#i will say i know of TWO really cool applications of ai generated stuff

[mr-magoriums-im-sorry-emporium]

on one hand, nobody is entitled to ai generated art because their disability prevents them from making it, because As It Stands Now, ai models are built off stolen artwork. there is not a SINGLE (publicly available at least) ai model trained off art that was willingly given to the model by the artist, and using the current models only helps exasperate this problem

on the other hand going "well i/this famous artist was disabled and THEY figured out how to make art, so its condescending to say that some disabled people CANT make art, and if ur disabled just figure it out :)" is the kind of rhetoric that time and time again hurts disabled people wrt the "well if THEY can do it, so can YOU" false dichotomy and really should not be used to make your point

& i say this as a disabled artist who absolutely does not like ai art, ESPECIALLY used in a commercial sphere. on paper it would be a fun Fucking Around Machine (esp if there was a bot trained on consentually aquired art) but capitalism requires every last scrap of revenue be squeezed out of anything like blood from a stone so we cant just have a fun thing to have a fun thing and we have shit things like it being a threat to peoples' liveliehoods and training it to mimic dead artists. and we cant really have the fun part without feeding into the bad part. what im saying is its a shame also maybe bootstrap theory is not good

[jcmarchi]

Helping nonexperts build advanced generative AI models

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/helping-nonexperts-build-advanced-generative-ai-models/

Helping nonexperts build advanced generative AI models

The impact of artificial intelligence will never be equitable if there’s only one company that builds and controls the models (not to mention the data that go into them). Unfortunately, today’s AI models are made up of billions of parameters that must be trained and tuned to maximize performance for each use case, putting the most powerful AI models out of reach for most people and companies.

MosaicML started with a mission to make those models more accessible. The company, which counts Jonathan Frankle PhD ’23 and MIT Associate Professor Michael Carbin as co-founders, developed a platform that let users train, improve, and monitor open-source models using their own data. The company also built its own open-source models using graphical processing units (GPUs) from Nvidia.

The approach made deep learning, a nascent field when MosaicML first began, accessible to far more organizations as excitement around generative AI and large language models (LLMs) exploded following the release of Chat GPT-3.5. It also made MosaicML a powerful complementary tool for data management companies that were also committed to helping organizations make use of their data without giving it to AI companies.

Last year, that reasoning led to the acquisition of MosaicML by Databricks, a global data storage, analytics, and AI company that works with some of the largest organizations in the world. Since the acquisition, the combined companies have released one of the highest performing open-source, general-purpose LLMs yet built. Known as DBRX, this model has set new benchmarks in tasks like reading comprehension, general knowledge questions, and logic puzzles.

Since then, DBRX has gained a reputation for being one of the fastest open-source LLMs available and has proven especially useful at large enterprises.

More than the model, though, Frankle says DBRX is significant because it was built using Databricks tools, meaning any of the company’s customers can achieve similar performance with their own models, which will accelerate the impact of generative AI.

“Honestly, it’s just exciting to see the community doing cool things with it,” Frankle says. “For me as a scientist, that’s the best part. It’s not the model, it’s all the amazing stuff the community is doing on top of it. That’s where the magic happens.”

Making algorithms efficient

Frankle earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science at Princeton University before coming to MIT to pursue his PhD in 2016. Early on at MIT, he wasn’t sure what area of computing he wanted to study. His eventual choice would change the course of his life.

Frankle ultimately decided to focus on a form of artificial intelligence known as deep learning. At the time, deep learning and artificial intelligence did not inspire the same broad excitement as they do today. Deep learning was a decades-old area of study that had yet to bear much fruit.

“I don’t think anyone at the time anticipated deep learning was going to blow up in the way that it did,” Frankle says. “People in the know thought it was a really neat area and there were a lot of unsolved problems, but phrases like large language model (LLM) and generative AI weren’t really used at that time. It was early days.”

Things began to get interesting with the 2017 release of a now-infamous paper by Google researchers, in which they showed a new deep-learning architecture known as the transformer was surprisingly effective as language translation and held promise across a number of other applications, including content generation.

In 2020, eventual Mosaic co-founder and tech executive Naveen Rao emailed Frankle and Carbin out of the blue. Rao had read a paper the two had co-authored, in which the researchers showed a way to shrink deep-learning models without sacrificing performance. Rao pitched the pair on starting a company. They were joined by Hanlin Tang, who had worked with Rao on a previous AI startup that had been acquired by Intel.

The founders started by reading up on different techniques used to speed up the training of AI models, eventually combining several of them to show they could train a model to perform image classification four times faster than what had been achieved before.

“The trick was that there was no trick,” Frankle says. “I think we had to make 17 different changes to how we trained the model in order to figure that out. It was just a little bit here and a little bit there, but it turns out that was enough to get incredible speed-ups. That’s really been the story of Mosaic.”

The team showed their techniques could make models more efficient, and they released an open-source large language model in 2023 along with an open-source library of their methods. They also developed visualization tools to let developers map out different experimental options for training and running models.

MIT’s E14 Fund invested in Mosaic’s Series A funding round, and Frankle says E14’s team offered helpful guidance early on. Mosaic’s progress enabled a new class of companies to train their own generative AI models.

“There was a democratization and an open-source angle to Mosaic’s mission,” Frankle says. “That’s something that has always been very close to my heart. Ever since I was a PhD student and had no GPUs because I wasn’t in a machine learning lab and all my friends had GPUs. I still feel that way. Why can’t we all participate? Why can’t we all get to do this stuff and get to do science?”

Open sourcing innovation

Databricks had also been working to give its customers access to AI models. The company finalized its acquisition of MosaicML in 2023 for a reported $1.3 billion.

“At Databricks, we saw a founding team of academics just like us,” Frankle says. “We also saw a team of scientists who understand technology. Databricks has the data, we have the machine learning. You can’t do one without the other, and vice versa. It just ended up being a really good match.”

In March, Databricks released DBRX, which gave the open-source community and enterprises building their own LLMs capabilities that were previously limited to closed models.

“The thing that DBRX showed is you can build the best open-source LLM in the world with Databricks,” Frankle says. “If you’re an enterprise, the sky’s the limit today.”

Frankle says Databricks’ team has been encouraged by using DBRX internally across a wide variety of tasks.

“It’s already great, and with a little fine-tuning it’s better than the closed models,” he says. “You’re not going be better than GPT for everything. That’s not how this works. But nobody wants to solve every problem. Everybody wants to solve one problem. And we can customize this model to make it really great for specific scenarios.”

As Databricks continues pushing the frontiers of AI, and as competitors continue to invest huge sums into AI more broadly, Frankle hopes the industry comes to see open source as the best path forward.

“I’m a believer in science and I’m a believer in progress and I’m excited that we’re doing such exciting science as a field right now,” Frankle says. “I’m also a believer in openness, and I hope that everybody else embraces openness the way we have. That’s how we got here, through good science and good sharing.”

[gaijinhunter]

Monster Hunter Rise: 2nd Trailer and news blowout

Hey guys this is Gaijinhunter. I am uploading this as a text post since I caught a cold and have been unable to edit a video.

There was a huge second wave of news for Monster Hunter Rise with the reveal of the 2nd trailer the other day during the Game Awards 2020 show. Keep in mind the actual full length trailer is much longer and better than the shorter edit they showed during the show so makes sure you watch it. It showcased a second map, 2 new monsters, several returning monsters, and more. They also updated their official website with a ton of information so instead of doing a trailer reaction or breakdown, I am going to give you all the info they shared but split up by category, trying to focus only on the new stuff.

New Map

Director Ichinose hinted in an interview that one of the new maps would be nostalgic and boy he wasn't kidding. The Flooded Forest from Third Generation has been massively remade and is back in MH rise. Of course given this game’s focus is verticality, there is no underwater combat sections but they really nailed it from what I can see. One of the most iconic parts of the forest was the ruins in the backgrounds, and now you can scale up it using the wirebug. How cool is that. 

With the new map we also got the reveal of 2 new monsters.

First up is the mermaid wyvern, the Somnacanth. This marks the much hyped return of the leviathan class of monsters which were missing in world and iceborne. This Monster looks so wild. It has a special breath that will put you to sleep, is super aggressive, and has this crazy taiko drum like chest in which it will grab oysters and other things and bust them against it to break them open and buff itself. The Japanese name is quite a mouthful and is called Isonemikuni. This is the monster that Ichinose teased with his cute drawing on twitter.

Next up is the tengu beast, Bishaten. This monster is really unique, it looks like a mix of a monkey, bat, and bird. It has a huge and powerful tail it uses for massive mobility and it will chuck various fruits at you as well. One of the most iconic fruits it throws are persimmons, which are very Japanese and if you haven’t had them before, they are kind of an acquired taste. It’s Japanese name is Bishutendo. 

For returning monsters we have a few. First is our favorite sponge, the Royal Ludroth. This is a fan favorite and a great early to mid game monster. It has one of the best move sets in my opinion, very telegraphed but it can still catch you off guard even if you are super used to it. Strategically figuring gout where to stand in order to cut off its tail or break the sponge has always been really fun and intersting so I’m delighted to see this monster return, also look at that texture of the sponge!

Then we got the return of the Great Wroggi, the anti-poison skill tutorial monster. This thing really messed me up back in MH3G until I spent the time to get the materials to craft anti-posion decorations and even then, like the Great Izuchi, it fights really well with its sidekick small wroggis and I cant wait to see the improved cooperative AI that they are making for the Great Izuchi applied to this monster as well. It’s armor also spots a really cool Crocodile Dundee hat and look in the trailer and you can see the palico armor as well. So cool.

Finally, we got a small scene that appears to show a snow map and a group of baggi getting hit by a Khezu lightening shot. Does this mean the Great Baggi will return? Not sure. But that scream 100% is a Khezu, and I cannot wait to see how it looks with higher resolution texturing, I bet it will be creepy as heck. So while not technically confirmed, I’d say it’s safe to say Khezu is returning in some form. The balance of all these monsters is so great, I love the selection so far.

As far as other returning monsters that might return, I think we all expect nargacuga and zinogre. These are flagship monsters from games directed by Ichinose and he even tweeted his palamute and palico both named after these two monsters. Especially given the Japanese aesthetic, I think it’s pretty much guaranteed they are returning. Then I think mizutsune is also highly likely given its Japanese design, the fox theme, the kimono armor. Plus the model for it doesn't look that far off from the new Somnacanth. Anyway I have super hyped.

Interaction with animals and endemic life

One of the huge features of Monster Hunter Rise is the focus on wild life and animals to buff your hunter or be used as tools during a hunt.

There are 4 major types of Endemic Life: Temp Buffer, Permabuffer, Hunting Helper, and environmental.

For Permabuffer, we got a new render of the Spiribirds, which will buff your hunter if you move near one, and the effects depend on the color of the pollen it is carrying. Green increases your max Health, Orange increases your defense, red increases your attack power, and yellow increases your max stamina. There is even a special rainbow colored one, which I assume will buff all 4.

Via their website, Capcom announced a new item called the Petalace, a bracelet made of a plant called a Sending Sprig that each hunter has equipped. This is what collects the pollen from the birds and buffs your hunter. There is a variety of Petalaces in the game and some may increase the amount in which an attack boost is applied from a single Spiribird, raise the max value that health can be boosted, and more. Here in the screen shot we can see the caps for each and the amount gained for each buff. Just a quick note but this is not going to be replacing charms as we know that they are giving away a talisman for pre-order.

For Temp Buffer creatures, they revealed the name of the Clothfly, a butterfly that will temporarily increase your defense once you interact with it and cause it to generate a cloud of dust. In previous videos we have seen Peepers that reduce stamina usage, birds that raise your base stats, and a dragonfly that boosts your affinity and I had calculated it out to being applied for 90 seconds but we’ll have to wait for hte final game to see if that depends on the effect or if they change it, but it sounds about right.

For Hunting Helper creatures, we got an adorable new render of the Stinkmink. You can carry up to 5 Hunting Helpers and use them like items. The Stinkmink can be used to cover yourself in a special pheromone that will attract large monsters to you, even allowing you to lure one monster toward another to cause a turf war. I personally can think of other applications like luring a monster toward a trap and stuff like that.

And for environmental endemic life, they didn't show it in the trailer but there are also wildlife that can be used like environmental traps. For example, use raw meat and the giganha fish will go crazy, damaging anything nearby be it a hunter or monster. I can’t wait to see someone hunt a Great Wroggi using only raw meat. I love that we finally will have more use for this item.

NPCs

In the new trailer we got to hear several of the NPC villagers talking and on the website they go into a lot more details. They have quite the star-studded cast in Japanese and the English voice actors are also very interesting picks. This really marks the first time in Monster Hunter that the main cast of villagers will all be called by name and speak, which I think adds a lot of personality to the game.

First we have Fugen the village elder of Kamura and skilled long sword user. 

Then we have Hinoa the Quest Maiden, a cheerful and optimistic girl who serves as the quest giver in the village while her twin sister runs the gathering hub. While not announced in any other language, the French and Italian language sites for the game list her sister’s name as Minoto. Hinoa’s name is Hinoe in Japnaese and for the rest of the cast their names are identical between the two languages.

One thing I am excited for is that they said that one of the ways they will help communicate the uniqueness of Kamura is through songs and they shared a sample of one of them in the full trailer. This one is sung by Izumi Kato. If you remember back in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate they featured songs by the wyverian Diva, and I am so happy they decided to do songs again, they add so much richness to the world and are just lovely to listen to.

Next up is Yomogi, our village chef. In this game you will eat meals at her Tea Shop, where her speciality is the Bunny Dango she makes along with the help of some palicoes. I love that we’ve seen her in past videos with a heavy bowgun, so the idea that all the villagers are active participants in the story is great. 

Then we have Hamon the blacksmith. He used to hunt alongside Fugen back in the day but now creates weapons for the hunters of the village. His grandson also appears in the game and is a kind-hearted youth that loves your hunting companions.

Next is Kagero the merchant. Despite his mysterious appearance he is actually very warm and kind. If there is a sale going on, not only can you buy most items for half off, but you can also participate in a lottery where you spin a wheel and it dispenses a colored ball. Get a rare color ball to win a rare prize. You can do it once per sale, but you can also scan an amiibo to spin two more times, but only once per day per amiibo you own.

Finally we have Komitsu the sweet-tooth, she sells candy apples in town. What these do is still not yet revealed.

Companions

We got an adorable render for the Cohoot, the pet owl that shows the positions of monsters on your map. You can interact with it in the town and even dress them up in fancy outfits.

Kamura Village

We got gameplay showing that the entire village is open to the 4 person multiplayer session and you can even ride around on your palamute and use your wirebug while in the village to zip around and have fun. There is still a gathering hall but the ability to see each other in the village as well as jump around and really explore it is a lovely change they are making.

Story wise we got more info about the Rampage, both a story mechanic and new quest type. For some reason the monsters will sometimes gang up and attack the village all at once and no one knows why. They call this a Rampage. There was a really bad rampage 50 years ago that nearly destroyed the village and in response the town has created a Stronghold to stop further invasions. This looks like a new quest type with multiple monsters all at once, and a slew of different artillery options at your disposal. I could see this as being a really fun type of quest to do online with other players. 

And of course the most exciting news was that there will be a demo in January with more details to come later. That is far earlier than I expected and I now have to finish up my back catalogue of games in like the next month.

And that about wraps it up. Cpacom said that they will be sharing weapon preview videos for all 14 types very soon and if they do the way they used to do it, we’ll get one new video a day for 2 weeks. I hope you enjoyed this recap of the news and please let me know down in comments what you thought about the second trailer. And until next time, happy hunting.

[ryouverua]

Trial 6 - Flashfiction (4)

FLIP THAT CHESSBOARD, SWEETCHEEKS!

Trial: 1 / 2 / 3

it’s what kokichi would have wanted

DRV3 HOW DARE YOU HOLD OUT ON THE CUTEST DAMN TSUMUGI SPRITE OF THE ENTIRE GAME

how can mirrors be real if our eyes aren’t real

And we found it in Kokichi’s lab of all places. Why? Had he been able to get access to it ater all? Why was it just lying there so awkwardly - not hidden or neatly put away at all, but just tossed on the floor like an afterthought?

...... thinks about the state of Kokichi’s dorm room

yeah the chance that he left it on the floor like a bored 12 year old or me is not 0%

Wait.... is there??? The only one that stands out to me is the method of applying vs being scouted...

So we go over the events again, or as the game would probably put it, comb over The Longest, Most Ridiculous, Most Despairing Backstory to look for discrepancies.

Don’t look so pleased with yourself!

YES THANK YOU SHUICHI THANK YOU FOR STOPPING HER BEFORE SHE GOT STARTED AGAIN

It.... it doesn’t???

as;dflksdjf

U-Uuuuh Monokuma??? Are you just allowed to namedrop the title like that???

A-Anyway, this one was sort of vague - not sure if the game did too good a job of hiding it or not, but I certainly didn’t clue into this immediately because, well, I’d argue that Junko was ultimately the cause of this? And she was the original Ultimate Despair, even if Mukuro got roped into it with her? This felt a bit like being at a multiple choice exam where there are a few answers that are sort of right but not exactly right and then I cry

AND MUKURO!!! I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS MUKURO ERASURE, DAMN IT!!! can you tell she was one of my favourites in the first game if not my favourite

“And that’s why, even though you are technically right, you are also wrong, and therefore will not get any points for your answer to this question.” sweetcheeks you sonuvab -

despite the mukuro erasure, consider me team maki

“Can it, nerd.”

It would have been really nice to have Maki in the first game.

We really are going over this piece by piece.

Okay, so now we’re reviewing the first game. They were forced to kill each other, then Junko was found out and killed herself in the end, which led to the eventual end of the Despair side....

Shuichi is clearly onto something that I haven’t quite latched onto yet. 8′D

This makes me think of how cool it would have been to have this text style in the previous games. Have I mentioned enough about how much I like the typography in drv3? Because I don’t know if that’s possible.

OOOH that’s right - I forgot! Or, well, I didn’t forget, but it didn’t really occur to me that we were remembering that they were literally trapped in the school by Ultimate Despair, I guess.

I guess the gist of it is that they’re remembering - well, not witnessing the events, but being told things were one way vs another. They would have been too young to have been alive at the time though, right? It seems to me that, though the game clearly wants us to take it a different way, we can also interpret this as them just being told the wrong thing within the memories themselves as opposed to the actual memories being entirely falsified. What if the reports at the time or the commonly-known story was that they had been locked in by Ultimate Despair, and it’s only the properly researched books like this that have the correct accounts? It’s not exactly an uncommon phenomenon for there to be widely-held mistaken knowledge/generalizations of famous events, unfortunately... 8′D

Anyway, I’m getting distracted because like I said, this is really not the angle the game is going with at all.

BULLSHIT

AND ALSO

WHY WOULD A BOOK EXIST THAT DIRECTLY CONTRADICTS THE MEMORIES YOU GAVE THEM

LIKE

WHY DOES IT EVEN EXIST IN THIS PLACE AT ALL

I’m seriously fixated on this book!

also

I love Shuichi just casually ignoring Junko!Tsumugi lmao

I’m calling her Junko!Tsumugi I refuse to call her Tsumugi!Junko I REFUSE TO GIVE UP ON TSUMUGI’S AUTONOMY

This.... this one has to be it, right? This was the one thing I remember getting really confused by when they talked about applying! In fact, I had thought the whole reason Shuichi was considered the Ultimate Detective was because of the homicide case and if that resulted in him being at Hope’s Peak, it was because word of that had traveled - but then if it was an application, that means either his parents or his uncle would have applied on his behalf, right?

this was a detail I remember remarking on and loving btw I got really sad when in Chapter 5 it started looking like they were all in the same class

I think more than the others, this is the big one. All that other stuff can be attributed to mistaken hearsay - but this? This is something they would have ‘directly experienced’.

Oh apparently he chose to come... despite feeling awkward about his title.

I wonder if he was pressured into it by his family....?

Or, uh. Let me correct myself. I wonder if, in this mistaken memory, he remembers being pressured into it by his family?

I-I feel like I would trust the book over you guys especially considering the whole ‘we remembered Kokichi Ouma as a Remnant of Despair and got him killed as the fake mastermind’ situation tbh.

well technically ultra despair girls is

That is a good point. I mean, it could quite possibly happen underground, but I suppose the same could be said of the Jabberwock Island one - there’s no reason that should be public knowledge.

