#explains how I went from like 1k+ words a day to 300 at best | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

northwest-cryptid · 7 months ago

Text

Sometimes I'm reminded of the time I got hundreds of people to become Affiliates on Twitch by literally leading a very simple operation to boost these people's channels, only to watch twitter do what it does best and immediately implode on itself ensuring these accounts went right back to square one a week later.

Allow me to explain;

For those who don't know, the affiliate requirements are fairly simple and are as follows:

You must stream for at least 1 week on different days.

You must have at least 50 followers.

You must have an average of at least 3 viewers

There's some very small hourly requirement like must stream for a total of 8 hours total for a week or something.

The important two we're focused on are the 50 followers, and 3 average viewers. This is one of the biggest hurdles that a new streamer faces, why?

Because when you're not an affiliate, Twitch doesn't allow you to do anything that would actually give your stream interaction and charm. In other words, they actively make it difficult for you to build an audience unless you already have one. You don't get channel points, you don't get emotes; no one can sub to your channel.

So how did I ensure that hundreds of people suddenly became affiliate? Did I use bots to spam their accounts with follows and views? No. It was far easier than that, I made 1 post; asking a simple question...

"If there's so many of us who are struggling to get to affiliate, specifically in part due to the follower goal; why the hell don't we actually support each other?"

The plan was simple, I had created a twitter thread with one simple goal, I drop my twitch link, and everyone else comments and drops theirs in the comment they leave. I directly stated that this is not follow for follow, that I would follow, every single person who dropped a link in the comments; and that I urged the others to do the same. I explained that I would even watch their streams if even just to lurk. This would help get their average over 3 viewers.

It worked.

Not only did I jump from about 30 followers to over 300 (this was long before my current Vtuber channel mind you) but I was able to easily hit the goal of 3 average viewers; I got affiliate in the morning. As did many, many others. I would get new comments daily explaining how this was "real king shit" and how I was "a chad" for putting this all together. That praise never sat right with me, but I didn't want to seem like I didn't appreciate what they were trying to say.

Here's the thing though, none of them actually bothered to keep up with each other, I had followed all of them, I saw when they were live and I saw how many viewers they had. Not one of them averaged above 3 - 5 viewers after the first week.

This is likely due to the fact they didn't see the potential in long term support. Allow me to explain that Partner, a significant tier above Affiliate is much the same requirement wise, but requires an average of 75 viewers and far more followers. We easily had the follower numbers but viewers? You couldn't keep those, because everyone had already gotten their affiliate and figured that was more than enough.

This is why I have so much issue with "vtuber twitter" it festers on this concept of "I got mine." People scramble to throw their hat into the ring on drama when it makes them look good, they'll partake in follow for follow; they'll jump in on clear engagement bait just to put themselves in front of others.

Why would they do that? Because it gets them views? No, because it doesn't. It gets them Twitter Followers, and that makes them feel like a bigger streamer.

Look, actually getting viewer numbers is hard; it takes effort, it takes production quality, it takes being unique in some way. These people do not want to put all that effort into it, they want to be a popular streamer, they want to boast about having 1k followers and such, and it's easier to get that with quick flash in the pan tactics that get you "yours" and then get you out.

I hear about people who flaunt their jiggle physics and flirt with an audience but then get annoyed when their audience flirts back; now I'm not going to stand here and say sexual harassment is ever warranted. Though I will say I don't know what you expect when you market and advertise yourself as "that kind" of streamer. If you don't like the way you're treated when you market yourself as a sex object, maybe stop marketing yourself as a sex object because then it's actually the fault of the consumer.

I tried to neglect distancing myself from an audience, I found that things got too personal too quickly, people didn't take me seriously as a streamer and a lot of what came up was actively damaging to me. So I explained the situation, and I did a redebut; I restarted and I made my boundaries a lot more clear; I had to put my foot down and take a step back but I will admit that I created an atmosphere where I let that happen. I shouldn't have done that, and I learned from it.

I don't condone the harassment of a streamer, obviously that's not okay. However if you're going to post pictures of your models boobs on social media, tell everyone you're hot and they should admire you, and then say "hey I get uncomfortable when people think I'm something to be admired sexually." I do need you to understand that it's not like they're doing that out of the blue, so if you continue to do it; I assume you're at least expecting those kinds of results.

That's not to say streamers (primarily women and trans women (which is redundant because they are women) ) don't get a lot of out of pocket comments and admiration they don't ask for. I don't want anyone getting it twisted, if you don't market yourself as a sex icon, and people treat you like some kind of sex object. Yea that's on your audience 100% and that's not okay and I'm sorry you're dealing with that.

If you're treating yourself as a sex icon, marketing yourself as being thicc and fuckable, and then going "wow why do all my viewers treat me like I'm some bimbo" and then immediately after come out on stream and call yourself a bimbo; I think you might actually know why your viewers act that way. I think you understand you're doing it for the viewership and simply don't enjoy it but don't want to stop doing it because you enjoy the numbers it brings in. That confliction is fine, just be honest about it at least to yourself and your fellow streamers.

My point with all of this is that, this isn't just a sexual thing; it's not just a drama thing, it's an everything thing. If I go on twitter right now I see a ton of vtubers sticking their noses into other people's business. A ton of it that they otherwise wouldn't comment on but it's easy for them to put themselves in front of a bunch of people and be the good guy; it's free publicity.

