#is this enough tags already that ppl need to click read more

[daz4i]

Honestly I'm with you that it is pretty hard not to get jealous whenever a fic gets suuuuper popular like that. Like when they write a fic, they get an entire fan base and waves upon waves of fanart; when I write a fic I get like three single sentence comments and one person listing every single thing wrong with it.

I know they don't decide to have that happen but like... What am I doing wrong? I'm trying my absolute best, I'm rereading and rewriting like ten times to make sure it's as perfect as it could possibly be, but no matter what I try, nothing works. Meanwhile they're like "yeah sorry wasn't feeling too well lately so this chapters not as good" and they get hundreds of comments, playlists for the their fic and a whole gallery worth of fan art.

Maybe I'm just bitter but it really does just crush your motivation and self esteem after a while.

this is an understandable reaction tbh 😔

for what it's worth, i don't think you're doing anything wrong. i can't say for sure bc none of my fics ever reached wild popularity or smth but i assume in their case it's a combination of

popular ship in an already popular fandom (also, gen usually doesn't catch on unless you're VERY lucky)

existing following. i noticed a lot of popular fic writers usually have a bunch of followers from stuff like art already

luck. ofc

common tropes. easily digestible stuff that is kind of familiar

length and consistent long term updates usually help (like, spreading it out as multiple updates keeps you at the top of tags when ppl click them)

this isn't for all of them. but like. one thing i noticed. and i mean this nicely. is smth i wanna call wattpad-style writing? kind of an underlying edgy vibe like more swears and ppl reacting to things in kind of extreme ways at times. every most-popular-fic-in-the-fandom i read fit that description, so. (i assume it's bc a big part of any fandom is teenagers, and this, well, fits a teen mindset)

if you don't wanna fall into common tropes and stick only to popular ships, it's better to stick to writing for fun, as hard as it is sometimes with no external validation 😔

i see why this would be very discouraging. i think ik who you are off-anon, and if I'm right then i saw comments you got on fics before, and yeah i would definitely get discouraged by these too

i think if you don't gain any joy from writing, it may be good to find an additional hobby, or try a different type of writing for now maybe :? (like if fics aren't working, try original work. or dabble in poetry. or switch up the genres etc. doesn't even have to be a long term thing, just to scratch the creative itch for now, and maybe get inspired to write what you're used to again)

i imagine you're probably tired of hearing that you should write for you and don't have to post it. bc i get wanting to get validation. so instead I'll tell you this is an extremely valid feeling, including the jealousy part. this is a very normal reaction honestly, and i could never blame you for having it

i will say tho! you should channel that feeling somewhere. not for others, but for your own sake. don't let bitterness eat at you or you'll always be miserable, and you deserve better than that :(

finding a new hobby can help with self-esteem (like, for example, baking smth and enjoying how it tastes, and feeling proud of yourself for making smth that tastes good) and is a good way to let out creative energy! it will take time, but maybe slowly you'll be able to lay out building blocks that will eventually make you feel confident enough in your own creation to not need external validation :0!

(ofc, you don't have to listen to any of this. please make sure to go at your own pace as well! either way i hope things turn out well for you, and i thank you for sharing your honest feelings with me!!)

[ki-chang]

.

[vrnicky]

Cough don’t mind me, just a nameless anon here for an advertised match up. You DO NOT know me at all

Basic personality: Introvert, Socially anxious, need to muster up a lot of courage if i were to be the one approaching. Once i got comfy, jokester ensured, can may sometimes be a bit loud depends on the comfortable-ness of the relationship and the other’s energy. Will back pedal hard if i spot any sign of negativity, until the person reassured me that the feeling is no longer there or isn’t directed at me (still uneasy tho). Laid back, easy going, playful, not that good at expressing affection wholeheartedly, i can jokingly said to marry you but the best i can do when soothing ya is giving ya water i poured myself and listen. If ya ask for advice, bet yo bum i’m going to sit down with you and analyze the situation like some puzzle to solve. Am actually very soft spoken when need to (i’m a softie gremlin, no courage at all)

Interest wise: I like video games, bantering with others, joking. Just laying down and relaxing while listening to music, spending times with friends if i feel like it. Digging up informations of something that interest me. Wants to know everything about a situation before throwing hand, i like to analyze certain aspects.

Sometimes like to observe creatures, sight-seeing, night time strolling, playing kinds of games with ppl i like (cards, boards, video games,...), teasing and joking with others, punning and words play. A home person

Dislikes: Serious Overly emotional stuff, no time for myself, no equal grounds, being pushed (forced) to do something, isn’t left on my own merrit, no patience for me (can i sometimes be brain dead being irritated aint help), direct confrontation

Pet-peeves: Degrading, unnecessary shouting, feed backs are good but theres no need for the scolding tone. Pushing their views onto me, not respecting anything i do (am self critical enough). Short temper (cause if i know them and is comfortable with them i will go ape sh*t). Being unreasonable, can’t take jokes

My soul trait is Integrity i think

Ye totally an anon i dont know... just tagging @slice-of-ll for the funsies ;)

I match you with... Sans, the classic one! (Undertale)

Okay, im being totally bias with the stuff going with Ratsoh's server but when i read your info this was clicked more in my dumb dumb brain!

Sans is totally fine with you being an introvert! And is very patient if you were the only one who would start the conversation so dont worry about that, even if he doesn't have that much of energy by his side, he will enjoy your "loud" attitude if you're already comfortable with him of course.

You dont like that much of negativity in someone? Dont worry! Sans poker face is the best for that, tho its weird in him to have trouble with other people lol.

He clearly enjoys how playful and easy going you are and will totally respect if you can't express affection that much but dont say marry me because he will choke in his drink everytime (mostly ketchup lol).

Sans admire the people who enjoys working in their stuff and even if you dont enjoy it that much, he will never force you to do it or try harder or pushing you to over-do yourself, you will have your space as long as you give him space too.

The dates you will have with him might be in-doors like some series marathon or movie nights or a nice dinner just the two of you alone or there's always a chance in going to have a walk around the park too, but fancy stuff? Only if its really important but he will take you to grillby's either way.

Shouting or fights will never happend with him, joke fights sure because Sans is patient with you in every way without having you like a fragile doll, the communication you two would have is amazing.

You two mind ended up hearing the problems of your friends and analize like fricking detectives lol.

Hope you enjoy what you got!! <3

The second option was Farren or Lur if you were curious!

[idk-my-aesthetic]

Ok the whole thing w/ clogging up ao3 tags is stupid for multiple reasons, like how it fucks with screen readers for one, but the MAJOR issue is that having too many tags isn’t actually a problem w/ ao3

Like seriously guys? There is a lot to criticize. And I say this as someone who heavily relied on fandom spaces to get me through some really really hard times and still loves ao3. I can say I love what it does for fandom while also acknowledging there’s some seriously fucked up shit going on both behind the scenes and with ppl who use the site. It’s literally like saying “I love tumblr but I acknowledge there are literal nazis on here and as a Jew/human with a working brain I hate them and that they’ve been here so long”

Like. I get u think ur sticking it to the man or whatever. And idk I partially agree bc. There’s so much nasty shit and some technically illegal shit that I don’t want to even mention! But ur not even wasting the moderators time or anything ur just being obnoxious and then everyone starts discoursing on tumblr and I’m legitimately tired of it. I don’t wanna see ppl defending gross stuff and I’m tired of talking about the ppl who do defend gross stuff bc I don’t wanna remember that they exist bc I have shit to do irl and not enough space in my brain for them

So. Idk ima propose at least a temporary solution before I have to hear one more argument for or against censorship bc y’all seriously don’t understand how to have a nuanced conversation

How about instead of asking AO3 to take down gross fics (which may or may not be morally correct but will 100% reopen a very over done conversation) instead we ask for some specific plausible things

1) when you use ao3 explicit and unrated fics are automatically filtered out. They do this on ff.net. Yes it may be like 2 extra clicks for ppl who wanna read explicit stuff but ppl who don’t are going to do that anyway, and it protects the people who don’t know to do that and don’t want to read graphic tags. Most importantly it requires consent to browse explicit fics. Yeah you need to give consent to read explicit stuff, but you can look through the incredibly graphic tags/summaries without consenting to anything. It’s literally the default. Which is both upsetting to ppl who don’t wanna see that and also maybe a bit of a legal loophole they should close up

2) a “suggest tags” feature. This would be moderated by authors not ao3 staff. Basically ppl can like..... idk entire a series of tags and you can choose if you want to add them or not. The person submitting them has an option to be anonymous or not. Obviously the author doesn’t have to add every random tag and it might be annoying but it would help with making sure triggers got tagged. It would be helpful if it didn’t let you suggest tags that were already suggested/on the fic but I’m not too picky. Like I said the point of this is to make sure ppl can block stuff properly, and it honestly might also help authors with visibility bc like. Obviously you know the tags you use but you don’t know what tags other ppl look for. Again maybe it may be obnoxious with ppl having a lot of tags but people already have a lot of tags

3) a dispute rating button. Now before someone bitches at me that the ao3 moderators don’t have time to go through disputes- I know I already took that into consideration. Basically the idea is when you dispute the rating the site will ask you what rating you think it should be and anonymously log it. So if someone rated something M but you think it should be an E the site will log that and send a message to the author. The author has a choice if they actually want to listen to ppl and change the rating or not. They don’t actually have to listen to the ppl disputing the rating. Unless they get a certain amount of disputes. I was thinking maybe like 50 or so?* So if 50 ppl say “hey this really needs to have a different rating” then and only then would the moderators take a look at the fic. And the moderators would then figure out what the rating should be.

(*idk if 50 is the right #. I was thinking it should maybe work on like a percentage of your hits in the fic?)

3.5) have a sexual content marker. This is marked as 3.5 bc i feel like this idea if implemented would be misused. But yeah in theory you could just have a sexual content marker that could be clicked by the OP and then automatically filtered. Again you could use the system from #3 but again I feel like ppl would missuse it.

Anyway yeah. I wanted to give some viable solutions ppl on both sides might actually agree with. Like I get not wanting to make concessions with gross ppl, but it’s a lot faster so I’m ok with doing it for now while the rest of y’all continue to debate or w/e

Final note- please for the love of g-d learn how ratings work. Ask someone else’s opinion if you have too. I have seen so many explicit fics marked as mature or teen it’s a legitimate problem. I’ll give a quick rundown of what each rating means but pls guys

General- g- basically go by what you’d see in a Disney cartoon

Teen- pg/pg 13 - there are swears there’s violence, sex may be mentioned, you might call someone sexy or smthn idc, but no one is shown having sex or or discussing/thinking about it in detail

Mature- R - injuries/gore may be described with more detail. Uhh there could be some heavy making out and the characters might talk about sex or feeling sexually attracted to someone. But actual sex is not shown!! If you have to mention or refer to someone’s genetalia in any sexual way you should probably move it up to an E. Even if ur characters are fully clothed the entire time. Also If you’re talking about kinks outside of a quick joke or reference you should probably move it up to an E.