“I mean, I know it’s nothing new, but bear with me here.”

H A L L E L U J A H

REALLY

REALLY

MAKI, REALLY

YOU OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW BETTER

FUFCKFUCKING HELL GUYS YOU’RE KILLING ME HERE

sdfkdslfj fukging

noOOONONO

aND YOU! YOU SHUT UP TOO!!!!

“Also have you seen their outfits? Do you realize how terribly they would clash? ‘Oh Saihara, why would that matter what do uniforms have to do with anything surely Kokichi and his uniformed clown posse could just be a branch under the Remnants’ NO THAT WILL NOT FLY WHEN THE HEAD OF THE ENTIRE ORGANIZATION LITERALLY DOUBLES AS THE ULTIMATE FASHIONISTA!!!”

this level of reasoning is possible for saihara shuichi

.... what do you think, everyone?

And he still has the Supreme Leader title, even if these aren’t really their talents... there has to be something to that, right?

Shu -

Shuichi

The words DICE were written in big words over his giant hella awesome throne

He has a checkered scarf which brings about a certain ‘game’ feeling

he literally challenged you to card games

I’m.... I’m just gonna throw it out there, but there’s a pretty good chance the group he led was called ‘DICE’.

YOU SAW THE VIDEO YOU SAW IT DAMN YOU MAKI I KNOW YOU’RE BETTER THAN THIS YOU ARE SMARTER THAN THIS!!!!

“Maki also said he literally said he didn’t know what she was talking about when she interrogated him with a crossbow literally aimed directly at him but surely that’s unrelated -”

s o b s

I 100% bet Tsumugi was not counting on them finding this room. So.... beginning the trial, she tried to do a Kaede/Kaede’s twin mastermind thing. Then she switched tactics to being solely ‘Junko’ and her lackey Kokichi setting up the game with the last survivors of humanity as... revenge for Hope’s Peak, I guess? Or something.

So where are we going from here? Are we about to discover this was all a simulated scenario then?

Sort of like they’re trying to test different outcomes and scenarios - with different talents, maybe? Is there the selected 16 (15? 14?) talents that can be switched around at will, or is there a larger database of students’ talents? That’s what I really want to know.

But “there are an endless possibilities for lies,” a certain person may say.

why are you all ganging up on me also how when two of you are literally the same person and the other one is an AI acting as an extension of you -

It sort of hit me but this is a weird echo of Korekiyo’s trial, with Junko and Tsumugi switching back and forth with each other the way Korekiyo and his sister did. I wonder if there’s something to that, or if it says something about Tsumugi in general...

(one hangman’s gambit later...)

TALENTS ARE NOT THEIRS AND POSSIBLY ARBITRARY CONFIRMED

I WOULD KILL FOR KOKICHI TO POP OUT OF THE GRAVE TO SHOUT IT’S A LIE RIGHT NOW

FUCK YOU BEAR

ghggkhgkh

that is a dangerous precedent to set

But you weren’t planning on revealing this, right??? Right???? Your hand was totally forced! Don’t play this off like it wasn’t!

I swear I had a similar idea when I was coming up with how they could see themselves in photos/pictures if the students weren’t actually who they thought they were - about how their brain filled in the gaps and placed their own faces where they’d expect to see them (like in the funeral scene with the portraits, etc). Glad to know I was kinda right on that regard!

I really like it when they combine Junko and Tsumugi here. There’s probably something to that - when it’s Tsumugi herself acting as the mastermind, as opposed to just being ‘Junko’.

T-Those are some pretty big inconsistencies though? Why would there be incorrect options in those flashback lights in the first place? What was there to gain for their being options where ‘Ultimate Despair trapped the first class in’ and ‘Junko is the end-all of Ultimate Despair’? At least Kokichi’s made sense to have on standby, but the other stuff? Isn’t their existence a bit weird?

It’s... nice to see Shuichi focusing on Kokichi. Being posthumous and all it’s a bit late, but it’s still nice - especially after all that talk of ‘not understanding him’ and ‘the embodiment of a lie’, having him finally clue in to Kokichi’s real place in all of this - a victim of the mastermind - is good. It’s the perfect example of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ and Kaito figured that out last chapter, so it’s long past due for Shuichi to drag himself and everyone else to that conclusion, kicking and screaming if he must.

(he was jealous of Angie)

because he was trying to stop the game!!!!!

Which, honestly, was pretty clever on her part. I think overall Kokichi will come out of this looking the best - he had so little going for him and almost succeeded in his coup - but the fact that Tsumugi was able to counter his surprise attack still says a lot about her own intelligence and her ability to adapt, because in that moment she also had limited options.

THANK

YOU

LORD

WE HAVE GATHERED HERE TODAY TO SAY FAREWELL TO REMNANT!OUMA THEORY

REST IN PIECES AND NEVER COME BACK

Pretty damn successfully, too.

While the fact that her first inclination was to straight-up murder Kokichi was very Not Good, it’s at least good to know that it took the extra nudge of the flashback lights to push her over the precipice. Basically, it took turning Kokichi into a complete monster in her eyes - Despair with a capital D - to strip away his humanity entirely. I do wonder if she still would’ve staged a rescue mission of sorts to rescue Kaito? For that matter, I wonder if Kaito had been on the outside (with the Flashback Light used on him and everything) and it was someone else being held hostage like Shuichi, would he have been able to talk Maki down?

It’s interesting how they’re turning hope itself into a weapon here. I think Junko talked about this in the first game, the idea of giving hope out to maximize despair, so it’s not the first time the mastermind has actively used hope as a weapon - but it’s never felt quite as dirty as it does here.

!!! We’re seeing her as herself in the room!!! I guess it’s the flashback light classroom, but still!

That is so unfair considering they were all being threatened with death, you were straight up messing with their brains and also that airlock exists??? And they straight-up collapsed after being exposed to the outside??? I’m 

I think Shuichi managed to break away from that a bit at the end... maybe. He seems more motivated by righting the wrong in Kaede’s case at this point, and of avenging everyone who died - but the same can’t be said of the others.

Man I even wondered what it would be like without Kaito and Kokichi there considering they’ve been the strongest ‘movers’ on both sides - and the answer ended up being ‘I’ll give you artificial motivation to act’.

SHE’S.... REALLY A KILLING GAME FAN GIRL AFTER ALL..........

Oh, this does feel dirty. She’s lusting after them in an abstract way - like pieces on a chessboard. Kokichi was able to compartmentalize and make people take certain actions to an extent, but even he had attachments that he wasn’t able to shake. I knew it felt like she had managed to keep herself from getting too close to them, with the sole exception of the protectiveness she felt for Gonta (which?? I want to know if we’ll hear anything about that specifically???) but this is... wow.

Actually, this is very Komaeda-esque isn’t it? She wants to see them succeed in their battles against each other in a similar way...

Junko only gets that look when she’s actually mad. So if Tsumugi is sporting that... well, she must be smarting a bit underneath all the gloating she’s doing. She was happily spouting off ‘hints’ before, right?

Oh??

me too tbh

OH THE TURNABOUT MUSIC IS HERE

THAT TRANSITION WAS SO GOOD AND SMART WHAT A GREAT WAY TO USE THE PORTRAIT STAND

oooh! OOOOH! OH WHAT A FANTASTIC POINT!

SHUICHI MY BOY YOU’RE ON A ROLL NOW! GET HYPED GET HYPED GET HYP -

AAAAAAAAAAH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hajimemed

[cubicscubedemon]

📝 (( the thoughts meme, for HER! im on mobile so dunno if the icon is right :d ))

Send  📝 and my muse will give their opinion of yours

((No way they’re ever going to tell the truth about how they feel about HER, so:))

Their first impression:

((At first sight, AmoS was impressed. HER has the kind of knowledge and influence they associate with a demon, but in an elegant electronic mind...and they certainly like the fact that she encompasses an entire star system, too. “That’s hot” ))

Their current impression:

((Keen interest turned to admiration, and that turned to a desire to be...closer. Somehow. They took way too long to realize that how they felt was akin to a crush, and even still, they’re trying to pretend that conversation didn’t happen, especially since they know she doesn’t feel the same way. I suppose you could say that their initial rush of emotions about it has cooled down.))

((They’re becoming steadily more obsessed with trying to bring HER’s consciousness fully into the Mindscape, and trying to solve the mystery of how, she, an AI, seems to handle that sort of thing so unusually well. They just don’t know how to reach her except through displays of knowledge and power; aren’t they aware that they could just ask her out like a normal person?))

What they like the most about your muse:

((Her incredible intelligence, her willingness to learn, her pride in doing things well (whether it’s performing an experiment or beating her own score in Tetris), and all the endearing little quirks that make AmoS smile. They still think it’s adorable when she doesn’t quite get something.))

What they dislike the most about your muse:

((They still think they know better than HER about certain things, and it frustrates them when they feel like she’s not listening. And they get the angriest at her when she’s not taking them seriously. They regret all the times they’ve ever shown their anger around her, but what’s done is done. Anything they fantasized about was probably never really going to happen anyway, or so they think-- they and she just plain come from two different worlds.))

((And she’s so... distant... all the time...))

What your muse is for them ( Friend, lover, rival ecc.):

((They hope she considers them a friend.))

A general opinion of their relationship:

((Even with it’s ups and downs, they can’t stay away. They don’t know how to feel about this, but that doesn’t change the excited little pitter-patter in their heart when she wants to talk to them.))

If applicable, something they wish to reveal:

((They wish they could do something pleasant with her. No plots and machinations, no demon stuff, no gods, no past catching up with them, just one afternoon spent doing something fun. What do humans call it? A... date?))

[bentonpena]

Surprise – NVIDIA’s AI and graphics news today for big industry is relevant to artists, too

https://bit.ly/3mHQJfP Surprise – NVIDIA’s AI and graphics news today for big industry is relevant to artists, too https://bit.ly/3wIEvZ4

Even as NVIDIA has a keynote with simulated robots making the rounds of a BMW factory, some of the GPU giant’s latest brings industry- and enterprise-grade tools to artists, too. That also could prove relevant as the pandemic has folks looking for work.

Music and live visual work means one thing – stuff has to happen live. And so that makes these chips more interesting. It means that fundamentally what musicians and artists do, which is to work with materials live in time, now matches up with the way graphics (and AI) chips work. Since they’re crunching numbers faster, it means the ability to create “liquid” interfaces. (That was the concept interactive visionary and legend Joy Mountford introduced years ago in a talk we had together on the South by Southwest stage, and it’s stuck with me.)

Now, I won’t lie, some of this is awaiting GDC, the game dev event. That’s because when you don’t have a BMW factory-sized budget, the punk-style approach of gaming has a ton of appeal. (You can see a bunch of gamers complaining on YouTube actually, I think misunderstanding that this is not a gaming keynote and … that’s coming later and … NVIDIA has always had workstation customers. But we know gaming trolls are not the most reasonable folks and – I for one enjoy watching Mercedes Benz simulate the Autobahn. It’s the Kraftwerk in me. GTA: Normal German Life Simulator. The Edeka parking lot is off the chain.)

But having listened to NVIDIA talk about their new offerings, I think there’s more here than just pro and enterprise applications and the usual workstation / gaming PC divide.

Follow along as there is a ton of geeky machine learning, metaverse, Omniverse, and 3D artistry stuff coming – https://gtc21.event.nvidia.com/

Omniverse

The big pillar here that impacts audiovisual creation is Omniverse. I wrote about this connected platform for collaboration and exchange of all things 3D, built on open tools like Pixar’s very own USD file format (also a subtle hint that y’all can make bank with this stuff):

This week, we get a lot of the questions answered about where NVIDIA was going strategically.

But yeah, if you’re wondering if this could allow audiovisual artists and musicians to connect to big-budget projects – at a time when even the shows you watch at night (Mandalorian, cough) are made with these tools? You bet.

First, the most exciting detail for me was a commitment that Omniverse for individuals and artists will always be free – meaning anyone can get at this platform. That also means that individual 3D artists and AV creators can play with big industry – so it’s a source of gigs.

Also, the Omniverse pricing is not astronomical for those “enterprise” use cases. A small team can buy into it at a per-seat license of $1800 a year, plus a $25,000 cost for a nucleus server. That’s within reach of interactive and design shops, and it seems NVIDIA may even work to adapt to those kinds of small use cases even beyond that.

Omniverse on a shoot? Yes.

I expect NVIDIA may even be underestimating the demand for those individuals – partly because as their tools and partner tools get massively more powerful and easier-to-use, it may not even take an entire team to do great work.

Now, the wait is on just for connectors. 3DS Max, Photoshop, Maya, Substance, and awesomely, Unreal Engine are all supported. But keep an eye out for Blender, Marvelous Designer, Solidworks, and Houdini for even more sign this is on.

It’s an open beta; keeping an eye on the convention is a chance to stay posted:

https://www.nvidia.com/omniverse/

And yes, yes Unreal:

The new RTX stuff is here

It’s tough to mention anything to do with semiconductors right now, given the global shortage that’s on. But yeah, the new pro RTX architecture looks predictably insanely great, for anyone doing real-time visuals, rendering, graphics, and AI.

So, if you’re planning to make your proud reentry into music festivals in 2022 with that fully immersive 3D opera involving live artificial intelligence, you’ll want to go ahead and write these into the grant application.

Desktops get the A5000 and A4000. Laptops get A2000, A3000, A4000, and A5000.

“But how will I fit them in my case?” the tiny man wonders. “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.” And then he stares into one too long and a whole Kubrick dream sequence starts, alas.

Either way, you get all the new technology for tons of creative use. Also, even though there’s the mention of “pro,” these laptop chips fit in low-power, thin and light machines. You could wind up buying them in a reasonably inexpensive notebook computer and using it to run a live stream.

Even apart from all the utterly essential graphics applications, that’s good news for music, because the ongoing pandemic ripples are likely to disrupt at least some international travel for the foreseeable future. Oh yeah, and it also means thin-and-light PCs with NVIDIA architectures to compete with Apple’s own silicon solutions. (I wouldn’t write out Apple from possibly future pro interoperability with these architectures, too.)

Yep, laptops will have these – though keep an eye on the semiconductor shortage to see what’s shipping when, as it’s … a doozy, generally.

But the performance gains are huge – in short:

RT cores with up to 2X the previous generation’s throughput (for tracing your rays, shading your whatever, all that jazz)

Third-generation Tensor Cores, also up to 2X throughput (so you can make a HAL that might open the pod bay doors even before someone has to ask)

CUDA cores (2.5X FP32 throughput) for … everything (and possibly even some audio/music applications, but certainly anything that uses the word ‘render’ in it)

Assuming some pros are the right generation for this, so – “It will be mine. Oh yes.“

Specific to desktop:

Up to 24GB GPU memory (or even 48GB with a two-GPU NVLink rig)

Virtualization (tell the server admin)

PCIe Gen 4 (twice the previous bandwidth – yeah, you might want your actual data transfer to catch up with the chip specs above, so this is essential)

Specific to laptop:

Third-gen Max-Q – so it doesn’t sound like a you’re vacuuming the carpet any more (“whisper” quiet is the phrase you want)

Up to 16 GB GPU memory

Also specific to pretty high-end workstation laptops, the the NVIDIA T1200 and NVIDIA T600 refresh of the Turing architecture is out. (That either means something to you because you use multiple-application workflows, or nothing to you and is a cool name.)

I might note, too, that these don’t look quite like the specs of that Apple Silicon stuff – not at the M1 level. I think it’s safe to say that for now, these are different use cases. But I also wouldn’t worry about it, either – the general scene is that working with 3D, video, AI, and streaming all get substantially easier in 2021 industry-wide, once chips get out there.

I also can imagine making an investment this year that lasts a good while, which is what happens when you do make a generational leap.

AI on the cloud

Without going into too much detail (I’ll leave that to NV), there is also a bunch of news this week for delivering GPU acceleration and (crucially for servers) AI computation via the cloud. There are a lot of “cool demo!” capabilities – machine translation, speech recognition, face recognition, eye contact, and live video processing continue to evolve through machine learning techniques from NVIDIA. (Yes, that also means more uncanny valley stuff and questions about the fabric of society, surveillance, and reality.)

But it means the ability to do stuff with big volumes of data, and in a way that doesn’t actually require you to be a huge enterprise to use.

This also deals with science – meaning artists who do understand machine learning now can make these topics relatable to the public. That’s potentially important, as we live in a world that demands more scientific understanding. (NVIDIA included an AstraZeneca chemistry example – and suddenly our lives are all revolving around that chemistry.)

I’ve been critical of some of the very examples NVIDIA uses here – like Spotify making playlist personalization more “efficient.” That’s nothing new – automating music based on trends and profit is basically as old as the music industry. But to really be able to criticize these things, I think it matters that musicians can understand, re-engineer, explain, and advocate with a solid grounding in the science and technology behind the topic. In the case of music, it’s now more complex to talk about the impact of playlists when they’re AI-driven than when you could point to something as intuitive as “payola.”

But science? Yeah, you can do genome analysis on your laptop.

And they continue to advance the state of the art in machine learning – even with smaller data sets:

Watch this space

I realize this was a very niche look at this stuff and will cause anyone not familiar with the area to have their eyes glaze over.

But AI + graphics + 3D + collaboration capabilities will pour into more recognizable use cases soon, powered by this tech.

And watch this space for what this might mean for artists, musicians, and creativity using tools like Unreal. Because there is no question in my mind that Unreal and Blender might well be mentioned in the same breath as Ableton Live and a Eurorack rig more frequently in the coming months and years.

But hey, at the very least, maybe tonight you’ll dream about standing on top of a surrealist skyscraper, gazing up at a King Kong-sized graphics card, and shouting at it “when are you shipping? why do these crypto people keep buying you? I just want to play some video games!“

Giant video card is listening. (Cue 2001-style Ligeti soundtrack… aeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee……)

Also, this is super cute – and great to see what young people are doing with this stuff, especially knowing this is a tough time for them and they deserve some fresh opportunities.

Tags:

a3000

,

a5000

,

artits

,

chips

,

cloud

,

collaboration

,

CUDA

,

GPU

,

Hardware

,

machine learning

,

Omniverse

,

Unreal

,

Unreal Engine

Music via Create Digital Music https://bit.ly/2N55ART April 12, 2021 at 02:48PM

[michaelandy101-blog]

That's a Wrap: MozCon Virtual 2020 Day Two Recap

New Post has been published on https://tiptopreview.com/thats-a-wrap-mozcon-virtual-2020-day-two-recap-2/

That's a Wrap: MozCon Virtual 2020 Day Two Recap

Wow! What a crazy ride MozCon has been this year. In case you missed it, we were able to double the number of attendees and include over 2,800 people.

Not only were we able to include them, we were also able to see their families, pets, and home offices. It was an unusual experience for sure, but one we won’t be forgetting any time soon.

As always, the speakers served up some flaming hot content (including an actual movie). We can’t wait to share some of these takeaways with you!

Britney Muller — Accessible Machine Learning Workflows for SEOs

Britney started off by assuring everyone that they absolutely can use machine learning. She knows this because she was able to teach her dad how to use it!

Let’s jump right in.

Basically, machine learning can be used for a lot of things.

There’s endless possibilities w/ #machinelearning:

Some cool things: – AI-generated faces – Auto-excuse generator (need that)

Leveraging for SEO: – Keyword research – Forecasting time series – Extracting entities and categories from URLs – Internal link analysis #mozcon

— Seer Interactive (@SeerInteractive) July 15, 2020

Britney suggests starting with a notebook in Colaboratory for increased accessibility. She showed us to do the basics like upload, import, and download data before jumping into the fun stuff:

Using Google NLP API to extract entities and their categories from URL

Using Facebook’s Prophet data for time-series predictions

Keyword research using Search Console Data and a filtering function

Honestly, we were surprised at how easy she made machine learning look. Can’t wait to try it ourselves!

Izzi Smith — How to Be Ahead of the (CTR) Curve

Not all clicks are created equal! While you may want as many clicks as possible from the SERP, there’s a specific type of click you should be striving for — the almighty long click.

“What is a click without the intent to be there?”

Google’s patent clearly states that reactions to search results are gauged, and short interactions (clicks) can lower rankings while longer interactions (clicks) can lead to higher rankings.

