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what-do-1000-swords-look-like · 3 years

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Hey so, I was just wondering, with all the metas you write, how do you start writing one? What is the process like? I've always been curious about it, but I never really know where to start ^_^" Also, if you don't really know how to answer, that's okay! Was just curious haha

Hi, Nonnie! Actually, I have to be honest, I'm not really sure how I started either lol. I think my very first meta-type post was on SPN and about Destiel. I think it was related to the reunion scene between Dean and Cas in 14x03? I'm not 100% sure, though.

Idk if there's really a process tbh. I feel like I'm still very green in the meta process but I kind of look at it this way: I just talk about what I want to talk about. Sometimes, it's just a short little thing I think of and I'm like "okay, I want to talk about this quickly" or sometimes it's longer than that (usually this one lol) and I spend hours poring every thought I have into it and showing what I really want to get across.

And because my brain is constantly like:

It's very easy for me to always lean towards the second option LOL. Especially when I have things like this in my google docs (which is slightly embarrassing to show you this but this is how I keep track of everything I want to talk about in meta posts):

Combined with the way this site works, it basically enables me to:

which really then becomes:

LOL. In all seriousness though, I don't think there's any one way to write meta. I think it's just meant to be analysis, your own personal analysis or interpretation of an event or character or story. So for example, if you want to talk about Destiel and maybe why you feel Dean loved Cas back though he didn't answer that question the narrative posed before the show ended, talk about it and say why you think that. Or if you feel that Dany was never meant to go dark in GoT, then talk about it and why you think that. Or if you think Buck and Eddie will get together in 911 as endgame or why you wish Harry Potter had ended differently or if Rick will come back for the final season of The Walking Dead or whatever it is that you're passionate about.

I kind of look at my own personal meta like little research papers (and kind of treat it as such). I like to make my case, make it as strong and solid as I possibly can with enough supporting evidence (omg I sound like Dateline or something lol, sorry!), and then just go full throttle.

I also like to throw visuals in when I can (whether that be gifs that other amazing people have made available to the site to be used or video links like from YouTube or more recently screenshots). I despise the new 10 images only per post limit on Tumblr's new beta posting but I try to keep my thoughts within that cap. I like to change formats every once in a while. I'm a very big bullet-point list aficionado and if this site allowed me to, I would have all kinds of sub-bullet point lists in each and every post if I could (which it's probably better the site doesn't let me lol). I like to use italics and bold to stress certain points or to indicate a difference/change in topic within the post. I put tags that are absolutely relevant to the topic and what meta it is, for example "destiel meta". I sometimes have very lengthy/stocky paragraphs but I do try to break them up as often as I can. I just know from my own personal reading experience that if it's not broken up, no matter how fantastic the point being made is, my eyes need that break every now and then or I tend to either get distracted or feel the need for a break which makes it harder for me to come back to. (I'm currently going thru this with this freaking amazing Jon Snow meta someone sent me a few weeks ago to look at, I'm halfway through and just blown away by the depth of analysis this person has put into this post but I'm having trouble making time to go back and finish it). So I try to keep that in mind as much as possible when posting.

That's just my personal process, I guess if you could call it that, but I think if you want to write meta, you should just do whatever feels natural to you. Sometimes looking at other meta and how others format/post theirs can be helpful, too. You can find meta on any topic in the tags and you will see all different formats and all kinds of postings. =)

I hope I've been able to answer your question, Nonnie, and I hope it helps. I look forward to reading your meta. ;-) (if you want to tag me or send me the link, please do so!)

Hope you have a great rest of your week! <3

#ask #meta writing #ask answered #911 fox mention #spn mention #got mention

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shadowetienne · 5 years

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Etienne’s Top Fives of 2019: Cpop Edition - Groups

Starting a new set with my Cpop Top Fives! First up: Groups.

This year was a little bit sparser for me in the Cpop department. I’ve struggled with keeping up with some groups, and some groups have disbanded or just not been active (or are going through a slow disbandment even if they’ve not officially fallen to bits). It’s also just harder for me to keep track of Cpop groups in general (please talk to me about Cpop, especially if you like groups, share things with me!!).

If a group has subunits or members doing things solo under the auspices of the group, I consider that part of the body of work of the group over the course of the year as long as the group has also done stuff as a group. (If there is solo stuff done not connected to the group it gets a little blurrier, but I try not to have soloists and groups overlap.)

The list with representative MVs is under the cut!

Cpop is what got me into pop music, back in the late 90s/early 2000s, Cpop was literally the only pop music I listened to. But things have changed, and my access has changed... I feel like there has also just been a major drop off in Cpop groups (as opposed to soloists which still seem to be going pretty strong). The recent uptick in competition shows seems to be bringing back the group as a format a little bit, and I hope to see that trend continue at least some, but so far, I’m struggling with finding groups that I really love. Please send me suggestions! Give me things to search up and enjoy! My level of Chinese is such that once I know what to search for/where in general to look, I can find more by myself, but generic searches to find things are hard because there’s an overwhelming amount for me to read through.

Here’s a shoutout to the groups that made the preliminary list (in the order I wrote them down over the course of the year): 疾风少女 [Blast Girl/Jifeng Shaonu] {Kimberley, Chen Fangyu, Liu Renyu, Wang Ju, Li Zixuan, Gao Yingxi, Qi Yandi, Liu Xiaoyu} (“疾风” [“Blast]) [They didn’t make the final cut primarily because they were a short term group formed for this song. I enjoyed the song itself and them working together post PD101China a lot!], Desert 5 ( “戰場”[“Battlefield”]) [This was a fun little collab group post Qing Chun You Ni, and it had a lot of contestants who didn’t make it that I liked, but they had a very short existence and one, admittedly very good, song.], R1SE (“谁都别吝啬” [“Be Yourself”]) [I wasn’t entirely happy with the results of Produce Camp, though my only favorite who made it as far as the final did make it into the final group. I haven’t been following them as closely as some other groups, but I have been trying to give their music a chance.], Tangram (“Focus” {MV released in Jan but song last year} / “Stay With You” audio released this year) [I love Tangram a lot, but their MV/song release situation was confusing this year.].

