#like i need to do a longer post cause from a pr marketing point i relky thibg i would do the series a favor

[muxas-world]

Whys the deal whit liberty is alredy done?? Why do you men ????? 😄😁😁😁🔫🔫

Article

[kedreeva]

#i know egg laying breeds don't grow as fast as meat breeds#but it still seems kinda weird#that the male chicks aren't just raised for their meat (via @birdsquirrel)

The thing is, we've differentiated the breeds SO far in each direction that meat birds (and I mean MEAT birds like cornish cross) are no longer able to be used for eggs because they don't generally survive their own weight to get to egg laying age and even when they do, they don't lay the way laying breeds do. And I don't mean they're a little bigger than they used to be.

You simply cannot functionally grow an egg laying breed to the size of a broiler chicken anymore, no matter how long you keep them, because broilers are literally morbidly obese (as in, their weight can buckle their leg bones and cause heart and lung issues). But even if you could eventually, you'd be spending more money to do it, for less return- both in meat and in money. The older the bird is at their butcher date, the tougher the meat will be; roosters over a year old often have to be slow-cooked or otherwise handled carefully when cooking so that they aren't tough and chewy.

Egg laying breeds, on the other hand, have been swung HARD in the other direction, paying attention only to how many eggs per year they can lay. Each chicken is born with ~600 egg cells, and would normally lay these over a period of 5-7 years (averaging 3-4 eggs a week and generally stopping for a few months in the late fall/winter for molt and dark times). Commercial layers now lay all of those within 2 years and put so much of their resources into doing it that they end up having a shortened lifespan even in good conditions (you can expect 4-5 years lifespan, instead of 8-10). They don't get butchered for human-diet meat, either, because companies don't find it worthwhile. A VERY small portion of them are retired to outside homes if there's a demand locally, but here's the considerable difference in breast size, with a spent hen on the left.

Chances are PRETTY GOOD that the average consumer looking at birds in the grocery store, unconnected to their food and how it's made, isn't going to reach for that spent hen for dinner, if there's a broiler available. You'd have to get a PR miracle of marketing to make that work- even if you went for the "we're not wasting lives/creating more waste" angle of using spent layers, you WILL face the backlash of "you forced them to lay until they were spent and now you want me to buy the sad old meat?" (because remember, they're 2+ years old by this point, the meat is tougher).

That said, some hatcheries for pet-owner chickens (not commercial egg production going to laying facilities) DO sell "fryer" specials or otherwise sell male chicks for cheap intended to be processed for food. But the success of this is unknown to me; most people who have raised chickens before know that laying breeds won't be as good for meats. They may try it once, but depending on what they expect, it may be disappointing since the meat yield is MUCH less, much tougher, and takes far longer. Roosters from commercial egg laying breeds are genetically predisposed to not put energy toward growing breast meat or fat (see the study below), only toward laying eggs.

There ARE dual-purpose heritage AND commercial breeds, some of which have been looked into scientifically, compared to broilers and egg layers. For these breeds, the hens do fairly well (but still worse) at laying eggs quickly, and the cocks get fairly close (but still not the same) to free range broiler size post-dressing. The study found that they could possibly be an alternative to the broiler/layer issue, but it's doubtful that any large-scale operation for one or the other is going to take up with them, when they've already built their business model exclusively for one or the other and are already working with animals that meet their business needs The Best (for them).

HOWEVER, it would 100% be worth supporting any NEW company that may arise that works with dual-purpose birds and aims for more ethical treatment of their animals in general (for example, if a pasture-raised chicken farming operation specializing in dual-purpose birds were to show their face, it might be more expensive, but worth it to support, whether or not they're perfect, it would be better). It's just that we're not likely to see large-scale change in the already-established businesses unless it becomes worth it to them financially. You'd have to get enough people to put their money where their mouth is, and demand and then actually buy smaller, tougher birds, and/or actually buy and raise males themselves at home instead of broilers. And that's just not going to happen on a large enough scale without some kind of miracle.

For the past 2 days I have been back and forth with a person that runs a rooster sanctuary, after they posted an infographic about how hatcheries deal with male chicks that was WILDLY inaccurate and incendiary and CLEARLY made by an ARA group. I've had to explain that when you see "asphyxiation" as a euthanization method, it means "they used CO2" not throwing LIVE chicks into dumpsters out back by the thousands to suffocate to death (which is what ARAs love to say every US farm is doing), and that when you see language like "their brothers" this is VERY SPECIFIC propaganda from ARA groups attempting to anthropomorphize animals in your mind. It's 100% meant to invoke the idea of the human bonds often formed between siblings, the familial bonds chickens do not have any concept of.

The conversation ended shortly after I said more than 1 in a million males is needed for breeding purposes (another claim made), and I'm like 99% sure they aren't pulled from the sale stock anyway, they're selected at the breeding facility, and they responded with that actually only one male is needed for every million hens because, and I quote: "The eggs and sperm are collected in a common trough that feeds into a bucket. Water is added to the eggs and sperm to induce fertilization. The excess sperm, ovarian fluid, and blood are rinsed away. The fertilized eggs are gently poured into an incubator tray."

and I had to inform them that they were copy pasting from a first search result on google, and that it was from a SALMON FISHERY.

Anyway. ARAs continue to be fear-mongering fools who will say anything with little to no research if it means they can get a knee-jerk reaction from someone that doesn't know better.

[himbeaux-on-ice]

KK deserves more than 6mil for 1 year and there is no way Habs CAN'T match that. It was so low I thought it was a joke of an offer as petty revenge for the Aho one. Literally had a $20 signing bonus tf. With both teams picking up racists this is good PR frankly to excite fans.

Sorry, I actually disagree pretty solidly with almost all of this, but the reasons are complex and lengthy to explain, so I’m going to put it all under a cut.

Listen, I personally believe based on what we’ve seen from him in the playoffs that KK can eventually develop into a $6.1 million dollar player — it seemed like he did well once the team had been put through Ducharme’s mini-training camp before the playoffs that actually allowed the chance to cement his systems, and put up good numbers generally during the run for someone his age. If they can find a way to get that kind of stuff out of him in the regular season, he could very well be worth $6.1 or more down the road. I really truly think he has it in him with the right coaching and the right work put in.

The problem is, owing possibly to how the Habs have chosen to develop him (remember, he came to the NHL pretty much straight out of the draft) and how very young he actually is, he has not yet actually PROVEN that he can be a player of that value consistently for most of a season at any point. I’m willing to put an asterisk on his struggles this year, because it was a weird fucking season and the Habs had a rough go of it in several points, especially down the stretch, and because we’ve seen the ability is there in the playoffs. But given what we’ve seen while he’s been on his ELC, there has been no guarantee so far that a team that signs him to $6.1 million is going to get $6.1 million in value out of him this coming season.

Like, set aside league-wide valuations for a second, and think about what the Habs, based on their budgeting and philosophy and management choices, are paying some of their top foundational players right now in terms of cap hit. Toffoli makes $4.5 million, so will Hoffman. Anderson makes $5.5 million, as does Drouin. Petry makes $6.2 million. Edmundson makes $3.5 million. Jake Allen, a player so valuable to this team that we risked “Price to Seattle” to keep him, is $2.87 million against the cap. Gally, the lifeblood heart and soul of this team who has given his literal blood sweat and tears to it for almost a decade, only makes $6.5 million against the cap. They apparently weren’t even willing to offer Phillip Danault, defensive cornerstone of the playoff run, the $5.5 million he got from LA. With Weber on the LTIR, if KK signed with the Habs at $6.1 million, he would be the third-highest paid player on the active team when you exclude dudes named Carey Price (who is an outlier and should not be counted). I love the kid. I think he’ll be a bonafide star someday. He has NOT earned that kind of payday yet, based on the established scale of how the Habs reward their players.

Based on my amateur understanding of NHL contracts and the market, a reasonable deal with KK from the Habs would have been somewhere in the area of $2-3 million (so, what they pay for players like Lehkonen (2.3 mil) or Byron (3.3 mil) or just signed Armia to (3.4 mil)), for maybe about 2 years. By the time that runs out, he’d be 23 years old and heading into the prime of his career, and you would probably have a better idea of whether he’s made that big next step or not — if he has, you probably just got two years of great hockey out of him at a STEAL, and can at that point sign him for a nice juicy contract that will pay him to that level and lock him up through his prime years (which is what you would dangle to entice him to take the short deal for now). And if when that short deal is up he hasn’t made that next leap, then you either sign him back at what he is worth, or if that’s an impasse, part ways. He has said he wants to help bring a Cup to Montreal, and do it with the core of young guys they’re assembling (and close friends like the other Finns on the team) — with that, maybe some performance bonuses if he really kills it, and the promise of something bigger down the road once he proves himself (plus the knowledge that he might not get higher offers elsewhere because of how he’s struggled) you could probably get him to sign a deal like that with the Habs.

HOWEVER.

Now that he has signed this offer sheet, he WILL get $6.1 million. Not only for this year, but once the one-year deal expires, any extension offered to him by anyone is required to start at that number. Regardless of how he performs. Unless he has the breakout year of all breakout years, this will really screw him over — because if he DOESN’T perform to the $6.1 million level, a team (be it the Habs or the Canes) is not going to want to sign him to a second deal at that pricetag. He’ll have to go hunting as a free agent, or get traded before he expires and become another team’s problem. (Note: I’m not exactly sure if the offer sheet process allows Montreal to match with a contract at the same value but longer term, but that doesn’t really solve the problem of being locked-in at $6.1 million after next season even if they can). I understand why he signed the offer sheet — his career earnings so far total just over $2 million, and of course both he and his agent would jump at the chance to guarantee adding triple that in just one year, with the promise of more of the same on his next extension. I’m sure he probably thinks he’s worth it, or can prove he is worth it. He probably thinks the Habs believe in him enough to match it, too — I don’t think he wants to leave Montreal, but he probably sees this as simply an earlier achievement of what they would hopefully be paying him anyway someday, in his eyes.

But even if he DOES perform up to that level, if he remains on the Habs that creates another massive problem crunching up against the salary cap: Nick Suzuki and Jake Evans are both RFA’s at the end of the 2021-22 season, and THEY will be looking for their “grown-up” contracts at that time, the SAME time KK will need to be signed again. Nick is probably going to develop into the better player between him and KK (look at where he already is right now), so even if KK performs excellently next year as say 2C, Nick looks like he will be even better at 1C — and if I’m Nick’s agent, I’m definitely starting my contract negotiations with what the Habs would be paying KK as my absolute lowest starting figure, if not higher. Jake probably has more of a 3C/4C upside, but if KK struggles and plays at a 3C/4C performance level and Jake does that well or better, then if I’m Jake Evans’ agent I am definitely putting my starting figure for negations right around $6.1 million, because I can argue “well, you’re paying Kotkaniemi that much, why not my client?”. Romanov is due up for his post-ELC RFA deal after next year too — because he’s more of a defensive defenceman who isn’t expected to score much, he likely can’t command the kind of figures that an offensively productive centre does, but you still need to have enough cap space to actually sign the guy for what he’s worth; Romanov is eligible for arbitration in that negotiation, so lowballing him too hard could get complicated and contentious fast. And all of this isn’t even including factors like depth players on one-year deals who will need to be replaced or brought back after this year, etc.

