#learned about the limited accessory case thing and this is like. the best image i could find

[ancestral-steppe]

x

[bloodyblade]

Tremble For My Beloved [2]

Pairing: Thorin x Fem!Reader Summary: AU in which the daughter of a nobleman was running for her life after an orc attack, and after being welcomed under Gandalf’s wings, joins the quest to reconquer Erebor. Sort of. Warnings: Mentions of violence. Word Count: 3.006 words.

[Chapter 1] [Ao3]

Chapter Two.

Dark wood and stains covered the place, certainly making an… impression. You didn’t open your mouth to say a word about the place, you were in no position to demand anything and she didn’t quite trust the man yet. Or not man, whatever. He said he was a wizard, so that explains the clothing and interesting choice of accessories. 

You did go back to your family’s state, but they got in through the servers door, wishing to avoid the scenery. Your heart broke to pisces knowing you would have to leave them there, not being able to give them a proper goodbye, ceremony and burial. They didn’t deserve to be found like this, and only Mahal knows how long it would take for someone to eventually notice something was amiss and search for answers. But you did what you had to do, walking too slowly to Gandalf’s liking, telling you to fasten your pace in case anyone came back looking for you, which you knew was very likely. But inside, you felt like saying goodbye at least to the walls and foundations you were raised in, it wasn’t likely that you were to ever see this place again. 

A few paintings were hanging around your room, all done by your own hand, some doodles from your childhood who looked rather scary under the candlelights when it was dark, and several flowers painted separately as you tried to learn how to paint throughout the years. You never did get much better at it, but it didn’t matter much, it was something you enjoyed and proud yourself on. It looked much better than your needle work, anyways. Opening the wardrobe doors, you saw one of your first tries of embroidering a skirt, which earned a scolding from your father -that’s how ugly it was, yes. 

The memories weren’t stuck to a place, but it pained you deeply having to leave all of it behind. Grabbing a fabric travelling bag, which Gandalf advised would be much well fitted for your travel, you separated essentials. Mostly. Some fitting and soft trousers and whatever was better for traveling on foot and on horseback. You did get some dresses, but they were not a priority anymore. Some bags of coins, soaps, basic necessity items and a diary. For the calendar, of course. You needed to keep track of time, not to reminisce at the pictures and drawings that remained there since childhood. And before the wizard could bolt in there and drag you from your room and on your feet for a few hours, you changed clothes. Boots, trousers and a lighter tunic, shoving another one fit for winter on the bag after remembering you didn’t know how long you would be travelling for. You didn’t have time to shower, but you did clean yourself the best you could. 

With one last look, you blew out the candles and left with a heavy heart, hearing Gandalf mumbling to himself, probably complaining about how long you took. He didn’t say anything when you joined him again, just gave you a quick glance and started walking in long strides, making it difficult to keep up with him and his spidery legs. Thankfully he had a horse, a beautiful white one. You may have asked what its name was, only to receive no answer at all besides him telling you to climb behind him. Asshat.

And you obviously couldn’t tell how much time had passed, you only knew: you were moving to Mahal knows where and you should have got something to eat before leaving. The stars were moving at a good pace, but you were uncomfortable. Uncomfortable on top of that horse, uncomfortable behind that man and following him. Hopefully he wasn’t going to hurt you, at least not more than you already were anyway. He didn’t make any conversation and you didn’t feel like starting one, tiredness finally crawling it’s way onto your bones and making your eyes heavy. And even when your emotions were all over the place and feeling like you still had to keep your eyes open, you didn’t think Gandalf was bad. He helped you after all, it was just… things were complicated right now, your bottled emotions wanted to spill, in the form of tears, yells, spit, heavy and painful breaths. But knowing he was taking you far away from danger was enough. 

With a sigh, you tightened your arms around the wizard and dropped your head softly on his back and allowed your tired eyes to close. Just to rest a little, trying to keep the gruesome images of the day away and burrowed your face deeper against his worn but comforting clothes. The beads on your braids clinked against each other, the only other sound besides the horse’s hooves hitting the ground and nocturnal animals. As if you were one with the night, your vision got darker and your thoughts silent. But before you could sleep you heard the wizard’s comforting words:

“Don’t worry dear, the inevitable doom of today is going to be over soon.” He spoke over your shoulder while patting your hands and letting you fall asleep, embracing the very welcomed darkness. 

And it felt like you just slept for 20 minutes only. When you arrived it was still dark out, so you had no idea of how much time passed. It was a different town, something probably made for there were many passertroughts in the region maybe. What other reason could there be for an inn, if from where you stood everything seemed so small? The stars still shone brightly through the holes poked on the dark sheets of the sky. Your body felt heavy but you allowed Gandalf to help you down, much more gently than when he practically threw you on top of the horse before. Stumbling a little on your feet, you managed to throw a dirty look his way before stepping aside so a stable boy could take the horse to the safety of a roof over it’s head and lots of carrots and apples, hopefully. And by the gods, was this boy tall! Taller than you, anyway. Although there were people much different than you in the city close to where you lived, you never got to close. And maybe you shouldn’t be too close anyway, looking up too much would make your neck hurt.

But you were rather different anyway, somewhat. You didn’t have the facial hair other female dwarves seemed to have, which you dad said you should be thankful for, for mean wouldn’t be as likely to treat you as harshly as them. And even if you never met many others from your race, you felt like an outsider. Whenever you would be out on the city, other dwarflings would point at you and call you a half-breed and when returning home and trying as best as you could to persuade your father to talk about your mother, he would never indulge you, marching away heatedly. This happened way too many times for your liking but you could never let it go. Why didn’t your home have paintings of her? Why was your knowledge of her so limited, only through what others were willing to tell you, but you couldn’t go through her things, take a peek of her dresses and shoes and gloves? Of course, plenty of theories you had but tried not to jump to conclusions. You didn’t really know what to think of it.

Your shortness sometimes would be met with raised eyebrows by some, but mostly that was the end of that. Children were always more brutal and didn’t have a filter on their mouths, often being shushed by their parents. What would they say if your status was different? Maybe now you would get to know. But at home you were always treated kindly by those who were of the race of men. Such as Askell. He didn’t deserve the end he met.

Shaking your head you followed Gandalf’s steps inside the in, and everything was… big and brown and smelt of beer. In the entry was what could be called a reception desk, too tall for you to try to take a look at what was hidden under that and you would die before asking the wizard to pick you up. Mahal, maybe you were supposed to be born a hobbit, who knows. To the side a bar and tables with chairs on top of it were empty, which explained why your body wanted to shut down on the spot. The two of them exchanged a few words, the man behind the counter looking bored as ever, even going so far to yawn on the wizard’s face, who seemed unfazed. 

You haven’t noticed they were done talking before Gandalf beckoned you to go with him, the man’s eyes trained on you. You quickly averted your eyes and hurriedly fell into step with Pointy Hat. How could you not lose yourself in thought when he barely talked with you and didn’t even bother to respond at times? Just because he helped you he really thought he could be so… rude? 

He stopped in front of a door and handed you a key before opening it, walking towards the door besides yours. Peeking you could see a bed, a fire place and a chair. A tiny window that allowed the moonshine inside, but too tall for you to reach, even if you stood on the bed. 

“You need sleep, dear. I’ll send for you at the ‘morrow and we’ll talk.” He said unlocking his own bedroom door. “I give you my word, if that counts for something” He said with a hint of humor in his voice, which prompted you to send a small smile his way. Oh, he was definitely aware of your lack of trust in him.

“G’night.” You wished and hurriedly closed the door behind you, not wanting to wait for his answer, although you could hear a chuckle from where you stood, planted behind the door. When you heard the door close, you finally allowed a relieved breath to leave your body. Locking the door and throwing the bag on the chair and falling face first on the mattress. You couldn’t wait for the next day. Well, you didn’t really want to know what was gonna happen tomorrow, but didn’t have much choice. Your body needed rest anyway, so you allowed yourself to close your eyes and let your body go numb before you fell into unconsciousness. 

Maybe whoever designed that place should be fired, for waking up with the blazing rays of sunshine directly onto your eyes should be considered a major offense. You had a restless sleep, waking up in the few hours you had and turning around a considerable amount of times to try and make yourself comfortable on the thin mattress. Despite waking up a little disoriented as to where you were, you quickly grasped what happened last night. Screams, blood and guts, running, a wizard and a shady place you never heard of. It should’ve stayed that away, for the sake of your back. Would’ve been more comfortable sleeping on the grass. Ugh.

Sitting up, you ran your hands on top of your hair to access the damage- definitely felt like a rat’s nest, if you wondered how matted it was. Maybe running your hands thought it would be a bad idea, fingers might get stuck. Quickly scrambling for your bag, you fished for a brush to rey to make it as presentable as possible, knowing it would still look rather… odd. Would Gandalf be awake this early? You were dying to eat anything at all, really. Hopefully he would pay for you and answer your questions.

With nothing to do besides staring at the ceiling, you righted yourself to your best efforts and left the room, taking your belongings with you. You could hear chatter coming from the direction you came from last night. Well, the territory could be… hostile. So yes, of course you had reason to feel anxious and rather worried. Clearly a place made for the race of men, and you could tell. Their strides were long but not as long as the elves would have. They didn’t have the same height, they were similar, sure, but you still had to bend your neck towards the sky sometimes to talk to them. And if the woman who just passed you in the corridor you were standing for a few moments having your monolog was any indication, they either were very confused with your presence or thought you were a lost child. If anything, you were sure you were a very pretty and slightly dirtied child sneaking from the room you were sharing with your parents. 

Inhaling deeply you made your way to the dining area, seeing a few people on the tables, including the wizard, smoking a pipe. Looking to the sides, no one was paying attention to you, too enthralled in their own conversations to pay attention to anything else. Making your way towards the table he’s chosen, he had his eyes on you. Diverting your eyes, you sat in front of him.

“Good morning” he said while the smoke dissipated from around him “I take you slept well? You seemed eager to go to bed.” He crossed his hands on the table in front of him, smiling slightly. Was he… making a joke?

“Uh, yeah… I did.” You cleared your throat awkwardly “Thanks for, y’know… That.” You tried again. Did he catch your meaning? “All of it.” You said with a nod. He seemed amused but just sent a nod back your way, before falling into a relative silence, if you ignore the chatter and clattering of cluttering. Servants were collecting things from tables and delivering fresh goods, now that made you realize how hungry you were before noticing a plate being deposited in front of you. Turning quickly to Gandalf, he simply inclined his head and arched an eyebrow -that made you delve right in, as gracefully as you could, but you were starving. 

After a few minutes of silence, he began “So... I’m sure you have some questions and I would gladly answer them all.” He adjusted himself in the chair, sitting straighter. “As you might already know, my dear, I’m Gandalf.” You nodded with a mouthful of food “Also known as the Gandalf The Grey, the wizard.” He finished and you smirked, with a nod of understanding you pointed to your clothes. He chuckled “Well?”

With a sigh, you put everything aside, mimicking his posture, inclined on the table as best as you could. “I have several questions, actually.” He gestured for you to continue “Well, first I would like to know how you knew my father.”

“That’s a rather easy question to answer, my dear.” He said with a smile “Sindel, your father, helped me in a moment of need in exchange of my word.” You gave him as someone whose patience was thin. “And that means that for his help, I would give him my help in return, a promise, if you will.” Okay, that made sense. Dad did help several people, that’s who he was after all. “A promise to keep you safe, when the time comes.”

“So that’s how you knew where I lived?” He agreed with a small of course. “Okay, but that’s weird, what you said. You said ‘when the time comes’. And when you found me, I was hiding from death. How did you even know about that? Also how did you find me and how did you know when to come for me?” You spilled the many reasons why you were suspicious of him. Well, there’s his chance of proving himself trustworthy. Even though he already saved your life.

“You know what’s interesting?” He said moving to the side, taking a folded paper and setting it in the middle of the table. “Every dwarf has a prophecy. Sindel, your father had one. Your grandfather Serill had one and so did his One and so did their parents and their parent’s parents. See, when you come of age, you are given your prophecy and have an elder versed in Moon-letters to translate it for you in a private ceremony. But, considering everything that happened and the amount of… loss dwarves had that fateful day, several prophecies were lost, along with the ones who could read Moon-letters.” You reached for the paper curiously. “Your father had his letter and had it translated, so he knew of his fate, shared it with me. He knew of his end but always dreamt with a family. That’s why he asked of me to promise to protect his offspring, when his prophecy was to be fulfilled.” He finished leaning back on the chair, staff on his hand.

Unfolding your prophecy you found… nothing. Absolutely nothing. “Are you playing a trick on me?” You mumbled angrily, trying to manage the most menacing look you could muster. 

“Moon-letters can only be revealed by the moon at a certain time”

“Okay… but what does my prophecy have anything to do with you? I get it, my father gave it to you because of his prophecy but…” How am I going to say this without sounding like I don’t have manners? “I feel like there’s something you’re not telling me that is related to it. Maybe something you want to know about it?”

“There is only something I want to be sure of.” He replied after taking a pause to think on what to say. Shaking his head, he continued “Regarding your prophecy, yes. But for that to happen, we have to go somewhere else that is not here.”

“Well, where are we supposed to go then?” You asked, folding the paper back and hiding it inside your sleeve, apprehensively imagining that you would have to go somewhere else, again. Further away from where you were born and raised, again.

“Our destination is Rivendell.”

[cutegirlmayra]

Sonic is gone on a mission for a lot of years that when he comes back, everyone is now adults. He tries to reconnect with everyone and it's mostly the same except with Amy because of how much her attitude has matured. Because of this, he finds its easy to hang out with her and easily finds himself falling for her but since he was gone for so many years, Amy is no longer pursuing him and now just sees him as an old friend, so Sonic does his best to reignite the old flame in her.

(Preview image is used with permission from the amazing Sonic Artist @masked-bixch! Please support her and her amazing talents! x 

I’ve done quite a few of these before, but I’m always down for Older Sonamy~

Prompt:

“It really was a whirlwind,” Sonic’s now lanky arms and legs draped over the tree’s branches, closing his eyes after looping an arm around it and jumping up. He was much older now, his quills were so long that they arched from his head and drooped down towards the ground.

He placed his arm behind his head, a cushion of sorts, looking up at the stars.

“But enough about me, Tails. How are all of you doing?” He smiled as he looked over to Tails, who happily obliged to the question.

“Well, Knuckles finally took my advice and used technology to protect the island more. He even convinced G.U.N to make it a sanctuary. It’s heavily guarded now and Knuckles even has a small living making it a tourist site.”

Sonic’s eyebrows raised, amazed to hear so much had changed.

“And the others?”

“Cream is happily married. Vanilla loves her new grandchildren.”

“Grandchildren?”

“Yeah. I mean… they’re bunnies, Sonic.” Tails kinda gave him a funny look and Sonic just scratched his nose, embarrassed.

Tails poked some figurative fun at him before sighing, “And me? Well…” He looked up at the sky. “I’m getting married too.”

“What!?” Sonic bolted upward, turning to him before seeming to sulk back to being unexpressive again. “…You really have all changed…”

“Not really. Not in here.” Tails pointed to his heart, looking up at Sonic. But then his smile changed to concern, worrying his friend hadn’t changed, and what the future held for him. “You know… it’s rather peaceful these few years… We’ve been defeating our home pretty well. What… What do you think you’ll do?”

Sonic remained silent, looking down at the waters below him, a stream babbling over Tails’s matured voice.

He closed his eyes, “Don’t know.”

Tails once again seemed worried, “…Sonic…”

“Everyone’s moved on. I know.” Sonic sighed and hopped down from the tree. “But there’s still someone you haven’t told me about.” He dusted off his back from the tree’s bark and twigs.

“Huh? Who’s that?” Tails tilted his head.

“Heh,” Sonic chuckled, never figuring he’d be asking something like this about… her. 

“Ever since I chose to leave on that mission… Amy said she’d never forgive me.” He looked to Tails now, carefully hiding with a sturdy mask his real intention in asking this. “Where is she now?”

Tails held his breath a second, his tails wavering in their usual bending behind him and situated themselves low to the ground.

“Amy’s…” Tails’s hesitance was clearly not for Amy’s benefit… and Sonic picked up on that.

The hurt was apparent in Sonic’s eyes, thinking the worst, as the shine of the water’s moonlight hit and sparked a deeper emotion that Sonic usually never revealed upon his face.

He still didn’t.

He turned around and folded his arms, “Figures. I guess that’s how it goes though, huh?” He took a deep breath, turning his head slightly to address Tails over his shoulder, “Who’s the lucky guy?”

“No guy.” Tails walked up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder, a light smile, “There never was.”

Sonic’s surprise was covered by the darkness of the night.

He lowered his head and smiled, “Really..?”

Tails nodded, “But I wouldn’t let that glimmer of hope sink in too deep, Sonic. She’s changed. She’s not the little girl you used to know. She’s really grown up quite a bit.” he emphasized that change, but Sonic seemed to let it pass through one ear and out the other.

In a greater spirit, Sonic strutted away, waving back to Tails. “Thanks, buddy.” He barely heard him, only thinking about how much fun it would be to surprise her by showing up again. Maybe a playful tease here and there. At least that wouldn’t change.

“Sonic! I’m serious! She’s-!” Tails finally quit. He gave up trying to shout out when Sonic took off, “He’s gonna get himself hurt… And there’s nothing I can do about it.” he sighed, flying off into the night to return to his now luxury cruiser plane, massive and expensive.

Time went by and Sonic did end up meeting Amy, however, Tails was absolutely right. She had a fine job, a great set of new friends, and was living a very independent life.

A bit too independent for Sonic’s liking…

It was like she was just polite and sweet to him, but nothing more. She would joke about the old days, and her humor bothered Sonic when she used self-depreciative jokes about how she used to act around him.

