#if one of you draws my redesigns and tag me you will get a present under your bed

[delu-lusional]

Somewhat out of context yandev redesigns/rewrites sketches that I have, in fact, been sitting on for a few months now. // TW, minor blood? Nothing too gory methinks. Feel free to ask quite literally anything about them, for I shall answer.

[t00nyah]

If you could make your own video game (think of an idea l and it just snaps into existence somehow) what would it be about and what mechanics would it consist of? What platforms would it be available for? Who's the target demographic? Or anything else you want to ramble about... I like to think of creating my own games sometimes.

haha they dont know i have a joke rpg game i made in a day to test my abilities.

in all seriousness though, i actually did have bigger projects that i never finished... so, just gonna drop that i'm a big fan of RPG maker games, horror ones, PSYCHOLOGICAL horror ones for even better score. and i am kind of a liiiittle experienced with rpg maker.

warning!!

this answer ended up containing a lot of sensitive topics(in my opinion??) and i tried my best to make sure to include them in tags AND before each idea's explanation, please check the tags and not proceed if those topics are sensitive to you personally!!

i had a project that i started making as a vent. that's the closest i had to actually making something. it was called zepphire's lair. zepphire is my sona from 2015 that had very bright neon colours that were probably UNBEARABLE to look at, then i tried redesigning her years later into something pastel. and then, umm... in 2022 i had issues with my style because i used to be VERY caught in 'oh,,,this one line is weird,,,how do people even like my art there's a stray pixel there...god.' and decided to do something about it. this 'something about it' was changing my art style to PURPOSEFULLY unpleasant to look at, messy and annoying. it was bright, i didnt care, and honestly i think it helped with being that critical to myself. anyways. sorry im rambling but it is important

so in 2022, when i had a giant relief of drawing in the most unbearable(and stunning at the same time) art style, i reused zepphire. FUCK PASTEL said me. NEONS ARE GOOD. it was a great decision.

so zepphire's lair was meant to be an rpg game where you play as zepphire. who in her head is still her young self that doesn't have to think about what happened. but in reality, her magical world she was meant to become a god of was destroyed and ruined because she wasn't responsible enough with powers granted to her. she is now the only resident of the Forbidden Location, an alternative world that people could get into by just clipping randomly. like you know when you find a spot in a videogame that doesn't have an invisible wall and you go OH. that. i wasn't sure how to continue working on it because it lacked story to tell as present. it had a past story to unfold, but i had no idea what would happen now. i had a thought of someone getting into FL somehow after long time and zepphire trying to solve this because they're clearly not meant to be there while in her head she's still stuck struggling with herself.

i want to put a little bit of assets i made for zepphire's lair, but since it's all very bright toxic neon i think i'm gonna place them at the veeeery end so you don't have to look at them if you can't stand it.

CW: cartoon blood!! a little bit of it!!

next up is my cool idea of a fangame! so, purrfect apawcalypse is one of my favourite game series. and i've been following it since first one and i have a LARGE fanmade setting set in the same universe! (in fact, two! i also made a reference for kitsune high which is set to be in an agricultural town inhabitated by foxes! it was a cool project)

the game idea was to make an rpg (because, again, that's all i know, lmao) that follows the Chatting club - a school interest club literally dedicated to rumors and just having a good time - as they unveil the secrets their school holds. cats and dogs disappearance cases? rumors of ghost around? who the heck lives in the garden and what're they up to? what is up with the Detective club's president Seraphima? there are many mysteries. it would have an overall vibe of the original novellas' series - a cutesy game about very cute furries and weird magic stuff happening, while also having a little bit...darker tone. like i was actually going to explore a very dark topic with this one but honestly? right now i really don't like the way i wrote it back then. if i were to pick up the idea again i deffo would try to rewrite it and make more sense into it. i like the detective vibe it had going though!

here are some references of the characters that are important to the plot! a lot of twists were planned for this story and i'm not going to tell them all because it's a secret tee-hee.

also as i searched for the refs i found that the working title of the game was 'purrfect meowting'

another concept for a game i had...which is a lot.

CW: contains themes of child neglect, probably abuse, general cat mistreatment, probably a bit of ableism(im unsure about this one) and maybe a bit of weird racism because one of mc's character's parent is weird and very stupid and we are allowed to hate her for that...i hope i mentioned it all.

i have a little ocs setting with three main characters that i refer as 'kitty girls' this story is tragic and is based on idea i had about making a story...about girls...but put them into life situations that would reflect what cats sometimes have to go through bc some humans are trash, but put it through a human lens, although not exactly. it also ended up a story that portrays children who've lost their childhoods for various reasons. idk how to explain.

these are Snowwhite, Rouge and Patches. their names were meant to be reflecting what another one's kitty sona is, but i fucked up, lol.

Showwhite is a picture perfect girl for her parents who's mostly been treated as a prize all her life, making her feel sick of herself. Rouge was neglected by her mom because 'she wasn't born red'(as in orange...like a cat...i used cat allegories every time i explained it but i think the implications are clear enough - her mother wanted her to look different.) and she lived a happy life with her grandparents. and Patches...is a deaf girl whose parents just couldn't take care of her properly so she ended up in an orphanage. she has awful attachment issues.

i won't explain the whole plot but their stories were meant to be kind of a portrayal of how some people treat animals as just objects, things they can just get rid of. a cat of specific breed, bred for specific traits which may be hurtful to it, a cat whose owner just threw it away after it not meeting the expectations, and a general theme of people not wanting to take in cats with injuries that make them 'not pretty' for them. i don't know why im tearing up right now but these make me so upset and i smh wanted to portray these issues though human characters, and while adapting them i realized that those awful stories ended up overlapping with how neglectful parents end up treating their children.

in the end they end up in cat heaven, where they all meet and get to be happy and be themselves. snowwhite learns to love herself for who she is and find out hobbies there, rouge just finally gets friends she lacked. also patches doesn't magically start hearing in cat heaven, she was given an option to but she felt overwhelmed a lot and ended up sticking to being deaf but not treating it as a bad thing, just a different thing.

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BONUS SECTION

i also have this unused character and concept art that i just made bc i finally felt like i could do something back in the day

her working name was 'vogel'

so. returning to zepphire's lair. one thing i forgot to mention earlier is that i also even made OST for it (didn't feel like it would fit the text above). this one is just the theme that plays in the first playable area

main menu theme...is too heavy for tumblr apparently. huh. it's a very simple tune it just goes on for very long (bc there's an easter egg if you listen to it for too long!!!)

next section contains bright images that im gonna put even deeper below!!

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title screen!

intro cutscene! small baby zepphire, and then zepphire acquiring her godmode key, and then ending up becoming a photoshooter!! the camera is important .

here she is!!! the cat herself!!!

a photo that she has in her inventory!! it's mewtona, her sister!

gameplay-wise i was gonna make it so you can collect random photos zepphire made and have to learn the implications of that and what it has to do with 'the photoshooting incident'. it would be somewhat close to omori - part of story is in reality and parts of it in headspace that explains the story.

I THINK that's all. sorry this took so long that was a lot of yapping!!!

[theg-h-o-s-tontheshore]

The Thing About Redesigns, Rewrites, and Reimagines…

(Part I: Broader Discourse)

To those of you who’ve been keeping tabs or maybe seen my posts floating around the tag, you might recall me mentioning that I felt a bit of hesitancy toward the prospect of joining in on the recent wave of redesign/rewrite content. In the more likely scenario that you haven’t or do not know what the crap I’m talking about, that’s fine lol. Understandable. It was a little thing I had written into my first rewrite/redesign post about Charlie. In a short aside, I explained that it was because I’d felt “bad about tinkering with someone else’s work like this”, and then I’d left it at that. So… yeah. Why am I bringing it up now?

Well, I don’t think I need to tell you that this fandom is… a lot. Y’know people have been talking…discourse is being had… heated, moral arguments are being hurled left and right. And in light of all the growing, reactionary accusations, I…found myself starting to feel bad again.

My initial issue, the reason why I didn’t immediately jump to sharing my ideas was that, for all her faults, I empathize with Viv as a creator and didn’t want to feel like I was disrespecting her, her characters, and her vision by reworking it to suit my own. I had frustrations and criticisms, but I never wanted to make it seem like I was trying to ‘fix’ her work or her style. I really didn’t want to be one of those pretentious dipsh*ts (the kind that take a piece of art, digest it through their own preferences and biases, then spit it back in the artist’s face with a, “There. I made it better”). In the end, I went through with it because I had a small hyperfixation and a tendency to project my own issues onto characters I love (I’m sure some of y'all can relate). And also, I was having fun. But… then more discourse poured in, and I saw all the concerns I expressed reflected in the arguments presented by other fans and artists.

And well… That made me feel like I was doing something wrong, like perpetuating and becoming the exact problems I had wanted to fight against. So, I took a step back. I reevaluated.

Now, I have thoughts (shocker!).

And they are conflicted.

On one hand I agree with the idea that redesigns/rewrites are not inherently bad or disrespectful things when it comes to productions like Hazbin since Viv is not a small creator with no power. She and her team have ultimate authority over the show’s events, and those plans will not be derailed by what is basically some random tumblr artist’s fanart/fanfiction.

In regards to the critical side of things, that kinda comes with consuming and digesting the messages and presentation of a work of art. Ideally, it should get people to discuss in this capacity, especially when it deals with such sensitive subject matter as Hazbin does (and especially when it is executed with evidently problematic notions which do bleed into the designs at times).

Still, I do think this trend can be disrespectful if the intention and presentation are made with an aggressive holier-than-thou attitude which explicitly seeks to one-up the creator. Though I understand where it comes from, I think that can be just straight, undiluted maliciousness with a generous helping of pretentious, self-appointed superiority. And I don’t think it’s necessary to pick apart the style itself. You don’t have to like it, of course, but I feel like stating your preference for one way of drawing over another and asserting it as if it were some objective truth antagonizes the entire point of individual artistic expression and personal taste. Criticize the lack of diversity (something which, I’d like to add, is not actually unique to Hazbin) and potentially problematic aspects, but not the style. Even then, it’s important to be constructive not destructive.

That being said, I don’t expect everyone to agree with me (especially if anyone who’s a die-hard fan finds this) Whether you do or not is on you, and that’s okay.

This is more a snippet of my thoughts than a fully developed rant. I just wanted to share where I’m at right now. There will be a part 2 to this expanding some of my feelings while also outlining where I might go from here because things are going on in my head, and I don’t actually know whether I will continue or not with this project. Right now, it feels like it’s drifting toward a more original direction (Charlie feels like an entirely different yet vaguely similar character and dang it I’m attached…It’s kinda weird lol) so….anyway—I digress.

Thank you for reading.

[scarlet--wiccan]

how do you feel about wanda's green eyes and pietro's blue ones? (please forgive me if you've answered this one before, i used the search feature and nothing came up, but i know it isn't always reliable)

I have answered questions about this before, but it was years ago and the posts aren't tagged very thoroughly. I wouldn't have expected you to be able to find them. I don't necessarily mind getting repeat questions, it's just frustrating when it's something that could be easily found in my FAQ or in a really obvious character tag.

Anyways, as far as I can recall, Wanda and Pietro have always, canonically, had light-colored eyes. The color in question has not always been consistent, but that's par for the course with any characters who've been around this long. It's not unbelievable for somebody from their background to have green or blue eyes, so it doesn't necessarily bother me for them to keep them, even when they're drawn as visible people of color.

Characters of color, especially Black characters, having unusually light or colorful eyes/hair is a recognizable trope, and it can be racist or problematic. It also just feels like lightwashing, a lot of the time, when it's a character whose already mixed or lighter-skinned. But Wanda and Pietro are in a unique position, in terms of their racial presentation, so I don't fault anybody for keeping their canon eye colors.

Personally speaking, everybody in my family has dark eyes and dark hair, so my instinct would be to draw most Romani characters that way. If I got to reboot or redesign the Maximoff family, I would have it so that Wanda and Billy both have black hair and super dark eyes, and then Tommy and Pietro both have white hair and light grey eyes, just so that they compliment each other.

I always thought it was weird that Pietro had a visible "mutation" and Wanda didn't, so in this case, I would make her eyes literally black as a mutate feature, as well, but they would both be born with regular brown eyes.

[lesenbyan]

ID: two tag screenshots the first one reads "#I just handwave it as Lyse being shrimpy by Highlander standards and since she's a major NPC has a unique model #also when Lyse/Ida first appeared back in 1.0 there weren't female highlander models in the game#it's like how Minfilia is also a Highlander but you'd never know it #There's a lot of weird jankiness on stuff that carried over from 1.0 to 2.0 #that said I love the times I see Lyse depicted as having the sturdy build of a highlander and brawler #I forget the artist's name but his character is Highlander-kun and he draws Lyse with amazing shoulders and arms"

the second reads "#mixed feelings #I don’t like both msq ala Mhigan are blond white midlander looking but #I saw a lot of people talking about how important Lyse story was for them as trying to reconnect with their culture and homeland #both look great however #lyse #lyse hext #I love her" /end ID]

Okay no, see, I don't normally do this but you both are missing the point of this post. I'm 90% sure you're thinking roegadyn not highlanders about 1.0 but even then that is against the purpose of this post

Lyse is not a unique model. the only things you can't get in game for free you can get on the cash shop, she is 100% capable of existing in the game. Unique models are listed as monsters in glamourer, not with a whole break down. she might have a unique face but that just becomes semantics.

the point here isn't about preference. It's not even about her story arc (though I have opinions on that, that's a whole different post) the point is that she was called a race that she isn't. She was called a race that she isn't that is generally darker than she is. I don't mind light skinned highlanders (as a half white black person, I like seeing lighter PoC plus it does also happen naturally without race mixing) My point is what I put in the tags on the original post- they could have just said Hyurs.

What this feels like to me, a person of color, is like if a white person said "we black people" bc they have a lot of black friends.

Yes the highlander is still blonde and light skinned but 1) blonde and light skinned people of color exist and deserve to have representation and 2) I wasn't aiming for a redesign. if Ii was gonna redesign I would have said as much, what I was doing was simply flipping the race. That skin tone is the same number in the color picker, the muscle tone for both is 50, the height for both is 50. Yes, there is a lot of colorism (arguably) present in SB and FFXIV as a whole, but that's not what I'm discussing here.

"midlander" is not just a small highlander. They are their own people with their own history and because her race is such a huge part of her identity and journey this expansion it is. if she was intentionally a midlander for that reason , the narrative needs to at least suggest it which it doesn't. you can hc whatever you want but having a midlander claim to be a highlander is in fact whitewashing. It's the same as the numerous white ladies that pretended to be black for clout and had to have very ugly public reveals. They're both hyur, sure, but I'm just as human as the nearest white person too. They should have just had her say Hyur. It wouldn't have been wrong.

[ID: An FFXIV speech bubble from Lyse, she says "I'll bet you think the Resistance is mostly made up of Ala Mhigan Highlanders like me, but the truth is that we don't even account for half." /end ID]

[ID: Lyse's character data as shown by the Glamourer extension in Dalamud. It shows her as a female midlander. /end ID]

hmmmmmmmm

[crystallizedtwilight]

🩷 My Artwork:

ALL Art tag

The Nightmare Before Christmas 

Lock/Barrel 

Calliope 

Danganronpa

Yu Yu Hakusho

Promare

Newsies

Undertale

Xenosaga

Sailor Moon

One Piece 

Arcane

⭐️ Please read FAQ below!

Can I draw fan art of your OCs with credit to you? ✅ Yes!

Can I draw fan art of your character redesigns with credit to you? ✅ Yes!

Can I cosplay your OCs / redesigns with credit to you (in photos)? ✅ Yes!

Can I get a tattoo of your artwork with credit to you (in photos)? ✅ Yes!

Can I draw original artwork that takes inspiration from your drawing and/or coloring style? ✅ Yes!

Can I use your Shakespeare artwork in a presentation I’m doing on Shakespeare, in a classroom setting, with credit to you? ✅ Yes!

Can I repost your art on (any social media)? ❌ No. I’m aware my art is all over Pinterest and TikTok, uncredited. If you’ve done research to find me here, thank you.

Can I use your art for AI purposes? ❌ No

Can I trace your artwork to practice / depict different characters? ❌ No

Can I edit your artwork and repost it? ❌ No

Can I color your black and white artwork? ❌ No

Can I sell your artwork? ❌ No

[black-streak]

Little Pistol - Nothing Personal

Chapter 2

First Previous Next

It'll be a minute before Tim is actually introduced here, by the way. Mostly because I'm not 100% certain who exactly I want him to be affiliated with and how he'll operate yet.

Which reminds me, I'm opening that to a vote that I'll post tomorrow. It's open to all, but anyone tagged in this should expect to be tagged onto that as well. I would like your input, please.

LP Taglist

@zalladane @moonlightstar64 @amayakans @elmokingkong @queen-in-a-flower-crown @karategirl119 @dreamykitty25 @danielslilangel @melicmusicmagic @xahriia @sassakitty

Permanent list

@naoryllis @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen @my-name-is-michell @maribat-is-lifeblood @dast218 @novicevoice @shizukiryuu @princess-of-fangirls @bigpicklebananatree @pirats-pizzacanninibles @abrx2002 @breemeister @darkthunder1589 @thestressmademedoit @severelyenchantedwonderland @isabellemasen @multi-fandom-freak0221 @fantasyloversblog @bzz75 @cloudiedraws @jardimazul @orbitsvt @gingerdaile @sotheresthatthought @kadmeread @novaloptr @unabashedlyswimmingtimemachine @crazylittlemunchkin @18-fandoms-unite-08 @tiny-goddess-of-chaos @ladybug-182 @toodaloo-kangaroo @the-alice-of-hearts

~---~

The next battle came as a stark contrast to the normal. Chat still flirted, still tried to get close, but he kept fighting, kept helping even when she ignored him. Then, the most amazing thing happened. She got hit after getting distracted by one of his comments and instead of yelling at him for it and being pushed off in turn, he turned to the akuma. Without a word from her, he stopped his comments and went after the cursed object with a single minded focus she'd never seen from him before. Within ten minutes with minimal help on her part, he was presenting her with the blackened hair tie of the victim. 

"A token, m'lady," he bowed, but kept his eyes downcast.

"Thank you, Chat," she managed to get out in her surprise, taking the item and working her magic on it and the city alike.

"I'm sorry," he murmured at her side, "I distracted you and got you hurt. That's my fault."

"It is," she agreed, not wanting to lie and say it wasn't, but also fighting back her urge to comfort him, "You'll do better next time," she stated.

"Much better," he promised, peeking up at her in hope of forgiveness. She swallowed back her instinct to grant it.

"Good," she nodded and took off back to school.

…

She spent most of the school day comparing his attitude this time to the last akuma attack, startled to realize what a difference a single conversation could make. She did that. She managed to make him change. Sure, she was injured, but only the once and he even said he was sorry! Took responsibility for his mistakes. That was unprecedented. She couldn't help but wonder how much pushing it would take to stop him completely. To incite obedience. Not that she planned to push it to that level, but it was a curious thing.

As she pondered on the logistics of such an act, just for the fun of it, she stepped out of the classroom, intending to head out for the day, she noticed Chloe shooing Sabrina off. Probably to act on some offhanded whim of the blonde. Marinette can't help the niggling thought of how she could change that as well. What words would it take to set Sabrina free? What made Chloe tick? 

As she passed Alya, the reporter talking to Nino, or rather, at Nino, she thought of how to switch the roles. How to encourage Nino to express himself more openly. To be comfortable in his own skin enough to confidently express it. 

Her grin grew as she planned out exactly how each encounter went down, coming up with on the spot ideas and improvising at a drop of a hat for whatever response they might have. It reminded her of the thrill of figuring out a particularly difficult lucky charm. Plus, it was perfectly harmless to consider right? As long as she didn't act on it. And even if she did, it would benefit them all, so really, it didn't hurt to consider.

And if the outcomes were as good as Chat's were, even better. If she went through with it, that is.

…

A week came and went and as did another attack.

Chat waited until the akuma was caught and purified to flirt, ensuring she never became distracted by him or anything else for that matter. He called out any incoming projectile, caught her attention anytime anything happened that she might've missed. Took another hit for her. That frustrated her, but the rest was a needed reprieve from the stress of akuma's past. And then he started flirting.

"Chat, what are you doing?"