Honorable Mention: S.I.N.G. (“Mermaid” {Jiang Shen solo} / “觸電” [“Electric Shock”] / “千盞” [“Millenium”] / “解夢” [“Dream”])

MV Link: https://youtu.be/mJHgG14eLQE (“千盞” [“Millenium”])

I was in a slightly weird place with S.I.N.G. this year with my favorite member is out until mid 2020. Even so, I quite liked “千盞” [“Millenium”] and to a slightly lesser extent “解夢” [“Dream”]. I love the fact that S.I.N.G. incorporates a lot of more classical Chinese elements into their music, and the dances for the songs are always interesting. (Bias: Lai Meiyun (who is out for Rocket Girls), to a lesser extent Xu Shiyin)

5) Rocket Girls (“风” [“Wind”] / “飒小姐” [“Extraordinary Girl”])

youtube

I have been pleasantly surprised with how happy I’ve been with Rocket Girls considering all the issues I had with PD101China as it was airing. They’ve produced a lot of songs I like! This year was solid, and I’ve enjoyed that they’ve tried to style all the girls in ways that suit them consistently. “风” [“Wind”] (above) was probably my favorite release from them this past year! (Biases: Sunnee, Lai Meiyun, but I’m fond of quite a few of the others, this group just took two of my biases from other groups)

4) 木及少年 [Muji Shaonian] (“专属爱称” [Exclusive Love])

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I love these boys so much as a group, and I want to see more from them! Though I liked their 2018 MV better than the “专属爱称” [Exclusive Love] MV (above), I did think that this was cute and showed off their voices pretty well! They also did release “七剑雨茫似无双” [Seven Swords] MV this year, which I liked better in some ways. This year also featured my two favorite members going on Produce Camp, and while I have a lot of mixed feelings about that (and sad feelings that neither of them did as well as I hoped they would), it did give me more content for them, which was nice. (Biases: Lin Yadong, Zhang Dayuan)

3) Oner (“Attack”)

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Well, this was a rough year for this group in some ways, generally a messy loss of a member. I am not commenting on that in particular, but I was really glad to see Oner release an as three MV, even just animated, of “Attack” (above), and start releasing more content towards the end of the year. I am hoping that 2020 is going to be a year with good outcomes for the remaining three members. (Biases: Ling Chao, Mu Ziyang)

2) Unine (“Bomba” / “Set It Off”)

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Unine is about the most excited I’ve ever been for the line up of a competition show group. It was two off from my ideal line up, and I don’t dislike any of the members, and every single one of the members that I desperately wanted to make it did. I’ve been happy to see them relatively active in their first year making group music, and it’s a good sign that some of the issues that came up with Nine Percent have been figured out for a short term group this time around. “Set It Off” (above) was definitely my favorite release from them, but they’ve been overall solid, and they’re excellent performers. (Biases: Wenhan, Zhenning, Mingming, Changxi, but honestly... most of them, like I said, two off my ideal line up)

1) Nex7 (“頭號任務” [“Number One Task”] / “WYTB”)

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Nex7 (NEXT, however they’re billing themselves right now) is rising to be one of my definite favorite new wave Cpop groups in that they are a long term group that consistently puts out music that I like and is being promoted as a group not just a collective of soloists that sometimes does things together. I appreciate that Yuehua is working on refreshing the group format through this group, and hopefully more to come. (Biases: Zhengting, Quanzhe, Chengcheng)

#Etienne's Top Fives of 2019 #Cpop Edition #Cpop #Cpop Groups #Groups #personal #in no particular order #groups that are mentioned within #for my personal reference #Oner #Unine #Nex7 #YH Next #Mu Ji Shao Nian #木及少年 #Rocket Girls #S.I.N.G.

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peppermint-chocolate-cherries · 2 years

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19, 21 and 28?

19 - Share a snippet from a WIP without giving any context for it.

"My intention last night was to persuade you to change your political position. We need you to side with Francis and declare war on Spades."

"You already know that I am staying neutral on the matter. It’s harder than you think to defy Lilli, especially when Matthew is involved."

"Unfortunately for our sweet Lilli, that’s the price to be paid. Having romantic relationships with a Royal from another Suit has always been a recipe for disaster. The two of them have known all along that this was a risk, and now Lilli must set that aside for the benefit of Diamonds."

"You want me to defy my sister’s wishes and emotional well-being, for the sake of Diamonds joining your side of a war. I still fail to see how our actions last night were supposed to aid you in persuading me to change my mind."

"Last night was just a taste of what could happen. If you ever want that to happen again, you will let Francis declare war on Spades."

"It was a seduction. You’re using sex to persuade me."

"Now you see the full picture."

21 - Can you accurately predict how long your fics are going to be? If you can, what’s your secret?

I have it pretty good. For one, I outline all my story's chapters before I really get into writing, so I know how many chapters there will be and what will happen in each chapter. Second, I personally want to get at least 1,500 words to a chapter, ideally averaging 2,000, in order to set up the chapter, address the main plot twist, and find a solid closing (or cliffhanger...)

28 - Any writing advice that works for you and you feel like sharing?

Ooh, this is definitely a tougher question. I suppose the way I outline and organize my stories might be useful advice to give, for someone more logistically detailed who can't just write on a whim form start to finish. Read past the cut for my outlining method!

I do everything in Google Drive, specifically Docs with a couple uses for trackers in Sheets. Having everything digital and on the cloud makes it easier to share across devices, and I can even be naughty at work share the Doc links to the Trello board that my personal and work emails share.

Outline the new story in a single Doc. Plan out the key events, add character descriptions and timelines as needed, plug in sections for filler chapters. Once a solid roadmap is figured out, add in chapter numbers and part numbers where it feels right.

Create a subfolder in Drive, then create a Doc for each Part of the story. I like having only 5-6 chapters per Part, because that can get above 10,000 words (re my average word count) per Doc and that's a lot of pages to scroll through once you start writing. Copy-paste the chapter outlines to the applicable Part Docs. This is where you can write out your drafts!

A newer thing that worked great for The English Quixote was to create a writing progress tracker in Sheets. I was able to track my updated chapter word counts, chapter drafting status, and plan out the publishing date and key deadlines for drafting and editing.

I use conditional formatting to highlight the different statuses for the chapters: Outlined, Started Drafting, Half Drafted, Mostly Drafted, Fully Drafted, Ready to Publish, Published. I'd have the posting schedule be once or twice a week on key days of the week, Saturdays are nice.

Chapters must be "Fully Drafted" three weeks before they are scheduled to be published, allowing time for editing. The "Half Drafted" deadline is the month-end before the "Fully Drafted" deadline. I had twelve chapters fully drafted when I published Chapter 1 of The English Quixote, that was a great buffer.