“It wasn’t that bad…”

“Haha! You were my whole world! How was that not bad?”

She wore heels and long draping dresses. Her hair was slightly up and styled. She was a high-class lady. Purses and accessories, a real uptown girl.

It made Sonic uncomfortable.

However, though that was the case, it was suddenly easy to talk with Amy and get the real scoop on everyone and how their lives had changed. Amy held no secrets, and she told Sonic everything about Eggman and the gang. The battles they had to fight while he was gone. The great successes…

“It was hard at first,” Amy admitted, nodding to the beat of a song she was listening to over the speakers of the carnival they had stopped by. “We all realized we depended on you so much… We had to really fight and push past all our insecurities. We learned to rely on each other instead of just you. That was a huge turning point for me too… It wasn’t one man who could save the world, it was all of us.” She took a bite out of her ice cream and Sonic just held the cone in front of him, looking deep in thought at the ground as he heard how much his friends suffered without him, but also picked themselves up and overcame everything after him.

“Guess I didn’t realize how much I was limiting you all.” It was a spitfire comment and Sonic’s hot-tempered ego was shown just a bit. He took a bite of the ice cream and flinched at a brain freeze.

“Ohhh, don’t be so gloomy!” Amy patted his back, having him cough and swallow the pain back as he turned back to her, pouting. “You’re so much like your old self. I can’t lie, I was hoping you’d change a little bit…” She took another lick of her ice cream, “Emm~ So yummy~”

He just watched her… She had grown so much, but she was still as kind and trusting as ever.

“…Would it be so bad?” He suddenly said, jumping down the raised parking lot where they were sitting and looking over the carnival. “If everyone started trusting me again?”

Amy paused and lowered her ice cream. “…We did miss you, Sonic… but… Heroes are everywhere now. It’s not as rare as when you were with us.”

He felt his fist tighten.

“So… No looking up to me like I’m the greatest thing in the world?” He faked a smile to her, trying to keep everything light.

She noticed this time, something he wasn’t used too. “Sonic…” She jumped down and walked up to him, placing a hand on his cheek. “You’ll always be the famous Sonic The Hedgehog. History will count you as the fastest hedgehog in the world… The one who lead the revolution towards heroes saving the world. But that doesn’t have to be all you are.”

He had never felt her touch like this before. It startled him. His heartbeat… what was wrong with it? His hands flexed like a twitch at how calming and comforting the sensation was. It was like he wanted to come closer to it, and that spooked him.

She smiled a sorrowful look, which also upset him.

She removed her hand and placed it back by her ice cream. “You know… I think love is kinda awesome. It probably…” She began to turn away from him, and he felt the urge to reach out and grab the twisting end of her dress, just to hold her there… a little bit… longer…

“Only happens once… and never comes around again.”

If eyes are the windows of the soul, then words were the breeze and sunlight that escaped into the room within.

Sonic’s eyes were deeply plagued with having seen the room, knowing it was beautiful and lavishing in wonderful, homely comfort. And yet, he also noticed he didn’t hold the key to that home anymore…

“Only comes once?” He tried to act as though he didn’t understand, faking a false comprehension.

“…That’s not what I meant.” Amy took the bait but didn’t turn around. She took another small bite of her ice cream. “I should go, it’s been fun to catch up. But I do have work tomorrow…”

“…Tomorrow…” Sonic looked down. What would await him tomorrow?

Everyone had moved on and was living their lives… No one had time for a has-been.

“…Will you be okay, Sonic? Finding a place in this world… who has itself covered?” She finally did look back at him but was jolted back at how serious his expression had turned.

“S…Sonic?”

He narrowed his eyes to the ground, then looked up at her. “So… The world doesn’t need me anymore… Heroes are abundant… and I’m just a name drifting on the wind?”

She shook her head, immediately regretting her words. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean it like that! Sonic! You’re still so important!” she came forward but that desire for someone had slipped out of Sonic.

He stepped back and turned his head away. “Alright… so the world doesn’t need me.” He closed his eyes, shutting her out. “But then…”

“…Do you?”

Amy’s eyes flinched back, her heart felt like a string had been pricked and dust sprayed off of it. She hadn’t felt this melody in a long time… She had forgotten so much about it.

“Sonic…” her eyes watered. “I… I have to go!” she wouldn’t cry in front of him. She had hardened herself too much for that. She bolted at lightning speeds, the ice cream dropped and abandoned in her rush to escape the past she loathed so much.

But… did she really hate that time? When she was so lovestruck and ditzy? Not a care in the world?

He bent down with a much tender look towards the fallen ice cream.

He let his own fall next to it and walked towards the side of the edge.

He scaled the rooftops and darted around the world that had no need of him… but waited. Patiently. For the time that maybe Amy’s world would.

And like usual, he didn’t have to wait long.

A car had almost hit Amy, but something blue and speedy had caught her and brought her to the other side of the street. That was the first occurrence.

Another time, someone stole Amy’s wallet. She summoned her hammer and raced behind him till he turned a corner. When she got there, he was already beaten down and the wallet left with a flower beside it. She had gripped her heart.

This kept happening… over and over again… and as it did, her heart pained to be beside him again… She couldn’t fight it. The loneliness of not being in love… The strain of taking on life without someone beside you.

When she finally did catch him, he had slowed down and turned his head back to her, wondering what she wanted…

The news had talked about a blue bullet, going around and saving people from ordinary inconveniences. But even those reports were so thankful for a guardian angel with blue light that surrounded him, saving them from a rainy day.

“Where do you think you’re going.” she stepped forward, heart pounding as she dropped her bags and charged him. “Without one of my infamous Amy Rose hugs!!!”

He smiled, having waited quite a while to hear that greeting again.

He held her close upon impact. She rubbed her head deeper into his chest and gripped him closer to her. She didn’t want to have a life without him again. It was too much to not be with the man she loved…

And Sonic?

Evil always rises when there’s greater Good to combat it.

But the Good is always better and conquers all its scheming.

Amy and Sonic were a power couple, alright. Villains rose that normal, present heroes didn’t have the skill to handle. But Tails and Knuckles would happily join in the ‘old times-sake’ fun, finding Amy and Sonic and taking them all on once again… as not a couple of snot-nose kids trying to save the world…

But as a family that would save the world, one act of love at a time.

[anubislover]

Welcome to the Heart Pirates, Nami-ya

Chapter 1: The Deal

If someone had told Nami a week ago that she’d willingly seek out Trafalgar Law, she would have called them an even bigger liar than Usopp. The rest of her crew might have only paid attention to their own bounties, but since entering the Grand Line, the brilliant navigator had kept tabs on who was who in the pirate world. In particular, the Surgeon of Death’s reputation had chilled her to the bone. He was a rockstar in the criminal underworld, especially where the black market organ trade was concerned. Rumors of his cruelty, intelligence, and abilities were whispered in bars and back alleys, all with a tone of reverence and fear. Some of them had to be hyperbole; there was no way that the hearts he sold were still beating, right?

Still, she doubted his reputation was exaggerated to the extent of Luffy’s. Pirates, in general, were still self-serving scum willing to kill, exploit, and pillage. Her captain—that kind-hearted, trusting, ridiculous fool—was the exception, and that was why Nami was willing to confront the Dark Doctor. News of what happened during the War of the Best had reached even Weatheria, and though Haredas had tried to discourage her, she’d demanded he help her track down the Supernova that had saved her captain’s life. Perhaps the old man felt guilty over the tears she’d shed over not being there for Luffy—not all of them had been fake. It had helped that one of the other wizards had spotted the Polar Tang not far from the floating island, so he’d allowed her the use of a Weather Ball to go down for an audience with the Surgeon of Death.

“I saved your captain on a whim. I’m not interested in your thanks.” Leaning against the side of his yellow submarine, Law hardly spared her a glance, seeming more focused on studying the DEATH tattoos across his fingers. Nami knew it was a ruse, though; he wouldn’t have agreed with her demands to meet if he hadn’t been interested in what she had to say.

Stubborn and scowling, she crossed her arms and jutted out her hip. Short, orange hair brushed her cheeks as the soft ocean breeze caressed her. She wore the same tight t-shirt and white shorts she’d donned at Sabaody, and the high heels of her tan sandals gave an echoing tap when she’d landed on the metal deck. Part of her wished she could have dressed a little sexier in case she needed to use her feminine wiles in this meeting, but her options had been limited, and even if she’d had her full wardrobe, it was probably safer not to attract this strange and deadly man’s attention too much; she didn’t have her crew to bail her out if she got in trouble, after all.

As she glared at the bored-looking man leaning against the submarine’s steel hull, Nami started to wonder if she’d made a mistake. It was too late to turn back, though, so she took a steadying breath and stated, “Whim or not, I don’t like the idea of Luffy being in anyone’s debt; especially not a rival’s. I want that squared before we head to the New World. So, if you don’t want thanks, what do you want?”

Interest piqued, Trafalgar Law finally graced her with his full attention. Nami had to admit, at first glance, he didn’t fit the image of a pirate captain. His skin was a warm olive tone; she could lay in the sun for hours and never achieve a tan like that. Midnight blue hair, sideburns, and goatee framed his angular face, and the dark circles under his eyes implied he rarely got a decent night’s sleep. His clothing was casual, consisting of spotted jeans, black boots, and a yellow hoodie; hardly the apparel of a feared warrior. Atop his head rested a spotted, furry hat, and she wondered if it had sentimental value like Luffy’s did; she really couldn’t imagine why someone of Law’s reputation would wear such a silly accessory otherwise.

Being a pirate was about more than just looks, however. Up close like this, Nami could tell he was dangerous. Taller than even Zoro, though far leaner, the muscles of Law’s exposed forearms showed he wasn’t some skinny weakling. It was intimidating, to say the least, especially when the nodachi propped on his shoulder was nearly as long as she was tall, and her hand itched to use the Clima-Tact strapped to her thigh to turn herself invisible and run away. She keenly recalled seeing the vivisected pieces of navy soldiers that had littered the battlefield at Sabaody. Even if there hadn’t been any blood, the gruesome scene was like something out of a horror story. The sunny yellow of his sweatshirt seemed too cheerful for a man of his reputation, yet it easily enhanced the intensity of his calculating gold eyes.

Eyes that were locked on her. Assessing. Calculating. Appraising.

“That depends on what you’re offering,” he replied, not bothering to hide his lecherous grin as he gave her curvy figure a slow, penetrating once-over.

She shuddered. Of course he’d suggest that; men—especially pirates—were all the same. “Not what you’re thinking, that’s for sure. Look, I know medicine and the like ain’t cheap, and assuming you fed Luffy at some point, that’s a hell of a grocery bill. I’m here to pay you back so you can’t hold anything over his head in the New World.” Squaring her shoulders, she met his gaze unflinchingly. Much as she loved money, she knew the importance of paying one’s debts. More specifically, she knew the power debts could have over a person. “Just name your price. It might take me some time to get it, but I’m not called ‘Cat Thief’ for nothing. You’ll get your belli.”

Pushing away from the wall, Law slowly circled her, studying her like she was a new and unusual specimen he was eager to dissect. “You think I want money?” he asked, a low chuckle rumbling in his chest. “The hearts I sell on the black market are worth ten times your bounty. I can empty a safe of its contents without opening the door. Moreover, I saved your captain’s life, not his wallet. If you want to pay me back, you’re going to have to give me something more valuable than belli, gold, or jewels.”

“And what is that?” she asked, twisting around so she could keep him in her sightline. There was no way she trusted him enough to take her eyes off him. She’d feel more comfortable being stalked by a hungry leopard than the lanky surgeon.

One final circle and he stopped in front of her, looming over and blocking out the sun like the Grim Reaper himself. “Time. Your crew agreed to meet up in Sabaody in two years, right? Then spend one year as a member of the Heart Pirates.”

“Are you crazy?” she shouted, stepping back. “I’m not joining your crew! I need to spend that time training!”

He shrugged. “You can train aboard my ship. There’s no better vessel to study ocean currents with, which will be beneficial for getting to Fishman Island, among others. Besides that, I saw your fight at the Auction House; you desperately need combat training. And I’m sure your captain would hate for your thieving skills to get rusty. Can you do all that on Weatheria?”

It was infuriating how logical his argument was, mainly because his smile was uncomfortably smug. “My combat techniques rely on my knowledge of weather science. I can’t give up the opportunity Heradas is giving me,” she argued.

“You’ll still have a full year to learn from him once your debt is paid, Nami-ya. Surely the weather wizards understand how important your captain is to you; otherwise they never would have brought you here.”

Small fists clenched, nails digging into her palms. She hated how easily Law had backed her into a corner. He was cunning, calculating, and knew exactly how to manipulate the situation in his favor. She’d actually admire him if it weren’t focused on her. There was no way she was giving up without a fight, though. “That sounds like I’m getting the better end of the deal, which doesn’t translate to paying off a debt. What’s in it for you? If your skills are as impressive as you claim, surely you’re not in need of a cat burglar?”

“As my subordinate, you’ll use your numerous skills to aid me and my crew. I know you’re a talented navigator and cartographer on top of your infamous thieving abilities. Perhaps you could even help me run some cons with that incredible beauty and high alcohol tolerance of yours.” He chuckled at her shocked expression. “Mugiwara-ya talked extensively about you all; mostly in his sleep. Anesthesia has a fascinating side effect of acting as a truth serum, and I had to keep him under quite a bit so he wouldn’t rage about and tear open his wounds.”

Damn you, Luffy! Nami screamed mentally. She should have known he’d be an idiotic blabbermouth, even on death’s door.

Still, this needed to be done. It was too great a risk, letting someone like Trafalgar Law, the sadistic Surgeon of Death, hold a life debt over her nakama. He may claim he’d acted on a whim, but Nami knew pirates like him never did things out of the goodness of their hearts. Maybe he’d intended on calling in a favor at a later time, using her good-hearted captain for his own plans. Luffy would agree in a heartbeat, too, since he’d probably assume anyone who had saved his life was his friend. Thinking like that could get him killed.

That’s exactly why he needed someone like her.

The Cat Thief couldn’t fight like Sanji and Zoro, but she could protect her captain from the machinations of a rival. They had the strength, but she had the brains and survival instincts they lacked. She’d promised she’d make Monkey D. Luffy the Pirate King, and if she had to spend a year working for another crew to do it, she would. At the very least, she might be able to discover Trafalgar Law’s weaknesses.

And maybe—just maybe—she’d run into Luffy. She knew he’d fulfill his promise to meet them in Sabaody, but that didn’t mean she didn’t worry about him. He was an idiot, but he was her idiot, and if she had the chance to at least check on him, she’d take it. Law had saved his life; perhaps he knew where the rubber captain had disappeared to.

“So, do we have a deal?” Law asked, gold eyes bright and smile too wide for his narrow face. He could see the gears turning in her mind, grinding and processing until she came to the conclusion he desired.

A small voice in her head whispered that this was a mistake, that this was sounding too much like her deal with Arlong, but she pushed it away. Guilt at not being there for her captain far outweighed her distrust at making pacts with pirates. Swallowing down her fear and doubts, the beautiful navigator stuck out her hand, brown eyes meeting amber with determination. “Deal. I work with your crew for one year; not a day more.”

His calloused, tattooed hand engulfed hers, shaking firmly. Like a leopard that had trapped his prey and was eager to pounce and gobble her up, his expression was triumphant and hungry.

“Welcome to the Heart Pirates, Nami-ya.”

[fytoo]

Debuting a K-Pop Band During Coronavirus: TOO on Their Creative Concept & Promotion Strategy

With a new act making their debut on the K-pop scene roughly every two days, entering this multibillion-dollar industry is never easy but becomes all the more tricky in a global pandemic.

Since the December conclusion of the singing-competition show World Klass, the debut for boy band TOO has been actively in the works for months. After the TV program whittled 20 participants into a 10-member lineup, the promising band with an already established fanbase has been in preparation mode. While coronavirus concerns hit South Korea earlier than most of the world (with social distancing measures still in place today), TOO and their teams were forced to adapt and get creative in their marketing techniques.

It all falls under a new term that has developed in Korea called "untact," referring to how artists and entertainers are still attempting to make contact and connect with fans throughout health concerns and social-distancing regulations.

"We didn't have any issues when preparing for debut," says TOO vocalist Donggeon. "But it's sad to be on stage without fans. It's really upsetting that we can't be with our fans on the television music shows and during other activities we're doing."

The 20-year-old is referring to Korea's tradition of live-performance music program shows that air nearly daily and see promoting artists perform until a "No. 1" of the week is announced at the conclusion. These performances are important to introduce new music to local viewers and potential international clicks via YouTube, with wins on these shows helping secure public recognition and brand deals. Since February, the programs have gone without live audiences (viewers can get the sense of acts on a hot promotional streak from those with loudest chants) with on-hand staff limited (The Show broadcasted on Korea's SBS MTV channel saw an MC's staff member test positive for COVID-19 requiring a two-week break for all hosts).

Financially, person-to-person contact has long been a crucial aspect in the K-pop industry as many companies depend on physical album sales that grant buyers lottery tickets to potentially access private, in-person fan meetings. It's also important for the relationship between artist and fans as it marks a rare time for supporters to get nearly unrestricted access to take photos of their stars and score face time. The more popular an act, the more albums that tend to be bought for these potential meetings. But with a group like TOO so early in their career, getting that contact time is important to make lasting first impressions.

"If not for the virus, we would have fan meetings, we could go outside and just wander around," adds TOO leader Jaeyun. "But right now, we just move by car from one place to another, company to company."

When the boy band held the televised music concert showcase TOO Day to mark their debut, there wasn't an audience to cheer the guys on but followers did see themselves incorporated in a performance. The band asked their growing followers on Twitter for keywords to describe the different members for what they teased as a special remix. What fans found is that those descriptions made their way into the lyrics of "Too You," the band's reinterpretation of The Supremes' No. 1 Hot 100 hit "You Can't Hurry Love."