"Well surely, I've proven my dedication to you, m'lady. I figure we might celebrate?"

"You've proven nothing of the sort," she stated, head tilted in confusion.

"I did to! I made sure you weren't harmed, I took the attack seriously, I even apologized and caught the akuma for you last time!"

"That isn't proof of love, Chat. That's basic human decency. I would do that for any hero or civilian for that matter. If that's a show of devotion to you, I'd hate to see how you treat people you're indifferent to," Ladybug countered, lips pursed and eyebrows pinching in.

"I'm perfectly nice to people I don't know," he defended himself quickly.

"Oh," her expression swiftly morphed, eyes widening into a look of taken aback surprise, "So you treat strangers well, but those you care about are lucky to hear an apology from you? Thank kwami I'm a ladybug then, I guess."

"That's not what I meant, of course I apologize when I'm in the wrong," he backtracked.

"So you think last time was the only time you messed up with me," she clarified.

"Well no…" Chat hedged, looking down again.

"You've barely proven that you don't hold malicious intent towards me. Don't push your luck, kitty. Black cats don't have any," she stated, taking off to leave him alone with his thoughts once more.

…

Arriving home, she dropped the transformation, collapsing on her chaise and shaking her head, "I can't believe I said that. Oh my gosh, I actually said that," she stared off into the distance.

"Neither can I. That was very harsh of you, Marinette, I'm disappointed in you," Tikki spoke up from her knee where she sat glaring with a pout on her face.

However, instead of immediately groveling as she normally did, Marinette's eyes sharpened as they snapped to the creature, sick of the treatment she'd received from the goddess since she first implemented this new tactic, "Was anything I said a lie?"

"No, but you could've said it in a nicer way," she insisted.

"When has carefully and nicely ever worked with him in the past?"

Tikki opened her mouth, but Marinette swiftly cut her off, "Never. It always ends with you chastising me and me apologizing for something that wasn't my fault. Nothing ever changed. But this, being direct with him, it works. He's changing, finally," she felt relief in letting this out, especially in the face of someone so hypocritical in her expectations on her compared to that of her so-called partner.

"Marinette, you can't just change people into who you want them to be!"

"I'm not changing him. I'm telling him what I see and how I feel and he is reacting to that information how he sees fit," she corrected, eager now at the prospect once more.

Tikki frowned, considering this point, "That's technically true… I still don't like it though."

"It's okay Tikki, you'll see soon enough," she reassured.

…

As day shifted to night, she pulled out her tablet, checking for any news on her new favorite hero.

Nothing to discover today, though she did start making a few sketches of his suit, looking at possible redesigns. Adjustments or details that could be made to improve the overall look or functionality. Granted, it looked very functional already. 

She was startled to discover that even she wouldn't change much in that aspect. It became blatantly clear that he designed the suit to accommodate him perfectly, playing up his strengths and drawing away from any potential weaknesses. It only further her admiration and assured her of her choices. 

…

The next attack came sooner than expected, Hawkmoth apparently deciding he had more free time than them. As though that hadn't been obvious from the beginning. Surely, they knew that from the start and didn't need this reminder. Didn't the man have a job or something? Could he get back to it, please?

Speaking of, Chat was doing a remarkable job of trying to follow a purified white butterfly off into the horizon, wanting to please her by taking the hunt for the villain to heart. As though she hadn't tried that already. 

You'd think he hadn't listened to a word she'd said before the way he retraced her own work over again. Rolling her eyes, she let him humor himself, waiting until he came back, tail tucked and ears flattened, to admit his failure.

Sitting down, she relaxed into her spot. This was going to take a while.

…

It was three am and she had pulled up the newest article on her Robin. She still hadn't found his official name, but she thrilled to see new pictures of him, though still shadowed and from such terrible angles. Apparently he had more recently been seen working alongside another. Something he hadn't done before as far as the city of Gotham knew, still so ignorant to him being their very own wonderful Robin. She couldn't really be bothered to look further into who he was seen working with, but something in the back of her mind twinged as her heart stuttered to know he was willing to fight alongside another.

Closing up the window and shutting down her tablet, she fell asleep with a smile.

[thelucidgamer]

