends, her name is Minnie. She’s a panther hybrid and she fell in love with her owner. Her owner was angry at that fact and sent her away.” He continued.

Jungkook was in shock. Sending their hybrid away because they fell in love?

“What do you think about them?” Tae asked him.

“Oh.. I-I think they’re odd too..” he said as he started eating his snack.

He couldn’t tell Taehyung. He would laugh at him.

4:45pm

Jungkook and Taehyung had fallen asleep on the couch with the cartoons still playing in the background.

You and Jin arrived to your house and opened the door.

You looked at the couch and immediately told Jin to be quiet.

“They’re sleeping.” You whispered as quiet as you could. Your hybrid was a bunny, he’d hear the smallest things and you didn’t want to wake them.

You found the sight super cute and decided to snap a photo of them two. You didn’t realize you sound was on and saw Jungkook’s ears twitch when you took the photo. Luckily, he or Taehyung didn’t wake up.

Jin made his way to his, Jungkook’s room and changed into more comfortable clothes.

Jin called Jimin for a bit to see if he was okay. Asking if he needed anything, if he wanted him to pick him up and bring him here with everyone else.

You loved the relationship Jin had with the two boys. They cared so much for each other.

Jin quietly tried to wake up Taehyung so they could go back to Jimin who was very lonely at their home.

Taehyung opened his eyes slowly and saw Jin. He smiled, got up slowly not to wake up Jungkook and gave him a hug. Then, gave you a hug.

“Thanks for keeping Jungkook company.” You whispered to Taehyung as you pet his head.

He smiled to you and they left the house.

You looked at the coffee table and saw a bunch of snack wrappers. They didn’t eat lunch?

“Jungkook?” You said quietly, shaking him gently but he wouldn’t wake up. He’s probably just really tired. You went to your room to take a nap as well.

Jungkook woke up shortly after you fell asleep and noticed your scent in the house. He quickly made his way into your room and cuddled next to you. Falling asleep again.

BTW GUYS THAT EDIT WAS MADE AT 2AM SO LIKE ITS SUPER BAD IK! BUT HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER!

[violetkatart]

good news!!!

i finally got to go to the docs about my wrist on friday, and from what they can see i DONT have carpal tunnel!! 

right now im just taking some ibprufen a couple times a day and putting ice packs on my wrists every now and again, but hopefully soon ill be getting set up for some physical therapy and hopefully with all those combined ill be able to get back into drawing a bit later this year!

im also gonna work on getting a new theme for this blog bc its 2 bright for my eyes and also with tumblrs dumb update i cant change anything abt the theme even when i attempt to edit the code to the correct format, so everyones gonna be nice and pretty soon!

im also gonna try and get some stuff queued up again, mostly just some old drawings im still proud of along with that post i made on my main blog every couple days, since getting money so i have things to do to get outta the house will also help my wrist out a bunch

annd i think thats it on updates for here, happy march! im real sorry i havent been able to give you guys any new content lately bc of my wrists but i promise ill churn out some new things once i get the okay from docs and my own body to draw again!(though itll probably be a slow start, i dont wanna crash the second i can draw again dgnjsgnk)

[bellameblake]

how did you become so popular? i’m just starting out and want to do well on here yeah sorry if you don’t want to do this.

Hey nonny! I have to admit i laughed a little at this just because I don’t consider myself popular, not by a long shot! This message is really kind of you and kind of amazing! So welcome to tumblr! So this is probably going to much longer than actually needed by anyone so i’m going to put this under the cut!

So first make tumblr easier for yourself and download xkit. Basically on desktop you can reblog from you dash, tag this automatically, and a bunch of other amazing things that make tumblr 6743 times easier. You can find xkit here.

Then okay so this probably sounds bad but having a good mobile and desktop theme goes a long way. desktop themes can seem super scary especially with no coding experience what so ever but i promise it is easy to change a theme and it makes a world of difference. here is a pretty quick and easy tutorial. Okay, so where do find codes? well there are tons of amazing theme makers on tumblr I reblog themes i like and you can see those here. and if you find a theme maker you can go to their page and see what else they made! then onto mobile theme. Like everything else there are some amazing icon and header makers on tumblr. For icons you can see mine here, also try @bb-8, @grumpybell, @alecsizzy, @harrydraco to name a few! For headers and icons you can go to @johnmurphe (brooke makes amazing icons and headers!!)

Also having a navi page can be really important if you are in a lot of fandoms or even just one! that brings me to TAGGING! tagging makes a world of difference. i probably over tag things but being so multi fandom and i’m just organized i have to tag. some people wont follow you unless you have a tag system. it makes it easier to blacklist things you dont want on your dash! tagging can be from just the show #the 100, to #tv: the 100, to character names full or not. anything you want basically.

so that’s most of the basic stuff it comes down to who you follow and what you post. tumblr is yours. you decide who you follow and unfollow and what you see on your dash. you dont like something someone is posting either backlist their tag or unfollow them. people tend to hate things just for something to do which sounds exhausting to me so curate your dash how you want it! There are tons of networks out there that are about one specific character or show so check them out! a network is a blog run by a group of people usually post edits and things and reblogs the newest edits! so an example is my network @bellamyblakepositivity (small self promo ;) )

Now i know some people thing you have to make gifsets, edits, headcanons, write fics, graphics, icons ect. to get followers. you really don’t. can it help? hell yeah haha making things and knowing how to tag edits helps even more! (this is for original edits) There are a million tutorials for learning how to make gifs and things i used tutorials to teach myself! you can dig through my tag for tuorials if you want to try that. but like i said you dont have to make things to enjoy yourself and make friends on this site! Please if you make things cite where you get ideas like quotes and things. and do NOT repost other peoples work. making things takes a lot of time and effort. i’m not saying you will but i am saying it is a sure fire way to get no where fast and its just rude. kindness goes a long way here even though it seems like it might not.

I was for the longest time the blog out in the dark that didnt make things and didn’t talk to anyone. I’m shit at starting conversations so i just dont do it. luckily people started conversations with me and i have made some absolutely amazing friends on this site. Like @flawlessbellamy I asked for a blog rate or tagged her in something and she sent a message to me and that was a year and 3 months ago and we talk daily! So if you see an edit you like, or a fic or something message the creator of it! i know as a creator i love love LOVE hearing from people (i read the tags on my posts and the give me life)! A lot of the time we are all just awkward beans who want to talk to each other but are too damn afraid. I see a blog on my dash and think i want to know that person but that and actually messaging are two different things but i implore you to try. some people like @broodybellamy are social butterflies even when they say they aren’t they totally are and just talk to people like its nothing. i am not like that. either is completely fine start small by tagging someone in something like a tag game, join blogrates, anything and go from there!

I made a lot of my friends by joining networks. so i said above what networks are a blog run by a group of people. there used to be a bunch of different types but those have since died off and now i see networks as almost a but more professional? like there is an admin then members and things are supposed to be updated and all that but if you join a network usually you just have to reblog some some stuff to keep the blog active and make something if you can and if you cant thats totally fine too!! networks usually have group chats either via blog or by group texting apps like whatsapp and discord. There you can get to know lots of people some you get along with and some not so much. from joning one network i met some of my closest friends and i am in about 15 different chats with different variations of the same people! networks are a huge help in getting to know people.

I honestly don’t try to do well i mean like i just reblog what i like and go from there i dont try to actively think about followers and things of course it’s inevitable for me to check my follower count and the notes on my edits but its more fun if you do you and see where it takes you. pick a theme you like, people an icon you like, the header. follow the people you want and unfollow others. tumblr is what you make of it!

if you want to know more about anything im happy to answer specific questions. i generally have a tutorial for just about everything and if i dont have it i can find it lmao! see i told you this would be longer than anyone needed or wanted!

[multiplechoicepast]

Important Blog Update!

//Hi, all! Okay, so, this is a bit of an important update to sort of just discuss where I am at and why I’ve been a bit all over the place as well as what’s going on with my blog, my rps etc. 

So, as some of you may know, I just recently went through the whole ordeal of testing etc and got officially diagnosed with carpal tunnel in both of my wrists. While it’s great to know what the hell has been troubling me for over half a year so bad, it’s still not great to know. With this diagnosis means I got referred to a surgeon that I will be going to see next Friday to discuss my options. I could be looking at 2 different operations here and time without being able to use one or the other hand. It’s been pretty stressful and on top of that I still deal with the symptoms of it every day and for someone whose job is to work with their hands so much it’s damn near crippling and it has taken a toll on me both mentally and physically. 

It’s also no secret that I have shitty eyesight. I’ve been in glasses since the 3rd grade and I’m not exactly young anymore. I make no secrets that I’m 32 here. So, I had been having vision issues and just went to go get those checked out this week. My vision/prescription hasn’t changed much, but I do have “floaters” in both eyes. It could be absolutely nothing and it could be something. So, I have to go back to the eye doctor again in a month. I also heard the word “bifocals” as being in my very near future and that depresses the shit out of me somewhat lol. 

On top of all of this? I work damn near every day and we’re going through a merger which means all new management and supervisors and it’s been very, VERY stressful. All new rules, all new people and it’s practically changed into a whole new job in the timespan of a couple of weeks. Every day it’s something new. 

Most of you know that Spooper (noordinaryperson) and I are a real life couple and have been for over 5 years. That said, we’re also in the process of cleaning, redecorating and refurnishing our apartment with furniture that WE picked and bought and isn’t handmedowns from 500 years ago. This is taking work and time and is keeping us from being here that often, I suppose. With the way my/our schedules work... I basically have time to get up in the morning, have a cup of coffee, go to work, come home, feed the animals, shower, eat and go to bed. We’re also in the process of planning our first party/get together in our revamped apartment in October as well as meeting up with friends next weekend. Point is? Our lives are busy. For as much as we joke that we have no lives? We honestly do lol.

So... If you’ve gotten this far? Thank you for reading! <3 I do appreciate it. Now onto the good stuff... Blog stuff!

I am not planning a hiatus or anything of the sort. I just know it’s going to be at least 4 days until I get back online to do anything. I planned to be here today, but, I’ve had a migraine all day and that knocked out computer usage unfortunately. I also know that I have a lot of busy things planned and I can’t guarantee how much I’ll be able to be on in the coming month to 2 months. What I do know? 

I’m not going anywhere and neither is this blog! I promise. I just ask for your patience and understanding is all. I’m slow as fuck and I know it, but I promise I am going to work on getting everything back under control.

So what is coming for this blog? Several things I’m working on, actually.

New filters to my muse page that make searching a bit easier/less complicated

Edits to some muse pages

Edits to tags

Edits to verses

Edits to headcanons

Revamping my thread tracker. This means I am going back through and retracking all of my threads and making sure i have everything organized. So, if you’re waiting for a reply from me and haven’t seen one in forever and think I may have lost it because my drafts ate a bunch of replies I had saved... PLEASE MESSAGE ME AND LINK ME TO REPLY OR STARTER. This will help me IMMENSELY. 

Spooky/Seasonal October muses will become FEATURED Muses because Spoopy Season is upon us!

Muses may be added 

Threads will be started

More Muse Roulettes will be done

Open starters may be posted

Starter calls may be done

Page/blog will be organized and revamped some

Replies will be done

Inbox will be emptied

So... You see I have a lot of things planned. The problem is just getting the time to do it all. Hang in there. Have patience. Send me those links and message me to plot or just to talk. Things will be back to normal soon. I promise. 

Thank you all for sticking with me and for all of your patience. Super special thanks for any of you that have offered kind words and words of support while I’ve been down. It means the world to me and you guys (along with my passion for writing and my muses) are the reason I stay here. 

Much Love, J

[hadtochangemyurlquick]

WLW Fic Rec List

with input from my beautiful friend @gee13

I promised a random anon I would give ‘em a more complete list of recs several months ago so here- in no particular order I have, Glee, Pretty Little Liars, Pitch Perfect, Girl Meets World, Supergirl, The 100,  The Good Place, and Riverdale. 

There’s very little porn without plot in here, but I went through my favorites on fanfiction.net and my history on Ao3 and if I recognized the fic I put it down. So some might have slipped through.