You'll see vtubers who have "don't talk about politics" in their chat rules, and then on their actual twitter account they're doing nothing but talking very passionately about politics. Both of these things are fine on their own, but feel hypocritical when viewed together. You don't want people to talk politics on your streams because you understand it might make some people uncomfortable, but you're more than willing to do that yourself when you think you can profit from it.

To give you an idea of how absolutely two faced these people are, when I tried to come out as NB to my team; we thought it was really funny because the team was 2 men, 2 women; and me. I was essentially the balancing act of the party, I could hang with the boys but I could also be part of girls night.

However, one of the more popular women in our team spoke up that night explaining she never saw me as anything other than a man. She didn't believe in NB people even existing. So wouldn't you know it's kind of surprising to see that the very next week she suddenly decided to come out as NB and say she now went by She/They and in case you think I've been misgendering her this whole time; rest assured she "vastly preferred she/her but SOMETIMES used they/them." She also left the team and blocked me, cutting all ties to me and the others.

Again, they don't actually care about what they're saying; they're saying it because they see it as a potential for cheap, fast, easy growth for little to no effort. Growth however that only applies to Twitter, and growth that comes from other vtubers who will actively not check you out and show up to your streams because they view it as a competition and not entertainment.

Twitter Vtubers don't understand that streaming isn't about me and you locked in some heated battle for who can steal the most views. It's about us both as entertainers; providing an experience tailored to our audiences to, you know; entertain them. The idea being that we form a sort of mutually beneficial relationship with our audiences; I bring you entertainment that is designed with your interests in mind; you toss me some donations so I can keep a roof over my head and continue to provide you with specifically tailor made entertainment.

Congratulations, you're my paycheck and I'm your personal Markiplier or you know, whoever you like to watch.

Now you might hear that and go "what you see me as a wallet?!" To which I need to say, no more than you see me as a dancing monkey who doesn't need to eat and can supply you with endless tailor made entertainment and personal attention. Is that how you see your favorite streamer?

The time, effort, and personal attention I spend on you as an audience is repaid in kind via subscriptions, viewership (when I can run ads without getting complaints), and essentially an active chat.

We support each other, and that allows us both to "win" and guess what, it's no different from streamer to streamer.

At least, it shouldn't be.

If you and I are both streamers, and we enjoy one another's company and content, then it's a great chance for us to actually grow alongside each other. If you're popping into my stream, checking out the games I play; saying hi to my audience, and generally being someone who my audience and I are familiar with. To which I do the same in your streams with your audience and the games you play. Now our audiences are familiar with one another, if I decide to raid you it's far more likely my audience will actually follow and stick around because they already know you. This also tells your viewers that I'm a streamer and that they could check me out since they've seen me in your chat.

Long term continued support of one another means we grow together, cutthroat rivalry only ensures our mutual destruction and isolation.

1 note · View note

eternalstann · 6 years ago

Text

Lip Sync Battle (Tom Holland Smut)

Pairing: Tom Holland X Reader

Warnings: Smut

Word Count: 1k+

____________________________

You were sitting in your Psychology 300 class, lost in thought. You loved psych but it tended to get a bit repetitive. You smiled when a text popped up on your screen from your boyfriend Tom - ‘hope class is going well, about to head to your apartment. Can’t wait to see you, I love you sweet cheeks’. He’d been doing press for two months straight and you were more than excited for his return. Nothing could ruin your mood. Well, almost nothing.

You couldn’t contain the annoyed sigh that left your lips when you felt a pen tap your shoulder. “That your little boyfriend Y/N?” It was Mike Dudley. You’d done a project together in the beginning of the semester, he asked you out and you declined; ever since then he’d decided to make frustrating you his full time job. You ignored him. Until he tapped you again. And again. It was his fourth attempt when you finally whipped around and gave him the meanest death glare you could muster up. “Yes it is my boyfriend, if you must know. Now leave me alone” you whispered harshly, turning back to your professor. You heard him and his little flunkies laugh. “I saw his little performance last night, he looks better as girl. I didn’t know that’s what you were into” he spoke whilst leaning over, his hot breath fanning across the back of your neck. You leaned away from him, scrunching up you face. “First of all, you’re fucking foul get away from me. Second of all; Tom looked hot last night, don’t be mad because he could get any girl you wanted IN that outfit. And we both know these are facts” you responded harshly, your voice rising a bit.

Mike leaned back in his seat, seeing how upset you actually were. You thought college boys would be at least a little more mature than high school ones, but you were shown that that wasn’t the case on many occasions. The rest of class seemed to drag on, you could feel Mikes eyes burning holes into the back of your head. You had zoned out when suddenly you heard everyone begin packing up their books. You blinked your eyes into focus before doing the same.

You just made it through the doors out of the lecture hall when someone grabbed your arm. “Look Y/N, I’m sorry for bothering you. I just, I really like you-” you stopped him in his tracks. “Apology accepted Mike” you spoke before ripping your arm from his grip and walking away briskly.