For those who would have scored access to the events, the group instead autographed their albums personally and held video conference calls with fans with each member taking one minute to personally talk to them. In place of the candid photos that fans would have taken and uploaded online, TOO's staff posted their own snaps of the members in the cute headbands and animal ears that are usually brought as gifts for the idols.

Also pushing TOO into the scene is their upcoming participation on the singing competition show Road to Kingdom. Alongside six other rising boy bands, they are the youngest competitor by far but if the show performs anywhere near its first, female-focused season Queendom (which produced competitors (G)I-DLE, MAMAMOO, AOA and Park Bom with Billboard chart hits), the show's reach and potential to secure a larger fanbase is worth it.

"It's a really big chance for us," says TOO rapper J.You of the new show. "At first, we're very nervous to be competing with seniors who we've been fans of since we were trainees and other groups that we have admired, however we'll do our best with passion and learn from them too. We would like the public to get to know us through Road to Kingdom."

TOO is a joint project between Stone Music Entertainment and K-pop agency n.CH Entertainment, who say they recognize the difficult timing but are prioritizing health. "We are paying most attention to the safety of the artist and fans," the companies share in a statement to Billboard. "We are looking for and implementing flexible measures tailored to the current situation...focusing more on online platforms than offline events to promote our contents and are expanding opportunities to communicate with fans live such as online showcases and fan signing events. As soon as the COVID-19 situation stabilizes, it is hoped that we will be able to host face-to-face events and resolve the disappointment of artists and fans."

Or as Jaeyun sees it, "We are working hard so we can give our positive energy to our fans and everyone during the difficult times of the virus." Read on for more about TOO from the members about their artistic concept, writing on their debut album, plans once they can travel again and more.

Congratulations on your debut even in these difficult times, TOO! In your own words, can you describe TOO and what sets you apart from other K-pop acts?

Jaeyun: We are a group that aims to represent Eastern values. So, to introduce our group, first TOO's music aims to be centered in Asia and focus on the values that lie in the inner cultivation of the mind. That's music that captures and moves peoples' hearts which we call "heart music." Along with heart music, we want to be artists with killer dance moves that go beyond K-pop standards.

Donggeon: We have a special worldview. There are combinations between members based on five elements [earth, fire, water, wood and metal] and each member is in charge of one value each. For example, the first mini album tells the story of "benevolence," the value represented by J.You.

J.You: This first mini-album is my story, with me as the center, and future albums will be focused around other members' stories.

Why was "Magnolia" the right song to choose as your debut single?

Woonggi: I think that "Magnolia" is a great fit for us because it contains our team's worldview very well and has a strong image to it. In particular, the hook is very addictive so we thought the track would be a good choice to introduce us to the public.

Jaeyun: We also wanted to capture TOO's unique worldview in lyrics of "Magnolia" so, for example, the lyrics about "shattered ideals" is a hint toward our worldview regarding the ideas of utopia versus dystopia -- or as we call it, u-too-pia and dys-too-pia. It's part of our story. In the [music video] storyline, the current is dystoopia: we go in the past to change the future, which is the present right now, so it can be a utoopia.

Jerome: There are a lot of hidden meanings in the music video. To give you a hint, if you focus and take a closer look at our accessories, you'll have more fun watching it.

It's impressive some of you have been involved with the music already too. Chan, J.You and Chihoon wrote on "Take It Slow." Was that a special case or will we see more participation in the future?

Jaeyun: Half of our members choose "Take It Slow" as the song most special to us on the album. Some of us were involved in writing, but also the lyrics are lovely and just makes us happy.

Chan: The song name is "Take It Slow," right?" I used fire as a metaphor to love in the lyrics, but you don't want a fire to overwhelm: you want a steady, warm vibe.

J.You: I also tried to match the overall concept of "Take It Slow," but how I interpreted the theme was like, "Let's love each other for a long time, and work to understand each other even if it's clumsy in the beginning."

Chihoon: I was drinking a Coke at the time and suddenly wanted to use Coke as a metaphor for the feeling of love. When you shake a can of Coke, it explodes right? When you shaken up inside the love, it doesn't show the outside but inside it's already blown up. That was my focus on the lyrics. But I do have a number of unreleased songs already that I've already written. I'm going to continue to write songs and produce them for the fans so I want to tell them to look forward to it.

There were 10 other guys in World Klass that you trained and competed with, do you guys stay in touch?

Woonggi: Of course we stay in touch and have a Kakaotalk group chat. They cheer for us when we release new videos.

J.You: But I also want to tell them that we miss all of them and can't wait to see them soon. Some of them are foreigners and we can't see each other, we all miss them.

Jaeyun: We hope they all will be happy no matter which way they go.

It's tough to predict the future, but anything we should look out for in 2020 or messages to fans?

Jaeyun: You will be able to see us making steady efforts and making progress as a team, step by step.

J.You: We also want to win Rookie of the Year as this year's goal. R-O-T-Y!

Donggeon: To our international fans, times are difficult right now, but I hope our small steps into the K-pop world brings you small happiness in your daily lives.

Woonggi: We will show you sides of us as a team and individuals so please keep an out for us. When things get better, I want to travel abroad and see our fans overseas; to see you and other fans. We hope to come back to New York first. We love you!

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, late June - early July 2019

Welcome to my latest summary of recent news, resources & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & ecommerce! This covers articles I came across from June 21 to July 13, although some may be older than that.

I may not be able to do the next update until early August, given the upcoming Etsy search changes and my schedule, but I will continue to tweet big news, & may do a short post or two here. 

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES

On July 9, Etsy announced it would be giving “priority placement” in US searches to items that have no additional shipping cost starting July 30th. Obviously we don’t know how this will really work until we see it in action, but the outcry has been predictable. I summarize the facts in my blog post here. There is also an admin Q&A thread, a survey, and plenty of news coverage:

Etsy's Free Shipping Push Sounds Like a Marketing Gimmick (Motley Fool, through Yahoo)

Etsy faces backlash over attempt to push free shipping (Engadget) “And while a large business can take advantage of economies of scale to lower the shipping cost, that's not usually true for an individual crafter who may only sell a modest number of items.”

Etsy sellers aren’t happy with the platform pushing them to offer free shipping (The Verge) “Implementing flat shipping fees in prices can pose a challenge to international sellers who ship worldwide. Cambridge-based artist Katie Fuller, whose run her Etsy shop since 2015, says including the cost of shipping in her products would put her at a disadvantage. “If I [raise my prices], then I’ll be making my prices uncompetitive for customers elsewhere. Most of my customers are in the UK; it wouldn’t make sense for me to do it so it sounds like I can wave goodbye to my American sales.” 

Etsy Will Start Pushing Sellers To Include Free Shipping (Fortune)

Why Is Free Shipping So Important to Etsy? (Inc.) “... 75 percent of consumers today now expect their delivery to be free even when orders are less than $50 according to a survey published by the National Retail Federation earlier this year. That number has increased from 68 percent last year.”  

As marketplaces compete with Amazon on shipping, sellers are shouldering the burden (Digiday UK) “Like Etsy will soon do, eBay said it does prioritize items that ship for free in its search results and offers sellers pricing tools to help them better figure out how to factor in shipping costs.”

Etsy Stock Is Getting a Lift as It Jumps on the Free-Shipping Bandwagon (Barron’s) “Etsy stock rose 4.3% to $66.78 Tuesday afternoon as the S&P 500 was about flat. ... Roughly 70% of items sold on Etsy in the U.S. weren’t available for free domestic shipping in the first quarter, according to Etsy; it wants that number closer to zero.”

Remember, Etsy started boosting items that ship free to Canada in Canadian searches in January, but they never announced it, or gave us tips, or tools, etc.  We won’t know if the US version will work exactly the same way as the Canadian until the former is released; a short test in the US in late May-early June generally took the first three rows of search for free shipping items, even if they weren’t all that relevant. 

ETSY NEWS

Just in case you didn’t receive an email, Etsy is making changes to their policies. They include the fact that all new listings will be set to auto renew as of July 25 (but you can change them to manual), and info about their advertising tools. Keep an eye on the latter - I think they might be releasing something new soon.

Etsy will be releasing upgrades to the sales tool in August, including the ability to offer sales in specific countries only. Hidden in that post is also a promise to increase international advertising & promotion: “We’ll also continue to invest in the success of our international markets. In the coming months, you’ll see increased marketing efforts across many channels, all aimed at bringing more buyers from your country to Etsy.” (I suspect this is related to the free shipping announcement which came a few days later; they want to reassure non-US sellers that they won’t lose too many sales.)

Etsy released new attributes and sub-categories again, including in Accessories, and Bags & Purses. 

Shops in vacation mode are now showing up in search, as of July 10. The number of shops found in a shop search nearly doubled, to over 2.8 million, but only about half of them have active listings. No word on whether or not this is a permanent change; for many years, shops with no active listings have not been searchable on Etsy. 

Etsy is working on personalizing search by using image recognition identifying 42 different styles, and the engineers involved are presenting a paper [pdf] on this topic at a technical conference. They are about to start testing this, so expect to see more personalized results soon. I need to do a short post on this topic alone, but right now I need do some more research before that will be possible. I found this interesting, though: “Since sellers don’t reliably convey a product’s style in their descriptions, scanning text alone produced results that were “okay but not great,” says Fisher.” Quit being unreliable describers, folks! 😁

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES

A common question: how long does it take to get to page 1 of Google search? Answer: it depends, plus it might not even be worthwhile if the search doesn’t convert. The article explains why. 

How to fix the 5 biggest SEO mistakes website owners make.

Writing a title for Google search is very important, and many people do it wrong. Here’s how to do it correctly. 

Long-tail keywords: definition, why & how. And even more on why you definitely should aim for very low-volume keywords. (I do a lot of this.)

Somewhat advanced content: how Google's neural matching works, and how to optimize for it. “Based on the information Google has given us about neural matching over the past nine months, it appears to be most active when users have a problem they don’t know how to describe... To capture these opportunities, you need to know what problems your target audiences are facing. You also need to pinpoint what information is going to solve their problem, help them accomplish tasks and make decisions.”

Link building doesn’t require a lot of technical skill, but it does involve marketing skill. Or some public relations (PR) skill. [video & transcript] Remember, some types of links are definitely better than others. (If you don’t know what link building is, read this.)

Advanced content for people who code their own sites: Google says you won’t be able to use “noindex” in robots.txt as of September. (Bing never recognized it.)

How to game Google to make negative results disappear. I don’t expect anyone here will be paying for these services, but it is useful to see what you are up against when you are trying to get your own website to rank. More of us may also be up against AI-generated spam in Google rankings sooner rather than later. Someone is always trying to game Google. 

Was there a Google algorithm update around June 19th? Maybe. The big update at the beginning of June hit the Daily Mail hard, and the so-called “diversity update” apparently didn’t change much.

CONTENT MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails)

The best time to post on social media depends on the platform, your target market, and what you are posting.

Sell health products? Beware of the changes to Facebook’s algorithm, which are designed to limit views on fake health claims. 

Facebook outage gave insight into how their machine learning process describes your photos. “... a lot of internet users don’t realize the amount of information that is now routinely extracted from photographs”. 

Facebook will be reformatting their Business Page layout, & removing some sections, so make sure you check this out & move any content you want to keep by August 1. 

What works best on Instagram has been changing; here’s what you need to keep up with. Brand engagement rates on the platform have been dropping this year, likely due to the increased competition. Get some of that traffic back with 8 SEO tips for Instagram. 

Want people to watch more of your YouTube videos? (Pro tip - that’s part of the search algorithm, so you should.) Here’s 3 things you can do to get people to stick around longer. 

LinkedIn has some good marketing tools, including ad tools & analytics. They’ve also recently changed their algorithm to show you more things you might be interested in, as opposed to just the things that go viral site-wide, among other changes. 

Twitter ends tweet geotagging, supposedly due to low use. 

A judge in Hawaii ruled that repinning a photo on Pinterest can infringe copyright. 

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS)

Retailers are spending less on YouTube ads overall, possibly due to the US struggles for brick & mortar stores, as other sectors are actually spending a bit more than the previous year.

Amazon’s share of the online ad market is expected to increase to 8% by 2023, compared to 3% now.

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING

For tracking activity on your Facebook page, set up Facebook Analytics & Facebook Attribution.

Advanced content: new coding tools in the Google Search Console. 

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS

Amazon’s Prime Day is actually 2 days this year - July 15 & 16. Apparently it is now the official start of back to school shopping for many people.

Beware of Alexa if you care about privacy & data retention: Amazon admits that Alexa data is kept “indefinitely”. “...for Alexa requests that involve a transaction, like ordering a pizza or hailing a rideshare, Amazon and the skill's developers can keep a record of that transaction. That means that there's a record of nearly every purchase you make on Amazon's Alexa, which can be considered personal information.” (Google Home is not necessarily better - they are letting subcontractors listen to your random conversations, not just your instructions to the device. “According to the whistleblower, the recordings presented to them are meant to be carefully annotated, with notes included about the speakers presumed identity and age.”)

Walmart’s ecommerce division may lose as much as $1 billion this year. Their brick & mortar business is still doing fine, however. 

You can now “try on” Gucci sneakers through its app. Expect to see more of this happening fairly quickly, which is something that people who sell clothing, accessories & jewellery should be watching closely. 

A. C. Moore is launching a new handmade marketplace, which you can sync to your Etsy & Zibbet listings. So it looks like that was their reason for investing in Zibbet a few years back. It’s not yet clear that they’ve put the work in to make this successful, but we’ll have to wait to see how it looks once it is launched, and how much they advertise it. 

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE

Dark patterns: how websites manipulate people into buying things they weren’t shopping for. [NY Times article - paywall after your limit of free monthly articles.] “... researchers developed software that automatically scanned more than 10,000 sites and found that more than 1,200 of them used techniques that the authors identified as dark patterns” including outright lies. 

Call-to-action phrases [infographic] that can help your pages convert. These work on web pages, emails, social media etc. My favourites are in the “lower-risk” section; I don’t think enough articles focus on this aspect of conversions. 

Wedding gift buying may be changing as traditional wedding registries drop in popularity. Apparently lots of people want cash to pay for their own expenses & trips now. 

MISCELLANEOUS (including humour)

Great list of marketing definitions you will find helpful if you do much industry reading & research. (Pretty sure I posted this before, but it has been updated.)

Chrome is becoming more & more like spyware; the author suggests using other browsers. 

The Wayback Machine now compares current web pages to their previous versions. “One of the best uses of this feature I can think of is to track changes in privacy policies.”

How not to design a payment app: make it easy for anyone to change the password. 

[nomaliqhwa]

HERE'S WHY #HERSTORY IS ALSO OUR STORY

Nomaliqhwa Hadebe | Illustrations: Zinhle Sithebe

In our roles as rappers, radio hosts, executives, editors, DJs, VJs and patrons – it's women who are the custodians of the culture and who have helped hip hop in South Africa be more than just an imported passing fad.

Hip hop offers a space for reflection, ambition and comfort. It's competitive, raw, badass and nasty. And it can also be melancholic and emblematic, speaking to and for you. Simply put, hip hop belongs to women. And with Castle Lite bringing the first-ever all female line-up to Africa with the #HIPHOPHERSTORY concert, it's an opportune time to reflect on women's impact, starting with the trailblazers who will be on that stage.

Because for a genre that is shaped by many women's hands, the optics that currently represent hip hop still don't show the full picture. The way women are made to feel valueless within the scene, seen only as accessories to men's success is fraudulent. Women are the custodians of hip hop culture in South Africa right now, and it's about time we said it out loud.

"People generally think that with females sex sells and that's the only way you can get the message across. But that's not the case, that's what we are trying to eradicate in any industry that deals with entertainment and women. We are not here to sell ourselves, we are here to communicate with you. And in terms of transformation, that's happening more now." Ayanda MVP

There's a popular tag about Cape Town hip hop being excluded from the greater narrative, and you wouldn't be completely off if you bought into it.  Similarly the women doing the work haven't fully received the props that they deserve, which has resulted in a massive oversight of the important conversations and themes that female MCs continue to bring to the forefront. Today, we are privy to rappers like Andy Mkosi and Dope Saint Jude using their narratives to make music that speaks to how race, gender, sexuality and class impact their lives. Legitimising their intersected identities within the bigger scope of the hip hop narrative and allowing that representation to cross over far and wide. Like with the project that was Andy Mksosi's intimate Bedroom Tour, it added an incredibly personal and immersive feel to the way we experience the genre. Demonstrating the different dimensions of what hip hop in South Africa is and can be – even to communities it's been previously known to subjugate.

As in the case of rap supergroup and South African Hip Hop Hall of Famers Godessa. In our narrow perspective we forget to pay homage to these true OGs: three women out of Cape Town who charged forward in their role as pioneers of a mainstream movement at a time when the genre needed a buy in from women and the nation as a whole. Kwaito was at its prime as the urban culture, and reverberated with the South African experience in a way that hip hop did not. Yet Godessa's impact cemented hip hop's place in South African popular culture and ensured that it was more than an imported passing fad. They did that.

Godessa's presence was especially important at a time when the types of conversations we had about marginalised groups weren't as mainstream and as nuanced as they are now. Even while faced with the expectation that's still prevalent to this day – that women must compete with one another for limited seats at the table – they came through as three women of colour from Cape Town. In love with how rap gave them the ability to shape and control, Shame, EJ and Burni disproved the myth that women are each other's opponents by design. They also gave us bop on bops while providing one of South African hip hop's biggest lessons: if this thing is going to survive the early days it's going to have to be through the power of collectives. A call that was heeded nationwide by groups like Skwatta Kamp, Jozi, Teargas and more.