As I was going through these and rereading some old favorites I forgot about I wrote little bios. If your work, or a work you really like doesn’t have a bio it’s just cause I remembered it was really good and didn’t feel a need to reread it. If you want comment your own and I’ll edit the post and give you credit. 

The minimum qualifications for all of these were:

At least 2k words for a one shot, if it was a multi chapter there had to be at least 1k words per chapter (For example: 14 chapters, 14k words)

It had to be completed or updated in the last year ish (but like I was flexible based on the quality, and if I knew the author or the deal or not)

It had to be Ao3 or Fanfiction.net and tagged appropriately (so I could find it)

Also I never really got into g!p stuff because I ran into a lot of transphobic or just really offensive stuff early on which put me off of it.

Or the alpha omega stuff, when my goach found out I was reading fanfiction she said ‘great just nothing with alpha omega shit okay” and that was like four years ago but I don’t care enough now to start. So none of those are on here (maybe in faberry but I don’t think so)

And they also had to be english, my spanish is still pretty bad so I can’t really read any of those- sorry :(

But let me know if the link ain’t right. And if you think something should be added let me know too, and I’ll read it and add it, and give you credit. My tastes have changed over the years to be slightly so if there’s something here that you think is distateful message me being like “can you reread this?” because it might’ve slipped through. Or I might be like “m8 thats some gay ass shit right there, agr33 to disagr33.” We’re all just here to read out otps getting together again and again in different ways, let’s just be chill about it

But don’t worry- what’s important is at the end of the day they’re all very very gay. 

Italics is required reading for each fandom

Glee

Faberry

Dead Girls Don’t Sing (a must read) and the sequel Dead Girls Don’t get a Happy Ending - if you read nothing else for the rest of your life read this, it was written by one of the kindest women I know

You Don’t have the Right

A Perfect Match - slow burn, good if you like tennis

Comfortably Numb

Black Holes and Revelations

Angel Eyes

I’ll Be

Beers and Strippers

Kill the Light

Racing Against the Sun (fucking depressing I cried)

The Christmas Act

Acceptance and it’s sequels: Remembrance and Convergence

Making Angels Cry

Better Than Ice Cream - cute kid!faberry fic

Alone Together - slow burn af but worth the read

A Million Miles of Fun - ridiculous and great

Cuddle Monster - fluffy fluffy crack

Zero, Thirtyseven, Nine - I read this awhile ago and was too young to comprehend the genius

Secret Relationship Unlike Any Other - I was just thinking about this fic the other day!

Should’ve Asked for Directions - if you haven’t read this- read it I swear to god

An Accident of Paradise

Backwards Walk  and the companion Between The Drinks And Subtle Things - angsty and painful, I once attempted to write a happy ending and even my fluffy ass failed 

Better Where it’s Wetter - Introduced me to Ellen so…

Boats in the Sky

The Wish

Give your Heart a Break - left me a lil unsatisfied, but gave me some room to daydream about an epilogue

We might fall hard We might fall fast

I Told Him

Opposite Poles, Equal Partners - a quick angsty one shot to leave you unsatisfied :)))))))))

Quinn’s Second Time - I remember this being good awhile back, let me know ya’ll

Marley and Quinn

My Lost was Saying Found

Brittana

12 Days

Pretty Little Liars

Emison:

Ali’s Second Chance

Duplicity

Sinner’s Lullaby

the supreme 

Dreaming

Gravity

Affair

In Holy Matrimony

Our War

A Break From Being Me

Acquired Madness

Her Silence is Deafening

It’s a Process

Orange is the new Alison

Mermaid

Brooklyn and the Baby

Dreaming - tbh I’m not sure if it’s good, but the concepts amazing and the first chapters are really good so we’ll see

Downtown Train - this author is an investment, I have a feeling they’ll get better with time and this fic is already really good. Perfect for a relaxing rainy day, or right before you go to bed because it won’t keep you up. Just like a chill fic bruh

Begin Again - THAT ONE BASED OF AN OLD ASS POST I MADE FOR NOTES BECAUSE I KNEW YOU FOOLS WOULD EAT IT UP AND SOMEHOW TURNED OUT REALLY WELL AND I DIDN’T EVEN ASK THEM TO WRITE IT THEY ASKED ME HAHA WHAT THE FUCK

Tattooed Memories & Hidden Stories

Soldiers are Dreamers

Lauren - frustrating for an emison shipper but undeniably well written

Place Your Bet - tbh everything by this author, while a little slow, is incredible 

And The Sparks That We Had Can No Longer Light Up Our Debris - angsty and unsatisfying, but I’m a masochist so I love it

Like Real People Do

Right now it feels like we’re bleeding (so deep that we might not get back up) - I have reread this shit so many times, I love it to death

J'adore

she’s (not) too good for you - I reread this on the regular

25 Occasions People Have Celebrated in the Liarverse - seriously so good, I cried several times

Five Kisses Emily Fields Never Had (On Screen)

Half the Fun

A Break From Being Me - hasn’t been updated in 3000 years but sorta incredible tbh, read at your own risk!

Mulligan Madness

Ali’s Guide to the Art of Love - one of those fics that seems dumb but is actually really gripping and well written and it’s just that the summary’s misleading?

i’ve been afraid of changing (cause i built my life around you)

silver stepping stones - sorta like ‘Right now it feels like we’re bleeding…’ but told from Alison’s perspective and if Alison had gone with Emily. It’s not perfect but it’s a cute one shot and really in character

Ali’s Nightmare Before Christmas and it’s sequel Breathe Again - I actually haven’t reread these I just remember these being really really good

Art of Attraction - I actually know the author and she’s super nice and she writes a bunch of other great stuff

Charlissa

All the Things That Used to Matter

Vandermarin

every thought a thought of you

Love is the New Denim or Black

Sparia

Act Like Everything is Normal

wide open road (of my future)

Spanna

Take Me to Your River (I Wanna Go)

Other:

Chalk Paths

Tell me you Won’t Leave me - really angsty, I felt like it really made an impact on me ya know?

Thirteen Things - this is actually a series but every fic is completed and utter gold

All the Way Home I’ll Be Warm - okay this is a lil hetero but it has emison so

Big Little Liars

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Depravity

Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Times, They Are A’Changing - sorta every gay couple imaginable, I haven’t read it in awhile but I remember it being really good, there’s a companion peice: Baby, You’re the Best I’ve Ever Met that’s about Mona and Melissa

Pitch Perfect

Bechloe

Perfect Timing and a Perky Red Head

Moirai

Girl Meets World

Rilaya

The Circle

iloveyouiloveyouiloveyou, she never says and the unfinished sequel which will continue to kill us “we’ll be fine,” he swore  (even if you aint in the fandom read this, some of the best work I’ve ever seen)

Growing Pains Taste Like Five Hour Energy And Her Lips

Darling so it Goes - hasn’t been updated in awhile so read at your own risk

your hand in mine (heartbeats in sync)

we howl to the moon

do you fall in love too easily?

Passage - I reread this to make sure it was still good as I remembered, crying now- read at your own risk

As Observed by the Sky

pretty sleeper and it’s companion pretty weeper - why is the rilaya fandom so angsty? IT’S NOT NECESSARY

crawl home to her - vampire au, not normally something I’m into but the pickings are sparce and this is damn good

Revelations

Ten First Meetings

The Universe Wants Maya Dead - fucking angsty man, seriously

Day in the Super Life

with joyful ring - a cute Christmas one shot

a love that’s homeless - another cute fantasy one shot

ramble in the roots

Supergirl

Supercorp

Something to Write About

The War of Roses

Is this who we are now? - I wish this was more than a oneshot, I would’ve liked to see the ending play out but a fantastic concept- really

90408

Of Soul-Mate’s and Heart-ache

The Fifth Wall -  I’ve loved the slow buildup but haven’t had a chance to finish it so no one talk to me about it ever

Secretaries Know Best - Jess is a queen and I love her

One Lena Comment Too Far - the greatest piece of literature to ever grace the internet

Did You Absolutely Have To - I’m dying and I love it

Your Name

Supergirl’s latest date - I remember this being pretty funny but I was too lazy to reread

Sunlit Honey and Lavender Sunsets and apparently the author has an unfinished sequel? Gold-Crested Ravens and Cornflower Blue Mornings

The 100

Clexa

Lightening Only Strikes Once - READ READ READ PLEAASE

Six

Down Came the Rain

The Blind Side of Love

Pie in the Sky - so so so so good! Like actually amazing

they take their shots but we’re bulletproof

you’re magic & you’re real

All That You Got (Skin To Skin Oh My God)

Copper Down - so I went on a clexa spree and so there’s gonna be a shit ton of those on here

More Than You Think You Are - a little ooc at times but pretty gosh darn amazing oh my god

masquerade dreams 

blood rush in the hazy glow - this killed me, I wish the author would give us an epilogue, maybe Clarke and Lexa buying the bar together and watching some lost college kids come in making it a circle or something, but really really really amazing Jesus

I’ll travel through time to save you

In Another Life - a little Lexark for ya, it’s a short, fun, satisfying read you can knock out in thirty minutes

Origamis - to prepare ya’ll for the single mom au I’m dropping probably never but have planned out in my head to a tee

The Wife Project: By Professor Alexandria Woods - Autistic!lexa is honestly one of my favorite head canons that I believe is 100% true, and this fic writes it effortlessly

Almost Three - angsty but interesting concept- definitely enjoyable and I’ve reread it multiple times

Some Angels Fall

Commander in Chief - the best part about this is that in this universe trump is in jail

i’ll give you the moon - some christmas fluff

she gave me a good character (but said I could not swim) - angsty and unfullfilling so you know I love it

The White Queen Running - I loved every moment of this fic and it’s (unfinished) sequal - The Red King Awake, while admittedly hard to follow at times it’s still incredibly sweet while also being angsty and intriguing. 10/10 would read again. Also there’s so much fanart for it? Like really really good fanart? I’ve actually saved some of the better pieces to give me inspiration when I write tbh…

An Unfinished Fight - wonderful concept but would’ve loved to see the ending scene played out more, still an overall amazing fic and honestly so satisfying

Love Letters and Coffee Grounds - a warm christmas fluff for ya that’s ridiculously long but still great. 

It’s in My Roots, in My Veins, in My Blood (and I Stain Every Heart That I Use to Heal the Pain - a little bit of plot exhaustion by the end, you can probably just stop reading after the second denny’s scene and then skip to the epilouge but still so fantastic. I stayed up till 2am reading this and have no regrets

This Isn’t Our Fate (But You’re Still My Destiny) - lexark and clexa in one amazing fic! Sign me the fuck up! Really fucking cute and fluffy and totally angsty headcannons for elyza I love.

An Adventure - I love the characterization for Aden and I love this so much in gerneral tbh

you’re magic & you’re real - I like exactly four headcanons about the 100 characters: autistic!lexa, dyslexic!clarke, nonbinary!octavia, and I can’t remember the other one. It doesn’t matter, all of the mentioned above are in this and it’s very gay and wonderful and I actually wish I could make a movie out of this because it’s so great

by her side - a warm fluffy christmas fic for yall

Let Your Hair Down - dunno, cute af I guess

The Days of our Lives - a series I didn’t have the patience to finish but I have adhd so… the first one was fantastic and I loved the second one, but it keeps going so the others are probably good too

Today at Dust - helpful if you want to cry

who told you that you were naked? - fantastic, like seriously one of the best things I’ve read. 

i can fly higher than an eagle (for you are the wind beneath my wings) - GREAT if you want to cry. Not clexa centered but at the end yeah… It’s about Anya and Lexa

I have lost my pain - creative and interesting, well written and well done. A very good fic in all manners of speaking

I Will Wait (You Forgave And I Won’t Forget) - just a cute oneshot that’s very well written and gripping

A Forest Fire - I’m a sucker for fix it fics 

Fallen - a series I didn’t have the paitence to finish but again, symptom of my adhd, the first book and second book’s first half was fantastic and cute. I just love the headcanon for Clarke

Fix You - angsty but also amazing?