Back on my Sonic bullshit after 9 and a half years.

~~~

The first three were some quick draws I made a week ago to see if I still knew how to draw these characters (First time drawing Shadow, like... ever actually. So that’s a new one for me I guess).

The other 5, however, are some mockups I decided to do for “character redesigns”/timeskip stuff (that I may or may not do anything with):

- First is Amy, who has the most dramatic design change of the group. Growing up with the Adventure games, I always liked Amy’s character potential. Her first playable outing, while not the strongest in terms of story, had a clear development path for her character that was unfortunately never followed up on. So I decided to base the design around that path, where her independance and adventurous spirit grows, eventually leading her to take more of Sonic’s persona. Less as a crush, but more as an idol: a symbol she looks up to and hopes to one daystand beside as an equal. The overall design is a mesh between her classic design and some cues from her Fleetway Comic designs, with a pair of custom running boots.

- Sonic is Sonic, I’m sorry but my boy is perfect and needs no alterations.

- Tails was a pretty easy design to think up. I figure one day, on Miles birthday maybe, Sonic hands him this big boofy present that’s just barely holding its wrapping together. He figured that since the kid is already piloting his plane, as well as others Tails has built over the years, he might as well make him his official “Fly Boy”. So, he calls up his old friend (possibly Honey???), and has this made for him: A custom flight jacket, with a Sonic patch just below the collar, two gold tails on the back, and a name tag that reads “Miles” on the front. Short and to the point, it’s an awesome gift that Tails cherishes about as much as the plane.

- So Cream the Rabbit is pretty freaking cool. She’s not only a great kid, but she’s surprisingly wicked strong, and a tough one to boot. Of course, once she gets old enough, it’s only natural she starts adventuring more with Sonic, Amy, and the rest of the crew. Right now though, she’s a school kid who does her homework on the road, and busts up badniks before bedtime.

- This echidna is a real doozy for me to talk about. Save for the utter bastardization of his character over the last 10 years fact that he’s a pretty rough guy when you get under his skin, I always loved how chill Knuckles could be. If you don’t screw with him or the Master Emerald, he is usually pretty indifferent, or relaxed. That with his open-handed demeanor, while naive, it makes him a really likable character. Also, remember how this guy was apparently a treasure hunter before being the Emerald’s guardian? Yeah, when are we gonna get a story about that? I’d love to see what this guy was like before he took on the destiny of the Guardian. Until then, I look forward to the day he can pass down the title of the Emerald’s Guardian to someone else, so he can return to his Treasure Hunting roots; Globetrot the world with Rouge and find the next lost treasure. Maybe have him give the job to Shade, if Sega ever remembers she exists. I figure I’d draw from his OVA counterpart with the hat, because this hat is amazing and needs to be canon.

[sirius-archive]

Chaos Theory Part 6

Pairing: Cedric Diggory x Reader, Draco Malfoy x Reader, Harry Potter x Reader, others. 

Warnings: Swearing 

Word Count: 5641

A/N: I finished this in one! day! can you believe it?? Anyway, some things worth mentioning: a) after this chapter, things are going to start progressing quickly through the months. So far its sort of been day by day but this story has to span over three years so...yeah. I can’t drag it on for too long b) I’m going away for a week so I’m not sure when part seven will be released c) i have redesigned my masterlist! check it out in my description and, finally, d) shawn mendes will be my new cedric for my gif headers! not important but at the same time really important. Anyway, I’ll shut up now. Here. 

Chapter Six: 

Everyone has secrets to hide

The carriage ride up to Hogwarts is silent, tense and almost insufferable.

Ron’s barely spoken a word since his encounter with Draco, and though you weren’t present, you can only imagine how it went down. His mouth is twisted into a thin frown as he fixes a glare on the floor of the carriage, body rigid with frustration. A dark red flush singes the tips of his ears, a result of his sour mood that simmers beneath his skin.

Hermione keeps eying you with a calculating look, as though she’s dissecting your thoughts and body language and tagging each movement carefully. Her lips are pressed together in a thin line like she’s taming her words back into her throat and is silently forcing them into that spot beneath her sternum where all her other secrets lay hidden. She keeps fiddling with the hem of her robes, weaving the fabric between her fingers to stifle her nervous twitch.

Harry stares out the window, watching the rain and refusing to meet your eye in some sort of silent protest against you. He’s hard to read when he’s like this; silent and solemn and withdrawn into those deep, dark crevices in his mind. You think about reaching out and covering his hand with yours but think better of it.

Guilt plucks your ribs. You should never have left them.

It feels stupid, starting the school year like this. As a group, you’ve been through worse things. You’ve all faced bigger enemies and worse life-threatening circumstances. Why should a couple of secrets stand in the way of a friendship that has endured so much danger?

“So, what were you guys talking about before I arrived?” You ask, curiously glancing between Ron, Hermione and Harry. Harry bristles ever so slightly.

“We were just speculating about what Charlie and Bill were banging on about earlier,” Ron replies, hastily.

“Draco mentioned something too,” Harry snips, his voice clipped and cold.

“Something is supposed to be happening?” You ask, and Harry shrugs.

“I wish they’d just tell us already,” Ron whined, “I’ve had it with all this secrecy. Just spit it out already.”

“We’ll probably find out tonight,” Hermione deduces, and the carriage sinks into silence again.

Lightning forks across the sky, flooding the carriage with white light before evaporating in an instant. Raindrops feel like bullets pounding on the roof, trying to get inside.

“I can’t wait to eat,” you blurt, cradling your stomach, “The welcoming feast is all I’ve been thinking about...”

“Oh yes,” Hermione agrees, the beginning of a smile tickling her lips, “and I can’t wait to watch the Sorting Ceremony!”

“Welcoming the first years,” you smile fondly, “Merlin, remember our first year?”

“How could I forget?” Hermione sighs, “That was the year we first learned Wingardium Leviosa!”

“So you’re not going to mention the fact that our Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher was a fraud with You Know Who attached to his head like some sort of evil fungus?” Ron snaps, coldly.

Hermione narrows her eyes and speaks carefully, composedly, “Well, yes, I thought that was fairly obvious though-”

“Aw, remember Norbert?” you interject, hurriedly, “Remember watching him hatch?”

“Yeah,” Harry says, distantly, “Remember how hard it was to smuggle him out of Hogwarts?”

“Ooh and you impersonated the Bloody Baron to keep Peeves off our tracks? That was so clever...”

You catch a hint of a smile ghosting across Harry’s face, though it’s obscured by the low light, “We still got in trouble, though,”

“It was worth it,” you say, thinking back to Hagrid's concerned face, “I can’t imagine what sort of trouble Hagrid would have gotten into if he was discovered. And Norbert was such a cute, little baby...”

“That ‘cute little baby’ nearly killed me,” Ron snaps, fingers grazing the scar on his hand.

Hermione scoffs, “I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration.”

“Uh, no, not really,” Ron barks, indignantly, “Unless you forgot about the part where I was in the Hospital Wing for weeks after that thing poisoned me with its tiny, little devil fangs.”

“Ron, he bit you out of self-defence.”

“Well maybe if Hagrid were more strict-“

“-Don’t blame Hagrid for your own stupidity-“

“-Oh, so now I’m stupid?”

“-Well, only a fool would try to feed a dragon at night.”

“We’re nearly there!” You exclaim, deliberately raising your voice over Ron and Hermione’s argument. You point out of the window to the Hogwarts castle, using it as a distraction from the knot tugging in your stomach.

A heavy silence looms over the carriage again. Ron and Hermione have turned away from each other, both of them stubbornly staring out of the window. You glance at Harry who glances back at you uneasily, and though it’s only a brief exchange, a shimmer of hope bursts inside of you.

Harry looks away, unaware of your hovering fingers that draw closer to his hand, reluctant to touch the skin of his knuckles. Before you can make contact, the carriage rolls to a stop and, to your regret and dismay, the opportunity passes.

The carriage doors fly open, and Ron and Hermione slip out wordlessly. Harry gives you a side glance before climbing out himself. You follow his lead and quicken your pace to catch up with him and Ron. The four of you bow your heads to avoid the rain and climb up the flight of steps hastily. By the time you reach the great, oak doors, you are completely soaked and shivering against the cool air.

The doors swing open and you all pile into the entrance hall, dripping wet as you slip and slide across the floor. The doors close shut behind you as you crowd around the entrance hall, waiting for Professor McGonagall.

“Hey, (Y/N),” says a meek voice from behind you and Neville Longbottom’s shy, dimpled face comes into view, “How were your holidays?”

“Hi, Neville,” you beam, “They were...eventful. Thanks for asking. How were yours?”

Neville glances at his feet, “The opposite, actually. I had to help Nan with her bunions. They’re the size of golf balls and the only thing that helps shrink them is this cream made from mandrake puss and garden-knome salvia. Then I had to poke a hole in her bunions and–oh my god, why am I telling you this?”

Neville smacks his forehead with such a loud slap, it nearly startles you. He winces and rubs the red mark emerging right in the middle of his forehead, “You probably don’t want to hear that.”

You chuckle at his bashful expression and loop your arm through his, “It’s okay. But before I forget, I should thank you for sending me your Herbology book. It worked miracles.”

“Oh, it was nothing,” he murmurs, fumbling with his robes, “Just helping a friend in need.”

“Well it certainly helped me, big time,” you say, giving him an encouraging smile, “I’m absolutely rubbish at Herbology but that book really helped me with my essay. I have it in my trunk so when we get back to the castle, I’ll give it back to you.”

“Nah, you can have it,” Neville shrugs, not meeting your eye, “I mean, if you want it, that is..”

You consider him fondly in the low light, clamping your bottom lip between your teeth thoughtfully. Neville glances at his feet, ducking his chin to hide his blush.

“That’s very generous of you…thank you.”

Neville shrugs again, all sweet and bashful, an adorable, pink flush rising up his neck.

“So,” Neville starts, scratching the back of his neck, “How come you weren’t with Harry today, in the compartment? I missed you...”

“Oh, I was sitting with...another friend,” as you say it, a thought pops into your head and you perk up a little straighter, “Hey do you know anything about Noah Underwood?”

Neville’s brows furrow in thought, “Not really. He’s in Slytherin and he’s a muggle-born. Oh, and he hangs around the greenhouses a lot.”  

“He does?” You ask and Neville nods. You beam at him and wrap your arms around his shoulders, pulling him into a hug, “Thank you so much!”

Neville freezes at first, but his shock fades as he hugs you back, “No-No problem.”

“Hey! (Y/N)!” A familiar voice calls out to you from behind and you turn, finding Harper Shacklebolt charging toward you. The editor and chief of The Howler looks harried but determined and strikingly beautiful as she shoves a sixth-year Ravenclaw aside to reach you. Her braids are pulled back into a bun worthy of McGonagall’s praise, and she has the kind of fierce passion in her dark eyes that could strike fear in the hearts of all the boys around her.

“Hi Harper,” You smile, untangling yourself from around Neville’s shoulders “How were your holidays?”

Harper nods dismissively, “They were fine. Listen, we’re having a meeting this evening after the welcoming feast in the Newsroom. Be there at eight thirty. There will be a few announcements and new members joining us.”

You nod and wave as she charges off, slipping into a second-year Hufflepuff as she leaves.

Beside you, Ron and Harry are engaged in a whispered conversation. You try to lean into the conversation, easing yourself closer slowly, slowly, slowly...

And then you’re slipping.

Harry catches you before you can hit the ground, his hands flying to your waist and holding you close. You’re close enough to feel his heart hammering in his chest, sending shockwaves down your spine. Harry tears his hands away from you a second too late. Beside you, Ron snorts a laugh and reaches over to pat your head affectionately.

“Sorry, (Y/N),” Neville splutters, blushing furious shades of red, “I–er–I didn’t mean to bump into you– I’m such an idiot–”

“No it’s okay,” you breathe, voice trembling as the warmth from Harry’s touch ghosts over your waist, heating your skin beneath your clothes. Neville opens his mouth to apologise more but he doesn’t get the chance.

Professor McGonagall dashes our of the Great Hall, nearly colliding with a student. 

“Well hurry up you lot,” She snaps, ironing her hands down the front of her robes as she composes herself, “The Sorting Ceremony will begin in ten minutes time and we have a very important announcement to make!”

***

The Howler’s Newsroom is alive with excitement.

Seven loyal and dedicated members of the weekly newsletter crowd around, chatting animatedly about the exciting announcement. It’s wonderful being back and seeing all the friendly faces that you have known since you joined last year. You watch them all with mild interest.

Anthony ‘Ant’ Goldstein, comic artist for the newsletter, hovers near the door looking exasperated as he listens to an excitable Colin Creevey, a new member to the team.

Standing next to Harper is Daisy Tate, a Slytherin in Harper’s year and also Head Photographer. She seems to be staring down at something, her stoic expression as bland as ever.  

Next to Daisy stands Troy Hammond, the Head Artist, who always has acrylic paint under his nails and a paintbrush tucked behind his ear. Troy has always been a kind and gentle person, always willing to sit and listen if you ever have problems, and he often finds himself doing so a lot. He also happens to be one of Cedric’s best friends...

Go figure

The last two members of the team are actually sitting on either side of you; Padma Patil, a Writer like yourself, and Dean Thomas, an artist. As you and Padma murmur excitedly, Dean sketches a quick portrait of you and Padma, the tip of his tongue poking out from between his lips as he concentrates.

“So that’s what all the fuss was about,” Padma’s eyes shimmer as her smile grows, “A Triwizard Tournament! How exciting!”

“I know!” You grin, twirling your quill in your hand, “My mum always used to tell stories to Luke and I when we were kids. Never thought it would happen though it’s a shame about Quidditch.”

“Yes, terribly,” Padma muses, but her smile reappears, “We’re going to have so much to write about this year in the Howler!”

“Indeed,” Harper says, and everyone falls silent at the sound of her voice, “Which is precisely what this meeting will be about. Before I continue, though, we will be introducing some new members to our team.”

Harper strides toward the door and pulls it open, and Juniper Cross enters. The Hufflepuff head girl looks startlingly beautiful with yellow flowers pinned to her thick Afro and a radiant smile drawn across her face. You hear the whole room exhale a breath of admiration in her presence.

“She always looks so lovely,” Padma whispers, equal parts in awe and envy of Juniper, “I think she uses that special antioxidant cream every night.”

You bite your lip as Juniper grins, standing next to Harper.

“Ah I’m so excited to be joining the team,” Juniper cheers, voice kind and sweet as honey, “I can’t wait to get to work with you all!”

“Don’t you have Head Girl duties or something?” Anthony blurts, and Harper shoots him a glare.

Juniper smiles gracefully, “Yes. But my role in this team will not be as predominant as the rest of you. With both Professor McGonagall blessing, I will be Head of the Astrology section of the newsletter.”

“Astrology section?” Anthony’s brows furrow, “Isn’t that just staring into a tea cup and hoping for the best?”

To everyone’s surprise, Juniper actually laughs.

“Don’t worry, at first I had my doubts about Astrology but then I discovered that some people have the gift, while others...” she trails off,  looking pointedly at Ant, “...Don’t. I find that it’s those who don’t have the gift that are sceptical, possibly because they’ve come to the realisation that Astrology chooses you, you don’t choose it.”

Ant quietens at that, having taken Junipers point seriously.

“Since we are on the subject of those with the gift,” Harper pipes up, stepping forward, “We also have two astrologers who will be joining the team.”

You are surprised for a second time in five minutes as you watch Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil enter the room. Parvati meets your eyes and waves excitedly. You grin back at her and Padma gives her a thumbs up. As Lavender and Parvati introduce themselves, you lean into Padma.

“I didn’t know Parvati and Lavender were joining the team,” you whisper and Padma stifles a giggle.

“It was a secret,” Padma murmurs back, “Sorry I didn’t indulge you.”

“You’re forgiven.”

“Thank you Lavender, Parvati,” Harper nods to both of them and they flinch as though she had narrowed a wand at them, “Now, our final member of the team will be joining the Photography department, so please welcome –”

Your eyes travel from Harper to the figure standing in the doorway, and with a slight shock, you realise exactly who the newest member of the team is...

“– Noah Underwood.”

Anger you didn’t realise you had flares inside of you, prior feelings of pity vanishing completely. How could someone possibly encroach on your privacy and then throw you into a week of emotional turmoil by sending a strange letter to you? The past week of conflicting emotions is a direct result of him and his stupid camera. Your fingers curl into fists beneath the table.

“Noah Underwood?” Padma hisses, eying him shrewdly, “The loner from Slytherin? What is Harper thinking?”

“Apparently, he’s a good photographer,” you snip, thinking back to the picture sitting in your pocket, and you can’t even hide the frustration from your voice as you study him closely.

The first thing you notice about him is how confusingly, annoyingly attractive he is, despite being freakishly tall and gangly, which is perhaps the reason why he slouches. He’s still wearing that black beanie that he hasn’t taken off his head since he first came to Hogwarts, and peaking out from beneath it are thick curls of raven-black hair. He’s also not wearing his Slytherin robes, which you find odd, but Noah is odd anyway so you figure it fits. Over the top of a black v-neck, Noah is wearing a leather aviator jacket that is a size too big for him, and black jeans.

“Can’t argue with that logic,” Dean whispers, “I’m glad Colin won’t be the only photographer on the team. It’s bad enough having to share a common room with him.”

Padma giggles into her elbow, and Harper’s eyes snap straight to her, drilling her with a glare. Padma coils submissively.

“Introduce yourself, Noah,” Harper orders, and Noah shrugs.

“I’m Noah,” he says, apathetically, his hands jammed into his pockets, “And I like photography more than I like people.”

There is a beat of silence, everyone slightly stunned by Noah’s blunt remark. Harper thoughtfully fiddles with the gold locket hanging from her neck.

“Good,” Harper nods, approvingly, “We’re not here to be friends, we’re here to work so you should fit right in.”

“Except fitting in isn’t really his ‘thing’,” Padma murmurs, and Dean snorts beside you.

“Alright, everyone take a seat,” Harper barks, and everyone rushes to their seats, “Our meeting will now begin.”

***

Noah is out of the door before you even get a chance to talk to him.

You feel rude as you give hurried apologies to your friends and shoulder past them, rushing for the door. To your surprise, he’s riding a skateboard down the corridor. It looks..strange, like it shouldn’t belong here (It doesn’t, but thats not the point.) 

“Noah,” you call, and he skids to a stop, stepping off his skateboard and turning to face you as you approach him in long strides, “I’m (Y/N) And–”

“-I know who you are,” Noah interrupts, studying you intently.

“Right. Anyway, I need your help with something.”

Noah cocks an eyebrow in mild interest as you reach into your pockets and retrieve the photo, thrusting it into his grasp with slightly trembling hands.

“You took this photo, and I want to know why.”

Noah studies it, his face a mask of apathy, completely unreadable despite your best efforts. As his eyes move across the picture, you can’t help but notice how unnervingly dark they are. In fact, his eyes are so dark, you can’t tell where his irises end and his pupils begin. They’re the kind of dark that makes you wonder how many souls he’s absorbed, and the way they glint in the light suggests he’s probably lost count.

Finally, he sniffs and hands it back to you.

“I don’t know what this is,” Noah finally snips, his voice a lot deeper than you remember, “It’s not one of mine. I wasn’t at the Quidditch World Cup.”

“I don’t believe you,” you say, sternly, folding your arms across your chest.

“I don’t care if you believe me. I wasn’t there.”

You glare at him, fists clenching the inside of your robes. He is a blank slate, not even an inch of emotion flicking across his face despite the fact that you’re accusing him of something he may or may not have done. You try to even your emotions, trying to keeping your face a calm and composed canvas.

“If you weren’t there, then why was this photo identified as one of yours?” You ask, jutting your chin at the photo in his hands.

“Who identified it?” Noah queries, and you press your lips together tightly.

“A source.”

Noah scoffs, indignantly, “Well, whoever they are, they’re wrong,” Noah sighs, handing you the photo, “My muggle camera went missing and, like I already told you, I wasn’t at the Quidditch World Cup.”

“Well, where were you?”

“Is this an interrogation?”

“Does it matter?”

Noah gives a derisive snort, “Yes. It does. To me, the person you’re accusing of stalking. So if you don’t have any hard evidence, I’m going to go back to my common room.”

“Why? So you can retreat into your room and sulk?” You snap, hands resting on your hips.

There is a moment where it looks as though Noah is going to smile. Instead, he shakes his head.

“Yeah. That’s right. Because that’s what I do when people stereotype me as the weird, lonely photographer who obsesses over pretty girls...”

You exhale a shaky sigh as you realise that he’s right. It was wrong for you to allow your pent-up emotions to overwhelm you. You roll your shoulders, relaxing into your robes.

“Okay, fine. I’m sorry, that was wrong,” you murmur, glancing at your feet, “You said that your camera went missing. When did you first notice it was gone?”

“At the end of last year,” Noah answers, folding his arms over his chest, “Someone must have pinched it on the train back to Platform 9 3/4. I've printed out fliers and I’m on my way to Professor Snape right now to inform  him.”

You nod carefully, taking mental notes. It’s hard to tell if he’s lying, having such a perfectly trained expression.

“Okay. Thanks, I guess,” you murmur, folding the photo and slipping it into your pocket. Noah shrugs, dropping his skateboard, and you turn, starting back toward the Newsroom.

“Oh, and (Y/N),” Noah calls and you pause, “You wanted to know where I was on the day of the World Cup?” 

You spin around and face him, mildly interested as you nod. Moonlight pours through the glass-stained windows and soak him in a ghostly silhouette, like a dark angel standing in the corridor.  

“I was in London, visiting my sisters grave,” He murmurs, coldly, regret bleeding into his words like scarlet-red blood. 

He quickly turns away and rides off before you can say another word, leaving you speechless, guilt climbing into your gut and curling up there like a beast. 

***

“So, how was the meeting?”

Hermione sits crossed-legged on her bed, running her fingers through Crookshanks fur.

“Don’t tell anyone yet but we have a new Astrology section making its debut next week,” You say, as Nightshade curls up at your side. You smirk at Hermione’s exasperated scowl.

“I thought Harper Shacklebolt was more dignified and logical than that,” Hermione snips, agitated by the new discovery, “It doesn’t matter, I still admire her. Anything else?”

“Well, we also have new members,” you start, reaching into your bedside table and grabbing a small handful of cat treats for Nightshade, “One of them is Noah Underwood.”

Hermione gasps, “Really? Merlin. Did you-“

“-Already one step ahead of you,” you giggle as Nightshade begins to nibble her treats from your cupped palm. Her tongue is slightly serrated, and it tickles as she scrapes it along your soft skin, “Noah wasn’t even at the World Cup, he was visiting his sisters grave on the day which made me feel bloody terrible for drilling him as though he were a criminal. But he’s still a suspect.”

Hermione stands and pins his name to your pinboard, her brows knitted together in contemplation as she studies the board.

“So he has an alibi,” she sighs, as Crookshanks curls himself around her leg, “Did he say anything else?”

“Well, he told me that his muggle camera went missing on the way home from Hogwarts,” you recall, standing and meeting Hermione in front of the board. You scribble ‘Missing Camera’ onto a piece of paper and pin it beneath his name, “So either someone stole it or he’s lying.”

“Well, do you think he’s lying about his alibi?” Hermione asks, glancing at you thoughtfully.

You cock your head as you study each letter of his name, mulling Hermione’s words over, before murmuring, “I don’t trust him, but I don’t think he’s lying.”

Hermione nods, satisfied with your response. You both stare at the pin board for a moment longer, lost in your thoughts. The sound of girlish giggling sounds from behind your closed door, sweeping up the dormitory staircase like a sickly-sweet breeze, and you approach the board.

“A mouse does not trust a hungry snake,” you murmur in Latin,  pressing your wand to the board and watching as the pinboard vanished into the wall. Hermione glances at you, impressed.

“Nice charm work,” she smiles.

“Thanks,” you chirp, “Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs gave me the idea.”

Hermione opens her mouth to comment further, but Lavender and Parvati burst in before she can.

“(Y/N),” Lavender manages through giggles, “You have a visitor.”

Parvati giggles and whispers something to Lavender, which provokes girlish laughter to bubble from Lavenders lips.

“Okay,” you sigh, and Hermione gives you a pleading look. You smile at her apologetically, “Thanks, Lavender.”

Your curiosity piqued, you give Nightshade a final pat and leave your room, descending the staircase and entering the common room. Neville and Ginny smile at you from their game of Wizard Chess as you pass, and you flash them a smile.

“Where are you off too so late at night?” Ginny asks, a single brow raised teasingly.

“Someone is waiting for me outside,” you reply, grinning at her expression as the portrait door swings open, “It’s probably just some weirdo-“

You stop mid-sentence, a burning blush creeping up your neck.  

“Hi, (Y/N).”

Cedric Diggory’s perfect smile beams at you, eyes shimmering, hands lazily wedged into his pockets.

“Oh, Cedric, H-hi,” You splutter, stupidly, feeling like a bitch for the second time tonight, “I didn’t mean what I - I mean - I don’t think you’re a-”