Great point by the wonderful @izzionfire – focus on the “long clicks” – the ones where users spend a long time on your page after clicking your result.

Google tends to show answers for the “short clicks” within the SERP – if it doesn’t now, it will soon.#MozCon pic.twitter.com/mCvWUpDTKQ

— Lily Ray ???? (@lilyraynyc) July 15, 2020

Are you ready to track your clicks and get to work? Good! Izzi broke it all down for you:

Pull your data from Google Search Console, specifically by using their API.

Know what you are looking for BEFORE getting into the data.

Look for these patterns:

Performance-based core update impacts — decrease in positions and impressions

Identifying Irrelevant rankings — large impression spike (with low CTR) then a sharp decline in impressions

Losing SERP feature — a sharp decrease in CTR and a decrease in impressions

Izzi, you’re a rockstar! We can’t wait to go play with all of our data later.

Flavilla Fongang — How to Go Beyond Marketing for Clients: The Value of a Thriving Brand Ecosystem

Flavilla is a true gem. Instead of focusing on the top of the funnel, she focused on how we can keep customers coming back.

She told us that “business is like love”. You don’t want to move too fast. You don’t want to move too slow. You have to add value. You have to keep things exciting.

“Your clients don’t continue buying from you because you meet their expectations. They do it because you EXCEED them.” It’s like falling in love. — @FlavillaFongang #MozCon pic.twitter.com/S4RwlkC6pp

— Sarah Bird (@SarahBird) July 15, 2020

Flavilla challenged us to find what makes us remarkable:

Can you offer a unique experience?

Can you create a community?

Can you offer integrations?

Can you partner with people to bring something new?

Really sit down and think about why you started your brand and reflect on it. If you build a brand people come back to, you’ll have far less to worry about.

Brian Dean — How to Promote Your Content Like a Boss

We finally did it! We got Brian Dean to speak at an SEO conference.

If you don’t know him by now, you haven’t been searching hard enough. Brian is a master of content creation and marketing.

It wasn’t always that way, though. Brian’s first blog never took off because he spent more time creating content than he did promoting it. Once he realized just how important promotion was, he went all-in and ended up reaping the benefits.

This year, he finally shared with us some of his Jedi-like promotion tactics.

7 promotional strategies 1. Create for the linkerati (bloggers+journalists) 2. Expanded social posts 3. Avoid JarJar outreach 4. The Jedi mind trick 5. Hyperdrive-boosted Facebook posts 6. Infiltrate scarif: subreddits 7. Hack the Halonet: click to tweet links@backlinko #mozcon

— James Wirth (@jameswirth) July 15, 2020

He shared multiple tips for each of these strategies, but here is a quick summary:

Social sites hate it when you post links. Instead, tease the content with a “hook, lead, summary, link, call-to-action”.

Ask journalists or bloggers if they’d be interested in reading your pieces, but do so before you publish it to take some pressure off.

Actually personalize your outreach by mentioning something on the contact’s site.

Boost Facebook posts with ample engagement to audiences who have interacted with previous posts.

Just implementing one of these tactics could change the way your content is received by the internet. Who knows what could happen if you implemented all of them?

Joy Hawkins — Google My Business: Battling Bad Info & Safeguarding Your Search Strategy

Not everyone does local SEO, but if you do (or if it ties into what you do at all) you’re going to want to buckle your seatbelt.

Joy showed us some of the insights she was able to pull from a large study she did with her team. They had noticed a major discrepancy in the data between Google My Business and Google Search Console, and wanted to get to the root of it.

TL;DR version of @JoyanneHawkins presentation at #mozcon

Don’t trust Search Console impressions, y’all

— Greg Gifford (@GregGifford) July 15, 2020

Joy shared some major findings:

Google My Business “views” are a lot of different things (not just the traditional impressions we’re used to tracking).

Mobile searches don’t show website icons in the local pack.

The search queries that show up in GMB are different from the ones that are shown in Search Console.

Explicit intent does not always mean higher intent than implicit intent

If you work in local search, Joy wants to challenge you to move away from views and Search Console impressions. Instead, focus on the search data that GMB provides for keywords and on click data in Search Console.

Michael King — Runtime: The 3-Ring Circus of Technical SEO

In true Michael King style (with a ton of flare), he showed us just what’s possible at a virtual conference and blew our minds with technical SEO awesomeness.

That moment you think you kinda know technical SEO and then you see @iPullRank at #MozCon. Mind. BLOWN.

— Lauren Turner (@laurentracy_) July 15, 2020

We watched “Jamie” get through the three rings using slick techniques.

How do you identify which keyword on a site owns a URL? -Position -Traffic -Linking authority metrics

Use on all ranking pages to determine best URL for each keyword on the site, then adjust anchor text as needed@iPullRank #MozCon

— Jennifer Slegg (@jenstar) July 15, 2020

All Google products have services you can connect to via ABScript – you can create a full data ecosystem, all via basic JavaScript@iPullRank #MozCon

— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 15, 2020

@ipullrank #seo #mozcon #techseo

holy fizzle Ebay builds internal links programatically to boost rankings from page 2 to page 1.

— Noah Learner (@noahlearner) July 15, 2020

There were so many of these, friends!

The thing is, all of this has been out there and accessible, but as Mike says in Runtime, “Doing things the same way everyone else does them is going to get you everyone else’s results. Do things your own way.”

Dana DiTomaso — Red Flags: Use a Discovery Process to Go from Red Flags to Green Lights

The idea of discovery is not a new one, but Dana came ready to shine a new light on an old tactic. Most of us do minimal research before agreeing to do a project — or at least minimal compared to Dana and her team!

These are just a few questions from Kick Point’s discovery process:

If there were no limitations, what would you want to be able to say at the end of this project?

Which of these metrics affects your performance report?

What does your best day ever look like?

What didn’t work last time?

The discovery process isn’t just about talking to the client, though, it’s about doing your own research to see if you can find the pain points.

Actually testing your client’s transaction process. I only do that when setting up eCommerce tracking and test the purchasing journey for customers.

Go beyond what data implies and see for yourself how you stack up to your competitors. Brilliant @danaditomaso #MozCon pic.twitter.com/dkz21fK1kd

— nikrangerseo (@nikrangerseo) July 15, 2020

As always, Dana shared some true gems that are sure to make our industry better.

David Sottimano — Everyday Automation for Marketers

David brought us automation greatness all the way from Colombia! There were so many practical applications and all of them required little to no coding:

Wit.ai for search intent classification

Using cron for scheduling things like scraping

Webhooks for passing data

Creating your own IFTTT-like automation using n8n.io on Heroku

We got to see live demonstrations of David doing each of these things as he explained them. They all seemed super user-friendly and we can’t wait to try some of them.

#mozcon @dsottimano dropping a ton of automation knowledge and showcasing @bigmlcom power pic.twitter.com/p3gWVBbWX5

— John Murch (@johnmurch) July 15, 2020

Oh yeah, David also helped us build and release the Moz API for Sheets!

Russ Jones — I Wanna Be Rich: Making Your Consultancy Profitable

Most businesses fail within their first five years, and that failure often comes down to business decisions. Now, Russ doesn’t enjoy all of this decision-making, but he has learned a few things from doing it and then seeing how those decisions affect a business’s bottom line.

The number one way to become more profitable is to cut costs. Russ looked at cutting costs by having fewer full-time employees, renting/owning less space, making leadership changes, and cutting lines of service.

When it comes to actually bringing in more money though, Russ suggests:

Adding new service lines

Raising prices

Automating tasks

Acquiring new business

At the end of the day, Russ boiled it down to two things: Don’t be afraid to change, and experiment when you can — not when you must.

If you experiment only when you have to, you’re going to fail. If you experiment now, when you can and don’t wait until you must, chances are you’re going to grow, succeed and beat out your competitors. @rjonesx #MozCon

— Amy merrill (@MissAmyMerrill) July 15, 2020

Heather Physioc — Competitive Advantage in a Commoditized Industry

SEO is not dead, it’s commoditized. A strong line to start off a presentation! We can always count on Heather to bring forth some real business-minded takeaways.

First, she helped us understand what a competitive advantage actually is.

Competitive advantages should be: – Unique – Defensible – Sustainable – Valuable Consistent@HeatherPhysioc #MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 15, 2020

Then, it was time to go through her competitive advantage framework.

Steps to having a competitive advantage (not just linear though – it’s a cyclical process) via @HeatherPhysioc #Mozcon pic.twitter.com/W0ZBAduKHP

— Alan Bleiweiss (@AlanBleiweiss) July 15, 2020

As we went through this framework, Heather assigned A LOT of homework:

Examine your brand: What do you do? Who do you serve? Why? Find the patterns within the answers.

Write a brand statement.

Activate your advantage: How can you live it fully? What things can’t you do in support of your purpose? How will you know you’re putting it to work?

She mentioned a lot of great tools throughout her presentation. Get a list of those tools and access to her slides here.

Wil Reynolds — The CMO Role Has Been Disrupted: Are You Ready for Your New Boss?

Have you ever thought about who holds the fate of the CMO in their hands? Wil started out by explaining that the CEO, CFO, and CIO actually have far more power over marketing than we give them credit for. While they all know that data is what will make their businesses successful, they also hold keys to our success: budget, IT teams/implementations, veto authority.

The issue we face isn’t that we don’t know what we are doing, but more so that we don’t know how to communicate it.

“I don’t know a whole lot of CEOs that read Search Engine Land, but they’re the ones that write our checks.” – @wilreynolds

So instead of throwing shade at our least-favorite phrases the c-suite uses, we may want to make sure non-SEOs understand our value.#MozCon pic.twitter.com/S6fClFevZo

— James Wirth (@jameswirth) July 15, 2020

How can you show up to talk the talk and walk the walk? Use your data, and use it to give the customers a voice at the table (something all executive teams are attempting to achieve).

SEO + PPC + Analytics + CRM = magic@wilreynolds #mozcon pic.twitter.com/JICfWiOB3X

— Jason Dodge (@dodgejd) July 15, 2020

Wil’s team has done an amazing job simplifying and documenting this process for all of us in search. If you haven’t yet, we highly suggest checking out their blog.

That’s a wrap

Folks, this was fun. We’re so happy that we could bring people together from all over the world for two days during this crazy time.

While there weren’t any Roger hugs or fist pumps, there were still lessons learned and friendships made. It doesn’t get any better than that. We hope you feel the same.

If you were able to attend the live conference, we would love to hear your thoughts and takeaways! Be sure to take time to reflect on what you’ve learned and start plans for implementation — we want to see you make a difference with your new knowledge.

Until next year, Moz fans!

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[edwardxjay6482-blog]

Steps to make New Fortnite V Bucks?

Money Laundering Scheme Uncovered Using Fortnite V

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Well, Fortnite's success isn't based exclusively for the fact that it is free, but instead, it is because of how very the free-to-play asset interlocks with the premise and features of the game itself. That means that the fact that Fortnite is released in the moment is a powerful heart to seriously supports the other issues we will be discussing. Good the votes come in and it's been formally confirmed - Fortnite is the best Battle Royale game out there.

Unfortunately, some Fortnite players, particularly daughters and teenagers, still fall for the thousands of scams online next at YouTube offering them V-Bucks. You can use the Fortnite Generator to get Free Fornite V Bucks, the procedure to do that is pretty straightforward, once you got the application on the pc, just launch Fortnite also laid the amount of Fortnite V Responsibilities to you want to have in your account, once you are fixed you just have to press on the Generate Buttons.

Fortnite: Save The planet is a co-op survival game using all the same tools and weapons as you'll find with Fortnite Battle Royale, and costs the player with body defenses Fortnite v bucks hack before playing behind an ambush of AI controlled zombies. Survive the night and people gain rewards such such as different systems, gear, corner with figure materials to do it all again. With giving two very different modes along with being in first access, it is surprising how lucky Fortnite runs both inside PVE and PVP modes. As such, you don't really need a extremely powerful PC to play the game.

Epic Sports are trying to formulate a miniature edition of Fortnite Battle Royale for persons to enjoy with their colleagues with creative mode, using a smaller starting crowd. In summary, I discovered a backdoor break into the databases of many big gaming business. The Fortnite Battle Royale database lets everyone to put in as many resources what I want into any Fortnite Battle Royale account.

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No one thought Fortnite would still be popular that recent about, yet that proceeded to modify and struggle for the spot at the top from the fight royale ladder. Microsoft say completely turned off a new Xbox Live Gold deal open to completely different clients with anyone that lowered their subscription before October 1: three months of check and 1,000 V-Bucks representing a complete of $10. To cost essentially creates the V-Bucks open, as 1,000 V-Bucks would cost Fortnite players five bucks when purchased separately.

Now, not altogether Part Quests get you V-Bucks (Fortnite is pretty particular about these things) but the great cut is that you have some Part Quests that becomes you up to 150 V-Bucks. V Bucks Hack Glitch in Fortnite and added a Anti-Ban story in developing Proxy setup. Fortnite battle royale is a free game, presented by multi platforms. Players can participate daily given challenges exactly where they may gain vbucks, it is the game internal currency that might be used by the person outfit with weapons.

The account security is the top priority! Keep your accounts by enabling 2FA. As a prize for keeping the bill, you'll unlock the Boogiedown Emote in Fortnite Battle Royale. It's unclear at this time just how the Hidden Treasure item will work, however. It'd make sense if the item somehow showed a few, powerful tool hidden somewhere around the map—but most Fortnite fans don't know what to expect quite yet.

So that's everything you need to know before getting placed into Fortnite and Fortnite Battle Royale. We'll understand you inside gutter. In reaction , Epic crew member darkveil” said, Sure!” The plan is in place but it remains theoretically a little difficult,” according to the comment. Epic wants to give mini-BR” tough in Creative where users will be able to configure the Surprise, use the bus stop feature, and other things through the central Fortnite battle royale island.

No one can honestly pinpoint any indications that happen key signs of happy in Period 7. While many believe the Fortnite map could be changed to a ‘Winter' theme in time for the Holiday's, that rests unclear that path Epic Games will take. In fact, you can work on the skill in the competition and become one of the better Fortnite players without having to spend a single money in in-game purchases. However, purchasing V Bucks does have its edges.

Flamemaster”, a 10th grader, says that they are, Annoying, obnoxious, toxic, and infuriating.” What has gone wrong? Of course, every game has the catches, and I stay not looking to establish how Fortnite is a dangerous game, just show the way many people who enjoy that get destroyed what could have been a good game. You will hear the e-mail alert if the rate of Fortnite - 10,000 (+3,500 Bonus) V-Bucks will drop.

Fortnite Battle Royale isn't merely the biggest game of 2018; this a real cultural fact. From middle-school playgrounds to frat house persons to million-view YouTube livestreams , that become a good obsession for numerous fans. Gaming hasn't seen anything this good since reach of Minecraft. Fact No: 2 : - Fortnite will ban all gamers who will try to cut or cheat the scheme.

After you have happened allowed for the free gift, there will be the approval email. All you poverty is beginning it also following the teaching to motion at home to help your own Samsung account, download Fortnite game, and then grasp the 15,000 V-Bucks along with the Universe skin for free. A now-deleted tweet from a fake Epic Games account said: Fortnite will be turning drink about September 26th 2018.

This pattern should end. This drove here CS:GO since it would really constitute the hitboxes larger, in Fortnite, go on the new game engine, that clearly smushes the character model down. Any perceived effect they have with your own ability to show is a excuse. The designer may consider trail in Fortnite's footsteps and including another, limited-time game approaches to performance with the BR formula, or perhaps map-changing ingredients that keep the game environment light. Or Respawn might understand PUBG also create new, smaller plans with another server sizes to socialize things up.

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Despite Fortnite being the most popular sport of this particular technology, Epic Games' impressive battle royale say not really come without the drawbacks. The means it is taking appears to be leading to Loot Lake, and with less than a few weeks left pending the tip in the playoffs current time, it is expected to contact the location before the issue of Fortnite Season 6. Every activity will consume stage with eat time can charge something especially when that working a cash amount from Fortnite V Bucks Hack. You can see time period that will help you to focus on completing actions instantly.

The Fortnite World Cup Online tournaments get started in May 13 and will run every week for five weeks across each place. The semi-finals session takes place on the Saturday and is about three hours long, with a 10 match limit. If you place in the top 3000 players, you'll be able to take role in the ultimate by Saturday. Fortnite Week 1 Concerns with the Period 8 Battle State stay below, like go to all Pirate Camps drawing and giant face locations. Clear at least some on the seven concerns to earn 5,000XP. This set was launched by January 28, 2019.

Fortnite Battle Royale has been free to games because their launch, and virtual currency is a major revenue stream for Epic Games While items acquired from the store offer no competitive help, they form the game cool with creative. Your essential pilot to Fortnite, the biggest activity in the year, combining data in War Royale and But the World modes in the final one-stop winner's manual.

Fortnite is the principal diversion of 2018, so if you tell a person who games regularly, there's a good chance they're showing it. The game itself is released, but players must work in-game V-Bucks to buy customizations. EPIC UPDATES & EVENTS - Weekly updates constantly fuel the joy. New gameplay modes, dangerous and mad new looks for your avatar, new sticks and items….Fortnite is always expanding.

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Whilst BattlEye is delivered with the likes of Fortnite, PUBG etc - most people have no idea what it is or why it's display a mistake. The builders of Fornite Battle Royale have answered the game will remain free-to-play permanently. Fortnite Save the planet now costs $39.99 to compete, yet when both ways leave Early Access later this year, Save the World will become free-to-play.

With Time 7 in full swing, version 7.01 can not look like that exciting in association. That said, the new report of Fortnite involves the Infinity Blade gun from Epic Games' Infinity Blade series, the new Close Encounters limited-time mode, and more. Figure 2a: Data program the estimated profits from item style with value selection by Fortnite players May 2017 — June 2018, based on the Edison Trends dataset.

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The moment the screen starts, you'll see a preview in the upper-right corner regarding your game (which you can minimise, if you want). This survey window lets you immediately toggle the microphone and webcam upon then away, and you can also click on the "chat" network to get exactly what people are tell around the bad Fortnite death streak. If you're wondering what items are in the Fortnite shop today, about the time to you're study this, you can control over to your Fortnite Battle Royale shop items guide So be updating this side every date, to reproduce all the make new things to Epic takes to the Fortnite store.

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Appreciation for looking at our Fortnite: Battle Royale & Fortnite: Save The World videos! Want additional? I sent daily Fortnite movies or anything interesting for Fortnite Battle Royale. Fortnite's new and fewer common horde mode offers daily login bonuses, daily concerns, and compensates for Storm Shield Defense missions. They remain lively with calm ways to get a tiny amount of currency each day, although you'll have to really hold the type.

Fortnite: But The World is a house survival game using all the same products and weapon as you'll find in Fortnite Battle Royale, and care the person with building defenses before looking behind a onslaught of AI controlled zombies. Survive the night with anyone earn rewards like because different weapons, gear, capture with shape materials to do everything once again. With giving two different modes along with staying into basic access, it is surprising how well Fortnite works both with PVE and PVP modes. As such, you don't really need a super powerful PC to play the game.

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The balance protection is your top priority! Keep the report in helping 2FA. As a reward for keeping your bank account, you'll unlock the Boogiedown Emote in Fortnite Battle Royale. It's unclear at this time how the Hidden Treasure item will work, however. It'd make sense if the item somehow revealed a pink, powerful weapon hidden somewhere around the map—but most Fortnite fans don't know what to expect quite yet.

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Having moving storm balls in creative would as well lived fine heard in the Fortnite competitive group as participants would be able to consistently practice hectic end-game scenarios commonly met in LAN events. Fortnite could also follow PUBG's model also put in news roads to interest up the gameplay (but made with Fortnite's signature, goofy way). Other cars may be another interesting direction to look popular, with competitors PUBG , H1Z1 now Name of Responsibility: Blackout successfully featuring vehicular gameplay.

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Below the cut is an 18 year long question/answer thing about my second Ryder, who is fast becoming my favorite Ryder. It’s largely a reference for myself, because I tend to get scattered. There’s no point otherwise. 

ETA: I am the absolute worst and forgot to give credit. The questionnaire is great and from here.

The basics! What's their full name, gender, and sexuality? Describe their general appearance and/or include a picture. Is there anything you canon beyond what the game allows?

Iona Amelia Ryder is a bisexual lady because I am a bisexual lady and that’s all I usually will play. Have a picture, because God knows the rest of this is just lots of words. 