Your entire car ride home all you could think about was Tom. Seeing him standing in your kitchen instantly took you from 2 to 10. “Tom!” You shouted, running over to him and jumping into his arms. “Hey baby!” He cooed before placing a kiss on your lips. You showered his face with kisses as he walked the two of you to the couch. He looked small but he had above average strength, you always joked that he had super powers in real life. Sitting down now you were on his lap. “I could get used to this” he sighed, smiling at you. You stared at him and felt something tugging at your heartstrings. You were so grateful for him, he worked so hard and still found time to be the best boyfriend you could ever ask for.

“You have no idea how happy I am to see you” you whispered, leaning your forehead against his. After a moment Tom went to pull away but you held him still, “just hold me”. “What’s wrong babe” Tom asked, sensing there was another reason you were acting so needy, not that he minded a bit. “Just some dickheads at school, talking shit” . Toms eyebrows furrowed, upset that someone was bothering you. “What’d they say?” He asked, looking at you with a clouded expression. “This guy was talking about your lip sync battle, which you killed by the way. He feels the need to annoy me somehow every single day” you explain. “He probably wants to fuck you” Tom muttered, he couldn’t blame the guy. You were a fucking queen.

“He asked me out a a couple of months ago” you add, biting your lip trying to gage your boyfriends reaction. He gripped your hips so tight you though his finger tips would leave bruises. “Sometimes I wish I could lock you up in the house and keep you for myself, I’ll beat his ass if you want” he replied and you laughed. “It’s okay baby, I can handle him. And you don’t need to lock me up, I’d stay here with you forever more than willingly” you giggle before sliding to your knees in front of him.

You pulled down his sweats, palming his dick through his boxers. Y’all hadn’t had sex since he left and it showed- he was hard in seconds. “Besides, your dick is the only one want inside of me. In my pussy, in my ass, or down my throat” your words fell from you lips in the most seductive way you could muster. “Oh god” Tom whispered to himself, throwing an arm over his eyes. The sight of you kneeling in front of him was too much. His dick throbbed in anticipation. You made quick work of his boxers, licking your lips at the view in front of you.

You grabbed his dick in your hand, pumping it a few times before placing his tip in your mouth. Toms thighs clenched at the feeling of your warm, wet mouth wrapped around him. “Fuck, I missed you bad” he groaned, gathering your hair into a makeshift ponytail. You hummed, your way of saying you missed him too while your mouth was otherwise occupied. You took him deeper, your nose almost touching his pelvis and gagged around his length. Toms hips bucked up as you began to bob your head faster and faster. “Im close baby girl, let me come in that pretty mouth” he groaned, tugging on your hair. You looked up at him through your lashes, taking him as deep as you could. You reached a hand up to play with his balls and Tom yelled out your name as he climaxed.

You swallowed him down before crawling back into his lap, smiling to yourself as you listened to his ragged breaths. “How’d I get so lucky” you murmured, kissing him. “I ask myself the same thing everyday, now let me show you what else this mouth can do besides win lip sync battles”

——————————————————

Omg it feels so good to post! Sorry it’s so short, if you follow me you probably know I broke two fingers so it’s rough out here😭 I hope you enjoy this, this was a request and I’m working on more! Love you all xx

#tom holland #tom #tom holland smut #tom smut #smut #avengers #avengers smut #spiderman #peter parker #tom holland imagine #tom holland one shot #tom holland preference

724 notes · View notes

somemilanlove · 6 years ago

Text

BoBo’s Gravy

Day 3 & I’m def behind for most of the day. Despite being up early I spent my morning looking for a good body shop that isn’t backed up for months due to the oil boom out here. Demarcus’ truck is leaking oil and it’s up to me to find someone to find out why. I am planning to remake the gravy for dinner. It just wasn’t as good as I know it could have been so I’ve got myself mentally ready, Besides, we still have biscuits and I don’t know what else to do with them.

Demarcus always helps by sending the kids off in the morning. I’ve fallen back into a night owl routine & fit in uninterrupted work hours. Anyway he hasn’t sent any extra biscuits with the kids like I had hoped he would.

Anyway the day goes by so much faster than I expected, I fit in a few good pockets of work between the “let me check under the hoods” and googling where else to go, but I didn’t get enough done. I’ve made a pact with myself that no work will be done when the kids are home. So as soon as the school kids are home I won’t be on my phone at all until they are in bedtime mode. It’s’ hard for me to do that esp. this week when I’m hosting a behind the scenes look at what a virtual online coach does.. ugh.

Idk if I mentioned but this year my goal is to help 5 women every month learn how to earn an extra $1000 a month, part time. It’s a huge undertaking and I’m def under pressure because a leadership role for me has always been scary. It’s one way to be able to push yourself to achieve big things, but to lead others and help them stick to their goals well not so easy for me. I’ve always been the quiet one in the group or room, who never spoke up, just remained unnoticed. Leading, as I’m finding out isn’t telling people what to do, per say, it’s more of a teaching thing. You show what you’re doing and set an example. They can follow it or tweak it as long as they find something that works for them and still gets them the results we both want.

As soon as the kids get home I start whipping up the BoBos Gravy (where do these names come from anyway?). The recipe was so simple that I remembered exactly what I needed and how much, the only difference this time is that I’m working with raw Jimmy Dean sausage. This way I get more of the fat reserves from the sausage.

