#i have been progressively going more and more over the 1k word limit i set for myself

[nomazee]

hello, could I request a model! Dan Heng x fashion designer! Reader? Here’s some keywords if they might help, tiredness, praise, warmth, try-on. The timestamp is 17:57, thank you so much!

as always i had too much fun with this... i love the idea of model dan heng but i still made him an awkward wet rag in this one (because i love him) THANK YOU FOR THE REQUEST!!!

my 1k event!

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You greet Dan Heng with your usual warm smile and a “hey, love” that never fails to fluster him. He’s heard it from you a handful of times now, visiting your studio a few times a week at your request for fittings and some brainstorming sessions. He thinks that the frequency and timing of his visits is definitely unnecessary from a professional standpoint, but he’s not planning on bringing that up any time soon. Not when your hands are so kind, light on his shoulders as you guide him through your studio. 

“I started on the pieces that I showed you the sketches for, um, last week, was it? I’m kind of losing track of time.” Dan Heng wouldn’t tell you out loud, but he can tell. There’s a huge table in the center of the room, and he can barely see its surface beneath all the cut fabric and tracing paper and tangled thread from your serger. For someone working under deadline after deadline, you’re handling yourself better than he would, but he still can’t help the heat of concern flickering in the crease of his brow. 

This is your debut show, he knows as much. So he won’t meddle with your workflow. Only hope that you can somehow pick up the signals that he’s sending you to please sit down and maybe drink water? 

“I need you to try them on,” you tell him, a gentle command as you hand him a hanger draped in silky fabrics and delicate laces. “There’s pants and a lace shirt. I’ll turn around while you change, but you need to be wearing pretty much nothing underneath these, if that’s okay. And then I’ll hem your pants—let me get you some shoes…” you’re trailing off, passing the clothes to him before turning around in a rush to find him a pair of heeled boots. 

The fabric is— it’s nice. The pants are some kind of silky, lustrous material, dark blue and cool on his skin, and the shirt is embarrassingly sheer but you’ve seen him in and out of clothes in the last month often enough that he can’t really be too sheepish about it now. What does make him flush, however, is the look on your face as you turn around to stare at him, black heeled shoes forgotten in your hands as your eyes flit across Dan Heng’s form. 

He can hear the soft breaths that you take, no more labored than usual, but it feels so intimate and so quiet that his palms grow damp. Shifting his weight from one foot to the other, he waits for you to— say something, anything, tell him to take it off and go home or maybe stay, instead. The back of his neck feels itchy and he’s pretty sure you haven’t blinked yet. 

“The, um. It looks…” you’re trailing off, again, but you’re also walking towards him until you’re so close he can hear your breathing even more distinctly than before, along with the rustling of your own clothes as you lift up a hand to play with the ornamented collar of his shirt. “The color is nice on you. It’s different from the other pieces I’ve made you try, right?” 

Dan Heng only has enough strength to nod in response, the rest of his energy taken away by the feeling of your finger tips on the soft, pliant skin beneath his jaw. He’s sweating— so much, it must be gross, but he can see you chewing the inside of your cheek as you drag your fingers to the seam on the shoulder. 

“I was thinking a sash around the waist, but I don’t think it suits this outfit. Maybe I can add something like that to the pieces from last week, though.” And you’re back to your usual self, much to his dismay. Your rambling is endearing and tender, but your previously weighted gaze has now lightened, focused on the waist of his pants and the hand-sewn hook-and-bar closure, and Dan Heng misses having it trained on him. You’ve never been this close, this warm, this focused on him in particular, and he has to squeeze his eyes shut to fight the urge to take your hands between his own. 

“Dan Heng,” you say his name, breaking him out of his anxious reverie with a quiet call. “You have a lot on your plate for this show. You have three outfit changes, which can be a lot, but I know you’re capable. Do you know you’re capable?” 

He wants to say this is silly, that you’re the last person who should be telling anybody else that they have a lot on their plate, considering that you’re sewing more than a dozen garments all on your own, with no assistants besides your in-and-out mentors who rarely find time to help. He says none of that, though, because your gaze is trained on his again and he’s busy hoping you don’t notice all the little involuntary twitches in his face. 

“Yeah, I’m— I know.” 

You smile, again, something saccharine and addictive and he wants to chase it, over and over and over. “Good. You’re my favorite model, you know. It’s important that you’re ready.” 

Dan Heng could say a million things. He could say this is unprofessional, or joke and say that he’s currently one of your only models, or tell you that he’s always ready as long as he’s wearing something put together by you and your hands alone. Instead, he nods like a fool, stumbling over a weak “okay” and trying to ignore the way his stomach twists when you laugh a little. 

“I’ll be doing your makeup for the show, too. I hope you don’t mind that. I just wanted to do something specific for you,” and it’s hit after hit with you, and his throat squeezes again because you’re still smiling and talking all about him like he’s your prized gift, and he really really doesn’t hate it. “You trust me with an eyeliner pen, right?” 

His mouth is dry, but he forces himself to joke back before you kick him out for being so awkward. “I trust you with a needle more than I trust you with a makeup brush.” And you laugh, and his stomach still hurts but the tightness of his mouth loosens up into a diffident smile. It’s just a joke, really, because he wouldn’t mind you handling a brush against his face, or the gentle press of your fingers on his cheeks and on top of his eyelids, or the awestruck look you give him every time he tries something on, or the weight of your hands on his shoulders when you drag him around your studio.

—°+..｡ﾟ｡ﾟ+.*.｡.—

gen taglist: @tragedy-of-commons @lasiancunin @hanyi-writes

fill out my event taglist (pinned) or general taglist (navi) to be tagged in upcoming works!

[manonamora-if]

Another week, another check-in

I have completed the base of the French translation for Goncharov Escapes! and just need to do a few edits and recode some things. Update possibly happening somewhere today or tomorrow.

I will post about it separately.

MelS has made quite a bit of progress, going through all my original comments. He's managed to add some variation, but there is still quite a bit to go through... He's also had some very good progress of for the last chapter tho. Like added 1k words in an evening.

But.... his work assignment has been extended until the end of the year. While he's ecstatic about this (he loves his job), it does mean he has less free times for... well, anything. He'll try to spend as much time as he can on TTATEH, but it will be limited.

It is very likely that: progress will be super flow from now on until at least the end of the year, and we won't be able to complete the game by the end of October as we wished. So because of this, we're discussing whether to just update the game when it is full complete and how much help I can give him.

The game will be completed, just not at the date we hoped...

I've been re-wroking my website. It's looking pretty nice, with more of a Web 1.5 vibe but retro enough for me with the colour scheme I used. But also, I am missing the largest component: the project pages. I haven't decided how they should look just yet (and I need more since I've made more games). I think I'll start updating it bit by bit...

I've spent the start of this week doing some IF archiving, completing the addition of French Comp/Jam entries to the IFDB and the IFWiki. If you understand some French, you should check them out. There are some really cool gems in there. (I'm planning on reviewing them at some point :P )

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Some IF Events:

The IntroComp entries are out! While voting is set to start out shortly, you can already check the entries (and maybe think of feedback for the author?). Note: the stories submitted were not complete games.

This is the last month to submit your intent to the IFComp (@ifcomp). The IFComp does have monetary prizes as well as physical/online ones depending on your placement in the comp... If you don't plan on submitting a game, you can already create an account to vote. I'm not participating this year, so you might see some reviews of mine this autumn.

Over at the @neointeractives, the Single Choice Jam will be ending in next weekend! There is still time to add your story to the dozen already available! I've drafted a thing, maybe it will pan out before the dl...

Another @neointeractives jam will also be starting this week: the Bring Out Your Ghost, to showcase WiPs in indefinite hiatus, or abandoned projects. Expect the official announcement soon ;)

If you are looking to make something a bit more NSFW, the Orifice Jam might be for you! There is a bit more than a week as well to add something hole-y!

Know how to write some French? There is a contest on Moiki where you can win a T-shirt! I really shouldn't try this one... but free t-shirt tho xD

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The plan for next week (starting now):

Finish updating my website

Finish the Goncharov Escapes! update + add the old source code to GitHub

Fix a bug I re-added last time I updated MtP (I just found it out, so annoyed at that...)

Finish hopefully my Single Choice entry

Start working on the next {Finish your damn projects} task

[mercurial-madhouse]

@oldbay-on-apples asked, I wish you would write a fic where characters of your choice are spies and trying to escape a facility with the blueprints they need!

>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<

See my point of view (As someone staring back at you)

“We’re in, Haz.” 

Louis’s voice transmits through his earpiece. The tech relies on sound vibrations, picking up the resonance of Louis’s vocal cords so that, even though they can all hear him clearly, on Louis’s end his words are below a whisper. 

“Surprisingly, I can see that.” Harry scans the multiple video feeds on the screen before him. Louis, Picklock, top left; Niall, Ammunition, bottom left; Liam, Data Encryption, bottom right. 

Top right: blank. Where his feed should be. 

Louis’s face pops into Liam’s camera long enough for him to wiggle his eyebrows. All black looks so damn good on him. “How’m I supposed to know you weren’t mid-kip, old man?”

Harry tears his gaze away from Louis before his attention is compromised. Louis’s only two years older than he is and he’s been arse over tit for the footie player-turned-spy since they met years ago. But feelings cloud judgement, a potentially fatal threat too dangerous to dare in their line of work. He eyes the silver-tipped black cane leaning against the table next to him.

Current mobility status: severely limited.

“Promised Payno he wouldn’t have to babysit you alone,” he mutters without missing a beat.

Louis screws his features up then disappears from Liam’s screen, clearly shoved aside. Light glints off the camera implanted in the thin film of the eye-contact he’s wearing that’s allowing Harry to see their views. The nanotech Liam used to create it and their earpieces is too valuable to risk discovery by foreign governments. Any indication of compromise they must destroy the only lifeline Harry has to them.

Frustration tenses his muscles and tweaks the bulging disc between vertebrae L4 and L5. A lance of pain shoots up his spine. He raps a button on the keyboard. A fourth feed appears, the hijacked surveillance camera on the front gate with views of the Russian security guard manning the video booth.

Niall’s already detached from the other two. He oversees the perimeter. In complete silence he’s setting up remote-controlled explosives, the failsafe to create chaos should the other two need help during the extraction. Liam and Louis are silent. Harry watches like a video game without a controller as they scale the rear wall and infiltrate the building through the massive heating duct. 

As rogue operatives, their only link back to MI6 is a non-existent papertrail: an agent simply known as Z (probably because Q was already taken). The most dangerous jobs go to them, the ones MI6 can’t chance having connected back to the British government if the four of them are compromised on a mission.

If the window of opportunity to sneak into the Kremlin for a specific set of blueprints only known as TMH-11 weren’t closing fast, they might have waited for Harry to heal. All it’d taken was an unfortunate twist on their last mission in Bulgaria and he’d slipped a disc. He’s certain a gunshot to the back would be less painful. Louis had barely kept him on his feet to get to safety.

The silver world surrounding Louis and Liam steadies. For a few seconds Harry can see them both as they look at each other.

Liam glances at his watch. He’s spent months logging the patrols for the building and knows the timing by memory. 

“Six minutes, Tommo. No more.”

Louis nods. A breath, then they lift the ceiling grate aside. Liam finds leverage, planting his feet, gloved hands tight around the rope as Louis hovers towards the ground. The red laser lines criss-crossing the entire area as thin as trip-wires. 

Harry releases a breath when Louis’s feet touch down soundlessly, just before the tiny metal boxes all stacked like mailroom slots at a post office. The grid’s so small Louis’s got to keep his knees locked together. Even then, barely a centimetre separates him from discovery.

He works efficiently on the lock for box TMH-11, tools so tiny they make his slim fingers look even more slender. The miniscule flame of the blowtorch matches the alarm lasers in width. 

“Two minutes, eight seconds,” Liam says, tone even.

Plenty of time.

Louis is silent. He doesn’t answer when he’s concentrating. All of them know he’s heard.

The flame flares once. Louis cuts it off, pocketing the tools. He eases the door open, peering inside.

Motion on the screen catches Harry’s attention. The security guard’s feet have landed flat, squinting at the video monitor in front of him. His hand hovers over a call button, lips moving.

“Possible indeterminate error,” Harry warns. “Lou, get out now.”

Louis slides a cylinder from the box. At least a metre long, he slips it up to Liam.

“I’ve got movement,” Niall reports.

“Tommo, now,” Liam hisses.

Louis clicks the box closed. There’s no time to get the lock back into place. Footsteps fuzz through Liam and Louis’s earpieces. Pain surges through Harry’s back as he lurches forward, staring at Louis’s feed. Louis’s gaze whips over his shoulder towards the closed door of the vault.

“Lou, get out!”

Liam appears on Louis’s screen. Louis’s silent, but whatever he says to Liam with a look has Liam shaking his head.

Harry’s seen this too many times in his nightmares. They know their orders. They know what’s most important. “Lou, you still have time. Go.”

“Get that cache to Niall,” Louis whispers. He detaches the line from his back.

“Lou!” Harry shouts, in time with Liam. “Niall, code one. On my command.”

“Copy this.”

“Payno, go.” In Louis’s feed, Liam looks too far away. It’s not the distance that’s the enemy, it’s getting Louis through the grid without tripping the alarm. It’s precision that can’t be done quickly. The moment they trip the alarm the whole building goes on lockdown, cutting Liam off too.

Liam curses. Louis’s face vanishes in his screen, replaced by the cord Liam’s hauling up, then the descent of darkness as he closes the vent.

Heart racing, Harry splits his attention between Liam and Louis, anxiously tracking Liam’s progress back through the building. Louis doesn’t move except to press his forehead against the wall of metal, completely still. He can’t risk alerting the guards or sounding the alarm before Liam’s far enough out.

“Lou, he’s on the roof.” Harry doesn’t need to whisper, but his voice comes out soft anyway. “It’s only four metres to the door.”

If anyone can get out, it’s Louis. He’s as expert at slipping through tight spaces as he is at picking every lock. Harry refuses to believe he can’t find a way through these.

Louis pushes out a slow breath, loud enough for Harry to hear through the wire. “I won’t make it, Haz. You know I can’t risk it.”

Fuck. Fuck. This possibility isn’t a surprise. They’ve got hundreds of contingency plans and this one is no different. Once Liam successfully drops the cache with Niall, he’ll go back for Louis. 

“Payno, report.”

“Three minutes.”

Three minutes to get to Niall and back. A dangerous gamble.

“Think you could go a mite faster there, Payno?” Louis mutters, voice light despite the tightness.