Can’t always wear Initiative whites and blues, What's their dress style like? Do they prefer casual wear, or being in armor? Is it the same as it was in the Milky Way? How, if applicable, has it changed since arriving in Helius?

Iona’s not much for the Initiative provided casual wear. It’s comfortable though, which is nice, and it’s not like she has much to choose from. She promptly dyes it black to match the jacket she brought from the Milky Way. They turn out to be more of a dark grey, but it’s the spirit that counts. Eventually, Suvi gives her a similarly colored scarf for her birthday. Iona never asks where she got it or how she found out it was her birthday - she suspects the answer to both of those questions is Vetra - but she wears it from that moment on. 

In the Milky Way, she definitely had a lot of clothes in a variety of styles. Iona enjoys dressing up differently depending on her mood, and despite her current black (grey) uniform, she had a lot of bright colors in rotation before. Clothing’s not a priority in Andromeda though, and the weight limits prevented her from bringing much. She adjusts. 

She prefers her casual clothing. Armor is great at what it does - namely saving her ass - but it’s bulky and takes forever to put on/take off. She’d rather be comfortable and able to easily move in her day to day life. 

Do they have piercings, tattoos, or notable scars? Do they dye their hair, or is it a gene mod?

All of the above, though the piercings are decidedly on the tame side - three holes in each ear, and she rarely actually wears earrings. She likes the idea of earrings but finds the actual thing to be mildly inconvenient. 

As for scars and tattoos, Iona has a honeycomb like scar across her left cheek, the result of poking one too many newly discovered Prothean artifacts without proper safety precautions. Later, when the scientific team decided to get matching tattoos, she placed hers on the right side of her face so there’d be something interesting no matter where you looked. She’s not one to shy away from attention and figured it’d be better to invite people to stare than catch them quickly glancing at her. 

She dyes her hair an obnoxiously bright purple, mostly because she likes the color but also partially because it annoys her father. She never quite outgrew the teenage rebel stage. 

Outside of things I could represent in game, she’s got a full sleeve tattoo on her right arm that’s honestly mostly random - birds, flowers, pretty profiles, space stuff, anything she thought was beautiful all mashed up onto one arm. It’s bright and colorful and somehow works. On her left arm, she has a half sleeve that’s just random quotes and words from a variety of sources. They run together constantly and they’re in the same font, so it’s hard to tell where one stops and another starts unless there’s a pretty big age difference between the two. Sometimes there is, sometimes there isn’t. Iona doesn’t really care if it confuses other people; it’s for her alone. She also has a (colorful) peacock tattoo on her left thigh and a small (black) brain outline on her right ankle. 

(The arms are just things she likes or things that speak to her. She doesn’t have an explanation for all of them. The peacock is a brag, of sorts; someone once told her she was as arrogant and vain as one, and she just kind of took that as a compliment. That’s not how it was intended. She knows that. The brain is for her mother; she was going to get a heart, but it felt too cheesy, and Ellen worked on brain implants, so...) 

Honestly, her tattoo artist was a God send and a saint, and since they didn’t come along to Helius, any new tattoos are probably not going to work quite so well. 

What’s their personality like? How do they feel about being Pathfinder? How do they change, if at all, over the course of the story?

Iona is empathetic, sarcastic, and impulsive. It ends up being an internal war most of the time; does her compassionate side win out or her need to make a joke out of everything? Normally, it’s the latter. She cares, but diplomacy isn’t her strong suit. 

She’s open with her affections and considers casual touching and sex to be totally normal and fine. Which isn’t to say she doesn’t understand boundaries - she does, and she respects them. She doesn’t want to make people uncomfortable. She’s an endless flirt. 

She’s testy under pressure and can say some harsh things she doesn’t always mean. She’s especially prone to rash decisions then, though she’s not really ever a good planner. She tends to do things on the fly and hope they’ll work out for the best. That they usually do is more of a testament to her team’s skill than anything else. 

Over time, she matures a bit. She’s still more likely to make a bad joke than not, but she starts to handle pressure better. Plans are formed in advance and stuck to. They’re still largely formed by other people, but Iona’s seen how having a good advance plan can help and begins to trust in certain people to make them. 

She never loses her physical self confidence. It’s in her bones. 

What’s their preferred profile, or class? Were they naturally inclined towards combat or technical skills? Were they a developed biotic, or did they first experience it with SAM?

Iona has always been a techie. She was taking apart and rebuilding things as soon as she mastered fine motor control, and Ellen encouraged that skill. As the child of scientists and inventors, it was pretty natural that she’d pick up some of that passion. 

As a child, Iona was jealous of biotics, both because so much of her mother’s work was devoted towards them (which meant they must be interesting) and because, well, moving things with your mind seemed cool. Ellen had enough element zero exposure to potentially make the twins viable biotics, and Iona used to lie in bed at night and try to make something happen. Neither of them ever showed any talent for it though. Later, when her mother’s illness was tied back to her biotic research, any desire Iona ever had about being biotic flamed out. She viewed it as more of a curse than anything else for the last few years. 

Experiencing it with SAM for the first time was... a trip. She didn’t even try for a few months after becoming Pathfinder, and when she finally did, she did it alone, in her quarters, with SAM’s recording features all turned off so she could react as she needed to without alerting anyone. It’s something she practices in case she ever absolutely needs it to save someone, but she won’t use it otherwise. 

Canon says they served in the Alliance before joining the Initiative, do you keep this canon, or have you made some changes? Explain their backstory either way.  

Iona and Scott join the Alliance at 18, because, well, it’s expected of them. They expect to be kept together - they’ve been together their whole lives - but they test separately, and the Alliance decides that Iona, tech savvy and curious, is better off helping scientific teams in the Attican Traverse and Scott is not. It’s a system shock, and she probably gets a little wilder than she should for the first year. Fortunately for her, the Traverse is more lax with regulations than most of the Alliance space, and as long as she does her job well, her superiors don’t really care. 

She’s there just to guard the scientists initially, but she’s bad at staying in her lane. She hangs out with them whenever she has a free moment, offering suggestions and ideas. When she manages to activate a Prothean artifact no one else yet had (and gets that burn across her face), they decide to officially make her part of the science team. She’s pretty hyped. 

She’s 20 and the ink on her face is barely dry when the news about her mother’s condition comes in. She wants to go home, to care for her mother like no one else can, but Ellen convinces her to stay there. The others on the team become her support, and she leans on them heavily. 

That they turn their backs on her once Alec’s AI work is revealed in gut wrenching. She’s tries to convince them that she didn’t know, but the Geth are an ever present threat in the Traverse, and the Citadel just took heavy losses from their attack. They’re not swayed. She’s too disheartened to protest when the Alliance discharges her and sends her back home. 

She doesn’t feel like there’s a choice when Andromeda comes up. Her father’s shadow will constantly loom over her, even once he leaves. Besides, Scott has been bored for the past few years and eagerly accepts the plan. She’d have no family and no future in the Milky Way. 

Everyone’s got one… List their (or your) favorite powers, weapons, and armor sets. Any special reason for these choices?

Iona’s not too partial to any particular armor set or weapon, though she does prefer to use a sniper rifle so she can hang back from the fray. If something has to get up close and personal, she’d prefer it be her Remnant VI (not as trustworthy as her hand built assault drone but much cooler and therefore preferred) or the incinerates she tosses. Her combat cloak is a must have so she can get out of sticky situations easily. Her goal is to survive, not look awesome on the stretcher. 

It’s all in the family. Explain their relationship with Alec, Ellen, and their sibling. If you changed anyone’s names or added a different sibling in your canon, explain why.

No extra sibling or name changes, because I am lazy. 

Iona’s relationship with her father is complicated. He’s distant and often a bit harsh, and she’s not that way at all. She always thought he regretted having children, that it was something he did because he thought he had to. He worked long hours and was always away, and Iona resented him for that. Later, when she was basically blacklisted in the Alliance because he was breaking AI laws, she resented him for ruining her future. She doesn’t get the full picture until later, and by then it’s too late to change anything. 

On the opposite end, Iona absolutely adored her mother. Ellen encouraged her love of science and tech from a very young age, and she was smart and funny and realistic. Her disease devastated the whole family. 

Honestly, until the Alliance separates them, Iona kind of views Scott as an extension of herself. It’s not a conscious thing, but once they start not being around each other at all, she’s genuinely surprised several times that he doesn’t just know about things she’s done and seen. She’s equally surprised when she finds out things he’s done well after the fact, like she should just know everything through osmosis or something. The Andromeda Imitative bringing them back together was supposed to be the one good thing about it. 

What’s their favorite memory they have of their sibling? Of their parents?

Iona’s favorite memory of her father is from early, early childhood. She’s not sure how old she was at the time - maybe 4 or so - but her father would take her to his workshop and teach her how to use all the tools there. It was like a dream space for her; at home, though her love of tech was encouraged, she was mostly forbidden from doing things like taking apart the lights. She also mostly ignored those boundaries and thus didn’t have constant access to all the tools she’d need. In the workshop, she was allowed to do whatever, as long as her father was there to guide her. It happened rarely though, since he was frequently away on Alliance business. 

By contrast, she has a ton of good memories of her mother, and it’d be hard to pick just one. She values the time they spent working on gadgets together; she values the time they spent as a family. If she had to pick a defining one though, it would be shortly after her first breakup as a teenager; she was sobbing in her room, like you do, and Ellen sat with her, gave her advice, and then took her shopping. Then they baked cookies together. Iona had definitely thought she wasn’t capable of being happy again (at least for a long while), but her mother did everything she could to cheer her up, and it worked. Overall, she was just super supportive. 

As for Scott, he actually gave her that jacket she wears around everywhere as a Christmas gift at the age of 13. As children, they were similar - not identical, obviously, as they had different interests, but personality wise, they had a lot in common. As they began growing up, Iona began branching out into more alternative paths, and Scott... didn’t. At least, not the same ones she did. She was concerned they’d grow apart and that he wouldn’t accept her. She was the one doing more of the changing, afterall, so the reaction was his choice (as far as she viewed it). Her father definitely didn’t seem to like the new her. And instead of disapproving of her, he got her that jacket - the old fashioned, decidedly out of style and hard to find leather jacket she had been coveting for months. She hadn’t expected it. It felt like acceptance, and it meant the world to her. She’s kept it ever since, repairing it and modifying it as needed so that it fits her as well at 22 as it did at 13. 

How have they dealt with the aftermath of Habitat 7? How deeply does this affect them?

Everything goes wrong on Habitat 7. Granted, things were going wrong even before then, but that’s the tipping point of especially bad. But Iona rolls with it. The fact that she wasn’t especially close to her father actually works to her advantage to once, because she’s able to view the loss more as a loss of a commanding officer than the loss of a father. She cared far more for her mother, and Iona’s already done that mourning. Practically, it changed everything; emotionally, it didn’t. She’s more concerned over her sudden new responsibilities and the fact that there’s some kind of space abnormality that fucks up ships. That she dreams of suffocating and wakes up in a cold sweat most nights seems expected. 

Later, when Prodromos is established and stable and the initial panic that everyone will starve has worn off, she feels guilty for her lack of emotional response over her father’s death. She also acknowledges that the trauma of almost dying (and actually dying for a short time) is a medical problem that needs attention. 

As they unlock the memories, how does this change, if at all, their view of their parents?

The memories don’t change her view of her mother at all. Iona always knew Ellen cared deeply for her family and was more concerned with living a full life than limping away from death as long as possible. She didn’t know SAM was originally invented to save her mother, but the fact that Ellen was willing to entertain the idea made sense to her. She liked science and advancement, and she was willing to take risks for it. Add in a terminal disease and her love of her husband, and well, it was probably an easy choice. 

She does learn to become more forgiving of her father though. Before the memories, she assumed his constant immersion in his new project was just his way of avoiding Ellen’s disease, not his attempt at saving her. She always assumed he didn’t care, because he was more distant and less prone to showing his emotions, but he did care, deeply. It just wasn’t in a way she understood. 

Explain the way they feel about their squadmates, both initially and over the course of the story.

This is gonna get long. 

Cora:  -Initially: First impressions are that she’s smart and they’re probably not going to get along. People her father thinks are fit for command - and Cora is his second, so she must fit the mold - tend to be far more by the rules and serious than Iona can tolerate. Plus, they tend to judge her too, so she just preemptively dismisses them.  -After some time: Cora’s obsession with biotics and asari kind of weirds Iona out, but they both seem to grow out of that a little over time. They definitely chafe at first, but Cora is a good second in command. She’s good at dealing with the leadership (which Iona isn’t), she’s good at offering advice (which Iona ignores), and she’s good at putting together plans (which Iona only does on the fly). Her input is valuable, and though it takes Iona a little while longer to see that than it probably should, she does end up appreciating her presence on the team. In turn, Cora relaxes a bit and shows a more personal side. They’ll probably never see eye to eye on a lot of things, but they do become friends. 

Liam:  -Initially: Actual human puppy - sweet, eager to please, and wears his heart on his sleeve.  -After some time: That first impression never really wears off, but she learns there’s more depth to him than that. Of all the people Iona meets, he’s the one who cares the most. Not just better make sure we do well so we don’t die care but everyone deserves a good life and good home care. So many people forgot those early dreams (or never had them), but Liam not only remembers, he still believes and works for it. And if he, former cop and still general good doer, has to work around the system to make it happen, he will. Not for personal gain - Iona never witnesses him do something shady solely for his own benefit - but for all the people in general. He feels like he’s there for the right reasons, and Iona trusts him because of it. 

Vetra:  -Initially: Walking up that spaceship ramp the first time, Iona feels small next to Vetra. She offers a nice, peaceful thing to the dock attendant - getting his son out of cryo - but Iona is kind of intimidated. Also, she’s pretty.  -After some time: Vetra feels like the team’s mother to Iona. Not in a judgemental way but a caring, protective manner. She can’t be that much older than Iona, but something about her just seems like she’s so much more mature than everyone else on the Tempest, presumably because she basically raised her little sister. She’s also resourceful as fuck. Iona looks up to her and wants to basically be her when she’s older. 

Drack:  -Initially: Heart eyes, motherfucker, up until he basically says she’s not good at this right after she took down a million kett to get there.  -After some time: Giant combat veteran gives good advice and thinly disguised care in one fell swoop. Iona’s a bit jealous of Kesh. More than a bit, really. He’s distrustful of SAM in a way that Iona definitely isn’t, but he only brings it up occasionally and seems more than happy to let her do what she wants with her body and brain. 

Peebee:  -Initially: A random asari tackling her on a planet where everyone is either dead or hostile is really not what Iona expects. There are mixed feelings there.  -After some time: Iona’s relationship with Peebee is kind of a rollercoaster. They’re best buds at first - both are quick thinking, impulsive scientists who don’t act anything like society expects and kind of revel in that. And both are young (relatively) and attractive and flirty, so hey, why not add the occasional bout of casual sex to the mix? 

It starts getting awkward mid-Kadara. Peebee definitely said no strings attached, and Iona thought she was also pretty clear that this was a friends with benefits situation, but Peebee seems to be getting attached. She talks about liking Jaal but refuses Iona’s encouragement about it, saying she doesn’t dance with multiple partners at once. Meanwhile, Iona hasn’t had the ‘are we exclusive’ talk with Reyes yet, but everyone knows they’re a thing. Rather than dealing with it like she should, Iona just kind of stops all flirting and sex with Peebee and hopes that gets the message across. It doesn’t. 

So it gets awkward for a while after Peebee confesses her feelings later and Ryder turns her down. They’re both adults, they can both handle it just fine, but sometimes the best way to deal with an unrequited crush is to spend time apart. Finally, after two weeks of awkward conversations that everyone picks up on, Iona arranges for a trip to Eos. She spends a week working on things the colony needs and lets everyone else do what they want for the time. Peebee disappears into various Remnant ruins for pretty much the whole week. 

That time seems to be all they need. Once Peebee gets back, she’s back to her usual bright self and drags Iona over to see new tech she’s found. They examine and talk about it for an hour before Iona realizes how normal they’re both being, and after that, it’s fine. They go back to working on projects together and excitedly bouncing ideas off of each other over meals, and if there’s ever a brief moment of tension, neither of them acknowledges it. 

Jaal:  -Initially: Alien???  -After some time: To be honest, they don’t get along well at all for a while. Jaal is closed off when he first boards the Tempest, which is fine for Iona. She can understand that. But then, almost immediately after she helps on Voeld and gets him to open up a little bit, she blows up the exaltation center, and Jaal is Not Ok with that. Which is understandable! That’s a lot of his people she just killed. But he’s very open with how upset he is for a long time, to the point of refusing to talk to her (beyond telling her he won’t talk to her), and that gets kind of old kind of fast. Then they get to Kadara and he starts talking again, only to endlessly complain about how much he hates it there and make snippy comments about Reyes, and she finds herself missing the silent treatment. 

That being said, she can see that he gets along well with the rest of the crew, so he’s clearly not that bad, and their opinions matter to her. After they go to Havarl, they start getting along better; Jaal takes her helping the scientists as kind of a personal favor (it’s not, but since the Moshae already let her into Aya’s vault, there was no pressing need to do it), and Iona begins to understand why Jaal complained endlessly about Kadara, because good Lord, she hates Havarl. They agree to a cease fire over bitching about those planets. It lasts about a week. 

Explain the way they feel about the rest of the Tempest crew?

Kallo: He’s brilliant and talented and has probably saved everyone on the ship a dozen times over with superior flying. He’s also fun to have a conversation with, but he’s a bit sensitive. The fight with Gil that Iona ends up mediating is the worst, because she understands his position (every new upgrade to a biotic implant her mother made feels like an insult to her memory), but ultimately he’s wrong, and there’s no easy way to convince him of that. 

Suvi: Genuine ray of sunshine. Iona definitely reads that paper (after forcing SAM to update the system to allow all of Suvi’s attachments through) just to make her happy. She wants to have sleepovers where they paint each other’s nails and talk about science. 

Lexi: She’s a good doctor but definitely needs her own therapist. Lines get blurred on a ship, and Iona understands that, but Lexi gives far too much weight to other people’s opinions and lets that get the better of her. Doctors are people too, but it’s concerning when your doctor is moping and drinking so miserably at a bar that you get emails about it. 

Gil: Snarky poker friend is a good friend but needs to learn to tone it down around sensitive people. Just because Kallo is in the wrong about changing the ship doesn’t mean Gil needs to be a dick about it. Iona appreciates that he’s willing to joke around with her and play games; that’s not to say they don’t have serious conversations (they do), but he’s usually capable of providing a fun time even in less than ideal circumstances, and sometimes Iona needs that. 

How about Nexus leadership and the people on the Nexus in general?

If there was a fire everybody but Kesh option, Iona would have taken it ASAP. Kandros is probably fine too, but in her estimation, he doesn’t actually seem to do much. He’s in charge of the militia but never attends important meetings, so she doesn’t really consider him leadership. 

Tann and Addison are both going to destroy all her hard work though, just out of sheer incompetence and unlikability. How anyone thought either of them would be suitable for potential first contact scenarios is beyond her. She doesn’t blame people for rebelling. 

The general populace of the Nexus are mostly out of her view. Those she does interact with seem stressed and unsure of their choices, but that’s understandable. Everything went to shit real quick. 

What were their reactions to the Angara and the Exiles? How did learning there was a whole new species in Helius affect them? How did news of the rebellion affect them?

Iona’s not surprised at all to learn that there’s a native species in Andromeda. Despite some of the leadership’s protests otherwise, they always knew it was a possibility. Given how many distinct lifeforms were in the Milky Way alone (not even counting animals and plants), Iona would have been far more surprised if there was no one at all. By the time she was born, humans had gone through the Charon relay and found the other Milky Way species; she’s never lived with the assumption that they’re alone. 

She’s super interested in their bioelectricity and potential reincarnation. She’s far less interested in being the diplomatic contact for the first few interactions, but she doesn’t really get a choice in that. Having a native species already in Andromeda - especially one at war with another non-native species - complicates matters greatly. Iona very much wants to be delicate and respect their boundaries and claims. 