This all works quite well for me, as I usually know from the plot bunny stage what the key plot twists and drama are later in the story, but I have to figure out how to set up the story and get there in the first place. My progress this past week has been on Parts 3 + 4 of Only Aces Remain, while I have yet to have any writable ideas on dialogue or action for Part 1. Parts 6-9 are already playing as recurring movie scenes in my head and just need to translate into key strokes, while the epilogue will definitely be last.

#answered ask #only aces remain #wip snippet #writing method

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aurimeanswind · 7 years

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Get Acquainted—Sunday Chats—3/4/18

So I will be talking about this a lot over the next few days, but I have a brand new podcast that I want you all to check out.

Get Acquainted, with Alex O’Neill

My new show is called Get Acquainted, and it’s a one on one interview show. And I know. I get it. Everyone has one nowadays, but I’ve been working on this for a while, and I’m really excited about the conversations I’m going to have on it.

First and foremost, you can go subscribe to this show right now. It’s on iTunes and everyone, with just a little preview episode available to get you subscribed and ready for my first episode, next week.

You also get to hear the amazing music made just for this show by my friend Micah E. Wood, who you can go listen to more of his music on iTunes and Spotify as well!

iTunes Link

If you can rate or review this while it’s just launching, that would be immensely helpful. My first guest is Andrea Rene and her episode will be releasing next week. This is going to be a monthly show with different guests on each podcast, and the format will evolve and change over time.

I’m really excited to finally launch this show, and I hope you all like it!

Honestly that’s the big news I wanted to get out, so let’s go right to questions.

You can send your questions @ me when you see my tweet on Sunday afternoons with the hashtag #SundayChats in it!

I mean the big one is Grand Theft Auto. I’ve played 2, 4, and 5, and I think all of them are like, fine. This infatuation with GTA V is so beyond me. I hate to sound so stuck up, but it’s a series I’ve just never had much patience for. There is supreme quality and technical design there, but none of the entries have stuck with me. That being said, all of the more seminal ones (Vice City, San Andreas, and GTA 3) I haven’t played, so I could be missing a lot of the core of that series.

I’ve also, and this is me just really thinking about it for a moment, but I’ve never really loved the Battlefield series? By which I mostly mean the “modern” Battlefield games. I loved the original, 1942 was the first FPS I ever played, and it is super special to me. I enjoyed 1943, but most of all I adored Bad Company 2. I like the original, but BC2 is where it’s at. But Battlefield 3/4 and most recently 1, all haven’t really done much for me .I’ve bounced off of all of them, but the idea of another WW2 Battlefield game, which is rumored to be this year’s, actually has me excited. If they can get 1942 vibes again.

I mean Max Scoville once gave me pogs out of his pockets. But I dunno, they’re just bits of cardboard really, right?

So porgs. I liked the porgs. As someone who didn’t love everything about The Last Jedi, I liked porgs a whole lot.

Absolutely. There are multiple pieces that I’ve gone back to and completely rewritten. In fact most of them still aren’t published because I’d probably rewrite most of them again if given the chance. Hell I’ve written something on Persona 4 Golden about six times.

Which I think is similar to the situation you’re in, right? As Night in the Woods is your favorite game Steven, I feel you when I channel that to write about mine, Persona 4.

But a project that’s special to you should take time. Sometimes the ideas come and go and you feel good about them, but you don’t want to rush something you feel you only have one crack at. Get Acquainted is a show I have had rummaging around for two full years, and I’m finally in a place where I feel I can do it. So take your time.

This is tricky. It’s different for different things. I mean if it was numbers and clicks and views, i’d have quit this gig a long time ago haha. I think projects where I can see my own personal growth in them, like the run of five episodes for the latest Alex Talks. I can see the change from the first to the last as far as editing ability and my hosting capability. So I take that as a success.

Plus a lot of people had very kind things to say about that series, and that makes me feel really good.

I think it’s a combination of all of the above. Ultimately if you’re really proud of a thing and think it’s genuinely cool, even if no one sees or hears it, it’s a quality thing you made. Then, when you’re applying for jobs and trying to show the work you’ve made, you can send them a link to whatever that thing is, and you know exactly the right people have seen and appreciated it. If it’s worth sharing it’ll get its use in its own ways, in my experience.

I mean, I think in a perfect world that is what Patreon was for. But then it blew up, and why wouldn’t it, since it’s such a strong idea and works so well for creators. But I feel like also those huge creators make it harder for those smaller ones to thrive on that service. Like the notion that has been going around a lot: is Patreon just a small pool of contributors or is it still brining new people to its service? I don’t know, but it seems like there isn’t enough love to go around.

I want smaller creators to be able to thrive on Patreon, and hopefully they find their audiences grow on that service.

Pretty stoked. New show launching, PAX East is going to be huge for us, and I’m reviewing Yakuza 6.

Get ready.

I’ve been seeing them! Folks can check them out here:

youtube

I’d probably take Anna Kendrick, because she seems like she’d be down, and I’m in love with her.

Oh god yes. Feed me your Kingdom Hearts questions.

My favorite world is tricky, but it may be something like The Land of Dragons from KH2. But honestly so many playthroughs later of KH2 I don’t love any of it’s worlds really, save for The World That Never Was. KH1 had really good, big worlds with tons of exploration, but the platforming was so all over the place in that game that getting around them was a bit nightmarish.

Haha I guess I am just jaded on KH worlds after playing through them so much. Space Paranoids.

I don’t love many of the Disney key blades, but I love the Ultima Weapon in KH2, it looks excellent, and I’ve always been a huge fan of Oathkeeper. I love it’s look and what i represents. Of course if you were to ask any of my KH brethren, it’d be Oblivion, hands down, and I like that one quite a bit.

Honestly, Chain of Memories has one of the absolute best stories in that entire franchise. I wish you didn’t have to get through a really poor card game to get to it.

But I love the story of KH2 the most. Especially the ending. Birth by Sleep is a close third of those two though.

World Specific I love the Peter Pan one from KH1, and I really like Hunchback of Notre Dame in KH3D.

I like order of release over chronological order. Honestly I don’t know why it’s such a big argument. I think feeling those games evolve is just such a treat, all the way from the first to 0.2, it’s such a great feeling of how those games changed.

Plus, some things are supposed to be told out of order? Stories have prequels come out in the middle to freshen things for a later context. I always think of Metal Gear Solid 3. Enriches that story so much, but you should play that game first.

Anyway. Yes I need yours. See tweets for details.