“- A weirdo?” Cedric mimics, his smile stretching into a grin, “I know. I probably am a weirdo for visiting so late in the evening but...I wanted to see you.”

“Me too,” you smile, your heart clumsy and foolish and swelling in your chest, “I mean, I wanted to see you as well...”

Cedric laughs, and the sound plucks every single heart string in your chest as though it were an instrument designed just for him.

“I’m glad,” he reaches over and tentatively takes your hand, “I want to show you something.”

You bite your lip, chewing your nerves away, fingers intertwining with his and soaking in the warmth of his skin.

“Well, go on girl,” the Fat Lady snaps from behind you, “Before I figure out a way to leave this painting and take off with such a charming, young man.”

A gentle, romantic shade of pink kisses Cedric’s cheek, “I appreciate the compliment, Ma’am, but I could never betray the trust of the beautiful girl I’ve come to like...” he gazes pointedly at you. You twirl a ribbon of hair around your finger, hoping your cheeks are not as red as they feel.

“Such a gentleman,” you hear the Fat Lady swoon from behind you as Cedric leads you into the night.

***

The Prefects Bathroom looks as though it’s been stolen from a romance novel and pinned in front of your eyes.

Floating candles hover in the air, scenting the bathroom with a subtle fragrance that changes the more you breathe in. It’s like Cedric’s bottled a cauldron of Amortentia and poured it into each, individual candle.

Rose petals have been sprinkled artistically across the floor, creating a trail that leads to a chocolate fondue machine and a large bowl of fruit and marshmallows. There is a bottle of what you can only assume is sparkling cherry-apple juice, a sweet delicacy enjoyed only by the richest of wizards and witches, and a personal favourite of yours (how did he know? Could he get any more perfect, the bastard).

Your eyes are drawn to the most touching feature in the room; An elegant bouquet of fire lilies. It’s a memento from your and Cedric’s past, a personal touch that has your heart swelling, overflowing the confines of your ribcage like a bubbling love potion inside the cauldron in your chest.

You bite your lip and inhale the sweet scents, releasing a sigh of satisfaction as you store the moment deep inside your lungs like a Polaroid picture.

“Wow” You finally sigh, reduced to moonstruck awe and admiration of Cedric’s dedication, “You really went all out didn’t you?”

Cedric regards you warmly, “I guess I’m just a hopeless romantic. Besides, I wanted to give you the best, that’s what you deserve.”

Cedric tugs his bottom lip between his teeth like he’s blurted too much, and your cheeks ache as your smile widens on its own accord.

“So...” you trail off, stepping closer to him and teasing him with a smirk, “Did you fancy a late night skinny dip?”

Cedric snorts a laugh, watching you with glittering eyes, “Not exactly.”

You grin wickedly at him, maintaining eye contact as you carefully peel back your robes, “Well I do.”

A rosy blush blossoms on Cedric’s cheeks, “Oh, I-I guess this is happening, then.”

You laugh as you whirl around, your back to his chest, “Do you mind unzipping my skirt?”

“Not at all,” he murmurs, voice warm and low in your ear, and a shiver drips languidly from each vertebra in your spine like long, amber strands of honey. He fiddles clumsily with the zip before finally triumphing and tugging on it gently. Once the zip is undone, he steps away and turns around, giving you privacy as you strip down to your underwear and climb into the large, golden bath.

You sigh and close your eyes as the warm water soaks into your skin, rejuvenating your muscles. The water shifts and ripples around you and you open your eyes, finding Cedric by your side. He’s close, though you can still make out the defined muscles of his torso, occasionally flexing in the water. He’s an amalgam of masculine strength and gentle softness, strong but unassuming, certain but meek and oddly vulnerable. It’s disarming, and it makes you feel like he’s giving you control, reassuring you that he’s willing to stay within any boundaries you have carefully constructed.

In short, he’s the handsome gentleman every teenage girl dreams of having.

“I hope this is okay,” Cedric murmurs, shyly.

“Okay?” You echo, smiling broadly, “This is perfect, Cedric. It’s exactly what I needed.”

Cedric smiles and pours you a glass of cherry-apple juice. For what feels like hours, the two of you sit and enjoy each other’s company, laughing and joking and indulging in the fondue treats. The outside world seems to melt away like you and Cedric have created a pocket of your own universe where everything is whimsically romantic and surreal and seeped in sepia and nothing like the corrupt reality outside of this bubble that is threatening to devour it.

For the first time in a week, you finally feel calm, like Cedric is a home not build from bricks or marble but a home built by teenage dreams.

“Thank you, again,” you sigh, savouring the taste of chocolate on your tongue, and Cedric flashes a warm, genuine smile.

“It was nothing. Seriously, all of this is nothing compared to–” Cedric stops, bites his lip and smooths it over with the tip of his tongue.

“Compared to?” You watch him as he sighs, conceding.

“Compared to how you make me feel.”

You blink at him, wondering with a feeling of dread whether this is all a dream, and you pinch yourself just in case. When you realise it’s not, you smile, the weight and length of it nearly splitting your face in half, your heart feeling like an overgrown pumpkin from Hagrid's patch, because this is real, and nothing really matters anymore, none of it, because he’s moving closer and so are you and he’s bending down and you’re reaching up, and he’s raising a hand to your cheek and you’re parting your lips, waiting, yearning for that earth-shattering moment when your lips will finally meet, and Merlin this is not a dream, not anymore–

A peel of gleeful laughter fills the air.

You and Cedric wrench apart, startled by the intruder, who floats over to you grinning for the first time in what you suspect has been many years.

“So the pretty girl has found someone who’s willing to kiss her,” Moaning Myrtle sneers. She narrows a glare on you when she recognises Cedric, “And it’s the handsome one, too.”

“Could we have some privacy, please Myrtle?” You snap, acutely aware of the flimsy pieces of underwear you’re currently wearing.

Myrtle’s bottom lip quivers, “I get awfully lonely here by myself, yet you have all the boys drooling over you like you’ve cast a spell on them. It’s simply not fair.”

“I’m-I’m sure you’ll find someone, Myrtle,” Cedric offers, expression kind and hopeful.

Myrtle heaves a sigh, “Someday, maybe,” her gloomy, transparent face suddenly lights up with glee, “But I’ll relish in telling the Boy who Lived that the girl he’d die for has found someone else to go on adventures with.”

You steel your spine and look her directly in the eye, speaking firmly, “Myrtle, please. I think it’s time you left.”

Myrtle sighs, defeated, her eyes welling up with tears, “Fine! I will! But, just so you know, I’ll be his shoulder to cry on...metaphorically speaking.”

And with that, Myrtle disappears into the pipes, her wails echoing through the bathroom.

***

Cedric drops you off with a goodbye kiss on the cheek that makes you feel like a burning sunset; warm and beautiful and seeped in daydreams.

You manage to float up the stairs to the girls' dormitory without tripping, creep into your bedroom, and change into your pyjamas without waking anyone, a skill you’ve practised since knowing Harry Potter.

The girls are already fast asleep, curtains drawn on the four-poster beds and curled beneath the sheets. Hermione is even muttering in her sleep.

Climbing into bed, you pull the sheets right up to your nose and grin goofily, thankful that no one can see you. Your churning anxiety doesn’t seem so overwhelming in this moment, Cedric washing away your fears like a river of holy water. And, though you’re life may be shrouded in mystery, at least Cedric can be your guiding light, the single truth you can cling to.

You fall asleep smiling, oblivious to what the next few weeks have in store.

tagging: @marauderskeeper @weaselby418  @acciorinn  @hervench @harrvjpotter @depressed-octopods-art @romanofftasha @moonpeachs @emi-loser @steph-fowlie @lilulo-12 @randomfangirl17 @asofslytherin @seunlight if i have forgotten to tag you, please tell me! sorry if i have. i love you. also if you want to be tagged, pls send me an ask :)) thanks for reading babes

[xb-squaredx]

B-Squared’s Top 10 Games of 2019!

2019 was a year full to the brim of GREAT games, and as is the custom at the end of the year, people love to rank their favorites, so…I’d like to do the same! Of course my own tastes might be different from yours so if you don’t see a thing on here that you liked, chances are I didn’t like it…or more likely, there’s just too many great games out this year, and I couldn’t get to everything. I’d like to stress to that the rankings don’t really matter all that much, especially the farther down we go. Everything on here is an easy recommendation. Without any further ado…let’s take a look at my Top 10 Games of 2019~

#10 - River City Girls

I love action games, but 2D beat-em-ups never really clicked for me. They were largely before my time and I was thinking that it’d be impossible to get me into one in the current era of gaming. And then I saw Marian’s redesign for River City Girls and bought the game. What can I say? Abs are a great sales pitch. But seriously, getting Wayforward on the helm of a beloved classic franchise is already a great way to pique my interest, and while there’s SOME aspects of this game that I don’t quite gel with, it’s a fun, colorful romp through a ridiculous universe that I’d LOVE to see more of down the line. Featuring a role-reversal, with the girlfriends saving the boyfriends this time, River City Girls has gorgeous pixel art, an AMAZING pop-synth soundtrack that’s worth the price alone, and it’s a game that clearly had fun with the concept and that fun rubs off on you. From the stylish animated boss intros, to the co-op fun that can be had with a friend, everything in this game is brimming with charm. Basic NPCs have great designs in their own right, being able to recruit enemies as assists is a neat idea, and it all adds up to a fun, bite-sized adventure with a bit of depth under the hood if you’re willing to give it a look. Can the character designers get a raise for this game, please? And let Megan McDuffie just do all the songs from now on. ALL OF THEM.

#9 - Astral Chain

Most people assumed if we were going to get a Switch exclusive game by Platinum this year, it’d be Bayonetta 3 but instead Nintendo surprised us with Astral Chain, the anime cop action game we didn’t know we wanted. The game boasts great visuals and is probably the most content-rich Platinum game ever made for starters, but for me the true draw is in the combat. Playing as your police officer in tandem with an alien creature known as a Legion, this tag-team action game is unlike pretty much anything else on the market. While the game starts off very simplistic, the Legion itself moving and attacking with no input from the player, over time more and more options unlock and things get considerably more complicated. By game’s end, you’re drowning in options, and once things clicked, combat was always a treat. With plenty of enemies to practice with, Legions to master and a gigantic post-game filled with challenging encounters, I had more fun with the combat in this game than I did with a lot of other games this year. That said, I do feel that Astral Chain could have benefitted from trimming some fat or rethinking its overall structure. For being a new IP with some bold ideas, I’m willing to accept these as kinks that can hopefully be ironed out in a sequel. Oh, and add Lappy to Smash already. You know you want to, Sakurai.

#8 - BABA IS YOU

Puzzle games are hard sells for me, since I don’t like the frustration that often comes from being stuck. You feel dumb, you get embarrassed and turn the game off in shame, or at least that’s my experience. But then sometimes you get a game so clever, so…weird, that you can’t help but be sucked into it. BABA IS YOU is a block-pushing puzzle game, with the twist being that the “rules” of a particular stage are often physically present in levels and are in fact blocks that can be pushed and manipulated by the player. ROCK is PUSH, WALL is STOP, FLAG is WIN and BABA is YOU. But what if you can’t touch the flag because the wall is in the way? Well, make it so WALL is PUSH to move it aside, or maybe make it so that BABA is WIN and you become the win condition itself. As the game goes on, more modifiers and rules are slowly introduced and absorbed into your own internal logic of the game, logic that increasingly has to be broken and remade to suit your needs. It’s a very empowering experience when the solution clicks and the results can often be hilarious and surprising. This game also GOES PLACES the further you go in, and I’d rather not ruin that surprise for anyone who might be looking into the game. Definitely one of the most innovated titles I’ve played in a LONG time. BABA is GOOD.

#7 - Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid

OK, so…hear me out. Power Rangers was a franchise I was obsessed with as a kid, and while I don’t follow it anymore, there’s still some love for it flowing in my veins. So when a small, no-name studio puts out a Power Ranger fighting game that takes the simplified controls of Smash Bros. and the tag-team craziness of Marvel vs. Capcom and slaps it all together for a cool twenty bucks or so? Well you got yourself a purchase and it ended up being WAY more fun than I expected. Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is far from the best looking fighter on the market, it’s single-player content is lacking, and it’s roster, while interesting, isn’t as big as a lot of the competition, but damn if it isn’t fun to play. With characters taken from across the franchise’s long history, from the live-action movie reboot to the comic books, each choice has been inspired and resulted in an incredibly varied cast. With no crazy inputs for special moves, combined with a tagging system that lets you cycle through your three-Ranger team quickly, the game is the best kind of chaotic fun, but true masters can command that chaos and channel it into cool combos that make you want to say “Morphinominal!” Considering it’s a budget title, it’s also received a fair amount of updates throughout the year to pad out the roster with both free and paid DLC fighters, a full story mode and improvements to the netcode and overall presentation., so if you passed on it at launch, it’s much improved now. It’s not gonna be a fighting game on everyone’s radar, but I’d rather support it than the grind-heavy slog Mortal Kombat has become…Now just hurry up and add that monster that baked the Rangers into a pizza!

#6 - New Super Lucky’s Tale

If your name isn’t Mario or Sonic, 3D platformers are effectively dead. That said, there’s been a few up-and-comers in recent years that are trying to revive the genre. Hat Kid from A Hat in Time, the duo of Yooka-Laylee, and now Lucky from the folks at Playful Studios. The cute fox has quite the history, starting from the Oculus Rift title, Lucky’s Tale, to a full-fledged platformer on the Xbox One X, Super Lucky’s Tale and now the enhanced port/reimagining New Super Lucky’s Tale on Switch. Halfway between a full-blown sequel, and enhanced edition, the game takes assets from the Xbox original game, tweaking and refining everything from visuals to controls to level layouts. The result is a game that is incredibly well-polished. It looks great, Lucky is a treat to control as he moves from jumping, burrowing and sliding around fluidly, and the variety on display keeps things interesting. We’ve got full 3D levels, 2D levels, auto-runners, and even some marble maze levels and puzzles thrown in for good measure. It’s not a hard game, but it IS incredibly fun, and well made. We don’t get many 3D platformers these days, so cherish what little comes of the genre. I hope Playful and Nintendo continue to collaborate, as they really seem more at home here. Just…maybe don’t add more words to the title of the next game, guys.

#5 - Katana Zero

There’s no nice way to say it: there’s too many pixel-based, side-scrolling indie games out there, so the ones that DO stand out deserve to be celebrated. Katana Zero has a real ‘80s flair for starters, using bright neon, TV and VCR visual effects, and a synth soundtrack to give it some real style. When a game kicks off with you slowing down time and reflecting a bullet back at an enemy with your katana, you make a good first impression! Add in the trial-and-error that is planning the perfect route through a stage, the satisfying slicing and dicing of enemies, the unique, challenging boss encounters, and you have a game that was on my radar for a while, before I finally got into it at the end of the year. Its storyline is pretty interesting too, with some slight variances in how events unfold depending on your words and actions, though it ending on a bit of a cliffhanger is a bummer. That said, when a game leaves you wanting more, there’s worse problems to have. At the very least, there’s some DLC hinted at that might be interesting, as well as the implications that this is the merely the first in a trilogy, and at this point I’m game for whatever developer Askiisoft has in store.

#4 - Luigi’s Mansion 3

The GameCube was an odd era for Nintendo, as they attempted to innovate and try new ideas rather than rely purely on their old standbys. Case-in-point, rather than launch the console with a new Mario platformer, his second-banana brother Luigi got his first starring role in what would become the Luigi’s Mansion series. While not making QUITE as big of a splash as maybe Nintendo hoped, it’s garnered a decent fanbase, and when a sequel was announced for 3DS, people ate it up. Considering the gap between the first and second games, I think many people were surprised at the relatively quick turn-around for the third installment. I was also surprised at the overall quality and how much I enjoyed digging into it. For starters, Luigi’s Mansion 3 is easily one of the better-looking Switch titles, boasting some great lighting and particle effects, with some fun physics implemented for just about everything in the massive mansion. Luigi and company are animated with a lot of expressiveness that never gets old, and the music sets the tone perfectly too. From a gameplay standpoint, the toolset Luigi gains gives him ample options to poke at every nook and cranny, with the slimy doppelganger Gooigi being the clear stand-out. Some of the floors of the Last Resort hotel that Luigi must ascend are particularly massive and intricate too, some floors feeling like Legend of Zelda-style dungeons. While not a particularly challenging game, it’s still really satisfying to poke and prod at everything in sight, sucking in all the coins, gold bars and stacks of paper bills you can handle, not to mention slamming the ghosts around like the Hulk does to Loki. There’s also multiplayer! That I…haven’t really touched but…hey! More bang for your buck, surely!

#3 – Dragon Quest XI S

I don’t consider myself a huge fan of JRPGs. Or at least that’s what I thought before I tried out the Dragon Quest XI demo on Switch. I ended up falling for the game hard and bought the full release, carrying my demo data over and not stopping until I hit credits. Despite having never touched a Dragon Quest game before, outside of an hour or so of VIII, I was overcome with this feeling of nostalgia when it came to this game. That’s because Dragon Quest is THE quintessential JRPG game, the originator of all that we take for granted today. It was nice to feel right at home with a simple, effective combat system, rather than having to watch games re-invent the wheel in an attempt to stand out from the pack (sorry Xenoblade), and the story itself, while predictable and a little basic at times, was told well and told earnestly. It really nailed the feeling of going on a grand adventure, with enough twists on the formula to keep things interesting. The turn-based combat was elementary, but always presented me with fair challenges and lots of ways to solve the encounters laid before me, with enough quality-of-life features added in to minimize grind and make things more convenient. The Switch version of Dragon Quest XI featured a bunch of new content on top of a game that had more than enough going for it, and it’s clear a lot of work was done to make this port as faithful as could be, and it stands out not just as a great port on a system known for some shoddy ones, but as a title that’s brimming with as much polish and quality to rival first-party Switch titles. Don’t ban Hero in Smash and don’t miss out on this game if you haven’t taken the plunge already!

#2 – Devil May Cry 5

The Devil May Cry franchise has had its share of ups and downs over the years. For every game that’s considered a success, you have another game that doesn’t quite measure up. For years many thought the franchise was dead in the water after the attempted reboot, DMC: Devil May Cry failed to grow its audience, but when Microsoft’s E3 2018 show revealed to us a new installment, fans were ecstatic. Devil May Cry 5 boasts crisp visuals, deep combat and trims the fat, removing the wonky platforming and puzzles of earlier games to create a high-octane action experience that ultimately exceeded fan expectations. Its storyline firmly plants Devil May Cry 4’s Nero as a main character in his own right, wraps up the story of the Sparda brothers neatly, and if this ended up being the last title in the series, I think it’s that rare ending that ends up being totally satisfying. Combat is the real draw here though, the game giving players three distinct characters to learn and master. Nero’s robotic Devil Breaker arms allow him a decent amount of variety, while having a balanced, beginner-friendly combat style for new players. Dante remains the king of variety, having more weapons than ever before combined with his signature style switching, though the game is actually designed with all these options in mind so he doesn’t end up breaking the game like he did in 4. Newcomer V ends up being a breath of fresh air, controlling up to three demonic summons at once, forcing players to really think more strategically. The music is incredible too; Nero’s own theme, Devil Trigger, has been stuck in my head since last year and I don’t see it leaving any time soon. All things considered, Devil May Cry 5 might be the best game in the franchise, and a worthy contender for game of the year personally. Now if only we had a special edition with Vergil and the ladies playable…

#1 - Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I got into the Fire Emblem series with Awakening and really liked it a lot, however Fates, the next installment, left a bad taste in my mouth. I couldn’t really get into Echoes, itself a remake of the second game in the series, and I began to wonder if this franchise was really for me. I was willing to give Three Houses a shot, but I was not prepared for the game to blow past all my expectations. Fire Emblem: Three Houses isn’t just a good game, it’s a game that’s redeemed a franchise that’s stumbled a bit in recent years, and it likely cements Fire Emblem as a core Nintendo franchise for years to come. It has class, depth and real heart...with only minor creepy or pervy elements! Making a grand return to home consoles after more than a decade on handhelds, it goes big and it ultimately paid off, on track to become the best-selling entry in the series. The school setting might seem weird at first, and I wondered how well I’d adjust to it, but being able to instruct your units and influence their growth in battle was worth the learning curve. Things are introduced slowly enough that the flow of the game becomes relatively easy to manage, if a bit time-consuming overall. With four distinct storylines you can explore, TONS of character interactions and some interesting tweaks to the strategic gameplay the series is known for, I’m confident in saying that Three Houses is well-worth a purchase for newcomers to the franchise. Divine Pulse is a great quality-of-life addition that lets you undo mistakes, rather than force you to start over from scratch, and overall the UI and layout of the game gives you enough information to make informed decisions without overwhelming you. Makes me wonder how we survived before the games showed us who enemies would target on their turns before now. Admittedly, some aspects of the progression have some issues, especially at endgame, and visually the game really is not up to par most of the time, but these end up being tiny blemishes in the long run for me. They certainly weren’t bad enough to prevent me from starting a new path the instant I finished my first route. If I have one request…just make Claude a gay option. Give the people what they want, Nintendo!

Honorable Mentions

I’d like to add on some honorable mentions here before we close things out, though most of these are things I didn’t even get a chance to play, but they certainly might have made this list. For one, Resident Evil 2 Remake seems like a high-quality reinterpretation of the survival-horror classic, but I can’t do horror so I’ll likely pass it up. It’s also for that reason that I might not get to Control but I might try jumping out of my comfort zone for that one. The confusion surrounding both The Other Worlds AND The Outer Wilds is funny, but they’re both space-based games I’d be keen on getting to at some point down the line; the former is a great Western RPG by the folks who made the GOOD Fallout games, while the latter is an interesting space-faring puzzler with some interesting mechanics I’d rather not spoil for those not more in-the-know. Indie titles Sayonara Wild Hearts and GRIS definitely caught my attention with their great visuals, and in the case of the former, its soundtrack, even if the gameplay wasn’t quite there for me, and the weird fighting-game-but-kinda-RPG that is Indivisible demands my attention sooner or later. Bloodstained is the Castlevania follow-up I keep forgetting is out, and I hear great things about Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. The team behind the Yakuza series recently made a spin-off of sorts, Judgment that hit the West this year and while I like the Yakuza series for its quirky tone and fun combat, there’s still six other games I’d have to sift through, so going with Judgment, which is set to possibly begin a new franchise, seems like a good alternative. And how could I forget the likes of Shovel Knight as we finally receive the last expansion that’s been years in the making? I haven’t touched the King of Cards expansion yet, but I have the upmost faith in anything Yacht Club makes, so that’s surely a game of the year contender. 2019 was crazy good! Glad to close the year out with so much quality, and tons of great stuff to add to the ever-growing backlog.

Hope you had some good gaming memories made this year!

-B

[sayaratyriea]

What's the physical appearance of all your main characters? I like to have a vague image of characters in my head and they all seem really interesting.

I’ve actually drawn them all a few different times, if you take a plunge into my blog’s /tagged/taz-draws-things archive. Just be warned that there’s a lot of weird crap in there too. But since I’ve drawn them, and actually contemplated making a comic with them before, they have pretty well-established designs for the most part!  

-Sayara is fair-skinned, with dark blonde curly hair and greyish-blue eyes. She’s about 5 feet tall for most of the series. As an adult, she still only grows to around 5′2″. So she’s decently short. She’s built stocky, one of those people who accumulates muscle mass easily and doesn’t look quite right without a certain level of physical fitness. She straddles the line between hourglass figure and brick wall, she’s got pudge but also a lot of muscle. If she doesn’t do her hair right then she risks looking like a Lego minifigure because of her somewhat squared-off face shape. She’s pretty when she puts in the effort, but she usually can’t be bothered. She likes to wear her hair in two big fat braids. She has butterfly-morph wings with a whole lot of colors in them, but the dominant color is blue. 