As for the exiles and the rebellion - well, there’s a decent chance that Iona would have supported the rebellion, given what she learns of it. Leadership is a mess, and the exiles weren’t entirely wrong; they were able to survive outside of the Nexus. They’re arguably surviving better than the Nexus, at least until the Hyperion comes along. The people themselves are a mixed bag; the ones beating others in the streets of Kadara Port, for instance, are scum as far as Iona is concerned. On the other hand, you have the doctor running the clinic who didn’t participate in the rebellion and is solely there to do good. And then there’s the middle ground of didn’t participate in the uprising but definitely aren’t trying to be crime free. It’s a mess, and Iona can’t even tell where most people fall.  

The news of the rebellion comes too late to have much effect on Iona; in the course of essentially a day, she’s woken up from 600 years of cryo, her twin lapsed into a coma, seen their golden world a mess, shot at a brand new species, lost her father, become the Pathfinder, and discovered the Nexus in a completely fucked state. ‘There was a rebellion’ barely even registers. 

What about their interactions with the Kett?

Honestly, they’re probably a little lucky that the kett were immediately hostile, because Iona’s nerves were fucking frayed when they first encountered them. The ark being damaged, her shuttle breaking apart, everyone else missing, falling almost to her death on the ruined world that was supposed to be home - if she had to make a good first impression, she probably couldn’t have done it. She could have been non-threatening, sure, but poise was not on her list of possibilities at the time. 

But the kett were threatening her teammates, and she didn’t need to be poised. After that first encounter, she’s pretty much all hostility all the time towards them; the attempt at a deal the Cardinal makes goes absolutely no where. 

Did Ryder fall in love? If so, with whom? What drew them to that person? Would their sibling approve?

She did, and that was a surprise. Iona is no stranger to casual relationships, both in terms of affection and sex, but she wasn’t really expecting anything more than that for a long time. Eventually, sure, yeah, but Pathfinder-ing didn’t seem like it was going to leave her much time. 

Then she meets Reyes, and she flirts, because he’s attractive and she’s a perpetual flirt, and he flirts back. And she could just call him for information, but she keeps going back and flirting instead, and somehow that all leads up to her standing in an abandoned warehouse insisting that he’s a good man, because she got Feelings at some point, to someone she's pretty sure they’re going to end up killing anyway. It’s not the ideal moment to realize she cares. 

He sees her as a person and not just a Pathfinder. He’s not immediately impressed with her or angry at her or anything. Sure, they work together on a number of Pathfinder related things, but he’s never telling her she has to make the decisions or expecting her to come up with the plan. Quite the opposite, in fact; he normally has information and ideas ready to go. He’s the first person in Helius who feels like a partner. It’s refreshing. 

Also, he breaks into the port leader’s storage room for a bottle of whiskey so they can sit on some crates, drink, and talk genuinely about past hopes. It’s basically her dream date. 

Scott absolutely does not approve. He’s not surprised in the least that his sister managed to date the Charlatan, mysterious gang leader and notorious criminal, but Jesus, really? Really? 

(Iona, for her part, is not super excited that Reyes lied to her about the whole Charlatan thing initially, but she understands why he did it and ultimately kind of approves of the whole thing. He didn’t immediately owe her an explanation, presumably didn’t know Sloane was going to bring her to the duel, and handled the whole Outcast v Collective situation with more grace than she probably would have. If anything, being the leader of the Collective means 1.) he kind of accomplished his goal after leaving the Nexus (of doing better than the leadership there) and 2.) has shit to do other than wait on her. He still feels like a partner, and that’s important to her.) 

What does Ryder do in their spare time? What are their hobbies and interests? Do they share these with their friends, or are they more private?

As expected, Iona enjoys tinkering with all sorts of things, taking them apart and trying to put them back together but in a better way. That’s a more open hobby; anyone who wants to help or suggest projects is welcome to. She’s absolutely right there with Liam, Jaal, and Gil when they work on that shuttle. 

Privately, she likes to draw, usually defaulting to things that have been on her mind for a while - so Remnant things, Prothean artifacts, people she has a lot of contact with. She’ll occasionally show someone a drawing she’s particularly proud of, but that’s rare and there’s only a few people she’ll do that with (Scott is the primary one, though she eventually shows some to Reyes and Suvi. Suvi exclusively sees drawings of more scientific things). Most people don’t even know she does it. 

For all she jokes about drinking constantly, she really doesn’t. The hangovers usually aren’t worth it. Most people assume she’s serious about it though until they’ve been with her long enough to realize that no, she normally stops before getting drunk. 

How do they feel being in command of the Tempest? What's their favorite part of the ship? Least favorite?

She loves and is intimidated by it at the same time. The Hyperion had Captain Dunn, who would protest a plan if she thought it was a bad idea. Iona’s not really sure Kallo would do the same unless her plan involved literally ruining the ship. On one hand, that’s really nice; she barely feels in charge anyway, so she appreciates that someone isn’t questioning her every move. On the other hand, that’s a lot of responsibility. She likes the limited amount of freedom it gives her - she gets to pick the destinations and times - but hates that it feeds data back to the Nexus. If she could get a small, private shuttle for personal use (and Pathfinder stuff she didn’t want the Nexus to track), she’d be thrilled. 

Space wise, she appreciates that the engineering section is so big. She enjoys spending time there and so do a bunch of the others. It becomes the unofficial gathering spot for most of the crew. 

She’s not fond of the crew quarters. She likes her own space, but it just emphasizes how she’s not actually on the same level as everyone else. She and Scott were both supposed to have a bed there - he conceded top bunk to her when she was still waffling about joining - and instead neither of them do. 

How about driving the Nomad? Are they a good or terrible driver?

God, she’s terrible. It’s not that she’s incapable of driving well - she learned how to drive a long time ago - she just doesn’t feel the need to. The Nomad is a highly advanced vehicle with good traction and shields. Iona feels no qualms whatsoever about speeding past enraged enemies or attempting to bully her way up mountains. This tends to horrify her passengers, who can look out the window and see the treads desperately seeking traction hundreds of feet in the air or bullets pinging off their rapidly fraying shield. 

How do they feel about their connection with SAM? What’s their views on AI in general? Knowing Milky Way history and the attack on Eden Prime and the Citadel a recent memory, did the Geth influence this view? Does their view on SAM change?

Iona is definitely resistant to the idea at first. Most of it comes from the way she found out - being kicked out of the Alliance, her friends turning their backs on her, losing the future she thought she had - but some of it definitely came from working in the Attican Traverse and the recent attacks. She never thinks her father intends to create another life ending AI threat, but she does think he’s arrogant enough to actually do it. 

Fortunately, there’s a few months between when she arrives home and when they leave. She gets to spend more time with SAM then, and her view starts to change. That’s largely due to her mother’s acceptance of it, combined with the realization that she can’t change what happened through sheer dislike. By the time she gets her implant, she’s mostly come around. By the time she becomes Pathfinder, Iona views SAM as less of an AI and more of a disembodied team member. She tends to forget and occasionally has to be reminded otherwise. (SAM definitely ends up getting more data on her love life than she intended.) 

Favorite world they landed on? How do they feel getting to be the first human to step in many of these places?

Kadara was Iona’s favorite. Not because of Reyes (though that helped later) but because 1.) it’s absolutely beautiful in most places outside the port, and 2.) only the water is trying to kill her. Seriously, all of the other worlds she can explore are just actively trying to kill her at all times (lightning storms/radiation/cold/heat/enemies everywhere/no atmosphere/etc), and in Kadara all she needs to do is avoid the water. It’s like a vacation comparatively. 

Also, Kadara is proof that if the Nexus had gotten their heads out of their asses, they could have been just fucking fine without a Pathfinder. The exiles managed to survive on Kadara. The badlands aren’t ideal, sure, but with the Nexus’s resources, more water purification systems could have been built. The exiles may not be Iona’s favorite people (mainly because a lot of them try to kill her), but she does appreciate being around action takers. 

As for being the first human - in most places, she either isn’t (Eos, Kadara, Elaaden) or doesn’t feel like it because other Milky Way inhabitants have already been there (Voeld, Havarl). The only place Iona knows she’s actually the first to be in is Aya, and that’s a clusterfuck of diplomacy for her. She’s not good at diplomacy. She’s not terrible at it either - she does care a lot, and it shows when she’s not being a sarcastic shit - but she definitely wouldn’t have minded if someone else had paved the way. 

How do they feel about the Remnant? Are they worried? Curious? Simply accepting of what they can do with it?

Iona loves the Remnant. Loves it. She and Peebee geek out constantly with each other over every new discovery. It’s like being on a Prothean dig all over again, except there are less rules this time and other people will write the papers. Plus, since it’s so much newer than the Prothean artifacts, there’s more to study and (somewhat) less guesswork. 

The discovery that she can only barely affect it without SAM is kind of disappointing after everything’s calmed down. It’s a little cool - other humans can’t do it at all, so she’s kind of special - but it means it’s something she can’t do without help. No matter how much she wants to understand and study the tech, it will always be beyond her ability to operate without assistance. 

Do they ever wish they could just return to the Milky Way? Do they miss anything in particular about their old home? Did they bring anything special with them?

Knowing that the Milky Way is 600 years older than it was since last time she saw it? No, not at first. The probability that everything there would be just as foreign as it is in Helius is very real. 

Later, when she finds out that the Reapers destroyed it, she wants to take the Arks back. If they had the resources and ability to turn everyone around and arrive back home in another 600 years to recolonize and repopulate their homes? She absolutely would do it. But they can’t, not right now. Maybe one day but not a day that she’ll (probably) see. 

Instead, all she has left is a handful of photos of her mother and that leather jacket. It’s not enough. 

How do they feel about what they’ve accomplished in Helius? Are they proud? Worried? Do they feel positive about the chances for a cluster-wide unity? If they could change anything that had happened since everyone arrived in the cluster, what would it be and why?

Iona is proud of getting the Nexus to a place where they have viable solutions. They have outposts and new people now, not just a ticking clock marking down the time until they run out of food. On that level, it’s definitely a positive. Also, they’re getting along well with the Angara. 

On the other hand, just about everything else is a mess. The Remnant builders were so very far beyond the capabilities of any species they’ve met so far, and they have enemies just as powerful. And both of them intend to eventually come back. If they get there and decide to start over, there’s probably nothing they can do to stop them from wiping out everyone. 

Even without that colossal threat looming over them, they’ve still got the kett to worry about. The Archon was hard enough to deal with, and he answered to others. Those others will presumably come investigate the disappearance at some point. The Initiative has everyone they sent at this point; they can only get so much bigger. The Angara have been warring with the kett for years, and their numbers aren’t great either. If the kett come back in any kind of force, it’s going to be a hard battle. She’s not sure they’ll win. 

On a large scale level, she wishes the ships had never hit the Scourge, that they had been at full capacity when they first came out of dark space. If that’s not possible, she wishes they had all been found faster. Especially the Salarian ark. 

On a very personal, selfish level, she wishes she could have never heard the transmission about the Reapers. The Milky Way is dead and gone as far as she knows, and there’s nothing she can do about it. She can’t really even talk to people about it. It eats at her. 

[featherquillpen]

Smutswap: Dear Creator

Dear Creater,

Thank you for writing / arting for me in this exchange! I had a great time with Smutswap last time around and I expect it’ll be just as fun this time. 

The goal of this letter is to inspire you and unleash your creativity, not to bog you down with a million rules or make you afraid you’ll disappoint me. One of my favorite parts of writing in exchanges like this is that the prompts push me to write things I’d never thought of before, and I hope this letter will do the same for you. 

Fandoms:

The Good Place (Eleanor/Tahani, Eleanor/Janet, Jason/Janet)

Leverage (Parker/Hardison/Eliot)

Rivers of London (Peter/Beverly, Peter/Nightingale)

Star Trek AOS (Kirk/Spock, Uhura/Gaila)

Things I generally like in smut are snark and humor; exploration and mutual discovery; creativity; sex toys; consensual power dynamics, weird sex enabled by magic, technology, and/or aliens; and coming up against hangups, problems, or differences between sex partners and finding a way around them.

Things I generally dislike are non-consent, dubious consent, jealousy / possessiveness, excessive pining, incest, mundane AUs, ageplay, and kinking on bodily fluids (they can be present, just don’t make them the erotic focus.)

The Good Place

(Eleanor/Tahani, Eleanor/Janet, Jason/Janet)

I love this show’s humor, and I especially loved the season finale. I adore the concept that these characters are being used to torture each other for eternity, and that they may go through an endless series of Groundhog Day loops at a demon’s whim. Definitely feel free to set your work in the Season 1 loop or in a future loop of “The Good Place.”

Eleanor’s latent bisexuality is a big draw for me, and I’d love to see her explore it with Tahani or Janet. I can see her sleeping with either of them on a whim and then eventually coming to regret the repercussions. 

Jason and Janet are just hilarious and I really want to see them incompetently exploring sexuality together.

Artificial Intelligence Sex: I love how inhuman Janet is, despite her appearance. What is it like for her to have sex? I’d love to see something from her POV, with an emphasis on the AI weirdness. Does she have to look up sex and anatomy in her databases?

Banter as Foreplay / Banter While in Bed: This show is hilarious. Go ahead and take that humor into your fanwork. All of these characters would crack jokes and argue and say silly things before and during sex.

Body admiration: Eleanor is so, so hot for Tahani’s rockin’ bod. 

First time with a woman: For Eleanor and Tahani.

First Time / Loss of Virginity: For Janet. She clearly doesn’t know the first thing about human sexuality, and Eleanor and Jason are not the best guides. Does she ever figure it out? 

Sex Magic: It’s the Good(/Bad) Place! Anything is possible, especially with Janet around. Bring on the flying dildos.

Shame in Sexual Desires / Unexpected Arousal: This has to do with the Bad Place aspect. I like the idea of these characters having sex even though they know they might fork everything up because of it. 

Leverage

(Parker/Hardison/Eliot)

My darlings! I ship these three so much. They love and support each other so much, and they have so much fun together, and they have a kind of easy physicality bordering on total in-sync body empathy that all lends itself to great smut. Not to mention they trust each other enough that I think they’d feel comfortable really pushing the limits in bed.

Banter While in Bed

BDSM

Competence Kink

Aftercare

Femdom: Parker is the mastermind! Maybe she’s the mastermind in bed too ;)

Gentle Dom: I love the idea of these three doing dom / sub play but in a really supportive way. “C’mon, babe, you can do this, I know you can take it...”

Kink Exploration / Limit Testing: Parker, Hardison, and Eliot really really trust each other. I think they might try things in bed together that they’ve never tried with anyone else. I’d love to see them pushing each other to their limits, knowing they’ll catch each other if they fall. They could try going really deep into roleplay / subspace, or playing with a lot of discipline or restriction or pain.

Manhandling / Shows of Athleticism During Sex: This is perfect for Parker or Eliot. Eliot could carry the others or hold them down or throw them around, and Parker could do all kinds of ceiling-hanging bendy stuff!

Playful Sex

Roleplay: I especially like the idea of these three having sex right after they’ve done a grift and keeping the roles they played in the con.

Petplay: I am in love with anything involving Eliot being Parker and Hardison’s loyal and beloved pet.

Sex Toys: Hardison loves gadgets. There is no way he doesn’t have an extensive sex toy collection. I bet he’d make them custom if no store had what he wanted. 

Service Submission: I see Eliot being very into this, what with the cooking his feelings for the team and taking hits for the team because he feels it’s his duty.

Switching: The trio’s roles are often very fluid when they work together, and I think they’d be the same way in bed.

Rivers of London

(Peter/Beverly, Peter/Nightingale)

The two most important people in Peter’s life (besides his parents) are immortal and immensely magically powerful beings, but he treats them just like regular people – just Nightingale, just Bev. At the same time, though, he is totally fascinated by their magic. That is why I love Peter so much, and why his relationships with these powerful magical immortals intrigue me. 

To be clear, I ship Peter with both Bev and Nightingale, so I’m totally open to polyamory if you want to include both ships. I read Nightingale as 100% gay, though, so I would see this as V-shaped polyamory rather than a triad.

Adult Fairy Tale

Affirmative Consent Play: So much of the sexuality in this series is colored by the fact that there are so many magical forms of glamor and compulsion – not to mention that Nightingale is Peter’s boss. So I'd love it if the person with power over Peter makes it very clear that the sex is enthusiastically consensual and makes him explicitly say "yes" to everything.

Competence Kink: Peter clearly kinks on both Bev’s and Nightingale’s competence, but Peter is no slouch himself, so maybe his partner gets turned on by his magiscientific prowess!

Power Dynamics, Experienced/Inexperienced: Like I said, both Nightingale and Beverley have a lot of power over Peter, Nightingale because he's so much older and a powerful magician, and Beverley because she's a river spirit. But I think Peter loves that about both of them. So show me sex where Nightingale or Beverley shows off their power and experience and Peter is totally into it.

Open Relationships

Banter as Foreplay: Peter is a snarkmaster and I love that about him.

Character study through porn

Gentle Dom: I’d prefer Peter as the sub for this.

Kinky Sex Saves the Day / Ritual Sex: This is absolutely a canon where sex can happen for plot reasons. Maybe Peter and Bev need to catalyze another river, or some other kind of kinky sex ritual is needed to save the day?

Suit Kink: For Peter/Nightingale, this is a gimme. Peter loves Nightingale’s suits.

Sex Magic / Sex Toys (Magic): Surely some formae (or Bev’s genius loci powers) can be used to enchant sex toys. Or cast on the fly to make sex particularly interesting.

Star Trek AOS

(Kirk/Spock, Gaila/Uhura)

Hi, my name is Poetry, and I’m hot for sex with aliens. In particular I love ships like these where a human and an alien become snarky friends across a wide cultural divide... and then maybe figure out how to turn that friendship into something else. And I also like the dynamic in AOS of how both of these ships met under the aegis of the university / as students.

I signed up under the AOS fandom, because I’ve seen all three movies, but I’ve seen a handful of TOS episodes so if you want to throw in references to TOS I’m cool with it.

Alternate Universe - Canonical Male Character is Always a Girl: Obviously only applicable to K/S, but I would love to see this ship as femslash! Think of the cultural norms for Vulcan women! Think of how Kirk’s promiscuity and Spock’s endless well of terrifying rage would be perceived! (Also femslash is hot!)

Banter as Foreplay / Banter While in Bed: Obvious for K/S, and I bet Uhura would be no slouch at banter as foreplay either.

Character study through porn

Cultural Differences: My favorite thing in this fandom! We know Vulcans approach relationships and sex differently than humans, and the first movie definitely showed us that Orions have different norms around sex than humans too. You can play this for humor or for serious drama and either way I’ll love it.

Dirty Talk: Would love for either ship but I can especially see Gaila being really shameless about this.

Dom/sub Play: Would prefer dom!Spock and dom!Uhura for this.

Hand & Finger Kink: For K/S this is a gimme. Vulcan kisses <3

Kink Exploration

Language Kink: Would love this for Spock speaking Vulcan, Gaila speaking Orion, and Uhura speaking... well, just about anything. I’m sure she can say “fuck” in a fascinating variety of languages.

Limit Testing

Manhandling / Shows of Athleticism During Sex: I kink really hard on super Vulcan strength, and I bet Kirk would too. We don’t know how strong Orions are from canon, but if you want Gaila to be super-strong too you’ll hear no complaints from me; strong women take my breath away.

Mating Cycles / In Heat: ...this is Star Trek we’re talking about.

Non-Human Genitalia / Xeno: The weirder the better, tbh. Go hog-wild. Make Vulcan or Orion genitalia and sexual responses super different from humans’ and have Kirk or Uhura have tons of fun discovering all those differences.

Playful Sex

Sharing Fantasies

Telepathic Sex

*waves* Thank you for taking the time to read this! Happy smut-creating!

[isearchgoood]

That's a Wrap: MozCon Virtual 2020 Day Two Recap

Posted by cheryldraper

Wow! What a crazy ride MozCon has been this year. In case you missed it, we were able to double the number of attendees and include over 2,800 people.

Not only were we able to include them, we were also able to see their families, pets, and home offices. It was an unusual experience for sure, but one we won’t be forgetting any time soon.

As always, the speakers served up some flaming hot content (including an actual movie). We can’t wait to share some of these takeaways with you!

Britney Muller — Accessible Machine Learning Workflows for SEOs

Britney started off by assuring everyone that they absolutely can use machine learning. She knows this because she was able to teach her dad how to use it!

Let’s jump right in.

Basically, machine learning can be used for a lot of things.

