#if I need that info I’ll look it up or use his PowerPoints with voice overs most likely

[ifeelfreewithoutmyshoes]

I have a shitty professor and today it reached the boiling point - I was so fucking close to telling him off in class but made it to break 10 minutes later and packed my stuff and left

[rev-wrath]

All my stars

Jason Todd x Reader

Summary: You take Jason to see the stars.

Info: Fluff, angst at the end. No gendered pronouns are used for Reader, so feel free to imagine whatever you want. 1.4k words.

A gentle breeze makes its way across the property. Soon Jason will be pulled away for his nightly duties, but for now he lays here with you on a blanket on the lawn of Wayne Manor. Your head on his chest, his arm around you. Taking the time to say goodbye to the warm summer season with a picnic before it got too cold for them and classes ate up more time and energy than you’d like. For the day you had already said goodbye to the sun, left with the dark gray and blue mix you knew as the night sky here.

“We should go camping over spring break.” You say softly.

“We could go during a weekend.”

“We could,” You agree, “but I want more time out there.” Rolling over to your stomach, you have a look of softness that makes Jason’s breath stop for a second. “I want to show you the stars. You deserve to see them more than a weekend would give us.”

A warmth fills his own heart, and not for the first time, for a moment you are all Jason knows. You want to go out to the woods outside of the city to show Jason the stars. Something he hadn’t really thought of in a while. Something that didn’t exist here in the polluted city of Gotham. If he was honest, the thought of you just wanting to show Jason the stars because you know this makes him want to cry a little. “We can go camping over spring break. We should go.” There’s a million more words on his tongue but he’s not sure which ones to say, if any of them.

You smile and lean over, placing a kiss between his eyebrows, his eyes fluttering shut.

“I love you, Jason.”

“Love you too.” He says your name with your reverence, like you’re some kind of god. To him, you might be something like that, he thinks as your lips meet.

When Bruce is presented with the idea some months later, his eyebrows crease. “I’ll think about it.”

Jason refused to let up. You had made a joke that Bruce needed a powerpoint presentation or diagrams on large pads of paper to understand. Jason grinned.

Bruce got presented with a powerpoint. Alfred found the whole thing delightful and funny. Everyone knew Bruce did too, it could be seen in his eyes just a little. The butler added his own comment after Bruce spoke, making his allegiance clear.

“Perhaps, Master Bruce, you would also have some personal benefit from a little excursion in the forest. Take time away from your endeavors and from a distance you could keep an eye on the young master and lady while giving them privacy.”

That Bruce could agree to a little more, after a few weeks of Alfred and Jason, along with you once, bringing it up he gave in.

Once break rolls around Alfred sends all of you off with a soft, cheerful smile. Your hushed voices and laughter in the backseat bring a smile to Bruce’s face. Every so often Jason pokes his head into the front to talk directly to his dad. Though at one point he pulls out a book, The Outsiders, reading that. You spend most of that time with your head on his shoulder, a hand wrapped around his arm instead of his hand so that he could still flip pages and hold the book. Eventually you reach your destination. A small walk from the beaten path is a big enough clearing for you two and your activities.

Promising Bruce that you would yell if you needed anything and that yes, the two of you can put the tent up by yourselves and could make a fire. He checked everything one more time before allowing you to split from him. You’d meet back up for dinner together. For now you and Jason take up the task of putting up the tent.

Once you had successfully put up the slightly tilted tent you went to gather firewood, a task that mostly involved you and Jason running around chasing each other, your laughter ringing out in the forest and a quick little stick fight with two incredibly nice, sturdy sticks. Despite that you two quickly gathered decent sticks. By the time Bruce made his way back to your little area Jason already had a fire going. Dinner also meant that night would fall soon and the real reason you are out here could happen.

Long after s’mores and Bruce had left, the sun set, giving way to a gorgeous dark blue sky. You and Jason sit next to each other, tucked into each other’s side, as you watch that sky slowly fill with bright flecks of stars. A grin spreads across your face as you look up, a small gasp draws your attention to Jason. Beautiful, wonderful Jason with wide eyes full of wonder, mouth still stuck in that gasp. The stars are reflected within his eyes, it’s beautiful but your focus is still solely on Jason. There isn’t much you wouldn’t do for Jason to keep that look on his face, to keep feeling that feeling, to experience all the wonderful things he hadn’t yet known. He deserves to see the stars every night, to experience this every single day. You’d have to make every second here count, then find what else you could give to him that’d bring this wonder to him.

Jason ended up deciding to ditch the tent, pulling the sleeping bag out to lay it under the stars. “Thank you,” he whispers, holding you against him. “for taking me out here.”

“Thank you for coming. Maybe we can go up the mountain and look at the stars there.” The view from up there would be even better, something Jason deserved. You had no doubt they could handle such a hike to the nearby mountain and up it. How long you’d be up there is a different question though. Would you spend the night up there?

Jason’s voice pulls you from your thoughts. “The stars are beautiful, but they don’t compare to you.”

You smile and kiss him. “You’re not so bad yourself, handsome. Not bad at all.” Jason kisses you this time, murmuring poetry against your lips.

On the third night Jason grabs your hand, tugging you up. “Dance with me?”

“Of course.” You follow him, one hand in his, the other on his shoulder.

The forest provides its own music with the chirps and trills of the bugs, the rustle of the leaves, and if you really concentrate you could hear the nearby stream.

Jason starts humming as you sway together, pressed against one another. Softly, you join in. You don’t know how long you stayed there, wrapped up in each other as the forest sang. What you did know is that you didn’t want to be anywhere else. A part of you wanted to stay forever, but that wasn’t going to happen.

Under those stars you danced, laughed, and kissed Jason. They were your stage, your backdrop, creating so many sacred moments. Each and every night Jason was enraptured by them, and you by him. Eventually it had to come to an end, you had to go back to Gotham with its smog. You promised each other you would come and see the stars together again.

Death would shatter that promise weeks later as you screamed and cried when Bruce returned with Jason’s corpse, neither of you ever to see the stars again. You’re content to resign yourself to the smoggy gray skies of Gotham, with its artificial yellow and oranges, streaked with all other sorts of colors. The forest and its endless stars could be left with his memory and wonder, away from your glooming grief.

Yet, months later when Jason looks up at the sky with green eyes, he can’t help but to think that this sky is more worthy of your gaze, that you should be here looking out into this speckled canvas. Looking at the stars here Jason can’t help but think of you, who took him to see the stars because no one else had, because you wanted him to, because you thought he deserved it. Jason can’t help but to think even here you are still more beautiful than the stars. Jason can’t help but to think of you as he looks at the stars, after all to him you might as well have hung them.

[dreamsmp-au-ideas]

Time travel au info dump part 2 electric bulagoo!

For context of the au

Last I ended it on the election arc with the timeline changes so I’m going to continue off that and such.

Timeline changes:

-Tubbo is a good leader and is much better than Wilbur or Schlatt ever was. L’Manberg soon starts actually looking pretty like in the construction arc. So people favor Tubbo more and the country doesn’t go into shambles immediately.

-Due to Quackity forcing character development on Schlatt, he is...trying to play nice. He’s still a bit of an asshole but is significantly better. This would also mean that he is going to try to reconcile with Wilbur, and while the process is a bit rocky, they eventually become friends again.

-The Badlands still becomes it’s own faction because even with Tubbo being president and doing a good job, Wilbur wasn’t exactly the best president for the country. So while the faction forms a bit slower, it does form within about 3 months into the presidency.

-Dream is full on suspicious of the time travelers, especially with the fact that they know so much about what is happening in the server, who is whitelisted, and more. It doesn’t help that there is a lot of weird magic coming off of them (Nonhuman Dream is my jam). 

-This would soon lead to Dream putting up a large bounty on the time travelers and asked the Badlands and other Neutral parties to hunt them down. Dream gave his word to the Badlands to offer them their own land if they help him and as for the other Neutrals? Well money and other resources does help them sing his tune instead.

-Tubbo, Fundy, and Quackity are now outlaws because of this and while the presidency probably negates that, you really can’t disagree with the admin of the SMP so now they are running for their lives.

-The Badlands soon becomes it’s own independent country and take L’Manberg. Their rule isn’t bad as Schlatt’s and it is actually not that bad but everyone agrees that they would like L’Manberg back.

-Tommy and Wilbur propose to start up an underground revolution, and name it “Pogtopia” this time with just the idea of getting their land back. Niki, Schlatt, and Eret are apart of this. Techno soon joins as well because of revolution. Don’t worry guys! He will be very loyal to them and won’t betray them at all!

-Fundy, Quackity, and Tubbo on the meanwhile is just running for their lives and trying make sure that the timeline doesn’t fall apart and the whole thing doesn’t go boom again.

-Wilbur doesn’t go too far on the deep end but still says they should use TNT to JFK the Badland members. Schlatt, because I refuse to believe that either of them has a braincell, is absolutely on board with the plan. They are both paranoid and everyone except Techn is giving them a powerpoint on why they shouldn’t blow up the Badlands.

-Tubbo at some point gets captured and while he isn’t publicly executed like before, he still does get a firework to the chest in the squirmish of trying to get Tubbo out.

-Wilbur does not have the TNT resources from Dream like before, so at best he gets enough TNT to just blow up where the Badlands are located at.

-Badlands vs Pogtopia war is a go and George still goes and just makes a nice little house in the middle of it.

And that’s about it in the timeline changes within the series. Might change some things but for now this is the basic timeline.

Notes:

Fundy, Tubbo, and Quackity all have some tells that something is off with them. Fundy would noticeably keep Wilbur at arm’s distance, Tubbo has a strong dislike for fireworks and does not like the Tubbox joke anymore, and Quackity would flinch when people’s voices are raised or if they move too fast. They need therapy and a hug.

 Schlatt after his character development decides to introduce Quackity to the Lunch Club and everyone just agrees that Quackity is the weird younger brother Schlatt never had.

Quackity, Tubbo, and Fundy are all very good at combat due to age and it shows. The Dream SMP and L’Manbergians have noticed the sudden advancement in Tubbo’s and Fundy’s fighting skills. Quackity is the only one without any sudden spikes of fighting level known due to how he was added to the server after the Revolution.

BadBoyHalo is also suspicious of the time travel squad but doesn’t bring it up until Tubbo and him start to do some negotiations about L’Manberg. Needless to say Tubbo was scared shitless but Bad reassured him that he won’t tell anyone unless it is needed.

Pet wars happen a lot less due to Fundy interfering with many of these. Fungi and Henry are he only casualties but this still leads to the Battle of the Lake.

Quackity dropped in a conversation once with L’Manberg squad about some experiences with alternate Schlatt and how shitty he was. Everyone was willing to beat him up with no knowledge that Quackity was talking about alternate Schlatt. 

(Quackity: Man my old boss was shit man, he went and just didn’t listen to anything I said and tried to convince me to pinion my wings. :(

Everyone:

Schlatt: I’m sorry he what-)

That’s about it so far, I’m going to go and take a nap now and se if inspiration hits again. Anyway I’ll put in some actual plot besides just a timeline at some point.

[gypsydanger01]

THE STORM - Part eleven

Fandom: The Boys (Amazon prime tv series)

Pairing: Black Noir x OC

Disclaimer: I don’t own The Boys, only my OC characters and certain pieces of au plot.

Comments, reviews, constructive criticism, and other requests are always more than welcome!

  Posting new chapters on Wednesday and Friday!

 Mallory

The following day started out cloudy but ultimately turned out to be a lovely day. Unfortunately, though, the pale sun in the sky gave little warmth, and Sarah trudged on towards the local park, hands stuffed in the pockets of her coat.

Waking up in a fairly good mood, she decided to go for a walk, and maybe make a trip to the local park. Children’s laughter grew louder and louder until she turned the corner, and there it was. To be honest, it wasn’t much of a park, run down and covered in graffiti, but children are quick to move past that. All that mattered to them was playing, running around, and having fun.

Sarah looked away and sat on a bench, legs crossed one over the other. She checked the time and flipped open the burner phone she kept for contacting Mallory. After five minutes, at precisely eleven o’clock, she selected the only registered number and called.

“Mommy, mommy, look—look at me, mommy,” a little girl called from the swings, her mother smiling and assuring that she, indeed, could see her.

It reminded Sarah so much of her younger self calling out to her mother, and it hurt. She'd visited the playground they used to go to before the Vought trials, but it had become abandoned, all grass and rusty edges. It was sad how it'd been left behind.

She waited for the other end to pick up.

“Hello?” a voice called out, and Sarah smiled lightly.

She paused and breathed out, “Hey Mal, how are you doing?”

Mallory chuckled on the other end, “Well these knees aren’t what they used to be, but I’m okay,” Sarah heard her plop onto the sofa, “More importantly, how are you?”

Sarah ran a hand through the curly tresses that had been blown into her face.

“I guess it’s decent, can’t really complain. I’m still working as a data analyst for the labs, in bioinformatics…,” she trailed off. “But I heard a slot is opening up for a researcher in the developmental biology labs, so I’m going to try and see if they’ll hire me.”

“Please, Sarah—just be careful, keep your eyes open,” she murmured, “always vigilant, alright?”

The young woman stared out at the children crawling over the playground’s castle, tumbling down the slides, running after each other and laughing out of pure, innocent joy.

“Where are you?”

“Neighborhood playground.”

“I thought I heard children. How’s school?”

“Well, actually well, I’ll be finished with my post doc soon enough. They hired me as an assistant professor a couple days ago, I’m teaching a microbiology class for some juniors.”

“That sounds interesting, it would be entertaining to see you teach. You’re a mix of patient and impatient—don’t really know what that would look like in the classroom.”

Sarah snorted lightly, “Fortunately, they seem to be good listeners, quiet and respectful—I don’t know what I’d do if they were a bunch of little arrogant rich kids.”

Mallory too started laughing, thinking back on the young woman’s training. She was proficient in using a great number of weapons and could easily hold her own without one. In an interrogation room, she was skillful in psychologically manipulating a suspect into confessing or giving up information. She spoke multiple languages and was a natural at reading body-language. She had a good eye for meaningful details that are often overlooked. She was the perfect field agent. Mallory had a hard time seeing her as a professor, calmly explaining a powerpoint to a bunch of students.

“I guess it’ll help you further develop that patience of yours,” Mallory surmised.

Sarah couldn’t help but agree.

“Hey, Mallory?” she asked tentatively.

The older woman stilled on the couch, “Yes dear?”

“Do you remember Dr. Roberts? The doctor I saw for my…” she trailed off, searching for a better word, “for my health problems?”

Mallory pursed her lips and stayed silent on the other end.

“I need to contact him—”

Mallory cut in, “What happened? Do you need to come home?”

Worry laced in her voice, the older woman couldn’t help the string of worst scenarios playing in her head. She knew the danger correlated with the young woman’s plan and felt helpless in being left out. If anything happened to the girl, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself.

 When the dust finally settled, there was nothing left but a crater and a little girl lying amid the smoke and ashes. That’s how they found her: curled in a ball, shivering with her skin covered in soot.

When the perimeter was deemed safe enough, Mallory and a team of experts approached the figure. Alive, yet on the brink of death, the little girl had slipped into a coma, and they were quick to have her internalized in a secured section of a local hospital. Only Mallory and few others had the security clearance to access the small room that held her.

Months passed and the room stayed quiet. Mallory went to gather updates from the doctors once a week. At the CIA they had many hypothesis but couldn’t seem to put together the disaster that had been the implosion of that Vought clinic. She had her underlying suspicions and didn’t trust the little girl who had survived. She had to be enhanced, she had to be a supe. There was no other explanation, no other alternative. And yet, she was the only link that would allow them to piece together the accident. The news had presented it as an explosion due to an accidental chemical explosion, but Mallory knew they were far from the truth.

It was an experimental factory for building little supes. And evidently, it had worked.

The proof of that was the little unknown girl lying in her white, pristine cot.

Mallory would look at her with detachment, knowing the child was probably a victim, and yet not feeling any remorse. She had leveled an entire building.

But then one day, as she watched a nurse report her vitals while tucking the little girl in, she opened her eyes. Afraid and trembling, she looked around wildly and fixated on the woman standing at the door.

With her height and professional attire, she was the epitome of rigidness. Blonde hair perfectly pinned back into a bun. Sharp light blue eyes guarded and alert. The two stared at each other, both with underlying dread and a sliver of fear.

And then something twisted in Mallory. Maybe it was the blatant fear in the young girls’ eyes, or maybe it was the innocent tears trailing down her cheeks.

“Where’s my mommy?”

Mallory moved forward, compelled by some unknown force.

She sat at the girl’s side, “She’s not here at the moment, okay?” she explained softly, tension visible in her rigid shoulders. She had no idea what the little one was capable of, and she didn’t want to find out.

The nurse gently took a hold of her bony wrist, taking her vitals once again. “How are you feeling?”

The little girl wiped at her face, “Sleepy.”

“Okay, and can you tell us your name sweetie?”

She looked up at the strict woman beside her, “Marianna,” she said matter-of-factly before adding, “my mommy calls me Mari.”

As the minutes passed, Mari seemed to grow livelier and more awake, her skin less pale and clammy than before.

The nurse pressed a button on the side of the bed, calling the assigned physician, Dr. Roberts.

“Marianna, I’m going to have to get a little bit of blood so we can have it tested and make sure you’re okay. Is that alright?”

The girl pulled her legs into a crisscrossed position and shrugged her shoulders.

“Okay,” she answered as if it were the most normal thing in the world. The nurse hurried to prepare the syringe and test tube, comparing her to the hundreds of kids who cry and scream in vicinity of a needle.

Marianna watched her sterilize the needle, then looked back at Mallory.

“Can I hold your hand?”

Mallory was left speechless and felt like she should distance herself before growing attached. Nevertheless, she nodded and let Marianna’s small fingers grip her own.

 “Mallory?” Sarah called into the phone, suddenly worried.

The woman was brought out of her memories and focused on the task at hand.

“Why are you bringing this up now? I haven’t heard from Dr. Roberts in years.”

Sarah explained, reciting the story she’d come up with, “I know but I have some samples I took that need to be tested,” she explained. “Discreetly,” she stressed.

Mallory thought about it and let go of the tension in her shoulders, “Alright, I thought something happened with you.”

Sarah felt terrible for lying but couldn’t see any alternative. “No, I’m doing alright, I just need to contact him for these samples. I don’t know anyone else who would do it. And he’s trustworthy.”

Mallory nodded to herself, “Alright, I’ll look for his number and email—I’ll send you the info by tonight.”

“Great, thanks Mal.”

Mallory laughed lightly, “Please, you won’t let me get involved, this is the least I can do.”

They chatted for a few more minutes before saying their goodbyes with the usual promise of talking at the same time next Sunday.

Sarah stayed seated on the park bench for a little while longer, trying her best to recall details on Dr. Roberts. She’d met him only a few times at the hospital after she had woken up from the coma.

 Mallory was seated on the edge of her cot, answering Marianna’s flood of questions. Mostly, she tried to avoid answering questions about her parents. Mallory’s heart squeezed tight every time the little one inquired about their whereabouts, and why they hadn’t still been to see her.

They were waiting for word on her final results, and when Dr. Roberts finally entered, they both fell silent.

“Good morning everyone,” he greeted, lively energy in his movements, “how are you doing today, Marianna?”

The little girl looked at Mallory and answered shyly, “M’okay”

“That sounds great,” he smiled, “I have your test results here and everything is looking good. Great, actually.”

He further explained certain details and made sure to indicate what medications she would need to take over the next few weeks.

Finally, he rose and excused himself to speak with Mallory. In the meantime, the little girl put on the clothes the woman had brought for her.

“She’s really doing fine, she must have some regenerative enhancement as well, because she’s healthier than what she should be.”

“And will the other enhancement manifest?”