Another man has joined the security guard. They’re pointing at one of the feeds. Harry’s heart thuds as dread washes over him, pulse pumping in his jugular. 

“Damnit, I should be—”

“Right where the fuck you are,” Louis cuts him off, an edge to his words. They soften. Something indescribable leaks into his tone and slicks Harry’s palms with sweat. “Right where you need to be, Haz.”

“I need to be with you.” The words are out before Harry can stop them, but it’s the truth. If Harry were there this wouldn’t be an issue. He should be getting Louis out while Liam runs the line. They operate in pairs for a reason.

Louis hasn’t moved at all. His control is impressive. Off the clock he’s all manic energy. On a job every move he makes is precise and carefully thought out. None of them could possibly fill his role.

“One minute,” Liam reports. He’s scaling to the roof.

Footsteps echo through the corridor behind Louis. Russian voices, too far for the mic to pick up, so the internal translator won’t work. They stop outside the door. The bleeps of a keypad.

A torpedo of terror surges into Harry’s chest and ruptures.

“Hazza—”

“Niall, now! Liam, go!”

“Haz, I’m sorry... I’m in love with you.”

Niall’s explosives detonate. Louis’s feed goes dark. Harry’s heart gets caught in the blast.

>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*< 

(Ok, I tried so hard to make this a drabble of 500 words. Then 1k. It wasn’t meant to be. This is the story the characters told me. I hope it fits the bill, love! I do enjoy me some spy AUs even though this is my first to write! Love my action and adventure!)

Have something else you’d like to see me write? Go wild! Pairing, situation, feeling… Send me an ask (anon or not) completing the sentence ‘I wish you’d write a fic where…’

Superpowers Drabble

Invisible Drabble

Only one bed (H-POV)

Only one bed (L-POV)

ABO new-omega!Louis drabble that became a fic on AO3.

[senchoubutter]

as an asexual im horny for this man-

In which Matsukawa finds out his tiny, shy girlfriend can shove a whole cupcake into the back of her throat.

word count : 1k

_____ hid behind Mattsun and death gripped his large pinky that was engulfed with one of her hands. She knows she had agreed to accompany him to his friend's little get together but suddenly her nerves were standing on end as Matsukawa knocked on the apartment door.

It all started with a school project. ______ and Matsukawa had a gen ed together in their second year of university, and were assigned to work together. _____ got along well but it seemed like Matsukawa was determined to be her friend. While she was small and shy, the very opposite of him, he took an interest in her it seemed. And while it perplexed her, soon enough they were eating lunch together each day. It progressed to hanging out on weekends or catching dinner in the dining hall together. Soon enough it became dates and Matsukawa made his feelings known, which _____ accepted. And when her boyfriend of two months asked her to come to his high school friend's gathering, she didn't think twice despite being anxious about it.

"Hey, it's going to be alright," Mattsun assured her. "I'll be here the entire time."

"I know," she whispered. The apartment door swung open and a warm, peppy voice greeted Matsukawa.

"Where is she?" it asked, excitedly. At this Mattsun slowly stepped to the side, revealing his girlfriend. Looking up, she met the brown eyes of a very excited looking man. He had brown hair that flared out at the tips and he wore an excited smile. "Hey there! You must be Mattsun's girlfriend, we've heard all about! He talks about you all the time, ya know?"

"Oi!" Mattsun piped up.

"I'm Oikawa," he chuckled inviting them both in. ______'s gripped tightened as they entered. Removing their shoes, Matsukawa gently released his finger from the death grip. Knowing his girlfriend would panic though, he offered his whole hand, to which she happily took. This time she held it much more gently and threaded her fingers between his.

Oikawa smiled at the couple and chuckled softly, sliding off his slippers. "Makki and Iwa-chan are in the kitchen. They just got the sweets all set up, actually."

At the word 'sweets' ______'s ears practically perked up. She looked over to Oikawa and tilted her head. To this he could only grin a bit wider. She truly was like a little puppy dog; just as Mattsun had remarked over text once.

"Mattsun said you were a big fan of sweets so we made sure to get some. I hope that's okay."

"Th...Thank you," she nodded, bowing her head. Suddenly, despite her anxiety, she felt like the night would be much more tolerable.

And truthfully, as the night went on, it did seem to go alright. Despite the hectic duo Iwaizumi and Oikawa seemed to be, the four seemed like such good friends. They all seemed to be understanding of her shyness and tried their best to not be too much too fast. But that didn't mean they weren't going to tease her. Makki and Mattsun had been joking and teasing her the whole evening. Even Oikawa got in a comment here and there about how she was a cute lil puppy. It seemed Iwaizumi was the only one not interested in teasing her.

As they all moved from the kitchen to the living space, Makki had made a joke that since seating in Oikawa's apartment was limited that she could sit on his lap. To which Matsukawa grabbed her by the waist and sat her on his lap immediately, hand staying at her waist. And of course, while she stuttered about, turning bright red, Makki and and Matsukawa could only chuckle.

"You sure look comfy at least, _____-chan," Makki smirked.

"A-Actually, I was going t-to get a cu-cupcake...-"

"Eh? But we just left the kitchen?"

"Don't worry, _____-chan! I got it for you!" Oikawa popped up. He was in and out of the kitchen unit with a cupcake before ______ was able to stand up in protest. Oikawa held it out and smiled softly. He had another in his other hand and took a bite out it, watching as she took the one held out to her delicately.

As she unwrapped the tin liner, Matsukawa grabbed it from her, tossing it at Makki. It was a slight joke but also somewhat of a warning to give his girlfriend a bit of air. They'd been teasing her for a while and she'd most likely needed to relax a little. This of course only made him give a shit eating grin.

"So, have y'all done it yet?" Makki snickered.

Immediately Matsukawa punched Hanamaki. Oikawa and Iwaizumi yelled at him, but then Oikawa's attention went to ______. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see her shaking. Her face resembled a tomato and she seemed to be malfunctioning at her core.

"H...Hey, _____-chan..." he began.

Matsukawa leaned forwards, a hand on ______'s waist. "Babe, it's okay. Bre-"

Before he could even finish his sentence. He and his friends watched as the petite, shy lil girl on Matsukawa's lap shoved the whole cupcake into her mouth. She was able to close her mouth, not a crumb or any frosting left behind.

"Wh-Wha..?!"

And with in a few seconds she'd swallowed it whole. The guys sat there in silence and awe. It was clear she did it out of panic and anxiety but the sheer shock of watching the petite girl engulf a cupcake that was the size of her hand clean was something entirely else.

"H-Holy shit, ______!" Iwaizumi coughed out. "H-How'd you do that?!"

Mattsun only pulled her closer, straight into his chest, wrapping his arms about her waist. He rested his chin on her shoulder and gave a side glare to his friend. He knew she had a tendency to do weird things or make mistakes when she would panic but that was a whole new one. And to say the least, it was intriguing.

"I'll take that, as a yes," Makki grinned, which only earned an angry Iwaizumi barking at him to cut it out again.

Though, among the chaos, Mattsun whispered softly into ______'s ear. "You'll have to show me that again someday. But...not with a cupcake."

[cinnamon-shakes]

Ghostbot lore

Alright, so a lot of people have been joining Brian David Gilbert’s exercise streams lately and most of them are a bit confused about Ghostbotvoice and the lore surrounding them, so I’ve decided to release the knowledge out into the public.

It’s a pretty long read. Here we go.

 -On the 15th of August, BDG starts doing an exercise stream. The number of viewers is initially pretty small and manageable by his one mod, Karen, but after his weekend stream special that he advertised on Twitter, each stream starts to get about 500 viewers. Brian does not have nightbot, but says he will add it to the stream soon.

-On the 28th of September, viewers of BDG's stream discover that he has added in nightbot...without adjusting any of the very strict automod settings. This results in nightbot censoring people who use more than two emojis, many of which are the trans heart emoji used in the daily trans rights chat parade. Nightbot is deemed transphobic, and Brian norts it before the stream is even halfway done

-Chat adapts to there being no bot, but newcomers still occasionally attempt to use nightbot commands such as !rules or !uptime

-On the 11th of November, a user types '!uptime' into chat, and gets four immediate responses (one of which was by me, cinnamon_shakes) going 'no nightbot, but it's been about 21 minutes'. This garners responses such as 'be the nightbot you want to see in the world' and 'assigned nightbot by chat'. People begin impersonating what a real BDG nightbot would be like, preceding their messages with the words 'nightbot voice', such as "nightbot voice: honk if you like getting buff and working out" or "nightbot voice: don't forget to stretch and hydrate" etc etc. Eventually we have a chat with about 80% of people pretending to be nightbot.

-At this point, I decide to go against the crowd and send a message along the lines of "Human voice: I am definitely a human being with a real human heart, you can check it out in my cellar". User ProjectMarley decides to take a look in my cellar, and for a good ten minutes, chat watches as we roleplay me luring them into my cellar and them being oblivious and trusting. Once they get there, they mysteriously die and are ‘no longer in chat’. Everyone agrees that I definitely did not kill them and am entirely innocent of any and all blame. We all wonder for a few moments why Marley disconnected and mourn their presence. We can hear the wind in the chat, but no Marley.

-For the rest of the stream, Marley starts beginning their sentences with 'ghostbot voice' and says things along the lines of "Ghostbot voice: I can't exercise because I don't have a corporeal body, but it's time for High Intensity Biking".

-On the 12th of November (the day after the mysterious death of Marley), a new user joins the stream by the name of 'Ghostbotvoice'. They do not respond to commands like a bot, but do send a lot of nightbot-like messages. Many of these are built on a foundation of stream-lore-knowledge, such as knowing specific users' actual names and knowing what kind of messages regulars tend to send. No one knows who is behind ghostbotvoice, but it seems like a momentary funny gag

-On the 13th of November, ghostbotvoice is back, with more new messages. Chat speculates, and it seems clear that it is run by a human being who is copy pasting a set of preconceived messages with the occasional off the cuff ones. Ghostbot assures us that they are definitely a real human being with an actual human body who does human being things. Chat accepts ghostbotvoice as One Of Us. Someone gifts them a sub.

-On the 18th of November, Ghostbot lets chat know that they are now programmed to respond to commands. Chat goes wild and everyone thoroughly tests out the commands. Halfway through the stream, ghostbot stops responding or posting messages. We all mourn their second death. They do return the next day though, and all days after with more and more commands and secret unlisted commands. Chat enjoys discovering the secret commands a lot. We still have no idea who is running the account, but there are several suspects from amongst the regular stream-goers

-On the 10th of December, user Well_Spoken_Rambler shoots Ghostbotvoice a message in twitch chat, and user ProjectMarley responds to it as though they are Ghostbot. However, we as a chat (including Karen) suddenly find ourselves incapable of reading, and agree that we still have no idea who on earth could possibly be running ghostbotvoice. Anyone who suggests it is Marley is misinforming the public.

-Direct statement released by user ProjectMarley on the incident:

“That message was completely incidental and any perceived similarity to a ghostbot reply was not intended by twitch user projectmarley”

-Statement from Karen Han, on the day of the incident: 

-Thus far, Ghostbot has agreed with chat regarding the stance on Nightbot—negative. However, from the 11th-13th of December, Polygon runs a three-day charity stream. Nightbot is on the polygon channel but has limited messages and commands. Fortunately, Ghostbot decides to join in and does a frankly excellent job helping the chat community and keeping it chill! Additionally, people in chat start shipping Nightbot and Ghostbot (in a very jokey kinda way), and ghostbot’s !nightbot and !botbot commands change over the three days to reflect their growing feelings towards Nightbot, who is a stoic romantic lead who sometimes whispers poggers, revealing their softer side. OTP. The following shows most if not all of that progression:

- By the 16th of December, we have a lot of different secret commands for Ghostbot, including some that reference the polygonathon events. In chat, we are talking about how peat bogs are very important and make for good compost and someone jokes about wanting a !peat or !bog command. I ask why not a swamp command? I tell chat that I will make a shrek bot that only responds to swamp commands, an idea everyone hates immediately and which brings me great joy.

-The next day, on the 17th of December, user ProjectMarley cannot make it to stream and says, completely unrelatedly, that Ghostbot may not be there for the whole stream and might disconnect halfway through. Stream continues as usual, until I type !swamp in chat and reveal that user shrekbotvoice has joined chat. Chaos ensues. Shrekbot only responds to 3 commands (!swamp, !donkey and !union) so that their presence does not risk ghostbot’s continued existence as a community bot. 

-Over the ensuing weeks, Shrekbot becomes a rarely needed back-up bot for times Ghostbot isn’t available and he gets a few more community based commands but is still a very cursed experience. We won’t talk about botbotbot coz you’re very young and new. 

-Present day: Brian has gotten a lot more viewers now for his streams (nearly 1k usually) and a lot of new users are confused about ghostbotvoice and whether or not I am actually innocent. Let this statement prove once and for all that I have never in my life done anything wrong, ever.

 And that’s all the lore! Also, ghostbot’s pronouns are thex/theb/theyr (which has nothing to do with marley’s propensity for typos, not at all) but they are also fine with they/them (which is what I used for this statement to not make it more confusing for people reading). 

Additionally, Brian has mentioned thinking about bringing back nightbot with adjusted settings, so botbot may yet become canon. 

[missdawnandherdusk]

an americano

Remus X Reader (coffee shop AU) 

Summary: He always asked for the same coffee order, but one day, he finally asks for your name. 

A/n: So, I put up a post and the lovely @trappedgoose-in-a-writblr-room​ responded first with a request for a Remus drabble so here it is! Our soft nervous precious Remus. I limited myself to about 1k words, so it is truly a drabble, but I’m willing to do a part two if y’all are into it. It’s super cute, and yes, I may or may not be a barista at a coffee shop, but that’s beside the point. and I am seriously judging you if you like americanos

“So, you come here often?”

He had been coming here for weeks. Maybe a few months. And every time he followed the same routine. He’d walk from the small bookshop across the way and into my café just as my shift was coming to its midway point. Always in a jumper. Always with a beat-up satchel. He’d order an americano and sit in the corner booth and tap on his laptop and work through a book, frowning and typing again, until his coffee was gone, and he seemed satisfied with his progress.

Remus. The name he’d put for the order. The first time I wrote it on his cup was customary. By his third visit, I didn’t bother. I knew who he was. By his fifth, he just waved, and I smiled, already pulling the shot of espresso for his americano. After a while I’d write stupid things on his cup. The slower days when we were the only two in the café. The color of his jumper, a silly variation of his name, whatever the main character of his book was. 

“Seeing as I work here,” I baited with a smile. “Yes,”

“Right,” He stammered. “Um...”