There's endless possibilities w/ #machinelearning: Some cool things: - AI-generated faces - Auto-excuse generator (need that) Leveraging for SEO: - Keyword research - Forecasting time series - Extracting entities and categories from URLs - Internal link analysis #mozcon

— Seer Interactive (@SeerInteractive) July 15, 2020

Britney suggests starting with a notebook in Colaboratory for increased accessibility. She showed us to do the basics like upload, import, and download data before jumping into the fun stuff:

Using Google NLP API to extract entities and their categories from URL

Using Facebook’s Prophet data for time-series predictions

Keyword research using Search Console Data and a filtering function

Honestly, we were surprised at how easy she made machine learning look. Can’t wait to try it ourselves!

Izzi Smith — How to Be Ahead of the (CTR) Curve

Not all clicks are created equal! While you may want as many clicks as possible from the SERP, there’s a specific type of click you should be striving for — the almighty long click.

“What is a click without the intent to be there?”

Google’s patent clearly states that reactions to search results are gauged, and short interactions (clicks) can lower rankings while longer interactions (clicks) can lead to higher rankings.

Great point by the wonderful @izzionfire - focus on the "long clicks" - the ones where users spend a long time on your page after clicking your result. Google tends to show answers for the "short clicks" within the SERP - if it doesn't now, it will soon.#MozCon pic.twitter.com/mCvWUpDTKQ

— Lily Ray ???? (@lilyraynyc) July 15, 2020

Are you ready to track your clicks and get to work? Good! Izzi broke it all down for you:

Pull your data from Google Search Console, specifically by using their API.

Know what you are looking for BEFORE getting into the data.

Look for these patterns:

Performance-based core update impacts — decrease in positions and impressions

Identifying Irrelevant rankings — large impression spike (with low CTR) then a sharp decline in impressions

Losing SERP feature — a sharp decrease in CTR and a decrease in impressions

Izzi, you’re a rockstar! We can’t wait to go play with all of our data later.

Flavilla Fongang — How to Go Beyond Marketing for Clients: The Value of a Thriving Brand Ecosystem

Flavilla is a true gem. Instead of focusing on the top of the funnel, she focused on how we can keep customers coming back.

She told us that “business is like love”. You don’t want to move too fast. You don’t want to move too slow. You have to add value. You have to keep things exciting.

"Your clients don't continue buying from you because you meet their expectations. They do it because you EXCEED them." It's like falling in love. -- @FlavillaFongang #MozCon pic.twitter.com/S4RwlkC6pp

— Sarah Bird (@SarahBird) July 15, 2020

Flavilla challenged us to find what makes us remarkable:

Can you offer a unique experience?

Can you create a community?

Can you offer integrations?

Can you partner with people to bring something new?

Really sit down and think about why you started your brand and reflect on it. If you build a brand people come back to, you’ll have far less to worry about.

Brian Dean — How to Promote Your Content Like a Boss

We finally did it! We got Brian Dean to speak at an SEO conference.

If you don’t know him by now, you haven’t been searching hard enough. Brian is a master of content creation and marketing.

It wasn’t always that way, though. Brian’s first blog never took off because he spent more time creating content than he did promoting it. Once he realized just how important promotion was, he went all-in and ended up reaping the benefits.

This year, he finally shared with us some of his Jedi-like promotion tactics.

7 promotional strategies 1. Create for the linkerati (bloggers+journalists) 2. Expanded social posts 3. Avoid JarJar outreach 4. The Jedi mind trick 5. Hyperdrive-boosted Facebook posts 6. Infiltrate scarif: subreddits 7. Hack the Halonet: click to tweet links@backlinko #mozcon

— James Wirth (@jameswirth) July 15, 2020

He shared multiple tips for each of these strategies, but here is a quick summary:

Social sites hate it when you post links. Instead, tease the content with a “hook, lead, summary, link, call-to-action”.

Ask journalists or bloggers if they’d be interested in reading your pieces, but do so before you publish it to take some pressure off.

Actually personalize your outreach by mentioning something on the contact’s site.

Boost Facebook posts with ample engagement to audiences who have interacted with previous posts.

Just implementing one of these tactics could change the way your content is received by the internet. Who knows what could happen if you implemented all of them?

Joy Hawkins — Google My Business: Battling Bad Info & Safeguarding Your Search Strategy

Not everyone does local SEO, but if you do (or if it ties into what you do at all) you’re going to want to buckle your seatbelt.

Joy showed us some of the insights she was able to pull from a large study she did with her team. They had noticed a major discrepancy in the data between Google My Business and Google Search Console, and wanted to get to the root of it.

TL;DR version of @JoyanneHawkins presentation at #mozcon Don't trust Search Console impressions, y'all

— Greg Gifford (@GregGifford) July 15, 2020

Joy shared some major findings:

Google My Business “views” are a lot of different things (not just the traditional impressions we’re used to tracking).

Mobile searches don’t show website icons in the local pack.

The search queries that show up in GMB are different from the ones that are shown in Search Console.

Explicit intent does not always mean higher intent than implicit intent

If you work in local search, Joy wants to challenge you to move away from views and Search Console impressions. Instead, focus on the search data that GMB provides for keywords and on click data in Search Console.

Michael King — Runtime: The 3-Ring Circus of Technical SEO

In true Michael King style (with a ton of flare), he showed us just what’s possible at a virtual conference and blew our minds with technical SEO awesomeness.

That moment you think you kinda know technical SEO and then you see @iPullRank at #MozCon. Mind. BLOWN.

— Lauren Turner (@laurentracy_) July 15, 2020

We watched “Jamie” get through the three rings using slick techniques.

How do you identify which keyword on a site owns a URL? -Position -Traffic -Linking authority metrics Use on all ranking pages to determine best URL for each keyword on the site, then adjust anchor text as needed@iPullRank #MozCon

— Jennifer Slegg (@jenstar) July 15, 2020

All Google products have services you can connect to via ABScript - you can create a full data ecosystem, all via basic JavaScript@iPullRank #MozCon

— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 15, 2020

@ipullrank #seo #mozcon #techseo holy fizzle Ebay builds internal links programatically to boost rankings from page 2 to page 1.

— Noah Learner (@noahlearner) July 15, 2020

There were so many of these, friends!

The thing is, all of this has been out there and accessible, but as Mike says in Runtime, “Doing things the same way everyone else does them is going to get you everyone else's results. Do things your own way."

Dana DiTomaso — Red Flags: Use a Discovery Process to Go from Red Flags to Green Lights

The idea of discovery is not a new one, but Dana came ready to shine a new light on an old tactic. Most of us do minimal research before agreeing to do a project — or at least minimal compared to Dana and her team!

These are just a few questions from Kick Point’s discovery process:

If there were no limitations, what would you want to be able to say at the end of this project?

Which of these metrics affects your performance report?

What does your best day ever look like?

What didn’t work last time?

The discovery process isn’t just about talking to the client, though, it’s about doing your own research to see if you can find the pain points.

Actually testing your client's transaction process. I only do that when setting up eCommerce tracking and test the purchasing journey for customers. Go beyond what data implies and see for yourself how you stack up to your competitors. Brilliant @danaditomaso #MozCon pic.twitter.com/dkz21fK1kd

— nikrangerseo (@nikrangerseo) July 15, 2020

As always, Dana shared some true gems that are sure to make our industry better.

David Sottimano — Everyday Automation for Marketers

David brought us automation greatness all the way from Colombia! There were so many practical applications and all of them required little to no coding:

Wit.ai for search intent classification

Using cron for scheduling things like scraping

Webhooks for passing data

Creating your own IFTTT-like automation using n8n.io on Heroku

We got to see live demonstrations of David doing each of these things as he explained them. They all seemed super user-friendly and we can’t wait to try some of them.

#mozcon @dsottimano dropping a ton of automation knowledge and showcasing @bigmlcom power pic.twitter.com/p3gWVBbWX5

— John Murch (@johnmurch) July 15, 2020

Oh yeah, David also helped us build and release the Moz API for Sheets!

Russ Jones — I Wanna Be Rich: Making Your Consultancy Profitable

Most businesses fail within their first five years, and that failure often comes down to business decisions. Now, Russ doesn’t enjoy all of this decision-making, but he has learned a few things from doing it and then seeing how those decisions affect a business’s bottom line.

The number one way to become more profitable is to cut costs. Russ looked at cutting costs by having fewer full-time employees, renting/owning less space, making leadership changes, and cutting lines of service.

When it comes to actually bringing in more money though, Russ suggests:

Adding new service lines

Raising prices

Automating tasks

Acquiring new business

At the end of the day, Russ boiled it down to two things: Don’t be afraid to change, and experiment when you can — not when you must.

If you experiment only when you have to, you're going to fail. If you experiment now, when you can and don't wait until you must, chances are you're going to grow, succeed and beat out your competitors. @rjonesx #MozCon

— Amy merrill (@MissAmyMerrill) July 15, 2020

Heather Physioc — Competitive Advantage in a Commoditized Industry

SEO is not dead, it’s commoditized. A strong line to start off a presentation! We can always count on Heather to bring forth some real business-minded takeaways.

First, she helped us understand what a competitive advantage actually is.

Competitive advantages should be: - Unique - Defensible - Sustainable - Valuable Consistent@HeatherPhysioc #MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 15, 2020

Then, it was time to go through her competitive advantage framework.

Steps to having a competitive advantage (not just linear though - it's a cyclical process) via @HeatherPhysioc #Mozcon pic.twitter.com/W0ZBAduKHP

— Alan Bleiweiss (@AlanBleiweiss) July 15, 2020

As we went through this framework, Heather assigned A LOT of homework:

Examine your brand: What do you do? Who do you serve? Why? Find the patterns within the answers.

Write a brand statement.

Activate your advantage: How can you live it fully? What things can’t you do in support of your purpose? How will you know you’re putting it to work?

She mentioned a lot of great tools throughout her presentation. Get a list of those tools and access to her slides here.

Wil Reynolds — The CMO Role Has Been Disrupted: Are You Ready for Your New Boss?

Have you ever thought about who holds the fate of the CMO in their hands? Wil started out by explaining that the CEO, CFO, and CIO actually have far more power over marketing than we give them credit for. While they all know that data is what will make their businesses successful, they also hold keys to our success: budget, IT teams/implementations, veto authority.

The issue we face isn’t that we don’t know what we are doing, but more so that we don’t know how to communicate it.

"I don't know a whole lot of CEOs that read Search Engine Land, but they're the ones that write our checks." - @wilreynolds So instead of throwing shade at our least-favorite phrases the c-suite uses, we may want to make sure non-SEOs understand our value.#MozCon pic.twitter.com/S6fClFevZo

— James Wirth (@jameswirth) July 15, 2020

How can you show up to talk the talk and walk the walk? Use your data, and use it to give the customers a voice at the table (something all executive teams are attempting to achieve).

SEO + PPC + Analytics + CRM = magic@wilreynolds #mozcon pic.twitter.com/JICfWiOB3X

— Jason Dodge (@dodgejd) July 15, 2020

Wil’s team has done an amazing job simplifying and documenting this process for all of us in search. If you haven’t yet, we highly suggest checking out their blog.

That’s a wrap

Folks, this was fun. We’re so happy that we could bring people together from all over the world for two days during this crazy time.

While there weren’t any Roger hugs or fist pumps, there were still lessons learned and friendships made. It doesn’t get any better than that. We hope you feel the same.

If you were able to attend the live conference, we would love to hear your thoughts and takeaways! Be sure to take time to reflect on what you’ve learned and start plans for implementation — we want to see you make a difference with your new knowledge.

Until next year, Moz fans!

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!

via Blogger https://ift.tt/32oU4IW #blogger #bloggingtips #bloggerlife #bloggersgetsocial #ontheblog #writersofinstagram #writingprompt #instapoetry #writerscommunity #writersofig #writersblock #writerlife #writtenword #instawriters #spilledink #wordgasm #creativewriting #poetsofinstagram #blackoutpoetry #poetsofig

[theinjectlikes2]

That's a Wrap: MozCon Virtual 2020 Day Two Recap

Posted by cheryldraper

Wow! What a crazy ride MozCon has been this year. In case you missed it, we were able to double the number of attendees and include over 2,800 people.

Not only were we able to include them, we were also able to see their families, pets, and home offices. It was an unusual experience for sure, but one we won’t be forgetting any time soon.

As always, the speakers served up some flaming hot content (including an actual movie). We can’t wait to share some of these takeaways with you!

Britney Muller — Accessible Machine Learning Workflows for SEOs

Britney started off by assuring everyone that they absolutely can use machine learning. She knows this because she was able to teach her dad how to use it!

Let’s jump right in.

Basically, machine learning can be used for a lot of things.

There's endless possibilities w/ #machinelearning: Some cool things: - AI-generated faces - Auto-excuse generator (need that) Leveraging for SEO: - Keyword research - Forecasting time series - Extracting entities and categories from URLs - Internal link analysis #mozcon

— Seer Interactive (@SeerInteractive) July 15, 2020

Britney suggests starting with a notebook in Colaboratory for increased accessibility. She showed us to do the basics like upload, import, and download data before jumping into the fun stuff:

Using Google NLP API to extract entities and their categories from URL

Using Facebook’s Prophet data for time-series predictions

Keyword research using Search Console Data and a filtering function

Honestly, we were surprised at how easy she made machine learning look. Can’t wait to try it ourselves!

Izzi Smith — How to Be Ahead of the (CTR) Curve

Not all clicks are created equal! While you may want as many clicks as possible from the SERP, there’s a specific type of click you should be striving for — the almighty long click.

“What is a click without the intent to be there?”

Google’s patent clearly states that reactions to search results are gauged, and short interactions (clicks) can lower rankings while longer interactions (clicks) can lead to higher rankings.

Great point by the wonderful @izzionfire - focus on the "long clicks" - the ones where users spend a long time on your page after clicking your result. Google tends to show answers for the "short clicks" within the SERP - if it doesn't now, it will soon.#MozCon pic.twitter.com/mCvWUpDTKQ

— Lily Ray ???? (@lilyraynyc) July 15, 2020

Are you ready to track your clicks and get to work? Good! Izzi broke it all down for you:

Pull your data from Google Search Console, specifically by using their API.

Know what you are looking for BEFORE getting into the data.

Look for these patterns:

Performance-based core update impacts — decrease in positions and impressions

Identifying Irrelevant rankings — large impression spike (with low CTR) then a sharp decline in impressions

Losing SERP feature — a sharp decrease in CTR and a decrease in impressions

Izzi, you’re a rockstar! We can’t wait to go play with all of our data later.

Flavilla Fongang — How to Go Beyond Marketing for Clients: The Value of a Thriving Brand Ecosystem

Flavilla is a true gem. Instead of focusing on the top of the funnel, she focused on how we can keep customers coming back.

She told us that “business is like love”. You don’t want to move too fast. You don’t want to move too slow. You have to add value. You have to keep things exciting.

"Your clients don't continue buying from you because you meet their expectations. They do it because you EXCEED them." It's like falling in love. -- @FlavillaFongang #MozCon pic.twitter.com/S4RwlkC6pp

— Sarah Bird (@SarahBird) July 15, 2020

Flavilla challenged us to find what makes us remarkable:

Can you offer a unique experience?

Can you create a community?

Can you offer integrations?

Can you partner with people to bring something new?

Really sit down and think about why you started your brand and reflect on it. If you build a brand people come back to, you’ll have far less to worry about.

Brian Dean — How to Promote Your Content Like a Boss

We finally did it! We got Brian Dean to speak at an SEO conference.

If you don’t know him by now, you haven’t been searching hard enough. Brian is a master of content creation and marketing.

It wasn’t always that way, though. Brian’s first blog never took off because he spent more time creating content than he did promoting it. Once he realized just how important promotion was, he went all-in and ended up reaping the benefits.

This year, he finally shared with us some of his Jedi-like promotion tactics.

7 promotional strategies 1. Create for the linkerati (bloggers+journalists) 2. Expanded social posts 3. Avoid JarJar outreach 4. The Jedi mind trick 5. Hyperdrive-boosted Facebook posts 6. Infiltrate scarif: subreddits 7. Hack the Halonet: click to tweet links@backlinko #mozcon

— James Wirth (@jameswirth) July 15, 2020

He shared multiple tips for each of these strategies, but here is a quick summary:

Social sites hate it when you post links. Instead, tease the content with a “hook, lead, summary, link, call-to-action”.

Ask journalists or bloggers if they’d be interested in reading your pieces, but do so before you publish it to take some pressure off.

Actually personalize your outreach by mentioning something on the contact’s site.

Boost Facebook posts with ample engagement to audiences who have interacted with previous posts.

Just implementing one of these tactics could change the way your content is received by the internet. Who knows what could happen if you implemented all of them?

Joy Hawkins — Google My Business: Battling Bad Info & Safeguarding Your Search Strategy

Not everyone does local SEO, but if you do (or if it ties into what you do at all) you’re going to want to buckle your seatbelt.

Joy showed us some of the insights she was able to pull from a large study she did with her team. They had noticed a major discrepancy in the data between Google My Business and Google Search Console, and wanted to get to the root of it.

TL;DR version of @JoyanneHawkins presentation at #mozcon Don't trust Search Console impressions, y'all

— Greg Gifford (@GregGifford) July 15, 2020

Joy shared some major findings:

Google My Business “views” are a lot of different things (not just the traditional impressions we’re used to tracking).

Mobile searches don’t show website icons in the local pack.

The search queries that show up in GMB are different from the ones that are shown in Search Console.

Explicit intent does not always mean higher intent than implicit intent

If you work in local search, Joy wants to challenge you to move away from views and Search Console impressions. Instead, focus on the search data that GMB provides for keywords and on click data in Search Console.

Michael King — Runtime: The 3-Ring Circus of Technical SEO

In true Michael King style (with a ton of flare), he showed us just what’s possible at a virtual conference and blew our minds with technical SEO awesomeness.

That moment you think you kinda know technical SEO and then you see @iPullRank at #MozCon. Mind. BLOWN.

— Lauren Turner (@laurentracy_) July 15, 2020

We watched “Jamie” get through the three rings using slick techniques.

How do you identify which keyword on a site owns a URL? -Position -Traffic -Linking authority metrics Use on all ranking pages to determine best URL for each keyword on the site, then adjust anchor text as needed@iPullRank #MozCon

— Jennifer Slegg (@jenstar) July 15, 2020

All Google products have services you can connect to via ABScript - you can create a full data ecosystem, all via basic JavaScript@iPullRank #MozCon

— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 15, 2020

@ipullrank #seo #mozcon #techseo holy fizzle Ebay builds internal links programatically to boost rankings from page 2 to page 1.

— Noah Learner (@noahlearner) July 15, 2020

There were so many of these, friends!

The thing is, all of this has been out there and accessible, but as Mike says in Runtime, “Doing things the same way everyone else does them is going to get you everyone else's results. Do things your own way."

Dana DiTomaso — Red Flags: Use a Discovery Process to Go from Red Flags to Green Lights

The idea of discovery is not a new one, but Dana came ready to shine a new light on an old tactic. Most of us do minimal research before agreeing to do a project — or at least minimal compared to Dana and her team!

These are just a few questions from Kick Point’s discovery process:

If there were no limitations, what would you want to be able to say at the end of this project?

Which of these metrics affects your performance report?

What does your best day ever look like?

What didn’t work last time?

The discovery process isn’t just about talking to the client, though, it’s about doing your own research to see if you can find the pain points.

Actually testing your client's transaction process. I only do that when setting up eCommerce tracking and test the purchasing journey for customers. Go beyond what data implies and see for yourself how you stack up to your competitors. Brilliant @danaditomaso #MozCon pic.twitter.com/dkz21fK1kd

— nikrangerseo (@nikrangerseo) July 15, 2020

As always, Dana shared some true gems that are sure to make our industry better.

David Sottimano — Everyday Automation for Marketers

David brought us automation greatness all the way from Colombia! There were so many practical applications and all of them required little to no coding:

Wit.ai for search intent classification

Using cron for scheduling things like scraping

Webhooks for passing data

Creating your own IFTTT-like automation using n8n.io on Heroku

We got to see live demonstrations of David doing each of these things as he explained them. They all seemed super user-friendly and we can’t wait to try some of them.

#mozcon @dsottimano dropping a ton of automation knowledge and showcasing @bigmlcom power pic.twitter.com/p3gWVBbWX5

— John Murch (@johnmurch) July 15, 2020

Oh yeah, David also helped us build and release the Moz API for Sheets!