Without dragging out a simple gravy recipe I’ll say that it went really well. I followed the recipe exactly as it was and it came out perfect. The kids were not as excited this time around to have it for dinner.

I really don’t have much to say about the food today or feel inspired to share very much in a hopeful light. . I’m tired more than anything and have of ton of mundane mom duties to get to tonight. To add to it Demarcus and I had a huge argument about how his expensive taste in cars were consuming unnecessary money. I’m not usually one to fight about money these days. Especially since I know it comes and goes.

I think maybe it has to do with the fact that I didn’t have money growing up. We grew up poor with a single mom, usually getting things from salvation army and Goodwill. We never had fancy cars, brand name clothes, and almost always shared a room with one of my four siblings. As long as I had clothes on my back, food in the fridge & people that loved me back I was happy I’ve never cared for flashy or fancy things, but experiences.

DOING things is what I would spend any $$ amount on. To me spending 90K on a car is absurd unless it’s going to pay you back in a way other than getting you from point A to point B.

Earlier this year we traded in my car in to get another. I almost feel embarrassed to say the words traded in. As if its something poor people do. And now in writing that I guess I do have some sense of significance when I own nicer things. My husband had traded his brand new Chevy Silverado in for a more “useful truck”. An F250 Diesel- lightly used and costing twice as much as the other, the year before & I was still sour about it. The repairs on a Diesel are outrages and finding someone to do the work out here, in the middle of a boom? Damned near impossible!

Nevertheless we traded my car in since he would not be giving his baby away. I thought it would be a good way for us to trip the fat off of our spending & get ahead. Makes sense. A one Chevy Suburban for a Jeep Cherokee. We traded in one car only to wreck it 6 days later. Totalled. I hadn’t even received our plates yet. Don’t worry we were ok, but the deer Demarcus hit on our way to Big Bend National park didn’t make it.

We(I) decided to take this as a sign for us to use the extra money to pay off debt and get ahead on other bills like the house payment. (well I decided and spent the next 30 days convincing Demarcus it was in our best interest) That lasted all but 6 months. He just couldn’t keep sharing his truck, he won’t openly admit it but the evidence of 4 kids in he PRIZE truck was/is too much for him to handle.

I gave in, tired of hearing him complain about crumbs and the miles I was putting on his truck, and agreed to choose a car, nothing new, and something that would fit all my babies. I didn’t want new because that would automatically come with a high payment and I had ZERO interest in paying interest for the next 5 years.

I found a fully loaded GMC SUV of sorts, nice enough for Demarcus to agree & big enough to lug my kids and all their things in. Mileage was so so, and it was made in the USA. It was priced around 11-12K so totally affordable, which made me happy. I thought this is the one, but nope. Demarcus had other ideas.

Long story short we ended up with a 2008 Land Rover. I know what you’re thinking. Who would complain about a Land Rover? ME.

Not only was it not what I had picked out, it was a year older, with more miles and foreign. Despite every I came up with to convince him this was NOT the one, that’s what I ended up with.

Buying a used car is a gamble as it is, but anytime you add a label to it becomes an expensive gamble. Not even a few week in I had to pay for an oil change.

$500!! We live in a small West Texas town with 1 person to do repairs on this thing. A few days later, turns out I need 2 new tires. “You can’t replace just 1 of the tires ma’am, because of the suspension sensors on this thing.” its a special made car, $600. We still hadn’t made the $300 car payment on this thing and I was out 1K!! FML.

A few weeks later --check Engine light -- catalytic converter. $440 a piece (it has two). A repair my husband pretended was optional and could wait. Now my “mom car” sits under the carport awaiting an $3000 repair factoring in labor.

So yesterday as I drove around desperately trying to find a Diesel mechanic with time to get the oil leak fixed in his truck I lost it. I tried to explain to him that it’s not the money, or the fact that a car needs repairs. I am fully aware of the fact older cars need repairs & that with maintenance a vehicle will last longer. What I was so upset about is that we were paying high end prices for these repairs. I’ve owned 4 other cars in my life time one used and 2 new so I totally get it!

My Nissan cube had the same issue with catalytic converter a few years back & it cost a fraction of the price to repair.

My husband is the kind of man who wants physical proof of how hard he works, big house, big truck, big guns. Maybe to compensate for the things he didn’t have growing up. idk , but Not me. It baffles him that I don’t “ooo” and “ahhh” at the fancy cars. He is totally confused how I could turn down the change to drive such a “classy car” and why I wasn’t happy when he got this car for me.

So that was it. Our huge battle over paying too much for basic things had me under stress. I was tired. Not inspired in anyway to make my mark on the world and certainly not any closer to finding my purpose as I poured extra creamy gravy over soft flakey biscuits and thick bits of sausage.

Maybe tomorrow’s recipe will bring me more luck.

#biscuitsandgravy #breakfast #eggsbenedict #magnolia #esther perel #moreromance #momlife

0 notes

ryansreallife-blog · 8 years ago

Text

A Young Living Husband

It’s Witchcraft, I Say

I am what you would call a Young Living husband. Skepticism is what I thrived on. Doubting an entire lifestyle came all too naturally as my wife decided she wanted to jump into the world of slathering smelly liquids all over her body. I grew up in a home run by an Air Force Master Sergeant working over 20 years to provide for his family. Rules were strict, and often times medicine was not an option. Dirt was our serum of choice. If we went to the doctor, it was for a sports physical, to mend a broken bone, or to have surgery. Cough medicine was frowned upon as it weakened our immune system. Although this was the view in our household, anything outside of modern medicine was known as voodoo, dark magic witchcraft.