“I don’t think so. It seems like it’s linked to the amygdala—the center for processing fear, stress, anxiety, and the likes—" he paused. “The accident took its toll, I think. And when she’ll remember, or you tell her, I think it’s going to effectively shut that part of her down.” He thought about it and added, “Think of it as an emotional wall.”

Mallory nodded, processing the information. The little one might have a chance at a semi-normal life.

“Just follow the instructions on the papers I gave you and you all should be fine. She just needs to be looked after and cared for. It’s going to be a shock when she finds out.”

Mallory agreed and her chest squeezed at the thought of the pain the girl would go through.

She thanked the doctor and headed back into the room.

“Are you ready to go, sweetie?”

She watched the little one scramble off the bed in fresh clothes, a small light blue backpack on her shoulders. It contained some items Mallory had brought her over the course of her stay at the clinic. There was a comb for her unruly hair, chap-stick, some crayons, and a small notebook.

“You remember what we talked about?”

The little girl nodded, “My name is Sarah now.”

Mallory smiled, her usually frigid expression melting away. She reminded her of her grandchildren at home.

“Come on, let’s go meet your new friends.”

Marianna, now officially named Sarah Burns, skipped along with her down a hallway and out of the building. As she climbed into the back of her car, Mallory scanned the premises for any watchful eyes. She slipped into the driver’s seat before looking back at Sarah.

“I was almost forgetting—I got you something,” she said reaching into her jacket pocket.

Sarah’s eyes widened at the Snickers bar she extracted. The little girl laughed and clapped her hands.

 Sarah was pulled back into the present as a little girl ran past her—she felt the movement of air in waves. The woman stood and took her leave, heading back home.

MASTERLIST

Tag list: @ateliefloresdaprimaveraa @ellejo @dust-bun @coco724  @proximio-5 @damiminator @omegahighendpro @rpgluvr95 @sweetrabbitteamx

[samwritesforyou]

one hundred times yes

fandom: free!

pairing: reigisa

description: nagisa decides to arrange a secret swimming anniversary party to his boyfriend rei, in the end surprising everyone who’s been invited. including rei.

genre: established relationship, fluff, humour

author’s note: not beta-read.... we die like men ig✌️

wordcount: 4.2k

“Good morning, Mako-chan!” said Nagisa cheerfully when he saw a video call window open and he witnessed a very sleepy Makoto rubbing his eyes and trying his best to wake up.

“H-hi?.. Why are you calling so early, Nagisa? It’s 7am..” Just woken up friend of his sounded very soft and a bit confused, trying to focus his gaze on the phone screen.

“It’s not early for college students who’s internship is gonna start soon!” He said right back proudly, without missing a beat, now tilting his phone a little bit to the side, so that Makoto could see another dear friend of his, which was currently struggling in the kitchen with his back towards both of them.

“I’m making moral support for Rei-chan to succeed in making breakfast for us, because as we all know I can’t really cook that well and all the takeouts are closed this early,” Nagisa visibly pouted in the camera, taking up almost the whole screen on the other end where Makoto just laughed sheepishly at his words and rubbed the back of his messy hair.

“How did you even get to Rei’s place at this hour?” he asked innocently, from time to time looking to the side for some reason.

“What do you mean how? We live together,” said Nagisa and blinked at the camera a few times with big doe eyes.

“Nagisa-kun, quit the talking and better help me! What’s written in the recipe?!” yelled Rei in distress, trying to flip something like a pancake on the pan but failing miserably.

“Live together?!” Makoto literally yelped in surprise and then there was some shuffling on his end of the audio and sheets behind him moved on its own, soon enough revealing sleepy Haru, right beside him.

“Well why are you surprised, Mako-chan, when you’re apparently living with Haru-chan, hmmm,” teased the blond guy, smirking into the screen.

“Nagisa!!” Rei continued his call for help.

“Oh, yeah! Mako-chan, please tell Rei here how to flip pancakes correctly?” Nagisa made a beeline towards the kitchen where his boyfriend was battling with different utensils, trying to make it work.

Makoto looked so confused at all the new info and was blushing like a tomato, so Haru took the phone from his hands, putting it close to his face so the boys saw only a bit of his eyes and mostly his forehead.

“First, make sure that the bottom of the batter is good to flip and it won’t crumble, lift it carefully with the spatula and once you can lift it all.. flip it,” said Haru in his monotone voice of giving instructions and Rei just nodded his head vigorously, feeling very enthusiastic by being taught by his senpai.

They all waited silently until he succeeds in flipping his first pancake and when he did it, Nagisa with a celebratory yell let go of the phone, so the call ended with an abrupt amalgamation of couple’s voices.

“Do you think they’re okay?” asked Makoto silently, putting the phone away and flopping back onto their bed.

“Certainly,” said Haru, following him and getting comfortable under the sheets.

.

.

“Why do you think Mako-chan got so flustered about us seeing Haru-chan behind him?” muffled Nagisa with his mouth stuffed with pancakes from his boyfriend.

“I think Makoto-senpai is the only one from all of our friend group who didn’t really know about us living together and who also didn’t realise that him and Haruka-senpai living together is very obvious as well,” said Rei, putting food to his plate as well.

“Hrmmm,” mumbled blondie again, reaching for another piece immediately after finishing the first one, “by the way, these are really tasty, Rei-chan!” he smiled at him warmly, which made the addressed one blush.

“Thank you, Nagisa-kun.”

The shorter boy then chuckled and sprung to his feet only to plant a loud peck on his cheek.

“Don’t forget about the time, Rei-chan, we have to go soon!” he exclaimed, contradicting his own words by sitting down again and getting yet another bite.

“We?..” he said, hints of confusion in his voice.

“Owf wcouwse!!” Nagisa deadpanned, furrowing his brows and gulped the food down, “I’m going to walk you there, at least!”

And in the span of next twenty minutes the couple got ready to head out. Since Nagisa wasn’t an astounding cook, but he still wanted to prepare something yummy for his other half to have to snack on throughout the day, he handed him a box of bought cookies and crisps, followed by two medium sized bottles of water.

“Here we go!” they smiled at each other.

To get to Rei’s internship they had to take a bus and then another one, but everything went smoothly.

“Don’t cause any trouble, alright?” Nagisa said, chuckling to himself.

“I’m not a child!” Rei exclaimed flustered, but still ruffled his blond hair and then hurried into the building, looking back one more time, “see you later!”

“Have fun, Rei-chan!” once Nagisa was sure that his boyfriend was out of sight he took out his own phone, tapping away a familiar number and putting it to his ear.

After a few beeps he heard a lovely voice on the other end.

“Go-chan, I’m ready when you are!”

.

.

“So if we really want to organise a secret swimming anniversary party for Rei, we need to get down to business and do some serious planning, Nagisa-kun!” Red haired girl exclaimed and rose from her chair, carried away with excitement.

Then she sat back down and smiled enthusiastically, nodding to her blonde friend.

“Okay-okay, I gotchu!” Nagisa started nodding too, catching her drift.

“We definitely need to make it big, like maybe have it in a restaurant or something, or maybe on a cruise ship, or maybe making it a whole week long trip around the world—“ little guy passionately flapped his arms around, trying to show the scale of it all but his friend quickly calmed him down, making him sit again.

“Hey, hey, Nagisa-kun, easy..” she laughed nervously and then sighed in relief when he just started wobbling from side to side on his seat like a penguin, looking at her with a big smile plastered on his face, waiting for the response.

She took a handful of noodles between her chopsticks, slurping on them.

“Look, the restaurant idea doesn’t sound that bad,” Go said with a mouthful, smiling at her friend.

“Okay, great,” Nagisa concluded the end of their serious meeting, because after that phrase they just continued eating delicious food in their favourite diner and later they crashed karaoke room, both coming out of there pretty in the mood, still singing even on the street.

.

.

The following days Nagisa has been doing preparations, calls to restaurants, he phoned people in their friend circle and asked about their availability to be able to put together the best time when to book the place.

He was also thinking about the fact how he can show Rei his love once again through yet another action, because let’s face it, everyone will have a speech or something of that sort. So Nagisa desperately wanted to be different and surprise his boyfriend by doing something that nobody that evening will do.

And then it hit him.

Powerpoint presentation.

He shot a glance with his light eyes towards the living room where Rei was sitting crouched behind the desk, staring into the only computer their household owned, typing away.

He was deeply focused on his task so he didn’t even notice Nagisa’s intense stare in his direction, when he was frowning and putting a pencil to his mouth, thinking hard about his options.

I’ll have to visit someone who has a laptop, because if I try to do it at home, Rei-chan will definitely see it and then there will be no surprise, mused to himself the blond guy, already forming a flawless plan in his own restless mind.

So on another fine evening Nagisa took his backpack and said to Rei, already standing in the hallway, “I’ll visit Go, Rei-chan! She said she needs help with that one project she’s doing for school!”

He was expecting for his boyfriend to just hum an indecipherable “hm,” in his direction, but instead he hear a rustle from the chair and a quick progression of steps towards him.

Purple haired guy was standing there without saying a word, clearly nervous, clutching his fists and looking away.

After a while he gathered up some courage and looked in Nagisa’s beautiful pinkish eyes.

“Is there something wrong, Nagisa-kun?!” he almost yelled, probably from bottling up all his worries about this topic.

That took the other person in the room by surprise as his mouth hung open in a shape of an “o”.

“What? Rei-chan, what are you talking about?..” Nagisa’s tone was careful and soft, as he came closer to him and put his hand on his boyfriend’s triceps, squeezing it a little, making their eye contact more intimate.

“I just..” he was blushing now and his lower lip was shaking, “it just feels like this whole past week you’ve been weirdly busy with something and you don’t even want to tell me about what..” as soon as he said it, Rei hugged his partner tightly, closing his eyes shut really hard, trying not to cry.

The taller guy was always emotional about any mishaps in their relationship and was heavily emotionally involved in everything. Nagisa knew that and still didn’t realise that Rei would take this whole “secret celebration” this close to heart.

“Look, I’m working on something for *you*, okay?” he said with a warm smile as he pulled back, looking into his purple amethysts and then stood on his tiptoes to connect them with a passionate kiss.

“Alright, Rei-chan?” he asked, winking at him playfully, after he already went into the doorframe, still looking at him.

“Alright!” he beamed at his lover, now already glowing and waving him goodbye.

.

.

“Good evening, Go-chan!” he said enthusiastically with a huge smile and once the door opened, his expression fell for a brief second, when the person who opened the door for him wasn’t the one who Nagisa expected.

“Rin-chan!!!” smaller guy’s exclamation was now even louder than before and he was ready to throw himself into his arms, only to collide with a closed door.

“Rin-chan!” he immediately started banging on the door, demanding to be let in.

“I didn’t invite you,” Rin mumbled under his breath and went away from the hallway, heading straight to the kitchen.

The banging and yelling outside continued.

“Rin? What are you doing, didn’t you want to go to sleep?” lower voice came from the other room and footsteps stopped in the middle of the kitchen open space, person clearly noticing the blasting at the entrance to the apartment.

“If we’re gonna have to handle that little angel at the doorstep then I’d better make myself coffee, Sosuke,” sighed Rin, brewing himself some beans by the counter, a light smile appearing on his face nevertheless.

“Oh?..” his friend arched his brow and then went towards the hallway, finally opening the door for poor Hazuki.

“So-chan!!” Nagisa wasn’t even surprised at the change of the characters on the other side anymore, jumping into strong guy’s chest.

“H-hey, Nagisa,” Sosuke got flustered a little, patting the smaller friend on the back.

Soon the blondie finally let go of Sosuke, looking around the apartment as if it was his own.

“Rin-chan, where is Go-chan?.. We were supposed to meet about.. me using her computer?” Nagisa smiles innocently, grinning wide.

“She’s in the shower, she’ll come out soon I think,” he said, finally turning around and sipping on his drink, looking clearly amused by the whole ordeal.

“Oooh, okay! Also, I didn’t know you’re living with So-chan together? At Go-chan’s place?” Nagisa sat by the dining table, making himself comfortable. He kept looking from one friend to another.

“Well..” Rin cleated his throat and looked at Sosuke for a brief moment, then turning his gaze back to Nagisa.

“Go wanted to live on her own, but couldn’t afford to achieve that, and we wanted with Sosuke to move in together in Tokyo together anyways, so we decided to help her out and for the time being we’re all roommates. It’s kinda fun, actually. She travels home on most weekends anyways,” he smiled, shrugging and going somewhere with the cup in his hand.

When he came back, he had thin laptop under his arm, setting it on the table in front of his friend.

“Here, bud. You can use mine for whatever.”

“Really?!” his light eyes were sparkling with excitement, “do you have powerpoint?” he asked shyly, biting his lower lip and smiling.

“Sure,” Rin started the computer up, opening the desired program and leaving the scene to Nagisa.

He immediately started working on his passion project while Rin and Sosuke were talking about something by the same table, creating the perfect atmosphere for the small guy to get inspired and focused.

Soon enough they all heard the water stop and doors to the bathroom creaking open, Go wrapped in the red towel coming out.

“Oh my god, Nagisa, hello! I’m sorry I completely lost track of time back there!” she laughed heartily and then sat behind the table as well.

“I see that my brother already lent you his laptop? Is that alright?” she looked at him, worried.

“Of course, Go, you two don’t go to sleep late, okay?” he then stood up and kissed her top of the head, wishing them both goodnight.

Sosuke got up right after him and they went to their separate rooms.

“Huh?” peeked Nagisa from the monitor screen, as their doors closed, “They don’t sleep in the same bed?” he asked as if it was the most unnatural thing ever.

“Why would they?” blinked at him Go in disbelief, holding her breath, “do you think they’re?..”

“Of course! Oh my god, Go-chan, you’re so silly sometimes!” Nagisa shook his head and then without another word continued editing.

.

.

He ended up sleeping over at Go’s place, making their couch his sleeping space and main fort of action.

First thing in the morning he had a whole calling session, starting with Rei and apologising to him, ending it in almost singing him a serenade.

Then he had to dial Makoto (therefore Haru as well) and ask them for help, because everyone from Matsuoka household has already vanished somewhere.

Soon enough his two childhood friends were already ringing into the doorbell.

Nagisa got up and ran to open the door, hugging both of them as they arrived.

“I didn’t even know that Go lives with her brother now,” mused Makoto aloud, looking around the place just like Nagisa did yesterday.

“Not only! With So-chan as well!” he said, grinning at the pair, pointing at the kitchen.

“Guys, if you’re hungry, feel free to cook yourself something!” small guy said, sitting back by the laptop screen.

“But I need you to help me write this and that,” he started a waterfall of requests, making Makoto just widen his eyes, while Haru started understandingly nodding along.

.

.

And a week later, everything was finally set in place. The date was set, day offs were earned, booking was made, presents created and speeches taught of.

As Rei and Nagisa arrived at the restaurant, the taller man slowly started to realise that he might’ve underdressed.

It did seem weird to him that his lover would take a pink suit to a “normal date”, as he described the event for Rei.

“Nagisa-kun..” he said carefully, as they were getting out of the car.

“Nu-uh!!!” He chirped excitedly, shaking his hair, blonde hair moving with him in motion, “No asking questions, Rei-chan!”

Rei just pursed his lips, following his boyfriend into the restaurant in his regular purple shirt and some denim skinny jeans.

When they came in, everything was already prepared. Nagisa led his partner towards the biggest table in the room, where already a dozen of their friends was waiting for the main guests.

“W-what is this?” Rei mumbled, eyes wide as he scanned every detail of the prepared corner.

There were balloons that formed a phrase “happy 5th anniversary of swimming!” and everyone who was waiting for the two of them were smiling in their direction, waving and greeting them.

“Hey, Rei, happy anniversary!” said Makoto, warmly smiling at him.

“Rei, this is so fun in here!” said Go, waving and jumping up and down in her seat.

“Wow, I..” said the man in question, turning his head slightly to Nagisa, “I didn’t expect something like this,” he laughed nervously and then Nagisa just shoved his boyfriend to the table, making Rei awkwardly greet everyone back with a smile.

Everyone was there. Makoto, Haruka, Go, Ikuya, Hiyori, Natsuya, Nitori, Sasabe, Miho, Momotaro and Nao.

Maybe only a few people were missing, but Rei was definitely overwhelmed with this whole event, just sitting down silently as the head of the enormously big table and it was buzzing with chatter.

After some time Nagisa settled on the seat next to his partner and everyone started to have some meals first, all of the present people talking to each other, happy and good energy being exchanged here and now.

Suddenly Rin and Sosuke appeared, making their way towards the party.

“Hey, hello!” said Rin loudly, announcing their entrance, waving everyone by one hand while in the other he had his laptop with something like a projector.

“Hey, Rin-chan! Why are you late?” genuinely asked Nagisa, looking at his friend questionably.

Rin scowled at the very memory of the reason why, putting his equipment on the ground.

“This whole time we were driving slowly like some.. turtles behind this slow ass blue car! We couldn’t get past it and it kept slowing us down until we finally made our way through and floored it, as a person is supposed to do on a highway,” concluded Rin and plopped himself on the seat next to them, crossing his hands on the chest.

Sosuke just shrugged and nodded, visibly agreeing with his flatmate.

Soon enough another two late comers made their way to the table, both waving enthusiastically at the group.

“Hello! Sorry we’re late,” said Kisumi and Asahi, with whom he came, took it away and started talking about it himself;

“We were just riding on a highway, then some crazy red car made it past us and with their speed they literally shook our little baby into the side, so Kisumi really had to do his best not to have a car accident!” he stated with furrowed brows, Kisumi just awkwardly laughing and rubbing the back of his neck.

Nagisa’s eyes met with Rin’s as they were listening to the story and then he just loudly hollered, making both of them sit down as well.

“Hahhaha what a terrific story, guys! Be careful next time!”

And with all the guests finally present, little blond guy finally stood up and ringed into his champagne glass with a knife, making everyone quiet down and give him their full attention.

“Hello everyone, again. I want to, kind of announce, why we gathered here today, because it was all a big surprise for Rei-chan and he didn’t know a thing until we arrived here ten minutes ago!” Nagisa smiled warmly and turned his gaze to his boyfriend, “This is a party to celebrate your 5th anniversary since you’ve joined our swimming club and learned how to swim for the first time after so many failed attempts,” he said sweetly, with the last sentence making Rei blush with embarrassment.

“So I would like everyone to give a toast every once in a while, complimenting my baby’s skills! Or whatever nice things you have to say! I’ll show a surprise that i prepared towards the end of the party,” concluded Nagisa and then received a round of applause with some laughs from their friends.

After Nagisa has sat down, Rei didn’t waste a second and captured him in a tight hug, smiling happily.

“Thank you for this, Nagisa-kun... I love you so much,” he said in their embrace, eyes closed.

“I love you too, Rei-chan,” blondie answered, a happy feeling of accomplishment and success of the party giving him an incredible serotonin boost.

The night was going smoothly and every single one of their friends have said beautiful or hilarious speeches, to lighten up the atmosphere, almost all of them making Rei’s purple eyes sting. He was just overwhelmed with emotion that night.

Towards the end main organiser stood up from his place and went over to the projector near the wall, turning it all.

The chatter was quieter now, some people needed to be at different places already, so the number of guests was smaller too.

He didn’t need to draw attention to himself, because everyone was already looking his way, but he was most interested in staring back into the amethysts of his partner, smiling warmly.

“Start already, Nagisa-kuuun,” moaned Go, hands extended on the table as she was plastered comfortably on her chair, back crouched.

That brought him back to the reality and he chuckled, finally interrupting their gazing game with Rei and started to push different buttons on the projector, to get the damn thing working.

Soon enough it lit up on the wall, showing a messy desktop with iwatobi-chan, running to the pool, all blurred, with different captions left and right.

Don’t ask.

He finally clicked on the powerpoint and started up his presentation, starting off very proudly and enthusiastically, showing off different pictures of Rei’s progress, making his boy embarrassingly cover his face and yell from time to time.