I’m really excited about this new show, and I know this may seem like a bit of an unceremonious announcement, but I’ve been stressing about this for so long I just need to get it out there.

Go subscribe to Get Acquainted, and tune in next week for the first official episode!

Cheers! Keep it real!

#video games #gaming #get acquainted #podcast #new show #show #shows #irrational passions

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jessgartner · 4 years

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Leaving Facebook Part III: Goodbye to All That

Remember what it was to be me: that is always the point.

I'm in the final countdown to deleting Facebook, and not a moment too soon.

TL;DR:

Primary posts will be here

I'll be sending out a monthly Life Olympics newsletter

If you want email, mail, and/or newsletters, let me know where to find you

I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not.

The Wind-Down

I've backed up my data, I've collected contact info, and I've explored a variety of new platforms with varying degrees of success.

I've reached a tentative consensus on my plan for moving forward. It's a little more complex than I would have liked, but I'm settling into some new habits and I'll continue to iterate and refine over time. Here's where I've landed:

Nothing was irrevocable; everything was within reach. Just around every corner lay something curious and interesting, something I had never before seen or done or known about.

Consuming

I chose: Apple News. I slept on this for a while, for reasons I can't totally remember. I revisited it and spent some time customizing it and decided it's the best newsfeed for me for now.

Pros:

Free

UX is good and it's easy to follow publications/topics

iCloud syncing across devices + desktop app is hard to beat. The next best product I looked at (Thread News) only had a mobile app, which was a dealbreaker for me.

I follow mostly mainstream-is publications and there's a full database of sources that are easy to follow.

I haven't tried News+ yet but I like the option of it - a while ago I had a similar magazine aggregator from Conde Nast that I loved and this seems similar or better.

Cons:

Initially, I didn't like the Top Stories on the home page. I don't really love the CNN/ABC/CBS-type focus on 24-hour headline news and wish this was better curated from my interests and favorite publications. I finally figured out that you can limit the Home Page to publications that you follow, but it's not an obvious setting.

I hate that share/copy link produces an apple.news url instead of the native url; this is obnoxious.

Runner Up: Thread News had a really nice Daily Digest feature that curated from your favorite publications.

I chose: Pocket for random articles that I come across on Twitter, in Slack, or recommended through text messages, I save them to Pocket to read later.

Pros:

Free (with premium paid option)

Syncs across desktop, mobile, iPad app; app UX is nicely optimized across devices

Tagging (good for saving favorites)

"Article view" that clears out web junk for a streamlined reading experience

Chrome extension for easy clipping/adding

Cons:

None yet; it's simple and works the way I want it to

Runner up: Instapaper. It has very similar functionality to Pocket, I just slightly prefer the design of Pocket. If you like a really minimalist reading experience, Instapaper is for you.

Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss.

Creating

This one was a beast. I struggled for weeks to parse out exactly what I wanted on this front and which criteria were most important to me, because it became clear quickly that I wasn't going to get everything I wanted in one place.

I chose: Tumblr I initially wrote this off because the homepage/discovery can be nauseating without the right default settings. A tour of the mobile version convinced me to give this a second look: the mobile app is great and the posting experience is (pardon the cliche) delightful. I decided to give it a deeper dive behind the scenes and found that I was able to customize a lot of what I initially disliked. The auto formatting for photo, quote, link, and chat posts is charming and simple.

Pros:

Customizing themes is simple and there are a lot of choices.

I can use my personal domain

The posting experience is easy and relatively error-free

The tagging! I love my tags and they work so nicely. I was also able to find a theme that features tags so you will always have easy access to the latest photos of Darwin.

Great for multimedia posting

Built-in share buttons

Cons:

Not very good at importing content from other platforms; I manually recreated a few favorite posts, but otherwise pretty much had to start from scratch on content

No built-in analytics, aside from follower counts, which is not something I expect to care about or track. I set up tracking on Google Analytics, but I'll miss the built-in analytics that WordPress had. Since WP bought Tumblr, I'm hoping that they may eventually add these features to Tumblr

I just don't care about the social/discovery components here and I wish I could turn them off

Ads. I wish I could pay to make them go away.

Runner up: micro.blog For the first couple of weeks, I thought this was going to be my choice. I had a solid experience importing and archiving a lot of my content from WordPress, Instagram, and Medium. Unfortunately, once I started trying to use the platform on a daily basis, I ran into a lot of issues and challenges that gave me pause on using and recommending the platform. To be clear, a good number of these issues were either user-error or bespoke preferences due to my personal quirks on how I want to organize and share content on the Internet. Some of this is a result of it being a new-ish platform that still has some blind spots for non-developers; it's not a mainstream product yet and I'm not sure it's trying to be. Based on my personal preferences, I felt Tumblr was slightly better equipped for my use case. I'm still going to keep using micro.blog for a while in tandem with Tumblr to see if my preferences change and/or if the platform adopts some of the feedback I shared with regard to cross-posting and UX.

I chose: Drafts. One big challenge for me in this process was the desire to cross-post some content in multiple places while limiting where I post other content. I didn't want to fill my Twitter feed with cat pictures, but I wanted some little corner of the Internet for Darwin's biggest fans (my mother). Drafts is basically a universal text editor that pushes drafts of text to a variety of services, including micro.blog, Twitter, Day One, Google Drive, Evernote, WordPress, Gmail, and even text messages. It's highly configurable and I'm only just scratching the surface of its power. Creating text drafts here allows me to easily push drafts to a variety of different places with just a few keystrokes. It syncs with iCloud, has really robust tagging and filtering, and has mobile, iPad, and Mac apps. It's very cool.

He laughed literally until he choked, and I had to roll down the taxi window and hit him on the back. "New faces," he said finally, "don't tell me about new faces.”

Engagement

I chose: Twitter I've increasingly found Twitter to be a place where my friends/followers care about what I care about. The messages I care most about sharing are amplified. I can choose to unfollow, mute, or block people who are harassing or distressing me. I can follow people whose expertise I value. It can still be a cesspool at times but Twitter leadership seems to be taking steps to improve the platform - identifying misinformation, a conversation feature that limits replies, etc. For now, it stays.

Coming Soon: Substack I haven't officially started this yet, but I'm going to start a monthly newsletter that (allegedly) goes out the first Sunday of every month. I'm going to use roughly my annual Life Olympics format except there will be fun and exciting recommendations. Teaser: new Life Olympics categories will make their debut in the first installment on July 5! If you want it, make sure you give me your email address and you'll receive the first edition.