“Do you want another coffee?” I prompted, as he looked down, blushing a bright pink. 

“I... uh.” He finally glanced up. “I don’t know your name,” He rushed out.

I looked at him a moment, taken by surprise. 

“And I would ask you to join me for coffee, when you’re off your shift of course... or maybe on your day off if you even want to not that you have to, but I realize that I can’t exactly do that if I don’t know your name, so...” His nervousness left me scrambling to keep up with his rushed words. 

“Y/n,” I gave a reassuring smile. “And I’ll join you for coffee as long as I don’t have to drink an americano,” 

Now it was his turn to look shocked. As if my acceptance of his offer wasn’t expected. 

“I’m sorry, what?” He stumbled. 

“Americanos,” I clarified. “I don’t know how you manage them, because they’re just awful,” 

Whatever he had been thinking was abandoned to defend his drink of choice. 

“They’re not that bad,” He refuted. “And I’m lactose intolerant, so I don’t really have much of a choice,” 

I pursed my lips and chuckled. “Go sit, I’ll be there in a minute,” I sat across from him, setting a cup of coffee in front of him that held a warm amber color. He studied me and the cup. 

“This has milk in it,” He accused. 

“Oat milk, completely lactose free,” I rose my own mug of coffee. “It’s the only way I take my coffee anymore. I haven’t put any sugar in it, I don’t know how sweet you like it and I didn’t want to overdose you,” 

“Oat milk,” Remus pondered, picking up a fair share of sugar packets. “I never would have thought of that,” 

“Here’s to good coffee, not watered-down espresso,” I raised my mug and we both took a sip together and I watched his eyes widen at the coffee in his cup. 

“This is brilliant,” His eyes lit up. 

“You’d think that after the few months you’ve been here constantly, you’d figure out we had non-dairy options,” I teased lightly, and he blushed slightly. 

“I... I was distracted. So, I ordered what I knew,” He stammered, staring at his coffee. 

“Distracted?” I pressed. “Lost in too many books then?” 

“Well, yes. But no,” He chuckled. “There’s this pretty barista who works here that keeps me off balance.” I hid behind my mug my cheeks warming. 

“That so?” I tried to play off, but he caught my flush and grinned. “Then why the hell did it take you three months to ask for my name?” I accused, chuckling. 

“Well, I don’t know!?” He laughed. “You just so... you!” 

“What is that even supposed to mean!?” I giggled. 

“I don’t know,” His face was red from the laughter and the unanswered questions. 

“I’m glad you did finally ask,” I admitted, fidgeting with a spare napkin. “Are you a student? You’re always here with a book,” 

“Grad student,” He clarified. “Working on my dissertation. I have an internship at the shop across the way,” 

“You’re there most days that I work,” I noted. “You always come for coffee,” 

“Yeah, well,” He ducked his head. “I may or may not have accidentally memorized your schedule, so that our hours are close to the same,” We both blushed again. 

“Little creepy,” I raised an eyebrow, “And kinda a shame. I’d love to come and bug you while you’re working,” 

“Oh... I—you like to read?” I raised an eyebrow at him, and he backtracked. “Not to say that you don’t! But it’s a shop filled with—” 

“Vintage books, classics, literature, mythology. I know,” I smiled. “I frequent there. Even before you came around,” 

“Really?” 

I nodded and nursed my coffee. “I might not seem like it, but I’m also a student. I work here for the extra cash,” 

“Right,” He fumbled. “I—read anything interesting lately?” He redirected the conversation, and I could tell that he was more comfortable with the topic. It wasn’t hard to pick up that he wasn’t one for small talk, but his eyes lit up at the mere mention of a book. 

“Some work by De Pizan, my professor is doing a seminar on her,” I gave. “It’s really interesting, I’m enjoying it a lot,” 

“De Pizan,” He mused. “Middle Ages? Rhetorist, right?” I nodded and smiled. “It’s been a while since I’ve read anything of hers for class, or fun or that matter. I remember liking her work though, she was a proto-feminist,” 

“Yes...” I was surprised by his base of knowledge.

“Sorry, I know I ramble,” He ducked his head.

“I think it’s cute,”

“Oh... well,” Remus was becoming a permanent shade of pink. 

“You don’t do this sort of thing often do you?” I prompted. 

“What gave it away?” 

“Well, I mean there is the whole name ordeal. Then of course, you’re a shy book nerd, that’s obvious, but honestly, you’re nervous for all the wrong reasons,” I supplied. 

He gaped at me as if he didn’t know what to address about what I said first. While he was deciding, I reached out and placed my hand over his. 

“As someone else with anxiety, let me tell you, you’re doing just fine.” 

“Yeah?” His eyes were hopeful. 

I nodded and glanced at the clock. “Well, my break is over, but you’re welcome to hang out.” I stood, gathering both of our empty mugs. “And thanks... for finally asking,”

.

masterlist

.

more like this: 

hufflepuff dating headcannons

stars above

.

@coffee-addicti @msmcsmutt @ravn-87 @artemismohr18@whygz@crazywritingbug @bitemebro522 @zombiesnips-blog@savingdraco  @akari180 @slytherin-emerald @queenfeatherwings @fanficflaneuse​ @go-whovian-universe @spicyshenanigans @darling-im-not-okay-i-promise @katsukink​ @takemetothekingdom @strangerr-things​ @tmnt-queen@hxneybgb @belcvayelena @moviesbooksandfandoms​   @cocochanelthepupper @ninacotte @braelynn-johnston     @jiggllyy @darcypotter-blog  @thiccheerioss@lottie289 @beautiful-pegasus@tceedlmao @anonymous034 @bi-andready-tocry @dragonsandbread @the-queen-of-hell-things @alienmotel  @oh-itsnothing @sunflowerxsadnessw @fattycooter @fanficsigottaread​ @gweaslvy @strawberriesonsummer @gaysludge @ray-of-sunrise @artist-bby @shadowsingeraxolotl @quillsareforwriting @wollymalfoy @lilpieceoftoast @paper-cats @floweryjh @hufflautia @livize75 @annie-mcl @riathearora @live-like-luna @justathoughtfulangel @coconutdawn @skteaiy @naughtygranger @dragonsandbread @abundantxadorations​ @moony-artnstuff @and-then-a-girl-with-luv @1-800-luvsick @pandas-rice-field @in-slytherin-we-trust @emmaa-t​ @introvertedrae @infinity1o1 @echpr@dekulover @marshmallowtraver @cereuselle @lonely-skywalker @sleepysnapesnake​ @hoeforthefictional @coldlilheart @helen-paris @rosie-starlit-sky​ @vulture-withafile @hogstupefy @eveft @iraniq @groovyfluxie​ @cool-weirdo-wannabee-author @rosegold-thorns @criminaly-supernatural @ghostofdolans @mxl-foyrecs @ginger-haired-queen @bex4whovian @kellyrose193 @unlikelygalaxygiver @marvel-trash-was-taken @one-edgy-bitch@supersouthy @garbagejay@rejectedlonelyasianchild  @lucymxwell @coldlilheart @elia-the-bibliophile @biggalaxydreamland @fuckbuckyyy @hopem1218​ @youareinllve @tyrusparker @3rdofkingdomtrees​ @i-mmunity @zero-nightshade @graym01​ @fandomtrash88 @snakey-drakey @ceeellewrites​ @thatguppienamedbae @pinkleopardss @angel-blogging @xhoney-bee-x @jovialthings @samanthahaigwood @minigigglybabi @clumsy-writing-rdb @lahoete @yourenotafailureoverall @m-winchester-67 @shiningstar-byulxx@clumsy-writing-rdb @dracosathenaeum @dracofeltonmalfoy   @harryslouis​ @iilovemusic12us​ @itsbebeyyy @dumspirospero-1​ @kaye-lantern @anerroroccurrrrred @franbow29​ @big-galaxy-chaos @itsbebeyyy @gryffindors-weasley @ornella0910​ @ultrabuzzlightyear​ @phantomface1983 @emmalee12 @kuyrukludenizkizi @aubreylovesthegames @deafeninglandpersonempath @ackermanbitch @oingo233​ @drismultiverse-blog​ @majicbamana​ @harrypotter289​ @marinettepotterandplagg​ @cupidpoison​ @brownwheatrice @introvertedrae @gryffindors-weasley​ @frecklesandfirecrackers​ @bitchinbadgers​ @mkstover​ @dracomalfoyreader​ @mortallythoughtfulgurl @sakumorubywy​ @smileycount​ @ceeellewrites​ @is-it-really-a-secret​ @blogforharrypotter​ @spencerreidisbootiful​ @lam-ila​ @justawilddreamerchild​ @heavenlyrainyparis​ @trappedgoose-in-a-writblr-room​ @dracomalfoyreader​ @spellbinding10​ @justawilddreamerchild​

[momentofmemory]

it’s almost the end of october, which means one of the greatest, most terrifying exploits known to writers is upon us: NaNoWriMo.

there are plenty of super good survival posts out there, but as this’ll be my seventh time participating (six wins, hoping for a seventh), i thought i’d drop my own set of tips into the mix. i’m going to focus mostly on the practical details of how to write; if you want tips on the writing itself either search the writing/reference tags or pester me to do another one later :P with that said, ~on with the post~

Step One: Figure Out Your Goal

i know, i know, obviously it’s to write 50k, but what does that mean to you? are you expecting

polished prose, ready to send off to a publisher?

being able to write every day? 

just throwing up a bunch of ideas?

a mix of everything?

all of these are valid, but they’re going to require different approaches. if you want jaw-dropping writing, you’re going to need in the ballpark of five or more hours each day, if not more. if you want consistency, you’ll want to look at your normal schedule and set up a couple times you know you can write at. if just you want words, pretty much all you need to make sure is that you squeeze writing time in whenever.

your goal will probably change as the month progresses, and that’s totally fine. just check in every so often to remember a)what you’re working for and b)if it’s actually plausible. speaking of...

Step Two: Realize Your Limitations

1. Typing.

imma get super practical here: your typing speed dictates how fast you can get done. if you write 40wpm (the average), you cannot write the full 1667 in a half hour any more than you can run a mile in under three minutes. it’s honestly not a bad idea to check out your own speed, if only to help you understand yourself better. in my experience, actual writing then works like this (using my max speed, 89, as an example):

Absolute Max: 89 wpm (baseline)

Warring: 70 (75% of baseline)

In the zone: 45 (50% of baseline)

Taking my time, concentrated: 22 (25% of baseline)

anything lower than your max/4 probably means you’re spending a lot of time either researching or staring at the page, so just be aware of that.

2. Time & Focus

this kinda goes without saying, but best case scenario this is at least 1-2 hours of your life a day, or dedicating full Saturday/Sundays if you’re a weekend warrior kind of person. it’s so, so worth it if you can make time for it, but also don’t feel bad if you can’t! doing a half nano (25k) or whatever you want is also a fully acceptable plan.

that said, if you do have time, figure out your focus too. if you’ve never been the kind of person that can type for six hours straight, you will probably not magically become this person when it hits Nov. 1 (though with practice, you might be by Nov. 30). i like trying to write at least 300 before work and another 300 during lunch. that way there’s only 1k left for the evening, and having words on the page just makes me feel better. experiment with different ways of blocking out your time in the first few days and see what works best for you.

3. Don’t Forget You Live in a Body

writing is hard work, you will need to eat brain food! hunching over wrecks your back, stand up and stretch every so often! you will hate existing if you forgo sleep for days! and for the love of charles dickens, patron saint of getting paid by the word, take care of your mother-effing wrists!!

seriously on that last one. i’ve ignored it in the past and thoroughly screwed up my wrists one year; don’t be me. keep in them in a neutral position, do regular stretches, and if you need to, get wrist wraps (i recommend these).

Step Three: Actually Doing the Thing

the previous steps have had pretty broad advice, but now it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty. these are mostly things i know work for me, and therefore may not for you—adjust to your own needs!

1. Write for 15 Minutes Every Day, Non-Negotiable.

i don’t even mean this is a “write 15 min and then your brain will be tricked into writing more” kinda way, but like, literally. you’re probably not going to be able to do 1667 every day—sometimes you’ll be tired and just won’t have the time. you’re very likely, however, to have 15 minutes, and you’ll want to use them. Doesn’t matter if you write 50 words or 500 in that time, at least you’ll have done something, and that’s usually enough to keep you from feeling like just giving up the next day.

2. You Might Need Physical Spaces

i’m a pretty sensory person when it comes to writing, and having a dedicated writing space is so helpful for me. going back to the idea of being an embodied person, it’s a lot easier to get your brain into a writing mode if your body’s already there. some good options include:

coffee shops (cozy! food!)

a specific room in your home (easily accessed! do what you want!)

libraries (free! quiet!)

a friend’s house (writing buddy! easy access to sounding board!)

all of these places usually have access to wifi, which is a positive.

3. You Definitely Need Digital Spaces

i pretty much always write in the same processor, once again because it helps set the mood. the main options include:

google drive (solid choice, cloud backup, mobile accessible)

dabble writer (cloud backup, links to nano, dark mode, chapter options)

write or die (only for actual writing—a scary but effective motivator; save elsewhere)

word/pages/etc. (ready to go on your computer, formatting options)

scrivener (great plotting tools, detailed interface)

i use dabble writer myself (they’re a nano sponsor, so you can get it free for this month, and as a double bonus you get it half off for the rest of the year if you win). and no, i’m not getting paid to wax poetic about them, but honestly i’ve used it to win the past two years and i adore it. 

anyway my biggest tip here is that i SUPER SUPER DON’T RECOMMEND NON-CLOUD OPTIONS. it’s very risky, but if you must, do a proper back up at least once a week. that shiz is not worth it.

4. The Timer is Your New Best Friend

because i’ve heard this argument before: no, it’s not a crutch, and no, it’s not cheating. it’s literally best practices. i’m personally a big fan of this online timer, and i let it run for 15 min every time i write. after each session i check how many words i wrote, then after maybe a quick 1-2 min break, start over.

you can totally set the timer for longer or shorter periods, depending on what works for you. i’m a fan of the 15 min sessions bc it’s just long enough to get a bit of flow going, and just short enough that i can convince my spacy brain that we can get through it without wandering. it’s also a fantastic length for warring, if you’re down for that.

5. Write That Idea Down for Lewis’s Sake

the original idea for the chronicles of narnia came to c.s. lewis when he was at a restaurant, and thank the lord, he wrote it down on a napkin. he wouldn’t write it until some time later, but if he hadn’t written it down, he might’ve forgotten it. why is this important, you ask?