Explicit- NC 17- sexually explicit content. (You can put non-sexual violent stuff under here but most ppl leave it under mature)

TLDR/oversimplification(for the ratings) -

General: nothing sexual

Teen: implied sex

Mature: refrenced sex

Explicit: shown sex

General tldr:

Some criticisms of Ao3 are valid and needed, and some are just stupid and infuriating (specifically talking about the tag thing stop it’s annoying and ableist). There is constant arguments and drama surrounding those criticisms, and I decided to offer some solutions that actually have a chance at getting implemented, even if I would prefer a different option.

[majicmarker]

so i’ve had a lot on my mind lately — the good, the bad, the ugly, you know the drill. i’m used to the bad and the ugly, but i think (and ofc by my therapist’s rec) i need to give a little credit to the good, too. not to mention the good is largely comprised of people, and those people deserve a sports stadium wave, yk? idk shit abt sports, whatever, but i know what the wave is and it’s like the grandest gesture i can think of, SO

listen, y’all. to get real here, i hate fandom. my time spent therein has been hit-or-miss, but the misses got me hard and contributed to some major self-loathing, etc etc. we’re not gonna get into the specifics, i don’t owe that to anyone, but suffice it to say things got Rough.

but so much of it can be so, so good. and rn i want to keep on my rose-colored glasses, and the rosiest parts for me have always been @kitten1618x and @mygutsforgarters

(quite a few others, too, but i no longer have everyone’s info. and some ppl are newer friends, or relationships that have moved more slowly. i have mad love for u guys too, obvs, but ik melissa and gus irl so we know each other More and they’re who this post is rly about atm. pls know i don’t want to harsh on anyone’s feelings)

the tl;dr version of events is i met them both via fanfic. i happened upon theirs like “bitch!!!! **i** wanna do this, they’re bomb as hell” and then i made them be friends w me. they’ll tell you they wanted to be friends w me first, but that’s not important bc **i** am the one making this post, so they can both like,, suck it.

ANYWAY.

@ melissa : so bitch listen. here’s the thing abt melissa…… i found her while browsing jonsa fic back when i cared abt GOT, and she brought me back to what i loved so much abt romance when i first started, way back in junior high, what’s up. i bad a fascination w historial romantic epics for a loooooong time — those formative yrs, amirite ladies??? — but girl i could never write it so well as melissa. immediately she struck this balance between the drama you expect from historicals and the levity of a good romance, and i was just like, “hand to god this woman must be published already, surely???”

(she’s not, but that’s ridiculous so we’re gonna skip that)

(also she’s busy?? we’ve been friends for like six years and i will never know how many kids she actually has, but the point is she’s a goddamn superhero and i’m obsessed w her, MOVING ON)

i just Had to be her friend for two reasons: 1) she’s too talented, and b) i have said that abt 2 ppl my entire life and she was the first, so i was like, “AH YES MY HOLY GRAIL”

so ofc i slid into her DMs just as effectively as that one guy i had a crush on when i was sixteen and he’s still shooting me texts every valentine’s day bc of the societal pressures i guess (it is Far Less Effective these days, he’s my age and therefore too young for me, gross, but i digress), except me and melissa go way stronger.

she reminded me of why, half a lifetime ago, i started writing romance — bc it’s fun, bc i want to. bc i can do absolutely anything i want, bc who else is gonna read it but me and whoever i share it with? it was all up to me what i wanted to do with it, and i could do anything. nothing really mattered but what i wanted, and i hadn’t felt that way abt anything in such a long time — let alone abt something i used to love so much.

melissa’s writing is so beautiful, it’s everything i wanted to achieve when i was fifteen and never got around to perfecting. and i’m totally okay w that now, bc what do i need to do myself that she’s not already doing/wants to do in the future? when i found melissa’s writing i found a missing part of me — a part i’d maybe lost, maybe i gave it up, idk, but it was totally gone until i found her fics and they fucking clicked. i had to reach out bc there was a part of me that was a part of her, and she helped me find that again w/o even knowing it.

so i found melissa via GOT, and from the start she’d been trying to get me to write some bethyl. years and years, she dropped not-so-subtle hints — and by “hints,” i mean legit directives that i watch just enough TWD to write her some beth/daryl fic. real crafty, she is.

eventually the stars aligned: i was bored w the same dynamics i’d been writing for years, i wanted smthn new, i was restless, i was line editing a bethyl fic she’d written, and — again — this shit clicked. her fic made me want to explore this dynamic i’d never done before, so i watched the prerequisite episodes (no more than that tho, i super hate the show and i’m begging y’all to not @ me abt it anymore). i found smthn that i’d been missing, smthn that challenged and excited me and brought me back around to why i love romance and, more importantly, why i want to write it myself.

so as i was starting to write bethyl, i was poking around the ao3 tag to get a feel for what had been done, what hadn’t, anything i might be missing. and goddamn BAM —

@ gus : this is where u enter dramatically thru a red velvet curtain that i don’t wanna touch (Metaphorically bc you do romance better than me and i’m cool w that bc your talent simply Cannot be touched, and Literally bc i hate velvet) — i was like, “please for the love of god let her want to write contemporary romance, i need some good fckin food”

i happened upon “doo wah diddy diddy” first. ofc the summary hooked me, forget my usual hard no against pregnancy fics (i have issues w pregnancy and that’s all anybody Needs to know, back off), but This Bitch !!!!!!! has a way with words and i wanted to be friends w her straightaway. lmao too bad for her, now she’s stuck w me

gus’s fics gave me what i wanted without having to write it myself. her style is so distinctive, she hits the notes between porn and Actual Affection that is missing from uhhhh, every romance i’ve tried?? (why is everyone so intent on the sex part?? fckin chill. at best it’s unrelatable and at worst u sound like u’d rather wear someone than fuck them, check urself)

she writes w such care, she wants you to know what she’s doing here, and what she’s doing here is combining the physical and emotional needs of both characters w/o infringing on anyone’s comfortability. you root for these characters bc they simply want to be together, no strings (and if there are strings, damn, they talk abt it).

gus makes you believe in love in the modern age. like, not to sound like one of those ppl who post fckin “no one in this generation knows how to love!!!1!!11!!” memes on facebook, those are dumb, but gus’s writing made me think “yeah man, love ain’t dead, it’s just abt how we approach it.”

(if y’all haven’t guessed yet, i have some hang-ups abt relationships. i’ve goddamn earned those. but melissa and gus both brought me back to where i needed to be — in this place where, yeah, we’ve got some shit to deal with, but we all still deserve the things we want, and those things are achievable. i could not have gotten here without them, so jot that down.)

gus is Real, she’s funny, she’s unapologetic in the way she writes. ofc she has her personal hurdles, but who doesn’t?? and tbh nobody writes a sex scene like gus does. physical, realistic, but balanced w the emotional depth that makes you root for these characters bc you can Feel how much they want each other — not just sexually, but in the less-erotic aftermath of that passion. it continues to blow my mind, bc i’ve never seen anyone do what she does. i can’t even pinpoint the specifics, bc she just… Does It. and you’re reading it like “yeah bitch that’s it,” and That’s It.

it’s fckin wild.

these two — my best friends, the lights of my life, both of whom always make me crave chicken tenders at THE most inconvenient hours bc somehow we always talk abt chicken or ice cream or ultimately DQ, but they're both so hot idec — have something special.

i really, really want them both to know that: it’s not just in how they’ve treated me as a friend, but who they are as people, in their creative pursuits. i’ve never known support the way they’ve shown me; i’ve never known this much enthusiasm or investment or belief that i can do what i want with my talent. i want them to know that i feel the same way abt them and their works.

sometimes, when i look back at their writing that completely kicked my ass, i still can’t believe that they’ve become two of my best friends. it’s totally bonkers. they’re This Talented, and they wanna be friends w my spastic ass? GIRL. i’m out.

i’m not always the best at being present, at giving people what they need when they need it. but with everything that melissa and gus have given me in the past few years, i need them to know this — honey!!! i need all y’all to know this, bc i know fandom shit is hard, but you should know some of these friendships are so, so worth all that bullshit, so —

they have so much to give, so much to say, so much to offer. i could not have kept going without them. i couldn’t believe in myself without the faith they’ve given to me. i hope that i can always give that same faith right back.

and that, babes, is what real soulmates are all about.

[writefightandflightclub]

Hi tumblr,

Ok look. I try to keep my posts light-hearted etc. and that’s normally easy as pie, as I generally feel happy and comfortable here, but I feel this needs to be said.

I have talked a number of times about how you should not interact with this blog if you are below 18. Sorry, but no exceptions. I post nsfw content and it’s therefore a boundary for legal reasons, as well as a personal boundary. It’s absolutely nothing personal against anyone else.

What I don’t see being said enough is, if you’re a minor, please don’t post your own nsfw content and actively encourage interaction from adults (and/or say or even imply by omission you’re an adult yourself).

It sounds obvious but...

That’s just as bad, and just as much a violation of boundaries and consent, and potentially even more damaging. It also puts you as risk as a minor in lots of ways.

Please don’t put adults in that position, which could have serious (legal or not) consequences for their lives / jobs / mental well-being.

Personally, aside from anything else, as an adult, thinking about a minor engaging in that way, or me wrongly engaging with a minor in that way makes me feel literally sick and stressed, and... I don’t need any more stress tbh. I do that well enough on my own! 🙈

This place is my fun place, my escape, (I’m grateful for all of you who make it so lovely to be here!) and I try hard to make it positive for others too, and sadly, I’m becoming increasingly nervous about posting and interacting with nsfw content.

We are all humans, just doing our best, but we must respect and keep each other safe, and work together to make this fandom an even more positive and even more safe space 🧡

Please respect me, yourself, and the tumblr user base.

To be clear, this is not directed at anyone specifically, and please don’t think this is coming from any place other than thinking about keeping people and myself safe.

If you read this and think- oh no, I did that, I clicked on a fic I shouldn’t have or whatever, no need to beat yourself up- I’m not trying to make anyone feel shitty. I promise. We all learn as we go, and if we find ourselves in a mistake, we fix it in future, and we move on. It’s okay.

All I’m asking is that, collectively, we allow others to make informed decisions on who they interact with and in what ways, based on accurate and transparent information. In both directions. (Ppl being misled isn’t a nice experience, and when this type of content is involved it’s also a consent violation + could be super triggering tbh!)

For those of you who are already “on it” (there are a lot of minors as well as adults who play a huge part in keeping the community safe!) I thank you. Obviously this is not meant for you.

Finally, obviously this post isn’t meant to suggest at all that the onus or responsibility is on minors themselves here. Adults should be doing as much as possible to discourage and actively monitor interaction with minors. For the most part, I see everyone actively doing that. Warnings in bios and tags and warnings and ratings on content aren’t for fun! It is to protect all readers and ourselves, especially where adults as opposed to minors are the ones legally culpable for the consequences. We’re very much aware of this bc we have to be.