Obviously when my wife brought to my attention the use of oils to take care of our health, naturally I was in denial and refused. I came up with too many excuses to turn down the option of purchasing essential oils. In my mind, it was no more than a chemical fragrance used for perfume. Of course, at this time, I had no problems with chemicals. It took several times of my wife asking before I finally gave in. Of course I still didn’t believe in this nonsense, but I strive to please my wife.

Three weeks after she ordered her kit, the house smelled of various flowers and branches. It smelled like a fabulous apothecary. She swore she felt different; better. I was not falling for her shenanigans of what my faithless mind would assume to be mental weakness as I have seen many a friend fall for the neurological wonders that people create when false hope is incorporated. Every day she wanted to rub the “devil’s juice” on my knees or my back, but I denied, or hesitantly agreed. I felt nothing; not a change.

My wife had struggled for quite some time with anger issues and mood imbalances. She was unpredictable and oftentimes downright scary. One month later she received a new oil, a magical oil. She used it religiously, and after only four days of using it, she was… happy? How did this happen? I was beside myself, looking at the face of a man in utter disbelief. It was just that, disbelief! I wasn’t quite sure what to believe. How in the world did my wife overcome this issue that she has been dealing with in only four days of using one oil? It was then that I thought to myself, ‘I don’t care if it is all in her head, because it works!’ I was so excited and happy that my wife was not dealing with this issue to near the degree she was before. It was at that point that I said, “Okay, let’s stick with this!”

Business? Yeah, Right

My wife used her oils like they were the only thing keeping her alive. What came next was beyond what I expected. “I want to sell these!” She exclaimed. My business analytical mind immediately jumped to: ‘What business model do they use? Is this a pyramid scheme? What about this? What about that?’ I had been involved in pyramid schemes before. I knew that network marketing was a sure fire way lose friends and make close to no money. I had more questions than I did answers.

I replied “I really don’t think this is what you want to do, it’s a nonsense business model with no possibility to generate actual income.” I could tell that this disheartened her, however, she seemed to stand secure in the thought of wanting to sell. So I did research. What did I find? PYRAMID SCHEME! My concerns were confirmed. I knew that it would never work, however, she seemed dead set on selling oils. I decided I did not want anything to do with it and that she could make her own mistakes.

It was haunting me. I thrive and live on research, yet I stopped when I saw the words Pyramid Scheme. I resisted as long as I possibly could until I just couldn’t anymore. I continued to do research. I found resources galore about the good and the bad. The conclusion I came to was that Young Living is not a Pyramid Scheme. A pyramid, yes, as you cannot deny the obvious shape it creates on paper, but not a scheme. I would preferably refer to it as a Risk-Free Pyramid Business Model. Young Living, I came to find, does not require you to sell in order to purchase, but rather you needed to purchase in order to sell. This takes away about 90% of the risk! The remaining 10% of risk was only the risk you face if you do not sell successfully, and that is just a punch in the face of your ego and self-esteem. I started to get a better understanding of it all.

For All the Wrong Reasons

My wife was so ecstatic to begin working on the business side of things. She wanted to sell them not for the money, but for the purpose of helping others with their health and wellness. She found purpose, after so long of not having it at all. I had an excitement as well. Being the business minded man that I am, I was determined to help my wife to succeed. I wanted to help her enroll her first member. I was so intentional about wanting her to succeed, that I sort of bypassed her entirely. I didn’t necessarily help her enroll her first member so much as basically did it for her. I felt accomplished, whether I believed the product worked 100% or not, my salesman hat was put on and I was ready to feel the adrenaline pump again.

I spent the next week working to get my brother and his wife to order oils for their son who constantly struggles with health issues. After explaining and researching and convincing, I was able to “help” my wife enroll her second member. The entire time I was justifying my lack of support and total takeover by saying “I’m helping you build your business!” I wasn’t doing that at all, I was filling myself with nonsensical ego marks. I wasn’t done there. I had to show myself that I could be a successful salesman by selling to the most skeptical person I knew; my father.

After two weeks of non-stop hassling, I was able to get my parents to purchase a starter kit. I had done it, I proved that I could do this for a living if I wanted to. Little did I know, while I was doing this, while I was building up my self-esteem and trotting my accomplishments around, my wife had been falling deeper into depression. I had no idea that me helping her was actually discouraging her. She felt like she wasn’t able to do it at all and if I didn’t do it then nothing would happen. I was hurting my wife without even realizing it. I was doing this for all the wrong reasons, and I couldn’t believe it.

Support or Bust

From that point on I told myself that I wasn’t going to do anything for my wife, but rather I was going to support her. I was going to be there for her if she needed me and I was going to praise her accomplishments and love her in her failures. Unbeknown to me, being supportive was a much harder job than taking lead. My wife is the most compassionate and loving person I have ever met. She has a genuine heart and a willingness to stick her neck out for anyone and everyone if it benefits them. With this amazing compassion comes an alternative side. When she sticks her neck out for others and they deny her love and compassion, she falls hard, not in anger, but sadness that other people do not feel the same desire for a healthy life.