Accepting/matching this contract creates a dozen new problems the Habs didn’t have before at all. It carries massive risk and could cause problems for the cap and for roster construction even if KK takes off like a rocket and lives up to the figure on the sheet. I didn’t even touch on the absolute hell the fanbase and media will put him through if he is in Montreal on that kind of payday compared to the rest of the team and fails to live up to it. Alex Galchenyuk only made $4.5 million while he was here and struggling. Look how that turned out for him. You’ve seen how people get when Carey has a rough patch, how the $10.5 million gets brought up and thrown around, and that’s with Carey goddamn Price. I have been around this fanbase long enough to see what happens when people don’t feel you’ve lived up to your pricetag. It gets nasty. Think whatever you’ve seen hurled at Mitch Marner this year, then multiplied by a factor of “fanbase whose expectations have been disproportionately raised probably beyond what’s realistic by the miracle playoff run” and “the Montreal hockey media eats people alive even in good years”. He has been lucky so far in his struggles because he’s still young enough to be cheap. And I’ve still seen plenty of people already writing him off anyway.

Make no mistake: I love KK, I love what he brings to the team, I love how he fits in with the rest of the young core and their dynamics, and I really believe he has the potential to break out into a formidable 2C lowkey-superstar. And I was really, really looking forward to hopefully watching that growth and achievement happen with the Habs, as part of the super exciting future that has been building here. I will be heartbroken if this leads to him leaving, genuinely. My biggest worry with having this bright and shiny new core was always that I would have to watch it get torn apart and turn sad just like the last one.

But now that this contract, right now, at this point in his career is going to be the price of keeping him? I don’t know if matching it will be what’s best for the team as a whole, or even what is best for KK. I don’t know if Carolina actually gives a shit about him as a player enough to use and develop him right if they keep him, or what their end goal here even is other than definitely very literally getting petty revenge for the Aho thing, just look at their Twitter (I think the idea of this as DeAngelo counter-PR has become a bit overblown as an explanation, because surely they MUST know they could end up holding the tab for this and all the risk of it in the end, and that this will die down eventually, so either they’re incredibly stupid or there’s some other benefit here).

And regardless of which way everything goes, I can’t think of anyone I trust less to make the best choice for everyone involved than Marc fucking Bergevin.

[spade-riddles]

"Adjusting Expectations" Post

This submission received a lot of responses and 120 notes, so I thought I would compile the comments here.

Anonymous said:

Adjusting expectations anon was so good. If their timetables are right and we do just need to be patient a little longer, can Kaylor please send us a sign? I guess it would be too loud to slip "adjusting expectations" into social media posts, but maybe they could both do something with playing cards? To show they are card sharks right now but they'll find their way home eventually? That would reassure people. And it would fly under the radar.

casuallycruel131313 said:

I agree with a lot of this but I think the main issue right now is that moral and ethical lines have been crossed and there's no coming back from that. In these post-Trumpian insurrectionist times it's unfathomable that they could continue the Kushner narrative I no longer care if or when they come out, I enjoy the music and I'm happy to observe from a distance because I'm interested from a PR/marketing point of view but my opinion of T &K as people has changed irrevocably and I don't see how they can clean the tarnish off.

@theprologues said:

Agree with most of not all if this but I would like to say as a Kaylor the toe Grammy stunt didn’t phase me. I was not crushed by that by any means. I just shrugged and honestly expected it. It was the attributing Betty and exile to him during the LPSS in November that bummed me out and really made me go...really?

rockcrow20 said:

Have to say I also agree with most of this.

I no longer have any expectations on anything changing any time soon and have not been surprised by the recent events its to be expected after everything over the years really

Nothing has really changed (bearding narrative wise) since I fell down the rabbit hole in 2017 (except that great night in nashville 2018 rep)

Honestly I can't say I am as invested anymore about them ever coming out as I was.

I think the wb/Joe thing was the last moment for me and the continual kushner connection just troubles me like many others.

I mean my kaylor motto for awhile now has been hope for the best but expect disappointment.

Low expectations = limited feelings of disappointment.

original-cypher said:

@rockcrow20 the WB was a breaking point for so many. You are absolutely right. There are just so ma'y contradictions that feel like absolute whiplash. (I know I seem to have been the only one experiencing that with Gorgeous but... that was a big one for me, too) But like. You go on a whole PR campaign about speaking up and standing up for yourself. You say you're capable and tired of men trying to take ownership of your success and profit off of your name. And you credit you literal damn work to a bloke? Bitch, 'consistency'? Look it up. It grossed me out. It would have felt iffy if I believed they were real. But since I wasn't born yesterday it just sent me the message "this is how far I'm willing to sacrifice my principles to not be queer".

rockcrow20 said:

@original-cypher exactly why it bothered me and I know alot us so much. Such mixed messaging of being a strong fighting for your rights female and then oh hey let me attribute some of my best work to my pr boyfriend and the pr pics where she is walking behind all the time like 🙄 The Betty thing that was big one for me too!

rainbowdaisy13 said:

This write up and the comments are spot on. I don’t have much to add other than like @original-cypher said, Miss Americana is tainted for me now and seems like at the very least, it was released too soon in the plan. I get we think they have had to pivot but man, that doc, and including her literally saying “gay rights make me me” at the end was such a false flag. To see her wax poetic about not taking shit from men anymore and then see her do the same old hetero weak woman song and dance routine with the WB shit for albums that are of her genius mind has been so disappointing. I still believe Kaylor is real and I hope they get a chance to show the world that. Karlie posting that cardigan pic in the woods before the folklore release cemented for me they are still together. Adding a baby makes me feel all kind of weird ethical things but I hope I live long enough to see it play out and wear my I Told You So shirt 😁

@kellykaylor said:

agree with your post... I dont care about toe stunts but what really pissed me of was hetwashing betty 🤮! beautiful post tho anon!!

roameroo said:

Totally agree with these all comments especially the strong messaging of MA only to turn around & pull that WB = my "bf" crap. I was disheartened by her mentioning him at the Grammy's only bc he's getting credit for sh*t he doesn't/didn't do. That is what irks me the most about this, giving him credit for her life's work.

always-the-last-word said:

Can I throw my pennies in the pool ?? Taylor will put out the big three first Fearless, RED then 1989 that should bring us to about August. This is where the excitement should begin. If Taylor preps and waits for National Coming Out day it's a no lose for her. Lover her money making machine will go through the roof !! If things go bad or good in the public eye she'll have REPUTATION Taylor's Version ready to release. It will be epic and she'll own it and be FREE.

@karlie-what-you-want said:

always-the-last-word I like this take a lot! I try not to be too optimistic but if she wanted to come out sooner rather than later, I think this plan would satisfy both business and PR needs (at least on Taylor’s end). Remains to be seen how Tay will help Karlie dig her way out of the mess they made together regarding the K*shners.

always-the-last-word said:

Always remember that Taylor has a PLAN. Some of her plans are year's old (easter eggs). Taylor's one and only LOVE is her music, everything else comes second. If KK wants to change and be with her full time she'll make moves around the same time frame. That's if she chooses to. In any event Tay will be open and own all her music. I've seen this film before and WE might not like the ending.

chosetherose said:

I’ve been going back and forth for a day trying to figure out what I wanted to say when I reblogged this post. I’m tired. I’m frustrated. I understand I’m owed nothing by Taylor or Karlie. I understand that circumstances out of their control have caused the girls to pivot over and over again.

But, the root of my frustration in the past months stems not from me battling with the trivial (e.g. pap walks, etc.) but with my personal principles. I fiercely believe credit should be given where it is earned and I uphold this in my career regularly. To see Taylor crediting Toe with her art was deeply disappointing. Watch the 1989 and folklore acceptance speeches back to back and tell me it doesn’t upset you. I believe the K******s have blood on their hands and that their actions during the pandemic have killed people. To see Karlie still associating with one of them disgusts me.

I can’t help but think back in frustration - Would you really fall from grace to touch her face? (And in the brilliant words of @9w1ft) But would you die for her in public? I go back and forth feeling like questions like this aren’t fair at all and thinking they are sort of valid. At this point, it sort of feels like Taylor would only fall from grace for her lover if all the stars and facets of her life aligned perfectly. But perfection like this does not happen. Such is life. So why am I here?

I do question why Spade left certain messages in their final days. I am still holding hope a fervent revolution exonerates everyone. I so desperately want Taylor to regain control of her masters or re-records. Maybe this is the plan they thought was best with multiple goals in mind (re-records, having a family, coming out of the closet one day etc). I’m trying to remain patient because Spade told us to trust her endless yearning. But WOW it is asking a lot of us at this point.

Anonymous said:

Despite being a pragmatist kaylor and oftentimes getting into arguments with fellow optimistic kaylors (owner of this blog included) I think it's quite unfair -at this point- to say to the optimists who have patiently sat through the worst kind of stunts with the most terrible kind of people (yes I'm talking about the Kushner's friend group too) that they should have seen it coming. Besides, if it weren't for the optimists we the cynicals would have burned this fandom down by now.

Anonymous said:

Even if we ignore that an insurrection happened partially because of the family karlie's still working for and getting paid from, she literally said before the pregnancy debacle unfolded that j*sh was her last client while talking about cutting hair and doing a cutting gesture. How should we have interpreted that? 😤That a year later she would be more stuck with the Kushners than ever? We don't wake up on day and decide to have unrealistic expectations. She feeds into them. 😠

Anonymous said:

I have no expectation of Taylor coming out anymore. Zero. None. I have no expectation of her dropping Toe or even of Kaylor publicly reuniting. It doesn't even matter that much anymore. But I - do - expect 1 thing. Karlie to drop and completely dissociate herself from the Kushners and this has nothing to do with kaylor. It was everything to do with me being unable to support a person who willfully assists (now using her baby too) and receives money from a family that has made so many suffer.

Anonymous said:

A quick word from an ex-kaylor (who will never become an anti). A year ago, when the Trumps were still in power and untouchable and there was no baby, I was excusing and turning a blind eye to many things Karlie did for the K*shners. Even that dinner in September. I had also made peace with the truth never being revealed. But a year later the Trumps are gone, Karlie is still on full stunting mode now with a baby in the mix, a baby that is already being used by the Kushners, and I've really run out of excuses. Now the only thing that could possibly keep me on board is if I knew there was a good chance that the full truth would come out, so that Karlie's inexplicable and honestly borderline immoral actions could eventually make sense. But as your sub said, this is an unrealistic expectation, thus I became an ex-kaylor and I'm not planning to come back even when they reunite. 😕

Anonymous said:

What baffles me is that Taylor has explicitly expressed her regret about not giving her lover the credit she deserves and her doubt whether fame is worth hiding her true love: "when I walked up to the podium, I think I forgot to say your name", "what's a lifetime of achievement, if I pushed you to the edge". But yet again she didn't do anything to change this. I didn't expect her to acknowledge Karlie, but a nod or at least not falsely crediting her beard would be a good start.

Anonymous said:

1🙁 Let me chime in re: "expectations". I'm one of the kaylors who ever since the pregnancy reveal was trying to tell everyone there's NO way she was gonna dump him soon after birth let alone before that. It would bring too much unnecessary attention and Jerk would have never agreed to something that would make him look like a bad guy/husband. For the exact same reasons, I was also saying there's no way he wasn't going to post about the baby. All the above against the popular opinion back then.