Russ Jones — I Wanna Be Rich: Making Your Consultancy Profitable

Most businesses fail within their first five years, and that failure often comes down to business decisions. Now, Russ doesn’t enjoy all of this decision-making, but he has learned a few things from doing it and then seeing how those decisions affect a business’s bottom line.

The number one way to become more profitable is to cut costs. Russ looked at cutting costs by having fewer full-time employees, renting/owning less space, making leadership changes, and cutting lines of service.

When it comes to actually bringing in more money though, Russ suggests:

Adding new service lines

Raising prices

Automating tasks

Acquiring new business

At the end of the day, Russ boiled it down to two things: Don’t be afraid to change, and experiment when you can — not when you must.

If you experiment only when you have to, you're going to fail. If you experiment now, when you can and don't wait until you must, chances are you're going to grow, succeed and beat out your competitors. @rjonesx #MozCon

— Amy merrill (@MissAmyMerrill) July 15, 2020

Heather Physioc — Competitive Advantage in a Commoditized Industry

SEO is not dead, it’s commoditized. A strong line to start off a presentation! We can always count on Heather to bring forth some real business-minded takeaways.

First, she helped us understand what a competitive advantage actually is.

Competitive advantages should be: - Unique - Defensible - Sustainable - Valuable Consistent@HeatherPhysioc #MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 15, 2020

Then, it was time to go through her competitive advantage framework.

Steps to having a competitive advantage (not just linear though - it's a cyclical process) via @HeatherPhysioc #Mozcon pic.twitter.com/W0ZBAduKHP

— Alan Bleiweiss (@AlanBleiweiss) July 15, 2020

As we went through this framework, Heather assigned A LOT of homework:

Examine your brand: What do you do? Who do you serve? Why? Find the patterns within the answers.

Write a brand statement.

Activate your advantage: How can you live it fully? What things can’t you do in support of your purpose? How will you know you’re putting it to work?

She mentioned a lot of great tools throughout her presentation. Get a list of those tools and access to her slides here.

Wil Reynolds — The CMO Role Has Been Disrupted: Are You Ready for Your New Boss?

Have you ever thought about who holds the fate of the CMO in their hands? Wil started out by explaining that the CEO, CFO, and CIO actually have far more power over marketing than we give them credit for. While they all know that data is what will make their businesses successful, they also hold keys to our success: budget, IT teams/implementations, veto authority.

The issue we face isn’t that we don’t know what we are doing, but more so that we don’t know how to communicate it.

"I don't know a whole lot of CEOs that read Search Engine Land, but they're the ones that write our checks." - @wilreynolds So instead of throwing shade at our least-favorite phrases the c-suite uses, we may want to make sure non-SEOs understand our value.#MozCon pic.twitter.com/S6fClFevZo

— James Wirth (@jameswirth) July 15, 2020

How can you show up to talk the talk and walk the walk? Use your data, and use it to give the customers a voice at the table (something all executive teams are attempting to achieve).

SEO + PPC + Analytics + CRM = magic@wilreynolds #mozcon pic.twitter.com/JICfWiOB3X

— Jason Dodge (@dodgejd) July 15, 2020

Wil’s team has done an amazing job simplifying and documenting this process for all of us in search. If you haven’t yet, we highly suggest checking out their blog.

That’s a wrap

Folks, this was fun. We’re so happy that we could bring people together from all over the world for two days during this crazy time.

While there weren’t any Roger hugs or fist pumps, there were still lessons learned and friendships made. It doesn’t get any better than that. We hope you feel the same.

If you were able to attend the live conference, we would love to hear your thoughts and takeaways! Be sure to take time to reflect on what you’ve learned and start plans for implementation — we want to see you make a difference with your new knowledge.

Until next year, Moz fans!

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!

from The Moz Blog https://ift.tt/2DJOfeB via IFTTT

[whitelabelseoreseller]

That's a Wrap: MozCon Virtual 2020 Day Two Recap

Posted by cheryldraper

Wow! What a crazy ride MozCon has been this year. In case you missed it, we were able to double the number of attendees and include over 2,800 people.

Not only were we able to include them, we were also able to see their families, pets, and home offices. It was an unusual experience for sure, but one we won’t be forgetting any time soon.

As always, the speakers served up some flaming hot content (including an actual movie). We can’t wait to share some of these takeaways with you!

Britney Muller — Accessible Machine Learning Workflows for SEOs

Britney started off by assuring everyone that they absolutely can use machine learning. She knows this because she was able to teach her dad how to use it!

Let’s jump right in.

Basically, machine learning can be used for a lot of things.

There's endless possibilities w/ #machinelearning: Some cool things: - AI-generated faces - Auto-excuse generator (need that) Leveraging for SEO: - Keyword research - Forecasting time series - Extracting entities and categories from URLs - Internal link analysis #mozcon

— Seer Interactive (@SeerInteractive) July 15, 2020

Britney suggests starting with a notebook in Colaboratory for increased accessibility. She showed us to do the basics like upload, import, and download data before jumping into the fun stuff:

Using Google NLP API to extract entities and their categories from URL

Using Facebook’s Prophet data for time-series predictions

Keyword research using Search Console Data and a filtering function

Honestly, we were surprised at how easy she made machine learning look. Can’t wait to try it ourselves!

Izzi Smith — How to Be Ahead of the (CTR) Curve

Not all clicks are created equal! While you may want as many clicks as possible from the SERP, there’s a specific type of click you should be striving for — the almighty long click.

“What is a click without the intent to be there?”

Google’s patent clearly states that reactions to search results are gauged, and short interactions (clicks) can lower rankings while longer interactions (clicks) can lead to higher rankings.

Great point by the wonderful @izzionfire - focus on the "long clicks" - the ones where users spend a long time on your page after clicking your result. Google tends to show answers for the "short clicks" within the SERP - if it doesn't now, it will soon.#MozCon pic.twitter.com/mCvWUpDTKQ

— Lily Ray ???? (@lilyraynyc) July 15, 2020

Are you ready to track your clicks and get to work? Good! Izzi broke it all down for you:

Pull your data from Google Search Console, specifically by using their API.

Know what you are looking for BEFORE getting into the data.

Look for these patterns:

Performance-based core update impacts — decrease in positions and impressions

Identifying Irrelevant rankings — large impression spike (with low CTR) then a sharp decline in impressions

Losing SERP feature — a sharp decrease in CTR and a decrease in impressions

Izzi, you’re a rockstar! We can’t wait to go play with all of our data later.

Flavilla Fongang — How to Go Beyond Marketing for Clients: The Value of a Thriving Brand Ecosystem

Flavilla is a true gem. Instead of focusing on the top of the funnel, she focused on how we can keep customers coming back.

She told us that “business is like love”. You don’t want to move too fast. You don’t want to move too slow. You have to add value. You have to keep things exciting.

"Your clients don't continue buying from you because you meet their expectations. They do it because you EXCEED them." It's like falling in love. -- @FlavillaFongang #MozCon pic.twitter.com/S4RwlkC6pp

— Sarah Bird (@SarahBird) July 15, 2020

Flavilla challenged us to find what makes us remarkable:

Can you offer a unique experience?

Can you create a community?

Can you offer integrations?

Can you partner with people to bring something new?

Really sit down and think about why you started your brand and reflect on it. If you build a brand people come back to, you’ll have far less to worry about.

Brian Dean — How to Promote Your Content Like a Boss

We finally did it! We got Brian Dean to speak at an SEO conference.

If you don’t know him by now, you haven’t been searching hard enough. Brian is a master of content creation and marketing.

It wasn’t always that way, though. Brian’s first blog never took off because he spent more time creating content than he did promoting it. Once he realized just how important promotion was, he went all-in and ended up reaping the benefits.

This year, he finally shared with us some of his Jedi-like promotion tactics.

7 promotional strategies 1. Create for the linkerati (bloggers+journalists) 2. Expanded social posts 3. Avoid JarJar outreach 4. The Jedi mind trick 5. Hyperdrive-boosted Facebook posts 6. Infiltrate scarif: subreddits 7. Hack the Halonet: click to tweet links@backlinko #mozcon

— James Wirth (@jameswirth) July 15, 2020

He shared multiple tips for each of these strategies, but here is a quick summary:

Social sites hate it when you post links. Instead, tease the content with a “hook, lead, summary, link, call-to-action”.

Ask journalists or bloggers if they’d be interested in reading your pieces, but do so before you publish it to take some pressure off.

Actually personalize your outreach by mentioning something on the contact’s site.

Boost Facebook posts with ample engagement to audiences who have interacted with previous posts.

Just implementing one of these tactics could change the way your content is received by the internet. Who knows what could happen if you implemented all of them?

Joy Hawkins — Google My Business: Battling Bad Info & Safeguarding Your Search Strategy

Not everyone does local SEO, but if you do (or if it ties into what you do at all) you’re going to want to buckle your seatbelt.

Joy showed us some of the insights she was able to pull from a large study she did with her team. They had noticed a major discrepancy in the data between Google My Business and Google Search Console, and wanted to get to the root of it.

TL;DR version of @JoyanneHawkins presentation at #mozcon Don't trust Search Console impressions, y'all

— Greg Gifford (@GregGifford) July 15, 2020

Joy shared some major findings:

Google My Business “views” are a lot of different things (not just the traditional impressions we’re used to tracking).

Mobile searches don’t show website icons in the local pack.

The search queries that show up in GMB are different from the ones that are shown in Search Console.

Explicit intent does not always mean higher intent than implicit intent

If you work in local search, Joy wants to challenge you to move away from views and Search Console impressions. Instead, focus on the search data that GMB provides for keywords and on click data in Search Console.

Michael King — Runtime: The 3-Ring Circus of Technical SEO

In true Michael King style (with a ton of flare), he showed us just what’s possible at a virtual conference and blew our minds with technical SEO awesomeness.

That moment you think you kinda know technical SEO and then you see @iPullRank at #MozCon. Mind. BLOWN.

— Lauren Turner (@laurentracy_) July 15, 2020

We watched “Jamie” get through the three rings using slick techniques.

How do you identify which keyword on a site owns a URL? -Position -Traffic -Linking authority metrics Use on all ranking pages to determine best URL for each keyword on the site, then adjust anchor text as needed@iPullRank #MozCon

— Jennifer Slegg (@jenstar) July 15, 2020

All Google products have services you can connect to via ABScript - you can create a full data ecosystem, all via basic JavaScript@iPullRank #MozCon

— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 15, 2020

@ipullrank #seo #mozcon #techseo holy fizzle Ebay builds internal links programatically to boost rankings from page 2 to page 1.

— Noah Learner (@noahlearner) July 15, 2020

There were so many of these, friends!

The thing is, all of this has been out there and accessible, but as Mike says in Runtime, “Doing things the same way everyone else does them is going to get you everyone else's results. Do things your own way."

Dana DiTomaso — Red Flags: Use a Discovery Process to Go from Red Flags to Green Lights

The idea of discovery is not a new one, but Dana came ready to shine a new light on an old tactic. Most of us do minimal research before agreeing to do a project — or at least minimal compared to Dana and her team!

These are just a few questions from Kick Point’s discovery process:

If there were no limitations, what would you want to be able to say at the end of this project?

Which of these metrics affects your performance report?

What does your best day ever look like?

What didn’t work last time?

The discovery process isn’t just about talking to the client, though, it’s about doing your own research to see if you can find the pain points.

Actually testing your client's transaction process. I only do that when setting up eCommerce tracking and test the purchasing journey for customers. Go beyond what data implies and see for yourself how you stack up to your competitors. Brilliant @danaditomaso #MozCon pic.twitter.com/dkz21fK1kd

— nikrangerseo (@nikrangerseo) July 15, 2020

As always, Dana shared some true gems that are sure to make our industry better.

David Sottimano — Everyday Automation for Marketers

David brought us automation greatness all the way from Colombia! There were so many practical applications and all of them required little to no coding:

Wit.ai for search intent classification

Using cron for scheduling things like scraping

Webhooks for passing data

Creating your own IFTTT-like automation using n8n.io on Heroku

We got to see live demonstrations of David doing each of these things as he explained them. They all seemed super user-friendly and we can’t wait to try some of them.

#mozcon @dsottimano dropping a ton of automation knowledge and showcasing @bigmlcom power pic.twitter.com/p3gWVBbWX5

— John Murch (@johnmurch) July 15, 2020

Oh yeah, David also helped us build and release the Moz API for Sheets!

Russ Jones — I Wanna Be Rich: Making Your Consultancy Profitable

Most businesses fail within their first five years, and that failure often comes down to business decisions. Now, Russ doesn’t enjoy all of this decision-making, but he has learned a few things from doing it and then seeing how those decisions affect a business’s bottom line.

The number one way to become more profitable is to cut costs. Russ looked at cutting costs by having fewer full-time employees, renting/owning less space, making leadership changes, and cutting lines of service.

When it comes to actually bringing in more money though, Russ suggests:

Adding new service lines

Raising prices

Automating tasks

Acquiring new business

At the end of the day, Russ boiled it down to two things: Don’t be afraid to change, and experiment when you can — not when you must.

If you experiment only when you have to, you're going to fail. If you experiment now, when you can and don't wait until you must, chances are you're going to grow, succeed and beat out your competitors. @rjonesx #MozCon

— Amy merrill (@MissAmyMerrill) July 15, 2020

Heather Physioc — Competitive Advantage in a Commoditized Industry

SEO is not dead, it’s commoditized. A strong line to start off a presentation! We can always count on Heather to bring forth some real business-minded takeaways.

First, she helped us understand what a competitive advantage actually is.

Competitive advantages should be: - Unique - Defensible - Sustainable - Valuable Consistent@HeatherPhysioc #MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 15, 2020

Then, it was time to go through her competitive advantage framework.

Steps to having a competitive advantage (not just linear though - it's a cyclical process) via @HeatherPhysioc #Mozcon pic.twitter.com/W0ZBAduKHP

— Alan Bleiweiss (@AlanBleiweiss) July 15, 2020

As we went through this framework, Heather assigned A LOT of homework:

Examine your brand: What do you do? Who do you serve? Why? Find the patterns within the answers.

Write a brand statement.

Activate your advantage: How can you live it fully? What things can’t you do in support of your purpose? How will you know you’re putting it to work?

She mentioned a lot of great tools throughout her presentation. Get a list of those tools and access to her slides here.

Wil Reynolds — The CMO Role Has Been Disrupted: Are You Ready for Your New Boss?

Have you ever thought about who holds the fate of the CMO in their hands? Wil started out by explaining that the CEO, CFO, and CIO actually have far more power over marketing than we give them credit for. While they all know that data is what will make their businesses successful, they also hold keys to our success: budget, IT teams/implementations, veto authority.

The issue we face isn’t that we don’t know what we are doing, but more so that we don’t know how to communicate it.

"I don't know a whole lot of CEOs that read Search Engine Land, but they're the ones that write our checks." - @wilreynolds So instead of throwing shade at our least-favorite phrases the c-suite uses, we may want to make sure non-SEOs understand our value.#MozCon pic.twitter.com/S6fClFevZo

— James Wirth (@jameswirth) July 15, 2020

How can you show up to talk the talk and walk the walk? Use your data, and use it to give the customers a voice at the table (something all executive teams are attempting to achieve).

SEO + PPC + Analytics + CRM = magic@wilreynolds #mozcon pic.twitter.com/JICfWiOB3X

— Jason Dodge (@dodgejd) July 15, 2020

Wil’s team has done an amazing job simplifying and documenting this process for all of us in search. If you haven’t yet, we highly suggest checking out their blog.

That’s a wrap

Folks, this was fun. We’re so happy that we could bring people together from all over the world for two days during this crazy time.

While there weren’t any Roger hugs or fist pumps, there were still lessons learned and friendships made. It doesn’t get any better than that. We hope you feel the same.

If you were able to attend the live conference, we would love to hear your thoughts and takeaways! Be sure to take time to reflect on what you’ve learned and start plans for implementation — we want to see you make a difference with your new knowledge.

Until next year, Moz fans!

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!

from The Moz Blog https://tracking.feedpress.com/link/9375/13725526/mozcon-virtual-day-two-recap

[epackingvietnam]

That's a Wrap: MozCon Virtual 2020 Day Two Recap

Posted by cheryldraper

Wow! What a crazy ride MozCon has been this year. In case you missed it, we were able to double the number of attendees and include over 2,800 people.

Not only were we able to include them, we were also able to see their families, pets, and home offices. It was an unusual experience for sure, but one we won’t be forgetting any time soon.

As always, the speakers served up some flaming hot content (including an actual movie). We can’t wait to share some of these takeaways with you!

Britney Muller — Accessible Machine Learning Workflows for SEOs

Britney started off by assuring everyone that they absolutely can use machine learning. She knows this because she was able to teach her dad how to use it!

Let’s jump right in.

Basically, machine learning can be used for a lot of things.

There's endless possibilities w/ #machinelearning: Some cool things: - AI-generated faces - Auto-excuse generator (need that) Leveraging for SEO: - Keyword research - Forecasting time series - Extracting entities and categories from URLs - Internal link analysis #mozcon

— Seer Interactive (@SeerInteractive) July 15, 2020

Britney suggests starting with a notebook in Colaboratory for increased accessibility. She showed us to do the basics like upload, import, and download data before jumping into the fun stuff:

Using Google NLP API to extract entities and their categories from URL

Using Facebook’s Prophet data for time-series predictions

Keyword research using Search Console Data and a filtering function

Honestly, we were surprised at how easy she made machine learning look. Can’t wait to try it ourselves!

Izzi Smith — How to Be Ahead of the (CTR) Curve

Not all clicks are created equal! While you may want as many clicks as possible from the SERP, there’s a specific type of click you should be striving for — the almighty long click.

“What is a click without the intent to be there?”

Google’s patent clearly states that reactions to search results are gauged, and short interactions (clicks) can lower rankings while longer interactions (clicks) can lead to higher rankings.

Great point by the wonderful @izzionfire - focus on the "long clicks" - the ones where users spend a long time on your page after clicking your result. Google tends to show answers for the "short clicks" within the SERP - if it doesn't now, it will soon.#MozCon pic.twitter.com/mCvWUpDTKQ

— Lily Ray ???? (@lilyraynyc) July 15, 2020

Are you ready to track your clicks and get to work? Good! Izzi broke it all down for you:

Pull your data from Google Search Console, specifically by using their API.

Know what you are looking for BEFORE getting into the data.

Look for these patterns:

Performance-based core update impacts — decrease in positions and impressions

Identifying Irrelevant rankings — large impression spike (with low CTR) then a sharp decline in impressions

Losing SERP feature — a sharp decrease in CTR and a decrease in impressions

Izzi, you’re a rockstar! We can’t wait to go play with all of our data later.

Flavilla Fongang — How to Go Beyond Marketing for Clients: The Value of a Thriving Brand Ecosystem

Flavilla is a true gem. Instead of focusing on the top of the funnel, she focused on how we can keep customers coming back.

She told us that “business is like love”. You don’t want to move too fast. You don’t want to move too slow. You have to add value. You have to keep things exciting.

"Your clients don't continue buying from you because you meet their expectations. They do it because you EXCEED them." It's like falling in love. -- @FlavillaFongang #MozCon pic.twitter.com/S4RwlkC6pp

— Sarah Bird (@SarahBird) July 15, 2020

Flavilla challenged us to find what makes us remarkable:

Can you offer a unique experience?

Can you create a community?

Can you offer integrations?

Can you partner with people to bring something new?

Really sit down and think about why you started your brand and reflect on it. If you build a brand people come back to, you’ll have far less to worry about.

Brian Dean — How to Promote Your Content Like a Boss

We finally did it! We got Brian Dean to speak at an SEO conference.

If you don’t know him by now, you haven’t been searching hard enough. Brian is a master of content creation and marketing.

It wasn’t always that way, though. Brian’s first blog never took off because he spent more time creating content than he did promoting it. Once he realized just how important promotion was, he went all-in and ended up reaping the benefits.

This year, he finally shared with us some of his Jedi-like promotion tactics.