“And then we filmed this commercial and Haru-chan did an astounding job!” Nagisa said, excitedly jumping up and down and then got gently reminded by Makoto if it’s still the presentation about Rei.

“Oh, yes! Of course, next slide, please!” he demanded and clicked on the keyboard on arrow key himself, showing a photo set of pictures that could as well be sold to someone as professionally taken ones.

“This could go on a cover of the magazine,” Kisumi mused with a smile on his face, supporting his head with his palm under the chin.

“True, haha,” agreed and chuckled Asahi, gently slapping his companion on the back.

“Thank you,” only quietly said Rei, all red with color.

Then Nagisa included their races and tournaments, that made tear up even Rin and Makoto and Haru smiled very warmly, which was enough to show how much everyone cared about their collective history.

And when he got towards the last slide, showing just a collage of their pictures together, little blondie that was always so outgoing got a bit quiet, looking at the screen intensely, not willing to meet anyone’s eyes. Especially not his loved amethysts.

“And with this ending part I would just like to say that...” he was fidgeting with his hands, playing with the fingers, “generally, before I met all of you again in highschool, guys, my life has been kind of bleak, even when I didn’t show it..” smile stretched on his features, a little wobbly, “and especially after meeting Rei-chan.. he has opened my heart in a way I didn’t expect anyone to open,” he finally lifted his head and tears were flowing down his face, but a wide smile was there as well, and his dark rosey eyes were looking right into the purples, creating a wonderful explosion of colours and feelings inside of both of their chests.

“I am the happiest person by your side. You always—,” it was kind of hard to speak for him now, sobs escaping his throat every once in a while, “You always understand me and never judge me.. Rei-chan..”

Nagisa has suddenly after these words climbed on the mostly empty table meant for the projector and sat on his knees, now looking directly at his love.

Go was already crying too, Makoto was on the verge and others were kind of confused, but certainly intrigued, watching what was unfolding in front of them.

“Will you..” he fumbled with something from his pocket and took out a small violet box, opening it in front of Rei, “ Will you marry me?”

After he choked these words out he started crying even more and his boyfriend’s eyes widened with shock and then realisation, and he immediately stood up and rushed to him, scooping him up in his arms and starting kissing his cheeks and light hair.

“Nagisa-kun... one hundred times yes,” he almost couldn’t speak anymore either, his emotions getting the best of him and they just hugged and cried together.

It took everyone a few seconds to stomach everything what just happened and every single friend of theirs at once got their butts up and came to the happy couple, hugging them as well.

“What a nice date, isn’t it?” laughed weakly Nagisa, seeing everyone around him, still scooped in his boyfriend’s arms.

“Truly.. thank you,” said Rei, looking into his red eyes, what seemed to be like forever.

[acrcsstheuniversee]

Good Enough For Me

Pairing: Paul McCartney circa 1962 x John Lennon circa 1978 (McLennon)

Rating: Mature, readers 18+

Chapter Warnings: Mentions of porn and sex work

Words in this chapter: 1800+

Author’s Note:

Here it is! Refer to my summary and introduction post if you haven’t done so for more disclaimers, visuals, tag list info, and more.

*Disclaimer: I do not own The Beatles. This is fiction and written for leisure. Aspects of the story will not be historically accurate and should not be taken extremely seriously.

Chapter 1

Already a month into the semester, Paul found himself struggling to keep up with his studies. He tried his best to focus on typing an essay on the history of guitars that’s due the next day by 10 a.m. but just couldn’t get himself to do it. Not like it was hard or anything; he just hated doing what he’s told, especially if it was something he didn’t care about. He just wanted to do music but having a degree is a necessity now.

He pressed the home button on his cracked phone screen to see that it was already midnight. He was only half way done with the assignment that could’ve taken him only 30 minutes if he wasn’t writing songs in between paragraphs.

It was all too much anyways. American universities have much more homework assignments than back in England. Times like these made him question whether or not going out of the country for school was worth it. There almost seemed like there were more cons than pros in his decision. He lacked resources, he didn’t have any friends or family here except his roommate/best friend George, he was poorer than ever, and must work and attend school part-time. If he stayed in Liverpool and just continued school locally, he probably would’ve earned his degree by now; but now he’s what Americans consider a “super senior” because he’s 21 years old with the amount of classes completed equivalent to a third year student. Despite the struggle, all of it was better than his father dictating his every move. 

He shut his laptop, giving up on the assignment and leaned back into his desk chair, rubbing his tired droopy eyes.

He had two classes and work tomorrow. The thought of them made him roll his eyes. Music history from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., a business class he couldn’t remember the name of from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., and work right after at a restaurant nearby as a dishwasher, and occasionally performer if the artist they booked cancelled that night.

He yawned as he got up and slide into his bed. Before shutting his eyes, he turned his head and looked directly across the tiny dorm room to his right to see his childhood best friend and roommate, George Harrison sound asleep.

Paul really needs to take a note out of George’s book and sleep earlier. These late nights are just stressing him out more and more.

***

“Paul….. PAUL! Get up!”

Paul jolted up right when a sudden raised voice rang in his ear. His eyes met George’s signature judgemental look. One of his thick brows cocked and his lips curved awkwardly. He was already ready to go to class.

“Ah, what time is it?”

“9:30. I woke you up 30 minutes before hand because I just know you aren’t going to get up to the 9:45 alarm unless you expect to make it to your first class in 15 minutes,” George teased.

George is a pain in the ass and a know-it-all, but Paul loved him dearly. He comes off mean sometimes but Paul knows it’s just because he’s younger and feels the need to prove himself. Paul was used to it after all this time but sometimes, that boy needs to know when his criticisms cross the line. Despite being a dick sometimes, they’re both grateful to be going to the same college together. It was one in a million chances for George to land the same US college as Paul just a year after Paul’s acceptance.

“Okay, whatever. You have a point, I guess.” Paul groaned and rolled out of bed. 

“I know I do, ha. I’ll see you later.” George messed up his friend’s darkhair more than it already was, making Paul swat his hand away.

When George left, Paul finally got ready and headed off to class with his incomplete essay.

Everyone was already seated and the professor was setting up today’s powerpoint lecture when he finally arrived. Paul sat down in the back where he’s been since the beginning of the semester. It hasn’t been a problem until a girl started to sit near him everyday since last week. When group or partnered work was assigned, she would often ask him to join her. She was kind, but Paul knew she liked him. She couldn’t make it less obvious. They would make small talk here and there---just about classes and hobbies. She was also very good at piano just as Paul was, but not too good on guitar though she claims to be.

He felt her looking at him, making him turn his head to find out he was right. She just smiled and waved. Paul nodded and gave her a small smile in return, trying not to show too much emotion, afraid she would like that too much. She already had the wrong idea but he didn’t want to be mean about it. Paul was not interested in the slightest and, he was gay. Found that out in high school and hasn’t been too shy about it since then. 

When class ended, Paul left immediately to his second class to avoid conversation with anyone. This next one was business related which is something he also could care less about. He was a bit behind in this one too, but this time, he truly didn’t understand the material. He definitely needed a tutor soon.

Not much happened other than him writing mini poems all over his in-class assignment. He didn’t even bother erasing any of it before turning it in at the end of class.

Paul sighed as he made himself to his busboy job right off campus. Before stepping inside, he felt his phone vibrate. It was his dad. Ugh, he thought but answered.

“I’m about to go into work, Dad. What is it?”

“Well, hello to you too. I was just wondering how the first month in the states have been. I haven’t heard from you.”

“It’s fine.”

“Just fine? Have you got a chance to tour places? You should send me photos.”

“No and no. I don’t want you to be sending the pictures to your friends as if you helped me get here. I know you do that.”

Paul heard his father sigh.

“Just text me when you get home and tell George I said hi.”

“Okay, bye.” Paul said before hanging up and walking into his shift.

It seemed harsh but his dad was a selfish prick. He loves to be in control of everything. He was the reason Paul came to the states to study. All he wanted was to ride the wave of success his two sons have been achieving.

In all truthfulness, Paul stopped believing his dad’s bullshit after mom died about 6 years ago. His dad seemed to have lost his way but Paul couldn’t be around all the time if he had a dream to follow. It’s been rough without his mom around but Paul had to do what he was right for him, even if that meant getting away from his dad which is something even she would’ve supported.

He couldn’t stop thinking about how irritating school and his dad were during his shift. The rude coworkers and customers didn’t help his case at all. This wasn’t new though. Paul was used to working constantly in some shape or form. The only problem this time is that he needed more money now that he’s completely independent from his father.

“Hey, busboy!” his boss called out to the dishroom from the back office. Paul rolled his eyes and went to see what he wanted.

“Yes?”

“I have to cut your hours in half. Here is your new schedule. You’re off now, so don’t wash another dish.”

“In half?” Paul took the schedule and saw that his income now would not suffice his monthly tuition payments, let alone some money for necessities. “You’ve got to be shitting me. Why?”

“We can’t afford to pay you. I’m sorry, kid.” he said nonchalantly.

“Will I be able to perform sometimes still?”

“Ehh, sure.” he said as he continued his paperwork, not even looking at Paul.

Paul rolled his eyes again. Could his life get any more annoying? He let out a sigh and clocked out. Now what, he thought making his way home.

When he got home George was playing his computer games with his big headphones to fit on his large ears. The younger man didn’t even notice his friend come in until one side of his headphones was pulled and slapped against his head.

“Hey!” George readjusted himself then paused his game to face Paul with his eyebrows furrowed. “What?”

“My hours got slashed.”

“You’re joking.”

“Nope, hah.”

George frowned.

“Shit, I’m sorry. Are you going to find another job?” 

“Well, I’m going to have to because I will not be asking my dad for help.” Paul said as changed into his pajamas and hopped onto his bed.

George sighed. Paul just stared at his friend for a moment, not knowing what to say. This was bad news for both of them. George didn’t have the same financial issues as Paul did. He only had enough for himself. If George could help, he would---and Paul knew he would.

“I’ll think of something, George. Don’t worry.” Paul got under the covers and listened to his friend shut off his computer and lights before hopping into bed as well.

He stared at the ceiling and sighed, then began to think about all the ways he can make money quickly but none of it would be fast enough to pay his next tuition bill. He rubbed his eyes. It was beginning to stress him out the more he thought of it and he just wanted it to all stop for a second.

Ah fuck it, he thought before whipping out his phone and started to scroll through his favorite porn blog on Tumblr. What better way to forget about things than looking at some sexy pictures of guys?

Paul scrolled until he ran into a post that was by a male sex worker selling nude photos and thought hard to himself. It was a young guy about his age selling his photos for $25 a piece and a private snapchat story for $5 per friend request and $15 extra for screenshot privileges.

Paul bit his lip nervously. It’s been a couple years since he did sex work. All he did was some cam work, sold some nude photos, and made customized videos for people on the internet. He remembered enjoying it but there was always the parts he hated that made the job extremely draining like any other job.

He laid there staring at the screen. He must admit, it was tempting to dive in again but he was afraid what George would think.

“George… Maybe I should go back into sex work…” Paul said suddenly.

George didn’t reply. He just snored in in response. That bastard.

Paul sighed and continued to scroll through sex work blogs, inspired by the possibilities until he slowly drifted to sleep.

-

Tag list:

@nowandthenoldfriend

[makingmoneyonlinemethod]

How to Make an Extra $1,000 a Month (25 Ways That Actually Work)

When I was in college, I felt like having an extra $1,000 a month would basically make me rich.

It seems silly now, but when you’re in college, $1,000 a month can go a long way.

You could use it to:

·     Pay down your student loans

·     Cover your room and board

·     Start investing early

·     Buy a heck of a lot of video games, pizza, or ramen

By my last couple of months in college, I finally hit that $1,000 a month income goal. But looking back, I realize I could have hit that number a lot sooner if I had known what I know now. That’s why I’ve put together this guide.

Below, I’ll show you 25 ways to actually earn a $1,000 a month. No questionable methods, no b.s., and no get rich quick schemes. Just ways that, with a little hard work, will pay off quickly.

The Right Mindset for Making Extra Money

Before I get to the methods, you need to understand the right mindset to have when looking for ways to earn extra money. I include this section because, as a college student, I made the mistake of spending way too much money on courses that claimed they would help me make extra money.

I’m not saying that the courses were giving bad advice, but rather that I made the mistake of falling for the allure of extra income without wanting to put in the work required to get it. Certainly, there are courses out there that can help you boost your income. But you don’t need any of those to get started.

To make extra money, you just need 3 things:

1.       Be able to do something people will pay for.

2.       Get people to pay you for it.

3.       Keep doing #2 till you’ve hit your income goal.

The above advice applies whether you want to make an extra $1,000 or $10,000. Of course, there are details to iron out such as what you’ll do and how you’ll find people to pay you for it. That’s what the rest of this guide is for.

25 Ways to Make an Extra $1,000 a Month

 Ready to stop dreaming and start earning? Below, you’ll find 25 ways you can actually make an extra $1,000 per month. None of these require expensive equipment, high startup costs, or even a degree. What they do require is hard work, creativity, and the willingness to try new things or learn new skills.

Freelance Writing

I’m going to start with a method that’s near and dear to my heart. Freelance writing was the first way I started making serious money when I was in college, and I still think it’s a great thing to try if you have writing skills.

There are a ton of companies out there that need written content, including blog posts, video scripts, website copy, and more. They’re willing to pay, too; a starting writer can easily charge $50 for an article. 

More experienced writers can charge $150/article or more, depending on the length and subject matter. Work your way up to that level, and writing just two articles a week could net you $1,200 a month.

To get started freelance writing, you have a couple of options. The first is to check out freelance job boards like Upwork, Fiverr, and ProBlogger. Alternatively, you can reach out directly to blogs who accept guest contributions. Both methods can work, though I had more success with direct outreach when I was starting out – and in this realm, I had the most success when I worked to build relationships instead of doing cold outreach.

You’ll also want to build a portfolio to showcase your writing. Check out our guide to building an online portfolio to get started on that.

If you want further guidance, including tips on how to pitch articles and get your first clients, check out this freelance writing course my friends Kristin and Alex created.

Graphic Design

A few examples of our graphic designer’s work for the CIG Podcast.

Companies aren’t just hungry for written content; they’re also constantly in need of graphics, illustrations, logos, custom slide decks, and other graphic design assets.  If you’re artistic or enjoy design, this can be a great way to make money.

The steps for getting started with freelance graphic design are fairly similar to freelance writing. You can search on Upwork, Fiverr, or even 99designs for gigs. Alternatively, you can ask around campus to see if anyone needs design help. Making business cards and logos for people can be an especially fruitful place to start.

If you want to learn graphic design, there are a ton of avenues out there. I’ll note that it’s important to learn both the fundamentals of design��(composition, type, white space, etc.) and the technical skills, such as how to use Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. Here are a few courses to start with:

·     Graphic Design Basics – Core Principles for Visual Design

·     Master the Basics of Adobe Illustrator

Web Development

Having a website is a must these days, yet so many businesses and individuals still don’t have one. This is a great opportunity for anyone with web development skills to make some serious money.

But what if I don’t know how to make a website? Just read our guide, and now you have no excuses. Combine that with a few web development tutorials on Skillshare, and you’ll have all the skills you need to build beautiful, functional websites for just about anyone.

Our web developer, Martin, was able to charge $1,000 for a basic website when he was freelancing. And those development skills eventually led him to a full-time career working for College Info Geek. So whether you want to make some extra money on the side or enter an in-demand, well-paying field, web development is worth learning.

If you’re serious about learning web development quickly, I recommend these resources:

·     The Top Web Development Courses on Skillshare — These are all classes taught by experts and will get you up to speed even if you have no prior knowledge. The link will also get you a 2-week free trial, plenty of time to get through the courses.

·     Treehouse — Treehouse is a website dedicated to teaching you how to code, and they have a large library of web development courses.

Audio Transcription

Voice recognition technology is getting better every day, but it still isn’t great at transcribing real human speech. For this reason, there’s a demand for skilled audio transcriptionists.

Audio-what-tionists? When transcribing audio, all you do is listen to a recording and turn it into a word document. All kinds of companies and people need this service, and they’re willing to pay. While you can do this on your own, it’s generally better to work for an audio transcription company. This way, you don’t have to find clients.

I recommend looking into Rev — pay starts at $0.36 per minute of audio, which means you need to transcribe around 50 hours of audio per month (12.5 per week) to hit the $1,000 mark. Plus, you can do this job from the comfort of your home, making it great for fitting around your busy schedule.

Helping People with Computers

Using a computer may seem second-nature to you, you darn millennial-Gen-XYZ whippersnapper. But for many people who aren’t “digital natives,” it’s not so easy. Instead of making fun of your grandpa for not knowing how to use his iPad, why not see if you can turn your knowledge into some extra cash?

The possibilities here are only limited by your creativity and what people will pay for. Just a few ideas:

·     Make PowerPoints for your less than tech-savvy professors (a former professor reached out to me about this just the other day)

·     Give a class on computer basics at a local retirement home or community center

·     Start your own IT business that makes house calls (a friend of mine made one contact in college who paid him around $200/month for very basic computer help. The guy was pretty wealthy, but knew nothing about computers.)

You can choose to charge per hour or per project — whichever makes more sense.

Bonus Tip: If you’re willing to take some time and spend a bit of money to get an A+ Certification, you may be able to charge even more. If you choose to go this route, you should get Mike Meyers’ (no, not that Mike Meyers) excellent CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, which is updated every year.

Investing Your Money

I’ll state this up front: Compared to every other method on this list, investing will take by far the longest amount of time to make you an extra $1,000 a month. Still, you should seriously consider investing as early as you possibly can.

Here’s why: Investing means putting your money to work for you. Every other method here requires you to essentially trade hours for dollars; investing allows you to sit back as the money you have invested grows due to compound interest. And the sooner you get started, the more that compound interest will benefit you.

Here’s a simple calculation: If you’re 25 now and you invest just $200 a month for the next 30 years at a 7% rate of return (which is reasonable to expect over the long term), by the time you’re 55 you’ll have a bit over $228,000 – even though you only invested a total of $72,000 of your hard-earned money.

That means that you gained a whopping $156,000 while you slept. And that’s assuming you never increase your monthly investment as you get further into your career; do that (as most smart investors do) – and get started as early as possible to reap the benefits of compound interest year after year – and you can retire with millions.

Here’s another calculation, this time looking at what it would take to be able to pull $1,000 a month out of your retirement savings every month for 30 years:

 Again, assuming you never increase your contribution (which is unlikely), you still only need to save $316 a month assuming you start when you’re 25. (You can use this Bankrate calculator to play with the numbers.)

How to get started: The main three things you need to know are:

1.       Tax-advantaged retirement accounts are your friends. A Roth IRA is a great place to start.

2.       Index funds are your friends. These passively follow the entire stock market, providing a good rate of return without too much risk.

3.       High fees are your enemy. Even a fee of 1% on a fund can eat a huge portion of your earnings. And funds that charge these fees almost never outperform lower-cost funds.

While you can learn and optimize later, these three rules are really all you need to get started.

As for where to start, Betterment is a great option; their fees are low, there’s no minimum starting investment (you could throw in $50 now and set up a $25 monthly auto-investment to start), and they adjust your investments based on your goals.

For even more information, check out our beginner’s guide to investing.

Selling Your Old Stuff

Your closet, garage, or attic is probably full of perfectly good things that you just don’t use anymore. Instead of letting them sit there collecting dust and getting in your way, why not sell them for some extra cash?

Depending on how much stuff you have, you could certainly earn an extra $1,000 doing this. This is especially true if your parents or grandparents will let you comb through their old stuff and sell it as well.

That being said, this probably isn’t the best way to consistently make extra money. To do that, you need to branch beyond selling your stuff and into selling other people’s.