-Hope is a platinum blonde, one of those people who’d be accused of dying her hair IRL. Her hair’s also pretty straight, though it would wave if she let it grow past her shoulders. She’s taller and slimmer than Sayara, around average height with a more bottom-heavy build. She’s a pretty average white girl, not gonna lie. Also grey-blue eyes, but with a touch more green to them than Sayara’s. She also has more olive undertones to her skin than Sayara, who’s pretty rosy. Hope has mainly-teal butterfly-morph wings. 

-Violet and Lavender are identical twins, the only visible difference between them is how they part their hair. They’re fantasy East Asian, so slightly tilted monolid eyes and flatter noses, but they both have somewhat long faces and very sharp cheekbones. They have purple eyes, Violet’s are a bit darker than Lavender’s. Their hair is black and very long, reaching to around their waists in book 1 and getting longer as they grow up--in book 3 it’s past their hips. Lavender almost always keeps hers in a bun, but Violet can’t be bothered to braid or style it half the time and lets it fly loose and get everywhere. Both girls are skinny and very tall, measuring at 5′11″ when they’re done growing. Lavender looks healthy, Violet looks like she needs to stop skipping meals. Vi wears a ton of silver jewelry all the time. She also has a belly button piercing that she thinks her mom doesn’t know about. Since they’re Irkatzi, the twins have purple blood, which means they look like they’re drowning sometimes. The magic purple underneath skin with any pigmentation at all creates this ashy, washed-out look that’s very alien but winds up suiting them nicely. Violet is canonically the most attractive fairy, I firmly believe that on Earth she could be a supermodel. She’s absolutely gorgeous. Lavender is too, but there’s something very striking and sharp about how Violet presents herself that Lavender replaces with softness. I have a thing for girls who could beat me up. They both have dragonfly-morph wings. Violet’s are purple and black, Lavender’s are pale pastel purple with slight blue and seafoam-green accents. 

-Aelia’s also Irkatzi, and thus also purple-blooded with purple monolid eyes. Her eye coloring is more intense than Violet’s and has more red to it. She also has yellow streaks in her eyes, which is neat. It doesn’t happen often with the Irkatzi because usually yellow eye coloring merges with the purple and produces a dull brown if it’s present. Elli has short hair, since she hasn’t had her seventh evolution yet and the Irkatzi traditionally don’t (and can’t) grow their hair much longer than chin-length before the bulk of their magic comes in. She’s bit darker-skinned than the twins, but that doesn’t say much because the effect of the purple blood still makes her pretty pale-looking. She’s built tall and slim like her sisters, but she’s also pretty buff. She looks like she has bigger boobs than the twins but they’re actually just pecs. None of the Ravenharts are very well-endowed. She likes to wear tight-fitting clothing to show off how much muscle she’s got... it doesn’t always work, because she’s still a Ravenhart, and her frame just isn’t capable of building up that much visible beef. She’s pretty upset about it. Aelia’s wings are dragonfly-morph and mostly orchid purple. 

-Amalie’s physical appearance is in a state of flux at the moment because I keep redesigning her, but she’s some shade of brown. Brown eyes, brown wavy hair, brown skin. She was originally based off of an IRL friend who’s simply rather tan, but I feel like next to all the pale-ass Tyrieas and Ravenharts I should have at least one major character who’s not that? Amalie’s around average height and average weight, nothing really remarkable. Her interesting feature is her wings, which are special. I don’t want to spoil what’s weird about them right now, but they don’t look or function like normal fairy wings. Amalie usually wears cloaks and other long flowy dramatic articles of clothing, so her physical features are ~mysterious~. 

As for the villains... 

-Kyrina’s tan, with light caramelly brown hair and very intense green eyes. She’s got mixed parents, her mom was very pale and her dad was medium brown, so the result is that she’s somewhere right in the middle there. She’s around the same height and build as Sayara, but she’s more pudgy than muscular. She’s got that nice Renaissance painting fat, or at least as much of it as fairies are physically capable of accumulating. She has a very nice-looking nose, and she styles her hair in very fancy ways. When she grows up, she matures into a really nice hourglass figure, but as a teenager she’s just not there yet. She’s definitely never gonna be skinny. She has the largest wingspan of the main teenage cast, even though she’s one of the shortest. Her wings are butterfly-morph and bright red.

-Dusk is another tall-and-scrawny, I seem to have a thing for that body shape. She’s fair-skinned but tanner and more olive than the Tyrieas, with dark hair and very pale silver eyes. She’s around the same height as Aelia. She dresses very nicely, almost always wearing the same dark red suit jacket, which is one of her favorite items of clothing. She and her precious jacket are nearly inseparable. She also wears a lot of makeup. Her signature look is casual red lipstick. She’s tall and wears high heels a lot, so she can fool people into thinking she’s a lot older than she is when she wants to. As a 14-year-old this is unsettling, but she grows into it over the series. In book 1 she keeps her hair short, but she grows it out later. She has pointy triangle bangs. One of my IRL friends nicknamed her “Red Satsuki” (after the character from Kill la Kill), so yeah.

None of these necessarily have to be written in stone, of course--I have my detailed descriptions, and my own canon art, but I also like hearing other people’s interpretations! Ultimately most aspects of the characters’ appearances aren’t that important, it’s more about the stuff they choose for themselves. 

[michaelandy101-blog]

The best way to Detect and Enhance Underperforming Content material: A Information to Optimization

New Post has been published on https://tiptopreview.com/how-to-detect-and-improve-underperforming-content-a-guide-to-optimization/

The best way to Detect and Enhance Underperforming Content material: A Information to Optimization

Content material, content material, and extra content material! That’s what search engine optimisation is all about these days, proper? In comparison with once I began working in search engine optimisation (2014), at the moment, content material is constantly one of the vital fashionable subjects lined at digital marketing conferences, there are far more instruments that concentrate on content material evaluation and optimization, and total it appears to dominate most of search engine optimisation information.

Don’t imagine me? Right here’s a pleasant Google Developments graph which will change your thoughts:

Google Developments screenshot for “content marketing” as a subject, set for worldwide curiosity.

However why is it that content material is now dominating the search engine optimisation scene? How important is content material in your search engine optimisation technique, truly? And most significantly: how will you be content material together with your website’s content material? Puns apart, this put up goals that will help you work out potential causes of your underperforming content material and the right way to enhance it.

Why content material is vital in search engine optimisation in 2020

Content material is likely one of the most vital components in search engine optimisation. Simply by paying shut consideration to what Google has been speaking to site owners in the previous few years, it’s clear that they’ve put a powerful emphasis on “content” as a decisive rating issue.

As an illustration, let’s take a look at this post, from August 2019, which talks about Google’s common updates and what site owners ought to concentrate on:

“Focus on content: pages that drop after a core update don’t have anything wrong to fix. We suggest focusing on ensuring you’re offering the best content you can. That’s what our algorithms seek to reward.”

The article goes on, itemizing a sequence of questions which will assist site owners when self-assessing their very own content material (I strongly advocate studying your entire put up).

That stated, content material alone can not and shouldn’t be sufficient for an internet site to rank properly, however it’s a fairly nice place to begin!

Underperforming content material: concept first

What’s underperforming content material?

Once I say “underperforming content”, I’m referring to content material, both on transactional/business pages or editorial ones, that doesn’t carry out as much as its potential. This may very well be content material that both used to draw a great degree of natural site visitors and now doesn’t, or content material that by no means did generate any natural site visitors regardless of the efforts you may need put in.

Over 90% of content gets no traffic from Google. Ninety bloody %! Which means that 9 pages out of 10 are seemingly to not obtain any natural site visitors in any respect — meals for thought.

What are the causes of underperforming content material?

There may very well be many the reason why your content material shouldn’t be doing properly, however the brutal reality is commonly easy: usually, your content material is just not ok and doesn’t deserve to rank within the prime natural positions.

Having stated that, listed here are the commonest the reason why your content material could also be underperforming: they’re in no explicit order and I’ll spotlight crucial, for my part.

Your content material doesn’t match the person intent

Based mostly on my expertise, this can be a essential factor that even skilled entrepreneurs nonetheless get fallacious. It could be the case that your content material is nice and related to your customers, however doesn’t match the intent that Google is showcasing within the SERP for the key phrases of focus.

As SEOs, our purpose ought to be to match person intent, which suggests we first want to grasp the what and the who earlier than defining the how. Whose intent we’re concentrating on and what’s represented within the SERP will outline the technique we use to get there.

Instance: site owners who hope to rank for a “navigational or informational” key phrase with a transactional, web page or vice versa.

Your content material isn’t within the preferrred format Google is prioritizing

Google could also be favoring a sure kind of format which your content material doesn’t conform to, therefore it isn’t receiving the anticipated visibility.

Instance: you hope to rank with a text-heavy weblog put up for a “how to” key phrase the place Google is prioritizing video content material.

Your content material is method too “thin” in contrast to what’s rating

It doesn’t essentially should be a matter of content material size (there is no such thing as a confirmed content material size components on the market, belief me) however extra relevance and comprehensiveness. It could be the case that your content material is just not as compelling as different websites on the market, therefore Google prioritizing these over you.

Instance: you hope to rank for closely aggressive informational key phrases with a 200-words weblog put up.

Your content material isn’t as up-to-date

In case your content material could be very topical, and such a subject closely is determined by info which can change with time, then Google will reward websites that put effort into retaining the content material recent and up-to-date. Other than search engines themselves, customers actually care about recent content material — nobody desires to learn an “SEO guide to improve underperforming content” that was created in 2015!

Instance: sure topics/verticals are typically extra liable to this challenge, however usually something associated to rules/legal guidelines/tips which have a tendency to vary typically.

Your content material is closely seasonal or tied to a previous occasion/expertise

Self-explanatory: in case your content material is about one thing that occurred prior to now, usually the curiosity for that specific topic will regularly lower over time. There are exceptions, in fact (god save the 90s and my fav Netflix present “The Last Dance”), however you get the gist.

Instance: subjects similar to dated occasions or experiences (Olympics 2016, previous editions of Black Friday, and so forth) or newsworthy content material (2016 US election, Kanye operating for president — no wait that’s nonetheless taking place…).

Your tech directives have modified the web page’s indexation standing

If one thing occurs to your web page that makes it fall out of Google’s index. The most typical points may very well be: surprising no-index tag, canonical tag, incorrect hreflang tags, web page standing adjustments, web page eliminated with Google Search Console’s take away software, and so forth.

Instance: after some search engine optimisation suggestions, your devs mistakenly put a no-index tag in your web page with out you realizing.

Your web page is sufferer of duplication or cannibalization

Should you occur to cowl the identical or related key phrase matter with a number of pages, this will likely set off duplication and/or cannibalization, which in the end will lead to a lack of natural visibility.

Instance: you launch a brand new service web page alongside your present choices, however the on-page focus (metadata, content material, linking construction) isn’t totally different or distinctive sufficient and it finally ends up cannibalizing your current visibility.

Your web page has been topic to JavaScript adjustments that make the content material onerous to index for Google

Let’s not go right into a JavaScript (JS) rabbit gap and hold it easy: if some JS stuff is occurring in your web page and it’s dynamically altering some on-page search engine optimisation components, this will likely influence how Google indexes your content material.

Instance: fictitious case the place your website goes via a redesign, heavy JS is now taking place in your browser and altering a key a part of your content material that now Google can not render simply — that may be a downside!

Your web page has misplaced visibility following drastic SERP adjustments

The SERP has modified extensively in the previous few years, which suggests many extra new options that at the moment are current weren’t there earlier than. This will trigger disruption to earlier rankings (therefore to your earlier CTR), or make your pages fall out of Google’s treasured web page one.

Additionally, don’t neglect to contemplate that the competitors may need gotten stronger with time, in order that may very well be another excuse why you lose important visibility.

Instance: some verticals have been impacted greater than others (jobs, flights, and resorts, as an illustration) the place Google’s personal snippets and instruments at the moment are getting the highest of the SERP. If you’re as obsessive about SERP possibilities, and particularly PAA, as I’m and need extra particulars, have a read here.

Your content material doesn’t have any backlinks

With out going into an excessive amount of element on this level — it may very well be a separate weblog put up — for very aggressive business phrases, not having any/too few backlinks (and what backlinks characterize in your website in Google’s eyes) can maintain you again, even when your web page content material is compelling by itself. That is notably true for brand new web sites working in a aggressive setting.

Instance: for a difficult vertical like vogue, as an illustration, this can be very tough to rank for key head phrases with out a good quantity of high quality (and naturally gained) backlinks to assist your transactional pages.

The best way to discover the problems affecting your content material

We’ve lined the why above, let’s now deal with the how: the right way to decide what challenge impacts your web page/content material. This half is particularly devoted to a not-too savvy search engine optimisation viewers (skip this half and go straight to subsequent if you’re after the how-to suggestions).

I’ll undergo an inventory of checks that may assist you to detect the problems listed above.

Technical checks

Google Search Console

Use the URL inspection software to investigate the standing of the web page: it will probably assist you to reply questions similar to:

Has my web page been crawled? Are we even permitting Google to crawl the web page?

Has my web page been listed? Are we even permitting Google to index the web page?

By assessing the Protection function, Google will share details about the crawlability and indexability of the web page.

Pay explicit consideration to the Indexing part, the place they point out user-declared canonical vs google-selected canonical. If the 2 differ, it’s undoubtedly price investigating the rationale, as this implies Google isn’t respecting the canonical directives positioned on the web page — check official resources to study extra about this.

Chrome extensions

I really like Chrome extensions and I objectively have method too many on my browser…

Some Chrome extensions may give you a lot of information on the indexability standing of the web page with a easy click on, checking issues like canonical tags and meta robots tags.

My favourite extensions for this matter are:

JavaScript test

I’ll hold it easy: JavaScript is vital in at the moment’s setting because it provides interactivity to a web page. By doing so, it might alter some key HTML components which can be essential for search engine optimisation. You possibly can simply test how a web page would look with out JS by utilizing this handy software by Onley: WWJD.

Realistically talking, you want solely one of many following instruments with a purpose to test whether or not JavaScript may be an issue in your on-page search engine optimisation:

All of the above instruments are very helpful for any kind of troubleshooting as they’re showcasing the rendered-DOM sources in real-time (totally different from what the “view-source” of a web page appears like).

When you’ve run the take a look at, click on to see the rendered HTML and attempt to do the next checks:

Is the core a part of my content material seen?

Fast method to take action: discover a sentence in your content material, use the search perform or click on CTRL + F with that sentence to see if it’s current within the rendered model of the web page.

Are inside hyperlinks seen to Google?

Fast method to take action: discover an inside hyperlink on the web page, use the search perform or click on CTRL + F with that sentence to see if it’s current within the rendered model of the web page.

Can Google entry different key components of the web page?

Test for issues similar to headers (instance beneath with a Brainlabs article), merchandise, pagination, opinions, feedback, and many others.

Intent and SERP evaluation

By analyzing the SERP for key phrases of focus, you’ll have the ability to determine a sequence of questions that relate to your content material in relation to intent, competitors, and relevance. All main search engine optimisation instruments these days offer you tons of nice details about what the SERP appears like for no matter key phrase you’re analyzing.

For the sake of our instance, let’s use Ahrefs and the pattern key phrase beneath is “evergreen content”:

Based mostly on this instance, these are some things I can discover:

This key phrase triggers lots of attention-grabbing SERP options (Featured Snippet, Prime Tales, Folks additionally ask)

The highest natural spots are owned by very established and authoritative sources (Ahrefs weblog, Hubspot, Wordstream and many others), which makes this key phrase fairly tough to compete for

Listed below are fast solutions on what varieties of checks I like to recommend:

Perceive and classify the key phrase of research, based mostly on the kind of outcomes Google is exhibiting within the SERP: any adverts exhibiting, or natural snippets? Are the competing pages primarily transactional or informational?

Test the standard of the websites which can be rating in web page one: indicative metrics that may assist you to collect insights on the standard of every area (DA/DR) are useful, the variety of key phrases these pages are seen for, the estimated site visitors per web page, and so forth.

Do a fast crawl of those pages to bulk test the comprehensiveness of their content material and metadata, or manually test some should you desire that method.

By doing most of those checks, you’ll have the ability to see in case your content material is underperforming for any of the explanations beforehand talked about:

Content material not compelling sufficient in contrast to what’s rating on web page one

Content material within the fallacious format in comparison with what Google is prioritizing

Content material is well timed or seasonal

Content material is being overshadowed by SERP options

Duplication and cannibalization points

Check out my 2019 post on this subject, which matches into much more element. The fast model of the put up is beneath.

Use compelling search engine optimisation instruments to grasp the next:

whether or not, for tracked key phrases of curiosity, two or extra rating URLs have been flip-flopping. That could be a clear signal that search engines are confused and can’t “easily decide” on what URL to rank for a sure key phrase.

whether or not, for tracked key phrases of curiosity, two or extra rating URLs are showing on the identical time (not essentially on web page one of many SERP). That could be a clear sign of duplication/cannibalization.

test your search engine optimisation visibility by touchdown web page: if totally different URLs that rank for very related key phrase permutations, likelihood is there’s a threat there.

final however not least: do a easy website search for key phrases of curiosity with a purpose to get an preliminary concept of what number of pages (that cowl a sure matter) have been listed by Google. That is an insightful preliminary train and likewise helpful to validate your worries.

The best way to repair underperforming content material

We’ve lined the commonest circumstances of underperforming content material and the right way to detect such points — now let’s discuss methods to repair them.

Beneath is an inventory of prompt actions to take when bettering your underperforming content material, with some very beneficial hyperlinks to different sources (largely from Moz or Google) that may assist you to develop on particular person ideas.

Ensure your web page could be crawled and listed “properly”

Be certain that your web page doesn’t fall beneath any path of blocked sources in Robots.txt

Guarantee your web page shouldn’t be supplied with a no-index meta robots tag or a canonical tag pointing elsewhere (a self-referencing canonical tag is one thing it’s possible you’ll need to think about however not obligatory in any respect).

Test whether or not different pages have a canonical tag pointing to your URL of focus. Irrelevant or poorly-done canonical tags are inclined to get ignored by Google — you may test if that’s the case within the URL Inspection tool.

Guarantee your website (not simply your web page) is free from any non-SEO friendly JavaScript that may alter key on-page components (similar to headers, physique content material, inside hyperlinks, and many others.).

Guarantee your web page is linked internally on the positioning and current in your XML sitemap.

Perceive search intent

Search intent is a fascinating topic in and of itself, and there are lots of nice sources on the topic if you wish to delve deeper into it.

Put merely, it’s best to all the time analysis what the SERP appears like for the subject of curiosity: by analyzing the SERP and all its options (natural and non), you may get a a lot better understanding of what search engines are on the lookout for with a purpose to match intent.

By auditing the SERP, it’s best to have the ability to reply the next questions:

What kind of content material is Google favoring right here: transactional, navigational, informational?

How aggressive are the key phrases of focus and the way authoritative are these rivals rating extremely for them?

What content material format is Google showcasing within the SERP?

How complete ought to my content material be to get an opportunity to rank in web page one?

What key phrases are used within the competitor’s metadata?

What natural options ought to I think about addressing with my content material (issues like featured snippets, folks additionally ask, prime photos, and many others.)?

Hopefully all of the questions above may even offer you a sensible view of your possibilities of rating on Google’s first web page. Don’t be afraid to modify your focus to PPC for some very aggressive key phrases the place your actual chance of natural rankings are slim.

Map your pages towards the correct key phrases

This can be a obligatory step to ensure you have a transparent understanding of not solely what key phrases you need to rank for, but additionally what key phrases you’re eligible to rank for.

Don’t overdo it and be sensible about your rating potentialities: mapping your web page towards a number of key phrases variations, all of which present very totally different SERPs and intents, shouldn’t be sensible.

My suggestion is to choose two or three major key phrase variations and concentrate on getting your content material as related as doable to these phrases.

Write nice metadata

Title tags are nonetheless an extremely vital on-page rating issue, so dedicate the correct time when writing distinctive and keyword-rich titles.

Meta descriptions aren’t a rating issue anymore, however they nonetheless play a component in attractive the person to click on on a search consequence. So from a CTR perspective, they nonetheless matter.

SEO keyword research is the plain alternative to put in writing compelling metadata, however don’t neglect about PPC ad copies — test what PPC advert copies work finest in your website and take learnings from them.

Don’t change metadata too typically, although: ensure you do your homework and provides sufficient time to correctly take a look at new metadata, as soon as carried out.

Make the correct content material amends

Based mostly on the intent audit and key phrase mapping insights, you’re now able to work in your precise web page content material.

By now, you’ve achieved your homework, so that you simply must concentrate on writing nice content material for the person (and never for Google).

Readability is an important a part of a web page. Tips that I’ve realized from colleagues through the years are the next:

Learn the content material out loud and attempt to objectively assess how attention-grabbing it’s in your audience.

Ensure to make use of sufficient spacing between strains and paragraphs. Folks’s consideration span as of late could be very quick, and likelihood is folks will skim via your content material quite than dedicating 100% of their consideration to it (I’m positive a few of YOU readers are doing it proper now!).

Ensure your tone of voice and language match your audience (should you can write issues in plain English vs. extremely technical jargon, accomplish that and don’t over-complicate your life).

Be sure to’ve considered all inside linking potentialities throughout the positioning. Not solely for a similar kind of web page (transactional web page to transactional web page, as an illustration) but additionally throughout differing types (transactional web page to video/weblog put up, if that helps folks decide, for instance).

Non-obligatory step: as soon as every part is prepared, request indexing of your web page in Google Search Console with the URL inspection software.

Last ideas

Underperforming content material is a quite common challenge and shouldn’t take you unexpectedly, particularly contemplating that content material is taken into account amongst (if not the) most vital rating components in 2020. With the correct instruments and course of in place, fixing this challenge is one thing everybody can study: search engine optimisation shouldn’t be black magic, the reply tends to be logical.