7 promotional strategies 1. Create for the linkerati (bloggers+journalists) 2. Expanded social posts 3. Avoid JarJar outreach 4. The Jedi mind trick 5. Hyperdrive-boosted Facebook posts 6. Infiltrate scarif: subreddits 7. Hack the Halonet: click to tweet links@backlinko #mozcon

— James Wirth (@jameswirth) July 15, 2020

He shared multiple tips for each of these strategies, but here is a quick summary:

Social sites hate it when you post links. Instead, tease the content with a “hook, lead, summary, link, call-to-action”.

Ask journalists or bloggers if they’d be interested in reading your pieces, but do so before you publish it to take some pressure off.

Actually personalize your outreach by mentioning something on the contact’s site.

Boost Facebook posts with ample engagement to audiences who have interacted with previous posts.

Just implementing one of these tactics could change the way your content is received by the internet. Who knows what could happen if you implemented all of them?

Joy Hawkins — Google My Business: Battling Bad Info & Safeguarding Your Search Strategy

Not everyone does local SEO, but if you do (or if it ties into what you do at all) you’re going to want to buckle your seatbelt.

Joy showed us some of the insights she was able to pull from a large study she did with her team. They had noticed a major discrepancy in the data between Google My Business and Google Search Console, and wanted to get to the root of it.

TL;DR version of @JoyanneHawkins presentation at #mozcon Don't trust Search Console impressions, y'all

— Greg Gifford (@GregGifford) July 15, 2020

Joy shared some major findings:

Google My Business “views” are a lot of different things (not just the traditional impressions we’re used to tracking).

Mobile searches don’t show website icons in the local pack.

The search queries that show up in GMB are different from the ones that are shown in Search Console.

Explicit intent does not always mean higher intent than implicit intent

If you work in local search, Joy wants to challenge you to move away from views and Search Console impressions. Instead, focus on the search data that GMB provides for keywords and on click data in Search Console.

Michael King — Runtime: The 3-Ring Circus of Technical SEO

In true Michael King style (with a ton of flare), he showed us just what’s possible at a virtual conference and blew our minds with technical SEO awesomeness.

That moment you think you kinda know technical SEO and then you see @iPullRank at #MozCon. Mind. BLOWN.

— Lauren Turner (@laurentracy_) July 15, 2020

We watched “Jamie” get through the three rings using slick techniques.

How do you identify which keyword on a site owns a URL? -Position -Traffic -Linking authority metrics Use on all ranking pages to determine best URL for each keyword on the site, then adjust anchor text as needed@iPullRank #MozCon

— Jennifer Slegg (@jenstar) July 15, 2020

All Google products have services you can connect to via ABScript - you can create a full data ecosystem, all via basic JavaScript@iPullRank #MozCon

— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 15, 2020

@ipullrank #seo #mozcon #techseo holy fizzle Ebay builds internal links programatically to boost rankings from page 2 to page 1.

— Noah Learner (@noahlearner) July 15, 2020

There were so many of these, friends!

The thing is, all of this has been out there and accessible, but as Mike says in Runtime, “Doing things the same way everyone else does them is going to get you everyone else's results. Do things your own way."

Dana DiTomaso — Red Flags: Use a Discovery Process to Go from Red Flags to Green Lights

The idea of discovery is not a new one, but Dana came ready to shine a new light on an old tactic. Most of us do minimal research before agreeing to do a project — or at least minimal compared to Dana and her team!

These are just a few questions from Kick Point’s discovery process:

If there were no limitations, what would you want to be able to say at the end of this project?

Which of these metrics affects your performance report?

What does your best day ever look like?

What didn’t work last time?

The discovery process isn’t just about talking to the client, though, it’s about doing your own research to see if you can find the pain points.

Actually testing your client's transaction process. I only do that when setting up eCommerce tracking and test the purchasing journey for customers. Go beyond what data implies and see for yourself how you stack up to your competitors. Brilliant @danaditomaso #MozCon pic.twitter.com/dkz21fK1kd

— nikrangerseo (@nikrangerseo) July 15, 2020

As always, Dana shared some true gems that are sure to make our industry better.

David Sottimano — Everyday Automation for Marketers

David brought us automation greatness all the way from Colombia! There were so many practical applications and all of them required little to no coding:

Wit.ai for search intent classification

Using cron for scheduling things like scraping

Webhooks for passing data

Creating your own IFTTT-like automation using n8n.io on Heroku

We got to see live demonstrations of David doing each of these things as he explained them. They all seemed super user-friendly and we can’t wait to try some of them.

#mozcon @dsottimano dropping a ton of automation knowledge and showcasing @bigmlcom power pic.twitter.com/p3gWVBbWX5

— John Murch (@johnmurch) July 15, 2020

Oh yeah, David also helped us build and release the Moz API for Sheets!

Russ Jones — I Wanna Be Rich: Making Your Consultancy Profitable

Most businesses fail within their first five years, and that failure often comes down to business decisions. Now, Russ doesn’t enjoy all of this decision-making, but he has learned a few things from doing it and then seeing how those decisions affect a business’s bottom line.

The number one way to become more profitable is to cut costs. Russ looked at cutting costs by having fewer full-time employees, renting/owning less space, making leadership changes, and cutting lines of service.

When it comes to actually bringing in more money though, Russ suggests:

Adding new service lines

Raising prices

Automating tasks

Acquiring new business

At the end of the day, Russ boiled it down to two things: Don’t be afraid to change, and experiment when you can — not when you must.

If you experiment only when you have to, you're going to fail. If you experiment now, when you can and don't wait until you must, chances are you're going to grow, succeed and beat out your competitors. @rjonesx #MozCon

— Amy merrill (@MissAmyMerrill) July 15, 2020

Heather Physioc — Competitive Advantage in a Commoditized Industry

SEO is not dead, it’s commoditized. A strong line to start off a presentation! We can always count on Heather to bring forth some real business-minded takeaways.

First, she helped us understand what a competitive advantage actually is.

Competitive advantages should be: - Unique - Defensible - Sustainable - Valuable Consistent@HeatherPhysioc #MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 15, 2020

Then, it was time to go through her competitive advantage framework.

Steps to having a competitive advantage (not just linear though - it's a cyclical process) via @HeatherPhysioc #Mozcon pic.twitter.com/W0ZBAduKHP

— Alan Bleiweiss (@AlanBleiweiss) July 15, 2020

As we went through this framework, Heather assigned A LOT of homework:

Examine your brand: What do you do? Who do you serve? Why? Find the patterns within the answers.

Write a brand statement.

Activate your advantage: How can you live it fully? What things can’t you do in support of your purpose? How will you know you’re putting it to work?

She mentioned a lot of great tools throughout her presentation. Get a list of those tools and access to her slides here.

Wil Reynolds — The CMO Role Has Been Disrupted: Are You Ready for Your New Boss?

Have you ever thought about who holds the fate of the CMO in their hands? Wil started out by explaining that the CEO, CFO, and CIO actually have far more power over marketing than we give them credit for. While they all know that data is what will make their businesses successful, they also hold keys to our success: budget, IT teams/implementations, veto authority.

The issue we face isn’t that we don’t know what we are doing, but more so that we don’t know how to communicate it.

"I don't know a whole lot of CEOs that read Search Engine Land, but they're the ones that write our checks." - @wilreynolds So instead of throwing shade at our least-favorite phrases the c-suite uses, we may want to make sure non-SEOs understand our value.#MozCon pic.twitter.com/S6fClFevZo

— James Wirth (@jameswirth) July 15, 2020

How can you show up to talk the talk and walk the walk? Use your data, and use it to give the customers a voice at the table (something all executive teams are attempting to achieve).

SEO + PPC + Analytics + CRM = magic@wilreynolds #mozcon pic.twitter.com/JICfWiOB3X

— Jason Dodge (@dodgejd) July 15, 2020

Wil’s team has done an amazing job simplifying and documenting this process for all of us in search. If you haven’t yet, we highly suggest checking out their blog.

That’s a wrap

Folks, this was fun. We’re so happy that we could bring people together from all over the world for two days during this crazy time.

While there weren’t any Roger hugs or fist pumps, there were still lessons learned and friendships made. It doesn’t get any better than that. We hope you feel the same.

If you were able to attend the live conference, we would love to hear your thoughts and takeaways! Be sure to take time to reflect on what you’ve learned and start plans for implementation — we want to see you make a difference with your new knowledge.

Until next year, Moz fans!

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]

That's a Wrap: MozCon Virtual 2020 Day Two Recap

Posted by cheryldraper

Wow! What a crazy ride MozCon has been this year. In case you missed it, we were able to double the number of attendees and include over 2,800 people.

Not only were we able to include them, we were also able to see their families, pets, and home offices. It was an unusual experience for sure, but one we won’t be forgetting any time soon.

As always, the speakers served up some flaming hot content (including an actual movie). We can’t wait to share some of these takeaways with you!

Britney Muller — Accessible Machine Learning Workflows for SEOs

Britney started off by assuring everyone that they absolutely can use machine learning. She knows this because she was able to teach her dad how to use it!

Let’s jump right in.

Basically, machine learning can be used for a lot of things.

There's endless possibilities w/ #machinelearning: Some cool things: - AI-generated faces - Auto-excuse generator (need that) Leveraging for SEO: - Keyword research - Forecasting time series - Extracting entities and categories from URLs - Internal link analysis #mozcon

— Seer Interactive (@SeerInteractive) July 15, 2020

Britney suggests starting with a notebook in Colaboratory for increased accessibility. She showed us to do the basics like upload, import, and download data before jumping into the fun stuff:

Using Google NLP API to extract entities and their categories from URL

Using Facebook’s Prophet data for time-series predictions

Keyword research using Search Console Data and a filtering function

Honestly, we were surprised at how easy she made machine learning look. Can’t wait to try it ourselves!

Izzi Smith — How to Be Ahead of the (CTR) Curve

Not all clicks are created equal! While you may want as many clicks as possible from the SERP, there’s a specific type of click you should be striving for — the almighty long click.

“What is a click without the intent to be there?”

Google’s patent clearly states that reactions to search results are gauged, and short interactions (clicks) can lower rankings while longer interactions (clicks) can lead to higher rankings.

Great point by the wonderful @izzionfire - focus on the "long clicks" - the ones where users spend a long time on your page after clicking your result. Google tends to show answers for the "short clicks" within the SERP - if it doesn't now, it will soon.#MozCon pic.twitter.com/mCvWUpDTKQ

— Lily Ray ???? (@lilyraynyc) July 15, 2020

Are you ready to track your clicks and get to work? Good! Izzi broke it all down for you:

Pull your data from Google Search Console, specifically by using their API.

Know what you are looking for BEFORE getting into the data.

Look for these patterns:

Performance-based core update impacts — decrease in positions and impressions

Identifying Irrelevant rankings — large impression spike (with low CTR) then a sharp decline in impressions

Losing SERP feature — a sharp decrease in CTR and a decrease in impressions

Izzi, you’re a rockstar! We can’t wait to go play with all of our data later.

Flavilla Fongang — How to Go Beyond Marketing for Clients: The Value of a Thriving Brand Ecosystem

Flavilla is a true gem. Instead of focusing on the top of the funnel, she focused on how we can keep customers coming back.

She told us that “business is like love”. You don’t want to move too fast. You don’t want to move too slow. You have to add value. You have to keep things exciting.

"Your clients don't continue buying from you because you meet their expectations. They do it because you EXCEED them." It's like falling in love. -- @FlavillaFongang #MozCon pic.twitter.com/S4RwlkC6pp

— Sarah Bird (@SarahBird) July 15, 2020

Flavilla challenged us to find what makes us remarkable:

Can you offer a unique experience?

Can you create a community?

Can you offer integrations?

Can you partner with people to bring something new?

Really sit down and think about why you started your brand and reflect on it. If you build a brand people come back to, you’ll have far less to worry about.

Brian Dean — How to Promote Your Content Like a Boss

We finally did it! We got Brian Dean to speak at an SEO conference.

If you don’t know him by now, you haven’t been searching hard enough. Brian is a master of content creation and marketing.

It wasn’t always that way, though. Brian’s first blog never took off because he spent more time creating content than he did promoting it. Once he realized just how important promotion was, he went all-in and ended up reaping the benefits.

This year, he finally shared with us some of his Jedi-like promotion tactics.

7 promotional strategies 1. Create for the linkerati (bloggers+journalists) 2. Expanded social posts 3. Avoid JarJar outreach 4. The Jedi mind trick 5. Hyperdrive-boosted Facebook posts 6. Infiltrate scarif: subreddits 7. Hack the Halonet: click to tweet links@backlinko #mozcon

— James Wirth (@jameswirth) July 15, 2020

He shared multiple tips for each of these strategies, but here is a quick summary:

Social sites hate it when you post links. Instead, tease the content with a “hook, lead, summary, link, call-to-action”.

Ask journalists or bloggers if they’d be interested in reading your pieces, but do so before you publish it to take some pressure off.

Actually personalize your outreach by mentioning something on the contact’s site.

Boost Facebook posts with ample engagement to audiences who have interacted with previous posts.

Just implementing one of these tactics could change the way your content is received by the internet. Who knows what could happen if you implemented all of them?

Joy Hawkins — Google My Business: Battling Bad Info & Safeguarding Your Search Strategy

Not everyone does local SEO, but if you do (or if it ties into what you do at all) you’re going to want to buckle your seatbelt.

Joy showed us some of the insights she was able to pull from a large study she did with her team. They had noticed a major discrepancy in the data between Google My Business and Google Search Console, and wanted to get to the root of it.

TL;DR version of @JoyanneHawkins presentation at #mozcon Don't trust Search Console impressions, y'all

— Greg Gifford (@GregGifford) July 15, 2020

Joy shared some major findings:

Google My Business “views” are a lot of different things (not just the traditional impressions we’re used to tracking).

Mobile searches don’t show website icons in the local pack.

The search queries that show up in GMB are different from the ones that are shown in Search Console.

Explicit intent does not always mean higher intent than implicit intent

If you work in local search, Joy wants to challenge you to move away from views and Search Console impressions. Instead, focus on the search data that GMB provides for keywords and on click data in Search Console.

Michael King — Runtime: The 3-Ring Circus of Technical SEO

In true Michael King style (with a ton of flare), he showed us just what’s possible at a virtual conference and blew our minds with technical SEO awesomeness.

That moment you think you kinda know technical SEO and then you see @iPullRank at #MozCon. Mind. BLOWN.

— Lauren Turner (@laurentracy_) July 15, 2020

We watched “Jamie” get through the three rings using slick techniques.

How do you identify which keyword on a site owns a URL? -Position -Traffic -Linking authority metrics Use on all ranking pages to determine best URL for each keyword on the site, then adjust anchor text as needed@iPullRank #MozCon

— Jennifer Slegg (@jenstar) July 15, 2020

All Google products have services you can connect to via ABScript - you can create a full data ecosystem, all via basic JavaScript@iPullRank #MozCon

— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 15, 2020

@ipullrank #seo #mozcon #techseo holy fizzle Ebay builds internal links programatically to boost rankings from page 2 to page 1.

— Noah Learner (@noahlearner) July 15, 2020

There were so many of these, friends!

The thing is, all of this has been out there and accessible, but as Mike says in Runtime, “Doing things the same way everyone else does them is going to get you everyone else's results. Do things your own way."

Dana DiTomaso — Red Flags: Use a Discovery Process to Go from Red Flags to Green Lights

The idea of discovery is not a new one, but Dana came ready to shine a new light on an old tactic. Most of us do minimal research before agreeing to do a project — or at least minimal compared to Dana and her team!

These are just a few questions from Kick Point’s discovery process:

If there were no limitations, what would you want to be able to say at the end of this project?

Which of these metrics affects your performance report?

What does your best day ever look like?

What didn’t work last time?

The discovery process isn’t just about talking to the client, though, it’s about doing your own research to see if you can find the pain points.

Actually testing your client's transaction process. I only do that when setting up eCommerce tracking and test the purchasing journey for customers. Go beyond what data implies and see for yourself how you stack up to your competitors. Brilliant @danaditomaso #MozCon pic.twitter.com/dkz21fK1kd

— nikrangerseo (@nikrangerseo) July 15, 2020

As always, Dana shared some true gems that are sure to make our industry better.

David Sottimano — Everyday Automation for Marketers

David brought us automation greatness all the way from Colombia! There were so many practical applications and all of them required little to no coding:

Wit.ai for search intent classification

Using cron for scheduling things like scraping

Webhooks for passing data

Creating your own IFTTT-like automation using n8n.io on Heroku

We got to see live demonstrations of David doing each of these things as he explained them. They all seemed super user-friendly and we can’t wait to try some of them.

#mozcon @dsottimano dropping a ton of automation knowledge and showcasing @bigmlcom power pic.twitter.com/p3gWVBbWX5

— John Murch (@johnmurch) July 15, 2020

Oh yeah, David also helped us build and release the Moz API for Sheets!

Russ Jones — I Wanna Be Rich: Making Your Consultancy Profitable

Most businesses fail within their first five years, and that failure often comes down to business decisions. Now, Russ doesn’t enjoy all of this decision-making, but he has learned a few things from doing it and then seeing how those decisions affect a business’s bottom line.

The number one way to become more profitable is to cut costs. Russ looked at cutting costs by having fewer full-time employees, renting/owning less space, making leadership changes, and cutting lines of service.

When it comes to actually bringing in more money though, Russ suggests:

Adding new service lines

Raising prices

Automating tasks

Acquiring new business

At the end of the day, Russ boiled it down to two things: Don’t be afraid to change, and experiment when you can — not when you must.

If you experiment only when you have to, you're going to fail. If you experiment now, when you can and don't wait until you must, chances are you're going to grow, succeed and beat out your competitors. @rjonesx #MozCon

— Amy merrill (@MissAmyMerrill) July 15, 2020

Heather Physioc — Competitive Advantage in a Commoditized Industry

SEO is not dead, it’s commoditized. A strong line to start off a presentation! We can always count on Heather to bring forth some real business-minded takeaways.

First, she helped us understand what a competitive advantage actually is.

Competitive advantages should be: - Unique - Defensible - Sustainable - Valuable Consistent@HeatherPhysioc #MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 15, 2020

Then, it was time to go through her competitive advantage framework.

Steps to having a competitive advantage (not just linear though - it's a cyclical process) via @HeatherPhysioc #Mozcon pic.twitter.com/W0ZBAduKHP

— Alan Bleiweiss (@AlanBleiweiss) July 15, 2020

As we went through this framework, Heather assigned A LOT of homework:

Examine your brand: What do you do? Who do you serve? Why? Find the patterns within the answers.

Write a brand statement.

Activate your advantage: How can you live it fully? What things can’t you do in support of your purpose? How will you know you’re putting it to work?

She mentioned a lot of great tools throughout her presentation. Get a list of those tools and access to her slides here.

Wil Reynolds — The CMO Role Has Been Disrupted: Are You Ready for Your New Boss?

Have you ever thought about who holds the fate of the CMO in their hands? Wil started out by explaining that the CEO, CFO, and CIO actually have far more power over marketing than we give them credit for. While they all know that data is what will make their businesses successful, they also hold keys to our success: budget, IT teams/implementations, veto authority.

The issue we face isn’t that we don’t know what we are doing, but more so that we don’t know how to communicate it.

"I don't know a whole lot of CEOs that read Search Engine Land, but they're the ones that write our checks." - @wilreynolds So instead of throwing shade at our least-favorite phrases the c-suite uses, we may want to make sure non-SEOs understand our value.#MozCon pic.twitter.com/S6fClFevZo

— James Wirth (@jameswirth) July 15, 2020

How can you show up to talk the talk and walk the walk? Use your data, and use it to give the customers a voice at the table (something all executive teams are attempting to achieve).

SEO + PPC + Analytics + CRM = magic@wilreynolds #mozcon pic.twitter.com/JICfWiOB3X

— Jason Dodge (@dodgejd) July 15, 2020

Wil’s team has done an amazing job simplifying and documenting this process for all of us in search. If you haven’t yet, we highly suggest checking out their blog.

That’s a wrap

Folks, this was fun. We’re so happy that we could bring people together from all over the world for two days during this crazy time.

While there weren’t any Roger hugs or fist pumps, there were still lessons learned and friendships made. It doesn’t get any better than that. We hope you feel the same.

If you were able to attend the live conference, we would love to hear your thoughts and takeaways! Be sure to take time to reflect on what you’ve learned and start plans for implementation — we want to see you make a difference with your new knowledge.

Until next year, Moz fans!

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