It’s easy to see the beginnings of things, and harder to see the ends.

All quotes by Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Many, many thanks to Jason Becker for his recommendations, patience, and tech support on this project.

#home

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unit8rosiefryer · 5 years

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Evaluation

For my final major project, I created an animated music video which could better be described as a motion graphic. It’s visually narrative, as it follows along with the lyrics of my song of choice, and is therefore both informative as well as aesthetically pleasing. When designing this piece I imagined it joining many other music videos on YouTube, which meant that the audience would likely be younger people (25 or under) as they are the current primary demographic for this site. However, due to it’s storytelling nature, I also believe that those old older generations will enjoy watching it and learning about the story within the song. In fact, when I showed it to my family, the majority of positive feedback came from people aged over 35.

I went into this project with a very basic understanding of the software that I chose (Adobe Illustrator and Adobe After Effects). This was actually quite motivating to me as it meant that if I wanted to produce something that I could be proud of, I would have to research, practice, and learn to expand my skills. For the most part I think that I completed my plan well, as the end result was fairly accurate to the image I had in my head. Having said that, if I could go back in time and chose what I was going to create again, I think I might have chosen differently. This isn’t because I didn’t enjoy the challenge - I actually found the progress very rewarding - but because I discovered that the reason I enjoyed this was because it involved visual story telling, and not because of the animation aspect of it. Following this, I believe I would chose to do a form of info-graphics next time, perhaps a series of advertising posters with an underlying satirical/sarcastic tone. I think that this would play to my strengths more, as I enjoy the cryptic aspect of designing something that has to be thought about to be understood, but could also be interpreted differently by various people.

When it came to researching for this project, I was reluctant because I didn’t know where to start. I knew that I had seen motion graphics used in advertising before, but I couldn’t remember where or when. However, luckily for me advertising is everywhere, and it didn’t take long before I saw an example that portrayed exactly what I enjoy about the style. From here I searched digital art websites and found many more portrayals of what I wanted to create: a simple, visually pleasing motion graphic, which had smooth transitions and told a story. Finding inspiration for my elements was even easier, as I had a solid image in my head of what I wanted them to look like, I just needed a guide to make sure some pieces were recognisable for what they were. Both of these instances refer to secondary research. I found primary research harder to acquire, as there is very little around me which I could have gathered to use as inspiration for my design, as it is set on a hillside and I live in a city. However there is one scene containing a skyline of city buildings, and I could have explored my home further to find inspiration for this instead, of just using the internet; which is what I did. I was able to obtain one source of primary research however, and this was in the form of a survey. I asked people around me of varying ages and occupations how they felt about animated music videos. I believe that this sample was fairly representative as some of the people have knowledge of this area, whereas others have none; and both of these groups were a mix of ages. I used my findings to approach my project in a way that would please as many people as possible, as that is one of its primary functions - to be viewed and enjoyed.

As stated earlier, during my time collecting secondary research, I mostly used the internet, as it contains anything and everything I could want. For one occasion, I saw some inspiration on an advert when I was in the cinema, and then found the link to it later on YouTube. I didn’t use books at any time, but I feel that this is justified because of the digital field that my project is set in. I was sure to reference all my research in my bibliography, although I think I might have lacked mentioning it during my reflective journals, and expressing when and where it had inspired me. For another project I would be sure to gather more primary research, because I think it can give a project a more personal impression, as it contains elements of my life, not just ideas from already existing sources.

During my time creating this animation I ran into quite a few problems. I decided to alter my plan in the first week of animating, by removing a character that I had originally wanted to be in there. This meant that I had to redesign some of the frames on my storyboard to be as expressive without using a face to portray emotions. I suppose this was less of a problem and more a consequential decision, but even so it put me a little off-track. Further issues arose at various points, for example, the format of the software I was using was accidentally altered once, and I didn’t know how to access my work, but a classmate helped me to fix that. The biggest issues came about in regards to my memory stick. This was a large project storage-wise, and when it came towards the end I had to get a new one to save my rendered version on to. There were also complications when I (foolishly) moved some files around, and made them inaccessible to the original piece of work; which meant that none of my elements were visually available, but again this was fixed within the hour.

Due to the removal of the character in the beginning of the project, my end result is a bit different to my original sketches and storyboard. However I don’t think that this is a bad thing; in fact, I think that it ended up better than I had planned, as without the characters face to express emotions on, I had to think of creative and subjective ways to do this, which can be interpreted by each viewer differently. I truly don’t believe that I could have dealt with any issues in a more effective way. They didn’t set me back too much and ultimately, allowed my project to become what it is and I’m happy with that. I learned a lot from fixing them, for example I should never alter the placement of files during such a big project, without being sure that I had multiple copies saved first in case anything went wrong. I also feel that I have become more confident when asking for help, as it just allows me to progress faster and doesn’t (often) effect anyone else.

To produce this project I planned a reasonable amount. I created sketches and storyboards for each scene of my animation, as well as annotating to show how one would morph into the next. My schedule was broken down into weeks which were spent creating the elements, and then creating the animation. In reality these two activities overlapped a little due to some changes to the plan, but I still managed to finish with comfortable time in-hand. In this sense, I feel like I was efficient, because if I hadn't been then I would have either struggled to finish, or the quality of my end product would be affected more than it has been. If I had to complete this exact project again knowing what I know now, I don’t imagine that there is much I would change. The digital quality of my animation could be clearer, so if I were to repeat this I may do some more research into how to make this happen, but i don’t feel that the lack of research in this area has been particularly detrimental to my project.

For the whole of this project I used software that I had used before, and knew vaguely, as the original time pressure to get everything finished felt like enough of a challenge, that didn’t need adding to by using unknown software. If I had wanted a challenge, there are many pieces of software in which to create animations that I could have researched and used; but as After Effects was the only one I knew (even though I was only introduced to it in the last 6 months) I decided to stick with this, and to challenge myself by learning new skills and techniques. I did this by following YouTube tutorials, one of which for example taught me how to create the simple motion graphics of the expanding circles and stars that I used to imitate the beat in the intro and chorus. Now that I know how long this process takes, and that I was able to finish a 3.5 minute animation in 6 weeks, next time I might venture into new territory software-wise, as I feel that this could be interesting, but may also allow me to complete this to a higher standard than After Effects did.