2🙁 So I agree that the day of the birth post was known to T, not the timing though. Simply bc Kushner-leaning outlets made sure to note that detail. If they wanted it to go unnoticed, why draw attention to it? That being said, kaylors would have been more patient with this mess, if Karlie hadn't gone overboard with her freedom "smoke signals" last summer and Tay's "insiders" hadn't been insinuating that the end is VERY near. Both of them SHOULD have known by then how we would react to these.

3🙁 So it's natural that everyone feels played and has no patience for any more bullshit. Another sore point is how Jerk AND the Kushner-Trump klan monopolize the baby news. This isn't just to make it realistic, it's an abuse of Kaylor's baby's name to garner good pr for the worst family in America, with Karlie's blessing. In order for her marriage and split to appear realistic she's putting a LIFETIME burden on her child's back. Unless you believe she's eventually gonna say Jerk isn't the dad.

4🙁 So "we’re in a position we should realistically have been able to see coming". But we did see it coming, that why some made these extreme scenarios, bc this is the worst possible outcome. "Good people try to make it work, even in bad relationships." Ultimately this isn't just a "bad rs". It's a horrific association that should have been resolved ages ago, not one to bring your child into, doom it to suffer a similar fate, and expect people to sit idly and watch. That's what frustrates most.

[klossyswifts]

You can hear it in the silence.

You Need To Calm Down reaffirmed something for me in screaming color today. Truly, at this point, if Taylor weren’t bi/gay/questioning/at least okay with LGBT fans speculating about it, she and her PR team would have immensely scaled back all of the rainbow imagery and literal pride messages in songs. It wouldn’t even have been too late after Me! If they had decided to pivot, they could have. The album has 18 potential tracks. They could have scrapped one or changed another. YNTCD did not need to come out 🌈the way that it did. If the team were worried about the rumors or wanted them gone, we wouldn’t be getting “shade never made anybody less gay”. We wouldn’t be getting “don’t step on his gown”. Frankly we wouldn’t even be getting “baby doll”, or a pride month album kickoff for that matter, if they were that worried. They also probably wouldn’t choose this timing for Taylor to make large political moves and donations that most vocally involve and influence LGBT causes.

There is always the argument that she is staunchly dedicated to queerbaiting, but at this point I don’t think it’s a smart one. The whole team watches social media like a hawk, and they know when we aren’t pleased and when things are creating turmoil. If the TS7 era so far were a milquetoast attempt to queerbait, she and Tree would have registered the recent backlash and queerbaiting accusations. They would have pulled back on the LGBT in-group messaging/branding because it wasn’t working the way that they wanted it to. Queerbaiting is supposed to be lucrative - if it’s creating drama and dissent or is called what it is, it isn’t working, and they’d pull the strategy. But that didn’t happen, at the very least because they don’t feel that passionately about quelling speculation, and at most because this is a timeline leading toward something bigger. The team seems to have stood their ground and continued the exact same imagery, marketing, messages. They know why Taylor is committed to it (even if even Taylor isn’t sure how much she is going to disclose when) and they are sticking to their guns. 

The strongest thing for me that I keep coming back to is the lack of a statement of straightness or allyship. Like, do you know how easy it would be for her or her people to release some sort of post or video or statement, claiming that she is an ally or saying the words “I’m straight” or “I may not be a part of the LGBT community, but...” or something similar? How easy it would be, even, for her to say a word like boyfriend or my man (something she has noteably avoided doing for her entire career)? It would be incredibly easy. The word ally is low stakes to say, and she’d receive a lot of support. It would create put an end to a lot of fandom infighting as well as a lot of PR stress. She could have done this at any point over the last 6-7 years, frankly, any time since speculation about her sexuality began, and all of this would have been put to bed. She has never been this vague or silent about a misconception in the media she wanted to quell. People call her boy crazy and put down her song writing? She criticizes it in interviews and song lyrics. She frames entire artistic concepts around a response to the misogyny and pettiness present in that dynamic. She writes songs and makes comments in response to celebrity world feuds/drama/gossip and the media’s response to them all the time. Do you really think if there was nothing to the LGBT rumors or if she didn’t want them, she wouldn’t have gotten on camera vocally expressing her discomfort or at the very least her polite refutation? Is this the same woman? This is the most glaring, deafening, telling silence I have ever heard. 

Bottom line, there is no reason, other than the probable fact that she is in some way a part of the community, that she wouldn’t make some sort of clarifying statement by now after everything that happened. If she knows about all of our holes in the fence posts, then she knows about all of our Gaylor Swift posts, and that they never stopped after Kissgate. And let’s talk about Kissgate. Yes, the team pulled off a bunch of panicked response moves on social media (the tweet about speculation about dating her friends, the homophobic posts that her account liked liked), which for the record I continue to find hurtful to LGBT fans and disappointing to this day, despite comprehending some of the potential reasons. But what was most revealing about those response moves was that they were clumsy and disorganized, almost completely lacking strategy. Panicked. Sloppy. Poorly executed and hurtful. The seemingly easy, obvious, and professional road to take would have been releasing a statement denying the footage & rumors as completely off base / fabricated / misconstrued, and affirming her sexuality. But clearly they were considering that road non optional. That means something. It would’ve been one of the most surefire paths to put out fires, it would’ve been a lot less chaotic and hurtful to fans, but she wouldn’t take it. She and her team made the mistakes choices that they made instead. Why? Why would they be so discombobulated and panicked, why would they respond in such a way that resembled disorganized lashing out instead of a calculated, clever PR response like I know they are capable of? The only answer that makes sense is because she panicked because there was some truth behind the speculation. She panicked because it was personal and emotional. She wasn’t ready to have that conversation with the world, but she also wasn’t ready to close the door on the speculation entirely. She wasn’t willing to confirm her straightness. This, to me, can only mean that she couldn’t bear to destroy a future chance to tell a different, fuller truth. 

And I’ll be honest, unlike some other Gaylor Swift bloggers, I’m not infatuated / enamored with Taylor to the point where I can let her off of the hook for all of the decisions she and her team have made. Like the Kissgate responses, allowing/cosigning some homophobic things happening in the fandom, and other decisions around bearding in general - and because I want this post to reach wider audiences than just dedicated Gaylor fans*, I will say that even if you don’t believe Joe is a beard, it is hard to deny that she and her team have participated in bearding in the past. I love her music, and I find her fascinating, and I understand that coming out is hard and homophobia is real and that celebrity politics are intense, but looking around at the number of out LGBT celebrities who were closeted for a long time and handled that closeted period with more dignity and less whiplash for fans, it just doesn’t excuse it for me. Especially as the years go on and it gets more and more acceptable to be an out celebrity. I’m not saying the challenges have vanished, but it seems less and less reasonable to do some of the things that she’s done as time passes. It’s no longer the early 2000′s. There are ways that she could have (and could still) handle it better, if she didn’t come out. So yeah I’ve been unhappy on multiple occasions and I’ll admit that freely. But I’m still incredibly interested in how this all plays out, because she is such a big pop star who I have followed for so long, and her social influence has a lot of magnitude. I’m a fan and I’m invested as an LGBT fan, I’m just not uncritical. You don’t have to agree with my critiques to reblog this post, I’m just putting them out there for transparency of discourse. 

In summary, given her demonstrable readiness, eloquence and ability to write letters, statements, calls to action, etcetera, it wouldn’t be hard for Taylor to shut down any and all discourse about her sexuality. It wouldn’t have been hard then and it wouldn’t be hard now. Yet persistently, she won’t. She continues to center LGBT topics in her lyrics, aesthetics, political actions, and online presence, and simultaneously neglects to ever put forth a clear message confirming her heterosexuality or ally status. At this point anyone who isn’t completely mired in homophobia should know why. 

You can hear it in the silence.

*I also want to note that this is not an official or exclusive Kaylor(tm) post, because I want this discourse to be accessible to Swifties from many opinions and interests regarding this topic. I myself am not even sure if they are together (I personally feel it is likely they were together at one point, but am unsure if they still are - not that I wouldn’t want them to be!) and a lot of what I reblog in terms of concrete Kaylor theories is Swiftie style speculation/easter egg hunting/genuine fascination with the PR and celebrity world - and again, if the continuous presence of these made her uncomfortable, there would be very very easy ways of denying it in a more direct way than she has before, and admonishing the fandom. I am interested in LGBT issues and Taylor’s career and PR timeline, whether or not Karlie Kloss ever had anything to do with it, and I wrote this post as a bisexual fan in general, based on my thoughts and observations.

[battletowered-archived]

Leon’s Contract as Champion

||I haven’t done much of anything else today but have this because it was on my mind.

Tw: under the cut for discussion of contractual obligations in regards to body/clothing which could be potentially triggering||

Terms that EXPIRED after Leon lost the championship:

 Leon was disallowed from managing social media which pertained to his name, and he was not allowed to make posts of his own to them without League permission. This meant that all posts made to his accounts prior to the loss of his championship were monitored by the league. 

 Leon's wardrobe was chosen for him. He was not allowed to wear certain cuts of clothing. What clothing he wore during some situations was also more strictly monitored. He wasn't allowed to attend formal league events in anything less than black tie. He wasn't allowed to enter the stadium premises without wearing his Champion uniform (including the cape) and was only allowed to remove the cape DURING pokemon battles. If Leon had a sponsorship deal, he was to be seen in the clothing from that sponsorship in public for a certain period of time and was disallowed to wear things that weren't from that sponsor even if they were uncomfortable. Most appearances at public events required him to wear either the champion uniform or a stylist created outfit.

 Leon is disallowed from changing his hair color or length without league permission. It is considered a part of his image. Him dying his hair purple the first time was a breech of contract, and he was initially reprimanded for it before his fanbase showed positive reaction to it-- from then on the Purple was kept whether Leon wanted it or not.

 Leon was not allowed to use certain phrases, words, and gestures. He was not allowed to make lewd gestures, use swear words, or gestures/words which could be interpreted as such. There would be consequences if there was footage captured of him swearing, drinking, making lewd gestures, or showing any form of PDA.

 Because of the laws in Galar, Leon had a minimum GPA that he had to maintain while he was in school, otherwise he would not receive payment and would risk his employment status.

For interviews, Leon had to rehearse certain questions. If there was a question he wasn't prepared to answer or could cause a potential scandal, Leon was contractually obligated to play dumb.

 Leon was disallowed from dating without renegotiating his contract. (If he had, they would have renegotiated it to the point where he would have had to remain in the relationship for a certain period of time regardless of the health of the relationship. They don't want a playboy image for their prized, sweetheart champion.)

 Leon had a dress code no matter where he went, no matter the weather. If he went to the beach, he had to wear board shorts of mid-thigh or longer, and he was required to wear an athletic shirt. If he was working out he had to wear athletic wear (again of a certain amount of coverage). If he was in public, he had to at all times wear full length pants and a shirt with at least t-shirt length sleeves. He was not allowed to be shirtless at any point unless he was within private property and not visible to outward facing windows. The only time he WAS allowed to be shirtless was for League accepted sponsorships or with written permission from the League PR department. (Also of note, despite that Leon would have liked to try during his teenage years: Leon was not allowed to wear skirts, dresses, wear excessive makeup, or paint his nails.)