It’s also very different here where interactions are individual to individual, rather than checking a little “I’m over 18” box on a big website. There’s a real-life person at stake!

Actually finally, please believe that all of this is with the safety and well-being of minors in mind too. I’m sure that ignoring rules is more about wanting to participate in a fun space rather than as a result of any malicious intent, and I get that. I do. However, sadly, there will be some adults on this site who will not respect your boundaries and may harm you (I haven’t met any of those and I dearly hope you never do either). What nsfw content creators advocate to keep people safe can just generally keep you safe, believe it or not!

Please stay safe online! Please help others to stay safe online.

I care a lot about the people in this fandom, about other writers, and all of my readers. I will do everything I can to make this blog a safe and fun place to be for you.

I’m sorry for how heavy and serious this post seems but I don’t know how else to say this besides being firm and clear.

Thank you for listening! 🧡

[pocmuzings]

mysticroleplay did a female ban in 2020 //:

hi ! thanks for the info , anon !!! when i first received this message i was big yikes tbh , bc female bans in 2020 ?? who even does that . but . . also admittedly , i know how things and misinformation can be spread thru tumblr discourse , so i actually approached the admins of mysticroleplay myself, to ask them for their side and an Explanation of what the 'female ban' really meant , bc . it doesn't Read Well for Anyone involved dfjkndfjnfjn . ANYWAYS , here was their response : ( under the cut bc it’s long , and then i add More commentary at the bottom ) 

 “ So, there’s a lot to unload here… as what initially was presented as a temporary tool in an attempt manage our influx of female characters, had got out of hand and taken out of context >< We hope our explanation below can gain a better understanding as to where we were coming from when implementing this ban, as we know it can come off quite… old school and not at all encouraging of those who disapprove of a gender ban in general. 

 When we started Mystic, we wanted to be a roleplay that didn’t care about ratios, which is why we categorize our characters by ‘stayed, left, new’ (according to our plot). In the beginning stages, we noticed the reputation roleplays were getting for caring about ratios (and ultimately understanding why it was a bad thing), which is why we made that decision in the first place.

As Mystic was growing, we noticed the influx of female characters joining, and didn’t really think much about it. However, slowly, we noticed that we had a handful of non-female desired wanted connections sitting in our tag, and there’s only so much that we admins can do to encourage gender diversity. We were also aware of the pressure a few members (we included) that had male characters felt when interacting with female characters (shipping, and etc), which was also a mildly growing concern behind the scene. As admins, we want to do our best to cater to our member’s experience and because we have encountered a certain feeling (in our own experience as members or admins, outside of Mystic) whenever there’s a heavy gender presented more than others, we couldn’t help but feel concerned. We’ve seen roleplays die when one gender overpowers the other, so we couldn’t help but wonder… should we do something about this? We’re not supposed to care about gender ratios, but our fear of our roleplaying dying due to past (separate) experiences seemingly overpowered that. (And not only that, but we’ve also been approached individually if we would consider a female ban of sorts, as we know *whether it’s a bad thing or not* that there are some people do care about ratios.)

And so, we came to the decision of implementing a temporary female ban, for various reasons. Yes, to balance our ratio to a degree, but to also encourage our members who were thinking of taking on second characters, to think about taking on a different gender. (We were also heavily wary about the backlash this would cause, but under said pressures, in a misguided attempt, did it anyway.)

 That is not to say, we only encouraged male characters in the slightest. Our ban was to encourage both male and nb characters, however, we will admit, we didn’t encourage nb characters as much as we should’ve. We know now, we probably should’ve sent ourselves some anons to put forth the public desire of having gender diversity, but we’re sad to say, we didn’t. We genuinely didn’t encourage (nor do we desire) one gender over the other, but we understand, that not voicing our desire for nb characters outright, could’ve been the reason why it this female ban we implemented was taken out of context.

Within the week of closing our ban (which was only up for about a week), we received anon asking if we’d do the same for nonbinary characters. We weren’t sure what to make of this ask, because admittingly, we were afraid it was a tool someone was using to try and make us (and Mystic) look bad. We know that might sound a bit dramatic, but the three of us are particularly protective over Mystic (as it has taken over two years for us to finally bring this roleplay to light) and we didn’t want a misunderstanding to have all of our hard work go to waste. (We’re also extremely aware of the rpcs of cancel culture, and wanted to avoid that as much as possible.) So, we made the unfortunate choice of not answering it, not for any other reason than being fearful of the outcome. 

 Within the next day, we received an IM from one of our members that it was them who had sent the anon and have expressed deep disappointment towards us for ignoring their query. It was… shameful, and heartbreaking for us to say the least. We loved that member deeply and have grown extremely embarrassed for not meeting their needs, all out of fear. Although they have expressed that they wish to have approached us off anon (as they were aware it came off hostile), they were still disappointed as a whole and we couldn’t blame them.

We did our best to explain why we didn’t reply, and how we weren’t trying to prioritize male or female characters over nonbinary (which is certainly another story within itself), and while we thought the conversation was going quite well and civil, we were met with them ultimately deactivating and we could no longer talk things through. 

 The incident between the three of us and that member was a lot for us. In fact, it still affects a few of us to this day, as we’re continuously fearful of disappointing our members again. We didn’t expect for Mystic to grow this big, nor did we expect to gain traction from the rpc in general. But, through this experience, we’ve learned that we do hold some sort of responsibility for doing what we can to encourage what is needed in the rpc. (Whether we feel as though it’s our duty or not.) We’ve learned a lot from that member, and although we weren’t able to settle things to their likeness, we decided to move on with the decision of implementing a ban for both male and female characters, in hopes of encouraging trans and nonbinary characters to enter Mystic in the near future. We want to look it as taking it one step at a time to be as inclusive and accepting to all as possible, whether we’re fully capable of taking on that task ourselves.

There is a lot more to say upon the matter, which we would be happy to discuss, as we want to lay things out as transparent as possible, but we hope that all of this explains things, enough for you to form a fair opinion about us. Not once did we ever make a decision to purposefully harm a particular community. Between the three of us, we are fully supportive (as well as a part of) the LGBTQ community and have been distraught knowing we have been misunderstood, due to a misguided decision in order to control our ratios. However, that is not to say, that we didn’t harm anyone (intentional or not), and we hope moving forward, we can right our wrongs. 

 If you have any more concerns or questions regarding the matter, please let us know, we appreciate you approaching us privately. <3 “

i kinda do understand what they're talking abt . if u've been on my blog in the past few weeks , we've been talking heavily abt playing male muses and how they're ship-chased to no ends , and i do recognise that this is what the admins were noticing in their own rp with female muses coming in, and creating a MASS amount of wanted connections just for males , and chasing the males that were already in the rp . this is smth we've all seen time and time again , and it makes rps die , and ppl just . Click right out , bc who wants to come into a rp thats just 'ship ' 'ship' ' ship' 'ship' ??? thats not fun , and not the environment u wanna foster. 

 do i agree with the Actions per se , of a female ban ? no . not at all . it's very demoralizing and derogatory to female muses who AREN'T there for ships and actually for the Real purpose of rping. but i do UNDERSTAND what the admins were trying to accomplish , in order to break up the amount of ship-chasing they were seeing . 

 after scrolling through their blog , i did see that they were trying , somewhat, to encourage more male AND nb fcs . however, again , of course - this didn't really pan out , because . . nb muses are hardly EVER picked up , as we all know  . should they have pushed MORE for nb rep , and maybe picked up a few nb chartacters themselves ? probably . admins should lead by example , a classic g line . 

 so . the action of them removing the female ban when they had more Males , but not really Considering as much abt the nb-representation ? not great either , but they acknowledge that in their response too , and admit they're Ashamed of how they acted . it's not my place to talk on the nb/trans community's end on this topic . simply put , if that side of the community is hurt and Damaged by these actions , then thats understandable too . 

i think it's at least Slightly commendable that when i approached the admins out of the blue - they were completely 1000% transparent and honest with me abt the situation in general and what had seemingly warranted , to them, a 'female ban ' 

 look , overall. mistakes are made . people own up to them . they apologise , and they acknowledge they’ll do better in the future . that’s SOMETHING . overall, they’re Trying to do better , and i think that that’s something important , and i do appreciate them for that . they did the wrong thing . they admitted it and owned up to it . i can understand where they were Coming from , but the execution , admittedly , was not done Great .

[izzy-b-hands]

20-30!

Thank you so much for asking!!!!

20. Favorite character to write?

Already answered, but I don’t mind re-answering cuz I thought maybe I’d narrow my three way tie, but alas, no lol. Still a tie between Ahkmenrah, Snafu, and Skwisgaar.

21. Least favorite character to write? 

Ooh-tbh, Larry from NATM just because I feel like I always make him an asshole? Like, I haven’t published all my fic ideas for NATM because I keep making him really mean? And in some it works but in others I’m like ‘jesus chill Lee he’s just a Dude trying his best’ but also at the same time I feel the way Stiller played him and his character arc means he’s got some major ego to him as the films go on? Idk that isn’t a hot take or anything just me being frustrated with Ben Stiller lol

22. Favorite story you’ve ever written? 

Hard choice, because I love all my kids, but I cried after writing this one lol: https://aboutthatmelancholystorm.tumblr.com/post/186781309036/you-know-that-i-love-you

It hit some personal stuff for me, so to be able to have it work organically in a fic so I could also like, mini therapy session myself? Cool af. Also, ppl seemed to like this a lot too, and while that validation isn’t the only reason I write, it’s always cool when my writing makes ppl happy. 

23. Least favorite story you’ve ever written? 

I don’t really have a least favorite, but I do have some I’m more frustrated with, due to how long they took me to write, etc. Currently? The answer to this is my Mark the Date series because A. it is taking me a day and an age to finish it and B. I feel like it kinda flopped, so it’s hard to pull up any energy to finish it, but like...I may as well now lol. I’ll get it done eventually.

24. Favorite scene you’ve written? 

Oh god tbh I have too many I love just cuz like

I can go back to how I felt writing them and yeah

But as of most recent fics, I really this bit: 

-Snafu patted the blanket near his head, and waited for Eugene to put out his pipe and lay back beside him before snuggling close to him. “You could be right. Could be God. Could just be love.” “How’s that?” “I think love has its own way. Even before you meet someone, even before you know you’re fallin’ for ‘em. Love’s just…out there, like the air or somethin’. Finds you when the time is right, and finds who you click with. You gotta do the rest, the stayin’ in love part, but that bringing together, that first spark…that’s love just existing, and doin’ what it needs to so the world keeps spinnin’, so people make it through tough shit,” Snafu replied. “I like that,” Eugene said. “Think love did a good job with us. Makin’ sure we found each other.” Snafu pressed a kiss softly to the corner of Eugene’s mouth. “Sure did. Wouldn’t ever want to be with anyone else. I don’t even know what that looks like, and I don’t want to.” “Same here,” Eugene’s mouth was warm as he kissed him back. “Here’s to love for making sure you found me.” -

from this fic: https://aboutthatmelancholystorm.tumblr.com/post/186926226531/absolution-is-the-taste-of-your-lips

Because I’m sappy af more than I let on, and also this was a chance to like, write out my own feelings via Snafu. And that was a pretty cool and fulfilling thing for me, ya know? 