Retail Arbitrage

Retail-what? So it’s a fancy business term, but all it means is going to stores like Wal-Mart, Target, or even a thrift store and finding items that you can re-sell online for a profit.

Generally, people use either Amazon or eBay to do this, though you could also look into a more specialized platform such as Poshmark or Etsy if you’re focusing on clothing or vintage goods.

Now, be warned — if you do this wrong, you can lose a bunch of money and waste a lot of time. You have to be smart about what you buy, which generally means using a tool like the Amazon Seller app (Android | iOS) to calculate your potential profit. But if you do it right, this can be an effective way to make money in your free time.

Fixing & Flipping Cars (or Other Vehicles)

Hardly a day goes by that I don’t see an old car or bike for sale in someone’s yard. While I don’t have the time or mechanical skills to do it, I know lots of people who make good money buying old vehicles, fixing them up, and re-selling them.

This is definitely an area where you need to know what you’re doing, and you’ll also need the appropriate tools and space. But provided you have those things, it’s easy enough to get started. Even if you spend a few months fixing up a car and manage to sell it for a $5,000 profit, that’s easily an extra $1,000 a month.

Babysitting or Nannying

People have kids, and they need a responsible adult to watch them. There’s good money to be made here, particularly if you have the time to do a more involved job such as nannying.

You can either go through a site such as Care.com or build up your own business through word of mouth. I have a few friends that were easily able to charge $20 per hour for this sort of work, which means you would only need to work an extra 12.5 hours per week to reach $1,000 a month.

Yardwork

This category covers everything that people don’t want to do in their yards. People tend to associate yardwork with warm-weather activities such as lawn mowing, but it can also include things like shoveling snow and picking up dog poop. With these activities, you can stay busy earning money all year round.

Pro-tip: When I was a teenager, I stood out from the other teenage lawn-mowing businesses by BUNDLING dog poop pick-up and lawn mowing. Differentiating yourself is key!

How you price this work is up to you — you can charge a flat rate based on the size of the yard (this works well for mowing or snow shoveling) or an hourly rate (which is best if you don’t know how long the work will take). As long as you charge enough, you can hit your extra income goals with only a few hours of work per week.

Cleaning Houses

Cleaning is something that has to be done, but many people don’t have the time or desire to do it. This is where you come in — with just some simple cleaning supplies and a few hours per week, you can earn great money.

To maximize your earnings, we recommend doing this gig solo. You’ll get to keep all the money you earn, and you can often charge a more competitive rate than a bigger cleaning company. Getting started is as simple as asking around, and it’s easy to charge $100 for a small house or apartment. Do that 10x per month, and there’s your extra $1,000.

Home Repairs

In a similar vein to cleaning houses, things around the house tend to break. While some people know how to fix them, plenty of others will go running to a handyman (or woman) whenever they need to patch a small hole or fix a leaky faucet.

If you have some basic tools and a little bit of practice, you can earn good money helping friends, family, and anyone else with simple household repairs. People will pay more for this than you might think — my friend recently got paid $100 just to help a co-worker hang a curtain rod.

Note: Please don’t blow yourself up, chop off your hand, or get electrocuted. Leave any major work to licensed professional contractors. But for small fixes, go for it!

Tutoring

Many parents will do anything to help their kids succeed, even if it means spending lots of money. Tutoring is a prime example of this. After all, how is your neighbor’s kid going to get into Harvard at age 15 if they can’t pass their first-grade algebra class?

Okay, this might be a bit of an exaggeration, but lots of parents freak out when their kid is struggling even a little bit in school. To fix this, they’ll often hire a tutor, and that tutor could easily be you. As long as you know more about a subject than a kid and are good at explaining things, you can be a tutor (though some parents may want you to have certain test scores or grades in certain courses).

Reading and math are definitely the most popular subjects, but you can tutor anything that kids’ parents are willing to pay for. To maximize your earnings, we recommend being a freelance tutor, but you can also earn decent money working for a tutoring company.

Teaching a Foreign Language

¿Habla español? Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Parlez-vous français? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then you might be able to earn extra money teaching a foreign language.

Now, this won’t work if you just took a few classes in high school or college — you need to be fluent in the language. But assuming you are, then you can earn good money helping other people learn a language. This is especially true if you can teach a high-demand language such as English, Mandarin, or Spanish.

To get started, we recommend iTalki, which is our favorite place to find online language teachers.

Note: While not required, having some kind of degree or certification in the language you want to teach will definitely help boost your earnings.

Bookkeeping

Think you need to be a CPA to do bookkeeping? Wrong. In fact, you don’t need any formal certifications or degrees to be a bookkeeper. All you need is an understanding of basic bookkeeping and accounting principles. My friend Thomas (this site’s founder) landed a part-time job in high school doing bookkeeping for a small business.

It can also be helpful to know your way around the accounting software that small businesses use – the most popular is Quickbooks, though Wave and Xero are also popular. If you know Quickbooks, though, you can quickly adapt to others. Here’s a very thorough Quickbooks class you can take on Skillshare (this link gets you a 2-week free trial, so you could take other bookkeeping classes there for free during that time).

Selling Handmade Goods on Etsy

Know how to knit? Make pottery? Craft jewelry? If you can make it with your hands, then you can probably sell it on Etsy. Etsy is fairly mainstream now, but in case you haven’t heard of it, it’s an online marketplace for selling handmade and vintage goods. You set your own prices, and Etsy takes a small commission each time you make a sale.

Now, you won’t start making extra money with Etsy overnight. You need to take good photos, write compelling descriptions, and get the word out about your store. But if you’re willing to take the time to do this, then you can certainly build up a business that makes an extra $1,000 per month.

Working as a Virtual Assistant

There are lots of busy professionals who have way more money than time. Therefore, they’re willing to pay to get some of their time back. This is the whole premise behind hiring a virtual assistant (VA) — you do the things that a busy person doesn’t have time to do.

Many people associate virtual assistants with outsourcing, but there’s actually a sizable market for native English-speaking VAs based in U.S. timezones.

If you’re organized, responsive, and don’t mind dealing with stressed out, sometimes demanding professionals, then this can be a great gig. Your job will generally consist of scheduling appointments, booking travel, answering calls and emails, and doing whatever else the person you’re assisting is too busy to do.

To learn how to get started as a VA, check out this course from our friend (and former CIG virtual assistant) Kayla Sloan.

Personal Chef

There are lots of people who need help with cooking. Some people are too busy to cook for themselves, while others are unable to cook due to age or disability. Whatever the case, if you know how to cook, then you can turn that skill into extra money.

According to Career Trend, the average hourly rate for a personal chef is between $35 and $50 per hour. Even if you can just charge $35 per hour, that means you can make $1,000 with just an extra 29 hours of work per month. Plus, you’ll meet lots of interesting people and have an amazing experience to put on your resume.

Note: Be sure to check local laws to make sure you don’t need any special licenses or food-handling certifications to be a personal chef.

Help People Move

If you’ve ever moved to a new house or apartment, you know how much of a pain it is. It’s time-consuming, laborious, and often frustrating. For this reason, most people who can afford it will hire movers.

If you’re organized, careful, and capable of lifting heavy things, then you can start your own moving business today. Having a truck or other large vehicle also helps, though it’s not strictly necessary.

You can easily charge $100 for a small moving job (often more), so this is an awesome gig to earn the extra cash you’re looking for.

Street Performer

I’ll never forget walking down Fremont Street in Las Vegas, seeing the street performers, and witnessing the unbelievable things people will do to make a buck. While I don’t advise that you copy the things the performers on Fremont do (the man dressed as a giant baby still gives me nightmares), street performing can be a solid way to earn extra money.

What you do is entirely up to you. Busking (playing music for donations) is a time-honored approach, but you could also tell fortunes, make art, or just dress up in a weird costume and charge for photos. I’ve never done this myself, but I bet you can definitely make $1,000 a month doing this part-time.

Note: Many cities require you to have a license in order to be a street performer (especially if you’re going to charge money or ask for tips). Check your local laws before you begin. And, obviously, don’t do anything that will get you arrested, fined, or kicked out of school.

Personal Trainer

Most people would like to be in better shape than they are. And when going to the gym won’t cut it, the people who can afford it will often hire a personal trainer. If you know how to get (and stay) in shape, then there’s no reason that personal trainer can’t be you.

According to PayScale, the average hourly rate for a personal trainer is $19. That means you only need to work around 13 hours a week to hit your $1,000 monthly target. As long as you can find enough clients, this is an easy gig to get started with.

Note: We strongly recommend that you get a personal trainer certification if you’re going to do this. Not only will it help you market yourself to potential clients, but it will also make sure that you and your clients stay safe.

DJ-ing

Can you play music off your computer? Then that’s really all you need to be a DJ. Having some more specialized equipment certainly helps, but DJ-ing really isn’t that hard to learn.

You probably won’t end up playing festivals for millions of dollars, but you can certainly earn $1,000 a month DJ-ing weddings or parties on the weekends.

Consulting

This might well be the holy grail of earning extra income. There’s a lot of b.s. in the consulting world, but it can be a perfectly legitimate field. As a consultant, you help businesses (or sometimes individuals) overcome a particular problem. Generally, the goal is to help a business make more money.

If that sounds insanely broad and generic, it is. But that’s the beauty of consulting. If you can help a business make more money, then you can basically charge whatever you want, provided it’s less than the amount of additional money you’ll help the business make.

Here are just a few things you could consult on:

·     Bookkeeping

·     Sales

·     Marketing

·     Website design

·     Website copy

·     Business processes

Junk Removal

People have all kinds of crap in their yards and houses that they need help getting rid of. If you have a strong back and a vehicle that can haul junk, then you can start your own junk removal business.

To get started with this, your best bet is to hit the streets. Walk around local neighborhoods and see if you can spot piles of brush, trash, or other items that people might need help getting rid of. Then, just knock on doors and see if anyone is interested. It can take some persistence, but you can easily charge enough for this to make at least an extra $1,000 in 30 days.

Hourly Jobs

This is a very broad category, but we wanted to include it because sometimes making extra money is as simple as getting a good ole fashioned part-time job.

Assuming you can work 20 hours per week, you just need to find a job that pays at least $12.50 an hour in order to hit the $1,000 per month target. It may not be the sexiest way to make extra money, but it’s proven to work.

[you-andthebottlemen]

34 - Van’s POV

I’m baaack!!! Missed all of you so much. I hope you like this fic! I have combined two requests xx

Thank you so much for waiting and for the support during my break from writing, it really meant a lot to me. As this is my first fic post-break, would you mind ever so terribly giving this post a like just so I know you’re reading? That would be awesome. And hey, if you’re down, even some feedback would be amazing. Thank you again for reading, love youuuu xx 

Request: “Van sees you performing at an open mic or something and likes you, flirts with you, and asks you out or something”

Request 2: (originally submitted to @storiesaboutvan  )

 I know you've done one already.... But Van crushing on another musician... Maybe hearing about her through a musician he follows and then developing a crush and meeting at some event or studio?

Thank you to @storiesaboutvan for helping me edit this and giving me all the support to start writing again. Love ya girl xxx

Bonus for anyone who watched Bondy’s live stream and gets the references lol. 

*********

Lamacq had us back at his place to talk about the new album, going through each track like I did with The Balcony. He’d turned into a pretty class mate. We owed him so much. So after the interview, we just hung out and talked music. Bondy played him some new riffs we’d written and he gave us feedback which was fantastic. Really valuable. 

He and Bondy were in the kitchen discussing jazz over a hot brew and I was in his office sorting through the pile of submissions he received each week. Always something interesting in there you know? I liked to listen to demos from bands. It always made me think of how far we’ve come. From kids who used to throw CDs at people, to being the people they get thrown at. Lamacq’s office was littered with CDs and records, magazines and letters; you’d almost mistake him for a hoarder. As I flicked through the discs, a brightly coloured, hand-made sleeve caught my eye. 

I pulled it out and threw it into the disk player. As soon as I heard the first note of her voice I was in love. It was soft and melodic and if angels were real, she’d definitely be one. I flipped the cover over in my hands and read the back. Her name was y/n. She’d delicately handwritten the track names and her name in gold ink. 

“Lamacq. Mate. You gotta play this,” I declared as I chaotically burst into the kitchen with the CD player in my arms. The two of them looked at me as if I was mad.

I hooked the speakers up to the closest powerpoint and played it in the kitchen; I was too impatient to bring them into the studio so I brought the music to them. 

They both sat and listened, arms folded. Bondy seemed quickly disinterested and walked out onto the patio. Lamacq stood in silence, with his eyebrows furrowed, evaluating. 

“It’s magical innit?” I said excitedly, eyes wide. 

“She definitely has talent,” Lammo agreed. I looked out to Bondy to see his reaction, but he was focussed on lighting a ciggie with a blowtorch. 

“Her name’s y/n. One to watch I reckon.”

I was completely obsessed. I burnt a copy of the disk and played it in the car all the way home. I dropped Bondy off first, leaving him smiling to himself over the fact Lammo let him take the blowtorch home. I sat in the parked car in the driveway until the last song on y/n’s demo was finished. The whole tracklist was melodic and whimsical, sounded perfect and the lyrics were fucking class.

....

While cooking Larry and me dinner that night, I found myself humming one of y/n’s bridges. Couldn’t get it out of my head. I was surprised at how quickly I’d picked up the tune. 

“New song mate?” Larry asked as he walked into the kitchen with a pack of ciggies, putting one between his lips. 

“Nah. Someone else's. Found this girl’s demo at Lamacq’s and it’s like really good. Really fuckin’ good,” I replied, flipping a cheese toastie in the pan.

Larry just nodded and began to light a smoke beside me.

“Oi! Mate! Not near the sandwich!” I exclaimed, my voice going all high and squeaky, swatting him and his cigarette away with one hand and shielding the cheesy goodness with the other. 

“Jesus okay, sorry,” he mumbled with his hands up in surrender as he walked out the room to go smoke in the garden. 

I finished the toasties and balanced the plates in my arms and mugs of tea between my fingers to take out into the living room. Larry was sat on the couch playing Fifa, waiting for me to bring food like some fancy maid service.  

“If I’m gonna make you dinner, the least you could do is not make it taste like smoke. We can have a ciggie in there later,” I said as I placed a plate in front of him and his tea on the coffee table. 

Larry put aside the controller and dug into the toastie. 

“So this girl, she fit?” he asked after a few bites.

“What?”

“You know, good voice you said but is she pretty? What does she look like?” 

“Oh. No idea. I’ve only listened to her CD.” 

Three times over in a row to be exact. I shoved more toastie into my mouth and flicked the TV on. I’d not even thought about her looks. 

“You’re telling me you’re obsessed with this girl and you don’t even know what she looks like?” he chuckled. 

“Does it matter?” I asked, unsure of his point. Looks wouldn’t change how fuckin’ phenomenal her voice sounded.

“Nothing mate. You’re weird,” he responded with a grin and slight shake of the head. 

We finished our tea and toasties and moved into the kitchen for a smoke finally. I played y/n’s tracks to Larry and we listened in silence. He agreed that her voice was beautiful, but I still wasn’t sure he heard what I heard. 

That night I sat up in bed with my laptop, searching her name and trying to find her profile or summat. I’d never been a social media person so I didn’t know how to dig or whatever, but I managed to find a music facebook page. When I saw that the display photo was just a scan of the colourful CD sleeve, I was slightly disappointed. She was obviously not a social media person either.

Her demos were listed for download and she also had an ‘info’ page, so I clicked that in hopes of finding out something, anything about her. It read:

“Hi my name is y/n and I like to sing and make music and my favourite thing in the world is cherry vanilla Dr Pepper”.

Not much to go on so I shut my laptop and listened to her soft tracks again, letting them lull me into sleep.

...........

I walked through the crowded bar, hands shoved into my pockets, nervous. My hand was gripped around the cold can of cherry vanilla Dr Pepper in my left pocket and I bit my lip as I twisted and turned through the crowd looking for a seat. People were gathered around the bar buying drinks, others beginning to gravitate towards the makeshift stage down the back. Thursday, open mic night at the local. Not my local though, I’d driven halfway across town. 

Finally finding an empty stool, I sat down and waited for the first act to come on. I was nervously anticipating y/n’s performance, unsure of when she’d be out. The second I’d seen her post about her performance tonight I knew I had to be here. On my way, I’d passed a convenience store and remembering y/n’s love for them cherry vanilla sodas, made the split decision to duck in and buy one for her. Probably a bit weird now that I thought about it. Fuck. I bounced my leg uncontrollably on the spot, winning me some weird looks from the girl sat next to me.  

The first act was an older guy with a guitar that was slightly out of tune but he’d written all his own songs. He was good, heartwarming. Second, was a boy/girl duo, maybe a couple...or brother and sister, I honestly wasn’t sure. They were pretty class too. I couldn’t really bring myself to focus on any of them though, my mind and my heart were racing. What did y/n look like? What songs would she sing? Would I manage to speak to her at all?

The duo ended and they received huge applause. People talked loudly to one another between performances and the room was full of a low buzz of voices. I decided to hop up and get a beer in the break, maybe it would settle my nerves. Nerves that I shouldn’t have.

“You mind watching this seat love? Just getting a beer I’ll be back,” I said to the girl next to me. She shook her head happily and put her bag on the chair, I nodded and dashed off to the bar counter. 

The line was a lot longer than I thought, service was slow and I bet someone had nicked my chair by now too. I sighed and paid for the drinks and weaved back through the sea of drunk people. Thankfully my seat was still being held by that girl's bag.

Before sitting down I thanked the girl and handed her a bottle of the cider I saw her drinking earlier. 

“Oh shit, no need to do that at all but thanks, you’re a real sweetheart,” she grinned back in disbelief. I just shrugged and smiled, sitting back down to wait for the next act. Just in time too. 

Next came a girl, her hair hanging softly around her face and guitar in hand. She hopped up delicately onto the stool and adjusted the mic stand. The floral pattern of her clothes made her look like spring time and the colours reminded me of y/n’s CD cover. My breath caught in my throat. Was this her?

My eyes were wide and totally glued to her and my grip on the now warm can in my pocket tightened. She pushed her hair behind her ear and smiled politely out to the people watching. She had a warm, calming presence and the crowd felt it, they quietened down to listen. Once people were sufficiently quiet, she smiled again, this time genuinely and strummed her guitar for the intro to her song. Instantly I recognised it as the first track on y/n’s demo. My heart threatened to burst right there in my chest. This was her. She was real. The girl with the voice from heaven who I’d been listening to every day since I found the disc at Lamacq’s was right here in front of me; she was fucking beautiful too. 

I watched her whole set with my eyes wide and jaw resting by my feet on the floor. People around me were enamoured with her too. She sang sweetly and with love and it was enough to make any man go weak at the knees if I’m honest. She finished her last song and placing my beer down to whistle and clap wildly, I realised I’d not even had a sip of it that whole time. I stood and clapped, making a huge ruckus and I didn’t even care. People looked at me funny but what I did care about, was that y/n looked at me too. She smiled and met my eyes quickly before looking down shyly at the floor. She thanked the crowd again and swiftly left the spotlight. 

If I wasn’t totally in love with y/n before, I sure as hell was now. She was incredible. She sent shivers down their spines of everyone in the room, in the best way possible. I sat back down and had a few gulps of my pint, buzzing with energy, all nerves gone. Once I’d finished the beer I decided to go look for y/n. 

“Hey mate, where do the performers go when they’re finished?” I asked the guy at the bar, handing him back my empty glass. 

“Cheers. Ah usually out back but probably just somewhere in this mad house,” he laughed before going back to serving drinks and cleaning glasses. 

I walked through the pub, keeping an eye out for y/n. The bartender was right, it was a fuckin’ mad house in here. There were couples making out in the corner, blokes looking like they were gonna punch on over at the pool tables and just people everywhere like ants. Lucky I was tall and could see over heads. 