I used my blog as a journal throughout this process, by writing up how each week had gone. In these entries I included how far along I was, any problems that had occurred, how I solved these as well as how I was feeling about the whole process. My evaluations were an honest reflection of my performance that week - if I hadn’t been overly motivated then I would mention it because I wanted to admit when I wasn’t trying my hardest, and use this as motivation to do better next week. For a future assignment, I may use a rating system to show how each aspect of my project is coming along, for example I would use headers such as ‘progress’, ‘problem solving’, ‘timekeeping’, and ‘personal feelings’ under which I could describe the week, and then give a rating out of 10 for each section. Doing this would give me both qualitative and quantitative data, from which I could produce a form of chart at the end, so I could see how consistent I was in each area week by week. I could then use this to improve my work methods for anything else that I complete.

I chose to use this layout for my blog as opposed to a grid layout, as I think that having my posts in a chronological timeline paints a better picture of the process I went through, and the progress that I made along the way. I added a profile picture which is the same as the one on my YouTube channel, and my Behance page, as I feel that some consistency across these sites will look more professional. I made sure to use headers for each blog post to explain what they were showing, and used images where I felt they were appropriate. My only issue with this method of tracking progress, was that if I wanted to add in something which was more relevant 2 weeks ago, it had to be at the top of the timeline so everything isn’t as in order as I would like. I considered starting a new blog so that once everything was written, I could put every post in the order that I wanted it to be in, but decided that this wasn’t fully representative of what I had been doing. Instead I just explained in some posts that the content was created a while ago and I just hadn’t had to opportunity to upload it until now. I have learned that tracking my progress is a very good way of motivating me, as I can look back and see how far I’ve come, and remember problems that seemed so dire, as menial and unimportant now. The chronology of my blog allows it to tell the story of how I made each decision, and whether or not that worked for me, and I now find this almost as rewarding to look at as I do my final piece.

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j0sgomez-blog · 5 years

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By Michael Lanza

You want to explore the best backpacking in America’s desert Southwest, but you’re not sure where to begin, or how some of these trips you’ve read about compare for scenery and difficulty. You’ve heard about the need to carry huge loads of water, and environmental challenges like dangerous heat, rugged terrain, flash floods and even (gulp) quicksand. Or maybe you’ve taken one or two backpacking trips there and now you’re hungry for another one and seeking ideas for where to go next.

Well, I gotcha covered. The five trips described in this story comprise what might be called a Southwest Backpacking Starter Package. They are all beginner- and family-friendly in terms of trail or route quality, access, and navigability, and some have good water availability. But most importantly, regardless of their relative ease logistically, they all deliver the goods on the kind of adventure and scenery you go to the Southwest hoping to find.

I present them in no particular order of priority; in reality, competition for a backcountry permit will dictate when you’re able to take the most-popular ones, such as those in the Grand Canyon, Zion, and Canyonlands—and those are trips you need to plan up to four or five months in advance to get a permit reservation for the prime seasons of spring and fall. (Learn more in my “10 Tips For Getting a Hard-to-Get National Park Backcountry Permit.”)

If you’ve done any of these and have thoughts or advice to offer, or if you take one of them after reading this story, or simply have an opinion about my list or another trip you believe should be on it, I’d appreciate you sharing your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of this story.

David Ports near Skeleton Point on the Grand Canyon’s South Kaibab Trail.

The Grand Canyon’s Corridor Trails

The Tonto Trail at Horn Creek in the Grand Canyon.

So many writers (including me) and other people have written and said so much about the Grand Canyon that it’s hard to find words that sound unique and inspiring to describe it. You won’t encounter that problem when actually going there, though—every hike is unique and inspiring. But the very aspects of the GC that make it such a unique place—its severe topography and aridity—also ramp up the difficulty of any multi-day hike into the canyon.

That’s precisely why the park manages its “corridor” trails—the Bright Angel and South and North Kaibab trails—to accommodate backpackers (and dayhikers) will little to no experience hiking there. Those well-maintained trails have established campgrounds and relatively frequent, reliable water sources, and offer a variety of route options, including a loop from the South Rim to the Colorado River and a full traverse of the canyon.

See my story about hiking across the Grand Canyon and this photo gallery from dayhiking rim to rim, this Ask Me post about hiking the Grand Canyon rim to rim to rim, and my story about another more beginner-friendly GC hike, the 25-miler from Hermits Rest to Bright Angel Trailhead.

Click here now for my expert e-guide to backpacking the Grand Canyon rim to rim.

The Kolob Canyons in Zion National Park.

Zion’s Kolob Canyons and West Rim Trail

Zion may lack the extensive trail network found in parks like Grand Canyon, Glacier, or Yosemite, but it does harbor a classic backpacking trip widely recognized as one of America’s best—The Narrows (described below)—and other trails that compete with it for I-can’t-believe-my-eyes panoramas. Sheer red walls towering above the vibrant, green forest, plus easy hiking and the perennial La Verkin Creek made the Kolob Canyons an enjoyable overnight hike for my family when our kids were nine and six.

Backpacking Zion’s West Rim Trail.

Our overnight on the West Rim Trail on the same trip was a bit harder—and we had to carry extra water—but within our kids’ abilities; and the views from the West Rim of Zion Canyon and the maze of canyons and white-walled mesas dicing up the Zion backcountry look like something from another planet. Road access to both areas of Zion, and local shuttle services, allow for short overnight hikes or longer outings that are ideal for beginners.

The more ambitious can make a north-south traverse from the Lee Pass Trailhead in the Kolob Canyons to either Zion Canyon or across Zion to the East Entrance Trailhead—the distance ranging from roughly 40 to 50 miles, depending on how many side hikes one takes (such as the incomparable Zion must-do, Angels Landing).

See all of my stories about Zion National Park, including “Pilgrimage Across Zion: Traversing a Land of Otherworldly Scenery,” “Mid-Life Crisis: Hiking 50 Miles Across Zion in a Day,” and “Ask Me: What’s Your Favorite Backpacking Trip in Zion National Park?”

Hike all of “The 10 Best Backpacking Trips in the Southwest.”

Hiking the Chesler Park Trail, Needles District, Canyonlands National Park.

The Needles District in Canyonlands

Backpacking Squaw Canyon in the Needles District, Canyonlands.

Multi-colored candlesticks of Cedar sandstone stand 300 feet tall, appearing ready to topple over with bulbous crowns wider than their base. Waves of rock ripple into the distance, looking like a petrified, burnt-red ocean. Stratified cliffs stretch for miles. The Needles District of Canyonlands National Park holds the kind of geological formations that fascinate both kids and adults. It also has over 60 miles of trails zigzagging over a high plateau spliced by canyons.