25. Favorite line you’ve ever written? 

oh god this is another hard one to narrow down but

I always come back to this line and go ‘oh shit did I really write that. Nah, someone better than me at this had to have. They briefly possessed me or something”:  

-Music and talking and shouting and footsteps collide kaleidoscopic in his ears, but none bearing the one sound that he’d run to if he heard it.-

from this fic, mentioned twice now in this post lol: https://aboutthatmelancholystorm.tumblr.com/post/186781309036/you-know-that-i-love-you

I really love alliteration, and for me this line just sums up how it feels to walk thru a city when you aren’t just wandering really, but are looking or waiting for someone, and have that awful yet sometimes good feeling of expecting to hear or see them but it feels like you’re waiting or searching forever and in the meantime the city just lives on around you, a stopped platelet stuck in a vein full of vitality. Like, idk if it hit any of my readers that way, but that’s what I was trying to get across lol, so the line always hits me hard in a good way when I scroll thru my writing tag and see it. 

26. Story you’re most proud of? 

Gosh

I gotta choose just one kid for this aldsfkja I’m bad at choosing I love my gaggle of ragtag goofballs. I have an original piece I’d choose for this, but I’ve never posted it on here, so I’m gonna choose out of my fanfic on here instead.

One I am really proud of is this one: https://aboutthatmelancholystorm.tumblr.com/post/186781309036/you-know-that-i-love-you

and I know it’s the third time it’s been part of an answer on here but

I really love this one idk. Thinking back to how I felt while writing it, how it all flowed in a certain way. The whole experience was just something else, and I’m proud of this one in a certain way I find myself, funnily enough, unable to describe. 

27. Best review you ever got? 

Okay this sounds cheesy but like

I really do love and appreciate every review or review-like thing I’ve ever gotten so I can’t choose just one for this

Like, y’all gotta understand, I’ve deleted some of it and erased traces of it from my blog, but I’ve written for years on here, I have some stuff on my ao3, and for the longest time I got nothing back, or very nearly nothing. Maybe a few likes, but no comments and not much else. I always just rolled with it and assumed I just wasn’t writing anything good enough to inspire reviews. Idk if that’s true or not, but in any case it means I cherish every comment, like, reblog, and anything review-like in nature because I’m so grateful to have it now, and I know it could well be pure luck that I stumbled up on a really supportive bunch of fandoms with great readers. 

In other words, thank y’all for every kind word and like and reblog and also I may be an immortal feeding off of validation of my art, but we’ll see on that last bit, because I haven’t tested it. 

28. Worst review you ever got?

One from middle school. I’d just finished my very first novel, gave it to a friend to read, and he said it ‘smacked of being too fanciful and childish, something only kids and women would read’ (it was a YA fantasy novel so I mean... what exactly he expected, idk cuz he knew what it was before I gave it to him, like it’s supposed to have those elements as a lot of these sorts of novels/stories do, and that isn’t a bad thing about them at all, so like...what his damage was idek.)

Also this is the same dude who texts me randomly and is really weird abt his friendship with me and happens to be an English teacher now (RIP to his students.) 

Anyway, after he said that I tossed a review right back, because well, middle school and also I was very upset with him because I’d not asked for anything other than a general ‘if you picked this up randomly and started it, would it suck you in enough to keep reading or would you put it down’ like that was literally all I needed him to answer for me. So I told him his latest novel (his second at that point) was essentially just him masturbating to his own opinions (because he’s an arguer, who loves to tell ppl they’re always wrong, and that’s by his own admission) for one hundred pages, and not in a way that anyone else would care to read. He was pissed, but so was I. We didn’t talk for a good week, and we had almost all our classes together lol. 

Like, getting nothing back in review sucks too, but this one has stuck with me forever. Best part? I mentioned it to him a few years back, and he only vaguely remembered it, and followed it with “but I’ve said a lot of rough stuff about your work. I mean, it deserved it at the time, but you might be good at this someday!” 

I didn’t smack him, but I really, really wanted to. 

29. Favorite story/poem of another author

This doesn’t specify on Tumblr or not, so I’ve got two: one from outside tumblr, and one from on here.

A. When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be by John Keats

When I have fears that I may cease to be   Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,Before high-pilèd books, in charactery,   Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain;When I behold, upon the night’s starred face,   Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,And think that I may never live to trace   Their shadows with the magic hand of chance;And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,   That I shall never look upon thee more,Never have relish in the faery power   Of unreflecting love—then on the shoreOf the wide world I stand alone, and thinkTill love and fame to nothingness do sink.

B. Again, this Tumblr one could be a huge ass list because y’all on here are amazing, but one I’ve been rereading over and over again recently is @xmxisxforxmaybe ‘s Remnants series, which can be found here: https://xmxisxforxmaybe.tumblr.com/post/186702235396/remnants-complete-work

Like, Ahk as a character is captured so well, and I love the way the plot twines and also when the smut comes up? Very good A+ smut, something I value pretty highly on and off Tumblr because man, sometimes smut is just work to write, so I appreciate it when it’s really good. All around, this series has captured my heart and I legit have a link to it saved on multiple devices so if I need something to read, I can just pull it up right away. 

30. Hardest part of writing? 

Self-doubt. It’s the biggest hurdle for any artist, regardless of the art in question I think, but with writing it seems to double down a lot. Like, you have to really get out of your own head, even as you spend all your time there with your writing ideas. Shit gets weird and twisted, man. 

For the longest time, I really let self-doubt defeat me too, and I regret the time I lost to that. I still get hit with it randomly, cause I don’t think it every really goes away for any writer, not even the big names like Stephen King or Neil Gaiman (who I’m half tempted to @ on here purely because I wanna know his feelings on this stuff because I respect and admire him as an artist and his thoughts very much, but also he’s a very busy man so I’m not gonna bug him by doing that lol.) 

All there is to do is to work with it, push past it, and most importantly keep writing. I have days where that feels like the hardest thing, but each day I manage to get past it and get the words down? I let myself feel proud of that, and mark it as an achievement in my Big Book of Stuff I’ve Done in This Life. 

[uglifish]

super fun and special ugli Q&A part 2!!!

(check more answers tagged as #askugli on the bloggu)

Is the character KUMI (from the story OTOKONOKO) a self-insert? no. deffo not. Do I have a crush on someone in the fandom? if i did, why would i say it here? then they’d know?!? hahaha

Can you please please update twice a week like before? maybe in the summer when i have more time and ppl have more time to read? yeah, we’ll have to see. its just that i got a lot more busy this year. i had a breeze last year but my workload has significantly increased. Why do all of my stories have such dark undertones?

+ interesting range of topics, so when you click on a story, you get a different flavor every time + gives me a chance to touch on real-word issues and topics that are usually hard to bring up (like human trafficking) turning it into a story makes it more digestible + everyone loves a happy ending (well, most people) so i find that starting out dark, helps the characters grow in my story Will you ever write a self-insert fic? unlikely. but then again, i said i would never take commissions, and here i am, my ass is taking commissions Cx

Will you write stories outside of the YGO fandom? Can you write something for (insert fandom here)? maybe? i really like miraculous ladybug, but scanning thru the fic list, everyone seems to have already covered something i’ve thought of (which means we the fandom are of ONE MIND -chants- one. mind. one. mind) but yea! i might move away from ygo, but i’ll always still have at least ONE ygo fic up, i’d like to think ;D

How old is Mr.Scissors (my pet bunny)?

Mr. Scissors and Silky (his bonded pair) are both one and a half years old. Silky is a french angora and was bred as an Easter bunny (a cruel practice, animals should not be given away as gifts unless the owner is prepared to take full responsibility of another life, ugh i could go on). ANYWAY she and her sisters were abandoned on the side of the road, in the rain, in a cardboard box. (Yea, human cruelty knows no bounds). i picked her up at the shelter when she was just 6 months old, barely weaned from her mother. Mr. Scissors is a rejected show-bunny, so his health problems are probably due to bad genes from both of his bunny parents (which was why he was thrown aside at the shelter with a whole litter of brothers). I think breeding for show-purposes is also cruel, but what can ya do. Apparently he had “crooked lines” which i dont even KNOW what that MEANS cuz he’s just a perfect little angel in my eyes. (i think they meant fur patterns. like who cares??) but because he has showmanship genes, so he can leap...over things in a crazy way.

Like if he wants out, i canNOT stop him. he can dig, root, rattle, shake, everything he can get his hands on and basically behave like a little demon until he gets his way.

He has trained me to the point where, if he clicks his nails against the food bowl to make a pinging sound, I will feed him. If he nudges the almost-empty water bowl to clang noisily together with the food bowl, i will re-fill it. If he digs at the carpet, it means he wants his area cleaned. If he pees outside of the enclosure, he wants the litter changed ASAP. Silky is completely different. She will just chill, and be chill, and basically ignore me until she needs something.

If im not out of bed by exactly 6:30 on the dot, Mr.Scissors will start plotting his escape from the enclosure by making a lot of noise.

anyway, yea those are my babies.

back to the rest of the questions!

Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend/partner?

im married ... .. .. TO YGO haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Thanks for clicking and reading, as always! You know i love youu!!! Thank you for always supporting me and my stories!

I pour my heart into them and im glad you enjoy them enough to reach out to me to find out more about my disastrous life.

hugs, Ugli

[kaitymccoy123]

Needing Eachother

I am on mobile right now but have had this queued up forever and just reread it and tgought it’d be nice to post for near Christmas time. Pure fluff. Can’t add a tag list sorry ppl. Also can’t add a cut thingy either. Sorry Enjoyenjoyenjoy Pairing: Scotty x reader

Word Count: some

-Enjoy!-

As soon as Scotty’s face filled the screen in front of you, you knew this wasn’t going to be a happy call.  

“Hey.” You said, trying your hardest to smile even though you felt like you were dying inside. 

“Hey there.” A flicker of a smile touched his lips, but there was not the usual jovial tone to his voice. 

“What’s wrong?” You asked, pressing your palms into the bedspread. 

“I was abou’ t'ask you the same thin’.” He exhaled. 

“What do you mean?”

“Love, why’re you crying?” His voice was soft and tender. 

“I’m not…” You touched your fingertips to your cheeks and were surprised to find tears there. 

Scotty clicked his tongue softly and you could hear him shuffle in his seat, “Wha’s the matter?  I hate seein’ you so sad.“ 

“I don’t know…” You drew your forearm under your dripping nose and pulled your knees to your chest, “I don’t know.”

Resting your chin on your folded knees you looked up at him through watery eyes.  His eyes were sad too, you realized and it only made you let out a little sob. 