BC YOU WILL FORGET THINGS.

if you have an idea, write it down in your phone or your notebook or the waterproof paper in your shower, because i don’t care how sure you are that you’ll remember it, you super won’t. i’ve forgotten many solutions to plot holes in my time and i still hold vigils over their graves. don’t be me. write it down.

Step Four: Managing that Inner Critic of Yours

all right, pay attention. i’m not going to tell you not to edit, because i would be a massive hypocrite if i did. i totally edit during nano. the important part is letting your editor help you win, not hurt you. and that means gaming your critic’s system.

1. Have a Dedicated Deletion Section

many people hear “don’t delete anything” and baulk, because for some of us it’s distracting and we want to rewrite that section until it matches our vision. so, i’m here to tell you: delete it!! rewrite entire chapters!! just save the original content as part of your word count. this is another reason i love dabble, bc at the start of nano i just make a separate part of the book, label it “delete”, and any time i’m writing and dislike a sentence/paragraph i just dump it into that folder and move on. this way you still get to keep the numbers (and why shouldn’t you? you wrote them!) while also writing words you actually like. plus, sometimes that line you deleted in ch. 1 winds up being supremely pertinent in ch.15, and now you can just copy/paste it instead of having to try to remember what exactly you’d said.

2. Acknowledge Ranting as a Time Honoured Tradition

think there’s no precedent for that 2K diatribe you wrote on the london underground? well fear not, because you can’t possibly do worse than hugo’s entire chapters worth of content on the french sewer system! or melville’s frankly terrifying obsession with the finer features of whale biology!

like, yeah, maybe you’ll decide later you don’t need it, but for now, embrace that soap box. dead white guys have been doing it for centuries and still get places in college syllabi. the least you can do is give it a place in your word count.

Step Five: Have Fun!

i know, i know, it’s cliche, but seriously. if this isn’t fun, or at least rewarding, why are you doing it anyway? so enjoy it! send passages you’re proud of to your friends! daydream about it in the car on the way to work/school! cry over a notebook about the twist you just came up with! nano’s a time of fun and exploration, and you shouldn’t miss out on it because you’re thinking too much.

also, this might be counter productive to put at the end of an essay on nano, but don’t obsess over reading essays on nano :P there comes a time when one must simply do, and nano is pretty much the definition of that.

[authenticaussie]

Hmm... 18 (soul eater au), 52 (roommate), 42 (marvel), 98 (leverage), and or 14 (lantern lights)

babe……….you’re my Favourite™

also, under a readmore because this got LONG as SHIT

8. Soul Eater au

the soul eater au is really scattered because my wifi sucked on that particular day and I was posting it in the mas chat (sunshinepunks) BUT the basis is weapons ace & sabo and meister Marco. It’s a lot of “dumbasses refuse to accept New Friends (because TraumaTM)” and Ace/Sabo being dicks to Marco because he refuses to give up on them. (ahhh my favourite dynamic //swoons)

Part of the plot - my favourite part of the plot - is that Sabo spends a lot of time spying on Marco to try and catch him out as Secretly A Dick and Manipulating Them, and ends up finding out that Marco really really cares about him and Ace? And the way to Sabo’s heart is thrrrroooough his besssstieeeee lmao. So Sabo ends up crushin’ hard first, but then SPYING BACKFIRES and paranoia kicks his butt and he Feels Bad because he was ONLY MEANT TO TRUST ACE and Marco HURT HIS FEELINGS (sabo you moron it’s your own fault). Anyway Ace and Marco pair up to try and make Sabo feel better and it drives Sabo even Nuttier until there is battle couple stuff and a mid-fight Feelings Fight and then a confession and then they become the DMCA power couple. Ta-da!

Ace was a pipe and Sabo was a knife! Or…..you know, something in that realm pft. Basically hitty-stick and stabby-stabby, because you could make a) an argument for their personalities Being Like That (ace is blunt and strong and easy to just hit with but if you’re clever about it he’s awesome, and has the reach to be a longer weapon, sabo is more…well a knife can be used for a lot but also it’s very….vicious. There is very little you can do to Incapacitate with a knife that is not Wow Stabbed. Which I feel is very Sabo, he’s kinda…harsh??? in his way of handling battle, I think.) and b) because in canon, Sabo’s weapon is a pipe and Ace has that knife, and I thought it’d be cool to match that.

42. New Roommate Wanted

an OC-based commission!! James moves in with a shape-shifting thief and her GF and accidentally Falls In Love snickers

It is………..I wrote it a while ago so you can definitely see the self-projection of “I want cute rich gfs to love and adore me so I don’t have to stress about a job”

52. 5+1 Marvel AU

in the actual word document the title is “If you’re broken I will mend you” (Or 5 Times Sabo was There for his Team (and one time histeam was there for him). Sabo is Coulson and Marco is Hawkeye and Ace is a Black Widow (codename: Redback). It fluctuates between sorta implying MAS (but with a definite focus on Marco/Ace) and Coby/Sabo mainly because I made Coby Captain America (YOU CAN’T!!! ARGUE!!! WITH ME!!! HE IS!!!! PERFECT!!! AS CAP!!!) and I love fics that have the lowkey “Coulson has a fanboy crush on Cap.” lol. 

(also coby/sabo is. fun? crackship but So Fun.) 

Here’s the shortest one haha

It takes about five minutes after the comms. go silent forSabo to know that something is wrong, and two minutes afterwards to gear up.

It takes him approximately four seconds to tear through the people trying to keep him from helping Ace and Marco.

(It takes two weeks for them to heal, no matter how fastSabo was, and a month for Sabo to get off desk duty, but Ace and Marco refuseto do missions when he’s not their handler. They refuse to do anything thatinvolves leaving his side until after he assures them he’s fine, and that hewasn’t just a S.H.I.E.L.D agent because he had a pretty face - though that hadprompted an argument about Sabo’s ‘pretty face’ that he’d had to steadfastlyignore.)

88. LEVERAGE AU MOTHERFUCKER

THIEVES! CON ARTISTS! So this one is actually three different aus in one file - there’s a “MAS but as Leverage” and it starts out as “Ace and Sabo who fill in Every Job They Can (but their specialties are Ace = grifter/hacker and Sabo = hitter/thief and I have reasons, okay) and then they try and run a con on Marco but he’s like Um Excuse Me? And then he gets dragged into their Bullshit snickers. Oh ALSO they ONE THOUSAND PERCENT do not realise they are Madly In Love With Him (but he does. And he’s trying to be patient. But also. Dying. Because wow it’s kinda awkward being in love with. two daredevil thieves)

The second one in the doc is the Leverage trio in the OP world, ‘cause duh, and Parker starts off like…trying to steal kids from being SMILE experiments? and hires Eliot and Hardison to help her. Um I think I wanted to give Hardison a DF?? But I had a whole list: there was altering people’s sight/perceptions, being able to edit vision/specifics of reality in lines of like, code?? (aka he could do Little Changes but they could affect Big Things, a butterfly effect sort of DF). A lot of them were trying to give him a way to…manipulate stuff in a world where tech wasn’t as big a thing.  

And the third one is ASL leverage! Marco still gets dragged into the disaster but it’s more found family stuff. 

14. Lantern Lights

Lantern Lights is technically posted [here] under “all the light we cannot hold” BUT I have MORE. I wanted to make it longer when I originally posted it - mainly because Lea asked for angst - but I ended up running out of time (I am………so bad at deadlines, jfc). Plus, with all the things I wanted to include it honestly would’ve turned into something RIDICULOUSLY long and I was already pushing 5k when gifts were a minimum of 1k.

This was the original start / end bracketing.

START:

HiAce.

Hispencil hesitated above the empty page, only a single lead smudge marring theotherwise blank paper, and Sabo sighed softly. Eraser nub ticking against thedesk, he bit his lower lip and tried to think of what else to write. He had somuch to say – about Marco, and the Whitebeards, and about the new friends he’dslowly been making, like Koala and Hack and even the standoffish, arrogant Law,but it’d been so long since he sat down to write Ace a letter that the wordsseemed to have vanished.

Hi Ace, heread, as though the greeting would organise what he wanted to say intoneat lines for him to write. He heaved another sigh, resting his chin in hispalm. Casting his eyes up to the window above his desk he watched as theburning dusk faded into twilight blue and the stars began to shine, silverglints of light that were mirrored by the compound’s lanterns flaring to life.The gleamed against the darkness and Sabo couldn’t help but be reminded ofAce’s fire. How it glowed beneath his skin, lighting him bright red in fury orembarrassment or glorious gold in his joy. Sometimes Sabo couldn’t help butwish – but hope – that Ace was still burning, somewhere out there. In the sky,with the stars-

Hecouldn’t help but selfishly hope that Ace had given part of his fire to Sabo’sheart, to burn within him.

Sabogrowled, burying his face in his hands to try and stop the subtle sting formingin his eyes. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that so many simple things couldremind him of Ace, that undeniable frustration at his uselessness still restedheavy in his every thought, that the feelings he wanted to put to paper wereimpossible to articulate.

Thesharp tip of his pencil cracked as he pressed it into the paper, and the threewords he wrote turned from his usual neat cursive into a jagged scrawl.

I miss you.

END:

-Marco thinks that ouranniversary is the battle, but I don’t like it there. Besides, having ouranniversary on your birthday? You’d expect double gifts, and we can’t havethat.

Sabo’slips quirked into a bitter smile, his eyes drawn up to the small gift stillwrapped on his desk, bow deflated from his constant touches but nonethelessstill stubbornly holding onto the silver wrapping. He’d never had a chance togive Ace his birthday gift, and was sure that Ace wouldn’t have expected it.Would he have even been given gifts, when he’d been kept on the candle wick? Orwould the gift have been an extra moment of freedom, so painfully perfect in its rarity?

Pullinghis hair away from his face, Sabo gently bit his lip and scanned what he’dalready written, trying to figure out what else to say. His fringe curled infront of his eyes when he took up his pen again, but he barely paid attentionto the soft brush of hair against his scar tissue. Two years of having them hadgotten him used to his limited vision and things in front of his face that hecouldn’t see. 

He’d never seen Ace’sflustered thoughts, nor known what each fleeting touch had meant until it had beenfar too late, and couldn’t help but wonder just how blind he’d been back then.

Did I tell you thatMarco finally stopped being chickenshit and used the word ‘boyfriend’? I feellike that counts more as our anniversary than the battle, especially consideringI wasn’t much better about speaking up about “feelings” after you left. Twomonths of not talking over the topic because one third of the topic up and-

It’s pretty stupid ofus, huh?

I mean, you werepretty fucking stupid when you-

Sabocrossed out the last few words with two strokes of thick black ink, his teethgrit in a way that made his head pound.

Regardless, everythingis going fine, now. I’m sure you’d be happy to know that Marco and I havegotten past awkwardly refusing to admit to holding hands and have nowprogressed to awkwardly kissing each other on the cheek (and then refusing toadmit to it, of course. Got to keep consistency). You’d think that as someoneso attention-starved I’d be better at this, but it always feels…not wrong, persay, but, like something is missing because you’re not here.

You’re a dick forthat, Ace.

Anyway, this will bemy last letter for a while. I’m sorry it’s short, but I’m already running late;Koala and I are set to sail with the afternoon tide, for Flevance, and Marco isgoing troll hunting. Whitebeard heard there was trouble with the gnomes in thefar north mountains, so he’s going to check them out and I want to say goodbyebefore we part ways.

As always;

With love, Sabo.

[mss4msu]

Just Give Me A Chance

Summary: You and Steve have been secretly seeing each other. When he returns from a mission, you let him know that either the secrets end, or your relationship ends.

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader

Words: 2433

Warnings: Language, Angst, Mention of Blood and Wounds

A/N: This was written for @marvelellie‘s 1k celebration. Congrats on 1k!!   I wrote the angst when I was in an angst mood, so it’s REAL angsty.

Your alarm went off pulling you out of a deep sleep. You rolled over and flung your arm out to reach over Steve, but it hit an empty bed. You forced your eyes open and saw Steve putting on his belt and grabbing his bag.

“Steve? Where are you going?” you asked groggily.

“Just got called for a mission. It should be a quick one. It’s just me, Bucky, and Nat. Go hit the gym. Sam will be there waiting for you. Just because I’m on a mission doesn’t mean you can slack off in the gym.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” you pulled yourself out of bed and walked to the closet.

“Have a good day,” Steve pulled you in and kissed you on the forehead.

“You too, be safe out there,” you replied smiling.

“Always am,” Steve saluted you.

“Liar,” you laughed back as he shut the door, knowing full well Steve would sacrifice himself for anyone if he had to.

You changed and trudged down to the gym and greeted Sam with a yawn.

“(Y/N), you’re late,” Sam looked down at his watch.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry,” you wiped the sleep from your eyes.

“Shape up. Even though Steve isn’t here, he left a detailed plan for your training today and clear instructions for me to push you to your limits to see your progress.”

“Great,” you said through gritted teeth.

You got on the treadmill and Sam set your resistance and speed. As you began to run, you began to think. While you and Steve knew that you were seeing each other, no one else on the team did. Steve had thought it best that you keep things between the two of you so that the team wouldn’t think he was favoring you in training and mission assignments just because he was favoring you in the bedroom. When you had first joined the team, the two of you had been very flirtatious, and when you finally mustered the courage and proposed a date you had been teased by every single person on the team. Steve was quickly teased too, and you both couldn’t go anywhere together without murmured whispers following you. Steve told you he would agree to the date, so long as the team didn’t know. He began to work you harder in trainings, believing that it would show the team that you had no special treatment, and he convinced you that the harder he pushed you, the less people would think you were actually together. While it had been fun and sexy to sneak around in the beginning, Steve’s rigorous schedule for you soon had everyone believing he loathed you, which didn’t feel any better than their whispers that you were in love. While you thought it was bullshit, you were too afraid that telling him you wanted to go public would mean losing him.

“Alright, (Y/N), enough cardio. Steve has you lifting today and trying to max out different machines.”

“Fantastic,” you muttered angrily. He better come back to this machine prepared to give me a full body massage, you thought to yourself.

You pushed yourself to your limits in every single drill and lift Sam directed you to do.

Sam checked through the list he had from Steve, “Ok, (Y/N), that’s it for the day. Good work.”

“Oh that’s it?” you asked sarcastically.

“No talking back. Steve was very clear that I should not tolerate your sarchasm.”