But unlike big, deep canyons, most trails here don’t involve much elevation gain and loss; and while water is scarce, you don’t have to hike great distances to reach backcountry campsites and explore; and established trails to Chesler Park, Big Spring, Squaw, and Lost canyons, and the Peekaboo Trail are easy to follow.

See my story “No Straight Lines: Backpacking and Hiking in Canyonlands and Arches National Parks,” and all of my stories about Canyonlands National Park.

I can help you plan any other trip you read about at my blog. Find out more here.

Hi, I’m Michael Lanza, creator of The Big Outside, which has made several top outdoors blog lists. Click here to sign up for my FREE email newsletter. Subscribe now to get full access to all of my blog’s stories. Click here to learn how I can help you plan your next trip. Please follow my adventures on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube.

Overlooking Coyote Gulch in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Coyote Gulch, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

Backpackers in Utah’s Coyote Gulch.

On a three-day, roughly 15-mile backpacking trip through southern Utah’s Coyote Gulch, my family and another hiked across ancient dunes hardened to rock; squeezed through a claustrophobically tight, 100-foot-long slot called Crack-in-the-Wall (not as hard as it sounds and quite fun); and stood atop a cliff overlooking a vast landscape of redrock towers and cliffs, including Stevens Arch, measuring some 220 feet across and 160 feet tall. And that was just in the first hour.

With its short distance, perennial stream, and lack of flash-flood hazard, Coyote Gulch ranks as one of the Southwest’s most beginner-and family-friendly backpacking trips. But that description, while true, almost diminishes the raw beauty of a hike that features a natural bridge, two of the region’s most distinctive natural arches—and one deeply overhung cliff with amazing echo acoustics. In many ways, Coyote delivers a complete canyon-hiking experience—without the common hardships and hazards.

See my story “Playing the Memory Game in Southern Utah’s Escalante, Capitol Reef, and Bryce Canyon.”

Plan your next great backpacking adventure using my downloadable, expert e-guides. Click here now to learn more.

Big Spring, on day two backpacking The Narrows in Zion National Park.

The Narrows in Zion

Day one in the Narrows, Zion National Park.

No surprise that Zion’s Narrows is one of the most sought-after backcountry permits in the National Park System. With sandstone walls that rise up to a thousand feet tall, the Narrows of the North Fork of the Virgin River in Zion squeezes down to just 20 to 30 feet across in places. On this 16-mile, two-day hike, you’ll walk in the river most of the time—with the water coming up to thighs and hips in places—marveling at the constantly changing, towering walls, and oddities like a waterfall pouring from solid rock, creating an oasis of greenery clinging to a cliff.

I don’t want to understate the challenge—and it may not be a good choice for complete novices or young kids. Despite it being a very gradual descent for its entire distance, the Narrows can feel surprisingly strenuous because you’re walking much of the time on riverbed cobbles and in water. The water and air temperature vary seasonally, and it can feel cool or downright cold, which saps energy over several hours. And there’s certainly flash-flood danger—don’t go without a forecast for sunny skies—but the park also closes the Narrows at times of flood hazard. Still, this is one classic hike to get to whenever you can.

Click here now to get my e-guide The Complete Guide to Backpacking Zion’s Narrows.

See my story “Luck of the Draw, Part 2: Backpacking Zion’s Narrows” (which includes tips on planning this trip, though not nearly as much detail as my e-guide, linked above), and all of my stories about hiking and backpacking in southern Utah.

Tell me what you think.

I spent a lot of time writing this story, so if you enjoyed it, please consider giving it a share using one of the buttons below, and leave a comment or question at the bottom of this story. I’d really appreciate it.

The Big Outside helps you find the best adventures. Subscribe now to read ALL stories and get a free e-guide!

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onlinemarketingcourses · 6 years

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Lessons learned from launching 100+ content-led link building campaigns Search Engine Watch

Throughout 2018, I was responsible for the launch of just over 100 content-led link building campaigns.

They all had a shared goal of earning links and coverage from the world’s biggest publishers for clients across retail, travel, finance, and other sectors.

Here’s a small selection of publications where I earned links from across the year:

These links, however, came from articles based around content campaigns.

They ran with headlines such as:

In total, upon looking back on the year, I earned over 2,500 links from a whole host of publications. That taught me a fair few things about link building.

You see, link building, especially when using digital PR as the primary tactic, evolves quickly.

Some approaches which worked two years ago aren’t worth bothering about today. And even those tactics which do still deliver keep changing on an almost continual basis.

So how do you make sure that, as a link builder, you’re continuing to stay ahead of your competitors?

It’s simple; you run a fairly large number of campaigns, analyze the data you collected from these and refine your approaches.

I looked back at 2018 and did just that, and below you’ll see the key lessons which I’ve pulled out and learned.

1. Journalists cover stories, not content

Ask a journalist what their job role is, and they’ll likely respond that it’s to tell stories to their audience — not to cover content produced by marketing agencies.

When creating and promoting content campaigns, you need to know what your story is. What headlines could a journalist take from a campaign?

“Brand X Launches An Infographic Which Shows How Much Kim Kardashian Earns” is NOT a story. It’s simply a statement about a format.

“Kim Kardashian Earns The Average UK Salary In 6 Hours” on the other hand, IS a story.

Don’t lose focus on the stories in a campaign and keep asking yourself what these are whilst it evolves. Without stories and enticing headlines, you’ll struggle to land coverage and links.

2. Forget about content formats until you’ve found your headlines

One of the biggest mistakes made in ideation and brainstorming sessions is to go in with a format-first approach.

By this, I mean adopting a mindset where you make a decision to design an infographic or launch an interactive asset before you know the story behind it.

As far as I’m concerned, this often leads to underperforming campaigns, for the simple reason that focus moves away from the story onto the format.

If you’ve got a great story to tell, the format becomes less important and can often be executed in a number of different ways. It’s the whole concept of letting the story do the talking.

Avoid talking about formats until you’ve got a solid story in place. You’ll ensure your primary focus remains on headlines and hooks to publishers whilst coming up with concepts.

3. Campaign concepts need to be validated

There’s nothing more frustrating than having a great concept for it to later be stopped in its tracks for a reason you hadn’t considered.

Trust me when I say I’ve learned the hard way here.

It’s important that you take the time to validate ideas with key stakeholders to prevent delays or roadblocks further down the line.