Suddenly my eyes caught a glimpse of that bright floral pattern. I turned on the spot and headed over to the photo booth near the stairs towards the back. Y/n was huddled over a strip of photos laughing at it with another girl. I slowly walked up to them, unsure if they’d think I was a weirdo or not. Her friend stopped laughing and looked up at me with a confused smile. Y/n turned around and faced me, her expression quickly went from a blank stare to a look of recognition. 

“You’re the guy who cheered for me,” she said gladly, her eyes lighting up. 

I smiled and nervously ran my hand through my hair. Fuck. 

“Yeah, you were fucking incredible, like, proper class,” I gushed. 

“Thanks,” she chuckled, looking at the floor again. Like I had running my hands through my hair when I was nervous, guess she had looking at the floor. She didn’t seem the type to be nervous though.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“Um, Van, well Ryan but don’t call me that,” I nervously stuttered.

“You had to think about that for a second?” she laughed. 

“I know my name I promise,” I laughed back, my cheeks blushing a little at the fact she’d noticed. Fucking nerves. That beer hadn’t helped at all.

“Okay...Ryan. I’m y/n and this is Naomi,” she replied with a cheeky smile and pointed to the girl beside her. 

I wanted to remind her not to call me that but honestly, I was so in love with this girl already that she could call me whatever the fuck she wanted.

“And Naomi is outta here. Nice to meet you, Van,” she said as she plucked the photo strip out of y/n’s hand and dashed off. Y/n didn’t look at all phased. 

“She does that,” y/n said, noticing my confusion. I nodded and shoved my hands in my pockets, clicking my fingernails on the can. 

“So are you here with friends or?” Y/n asked. 

“Ummm..no..I,” I was unsure how to say I’d just come to see her. She raised an eyebrow at me. 

Fuck it.

“Actually I came to see you play.”

“Oh. Well, thank you,” she replied, sounding confused but not creeped out. Phew.

“Yeah I uh found your CD at Steve Lamacq’s, fell totally in love with it. You really are amazing.”

“Cheers. I’m glad you liked it. I can give you a signed copy if you like,” she winked jokingly. 

“Sure love, wouldn’t mind having one.”

She reached into the bag that hung on her shoulder and pulled out a CD in a cover identical to the one at Lamacq’s. Looking at me quickly with mischievous eyes, she also pulled out a pen and scribbled on the front. Her tongue stuck out between her teeth as she wrote and her eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

Y/n handed me the CD and I saw that she’d written “To Ryan, thanks for cheering for me. Love y/n”. I had to bite my lips to contain my grin. 

“How much?” I asked.

“Nothing?” she replied, seeming shocked and confused that I’d even asked. 

“What? You’re not sellin’ these?!” I was taken aback; she really had all the talent to pursue a full-blown music career. 

“I don’t do this for the money. I don’t even put my full name or face on my stuff. I just love singing, I don’t care about anything else. It’s free because people shouldn’t always expect to be paid for doing what they love. If you love it, you’ll do it anyway,” she explained. I understood completely, I felt the same way. Didn’t change the fact I thought she was good enough to sell out venues though, forget these pub open nights. She could really make it big if she wanted. 

I nodded in agreement, unsure of what else to say next.

“Okay, Ryan. Wanna get a drink?” Y/n asked, realising the conversation had fizzled out. I liked her confidence when she spoke to me. 

Once at the bar I ordered another pint and waited for y/n to skim through the drinks menu.

“Do you have cherry vanilla Dr Pepper?” she asked the bartender hopefully.

“What the fuck is that?” he laughed. Y/n pouted out her bottom lip and looked thoroughly disappointed. 

I slowly reached for the can in my pocket and placed it on the counter in front of her. I bit my lip in anticipation. Her eyes went wide and she looked quickly between me and the can and back at me again.

“What?” she laughed.

“Um I saw on your website that you love this drink and I know it's rare or summat so on the way here I saw it and got you one and yeah weird I know, sorry I-”

“I’ll just take a glass of ice,” she said to the bartender, interrupting me and cracking open the can. 

Again we squirmed through the people still filling the place and searched for a table to sit at. Nothing. In the end, we headed out through the back doors into what used to be the beer garden. Now, a dirty space where people probably went to smoke to make out. Y/n sat on an old bench and poured the soda into her glass of ice, looking completely over the moon. I felt triumphant. 

"Thank you for this, really. That's like, the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. Even though it's gone warm," she grinned at me and took a slurp through a straw.

"It's nothin," I grinned back and sipped my beer.  

"Wanna try some?" She asked and I nodded. 

She held out the glass and I gulped down a small mouthful. Immediately my face contorted into a grimace and I painfully swallowed it. It was so difficult not to just spit it out all over her. She burst out laughing, almost spilling the drink on herself. 

"That's fuckin' disgusting y/n," I winced, licking my lips and scrunching up my face, "tastes like medicine but worse. How the fuck do you like that?"

"It's an acquired taste", she replied with a smirk.

I gulped down my beer in an effort to get rid of the taste in my mouth but it just made it worse. Y/n sat there giggling at me and sipping the awful drink through the straw and looking at me with those sparkly eyes. 

“You mind if I have a smoke?” I asked, she shook her head. 

I placed my glass on the ground next to me and pulled my ciggies and lighter out of my pocket. It was a relief when the ‘cherry’ taste finally went away. We sat in silence for a bit, but it wasn’t awkward. I stood leaning against the wall quietly puffing away. Y/n was absent-mindedly staring at me and I pretended not to notice. Though in the cold, the pink on my cheeks was probably extra obvious. 

“So Ryan...what do you do?” Y/n asked, looking me up and down.

“I’m in a band,” I replied simply. Her mouth opened a little and she nodded. 

“So when you say you like my songs, you actually know what you’re talking about. Nice,” she said more to herself than me.  

“You know you should totally open for us sometime, or I could try get you some shows. I‘ve never pulled strings before but I could try, I really think you have something special y/n.”

“I don’t know about opening for you guys, but I’d love to come see you play,” y/n smiled. 

“Yeah?”

“It's a date, Ryan,” she smiled and loudly slurped the last bit of her drink.

It’s a date. I grinned to myself and lit another smoke, staring at the beauty that was y/n.

[sandranelsonuk]

7 Ways You Can Repurpose Your Old Blog Posts to Get More Traffic

Note from Glen: I’m delighted to introduce Smart Blogger’s new Associate Editor, Robert van Tongeren. Robert’s been behind the scenes for a couple of years now, most recently as the lead instructor and editor for our Guest Blogging program. But this month he’s taking over editorial responsibilities on the blog – congratulations Robert! I’ll be focusing on running the business, freeing Jon up for more writing and of course plotting our path to world domination.

As a blogger, you’re in the business of sharing ideas.

You have to consistently come up with new ideas and turn those ideas into blog posts that dazzle your readers. And you want to keep those readers happy and engaged, so you work your butt off to publish new posts on a regular basis.

But if you’ve been blogging for a while, you should have a treasure trove of ideas buried deep in your archives. The longer you’ve been blogging, the deeper your archives go, and the more gems are buried there.

Most bloggers are so focused on delivering new ideas that they neglect to help their readers discover the old ones, and many of those oldies are still relevant today. Many of them just haven’t been discovered by your newer followers yet.

So why not dust them off, and put them front and center again? Why not repurpose those old gems for a brand-new audience?

Below, you’ll find some ways to do just that.

#1. Produce a Bunch of Spin-Offs

Back in the 90s, when I was a young teenager — you know, zit-infested, hormones raging and desperate to uncover the secret code with which to talk to girls — one of my favorite TV shows was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (It was awesome.)

When Buffy ended its third season, the producers did something that allowed me to spend even more of my precious youth in my favorite fictional universe. They took one character and gave him his own show, Angel.

In other words, they took an idea from Buffy and created a new show around it. See where I’m going with this?

You can do the same with your list posts. You can take a single idea from one of them and expand it into a whole new post.

For example, let’s take Glen Long’s post, 20 Rules for Writing So Crystal Clear Even Your Dumbest Relative Will Understand.

The first three points in that post are:

You must clearly define your audience before writing.

You must be able to define the topic in one simple sentence, or it’s too complex or unfocused.

You must make a clear connection between the headline and the introduction.

  Do you think these could make good topics for a blog post?

You’ll find that not all list points in a post will have enough substance to create a full article around. Sometimes they come up short — but other times you can still come up with a good post idea after some quick brainstorming.

For instance, I’m not sure if you can devote a full article to the third point in that list, but you could certainly devote a blog post to writing intros, or one about the necessity for your blog post to fulfill the promise in the headline.

And that’s not the only option you have for spinning off a post. Another way is to simply take a blog post and explore the topic from a different angle.

For example, we could take Glen’s article about writing clearly and turn it into:

10 Blogging Mistakes That Leave Your Readers Dumbfounded

  And then you just turn the points from the original article on their heads:

You’re writing without a clear picture of your audience.

Your topic is too unfocused.

You’re not connecting your introduction to your headline.

See how easy that is?

These spin-offs are a breeze to create, and you can then pitch them to other blogs as guest posts. Easy peasy.

#2. Showcase Your Masterpieces

Okay, you’re obviously an incredibly talented writer and — I know, I know — every post you write is a masterpiece.

But let’s be honest, every brilliant artist has pieces that stand out more than the rest.

DaVinci had his Mona Lisa, and Michelangelo (the artist, not to be confused with the ninja turtle) had his statue of David. Like them, you have stand-out pieces that are a notch or more better than the rest.

But once you’ve been publishing content for a while, some of your best posts will get buried in the archives.

Wouldn’t you want to put these front and center, so they’re easy to find for new visitors? When someone is new to your site, wouldn’t you want them to find your masterpieces first? I mean, that would make one helluva first impression, right?  

So give them a little nudge in the right direction. Create a page dedicated to showcasing your best work.

See Smart Blogger’s Start Here page linked in the menu bar? You can find 30 pieces of this blog’s cornerstone content all compiled in one place, so they’re easy to find. You can spend days reading up on these alone.

Another good example is Fizzle’s Best of page, which similarly lists all its most popular content.

Note also how these pages don’t just give visitors a long list of links. Nope, the page segments the links into separate lists in a number of categories. This doesn’t just look nicer — it also makes it easier for readers to find the posts that will interest them most.

Creating a “start here” or “best of” page puts your best posts in an easy-to-find spot, so your readers can spend hours devouring them one by one.

#3. Put Your Old Posts in a New Jacket

This may come as a huge shock, but did you know a huge number of people just don’t like reading that much?

They might make time to read a bite-sized Buzzfeed post now and then, but if you presented them with Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings, they’d ask you for the audiobook or let you know they’ve already seen the movie.

What that means is there’s a huge number of people who might not be that into your written content, but would love it if they could listen to it or watch it. That means there’s a big audience out there that you’re probably not tapping into yet.

You can reach that audience by presenting your old blog posts in a new format.

You can use content from a pre-existing blog post and turn it into a podcast, video, infographic or slideshow. That not only allows you to give your old content a fresh spin, but you can publish it on various websites with a link back to your site, delivering thousands more eyeballs to your content.

Now, I get it. The prospect of dabbling with video or audio is daunting — I hate listening to my recorded voice. Ugh!

But no worries if this seems miles out of your comfort zone because you don’t have to do it all yourself. You can hire people to repurpose your blog posts for you.

For instance, you can hire a voice actor on Fiverr to narrate your blog post, and boom — you have your podcast episode. Likewise, you can find someone on Fiverr to turn your post into a PowerPoint presentation, and boom — you have your slide show. Then you can combine the audio of your podcast with your slides, and boom — you have your video.

And you can then publish these variations of your content on various platforms dedicated to hosting people’s infographics, videos, podcasts, and slideshows.

The following are just a quick bunch of examples:

YouTube (Video)

Vimeo (Video)

Visual.ly (Infographics)

Daily Info Graphic (Infographics)

Amazing Info Graphics (Infographics)

iTunes (Podcasts)

Podomatic (Podcasts)

Digital Podcast (Podcasts)

Slide Share (Slide shows)

Slide World (Slide shows)

  And on top of these platforms, you can also get other bloggers to feature your infographics or videos on their websites.

All of this combined can you get you a ton of new exposure, and you can reach a whole new audience who prefer watching videos or listening to audio over reading blogs.

#4. Pass Your Posts Around

Another way to get a surge of traffic from old blog posts is to simply republish them on other sites with a bigger audience than yours.

Whoa, hey now, wait a minute! Won’t Google slap you with a duplicate content penalty for that?

Nope, that’s just a particularly popular myth in the blogging world. Matt Cutts himself has verified that there is no penalty for duplicate content unless it’s particularly spammy or keyword-stuffed.

So, in other words, don’t worry about it.

But still, even if there’s no penalty, don’t all the big blogs ask for original content only?

Well, not exactly. One popular venue for republishing content is Medium. If you’ve already read our guide to publishing on Medium, you know it can be an incredible source of traffic. Just take Benjamin Hardy, who went from zero to 50,000 subscribers by republishing on Medium.

But Medium is certainly not the only site that allows republished content.

Other sites that do include:

Business Insider

Entrepreneur

Fast Company

Vox

Mashable

LifeHacker

The Good Men Project

Elephant Journal

  See? You don’t need to create original content to get featured on large publications. Some of them will take articles that you’ve already published on your blog. They tend to be picky, but you’d be a fool not to give it a shot.

#5. Give Your Posts a New Lick of Paint

When you’ve been driving your car for a while, and the paint job starts to suffer, do you take it to the junkyard and buy a new one?

I think not. You just give it a new paint job and keep driving it.

Likewise, you can re-use many of the posts in your archive after giving them a little paint job.

Take Backlinko’s Brian Dean, who once received an email from a reader who used his techniques to rise to the #1 spot in Google. Brian could have created a brand-spankin’ new post to share this reader’s case study, but instead, he chose to add it to an existing post.

He not only added the case study, but he updated the images and added a few additional tips. The result — after re-promoting the post — was a 111.37% increase in traffic to that page.

You don’t always need to create brand-new content to meet your publication quota. Sometimes you can grab an old post and give it a new lick of paint. Change the publication date, and it will appear on your front page once more.

And you don’t need a case study to add to your page, either. You can refresh it many other ways.

For example, you could:

Add new images, screenshots, graphs, or other types of visual content

Remove and/or replace any outdated information (including visual)

Create a content upgrade that adds new value to the post

Re-format the post to make it look nicer

Improve the general readability

Add fresh examples

Add new information or tips

Remove “best practices” that have stopped being best practices

Give it a new and improved headline

  Sometimes a post won’t even need an update (though you should always check before re-posting it). Sometimes you have a classic post that’s still highly relevant today and you can re-post it without changing anything.

Because if your blog has grown from 500 to 5,000 subscribers since you first published that post, that’s 4,500 subscribers who may never have seen it and may still love to read it.

That’s an easy way to lighten your workload for a week.

#6. Draw the Kindle Crowd

Many bloggers publish ebooks on Kindle to make some sweet passive income, but publishing on Kindle can also be a great source of traffic. Some Kindle readers are just waiting for you to lure them to your site.

And if you have several posts on a specific topic, you have enough (or close to enough) material for an ebook.

Honestly, you don’t need as much material as you might think — just 10,000 words is plenty for an ebook, which should be about 4-6 posts. You’ll need to connect the chapters, add an introduction and conclusion, and possibly rewrite some parts, but with those 4-6 posts, you have most of your book already written.

But before you get ahead of yourself and publish your book all willy-nilly, you should do some prep work to ensure your launch is a success.

Here are some quick tips:

Assemble a support team: Ask your subscribers whether they want to join your team and get a free copy of your new book. Ask them to read the book and provide feedback. If necessary, edit your book to include any changes your team suggests.

Publish your ebook on Kindle and set the price to $0: You want to set the price to $0 so your team won’t have to pay to download the book.

Ask your team for reviews: Make sure you ask them to download the book before they leave their review. This is critical because when they don’t, their reviews won’t be tagged as verified.

Promote your book: When you have a good number of reviews (20 is enough, but the more, the merrier), promote your ebook using promoters of free Kindle books like Book Marketing Tools, Freebooksy, and Bknights on Fiverr. These come with a price tag, but they can send thousands of readers your way.

Create content upgrades: The whole idea is to get your book readers back to your site, right? So incentivize them to do so by linking to a landing page that offers supplemental material in exchange for their email. Think cheat sheets, checklists, resource lists, worksheets, templates, swipe files, or any other kind of bonus content. (If you have an upsell, you can, of course, direct them there as well.)

  Once your promotion closes, you might raise the price of your ebook and boost your income, or you can leave it free and keep using it to draw traffic to your site.

In any case, during your promotion, you can expect a surge of traffic.

#7. Set up a Throwback Sequence

A few years ago, I got the opportunity to work on the Spanish island of Mallorca for six months. Having grown up in the always-rainy Netherlands, I grabbed this opportunity so hard, that I made it cry crocodile tears.

The problem? I had a year-and-a-half-old blog with a growing audience. I could spend all my time in Mallorca working, or I could choose to abandon it for a little while.

Forgive me, but I chose the latter. I sent my existing subscribers a note that I wouldn’t be around for a while. I figured I’d lose a few along the way, but it was worth the risk. At the same time, though, I didn’t want my first impression on new readers (who subscribed while I was gone) to be, “Hey, see you in six months!”

So I set up an autoresponder that would periodically send them one of my older blog posts. That way, by the time I got back, they’d have received word from me on a steady basis.

And when I got back, I realized this wasn’t a half-bad idea. I realized this was a hands-off way to consistently send traffic to my older content. Once you’ve installed your autoresponder, it will promote your posts on autopilot.

So I just kept it running. To this day, every new subscriber receives a link to an old blog post every so often.

I like to call this a throwback sequence.

We all know how effective email marketing is, so why not use it to promote your older posts as well? You can set it to trigger at sign-up and install it to send a monthly or bi-weekly email.

Your only job it to update it on occasion. Since the throwback sequence can run for a year (or years), you can just keep adding posts as you publish them.

Just ensure that when you add a new post, you add a provision for it not to send to subscribers who signed up before its publication date, or it will send your posts to subscribers who have already read it.

Keep Your Classics Alive

Imagine if you had never heard musical classics like Bohemian Rhapsody, Thriller or Hotel California simply because you weren’t around when they were first released.

That would suck, right? Because they’re amazing songs that sound just as epic today as they did back then. They don’t stop being valuable just because they’re not brand new.

And it’s the same for your blog posts. Many of those you debuted months or even years ago are still valuable today, so give them the attention they deserve. Help new audiences uncover the treasure trove of ideas buried in your archives.

Update and re-post them. Write some spin-offs. Set up a throwback sequence. Step out of your comfort zone and put them in a new format. Whatever you do, don’t let them disappear into obscurity.

Keep playing those golden oldies. Because people out there still want to hear them.