Mystic Coffee - did this inspire fanart or was it inspired by the witch!clarke fanart?

the business of caring - I’m a huge fan of this author’s style of writing, it’s funny and straight to the point and very dry, I read this until 3:30am last night and I had to get up at 6 the next day

what the ground grows - written by the same author and you can see the similarities in voice. Seriously both are amazing but this one is considerably more angsty than the one above

I’m bigger than my body, I’m colder than this home (I’m meaner than my demons, I’m bigger than these bones) - so angsty but so wonderful, I actually cried so hats off to you author…

The Witch of Ceder Plains - a cute two shot

July 4th 2016 - not really a series like the description promises but a very good stand alone story that was well written

If Love Were Enough and the heartbreaking prequal What I Lost In You - both oneshots, both genius

Bury it and Rise Above - mideval oneshot that I love

Ramen, Redbull, and Spite - I need a comic book based off this, it’s genius

find your way to me - fuck this fic, no really, I stayed up till 4am reading it when I had to get up at 8 the next day. Fuck this fucking shit. Mainly fluff until everything falls apart

Sacred Spaces - wasn’t gonna cause it’s just a oneshot and the description is so bad but shit the imagery in here is to die for and I feel like I’m reading a van gogh painting seriously

maybe they will sing for us tomorrow: the only thing I’ve ever printed a hard copy of its my all time favourite probably (description and initial reccomendation by @lexascandlestores) 

Everything by this author is so good in the clexa section I would reccomend all of it seriously oh my god

move on me: reincarnation fic that’s really beautiful (description and initial reccomendation by @lexascandlestores​)

Against the multiverse: a really fun clever one shot  (description and initial reccomendation by @lexascandlestores​)

ultraviolet lights - a lexark one shot that headcannons Elyza in a way I haven’t seen her before (a soft gay extra mess)

Hope is the Thing with Feathers (That Perches in the Soul) - I really love the daemon universe even though I’ve seen very little of it. This was very vivid though and had great imagery...

You’re Love Is a Waiting Game - I don’t think the author knew how to end this which is why the ending wasn’t perfect, but it’s overall so amazing I love it and it’s def worth the read

a year of sundays - a bit of a slow read at times and a bit mind boggling at times that they don’t figure it out sooner but very fluffy and amazing and very in character

your hand in mine and it’s sequal your hand in mine (pt. ii) - at the time of my writing this I have not yet finished part two but the first one was mastered so well I can only imagine its counterpart will be of a similar nature. Also there’s smut in this

Nails For Breakfast, Tacks For Snacks - a series about clexa in the middle of a turfwar, it’s just three well written one shots that are gripping and have a lot of imagery and realism. 

Something Suspicously Close to Hope - read if you like crying and Stranger Things, it’s a series of one shots about Eleven being adopted by Clexa and I love them

beat the devil’s tattoo - I haven’t read the one for anya but I imagine, if it’s anything like this- it’s pretty darn good

And I am driftwood, found. - really emotional, I read the first part but never finished it but this forced me to go back and reread it. Definitely worth it.

Feels Like Home - a short but satisfying read with very good characterization

a hand to hold on to series - definitely prioritizes family over romance but the kids were very realistic and I liked what they did when they placed Lexa in such a new situation so fast. I feel like people characterize her as bad with kids a lot but I don’t think she was...

or what you will - realiztic and heartfelt, I liked the poetry it was additive and insightful

enchanted. - are there ever enough harry potter AUs? Could’ve done with some more angst but this was acceptable.

She (thefooliam): a classical emotional roommates fic that just nails all the feels (description and initial reccomendation by @lexascandlestores)

This is heaven in hiding: lawyer multi chapter that’s really good and pretty smutty though! (​)

Markenland Series - there’s just two right now but I think they plan on writing a third. Anyway, very cute, I loved the characterization and the slowburn but not kill me this is taking too long slowburn

More Women than Warriors - I can’t begin to describe how much I love this, one of my favorite things I’ve read of all time. Please read this.

Empath - gay

Love Is Blindness (I Don’t Want to See) - my dad sat next to the daughter of a notorius kingpin when he was in highschool, once she asked to borrow a pencil and never gave it back and he watched her use it for like three months and said nothing. 

Habromaniac: cute one shot ( description and initial reccomendation by @lexascandlestores)

this heart, fossilized and silent (once was tender, and once was violent) - surprisingly little angst after the beginning but in still a very realistic way. very fast paced in terms of action, I certainly was never bored...

Suffrage - there will never be a time when I am not interested in twentieth century, cross dressing, feminist clexa fighting for the rights of women

No Church In The Wild: one of the best heartbreaking canon one shots ever (description and recomendation by @lexascandlestores) 

Kiss Me, Kill Me; It’s Just The Same Isn’t It? - lexark, a little bit of poetic fluff thrown in there but it hit just that perfect mix of clexa and lexark, very good

the earth, that is sufficent - written for clexa week I loved every chapter of it. Each peice was a standalone but also worked cohesively with the others. Flawless, seriously.

Into the Wild Blue - I just love southern clexa okay? Leave me alone

it’s called contraband for a reason - written by one of the best clexa authors of all time it’s hilarious, sweet, in character, poignant and well done. At times the format takes away more than it adds but it allows the reader to compare and contrast the beginning and the end and see the character’s develop more clearly.

there is no sweeter innocence (than our gentle sin) - this author may or may not be a genius Imma go binge all of their works and let you know. This was vv good at least. One shot

we’re only young & naive still (the bittersweet between my teeth) - part of that gaf au (you can find here) that I love so much... just a one shot but the different perspectives are done really well which is a hard thing to do well

Before Words, Beyond Silence, and it’s unfinished sequal, In the Screaming Silence - it has that satisfying instant clexa connection while not sacrificing plot or angst, no trust me, it didn’t sacrifice angst. I think the ice queen plot was a little rushed but it’s still fantastic and I’m excited to see where the sequal goes!

Skylark -  A superhero fic that’s pretty damn cool. Clarke and the gang had illegal experiments done to them by Mount Weather and it gave them superpowers. They fight crime while trying to remain anonymous as well. This story is so clever and incorporates the City of Light/chips/ flame so cool, and Clexa are badasses, and just…read it, trust me. (Description and initial reccomendation done by @dreamsaremywords on this rec list)

You See The Smile That’s On My Mouth (it’s hiding the words that don’t come out) -  A childhood modern au where Clarke and Lexa are fuckin soulmates and best friends and it takes them a ridiculous amount of time to figure that out. (Description and initial reccomendation done by @dreamsaremywords on this rec list)

The World Had Less Color Without You - it’s a college au where Clexa become friends after being paired together for a project, and fall in love even though they’re both terrified of it. (Description and initial reccomendation done by @dreamsaremywords​ on this rec list)

Love on the Ground - This!! fic!!! is fucking fantastic. Canon-verse, angsty, so, so good. Just read it. (Description and initial reccomendation done by @dreamsaremywords​ on this rec list)

Mysteries of Love - There’s another apocalypse, but Clexa are soulmates, and there’s a happy ending. (Description and initial reccomendation done by @dreamsaremywords​ on this rec list)

Essays in Existentialism: FtWD - a writer on tumblr publishes a lot of fics, either multi or oneshots under the ‘essays in exstentialism’ I haven’t read any beyond this lexark multi but this lexark multi was pretty fricken amazing ngl. Unfortunately hasn’t been updated in more than a year so it’s a pretty big risk

You Ask My Name (and All I do is Listen) - I had every sort of feeling about this, it’s super in character and incredibly well done

The Library - a bar au with a perfect mix of instant connection and angst, really well done

possibility days - a celeb au that’s well written and annoyingly filled with useless lesbian themes for both our idiots

Hooked on a feeling - an HP au I waited a million years to be updated and then finally was and what I’m trying to tell you is it’s amazing and worth it and wonderful and fluffy and I’ll love it forever

gera’s step-sister au - a lot of porn, Idk why but I tried to read this a billion years ago but I reread it recently and loved it. But yeah - definition of porn with feelings

Come Morning Light - this author writes a lot of kid fics but this is one of my favorites. In character and well written with a heartbreakingly poetic style. I love it.

most ardently - like some of these authors fics are amazing (like this one) and some are dumb as shit and like? Are there co authors? Are you like multiple people? I don’t know but this was amazing, historical clexa is historical clexa. Has some themes of the suffragette au from my first rec list but carves out a nice space for itself.

Punchline - a oneshot where Clarke wanders around the world and runs into Lexa a lot except it’s angsty and beautiful and there’s a lot of imagery

clexa eternal au - painful heartbreaking well written fantastic. I love most of the stuff by this author too so like you can’t really go wrong

pump mud through my veins - I wasn’t sure about the structure at first but they did something really cool with it and honestly well done

out at sea - okay I saw the tumblr post for this but I gotta say they did something interesting and fun with it and I don’t mind. Well writtten and vv cute

we will meet again - put off reading this because I was prepared for endless heartbreaks. Did happen but totally worth it. Don’t worry there’s a happy ending

Zoo Parks and Restoration - I got annoyed with plot exhaustion but the amount of well done clexa in this made it perfect. I never really like modern aus that much but I love this

The Whore’s Queen - took a little bit to get going but once it did... damn...

We Looked Like Giants - for some reason I put this off but there was no reason to? It’s so good? And very in character?

when my heart is at war - I can’t wait for the sequals, the first one is incredible!

Fall Away - a lot deeper and angstier than the thing got me ready for, really amazing and really well done. Love them lesbians

we could be immortals - put this off for some reason I don’t know why. Very in character, very true to high school I think, and funny and sarcastic and well written. it’s a highschool au but it’s more in character than that, and there’s plenty that links it to canon. I prefer canon tbh, but this was a nice fluff break

The Taste of War and Heartache - angsty and unfinished this is another incredible work by thefooliam. I would ten/ten reccomend because where it leaves off is pretty okay. It’s a canon au but it has some modern elements for those who prefer that. Really a great fic.

Bellamy x Murphy

if you only knew (my heart is breaking) - murphy is immortal and it’s angsty, this actually introduced me to this ship and I don’t normally like mlm but I kinda love this?

cynophilia - geez I don’t know why I love this ship all of a sudden wow

(you owe me twenty) - this actually ends with Murphy and Emori but it’s still super well written and well done

The Good Place

Tahani x Eleanor

True Love Is What Janet and Jianyu Have - this author is actually getting a lot of the second season right tbh

Riverdale/Archie Comics

Beronica

Can I Kiss You?

maybe being in a closet isnt so bad

Real Bisexual Kissing

Thaw - a real fluffy piece that won’t leave you angry and sad at all :)))))))))

Friends Don’t Let Friends Suffer Alone

The list as of 10/1/18

That’s it for now, I’ll probably reblog it with a continued list or post another list later as I go through more fics and more are reccomended and updated and finished. I just thought I’d post it now for obvious reasons...

[cutiecrates]

Cutie Reviews: NMNL April 20

Okay, so something’s wrong with my front page picture. Instead, we’ll change things up a teensy bit, and I’ll make the front image the April Glam Gift set.

This month’s theme is Stay Home, Stay Fabulous

“This month we wanted to curate a beauty box that includes just what you need to give your hair and skin a boost at home, while also including adorable makeup products so you can glam up when you feel like it!“

Glam Gift and Photo Prize

So as you saw above, our GG for this month was based around Witch’s Pouch, a brand that happens to stay classy with a touch of cute whimsy. The products are a variety of cosmetics and some extra useful items, such as primer and cleansing pads.

Meanwhile, the Photo Prize consists of these super-cute Line and A Peach lip balms. They look so deliciously adorable~

For this month, the horoscope was “Which at-home Beauty Activity should you try?“. These are what it suggested:

Aries - Funky wash-out hair color

Taurus - Make a DIY clay mask

Gemini - Organize the makeup collection

Cancer - DIY bath bombs

Leo - Clean your makeup brushes

Virgo  - DIY hair mask

Libra - Try Japanese nail art

Scorpio - DIY lip scrub

Sagittarius - Do a face massage

Capricorn - Use a pore strip

Aquarius - Clean the makeup drawer

Pisces - Try an artsy makeup tutorial

Which activity did you get? Which one have you tried? Or if none of these apply to you, what would you like to try?

Pores Clear Pack Peel Off & Foot and Heel Peeling Mask

Our first two items are peeling packs, but for different parts of the body. First, we’ll begin with the pore pack, which comes from the brand Porez. It’s applied directly from the bottle and is made from Moroccan lava clay and charcoal to absorb pore impurities while cleaning the nose.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Honestly I’m not sure if it really does much, other then help pull up some more loose/dry/flaky skin from my nose. It always feels nice after I apply some facial product though. It has a strong scent, I’m not really sure how to describe it.