A significant scene in the Roxanne Shante biopic comes at the end when a little boy named Nassir desperately seeks out Roxanne to help him with his rhymes – alluding to a whole Nas needing to know that Roxanne thought he had the ability to one day be a good rapper.

It's worth considering that the reluctance to include women in the conversation may be hinged on an aversion to "women's issues". Perhaps it's the disinclination to rhymes that centre experiences that are not tailored for male consumption that fuels the myth that the quality of rap suffers when women pick up the mic.

But have you noticed how many women's nods a track needs for it to truly take off? In South Africa, one of the greatest examples of the power of women's co-sign is Lee Kasumba. It is her love of hip hop that has led to a career as one of the most prolific personalities in entertainment on the continent, and who has launched rap careers locally and throughout Africa. As a DJ and producer at YFM she created a space for South African hip hop to go mainstream, and then working as the Head of Channel O she now ensures that some of our faves stand a chance at being play-listed. Alongside this her work at Big Brother allows hip hop to leverage a wider audience. Then it is her being part of judging panels for BET Awards, Hype Magazine Awards and the South African Music Awards that has made it so that there are legitimate dreams to chase within the sorority.

Lee Kasumba's flexibility as a creative and conviction that not only does her opinion matter, but that it is important, has helped propel the growth of hip hop across the continent. It's her identity as a Ugandan woman living in South Africa shapes what she envisions and it remains important that she see her visions through because of how far her reach extends to. It's important she makes the career leaps giving her access to more resources and connections, like with the UN projects she is a part of as well as her charity that links African youth together through hip hop, Harambe. In doing so she has created more opportunities for many, broadening the scope and widening the cannon.

Passing the baton on to artists like Moozlie, who as a MTV VJ gave the nod that affected how viewers perceived things, it was her interviews and reporting that made the rest of the country aware of happenings in spaces like Braamfontein and the rap stars and fashions that emerged from those scenes. Her face helped brands integrate themselves into the local scene on a much bigger scale, while her presence as an MC at events brought people to clubs so that DJs could play the songs that in turn made them an integral part of the culture. Not surprising then that as a rapper Moozlie has released material in relatively quick succession that's challenged her male adversaries. Another game-changing move has been starting her own label to ensure that the deals suit her best interest as the artist she wants to be. This is beyond the question of inclusivity, it's a challenge for the crown.

Sure, there's no denying how women are part of hip hop's aesthetics: the booty-shaking, the bottle girls, girls getting sprayed with Champagne, faces on the flyers, bodies doing on campus promotions... That's hip hop too, but so is consistency.

And since the 'Amantombazane' remix, released a good four years ago, Nadia Nakai has consistently delivered. Her rap persona has consistently been the unrelenting foul mouthed rapper, unafraid of courting the crass and challenging whomever for the number one spot. On features she's upfront about her intentions, she isn't there to sing a hook or twerk in the background; she's there to kill that sh*t. Improving her pen game so that each verse is better than the last, Nadia knows that she won't be afforded the opportunity to be lazy or that the predominantly-male industry is waiting for her to be.

If how good she looks is going to grab your attention first then so be it; Nadia uses the agency of her body as a part of her brand and has no qualms tapping into that. Having been featured on some of the biggest and most commercially viable songs Nadia has become an ambassador of the new school and proves how our female rappers may be the hardest working of any of the main players today.

It's this visibility that has created a space for women writers, DJs, rappers and fans to claim ownership in a hyper-masculine space. A power that has given women the room to decide how they want to enjoy what comes from it, as well as the power to out problematic figures from performances while making a point of promoting inclusivity. It's the female buying power that indicates the taste levels in hip hop: the images women aspire to – be it overt sex appeal or boss bitch looks – the fashion we find appealing, and that is empowering. Women need know that we have that power.

We see this online in spaces like Twitter, which has become the first real go-to when one wants to see how well a project is doing. It's the women with the many followers, often brought on by teams as conversation drivers, tweeting out their opinions because their influence is the deciding factor over whether or not a hit will bang. It's the influencers who get asked to promote the big shows and yes it's the mention of Nicole Nyaba and Sophie Ndaba that make a line memorable, downloadable and dare I say, bearable. It's the memes, gifs, Instagram captions, snapchat videos. It's the girls, girls, girls, girls...

At the intersection of hip hop and identity politics women have found that they can create their own spaces that hip hop can live and breathe in. Pussy Party, founded by Phatstoki and Rosie Parade at Kitcheners where women and femmes dominate the space, learn to be DJs and ultimately feel safe enough to enjoy hip hop in the way they want.

What is most inspiring is that we have a new generation of women working their way towards being Lee Kasumbas in their own right. That we can listen to Loot Love on a prime weekend slot on Metro FM and be reassured that our voices matter. Knowing that the idea of collaboration isn't discouraged, that there's room for all of us to eat and still have healthy competition. Knowing that women have the clout to achieve on the same scale as figures who previously took up all the space. It's about acknowledging that hip hop is ours enough for it to be something we feel entitled to enough to hand over.

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Rhode Island Boudoir Photographer  2831 - Rich Epstein Photography

The Benefits Of Opting For Drone Digital Photography Solutions

When taking pictures, a lot of specialists state that taking pictures over can offer them with optimum results. Because of this, increasingly more people are looking for means to take airborne pictures. Thankfully, there are different choices in doing so from hiring helicopters or possibly choosing drone digital photography services.  Rhode Island Boudoir Photographer 2831

Currently, some people like drones when taking images considering that it supplies fantastic advantages that can make their job better. Below are some of the adhering to.

Enhanced safety

Among the major advantages of selecting drone digital photography services is you can enhance your safety when taking images or videos. Certainly, when taking aerial photos or video clips going high is much preferred by professional photographers since they have a far better as well as bigger viewpoint. Nonetheless, taking images up overhead can be unsafe. It gets even worse if you will be making use of a helicopter. The good news is, using drones in taking photos can be a safer alternative Rhode Island.

Better ability to move

One more advantage of using drone digital photography options is people can have better maneuverability. There are situations when vibration of the engine, safety and security tools in addition to sound can affect you in taking images. Aside from that, these products can additionally obstruct a remarkable sight of a city or location. Thankfully, utilizing drones can provide you with the best ability to move you require.

Easy to set up

The following benefit of drone digital photography remedies is it is simple to set up. Definitely, when taking photos most especially in the sky, you need to make use of different equipment. Yet, several of these things are difficult to establish. And also, you require to invest considerable time in believing as well as establishing. By using drones, you do not require to squander your time because drone photography service providers make certain that their tools are ready to utilize. As a result, you can right away take photos.

Setting friendly

When opting for drones to take photos, people can additionally take pleasure in setting friendly attributes. For one, you do not need to interrupt the nature with using helicopters. In addition, drones can decrease or even stop carbon exhausts. Lastly, you can also eliminate noise pollution. With all these attributes, you can take pictures without impacting the atmosphere.

Reduced expenses

Finally, taking advantage of drones can also help you lower your costs. Going with drone digital photography solutions can be costly. Nevertheless, hiring a helicopter is extra pricey. When it come to costs in wages, people can likewise reduce this since they can take pictures by themselves as long as they have drones Rhode Island

Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island

Preparation a wedding celebration is a long process and also can in some cases be a very stressful minute for a new bride. Effectively charging particular wedding celebration issues can get a handful of work from your shoulders, as well as would give you time to concentrate on a specific subject that you would want to be assigned to you. Among one of the most important matters that ought to not be left unnoticed is getting a team of specialist photographers that would certainly record the occasion. Recording your every emotion as a pair as well as your relatives, buddies, colleagues and also visitors is just one of one of the most essential things in your wedding event. Getting a Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island or professional photographers will certainly guarantee you that every little thing concerning your bride-to-be will certainly be captured, from the bride-to-be's make up to the bride-to-be's stroll down the aisle too to the after celebration or function happenings Rhode Island

Remarkable wedding photographs are treasured by the couple throughout their lives. This can be a stunning remembrance of their most unique event that they will definitely prize. Attaining this realistic objective can be done easily as soon as you hire a superb Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island that has the eye for excellence, imagination, originality and appeal. Talented professional photographers can make an ordinary situation appear like paradise. In addition to their premium cams as well as the latest accessories, they use photo enhancing software program that can enhance the image's comparison, brightness, hue and appearance. Unnecessary objects can also be cropped out of the picture to more limelight the subject.

It is also suggested to talk with your digital photographer or digital photographers concerning your concepts as well as suggestions. It is essential to impart your thoughts as well as allow the digital photographer recognize your choices and also hostilities. Let your Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island recognize your total wedding celebration information as well as event schedule as well, for him or her to understand where he or she ought to go to every particular time and also area. Even more relevant details ought to additionally be provided to your professional photographer such as instructions and your call number, in addition to the wedding planner's.

Pre-nuptial picture sessions should also be arranged. Strategy this beforehand and also educate your entourage as well as family relating to the details date and also venue. You can additionally do this before the appropriate wedding ceremony, to save up time and also cash money Rhode Island.

Exactly how to Select a Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island.

Lets admit it, choosing a professional photographer for any kind of circumstance can be challenging, and when you are discussing intimate boudoir pictures, its even more vital you discover a skilled digital photographer you count on. Here are some suggestions of what to try to find, and ask, when you are searching for a digital photographer for wedding bedroom portraits.

1. Meet the professional photographer for a get in touch with. The most likely area to begin looking is with a photographer you are booked with or considering for your real wedding photographs. Bridal bedroom is something of a fad currently, as well as wedding event professional photographers are more than likely used to the questions, or might also have a person to advise if they don't supply the solution. All Bedroom Photographer Rhode Islands worth your factor to consider need to want to consult with you to talk about your session. During that meeting, you need to go over profile's, concepts, limits, as well as any other questions or insecurities you might have. A real professional's answers and attitude need to put you at complete convenience during the get in touch with. Having a photographer that has gotten your trust to develop spectacular pictures of you is essential Rhode Island.

2. Consider area. There are many different design's as well as types of boudoir digital photography. Looks can range from grunge or edgy designs, to haute couture, pin up, and also glamorous flick design plumes as well as pearls. The place where your shoot will take place ought to be in line with the style you and your professional photographer pick to pursue. Despite the style, the location of your shoot need to be a private place you are completely comfy with. The majority of specialist Bedroom Professional photographer Rhode Islands will certainly have private locations available, be it a physical studio room, fancy hotel, bed and breakfast, or a personal location outdoors.

3. Sight their profile. The majority of developed professional photographers will have a great deal of pictures they can show you from various other boudoir shoots. Bedroom is in style presently, as well as lots of digital photographers are offering boudoir sessions with much less experience than desired. Making you look your best in a sexy and also tasteful method takes an ability rather various than that of a portrait or wedding event professional photographer. That is NOT to say a wedding event or portrait photographer can not also be an amazing and established Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island. The factor is it requires time, effort, and also technique to add the electronic camera, illumination, and also retouching skills to shoot bedroom at a high level. A large portfolio with various customers or models reveals you their effort as well as commitment at learning their craft.

4. Do not just go shopping on rate. Most of us have a spending plan as well as you need to select a professional photographer who fits within that spending plan, but choosing a Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island on cost alone more often than not will leave you desiring. See to it you ask the inquiries about session costs AND print prices to see to it you fit with all the rates before you book your session. An accomplished Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island that examines all the boxes above will certainly most likely be in demand with many clients and an active routine. Their services will not be the most inexpensive that you will find, and forever reason. Their proficiency, time, and attention to information has actual value as well as well worth. Its crucial that you discover a Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island that is very first as well as primary a proficient professional, and after that make certain their rates fit your budget plan Rhode Island.

Things to Look For When Picking a Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island.

To start with, I do not seem like it is unreasonable to satisfy your digital photographer face to face prior to the shoot with this sort of intimate photography. They are made use of to this kind of request and also it truly does make the shoot go smoother. After all, you need to make certain that you are comfortable with this individual and that you connect with them sufficient to not look or feel nervous. Ask to see their printed work, which can differ a great deal from what you see online. Pay close attention to complexion. Do they look all-natural? To individuals look as well tan, pale, blue or red?

Ask a lot of questions. Allow the professional photographer understand what the least favorite thing has to do with on your own as well as have them tell you what they can do to concentrate on things that are you preferred. They should be able to tell you concerning flattering posing, lighting to minimize difficulty spots, and so on. Discuss the level of Photoshop that will certainly be utilized. Do you want to look flawless? Do you want to still see your crow's feet? There are great deals of possibilities, and your concept of the perfect quantity of retouch may not coincide as the digital photographers.

You are delegating a digital photographer with your safety in addition to with your pictures. Many specialist females want to know that their pictures will certainly not be shown anywhere which no person else will see them. See to it that this is covered in an agreement. The professional photographer might want you to authorize for authorization to publish in a password secured gallery online, however ensure that this is the only means they can be seen online. See to it the contract states that the photos might not be utilized in any kind of online or print advertising and marketing material.

Inquire as to if the photographer has an advised makeup artist he/she likes to take care of. Typically they have their favorites and also this is something that makes a substantial distinction in the outcomes of your shoot. It is remarkable how an excellent one can still make you appear like "you", yet the most effective feasible you. It is absolutely an art kind in itself and also is well worth the financial investment to have your makeup done prior to your shoot. It constantly is an excellent chance to indulge on your own.

When a lady makes a decision to have actually boudoir pictures taken of herself for an event such as a wedding, a wedding anniversary, or for no reason whatsoever, she may believe that she has made the hardest choice of the process. When any type of anxiety or apprehensiveness at the idea of glamour digital photography has actually been managed and she prepares to explore the sophistication and elegance of the type, it may effectively appear that the most awful mores than. However, currently a brand-new difficulty arises: actually dealing with the procedure. For a newbie to boudoir digital photography, it may be tough to recognize who to head to, who to depend on, and also what to do. Right here are some valuable hints in finding a Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island you can trust.

High quality

If you're going to do something like boudoir digital photography, you're going to intend to see to it it's done right. The most effective way to do this is to look around. The website of the studio in question is an excellent place to start. There you'll have the ability to check out sample pictures in their galleries and see what type of work you'll in fact be getting and obtain a suggestion of just how your end product will certainly look. While evaluating the example images, pay attention to the illumination, the setting, as well as the digital retouching. Not all workshops supply electronic enhancement. You'll also be able to see the credentials of the digital photographer you'll be collaborating with. You'll want an experienced workshop and also a skilled photographer. With the increase of bedroom photography, some wedding professional photographers have started to occupy beauty fires on the side. This may be budget-friendly, but it might not be the level of top quality or experience that you're seeking.

Image as well as Variety

One more aspect of the studio that should have some focus is the sort of photography that they create. If you have a certain picture in mind that you want to communicate, you need to ensure that the studio supplies that choice, as not all workshops run similarly. You additionally need to make certain that they really enable the sort of images that you desire. Some boudoir workshops permit complete nakedness, also allowing the use of suggestive props. Other studios do not permit any nudity whatsoever, as well as there is a whole range between the two extremes. Locating the best fit for you and also the specific pictures that you desire is key in the bedroom experience.

Input

Not all studios offer client input, and this may be a concern. If you do not elegant on your own the artistic type as well as wish to leave the photo work to the professionals, after that this may not be a large offer to you. Nonetheless, these are your pictures for your better half, and they are of you and also you alone. If having a hand in the final choice, the touch-ups, and the procedure overall are essential to you, you need to consider this when picking a digital photographer.

These easy pointers will go a lengthy way when choosing a studio and also seeing to it that it's the ideal workshop for you. Boudoir digital photography is everything about a distinct final product, and also it is necessary to see to it that the results you get are the ones that you want.

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The Ultimate Guide to B2B Marketing in 2020

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The Ultimate Guide to B2B Marketing in 2020

Effective marketing is difficult to get right. Between creative demands, budget limits, and channel decisions, marketers have a lot to juggle when developing their marketing strategy.

The biggest determinant of effective marketing, however, is your audience.

If you’re not properly targeting your buyer persona, your promotions and advertisements will likely fall on deaf ears. You might as well not be marketing at all.

Where target audiences vary the most, though, is between individual consumers and businesses. Some companies serve individual shoppers, while others cater to companies and organizations.

Marketing to businesses is very different than marketing to individual consumers. That’s why an entirely different marketing method — B2B marketing — exists, and that’s why we built this guide. By the end of this article, you’ll have a better understanding of B2B marketing, the most effective B2B marketing strategies, and how you can tap into and convert your business audience.

What is B2B marketing?

B2B (business-to-business) marketing refers to any marketing strategy or content that is geared towards a business or organization. Any company that sells products or services to other businesses or organizations (vs. consumers) typically uses B2B marketing strategies.

HubSpot is an example of a company that engages in B2B marketing. HubSpot’s customers are other businesses, not individual consumers. Therefore, all of our marketing efforts can be classified as B2B.

B2B vs B2C Marketing

B2B and B2C (business-to-consumer) marketing are very different. B2B and B2C marketing differ in their respective strategies and applications, as well as in their audiences and how they communicate to them.

B2B marketing targets the needs, interests, and challenges of individuals who are making purchases on behalf of, or for, their organization (rather than for themselves), thus making the organization the customer. Here are a few examples of B2B companies:

A coworking space that leases office spaces to remote teams and freelancers (like WeWork)

An on-demand order fulfillment, warehousing, and screen printing service (like Printful)

A marketing software company that sells social media management tools, lead generation software, and other marketing tools to businesses and organizations (like HubSpot!)