About the Author: Robert van Tongeren is the Associate Editor of Smart Blogger who helps our writers get their posts in tip-top shape. When he’s off-duty, he also runs a blog that helps guys dress a little sharper at Restart Your Style. And in his spare time, he loves to travel, watch Game of Thrones and is official BFF’s with his 6-year-old niece (she made him a certificate.) You can find him on Twitter.

from Julia Garza Social Media Tips https://smartblogger.com/repurposing-content/

[topicprinter]

Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with Samantha Varnerin of Snuggle with Sam, a brand that sells professional therapeutic cuddling.Some stats:Product: Professional therapeutic cuddling.Revenue/mo: $4,200Started: September 2016Location: BostonFounders: 1Employees: 0Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?Hi there! My name is Sam Varnerin and I created Snuggle with Sam, my independent professional cuddling practice, while I was still working full-time as a construction engineer.Professional cuddling is a one-to-one service, much like massage therapy is, that is rooted in two basic human needs: touch and connection. And touch is-- well, touchy-- in the wake of the #MeToo movement and the backlash of people trying to figure out if they crossed a touch boundary, so my service is useful because I offer my service so that there is room for people to feel emotions like love and arousal if they come up in sessions without feeling body parts to express those emotions, like the lips or the crotch. In short, I provide a place for people to come and be emotionally accepted and physically held while keeping a therapeutic cuddle instead of a sexual one.There are many reasons that someone might not get their touch or connection needs met other than anything related to sexual assault. These include but are not limited to: dealing with a divorce or death in the family, being a single man with few (if any) deep friendships, having anxiety or depression and needing a different kind of connection than what your therapist is able to offer (I’m seeing therapists and cuddlers working together a lot more now!), and high-performing executives that are praised by their peers but also put at arm’s length physically and emotionally.I’ve been in the business for three years and have learned and seen a lot of things change and develop in the industry including the education available for cuddlers, but we still have a long way to go. This has inspired me to connect with the cuddle community at large by helping others start and grow their professional cuddle practices responsibly as a professional cuddling teacher.On my personal practice side, my flagship product is a 90-minute cuddle session. I usually recommend first time cuddlers do a 90-minute session so we’re not rushing through the session for a 60-minute one (the minimum amount of time I cuddle), and oftentimes people that do a 60-minute cuddle wish we had more time. 90 minutes seems to be a good amount of time to settle in and not be waiting for the clock to go off.On the teaching side, my flagship course is “Sam’s Snuggle School,” a comprehensive course I open for enrollment for one week in June and September that gives a beginner the basics of getting started as a professional cuddler, even if just part time, with the focus on efficiency and finding the best way for you personally to get started and feel comfortable doing this work and to grow their practice. Since this is still a very new industry, most cuddlers are entrepreneurs-- I know of one practice in the US that has cuddlers on a W-2 form, so this is all still very new for most cuddlers.2018 in particular was a big year for me between going on a Cuddle Tour across the country to six major cities (blog on that TBD), being invited to consult and contribute for the Code of Ethics for Professional Cuddling, completing a 25-hour cuddle session with a client, co-speaking a highly successful talk at CuddleXpo in Chicago called “Connecting While Cuddling: Bringing Your Authentic Self to Your Clients”, and having my highest earning month ever-- over $7k!Here’s all of the contributors on the panel at CuddleXpo in Chicago presenting how we came up with the Code of Ethics for Professional Cuddling. Back left to right: Maryelen Reid, Madelon Guinazzo, Samantha Varnerin (me!), Samantha Hess, Jean Franzbleau, Fei Wyatt, Janet Trevino. Front left to right: Keely Shoup, Lisa Meece. Photo credit Rellian Chen MerrinWhat's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?I stumbled upon professional cuddling by sheer accident while looking at a newsletter from Jason Zook (during my work hours in my freezing office at my day job) where he mentioned it in passing but made a point to say professional cuddlers was a real job that people get paid for.I remember thinking, “No it’s not. I’m gonna Google this right now and it’s not going to exist because if it does I’d be so good at it.” I was living paycheck to paycheck and getting burried in student loan debt, and since I found an agency that would have me charge $80/hour, I signed up with the first agency I saw on Google and applied, asking if I can do this around my full-time job (note: I do not recommend you do what I did).That company did a lot of things that made it a good learning experience at first, but they also didn’t do much teaching. I didn’t have a system to qualify clients, a process for checking in with a text-security service they had, a schedule to book clients, or a way to track sessions so I knew what I owed the company. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing for sessions, and since professional cuddling was only in the U.S for a couple years at this point and little regulation in the industry (there still is), I got a lot of requests from people that were looking for a session thinking this was a front for prostitution!This was when my engineering background came in handy. After my first bad experience with a client, I started creating my own systems to make myself safe that the agency didn’t give me. I made my own email questionnaire, things to look for that might indicate if a client might be an issue, confirmation process to make sure clients knew when and where to be, and other things I felt could be automated and make my life easier for before I see a client. This got tested as the agency gave me more leads and I saw how they responded to my qualification processes, and I started tweaking how I wanted the sessions to look. As I heard the same questions over and over again, I began to come up with canned responses.The following summer, I went to Chris Guillebeau’s World Domination Summit and I talked about what I do on the side with someone. Word started to spread about me and my side gig, and one woman that approached me asked if she could interview me for a blog. I assumed it was her personal blog and said yes. A few days after the conference, she emailed me from her work account… the blog she was talking about was the Penny Hoarder.When it came time to get interviewed, they asked me how I’d recommend someone get started as a professional cuddler… and I didn’t have an answer. I could not recommend someone to the agency I was working under because they didn’t train me and I felt it would be irresponsible to send people there.I quickly put together a website for them to backlink to using Squarespace with two landing pages: one to apply to be a cuddler (I decided I would have people work under me in a company, which I no longer do), and the other one was to put in a request to work with me.About 300 people filled out the application form within a week of the article going live, and that was the starting point of what is now Snuggle with Sam, which about four months after the article went live I began to pursue full-time.Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.If my previous answers didn’t hint to it before, I like the idea of taking action quickly rather than spending too much time testing out ideas. There are definitely areas that need more calculated and planned action to be effective and profitable, but more often than not if I’m working on something new I’ll create Minimum Viable Products (MVP’s), or the cheapest, quickest way to make a product for the public.Before Sam’s Snuggle School, I had Snuggle Safety: Personal Protocols, a $79 course that consisted of one 45-minute video with my voiceover (which is no longer for sale but is now a bonus module in Sam’s Snuggle School). I dragged my feet over making it for nearly a year.I originally made a manual that ended up being 35 pages of very dense content that I planned to sell. I could easily have sold it for 30-40 dollars to my email list and made bank, but I highly doubted anyone would read the whole thing (I barely wanted to read it once I finished it!). I decided to convert it into an online course to make it more digestible so I’d feel better about what I was producing instead of going with an inferior product.I used Teachery for hosting my course and OfCourseBooks to make workbooks to check for comprehension in my course, so all I needed to do was use Powerpoint to record my voice on each slide and save the powerpoint file with my voice as an mp4. From there, I uploaded the video to YouTube as an Unlisted video (which back then you could embed without making it sharable), and then it was just writing the sales copy and making a payment page for people to buy the course. Teachey automates login info and emails for students in a course when they buy, so I didn’t have to worry about that.Me and my entrepreneurial friend were launching something for our businesses around the same time in December 2017, and she had access to a 24-hour coworking space with showers. Both of us were inspired by Nathan Barry’s 24-hour launches he used to do when he was a freelancer and digital marketer, so we finished our projects by doing our own 24-hour work period together-- 9am Friday to 9am Saturday. It was a good way to light a fire under my butt when I was procrastinating on finishing a product that I already changed a lot since I thought of the idea.This course didn’t make me a whole lot of money; it made me a few hundred dollars max. I’m glad I made this though because having this first course was what helped position me as a thought leader in my industry and got me invited to contribute to the Standard Code of Ethics for Professional Cuddlers and get more exposure in the cuddling community.Describe the process of launching the business.I got very, very lucky at first when I broke out on my own for three reasons:I had an audience for my website as soon as one very good, high-traffic article backlinked to it. This immediate traffic gave me a big boost for SEO that still positively affects my site ranking today. That article and my website gave me more credibility to be featured on podcasts, more websites, and even be in a local magazine.I left my full-time job with savings. I wasn’t making a full-time income from cuddling when I left (I was in an awkward situation at work not related to cuddling that made me decide to go this route full-time), but I had already built up about four months worth of savings to work with while I built my income up more. I funded myself for my business and only took out a loan for my business when I went on Tour this summer.I didn’t have to start from scratch. I had already been doing this work for over a year and generating $500/month easily from cuddling without really trying, and I was able to bring my clients with me when I left the agency. Scaling up a bit more was easy.But there were also some key things that were not to my advantage in this process:I didn’t know how to manage my business income. I paid myself with my cuddle money every so often a couple hundred dollars here and there, but I mostly reinvested the money back into my business without seeing much of a return on my investment. Around July I began to run out of money (don’t worry! I bounced back from it). I’ve since learned a better way to manage my money.Few people knew or trusted what professional cuddling was. I thought professional cuddling was self-explanatory, but when I tried networking locally that first year, I was asked at startup events if I was secretly an escort. One members-only networking group even barred me from going to their events at one point.I avoided other ways to get leads other than generating them myself out of pride and laziness. Until this past May I never joined another professional cuddling platform or agency. I also didn’t post on Craigslist before SESTA-FOSTA went into effect which now prevents me from doing so. This meant I forced myself to create a business that was fully generated by my own efforts as soon as I left my job. This stunted the growth of my business severely since I hadn’t yet figured out how to do this.It wasn’t until a year after I went full-time with my business that I was getting back in the black for my efforts and not until May 2018 that I began consistently making a livable wage from cuddling, and I believe that I would have been much further along had I done a better job managing my income, presented myself as a cuddler better, and went where my clients were hanging out online from the getgo.Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?I have my hands in many pots all at once, but these five are where I’m seeing the most results:Following up with leads until they say no.In 2018, most of my clients were from my lead list from 2017 and before that never replied to me or scheduled a session for some reason.I try not to go overboard with follow up, but I try to follow up until I’m told no because sometimes people are just really forgetful and want to book a session but need to be reminded.Especially in professional cuddling, I notice that many potential clients are really self-conscious if I don’t take the initiative to schedule a session or make contact with them; they think I just don’t like them!Google Adwords.My friend Ronnie Deaver helped me set up my first simple Google Adwords campaigns last year-- apparently no one was buying Google ads for “Professional Cuddler Boston,” so that was a really quick way to get seen.Our ad was short and to the point since we assumed someone googling that was looking for a cuddler and already familiar with what to expect, so the ad was simple (and emphasized free parking, a hot commodity in Boston) and linked to my request form.It cost me a lot of money though and I saw some leads turns into clients but not that many, so I ended the campaign.Unintentional SEO.Shortly after ending the Google Ad campaign, I started getting a curious number of leads the next few months that said I was the fifth website on the first page of Google when they searched “Professional Cuddler Boston”.Upon talking to Ronnie, he told me that when ads perform well for certain search words, Google rewards you with higher search results. I’m sure this would improve more if I put more efforts in this direction. I also got a popular article written about me on Student Loan Herothat got picked up and linked back to me on several other websites, so that was also a factor that I didn’t plan on helping me do well in Google ranking.If nothing else, get backlinks to your website as often as possible!Coffee Talks.I was getting a lot of leads submitting a form and many had told me they wanted to do this but felt weird cuddling with a stranger.So I thought “Well, let’s not be a stranger then!” And that’s how Coffee Talks were born. Potential clients could sign up for a half hour time slot to meet me for coffee at the local Starbucks and talk about their cuddling needs. I posted the signup link on local Facebook groups to let them know I was doing that, which sparked some interest from locals and strangers.This is a very time-consuming method and not scalable. However, the quality of the clients I got from this method were the highest of any of the methods I’ve used.Prepaid packages for clients.My hourly rate is $100/hour (typical for the industry is $60-$80/hour), so I like to incentivize returning clients by giving them lower rates for paying in advance.This helps me by giving me money and cuddle hours scheduled in advance, it helps them by saving them money. Everybody wins.I have one package that incentivizes sessions to be less than $70/hour if they pay in advance (I do allow for payment plans upon request).As far as my cuddling teaching side of my business goes, when the GDPR law took place, I did the unthinkable: I threw away my list of 300+ subscribers for my professional cuddling business. Instead, I started it from scratch to create better reasons for people to join my email list so I had higher quality email subscribers.So I created things like a What it Takes to be a Great Professional Snuggler Guide for the beginning cuddler, webinar signup lists (there will be more webinars in the future!), the waitlist for Sam’s Snuggle School, and One Week to More Cuddles Guide for the experienced cuddler. I write to this list every other week if not every week. This list was helpful for when I initially launched Sam’s Snuggle School this past November. Over 25% of my new list bought my course!How are you doing today and what does the future look like?The past few months have been me planning out big grand plans for my cuddling community now that I’ve had a bigger stage, figuratively and literally, in 2018 than I ever have before. This January I started a three-month experienced cuddler course with my friend Peter Benjamin called “Cuddle with Your Whole Self” which is surrounded around bringing deeper connection not only into your client sessions but into your entire life. We get on Zoom calls and teach and do connection exercises live together to teach our students. As of writing this we’re three classes in and I’m really happy with how the course is coming along so far. I’m already seeing a huge difference in our cuddlers’ mindsets.Unfortunately after a wildly successful finish to my year in December and planning out how to move forward with gaining and retaining clients, I got a wrench thrown into my cuddling plans by tearing my meniscus! I currently can’t walk or cuddle like this unfortunately, but it does mean I get to work on more projects for cuddlers like I’ve wanted to. I’m really thankful I started building that email list the right way back in May now so I can continue making income even without having to cuddle right now.For the most part I don’t track too many parts of my business even though I have the data and Google Analytics set up for it to look into heavy technical things such as keywords, average time on site, and converstion rates. That’s mostly because I want to model something doable for other cuddlers. Other cuddlers in their practice don’t want to spend a lot of time on analyzing data or building a website or learning SEO; they want to get clients and cuddle! So most of what I do is centered around what a cuddler growing their practice would want to do. I want the actions I take to be duplicatable, especially since my main start on my own was from getting a massive website to backlink to my brand new website isn’t necessarily duplicatable.As of right now I get an average of 1-3 new subscribers a day for my Cuddlers-in-Training email list and I have 450+ total cuddle requests from individuals (I have yet to pull in data from a few new platforms so the exact number is slightly off). This past year the average cost per client was just shy of $24 per client, but when clients were coming in for a session that cost between $63-90 an hour and half of them returning for more than one session, that cost per client is well worth it for me. My next step once I’m not injured anymore will be digging into the data to see what I can do to make my conversions better moving forward-- I want to get more people in the door for a first session in coming months.I mostly live off of the money I make from cuddling and the money I make from my courses and coaching make it so I can take bigger risks with trying new lead sources, optimizing parts of my business like getting some lifetime software through AppSumo, paying for my business coach, and funding other growth dreams I have for my business.My big projects this year are the following: advertising and enrolling aspiring cuddlers into Sam’s Snuggle School), moving into more focused work in helping experienced cuddlers grow their practice including coaching and advanced coursework, and tying it all together with my baby by July with a dream of mine I conceived while on Tour this past year, Connection CommunityThrough starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?I keep learning how much my health and wellbeing directly affects my business. The first year I was a professional cuddler was one of the roughest years of my life personally, which was the motivation to buying the URL mylifeisneverboring.com as my personal social skills blog.The first two weeks after I quit my full-time job I slept for 14 hours a day because I was recovering from some unhealthy habits around sleep, work and coffee I had developed from working at my job. I still look at pictures the months before I left my job and am appalled at how unhealthy I looked in those pictures even. Once I was back on a healthy sleep schedule and started eating more regularly I noticed the first of many dramatic shifts in my creativity, productivity, and client base.I always had an idea that I’d be able to make it work as an entrepreneur somehow even if I didn’t know how the numbers would look on paper. I just knew that if I ever started failing I would find a way to make it through it and thrive. Between having clients last minute decide not to renew a big package the day before rent was due and trying to figure out how to make up for that loss, shifting gears halfway through my Snuggle Tour and trying to avoid a significant loss, finding out my hotel in NYC wasn’t booked online properly when I have a client coming by in less than a half hour, releasing a course in 24 hours when I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to record it without a working microphone…I proved myself by getting out of all those situations. My strongest affirmation was forged through these trials and tribulations: “I’ll figure it out. I always do.”What platform/tools do you use for your business?Some of these links are affiliate links.Waveapps. Once I got a separate bank account for my business, I hooked up the bank account to this free accounting software. As a one-woman band that files a Schedule C, this software is easy to categorize and see my income and expenses at a glance. I like logging in and seeing that I’m making more money than I’m spending really quickly.SquareUp. This is how I accept credit card payments via card swipe or online invoice. You can also set up recurring invoices, use their free scheduling software,Squarespace. For the tech-challenged, this is a really easy way to set up a pretty website quickly-- or in my case since I had no design skills, an ugly websiteMailchimp. Automation is on the free plan, something I rarely see, and that’s really useful for sending my questionnaire to potential clients as soon as they fill out my form on my website. You can send email lists, make landing pages, and track opens with your list to see who’s reading your emails and who’s staying silent.Ecwid. It’s really useful for using SquareUp on your Squarespace website and making items in your store way prettier than Squarespaces default sales pages. I use the free version because I don’t need too many items, but the paid versions allow for more than 10 different items on your store and it’s a very powerful tool to sell on social media in the paid version.[eachery. This is a really simple course creation platform where I host my courses. They also have a sales page builder for your course with Rick Astley placeholders that are perfect.What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?Mornings with Mike Podcast. My friend Mike Goncalves makes a five minute daily podcast, and I’ve set up my Google Assistant so that when I turn my alarm off in the morning the latest episode of his podcast plays. He has some interesting thoughts on success, motivation, health, and a happy life. It’s a really good way for me to wake up in the morning.Life’s Golden Ticket by Brendon Burchard. This book is his only fiction book he wrote, but it’s an amazing book about letting go and making the most of the life you have. Unlike The One Thing, I couldn’t put this book down. It reminded me to keep sight of pursuing the things that matter to me in my life.My business coach, Stephanie Marino. I’ve worked with her on and off over the course of two years and she’s been one of the most empowering coaches I’ve ever met. She’s helped me move some big rocks like stabilizing my income for my business, shifting gears for my Tour when my first plan wasn’t working, and not being afraid to run my business differently than other people.Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?Start with going on a platform or agency and give it three to six months.I’ve met new cuddlers that want to go straight to a therapist’s office to do referrals and I’ve met cuddlers three months in that think they need to make their own website. Those are great things to do, but they’ll be more effective you’ll command more authority once you’ve gained some experience from a place where people looking for cuddling are gathering.Take the pressure off of you to market yourself right away and let the platforms that are pouring thousands of dollars into marketing do that work for you, and pay attention to the clients that are coming in and attracted to you because that will help you understand what it is that you offer people that has them choose you as their cuddler. Then you can use that to go to other people for referrals and build a website around that idea.Use pictures for your profile photos that reflect how you’ll show up to your sessions.I see some women and men post really suggestive or misleading photos of themselves: women in bikinis, men shirtless, clubbing photos, using Snapchat or Instagram pictures, etc.Those are all nice photos, but they don’t send a good message for who you want to attract to your professional cuddling practice. Take a photo of yourself while you’re wearing your cuddle attire so people can see upfront how you’ll show up for your sessions.Don’t be afraid to talk about professional cuddling in public.When I was on Tour and met strangers I would tell them I was a professional cuddler. More than a few times I got replies like “I’ve heard of that but I’ve never met someone that does that.” There’s way more media coverage on professional cuddling than when I first started, but people need to see that it’s in their communities as well in order to start normalizing the profession. Start talking about it like it’s a real profession because it is.Educate yourself.I don’t care if you’re a massage therapist, a psychologist, or a high school dropout. If you’re going to do professional cuddling, you need to be continually learning to get better and show up for your clients better. That doesn’t have to be professional cuddling specific training, but it definitely helps to see how other people are doing it.Don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to like I did, but don’t be afraid to pull skillsets from other areas if they’ll add to your practice. For example, I use Authentic Relating Games and Circling to help understand my clients better and guide the way I communicate clearly with them.Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?Looking for part-time VA for 5 hours a week to start.Mostly big projects such as converting spreadsheets of leads to a CRM program, putting social media-friendly photos from phone into an album, batch editing blog posts and newsletter emails, and able to do academic-level research for scientific sources.Native or fluent English speakers are welcome to reach out at sam@snugglewithsam.com and I’ll have a test task for you to see if we’re a fit.Where can we go to learn more?Snugglewithsam.comsam@snugglewithsam.comIf you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM

[richardrobertsimsuccessblog]

7 Ways You Can Repurpose Your Old Blog Posts to Get More Traffic

Note from Glen: I’m delighted to introduce Smart Blogger’s new Associate Editor, Robert van Tongeren. Robert’s been behind the scenes for a couple of years now, most recently as the lead instructor and editor for our Guest Blogging program. But this month he’s taking over editorial responsibilities on the blog – congratulations Robert! I’ll be focusing on running the business, freeing Jon up for more writing and of course plotting our path to world domination.