It goes on pretty easy but until you get the hang of it, you can expect it to be a little blotchy, and if you’re not careful you could have a wet layer beneath a dry layer, rather then satisfyingly removing it all at once. The hole it comes out of can also be kind of messy, but it’s easy to clean up.

- - - - -

I was super-excited for this next item :D we don’t get foot peeling packs very often (in fact it’s been like 2 years since I did it last, if not longer).

This one features a little cute panda motif and is made from natural extracts of fruits and herb. What makes this pack fun is that not only do you apply the product to the socks yourself, but they include cute paw print sticker/tape strips to help hold them on.

Alright, so it’s only been about 3 days since I used them. The description says it takes anywhere from 4-6 days before the skin begins to peel, so I’m not going to be rating this one yet. I’ll have an update on it when something starts to happen in a future post. But for now I’ll say it smells wonderful prior to putting it on, right after removing it, the scent is still there but there was also a very strong alcohol scent overtaking it. It really irritated my nose DX

Mediheal Hair Sheep Steam Pack

I was also really excited for this one, simply because a few Youtubers I watch have tried it out. It’s always kind of fun to get a product you recognize :3

This product promises to leave your hair feeling silky and shiny after use, and it “heats up“ to help repair damage like split ends, and frizzy dryness. It contains items such as goat milk and hydrolyzed collagen.

♥  ♥

So... I have mixed feelings about this one. It’s really cute and sounds kinda fun, it also has a decent scent. But I really don’t think it actually did anything for me (but to be fair, it’s about a year old, that could be why?), and it kind of felt like an inconvenience. After you wash your hair you have to towel dry it, then put this on for so long, and rinse it out. My dad of all people had to help me put it on too, because I was having trouble keeping it open (product is inside of it) and hold my hair up.

Animal Beating Net

Next up is this ultra-cute looking sponge that comes shaped as a froggy, bear, fish, or ducky! It also includes a small mesh-ish net that you put the little sponge into and wet, then you apply a facial cleaner or soap to foam it up nice and good. This was made to increase the foam/lather while cutting down on how much product gets used.

It’s silly but I hesitated a little to open the package; it’s so cute looking, I didn’t want to ruin it... but I did, and I set my little froggy free.

♥  ♥  ♥  ♥ 

Initially, I didn’t really think much of it, but the more I was using it the more fun I found it to be. It’s so cute, and yeah you have to clean it up afterwards, but that’s besides the point. You get a good amount of lather, and you can keep re-foaming it with a bit more water if you need more.

Arm Massager

This item comes from the brand Tsubosh. It’s available in this really light pinkish color or white. You roll it around the shoulder or wrist to loosen the joints and pressure points.

♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥

I wasn’t really sure if this was doing anything honestly. But because of my stiffened joints and aches as of late, I feel like it’s been helping that a little bit. My mom (who is still bedridden, but she’s capable of standing and using crutches now, and she can walk a teensy bit) really likes it too, and she’s been using it as a make-shift weight to lift.

Tinted Lip Balm, Bubble Lip Pack, & Heart Blossom Blush

I really didn’t need to cram all 3 of these into one picture, but I don’t hate it.

First we’ll begin with the blusher, which comes from one of my favorite brands, Etude House. This is a limited edition for spring, featuring a cute heart-shaped window and flowers etched into the blush. It’s soft with a faint shimmer, and was available in two colors: Attracted Love or Unrelenting Spring.

At least the booklet says. Mine is listed as the color Just Clicked on the box it came in. It’s a sort of... coral-ish color.

♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥

Well it gets high cuteness points. It’s also really pretty, and the container it came in makes me feel so fancy~

The color itself sort of worried me, given how orangey it looks. But when I applied it on my cheek, I noticed it’s not nearly as pigmented as it was on my fingers (you’re supposed to use a brush or puff or something but I didn’t have one nearby), so it sort of just added a natural looking glow to my cheeks.

- - - - -

This cute little lip pack comes from Choosy, a well-known lip-based brand that we’ve seen countless of times within these cosmetic boxes. This was really fun, it was just like using one of those foaming face masks, but on your lips, and it has a lovely mint scent!

♥  ♥  ♥  ♥ 

I really, really like this. It’s not a long-term product as far as I can tell, but it’s really fun to use and it smells so good. My lips feel refreshed after using it, especially when you apply a little bit of lip balm afterwards. 

Also, I’m not really sure but I think you can use this multiple times. You can’t reseal it, but you get so much product, I can’t imagine using it all at once. It only takes a little swipe to fully cover my lips. Even days later, it’s still fresh and works fine.

- - - - - -

Our final item and probably my most favorite of the bunch is this kawaii Pokemon heart-shaped lip product from IT’S DEMO. I like this brand too, although I don’t see it nearly as much as some others.

Each tin has it’s own flavor and color, and feature unique Pichu/Pikachu themed artwork. There was:

Blue - Peach

Pink - Cherry

Green - Candy

Yellow - Citrus

♥  ♥  ♥  ♥

I love love LOVE this! It smells amazing, and it’s so ultra-cute ♥

However, I don’t know if it’s because it was sitting around for a year or what, but mine seems to have a “jellied lip balm film“ over it. I’ve never really seen anything like it before. Also, the lid is fairly loose. It rests on the tin well enough, but if you hold the lid, it slides off. Depending on the angle, it seems to stay on slightly longer, but other times it comes right off. Only if you hold it by the lid though, it doesn’t randomly pop up if you’re not touching it or anything. 

I wish I could get the other three still~

♥ Cutie Ranking ♥

Content - 5 out of 5. I liked everything, it was very fun and cute. There are a couple of things I think I may have liked a bit more in our previous box, but I like this one about the same. Even that sheep steam pack that seems not to have worked at all; as I said it could be my fault for not using it sooner. I’m super-excited for the foot peeling to begin!

Theme: 5 out of 5. I suppose? I’m not entirely sure how to judge this one, but it’s all stuff you can use in the home.

Total Rank: 9 out of 10. Everything worked, maybe not to the extent of what was guaranteed, but I still liked it all. The theme wasn’t all that special or anything,  but it wasn’t a bad idea either. Everyone should be allowed to feel beautiful inside and out, in the house or outdoors.

For now, that concludes this review :3 I just got my Gacha Gacha crate while I was working on this, and I’m planning on getting it done tomorrow. So until then, stay cute!

[tainghekhongdaycomvn]

Launching a New Website: Your SEO Checklist - Whiteboard Friday

Launching a New Website: Your SEO Checklist - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by randfish

Hovering your finger over the big red "launch" button for your new website? Hold off for just a second (or 660 of them, rather). There may be SEO considerations you haven't accounted for yet, from a keyword-to-URL content map to sweeping for crawl errors to setting up proper tracking. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand covers five big boxes you need to check off before finally setting that site live.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're going to talk about launching a new website and the SEO process that you've got to go through. Now, it's not actually that long and cumbersome. But there are a few things that I put into broad categories, where if you do these as you're launching a new site or before you launch that new site, your chances of having success with SEO long term and especially in those first few months is going to go way up.

1. Keyword to URL map for your content

So let's get started with number one here. What I'm suggesting that you do is, as you look across the site that you've built, go and do some keyword research. There are a lot of Whiteboard Fridays and blog posts that we've written here at Moz about great ways to do keyword research. But do that keyword research and create a list that essentially maps all of the keywords you are initially targeting to all of the URLs, the pages that you have on your new website.

So it should look something like this. It's got the URL, so RandsAnimals.com, targeting the keyword "amazing animals," and here's the page title and here's the meta description. Then, I've got http://ift.tt/2nLC0oW, which is my page about lemurs, and that's targeting "lemurs" and "lemur habits." There's the title.

You want to go through these and make sure that if you have an important keyword that you have not yet targeted, you do so, and likewise, that if you've got a URL, a page on your website that you have not yet intentionally targeted a keyword with, you make sure to do that as well. This can be a great way to go through a small site in the early stages and make sure that you've got some terms and phrases that you're actually targeting. This will be also helpful when you do your rank tracking and your on-page optimization later on.

2. Accessibility, crawl, and UX

So what I want you to do here is to ask yourself:

I. "Are the pages and the content on my website accessible to search engines?"

There are some great ways to check these. You can use something like Screaming Frog or Google Search Console. You could use Moz Pro, or OnPage.org, to basically run a scan of your site and make sure that crawlers can get to all the pages, that you don't have duplicate content, that you don't have thin content or pages that are perceived to have no content at all, you don't have broken links, you don't have broken pages, all that kind of good stuff.

II. "Is the content accessible to all audiences, devices, and browsers?"

Next, we're going to ask not about search engines and their crawlers, but about the audience, the human beings and whether your content is accessible to all the audiences, devices, and browsers that it could be. So this could mean things like screen readers for blind users, mobile devices, desktop devices, laptops, browsers of all different kinds. You're going to want to use a tool like a browser checker to make sure that Chrome, Firefox, and... What's Internet Explorer called now? Oh, man. They changed it. Microsoft Edge. Make sure that it works in all of them.

I like that I think that there's a peanut gallery who's going to yell it out. Like you're watching this at lunch and you're thinking, "Rand, if I yell it to you now, it won't be recorded." I know. I know.

III. "Do those pages load fast from everywhere?"

So I could use a tool like Google Speed Test. I can also do some proxy checking to make sure that from all sorts of regions, especially if I'm doing international targeting or if I know that I'm going to be targeting rural regions that my pages load fast from everywhere.

IV. "Is the design, UI, visuals, and experience enjoyable and easy for all users?"

You can do that with some in-house usability testing. You could do it informally with friends and family and existing customers if you have them. Or you could use something like Five Second Test or UsabilityHub to run some more formal testing online. Sometimes this can reveal things in your navigation or your content that's just stopping people from having the experience that you want — that's very easy to fix.

3. Setup of important services and tracking

So there's a bunch of stuff that you just need to set up around a website. Those include:

Web analytics - Google Analytics is free and very, very popular. But you could also use something like Piwik, or if you're bigger, Omniture. You're going to want to do a crawl. OnPage or Moz Pro, or some of these other ones will check to make sure that your analytics are actually loaded on all of your pages.

Uptime tracking - If you haven't checked them out, Pingdom has some very cheap plans for very early-stage sites. Then, if you get bigger, they can get more expensive and more sophisticated.

Retargeting and remarketing - Even if you don't want to pay now and you're not going to use any of the services, go ahead and put the retargeting pixels from at least Facebook and Google onto your website, on all of your pages, so that those audiences are accessible to you later on in the future.

Set up some brand alerts - The cheapest option is Google Alerts, which is free, but it's not very good at all. If you're using Moz Pro, there's Fresh Web Explorer alerts, which is great. Mention.net is also good, Talkwalker, Trackur. There's a number of options there that are paid and a little bit better.

Google Search Console - If you haven't set that up already, you're going to want to do that, as well as Bing Webmaster Tools. Both of those can reveal some errors to you. So if you have accessibility issues, that's a good free way to go.

Moz/Ahrefs/SEMRush/Searchmetrics/Raven/etc. - If you are doing SEO, chances are good that you're going to want to set up some type of an SEO tool to track your rankings and do a regular crawl, show you competitive opportunities and missteps, potentially show you link-building opportunities, all that kind of stuff. I would urge you to check out one of probably these five. There are a few other ones. But these five are pretty popular — Moz, Ahrefs, SEMRush, Searchmetrics, or Raven. Those are some of the best known ones certainly out there.

Social and web profiles - Again, important to set those up before you launch your new site, so that no one goes and jumps on the name of your Facebook page, or your Pinterest page, or your Instagram profile page, or your YouTube page, or your SlideShare page. I know you might be saying, "But Rand, I don't use SlideShare." No, not today. But you might in the future, and trust me, you're going to want to claim Rand's Animals on YouTube and SlideShare. You're going to want to claim whatever your website's name is. I'll go claim this one later. But you've got to set all those up, because you don't want someone else taking them later. I would urge you to go down the full list of all the social media sites out there, all the web profiles out there, just to make sure that you've got your brand secured.