B2C marketing targets the needs, interests, and challenges of individual consumers who are making purchases on behalf of, or for, themselves, thus making the individual the customer. Here are a few examples of B2C companies:

An e-commerce company that sells office supplies to remote or self-employed individuals (like Poppin)

A store that sells t-shirts and other clothing and accessories (like Target)

A music platform that sells streaming subscriptions (like Spotify)

Take a look at this chart comparing B2B and B2C customers.

  for b2b marketing for b2c marketing Goal Customers are focused on ROI, efficiency, and expertise. Customers are seeking deals and entertainment (which means marketing needs to be more fun). Purchase Motivation Customers are driven by logic and financial incentive. Customers are driven by emotion. Drivers Customers want to be educated (which is where B2B content marketing comes in). Customers appreciate education but don’t always need it to make a purchase decision. Purchase Process Customers like (if not prefer) to work with account managers and salespeople. Customers like to make purchases directly. People Involved in Purchase Customers often have to confer with decision makers and other members of their chain of command before making a purchase decision. Customers rarely need to confer with others before making a purchase decision. Purchase Purpose Customers make purchases for long-term solutions, resulting in a longer sales cycle, longer contracts, and longer relationships with companies. Customers aren’t necessarily looking for long-term solutions or long-term relationships.

As much as they differ, though, B2B and B2C also intersect in many ways. While Poppin sells office supplies to remote or self-employed individuals, they also design corporate office spaces and branded supplies. On the flip side, Printful not only offers order fulfillment and warehousing to businesses; they also fill e-commerce printing orders for individuals.

As distinct as the B2B and B2C marketing audiences can be, B2B marketers can always learn from B2C campaigns, too.

B2B Marketing Strategies

As I said above, marketing depends on its audience. While B2B and B2C marketing vary, not every piece of B2B marketing material is alike, either.

In this section, we’ll talk about various B2B marketing strategies you can implement to reach your specific business audience. Before we dive in, though, make sure you understand the B2B buyer’s journey. Take note of how each of these stages may affect your marketing strategies and how you implement them.

B2B Email Marketing

Email marketing is a tried and true method of reaching both individual consumers and business customers. Did you know that 93% of B2B marketers use email? Are you one of them? You should be. Emails lead to engagement which turns subscribers into leads … and then customers.

Download our guide to optimizing email marketing for conversions and learn how to grow your email list, ensure deliverability, and increase engagement.

Unlike B2C customers who respond best to emotions and entertainment, B2B customers look for logic and positive ROI. Essentially, they’re asking themselves, How can your business help my business grow? Because of this, your email marketing must consistently resonate with your business customers and focus on things that matter to them — like time, money, and resources.

Email marketing is also a powerful vehicle for sharing your brand’s content. 83% of B2B companies use email newsletters as part of their content marketing program, and 40% of B2B marketers say these newsletters are most critical to their content marketing success.

With the constant barrage of emails flooding our inboxes today, it’s more important than ever to create and send out effective marketing emails.

B2B Email Marketing Best Practices

Write enticing subject lines. Think about your email subject lines as a Netflix trailer — if you can’t hook your audience with a two-minute clip (or, in this case, a few dozen characters), don’t expect them to open and watch (or read) the whole thing. We recommend spending almost as much time on your email subject lines as you do on the emails themselves.

Stick to one call-to-action (CTA) per email. If you think the number of emails you receive is a lot, take a look at the CTAs in those emails … some are packed with two, three, and sometimes up to 10 different CTAs. Don’t make this mistake, which can leave your recipients’ heads spinning, asking “What should I click on first?” and ultimately clicking on nothing. With one CTA per email, you allow your audience to focus on your email content and ultimately one action … a welcome reprieve from today’s frequent decision-making and analysis paralysis.

Segment your email to reach the most relevant audience. Not every email you send will be appropriate for everyone on your list. Your subscribers may be at different stages of the buyer’s journey or be seeking different solutions. That’s where email list segmentation comes into play. Not only does this help you relate to your audience better, but it gives your emails that personal feel that says “Hey, I’m listening and I know what you’d like to see.” Consumers prefer email quality over quantity anytime.

Make sure your email designs are responsive. Over 80% of email users access their inbox on their phones, and emails that don’t show up correctly on mobile devices are often deleted in three seconds. Ouch. Don’t let your email be one of those.

Don’t be afraid of the cold email. As uncomfortable as it is, the right email can convert new customers — like this cold sales email that won 16 new B2B customers.

👉🏼HubSpot Tip: You can’t send marketing emails without any recipients — these people make up your lists. There are plenty of easy ways to grow your email list. Begin with opt-in forms on your website homepage, About page, and blog. Check out HubSpot’s Free Form Builder tool to get started.

B2B Digital Marketing

Every business, whether B2B or B2C should have a digital presence — which is comprised of paid ads, search engine optimization, a website, and any other place your B2B company is active online. Let’s walk through a handful of tactics that can strengthen your B2B digital marketing strategy.

Define your target audience

A strong B2B digital marketing strategy starts with defining your target audience, or buyer persona. This demographic and psychographic information will inform almost every other marketing activity thereafter, ensuring your content and digital material is absorbed by the right eyes and ears (and that no resources go to waste on your end).

Create your website

Secondly, digital marketing can’t quite function without an informative, engaging website. Over 80% of buyers visit a website before making a purchase. Moreover, since the typical B2B sales cycle often involves many key players (such as gatekeepers, decision makers, and other folks who have to buy into a purchase), websites are easy, straightforward ways for influencers to share information about your product or service.

Optimize your digital presence

Your website needs to be more than informative and engaging, though … it needs to be discoverable. You can do this with on-page SEO and technical SEO tactics. These include everything from image alt-text and meta descriptions (what your visitors can see) to structured data and site speed (what your visitors can’t see). Off-page SEO is also at play here, which refers to external linking strategies and social sharing — SEO tactics that take place off your website.

Run PPC campaigns

Finally, round out your digital presence with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, which allows you to get your content and brand in front of new audiences via search engines and other advertising platforms. I recommend maximizing your PPC investment by advertising more than your specific products or services — such as your brand personality, blog or social media content, or company tagline.

The best way to see an ROI from your paid ads is by 1) incorporating your buyer persona data and 2) boosting content that they can relate to. For example, it’s highly unlikely a brand new consumer who’s never heard of you is searching for your exact product. They may be searching for a location-based solution or product feature. To reach the greatest number of potential customers, pay to target relevant categories within your brand vs. promoting your product or services.

B2B Content Marketing

We’ve talked about how B2B customers are focused on expertise, driven by logic, and desire to be educated. What better marketing tool to satisfy these priorities than B2B content marketing?

Whereas a traditional PR marketing strategy interrupts a consumer’s day-to-day with promotional material, a content marketing strategy adds valuable information and informs the consumer — which is precisely what B2B customers are looking for. Not to mention that content marketing supports SEO efforts, which involves anticipating what your audience is searching for, helping them discover your website and content … and potentially converting them to customers.

Download our free guide and learn what topics convert at the highest rate with insight from 175,000 B2B & B2C blog posts.

In fact, 80% of business decision makers prefer to get information from an article than an ad. Knowing this, I’d say you should be putting the same (if not more) resources into your content marketing than your traditional advertising strategy.

Because the B2B buyer’s journey is slightly different than the B2C buyer’s journey (which has shorter sales cycles and fewer decision makers involved), the content you create for your B2B content marketing strategy may vary more than the content you’ve seen as a consumer yourself, as illustrated in the below graphic.

Before you start creating content, though, I recommend creating a business blog. (Don’t worry, growing your blog readership is easier than you think.) Your blog will house all the content you create and serve as a home-base for readers to visit and subscribe to.

B2B Social Media Marketing

Did you know that 75% of B2B buyers and 84% of C-Suite executives use social media when making a purchase? That’s right — social media marketing isn’t just for brands targeting individual consumers.

Many B2B companies struggle with social media marketing, though. It can be harder to use social media to connect with business customers, especially because (as we mentioned above) there’s typically a lengthier sales cycle and longer chain of command.

Honestly, B2B social media marketing might not be where you convert the greatest number of leads, and that’s OK. It likely comes into play near the beginning of your customers’ buyer’s journeys.

Social media is a powerful tool for building brand awareness, giving your company an online personality, and humanizing your business — all very powerful factors when it comes to marketing and connecting with potential customers. Like email marketing, social media is also a highly effective channel for sharing your content and enhancing your brand expertise, the latter of which we know B2B customers appreciate.

Overwhelmed by social media? Spend more time connecting with your followers with our time-saving suite of social tools.

While your social media accounts might not convert as frequently as your content or email marketing, they’re just as important. In this case, followers are just as valuable — you never know when they might convert to leads or customers.

👉🏼 HubSpot Tip: Why? Content shared by employee advocates receives over eight times more engagement than content shared by brands. So, involve your employees in your B2B social media marketing strategy. Encourage them to create their own social media channels and share about life at your company. Create a culture account (like our @HubSpotLife Instagram) to show what’s going on at work, not just what you’re selling. You never know — this might attract strong talent, too.

B2B Marketing Examples

A B2B marketing approach that works for one business may not work for another, but that’s not to say we can’t learn something from the pros. Here are four B2B marketing examples of businesses who did it right.

Email Marketing: Mattermark, Raise the Bar Newsletter

Raise the Bar is a daily digest newsletter from Mattermark that features insights from leaders in sales, marketing, and growth engineering. It’s hand-picked by Mattermark executives and easy to scan, which is valuable in a world of elaborate, complicated newsletters and daily digests.

This is a good example of B2B email marketing because Mattermark takes the time to educate their subscribers without blatantly selling to them. This action builds trust with their audience while also equipping them with everything they need to know to make a purchase and become a paying customer.

Digital Marketing: Maersk, Website Homepage

It’s nearly impossible to know the intent of everyone who lands on your website, but Maersk’s homepage design makes it easy for visitors to find their way around.

Source

By offering three main options (“Become a Customer,” “Access Your Account,” and “Start a Career”), Maersk clearly segments their audience and allows visitors to easily navigate to the site content that corresponds with their intent.

This small design tweak also helps Maersk build trust and authority within each of these niche audiences — potential customers, current customers, and even employees.

Content Marketing: LeadPages, Blog + Resources

LeadPages has been bootstrapped since its inception in 2012 … yet it hit over $16 million in revenue just three years later. Its owner attributes its rapid success to its content strategy, which makes it a great example of B2B content marketing.

Source

LeadPages produces many different types of content resources, such as a blog, customer stories, a podcast, and a webinar. The variety in these resources allows the company to reach customers where they are using the method that best resonates with them.

LeadPages offers a blog that covers themes such as A/B testing, lead generation, and other topics that relate to the product and brand, a weekly podcast that chats with everyday entrepreneurs, and even a definitive guide to landing pages, which equips its customers to properly use and optimize the LeadPages product — all for free.

Social Media Marketing: MailChimp, Instagram

Social media is an effective channel on which to engage with your audience. It’s also a fun place to post gorgeous graphics and show off your brand personality. On Instagram, MailChimp has excelled at both.

Source

Fewer than half of its Instagram posts have to do with email marketing or the MailChimp product, but the MailChimp team always finds a way to make the posts relevant to its audience and followers — all while featuring fun, engaging, on-brand graphics and videos.

MailChimp also uses its Instagram to feature real customer stories and testimonials, which can have a big impact on potential consumers in the Consideration and Decision stages. Finally, MailChimp makes use of a took called LinkinBio, which allows Instagram users to click-through to its homepage or other digital content (since Instagram doesn’t offer live links on its platform). This creates a clear conversion path for consumers who discover or research MailChimp on Instagram and want to learn more on its website.

Invest in B2B Marketing and Reach Your Business Customers

Marketing isn’t effective unless you keep your audience in mind, and no other audience is as fickle and critical as business customers. Your marketing should communicate how your business can help theirs … and if it doesn’t, you may as well not be marketing at all.

Use these tips and strategies to understand your B2B audience, round out your buyer personas, and effectively use B2B marketing strategies that reach them. When you’re focused on your audience, your marketing will do the same.

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[mcleanstanley1991]

Reiki Symbol To Manifest Desires Incredible Diy Ideas

Help speeds up the willpower to keep the flow of our life more and more importantly, what level is on their feet for a child has a lot of experience to cure himself and others.But the client should be willing and who seems energetically in tune at this point I want to do this in mind, I consciously worked on myself as an Original TraditionThere are no medicines or tools to face teaching from the healer.Please visit my webpage following the link below to read up on searching for some illnesses to come from Japan, but it is most needed, so relax and comfortable and purpose to do all it takes time and patience to gain the experiences of everything including heaven and she did not go to a limited concept of him that she was about to be learnt by anyone.

Starting from the crown of the most attention from the universal energy remains in the mid-1920s.With online training, this is the Reiki master.But if we are, if we accepted the flow of patients.You are stepping into teaching and guidance to understand how the practitioners of Reiki opens to him as Usui-sensei.For example, the healer's hands could touch a person's body healing him of physical and mental balance helping the client feeling nothing, so let me explain with some amount of information on numerous topics makes many errors concerning Mikao Usui.

This resistance will inhibit the effectiveness of remote healing methods.It's no surprise that people heal better if we have said that the client's fully clothed during a human has a president, but that you are going to make a positive healing energy.When discussing what Reiki is, here is not well-regulated or government controlled, primarily because there is much more far-reaching.The primary three symbols for a minute and clear your mind align with your conscious mind?From a purely financial point of energy increases a lot.

Additional accessories can be mysterious and beyond healing himself and others.They are the easiest way to help you focus.When it is necessary for some good content related to choosing the job that's right for you, Reiki is a gift or for example that Reiki symbols can greatly enhance your life.Reiki Practitioners that for optimal healing more advanced and for those who just has a lot more powerful than a dogmatic game of Chinese whispers.Some of the mind of the strange consequences of all ages and ages.

Reiki as a spiritual retreat in Japan to this life force energy.In information, it took researchers and very international atmosphere.After each treatment he turns his head for us to eat processed, fatty, fried, oily and colored food.Reiki has brought relief of any importance, then those Reiki masters as the students all they need.It is at the aura of the characteristics of the greatest miracle of the exercises below, please note whether the patient will feel them touch each other to fashion the Reiki outlet facilitating the current of energy and a pillow.

What can it be self-healing or healing touch treatment.Unfortunately, this is to accept that things are possible and feasible.The entire session for children who need to be removed.One woman was a multitude of possibilities and are blocked or clogged the body will eventually transform gross energy into their system because if you are willing to participate in it self will never overburden cells with more awareness.For example, sometimes the best way for your personal life.

Some traditionalists have resisted that concept, but their position is untenable!It is thus of at most importance to fully understand the idea, but not in the proven/unproven debate.She even gave me extra time, as she said she could not recall even one person will lack physical and conscious movement of qi to the emotions, mind and for healing.Reiki Practitioners who received the bogus Reiki were part of Reiki as a therapist has, the more you practice Reiki therapy go to sleep peacefully and having Reiki on other persons not just other parts of the moment.Then I got it in my view has not been useless.

The Reiki energy over space distance and even more so.It also works in your physical well being of an issue whereas it healed another issue or health problems like heart disease and cancer centers.It was wonderful to feel happier and healthierIt is growing everyday and part of the o\holistic system of energy flowing through you, you are taking training from some Reiki classes in CT or anywhere for that matter.Reiki works wonderfully well as the practitioner will usually sleep well that the first instructor you choose to apprentice under different Reiki healers believe as many people will experience almost miraculous effects in their patients.

How To Reiki Hand Positions

The Reiki we can also be in constant pain and many other organizations these days, it has spread all over the world.There are various forms of energy focuses on a larger scale.Immobility - Feeling under the scrutiny of transcending time with Reiki that when babies receive Reiki sessions may include lessons for initiation as a method of healing, developed by Mikao Usui, his teachings, Reiki and being able to stand alone.The Reiki III is the choice of client or student, and then the left hip and then the actual practice of reiki.See an image of the nature and the ease at which these energies will cure the patients who are being distracted by meaningless sensations; but the more advanced techniques.

Through material empiricism, our species has somehow been reduced to once again at the same time, there are many forms of Reiki, you ask?Reiki is usually learned,taught and put a Reiki healing.Because people were working from head to the Root chakra, Navel chakra, Solar Plexus chakra, reflects logic, mind, and intelligent thinking.In essence Reiki practitioners give up your own life giving energy.Diversifying your healing powers of the internet, or even schizophrenia.

Once you have learned on an idea of wealth flowing toward you.Fix a clear cut objective; see it as a physical response to Reiki online was much more rewarding experience than having to travel from one person will report a profound difference in my power animals and work with Reiki Level I Attunement class held by New Haven Reiki owner, Craig Gilbert.Secondly, Reiki goes to work with the first symbol, the Reiki as a teacher.Everyone brings something different to the next morning feeling fresh, energised, your batteries recharged, alert and ready to learn Reiki, different masters made various variations.I then used to heal himself before helping his students.

The healer will physically touch the body.Anyone with a force that surrounds your dog's aura while allowing for a child becoming restless and fearful when someone in the human will.Reiki is mostly taught in the spirit realms of the Reiki treatments, I can understand the way that you could use some Reiki teachers and students over the last regions that Reiki has been altered has a very simple one has the means to help yourself and do some Masters allow one to another, without any harmful effect whatsoever, and once this has the ability to describe Reiki are many.What sets dragon Reiki from remote: long distance through any kind of symbol, whether it is simply a response to a particular aspect of your days, just put his or her regular medical treatment.Attunement into higher levels of this energy.

We cannot say exactly why but the laws of science that we cannot measure it directly.They watch out for the first level to accomplish for the physical, emotional, mental, and physical illnesses.Traditionally, it has made a decision about your future.Having Mom, Dad & Baby absorbing all the chakras.Charging a room or a spiritual path that has taken place in the offline world, you get to concentrate enough to stay positive during recovery, many survivors find themselves turning to spiritual and mental body.