There have been stretches that I can recall where my wife was the most discouraged person in the world, believing that nothing could ever come of the good that she was doing, and to this day it is a constant struggle to overcome these feelings. There are also stretches of time where she is encouraged and has a mission to conquer the world. I remember when she hit the 1K Club, she was on top of the world and ready to take on anything that came at her.

There have been many nights where my shirt has tear stains all over the chest. But for me, these are the most important nights for me to do my job. There was not a job description given to me upon accepting this position, but I am working to figure it out. I would most likely not accept this job If I were handed a piece of paper that stated:

Job Description:

Support co-workers in potentially hostile work environment

Provide in depth research on over 300 products to ensure co-workers are well equipped to give presentations

Be a calming presence 100% of the time while withstanding potential harmful work environment obstacles

Be ready to listen to undesirable conversation topics without responding or intention to solve issues

Be willing to work overtime and travel to retrieve supplies any time of the day

This position does not pay well to begin, but with hard work and determination a following the above strict regiment, pay may increase (there is no promise of raises or increased income)

Qualifications include:

Open availability

Education is irrelevant as you must adapt to work environments

Experience is irrelevant as you must adapt to work environments

Overtime often required

Must be supportive

Must not feel the need to fix everything

There is not a thing in this world that I would rather do than to follow this job description. My degree in Business Administration did not prepare me for this, however, I am the luckiest man alive to have this job.

Looking Ahead

It is my goal daily to be the best cheerleader for my wife. I plan to support and cheer her along every step of the way. What a Young Living husband is here to do, is not to sit in the background and not believe in his wife. His job is to provide never ending support, through tears and through laughter. His job is to be available for anything his wife needs whether it’s research, a shoulder to cry on, or a snack from the local convenience store. His job is to realize that he can’t solve all the problems, but he can work with his wife to come to a good solution. His job is to realize that he is not perfect, and that he is a servant of God, a servant for his wife, and a servant to himself.

Utilizing all of these attributes, it is easy to be able to look into the future. I understand that Royal Crown Diamond may not happen in a year, three years, maybe not even ten years, but what lasts forever is the support I can provide to my wife as she is on this journey to when she does reach Royal Crown Diamond, because she will.

There are a lot of things I do not know, however, there is one thing I am sure of 100%, and that is

I AM A YOUNG LIVING HUSBAND

0 notes

kristinejrosario · 8 years ago

Text

Your Niche Is A Small Village: Here’s How To Become Well-Known In it by Marketing Yourself

This is a guest contribution from Victor Idjola.

Sometimes, the way many startups become very well-known after a period of oblivion makes it feel like the industries we operate in are actually small villages.

And they really are! Have you noticed? Almost every new company that manages to build a great product and use some marketing tactic(s) that works ends up making the headlines within a couple of months.

It’s not always like that. But it happens many times. Take Buffer, for example. They got 100,000 users in 9 months. That’s a lot of subscribers for a startup.

Source: Search Engine Watch

We also heard of how Groove got 5,000 subscribers in just five weeks.

And those are just two examples, there are several others.

So you write a number of pieces of great content and everyone in your space begins to know who you are and what you do. But how can you use content marketing to quickly become well-known like these successful startups?

Here are five tips that work great:

1. Use tactics that have worked (and still work) for other businesses.

You need proven strategies to make your content reach your target audience FAST. I mean; strategies that other people have been praising because they get returns from them.

Sure, you could have techniques that you feel would work. But do you really have the time to start testing tactics that might fail? So what happens if they fail? You’d have wasted time and other resources.

We’ll use another guest blogging example. This tactic has been working for many brands for quite a long time, but Alex and his team at Groove were hesitant in adopting the strategy.

They weren’t using it for about two years. But when they finally did, they started getting amazing results––like reaching over one million users (via guest blogging alone).

Source: GrooveHQ

Then they quickly figured that they should have been using the tactic sooner. In Alex’s words, “If we had known the power that guest posting has two years ago, we would’ve been doing this a lot sooner.”

It’s okay to have your new ideas that you want to try out, but it’s better that you start out with proven tactics (like guest blogging, PPC, etc.) first. For my business (Premium Content Shop), I mainly use guest blogging––because I’ve seen it work for several businesses. And as a freelance writer, I figured it’s one of the fastest, inexpensive and most effective techniques I can use to grow my business.

2. Tell a lot of stories.

The type of content that used to work when blogging and content marketing were still a shiny new toy––just a few years ago––don’t really work so well anymore.

Today, competition has gone quite fierce in content marketing. Everyone is doing content today, and so people are increasingly not having time to waste on content that is boring. People prefer to read stories.

When you begin to tell stories to back your opinions up, you take your audience to a new level where they begin to see your ideas as something they have to buy, IF they want to achieve the success or avoid the tragedy in the stories you share.

Kim Garst puts it more succinctly in a post on her blog:

“Think of the last story that captivated you. Were you interested in the characters? Did you find yourself relating to the protagonist? Did you follow her as she went through a crisis, hoping she’d make it out okay in the end? And when the crisis was finally behind her, did a part of you rejoice? That’s the power of good storytelling.”