4. Schema, rich snippets, OpenGraph, etc

Optimization in general, more broadly. So this is where I'm essentially going through these URLs and I'm making sure, "Hey, okay. I know I've targeted these keywords and I already did sort of my page title meta description. But let me check if there are other opportunities."

Are there content opportunities or image search opportunities? Do I have rich snippet opportunities? Like maybe, this is probably not the case, but I could have user review stars for my Rand's Animals website. I don't know if people particularly love this lemur GIF versus that lemur GIF. But those can be set up on your site, and you can see the description of how to do that on Google and Bing. They both have resources for that. The same is true for Twitter and Facebook, who offer cards so that you show up correctly in there. If you're using OpenGraph, I believe that also will correctly work on LinkedIn and other services like that. So those are great options.

5. Launch amplification & link outreach plan

So one of the things that we know about SEO is that you need links and engagement and those types of signals in order to rank well. You're going to want to have a successful launch day and launch week and even a launch month. That means, asking the question in advance:

I. "Who will help amplify your launch and why? Why are they going to do this?"

If you can identify, "These people, I know they personally want to help out," or, "They are friends and family. I have business relationships with them. They're customers of mine. They're journalists who promised to cover this. They are bloggers who care a lot about this subject and need stuff to write about." Whatever it is, if you can identify those people, create a list, and start doing that direct outreach, that is certainly something that you should do. I would plan in advance for that, and I would warn folks of when you were going to do that launch. That way, when launch day rolls around, you have some big, exciting news to announce. Two weeks after you launch to say, "Hey, I launched a new website a couple weeks ago," you're no longer news. You're no longer quite as special, and therefore your chances of coverage go down pretty precipitously after the first few days.

II. "What existing relationships, profiles, and sites should I update to create buzz (and accuracy)?"

I would also ask what existing relationships and websites and profiles do you already have that you can and should update to create buzz and actually to create accuracy. So this would be things like everything from your email signature to all your social profiles that we've talked about, both the ones you've claimed and the ones that you personally have. You should go and update your LinkedIn. You should go and update your Twitter page. You should go and update Facebook. All of those kinds of things, you may want to go and update. About.me if you have a profile there, or if you're a designer, maybe your Dribbble profile, whatever you've got.

*Then, you should also be thinking about, "Do I have content that I've contributed across the web over the years, on all sorts of other websites, where if I went and said, 'Hey, I've got a new site. Could you point to that new site, instead of my old one, or to my new site that I've just launched, instead of my old employer who I've left?'" you can do that as well, and it's certainly a good idea.

III. "What press coverage, social coverage, or influencer outreach can I do?"

The last thing I would ask about are people who are maybe more distant from you, but press coverage, social coverage, or influencer outreach, similar to the, "Who will help you amplify and why?" You should be able to make a list of those folks, those outlets, find some email addresses, send a pitch if you've got one, and start to build those relationships.

Launch day is a great reason to do outreach. When you're launching something new is the right time to do that, and that can help you get some amplification as well.

All right. Hopefully, when you launch your new site, you're going to follow this checklist, you're going to dig into these details, and you're going to come away with a much more successful SEO experience.

If you've launched a website and you see things that are missing from this list, you see other recommendations that you've got, please, by all means, leave them in the comments. We'd love to chat about them.

We'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

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

bạn xem thêm tại: http://ift.tt/2mXjlRS Launching a New Website: Your SEO Checklist - Whiteboard Friday xem thêm tại: http://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ Launching a New Website: Your SEO Checklist - Whiteboard Friday http://ift.tt/2nLCX0Q xem thêm tại: http://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ Launching a New Website: Your SEO Checklist - Whiteboard Friday http://ift.tt/2nLCX0Q xem thêm tại: http://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ Launching a New Website: Your SEO Checklist - Whiteboard Friday http://ift.tt/2nLCX0Q xem thêm tại: http://ift.tt/2mb4VST để biết thêm về địa chỉ bán tai nghe không dây giá rẻ Launching a New Website: Your SEO Checklist - Whiteboard Friday http://ift.tt/2nLCX0Q Bạn có thể xem thêm địa chỉ mua tai nghe không dây tại đây http://ift.tt/2mb4VST

[deeringfamily]

The 5 Secret Laws To Successful Webinars

Having great Webinars means understanding the 5 Laws of Successful Webinars and becoming an expert at each of them! Having a great webinar platform is the beginning of doing great webinars. For me, I currently use Zoom or WebinarJam. WebinarJam is my preferred platform, especially the latest version just launched.

The 5 Secret Laws To Successful Webinars

First I want to thank the amazing team at WebinarJam that taught me these laws and have created the latest incredible version of WebinarJam that just launched on August 14th. They have graciously given some amazing bonuses with your purchase of WebinarJam which includes the full training on Successful Webinars and so much more... I will share with you how to get all of this at the end of the post! 1.  The Law Of Increased Registrations The first thing to understand is that your registration page is really no different than any other optin page. Your goal is to capture the lead! That said, this makes your Headline the most important thing on the page, not the webinar details. Now, most people think that you have to have a bunch of bullets explaining what the webinar is going to be about. Expounding on the amazing content that the attendee is going to receive. WRONG! You have about 5 seconds to grab your visitors attention. You are not going to do that with a bunch of bullet points! Okay so here are 3 Headline formulas that I want to share with you. 1.  Headline Formula #1 "Incredible Good WITHOUT Incredible Bad" Example: "How I discovered that I DID have 6-pack Abs and the No-Hunger, No-Exercise Way to make them appear on my middle-aged body!" Example: "This Strategy created a 312% Productivity Increase WITHOUT hiring additional employees, increasing salaries, and added ZERO hours to my work week." 2.  Headline Formula #2 How I/we/company/person of interest . Example:  "How I earned a 735 credit score with 2 Tax Liens on all 3 of my credit reports!" Example: "The Simple After-School Game that helped put my ADD diagnosed 10-year old son onto the honor roll and into next years gifted-and talented program." - this is a reverse of the formula. 3.  Headline Formula #3 For the How to starting with Example:  "For the Busy Mom: How to quickly prepare healthy meals your children will love without ever turning on the oven." Example:  "For the Unpublished Author: How to get 4&5 star book reviews and explode onto best-seller lists without spending even a dollar on advertising." The other part of the registration is the attendance. One way to increase your attendance from the Registration page is to Giveaway a Freemium! A Freemium??? You want to engineer the Freemium and the Webinar to Compliment Each Other Let the Freemium Pre-Frame the Webinar. Key Questions created by the Freemium are answered on the Webinar. Examples: Process Map Check Lists Mind Map Free Report Video Tutorials Put these two things together, A Killer Headline and the Freemium, and you will have a winning Registration Page! 2.  Law Of Maximum Attendance This section is all about maximizing your attendance. Andy and Mike (founders of WebinarJam) introduce the 4-Part Indoctrination Strategy in this Law and I'm going to share with you the highlights. The goal is to put your Attendee in a "Ready To Buy" state of Excitement. Maximum Attendance is the Key to Offer conversion! The Big Picture: Between the time they register and the time of the Webinar: You deliver 4 Specific messages to your Registrant Each one is designed to intensify their desire to attend your webinar. Messages:   Indoctrination   "How To Be"  - you will learn how to be ...   "How To Stop" - they will no longer suffer from...   "Introduce Technique X" - Technique X is the most power Feature of your product...   Reasons Why - Talk about the Outcomes viewers have had...   Start with the "State of" the User   Talk about the User's first effort that resulted in failure   Talk about how the User adopted a Tip (Technique X)   What happened to the User?   Surprise   Announce an important update!   Information that relates directly to your prospects KEY Pain Point and/or Key Pleasure Enhancement   Starting Now   It's time restate the first 3 communications in short bullet points   Only mention Benefits to the User   There's no time left to decide to attend - it's starting NOW   In the P.S. of your Message   Mention that you'll be answering Live FAQ's on the Webinar   Add another link to join 3 Communication Variations:   Just Email Only   Email "Selling the Click" to a Video.   Email "Selling the Click" to a Blog Post or Web Page Again this is just a snippet of the powerful training that was in this second training video. 3.  The Law Of Maximum Engagement In this section, they teach on "Webinar Stick Strategies." How to keep your Webinar Viewers Glued to your entire presentation. Understand that keeping your Attendees around until you make your Offer is CRITICAL! 1.   The Reward Promise This is where you offer the Attendee a Freeminum (FREE Stuff) just for attending the Webinar. So, the key is you'll deliver the Freemium during your Webinar Q & A. Key Factors that make The Reward Promise Work!   The bonus MUST have some Real Value!    It shouldn't conflict with your Webinar Offer.    It should be RELATED and Congruent - NOT Competitive!    Examples:    Weight Loss Product - "How to Read Food Labels" bonus    Legal Business Product - "Key Business Tax Advantages" bonus    How-To Offer And Deliver The Bonus    Offer and explain the Bonus immediately after you introduce yourself    Explain the VALUE (Financial and Explicit)    Explain that during the Webinar Q&A, you will show them how to get the Bonus    When and How to Deliver The Bonus    During the Q&A - Announce How    The Bonus is on the same page your Offer's Add to Cart Button is in the footer of the page   Include a link that takes them to a new page   This is where they can claim their bonus 2.   The Pick-A-Path Strategy So, the pick-a-path strategy is where the Attendees create 'Social Proof' and 'Reason's why' "On-the-Fly." The Social Proof and Reasons why encourage ENGAGEMENT with your message. In turn, this becomes the key to them sticking around and create Successful Webinars. Strategies:   At the beginning of your presentation ask your attendees in the Chat WHERE they're from.   Conduct a Poll - Ask about the challenges and announce the results.   Conduct a Survey - Ask them what is the most important factor in using the solution will be. So, I hope you see here how important maximizing your engagement during your presentation. In summary, don't forget to engage not just present! 4.   Law Of The Perfect Offer So, in this section, they talk about they teach about the 5 Specific "Plot Point" they tell a powerful story about your product, service, or opportunity. They also talk about the technology to use for a "Fool Proof" Call To Action. The Big Picture: Your Webinar is an Event In Time You need important moments to "Unfold" before the view to maintain their enthusiasm. The Best Way to create a compelling "Unfolding" is to structure your information. So, how do you this, with "Plot Points" 5 Specific Plot Points:   In the beginning, Life Was Hard.   I decided to make a change, because - What was your "Tipping Point"   On the Road to discovery and Change, I learned these critical things.   This is how I applied what I learned, and this is what happened when I did.   This is my SYSTEM, and this is how it can work for you. So, this is the journey you want to take your attendees on. If you are not using these plot points it will change your results when you start. Inciting The Action: Make it as easy as possible for the viewer to take action Old technology requires the user to leave the presentation. New technology improves response significantly  So, what to use to accomplish this new technology? Stay tuned all will be revealed. :) And with this new technology, you will be on your way to conducting many Succesful Webinars. 5.   The Law Of Echo Learning this law could be where 75% of your sales come from. This is all about the Webinar Follow-up Series, which is a MUST! *** YOU MUST RECORD YOUR WEBINAR *** If you are using a good webinar system this should be automatic. Having your webinar recorded allows you to edit your webinar for more successful webinars. Editing allows you fix any errors and clean up the umms and ahhs. This also allows you to optimize The presentation by adding clarification: Use More Screen Captures More Proof elements More Example Images Clarifying Text or Audio Add information to handle objections that came up during the live presentation that you couldn't handle live. Sharpen Your Pitch. Once you are complete with your editing you then Send it to EVERYONE that didn't buy. Follow Up Structure:  Message #1   Subject: the Webinar was a Huge Hit!   If you missed it, here's what people were saying...   Here's the Recording, but please note:   The recording will be archived and unavailable in a few days... so watch it NOW!   Message #2   Subject: Amazing Questions (Answered Here)   Here are the top 3 questions I got on the Webinar...   If you missed, Here's the Recording   Message #3   Subject: Last call  The response has been terrific!   People are saying...  Bad News   The System and Recording are going away...  This is the last day to watch.  Tomorrow will be too late.  Click here to watch  Click here to join the system So, there you have it. The 5 laws to Success Webinars. The 5 Secret Laws To Successful Webinars - Summary In summary, this was one of the best webinar training series that I have been through. Now I told you that I would tell how you could get this entire training and much more at the end so here's how. Click this link and get yourself the brand new WebinarJam 3.0 just launched at a deep discount, and Andy Jenkins And Mike Filsaime are throwing in a couple thousand dollars in bonus training. You will not only get one of the best, if not the best webinar platform on the market but some of the best webinar training available. Don't miss out on this because the cost will be going up! Start doing your Succesful Webinars TODAY! The 5 Secret Laws To Successful WebinarsClick To Tweet We want to hear from you! I would love to know how I can help you and how your journey is progressing. Was this post valuable to you?  If YES… I would love to read your comments and share below.