“I just really miss you, I guess.” You sniffled, tearing your eyes away from his and resting the side of your head on your knees. 

“I miss you too, love." 

"I jus-I just could-could really use one-one of your hugs right now.” You gasped, and the mere thought of his arms wrapped around you sent you into a fit of sobs again. 

“Shh… Y/N, I know, and if I could I would be there in a second.”

“I know.” You looked at him again, “Where’s the teleporter machine you’ve been-been talking about?  I thought you were an engineer.” You joked, but it didn’t make him smile. 

“I think I’ve done well enough developing the transporter, thank you very much. Unfortunately I think it’s more of a time machine tha’ we need.”

You huffed a watery laugh and rubbed your face into your knees before leaning back and wiping at them with the back of your hand.  You sighed and reached out to touch your PADD screen. 

“How much longer until we are together again?” Your voice was barely a whisper. 

You desperately wished that it was your fingertips touching his cheek rather than the hard screen of the PADD. 

“3 months.” He sighed, and you saw tears well up in his eyes, “I wish I could come home now.  I jus’ want t'a hold ya again.  I hate-I hate sleeping alone.”

Now it was your turn to comfort him, “I do too, Monty.  But I’m sure you don’t miss my cold feet against your back all night.” You smiled. 

He huffed a laugh and wiped at his eyes, “I would take your ice-cubes that you call feet over sleepin’ alone on this bloody lonely planet any day.”

“Well I promise as soon as you get back that you can have as much of my cold feet as you want because it’s going to be days before we are going to leave this bed.” You bounced up and down slightly on the bed and were relieved to see a real smile pull at his mouth. 

“Sounds like a deal.”

You fell into a comfortable silence and you eventually felt the tight coil of missing him lessen a little, and your tears dried on your cheeks. 

“I love you, Monty.”

That made him smile and tilted his head as his whiskey-brown eyes met yours sweetly, “I love you too, Y/N.”

“And soon we will be together.” You said.  This was always your little routine before you hung up.

“Before ya know it.” Scotty responded as per your little imaginary script. 

You drew your finger one more time down his face on the screen before you brought the PADD closer to your face, pressing your forehead against it. 

Pulling back, you found tears perched on your eyelids again, “I need you, Montgomery Scott.  I need you I need you I need you." 

You repeated the words until you were nearly sobbing them, and you watched his face as it broke down with each repetition of the words. 

When you paused to take a shaky breath he interrupted, "Love, you wouldn’t even believe how much I need you too.”

You wiped at your eyes again and smiled, “I should go to bed.”

“Wish I was there." 

"I wish you were too.” You blew him a kiss before ending the call.  

You don’t know how long you sat there, hugging the PADD to your chest and sobbing, but eventually you fell asleep, cradling the device as if it were Scotty’s arm drawn around your chest.

Finally, it was time.  

As you stood at the landing dock, you bounced up and down on your toes, wearing a stupid smile on your face that had been there since yesterday.

He’s coming home today. He’s coming home today.  He’s coming home today.

“Are you excited or something?  I can’t tell.” You turned to Jim who stood beside you and punched him in the arm.

“It’s been 18 months since I’ve seen him, you asshat, I get to be excited.”

Jim chuckled, “But didn’t you see him a few months ago?”

“That was 6 months ago and only for 4 hours on one of his re-supply missions.” You snapped.

“Okay, okay, you get to be excited.” Jim smiled down at you and you turned your attention quickly back to the bustling shuttle bay.

Jim said they’d landed already, but you didn’t know which ship it was or if they had even gotten off yet.  The suspense was killing you.

You waited in silence next to Jim, your eyes constantly scanning each ship, each person that had redish-brown hair, each red shirt, hoping it was him.

“You’re gonna give yourself an aneurysm.” Jim teased.

“Shut up.”

There.  Your eyes caught on someone. Nope.

Ooo, over there.

Nope.

You were beginning to get frustrated when you saw another head of reddish-brown hair.  Coupled by a red shirt.  And that scarf.  You had given him that scarf.

Your heart soared.

Monty.

Your legs nearly gave out before you commanded them to surge forward, and they somehow carried you into the busy shuttle bay. Squeezing past person after person, you felt the cool air hit your cheeks and realized you were crying. Your legs were flying under you, faster than you had ever run before, and your heart was hammering in your chest.

As you neared him, you realized that he hadn’t seen you yet, and he seemed to be scanning the crowds as well.  Looking for you.

“MONTY!” You yelled, and his head snapped in your direction.

You had no idea how you remained standing when his eyes met yours.  There he was. Flesh and blood and oh-so-familiar. Something between a screech and a shout of laughter left your lips and you started running again.  

Scotty’s smile was unbelievably wide as he dropped his bag and spread his arms.  You nearly leaped into them as you finally closed the last few feet.  

“Monty!” You called again as he wrapped his arms around you tight, tighter than ever, and still you couldn’t get enough.

“Y/N, Y/N, Y/N.” Scotty chanted, and that’s when you realized that he was crying too.  

You felt him press hard kisses to the side of your neck, working his way up to your jaw and eventually across your cheek, and when you couldn’t take it anymore, you turned your head and captured his lips in yours.

It was a desperate kiss, dry and harsh, a kiss that means ‘I haven’t seen you in forever’, ‘I miss you so much’, ‘I just want to feel your lips on mine’.  But eventually it melted into softer kisses, gentle ‘I love you’ kisses and you found yourself giggling despite the tears still running down your cheeks.

Eventually, you pulled your head away, resting your foreheads together, the rest of your body pressed tightly to his.  

“Monty.” You breathed, more tears (happy ones, you realized now) tracked down your cheeks.

“Y/N.” He laughed, and the smile on his face and the admiration in his eyes melted your heart.

“Do you even know how much I missed you?” You teased, brushing his hair over his ears.

“If it’s even half as much as I’ve missed you, then it’s a hell u’va lot.” He kissed the smile off your face.

Breaking off the kiss, you buried your face in his neck and inhaled the familiar scent o him, and you felt his hands squeeze your waist softly.

“Nice to have you back, Mr. Scott.” Jim’s voice broke through your little bubble of Scotty and you drew back to Scotty’s side, slinging your arms around his waist and pressing your cheek into his shoulder.

“Nice to be back, Cap’n.” Scotty pressed a kiss to the top of your head, and the arm that he had around you drew soft lines up and down your back.

“I was about to send this one to the medbay ‘cause I thought she was gonna faint while we waited for you.” Jim teased and you stuck your tongue out at him.

“And I can send you to the medbay for a black eye if you want one, Jimbo.” You joked, and Scotty laughed heartily next to you and pulled you closer.

“Alright, alright, my duty here is done, you two lovebirds go do whatever you lovebirds want to do, I’ll see you back on the ship.” Jim saluted before he retreated back into the busy crowds.

Scotty swung you around so you were in front of him again, encircling his arms around your waist.

“Now, lass, I would love a long hot shower – with or without you honestly I just need one at this point – a good hot meal, and to spend the rest of the day in bed with you in my arms.”

Your heart surged with happiness and you dove up to kiss him quickly, “Sounds like a plan to me.”

Scotty smiled and kissed your forehead quickly before scooping up his bag and slung it over his shoulder.   You arms still slung around the other’s waists, you and Scotty started towards the exit ready to spend the next little while in each other’s arms.

-Thanks for reading!  I hope you liked it!-

[its-love-u-asshole]

Fic Writers Week Day 3: Small But Mighty

Shine a spotlight on the new/underrated fics you’ve read or written.

Yeeessss it’s rec time! I know there’s also the last day to rec fics in general, but I love the idea behind this day a lot too! There’s so many beautiful fics that I’ve read which don’t receive the amount of recognition/kudos that they deserve! I can’t wait to spread the word about them! Since this might be a longer post, I’m putting it under a read more! Enjoy <3

Also, I want to encourage people to try reading new fics as much as possible! While fic rec lists are a good source to start and get ideas about what to read, often times people rely on them too much, and then overlook newer fics which are just as amazing! So every once in a while, remember to check the ship tags on ao3 for newly posted works, that way you don’t miss any hidden gems! 

Alright, let’s get into it! 

in a flash (ao3) -- Kurotsuki, G

He sees a red beanie covering messy black hair, a soft and boyish smile lit up by the sunlight, and a gray cat.

Click.

Okay so this kurotsuki fic definitely needs twice as many kudos/comments, because the writing was downright phenomenal! It was so beautiful and made me feel warm inside all throughout reading it, I couldn’t get enough! The characterizations are excellent, and the whole mood of the fic is so cozy and wonderful. Please check it out if you love kurotsuki! Also make sure to follow @cawnvictofmurder on tumblr! 

a haunting in tokyo (ao3) -- Daisuga, G 

This wasn’t the first time Suga had claimed their apartment had been haunted. However, it was the first time he tried to do something about it. Daichi, as always, is nothing but supportive.

This fic was short, but unbelievably sweet! I loved the mix of domestic daisuga fluff with paranormal shenanigans lmao, it was just a super enjoyable fic which had me giggling constantly. I don’t read much daisuga, but it was definitely a treat, and I’d recommend the fic to all! Please also make sure to follow @bishounen-curious <3

Starved (ao3) -- Kurotsuki, T

Kei can’t make it this week. Next week, maybe, he’ll be here but Tetsurou is all out of patience.

Prompt: “I’m tired of being your secret.”

@ivyfics has too many amazing fics which deserve more attention, but this one I feel especially needs to be read. The writing and emotions are just...incredible, I reread this fic so much because I’m in awe of how well it’s written. It’s the perfect mix of angst and relationship development, and I super appreciate that it’s from Kuroo’s POV! Please check it out if you love kurotsuki! It’s worth the read (and reread lol) ^^ 

Where to Start (ao3) -- TeruShira, G

It's the second date Kenjirou has been on and he can feel Yuuji already figuring him out. He wants to be the boyfriend he wants Yuuji to have, but he doesn't know where to start.

Alright so this author in general just needs more love, yeah TeruShira (or any Shirabu ship really lol) is a rarepair, but gah trust me, after you read this fic you’ll be hopping onto the shipping train so damn fast. The characterizations are so realistic and interesting, and the interactions between the pair are so fun and touching. Please check this fic out, as well as all of SilverAmoebasquid‘s other works! 

A God for Every Season (ao3) -- Matsuhana, T

Mortals have all kinds of foolish tales, like how Hades and Persephone's annual reunion causes the seasons. Matsukawa knows better.

Alright, I don’t have time to get into this because for this fic, I can honestly write a 10 page essay about how much I love it. So lemme just say, the writing and the romance is top notch, like...wow, words cannot describe how beautiful the writing is. You seriously need to read it in order to understand. I also love mythology aus, and this delivered! The retelling of Hades/Persephone reuniting was so creative and enjoyable, I want to reread it all again just from typing this lol. @90stimkon did an incredible job with this fic and all their fics, so please check them all out! <3 

Waiting for Spring (ao3) -- Kurotsuki, NR

Kuroo had only ever been enamored with a person in his lifetime once. And then "The Dream" happened. Everyday, he dreamt of the neighborhood where he lived, and he always saw a stranger with short blond hair, a tall stature, and black-framed glasses in his dreams. He didn't know who he was, but he was determined to find out.