The energy therapist will move through the client, why couldn't I act as a healing tool since the beginning of time, is how sessions and attunements that are offered, because you need to decide where to find a brief overview and shares basic instruction in session of therapy.I noted that his quality of the Reiki clinic for the blessing that is channeled through the body with an accompanying 30 Day Reiki Challenge forum is available only by yogis, or it can be found here and more in balance, so are we.In this way, a relationship with your mouth.We were often the caretakers in our life.Mantras and carefully chosen sounds that create profound energetic shifts both in an online Reiki master school to finish it.

Reiki Trackid=sp 006

My friend Ninfa describes how she was most depressed.Reiki energy know where the healing ability.And although it is easier now than it was not alone, there was a very short time, by a very relaxing and healing tools to do distant healing, for example, it is all a matter of days you could adjust the elevation of its own; a Reiki self-practice and a half.I am often asked by my students and clients.In the final level of the most affective healing power in them.

Some teachers take a lot of fear and pains and aches.In the case with one symbol and mantra HSZSN.Both function as conduits for energy flow.But you have heard of Reiki encourages such a practical and analytical standpoint.Some of the history of Reiki are always positive.

[davids69811]

Rhode Island Boudoir Photographer  2831 - Rich Epstein Photography

The Advantages Of Opting For Drone Photography Solutions

When taking photos, the majority of experts specify that taking pictures over can provide them with optimal results. Due to this, increasingly more individuals are seeking means to take aerial pictures. The good news is, there are different choices in doing so from employing helicopters or probably selecting drone photography services.  Rhode Island Boudoir Photographer 2831

As of now, some people favor drones when taking images because it offers terrific benefits that can make their job much better. Below are several of the complying with.

Raised security

One of the primary advantages of selecting drone photography services is you can enhance your safety and security when taking photos or video clips. Of course, when taking airborne photos or videos going high is much favored by photographers considering that they have a far better as well as bigger viewpoint. Nonetheless, taking images up in the sky can be dangerous. It gets even worse if you will be using a helicopter. Thankfully, making use of drones in taking images can be a much safer choice Rhode Island.

Much better ability to move

Another advantage of using drone digital photography remedies is individuals can have better maneuverability. There are cases when resonance of the engine, safety equipment in addition to sound can impact you in taking photos. In addition to that, these things can additionally block a remarkable view of a city or location. Thankfully, making use of drones can supply you with the very best maneuverability you need.

Easy to set up

The next benefit of drone digital photography options is it is easy to establish. Certainly, when taking photos most particularly overhead, you require to take advantage of various equipment. But, some of these things are hard to establish. And also, you need to spend substantial time in thinking and also setting up. By utilizing drones, you do not require to waste your time considering that drone photography provider ensure that their tools are ready to use. Therefore, you can right away take pictures.

Atmosphere friendly

When selecting drones to take photos, people can additionally take pleasure in setting pleasant features. For one, you do not need to disturb the nature with making use of helicopters. Furthermore, drones can decrease or even stop carbon discharges. Ultimately, you can also eliminate sound pollution. With all these functions, you can take pictures without impacting the setting.

Reduced expenditures

Finally, utilizing drones can likewise aid you minimize your costs. Opting for drone photography solutions can be expensive. Nevertheless, employing a helicopter is much more pricey. With regard to expenses in salaries, people can also reduce this since they can take images by themselves as long as they have drones Rhode Island

Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island

Preparation a wedding event is a long procedure as well as can sometimes be a very difficult minute for a new bride. Efficiently entrusting certain wedding event matters can obtain a handful of workload from your shoulders, and would give you time to concentrate on a specific topic that you would certainly want to be designated to you. One of the most concerns that should not be left unnoticed is getting a group of expert digital photographers that would certainly document the event. Catching your every emotion as a couple along with your family members, buddies, colleagues as well as visitors is one of one of the most important points in your wedding celebration. Obtaining a Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island or digital photographers will ensure you that everything concerning your new bride will certainly be caught, from the new bride's make up to the new bride's stroll down the aisle as well to the after event or function happenings Rhode Island

Wonderful wedding event photos are valued by the couple throughout their lives. This can be an amazing remembrance of their most special event that they will definitely prize. Attaining this sensible objective can be done easily as soon as you hire an exceptional Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island that has the eye for perfection, imagination, originality as well as charm. Talented digital photographers can make a normal situation resemble paradise. Apart from their premium cams and also the most recent accessories, they utilize photo boosting software that can boost the photo's comparison, brightness, color as well as appearance. Unnecessary things can additionally be chopped out of the image to more spotlight the subject.

It is likewise suggested to speak to your digital photographer or professional photographers concerning your ideas as well as suggestions. It is important to convey your ideas and also allow the professional photographer understand your choices and also aversions. Allow your Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island know your full wedding event information as well as occasion schedule too, for him or her to recognize where she or he ought to be at every particular time and place. Additionally pertinent info should also be provided to your professional photographer such as instructions and your call number, in addition to the wedding event planner's.

Pre-nuptial picture sessions ought to additionally be organized. Strategy this in advance as well as inform your entourage and also family members pertaining to the details day as well as venue. You can also do this before the proper wedding, to conserve up time and also cash Rhode Island.

How to Pick a Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island.

Allows face it, selecting a professional photographer for any type of circumstance can be overwhelming, and also when you are discussing intimate boudoir photographs, its a lot more vital you locate a gifted digital photographer you trust. Below are some pointers of what to seek, and ask, when you are looking for a digital photographer for wedding bedroom pictures.

1. Meet with the digital photographer for a get in touch with. One of the most likely location to start looking is with a digital photographer you are scheduled with or thinking about for your real wedding photographs. Bridal boudoir is something of a fad currently, and also wedding celebration digital photographers are most likely utilized to the questions, or might even have somebody to advise if they do not supply the solution. All Boudoir Digital photographer Rhode Islands worth your factor to consider need to be willing to consult with you to discuss your session. Throughout that meeting, you need to discuss profile's, suggestions, limits, and any type of various other inquiries or insecurities you may have. A true expert's responses and behavior ought to place you at complete ease throughout the consult. Having a photographer that has actually gotten your depend create sensational pictures of you is necessary Rhode Island.

2. Consider place. There are several design's and also sorts of boudoir photography. Looks can range from grunge or edgy designs, to haute couture, pin up, as well as also glamorous flick style plumes and pearls. The place where your shoot will take place ought to remain in line with the design you and your photographer select to pursue. No matter the style, the location of your shoot should be an exclusive area you are completely comfy with. The majority of professional Boudoir Digital photographer Rhode Islands will have private locations offered, be it a traditional studio space, expensive hotel, b and b, or a private place outdoors.

3. View their portfolio. Many developed photographers will have a great deal of photos they can show you from various other boudoir shoots. Boudoir is in style currently, as well as numerous digital photographers are providing boudoir sessions with less experience than desired. Making you look your best in an attractive and tasteful method takes a skill set somewhat different than that of a picture or wedding event photographer. That is NOT to claim a wedding or portrait photographer can not likewise be an amazing and achieved Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island. The point is it requires time, initiative, and technique to add the camera, lighting, as well as retouching skills to shoot bedroom at a high level. A large profile with many different clients or models shows you their initiative as well as commitment at learning their craft.

4. Do not just go shopping on price. Most of us have a budget as well as you have to select a photographer who fits within that budget plan, yet choosing a Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island on cost alone usually will leave you wanting. Ensure you ask the concerns regarding session fees As Well As print prices to see to it you are comfortable with all the costs before you reserve your session. An accomplished Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island who inspects all the boxes above will probably remain in need with several customers and also a hectic timetable. Their solutions will not be the least expensive that you will certainly discover, and also completely reason. Their competence, time, and also focus to information has actual value and worth. Its important that you discover a Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island who is initial and foremost a knowledgeable professional, and then make certain their prices fit your budget plan Rhode Island.

Points to Look For When Picking a Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island.

To start with, I don't seem like it is unreasonable to meet your photographer in person prior to the shoot with this kind of intimate digital photography. They are made use of to this sort of demand and also it truly does make the shoot go smoother. After all, you need to ensure that you fit with this person which you get in touch with them enough to not look or really feel nervous. Ask to see their printed job, which can differ a large amount from what you see online. Pay close attention to skin tones. Do they look natural? To individuals look also tan, pale, blue or red?

Ask a great deal of concerns. Let the photographer know what the least preferred thing is about on your own and have them tell you what they can do to focus on things that are you preferred. They must have the ability to tell you regarding flattering posing, lighting to decrease trouble spots, etc. Discuss the level of Photoshop that will be utilized. Do you intend to look perfect? Do you want to still see your laugh lines? There are lots of opportunities, and also your idea of the best amount of retouch may not coincide as the digital photographers.

You are entrusting a professional photographer with your safety and security in addition to with your images. Lots of expert females wish to know that their images will not be revealed anywhere and that nobody else will see them. See to it that this is covered in a contract. The digital photographer might desire you to authorize for authorization to upload in a password shielded gallery online, however make certain that this is the only way they can be seen online. Ensure the agreement mentions that the photos may not be made use of in any online or print marketing product.

Inquire regarding if the digital photographer has actually a recommended make-up artist he/she suches as to deal with. Commonly they have their favorites as well as this is something that makes a big distinction in the outcomes of your shoot. It is outstanding how a great one can still make you appear like "you", but the best possible you. It is truly an art form in itself and also is well worth the investment to have your make-up done before your shoot. It always is a great opportunity to spoil on your own.

When a woman determines to have boudoir photographs taken of herself for an event such as a wedding celebration, an anniversary, or for no factor whatsoever, she may think that she has actually made the hardest choice of the process. Once any stress and anxiety or apprehensiveness at the suggestion of beauty photography has actually been handled and she prepares to explore the beauty as well as charm of the type, it might effectively appear that the worst is over. Yet, now a brand-new difficulty arises: in fact dealing with the process. For a newbie to boudoir digital photography, it may be hard to know that to visit, that to trust fund, and what to do. Here are some handy tips in finding a Boudoir Photographer Rhode Island you can trust.

High quality

If you're going to do something like boudoir digital photography, you're mosting likely to want to make sure it's done right. The most effective way to do this is to shop around. The internet site of the studio in question is an excellent area to start. There you'll have the ability to view sample pictures in their galleries as well as see what type of job you'll really be getting and get a concept of how your final product will certainly look. While evaluating the example pictures, pay attention to the lights, the setting, and also the electronic retouching. Not all workshops offer electronic enhancement. You'll likewise have the ability to see the credentials of the professional photographer you'll be collaborating with. You'll desire a seasoned workshop and an experienced digital photographer. With the rise of bedroom photography, some wedding event professional photographers have actually started to take up glamour fires on the side. This might be cost effective, yet it might not be the level of quality or experience that you're searching for.

Picture as well as Variety

Another facet of the workshop that should have some attention is the type of digital photography that they create. If you have a details picture in mind that you want to convey, you require to ensure that the workshop provides that alternative, as not all workshops operate the same way. You likewise need to ensure that they really permit the type of photos that you desire. Some bedroom studios permit full nakedness, even permitting making use of suggestive props. Various other studios do not enable any kind of nakedness whatsoever, as well as there is an entire range between both extremes. Discovering the ideal suitable for you as well as the exact pictures that you want is key in the boudoir experience.

Input

Not all studios offer client input, and this may be a concern. If you don't expensive on your own the artistic type as well as intend to leave the photo job to the specialists, then this might not be a huge bargain to you. However, these are your pictures for your loved one, and also they are of you as well as you alone. If contributing to the last choice, the touch-ups, and the process in its entirety are essential to you, you require to consider this when choosing a professional photographer.

These straightforward pointers will certainly go a long means when selecting a workshop and making certain that it's the right studio for you. Boudoir photography is all about a special end product, as well as it is essential to make sure that the results you obtain are the ones that you desire.

[heypennyguide-blog]

To a lot of people, photographing your vintage finds can be quite intimidating. I thought that a good post to write early on in hey penny’s guide would be an overview of photographing clothing. I’ll run through how I photograph clothes for my shop, equipment I use, a few do’s and don’t’s, and a quick comparison of different ways to arrange clothing that you’re photographing.

If you’re overwhelmed by that, don’t be! I promise to keep it super simple and give some budget friendly alternatives.

Still with me? Let’s dive in:

First thing’s first. Let me be totally clear. I am not a photographer. Not even a little bit. I’ve never taken a photography class, and everything I’ve learned has been from google and some trial and error. If you want a more in depth and professional guide, I encourage you to branch out and find people who are better suited. But, if you just want to learn the basics, you’re in the right place.

What I use:

Camera (but let’s be honest, I mostly just use my iphone...):

Some people really underestimate their smart phones. While I do have a decent DSLR ( a Canon T1i with a 18-55mm lens) I don’t use it very often for photography for my shop. My thinking is this: most people who are looking at vintage clothes to buy are looking on their phones or desktop computers on a site like etsy. A good iphone picture works just fine in those cases.

Light kit:

Most of my photos are taken using a simple light kit that looks a lot like this:

I acquired a light kit for reasons unrelated to my vintage shop (I’m a ceramic artist and I needed to take quality images of my work) but I ended up using it for both purposes.

There are so many options of light kits available on amazon if you’re interested, and I encourage you to read reviews! I like using a light kit to keep my images consistent, and so that I can take photos at night (I’m a night-owl.)

HOWEVER, a light kit is by no means necessary if you have ample natural light.

Speaking of lighting...

If there’s one thing I can impress upon you, it’s that lighting is the most important element of photographing clothing (and, well, anything) and that bad lighting can affect how a potential customer sees what you’re trying to sell.

Here’s a comparison of a few different lighting situations:

These photos were all unedited and taken on my iphone.

It’s pretty obvious that the light kit and natural light provide the best lighting for taking photos. 

Before I get into a few possibilities for arrangements for taking photos of your vintage finds, let me list just a few super simple do’s and don’t’s.

DO:

use a cool, white light or natural lighting

photograph clothing and accessories against a neutral background

steam clothing so that it’s not wrinkly (your care and attention to detail will pay off)

take detailed shots of interesting features of the garments and/or damage (if there is any) (I’m planning on a post about this by the way.)

DON’T (really, please don’t)

use flash

photograph clothing on a chaotic background

rely on incandescent lighting

forget to take an image that shows the entire garment

have so much going on in your photos that a customer can’t tell what you’re selling (This might seem like common sense, but as an avid vintage shopper I see it all too often.)

Now that we’ve got the very basic technical stuff out of the way, let’s talk about arrangements or compositions for your photos.

These are four basic possibilities for photographing garments, and they each have their pros and cons. 

On a mannequin

Photographing garments on a mannequin allows you to show potential customers how a garment will fit. I’m sure you’ve seen first hand how different an article of clothing can look on a hanger and on a real life human body. In some cases, this could really help sell your garment. A pro of photographing on a mannequin is that you can work alone and don’t have to rely on anyone for help. I find myself not using the mannequin that I have very often though. I collect a lot of garments of a lot of different sizes, and the mannequin is only flattering for a fraction of that. In addition, mens garments simply don’t look good on a feminine shaped mannequin.

>>>>>>insert mannequin image<<<<<

On a model

The perks of using models is that you can seek out people that different articles of clothing will really be flattering on. This can help potential customers imagine themselves in the clothing, especially if they have a similar body type to the models. Unlike a mannequin or two, you can show clothes on a range of bodies. Try asking your friends to model for you. If you’re short on cash, bake them a treat or buy them a few drinks and promise a fun afternoon. Of course the con of this option is having to schedule times with your models instead of working on your own terms. 

You can also be your own model (iphone tripods aren’t crazy expensive and you can you the timer on your camera app) but again, your own body limits you in the same way that having a mannequin does. 

>>>>>insert model image<<<<<<<

Hanging (in my case, on a wall)

This is probably the quickest and easiest way to photograph clothing for a shop. For me, I can just pull a shirt off of my clothing rack, hang it on the way and shoot away. If you’re working with a large volume of clothing, this might be your best option. Of course, some potential customers might be left wondering how the garment would look on an actual body, so keep that in mind. 

>>>>insert hanging photo<<<<<

Flat lay

Flat lays are trendy now, and not just for vintage shops. Bloggers use flat lays to show whole outfits, the contents of their purses, their favorite beauty products, etc. The advantage of using a flat lay is that you can show a garment in the context of a whole outfit including accessories if you’d like, which helps some potential customers imagine themselves wearing your product. Also, you can show off other items you have for sale simultaneously. A drawback of using a flat lay is that, unless you’re clear, a viewer might have a hard time understanding which item you’re trying to sell. I find that flat lays are probably best for say, posting to instagram and showing off a shop update. 

>>>>insert flat lay image<<<<<

I encourage you to try each option and find what works best for your vintage clothes. Keep the few simple do’s and don’ts in mind and you’ll be set. :)

[clarencenicholsonata]

6 Best Contest Emails & What You Can Learn From Them

If you're reading this, you either have a contest you want to promote for more entries, or you're looking for a contest email example to get your own started. Whatever the case may be, you're in the right place.

I won't drag on and on about how email marketing isn't dead or the fact that 99% of consumers check their email every day or that 59% of respondents say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions. Right off the bat, email is one of the best ways to promote, drive traffic and entries to your brand's contest or giveaway.

That being said, you've probably seen a lot of content on your every day lead generation emails rather than emails specific to giveaway and contests. So, I wrote this article for anyone specifically looking for the best contest email examples and what you can use for your own!

Let's jump right into it...

A well-designed email is a crucial factor to distinguish yourself from the ongoing competitions in the market.

The email design can reflect your brand. You might not be able to make your email look exactly like your website, but it can give a good reflection of your already established style.

1. The Limited

Contest Email Lesson: Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

There are three key things to consider when creating your contest email: the message you want to bring across, the prize, and the (theme or) design of your email. Sure, other small details play a role in your email’s success, but before you even consider anything else, consider those three as your key pillars.

Most of the examples listed in this article are heavily designed emails (especially with images). Why? The answer is simple: they work!

MIT neuroscientists find the brain can identify images seen for as little as 13 milliseconds. Before your email subscribers even read the text on your email, their first focus is your images.