Skype: rdeering1952 Text Me: (208) 704-9700 Email: ron@rondeering.com Click Here To Subscribe To My YouTube Channel

PS: If you are looking the best funnel creation system on the market, Then You need to check this out – Click Here     Click to Post

[mercedessharonwo1]

Launching a New Website: Your SEO Checklist - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by randfish

Hovering your finger over the big red "launch" button for your new website? Hold off for just a second (or 660 of them, rather). There may be SEO considerations you haven't accounted for yet, from a keyword-to-URL content map to sweeping for crawl errors to setting up proper tracking. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand covers five big boxes you need to check off before finally setting that site live.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're going to talk about launching a new website and the SEO process that you've got to go through. Now, it's not actually that long and cumbersome. But there are a few things that I put into broad categories, where if you do these as you're launching a new site or before you launch that new site, your chances of having success with SEO long term and especially in those first few months is going to go way up.

1. Keyword to URL map for your content

So let's get started with number one here. What I'm suggesting that you do is, as you look across the site that you've built, go and do some keyword research. There are a lot of Whiteboard Fridays and blog posts that we've written here at Moz about great ways to do keyword research. But do that keyword research and create a list that essentially maps all of the keywords you are initially targeting to all of the URLs, the pages that you have on your new website.

So it should look something like this. It's got the URL, so RandsAnimals.com, targeting the keyword "amazing animals," and here's the page title and here's the meta description. Then, I've got http://ift.tt/2nLC0oW, which is my page about lemurs, and that's targeting "lemurs" and "lemur habits." There's the title.

You want to go through these and make sure that if you have an important keyword that you have not yet targeted, you do so, and likewise, that if you've got a URL, a page on your website that you have not yet intentionally targeted a keyword with, you make sure to do that as well. This can be a great way to go through a small site in the early stages and make sure that you've got some terms and phrases that you're actually targeting. This will be also helpful when you do your rank tracking and your on-page optimization later on.

2. Accessibility, crawl, and UX

So what I want you to do here is to ask yourself:

I. "Are the pages and the content on my website accessible to search engines?"

There are some great ways to check these. You can use something like Screaming Frog or Google Search Console. You could use Moz Pro, or OnPage.org, to basically run a scan of your site and make sure that crawlers can get to all the pages, that you don't have duplicate content, that you don't have thin content or pages that are perceived to have no content at all, you don't have broken links, you don't have broken pages, all that kind of good stuff.

II. "Is the content accessible to all audiences, devices, and browsers?"

Next, we're going to ask not about search engines and their crawlers, but about the audience, the human beings and whether your content is accessible to all the audiences, devices, and browsers that it could be. So this could mean things like screen readers for blind users, mobile devices, desktop devices, laptops, browsers of all different kinds. You're going to want to use a tool like a browser checker to make sure that Chrome, Firefox, and... What's Internet Explorer called now? Oh, man. They changed it. Microsoft Edge. Make sure that it works in all of them.

I like that I think that there's a peanut gallery who's going to yell it out. Like you're watching this at lunch and you're thinking, "Rand, if I yell it to you now, it won't be recorded." I know. I know.

III. "Do those pages load fast from everywhere?"

So I could use a tool like Google Speed Test. I can also do some proxy checking to make sure that from all sorts of regions, especially if I'm doing international targeting or if I know that I'm going to be targeting rural regions that my pages load fast from everywhere.

IV. "Is the design, UI, visuals, and experience enjoyable and easy for all users?"

You can do that with some in-house usability testing. You could do it informally with friends and family and existing customers if you have them. Or you could use something like Five Second Test or UsabilityHub to run some more formal testing online. Sometimes this can reveal things in your navigation or your content that's just stopping people from having the experience that you want — that's very easy to fix.

3. Setup of important services and tracking

So there's a bunch of stuff that you just need to set up around a website. Those include:

Web analytics - Google Analytics is free and very, very popular. But you could also use something like Piwik, or if you're bigger, Omniture. You're going to want to do a crawl. OnPage or Moz Pro, or some of these other ones will check to make sure that your analytics are actually loaded on all of your pages.

Uptime tracking - If you haven't checked them out, Pingdom has some very cheap plans for very early-stage sites. Then, if you get bigger, they can get more expensive and more sophisticated.

Retargeting and remarketing - Even if you don't want to pay now and you're not going to use any of the services, go ahead and put the retargeting pixels from at least Facebook and Google onto your website, on all of your pages, so that those audiences are accessible to you later on in the future.

Set up some brand alerts - The cheapest option is Google Alerts, which is free, but it's not very good at all. If you're using Moz Pro, there's Fresh Web Explorer alerts, which is great. Mention.net is also good, Talkwalker, Trackur. There's a number of options there that are paid and a little bit better.

Google Search Console - If you haven't set that up already, you're going to want to do that, as well as Bing Webmaster Tools. Both of those can reveal some errors to you. So if you have accessibility issues, that's a good free way to go.

Moz/Ahrefs/SEMRush/Searchmetrics/Raven/etc. - If you are doing SEO, chances are good that you're going to want to set up some type of an SEO tool to track your rankings and do a regular crawl, show you competitive opportunities and missteps, potentially show you link-building opportunities, all that kind of stuff. I would urge you to check out one of probably these five. There are a few other ones. But these five are pretty popular — Moz, Ahrefs, SEMRush, Searchmetrics, or Raven. Those are some of the best known ones certainly out there.

Social and web profiles - Again, important to set those up before you launch your new site, so that no one goes and jumps on the name of your Facebook page, or your Pinterest page, or your Instagram profile page, or your YouTube page, or your SlideShare page. I know you might be saying, "But Rand, I don't use SlideShare." No, not today. But you might in the future, and trust me, you're going to want to claim Rand's Animals on YouTube and SlideShare. You're going to want to claim whatever your website's name is. I'll go claim this one later. But you've got to set all those up, because you don't want someone else taking them later. I would urge you to go down the full list of all the social media sites out there, all the web profiles out there, just to make sure that you've got your brand secured.

4. Schema, rich snippets, OpenGraph, etc

Optimization in general, more broadly. So this is where I'm essentially going through these URLs and I'm making sure, "Hey, okay. I know I've targeted these keywords and I already did sort of my page title meta description. But let me check if there are other opportunities."

Are there content opportunities or image search opportunities? Do I have rich snippet opportunities? Like maybe, this is probably not the case, but I could have user review stars for my Rand's Animals website. I don't know if people particularly love this lemur GIF versus that lemur GIF. But those can be set up on your site, and you can see the description of how to do that on Google and Bing. They both have resources for that. The same is true for Twitter and Facebook, who offer cards so that you show up correctly in there. If you're using OpenGraph, I believe that also will correctly work on LinkedIn and other services like that. So those are great options.

5. Launch amplification & link outreach plan

So one of the things that we know about SEO is that you need links and engagement and those types of signals in order to rank well. You're going to want to have a successful launch day and launch week and even a launch month. That means, asking the question in advance:

I. "Who will help amplify your launch and why? Why are they going to do this?"

If you can identify, "These people, I know they personally want to help out," or, "They are friends and family. I have business relationships with them. They're customers of mine. They're journalists who promised to cover this. They are bloggers who care a lot about this subject and need stuff to write about." Whatever it is, if you can identify those people, create a list, and start doing that direct outreach, that is certainly something that you should do. I would plan in advance for that, and I would warn folks of when you were going to do that launch. That way, when launch day rolls around, you have some big, exciting news to announce. Two weeks after you launch to say, "Hey, I launched a new website a couple weeks ago," you're no longer news. You're no longer quite as special, and therefore your chances of coverage go down pretty precipitously after the first few days.

II. "What existing relationships, profiles, and sites should I update to create buzz (and accuracy)?"

I would also ask what existing relationships and websites and profiles do you already have that you can and should update to create buzz and actually to create accuracy. So this would be things like everything from your email signature to all your social profiles that we've talked about, both the ones you've claimed and the ones that you personally have. You should go and update your LinkedIn. You should go and update your Twitter page. You should go and update Facebook. All of those kinds of things, you may want to go and update. About.me if you have a profile there, or if you're a designer, maybe your Dribbble profile, whatever you've got.

*Then, you should also be thinking about, "Do I have content that I've contributed across the web over the years, on all sorts of other websites, where if I went and said, 'Hey, I've got a new site. Could you point to that new site, instead of my old one, or to my new site that I've just launched, instead of my old employer who I've left?'" you can do that as well, and it's certainly a good idea.

III. "What press coverage, social coverage, or influencer outreach can I do?"

The last thing I would ask about are people who are maybe more distant from you, but press coverage, social coverage, or influencer outreach, similar to the, "Who will help you amplify and why?" You should be able to make a list of those folks, those outlets, find some email addresses, send a pitch if you've got one, and start to build those relationships.

Launch day is a great reason to do outreach. When you're launching something new is the right time to do that, and that can help you get some amplification as well.

All right. Hopefully, when you launch your new site, you're going to follow this checklist, you're going to dig into these details, and you're going to come away with a much more successful SEO experience.

If you've launched a website and you see things that are missing from this list, you see other recommendations that you've got, please, by all means, leave them in the comments. We'd love to chat about them.

We'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

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

http://ift.tt/2pfFJZe

[byronheeutgm]

Launching a New Website: Your SEO Checklist - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by randfish

Hovering your finger over the big red "launch" button for your new website? Hold off for just a second (or 660 of them, rather). There may be SEO considerations you haven't accounted for yet, from a keyword-to-URL content map to sweeping for crawl errors to setting up proper tracking. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand covers five big boxes you need to check off before finally setting that site live.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're going to talk about launching a new website and the SEO process that you've got to go through. Now, it's not actually that long and cumbersome. But there are a few things that I put into broad categories, where if you do these as you're launching a new site or before you launch that new site, your chances of having success with SEO long term and especially in those first few months is going to go way up.

1. Keyword to URL map for your content

So let's get started with number one here. What I'm suggesting that you do is, as you look across the site that you've built, go and do some keyword research. There are a lot of Whiteboard Fridays and blog posts that we've written here at Moz about great ways to do keyword research. But do that keyword research and create a list that essentially maps all of the keywords you are initially targeting to all of the URLs, the pages that you have on your new website.

So it should look something like this. It's got the URL, so RandsAnimals.com, targeting the keyword "amazing animals," and here's the page title and here's the meta description. Then, I've got http://ift.tt/2nLC0oW, which is my page about lemurs, and that's targeting "lemurs" and "lemur habits." There's the title.

You want to go through these and make sure that if you have an important keyword that you have not yet targeted, you do so, and likewise, that if you've got a URL, a page on your website that you have not yet intentionally targeted a keyword with, you make sure to do that as well. This can be a great way to go through a small site in the early stages and make sure that you've got some terms and phrases that you're actually targeting. This will be also helpful when you do your rank tracking and your on-page optimization later on.

2. Accessibility, crawl, and UX

So what I want you to do here is to ask yourself:

I. "Are the pages and the content on my website accessible to search engines?"

There are some great ways to check these. You can use something like Screaming Frog or Google Search Console. You could use Moz Pro, or OnPage.org, to basically run a scan of your site and make sure that crawlers can get to all the pages, that you don't have duplicate content, that you don't have thin content or pages that are perceived to have no content at all, you don't have broken links, you don't have broken pages, all that kind of good stuff.

II. "Is the content accessible to all audiences, devices, and browsers?"

Next, we're going to ask not about search engines and their crawlers, but about the audience, the human beings and whether your content is accessible to all the audiences, devices, and browsers that it could be. So this could mean things like screen readers for blind users, mobile devices, desktop devices, laptops, browsers of all different kinds. You're going to want to use a tool like a browser checker to make sure that Chrome, Firefox, and... What's Internet Explorer called now? Oh, man. They changed it. Microsoft Edge. Make sure that it works in all of them.