First, perceive the trigger(s) in your underperforming content material. When you’re sure you’re compliant with Google’s technical tips, transfer on to figuring out what intent you’re attempting to fulfill. Your analysis on intent ought to be complete: that is what’s going to determine what adjustments you’ll must make to your content material. At that time, you’ll be able to make the mandatory search engine optimisation and content material adjustments to finest match your findings.

I hope this text is helpful! Be at liberty to talk about any questions you might have within the feedback or through Twitter or LinkedIn.

To assist us serve you higher, please think about taking the 2020 Moz Weblog Reader Survey, which asks about who you’re, what challenges you face, and what you’d wish to see extra of on the Moz Weblog.

Take the Survey

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[infjarts]

NINJAGOTALE MASTERPOST AND FAQ

Here is the FAQ and Masterpost for my Ninjagotale project! Read on for answers to basic questions, and scroll down for links to certain posts! This will be updated whenever new content comes out, so check back often to see if you missed anything!

WHAT IS NINJAGOTALE?

It is an Undertale/Ninjago AU/crossover story that has evolved into a VERY different thing than it started out as. It is basically Undertale, but with the characters swapped with characters from the Ninjago series. However, there will be a HUGE plot twist that changes everything.

ARE YOU THE CREATOR OF NINJAGOTALE?

No. But like Underswap and Underfell, it pretty much belongs to everyone in the fandom. There are multiple interpretations, and I am not the first one to have one. Many of the character choices are actually inspired by other people’s interpretations! However, I’m doing something particularly unique with mine...

IS NINJAGOTALE A FANFICTION?

It used to be! Now it’s a comic. You can find the written version links below the comic version links if you’re interested!

WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERS LIKE?

In my version, they have the same names as the Ninjago characters, but most of the personalities are the same as the Undertale characters. However, to make things more interesting, the characters you interact with most will have some of the traits of the Ninjago characters. So they will be a bit different.

The appearances are a combination of the two characters. Most are humanoid, but I made it a goal to make them clearly not human (they are still called monsters). You can see what I mean if you take a look at some of the designs. You’ll find the links to them in the “characters” section of this post (scroll down a bit). You may see multiple links, and that’s because those specific characters have been redesigned. Beware, the originals are much less visually appealing than the new ones!

ARE THERE ANY OCS?

VERY few. I made it my goal to use them sparingly, and only if I have no other choice. If there is an OC, know that I had VERY GOOD REASONS to put them there. Don’t tell me that there is no reason for [character] to be an OC, there is. I will be happy to explain my reasons to you if you ask nicely. Unless it is a spoiler (because there is one).

DO YOU TAKE REQUESTS / CAN YOU PUT MY OC / HEADCANON / IDEAS IN NINJAGOTALE?

I used to do that with my fanfictions on FFN. Sadly, I have moved on from taking requests. I have realized it is actually a bad writing move in general and should not be done if you want quality writing. The only people who are authorized to give significant influential input are the members of the Ninjagotale Team.

YOU SHOULDN’T PUT _____ IN NINJAGOTALE! I DON’T LIKE THAT!

Thank you for expressing your concerns. I’m sorry, but I’m not changing the plot to please a few people who don’t like what I’m doing with my story. There are other stories out there. Go find one you do like. Or make your own story instead of whining at other people to change their stories so you like them.

CAN I MAKE FAN ART OF NINJAGOTALE?

Absolutely! After all, I’m not the first person to have an interpretation of the AU! There are several other people who have one of their own! And if it’s specifically for my version, tag me in it and I will reblog it and add it to this masterpost! You will also be featured in the Neutral Ending credits!

CAN I ASK QUESTIONS?

Of course! Just know that I am not obligated to answer them. But I will try my best to do so, as long as they’re not hate, spam, someone forcing their opinions on me, or could potentially cause drama!

WHY ARE YOU MAKING NINJAGOTALE?

First reason: because while I have seen concept art and fan art of it, I haven’t seen many people make it into an actual story (I do have friends who are currently in the process of it though).

Second reason: I actually feel motivated to do this. This is huge, because lately I have not been very inspired. By anything.

Third (and probably most important) reason: On a personal level, this is actually my way of tracking my improvement and development of my art. My goal is to have mastered most of the basics by the end of the project. I don’t know if that will happen, but I’m going to try! #FILLED WITH DETERMINATION

I’M NEW TO NINJAGO. HOW CAN I UNDERSTAND THE AU IF I DON’T KNOW THE BASICS?

Easy! Just join the discord and read the basics for newbies! Here’s the link! https://discord.gg/jZCap2U

NINJAGOTALE (COMIC VERSION) INDEX

Intro

Cover

Part 1 start

Chapter 1 start

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

NINJAGOTALE (WRITTEN VERSION) INDEX

Cover

Intro

Part 1 start

Part 1 Act 1 start

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

FULL CAST OF CHARACTERS WITH PERSONALITY DESCRIPTIONS (updated once in a while, check back occasionally to see changes!)

HOW TO GET INTO THE NEUTRAL ENDING CREDITS

PROMOTIONAL POSTERS

Ninjagotale promo poster 1

Ninjagotale promo poster 2

RELEASED DESIGNS AND SKETCHES (some of these are in my main blog because they’re old and unofficial and I don’t feel like spamming you all with bad art on this blog) (also keep in mind that the official designs are always subject to change along the road and I’m not going to make a new design page every time there’s a shift in style or appearance due to improvement and development of my art) 

Mettaton = Pixane (turns into Zane and Pixal once Mettaton EX happens)

PIXANE DESIGN * ZANE AND PIXAL EX DESIGNS

Alphys = Jay

JAY DESIGN (ORIGINAL) (NEW)

Undyne = Nya

NYA DESIGN (ORIGINAL) (NEW)

Sans = Cole

COLE DESIGN (ORIGINAL) (NEW)

Papyrus = Kai

KAI DESIGN (ORIGINAL) (NEW)

Asriel = Lloyd

LLOYD DESIGN

Chara = Morro

MORRO DESIGN (ORIGINAL) (NEW)

Grillby = Skylor

SKYLOR DESIGN (ORIGINAL) 

Flowey = Lolley the Lollipop

LOLLEY DESIGN  (ORIGINAL) (NEW) (PRACTICE SKETCHES)

Toriel = Misako

MISAKO DESIGN

OTHER PEOPLE’S WORK

firstfandomfangirl’s Jay/Sans design

firstfandomfangirl’s Cole/Papyrus design

firstfandomfangirl’s Nya/Undyne design

firstfandomfangirl’s Lloyd/Frisk design

firstfandomfangirl’s Morro/Chara design

firstfandomfangirl’s Zane/Napstablook design

that-one-ninjago-blog’s Nya/Undyne design

cjwildstyle’s Ninjagotale poster

firstfandomfangirl’s Jay/Alphys birthday present to me

as-you-doodle’s Morro/Chara drawing

Morro/Chara three-way collab (me/firstfandomfangirl) (firstfandomfangirl/as-you-doodle) (as-you-doodle/me)

INSPIRATION

booping-noses’s designs

DUMB STUFF

Fallen down

Kai’s hair

Morro’s hair

Fite me bro

Upgrading Lolley

Guess I’ll die

[wordpresssocialsharingpdf]

Wordpress Social Share Plugin And Advantages

You can see social sharing Buttons on the left of every single post of this blog. A giant number of online journals have now gotten this system of sharing their substance on the easygoing correspondence zones like Digg, Facebook, Twitter, Stumble upon. For what reason do they have to share their substance paying little heed to the manner in which that they have endless by day perusers and guests? The response to this demand is to an extraordinary degree essential. Social share module makes you overhaul your SEO score with web look devices and you can't overlook this for your blog.

Web look gadgets give progressively an inspiring power to your substance in the event that it is completely spread on social affiliation regions. Social sharing your substance stimulates you increase some inbound interfaces with your blog. Moreover, social bookmarking areas are routinely crept by the web crawler bugs. In this way, presenting your relationship with these objectives can help in the speedier asking for of your substance. Social sharing is exceedingly prescribed on the off chance that you need to develop your blog's page rank quick.

One of the focuses that different new WordPress bloggers get hung up on is the refinement between a Page and a Post. There are some key separation's that, for instance, whatever else, when you comprehend are to a great degree easy to keep straight. With a WordPress site you can have incalculable and it boils down to how your site is managed.

First we should discuss pages. A WordPress page is a static page like you'll see on most any site. Normal uses for a page are the About Page or Contact Page. Pages remain autonomously and don't get merged into a request, nor in your RSS channels. In the event that we slight Posts absolutely for a second you could point of fact produce a whole site just with pages. In this manner, a page is only a page. This is a biggest viewpoint concerning the WordPress application is the wild about of flexibility that the thing offers.

Eventually, Posts. As an issue of first significance posts are time wandered. They comparatively get melded into a course of action, they get names, they do appear in your RSS channel. Posts are the strategy that most by a wide margin interface with the blog style of website page. In the event that you were making a blog about felines and you made a passed on another post each day then you would see those posts showed backward progressive demand… so most bleeding edge, most ideal situation and most arranged at the base.

Straightforwardly here's the questionable piece. Posts show up on a page. Consider pages like a sheet of paper and posts like those yellow Post-it sees that you can adhere to a pinch of paper in capability arrange.

With posts in WordPress you as the site head have an extensive proportion of request over how they are showed up. For instance in the event that you have three requests (say dull felines, white felines, decrease felines) when a client taps on the diminish feline plan relate the majority of the posts you have shaped on diminish felines will be showed up. Relative remains consistent for imprints. Right when a client taps on a particular check then all the posted you have related with that tag will be showed up.

When beginning the base asking for way I found to pick whether the substance I would elucidate what to go on a Page or a Post was to pick whether I would require it in a class. On the off chance that the substance fit one of my current classes, or one that I anticipated that would make, it was a post. On the off chance that I anticipated that would make a static piece of substance like an About Me bargain, it's a page. It might sound astounding yet play around a bit and you'll get it.

The general part of this New WordPress social share plugin is that it drives minute activity to your blog or website page by instantly sharing your substance to your Twitter of Facebook account. This astounding module can in like way be changed and you can post every day gives a record of auto pilot by giving the setting on the site. In actuality, with this module, you will be able to structure your site's progress in at whatever purpose of the day or week. Thusly, you will be able to make Instant Social Media Traffic to your site. Before long this specific module is gifted in giving you the proper activity that you necessity for your site. Fantastic activity to your site recommends that you have a not all that awful number of endorsers which can help redesign your plans.

Advantages Of Utilizing The Plugin :

It effectively fuses social sharing gets (like, send, share, buy in) to your posts and pages. You can in like way add these alternatives as opposed to the sidebar. By the by: you could set up these choices starting at now utilizing unmistakable other sharing modules like AddThis, Share This or Digg. These modules besides give you more noticeable flexibility on where to put social sharing gets and customization of styles.

You can offer patch up proposition to guests of your blog subject to improvement of different visitors.This is a remarkably huge alternative for a blog as it could keep your guests there longer, rousing them to inspect one post after another. Suggestion bar at the base moreover makes sharing posts less mind boggling by techniques for Facebook so possibly you could get a more prominent perceivable nature of your substance by strategies for perusers and guests. You could get round not utilizing the Plugin and offer basically indistinguishable accommodation utilizing Most Popular posts, Most Commented posts, other social sharing module at any rate I would express it's not really the tantamount and as savvy.

You can solidify Facebook Comments into your posts, these posts will then be perceptible on perusers' profile, from this time forward raising your substance to their sidekicks. Regardless: on the off chance that you viably utilized WordPress default remarks alternative (and you had remarks on your blog), drawing in this choice will supersede WordPress remarks arrange. So your old remarks, made without Facebook elective, will never again be visible!If you utilized another module to deal with your exchanges (like DISQUS), by then you will now have 2 remarks choices: through DISQUS and by techniques for Facebook Plugin. Truly I confide in it's mistaking for your perusers. In addition, DISQUS beginning at now offers Facebook login/trade off and furthermore different unmistakable choices for the general population who may lean toward not to utilize their Facebook account while remarking.

You can regularly scatter shows and pages on your profiles and pages you control. You can comparably decide distinctive individuals and pages in your posts, which will amass your discernible quality on Facebook - as these updates will get appropriated to profiles and pages that you observe. Regardless: I've endeavored this accommodation with 2 distinctive Facebook profiles on 2 specific goals. Clearly I clung to the heading two or multiple times, at any rate it just wouldn't course posts on my profile! Page coursing worked respectably (twice for my situation as I utilize Networked Blogs to syndicate my web journals). Be that as it may, the standard way I could get my profile related was by making reference to myself in the post. So right presently no uncertainty this part isn't in reality right.

In the event that you have Networked Blogs or a for all intents and purposes indistinguishable application beginning at now scattering your presents on your profile and Page, you would need to pick which choice you seize the opportunity to utilize: wordpress Plugin or a Facebook outsider App. The upside of the Plugin would be that you can make reference to various individuals and pages, not simply yourself and your page. Additionally, you can fuse a custom message while flowing a post for both making reference to of pages and making reference to of individuals.

[mrmarknewman]

What’s in a Name? A Lot, When It’s a Volunteer Name Tag

Guest post by Lisa Marie Porter, MA, CVA.

This post originally appeared on Twenty Hats.

At the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, we take the practice of volunteer name tags one-step further than usual.

Even though our public engagement volunteers wear official credentials that designate them as ‘Volunteers,’ we still ask them to pin a special name tag to their uniform.

The idea behind it? To make personal connections with our visitors. The name tags share first names-only to make the volunteers more approachable, with the designation ‘Volunteer’ printed in the upper right-hand corner.

We thought our volunteers were perfectly happy with their name tags – until our museum went through a rebranding initiative. When we presented the volunteers with the new look of the name tags, we received some pretty vocal push-back.

The Problem

Our volunteers objected strongly to the use of the word ‘Volunteer’ on the name tag. They argued that the tags seem redundant and do not add anything to the volunteer’s or visitor’s experiences.

Even though the new name tags looked exactly the same as the old ones, introducing the revisions prompted the volunteers to tell us what they didn’t like about the name tags in the first place.

That left us with quite a problem to solve. We needed to make our volunteers happy with the new name tags and proud to wear then.

The Path to a Solution

I decided to do two things:

Conduct some research and see how similar organizations approached the name tag question

I surveyed 20 Museums, both in and out of the Smithsonian network. I also read professional articles and publications.  The surveying and researching showed that ‘Volunteer’ was a common title on a name tag, or sometimes there was no title at all. To me, this information meant that we were doing the bare minimum of the industry standard. And our volunteers want, and deserve, more!

Empower the volunteers to help me in this process by assembling a task force

When my research was complete, I assembled a task force to help me make decisions about a name tag redesign. My task force included eight volunteers representing each of the public engagement roles within the Museum, and two members of the Museum’s leadership staff.

At the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, volunteers have the latitude to get creative in describing themselves

After a lively conversation, the task force members gave themselves some ‘homework’ and reached out to fellow volunteers for name tag ideas and feedback.  The respondents were asked to draw and/or describe their ideal name tag.

We received 88 responses representing roughly 16% of our 560+ public engagement volunteers. There were some very clear trends in the feedback when it came to volunteer preferences for name tags.  The volunteers wanted the name tags to include something that set them apart (such as a preferred name, skill level, length of service) or something of use to the visitor (such as languages spoken, conversation prompts, area of expertise).

With all of this helpful feedback, we had to figure out how to refine the name tags, keep them from looking busy with the added information, and stay within our institutional branding guidelines.  Whew – what a challenge!

The New Nametags

We decided to increase the logo size and added everyone’s start year (such as ‘Joined 2007’).  We selected the word ‘joined’ very intentionally, because it expresses the sense of community that volunteers have at the Museum with both visitors and staff. The year joined also conveys the expertise of the volunteer, in terms of ‘wow, you have been here for a long time!’

Another important change was to allow volunteers to list their name in whatever format they prefer. Pam and not Pamela? Thomas Smith? Dr. Samantha? Mrs. Fisher? All of these options are acceptable because we want the name tags to express the personality of the volunteer.

The change we’re proudest of is the options for volunteers in the upper right corner of the nametag, where the word ‘Volunteer’ would otherwise appear. Volunteers now have three choices for how they describe themselves on a nametag:

They can associate themselves with the location where they volunteer, such as Human Origins or Visitor Experience

They can substitute a catchy tagline, such as “Ask me about Dinosaurs” or “Ask me about DNA”

They can let visitors know that they speak another language, such as “Je Parle Français”

If a volunteer has more than one volunteer role, they can request more than one nametag.  Some have asked to keep ‘Volunteer’ as they do not want to switch nametags between jobs, and that’s ok. We want them to have it their way.

The results are customizable name tags for every single volunteer. No two are identical. And you know what? Volunteers are happy and having fun with their name tags.  One of our volunteers, Dr. Samantha, shared, “I was surprised about the type of questions I was getting with the new name tags. The questions are much more thoughtful, such as how do you know how old these fossils are? versus where is the bathroom? …Honestly it has made coming to the Museum more fun, because visitors are more likely to engage and listen to what you are showing them.”

What’s in a name?  Quite a lot, it turns out. And a great opportunity for our volunteers to express their creativity and have fun with their valuable roles.

  About the author:

Lisa Marie Porter, MA, CVA, has been working in Museums in the public sector since 2001. In 2007, Lisa Marie graduated the George Washington University with her MA in Anthropology and Museum Studies and joined the staff at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in Washington, DC. Lisa is currently the Volunteer Manager for the NMNH Volunteer Program.

  from Engaging Volunteers https://ift.tt/2q6vZBL

[lawrenceseitz22]

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 162

Click on the video above to watch Episode 162 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://ift.tt/2BQjTCo.

  Announcement

Bradley: Woohoo.

Adam: Well, hello everybody. Well, it’s not Christmas yet, so I’m gonna take this off, but we’ll come back to this in a minute. So, welcome to your Hump Day Hangouts. This is episode 162 on the 13th of December 2017. We got a few quick announcements before we get into it. Let’s roll down the line here quickly and say hello. So… Chris, how you doing today?

Chris: Doing good. Unfortunately, it’s warm again in Austria and I’m not used to that because I actually want to go snowboarding on the weekend, but we’ll see.

Adam: Gotcha. Well speaking of warm. Hernan, how you doing.

Hernan: Hey guys. Yeah, it’s really, really warm. It’s rainy today. Hey Bradley, quick thing, did you activate a camera, man? Thing, on the…

Bradley: Hey you prick. I got it, but thanks.

Hernan: Okay. Thank you. Ah, I’m really, really excited to be here. So, thank you guys.

Adam: Awesome. Marco, how you doing, man?

Marco: Hey, what’s up man? I’m good. I’m really, I’m excited actually. Get back into the groove. You know, get back into trying to shove crap down Google’s throat. Making them like it.

Adam: Awesome, awesome.

Bradley: Are you nearing the end of your recovery period?

Marco: I’m going home tomorrow, man.

Bradley: Oh, sweet. Okay. So, Google beware.

Adam: Bradley, how you doing?

Bradley: I’m doing well. I’m happy to be here. It’s fucking cold in Virginia though. I can tell you that. It’s really, really cold today. So, it’s even cold in my house. It typically gets really cold up here, so I’m a bit shivering. But I’m happy to be here, man. Let’s get started. Oh, yeah, I know you probably got a couple announcements and I got one too before we get started.

Adam: Definitely. Alright. So, the ears were not just because I love wearing them, which I do actually. This is my favorite Christmas hat, so, my wife bought it for me a couple of years ago. I wore to a company thing when I was an engineer so, anyways, moving on.

The actual announcements have to do with holidays and Semantic Mastery. So, were gonna have some announcements. Last year we did a price matching or not a price matching but a percentage of our holiday sales and we donated those to two charities. They marine corp toys for tots fund and then I believe there’s the Shriner’s hospital for children. Right Bradley?

Bradley: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Adam: This year we got something a little bit different worked out and we’re still hammering out the details but we want to let everyone know that we are going to be doing something this year so please stay tuned for that and when we have more information we’ll let you know. But again it’s going to be aimed towards children again and helping people out.

In addition to that, one week from today we’re going to be doing the Holiday Hump Day Hangout. So we’re gonna guarantee a two hour Hump Day Hangout. So that’s going to be a lot of fun. We’re going to have a couple little presentations but mostly just extending Q&A and if we get more questions I believe Bradley you’ve said that you’re willing to go the distance if people have got questions right?

Bradley: Yeah, we’ll do it.

Adam: Alright. So we’ll be hanging out. We might have a beer. I’m just saying that might happen on my end. Then today is the day. Last week we announced it. There’s been a ton of updates both to Syndication Academy and RYS Reloaded. So after Hump Day Hangouts, we’re hopping off we got to update the price son those. So Syndication Academy’s going up by like 50% monthly and then RYS Reloaded is going up from three to four thousand dollars. You literally have an hour if you’re watching live. If not it’s probably already happened. So just want to make that known to everybody since we sent out the emails about that.

Marco: Just so people know we have six or seven update webinars that we’ve done since we released RYS Reloaded. We have another one coming on Monday and it’s on skip navigation. Everyone calls them jump links. The WPC calls it skip navigation. It’s jump links or hash tag links or whatever you want to call it. That’s what it is. We’re having a webinar on it. Everyone’s talking about it. I’m going to go in there and show you how it’s done. So that’s the kind of stuff we’re doing in RYS Academy Reloaded in case you were on the fence. This is a really good time to get in.

Bradley: Yeah also what you may want to mention, which you talked about yesterdays webinar or Monday’s webinar. I mean don’t reveal it but I’m just saying it was suppose to be one of the best.

Marco: It’s automation, dude. One of our students managed to actually semi-automate the building of Dry Staff. So Rob took it a big further, he went in the lab and just came up with something really awesome to make taking over a state. It’s like [sherp shaper tima 00:04:36] and me guided or mass page creators. That kind of thing but for G sites dude. I mean we’re getting into that type of thing. We’re taking some of the manual out and so you can just mass produce these drive stacks and just go after an entire state if you wanted. If that’s what you want to do, then you have the ability to do it and we just made it a lot simpler. Just that webinar is worth the price of the mission to RYS Academy Reloaded.

Adam: Nice.

Bradley: Totally agree.

Chris: Important to say automation while remaining distinct quality of the stack for Google Drives.

Marco: Absolutely. I mean that goes without saying that we maintain all of the standards and that you do all of the intra making and everything else that’s involved. Of course.

Chris: Yeah just forced to mention because certain people always go to other ends and then complain like it’s not the quality and then we see well it’s not from us.

Adam: Cool, alright real quick before we get into it. Oh man Hernan switched his picture up. Hernan’s looking all fancy. Awesome. Before we keep talking about-

Hernan: [inaudible 00:05:54]

Adam: … weather and all that jazz. I do want to say sometimes I know we have some new viewers. We get a few every week and I want to say first of all thank you very much for being here and watching, whether you’re watching live or catching the replay. If you are new and you’re wondering where to start, start with the battle plan, the SEO blue print. I’m going to pop a link in here or you can just Google semantic master battle plan. Use this link and use the coupon code posting on here and you can save $75. If you don’t have your free account at Surf Space head over there, check it out. There’s some free tools as well as all of the done for you services, tons of them. Website got a redesign, it looks awesome, it works well. So check that out.