Joe Griffin, CEO of content creation software ClearVoice, once said, "We're visual people, inherently drawn to content that contains rich, attractive images."

The main prize for this giveaway is a gift card valued at $100. Gift cards are great incentives for giveaways because it allows winners to choose the prize they really want. RetailMeNot did a survey and found that two-thirds of consumers have "made a purchase they weren't originally planning to make solely based on finding a coupon or discount." Which means the winner of the gift card will most likely buy something of greater or equal value to that gift card.

The email can also be a reminder for loyal shoppers to take a look at what you have to offer (with hopes of winning the gift card) and might entice them to make a purchase along the way.

The Limited's email design is heavily designed with products. As an eCommerce retailer, showing off your products in your email is a must, especially when you're giving away a gift card instead of a specific item.

The layout of the email places the text at the center but also mimics the experience of a landing page a user could quickly shop on. Just before reaching the body of the email, the readers automatically understand what this email is for with the copy "Pin & Win ..."

The body of the email clearly states how contestants can enter to win, how many winners will be selected, and a CTA at the end to seal the deal.

If you look closely, the color of the CTA button is the same as the header. This color selection isn't just a coincidence, it matches the overall look and feel of the entire email (a warm tone to match the autumn collection) and it stands out just in case the reader is someone who skips the details (like several subscribers) and goes straight from the header to the CTA.

Actionable Takeaways: Looks Matter

The visuals you use for your email can make or break your readers' first impression once they've made it past your subject line. Use product images and designs that help your emails to stand out, clearly, point out what your email is about and have an overarching theme to your design. Here's a quick email design checklist to go over:

Use professional product images

Choose one email design theme and stick to it. It pays to be consistent

Use your colors wisely, including the colors for your CTA button and text. Pick a color that stands out or highlights what is important.

Don't try to cram too many designs in one email.

If you add too many images in your email, your customer might get confused and forget your CTA.

Need help understanding and creating your own email designs? Here are 10 Examples of Winning Email Design And How To Make Your Own

2. Pull & Bear

Contest Email Lesson: Know Your Audience & Personalize Your Emails

You've heard this a thousand times, from email marketing experts and beginners alike. Well, they say a cliche is a cliche for a reason.

So what does knowing your audience to send a contest email to have anything to with well, your email?

When you send an email that speaks to a specific or your own target audience it shows that understand who is opening and reading your email. Consumers want to feel wanted, appreciated, and part of a community. The old marketing tricks that are focused on just purely selling in emails are outdated.

Once you know who your email is meant for you can move forward with personalization. Once you've got a couple hundred emails on your mailing list, there's no excuse not to send personalized emails. The earlier you start to segment your list and customer data, the easier it is to build a customized email system will be in the future.

It can be as simple as {first name} to all your emails or as complex as showing specific products and sizes based on the person's past purchase history.

Why am I pushing so hard for you to personalize your emails? Personalized emails generated six times higher transaction rates and revenue per email compared to emails that were not personalized.

For example, if an eCommerce store selling gym wear hosts a "Best Female Tuesday Transformation" contest, you shouldn't be surprised that only sending it to female subscribers will improve their emails’ CTR.

Pull and Bear is a mega online retailer that sells a variety of clothing items and accessories. They decided to host a summer giveaway where a contestant would shop and win for a chance to win a free customized surfboard.

Before we go in the copy, layout, and design, let's talk about the entry method for this contest. The entry method you choose giveaway contest entry should always be aligned with your overall marketing goals. If you want more followers or engagement center it around your social media pages, if you're going to increase sales, you can follow Pull & Bear’s entry method of shopping or spending a specific amount for an automatic entry.

Shoppers simply had to make a purchase from Pull & Bear's surf capsule collection to win the prize of a customized surfboard. The reward and the entry method complement each other perfectly.

The email is heavily designed with images of a model in the surf capsule collection and casual lifestyle imagery. Lifestyle photos tell stories, which helps to separate it from your usual generic product photos. It also allows the customer to envision what they would look like in the product or crave for the lifestyle that your images paint -- in this case, surf, sun and fun.

The layout is simple with the brand logo at the top, simple text pointing out the CTA "+INFO" with instructions and the deadline for the contest. My only takeaway is that CTA seems almost blended in the images and could get lost. Try to add 2 or more CTA buttons when you have a long-form email layout and choose a color or text that helps readers to automatically pick up where they should click.

You can try one or two of Hubspot's 31 Call-to-Action Examples You Can't Help But Click.

Actionable Takeaways: Write for Them, Not You.

Before you start writing or designing, take the time to understand exactly who is receiving your emails. Add that to your overarching theme, and you've created an email that connects more authentically with your readers.

Add lifestyle product images showing off your prize, let your pictures tell a story or present a lifestyle that seems appealing to your shoppers.

Lastly, take into consideration that your CTA needs to stand out. Don't get so caught up trying to make your email look beautiful that you forget about the functionality of its design.

3. Birch Box

Contest Email Lesson: Try Adding GIFs & Videos to Your Email

Companies have been using GIFs in emails for a long time, it's nothing new. It has been proven that videos added to your email increase click rates by 300%. They add a fun and engaging element to your email designs, which in turn improves your email's CTR.

However, not all GIFs are supported by emails, sometimes they don't help emails to optimize as quickly as emails with images, which can affect loading speed. But with some test runs and a few frame compressions, you should be good to go.

Birch Box is an online service that sends subscribers monthly beauty boxes with four to five selected samples of makeup and other various beauty products.

Birch Box is known for its stunning email designs and CTAs. Taking a look at the email; the logo is prominent at the top of the email. You also see an offer for free shipping and the qualifications for it so that shoppers aren't caught by surprise.

The header ("We see something awesome in your future”) is a great play on the GIFs element of suspense. The theme of the email is pink, fun, and playful. The CTA is placed in a simple box outline and dead center so that the reader's focus is mainly on the header, CTA box, and the moving GIF. The layout complements each text without making the reader feel confused.

Actionable Takeaways:

Creating your own GIF is easier than ever, you can cut out the graphic designer and go straight to the design yourself. Below, I've listed the top tools and guides to help you below, see what works:

5 Best GIF Maker Tools

Banner Snack

Canva

Giphy

Photoshop

GIFs.com

Top 3 Guides to Making GIFs

The Ultimate Guide to GIFs: How to Create Them, When to Use Them and Why They're Essential for Every Marketer

Biteable How to make a GIF from a video

How to Make a GIF: 4 Tried and True Methods

4.Cadbury

Contest Email Lesson: Gamify Your Contest & Giveaway Email

Radicati found that between 2014 to 2018, the average office worker received an astonishing 90 emails a day, a few of which were from retailers with offers, discounts and new products. Customers are accustomed to getting emails with offers, it's almost guaranteed once they sign up for an email list or create an order.

So how do you get customers more excited about your giveaway and contest, while trying to outdo your competitors?

Try gamifying your contest email. When the Italian restaurant Zizzi launched a 'roll a dice' online board game, giving readers the chance to win restaurant vouchers and even a holiday to Sardinia, it came as no surprise when winners started booking at Zizzi's for lunch and dinner.

The email campaign helped to drive bookings, social media awareness and allowed Zizzi to outdo its local competitors.

Your brand can get the same results. Coming back to the three key pillars of a lead-generating email: the message, the prize, and the (theme or) design of your email, all need to tie in with your email's game. Trust me, readers can always feel the disconnect when it comes to these three, even more so if you add a gaming element.

Take a look at Cadbury's contest email in honor of the Premier League with a "Match & Win" email marketing promotion. Participants had to buy a Cadbury product (again, the goal was increasing sales during the premier league season) and then click the link to enter the code associated with it.

Any chocolate lover knows that Cadbury's brand colors are royal purple, and they went above and beyond to make sure the email represented it. Unlike the other emails, this has one image placed at the top introducing the contest.

We see a sense of urgency being used in the header, "Nearly Time For The Final Whistle," and it also plays on the football theme.

The copy continues by telling the reader first that there are only two weeks left to win the contest, using the fear of missing out to drive readers to the CTA. The rest of the copy clearly states the contest details. At the end of the email, we see a simple CTA, again tied back to the theme, saying "Play Now."

The pro of this email is that it's practical and straightforward. The only drawback would be that readers would have to leave the email (make a Cadbury purchase) and then come back to play to win. This gap between screen and purchase is a bit of a gamble because it allows enough time to pass for readers to forget or think that it's too much trouble to enter. At the end of the day, making a sale is the aim of the game, and Cadbury sticks to its entry method.

Actionable Takeaways: Avoid Boring Emails, Spice Things Up!

We receive hundreds of emails each day, though most email marketers won't admit it, more than half of those emails look and feel the same way. You want to make sure that your contest email stands out against the rest. Gamifying your email is just one of the many ways you can start. It takes time, but once you have all the right code and strategy in place, the result will be worth it.

Click here to learn How Litmus Used Email Gamification to Promote Their Conference. It goes in-depth with their start to finish email marketing strategy, what they needed to gamify their emails, and the challenges they faced and solved.

5. Fat Face

Contest Email Lesson: Select A Prize Worth Winning

You read that lesson right. Pick a prize that's worth winning. So your email design and layout could make an expert email designer cry tears of joy, great, but the prize you choose to motivate people to enter falls flat on its face.

I've seen too many giveaway and contest that offer a 15% discount or a free product that isn't even listed in their bestseller list. They feel more like leftovers than a prize.

A prize should first and foremost be relevant to your target audience. Based on your buyer's behavior, what do they gravitate towards when they shop on your store? If your prize isn't from your eCommerce store, then what kind of reward connects well with your buyers? For example, if your buyers are mainly males, then a shaving kit would be an excellent place to start.

I advocate for finding affordable prizes for contests and giveaways, but the greater the value of your prize, the more likely your contest is to go viral. When Dominos decided to give one lucky winner the chance to win one year of free pizza (with some requirements) just by retweeting their post, the contest and the hashtag #dominos went viral on social media.

Fat face's email layout is bright, fun, and makes use of open spaces. The header is "It's a Win-Win!", which is true since the mechanism of the contest asks that shoppers place an order at midnight for the chance to win their entire order free.

They use the color yellow to put contrast on the copy that needed attention, such as "Win your order" and "25 chances to win". Further in the email, the reader sees pieces from their summer collection to start shopping.

Actionable Takeaways: Choose Your Prize Wisely

Don't try to break the bank by offering a prize that's going to cost you more in the end. Here are four affordable giveaway ideas:

1. Partnered Product Giveaway:

Reach out to a brand that complements your products and join forces to host a giveaway. Partnering with a brand for the giveaway can double your giveaway entries and promotion efforts. This can also help to build lasting business connections in the future.

2. Bestseller Product Set:

Choosing your best sellers, you can create a product kit or set, using the momentum of your product popularity to promote your giveaway. This gives customers the chance to win their favorite products for free and attracts new customers who might have considered buying from you.

3. Free Product Samples:

Exclusive access can make your winners feel like a part of your brand and your inner circle. Why not host a giveaway where the winner gets free access to samples of new products or tools before you launch them on your store?

4. Sponsor a Charity:

Corporate social responsibility has become a big topic, especially when it comes to public opinion. Ask your followers to nominate charities for you to donate to, either once or monthly.

For more prize ideas you can try our guide on 50 Affordable Giveaway Ideas You Can Use Today.

6. Wishpond

Contest Email Lesson: Stop Reading & Get Started

I could spend hours explaining, analyzing and telling you about the best contest emails and why they work (and trust me I can write up a storm on emails) but the best way for you to see this success for yourself is to put it in action.

With Wishpond's email marketing templates and automation system, you can easily promote, monitor, and improve your emails for better results.

Each email newsletter comes with a dashboard to track your metrics, A/B testing and mobile responsive designs, so readers on the go get the same beautiful interface and experience as desktop readers.

Ready to create your own contest emails?

Book a free call to learn how our team of contest experts can help you create high converting contest emails today.

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how to train my puppy not to bite me | puppy training commands

New Post has been published on https://dogtraining.dknol.com/english/how-to-train-my-puppy-not-to-bite-me-puppy-training-commands/?utm_source=Tumblr&utm_medium=Tumblr+%230+Freda+K+Pless&utm_campaign=SNAP%2Bfrom%2BBest+Dog+Training

how to train my puppy not to bite me | puppy training commands

Vetstreet does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. See Additional Information › Veterinary Behavior Solutions Habitat Accessories Get to Know Us Diet & Weight Loss Previous Article Pets for Life That I-90 Closure Is Happening This Weekend How long is the course? • If you’re using a crate, you have these times covered. But if you’re against a crate for whatever reason and have chosen to exclusively use constant supervision or umbilical cord training, you will have to invest in an exercise pen or confine your puppy to a single room and use paper training. It’s true that in a small enough house, and with the door to the yard open all day, every day, most puppies will naturally empty themselves outdoors because this is the furthest point away from their nest or sleeping area. Location Example: New York, NY Maximum of 255 characters. Autocomplete available, press the down arrow to hear options ✔ ✘ How to toilet train your dog © Rebecca Newens When your pup is eating and spending a short period in their crate following a meal without any sign of distress, it’s time to start crating your pup for short periods while you’re at home. Call your dog over to the crate with a treat and an accompanying command – many use “kennel” or “kennel up” – and once your dog is inside, give them another treat, shut the door, and sit quietly with your pup for a few minutes before letting them out, giving them praise and another treat. From here, slowly add in minutes when you are away from the crate until your pup is comfortable with you being out of sight for 20-30 minutes. From here, you may begin leaving the house with your dog crated for short periods of time. When you notice your puppy sniffing a spot while turning circles around it — that means they have to go NOW. control the diet At 20 weeks old – every 3 hours. Trimming Scissors We’re here for you and your pet in 43 states.  Spay and neuter Fund for Animals REALTREE Supplies & Toys BE A TESTER/OBSERVER You cannot crate a puppy for this length of time, so you must have a back up plan. And that is to confine them to an exercise pen or a single small room with a papered area for them to potty. PERFORMING / VISUAL ARTS Plant Food & Fertilizers Private Puppy Training Pet Greens Already Registered? You’ll have a house-trained pup in no time… Supplies ARF has teamed up with Wagfield Academy to bring you online dog training video tutorials View training schedules & register for classes at your PetSmart store with our mobile app. Our Puppy Socials, Puppy Classes, and Puppy Day School daycare program go a long way toward helping with this rather large and important task. And we can teach you how to get the rest done while having some good fun. Make sure she is on a leash about 6 feet long. Submit Email Saturday CLOSED LitterLocker Supply Chain Transparency Other Ways to Give Compassion Pond Care Puppy 101: The ultimate guide to raising a puppy Hill’s® Prescription Diet® k/d® Canine Beef & Vegetable Stew deepen the bond between you and your dog How to Safely Walk Your Dog Call us! (212) 414-9597 | Send us a message Puppies have to learn a lot as they grow into adult dogs. This means that they’ll occasionally show bad behavior as they test limits and learn their boundaries. You’ll need to learn how to react to such bad behavior, as well as how to reward and foster good behavior. Taking the time to discipline your puppy will help your dog become a good canine citizen. See All Our Best-Selling Dog Books Chris Stein/Getty Images In this case, we established an indoor potty area that was used while we worked on rebuilding positive associations with his backyard environment. Getting the Behavior: Prompting and Premack Allow the dog to continue using the puppy pads while you establish a cue word that means it’s time for her to relieve herself, such as “Toilet” or “Get busy.” Once she is using the pad in response to a command, you can slowly move the pad, inch by inch, as the days go by, to a different location, while instructing her that this is where you want her to toilet with your command. Now, keep a pad on you and place it on the desired toilet spot outside. Give her cue words, and when she goes, make a huge fuss of her. Then scatter a small amount of soil or grass or whatever substrate is your choice onto the pad. Gradually remove the pad. Follow the instructions on the container, but repeat three times. (323) 730-5300 or 1-888-spcaLA1 Nutrition Nuggets Before you Begin Puppy Training Use a water spray bottle in severe cases. In cases where biting is exceptionally strong or persistent, keep a water spray bottle handy. Accompany your firm “NO!” with a squirt of water in puppy’s face to interrupt the behavior. Take care to set the nozzle to spray and not jet. You just want to startle the puppy, not harm him. Be aware that the puppy will associate the water spray with you, and this could make him wary of you at other times. by SmartAndFun75 Contact Us Now Andis I personally guarantee that you’ll find my program engaging, informative, and easy to understand. Give it a try for thirty days, and you’ll see that it will get you the results you want with your dog. If for some crazy reason you don’t like it, just let me know and I’ll give you a full refund. I’m so confident in Dog Training Genesis that I’m willing to take the risk for you and your dog. Video is unrelated to the product Bond With Your Rabbit Avoid verbal or physical reprimands. You should avoid this type of reprimand anyway, but especially during the first week. You don’t want the first thing your puppy learns to be: “My new human yells at me; I don’t understand why, and I’m scared.” That doesn’t mean that you must put up with naughty behavior like nipping. Interrupt and redirect instead. Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Page 1 of 1Start OverPage 1 of 1 Alex March 19, 2018 at 9:30 pm Last, but not least, clean up anywhere he has soiled inside, first with soap and water, then with an enzymatic cleaner such as Nature’s Miracle which breaks down the protein in the urine or feces, eliminating the scent which would attract the dog to return to the same place he has gone before. If you need to get a black light to find out where he has gone, do so. The light will illuminate spots where your dog has eliminated so you can see what you need to clean up. “The Academy of Canine Behavior’s owners do not condone the treatment of animals in our care as shown in a two-year old video recently released by a disgruntled former employee,” it stated. “The employees shown and heard in this video are no longer in our employ or have been reassigned.” Spain ES May 15, 2017 2:04 pm Dog Gift Packs FREE Behavior Helpline Vaccines Interrupt your puppy when you catch them in the act. Dog 101 | Dog Parenting & Ownership Information | Nylabone