“Of course he fucking was,” you muttered, “Steve loves making rules.” (Steve had made very clear rules for your relationship. Any overnight visits happened in your room so he could act like he was delivering a mission to you if someone saw him leave. During hangouts or meals in public spaces, you had to be joined by at least one other person if you were to sit next to each other, otherwise you had to have at least one seat seperating you at all times. He was very clear that there were to be no offsite meals together, ever, because the public could easily snap a picture of you two and start even more issues. There could be no physical contact between the two of you unless it was in the gym and it was absolutely necessary. The list of rules went on. He had written out a copy and told you to keep it on your bedside table.)

“Whatever that is supposed to mean,” Sam replied, “Go shower and cool off.”

“Yes, sir,” you saluted him sarcastically and left before he could scold you.

You were toweling off your hair when you heard a frantic knock on your door.

“(Y/N)! Hurry up in there and hurry to the med center! There were complications on the mission!” Sam yelled from outside your door.

“Fuck, I’ll meet you there!” You yelled, grabbing the closest clean clothes you could find and sprinting to the medical center.

As you pushed the door open you saw Bucky grunting in pain as a bullet was pulled from his shoulder, Natasha was getting her bleeding leg bandaged, and Steve was unconscious with an IV of saline.

“What the fuck happened??” you yelled anxiously, running to Steve’s bedside.

“There were more Hydra agents than we bargained for,” Bucky grunted as another bullet was pulled from his flesh arm.

“At least we all got out of there alive, which is more than can be said for them,” Natasha said, wincing as tried to sit up in her bed.

“So much for an easy mission,” you said aloud, instantly realizing the mistake you had made.

“Easy mission?” Bucky asked with a raised eyebrow as Bruce bandaged up his shoulder.

“I saw Steve leave as I was going to the gym because he wanted me to know that he wasn’t going to be there for my training and he said it should be no problem,” you rambled in one breath.

“Well, it was supposed to be, but it obviously wasn’t,” Tony said, checking everyone’s vitals. “Barnes and Romanoff, you two are good to go if you’d like to recover in your rooms for more comfort.”

“Any word on when Steve will be awake?” you asked nervously.

“He was shoving Nat and I out of the way from a sniper when he was attacked from behind and knocked out. But he’s a super soldier, so it should wear off soon,” Bucky replied, hoisting himself off the bed to leave.

“Why are you asking?” Natasha asked with a smirk, as Bruce and Sam helped her off her bed.

“I wanted to give him a piece of my mind for the workout he made Sam give me this morning,” you tried to cover up.

“Well, you can wait in here for him to wake up if you want,” Tony said, holding open the door for Bucky.

“Yeah, I think I will,” you replied, pulling up a chair to Steve’s bed as everyone left the medical center.

As you sat you began to think about what had happened that day. You woke up and got a kiss and a promise from Steve, which was very good. Then you went to the gym and had to do an intense workout to keep up your cover, which was annoying. Then you were told that Steve was hurt in the line of duty, which was very bad. Finally, by being concerned about Steve, you raised suspicion about your relationship, but were not able to confirm or deny anything, which was gut-wrenching. The more you thought about the progression of the day, the more angry and sick you felt.

You were so livid, you didn’t even notice that Steve’s eyes had blinked open. His hand slowly moved on top of yours, causing you to jump.

“What the fuck?!” you yelled out.

“(Y/N)? What happened?”

“Bucky said you pushed he and Nat out of the way to save them, and then you got attacked from behind and got knocked the fuck out,” you spit at him.

“Ok. What’s wrong, (Y/N)?”

“Everything. Everything between us is fucking wrong.”

“Why is it wrong? What do you mean? What happened?” He asked you with confusion in his eyes and in his voice.  

“Steve, I’m fucking tired of this bullshit. Every day I sit around fucking waiting for you. Waiting for you to come to my room, waiting for us to be alone in private, waiting for you to fucking tell your friends, OUR friends, the truth about our relationship and you never fuckign do. Then today I had to fucking sit around waiting to see if you would actually wake up again! You wanted to keep our relationship all secretive so as to not disrupt the flow of the team, well guess what, that means I have no fucking clue what I’m allowed to feel or what I’m supposed to feel or what I even fucking want to feel. You fucking went out on a mission and did the fucking hero thing and almost got yourself fucking killed. And guess what, if you died, no one would fucking know about us. I’m here concerned about you and getting fucking questions from Bucky and Nat about why I care and I can’t fucking answer it because I can’t let them know about us. There isn’t even really an us is there, though? Is that always your master plan? Never fully commit to a woman so that in the event of a near-death tragedy less people get hurt? That’s some real fucking bullshit, Captain. What, so you die and then I’m stuck grieving by myself and everyone wonders why the fuck I took it so hard because it’s not like we were even a couple. Fuck everyone thinks you hate me because of how hard you push me in training. This is a fucking bullshit relationship, Steve, and fuck I’m sick of it. I don’t even think you’re worth it anymore. I’m done with whatever the fuck it is that we were doing here.”

“(Y/N), please. Don’t say that,” Steve’s eyes were red and there were tears streaming down his face. “Oh, now you’re going to fucking cry? No one is here Steve, stop fucking acting. But amazing performance, Cap. Remind me to buy some fucking war bonds from you,” you slow clapped at him.

“I’m not fucking acting,” his ripped the saline IV from his hand so he could use it to wipe his dripping nose.

“Ha. Why should I fucking believe that? You’ve lied to me before, like this morning when you said this mission would be easy. And our whole relationship is basically a fucking lie, so why the fuck would I believe you now? Remember when two months ago you said, ‘(Y/N), we’ll tell the team soon I promise,’? I can’t believe shit you say.”

“(Y/N), I’m sorry.” “Steve, I really don’t care.”

“(Y/N), please. I need you to believe me. I need you to trust me. I need you to love me.”

His blue eyes pierced yours and sent a shiver up your spine. You were in too much of an angry haze to give in now, and you weren’t even sure if you wanted to.

“Love?” you spit at him.

“Yes. (Y/N), I love you. None of this is fake for me.”

“Ha! How is it not fake when you act like you fucking hate me every day until you come to my room at night?”

“(Y/N), I fell in love with you the first time I laid eyes on you. I made all those rules for us, because I saw how everyone made fun of you when you first asked me out and I was afraid that they would ruin this relationship. I was afraid that if they continued to make fun of us for dating, you would give up on me. I was afraid that they would cause the end of us. I had no idea that it would be my rules that would push you away.”

Steve was now sobbing, and you felt your anger start to subside.    

“(Y/N), I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I don’t want to lose you.”

“Steve, I can’t keep living like this. I don’t want us to be a secret. I can’t worry about you all by myself without being able to confide in anyone.” Now you were crying too.

“(Y/N), I promise it won’t be. Shit, I’ll call everyone in here right now and tell them. Please, Please, just give me a chance.”

You were staring at your lap as you took deep breaths in and out as Steve held your hand tightly.

You finally looked up and met Steve’s eyes. Both of you had tears running down your cheeks.

“Fine. You will get a chance. But you have to call them all in here now, just like you said.”

Steve broke into a smile. “Deal,” he pushed the ‘Avengers Assemble’ button on his watch.

Soon the room was filled to the brim with every member of the team within a 5 mile radius. Those that couldn’t make it physically were brought in on Skype.

“Everyone, I have an important announcement,” Steve told them all, “(Y/N) and I are dating. We have been for months and we have kept it a secret so that there would be no ideas of favoritism and so that no one would make fun of us,” Steve trailed off.

“Anything you want to add?” he whispered to you.

“Nope,” you whispered back, beaming at Steve.

The room broke into laughter and applause.

“About fucking time you actually told us,” Bucky said, shaking your hand.

“What do you mean?” you asked, confused.

“We’ve literally known for months,” Nat replied, gently patting Steve on the shoulder with a smile.  

“Why else would you have always have had those ridiculously intense workouts?” Sam said with a laugh.

“Plus, I’ve seen Cap sneaking out of your room in the morning,” Tony tousled Steve’s hair. “I have late nights in the lab, not much gets past me,” he winked at you.

“Well fuck us,” you laughed, unable to believe you had just been so mad at Steve for something everyone had already known.

“We don’t need to, you have each other,” Nat winked at you.

“I think that’s our cue to leave,” Bruce said, looking around the room and nodding towards the door.

“Yes, please do,” Steve replied, the pupils of his eyes dilating as he licked his lips at you.

You giggled and kissed Steve, not caring that everyone in the room was watching.

Permanent Tag List:

@sophiealiice

[epackingvietnam]

How We Increased Our Client’s Leads by 751% on Less Than £1K Per Month [Case Study]

Posted by LydiaGerman

It’s a common misunderstanding that working with a small budget for SEO means you can’t generate results. How can you possibly make enough improvements to the site in so few hours per month?

Well, for us at Tao Digital Marketing, our work with Fleetcover goes to show that results can be achieved by focusing on the most important changes in the little time you have.

In this case study, we’ll break down how we increased leads by 751%, keywords by 259% and impressions by 535% on a budget of less than £1,000 / $1,347 per month, equating to one day’s work. That’s a small spend for SEO, but making the right changes at the right time, and focusing our efforts on the most important aspects, generated these positive results.

Objectives

Our objectives were similar to what every website ultimately wants to achieve: generate leads for the business and increase online visibility for relevant search terms.

To be a little more specific, we picked this client up in March 2019, but of course, results generally started to pick up from November 2019 as Google started to crawl the site more regularly.

Our targets/KPIs for the next 12 months were based on numbers from April-November 2019, as below:

Increase leads from 175 to 500

Install a new chat function on the site and gain 50 leads through it

Increase site clicks from 2,200 to 5,000

Increase keywords ranked for from 229 to 500

The target audience was businesses that need fleet insurance. This spans a wide range of industries, from those operating coaches and taxis through to motor trade.

Our strategy focused on technical SEO and content creation. There was one big issue, though: we didn’t build the site ourselves, nor did we have the level of access that would allow us to make any design or fundamental changes that could support SEO and lead generation. In turn, our strategy had to be heavily content-driven.

Our strategy

1. Add a chat function

In November 2019, we added the ‘TawkTo’ chat function to the site which has helped generate leads. After analyzing when their audience was visiting the website, we found that most users were on the site late at night and on weekends.

With their team being out of the office and unable to answer any phone calls during these timeframes, we thought it would be of value to offer an online chat function to help capture inquiries so potential customers wouldn’t be put off or frustrated! This would put them at an advantage compared to their competitors who were not doing this.

We implemented the bot so it appears on the tab as a message notification, drawing people’s attention to the page even when it isn’t the active tab. So far, 330 inquiries have been made through this function.



Fleetcover Chat Bot

  2. Implement technical SEO

Tweaks that support technical SEO are perhaps some of the most important changes you can make to see real results. We implemented this by:

Optimizing page titles

Creating meta descriptions that were between 100-155 characters, using keywords that naturally fit

Using the optimal image sizes that each website required

Using alt text for images

Implementing internal and external links where possible

Utilizing FAQ schema on the more frequently searched questions

Optimizing the sitemap by getting rid of URLs that wouldn't support organic search

Using the robots.txt file to point search crawlers in the right direction

Creating 301 redirects. There were a number of outdated pages as well as 404 errors that needed to be addressed

Making usability tweaks to the design. We were very limited in what we could achieve on the site as the incumbent were not massively helpful in terms of the access they would give us. We were able to get round this in certain areas, an example being the ‘Get a Quote’ buttons. We had a feeling user metrics mattered in this competitive market, so we did our utmost to capitalise on this.

3. Optimize the “Get a Quote” form

We added heat mapping and anonymized visitor recording to the site. When we analyzed the data, it became very apparent that many people weren’t filling out the “Get a Quote'' form due to it being too long — like standing at the bottom of a mountain, trying to work out the right route to the top! The original form had almost 10 questions, which overwhelmed the user and resulted in low conversion rates.

Step one of Fleetcover Quote form

Step two of Fleetcover Quote form

We’ve had great success using multi-step forms on other client’s sites, so we decided to create one for Fleetcover. We had all the questions needed to provide a full quotation, but split it all up into easier-to-digest tabs and user-designed icons, rather than just text.

Our new form was built creatively and had four steps, making the process easier. With this change alone, leads from the form grew from 175 before November 2019 to 1,489 over the past 12 months (751% increase).

4. Focus heavily on content creation

Example of Fleetcover service page (HGV fleet insurance)

Service pages

Content creation is an area where we really got the chance to demonstrate creative flair alongside data analysis. We started by reviewing Fleetcover’s service pages, and fleshed out the content to make it more engaging.

Example of Fleetcover service page (FAQs)

Keyword research and search intent

Over time, we continued to research keywords, focusing heavily on understanding the search intent behind them, and creating detailed content and FAQs to meet the audience’s needs and Google's understanding of those intents.

One topic we’ve been focusing on is the rise of electric vehicles and how this will grow and affect the insurance industry. As the development and popularity of these vehicles progresses, we’re going to look at how we can use this in our content strategy.

Formatting and style

Including clear, natural CTAs at the end of each piece was really important, not only to round out the articles, but also to encourage readers to use Fleetcover’s broker service. See an example from our piece about business car insurance below.

In addition, utilizing a simple but effective tone of voice helped to meet the needs of potential consumers and give them the information they need in a straightforward way. When focusing on keywords/phrases that contain industry jargon, we always include information about what the word or phrase means for those with informational intent about a particular topic, for example ‘fleet breakdown cover’.

Results

Sales

We achieved the goal of gaining more sales, as website conversion rates jumped from 3% to 14%, and leads increased from 175 to 1,489 (751%). This massive increase (pleasantly) surprised us as we are working with a site with a domain authority of 22 in a competitive industry, so to achieve these results so quickly was a great boost for both ourselves and Fleetcover.

Fleetcover was previously spending a considerable amount on purchasing leads from other companies, whereas now they have invested into SEO, which has significantly increased the number of leads they generate. With SEO, these leads are of a higher quality than PPC leads, and are therefore more likely to use their services. There is little need for Fleetcover to purchase leads now, as the business is becoming its own profitable arm of Walmsleys Insurance Brokers.

Rankings

We’ve helped Fleetcover gain online visibility for certain keywords such as “fleet insurance brokers” (#1) and “fleet insurance quote” (#2). Their positioning for “Fleet breakdown cover” has also moved from #15 to #4, and “fleet insurance quote” has moved from #10 to #2. The main benefit of these ranking improvements is the huge increase in traffic!

We also gained top spot for the main keyword of “fleet insurance”, but this has since been taken by one of the juggernauts (excuse the pun) of the industry. We’ll be back, but for now, domain authority reigned supreme.

In April 2019, Fleetcover was only ranking for 229 keywords, and they now rank for 824, a 259% increase.