 Leon was disallowed from talking about the topic of sex unless written permission from the League PR department was obtained. (The Galar Health Organization photoshoot fell under this, he had to seek permission to discuss sex health as well because of the reference to condoms.)

 Leon was contractually obligated to keep a certain weight and muscle mass.

 Leon was considered on-call 24/7. If the league needed him somewhere at 3 AM, he would be required to be there within 4 hours.

 Leon was expected to be a role model. This meant acting out would be at risk of his payment.

Leon was disallowed from being rude to a fan, no matter how much they overstepped boundaries or tried to grab him/touch him. His assistants/guards were expected to step in and take care without him communicating verbally. Obviously this was hard to communicate.

Terms that DID NOT expire after he lost the championship:

 The League owns the exclusive rights to brand and market Leon's Name. That means "Leon Wicke" belongs to the league. Leon couldn't rebrand the Rose Tower as the Wicke Tower because of this, hence why it's the battle tower.

The League owns certain parts of his branding. IE Leon can't wear his crown cap any longer. He is not allowed to wear any design which used to be on his outfit. Doing so could get him into legal trouble with the league for using their branding without permission DESPITE the fact the league markets clothing like this still. (The logos are copyright and property of the league despite the fact that Leon owned some of those items, such as the tights and hat before his championship.)

[coruscantexpat]

Bonds Unbroken -  Chapter 17: The Wrong Crowd

Atton slumped onto the bench, head tilted over the back. “I had no idea a bunch of pacifists could be so ‘mercenary.’ They’re in the wrong business.”

Meetra smiled at him over her shoulder, then returned to her inspection of the vivarium’s pastel-bloomed bachani plant. Atton was exaggerating, but not by much. Chodo’s “errands” had sent the three of them from one end of Citadel Station to the other: first to the docks to ensure the delivery of a new protocol droid, where a Czerka mercenary ambush had answered Meetra’s questions about the fate of the droid’s predecessor, and then back to the Residential Modules to “convince” a Duros engineer to hand over his technician credentials in order to reprogram the local Czerka office’s reception droid. Not that it had been much of a shakedown - when the Duros revealed the debt preventing him from risking his job, Chodo had provided the funds without a second thought.

Now, it was just a matter of waiting until B-4D4, the droid saboteur, returned with the information he’d been sent to collect. Meetra had spent the time exploring the compound, Atton trailing at her heels. She wasn’t sure where Kreia had disappeared to - likely she had found a hiding place as far from the Ithorians as possible. The old woman’s distaste was almost palpable and it wasn’t limited to just Chodo - the Ithorians seemed to draw her ire just by existing. Meetra wasn’t sure why; true, the aliens could be overly polite and their idea of personal space was closer than she was entirely comfortable with, but they were otherwise pleasant.

“You are familiar with the properties of bachani?” Meetra started a bit at the vivarium keeper’s rumble near her shoulder. Despite their size, the Ithorians were surprisingly light on their feet. He raised his hands and took a half step back, concern in his wide set eyes. “Forgive me, Meetra Surik. I did not intend to alarm you.”

“It’s fine; I was just a little lost in thought.” She smiled reassuringly at him. “To answer your question, I know a little. A old friend had a bit of talent for botany.” She omitted Alek’s name, more for Atton’s benefit than the Ithorian’s. Though the guilt ate at her, she still couldn’t bring herself to tell him how deep her connection to Revan and Malak went. Irrational as it seemed, part of her balked at the idea of him thinking less of her for it. “It has medicinal properties, right? From the blossoms?”

He nodded. “Its most basic use, yes. We’re hoping to implement this in a slightly different fashion. You’ll notice the specimens we have here are taller than average.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

The keeper chuckled. “Our hope is that by engineering their height, they will spread further - perhaps even outside the restoration zones. It is a hardy plant; it may be able to restore both the earth and the air, given enough time.”

Meetra looked back at the plant. Its purple petals and thin frame didn’t look like they would survive a stiff breeze, much less the ruined surface of Telos. In a way, it reminded her of Revan, before she’d been Revan - delicate beauty that hid a fearsome strength - and look at everything she’d accomplished, both wonderful and terrible. The bachani was in powerful company if the keeper was right.

Behind her, Atton lifted his head, watching her carefully. The moments when Meetra retreated into herself, when she was physically present but light years away in her head, were her most honest. He could only see one side of her face, but even that showed a longing so powerful it almost took his breath away. Sadness mingled with regret and reverie strong enough to make him want a drink, and the emotions weren’t even his own. Part of him wanted to know her secrets, if only to properly console her - he’d never liked seeing a woman in pain - but a voice in the back of his mind kept him seated, the same thought on an endless loop: Funny, you’ve caused more than one woman enough pain.

“Meetra Surik!” Atton straightened as Meetra turned at Moza’s approach, pretending to examine his fingernails. Chodo’s assistant was visibly excited, as much as any Ithorian could be. “My apologies for the interruption, but the droid B-4D4 has returned. Chodo requests your presence when it presents its information.”

“Thank you, Moza.” Meetra turned back to the vivarium keeper and gave him a small smile. “I wish you luck with the bachani.” He inclined his head, wide eyes crinkling at the corners. Meetra retrieved her staff from near the door and moved to follow Moza out of the room, motioning for Atton to come along. He rolled his eyes in mock annoyance, but stood and followed them back to Chodo’s office. The Ithorian priest was there with B-4D4, as was Kreia, though Meetra was unsure who had informed her of the protocol droid’s arrival. She met the old woman’s blind gaze briefly, but Kreia just nodded toward Chodo.

“Ah, welcome back, Meetra Surik,” Chodo rumbled in greeting, then waved a hand at the protocol droid. “Please, B-4D4. What were you able to retrieve from the Czerka mainframe?”

“A record of the Czerka Corporation's actions against your restoration project, Master Habat.” B-4D4 handed over a datapad. “Additionally, I took the liberty of including any bribes or black market transactions made in regard to your restoration efforts.” “Excellent.” Chodo scrolled through the datapad’s contents before passing it off to Moza. “With this evidence, Czerka will no longer be able to hide behind the Telosian government’s ignorance - or its assistance. Have it sent to our contact in the Republic immediately.” Moza inclined his head and shuffled out, datapad in hand, and Chodo turned back to the protocol droid. “Thank you for your assistance, B-4D4. You’re free to return to your post.”

“You’re just going to let it go?” Atton tipped his head to the side, brow furrowed, as he glanced from Chodo to B-4D4 and back again. “You think that’s wise? All it would take is one manual review of its memory core and Czerka will be at your doorstep.”

“I doubt it would take even that much effort to bring Czerka to our door.” Chodo’s deadpan delivery was somewhat ruined by his natural Ithorian monotone. “However, I did have our technician implement some safeguards. B-4D4?”

The protocol droid shuffled to face Atton. “I assure you I will cause no trouble for Master Habat. There is a protocol in place that will activate as soon as I cross the compound threshold. The record of my time here will be stored in a compartment inaccessible to anyone but Master Habat or his secretary, including myself.”

Atton shook his head. “Your funeral.”

B-4D4 tottered back toward Chodo. “Will there be anything else, Master Habat?”

“No, you’ve done more than enough, B-4D4.” Chodo gestured toward the door to his office. “Please, speak to Moza on your way out. He will help ensure safe passage back to Czerka.” He waited until the protocol droid left the room before turning to Meetra. “I should be saying the same to you, Meetra Surik. Without your assistance, I fear our efforts to restore Telos would have been for naught. Now, we have a fighting chance.”

“I’m sensing a ‘but’ here,” Atton said, and the wry amusement in his voice didn’t reach his eyes.

Chodo paused, eyes narrowing, and Meetra got the sense that if he’d had a visible mouth, the expression would have been very similar to the one Atton often elicited from Kreia. “While losing their hold in the Telosian government will inconvenience Czerka, but pocketed officials and the black market are not their only forms of support. If you will allow my selfishness for a while longer, I would ask one more favor of you.”

“There’s always a third,” Atton muttered under his breath. Meetra glanced sharply at him over her shoulder and he rolled his eyes, moving to sit down in the nearest chair - at least, to the best of his abilities. Built with Ithorian proportions in mind, the seat was too wide and the back absent armrests, so the lazy, affected slouch ended up as more of an awkward slump.

Still, Atton had a point, and Meetra kept her tone reserved when she spoke to Chodo. “What do you need from us?”

He hesitated, the thick digits on his hands interlacing and releasing rapidly - the first sign of nervousness he’d displayed in front of her. “Czerka has long held an… ‘investment’ agreement with Lopak Slusk, the, ah, head of the Citadel Station’s Exchange branch.” Atton barked a laugh, a noise somewhere between amusement and disbelief, and this time Meetra didn’t rebuke him. Chodo refused to meet her eyes, his gaze trained on the floor. “I know what it means to ask this of you, Meetra Surik, but if Czerka continues to receive support from Slusk, our work will remain in danger, and Telos will suffer for it.”

“Slusk is only the leader of this branch, correct?” Chodo nodded, confusion in the tightened wrinkles around his eyes. “What about the head of the Exchange? I doubt he’d want his organization tied to Czerka’s public fall out.”

“You’ll have to forgive her; she’s not really up to date on current events.” Atton smirked, not entirely unkindly, when Meetra glared at him. “Goto’s not really a corporate complaint kind of guy. You don’t find him unless he wants to be found, and as long as they keep the money flowing his way, he doesn’t particularly care who his goons associate with.”

“Your companion is right, Meetra Surik,” Chodo rumbled. “When I first learned of the Exchange’s association with Czerka, I attempted to contact their leader, but outside of his name, I could discover nothing about him. It seems few in the Exchange know more than even that.” He started to fidget again, big hands twining around each other. “I would like to stress that I prefer Lopak Slusk severe his connection with Czerka of his own accord.”

Atton chuckled. “He means try not to beat the guy to a pulp.”

“I know what he means.” Meetra frowned, bit the inside of her cheek. After a moment, she sighed and nodded. “I’ll speak to him. But I can’t promise he’ll agree. If he doesn’t…” She trailed off, the implication hanging between them.

Chodo nodded, brow furrowing. “Agreed. Thank you again, Meetra Surik. I know we ask too much.”

“What you’ve offered in return is worth the risk, Chodo.” Meetra smiled, small and sad. “Besides, I’m used to it. We’ll be back when it’s done.” She turned and left the room without a word or a backward glance, Atton scrambling to his feet to follow her. Kreia leveled a blind stare at Chodo for a long moment before she left as well. The priest stood, wide eyes fixed on the doorway for a few beats, then he turned and crossed to his desk, sinking down into the chair with a heavy sigh.

Once outside the compound, Atton caught Meetra’s arm, pulling his hand back quickly when she spun to face him. For a moment, there was something dark behind her expression, but it was quickly replaced with open curiosity. Whether this was a mask or she was simply unaware of her initial emotion, he wasn’t sure. “Can we pause for a minute and talk this through?”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

He stared at her flatly. “‘A Jedi walks into the local Exchange office’ doesn’t have a very good punchline these days. If you can even get in. I doubt Slusk is in the habit of giving tours to strangers off the street.”

Meetra tightened her grip on her staff. “There’s always a way in.”

“I thought Jedi were supposed to be diplomatic.”

“Good thing I’m not a Jedi.”