If you ever have questions during the week, you can always ask them on the event page by going to http://ift.tt/2jraJoK but first check support.semanticmastery.com. It’s a repository of a lot of commonly asked questions and where we get Bradley’s awesome drawings and graphs and charts and stuff for posterity. Anyways, with that said, do you guys have anything else before we get started? Going once.

Hernan: I think that we’re good to go.

Adam: Alright let’s do it.

Marco: I know this is suppose to be DPD but fuck Google.

Bradley: Wow.

Adam: On that note.

Bradley: Alright quickly I just want to mention if you guys have not been exposed to the mindset series that I’ve started, I’m actually going to create a brand around it with one of our partners help while Rob is been helping Marco. He’s doing some stuff with me on that to where we’re probably going to end up creating a brand out of it, more on that later.

For now, if you go to bradleybenner.com, I basically am doing a mindset video almost every week but I also have started an email series and I am contributing to that every single day and it’s just a thought that I want to share about something that I’m studying every morning, basically. I spend about an hour studying mindset stuff, goal setting and all that kind of stuff every single day in the morning to start my day off.

So typically right after doing that I have something that I really want to solidify. I’m doing it for selfish reasons. I’m not going to lie because by me writing out an email for about the concept that I just reviewed or learned or was reading about or listening to or whatever. It helps to solidify it in my mind. It helps me to take action on it. So I do that anyways and I figured I’d just create an email series out of it so that it could possibly potentially benefit others. I’ve had some really good replies from people that are subscribed already and so I recommend that you go subscribe to the YouTube channel and also to the daily email updates. If you don’t like them just unsubscribe but if you guys need any sort of motivation kick in the ass to get stuff done, I think it works for me and again hopefully you can find some value out of it. If not just unsubscribe. Simple as that but I encourage you to go to bradleybennet.com and check that out.

Besides that, I actually had a call with somebody today that has been a follower of us for quite some time and it was really cool to have a chance to talk with him and chat a little bit about his business and some of the struggles that he’s going through. I’m not going to mention your name cause I don’t want to embarrass you buddy but it’s very similar to the story that I had. The same path or journey that I’ve been on and so those are the kind of opportunities that can come about from just networking and stuff like that. Guys I’m happy to answer question about that. All that’s explained on the actual page bradleybennet.com. So just go check it out and I’m here to help to try to help you guys to achieve more as well.

With that said I want to do one more thing, which is before we get into questions, I’m going to grab the screen. Alright so I posted this last week I talked about this briefly and I posted this image here on here guys. This is something that I’ve been developing for months and I’m not going into specifics on how all this works guys. If you want that you got to come join the master mind but I just want to plant a seed here as to what we’re doing in the master mind starting in January for 2018. This is one of the projects.

So essentially what we’re going to be doing … This is a blatant pitch for the master mind, just so you know. This is a blatant pitch. No shame in this whatsoever. So this is just a blown up version of it. We’re zoomed in on it a bit. This is a prospecting funnel that I have put together for the agency that we’re building. It’s a vast project and it’s probably the biggest project I’ve ever done. Not probably, it is the biggest project that I’ve ever done. I’ve been working on developing an automated prospecting funnel for months and it’s just working absolutely crazy.

I just wanted to share with you guys this image here. Again, I’m not going into specifics over this. I go into detail about all of this in the master mind and what we’re doing starting in January, in fact, let’s do this. I want to go take a look at something real quick. Semanticmastery.com/ I think it’s MM2018. Boom, there it is. Alright so I’m just going to scroll through this rather quickly guys but this is essentially what we’re going to be covering in 2018. This is the outline anyways. It’s subject to change. There’s no doubt but this is what our proposed roadmap is or plan for 2018. What we’re gong to be doing is basically building two new businesses. The agency being one of them and then a local brick and mortar business being another, which is actually going to be a gym. A gym in my local town.

We’re going to be starting in January with module one, which is PVC and then once that’s done, which it’s probably going to take four to six weeks for that. Then we’re going to switch to module two, which is going to video and then we’re going to go into module three, which is prospecting, outsourcing, local maps SEO, organic SEO, off page SEO, content marketing, email marketing, business development, productivity and process hacking, landing page and conversion rate optimization. We’re going to be going into all this and literally throughout the course of the year building in real time, essentially almost live in front of everybody in the master mind two business from basically the ground up, from start to finish.

Obviously the emphasis is going to be on the digital marketing aspect of those businesses but it’s going to encompass a lot more than just that. It’s going to be some traditional marketing, which can include direct mail and print and actual live events and boosts at trade shows and things like that. There’s all kinds of stuff that we’re going to be doing because as marketing consultants, we should know all of this stuff because we should be able to advise our clients on how to get better results. Not just from digital marketing but from everything. It increases our, it elevates our value if that makes sense.

Here’s the other thing. As business owners yourselves, as trying to create and own and operate your own digital marketing businesses, there are going to be a lot of additional things that come into being a business owner that aren’t typically taught in most digital marketing courses like entity structuring, corporate entities, taxes, accounting, book keeping, legal requirements. All these different kind of things that we’re going to be talking about and walking through throughout the master mind in 2018.

On top of that we’re going to be teaching throughout the webinars like we always do so every other week we have about a two hour webinar. Sometimes they go longer but then I’m going to also be doing supplemental videos to fill in the gaps that we can’t cover everything in a two hour webinar every other week. So every single week I’m going to be trying to pump out at least a roughly a one hour video or so where I go into more detail about all the concepts that we cover in the live webinars, which is also the Q&A section.

So again I just want to point this stuff out and let you guys know what’s coming in the store for 2018. It’d be a great year for you guys to get started if you haven’t already to come join us because it’s literally going to be step by step as we build businesses. I think that’s going to be an incredible journey. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s putting me definitely under pressure to make it happen but part of the reason why I want to do it in this format guys is because I think too many courses our there, too many training programs, they only show the good, they only show what works, they don’t show the stuff that happens typically in every business.

I’ve said this before, I don’t know if I’ve said it on Hump Day Hangouts but about 80% of everything that I try fails. That’s the honest to God truth. Only about 20% of the stuff that I do is successful. I just keep trying shit all day long, all the time until I find stuff that works and the stuff that does work then I scale that. That’s how you become successful. So I fail more than I succeed and that’s true in any business. As entrepreneurs, we’re going to fail more than we succeed but it only takes succeeding one or a couple of times, a few times or succeeding in one particular thing to end up having an amazing business.

That’s really what I want to talk about or we’re going to be covering as part of this live real time business building project over the next year. So that people can see the type of shit that happens in normal business day to day operations in trying to build and grow a business, which means a lot of the stuff that we’re going to do is going to fail. I want to share that because I want people to be aware and so that they don’t feel like they’re doing something wrong when they run into similar issues.

That’s what I think happens a lot with a lot of training programs is people don’t see the bad or the ugly. All they see is the good. So when they end up going through the program and they start to run into set backs and road blocks and hurdles and that kind of stuff, it discourages them. I must not be good enough, I must not be doing it right, this shit doesn’t work. All that kind of stuff and you end up quitting and looking for the next shiny object. That is absolutely no way to build a business because you’re going to run into setbacks and I want to make sure that that is completely transparent going forward in the next year so that people can learn from those experiences and come to expect that kind of thing.

I’m going to run into lots of problems. I’m choosing to build this business, I’m going to run into a shit ton of problems but I’m determined to make it work. If 80% of the stuff I do fails that’s fine because 20% of it will work and that 20% is going to give me financial freedom. Does that make sense? That’s really what I want to be covering and that’s the way I want to teach it next year. So we encourage you guys to come join. I didn’t want to spend that much time on it guys but this is a blatant pitch because I really truly believe that many of you guys that have been following Semantic Mastery and all the other groups out there are probably missing a lot of this. That’s something that we’re going to try our best to provide in 2018. So we encourage you to come join us.

Adam: Okay does anybody want add on that before we move? Questions?

Hernan: Real quick guys, you know we decided we were going to take that [inaudible 00:16:43] over the next year and it’s going to be pretty awesome because one of the things that Semantic Mastery has as Bradley was correctly saying is that you come and listen to each of our voices and we’re actually out there doing this stuff. We’re not making money from selling courses, which you know that you find a lot of people doing that. We’re actually building assets and showing you guys how to do it as we do it. I think that’s pretty powerful and pretty valuable too.

Bradley: Awesome thank you.

Marco: I would also add that we’re not going to stop teaching SEO organic or otherwise. We have the Facebook group where we’re in there. We answer questions every day. We try to provide the best answer that we know according to what we’re learning every day from what we’re doing. We’re also providing information through our newsletter where we give people every month actionable items that we find. Whatever it is that we’re finding. For example in next months … So here’s another reason why you should join. In next months newsletter I’m going to be sharing some information on the skip navigation links. So I mean that’s the kind of stuff that goes on behind the scenes at Semantics.

Is It Too Risky To Use PBN Even If You Access It Via VPN?

Bradley: Awesome. Alright I think we’re going to get into some questions now. Fortunately we don’t really have a whole lot of questions yet. Mel says, “Hey guys.” What’s up Mel by the way? She’s been really active for the last several weeks so we appreciate that Mel. She’s says, “Hey guys I know you don’t really use PBN’s anymore but I figured you might know my situation. I accidentally logged into one of my PBN’s from my normal IP, now I didn’t link to my clients website but usually I go in with hide my ass and a different state et cetera. Do you think the PBN was marked by Google as in it is risky for me to still keep it?”

No Mel. Okay there’s probably going to be differing opinions on this Mel. I wouldn’t sweat it. Honestly I really wouldn’t sweat it at all. If you were logging into dozens of PBN sites from the same IP all the time, then that would create an issue. But since you’ve been it sounds like you’ve been incredibly careful up until this point, you made one mistake I would not sweat it. I would just carry on as normal. Just log in from other IP’s going forward. That’s it. Simple as that. What do you guys think?

Marco: I have a couple of things on this one. Hide my ass is like the worse thing that you could use as a VPN.

Bradley: That’s a flag.

Marco: The IP’s are so fricken dirty man it’s incredible. The problem is in the first part. The problem is really using hide my ass as a VPN.

Bradley: Uh oh. I think we lost Marco. You guys hearing me?

Adam: Yeah I can hear you.

Bradley: Okay we lost Marco for a minute.

Marco: Can you hear me?

Bradley: Yup.

Marco: Okay the second part of this is PBN and I’m going to post a link again to my blog post from 2015 where PBN’s have to be built a different way now. You can’t go by the old standard. So I mean that’s about it.

Bradley: Yeah I mean I wasn’t trying to address all that as far as if you are still using PBN’s and a lot of people still do. I mean there is still some value there but as Marco said, you just don’t build them like you did in 2012 cause that way you’ll … those end up becoming toxic. They create more of a problem than a benefit. So just make sure again, Mel personally I’ve got … I still have several sites. A lot of them I just use for video stuff now but I really don’t sweat it because my network is so small it doesn’t really matter to me anymore and because I use it more for videos. But for website stuff, yeah just as long as you’ve been careful.

I agree with Marco though, hide my ass is about the worst thing that you can do because so many other spammers use it. So you’re better off getting your own set of proxies Mel, that can be either rotated out every 30 days or you can get permanent proxies like EZ proxies. If you go to http://ift.tt/2rvXFTq that’s letter E, letter Z proxies, those are you can request permanent proxies from them and they’re rather inexpensive and you can use those so that you can literally marry specific, assign specific IP’s to certain PBN sites and just always log in with the same IP because that looks natural right because typically a website owner, or a web master is going to be logging in from the same IP anyway. So you can get 10 IP’s and just have three or four different sites all logging in from one specific IP and just assign those to them it’s always the same if that makes sense.

Something like that. I’m just giving you some ideas where you can have much cleaner proxies or IP’s than trying to use hide my ass. When you get dedicated proxies they’re yours and nobody else is using them or at least they’re not supposed to be. So you can guarantee that that’s a clean IP. But again that’s part of the reason why I don’t like using PBN’s that much anymore because of all the different stuff now. You got to follow so many rules now to not leave a footprint it’s just crazy.

  How Do You Come Up With Quality Content For Two Sites In The Same Niche?

So Jenny’s up. What’s up Jenny? It says, “What’s up crazy Semantics? I am merging one local city business lead gen website into another one that reaches statewide instead of one city moving all of it’s pages, post, et cetera. Statewide site is steadily climbing up and it’s landing pages are currently on page two for four to five different cities. Leads are coming in slowly. The local site is ranking top three for number of profitable keywords so I have to be very careful I guess not to mess it up or careful not to mess it up. I just find it very hard to come up with quality content for two sites in the same niche and see no reason to do SEO twice. Can you recommend the best way to do it? 301 redirect, plugins, an SEO boot camp Jeffery recommend highly that guy’s a monster mentions redirection plug in are you familiar with it? Any input is appreciated sorry for taking up so much space.

No problem Jenny. Yes, Jeffry Smith’s SEO boot camp is probably the best or not probably, it’s the best on page SEO course I’ve ever seen. Hands down. So I totally agree with you there. As far as, let’s see. I find it very hard to come up with quality content for two sites in the same niche. I’m not sure why you have two sites in the same niche. I see that you’re taking a local site and moving it into, merging it with a statewide site so why not just 301 redirect the local pages? Unless those local … Well you said the local site is ranking top three and so you don’t want to mess that up, okay. So that’s why, you don’t want to redirect the pages of the local site to the statewide site because then you’ll likely lose the rankings from those local pages.

I mean it’s possible that the statewide pages that you’ve set up that are now the target URL of the redirect would rank if they were set up similarly. But if it’s on a different domain entirely and things like that, first of all there would be some dancing regardless but even if … Chances are it’s not going to come back in the exact same spot anyways. So I would probably leave that one alone. As far as the actual content, look if you’ve got content, it’s the same type of site, it’s the same business or whatever. Then there’s a couple things that you can do.

One would just have it rewritten. Just go send the content to somebody to rewrite it. Instead of having brand new content written, they can just rewrite it. I would have that done manually. I wouldn’t go to a content farm for that kind of stuff personally. I’d rather hire somebody from UpWork where it’s a lot more manual but that’s one thing that you can do. Typically what I’d do and I know guys that a lot of people that do local especially lead gen stuff would just clone sites and they’d just swap out the local modifiers so like if it’s plumber Dallas, Texas and they want to do one for plumber Atlanta, Georgia, they’ll just swap out, it’ll be plumber Dallas, Texas or plumber Atlanta, Georgia but all the rest of the copy’s the same. They swap out obviously maybe logos and phone numbers and stuff like that but the rest of the copy’s the same.

That apparently it still works. I haven’t done that since I started in SEO back in or doing lead gen sites and doing local stuff since like way back in the day. I always prefer to get unique content for every site. I know that can be a pain in the ass and it does add up in costs guys but to me it’s a level of security that my sites won’t get all taken down in one fail swoop at some point in the future and that may still happen anyways but at least my content is unique.

So typically if I’m building five lead gen sites and they’re all on the same niche, they’re just different cities, I’ll hire five different writers for the content. So that the content is all unique. That’s how I’ve always done it guys. You can take existing content, especially if it’s already ranking well on another site. You know that that site, that content it working well. You can have that rewritten and just slightly. You can even take the same content sometimes and just add additional content, switch things up a bit and make it work just to make it more unique. But again, I prefer more totally unique content personally.

As far as redirect plugins, there’s a couple plugins that I would recommend Simple 301 Redirects is a plugin that I’ve been using for years. It’s very simple just like the name implies. Another good plugin is called I think Page Post Redirect. That’s another pretty good option and what I like about that is it puts a widget on each page in post editor you know when you’re in the WYSIWYG editor area. So like you know underneath the editor area there’s always the modules from plugins and for example like Yoast SEO or Instead, which you should be using now is Jeffrey Smith’s ultimate SEO plugin. That plugin’s a hell of a lot better anyways. But that’s where you put your meta descriptions and titles and all that stuff. So those are like widgets in the editor page and the page post redirect one we’ll put a widget right in each post or page so you can just direct where you want that to be redirected to.

Another one that I use a lot for it’s called Pretty Links Pro. They have a Pretty Links Lite version that’s free but the Pro version’s absolutely worth it in my opinion. I now Chris P says there’s some issues with it but I’ve been using that plug in for years and I like it.

Marco: I’m old school on this man. I find myself that I use a plug in for redirection but then I go and check the HT access file to make sure that it’s been over written correctly. So since I’m doing double the work, I just stop using plugins and just go with the HT access file and do everything from there. It’s easier for me.

Bradley: You can also do redirection in the C panel too. You can do it that way and all that does is it just writes it on to the HT access file for you. So that’s another way you can do it. If you’re not comfortable editing HT access files, which I’m not, you can do it in C panel. Good question though.

Let’s see. Yeah like I said, I would leave the local site alone and I would go ahead and … What you could do is once … if your statewide site starts to also rank in that same local site area and you want to merge those two at that point, then what you could do is actually do a redirect from the local site to those pages on the statewide site once they approach that same level in the serps or the same position in the serps.

Something else that you could, which is a little bit of a sneakier way is to use a canonical. You can canonicalize the local URL site page URL to the statewide page URL instead. What happens is Google will take the credit and push any of the credit from the local site to the statewide site without it being a physical back link, which is really interesting because that can leave your competitors scratching their heads going what the fuck is going on? How is this guy ranking for this I’m not seeing any links. Well that’s because all the work was done at the local site. You got canonicalized over to the statewide page. They’re not going to see that. That’s very powerful. Google sometimes will … They’re supposed to actually remove the site that’s canonicalizing to the other URL from the index but I’ve seen where that sometimes takes weeks so you end up with two listings on page one until Google decides to clear it’s cache and in the one that’s canoncialized to the target URL will disappear at that point. That’s a very powerful way to do it too.

Does The WP Curation Pro Plugin Helps Streamline Content Curation To Syndication Networks?

Okay AJ, he says, “I’m new to the group and I’m really anxious to get started. I have two inquiries. You recently said on email recommending WP Curation Pro and as you might guess it’s super easy way to get curated content on your WordPress Blogs. Does this plugin help streamline the content curation for our networks? Does this type of automation come with TelTease?

On tier two stuff, no. AJ it’s absolutely fine on tier two stuff, which is what I would recommend where you would use that. I would not … I wouldn’t use it guys I’m not saying it can’t be used on a money site but I wouldn’t use it on a money site unless it was an automated money site like an automated blog that you were just, an auto blog that you set up specifically for Adsense or Affiliate Offers or things like that. That’s different. But client sites, things like that I would not use that on as content creation for my money site. Unless it was an auto blog specifically set up for that reason because that’s just not the kind of content … I want only high quality content on my money sites. Does that make sense? So that’s why I still recommend manual curation for that guys. It’s efficient, it’s inexpensive and the content is much higher quality. It will pass manual review.

I don’t know about whether this will or not. These kind of plugins are great for tier two stuff guys. You can set up auto blogs on tier two literally for example you could have like what we were talking about with Mel earlier with PBN’s. You can set up auto blogs that are themed and use them as PBN’s that you can use as tier two links that you can link to your tier one properties, your syndication network properties. Anything branded. I wouldn’t link directly to my money site with them but I would link to tier one properties with them. You can use them to power up videos, all kinds of stuff. Automated content can still be valuable if it’s done well. It would require you to do some testing AJ but something like that in my opinion would work really well on tier two or further out too. I wouldn’t link directly to my money site or I also wouldn’t want to put that plugin on my money site to create the content for the money site if that makes sense.

  How to use Project Supremacy with the Syndication Networks?

I’m not sure. I don’t use Project Supremacy so it’s really difficult for me to give you any advice on there. Yeah I can’t speak on that. Sorry AJ. I don’t have any … I used Project Supremacy the original version, the plugin for a bit for a few projects but every since than I haven’t used it so I can’t really explain, I can’t really comment on that guys. Sorry. Anybody else before I move on?

Hernan: Yeah I haven’t been using it much either. Sorry.

How Many Embeds Is Too Few Or Too Many For Video Powerhouse And Maps Powerhouse?

Bradley: Alright well Julia Parker’s up, says, “Hey guys love the show. I had a question regarding SerpSpace, how many embeds is too few or too many for video powerhouse or maps powerhouse? Thanks in advance.”

There really is no too few or too many. It’s how many does it take to get results? I mean that’s really what the question is. It’s not how many is too few or too many. It’s what does it take to get results? Typically what I do and I use the same method over and over again because it works for me and that’s video powerhouse for example. I’ll do like 50 embeds, that’s it but I make sure that I select the correct categories and the correct subcategories. I’ll do the secondary embeds, things like that but the first tier embeds I only do 50 embeds ever. I drip it out usually over 14 days. So I’ll select 14 day drip, 50 embeds and then I’ll select the second tier embeds too and then I’ll let it run and then I’ll wait 14 to 21 days to check the results because there’s a little bit of lag time between the posting and the actual results.

I always put my for video powerhouse I put my URL’s, my video URL’s, the YouTube URL’s into ProRank Tracker. That’s what I use for tracking all my videos and then I’ll send a 50 embed blast and then I’ll wait three weeks and I’ll set a calendar reminder from the date that I start the SerpSpace the video powerhouse campaign. So I’ll set a calendar reminder to remind me in three weeks to come back and check the ProRank Tracker results and see what kind of movement I got. Then if I need more then I’ll go back and I’ll set up another campaign, another 50 embeds or I may adjust it accordingly based upon how much movement I had from that first campaign if that makes sense, first run.

The same thing with maps powerhouse. Maps powerhouse I don’t typically just start right off the bat with 50 especially if it’s a new property. Usually with maps powerhouse I’m more conservative because it’s not … It’s still a Google property but it’s not a video. It’s maps being embedded in mass quantity is less likely than videos. Does that make sense? Logically it doesn’t happen as frequently or as commonly. So I try to mimic what would seem natural. I know it’s not natural but I try to make it seem like it is natural. So with maps powerhouse I might do 20 embeds first and then give it a few weeks and then go back and check again. With maps embeds I’ve seen some slower movement than with videos typically but that’s just been my experience. I’m sure others have had different experiences. Anybody want to comment on that? I think that was a great question though.