As a blogger, you’re in the business of sharing ideas.

You have to consistently come up with new ideas and turn those ideas into blog posts that dazzle your readers. And you want to keep those readers happy and engaged, so you work your butt off to publish new posts on a regular basis.

But if you’ve been blogging for a while, you should have a treasure trove of ideas buried deep in your archives. The longer you’ve been blogging, the deeper your archives go, and the more gems are buried there.

Most bloggers are so focused on delivering new ideas that they neglect to help their readers discover the old ones, and many of those oldies are still relevant today. Many of them just haven’t been discovered by your newer followers yet.

So why not dust them off, and put them front and center again? Why not repurpose those old gems for a brand-new audience?

Below, you’ll find some ways to do just that.

#1. Produce a Bunch of Spin-Offs

Back in the 90s, when I was a young teenager — you know, zit-infested, hormones raging and desperate to uncover the secret code with which to talk to girls — one of my favorite TV shows was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (It was awesome.)

When Buffy ended its third season, the producers did something that allowed me to spend even more of my precious youth in my favorite fictional universe. They took one character and gave him his own show, Angel.

In other words, they took an idea from Buffy and created a new show around it. See where I’m going with this?

You can do the same with your list posts. You can take a single idea from one of them and expand it into a whole new post.

For example, let’s take Glen Long’s post, 20 Rules for Writing So Crystal Clear Even Your Dumbest Relative Will Understand.

The first three points in that post are:

You must clearly define your audience before writing.

You must be able to define the topic in one simple sentence, or it’s too complex or unfocused.

You must make a clear connection between the headline and the introduction.

Do you think these could make good topics for a blog post?

You’ll find that not all list points in a post will have enough substance to create a full article around. Sometimes they come up short — but other times you can still come up with a good post idea after some quick brainstorming.

For instance, I’m not sure if you can devote a full article to the third point in that list, but you could certainly devote a blog post to writing intros, or one about the necessity for your blog post to fulfill the promise in the headline.

And that’s not the only option you have for spinning off a post. Another way is to simply take a blog post and explore the topic from a different angle.

For example, we could take Glen’s article about writing clearly and turn it into:

10 Blogging Mistakes That Leave Your Readers Dumbfounded

And then you just turn the points from the original article on their heads:

You’re writing without a clear picture of your audience.

Your topic is too unfocused.

You’re not connecting your introduction to your headline.

See how easy that is?

These spin-offs are a breeze to create, and you can then pitch them to other blogs as guest posts. Easy peasy.

#2. Showcase Your Masterpieces

Okay, you’re obviously an incredibly talented writer and — I know, I know — every post you write is a masterpiece.

But let’s be honest, every brilliant artist has pieces that stand out more than the rest.

DaVinci had his Mona Lisa, and Michelangelo (the artist, not to be confused with the ninja turtle) had his statue of David. Like them, you have stand-out pieces that are a notch or more better than the rest.

But once you’ve been publishing content for a while, some of your best posts will get buried in the archives.

Wouldn’t you want to put these front and center, so they’re easy to find for new visitors? When someone is new to your site, wouldn’t you want them to find your masterpieces first? I mean, that would make one helluva first impression, right?

So give them a little nudge in the right direction. Create a page dedicated to showcasing your best work.

See Smart Blogger’s Start Here page linked in the menu bar? You can find 30 pieces of this blog’s cornerstone content all compiled in one place, so they’re easy to find. You can spend days reading up on these alone.

Another good example is Fizzle’s Best of page, which similarly lists all its most popular content.

Note also how these pages don’t just give visitors a long list of links. Nope, the page segments the links into separate lists in a number of categories. This doesn’t just look nicer — it also makes it easier for readers to find the posts that will interest them most.

Creating a “start here” or “best of” page puts your best posts in an easy-to-find spot, so your readers can spend hours devouring them one by one.

#3. Put Your Old Posts in a New Jacket

This may come as a huge shock, but did you know a huge number of people just don’t like reading that much?

They might make time to read a bite-sized Buzzfeed post now and then, but if you presented them with Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings, they’d ask you for the audiobook or let you know they’ve already seen the movie.

What that means is there’s a huge number of people who might not be that into your written content, but would love it if they could listen to it or watch it. That means there’s a big audience out there that you’re probably not tapping into yet.

You can reach that audience by presenting your old blog posts in a new format.

You can use content from a pre-existing blog post and turn it into a podcast, video, infographic or slideshow. That not only allows you to give your old content a fresh spin, but you can publish it on various websites with a link back to your site, delivering thousands more eyeballs to your content.

Now, I get it. The prospect of dabbling with video or audio is daunting — I hate listening to my recorded voice. Ugh!

But no worries if this seems miles out of your comfort zone because you don’t have to do it all yourself. You can hire people to repurpose your blog posts for you.

For instance, you can hire a voice actor on Fiverr to narrate your blog post, and boom — you have your podcast episode. Likewise, you can find someone on Fiverr to turn your post into a PowerPoint presentation, and boom — you have your slide show. Then you can combine the audio of your podcast with your slides, and boom — you have your video.

And you can then publish these variations of your content on various platforms dedicated to hosting people’s infographics, videos, podcasts, and slideshows.

The following are just a quick bunch of examples:

YouTube (Video)

Vimeo (Video)

Visual.ly (Infographics)

Daily Info Graphic (Infographics)

Amazing Info Graphics (Infographics)

iTunes (Podcasts)

Podomatic (Podcasts)

Digital Podcast (Podcasts)

Slide Share (Slide shows)

Slide World (Slide shows)

And on top of these platforms, you can also get other bloggers to feature your infographics or videos on their websites.

All of this combined can you get you a ton of new exposure, and you can reach a whole new audience who prefer watching videos or listening to audio over reading blogs.

#4. Pass Your Posts Around

Another way to get a surge of traffic from old blog posts is to simply republish them on other sites with a bigger audience than yours.

Whoa, hey now, wait a minute! Won’t Google slap you with a duplicate content penalty for that?

Nope, that’s just a particularly popular myth in the blogging world. Matt Cutts himself has verified that there is no penalty for duplicate content unless it’s particularly spammy or keyword-stuffed.

So, in other words, don’t worry about it.

But still, even if there’s no penalty, don’t all the big blogs ask for original content only?

Well, not exactly. One popular venue for republishing content is Medium. If you’ve already read our guide to publishing on Medium, you know it can be an incredible source of traffic. Just take Benjamin Hardy, who went from zero to 50,000 subscribers by republishing on Medium.

But Medium is certainly not the only site that allows republished content.

Other sites that do include:

Business Insider

Entrepreneur

Fast Company

Vox

Mashable

LifeHacker

The Good Men Project

Elephant Journal

See? You don’t need to create original content to get featured on large publications. Some of them will take articles that you’ve already published on your blog. They tend to be picky, but you’d be a fool not to give it a shot.

#5. Give Your Posts a New Lick of Paint

When you’ve been driving your car for a while, and the paint job starts to suffer, do you take it to the junkyard and buy a new one?

I think not. You just give it a new paint job and keep driving it.

Likewise, you can re-use many of the posts in your archive after giving them a little paint job.

Take Backlinko’s Brian Dean, who once received an email from a reader who used his techniques to rise to the #1 spot in Google. Brian could have created a brand-spankin’ new post to share this reader’s case study, but instead, he chose to add it to an existing post.

He not only added the case study, but he updated the images and added a few additional tips. The result — after re-promoting the post — was a 111.37% increase in traffic to that page.

You don’t always need to create brand-new content to meet your publication quota. Sometimes you can grab an old post and give it a new lick of paint. Change the publication date, and it will appear on your front page once more.

And you don’t need a case study to add to your page, either. You can refresh it many other ways.

For example, you could:

Add new images, screenshots, graphs, or other types of visual content

Remove and/or replace any outdated information (including visual)

Create a content upgrade that adds new value to the post

Re-format the post to make it look nicer

Improve the general readability

Add fresh examples

Add new information or tips

Remove “best practices” that have stopped being best practices

Give it a new and improved headline

Sometimes a post won’t even need an update (though you should always check before re-posting it). Sometimes you have a classic post that’s still highly relevant today and you can re-post it without changing anything.

Because if your blog has grown from 500 to 5,000 subscribers since you first published that post, that’s 4,500 subscribers who may never have seen it and may still love to read it.

That’s an easy way to lighten your workload for a week.

#6. Draw the Kindle Crowd

Many bloggers publish ebooks on Kindle to make some sweet passive income, but publishing on Kindle can also be a great source of traffic. Some Kindle readers are just waiting for you to lure them to your site.

And if you have several posts on a specific topic, you have enough (or close to enough) material for an ebook.

Honestly, you don’t need as much material as you might think — just 10,000 words is plenty for an ebook, which should be about 4-6 posts. You’ll need to connect the chapters, add an introduction and conclusion, and possibly rewrite some parts, but with those 4-6 posts, you have most of your book already written.

But before you get ahead of yourself and publish your book all willy-nilly, you should do some prep work to ensure your launch is a success.

Here are some quick tips:

Assemble a support team: Ask your subscribers whether they want to join your team and get a free copy of your new book. Ask them to read the book and provide feedback. If necessary, edit your book to include any changes your team suggests.

Publish your ebook on Kindle and set the price to $0: You want to set the price to $0 so your team won’t have to pay to download the book.

Ask your team for reviews: Make sure you ask them to download the book before they leave their review. This is critical because when they don’t, their reviews won’t be tagged as verified.

Promote your book: When you have a good number of reviews (20 is enough, but the more, the merrier), promote your ebook using promoters of free Kindle books like Book Marketing Tools, Freebooksy, and Bknights on Fiverr. These come with a price tag, but they can send thousands of readers your way.

Create content upgrades: The whole idea is to get your book readers back to your site, right? So incentivize them to do so by linking to a landing page that offers supplemental material in exchange for their email. Think cheat sheets, checklists, resource lists, worksheets, templates, swipe files, or any other kind of bonus content. (If you have an upsell, you can, of course, direct them there as well.)

Once your promotion closes, you might raise the price of your ebook and boost your income, or you can leave it free and keep using it to draw traffic to your site.

In any case, during your promotion, you can expect a surge of traffic.

(Note: Amazon does have a minimum price of $0.99 for Kindle ebooks, so you’ll need to enroll in KDP Select to run a free promotion. To keep your ebook permanently free, you need a little more of a workaround.)

#7. Set up a Throwback Sequence

A few years ago, I got the opportunity to work on the Spanish island of Mallorca for six months. Having grown up in the always-rainy Netherlands, I grabbed this opportunity so hard, that I made it cry crocodile tears.

The problem? I had a year-and-a-half-old blog with a growing audience. I could spend all my time in Mallorca working, or I could choose to abandon it for a little while.

Forgive me, but I chose the latter. I sent my existing subscribers a note that I wouldn’t be around for a while. I figured I’d lose a few along the way, but it was worth the risk. At the same time, though, I didn’t want my first impression on new readers (who subscribed while I was gone) to be, “Hey, see you in six months!”

So I set up an autoresponder that would periodically send them one of my older blog posts. That way, by the time I got back, they’d have received word from me on a steady basis.

And when I got back, I realized this wasn’t a half-bad idea. I realized this was a hands-off way to consistently send traffic to my older content. Once you’ve installed your autoresponder, it will promote your posts on autopilot.

So I just kept it running. To this day, every new subscriber receives a link to an old blog post every so often.

I like to call this a throwback sequence.

We all know how effective email marketing is, so why not use it to promote your older posts as well? You can set it to trigger at sign-up and install it to send a monthly or bi-weekly email.

Your only job it to update it on occasion. Since the throwback sequence can run for a year (or years), you can just keep adding posts as you publish them.

Just ensure that when you add a new post, you add a provision for it not to send to subscribers who signed up before its publication date, or it will send your posts to subscribers who have already read it.

Keep Your Classics Alive

Imagine if you had never heard musical classics like Bohemian Rhapsody, Thriller or Hotel California simply because you weren’t around when they were first released.

That would suck, right? Because they’re amazing songs that sound just as epic today as they did back then. They don’t stop being valuable just because they’re not brand new.

And it’s the same for your blog posts. Many of those you debuted months or even years ago are still valuable today, so give them the attention they deserve. Help new audiences uncover the treasure trove of ideas buried in your archives.

Update and re-post them. Write some spin-offs. Set up a throwback sequence. Step out of your comfort zone and put them in a new format. Whatever you do, don’t let them disappear into obscurity.

Keep playing those golden oldies. Because people out there still want to hear them.

About the Author: Robert van Tongeren is the Associate Editor of Smart Blogger who helps our writers get their posts in tip-top shape. When he’s off-duty, he also runs a blog that helps guys dress a little sharper at Restart Your Style. And in his spare time, he loves to travel, watch Game of Thrones and is official BFF’s with his 6-year-old niece (she made him a certificate.) You can find him on Twitter.

7 Ways You Can Repurpose Your Old Blog Posts to Get More Traffic

[annegalliher]

7 Ways You Can Repurpose Your Old Blog Posts to Get More Traffic

Note from Glen: I’m delighted to introduce Smart Blogger’s new Associate Editor, Robert van Tongeren. Robert’s been behind the scenes for a couple of years now, most recently as the lead instructor and editor for our Guest Blogging program. But this month he’s taking over editorial responsibilities on the blog – congratulations Robert! I’ll be focusing on running the business, freeing Jon up for more writing and of course plotting our path to world domination.

As a blogger, you’re in the business of sharing ideas.

You have to consistently come up with new ideas and turn those ideas into blog posts that dazzle your readers. And you want to keep those readers happy and engaged, so you work your butt off to publish new posts on a regular basis.

But if you’ve been blogging for a while, you should have a treasure trove of ideas buried deep in your archives. The longer you’ve been blogging, the deeper your archives go, and the more gems are buried there.

Most bloggers are so focused on delivering new ideas that they neglect to help their readers discover the old ones, and many of those oldies are still relevant today. Many of them just haven’t been discovered by your newer followers yet.

So why not dust them off, and put them front and center again? Why not repurpose those old gems for a brand-new audience?

Below, you’ll find some ways to do just that.

#1. Produce a Bunch of Spin-Offs

Back in the 90s, when I was a young teenager — you know, zit-infested, hormones raging and desperate to uncover the secret code with which to talk to girls — one of my favorite TV shows was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (It was awesome.)

When Buffy ended its third season, the producers did something that allowed me to spend even more of my precious youth in my favorite fictional universe. They took one character and gave him his own show, Angel.

In other words, they took an idea from Buffy and created a new show around it. See where I’m going with this?

You can do the same with your list posts. You can take a single idea from one of them and expand it into a whole new post.

For example, let’s take Glen Long’s post, 20 Rules for Writing So Crystal Clear Even Your Dumbest Relative Will Understand.

The first three points in that post are:

You must clearly define your audience before writing.

You must be able to define the topic in one simple sentence, or it’s too complex or unfocused.

You must make a clear connection between the headline and the introduction.

  Do you think these could make good topics for a blog post?

You’ll find that not all list points in a post will have enough substance to create a full article around. Sometimes they come up short — but other times you can still come up with a good post idea after some quick brainstorming.

For instance, I’m not sure if you can devote a full article to the third point in that list, but you could certainly devote a blog post to writing intros, or one about the necessity for your blog post to fulfill the promise in the headline.

And that’s not the only option you have for spinning off a post. Another way is to simply take a blog post and explore the topic from a different angle.

For example, we could take Glen’s article about writing clearly and turn it into:

10 Blogging Mistakes That Leave Your Readers Dumbfounded

  And then you just turn the points from the original article on their heads:

You’re writing without a clear picture of your audience.

Your topic is too unfocused.

You’re not connecting your introduction to your headline.

See how easy that is?

These spin-offs are a breeze to create, and you can then pitch them to other blogs as guest posts. Easy peasy.

#2. Showcase Your Masterpieces

Okay, you’re obviously an incredibly talented writer and — I know, I know — every post you write is a masterpiece.

But let’s be honest, every brilliant artist has pieces that stand out more than the rest.

DaVinci had his Mona Lisa, and Michelangelo (the artist, not to be confused with the ninja turtle) had his statue of David. Like them, you have stand-out pieces that are a notch or more better than the rest.

But once you’ve been publishing content for a while, some of your best posts will get buried in the archives.

Wouldn’t you want to put these front and center, so they’re easy to find for new visitors? When someone is new to your site, wouldn’t you want them to find your masterpieces first? I mean, that would make one helluva first impression, right?  

So give them a little nudge in the right direction. Create a page dedicated to showcasing your best work.

See Smart Blogger’s Start Here page linked in the menu bar? You can find 30 pieces of this blog’s cornerstone content all compiled in one place, so they’re easy to find. You can spend days reading up on these alone.

Another good example is Fizzle’s Best of page, which similarly lists all its most popular content.

Note also how these pages don’t just give visitors a long list of links. Nope, the page segments the links into separate lists in a number of categories. This doesn’t just look nicer — it also makes it easier for readers to find the posts that will interest them most.

Creating a “start here” or “best of” page puts your best posts in an easy-to-find spot, so your readers can spend hours devouring them one by one.

#3. Put Your Old Posts in a New Jacket

This may come as a huge shock, but did you know a huge number of people just don’t like reading that much?

They might make time to read a bite-sized Buzzfeed post now and then, but if you presented them with Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings, they’d ask you for the audiobook or let you know they’ve already seen the movie.

What that means is there’s a huge number of people who might not be that into your written content, but would love it if they could listen to it or watch it. That means there’s a big audience out there that you’re probably not tapping into yet.

You can reach that audience by presenting your old blog posts in a new format.

You can use content from a pre-existing blog post and turn it into a podcast, video, infographic or slideshow. That not only allows you to give your old content a fresh spin, but you can publish it on various websites with a link back to your site, delivering thousands more eyeballs to your content.

Now, I get it. The prospect of dabbling with video or audio is daunting — I hate listening to my recorded voice. Ugh!

But no worries if this seems miles out of your comfort zone because you don’t have to do it all yourself. You can hire people to repurpose your blog posts for you.

For instance, you can hire a voice actor on Fiverr to narrate your blog post, and boom — you have your podcast episode. Likewise, you can find someone on Fiverr to turn your post into a PowerPoint presentation, and boom — you have your slide show. Then you can combine the audio of your podcast with your slides, and boom — you have your video.

And you can then publish these variations of your content on various platforms dedicated to hosting people’s infographics, videos, podcasts, and slideshows.

The following are just a quick bunch of examples:

YouTube (Video)

Vimeo (Video)

Visual.ly (Infographics)

Daily Info Graphic (Infographics)

Amazing Info Graphics (Infographics)

iTunes (Podcasts)

Podomatic (Podcasts)

Digital Podcast (Podcasts)

Slide Share (Slide shows)

Slide World (Slide shows)

  And on top of these platforms, you can also get other bloggers to feature your infographics or videos on their websites.

All of this combined can you get you a ton of new exposure, and you can reach a whole new audience who prefer watching videos or listening to audio over reading blogs.

#4. Pass Your Posts Around

Another way to get a surge of traffic from old blog posts is to simply republish them on other sites with a bigger audience than yours.

Whoa, hey now, wait a minute! Won’t Google slap you with a duplicate content penalty for that?