Atton pressed a hand to his temple. “You’re putting on a great act, then. Jedi never did have a problem involving other people in their schemes.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You can leave. I’m sure Chodo is willing to pay your fare.”

“Don’t think it hasn’t crossed my mind.” He turned to Kreia. “Care to step in here? You speak crazy Jedi; maybe you can convince her not to us all killed.” Atton stalked away a short distance, pretending to examine the nearest transport terminal. Meetra glared after him, anger rising hot in her chest before Kreia stilled it with a chuckle.

“While it amuses me to watch you turn your frustration on the fool, it is misplaced.” Meetra transferred her glower to Kreia, but its edge was blunted on the old woman’s blank stare. “Truthfully, I share your annoyance with Habat and his Ithorians; though not, I think, for the same reasons.” Her mouth tightened into a thin line. “His audacity vexes me more than his requests. You realize he intends you to be a pawn; a means to his own ends.”

“That’s rhetorical, right.” Meetra’s deadpanned, the response more statement than question. “If you see any other choices, please, enlighten me.”

“I am simply trying to understand your motivations.” If Kreia found Meetra’s flippancy irritating, it didn’t show. “If it is only to retrieve the Ebon Hawk, or even if you believe Habat’s claims that he can restore you, I can understand. If not…”

Meetra scowled, but she couldn’t make herself meet Kreia’s eyes. “Why does it matter?”

“Because you are far too important to become entangled in these little lives.” There was an edge to Kreia’s voice now. “You are all that stands between the Sith and domination, and they are keenly aware of it. If you allow yourself to be distracted by the inconsequential struggles of this planet, you are not only dooming yourself, but the rest of the galaxy as well. How many of them will thank you then?”

Meetra was silent for a moment, eyes downcast. When she lifted her gaze to meet Kreia’s once more, there was a flicker of defiance in it. “And if I ignore them now, how many will still be alive to thank me if I defeat the Sith? If I can help, I can’t just step over them; it’s not right. I already tried that, and it didn’t end well.”

Kreia shook her head, but she wasn’t angry. “‘A Jedi’s life is sacrifice,’” she echoed, one corner of her mouth curving up in condescension at Meetra’s scowl. “The past cannot be changed; what point is there in atoning for it? Tell me, would you act differently? Would you side with the Council, hiding behind bureaucracy and policies?”

“That’s not the poi - “

“If your answer isn’t no, then you do yourself a disservice.” All humor was gone from Kreia’s voice. “You discredit every decision that made you who are now. Clinging to an infantile sense of right and wrong did not stop the Mandalorians. It will not stop the Sith.” She paused, allowing the gravity of her words to sink in. “Now, we have wasted enough time. Regardless of your motives, we must retrieve the Ebon Hawk.” She glanced past Meetra to Atton. “Which means we require your fool in a more cooperative mood.”

Meetra scrunched her nose at the continued insult, but Kreia waved her off and made her way toward the shuttle dock. With another sigh, Meetra joined Atton at the terminal. He didn’t turn toward her, but she saw him shoot a quick glance sideways at her. “So, still planning on rushing the front door?”

“If necessary.” Now he did turn to face her, disbelief and anger mingling there before he realized she was mostly joking. “I’d… What do you suggest?”

Atton hesitated, scanning her face closely. There was still a measure of guarded vulnerability behind her eyes, but the rest of her expression was open, inviting even. He sighed and looked away. “Nobody gets that much power in the Exchange without making a few enemies. More than a few of his own would probably jump at the chance to set him up. You just have to know where to look.”

Meetra tipped her head to the side, an eyebrow and one side of her mouth lifting in tandem. “And you know?”

Even under the corridor’s harsh lighting, her blue eyes sparkled when she smiled, and Atton had no defense against it. “Where you find every self-respecting criminal at this time of day.”

Full chapter available on AO3 and FFN.

[realsmileyclown]

Will Clowns Ever be viewed Favorably again?

I should start off by saying this is only regarding how clowns are viewed by the public in the United States as in other countries the art may/is viewed differently. I have experience where I live so that will be the focus here. Now I know there are lots of people who like clowns but anyone here can tell you those people are the minority and vocal minority as well. Thats not to say the majority dislike clowns but the vocal majority definitly does. Id rather say the actual majority kind of avoids clowns and only if it gets brought up usually just say they dont really like them. This wasn’t always the case though as back when circuses were very popular and a part of american entertainment, nearly on par with sports like baseball, clowns had to be at least in the positive view of the people. This is because clowns have always been the mascot of these circuses from the height of popularity until the recent closing of ringling. We can see both old and modern examples or clowns always being used in PR stunts or on advertisements.

Here we see and old style poster advertising the circus and we see Julia who has ben in many pictures promoting Ringling Brothers. We see that both use clowns. These are important details because if people viewed clowns how they do now back then we wouldn’t expect to see much interest in the circus with those types of promotions. Clearly the circus kept trying to use clowns for PR even after the clowns decline but that clearly didnt work anymore as circus attendance lowered and other reasons led to closings.

There are lots of reasons why clown popularity decreased and i dont want to make this post about that but in short basically media depictions of clowns started to use them as horror symbols to play off the fact that a few people actually had phobias of them.

The point here though is do I think clowns will ever be back to their status of public favor when the circuses were in their prime as well as how could they get there.

First off I do think they have a chance to get back to their old level. I think this because I dont think there is really that much standing in their way. The main difference I see is that back then clowns were part of the circus package and people thought their job was to look weird and act silly to make people laugh. People didnt necessarily like clowns but didnt dislike them. Probably if you asked someone at the circus if they liked them they’d just say yeah are funny but thats it. Now people think they are people whose job is to look strange and act stupid to try and get people to laugh. The difference may seem small but essentially im claiming that the experiences that caused clowns to be viewed unfavorably shifted the people’s perspective to go from thinking clowns had a weird look which made them look funny to instead a strange bizarre look which makes them look off putting or creepy. The same is true for their actions. We know that this is a subtle difference but explains the shift from a slight positive to a slightly more negative view. We also know that this is only a shift in how they view clowns and not the clowns faults due to the fact that clowns havent changed those two things about themselves. If anything on average their makeup got less weird. See the pictures below with an old clown and a new clown and try to tell me the new one looks more creepy than the old one.

Clearly it had everything to do with public perception and not to do with them. Now public views constantly change so i see no reason they cant change back to how they were but it will take the work of lots of clowns to make it happen. This time clowns will also have to work harder as they no longer have ringling brothers to help keep them working and in the public eye.

One of my first suggestions is to stop worrying and complaining about scary media depictions worsening the image and instead focus on ways to improve the image of clowns. Everytime people who like those movies hear clowns complain about movies like “It” they just think worse about clowns and wonder why they cant just let them enjoy their movie. Clowns should take hollywood using their image as a compliment and find a way to make it positive. Clowns should do what they do best and laugh when they see those movies because it really is funny that someone thought they’d take a clown, which is funny and makes people laugh in real life, and make a movie where they are scary instead. Its quite a funny contrast to be scared of something that is funny. Having a positive attitude like this instantly changes its dynamic and now whenever a thing like this comes out clowns can claim it as part of their culture so all the people looking into it are reminded that real clowns are the opposite instead of sore losers who cant have any fun. Clowns have to take jokes not just dish them out. For one i love the joker and harley quinn. I dont think they are bad for clowning as i appreciate seeing clowns become such iconic comic and movie characters.

Now im not saying just let the media get filled with scary clowns. We need to let them have their fun and make fools out of us cause clowns are fools. But we need to make sure for every 1 scary clown picture there are 10 nice ones to counter it. Currently the internet  probably has got as much creepy clowns as it has real clowns. Even just typing clown gets mostly scary results it seems. We need people to see a higher ratio of good clowns to bad ones. This is why I like sharing pictures and why i like taking more of me to help contribute to these numbers. I am waiting to get a nice set up ready for the next time I’m in full makeup so I can do a photoshoot and get tons of pictures to spread of myself to help but for now heres another of me.

Thats only the easy fixes we can make but even with those fixes I feel a significant improvement could be accomplished. The real task now is to get people watching clown performances and laughing. If they enjoy watching clowns then they enjoy clowns. Without the circus we need a new avenue for this as I personally dont think Birthday parties are reliable and parades dont allow for real performances. I dont know who or how this part will be improved but I can almost garentee it will be on the internet. Over the last 2 decades we saw the internet grow from almost nothing into the powerhouse of entertainment. Things like netflix have almost replaced cable. Youtube created whole new careers for film with categories never possible on tv or in theatres. As far as I have seen no clown has truly utilized the internet yet. Most either just make a post on their regular socials of them in makeup, others use it to promote their in person business for parties, or others sell their costumes to other clowns. These are great but what we need is someone to figure out how to revolutionize clowning online as so many other markets did. Using the internet to boost offline business is great but true progress is when the business is online as well.

I wish I knew what it will be that revolutionizes clowning online so I could share it with you. Mainly I wish I knew what it will be so I could do it, ha ha! Until that day comes however we can keep spreading positivity, nice images and trying new things online.

Keep on smiling and keep on clowning!

[paulbogaards]

I’m looking to hire a Publicist

ACTUAL JOB DESCRIPTION (not the one you will find posted on PRH):

The Executive Vice President, Director of Publicity and Media Relations for the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (@paulbogaards) is seeking a Publicist to dazzle the industry and world with their work and brio and warm good humor providing day-to-day support and counseling for authors (a lot of counseling) in a blistering-paced, internal and external facing (internal = editors = suspicious, external = agents = sometimes mean though they will describe their behavior as outcome directed), detail-oriented (seat 2A not 12A), data-driven (blah blah blah) environment working with dying legacy media professionals, social media pioneers, brand ambassadors (FML), booksellers (❤️), and other half-crazed publishing desperados.

The ideal candidate for this position will have had previous experience working as a magician. There is no finer point to make. As a publicist, you need to make magic happen. Magic. Every fucking day. Come equipped with a rabbit and a top hat and a goddamn wand and get ready to wave it every Wednesday afternoon at approximately 4:00 PM. You will be given books to work on that have no possibility whatsoever of becoming bestsellers, and yet, the operating expectation is that all of them will list. Authors expect that outcome. Agents expect that outcome. Editors expect that outcome. Publishers expect that outcome. It’s as if they’re all smoking the same green-blonde hallucinogenic.

The job is a grind. No one is capable of doing it for very long. The hours, the demands, the pressure, the weight of expectation, the dissonance between acquisitions and the marketplace, all of these things cause enormous stress on publicists. Think about this: the executive director has been doing it for thirty plus years. He has become a hollow shell of the man he once was as a result.

“Every day is a beat down.”

“I know.”

“Editors. Agents. Authors. Journalists. All of them are a fucking menace.”

“Tell me about it.”

“They look at us like we are, I don’t know what.”

“They look at us like we are fucking waterboys. That’s how they look at us.”

“That’s exactly right. We’re the fucking waterboys.”

You could be that person -- one of the waterboys (or gals). You are young and full of magic and convinced that book publishing is not decline but instead enjoying a renaissance. You look at Amazon with wide-eyed awe and innocence. You will step into the job thinking of the difference you are able to exact on behalf of writers everywhere. You, my friend, are a naif.

This is what will actually happen: You will be staring at your mobile in a crosswalk, answering a complaint from an author about their seat assignment on a United flight, and then be hit by an Uber. That is the most succinct description of book publishing in the 21st century that the director can think of.