Take the VideoFruit blog for example; the average post there gets about 25 comments. The blog is run by Bryan Harris, and guess what? He writes nothing but stories. All the time. As of the time of writing this article, here are the latest posts on VideoFruit (notice the number of comments):

These posts are both stories, and you can see how much they engage readers through the number of comments they generate. The same goes for the Groove blog. They write stories and case studies virtually all the time too and today they’ve hit 100,000 subscribers.

Most pieces of content that are stories tend to perform better than just sharing of tips. The most popular post on Problogger was written by Jon Morrow, and it’s a story. Are all these really coincidences? I think not. Telling stories will supercharge your engagement rate and even spread your name.

And that’s why various surveys, like this one, have proved that case studies are the most effective types of content. Take Robert Mening (the guy behind WebsiteSetup.org), for example, he flaunts his readers’ testimonials right at the top of his homepage:

Use tools that can bring out the best in your content

Content is king. That’s still true to this day. But you’re mostly aware by now that content isn’t all it takes to achieve success in any industry. This is something that most brands that succeed with content marketing know.

And that’s why you see them spending thousands of dollars on marketing tools that can bring the best out of their content.

For example, in a recent thread on Inbound.org, a commenter says “In my opinion, if you have awesome content, people will actively search for ways in which they can sign up for future content.”

And really, it sounds true. But that truism is only in theory. In real-life, you have to use sign-up forms to actually ask people to submit their emails so you can send them your future content.

Experienced content experts, Noah Kagan and Bryan Harris, explained to the commenter how it really works:

Source: Inbound.org

And sign-up forms are just one example. You need to be using every tool you can get your hands to bring the best out of your content.

4. Learn from others, but be yourself.

You can’t be another HubSpot. You can’t be another Moz either. In fact, in my own experience, the more you try to be someone you’re not, the worse you get.

Be you. Be transparent. Which word count (for instance) works best for you? We know expert online marketer Neil Patel writes really long posts (about 3000 words each) on his blog. It works for him a lot.

But is nailing your point in 1000 – 1500 words what works best for you? Yes? Then, by all means, stick to that.

In fact, one of the most respected experts in the marketing today—Seth Godin—writes an average of 100-300 word posts on his blog today and he still gets a lot of readers. Here’s a recent post on his blog that got 2,100 Facebook likes and a sum of 809 shares on LinkedIn and Google+. The post is just 96 words long.

Not every reader has the luxury of time to spend hours with Neil’s post. So this type of readers might prefer posts in the 1k – 1.5k word count mark. Neil is only able to attract readers who have the time to consume long-form posts. And they read his post because they’re happy to.

That’s Neil’s style, you need to find yours. Who says you won’t succeed with short form content? Another example is MarketingProfs. They accept not more than 700-word posts on their opinion section. And their content still gets shared a lot.

In fact, after writing my first guest post (of 700 words) there, I got someone asking for my writing services.

So it’s not really about word count. Just stick to what works for you. However, just so you get on the good side of google, you should make sure your post is at least 1,000 words.

Another aspect of being yourself is your tone.

What kind of voice do you love speaking or writing with? Is it a casual tone? A professional tone? Whatever kind of tone it is, there are readers who would love you for it. You don’t have to copy how someone else talks or writes.

Does this mean you can’t learn a writing style? Definitely not. But you should ensure that you’re learning a writing style that resonates with the way you want to write. That is, if you like to write in a conversational tone, you can learn from an expert who writes in the same tone and is successful with it. The person you’re trying to copy succeeds because he’s found his style. You need to find yours.

5. Persistence.

No great achievement is possible without persistent work.––Bertrand Russell

This is almost more important than every other tip in this post. Bertrand is late, but his quote about persistence is still true to this day. What did it take for Buffer to reach 100,000 users in 9 months? Guest blogging? No, it took guest blogging plus persistence.

They had to be persistent for those 9 months to reach a hundred thousand users. In Leo’s words, “It’s been something that was very gradual, though. Within the space of around 9 months, I wrote around 150 guest posts. Of course, the early ones barely drove any traffic and only very gradually did things improve…”

In conclusion

So if it’s traction you want, it’s traction you have to work for. Look around your niche and be as familiar to them as the milkman is to a small village. Pe persistent, be seen, be useful.

Victor Ijidola is a freelance business writer (for hire) and the founder of Premium Content Shop. He specializes in business and marketing related topics but branches out into other topics occasionally. His work has also appeared on sites like The Next Web, Inc.com, etc.

The post Your Niche Is A Small Village: Here’s How To Become Well-Known In it by Marketing Yourself appeared first on ProBlogger.

from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/iWJR2enjPQ4/

0 notes

richardrobertsimsuccessblog · 8 years ago

Text

Your Niche Is A Small Village: Here’s How To Become Well-Known In it by Marketing Yourself

This is a guest contribution from Victor Idjola.

Sometimes, the way many startups become very well-known after a period of oblivion makes it feel like the industries we operate in are actually small villages.

It’s not always like that. But it happens many times. Take Buffer, for example. They got 100,000 users in 9 months. That’s a lot of subscribers for a startup.

Source: Search Engine Watch

We also heard of how Groove got 5,000 subscribers in just five weeks.

And those are just two examples, there are several others.