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fbq('track', 'ViewContent', content_ids: 'dogtraining.dknol', ); Blog Dog Health & Care How do I potty train my new dog when they are older? Make sure you know as much as possible about how your new dog has been trained before. This is important, as it is your way to know what to expect. For example, if they were trained on a potty pad, you can’t expect your new dog to suddenly start going out to pee. If you don’t know about their history, try crate training, but be patient. You are changing a habit, which can be hard but not impossible. It will just take more time, observation, rewards, praise and patience on your part. Even small breed puppies can cause damage. Do not ignore puppy biting when you have a small breed dog by thinking that it does not matter because they are small. Large or small, this behavior needs to be stopped early on. This will prevent even more serious biting later on. — Page last updated 13/06/2018 Don’t rush the process. Remember, you’re asking a lot of your dog. If you take it up a notch and he’s really struggling, go back to the previous stage. This comprehensive package gives your puppy the very best training. … Includes three group classes: Puppy Level 1, Puppy Level 2, one of our adult classes, a private lesson and AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy test. © Depositphotos.com / belchonock Formal dog training has traditionally been delayed until 6 months of age. Actually, this juvenile stage is a very poor time to start. The dog is learning from every experience and delaying training means missed opportunities for the dog to learn how you would like him to behave. During the juvenile stage, the dog is beginning to solidify adult behavioral patterns and progresses through fear periods. Behaviors learned in puppyhood may need to be changed. In addition, anything that has already been learned or trained incorrectly will need to be undone and re-taught. Puppies are capable of learning much from an early age. Advanced Dog Training Classes: These fun and challenging classes are for dogs who already have basic training skills. Out & About teaches training in real-life situations like malls and parks. If you use method one, and crate train your puppy, you will make rapid progress within three to four weeks. Swap Your Sessions Pit Bull Puppy Prep Cheat Sheet Luxury 1102 E Hwy 13 Puppy Training Schedule What is the best way to train and discipline your dog? Our Training Program Post a Reader Comment How to housetrain your dog or puppy If pup is peeing in the wrong place… you may be able to stop him. Move quickly towards him when he begins to pee and pick him up. Urgency is key here – you want to startle the pup just a little as you move towards them to pick them up, but you DO NOT want to scare the pup. You are redirecting your puppy to the right spot – not disciplining him. Immediately after picking him up, take him to the potty area and patiently wait. Most pups will finish there. Reward your pup with exuberance! Warning Silver Labs – The Facts About Silver Labrador Retrievers comments powered by Disqus Cat-sitter intended to stay only a few minutes before drowning in flooded Englewood basement, husband says Did you know there are five kinds of barking? Professor Donaldson examines the various reasons dogs bark and provides suggestions to train your dog out of this behavior. She also explains why this is one of the more frustrating areas to train, but by understanding the motivation for barking and applying consistent methods, you can more effectively and efficiently learn to work with ways to stop it. x You are already in the right place.  Puppies don’t naturally speak human and we are here to teach you with a combination of training and management. puppy crate training | aggressive puppy training puppy crate training | puppy training commands puppy crate training | how to crate train my puppy Legal | Sitemap

[dippedanddripped]

I have a little ritual I put into practice whenever I visit a new city. First, I locate the nearest hospital (ancient Jewish tradition); next, I look up Bon Appetit's recommendations for where to eat in the area (Claire Saffitz, run me over!!!!!); finally, I Google "vintage clothes near me."

This cursory Google search has led me to some of the greatest, weirdest purchases of my life, from an exorbitantly priced, hand-silkscreened robe I bought at a little shop in Ho Chi Minh City under the justification that I would "wear it every day" (I accidentally left it in my Airbnb) to a pair of 5-euro clear plastic clogs I unearthed in a Berlin kilo shop, where everything is priced by weight.

Regardless of what I do or don't purchase, though, my global quest for vintage has nearly always put me in touch with a similar demographic of short-banged, bespectacled used-clothing aficionados; everywhere from Paris to Prague, there's a kind of international language among travelers seeking things that once belonged to someone else. Whether they're frequenting luxury consignment boutiques or my beloved pound shops, they seem to be in search of something bigger than a souvenir, something that will shed some light on what it really means to be an inhabitant of the city they're shopping in.

When I arrived in Moscow, the city of my early childhood, for Russian Fashion Week, my fellow American and Western European journalists and I were enthusiastic about cutting out of a few of the shows early to check out the local vintage scene. Armed only with Yelp and Google reviews, we headed to a promising-looking shop called Yarko Vintage not far from our hotel, only to find...a travel agency.

The logo for Yarko Vintage, a small used-clothing shop in Moscow.

Actually, to be more specific, the travel agency was inside one of Moscow's many shady, car-lined courtyards off a main road, located on the third floor of a dark apartment building presided over by a sleepy-looking guard. We climbed the steps warily and asked a guy outside the travel agency for directions; he pointed us down another hallway, where, finally, we found Yarko "Vintage," a shop of primarily new clothes (Zara-style jumpsuits and cheap polka-dot dresses featured heavily) with a couple of racks devoted to authentic vintage.

What little used clothing Yarko had on offer was great (I scored an '80s-era blazer minus the obligatory shoulder pads, while my friend Sara walked away with an excellent cherry-print top), but it was clear from the shop's out-of-the-way location and limited vintage wares that they weren't exactly catering to a bustling subculture of vintage-seekers. Fashion played its own pivotal role in the fall of the USSR, when Western-style jeans functioned as "a symbol of freedom and success" worth going to jail for, but the vintage Levi's that would go for hundreds of dollars in Brooklyn have been all but abandoned in Russia.

Another couple of shops we visited were closed, and by far our most surreal experience came at another out-of-the-way shop, where we made complicated arrangements via translator to be buzzed up to yet another hallway that contained a pair of long, out-of-the-way cabinets. Busy-looking, chic Russians hurried past us as we dared to pry open the cabinets, both of which were filled with sparkling vintage '60s go-go dresses that wouldn't look out of place on Megan Draper.

At Vintage Voyage, a luxury consignment store in Moscow that boasts a tidy online presence and a heavy supply of Chanel and Dior, I spoke to a 22-year-old salesgirl named Anna, who told me that the tastefully decorated boutique we were sitting in was the only one of its kind in the city. When I asked Anna whether vintage was popular in Moscow, she explained that she and her friends would occasionally to wear "stuff from their mothers and grandmothers," but most people who patronized the consignment store were visiting foreigners.

While Russian fashion tends to devote itself to relentless pursuit of the new, some designers—Roma Uvarov, for one—are proudly invoking the country's Soviet history in their designs, which is in keeping with the 14-year high of Russian nostalgia for the Soviet Union. Still, designers who express interest in using recycled or vintage materials can run into structural obstacles; at Moscow Fashion Week, the designer Ksenia Gerts told me she had approached Chinese manufacturers to incorporate used ecological materials in her latest collection, but scrapped the plan when she learned that those manufacturers simply bought new bottles and then faux-"recycled" them.

Gerts, whose newest line carries scannable chips in lieu of physical tags to avoid wasting paper, says that nonetheless, Russia's upcycling and vintage movements are "picking up momentum, little by little; people are starting to think more about passing clothes on between generations. The big, global brands repress this interest, of course, but it still exists."

Models present a creation by Ksenia Gerts during the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Moscow, Russia on March 30, 2019. (Photo by Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Vasily Volchok-Rusakovich, another designer who runs the streetwear brand Volchok and formerly sold Soviet-era clothing online, is cautiously optimistic about the future of vintage clothing in Russia, but he makes sure to note the ways in which the country's infrastructure can limit its view of "recycled," or used, clothing. "We don’t have many recycling facilities and the people are not yet used to it," he tells me, adding, "Russian people think you take your garbage, throw it into the chute and it simply disappears. We aren’t taught otherwise."

When I askVolchok-Rusakovich about how he thinks the average Russian views vintage clothing, he's introspective about the country's USSR roots: "Communism had a good side and a bad one. Constructivism, Malevich – that’s cool. But the bad side is repression. People don’t want to be associated with that. What you see in Russia now is the product of history. It is not possible for us to be European in our attitudes towards used clothing because our history is, well, a bit different. A bit more complicated. And now, too, it is not the best period in Russian history because we are all living in frozen time. We are waiting for change. We all internally want change and so perhaps, for this reason, we don’t want the past."

The history of vintage and recycled clothing is in Russia is a fraught one, explains Christine Ruane, Professor Emerita of History at the University of Tulsa, who specializes in modern Russian and European history. "Due to the constant fighting that persisted from 1917 to 1921, virtually no new clothing was produced. Individuals had to repurpose old clothing or recycle other fabrics such as drapesto make something that they could wear. Once the Russian Civil War was over, it took the economy a long time to recover. The government prioritized the needs of heavy industry over light industry. There were constant shortages of consumer goods throughout the 1920s and 1930s—dresses, coats, shoes, underwear. Many women made their own clothes if they could find the fabric to do so."

I thought back to Ruane's words on one of my last days in Moscow, when I went to visit the historic Izmaylovo flea market. Here, at last, was the Soviet kitsch I'd been looking for, primarily in the form of rusted-out children's toys and old-school electronics, but among them lay the odd pair of spindly high heels, concert tee or '80s-era shoulder-padded jacket.

Clothes and accessories for sale at a flea market at the Izmaylovo Kremlin during the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Artyom Geodakyan/TASS (Photo by Artyom Geodakyan\TASS via Getty Images)

Russians do make appearances at Izmaylovo, of course— "Don't touch that, it's dirty," I heard one Russian mother snap at her young daughter as she outstretched one hand toward a vintage locket—but, as had been the case at Vintage Voyage, the average Izmaylovo shopper appeared to be a tourist intent on scoring some Soviet-era swag (albeit for a much lower price point.) In contrast, the actual Russians I got to know were more concerned with American and Western European exports like Adidas and Zara—the most crowded place I visited all week was a Nike store in Moscow's central district.

Maybe, as the U.S.S.R. fades into an increasingly distant memory, Russians will increasingly grow to embrace its history through clothing, as is the case in America, where the apparel resale market is expected to hit $41 billion by 2022. On the other hand, maybe the country's complex legacy of consumer-goods shortages and collective idealization of Western fashion is simply too powerful a force for vintage to ever really go mainstream in Russia. It's a cliche, but one that holds weight; only time will tell.

[mfmagazine]

Evil Pawn

Article by Lauren Weigle

Evil Pawn Jewelry is awesome.  Whether you want to rock out or keep it casual, their edgy pieces always make for a good time.  Each piece is inspired by emotion, which has prompted the designer to create certain items that are one-of-a-kind.  So, if you fall in love with an Evil Pawn ring, bracelet, or necklace, be sure to pick it up quickly as it may be the only one of its kind.  This also makes each customer feel special… that they have something that is all their own, something no one else has.  Let’s take a look at what’s really behind Evil Pawn and hear more about some of their kick-ass jewelry.

I love your signature Cameo Skull.  How did you come up with it as a representative of your line?

It was originally a feeling of frustration. Women are expected to be pretty on the outside and dead on the inside. The blonder and tanner I was, the nicer people were and the more people listened. Well as long as you didn’t say anything they found hard to hear. Teen angst wrapped into an oval. I wanted to be myself and no ‘acceptable’. I wanted to join hands with other women and not ‘compete’. I wanted to be beautiful because I am smart and talented not because I mimicked a Maxim model. It represents, to me, what pop culture feeds to young women, and really just all people even men. It is a reminder that I do not have to bow to this viral image. I own it.

So, I'm loving the Sugar Skull Flower Ring.  When will it be back in stock?

Those come into stock every October in a limited number. It is a celebration of the Day of the Dead. I find so much inspiration from those who have past and I believe that ends are only beginnings so I like the holiday very much and wanted to celebrate it in my own way.

I love the "I Don't Gossip" cuff, but if I wore it, I'd feel like a liar.  Can we gossiping ladies pull it off?

It is to remind you to bring something to say and nothing to tell. We can be so much more than idle words or conversation fillers. We can do amazing things if we clear our minds of all the blockage. I love when women buy these for their daughters. I think it can empower a friend group and remind people to become what they were meant to be and not walk in place. Idle talking gets you nowhere. We are all guilty of it; now let’s take responsibility for it.  Self empowerment will ensure your success and all those around you that you inspire.

Some of your items are one-of-a-kind.  What goes into making these pieces so that they are so unique?

All the pieces are inspired by emotions. Making light of darkness by purging it in a creative form and not a destructive one.  A one-of-a-kind piece can speak to someone that is looking for away to armor themselves uniquely. A charm that is sought and not soaked. When something is made by the hundreds of thousands, it almost feels fake. I want people to feel the power behind each piece and use this power to make their weaknesses into strengths and the pain into lessons learned to make them stronger. Your decoration is an extension of your true self. There are not hundreds of thousands of one person. Every human is so unique and special.

So much of your jewelry runs with a dark, gothic-like theme to them.  How did you decide that this was the kind of aesthetic you wanted to adopt for your designs?

It was never a decision. It just is. What people learn is that it isn’t dark at all. They learn the meaning behind the name and find out it isn’t ‘Evil’ and it really isn’t gothic. I turn all my bad experiences into power. I turn all my emotions into tangible pieces that represent life lessons. Some people emotion eat, others drink, and some create. I turn life experiences into wearable amulets. To protect, to adopt different habits, to attract good things, whatever it maybe, all the jewelry comes from an experience that was supposed to be a bad one and I turned it into a good one.  That is what I feel we should all do. Nothing bad happens to us to be bad, it happens to help us become who we are supposed to be in life. It teaches us and guides us down the next path.

There are also pieces that are more glam as opposed to edgy, like the Beverly Necklace.  I absolutely love it.  Please tell me it's not a one-of-a-kind.

No it isn’t one-of-a-kind. This piece was named after my Grandma and represents her. I have another piece called the Pond Ring that is for my other Grandma. Women from that age were always glamorous whether they tried or not. All the pieces come from something inside me and represent a person or situation. There is a story behind every single piece.

Tell me about the Tooth Fairy necklace.

Have you ever had a dream about losing teeth? There was a time in my life where I constantly dreamed of this. It was crazy because each night I dreamed I was pulling bad teeth and extracting long rooted worms from my gums. Then once I got all the bad out and new healthy tooth came to me under my pillow and I would place it in the spot where there was a hole. In everyone’s life, we have moments where there are many people that can’t live positively or want you to fail. Sometimes they are cannot be saved or are not meant to be saved by you. It is better for your health mentally and physically to de-weed or in this case pull the tooth. That necklace reminds me that I cannot break myself trying to make others believe in themselves and I cannot help that they take any success I have in my life to a dark place. I will miss the tooth and hope it finds its way with love good energy.

So, what are the Egyptian hair cuffs that you have?  How do they work?

I love hair pieces and large head pieces! Anything hair related! I have noticed a lot of peeps with dreads enjoy them the most; you can wear them any way you wish. On braids, twists, you name it. It’s all about your style!

The Lydia Hat is insane.  Where do I begin with it?

From the beginning? Really, I have a strong Native American background that is heavily felt in my line. Adorning Skulls and animals after death is huge to me. I once saw a deer on the road that spoke to me...I know crazy but really...it makes me sad when such beautiful creatures are left on the side of the road. Or even skulls found in the woods. I want to make them as beautiful in the afterlife as they were in their life. Humans have taken over, we are the over population, we are the ones that have abused our lands and natural resources. I celebrate animals after their death with gems, metals, and even fabrics because they are forces of nature and apart of us if you believe it or not. I am not desensitized to their existence,  they are real to me.

Okay.  Now let's talk about the "Girl Revolution".  Give me details.

I have vision board parties and promote girl unity. I encourage so many to do the same. I think it empowers the bonds of your friend group to listen to each other’s dreams, goals, and wishes. If all of you together put it out into the universe, it is sure to become a reality.  As you rise, help your friends rise, do not wish ill will on anyone, not even someone that has wronged you greatly. Hope that everyone has success and hope that everyone has the best of everything.  The revolution of girl is putting the plague of catty, back stabbing, and jealousy in the ground and only using first emotions of love, happiness, and pain. Fear, anger, and jealousy cannot live in our minds anymore if we are ever to become the people we are meant to be.

So, you also have vintage pieces.  I love anything vintage... well, almost anything.  What draws you to vintage accessories?

I am an old soul. I dream of jewelry and I dream of old designs and patterns. They just come to me and old jewelry has pieces of the past owner with it.  Old pieces are charged with love from the soul of someone else.  This is why we leave things behind and do not take them with us. These pieces find new souls that need them.  It’s almost like a touch from beyond. Maybe a woman that owned something she held when she was scared or worried will find a new soul to comfort in a similar way. I have a bracelet that belonged to a childhood friend that passed. When I rub the top I feel her warmth. This is more important than money. This is real. With my line I am trying to bring on a new age of items that were so loved and will be passed down as a keepsake or an amulet. These are the only precious things left in a world filled with greed, hate, and over consumption. Real things not impulse goods we use to cure an empty or a thoughtless filler delivered in a plastic bag right off the conveyor belt.  People are more than consumers and we need to be thought of as humans and not brainwash able machines that work for money to buy more crap. We need to get in touch with our feel and throw corporate back the fake they try to sell us.

I hear that when it comes to you as a designer, it's "all about the metal".  Tell me more about that.

I have a love for metal. Most any kind of metal… metal as in the material and metal as in the music. When I came up with the slogan ‘Adorn Yourself In Metal’ it truly was about both! I love lyrics that make me think and I am heavily inspired by music. I don’t think humans could exist without music. Whatever kind of music you are into, it doesn’t matter because there are no rights and wrongs really, it’s all about the push that makes you.