Traffic

As mentioned, we saw results beginning in November as Google crawled the site more actively and found more relevant content. Therefore, April - November 2019 is our “before” comparison for what we’ve managed to achieve over the past 12 months:

April - November 2019:

Impressions: 296,000

Clicks: 2,220

November 2019 - November 2020:

Impressions: 1,880,000 (up 322%)

Clicks: 6,470 (up 194%)

Thanks to more than exceeding our set KPI goals, we were shortlisted for three SEO awards this year, and Fleetcover’s CEO had only good things to say:

“For years we’ve been looking for a company to do exactly what you have done and I can honestly say in 12 years of being involved in marketing, this is the first time that any marketing company has proactively gone ahead and done something for us in this way. I’ve whinged about it for so long that it made my day when it dropped in my inbox. Really chuffed.”

Well, that just speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

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

#túi_giấy_epacking_việt_nam #túi_giấy_epacking #in_túi_giấy_giá_rẻ #in_túi_giấy #epackingvietnam #tuigiayepacking

[bfxenon]

How We Increased Our Client’s Leads by 751% on Less Than £1K Per Month [Case Study]

Posted by LydiaGerman

It’s a common misunderstanding that working with a small budget for SEO means you can’t generate results. How can you possibly make enough improvements to the site in so few hours per month?

Well, for us at Tao Digital Marketing, our work with Fleetcover goes to show that results can be achieved by focusing on the most important changes in the little time you have.

In this case study, we’ll break down how we increased leads by 751%, keywords by 259% and impressions by 535% on a budget of less than £1,000 / $1,347 per month, equating to one day’s work. That’s a small spend for SEO, but making the right changes at the right time, and focusing our efforts on the most important aspects, generated these positive results.

Objectives

Our objectives were similar to what every website ultimately wants to achieve: generate leads for the business and increase online visibility for relevant search terms.

To be a little more specific, we picked this client up in March 2019, but of course, results generally started to pick up from November 2019 as Google started to crawl the site more regularly.

Our targets/KPIs for the next 12 months were based on numbers from April-November 2019, as below:

Increase leads from 175 to 500

Install a new chat function on the site and gain 50 leads through it

Increase site clicks from 2,200 to 5,000

Increase keywords ranked for from 229 to 500

The target audience was businesses that need fleet insurance. This spans a wide range of industries, from those operating coaches and taxis through to motor trade.

Our strategy focused on technical SEO and content creation. There was one big issue, though: we didn’t build the site ourselves, nor did we have the level of access that would allow us to make any design or fundamental changes that could support SEO and lead generation. In turn, our strategy had to be heavily content-driven.

Our strategy

1. Add a chat function

In November 2019, we added the ‘TawkTo’ chat function to the site which has helped generate leads. After analyzing when their audience was visiting the website, we found that most users were on the site late at night and on weekends.

With their team being out of the office and unable to answer any phone calls during these timeframes, we thought it would be of value to offer an online chat function to help capture inquiries so potential customers wouldn’t be put off or frustrated! This would put them at an advantage compared to their competitors who were not doing this.

We implemented the bot so it appears on the tab as a message notification, drawing people’s attention to the page even when it isn’t the active tab. So far, 330 inquiries have been made through this function.



Fleetcover Chat Bot

  2. Implement technical SEO

Tweaks that support technical SEO are perhaps some of the most important changes you can make to see real results. We implemented this by:

Optimizing page titles

Creating meta descriptions that were between 100-155 characters, using keywords that naturally fit

Using the optimal image sizes that each website required

Using alt text for images

Implementing internal and external links where possible

Utilizing FAQ schema on the more frequently searched questions

Optimizing the sitemap by getting rid of URLs that wouldn't support organic search

Using the robots.txt file to point search crawlers in the right direction

Creating 301 redirects. There were a number of outdated pages as well as 404 errors that needed to be addressed

Making usability tweaks to the design. We were very limited in what we could achieve on the site as the incumbent were not massively helpful in terms of the access they would give us. We were able to get round this in certain areas, an example being the ‘Get a Quote’ buttons. We had a feeling user metrics mattered in this competitive market, so we did our utmost to capitalise on this.

3. Optimize the “Get a Quote” form

We added heat mapping and anonymized visitor recording to the site. When we analyzed the data, it became very apparent that many people weren’t filling out the “Get a Quote'' form due to it being too long — like standing at the bottom of a mountain, trying to work out the right route to the top! The original form had almost 10 questions, which overwhelmed the user and resulted in low conversion rates.

Step one of Fleetcover Quote form

Step two of Fleetcover Quote form

We’ve had great success using multi-step forms on other client’s sites, so we decided to create one for Fleetcover. We had all the questions needed to provide a full quotation, but split it all up into easier-to-digest tabs and user-designed icons, rather than just text.

Our new form was built creatively and had four steps, making the process easier. With this change alone, leads from the form grew from 175 before November 2019 to 1,489 over the past 12 months (751% increase).

4. Focus heavily on content creation

Example of Fleetcover service page (HGV fleet insurance)

Service pages

Content creation is an area where we really got the chance to demonstrate creative flair alongside data analysis. We started by reviewing Fleetcover’s service pages, and fleshed out the content to make it more engaging.

Example of Fleetcover service page (FAQs)

Keyword research and search intent

Over time, we continued to research keywords, focusing heavily on understanding the search intent behind them, and creating detailed content and FAQs to meet the audience’s needs and Google's understanding of those intents.

One topic we’ve been focusing on is the rise of electric vehicles and how this will grow and affect the insurance industry. As the development and popularity of these vehicles progresses, we’re going to look at how we can use this in our content strategy.

Formatting and style

Including clear, natural CTAs at the end of each piece was really important, not only to round out the articles, but also to encourage readers to use Fleetcover’s broker service. See an example from our piece about business car insurance below.

In addition, utilizing a simple but effective tone of voice helped to meet the needs of potential consumers and give them the information they need in a straightforward way. When focusing on keywords/phrases that contain industry jargon, we always include information about what the word or phrase means for those with informational intent about a particular topic, for example ‘fleet breakdown cover’.

Results

Sales

We achieved the goal of gaining more sales, as website conversion rates jumped from 3% to 14%, and leads increased from 175 to 1,489 (751%). This massive increase (pleasantly) surprised us as we are working with a site with a domain authority of 22 in a competitive industry, so to achieve these results so quickly was a great boost for both ourselves and Fleetcover.

Fleetcover was previously spending a considerable amount on purchasing leads from other companies, whereas now they have invested into SEO, which has significantly increased the number of leads they generate. With SEO, these leads are of a higher quality than PPC leads, and are therefore more likely to use their services. There is little need for Fleetcover to purchase leads now, as the business is becoming its own profitable arm of Walmsleys Insurance Brokers.

Rankings

We’ve helped Fleetcover gain online visibility for certain keywords such as “fleet insurance brokers” (#1) and “fleet insurance quote” (#2). Their positioning for “Fleet breakdown cover” has also moved from #15 to #4, and “fleet insurance quote” has moved from #10 to #2. The main benefit of these ranking improvements is the huge increase in traffic!

We also gained top spot for the main keyword of “fleet insurance”, but this has since been taken by one of the juggernauts (excuse the pun) of the industry. We’ll be back, but for now, domain authority reigned supreme.

In April 2019, Fleetcover was only ranking for 229 keywords, and they now rank for 824, a 259% increase.

Traffic

As mentioned, we saw results beginning in November as Google crawled the site more actively and found more relevant content. Therefore, April - November 2019 is our “before” comparison for what we’ve managed to achieve over the past 12 months:

April - November 2019:

Impressions: 296,000

Clicks: 2,220

November 2019 - November 2020:

Impressions: 1,880,000 (up 322%)

Clicks: 6,470 (up 194%)

Thanks to more than exceeding our set KPI goals, we were shortlisted for three SEO awards this year, and Fleetcover’s CEO had only good things to say:

“For years we’ve been looking for a company to do exactly what you have done and I can honestly say in 12 years of being involved in marketing, this is the first time that any marketing company has proactively gone ahead and done something for us in this way. I’ve whinged about it for so long that it made my day when it dropped in my inbox. Really chuffed.”

Well, that just speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

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

[nutrifami]

How We Increased Our Client’s Leads by 751% on Less Than £1K Per Month [Case Study]

Posted by LydiaGerman

It’s a common misunderstanding that working with a small budget for SEO means you can’t generate results. How can you possibly make enough improvements to the site in so few hours per month?

Well, for us at Tao Digital Marketing, our work with Fleetcover goes to show that results can be achieved by focusing on the most important changes in the little time you have.

In this case study, we’ll break down how we increased leads by 751%, keywords by 259% and impressions by 535% on a budget of less than £1,000 / $1,347 per month, equating to one day’s work. That’s a small spend for SEO, but making the right changes at the right time, and focusing our efforts on the most important aspects, generated these positive results.

Objectives

Our objectives were similar to what every website ultimately wants to achieve: generate leads for the business and increase online visibility for relevant search terms.

To be a little more specific, we picked this client up in March 2019, but of course, results generally started to pick up from November 2019 as Google started to crawl the site more regularly.

Our targets/KPIs for the next 12 months were based on numbers from April-November 2019, as below:

Increase leads from 175 to 500

Install a new chat function on the site and gain 50 leads through it

Increase site clicks from 2,200 to 5,000

Increase keywords ranked for from 229 to 500

The target audience was businesses that need fleet insurance. This spans a wide range of industries, from those operating coaches and taxis through to motor trade.

Our strategy focused on technical SEO and content creation. There was one big issue, though: we didn’t build the site ourselves, nor did we have the level of access that would allow us to make any design or fundamental changes that could support SEO and lead generation. In turn, our strategy had to be heavily content-driven.

Our strategy

1. Add a chat function

In November 2019, we added the ‘TawkTo’ chat function to the site which has helped generate leads. After analyzing when their audience was visiting the website, we found that most users were on the site late at night and on weekends.

With their team being out of the office and unable to answer any phone calls during these timeframes, we thought it would be of value to offer an online chat function to help capture inquiries so potential customers wouldn’t be put off or frustrated! This would put them at an advantage compared to their competitors who were not doing this.

We implemented the bot so it appears on the tab as a message notification, drawing people’s attention to the page even when it isn’t the active tab. So far, 330 inquiries have been made through this function.



Fleetcover Chat Bot

  2. Implement technical SEO

Tweaks that support technical SEO are perhaps some of the most important changes you can make to see real results. We implemented this by:

Optimizing page titles

Creating meta descriptions that were between 100-155 characters, using keywords that naturally fit

Using the optimal image sizes that each website required

Using alt text for images

Implementing internal and external links where possible

Utilizing FAQ schema on the more frequently searched questions

Optimizing the sitemap by getting rid of URLs that wouldn't support organic search

Using the robots.txt file to point search crawlers in the right direction

Creating 301 redirects. There were a number of outdated pages as well as 404 errors that needed to be addressed

Making usability tweaks to the design. We were very limited in what we could achieve on the site as the incumbent were not massively helpful in terms of the access they would give us. We were able to get round this in certain areas, an example being the ‘Get a Quote’ buttons. We had a feeling user metrics mattered in this competitive market, so we did our utmost to capitalise on this.

3. Optimize the “Get a Quote” form

We added heat mapping and anonymized visitor recording to the site. When we analyzed the data, it became very apparent that many people weren’t filling out the “Get a Quote'' form due to it being too long — like standing at the bottom of a mountain, trying to work out the right route to the top! The original form had almost 10 questions, which overwhelmed the user and resulted in low conversion rates.

Step one of Fleetcover Quote form

Step two of Fleetcover Quote form

We’ve had great success using multi-step forms on other client’s sites, so we decided to create one for Fleetcover. We had all the questions needed to provide a full quotation, but split it all up into easier-to-digest tabs and user-designed icons, rather than just text.

Our new form was built creatively and had four steps, making the process easier. With this change alone, leads from the form grew from 175 before November 2019 to 1,489 over the past 12 months (751% increase).

4. Focus heavily on content creation

Example of Fleetcover service page (HGV fleet insurance)

Service pages

Content creation is an area where we really got the chance to demonstrate creative flair alongside data analysis. We started by reviewing Fleetcover’s service pages, and fleshed out the content to make it more engaging.

Example of Fleetcover service page (FAQs)

Keyword research and search intent

Over time, we continued to research keywords, focusing heavily on understanding the search intent behind them, and creating detailed content and FAQs to meet the audience’s needs and Google's understanding of those intents.

One topic we’ve been focusing on is the rise of electric vehicles and how this will grow and affect the insurance industry. As the development and popularity of these vehicles progresses, we’re going to look at how we can use this in our content strategy.

Formatting and style

Including clear, natural CTAs at the end of each piece was really important, not only to round out the articles, but also to encourage readers to use Fleetcover’s broker service. See an example from our piece about business car insurance below.

In addition, utilizing a simple but effective tone of voice helped to meet the needs of potential consumers and give them the information they need in a straightforward way. When focusing on keywords/phrases that contain industry jargon, we always include information about what the word or phrase means for those with informational intent about a particular topic, for example ‘fleet breakdown cover’.

Results

Sales

We achieved the goal of gaining more sales, as website conversion rates jumped from 3% to 14%, and leads increased from 175 to 1,489 (751%). This massive increase (pleasantly) surprised us as we are working with a site with a domain authority of 22 in a competitive industry, so to achieve these results so quickly was a great boost for both ourselves and Fleetcover.

Fleetcover was previously spending a considerable amount on purchasing leads from other companies, whereas now they have invested into SEO, which has significantly increased the number of leads they generate. With SEO, these leads are of a higher quality than PPC leads, and are therefore more likely to use their services. There is little need for Fleetcover to purchase leads now, as the business is becoming its own profitable arm of Walmsleys Insurance Brokers.

Rankings

We’ve helped Fleetcover gain online visibility for certain keywords such as “fleet insurance brokers” (#1) and “fleet insurance quote” (#2). Their positioning for “Fleet breakdown cover” has also moved from #15 to #4, and “fleet insurance quote” has moved from #10 to #2. The main benefit of these ranking improvements is the huge increase in traffic!

We also gained top spot for the main keyword of “fleet insurance”, but this has since been taken by one of the juggernauts (excuse the pun) of the industry. We’ll be back, but for now, domain authority reigned supreme.

In April 2019, Fleetcover was only ranking for 229 keywords, and they now rank for 824, a 259% increase.