All candidates for the position will undergo Anna’s box test. This is a test where you are invited in for an interview with the director, and there is a box on the seat you are supposed to sit in. If you just stare at the box, waiting for the director to move it, you are summarily dismissed and immediately disqualified as a candidate. If you pick up the box and place it somewhere else, you have passed the first test.

You will hear whispers about publishing projects where the company is rumored to have paid considerable sums of money for a book and then a call will come in from a reporter asking questions about said project and you will immediately route it to the director. The director has experience answering questions about the amount of money the company overpaid (5 million, 10 million, 20 million) and why the book is worth that much (it’s not) and how many copies will it take to earn out (it won’t) in what will become an infinite loop of inquiry and denial and the reporter, determined, will end up substantiating the figure through a disgruntled publisher who was knocked out on the last best bid (Karp) and then come back to you and ask you to confirm the figure and you will again deny it and they will wind up reporting the number anyway (though reporters these days don’t press in the same rough way that, say, Streitfeld and Kirkpatrick used to, and that is OK with the director, he is accepting of the new school press corps, though he generally prefers old school guys, and will always answer the phone when Keith Kelly calls, because he is the embodiment of OLD FUCKING SCHOOL, a guy who will tease out any story he can about Jann Wenner).

As a publicist, editors will complain to you about the New York Times (what the fuck are they doing over there?) and then become agitated and disgruntled and dismayed and threatening when one of their books is overlooked by that outlet (they reviewed a fucking book from New Directions instead of my book?) suggesting to you that action is essential (we need to do something) and you will reassure them, say of course, of course, I’ll get right on it, but really, what are you going to do? You will come to understand, very quickly, that happiness is elusive in our industry and joy is fleeting. Mostly, everyone suspects each other of book espionage.

Generally, the Publicist can expect career advancement provided they do their job without committing actionable offenses on social media or installing a joy button under the desk in their office or threatening to kill someone because they wrote a bad review (editors do this all the time. First, they threaten you. Then they threaten the BRE. Then they write a drunken email to the reviewer). Do not be led by their bad example.

This is a good position to learn about the business, as good as any, the director basically runs a farm team for the industry, his first hire now runs comms for one of the Big Five and he will smile when he sees a story in the paper with her Chairman touting the benefits of open floor plans (“there was just this energy and buzz and sense of excitement of collaborative human endeavor that really was kind of exhilarating”) and he is proud for a moment recognizing that his first hire has mastered the PR skill of ventriloquism (she has also mastered adapting the infinite loop of denial into the infinite loop of positivity.) Others have gone on to assume posts of similar stature at The New Yorker (where Remnick still won’t give anyone a credit line including Tommy Orange whose book THERE THERE was just excerpted in the magazine and everyone is supposed to be thrilled about that and the mention of said work on the contributor page but I’m like FUCK THAT who looks at the contributor page give me a book shot in the well of the magazine but of course there is no justice in much of this work, people want what they want when they want it and for selfish ends, the labors of the writer remain forgotten, the working men and women who are the backbone of our industry are frequently an afterthought, and THAT SEEMS TO ME A GREAT PUBLISHING INJUSTICE), and the Brooklyn Cyclones (that was Dave, he was a very handsome, I went to his wedding in New Jersey, there was a Venetian dessert table with fountains, it was like something out of the Sopranos), and Jennifer, who married someone rich and Jewish (that is kind of like going to work for The New Yorker) and gave birth to four children and will sometimes send me emails asking what the fuck happened to her life:

“What the fuck happened to my life?”

“Husband. Money. Kids.”

“FUCK.” Jennifer had (has) a foul mouth. I loved (love) that about her.

“Is there still work for me in publishing?”

“No. Business is dying. Stick with your plan. Keep the husband.”

Occasionally, you will find the director weeping at his desk and you will wonder if he is suffering from some kind of nervous breakdown and then you will observe an open email on his computer and see that it is simply a note of gratitude from a colleague - warmly written and sincere - and you will come to understand that they appear so infrequently that when they do the only way he knows how to respond is by weeping and you will feel a little sad for him. As a publicist, you will live a life of sadness and defeat. And you will learn to cry.

The director is looking for someone to step into his role because he is tired of weeping. The job has exacted a toll. He has become impatient.  His responses to queries are no longer soft and nuanced. This week, for example, an editor from T Magazine sent him an email asking if Cormac McCarthy would cooperate for a cover profile and he responded “Not possible” and the editor wrote back asking “As in not possible for October because the book is so far out, or...unlikely to be possible at any time?” and the director wrote back “EVER” in all caps and then he sat back is his chair and thought “who are these fucking dragoons and when will they ever learn?”

Another reporter suggested to the director that he was giving him incorrect guidance, when, in fact, the director answered the reporter’s question with the information at hand. The director is fifty-seven and has made a living being honest with reporters and went back and forth with the reporter about his track.

“He kept asking me the same fucking question.”

“That’s how they work.”

“I said to him, ‘We’re in the weeds here. You’re suggesting the football moved. I’m telling you it was a completion. End of story.’”

You will attend meetings where nothing happens. That is another succinct description of book publishing in the 21st century.

You will be working with seasoned publishing veterans who spend most of their day worrying about Amazon and Barnes & Noble and the death of media.

You will read books before they become books and often find yourself thinking about transitioning out of the industry.

One page proposals will arrive with breathy notes from editors. An auction will follow. The director will be asked to create a marketing and publicity summary in advance of the auction.

“Based on what?”

“The proposal.”

“The proposal is one page.”

“Just make something up.”

So the director will make something up. You will help him. This will happen simultaneously across the industry. The people who make up the best things often acquire the book. So if you are good at making things up, possibly this is a job for you.

You will send emails, respond to emails, and stuff books in jiffy bags. If you are good at stuffing things in jiffy bags, possibly this is a job for you.

People will ask you questions. People from inside and outside the company. The desk you occupy is a kind of information station and you will need to learn the answers to so many questions (the director knows the answers to these questions but doesn’t have the patience to respond anymore and indeed it has become dangerous to let any questions through to him because he will often say something wrong on purpose, or say something inappropriate, there was even an instance when a reader called inquiring about Carl Hiaasen’s book tour and he asked her out on a date and Who the fuck does that?)

Candidates for this position need to be confident and made of steel and in possession of magic. Possibly you are that person. Please apply by clicking on the link here.

Thank you.

PS: “I’ll need a spacious south facing hotel room in a 4 star property, and OMG it cannot be The Muse, I mean how could you book anyone in that hotel?, it’s full of escorts and German tourists, the rooms are tiny, mine felt like a cell, and given my crippling anxiety about touring I’m lucky to be alive after that stay, you need to respect the work I’m doing on the road, and that was not a respectful hotel booking, and being in United boarding group two on my flight to New York, well, that was not respectful either, but I don’t want to get too far afield here, I just need you to listen to me and hew to my requests, do that and we will have a successful tour, my comfort and safety remain a priority, take it seriously, double pane windows on a high floor are essential, but not too high, away from the elevators and adjacent to a fire stairway, and quiet, the room has to be quiet, with fine linens and towels and four down pillows (one for between my legs, two for my head, and one to snuggle with), a king bed, a duvet, fresh flowers, white peonies if they are in season, a tub and a shower and 24-hour room service, these are the basics, the last tour almost killed me and that simply cannot happen this time out…”

#publishing #books #publicrelations

[wineanddinosaur]

Accusations of Sexism and Discrimination at Boulevard Brewing Company Show the Industry Still Has Far to Go

From harrowing disputes like Founders Brewing Company’s 2018 racial discrimination lawsuit to sexist marketing snafus (of which there are too many), the craft beer industry continues to struggle with myriad forms of discrimination. The latest controversy comes from Kansas City, Mo.’s Boulevard Brewing Company. It contains all the hallmarks of an unchecked culture of misogyny: accusations of bias against a pregnant person, gaslighting women by responding to claims of sexual harassment with “it’s just a joke,” and so on. Additionally, a former female employee calls out Boulevard for perpetuating targeted harassment while also participating in women-positive events, such as Women’s Brew Day, organized by national women’s nonprofit organization the Pink Boots Society.

Founded in 1989, Boulevard has long been revered in the craft brewing world, with iconic brews like Tank 7 American Saison putting it on the global map. Duvel Moortgat acquired the brewery in 2013 and was ranked No. 5 on the latest Brewers Association’s Top 50 Brewing Companies by Sales Volume report.

On Jan. 23, 2021, a Reddit post made by user notfrankthecat (a former Boulevard employee) publicly outlined her accusations against the brewery, claiming she was harassed because of her pregnancy. She specifically referred to her former boss, as well as another man employed by Boulevard, as the primary perpetrators of ongoing toxic treatment toward women, herself included. She goes on to recount her struggles to be heard and taken seriously by Boulevard’s human resources department, but says nothing was done to correct bad behavior or discipline those contributing to the hostile environment. In her statement, the former employee ultimately concludes that “If you fuck up, you are forgiven. If you report misbehavior, you are punished.”

In the same post, the former employee says she left Boulevard in March 2020, and no longer works in the brewing industry due to the discrimination she faced in her position there. During a brief correspondence with VinePair, the former employee described feeling “overwhelmed” with the response to her anonymous accusations, but ultimately declined to provide a comment for the time being.

On Jan. 25, Boulevard released a statement in response to the allegations, saying it took the accusation “very seriously” with a promise to “use this situation as an opportunity to learn and to grow.” However, nowhere in the statement were the words “apology,” “sorry,” “amends,” or any other reference to repairing the harm it is accused of. Feedback on social media has largely remained vitriolic to the statement from Boulevard, demanding more details about the investigation the brewery claims took place a year ago, as well as condemnation for the lack of accountability.

On Jan. 26, after facing widespread reproach to its first statement, Boulevard released a second statement titled “Reflecting,” which begins with an apology and acknowledgment of failure, before revealing an executive has been let go from the company. Boulevard also says it plans to hire an outside HR firm to investigate the internal issues.

We’ve heard this before. Danii Oliver, recently elected to the Pink Boots Society board of directors and owner/brewer at Island to Island Brewery in Fort Worth, Texas, laments this avoidable loss of another woman in beer. “Once again, we learn the story too late, of a woman who has been discriminated against, forced out and who has lost her livelihood,” she says on her website in a post titled “A Call To Action.” “These women are out here telling their [stories], because they’re at the point where they have nothing left to lose,” she says. “It’s all been taken from them. So now they speak. But now, they can’t do anything. It seems like every time I stop grieving from one incident, another one comes up.”

In August 2020, the Brewers Association outlined a code of conduct for its membership, which includes Boulevard. It created a “member complaint process” with a stated intent “to hold our peers accountable for unacceptable behavior while pursuing an educational path forward that leads to a more inclusive and respectful craft beer community.” It goes on to promote a partnership with the Racial Equity Institute, but does not specifically mention any gender-based discrimination partners or training other than a goal “to eliminate discrimination, harassment, and bias of all types,” which, presumably, would include gender discrimination.

According to the Brewers Association’s only brewery diversity report from 2019, women continue to be a minority in the beer industry in every single position except non-managerial service staff roles. That means in the majority of cases, women remain reliant on tips — a practice that puts workers in compromising, and sometimes dangerous, positions — and often lack access to support systems available to those in managerial or higher-level roles. Without widespread representation, women often find themselves without an advocate in their corner, even from the most seemingly inclusive brewery.