Nope, that’s just a particularly popular myth in the blogging world. Matt Cutts himself has verified that there is no penalty for duplicate content unless it’s particularly spammy or keyword-stuffed.

So, in other words, don’t worry about it.

But still, even if there’s no penalty, don’t all the big blogs ask for original content only?

Well, not exactly. One popular venue for republishing content is Medium. If you’ve already read our guide to publishing on Medium, you know it can be an incredible source of traffic. Just take Benjamin Hardy, who went from zero to 50,000 subscribers by republishing on Medium.

But Medium is certainly not the only site that allows republished content.

Other sites that do include:

Business Insider

Entrepreneur

Fast Company

Vox

Mashable

LifeHacker

The Good Men Project

Elephant Journal

  See? You don’t need to create original content to get featured on large publications. Some of them will take articles that you’ve already published on your blog. They tend to be picky, but you’d be a fool not to give it a shot.

#5. Give Your Posts a New Lick of Paint

When you’ve been driving your car for a while, and the paint job starts to suffer, do you take it to the junkyard and buy a new one?

I think not. You just give it a new paint job and keep driving it.

Likewise, you can re-use many of the posts in your archive after giving them a little paint job.

Take Backlinko’s Brian Dean, who once received an email from a reader who used his techniques to rise to the #1 spot in Google. Brian could have created a brand-spankin’ new post to share this reader’s case study, but instead, he chose to add it to an existing post.

He not only added the case study, but he updated the images and added a few additional tips. The result — after re-promoting the post — was a 111.37% increase in traffic to that page.

You don’t always need to create brand-new content to meet your publication quota. Sometimes you can grab an old post and give it a new lick of paint. Change the publication date, and it will appear on your front page once more.

And you don’t need a case study to add to your page, either. You can refresh it many other ways.

For example, you could:

Add new images, screenshots, graphs, or other types of visual content

Remove and/or replace any outdated information (including visual)

Create a content upgrade that adds new value to the post

Re-format the post to make it look nicer

Improve the general readability

Add fresh examples

Add new information or tips

Remove “best practices” that have stopped being best practices

Give it a new and improved headline

  Sometimes a post won’t even need an update (though you should always check before re-posting it). Sometimes you have a classic post that’s still highly relevant today and you can re-post it without changing anything.

Because if your blog has grown from 500 to 5,000 subscribers since you first published that post, that’s 4,500 subscribers who may never have seen it and may still love to read it.

That’s an easy way to lighten your workload for a week.

#6. Draw the Kindle Crowd

Many bloggers publish ebooks on Kindle to make some sweet passive income, but publishing on Kindle can also be a great source of traffic. Some Kindle readers are just waiting for you to lure them to your site.

And if you have several posts on a specific topic, you have enough (or close to enough) material for an ebook.

Honestly, you don’t need as much material as you might think — just 10,000 words is plenty for an ebook, which should be about 4-6 posts. You’ll need to connect the chapters, add an introduction and conclusion, and possibly rewrite some parts, but with those 4-6 posts, you have most of your book already written.

But before you get ahead of yourself and publish your book all willy-nilly, you should do some prep work to ensure your launch is a success.

Here are some quick tips:

Assemble a support team: Ask your subscribers whether they want to join your team and get a free copy of your new book. Ask them to read the book and provide feedback. If necessary, edit your book to include any changes your team suggests.

Publish your ebook on Kindle and set the price to $0: You want to set the price to $0 so your team won’t have to pay to download the book.

Ask your team for reviews: Make sure you ask them to download the book before they leave their review. This is critical because when they don’t, their reviews won’t be tagged as verified.

Promote your book: When you have a good number of reviews (20 is enough, but the more, the merrier), promote your ebook using promoters of free Kindle books like Book Marketing Tools, Freebooksy, and Bknights on Fiverr. These come with a price tag, but they can send thousands of readers your way.

Create content upgrades: The whole idea is to get your book readers back to your site, right? So incentivize them to do so by linking to a landing page that offers supplemental material in exchange for their email. Think cheat sheets, checklists, resource lists, worksheets, templates, swipe files, or any other kind of bonus content. (If you have an upsell, you can, of course, direct them there as well.)

  Once your promotion closes, you might raise the price of your ebook and boost your income, or you can leave it free and keep using it to draw traffic to your site.

In any case, during your promotion, you can expect a surge of traffic.

#7. Set up a Throwback Sequence

A few years ago, I got the opportunity to work on the Spanish island of Mallorca for six months. Having grown up in the always-rainy Netherlands, I grabbed this opportunity so hard, that I made it cry crocodile tears.

The problem? I had a year-and-a-half-old blog with a growing audience. I could spend all my time in Mallorca working, or I could choose to abandon it for a little while.

Forgive me, but I chose the latter. I sent my existing subscribers a note that I wouldn’t be around for a while. I figured I’d lose a few along the way, but it was worth the risk. At the same time, though, I didn’t want my first impression on new readers (who subscribed while I was gone) to be, “Hey, see you in six months!”

So I set up an autoresponder that would periodically send them one of my older blog posts. That way, by the time I got back, they’d have received word from me on a steady basis.

And when I got back, I realized this wasn’t a half-bad idea. I realized this was a hands-off way to consistently send traffic to my older content. Once you’ve installed your autoresponder, it will promote your posts on autopilot.

So I just kept it running. To this day, every new subscriber receives a link to an old blog post every so often.

I like to call this a throwback sequence.

We all know how effective email marketing is, so why not use it to promote your older posts as well? You can set it to trigger at sign-up and install it to send a monthly or bi-weekly email.

Your only job it to update it on occasion. Since the throwback sequence can run for a year (or years), you can just keep adding posts as you publish them.

Just ensure that when you add a new post, you add a provision for it not to send to subscribers who signed up before its publication date, or it will send your posts to subscribers who have already read it.

Keep Your Classics Alive

Imagine if you had never heard musical classics like Bohemian Rhapsody, Thriller or Hotel California simply because you weren’t around when they were first released.

That would suck, right? Because they’re amazing songs that sound just as epic today as they did back then. They don’t stop being valuable just because they’re not brand new.

And it’s the same for your blog posts. Many of those you debuted months or even years ago are still valuable today, so give them the attention they deserve. Help new audiences uncover the treasure trove of ideas buried in your archives.

Update and re-post them. Write some spin-offs. Set up a throwback sequence. Step out of your comfort zone and put them in a new format. Whatever you do, don’t let them disappear into obscurity.

Keep playing those golden oldies. Because people out there still want to hear them.

About the Author: Robert van Tongeren is the Associate Editor of Smart Blogger who helps our writers get their posts in tip-top shape. When he’s off-duty, he also runs a blog that helps guys dress a little sharper at Restart Your Style. And in his spare time, he loves to travel, watch Game of Thrones and is official BFF’s with his 6-year-old niece (she made him a certificate.) You can find him on Twitter.

[laurendcameron]

7 Ways You Can Repurpose Your Old Blog Posts to Get More Traffic

Note from Glen: I’m delighted to introduce Smart Blogger’s new Associate Editor, Robert van Tongeren. Robert’s been behind the scenes for a couple of years now, most recently as the lead instructor and editor for our Guest Blogging program. But this month he’s taking over editorial responsibilities on the blog – congratulations Robert! I’ll be focusing on running the business, freeing Jon up for more writing and of course plotting our path to world domination.

As a blogger, you’re in the business of sharing ideas.

You have to consistently come up with new ideas and turn those ideas into blog posts that dazzle your readers. And you want to keep those readers happy and engaged, so you work your butt off to publish new posts on a regular basis.

But if you’ve been blogging for a while, you should have a treasure trove of ideas buried deep in your archives. The longer you’ve been blogging, the deeper your archives go, and the more gems are buried there.

Most bloggers are so focused on delivering new ideas that they neglect to help their readers discover the old ones, and many of those oldies are still relevant today. Many of them just haven’t been discovered by your newer followers yet.

So why not dust them off, and put them front and center again? Why not repurpose those old gems for a brand-new audience?

Below, you’ll find some ways to do just that.

#1. Produce a Bunch of Spin-Offs

Back in the 90s, when I was a young teenager — you know, zit-infested, hormones raging and desperate to uncover the secret code with which to talk to girls — one of my favorite TV shows was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (It was awesome.)

When Buffy ended its third season, the producers did something that allowed me to spend even more of my precious youth in my favorite fictional universe. They took one character and gave him his own show, Angel.

In other words, they took an idea from Buffy and created a new show around it. See where I’m going with this?

You can do the same with your list posts. You can take a single idea from one of them and expand it into a whole new post.

For example, let’s take Glen Long’s post, 20 Rules for Writing So Crystal Clear Even Your Dumbest Relative Will Understand.

The first three points in that post are:

You must clearly define your audience before writing.

You must be able to define the topic in one simple sentence, or it’s too complex or unfocused.

You must make a clear connection between the headline and the introduction.

  Do you think these could make good topics for a blog post?

You’ll find that not all list points in a post will have enough substance to create a full article around. Sometimes they come up short — but other times you can still come up with a good post idea after some quick brainstorming.

For instance, I’m not sure if you can devote a full article to the third point in that list, but you could certainly devote a blog post to writing intros, or one about the necessity for your blog post to fulfill the promise in the headline.

And that’s not the only option you have for spinning off a post. Another way is to simply take a blog post and explore the topic from a different angle.

For example, we could take Glen’s article about writing clearly and turn it into:

10 Blogging Mistakes That Leave Your Readers Dumbfounded

  And then you just turn the points from the original article on their heads:

You’re writing without a clear picture of your audience.

Your topic is too unfocused.

You’re not connecting your introduction to your headline.

See how easy that is?

These spin-offs are a breeze to create, and you can then pitch them to other blogs as guest posts. Easy peasy.

#2. Showcase Your Masterpieces

Okay, you’re obviously an incredibly talented writer and — I know, I know — every post you write is a masterpiece.

But let’s be honest, every brilliant artist has pieces that stand out more than the rest.

DaVinci had his Mona Lisa, and Michelangelo (the artist, not to be confused with the ninja turtle) had his statue of David. Like them, you have stand-out pieces that are a notch or more better than the rest.

But once you’ve been publishing content for a while, some of your best posts will get buried in the archives.

Wouldn’t you want to put these front and center, so they’re easy to find for new visitors? When someone is new to your site, wouldn’t you want them to find your masterpieces first? I mean, that would make one helluva first impression, right?  

So give them a little nudge in the right direction. Create a page dedicated to showcasing your best work.

See Smart Blogger’s Start Here page linked in the menu bar? You can find 30 pieces of this blog’s cornerstone content all compiled in one place, so they’re easy to find. You can spend days reading up on these alone.

Another good example is Fizzle’s Best of page, which similarly lists all its most popular content.

Note also how these pages don’t just give visitors a long list of links. Nope, the page segments the links into separate lists in a number of categories. This doesn’t just look nicer — it also makes it easier for readers to find the posts that will interest them most.

Creating a “start here” or “best of” page puts your best posts in an easy-to-find spot, so your readers can spend hours devouring them one by one.

#3. Put Your Old Posts in a New Jacket

This may come as a huge shock, but did you know a huge number of people just don’t like reading that much?

They might make time to read a bite-sized Buzzfeed post now and then, but if you presented them with Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings, they’d ask you for the audiobook or let you know they’ve already seen the movie.

What that means is there’s a huge number of people who might not be that into your written content, but would love it if they could listen to it or watch it. That means there’s a big audience out there that you’re probably not tapping into yet.

You can reach that audience by presenting your old blog posts in a new format.

You can use content from a pre-existing blog post and turn it into a podcast, video, infographic or slideshow. That not only allows you to give your old content a fresh spin, but you can publish it on various websites with a link back to your site, delivering thousands more eyeballs to your content.

Now, I get it. The prospect of dabbling with video or audio is daunting — I hate listening to my recorded voice. Ugh!

But no worries if this seems miles out of your comfort zone because you don’t have to do it all yourself. You can hire people to repurpose your blog posts for you.

For instance, you can hire a voice actor on Fiverr to narrate your blog post, and boom — you have your podcast episode. Likewise, you can find someone on Fiverr to turn your post into a PowerPoint presentation, and boom — you have your slide show. Then you can combine the audio of your podcast with your slides, and boom — you have your video.

And you can then publish these variations of your content on various platforms dedicated to hosting people’s infographics, videos, podcasts, and slideshows.

The following are just a quick bunch of examples:

YouTube (Video)

Vimeo (Video)

Visual.ly (Infographics)

Daily Info Graphic (Infographics)

Amazing Info Graphics (Infographics)

iTunes (Podcasts)

Podomatic (Podcasts)

Digital Podcast (Podcasts)

Slide Share (Slide shows)

Slide World (Slide shows)

  And on top of these platforms, you can also get other bloggers to feature your infographics or videos on their websites.

All of this combined can you get you a ton of new exposure, and you can reach a whole new audience who prefer watching videos or listening to audio over reading blogs.

#4. Pass Your Posts Around

Another way to get a surge of traffic from old blog posts is to simply republish them on other sites with a bigger audience than yours.

Whoa, hey now, wait a minute! Won’t Google slap you with a duplicate content penalty for that?

Nope, that’s just a particularly popular myth in the blogging world. Matt Cutts himself has verified that there is no penalty for duplicate content unless it’s particularly spammy or keyword-stuffed.

So, in other words, don’t worry about it.

But still, even if there’s no penalty, don’t all the big blogs ask for original content only?

Well, not exactly. One popular venue for republishing content is Medium. If you’ve already read our guide to publishing on Medium, you know it can be an incredible source of traffic. Just take Benjamin Hardy, who went from zero to 50,000 subscribers by republishing on Medium.

But Medium is certainly not the only site that allows republished content.

Other sites that do include:

Business Insider

Entrepreneur

Fast Company

Vox

Mashable

LifeHacker

The Good Men Project

Elephant Journal

  See? You don’t need to create original content to get featured on large publications. Some of them will take articles that you’ve already published on your blog. They tend to be picky, but you’d be a fool not to give it a shot.

#5. Give Your Posts a New Lick of Paint

When you’ve been driving your car for a while, and the paint job starts to suffer, do you take it to the junkyard and buy a new one?

I think not. You just give it a new paint job and keep driving it.

Likewise, you can re-use many of the posts in your archive after giving them a little paint job.

Take Backlinko’s Brian Dean, who once received an email from a reader who used his techniques to rise to the #1 spot in Google. Brian could have created a brand-spankin’ new post to share this reader’s case study, but instead, he chose to add it to an existing post.

He not only added the case study, but he updated the images and added a few additional tips. The result — after re-promoting the post — was a 111.37% increase in traffic to that page.

You don’t always need to create brand-new content to meet your publication quota. Sometimes you can grab an old post and give it a new lick of paint. Change the publication date, and it will appear on your front page once more.

And you don’t need a case study to add to your page, either. You can refresh it many other ways.

For example, you could:

Add new images, screenshots, graphs, or other types of visual content

Remove and/or replace any outdated information (including visual)

Create a content upgrade that adds new value to the post

Re-format the post to make it look nicer

Improve the general readability

Add fresh examples

Add new information or tips

Remove “best practices” that have stopped being best practices

Give it a new and improved headline

  Sometimes a post won’t even need an update (though you should always check before re-posting it). Sometimes you have a classic post that’s still highly relevant today and you can re-post it without changing anything.

Because if your blog has grown from 500 to 5,000 subscribers since you first published that post, that’s 4,500 subscribers who may never have seen it and may still love to read it.

That’s an easy way to lighten your workload for a week.

#6. Draw the Kindle Crowd

Many bloggers publish ebooks on Kindle to make some sweet passive income, but publishing on Kindle can also be a great source of traffic. Some Kindle readers are just waiting for you to lure them to your site.

And if you have several posts on a specific topic, you have enough (or close to enough) material for an ebook.

Honestly, you don’t need as much material as you might think — just 10,000 words is plenty for an ebook, which should be about 4-6 posts. You’ll need to connect the chapters, add an introduction and conclusion, and possibly rewrite some parts, but with those 4-6 posts, you have most of your book already written.

But before you get ahead of yourself and publish your book all willy-nilly, you should do some prep work to ensure your launch is a success.

Here are some quick tips:

Assemble a support team: Ask your subscribers whether they want to join your team and get a free copy of your new book. Ask them to read the book and provide feedback. If necessary, edit your book to include any changes your team suggests.

Publish your ebook on Kindle and set the price to $0: You want to set the price to $0 so your team won’t have to pay to download the book.

Ask your team for reviews: Make sure you ask them to download the book before they leave their review. This is critical because when they don’t, their reviews won’t be tagged as verified.

Promote your book: When you have a good number of reviews (20 is enough, but the more, the merrier), promote your ebook using promoters of free Kindle books like Book Marketing Tools, Freebooksy, and Bknights on Fiverr. These come with a price tag, but they can send thousands of readers your way.

Create content upgrades: The whole idea is to get your book readers back to your site, right? So incentivize them to do so by linking to a landing page that offers supplemental material in exchange for their email. Think cheat sheets, checklists, resource lists, worksheets, templates, swipe files, or any other kind of bonus content. (If you have an upsell, you can, of course, direct them there as well.)

  Once your promotion closes, you might raise the price of your ebook and boost your income, or you can leave it free and keep using it to draw traffic to your site.

In any case, during your promotion, you can expect a surge of traffic.

#7. Set up a Throwback Sequence

A few years ago, I got the opportunity to work on the Spanish island of Mallorca for six months. Having grown up in the always-rainy Netherlands, I grabbed this opportunity so hard, that I made it cry crocodile tears.

The problem? I had a year-and-a-half-old blog with a growing audience. I could spend all my time in Mallorca working, or I could choose to abandon it for a little while.

Forgive me, but I chose the latter. I sent my existing subscribers a note that I wouldn’t be around for a while. I figured I’d lose a few along the way, but it was worth the risk. At the same time, though, I didn’t want my first impression on new readers (who subscribed while I was gone) to be, “Hey, see you in six months!”

So I set up an autoresponder that would periodically send them one of my older blog posts. That way, by the time I got back, they’d have received word from me on a steady basis.

And when I got back, I realized this wasn’t a half-bad idea. I realized this was a hands-off way to consistently send traffic to my older content. Once you’ve installed your autoresponder, it will promote your posts on autopilot.

So I just kept it running. To this day, every new subscriber receives a link to an old blog post every so often.

I like to call this a throwback sequence.

We all know how effective email marketing is, so why not use it to promote your older posts as well? You can set it to trigger at sign-up and install it to send a monthly or bi-weekly email.

Your only job it to update it on occasion. Since the throwback sequence can run for a year (or years), you can just keep adding posts as you publish them.

Just ensure that when you add a new post, you add a provision for it not to send to subscribers who signed up before its publication date, or it will send your posts to subscribers who have already read it.

Keep Your Classics Alive

Imagine if you had never heard musical classics like Bohemian Rhapsody, Thriller or Hotel California simply because you weren’t around when they were first released.

That would suck, right? Because they’re amazing songs that sound just as epic today as they did back then. They don’t stop being valuable just because they’re not brand new.

And it’s the same for your blog posts. Many of those you debuted months or even years ago are still valuable today, so give them the attention they deserve. Help new audiences uncover the treasure trove of ideas buried in your archives.

Update and re-post them. Write some spin-offs. Set up a throwback sequence. Step out of your comfort zone and put them in a new format. Whatever you do, don’t let them disappear into obscurity.

Keep playing those golden oldies. Because people out there still want to hear them.

About the Author: Robert van Tongeren is the Associate Editor of Smart Blogger who helps our writers get their posts in tip-top shape. When he’s off-duty, he also runs a blog that helps guys dress a little sharper at Restart Your Style. And in his spare time, he loves to travel, watch Game of Thrones and is official BFF’s with his 6-year-old niece (she made him a certificate.) You can find him on Twitter.

from Lauren Cameron Updates https://smartblogger.com/repurposing-content/