Kuroo had only ever been enamored with a person in his lifetime once. And then "The Dream" happened. That was the second time.

This fic isn’t exactly recent but I’ll never stop reccing it until it’s been read by everyone lmao I swear! It’s a bit on the angstier side, and there’s a warning for mental illness mentions, but it’s a gorgeous fic. It explores Tsukishima’s emotions and character so well, Kuroo’s too! The details about mental health and Kuroo’s feelings/situation are great, it’s definitely a dream fic which flows into reality so well! I loved the ending, I loved the whole fic, so please give it a shot! 

24 Hours (ao3) -- Iwaoi, E 

Iwaizumi, a special investigations agent, finds himself falling in love with someone who may already be dead.

@serviceace is an amazing writer, and this crime au has got me so hooked! If you like crime mysteries and detective!Iwaizumi, this is the fic for you! It’s ongoing, but each chapter is so interesting and fun to read, and the questions keep me on the edge of my seat! Please go read this fic if you’re a sucker for iwaoi and police aus, as I am ;) 

To The Skies (ao3) -- Kacchako, M 

It was supposed to be a typical evening for Bakugou Katsuki. A masquerade ball, a night of serving the royal family as he always did. But when the party goes horribly wrong it's up to servant boy Bakugou to rescue the princess, Uraraka Ochako. His rescue mission is about to change both of their lives completely, and eventually Uraraka will want to reclaim her throne.

Now, older, the two reunite, realizing their lives have gone in very different directions. Ochako, part of the Resistance against the horrible Academy, and Bakugou, a famed sky pirate, traveling the island clusters to find various bounties. Together, they fight to take back the home they once knew and loved.

Okay y’all, lemme tell you, if you love Kacchako, you need to read this! The idea is so damn original, and Rache’s writing is A++ as always. The world she builds and the character relationships that she crafts are so well done. This fic seriously deserves more attention, so please go read! <3 Also follow her writing blog on tumblr @emeraldwaves ! You won’t be disappointed! 

Tacky Shoes and Movie Tickets (ao3) -- Bokuaka, T

Akaashi deals with a lot of stupid people.

He isn't yet certain if Bokuto falls into that category.

In which Akaashi is the manager of a movie theater, Bokuto is the new hire at the shoe store downstairs, and the two of them get along much better than Akaashi could have anticipated.

Okay so I was super surprised that this fic didn’t have more kudos! It’s so light hearted and funny, not to mention perfectly sweet! It’s ongoing, but I can’t wait for more. @worthlesspride writes some of the best bokuaka out there, it’s so fluffy and heartwarming, not to mention the writing flows so well! Please read and support it! 

Alright, so I’m going to do some self promo because why not? This day is for fic writers too after all lmao. 

Perfectly Aligned (ao3) -- Kurotsuki, T

Kuroo didn’t know how he’d made it back here, standing beneath the glistening war machines known as Jaegers. He was the definite outsider, not just at the Shatterdome, but in this world. The world of Jaeger pilots had long since closed its door on him, and now here he was, knocking once again. However, maybe this time, he wouldn’t be alone.

Just a good ol’ Pacific Rim AU. I really loved playing with this universe, and tbh it’s probably some of my best writing?? It didn’t get much attention because I posted it during a busy exchange week, but I’m definitely proud of it and hope more people can read it! 

Ceaseless (ao3) -- Kiyoyachi, E

The life of an assassin isn't an easy one. Devoid of morals and full of the criminal underworld's grime , it's a job Kiyoko has always been weirdly perfect at. She's long stopped thinking about why, but just because she kills without remorse, doesn't mean she doesn't have her own attachments.

I’m including this one because f/f ships do not get nearly enough attention as they should. I live for f/f content, and I hope I can read a lot more in the future and introduce ppl to it through fics like this! This fic did not get many kudos, but I think it was actually pretty good writing/smut, so please give it a try if you like kiyoyachi! 

Let My Love (ao3) -- Kurotsuki, T

For Kuroo, finding love was all about patience. He had no problem with waiting for the right person to come along, no matter how many awkward dinners or weddings he had to endure as a single man until they did. Regardless, meeting Tsukishima was something he’d never been prepared for. The feelings were overwhelming and intoxicating, ones he was sure he’d do anything for. However, it seemed his endless waiting wasn’t over.

While this fic isn’t short on kudos, I feel like it gets overlooked when compared to my siren au for kurotsuki. While this fic is a bit angstier than Slipping Underneath, it’s one of my most favorite that I’ve ever written. Writing slow burn is a challenge, but I think so far I’m doing well lol?? I love writing this fic, so if you want, I hope you can also enjoy reading it! <3

I Search Through the Crowd (ao3) -- Iwaoi, T 

It wasn't uncommon to believe in reincarnation, most people did, but it wasn't some flippant thing. Only people with the strongest of bonds were reincarnated, or so legend put it. Hajime could be dense sometimes, but he didn't miss the meaning Tooru was trying to convey.

"I'll find you."

Lastly, this was my first iwaoi fic, and I was really proud of it even though it didn’t get much attention. It was a struggle to write, but overall, I’m super happy with the result, so I hope you guys can get the chance to read it! I hope I get to write even more iwaoi in the future too! 

[mysticorigamipaper-mcl]

honestly the worst part about kentin´s arc is how much hate he is getting, i get most ppl already dont like him but now is fucking ridiculous i literally cannot go to his tag on a normal episode without reading "how awful" he is but now is worst,i just want to see cute fanart! I hate the tumblr mcl fandom, the hispanic fandom will make fun of things and even say they dont like a character but it never overflows with negativity (ik im super annoying but i need to vent and have no friends)

*hugs* You have a friend in me anon. You’re not being annoying, and venting can help one feel a little better. I’m sorry to hear there’s more negativity towards Kentin and his fans. And I also realized a while back there was little positivity towards him in the tumblr fandom. I try to give all the boys some attention through posts and fan art on my blog to share with all fans, but I noticed Kentin receives the least. It’s actually hard to find good/cute content with him in it. Though Kentin may not be my favorite personally, I can see why others like him, and it’s a shame there isn’t more material available. Not to mention that anyone who seems to voice that they like him receive so much hate in return and are shamed for their personal interest in his character/route. It must be absolutely frustrating.

Yes, after the latest episode Kentin is getting more hate than usual. But I think part of it is more towards his attitude change in the recent events since we met Evan. And his behavior towards strangers and women in general. I mean, he and Evan were acting the same, if not worse than Dake when he was always harassing Candy. Treating a girl/woman or anyone the way they did to Candy and Rosa in this episode is something very relatable in the real world. It’s unacceptable, uncomfortable and upsetting behavior. That’s why people are more angry than usual. His attitude is something a lot of us face. There are guys that actually act like this, and it may be triggering many who have experienced such attitudes in real life.

Apart from that, this is how I see his situation. Evan was Kentin’s role model and surrogate big brother in military school. Not only did Evan defend Kentin from bullies, he apparently gave him confidence and molded Kentin, transforming him while he was there.

And Kentin seems to be very grateful for what Evan has done for him. When Kentin returns to Sweet Amoris, no one recognizes him. Thanks to this, his first plan of action is get back at Amber by stealing her first kiss (her not knowing he was the nerd she used to bully) and then telling her she’s a bad kisser, in an attempt to lower her ego/self esteem. He even smashed her new cell phone. He wasn’t about to let anyone bully him anymore. And he wanted that made clear through Amber. If your Candy was mean to him before military school, he is cold towards you. If you were nice, he’s nice towards you when he returns.

Once he’s back, he befriends Armin and Alexy and no one seems to bother or bully him. He becomes more relaxed and doesn’t try so hard to put on the tough guy act. He becomes a sweet guy again (as long as your Candy is nice to him), just slightly more mature as he’s not stalking Candy anymore like a lovesick puppy. I think with the absence of Evan and the other boys, Kentin wasn’t fired up and influenced to act the way he did in military school where you had to act tough, macho and not allow anyone walk all over you. But later, I think he started feeling out of place at Sweet Amoris, if not alone. Though he clicked right away with Armin and Alexy, Armin started becoming more of a friend towards Nathaniel. Alexy has a crush on Kentin but they don’t hang out a lot, if at all these days. And he doesn’t seem to be getting along with any of the other guys, or any of the girls in his class, apart from the few conversations we’ve seen him have with Lysander or while our Candy is present in his route. Then, for those on his route, even when he finally gets to date his long time crush and kiss her, his confidence in himself and his self esteem appears to continue to dwindle. First Candy wants to hide their relationship from everyone as soon they officially become a couple (Kentin more than likely thought she was embarrassed or ashamed to be seen with him as his girlfriend) and it hurt him deeply. Then at the party during spin the bottle, Kentin became upset when another guy tries to kiss Candy on a dare and claims Candy doesn’t realize how beautiful/wonderful she is and how could other guys NOT be interested in her. I think him witnessing that and becoming more aware of that reality seriously made him question if he was good enough for Candy, if he was manly enough, if he was the kind of guy she wanted to be with. Again, his level of confidence drops.

Once Evan returns, Kentin is suddenly brought back to his military school days, and that macho attitude kicks in like Pavlov’s dogs to a dinner bell. Kentin suddenly feels like he’s brimming with confidence with his old buddy back at his side, and admires/mimics Evan to a horrifying degree. Kentin becomes so overconfident that he shifts into an arrogant, rude person. Notice how he talks back to everyone and becomes disrespectful towards Candy and the other classmates, as well as the teachers. He thinks that this new confidence makes it so no one messes with him, that no one will try to walk all over him again.

Be that as it may, I think he’s distancing himself from everyone. Putting up a wall. Making sure no one approaches him. Not even his own girlfriend. Because he’s hiding so many insecurities and fears. He has no identity. No self worth. No friends. He doesn’t have much of a father figure since his dad is gone a lot, and therefore no male figure to look up to or learn from. Until Evan came along. Evan was everything Kentin thought a man should be. Strong, confident and assertive. And because Kentin became so grateful of Evan’s support, he failed to notice Evan’s flaws. Arrogant, harassing, even delinquent like. Kentin becomes blind to Evan’s and his own behavior and makes excuses or gets defensive when people call him out on it. He gets upset when people tell him Evan is a bad influence. But to Kentin, Evan was the only person who ever seemed to be there for him when no one else was. It’s why he tries so hard to defend Evan and his actions. And as a result, Kentin becomes the very type of person he hates without knowing it. And he doesn’t want to see it.