Jen Jordan, board of directors president for the Pink Boots Society, says in an email to VinePair: “Discrimination and harassment issues have been prevalent and pervasive in our industry for too long, and have done severe damage. … Please educate your management and staff on how to create a safe and inclusive workplace.” She goes on to explain that the group’s mission has always been to assist, inspire, and encourage female-identifying industry professionals working in the fermented alcohol beverage industry, and she hopes more organizations join the cause. “The Industry is now asking for self-advocacy and workplace safety education,” she says. “Pink Boots Society is working to meet those needs too, but we shouldn’t have to do it alone.”

Putting together a task force of women to review allegations of sexism, as Boulevard claims it will do, does allow women to have a voice in shaping HR framework. However, this type of thinking is wholly reactive, and relies on the labor of women to correct wrongs largely perpetuated by men who participate in toxic masculinity. It also runs the risk of non-objectivity: What employee is going to feel empowered to point out flaws to the person who signs their checks?

The Pitch, a Kansas City-based publication, reports a possible mass walkout of Boulevard employees to protest the recent scandal. Allies putting their livelihoods at risk is admirable, but individuals should not have to carry the weight of organizational failures on their backs. It’s a shame that’s the final card people feel they can play.

A better solution? Believe women. Putting women in leadership roles where they can identify areas of improvement — before they become areas of reproach — is a crucial step that many breweries have yet to take. And, breweries: If you’re going to hop on a progressive initiative like Women’s Brew Day, or Black is Beautiful, or any of the opportunities to support marginalized members of the beer community, back up those splashy PR moves with action. Earn the clout through work, in the brewhouse and out. Don’t assume you have it, regardless of how good your beers are.

[Ed. note: This is a developing story. Updates are published on thepitchkc.com.]

The article Accusations of Sexism and Discrimination at Boulevard Brewing Company Show the Industry Still Has Far to Go appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/boulevard-brewing-company-controversy/

[michaelandy101-blog]

A (Re)Introduction to Visitor Posting

New Post has been published on https://tiptopreview.com/a-reintroduction-to-guest-posting/

A (Re)Introduction to Visitor Posting

Garrett French — founding father of Quotation Labs and throughout hyperlink constructing skilled — takes you on a complete walkthrough of visitor posting on websites supported by gross sales. Why is that this a great technique? How do your posts profit these web sites? How do you begin and what web sites do you attain out to? Watch to seek out out!

Click on on the whiteboard picture above to open a excessive decision model in a brand new tab!

Video Transcription

Hi there, of us. My title is Garrett French, and I am a hyperlink builder. I run Citation Labs. We have now 120 workers, and we construct a number of hyperlinks. At the moment I’m right here to reintroduce to you the tactic of visitor posting.

All proper. Very particularly, although, visitor posting with a goal of publishers — this largest portion right here of the writer pyramid — who’re supported by gross sales, whose most important motive of publishing is to promote issues.

Introduction

So let’s dig in. We’re speaking about earned placements. The publishers should approve this content material. There’s an editorial gatekeeper. Once more, sure/no? Can we need to publish? Can we not?

Is it as much as our requirements? We’re speaking about actual web sites with actual audiences. We’re speaking about versatile format. So you’ll be able to suppose past an article. You’ll be able to suppose into an FAQ, for instance, or a glossary or one thing alongside these strains. Once more, very a lot we need to emphasize the publishers that we’re speaking about right here get their income from gross sales.

They’re publishing in order that they will get new purchasers or to promote services or products. We’re not speaking about PBNs. We’re not speaking about sponsored placements. We’re not speaking about any circumstance the place you must pay money with a purpose to get in entrance of anyone’s viewers. Lastly, I need to level out we’re not essentially speaking about op-ed circumstances right here.

This is not a branded experience play. This is not your probability to indicate how a lot you recognize. Now you are going to have the ability to present your experience, however you are going to be second fiddle. You have to put the writer themselves and their curiosity in gross sales first. That is what you are doing right here, and that is why you are approaching this group, and once more it is why they publish. That is the writer profit that you’ll be emphasizing if you strategy this group. 

Why visitor posts?



Now, why visitor posts? Effectively, guys, there’s an unlimited quantity of visibility and attain right here. Take a look at the pyramid. Now, that is consultant of most industries usually, the place we have got 95% of the publishers are publishing to get gross sales, four% which might be mission primarily based and are supported by taxes, tuition, donations, subscriptions, and so on.

Then we have got the 1% advert supported. There are such a lot of publishers on the market attempting to promote in your vertical, in your purchasers’ verticals, in your goal vertical if you happen to’re in-house, and there is plenty of disaggregated attain there. There’s loads newsletters on the market, plenty of social media followings on the market, of us, that you possibly can be working to get in entrance of.

You’ve gotten much more matter and context management if you’re publishing on some of these web sites, if you’re looking for publishing on these websites. Once more, if you happen to’re trying on the tax, tuition, donation, and subscription supported swath right here, the four%, you’ll be able to typically have matters the place you’ll be able to focus on gross sales or point out a gross sales web page.

However extra regularly you have to actually deal with the writer’s mission, why are they publishing. They’re on a mission, and they also’re supported by one thing moreover gross sales. Then lastly, in fact, if we’re speaking about digital PR or any form of mainstream media focus or PR effort, they need content material that is going to drive web page views.

That is how they’re supported. There’s nonetheless some mission, in fact, in there. However anyhow, you are a lot much less in a position, at that time, to hyperlink into your gross sales pages. So once more, what we’re speaking about right here or one of many advantages right here fairly hyperlinks to gross sales pages, which in fact goes to enhance the rankings of your gross sales pages.

Easy methods to visitor submit

Now why is that simpler on this context, within the context of serving to another person promote? Effectively, let’s dig in and speak by way of the how, and you will see additionally what makes that attainable. 

Discovering publishers

So primarily we’re speaking about discovering publishers with whom you’ve got top-of-funnel overlap, the place a few of your top-of-funnel matters, the pains that your potential purchasers have and the pains their potential purchasers have are comparable, interrelated.

Maybe we’re speaking about viewers overlap. Maybe we’re speaking about trade overlap. Even location overlap. There’s some form of overlap right here, and also you’re talking into that place if you’re considering of matters for a given writer. One other manner to consider it’s the members of that market it is what we consider as an answer stack.

So within the search engine marketing area, all of us have our favourite software stack, the instruments everyone makes use of, Moz for instance. Effectively, if you happen to’re promoting into that, if you happen to’re an company like Quotation Labs, it’d make sense to work and attempt to get some visibility on a SaaS software within the search engine marketing area.

“Unbundling” the stack



Let’s work right here a little bit bit longer although, stick on this one a little bit bit longer and take into consideration unbundling the stack in numerous verticals, as a result of that is actually on the coronary heart of the method and the strategy. Let’s take into consideration you are a realtor.

So inside your stack or your trade and definitely inside your location, there are going to be some roofers too, and a handful of those of us are going to have blogs. Not all of them, however a handful will. So you are going to strategy a roofer with a subject comparable to 10 causes to repair your roof earlier than you place your house up on the market.

Now, this solves a roofer downside, would not it? It is causes to buy roofing providers. Additionally it provides you a chance to speak about your experience as a realtor and what impression roof situation might have on the sale of a house.

Let’s go into this one right here, industrial ovens, to illustrate these brick ovens for pizza. We’re anyone within the flour area. Perhaps they have some natural flour. Effectively, you are going to write them a information on why you should use natural flour in your pizza dough on your pizza restaurant, the distinction that natural flour could make on the end result of the standard of the dough, of the crust.

You are going to communicate to temperature impression on natural versus not natural, if there may be. There won’t be, however let’s only for the sake of this assume there may be. Then you definitely’re additionally going to have an ideal probability to hyperlink to your industrial pizza ovens.

For those who’re on a website that sells flour into the restaurant area, effectively, it actually is sensible so that you can have some visibility there. For example you promote cell telephones and also you’re fascinated by the health or well being area. So you’ll be able to pitch one thing.

You discover a bodily therapist. You’ve got obtained 10 apps that increase your bodily remedy. This may work simply as effectively for to illustrate a yoga studio or a CrossFit gymnasium. Apps that increase your train, your bodily health routine. Once more, you are placing them first, since you’re speaking about augmenting providers or work that is already occurring, which is form of assuming that somebody could be their buyer, would select to go to this bodily therapist, or would select to attend yoga courses at this specific studio.

So that is what we’re speaking about once we take into consideration or discuss unbundling this stack. You see as we give you matters that we might pitch, we’re placing the writer first. All the time placing the writer first and recognizing the explanation that they publish.

Hone your pitch

That is the most important piece, guys. Why do they publish? They publish as a result of they need to promote providers and merchandise. So that you’re fascinated by matters and codecs which might be going to help that and that overlap with what you are promoting and the way you are functioning. Let’s examine. This is one other good tip. Attempt to get calls to motion on your writer into the title.

So we may revise this one. Ten causes to repair roof earlier than sale of house. No, 10 causes to name a roofer earlier than you place your house up on the market, or 10 causes to name a roofer now if you are going to put your house up on the market in April.

So once more, you are actually honing your pitch for the supposed goal of this writer group. You are considering past the article. We talked about it a little bit bit, talked about this earlier. You are fascinated by FAQs. You are fascinated by glossaries.

Discover completely different codecs

What different codecs may very well be sturdy, potential codecs? An infographic, a small, little infographic. Any of those may very well be defined or supported by way of the usage of graphics. Once more, that is the kind of doc or pitch that may very well be actually efficient, as a result of the writer goes to see instantly the way it may benefit their gross sales, the explanation why they publish.

Key phrase analysis

You are an search engine marketing, proper? You are going to lean into keyword research in your pitch. Hey, it seems such as you’re not rating for a few of these phrases in your space. Once more, there must be overlap for these phrases and with what you are attempting to promote it or with what your matter must be.

However if you happen to’ve obtained some foundation behind your pitch, some key phrase analysis to help your matter and why it will profit the writer, you are miles forward of anyone else who’s pitching them. 

Assist promote

Then you possibly can even supply some promotion. You are going to hyperlink to it from one other placement if you happen to get one other one. You are going to put it up on Twitter to your following. You are going to point out it on Fb, and so on. Perhaps even purchase some advertisements for it. 

Reality-based citations

Now one of many key items right here, it is form of hidden down right here on the backside. You are going to be sure that if you’re linking to your pages in your website, you are doing it within the context of a fact-based quotation. Ideally you’ve got obtained one thing in your gross sales web page, we name it a citable factor, that is fact-based, ideally your individual information that helps a purchase order choice in the end. 

For instance, if you recognize that your ovens do greatest with natural flour at 412 levels as an alternative of 418 and you have got the info to help that, effectively, that is an ideal place and motive to hyperlink again to your oven web page that may have that information level talked about on it.

You are greatest served by linking in a justifiable method, and that is particularly once we’re speaking about information and we’re speaking about some form of quotation that must be linked, the place the hyperlink is totally obligatory, a quote for instance.

So once more, this mannequin or this strategy must be supported by citable components dwelling in your gross sales pages or no matter web page you are linking to, if you happen to select to go this route and never essentially do gross sales pages. 