Is It Worthy To Take SEO Projects For An HTML-Based Site In A Law And Real Estate Niche?

Okay Mohammad’s up, what’s up Mohammad? “Hey guys, some industry like law and real estate have these sort of niche specific site solutions where the site isn’t in WordPress but in HTML. Normally the company they pay for the website can change it. I wouldn’t really choose to work with something like this but someone has approached me with a site like this, is it worth working with these sites in SEO terms or should I stick with WordPress sites?

That’s a great question Mohammad. I’ll tell you exactly how I handle that whenever I have a potential client or prospect that has a site on a different platform or proprietary platform or any sort of other framework outside of WordPress or simple HTML. I flat out won’t work on their site. What I offer or what I will provide in those situations is consultation services. So I’ll make recommendations on what to do on the site to improve the on page SEO of the site.

So I might and I make that real clear to the prospect right out front I just tell them I’m not going to learn another platform, another website framework or platform just to work on your project. I’m not going to do it. I don’t have the time to do that nor the desire to do it. In your case with the questions that you’re asking Mohammad about this, a lot of them are proprietary and you won’t have access to that stuff anyways if they have a web master or a third party or whatever that niche specific site solution type site.

So the only thing you can do is provide on page SEO consultation services like give recommendations, which can be done via Screen Cast and Google Docs and stuff like that and hope that they’ll actually implement what you provide as your advice, your consultative advice and then you charge them for your consultation and then you can do all the off page stuff or the other way, which seems to be more appropriate in most of the cases I’ve dealt with is to put a sub domain site, a sub domain on their domain and then install WordPress and then do all of the SEO that we would typically do because now you have a WordPress site to work with on the sub domain.

Now if you don’t have access to their sub domain, then you could always just create a new site all together on a different domain, you know like company name like if it was companyname.com you could do companynameblog.com. Does that make sense? Or something like that is my point just to have a WordPress site that you could use to do all your content promotion, your content marketing all that kind of stuff that you would normally do and just have all of the linking and stuff linking over to the main site. The one that’s on the site, the niche specific site solutions. You want to make sure the branding is all consistent though because otherwise it’s a … You want to make sure Google understands that it’s the same entity. It’s the same company. It’s just one site is a blog while the other site is their main site or whatever. That’s perfectly fine to do. It can be done on a sub domain or on a separate domain. There’s obviously more benefit if it can be done on a sub domain but in certain cases sometimes all you can do is work on it an entirely separate domain all together. Does that make sense?

I know Hernan you’ve done a lot of that kind of stuff. Do you want to comment on that before I move to the next part?

Hernan: Yeah honestly I agree with you on that regard. The reality is that … Can you guys hear me alright?

Bradley: Yeah.

Hernan: Because I’m hearing some crackling.

Bradley: Yup I can hear you. Can you not hear me?

Marco: He’s muted.

Bradley: Oh we just lost him. Okay well we’re going to keep moving Mohammad. I know Hernan’s gonna give similar advice but I know he always has good input. So if he comes back maybe we can get his reply.

Do You Think It’s A Good Idea To Have An Actual Brick-And-Mortar Location For An SEO/Marketing Agency?

Second, this is more out of curiosity but I noticed a local web design agency open an office. I always thought SEO didn’t really need that but like an office and because outsource kingpen I’m getting along fine. Do you guys think it’s a good idea to have an actual brick and mortar location for an SEO marketing agency? Would you or have you done it for SM or your other agencies?

No I mean you certainly can but to me why would you want all that additional overhead of paying for office space, renting or leasing office space? To me it’s overhead that’s unnecessary. Some people like it and some people prefer going to an office to work. That separates their workplace from their home, which that’s a problem I’ve had to deal with and I’ve dealt with very poorly over the last seven years that I’ve been doing this digital marketing business, almost eight years now because there’s no separation between work and home for me I feel like I should always be working. I have a hard time just relaxing around my house because my office is in my house and I always know I’ve got a shit ton of work to do and I feel like I should be working instead of wasting time even when it should be R&R time, rest and relaxation time.

So that is an issue for me and so some people actually like having an office to go to because it separates their work from their home environment. So that makes sense. You just got to … What Mohammad you say that you’re getting along fine. So if you’re getting along fine it’s not an issue for you, don’t … I personally wouldn’t suggest taking on additional overhead. Even Semantic Mastery guys, we’ve got a virtual physical address. So I mean we have a local maps listing. In fact it was funny I was doing a search on this the other day. I was just actually interested in … I was looking at some old stuff that I did years ago. Take a look at this. If we say SEO Gainesville, VA. Look who’s ranked number one. I’m not logged in. This is Firefox but look who’s ranked number one for SEO.

Marco: I’m not seeing that Bradley.

Bradley: You’re not seeing that? Well I’m in Virginia so it’s localizing my results.

Marco: No I mean on your screen.

Adam: I’m seeing it.

Marco: Oh are you?

Adam: Well I was now I’m not.

Chris: Seeing it here too.

Bradley: How about now?

Adam: Yeah.

Marco: Works for me.

Bradley: Okay, alright so anyways my point is Semantic Mastery’s ranked for SEO Gainesville just because that’s where our virtual address is. It’s funny because Semantic Mastery’s not really an SEO agency. We teach and it says internet marketing service as a category but we’re ranked there anyways. It’s probably because we get a ton of traffic and things like that and we’re just ranked there for that, which is interesting because I’ve never actually optimized for like SEO Gainesville at all. We’re not looking to take on SEO clients if that makes sense.

So anyways, my point is that you don’t need to have a physical location if you want so that you can get a Google My Business profile, which I do recommend absolutely and you don’t want to use your own address, then I would recommend that you go set up one of the PO boxes. That’s what we’ve done and it works.

Adam: I would say too don’t make it more complicated then you need to. If you find out you need it, great. But if you’re just asking yourself should I do this? But there’s no reason or data behind it, don’t make your life more complicated for no reason.

Bradley: Keep it simple.

Hernan: Yeah I was about to say before I drop off, regarding Mohammad the other question about the HTML versus WordPress sites. I work with clients that had some other solutions like I don’t know Magento or Volusion or some eCommerce like Shopify and I’ve always default to the sub domain WordPress solution for SEO. Always like 100%. If they need something specific done for example in terms of funnels, I always default to Click Funnels even if they are working oh I have We Pages or I have this I have that, you know can you work on? No, fuck no.

Bradley: Carolyn Martin. This looks like a question for Marco. Marco do you want to answer this one?

Do You Need A GMB To Order An RYS Reloaded Stack?

“Hey guys, thanks for all your actionable information you provide. I’m really curious about RYS Academy Reloaded, do I need a GMB, Google My Business listing to order an RYS Reloaded stack?”

Marco: The short answer is no you don’t need one. The long answer is yes you should have one because what we’re all about is that entity. We want that entity to be as real and this is I’m doing air quotes, as “real” as possible to Google because I mean it’s in the black book and Carolyn if you’re not in RYS Academy Reloaded I suggest that you go in there cause we have the black book and in the black book we explain step by step why you should have the GMB.

It makes life so much easier when it comes to ranking to have that entity, to have Google look at that entity and to see okay, I have a real person with a real business and a real address and they’re trying to rank for their business in this set of keywords. It’s so much simpler to do that than to say I’m nobody but I want to rank for this set of keywords. The power that you need to do that is so much more. The work that you need to do is so much more. You can save yourself a whole bunch of work by simply verifying, validating and then solidifying the entity.

  Do You Need To Match The Number Of Referring Domains Of A Competitor?

Bradley: Okay Keith’s up, what’s up Keith? He says, “I have been using IFTTT networks and putting other back links through them but have a question. I am coming up against some competitors that have a high number referring domains. Do I need to match the number of referring domains? If so, how do I do this safely while using IFTTT networks?”

Okay so I’m going to give you two answers Keith. The first one, do you have to match the number of referring domains? No. You don’t, because again link quantity does not mean quality. Having a high number referring domains used to be incredibly important to have that was one of the ways that you could quickly judge how much work you had to do, was by looking at the back link profile of a competitor or of the average … The competitors that you’re … the people that you’re competing with I mean and then look at what the referring domains are and you can usually tell like okay if you’ve got 30 referring domains and all your competitors have 300 or more than it was like okay I know I got a lot of work to do.

That’s not necessarily the case anymore because it’s more about relevancy than it is about quantity. So you can achieve the same sort of results with just a handful of back links that maybe somebody else took 600 referring domains to get because you have better quality back links. You have links coming from highly relevant properties that are linking to yours. So again, it’s not a numbers game at this point. It’s more of a quality game.

That said, there are certainly ways that you can increase your referring domain count. My preferred method hands down is press releases. Absolutely hands down is press releases because you can get a lot of referring domains from a lot of high quality, high authority sites that way and it’s done really quickly.

SerpSpace we have two press release services. We’ve got the standard and then the press release plus and the press release plus actually allows video and maps embeds or any sort of iFrame embed, which is freaking crazy into the actual press release. I don’t know of any other service out there that does that and it also, what the press release plus service, it distributes to over 350 properties. So you end up with a bunch of back links from a bunch of different sites and you can even squeeze a my maps in there or a Google my business map if you want. But even affiliate sites and non local stuff you can squeeze my maps into that and have that pushed out through the press release distribution service.

So again, I would recommend first of all don’t focus so much on that. That’s no necessarily … I would focus on getting higher quality back links from really relevant sources than I would worry about the number but something as a quick hit, a quick fix for increasing referring domain count is just do a press release. Don’t just do one. Press releases should, it’s something that I do now all the time. So even on sites that are ranking well I still try to publish a press release once every, at least once every other month so that I’m constantly hitting it with new news and getting attention and press release generate traffic.

I know this because I put tracking links in press releases now that are I’ve click analytics basically and I look and even press releases that are strictly for SEO, not because I want them to generate traffic, they still generate traffic and get clicks through the links in the press releases. Does that make sense? So I can go in and look at the link count and even stuff that I would think is specifically just for SEO, I didn’t care if it actually generated traffic. I look in three weeks later I’ve got 40, 50 clicks through the links in the actual post body so I know that I’m getting traffic from those, which is great referral traffic signals for your money sites. Does anybody want to comment on that? We’ll keep moving. We’re almost out of time.

Alright, Christoff is up. He’s been in the Facebook group asking some questions and we’ve got a little bit of issue only because and so first Christoff I’m not picking on you but you came into the group saying that you were trying a Google Stack that you bought or built using the methodologies from some other training, somebody else out there and then you came to us asking us why it’s not ranking. Well first of all, I don’t know what their methodology is for building dry stacks but if you build them to the way that we suggest to our specifications, through our training, then you probably wouldn’t be experiencing this but it’s really hard for us to troubleshoot or repair something that you purchased or built from some other training company or some other group out there because I don’t know what they’re teaching. It’s not what we’re teaching.

So I can tell you that unless you built it the way that we teach or you bought it from us, from SerpSpace, it’s unlikely that it’s going to work the way that ours work because ours is proprietary. Does that make sense? So that would be like going to Fiverr and buying a syndication network and it being done very poorly and not working and then coming to us and saying I tried syndication networks, it doesn’t work, can you tell me why?

Well first of all if you didn’t buy it from us or us our training to build it, then we can’t really comment on somebody else’s work. It’s likely because it was done poorly. It wasn’t done correctly. Not to our standards. So again, I’m not picking on you Christoff I just want to let you know that also you need to be more patient buddy only because and again, your set up may never produce results only because I don’t know how it was set up. I don’t know how it was built. I don’t know what sort of methods they used. I can’t tell you that because it’s not my stack it’s not ours.

But even if you had purchased a start from us or used our training to build your own stack, linking from something to a Google site two days ago and not seeing results is I mean you’re not being patient enough Christoff. Again, I’m not picking on you. I’m just letting you know in the SEO game, especially now, you make changes, and it takes three weeks really to see results. It does. You have to be patient. If you try to force everything and if you are what they call Serp watching or rank watching everyday it’ll drive you nuts and you’re going to be inpatient. You’ll do all these other things because you’ll want to see movement right away and all you’re going to do is raise a red flag to Google that you’re an SEO because you keep doing all this shit instead of doing a little bit here and then waiting and seeing what kind of results it has when there’s about a three week delay if that makes sense.

So first and foremost I would recommend that you go ask questions about the stack that you purchased or built using somebody else’s training from the people that you purchased it from or the training that you purchased from them only because I don’t know how it was built. Number one. Number two is just you need to learn to excise a little bit more patience in the SEO game or else you can end up causing more harm to your digital assets than good if that makes sense. Marco I know you probably wanted to comment on that.

Marco: Yeah I absolutely do because I actually wasted time going and looking at this dry stack because I thought that he was trying to reverse engineer our training, which I don’t mind. I don’t mind you going and looking at trying to match it up to what we’re teaching. Go, do it.

Can Interlinking Web 2.0 Network With Video & Maps Embeds Pointing To Money Site Help Boost The Relevance An Authority?

That’s how Rob got in with me. That’s how I pulled in Rob and said, “Hey man. I love what you’re doing, come with me. Let’s make this shit even better.” So I went and I wasted my time looking at this drive site and I said, “Holy crap! This is nothing, nothing absolutely nothing like we teach.” So I was confused because he’s in our group and I’m thinking he’s using some of our training, some of what we’re teaching to try to build and reverse engineer and try to succeed.

Again, I don’t mind when you do that but then it gets posted that this is from and I’m not going to say the name, from a fucking competitor who knows absolutely nothing about. Well I can’t say that because I don’t know if he built it according to their training or they built it or what’s going on. But it’s crap. It’s garbage. It’s nothing like we teach. We teach tons of interlinking, tons of relevance, embed. Just a whole bunch of things that just wasn’t done. We go through so much trouble that it takes our builders four to six hours of their time to build out a stack. I mean to interlink to do the and even longer because they do keyword research. They build everything out and they go into every file and folder and they interlink everything. We call it the spider web silo. There is so much work involved that most people just won’t do it. Most people can’t figure out how.

It’s one of those surprising things about Rob. He’s just so fucking awesome. I love Rob. So on this all I have to say is what was done has nothing to do with Semantic Mastery, has nothing to do with RYS Academy Reloaded. If that’s the training that you’re receiving you’re in the wrong training because they’re imitated. What does Wayne said? Often imitated, never duplicated. RYS Academy Reloaded is the original training on how to manipulate Google by using Google.

Bradley: Sweet, Laura that’s awesome. She basically just joined the MasterMind from the thread today. That’s awesome Laura, welcome by the way. I think you’re going to love it. We got a big big project starting in 2018 and come join us. We’re glad to have you. Alright, we only probably have enough time for one more question guys unfortunately but this is from Vitaly I guess? I’m sorry if I’m saying your name wrong. He says, “Can interlinking web 2.0 networks with embeds, videos, maps, pointing to my money site help boost the relevance and authority or will it create a footprint in Google’s eyes and possibly trigger a penalty? What do you think about pointing web 2.0 networks to a single video? Can it hurt the rankings? Thank you.”

Vitaly, I think it is. It depends. Here’s the thing. If it’s a branded network. If it’s a branded web 2.0 network, which is what we basically teach the syndication network, all digital assets out there should be branded, whether that’s a corporate brand or a personal brand like a blogger for example or a coach would have. Either way, it’s still a brand. Every single digital asset out there should have it’s own digital, it should have it’s own branded syndication network basically. It’s own branded web 2.0 social media network because that’s natural, that’s logical.

So interlinking those and back to your money site is what we teach because that’s what is natural. That’s what everybody does. They go out and build websites and then they go out and get all their social media properties and they link everything together. We just know because we’re SEO’s how to make it even more powerful. So absolutely.

Now, if you’re going out and creating persona based like standalone, separate and apart from the brand web 2.0 rings, then no. You don’t want to interlink, well you can interlink those because each one of those personas like we do persona based brands all day long. All the time we build persona based rings for second tier networks for YouTube, additional tier one networks for YouTube syndication. You can use them as second tier networks for blog syndication if you know how to do it correctly. But the point is each one of those persona brands is a brand on it’s own.

Let’s say it’s a John Doe. Let’s say it’s a John Doe site blog that you want like a blogger, like John Doe is the persona. So there can be an entire syndication network all tied together for John Doe all back linking or interlinking to whatever the primary site is for the John Doe network, which could be Blogger, Tumbler, WordPress. It could be self hosted WordPress. Whatever it is that you want. It could be a Facebook page, a Twitter account, anything you want but all of the network properties for that particular network would all be branded for John Doe or Jane Smith or whoever that brand may be. Then you can use those networks to actually point links back to other properties.

Now I would not want to point just standalone networks to just to your money site. You want to, and as we teach in Syndication Academy for two tier networks where it’s a combination of a branded tier one ring and in persona based tier two rings, you want to have additional content being published on those tier two rings. Your branded ring can entirely be content from one source, which is your content distribution engine. Whatever that may be. Typically it’s going to be WordPress or your self hosted WordPress site, your money site or it’s going to be YouTube. That’s typically what they are.

So all the content going to your branded network can be 100% just yours content, which that makes sense. Why would you want to share other peoples content on your networks? On the secondary networks, supplemental networks you don’t want to do that because they’re not branded networks and you can create a footprint if you’re not careful. There are ways to minimize or reduce that, which is what we teach inside the Syndication Academy. That’s a great question. Can it hurt the rankings? Yes if for YouTube videos I have never seen it happen but for … that’s the honest to god truth but for money sites yes if you are using syndication networks incorrectly, you can absolutely leave a footprint and it can absolutely trigger a penalty.

Again, if you go through the training that we teach in Syndication Academy then it’s basically a non-issue. Because I’ve got stuff that’s been up since 2012 when I really started this method that are still ranking and working today and it’s the same methodology that we teach.

Alright guys, sorry we don’t have time for the rest of the questions. I apologize for that guys but we got to go. So we’ll see, we have Master Mind tomorrow correct?

Adam: Yeah real quick there’s a question I think we should definitely answer. One, Jordan thanks for being a big help to everybody. I know Mohammad and a lot of people appreciated you sharing the docs that you shared in the Syndication Academy. So big shout out to you for doing that. Then also, Jim was asking he said, “Outside of a new property here and there, what are the benefits of the monthly subscription to Syndication Academy?” He was a member a long time back and was considering joining up again, obviously good time since the price is going up in two minutes. But if there’s more offered besides that.

I think one, I mean I’ll just touch on this real quick is the community in there so people like Jordan who are actually out there doing the work and sharing a lot of the information. Getting access to the people in there is a big one and yes the updates are a big part of it. It’s not like IFTTT has fundamentally changed in the last year. Obviously there’s been some big changes but it still works. So I don’t know, Bradley, would you like to add anything to that?

Bradley: Yeah I mean you mentioned in your question that besides the occasional updated property or new property that’s, I mean that’s not the case. It’s not the occasional like every month we do update webinars where we cover, sometimes we add additional properties, sometimes we’re covering prospecting. Sometimes it’s, like last month, the last webinar that we did on November 30th or whatever for the update webinar I think it was number 17, anyways Jordan, I think it was Jordan actually that asked I think it was Jordan Faller that just asked some new content marketing guidelines for how to use what type of content, what type of back links and keywords and things like that. We spent the whole entire webinar basically talking about that. I went through a presentation on the best practices for content marketing.

So again, what I do is I look for questions in the Syndication Academy Facebook group that would be worthy of more additional in depth training, cover it deeper essentially and then I’ll create training around that. Sometimes it’s just stuff that I’ve discovered on my own that I share. Obviously I share as much as I can in there. Some stuff has to be reserved for the Master Mind but our updates are not just occasional properties. It’s actually a lot of stuff that we do in there.

So again, it’s entirely up to you. Of course you can always come join and check out the updates and see what’s valuable to you and extract all the stuff that would be valuable to you and your business and then if you don’t find that the updates that good then you can always cancel or suspend your service at that point. My point is a lot of updates have been given. Again I think we’ve done at least 17 update webinars in addition to a lot of additional update snippets that we put in throughout the training.

For example, we’ve got the applets have changed in IFTTT for how to set up the Google Docs and things like that. So I’m going to be covering that in this month’s update webinar because again somebody requested that during the last update webinar so I’m going to. So again, if you have a request, come join us, ask us what you’d like to see updated specifically and we can prepare for some training for it.

Adam: Yeah and if you’re looking whoever, not just whoever asked this question but for anybody else if you’re looking at Syndication Academy, I do like to remind people because I think some people don’t know this is that Syndication Academy is free for Master Mind members.

Bradley: That’s correct.

Adam: So if you’re thinking about either one keep that in mind in the back of your head and do the cost analysis if it’s worth it to you it’s a good way to save some money.

Marco: One last thing. People will suggest new properties for example in the Facebook group or wherever, wherever they ask the question or suggest it and we will actually go in and explore and see whether it’s worthwhile, how we can exploit it and how it can be used in conjunction with everything else that we’re doing. So there’s a lot of benefit to it. It’s not just here’s the properties that you use and then the occasional update. There’s a lot of things going on in Syndication Academy than just the occasional update. That’s just my take on it.

Chris: Also if you mastered the syndication networks already, I would definitely join the Master class, the Master Mind cause it’s just a matter of taking your business to the next level. 2018 is coming and yeah, time to grow it.

Bradley: Yup and Laura yes, Battle Plan is also included with your Master Mind Membership. So once again, welcome. Once you get into the Facebook group Laura we’ll give you a nice warm welcome. Alright everybody thanks for being here. We will see Master Mind members tomorrow and everyone else next week. Thanks guys.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 162 posted first on your-t1-blog-url from Blogger http://ift.tt/2BR0G38 via IFTTT