He’s scared…he’s alone…he’s frustrated…he’s completely lost. That’s a dangerous and self destructive combination. And until Kentin accepts who he really is, learns to truly be himself or figures out what he can become/wants to become on his own, without the influence of anyone but himself, he’ll continue to have this identity crisis. I just hope for his sake, that will come about on some serious self reflection in the next episode.

[hotelsweet]

HI and thank you so so so much if you got involved in this!!!! I’m so excited to be celebrating 1.5k w you guys and can’t wait to dish out some of these lil prizes <3

u guys I’ve had so much fun doing this and I’ve legit sat here for HOURS going through everyone’s blogs and tags and I’m just so,,,, in love,,, this fandom is amazing and u guys are so gorgeous and amazing! I’ve been whining at @peraltiagoisland​ all day about how much I want to include everyone and shower u all in compliments and just!!! I’m so blown away tbh  A QUICK REMINDER OF THE PRIZES WINNERS:  - a big personalised playlist from me to u (u kno how I love my tunes) - a follow from me if I’m not followin u (duh) - a mention here!! - a b99 fic from me if u want it!!! any prompt ya like - hugs and love obvs

RUNNERS UP: - a lil personal playlist from me to u - also a follow if I’m not already - also hugs and love - and a lil mention here <3

if you’ve won/are a runner up please message me so we can talk and I’ll get started on your stuff! i’m so excited to talk to a bunch of you and give u music and writing agh <3

OKAY WITHOUT FURTHER ADO (I have added notes in italics bc I am just so excited and amazed by u guys)

BEST SMALLER BLOG (a very important category bc I actually do not understand how these people don’t have thousands of ppl following them??)

WINNER: @the-pontiac-bandit​ OKAY let me tell you about carrie and her blog. I spent a solid 60 mins reading her amazing writing and admiring her theme and then I checked her reblog and she had the #under500 tag and I yelled. not kidding. like an actual noise left my mouth because HOW THIS GIRL DOES NOT HAVE A CULT FOLLOWING I WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND. FOLLOW HER RUNNERS UP: @theartofdreaming1​ aka Vicky who is the sweetest person and SUCH a talented artist!!! @khwabonkeparindey​ anna’s blog is so adorable and maybe it’s bc I’m type A but the layout of her navigation actually turned me on a little bit oh my LORD it’s beautiful and so well-organised @two-drink-amy​ I was only gonna have two runners up for this category but nicole and everything about her blog is so sweet!!

BEST URL WINNER: @jake-purealta​ not only does tash seem incredibly lovely BUT this url is so perfect and well-fitting!!! I feel like, given her obsession w Tswift, it fits beautifully well with jake’s obsession too??? everything about it clicks I love it RUNNERS UP: @roscoesantangelo​ because I mean!!!!! you’ve scored the perfect url of jorma taccone’s character in parks and rec!!!? like damn good on u my guy  @amysantiagone​ okay I wont lie this one is for personal reasons- although I happen to absolutely love Nate’s blog- bc for some reason the url reminds me of when u get super drunk and describe urself as “gone” (a v popular phrase here in the UK) and as a result I just picture drunk Amy whenever I see ur URL

BEST EDITS WINNER: @juliadorable​ RIGHT OKAY SO JULIA (julia) is one of these people I’ve always wanted to chat to bc she seems amazing but what I absolutely love about her edits & gifs is that she picks/ creates posts for some of the most underappreciated moments in the show!!! I love em and this blog is a blessing thank u sm RUNNERS UP: @jakeperallta​ aka @deepshadows​ !!! look at these edits immediately oh my god they are actually incredible and so creative!!! i’m not worthy!! fam I love ur edits so much thank u for providing me w this goodness <3 follow alexa immediately on both blogs seriously @brown-aces​ I won’t lie I’m not sure if these count as edits but I legit couldn’t not include you because of THE INCORRECT QUOTES TAG. this is legit one of my fave things and ur posts never fail to make me chuckle

BEST GIFS WINNER: @fourdrinkamy​ okay so not only is Emma gorgeous, talented, super clever and just all-around marvellous BUT her gifs are like... so good they’re satisfying? like I spent a good half hour just scrolling and admiring ‘em RUNNERS UP: @amesantiagos​ okay this girl has such an eye for colour and aesthetic I’m not kidding everything just looks so Good!! like I adore her stuff to the point where I followed her on insta too (hi Amy I’m darcey_wm if ur wondering where I am) bc it just looks so damn good @sergeant-santiago​ I’m just.... like.... shooketh..... I’ll get back to this later

BEST FICS (oh my god what a category I legit could NOT pick someone lol this was painful bc u guys write the best shit)  WINNER: @elsaclack​ this feels a little obvious/predictable of me bc I’ve rambled about em’s stuff before but Dear Fucking God can this woman write. her fics and the way they had me laughing/crying/glued to my phone are the reason I  RUNNERS UP: @peraltiagoisland​ MICHELLE aka the love of my life KNOWS HOW TO KILL ME NO MATTER THE TIME NOR PLACE dear god I recommend so hard,,,, jump in and give the drama club au a spin trust me u won’t regret it  @jakelovesamy​ oh my god okay so let me tell u. let me TELL U i did not realise that this gorgeous girl was on AO3 but then I clicked over from her blog and it all came flooding back once I recognised her handle!!! I recommend u go and read ‘and all my world is losing light’ bc it’s gorgeous @oceanvirus​ again I didn’t mean to have three runners up but I had to bc I’m just..... a piece of shit lol BUT ANYWAY please please go and read Bella’s stuff I love it so much

BEST ICON WINNER: @brown-aces​ GIRL THIS ICON FITS THE THEME SO WELL AND ALSO IT’S THE LIGHT OF MY LIFE ROSA LOOKIN FIERCE so obvs I’m obsessed  RUNNERS UP: @jakelovesamy​ bc it’s adorable and I adore it @three-drink-amy​ bc it’s my beautiful, smiling boy,,,, grinning at this wonderful blog

BEST DESKTOP THEME WINNER: @smolsamberg​ okay kara’s blog is gorgeous anyway (go follow!!!) but this theme is fuckin funky as shit??? navigating it genuinely felt like operating the sexiest lil website on earth and for that I am grateful RUNNERS UP: @bastillebananas​ this theme is FUCKING ADORABLE not kidding I love it omg I had so much fun w it (also hi fellow fan of bastille!! I’m seein ‘em this summer at a festival exciting) @amesantiagos​ this theme is so cute oh my lord (almost as cute as the wonderful Amy who runs this blog!!! seriously it’s just so wonderful and satisfying and Good Choice my guy I love it (and u)

BEST MOBILE THEME WINNER: @swansongcas​ MATE omg your blog is so satisfying and blue and just like.. sexy to look at so well done my guy!!! also helps that I adore ur blog in general but omg is it aesthetically pleasing RUNNERS UP: @oceanvirus​ bella your mobile theme is almost as sexy as u ;) x (I’m sorry if that was creepy I promise it was well-intended) @two-drink-amy​ okay this is partially bc of the adorable icon but mostly bc of the theme and I just... it’s so bright and sweet and honestly just reminds me of my joyous response to every b99 episode ever WHEW OKAY SO BEFORE WE DO THE BEST OVERALL BLOG,,,, I WANNA JUST THROW A FEW SURPRISE SUPERLATIVES / FUN CATEGORIES 

this is also gonna include some honourable mentions bc I am supported by some brilliant people and also bc not everyone I wanted to put in on here I could??? which is crazy so:

A big round of applause to the X-drink Amy crew who I see all the time and firmly believe should all be led by the adorable @full-santiago​ ?? like a little clan of Amy-themed URLs: @two-drink-amy​ / @three-drink-amy​ / @fourdrink-amy​ / @fourdrinkamy​ / @fivedrinksantiago​ / @six-drink-amy​ (I’m sure there’s more of you out there but these came to mind and I want u all to form a band or something)

A big fat shout out to emily aka @jakefreakingperalta​ who!!! made these valentines cards that I used this year for my friends but never knew the source of!!! another example of the funny and amazing ppl I follow here

an honourable mention for the amazing @tiadorable​ whose comments on my first works on AO3 (and my more recent stuff, too!) made me smile and motivated me so much <3 now for some superlatives!! follow these people rn!!! and if ur here please feel free to come ask me to write or make anything for u ever I love u 

most likely to lure me onto the sin train and never look back: my girl erica aka @startofamoment.... can u believe.... the creativity and the happiness/giggles this lady brings me 

most likely to literally ruin my fucking life thru writing: obviously em?? aka @elsaclack. I appreciate this is a fairly harsh title but dear god the things u could make me feel?????? also a brilliant woman i love u

most likely to always have complete faith in me, chat to me constantly, make me smile, & constantly be a complete angel w a heart of gold and amazing writing: @peraltiagoisland. need I say any more????

OKAY so the big 1:

BEST OVERALL BLOG RUNNERS UP: everyone who reblogged my first post. not a cop out. not kidding. u guys are amazing WINNER: @sergeant-santiago​  okay okay okay let me tell u about this blog. everything from content to quality stuck out to me when I was looking through everything for the blog awards and I was just completely blown away and in awe??? this girl is perfection and if you’re not following her blog then I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY get ur late ass over there bc u are missing the fuck out. I can’t stress this enough!!!!  alright!!! I think we’re about there!! thank you so much (again) for 1.5k. u guys are wonderful

[spideynow-blog]

Here’s How to Make Money Selling Affiliate Products

Making money online has become considerably easy, thanks to the internet. These days, one can make money from the

comfort of their home through different platforms, affiliate marketing being one of them. Even though you can earn gobs of cash with affiliate marketing, keep in mind that you can’t make such cash overnight.

Before we get into the content, I wanted to invite you to join me over at an Affiliate Marketing Community I have been part of, that has really helped me make money selling affiliate products. I have put together a ‘special bonus welcome package’ that I will send to you once you click the link here and set up your FREE account.

What’s Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a form of marketing practice that has been around for some time now. In simple terms, the practice is all about selling products and services for another person or company. It’s like a referral service, where you place a link on your website or blog to lead your audience to the products or services under sale. If they make a purchase, you earn a commission of the sale proceeds. You earn through different payment terms such as Pay Per Click (PPC), Pay Per Lead (PPL), and Pay Per Sale (PPS).

Making Money with Affiliate Marketing

As a wannabe affiliate marketer, you should consider taking your time before signing up for a particular affiliate marketing program. That way, you can understand how the practice works, hence increase your chances of success. If you have been looking for information on how to make money selling affiliate products, consider reading on. The tips discussed in this article should help you get your affiliate marketing business off the ground in no time:

1. Find your niche

Choosing a niche is one of the best ways to get enough content that will help your business stay focused. Selecting a niche to focus on also makes it easier for you to create targeted marketing campaigns.

To succeed in choosing the right niche, you may want to reflect on:

What you are passionate about

Whether the topic is wide to get you enough content

Who your audience is 

The challenges your audience is facing

Whether the niche is oversaturated 

Whether the niche can help you make good money (This is the end goal of any business)

2. Get to be an expert in your niche

Before you dive in, be sure that you know more about the products and services than your average customers. You should give an honest review of the products and/or services and let the customers make their choice.