I like that I think that there's a peanut gallery who's going to yell it out. Like you're watching this at lunch and you're thinking, "Rand, if I yell it to you now, it won't be recorded." I know. I know.

III. "Do those pages load fast from everywhere?"

So I could use a tool like Google Speed Test. I can also do some proxy checking to make sure that from all sorts of regions, especially if I'm doing international targeting or if I know that I'm going to be targeting rural regions that my pages load fast from everywhere.

IV. "Is the design, UI, visuals, and experience enjoyable and easy for all users?"

You can do that with some in-house usability testing. You could do it informally with friends and family and existing customers if you have them. Or you could use something like Five Second Test or UsabilityHub to run some more formal testing online. Sometimes this can reveal things in your navigation or your content that's just stopping people from having the experience that you want — that's very easy to fix.

3. Setup of important services and tracking

So there's a bunch of stuff that you just need to set up around a website. Those include:

Web analytics - Google Analytics is free and very, very popular. But you could also use something like Piwik, or if you're bigger, Omniture. You're going to want to do a crawl. OnPage or Moz Pro, or some of these other ones will check to make sure that your analytics are actually loaded on all of your pages.

Uptime tracking - If you haven't checked them out, Pingdom has some very cheap plans for very early-stage sites. Then, if you get bigger, they can get more expensive and more sophisticated.

Retargeting and remarketing - Even if you don't want to pay now and you're not going to use any of the services, go ahead and put the retargeting pixels from at least Facebook and Google onto your website, on all of your pages, so that those audiences are accessible to you later on in the future.

Set up some brand alerts - The cheapest option is Google Alerts, which is free, but it's not very good at all. If you're using Moz Pro, there's Fresh Web Explorer alerts, which is great. Mention.net is also good, Talkwalker, Trackur. There's a number of options there that are paid and a little bit better.

Google Search Console - If you haven't set that up already, you're going to want to do that, as well as Bing Webmaster Tools. Both of those can reveal some errors to you. So if you have accessibility issues, that's a good free way to go.

Moz/Ahrefs/SEMRush/Searchmetrics/Raven/etc. - If you are doing SEO, chances are good that you're going to want to set up some type of an SEO tool to track your rankings and do a regular crawl, show you competitive opportunities and missteps, potentially show you link-building opportunities, all that kind of stuff. I would urge you to check out one of probably these five. There are a few other ones. But these five are pretty popular — Moz, Ahrefs, SEMRush, Searchmetrics, or Raven. Those are some of the best known ones certainly out there.

Social and web profiles - Again, important to set those up before you launch your new site, so that no one goes and jumps on the name of your Facebook page, or your Pinterest page, or your Instagram profile page, or your YouTube page, or your SlideShare page. I know you might be saying, "But Rand, I don't use SlideShare." No, not today. But you might in the future, and trust me, you're going to want to claim Rand's Animals on YouTube and SlideShare. You're going to want to claim whatever your website's name is. I'll go claim this one later. But you've got to set all those up, because you don't want someone else taking them later. I would urge you to go down the full list of all the social media sites out there, all the web profiles out there, just to make sure that you've got your brand secured.

4. Schema, rich snippets, OpenGraph, etc

Optimization in general, more broadly. So this is where I'm essentially going through these URLs and I'm making sure, "Hey, okay. I know I've targeted these keywords and I already did sort of my page title meta description. But let me check if there are other opportunities."

Are there content opportunities or image search opportunities? Do I have rich snippet opportunities? Like maybe, this is probably not the case, but I could have user review stars for my Rand's Animals website. I don't know if people particularly love this lemur GIF versus that lemur GIF. But those can be set up on your site, and you can see the description of how to do that on Google and Bing. They both have resources for that. The same is true for Twitter and Facebook, who offer cards so that you show up correctly in there. If you're using OpenGraph, I believe that also will correctly work on LinkedIn and other services like that. So those are great options.

5. Launch amplification & link outreach plan

So one of the things that we know about SEO is that you need links and engagement and those types of signals in order to rank well. You're going to want to have a successful launch day and launch week and even a launch month. That means, asking the question in advance:

I. "Who will help amplify your launch and why? Why are they going to do this?"

If you can identify, "These people, I know they personally want to help out," or, "They are friends and family. I have business relationships with them. They're customers of mine. They're journalists who promised to cover this. They are bloggers who care a lot about this subject and need stuff to write about." Whatever it is, if you can identify those people, create a list, and start doing that direct outreach, that is certainly something that you should do. I would plan in advance for that, and I would warn folks of when you were going to do that launch. That way, when launch day rolls around, you have some big, exciting news to announce. Two weeks after you launch to say, "Hey, I launched a new website a couple weeks ago," you're no longer news. You're no longer quite as special, and therefore your chances of coverage go down pretty precipitously after the first few days.

II. "What existing relationships, profiles, and sites should I update to create buzz (and accuracy)?"

I would also ask what existing relationships and websites and profiles do you already have that you can and should update to create buzz and actually to create accuracy. So this would be things like everything from your email signature to all your social profiles that we've talked about, both the ones you've claimed and the ones that you personally have. You should go and update your LinkedIn. You should go and update your Twitter page. You should go and update Facebook. All of those kinds of things, you may want to go and update. About.me if you have a profile there, or if you're a designer, maybe your Dribbble profile, whatever you've got.

*Then, you should also be thinking about, "Do I have content that I've contributed across the web over the years, on all sorts of other websites, where if I went and said, 'Hey, I've got a new site. Could you point to that new site, instead of my old one, or to my new site that I've just launched, instead of my old employer who I've left?'" you can do that as well, and it's certainly a good idea.

III. "What press coverage, social coverage, or influencer outreach can I do?"

The last thing I would ask about are people who are maybe more distant from you, but press coverage, social coverage, or influencer outreach, similar to the, "Who will help you amplify and why?" You should be able to make a list of those folks, those outlets, find some email addresses, send a pitch if you've got one, and start to build those relationships.

Launch day is a great reason to do outreach. When you're launching something new is the right time to do that, and that can help you get some amplification as well.

All right. Hopefully, when you launch your new site, you're going to follow this checklist, you're going to dig into these details, and you're going to come away with a much more successful SEO experience.

If you've launched a website and you see things that are missing from this list, you see other recommendations that you've got, please, by all means, leave them in the comments. We'd love to chat about them.

We'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

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

http://ift.tt/2pfFJZe

[rodneyevesuarywk]

Launching a New Website: Your SEO Checklist - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by randfish

Hovering your finger over the big red "launch" button for your new website? Hold off for just a second (or 660 of them, rather). There may be SEO considerations you haven't accounted for yet, from a keyword-to-URL content map to sweeping for crawl errors to setting up proper tracking. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand covers five big boxes you need to check off before finally setting that site live.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're going to talk about launching a new website and the SEO process that you've got to go through. Now, it's not actually that long and cumbersome. But there are a few things that I put into broad categories, where if you do these as you're launching a new site or before you launch that new site, your chances of having success with SEO long term and especially in those first few months is going to go way up.

1. Keyword to URL map for your content

So let's get started with number one here. What I'm suggesting that you do is, as you look across the site that you've built, go and do some keyword research. There are a lot of Whiteboard Fridays and blog posts that we've written here at Moz about great ways to do keyword research. But do that keyword research and create a list that essentially maps all of the keywords you are initially targeting to all of the URLs, the pages that you have on your new website.

So it should look something like this. It's got the URL, so RandsAnimals.com, targeting the keyword "amazing animals," and here's the page title and here's the meta description. Then, I've got http://ift.tt/2nLC0oW, which is my page about lemurs, and that's targeting "lemurs" and "lemur habits." There's the title.

You want to go through these and make sure that if you have an important keyword that you have not yet targeted, you do so, and likewise, that if you've got a URL, a page on your website that you have not yet intentionally targeted a keyword with, you make sure to do that as well. This can be a great way to go through a small site in the early stages and make sure that you've got some terms and phrases that you're actually targeting. This will be also helpful when you do your rank tracking and your on-page optimization later on.

2. Accessibility, crawl, and UX

So what I want you to do here is to ask yourself:

I. "Are the pages and the content on my website accessible to search engines?"

There are some great ways to check these. You can use something like Screaming Frog or Google Search Console. You could use Moz Pro, or OnPage.org, to basically run a scan of your site and make sure that crawlers can get to all the pages, that you don't have duplicate content, that you don't have thin content or pages that are perceived to have no content at all, you don't have broken links, you don't have broken pages, all that kind of good stuff.

II. "Is the content accessible to all audiences, devices, and browsers?"

Next, we're going to ask not about search engines and their crawlers, but about the audience, the human beings and whether your content is accessible to all the audiences, devices, and browsers that it could be. So this could mean things like screen readers for blind users, mobile devices, desktop devices, laptops, browsers of all different kinds. You're going to want to use a tool like a browser checker to make sure that Chrome, Firefox, and... What's Internet Explorer called now? Oh, man. They changed it. Microsoft Edge. Make sure that it works in all of them.

I like that I think that there's a peanut gallery who's going to yell it out. Like you're watching this at lunch and you're thinking, "Rand, if I yell it to you now, it won't be recorded." I know. I know.

III. "Do those pages load fast from everywhere?"

So I could use a tool like Google Speed Test. I can also do some proxy checking to make sure that from all sorts of regions, especially if I'm doing international targeting or if I know that I'm going to be targeting rural regions that my pages load fast from everywhere.

IV. "Is the design, UI, visuals, and experience enjoyable and easy for all users?"

You can do that with some in-house usability testing. You could do it informally with friends and family and existing customers if you have them. Or you could use something like Five Second Test or UsabilityHub to run some more formal testing online. Sometimes this can reveal things in your navigation or your content that's just stopping people from having the experience that you want — that's very easy to fix.

3. Setup of important services and tracking

So there's a bunch of stuff that you just need to set up around a website. Those include:

Web analytics - Google Analytics is free and very, very popular. But you could also use something like Piwik, or if you're bigger, Omniture. You're going to want to do a crawl. OnPage or Moz Pro, or some of these other ones will check to make sure that your analytics are actually loaded on all of your pages.

Uptime tracking - If you haven't checked them out, Pingdom has some very cheap plans for very early-stage sites. Then, if you get bigger, they can get more expensive and more sophisticated.

Retargeting and remarketing - Even if you don't want to pay now and you're not going to use any of the services, go ahead and put the retargeting pixels from at least Facebook and Google onto your website, on all of your pages, so that those audiences are accessible to you later on in the future.

Set up some brand alerts - The cheapest option is Google Alerts, which is free, but it's not very good at all. If you're using Moz Pro, there's Fresh Web Explorer alerts, which is great. Mention.net is also good, Talkwalker, Trackur. There's a number of options there that are paid and a little bit better.

Google Search Console - If you haven't set that up already, you're going to want to do that, as well as Bing Webmaster Tools. Both of those can reveal some errors to you. So if you have accessibility issues, that's a good free way to go.

Moz/Ahrefs/SEMRush/Searchmetrics/Raven/etc. - If you are doing SEO, chances are good that you're going to want to set up some type of an SEO tool to track your rankings and do a regular crawl, show you competitive opportunities and missteps, potentially show you link-building opportunities, all that kind of stuff. I would urge you to check out one of probably these five. There are a few other ones. But these five are pretty popular — Moz, Ahrefs, SEMRush, Searchmetrics, or Raven. Those are some of the best known ones certainly out there.

Social and web profiles - Again, important to set those up before you launch your new site, so that no one goes and jumps on the name of your Facebook page, or your Pinterest page, or your Instagram profile page, or your YouTube page, or your SlideShare page. I know you might be saying, "But Rand, I don't use SlideShare." No, not today. But you might in the future, and trust me, you're going to want to claim Rand's Animals on YouTube and SlideShare. You're going to want to claim whatever your website's name is. I'll go claim this one later. But you've got to set all those up, because you don't want someone else taking them later. I would urge you to go down the full list of all the social media sites out there, all the web profiles out there, just to make sure that you've got your brand secured.