Traffic

As mentioned, we saw results beginning in November as Google crawled the site more actively and found more relevant content. Therefore, April - November 2019 is our “before” comparison for what we’ve managed to achieve over the past 12 months:

April - November 2019:

Impressions: 296,000

Clicks: 2,220

November 2019 - November 2020:

Impressions: 1,880,000 (up 322%)

Clicks: 6,470 (up 194%)

Thanks to more than exceeding our set KPI goals, we were shortlisted for three SEO awards this year, and Fleetcover’s CEO had only good things to say:

“For years we’ve been looking for a company to do exactly what you have done and I can honestly say in 12 years of being involved in marketing, this is the first time that any marketing company has proactively gone ahead and done something for us in this way. I’ve whinged about it for so long that it made my day when it dropped in my inbox. Really chuffed.”

Well, that just speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

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

[xaydungtruonggia]

How We Increased Our Client’s Leads by 751% on Less Than £1K Per Month [Case Study]

Posted by LydiaGerman

It’s a common misunderstanding that working with a small budget for SEO means you can’t generate results. How can you possibly make enough improvements to the site in so few hours per month?

Well, for us at Tao Digital Marketing, our work with Fleetcover goes to show that results can be achieved by focusing on the most important changes in the little time you have.

In this case study, we’ll break down how we increased leads by 751%, keywords by 259% and impressions by 535% on a budget of less than £1,000 / $1,347 per month, equating to one day’s work. That’s a small spend for SEO, but making the right changes at the right time, and focusing our efforts on the most important aspects, generated these positive results.

Objectives

Our objectives were similar to what every website ultimately wants to achieve: generate leads for the business and increase online visibility for relevant search terms.

To be a little more specific, we picked this client up in March 2019, but of course, results generally started to pick up from November 2019 as Google started to crawl the site more regularly.

Our targets/KPIs for the next 12 months were based on numbers from April-November 2019, as below:

Increase leads from 175 to 500

Install a new chat function on the site and gain 50 leads through it

Increase site clicks from 2,200 to 5,000

Increase keywords ranked for from 229 to 500

The target audience was businesses that need fleet insurance. This spans a wide range of industries, from those operating coaches and taxis through to motor trade.

Our strategy focused on technical SEO and content creation. There was one big issue, though: we didn’t build the site ourselves, nor did we have the level of access that would allow us to make any design or fundamental changes that could support SEO and lead generation. In turn, our strategy had to be heavily content-driven.

Our strategy

1. Add a chat function

In November 2019, we added the ‘TawkTo’ chat function to the site which has helped generate leads. After analyzing when their audience was visiting the website, we found that most users were on the site late at night and on weekends.

With their team being out of the office and unable to answer any phone calls during these timeframes, we thought it would be of value to offer an online chat function to help capture inquiries so potential customers wouldn’t be put off or frustrated! This would put them at an advantage compared to their competitors who were not doing this.

We implemented the bot so it appears on the tab as a message notification, drawing people’s attention to the page even when it isn’t the active tab. So far, 330 inquiries have been made through this function.



Fleetcover Chat Bot

  2. Implement technical SEO

Tweaks that support technical SEO are perhaps some of the most important changes you can make to see real results. We implemented this by:

Optimizing page titles

Creating meta descriptions that were between 100-155 characters, using keywords that naturally fit

Using the optimal image sizes that each website required

Using alt text for images

Implementing internal and external links where possible

Utilizing FAQ schema on the more frequently searched questions

Optimizing the sitemap by getting rid of URLs that wouldn't support organic search

Using the robots.txt file to point search crawlers in the right direction

Creating 301 redirects. There were a number of outdated pages as well as 404 errors that needed to be addressed

Making usability tweaks to the design. We were very limited in what we could achieve on the site as the incumbent were not massively helpful in terms of the access they would give us. We were able to get round this in certain areas, an example being the ‘Get a Quote’ buttons. We had a feeling user metrics mattered in this competitive market, so we did our utmost to capitalise on this.

3. Optimize the “Get a Quote” form

We added heat mapping and anonymized visitor recording to the site. When we analyzed the data, it became very apparent that many people weren’t filling out the “Get a Quote'' form due to it being too long — like standing at the bottom of a mountain, trying to work out the right route to the top! The original form had almost 10 questions, which overwhelmed the user and resulted in low conversion rates.

Step one of Fleetcover Quote form

Step two of Fleetcover Quote form

We’ve had great success using multi-step forms on other client’s sites, so we decided to create one for Fleetcover. We had all the questions needed to provide a full quotation, but split it all up into easier-to-digest tabs and user-designed icons, rather than just text.

Our new form was built creatively and had four steps, making the process easier. With this change alone, leads from the form grew from 175 before November 2019 to 1,489 over the past 12 months (751% increase).

4. Focus heavily on content creation

Example of Fleetcover service page (HGV fleet insurance)

Service pages

Content creation is an area where we really got the chance to demonstrate creative flair alongside data analysis. We started by reviewing Fleetcover’s service pages, and fleshed out the content to make it more engaging.

Example of Fleetcover service page (FAQs)

Keyword research and search intent

Over time, we continued to research keywords, focusing heavily on understanding the search intent behind them, and creating detailed content and FAQs to meet the audience’s needs and Google's understanding of those intents.

One topic we’ve been focusing on is the rise of electric vehicles and how this will grow and affect the insurance industry. As the development and popularity of these vehicles progresses, we’re going to look at how we can use this in our content strategy.

Formatting and style

Including clear, natural CTAs at the end of each piece was really important, not only to round out the articles, but also to encourage readers to use Fleetcover’s broker service. See an example from our piece about business car insurance below.

In addition, utilizing a simple but effective tone of voice helped to meet the needs of potential consumers and give them the information they need in a straightforward way. When focusing on keywords/phrases that contain industry jargon, we always include information about what the word or phrase means for those with informational intent about a particular topic, for example ‘fleet breakdown cover’.

Results

Sales

We achieved the goal of gaining more sales, as website conversion rates jumped from 3% to 14%, and leads increased from 175 to 1,489 (751%). This massive increase (pleasantly) surprised us as we are working with a site with a domain authority of 22 in a competitive industry, so to achieve these results so quickly was a great boost for both ourselves and Fleetcover.

Fleetcover was previously spending a considerable amount on purchasing leads from other companies, whereas now they have invested into SEO, which has significantly increased the number of leads they generate. With SEO, these leads are of a higher quality than PPC leads, and are therefore more likely to use their services. There is little need for Fleetcover to purchase leads now, as the business is becoming its own profitable arm of Walmsleys Insurance Brokers.

Rankings

We’ve helped Fleetcover gain online visibility for certain keywords such as “fleet insurance brokers” (#1) and “fleet insurance quote” (#2). Their positioning for “Fleet breakdown cover” has also moved from #15 to #4, and “fleet insurance quote” has moved from #10 to #2. The main benefit of these ranking improvements is the huge increase in traffic!

We also gained top spot for the main keyword of “fleet insurance”, but this has since been taken by one of the juggernauts (excuse the pun) of the industry. We’ll be back, but for now, domain authority reigned supreme.

In April 2019, Fleetcover was only ranking for 229 keywords, and they now rank for 824, a 259% increase.

Traffic

As mentioned, we saw results beginning in November as Google crawled the site more actively and found more relevant content. Therefore, April - November 2019 is our “before” comparison for what we’ve managed to achieve over the past 12 months:

April - November 2019:

Impressions: 296,000

Clicks: 2,220

November 2019 - November 2020:

Impressions: 1,880,000 (up 322%)

Clicks: 6,470 (up 194%)

Thanks to more than exceeding our set KPI goals, we were shortlisted for three SEO awards this year, and Fleetcover’s CEO had only good things to say:

“For years we’ve been looking for a company to do exactly what you have done and I can honestly say in 12 years of being involved in marketing, this is the first time that any marketing company has proactively gone ahead and done something for us in this way. I’ve whinged about it for so long that it made my day when it dropped in my inbox. Really chuffed.”

Well, that just speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

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

[camerasieunhovn]

How We Increased Our Client’s Leads by 751% on Less Than £1K Per Month [Case Study]

Posted by LydiaGerman

It’s a common misunderstanding that working with a small budget for SEO means you can’t generate results. How can you possibly make enough improvements to the site in so few hours per month?

Well, for us at Tao Digital Marketing, our work with Fleetcover goes to show that results can be achieved by focusing on the most important changes in the little time you have.

In this case study, we’ll break down how we increased leads by 751%, keywords by 259% and impressions by 535% on a budget of less than £1,000 / $1,347 per month, equating to one day’s work. That’s a small spend for SEO, but making the right changes at the right time, and focusing our efforts on the most important aspects, generated these positive results.

Objectives

Our objectives were similar to what every website ultimately wants to achieve: generate leads for the business and increase online visibility for relevant search terms.

To be a little more specific, we picked this client up in March 2019, but of course, results generally started to pick up from November 2019 as Google started to crawl the site more regularly.

Our targets/KPIs for the next 12 months were based on numbers from April-November 2019, as below:

Increase leads from 175 to 500

Install a new chat function on the site and gain 50 leads through it

Increase site clicks from 2,200 to 5,000

Increase keywords ranked for from 229 to 500

The target audience was businesses that need fleet insurance. This spans a wide range of industries, from those operating coaches and taxis through to motor trade.

Our strategy focused on technical SEO and content creation. There was one big issue, though: we didn’t build the site ourselves, nor did we have the level of access that would allow us to make any design or fundamental changes that could support SEO and lead generation. In turn, our strategy had to be heavily content-driven.

Our strategy

1. Add a chat function

In November 2019, we added the ‘TawkTo’ chat function to the site which has helped generate leads. After analyzing when their audience was visiting the website, we found that most users were on the site late at night and on weekends.

With their team being out of the office and unable to answer any phone calls during these timeframes, we thought it would be of value to offer an online chat function to help capture inquiries so potential customers wouldn’t be put off or frustrated! This would put them at an advantage compared to their competitors who were not doing this.

We implemented the bot so it appears on the tab as a message notification, drawing people’s attention to the page even when it isn’t the active tab. So far, 330 inquiries have been made through this function.



Fleetcover Chat Bot

  2. Implement technical SEO

Tweaks that support technical SEO are perhaps some of the most important changes you can make to see real results. We implemented this by:

Optimizing page titles

Creating meta descriptions that were between 100-155 characters, using keywords that naturally fit

Using the optimal image sizes that each website required

Using alt text for images

Implementing internal and external links where possible

Utilizing FAQ schema on the more frequently searched questions

Optimizing the sitemap by getting rid of URLs that wouldn't support organic search

Using the robots.txt file to point search crawlers in the right direction

Creating 301 redirects. There were a number of outdated pages as well as 404 errors that needed to be addressed

Making usability tweaks to the design. We were very limited in what we could achieve on the site as the incumbent were not massively helpful in terms of the access they would give us. We were able to get round this in certain areas, an example being the ‘Get a Quote’ buttons. We had a feeling user metrics mattered in this competitive market, so we did our utmost to capitalise on this.

3. Optimize the “Get a Quote” form

We added heat mapping and anonymized visitor recording to the site. When we analyzed the data, it became very apparent that many people weren’t filling out the “Get a Quote'' form due to it being too long — like standing at the bottom of a mountain, trying to work out the right route to the top! The original form had almost 10 questions, which overwhelmed the user and resulted in low conversion rates.

Step one of Fleetcover Quote form

Step two of Fleetcover Quote form

We’ve had great success using multi-step forms on other client’s sites, so we decided to create one for Fleetcover. We had all the questions needed to provide a full quotation, but split it all up into easier-to-digest tabs and user-designed icons, rather than just text.

Our new form was built creatively and had four steps, making the process easier. With this change alone, leads from the form grew from 175 before November 2019 to 1,489 over the past 12 months (751% increase).

4. Focus heavily on content creation

Example of Fleetcover service page (HGV fleet insurance)

Service pages

Content creation is an area where we really got the chance to demonstrate creative flair alongside data analysis. We started by reviewing Fleetcover’s service pages, and fleshed out the content to make it more engaging.

Example of Fleetcover service page (FAQs)

Keyword research and search intent

Over time, we continued to research keywords, focusing heavily on understanding the search intent behind them, and creating detailed content and FAQs to meet the audience’s needs and Google's understanding of those intents.

One topic we’ve been focusing on is the rise of electric vehicles and how this will grow and affect the insurance industry. As the development and popularity of these vehicles progresses, we’re going to look at how we can use this in our content strategy.

Formatting and style

Including clear, natural CTAs at the end of each piece was really important, not only to round out the articles, but also to encourage readers to use Fleetcover’s broker service. See an example from our piece about business car insurance below.

In addition, utilizing a simple but effective tone of voice helped to meet the needs of potential consumers and give them the information they need in a straightforward way. When focusing on keywords/phrases that contain industry jargon, we always include information about what the word or phrase means for those with informational intent about a particular topic, for example ‘fleet breakdown cover’.

Results

Sales

We achieved the goal of gaining more sales, as website conversion rates jumped from 3% to 14%, and leads increased from 175 to 1,489 (751%). This massive increase (pleasantly) surprised us as we are working with a site with a domain authority of 22 in a competitive industry, so to achieve these results so quickly was a great boost for both ourselves and Fleetcover.

Fleetcover was previously spending a considerable amount on purchasing leads from other companies, whereas now they have invested into SEO, which has significantly increased the number of leads they generate. With SEO, these leads are of a higher quality than PPC leads, and are therefore more likely to use their services. There is little need for Fleetcover to purchase leads now, as the business is becoming its own profitable arm of Walmsleys Insurance Brokers.

Rankings

We’ve helped Fleetcover gain online visibility for certain keywords such as “fleet insurance brokers” (#1) and “fleet insurance quote” (#2). Their positioning for “Fleet breakdown cover” has also moved from #15 to #4, and “fleet insurance quote” has moved from #10 to #2. The main benefit of these ranking improvements is the huge increase in traffic!

We also gained top spot for the main keyword of “fleet insurance”, but this has since been taken by one of the juggernauts (excuse the pun) of the industry. We’ll be back, but for now, domain authority reigned supreme.

In April 2019, Fleetcover was only ranking for 229 keywords, and they now rank for 824, a 259% increase.

Traffic

As mentioned, we saw results beginning in November as Google crawled the site more actively and found more relevant content. Therefore, April - November 2019 is our “before” comparison for what we’ve managed to achieve over the past 12 months:

April - November 2019:

Impressions: 296,000

Clicks: 2,220

November 2019 - November 2020:

Impressions: 1,880,000 (up 322%)

Clicks: 6,470 (up 194%)

Thanks to more than exceeding our set KPI goals, we were shortlisted for three SEO awards this year, and Fleetcover’s CEO had only good things to say:

“For years we’ve been looking for a company to do exactly what you have done and I can honestly say in 12 years of being involved in marketing, this is the first time that any marketing company has proactively gone ahead and done something for us in this way. I’ve whinged about it for so long that it made my day when it dropped in my inbox. Really chuffed.”