If there is a free trial for whatever you are marketing, make a point of signing up and testing the product. That way, it becomes easier to let the customers know what to expect based on your experience. The main secret to becoming an expert in a particular niche is research. That’s why you have to ensure that you love the topic you chose.

3. Get the right affiliate programs

One of the mistakes you never want to make is trying to promote many products by registering with different programs. It becomes hard to focus on each of the programs and excel in all. As such, be sure to go for one program and do your best.

When choosing the program, pay attention to the following factors: • The reputation of the merchant and whether they sell quality products. • Reliability of the merchant • The performance model that suits you best (PPC, PPL, or PPS) • The terms and conditions for your agreement • The products that your audience is interested in • The products that need a feel

4. Create quality content Ensure that you already have a website and a blog before signing up. It’s essential to create a minimum of 5 amazing posts that will attract views and bring traffic to your site. This is in consideration that some affiliate programs and networks require you to have established content, monthly views, and good site traffic before accepting you. Remember that the content you create will be one of the main factors influencing your success as an affiliate.

5. Attract targeted traffic

To make money online, you have to attract as much traffic as possible to increase the probability of purchases. To do so, you may want to make use of paid advertising, article marketing, free advertising, and email marketing. For article marketing, the main secret is to have a higher ranking in search engine results.

Email marketing stands out as one of the best ways to attract customers, as it helps you establish a personal relationship with your customers. Once you have gotten the traffic you need, promoting the products or services that are under sale becomes quite easier. The main thing you have to pay attention to is ensuring that prospective buyers can connect easily to your content.

6. Monitor results

One of the most important things to do in affiliate marketing Is testing the different promotional strategies and tracking your marketing efforts. There are a ton of tools for this purpose, so be sure to research on that and make good use of them. You may want to tag your campaigns if the reports by the merchant are based on UTM codes. That way, you get to know more about the types of campaigns that can work well with your audience.

Bottom Line

If you have been looking for information on how to make money selling affiliate products, the above tips should help you start your journey. The good thing with affiliate marketing is that once you are successful, you can earn a high income from the comfort of your home. One thing you have to keep in mind, however, is that affiliate marketing is not an overnight money-minting scheme. You’ve got to keep on working while exercising patience until you achieve your goals. Click Here to learn more about the affiliate marketing business community I recommend. 

from Internet Marketing Aficionado https://internetmarketingaficionado.com/make-money-selling-affiliate-products/

[littlebeansplayhouse-blog]

Here’s How to Make Money Selling Affiliate Products

Making money online has become considerably easy, thanks to the internet. These days, one can make money from the

comfort of their home through different platforms, affiliate marketing being one of them. Even though you can earn gobs of cash with affiliate marketing, keep in mind that you can’t make such cash overnight.

Before we get into the content, I wanted to invite you to join me over at an Affiliate Marketing Community I have been part of, that has really helped me make money selling affiliate products. I have put together a ‘special bonus welcome package’ that I will send to you once you click the link here and set up your FREE account.

What’s Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a form of marketing practice that has been around for some time now. In simple terms, the practice is all about selling products and services for another person or company. It’s like a referral service, where you place a link on your website or blog to lead your audience to the products or services under sale. If they make a purchase, you earn a commission of the sale proceeds. You earn through different payment terms such as Pay Per Click (PPC), Pay Per Lead (PPL), and Pay Per Sale (PPS).

Making Money with Affiliate Marketing

As a wannabe affiliate marketer, you should consider taking your time before signing up for a particular affiliate marketing program. That way, you can understand how the practice works, hence increase your chances of success. If you have been looking for information on how to make money selling affiliate products, consider reading on. The tips discussed in this article should help you get your affiliate marketing business off the ground in no time:

1. Find your niche

Choosing a niche is one of the best ways to get enough content that will help your business stay focused. Selecting a niche to focus on also makes it easier for you to create targeted marketing campaigns.

To succeed in choosing the right niche, you may want to reflect on:

What you are passionate about

Whether the topic is wide to get you enough content

Who your audience is 

The challenges your audience is facing

Whether the niche is oversaturated 

Whether the niche can help you make good money (This is the end goal of any business)

2. Get to be an expert in your niche

Before you dive in, be sure that you know more about the products and services than your average customers. You should give an honest review of the products and/or services and let the customers make their choice.

If there is a free trial for whatever you are marketing, make a point of signing up and testing the product. That way, it becomes easier to let the customers know what to expect based on your experience. The main secret to becoming an expert in a particular niche is research. That’s why you have to ensure that you love the topic you chose.

3. Get the right affiliate programs

One of the mistakes you never want to make is trying to promote many products by registering with different programs. It becomes hard to focus on each of the programs and excel in all. As such, be sure to go for one program and do your best.

When choosing the program, pay attention to the following factors: • The reputation of the merchant and whether they sell quality products. • Reliability of the merchant • The performance model that suits you best (PPC, PPL, or PPS) • The terms and conditions for your agreement • The products that your audience is interested in • The products that need a feel

4. Create quality content Ensure that you already have a website and a blog before signing up. It’s essential to create a minimum of 5 amazing posts that will attract views and bring traffic to your site. This is in consideration that some affiliate programs and networks require you to have established content, monthly views, and good site traffic before accepting you. Remember that the content you create will be one of the main factors influencing your success as an affiliate.

5. Attract targeted traffic

To make money online, you have to attract as much traffic as possible to increase the probability of purchases. To do so, you may want to make use of paid advertising, article marketing, free advertising, and email marketing. For article marketing, the main secret is to have a higher ranking in search engine results.

Email marketing stands out as one of the best ways to attract customers, as it helps you establish a personal relationship with your customers. Once you have gotten the traffic you need, promoting the products or services that are under sale becomes quite easier. The main thing you have to pay attention to is ensuring that prospective buyers can connect easily to your content.

6. Monitor results

One of the most important things to do in affiliate marketing Is testing the different promotional strategies and tracking your marketing efforts. There are a ton of tools for this purpose, so be sure to research on that and make good use of them. You may want to tag your campaigns if the reports by the merchant are based on UTM codes. That way, you get to know more about the types of campaigns that can work well with your audience.

Bottom Line

If you have been looking for information on how to make money selling affiliate products, the above tips should help you start your journey. The good thing with affiliate marketing is that once you are successful, you can earn a high income from the comfort of your home. One thing you have to keep in mind, however, is that affiliate marketing is not an overnight money-minting scheme. You’ve got to keep on working while exercising patience until you achieve your goals. Click Here to learn more about the affiliate marketing business community I recommend. 

from Internet Marketing Aficionado https://internetmarketingaficionado.com/make-money-selling-affiliate-products/

[vagueadulting-blog]

Here’s How to Make Money Selling Affiliate Products

Making money online has become considerably easy, thanks to the internet. These days, one can make money from the

comfort of their home through different platforms, affiliate marketing being one of them. Even though you can earn gobs of cash with affiliate marketing, keep in mind that you can’t make such cash overnight.

Before we get into the content, I wanted to invite you to join me over at an Affiliate Marketing Community I have been part of, that has really helped me make money selling affiliate products. I have put together a ‘special bonus welcome package’ that I will send to you once you click the link here and set up your FREE account.

What’s Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a form of marketing practice that has been around for some time now. In simple terms, the practice is all about selling products and services for another person or company. It’s like a referral service, where you place a link on your website or blog to lead your audience to the products or services under sale. If they make a purchase, you earn a commission of the sale proceeds. You earn through different payment terms such as Pay Per Click (PPC), Pay Per Lead (PPL), and Pay Per Sale (PPS).

Making Money with Affiliate Marketing

As a wannabe affiliate marketer, you should consider taking your time before signing up for a particular affiliate marketing program. That way, you can understand how the practice works, hence increase your chances of success. If you have been looking for information on how to make money selling affiliate products, consider reading on. The tips discussed in this article should help you get your affiliate marketing business off the ground in no time:

1. Find your niche

Choosing a niche is one of the best ways to get enough content that will help your business stay focused. Selecting a niche to focus on also makes it easier for you to create targeted marketing campaigns.

To succeed in choosing the right niche, you may want to reflect on:

What you are passionate about

Whether the topic is wide to get you enough content

Who your audience is 

The challenges your audience is facing

Whether the niche is oversaturated 

Whether the niche can help you make good money (This is the end goal of any business)

2. Get to be an expert in your niche

Before you dive in, be sure that you know more about the products and services than your average customers. You should give an honest review of the products and/or services and let the customers make their choice.

If there is a free trial for whatever you are marketing, make a point of signing up and testing the product. That way, it becomes easier to let the customers know what to expect based on your experience. The main secret to becoming an expert in a particular niche is research. That’s why you have to ensure that you love the topic you chose.

3. Get the right affiliate programs

One of the mistakes you never want to make is trying to promote many products by registering with different programs. It becomes hard to focus on each of the programs and excel in all. As such, be sure to go for one program and do your best.

When choosing the program, pay attention to the following factors: • The reputation of the merchant and whether they sell quality products. • Reliability of the merchant • The performance model that suits you best (PPC, PPL, or PPS) • The terms and conditions for your agreement • The products that your audience is interested in • The products that need a feel

4. Create quality content Ensure that you already have a website and a blog before signing up. It’s essential to create a minimum of 5 amazing posts that will attract views and bring traffic to your site. This is in consideration that some affiliate programs and networks require you to have established content, monthly views, and good site traffic before accepting you. Remember that the content you create will be one of the main factors influencing your success as an affiliate.

5. Attract targeted traffic

To make money online, you have to attract as much traffic as possible to increase the probability of purchases. To do so, you may want to make use of paid advertising, article marketing, free advertising, and email marketing. For article marketing, the main secret is to have a higher ranking in search engine results.

Email marketing stands out as one of the best ways to attract customers, as it helps you establish a personal relationship with your customers. Once you have gotten the traffic you need, promoting the products or services that are under sale becomes quite easier. The main thing you have to pay attention to is ensuring that prospective buyers can connect easily to your content.

6. Monitor results

One of the most important things to do in affiliate marketing Is testing the different promotional strategies and tracking your marketing efforts. There are a ton of tools for this purpose, so be sure to research on that and make good use of them. You may want to tag your campaigns if the reports by the merchant are based on UTM codes. That way, you get to know more about the types of campaigns that can work well with your audience.

Bottom Line

If you have been looking for information on how to make money selling affiliate products, the above tips should help you start your journey. The good thing with affiliate marketing is that once you are successful, you can earn a high income from the comfort of your home. One thing you have to keep in mind, however, is that affiliate marketing is not an overnight money-minting scheme. You’ve got to keep on working while exercising patience until you achieve your goals. Click Here to learn more about the affiliate marketing business community I recommend. 

from Internet Marketing Aficionado https://internetmarketingaficionado.com/make-money-selling-affiliate-products/