4. Schema, rich snippets, OpenGraph, etc

Optimization in general, more broadly. So this is where I'm essentially going through these URLs and I'm making sure, "Hey, okay. I know I've targeted these keywords and I already did sort of my page title meta description. But let me check if there are other opportunities."

Are there content opportunities or image search opportunities? Do I have rich snippet opportunities? Like maybe, this is probably not the case, but I could have user review stars for my Rand's Animals website. I don't know if people particularly love this lemur GIF versus that lemur GIF. But those can be set up on your site, and you can see the description of how to do that on Google and Bing. They both have resources for that. The same is true for Twitter and Facebook, who offer cards so that you show up correctly in there. If you're using OpenGraph, I believe that also will correctly work on LinkedIn and other services like that. So those are great options.

5. Launch amplification & link outreach plan

So one of the things that we know about SEO is that you need links and engagement and those types of signals in order to rank well. You're going to want to have a successful launch day and launch week and even a launch month. That means, asking the question in advance:

I. "Who will help amplify your launch and why? Why are they going to do this?"

If you can identify, "These people, I know they personally want to help out," or, "They are friends and family. I have business relationships with them. They're customers of mine. They're journalists who promised to cover this. They are bloggers who care a lot about this subject and need stuff to write about." Whatever it is, if you can identify those people, create a list, and start doing that direct outreach, that is certainly something that you should do. I would plan in advance for that, and I would warn folks of when you were going to do that launch. That way, when launch day rolls around, you have some big, exciting news to announce. Two weeks after you launch to say, "Hey, I launched a new website a couple weeks ago," you're no longer news. You're no longer quite as special, and therefore your chances of coverage go down pretty precipitously after the first few days.

II. "What existing relationships, profiles, and sites should I update to create buzz (and accuracy)?"

I would also ask what existing relationships and websites and profiles do you already have that you can and should update to create buzz and actually to create accuracy. So this would be things like everything from your email signature to all your social profiles that we've talked about, both the ones you've claimed and the ones that you personally have. You should go and update your LinkedIn. You should go and update your Twitter page. You should go and update Facebook. All of those kinds of things, you may want to go and update. About.me if you have a profile there, or if you're a designer, maybe your Dribbble profile, whatever you've got.

*Then, you should also be thinking about, "Do I have content that I've contributed across the web over the years, on all sorts of other websites, where if I went and said, 'Hey, I've got a new site. Could you point to that new site, instead of my old one, or to my new site that I've just launched, instead of my old employer who I've left?'" you can do that as well, and it's certainly a good idea.

III. "What press coverage, social coverage, or influencer outreach can I do?"

The last thing I would ask about are people who are maybe more distant from you, but press coverage, social coverage, or influencer outreach, similar to the, "Who will help you amplify and why?" You should be able to make a list of those folks, those outlets, find some email addresses, send a pitch if you've got one, and start to build those relationships.

Launch day is a great reason to do outreach. When you're launching something new is the right time to do that, and that can help you get some amplification as well.

All right. Hopefully, when you launch your new site, you're going to follow this checklist, you're going to dig into these details, and you're going to come away with a much more successful SEO experience.

If you've launched a website and you see things that are missing from this list, you see other recommendations that you've got, please, by all means, leave them in the comments. We'd love to chat about them.

We'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

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

http://ift.tt/2pfFJZe

[fairchildlingpo1]

Launching a New Website: Your SEO Checklist - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by randfish

Hovering your finger over the big red "launch" button for your new website? Hold off for just a second (or 660 of them, rather). There may be SEO considerations you haven't accounted for yet, from a keyword-to-URL content map to sweeping for crawl errors to setting up proper tracking. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand covers five big boxes you need to check off before finally setting that site live.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're going to talk about launching a new website and the SEO process that you've got to go through. Now, it's not actually that long and cumbersome. But there are a few things that I put into broad categories, where if you do these as you're launching a new site or before you launch that new site, your chances of having success with SEO long term and especially in those first few months is going to go way up.

1. Keyword to URL map for your content

So let's get started with number one here. What I'm suggesting that you do is, as you look across the site that you've built, go and do some keyword research. There are a lot of Whiteboard Fridays and blog posts that we've written here at Moz about great ways to do keyword research. But do that keyword research and create a list that essentially maps all of the keywords you are initially targeting to all of the URLs, the pages that you have on your new website.

So it should look something like this. It's got the URL, so RandsAnimals.com, targeting the keyword "amazing animals," and here's the page title and here's the meta description. Then, I've got http://ift.tt/2nLC0oW, which is my page about lemurs, and that's targeting "lemurs" and "lemur habits." There's the title.

You want to go through these and make sure that if you have an important keyword that you have not yet targeted, you do so, and likewise, that if you've got a URL, a page on your website that you have not yet intentionally targeted a keyword with, you make sure to do that as well. This can be a great way to go through a small site in the early stages and make sure that you've got some terms and phrases that you're actually targeting. This will be also helpful when you do your rank tracking and your on-page optimization later on.

2. Accessibility, crawl, and UX

So what I want you to do here is to ask yourself:

I. "Are the pages and the content on my website accessible to search engines?"

There are some great ways to check these. You can use something like Screaming Frog or Google Search Console. You could use Moz Pro, or OnPage.org, to basically run a scan of your site and make sure that crawlers can get to all the pages, that you don't have duplicate content, that you don't have thin content or pages that are perceived to have no content at all, you don't have broken links, you don't have broken pages, all that kind of good stuff.

II. "Is the content accessible to all audiences, devices, and browsers?"

Next, we're going to ask not about search engines and their crawlers, but about the audience, the human beings and whether your content is accessible to all the audiences, devices, and browsers that it could be. So this could mean things like screen readers for blind users, mobile devices, desktop devices, laptops, browsers of all different kinds. You're going to want to use a tool like a browser checker to make sure that Chrome, Firefox, and... What's Internet Explorer called now? Oh, man. They changed it. Microsoft Edge. Make sure that it works in all of them.

I like that I think that there's a peanut gallery who's going to yell it out. Like you're watching this at lunch and you're thinking, "Rand, if I yell it to you now, it won't be recorded." I know. I know.

III. "Do those pages load fast from everywhere?"

So I could use a tool like Google Speed Test. I can also do some proxy checking to make sure that from all sorts of regions, especially if I'm doing international targeting or if I know that I'm going to be targeting rural regions that my pages load fast from everywhere.

IV. "Is the design, UI, visuals, and experience enjoyable and easy for all users?"

You can do that with some in-house usability testing. You could do it informally with friends and family and existing customers if you have them. Or you could use something like Five Second Test or UsabilityHub to run some more formal testing online. Sometimes this can reveal things in your navigation or your content that's just stopping people from having the experience that you want — that's very easy to fix.

3. Setup of important services and tracking

So there's a bunch of stuff that you just need to set up around a website. Those include:

Web analytics - Google Analytics is free and very, very popular. But you could also use something like Piwik, or if you're bigger, Omniture. You're going to want to do a crawl. OnPage or Moz Pro, or some of these other ones will check to make sure that your analytics are actually loaded on all of your pages.

Uptime tracking - If you haven't checked them out, Pingdom has some very cheap plans for very early-stage sites. Then, if you get bigger, they can get more expensive and more sophisticated.

Retargeting and remarketing - Even if you don't want to pay now and you're not going to use any of the services, go ahead and put the retargeting pixels from at least Facebook and Google onto your website, on all of your pages, so that those audiences are accessible to you later on in the future.

Set up some brand alerts - The cheapest option is Google Alerts, which is free, but it's not very good at all. If you're using Moz Pro, there's Fresh Web Explorer alerts, which is great. Mention.net is also good, Talkwalker, Trackur. There's a number of options there that are paid and a little bit better.

Google Search Console - If you haven't set that up already, you're going to want to do that, as well as Bing Webmaster Tools. Both of those can reveal some errors to you. So if you have accessibility issues, that's a good free way to go.

Moz/Ahrefs/SEMRush/Searchmetrics/Raven/etc. - If you are doing SEO, chances are good that you're going to want to set up some type of an SEO tool to track your rankings and do a regular crawl, show you competitive opportunities and missteps, potentially show you link-building opportunities, all that kind of stuff. I would urge you to check out one of probably these five. There are a few other ones. But these five are pretty popular — Moz, Ahrefs, SEMRush, Searchmetrics, or Raven. Those are some of the best known ones certainly out there.

Social and web profiles - Again, important to set those up before you launch your new site, so that no one goes and jumps on the name of your Facebook page, or your Pinterest page, or your Instagram profile page, or your YouTube page, or your SlideShare page. I know you might be saying, "But Rand, I don't use SlideShare." No, not today. But you might in the future, and trust me, you're going to want to claim Rand's Animals on YouTube and SlideShare. You're going to want to claim whatever your website's name is. I'll go claim this one later. But you've got to set all those up, because you don't want someone else taking them later. I would urge you to go down the full list of all the social media sites out there, all the web profiles out there, just to make sure that you've got your brand secured.

4. Schema, rich snippets, OpenGraph, etc

Optimization in general, more broadly. So this is where I'm essentially going through these URLs and I'm making sure, "Hey, okay. I know I've targeted these keywords and I already did sort of my page title meta description. But let me check if there are other opportunities."

Are there content opportunities or image search opportunities? Do I have rich snippet opportunities? Like maybe, this is probably not the case, but I could have user review stars for my Rand's Animals website. I don't know if people particularly love this lemur GIF versus that lemur GIF. But those can be set up on your site, and you can see the description of how to do that on Google and Bing. They both have resources for that. The same is true for Twitter and Facebook, who offer cards so that you show up correctly in there. If you're using OpenGraph, I believe that also will correctly work on LinkedIn and other services like that. So those are great options.

5. Launch amplification & link outreach plan

So one of the things that we know about SEO is that you need links and engagement and those types of signals in order to rank well. You're going to want to have a successful launch day and launch week and even a launch month. That means, asking the question in advance:

I. "Who will help amplify your launch and why? Why are they going to do this?"

If you can identify, "These people, I know they personally want to help out," or, "They are friends and family. I have business relationships with them. They're customers of mine. They're journalists who promised to cover this. They are bloggers who care a lot about this subject and need stuff to write about." Whatever it is, if you can identify those people, create a list, and start doing that direct outreach, that is certainly something that you should do. I would plan in advance for that, and I would warn folks of when you were going to do that launch. That way, when launch day rolls around, you have some big, exciting news to announce. Two weeks after you launch to say, "Hey, I launched a new website a couple weeks ago," you're no longer news. You're no longer quite as special, and therefore your chances of coverage go down pretty precipitously after the first few days.

II. "What existing relationships, profiles, and sites should I update to create buzz (and accuracy)?"

I would also ask what existing relationships and websites and profiles do you already have that you can and should update to create buzz and actually to create accuracy. So this would be things like everything from your email signature to all your social profiles that we've talked about, both the ones you've claimed and the ones that you personally have. You should go and update your LinkedIn. You should go and update your Twitter page. You should go and update Facebook. All of those kinds of things, you may want to go and update. About.me if you have a profile there, or if you're a designer, maybe your Dribbble profile, whatever you've got.

*Then, you should also be thinking about, "Do I have content that I've contributed across the web over the years, on all sorts of other websites, where if I went and said, 'Hey, I've got a new site. Could you point to that new site, instead of my old one, or to my new site that I've just launched, instead of my old employer who I've left?'" you can do that as well, and it's certainly a good idea.

III. "What press coverage, social coverage, or influencer outreach can I do?"

The last thing I would ask about are people who are maybe more distant from you, but press coverage, social coverage, or influencer outreach, similar to the, "Who will help you amplify and why?" You should be able to make a list of those folks, those outlets, find some email addresses, send a pitch if you've got one, and start to build those relationships.

Launch day is a great reason to do outreach. When you're launching something new is the right time to do that, and that can help you get some amplification as well.

All right. Hopefully, when you launch your new site, you're going to follow this checklist, you're going to dig into these details, and you're going to come away with a much more successful SEO experience.

If you've launched a website and you see things that are missing from this list, you see other recommendations that you've got, please, by all means, leave them in the comments. We'd love to chat about them.

We'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

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

http://ift.tt/2pfFJZe