Here are five tips that work great:

1. Use tactics that have worked (and still work) for other businesses.

You need proven strategies to make your content reach your target audience FAST. I mean; strategies that other people have been praising because they get returns from them.

We’ll use another guest blogging example. This tactic has been working for many brands for quite a long time, but Alex and his team at Groove were hesitant in adopting the strategy.

They weren’t using it for about two years. But when they finally did, they started getting amazing results––like reaching over one million users (via guest blogging alone).

Source: GrooveHQ

2. Tell a lot of stories.

The type of content that used to work when blogging and content marketing were still a shiny new toy––just a few years ago––don’t really work so well anymore.

Kim Garst puts it more succinctly in a post on her blog:

Use tools that can bring out the best in your content

And that’s why you see them spending thousands of dollars on marketing tools that can bring the best out of their content.

For example, in a recent thread on Inbound.org, a commenter says “In my opinion, if you have awesome content, people will actively search for ways in which they can sign up for future content.”

And really, it sounds true. But that truism is only in theory. In real-life, you have to use sign-up forms to actually ask people to submit their emails so you can send them your future content.

Experienced content experts, Noah Kagan and Bryan Harris, explained to the commenter how it really works:

Source: Inbound.org

And sign-up forms are just one example. You need to be using every tool you can get your hands to bring the best out of your content.

4. Learn from others, but be yourself.

You can’t be another HubSpot. You can’t be another Moz either. In fact, in my own experience, the more you try to be someone you’re not, the worse you get.

But is nailing your point in 1000 – 1500 words what works best for you? Yes? Then, by all means, stick to that.

In fact, after writing my first guest post (of 700 words) there, I got someone asking for my writing services.

So it’s not really about word count. Just stick to what works for you. However, just so you get on the good side of google, you should make sure your post is at least 1,000 words.

Another aspect of being yourself is your tone.

5. Persistence.

No great achievement is possible without persistent work.––Bertrand Russell

In conclusion

So if it’s traction you want, it’s traction you have to work for. Look around your niche and be as familiar to them as the milkman is to a small village. Pe persistent, be seen, be useful.

The post Your Niche Is A Small Village: Here’s How To Become Well-Known In it by Marketing Yourself appeared first on ProBlogger.

Your Niche Is A Small Village: Here’s How To Become Well-Known In it by Marketing Yourself

#Richard Roberts IM Success Mix #Your Niche Is A Small Village: Here’s How To Become Well-Known In it

0 notes

silvino32mills · 8 years ago

Text

Your Niche Is A Small Village: Here’s How To Become Well-Known In it by Marketing Yourself

This is a guest contribution from Victor Idjola.

Sometimes, the way many startups become very well-known after a period of oblivion makes it feel like the industries we operate in are actually small villages.

It’s not always like that. But it happens many times. Take Buffer, for example. They got 100,000 users in 9 months. That’s a lot of subscribers for a startup.

Source: Search Engine Watch

We also heard of how Groove got 5,000 subscribers in just five weeks.

And those are just two examples, there are several others.

Here are five tips that work great:

1. Use tactics that have worked (and still work) for other businesses.

You need proven strategies to make your content reach your target audience FAST. I mean; strategies that other people have been praising because they get returns from them.

We’ll use another guest blogging example. This tactic has been working for many brands for quite a long time, but Alex and his team at Groove were hesitant in adopting the strategy.

They weren’t using it for about two years. But when they finally did, they started getting amazing results––like reaching over one million users (via guest blogging alone).

Source: GrooveHQ

2. Tell a lot of stories.

The type of content that used to work when blogging and content marketing were still a shiny new toy––just a few years ago––don’t really work so well anymore.

Kim Garst puts it more succinctly in a post on her blog:

Use tools that can bring out the best in your content

And that’s why you see them spending thousands of dollars on marketing tools that can bring the best out of their content.

For example, in a recent thread on Inbound.org, a commenter says “In my opinion, if you have awesome content, people will actively search for ways in which they can sign up for future content.”

And really, it sounds true. But that truism is only in theory. In real-life, you have to use sign-up forms to actually ask people to submit their emails so you can send them your future content.

Experienced content experts, Noah Kagan and Bryan Harris, explained to the commenter how it really works:

Source: Inbound.org

And sign-up forms are just one example. You need to be using every tool you can get your hands to bring the best out of your content.

4. Learn from others, but be yourself.

You can’t be another HubSpot. You can’t be another Moz either. In fact, in my own experience, the more you try to be someone you’re not, the worse you get.

But is nailing your point in 1000 – 1500 words what works best for you? Yes? Then, by all means, stick to that.

In fact, after writing my first guest post (of 700 words) there, I got someone asking for my writing services.

So it’s not really about word count. Just stick to what works for you. However, just so you get on the good side of google, you should make sure your post is at least 1,000 words.

Another aspect of being yourself is your tone.

5. Persistence.

No great achievement is possible without persistent work.––Bertrand Russell

In conclusion

So if it’s traction you want, it’s traction you have to work for. Look around your niche and be as familiar to them as the milkman is to a small village. Pe persistent, be seen, be useful.

The post Your Niche Is A Small Village: Here’s How To Become Well-Known In it by Marketing Yourself appeared first on ProBlogger.

from ProBlogger http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/iWJR2enjPQ4/

0 notes