Well, that just speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

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

[ductrungnguyen87]

How We Increased Our Client’s Leads by 751% on Less Than £1K Per Month [Case Study]

Posted by LydiaGerman

It’s a common misunderstanding that working with a small budget for SEO means you can’t generate results. How can you possibly make enough improvements to the site in so few hours per month?

Well, for us at Tao Digital Marketing, our work with Fleetcover goes to show that results can be achieved by focusing on the most important changes in the little time you have.

In this case study, we’ll break down how we increased leads by 751%, keywords by 259% and impressions by 535% on a budget of less than £1,000 / $1,347 per month, equating to one day’s work. That’s a small spend for SEO, but making the right changes at the right time, and focusing our efforts on the most important aspects, generated these positive results.

Objectives

Our objectives were similar to what every website ultimately wants to achieve: generate leads for the business and increase online visibility for relevant search terms.

To be a little more specific, we picked this client up in March 2019, but of course, results generally started to pick up from November 2019 as Google started to crawl the site more regularly.

Our targets/KPIs for the next 12 months were based on numbers from April-November 2019, as below:

Increase leads from 175 to 500

Install a new chat function on the site and gain 50 leads through it

Increase site clicks from 2,200 to 5,000

Increase keywords ranked for from 229 to 500

The target audience was businesses that need fleet insurance. This spans a wide range of industries, from those operating coaches and taxis through to motor trade.

Our strategy focused on technical SEO and content creation. There was one big issue, though: we didn’t build the site ourselves, nor did we have the level of access that would allow us to make any design or fundamental changes that could support SEO and lead generation. In turn, our strategy had to be heavily content-driven.

Our strategy

1. Add a chat function

In November 2019, we added the ‘TawkTo’ chat function to the site which has helped generate leads. After analyzing when their audience was visiting the website, we found that most users were on the site late at night and on weekends.

With their team being out of the office and unable to answer any phone calls during these timeframes, we thought it would be of value to offer an online chat function to help capture inquiries so potential customers wouldn’t be put off or frustrated! This would put them at an advantage compared to their competitors who were not doing this.

We implemented the bot so it appears on the tab as a message notification, drawing people’s attention to the page even when it isn’t the active tab. So far, 330 inquiries have been made through this function.



Fleetcover Chat Bot

  2. Implement technical SEO

Tweaks that support technical SEO are perhaps some of the most important changes you can make to see real results. We implemented this by:

Optimizing page titles

Creating meta descriptions that were between 100-155 characters, using keywords that naturally fit

Using the optimal image sizes that each website required

Using alt text for images

Implementing internal and external links where possible

Utilizing FAQ schema on the more frequently searched questions

Optimizing the sitemap by getting rid of URLs that wouldn't support organic search

Using the robots.txt file to point search crawlers in the right direction

Creating 301 redirects. There were a number of outdated pages as well as 404 errors that needed to be addressed

Making usability tweaks to the design. We were very limited in what we could achieve on the site as the incumbent were not massively helpful in terms of the access they would give us. We were able to get round this in certain areas, an example being the ‘Get a Quote’ buttons. We had a feeling user metrics mattered in this competitive market, so we did our utmost to capitalise on this.

3. Optimize the “Get a Quote” form

We added heat mapping and anonymized visitor recording to the site. When we analyzed the data, it became very apparent that many people weren’t filling out the “Get a Quote'' form due to it being too long — like standing at the bottom of a mountain, trying to work out the right route to the top! The original form had almost 10 questions, which overwhelmed the user and resulted in low conversion rates.

Step one of Fleetcover Quote form

Step two of Fleetcover Quote form

We’ve had great success using multi-step forms on other client’s sites, so we decided to create one for Fleetcover. We had all the questions needed to provide a full quotation, but split it all up into easier-to-digest tabs and user-designed icons, rather than just text.

Our new form was built creatively and had four steps, making the process easier. With this change alone, leads from the form grew from 175 before November 2019 to 1,489 over the past 12 months (751% increase).

4. Focus heavily on content creation

Example of Fleetcover service page (HGV fleet insurance)

Service pages

Content creation is an area where we really got the chance to demonstrate creative flair alongside data analysis. We started by reviewing Fleetcover’s service pages, and fleshed out the content to make it more engaging.

Example of Fleetcover service page (FAQs)

Keyword research and search intent

Over time, we continued to research keywords, focusing heavily on understanding the search intent behind them, and creating detailed content and FAQs to meet the audience’s needs and Google's understanding of those intents.

One topic we’ve been focusing on is the rise of electric vehicles and how this will grow and affect the insurance industry. As the development and popularity of these vehicles progresses, we’re going to look at how we can use this in our content strategy.

Formatting and style

Including clear, natural CTAs at the end of each piece was really important, not only to round out the articles, but also to encourage readers to use Fleetcover’s broker service. See an example from our piece about business car insurance below.

In addition, utilizing a simple but effective tone of voice helped to meet the needs of potential consumers and give them the information they need in a straightforward way. When focusing on keywords/phrases that contain industry jargon, we always include information about what the word or phrase means for those with informational intent about a particular topic, for example ‘fleet breakdown cover’.

Results

Sales

We achieved the goal of gaining more sales, as website conversion rates jumped from 3% to 14%, and leads increased from 175 to 1,489 (751%). This massive increase (pleasantly) surprised us as we are working with a site with a domain authority of 22 in a competitive industry, so to achieve these results so quickly was a great boost for both ourselves and Fleetcover.

Fleetcover was previously spending a considerable amount on purchasing leads from other companies, whereas now they have invested into SEO, which has significantly increased the number of leads they generate. With SEO, these leads are of a higher quality than PPC leads, and are therefore more likely to use their services. There is little need for Fleetcover to purchase leads now, as the business is becoming its own profitable arm of Walmsleys Insurance Brokers.

Rankings

We’ve helped Fleetcover gain online visibility for certain keywords such as “fleet insurance brokers” (#1) and “fleet insurance quote” (#2). Their positioning for “Fleet breakdown cover” has also moved from #15 to #4, and “fleet insurance quote” has moved from #10 to #2. The main benefit of these ranking improvements is the huge increase in traffic!

We also gained top spot for the main keyword of “fleet insurance”, but this has since been taken by one of the juggernauts (excuse the pun) of the industry. We’ll be back, but for now, domain authority reigned supreme.

In April 2019, Fleetcover was only ranking for 229 keywords, and they now rank for 824, a 259% increase.

Traffic

As mentioned, we saw results beginning in November as Google crawled the site more actively and found more relevant content. Therefore, April - November 2019 is our “before” comparison for what we’ve managed to achieve over the past 12 months:

April - November 2019:

Impressions: 296,000

Clicks: 2,220

November 2019 - November 2020:

Impressions: 1,880,000 (up 322%)

Clicks: 6,470 (up 194%)

Thanks to more than exceeding our set KPI goals, we were shortlisted for three SEO awards this year, and Fleetcover’s CEO had only good things to say:

“For years we’ve been looking for a company to do exactly what you have done and I can honestly say in 12 years of being involved in marketing, this is the first time that any marketing company has proactively gone ahead and done something for us in this way. I’ve whinged about it for so long that it made my day when it dropped in my inbox. Really chuffed.”

Well, that just speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

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[gamebazu]

How We Increased Our Client’s Leads by 751% on Less Than £1K Per Month [Case Study]

Posted by LydiaGerman

It’s a common misunderstanding that working with a small budget for SEO means you can’t generate results. How can you possibly make enough improvements to the site in so few hours per month?

Well, for us at Tao Digital Marketing, our work with Fleetcover goes to show that results can be achieved by focusing on the most important changes in the little time you have.

In this case study, we’ll break down how we increased leads by 751%, keywords by 259% and impressions by 535% on a budget of less than £1,000 / $1,347 per month, equating to one day’s work. That’s a small spend for SEO, but making the right changes at the right time, and focusing our efforts on the most important aspects, generated these positive results.

Objectives

Our objectives were similar to what every website ultimately wants to achieve: generate leads for the business and increase online visibility for relevant search terms.

To be a little more specific, we picked this client up in March 2019, but of course, results generally started to pick up from November 2019 as Google started to crawl the site more regularly.

Our targets/KPIs for the next 12 months were based on numbers from April-November 2019, as below:

Increase leads from 175 to 500

Install a new chat function on the site and gain 50 leads through it

Increase site clicks from 2,200 to 5,000

Increase keywords ranked for from 229 to 500

The target audience was businesses that need fleet insurance. This spans a wide range of industries, from those operating coaches and taxis through to motor trade.

Our strategy focused on technical SEO and content creation. There was one big issue, though: we didn’t build the site ourselves, nor did we have the level of access that would allow us to make any design or fundamental changes that could support SEO and lead generation. In turn, our strategy had to be heavily content-driven.

Our strategy

1. Add a chat function

In November 2019, we added the ‘TawkTo’ chat function to the site which has helped generate leads. After analyzing when their audience was visiting the website, we found that most users were on the site late at night and on weekends.

With their team being out of the office and unable to answer any phone calls during these timeframes, we thought it would be of value to offer an online chat function to help capture inquiries so potential customers wouldn’t be put off or frustrated! This would put them at an advantage compared to their competitors who were not doing this.

We implemented the bot so it appears on the tab as a message notification, drawing people’s attention to the page even when it isn’t the active tab. So far, 330 inquiries have been made through this function.



Fleetcover Chat Bot

  2. Implement technical SEO

Tweaks that support technical SEO are perhaps some of the most important changes you can make to see real results. We implemented this by:

Optimizing page titles

Creating meta descriptions that were between 100-155 characters, using keywords that naturally fit

Using the optimal image sizes that each website required

Using alt text for images

Implementing internal and external links where possible

Utilizing FAQ schema on the more frequently searched questions

Optimizing the sitemap by getting rid of URLs that wouldn't support organic search

Using the robots.txt file to point search crawlers in the right direction

Creating 301 redirects. There were a number of outdated pages as well as 404 errors that needed to be addressed

Making usability tweaks to the design. We were very limited in what we could achieve on the site as the incumbent were not massively helpful in terms of the access they would give us. We were able to get round this in certain areas, an example being the ‘Get a Quote’ buttons. We had a feeling user metrics mattered in this competitive market, so we did our utmost to capitalise on this.

3. Optimize the “Get a Quote” form

We added heat mapping and anonymized visitor recording to the site. When we analyzed the data, it became very apparent that many people weren’t filling out the “Get a Quote'' form due to it being too long — like standing at the bottom of a mountain, trying to work out the right route to the top! The original form had almost 10 questions, which overwhelmed the user and resulted in low conversion rates.

Step one of Fleetcover Quote form

Step two of Fleetcover Quote form

We’ve had great success using multi-step forms on other client’s sites, so we decided to create one for Fleetcover. We had all the questions needed to provide a full quotation, but split it all up into easier-to-digest tabs and user-designed icons, rather than just text.

Our new form was built creatively and had four steps, making the process easier. With this change alone, leads from the form grew from 175 before November 2019 to 1,489 over the past 12 months (751% increase).

4. Focus heavily on content creation

Example of Fleetcover service page (HGV fleet insurance)

Service pages

Content creation is an area where we really got the chance to demonstrate creative flair alongside data analysis. We started by reviewing Fleetcover’s service pages, and fleshed out the content to make it more engaging.

Example of Fleetcover service page (FAQs)

Keyword research and search intent

Over time, we continued to research keywords, focusing heavily on understanding the search intent behind them, and creating detailed content and FAQs to meet the audience’s needs and Google's understanding of those intents.

One topic we’ve been focusing on is the rise of electric vehicles and how this will grow and affect the insurance industry. As the development and popularity of these vehicles progresses, we’re going to look at how we can use this in our content strategy.

Formatting and style

Including clear, natural CTAs at the end of each piece was really important, not only to round out the articles, but also to encourage readers to use Fleetcover’s broker service. See an example from our piece about business car insurance below.

In addition, utilizing a simple but effective tone of voice helped to meet the needs of potential consumers and give them the information they need in a straightforward way. When focusing on keywords/phrases that contain industry jargon, we always include information about what the word or phrase means for those with informational intent about a particular topic, for example ‘fleet breakdown cover’.

Results

Sales

We achieved the goal of gaining more sales, as website conversion rates jumped from 3% to 14%, and leads increased from 175 to 1,489 (751%). This massive increase (pleasantly) surprised us as we are working with a site with a domain authority of 22 in a competitive industry, so to achieve these results so quickly was a great boost for both ourselves and Fleetcover.

Fleetcover was previously spending a considerable amount on purchasing leads from other companies, whereas now they have invested into SEO, which has significantly increased the number of leads they generate. With SEO, these leads are of a higher quality than PPC leads, and are therefore more likely to use their services. There is little need for Fleetcover to purchase leads now, as the business is becoming its own profitable arm of Walmsleys Insurance Brokers.

Rankings

We’ve helped Fleetcover gain online visibility for certain keywords such as “fleet insurance brokers” (#1) and “fleet insurance quote” (#2). Their positioning for “Fleet breakdown cover” has also moved from #15 to #4, and “fleet insurance quote” has moved from #10 to #2. The main benefit of these ranking improvements is the huge increase in traffic!

We also gained top spot for the main keyword of “fleet insurance”, but this has since been taken by one of the juggernauts (excuse the pun) of the industry. We’ll be back, but for now, domain authority reigned supreme.

In April 2019, Fleetcover was only ranking for 229 keywords, and they now rank for 824, a 259% increase.

Traffic

As mentioned, we saw results beginning in November as Google crawled the site more actively and found more relevant content. Therefore, April - November 2019 is our “before” comparison for what we’ve managed to achieve over the past 12 months:

April - November 2019:

Impressions: 296,000

Clicks: 2,220

November 2019 - November 2020:

Impressions: 1,880,000 (up 322%)

Clicks: 6,470 (up 194%)

Thanks to more than exceeding our set KPI goals, we were shortlisted for three SEO awards this year, and Fleetcover’s CEO had only good things to say:

“For years we’ve been looking for a company to do exactly what you have done and I can honestly say in 12 years of being involved in marketing, this is the first time that any marketing company has proactively gone ahead and done something for us in this way. I’ve whinged about it for so long that it made my day when it dropped in my inbox. Really chuffed.”

Well, that just speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

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

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