Common roadblocks to campaigns and things which need to be checked before investing too much into a campaign include:

Data sources – is the data which you need for your campaign available? Great sources include public data, social statistics, internal company data and research, surveys and more. You just need to make sure you can get what you need and, if you can’t, there’s a way to collect this within your budget and other restrictions.

Legal restrictions – be sure to have a chat with your own (or your client’s) legal team to validate concepts. If let’s say, the campaign is being run for a financially regulated brand, there may be things to take into consideration which a marketer wouldn’t usually think of. Also, legal teams are a great way to double check that there are no restrictions on the data you want to use.

Brand restrictions – whilst you need to fully understand that content marketing or digital PR and advertising aren’t the same things, there’s often a requirement to adhere to brand guidelines. Again, get feedback from various teams at the start of a campaign and everyone’s input can be considered as it moves forward.

An audience of journalists – is there an active pool of journalists who regularly write about topics relating to your campaign concept? If not, ask yourself who you’re going to outreach to. There’s nothing wrong with launching campaigns in small niches, there’s often less noise to cut through which can maximize performance. However, you need to understand the link potential and be realistic on this stance before investing heavily. Unless there’s an active audience of journalists and publications, be mindful that this can present further challenges at the outreach stage.

4. The wider your audience, the more potential to earn links

Are you limiting the impact which your campaign can have in terms of the number of quality links earned by not thinking wide enough?

As an agency, over 60% of the links we earn come from international publications; for us, that means those based outside of the UK.

With this in mind, always consider how you can make a campaign appeal to a wider audience simply by thinking a little bigger.

To bring in a working example:

The best London boroughs for foodie tourists – has the potential to pitch to niche food, London travel, and regional news publications.

Best city in the UK for foodie tourists – has the potential to pitch to the above as well as national news publications too.

The best country in the world for foodie tourists – has the potential to pitch to all of the above as well as international and global publications.

The base concept on these is the same: studying the best locations for foodie tourists.

You can clearly see, however, how the audience can be maximized (and, as such, the link potential) by widening the focus of the campaign.

You can also achieve this be thinking, at the ideation stage, on how you can take a campaign out to other verticals.

5. Your campaign needs to be linkable

Despite what many say, a journalist doesn’t owe you a link. Not even if they cover your campaign.

Of course, as SEOs, we place great value on links and that’s often the end goal. However, it’s easy to forget that in order to earn links, a campaign must actually be linkable.

During ideation and production, you need to consider a campaign’s linkability throughout.

What do I mean by this?

If there’s nothing worth linking to (not referencing stats and quotes and the like here), why should a journalist link? A brand mention would suffice.

A press release isn’t usually linkable, neither is an infographic hosted on your blog (a publisher could take the visual, upload to their own CMS and reference you as the creator).

A link needs to make sense to the story and become a vital part of any article which is published.

Launched a tool or interactive which is being written about? It’s hard to tell the story without a link being in place. Carried out a data study with multiple angles? It’s likely that a journalist has covered one hook and a link adds value, allowing a reader to study the findings in more depth.

The more a link makes sense to be included, the easier you’ll find it to minimize unlinked brand mentions.

6. You need to spend time optimizing & testing different outreach email subject lines

Too many people focus their efforts on writing a great outreach email. But if it’s not being opened, no one is reading it.

The most important element of any outreach email, in my opinion, and experience, is the subject line. The more opens you get, the more people are reading the email and, hopefully, click through to the campaign.

If a journalist hasn’t opened your email, they’re not going to see your campaign and, of course, certainly won’t be linking.

How can you improve open rates, however?

Use emojis – it may sound simple but in a busy inbox, you need to stand out. We’ve found the inclusion of emojis to be a great way to do this. Don’t go overboard, but clever inclusion can draw eyes to your email over others’.

Don’t be cryptic – it’s tempting to try and engage a journalist to open your email by being cryptic and using mysterious subject lines which try to use intrigue. But this rarely works. Journalists are busy people and we need to accept this. Get straight to the point with subject lines.

Use key statistics – Include key campaign statistics in subject lines to make it instantly clear what your story is. Lead with the most shocking and surprising stats and use this as a way to gain opens. If you’ve got a great story and headline, this is where it’s the most effective.

Use coverage headlines – if you’ve already had some early coverage on a campaign, test the headline published from one of these as your subject line. Journalists are often better at writing enticing headlines than marketers so don’t be afraid to try this out. It’s often successful at landing further links!

7. Not every campaign earns hundreds of links

When you’ve had a great campaign idea it’s easy to set your sights on viral success. However, the biggest lesson we all need to learn is that this isn’t the norm.

Yes, I’ve had campaigns which have earned link volumes into the thousands in just a few weeks, but it’s not how most campaigns play out and that’s OK.

Link building is hard, and it’s only getting harder.

Does that mean that links are becoming less impactful? In my opinion, not at all. The exact opposite, in fact.

Whereas a few years back it was relatively easy to earn links from top-tier media with sub-par infographics and listicles, times have changed.

A campaign doesn’t need to earn hundreds of links to be successful and deliver the results which it needs to.

Be realistic.

Our average link acquisition per campaign in 2018 was 32 unique domains.

However, our focus is typically not upon straight numbers earned. There has to be consideration towards the quality of the links you’re building. Trust me when I say that 10 links from top-tier publications will do far more for your brand than 50 from bloggers.

Stop placing a focus on the number of links you’re earning but start to look at other metrics which reflect the quality of the publications.

8. Sustainable link building > One viral campaign

Taking the above point into consideration, it’s important that you’re working on a sustained link building strategy.

A one-off viral hit of links is nice for your ego. But does it really have the impact on your search engine visibility that you’re focusing upon?

Rarely.

Link building needs to be a sustained activity and the most effective campaigns are those which earn links month in month out, not once.

Take the time to map out a strategy which earns links on an ongoing basis and you’ll see more benefit to your brand. If one of those campaigns goes viral and earns hundreds of links, that’s fantastic (and as part of a wider campaign there’s absolutely benefits to be had there). But you need to ensure your primary focus is upon a long-term strategy for continued results.

Above all else, you need to make sure you’re collecting data around your own campaigns and using this to evolve your approach.

These are the lessons which I took away this past year from our own campaigns, but they may not be the same for everyone. Use them as inspiration to gather thoughts around areas to test and changes to make, and combine with your own ideas and thoughts to continue to push your campaigns forwards.

James Brockbank is the Managing Director of Digitaloft.

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