Conclusion

Whoo, I feel that is about it, of us.

In all probability a number of questions. However that is our strategy to visitor posting on sales-supported publishers. Give it a shot and let me know the way it goes. Love to listen to from you at garrett@citationlabs.com — blissful to reply any questions. 

Thanks, of us.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

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[annashipper]

JT Anon

A passing thought, wondering what others think. I think that the nans have been a bigger concern for BC & his team than we thought. At least than I thought. I think that BC & his team really rely on them, particularly the ones who have high traffic social media, to do a lot of promotion for him. Especially projects that don’t have big houses behind them.

I think they rely on the  social media ubers to hype his work and make it appear to be way, way more hotly anticipated than it actually is. Its why they have gone the sophomoric direction w their promotion of him imo. A little bit of beatlemania style promo is natural, especially w male celebs, but BC brand seemed to be ALL internet boyf ALL the time. As much as we talk about how talented he can sometimes me, I always got the feeling that every time they attempted to dip their toe into the “he is actually an artist worth watching who is quite good at his craft, you’ve all been missing his talent” pool, they would freak if he wasn’t immediately trending and go screaming back to “don’t you wanna know what the hype is about!? the internets boyfriend!!!"

All that is to say, i think w regards to the sham, this has been a big consideration. I think they are painfully aware that whatever they do, however they handle this, they do not want the ubers to turn on BC in anyway. We’ve spent so long mapping out potential ends to this. At this point, if this wraps up neatly w BC single, Sophie no longer his wife and out of the picture, and him childless (w all of those events having been timed for media pushes, then silent when no push is present), there WILL be a few nans who, whether they admit it or not, who will realise that at the very least, some deception on the part of their god was had, and it was towards them, the ones he was supposed to be honest w (you know, REAL fans). I think his PR is painfully aware of this. That SM and his other projects do NOT have Marvel/Disney to promote his work, that he is NOT that famous as far as the general public goes, and that they NEED these fans to make him and his work appear to have way more interest than he does. To lose them, in their mind I believe, is a huge risk. For them to even begin to think for a second that BC lied about his family, something they have been weirdly fantasising about for him for years, would be a big quite the tightrope. (Despite the fact that, as far as "things Harvey Weinstein has made actors do, this wouldn’t even break the top 10 worst and weirdest)

That leaves him and his team in a tight spot. Even a simple divorce w out a "not his”, while it won’t register w the gen pub, risks causing waves in nanny land. Then BC and his team lose their free hype machines. Do they have the money or talent to be able to build him up to look like an actual professional artist, and promote him on their own like he is an adult star? im starting to question whether thats a possibility.

I won’t mention how I personally believe that PR have boxed themselves in, and the only two ways I think they have to get out of this if they want to try and centre the uber nans reaction and access to their free labour in the future, but needless to say, if I am even kinda right, i think whatever out we see, whenever it happens, will be one of two outs.

Thats not entirely true though, there is ONE other way they could get out of this and be stronger going forward. Cut out the nanny middle man and developed his own, professional, adult artist social media. But that is scary, required hard work, talent, a belief in BC art and talent and its ability for his skill to carry the show, and maybe a bit of growing pains.

Or they can keep marketing him like a Nickelodeon performer who occasionally gets some decent bit parts

J can promote myself T anon

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

JT, the premise of your assumption is a very interesting one, but I have to say I disagree with all of your individual conclusions.

The only Ubers anyone takes seriously are CWeb (because she’s proven she actually has an in with Ben’s PR) and ATCB (because that account is probably run by UTA).

No one cares about the hysterics of the Nans or the apple fritters references on twitter; just like no one outside of the fandom cares about the Nans and the Skeptics and the Antis on Tumblr.  

The fact of the matter remains:  Ben’s clickability has taken a major hit since Harvey took over his image for The Imitation Game promo.  Unfortunately, it’s gone downhill ever since.  

Partly because he just can’t smile with his eyes anymore and partly because the projects he’s been involved in didn’t have the same payoff one would have hoped for.

Doctor Strange promo was a bust and the movie itself wasn’t great to be honest (a fact I wholeheartedly blame on Sccott Derrickson and his script).  The fact that The Abominable Bride and the fourth season of Sherlock weren’t as brilliant as the previous three seasons didn’t help either.

Anyway, I think the only way to showcase Ben’s clickability is through a Google Trends graph.  It references global Google searches from January 2010 to today:

You know how I don’t believe in coincidences because I’m a fan of Mycroft’s?  Well, I’ve marked the peaks on the above graph, so let’s try to decipher what makes Benedict Cumberbatch hot at certain points in time:

January 2012:  Sherlock season 2 airs

May 2013:  Star Trek Into Darkness is released in theatres

January 2014:  Sherlock season 3 airs

November 2014:  TIG promo kicks into high gear and the gag is announced

January 2015:  Oscar season is at its height and pap walks are almost daily

January 2016:  The Abominable Bride airs

November 2016:  Doctor Strange is released in theatres

January 2017:  Sherlock season 4 airs

I’m sure we’re not the only ones who’ve noticed that the peaks in clickability when it comes to Ben’s name are steadily dropping, while the casual interest in him is on the decline as well.  

Back to the premise you were discussing:  You make the assumption that the Nans are what’s driving clickability when it comes to Ben’s name.  If that were the case, Weirdo would have achieved fetch by now.  And yet... I don’t see any major studios signing her on for a project.  I don’t see any theatres begging her to direct (or operate) a play / opera / mandarin juggling marathon.  I don’t even see her grace London Fashion Week with her presence as the avant garde fashionista that she is.  

The fact of the matter is Ben’s die-hard fans (whether they’re Nans, Antis or Skeptics) comprise a very small subset of the general public, no one cares about.  Because no matter whether I’ll go to see Infinity Wars 1 time or 100 times, I’m just a drop in the ocean when compared to the Marvel target group.  That’s just the way it is.

Add to that the fact that the Nans haven’t been all that helpful to get Ben’s or Weirdo’s names trending on social media, and you have your answer as to where they rate on the scale.  In fact, the second hand embarrassment from the way some of his die hard Stans handle themselves on social media have forced a large part of his fandom to take a conscious step back from his more... avid defenders.

It’s a problem.

Let’s take Tumblr Fandometrics for example:  I don’t even know how many weeks Ben has actually been on the list this year, although I can guarantee he’s spent more weeks off the list than on it.  All it took for him to shoot straight to number 12 this week was an Intagram post by Robert Downey Jr (who didn’t even make the list himself).  Because people want to like Ben; all he has to do is smile with his eyes.

Anyway, as far as outs are concerned, I can see the writing on the wall already.  I’m simply waiting to see whether Ben will hold his ground and we’ll get a split announcement just as The Current War promo starts.  If not, I expect a third fake pregnancy to be announced to the world on the engagement announcement anniversary.  Because Ben’s brain doesn’t seem to function fully during November for some reason.

[adolphkwinter]

17 Charts That Show Where Content Marketing is Heading

I started content marketing in the early days. So early that when I first met the WordPress founder, he had just raised $1.1 million for WordPress.

Fast forward to today and WordPress is worth over a billion dollars.

Similarly, when I first started with content marketing, there were less than 30 million blogs that existed and now there are over a billion.

In other words, things have changed drastically and now it’s what more competitive.

We are at a point where you already know you need to leverage content marketing. But what areas of content marketing should you focus on?

How many blog posts do you need to write? What are the best ways to monetize your traffic?

How can you ensure that what you are doing will work in the future?

To shed some light on where content marketing is headed, I’ve gathered data from 183 companies who are all leveraging content marketing. Each company makes at least 5 million dollars in revenue a year and generates less than $1.9 billion a year.

These companies are in all different sectors, from B2B to B2C, and are part of all the major industries out there. Most importantly, they have been leveraging content marketing for at least 8 years.

Now, I know many of you don’t have a company that generates at least 5 million dollars a year, but the stats and data I will show you are still relevant to your blog.

So, let’s dive into the stats to see where content marketing is headed.

Expect less traffic from social sites

What do you think has happened to social shares over time?

As you probably guessed, social shares have gone down because the algorithms (like on Facebook) really limit organic reach.

In the early days, people saw big lifts in their social share count due to the fact that these social sites were still growing in popularity. But once their growth slowed down, so did the number of times the shares each piece of content generated.

If you are wondering why just think of it this way… when people share content on social sites it drives users off of the platform. By keeping people on Facebook longer (or any other social platform), they make more money as people click on ads.

If you are expecting to grow your blog through the social web, think again. It’s slowly driving less and less traffic each year and you should expect it to get worse.

You need to take an omnichannel approach, but focus on search

Can you guess what’s the most popular traffic channel for a blog?

SEO made up 51% of the blog’s traffic and to no surprise, social media was the 5th most popular channel.

But what was surprising is that referral traffic was in 3rd place at 11% and email was at 9%.

Instead of just focusing on link building to boost your rankings, you should focus on link building to also increase your referral traffic. In essence, you can get more bang for your buck by increasing two different ways to drive traffic with one strategy.

Whether it is guest posting or generating PR, you should try and get as much referral traffic as possible as it creates steady traffic that isn’t too affected by algorithm updates.

As for email, you may think it’s dead, but it’s alive and kicking strong. Remember, everyone who works in the corporate world still uses email.

Don’t be shy about collecting emails. You can use tools like Hello Bar to do this with ease.

Now going back to SEO for a moment… here’s why you have to blog.

As you can see from the graph above, Google has continually shifted from ranking web pages to pushing up content over time. And it doesn’t look like that the trend is stopping anytime soon.

Blogs are generating, on average, 60 to 62 percent of a site’s search traffic. Sure, it’s going to be different for the Amazon’s of the world, but you aren’t them… and neither am I.

SEO is also getting more competitive because there are more blogs popping up and people are creating tons of content. But you have no choice but to do the same if you want to keep up.

You need to build a content marketing team…

Well, just look at it this way…

On average, mid-sized companies now have at least 2 full-time employees managing their blog. It’s because they know content marketing isn’t going anywhere without putting in real effort and you need to take it seriously if you want to grow fast.

And on top of having dedicated employees, the average mid-sized company has a bit more than 10 contractors working on their blog.

Now, I don’t want you to get scared by that number as a lot of those contractors are writing content. They are not working full time… it’s as simple as some of them writing only a handful of content pieces a month.

Or it could be as simple as them helping you produce video content or create infographics.

With your blog, you should consider hiring more contractors as writers instead of hiring full-time employees as it is cheaper.

It’s also more efficient to have contractors as you can scale up and down faster. On top of that, you’ll find that you will save money in the long run as contractors and consultant tends to be cheaper than full-time employees.

You need to write on average 5.7 articles a week

Out of the 183 blogs we talked to, they publish 22.8 pieces of content per month on average.

And can you guess how long each of them is?

Well, they say that if you want to rank on page 1, you need to write content that is 1,890 words.

Most of the blogs we analyzed and talked to all followed one common theme… as time went on, they started writing longer posts.

They are now averaging 2,118 words per post. In 2016 that number peaked out at 2,381 words because people started producing in-depth guides, which caused that number to spike.

But what they found over time is that writing content that is too in-depth, such as guides, doesn’t necessarily guarantee higher rankings.

To give you an idea, years ago I wrote a 30,000-word guide on SEO. Can you guess what page it ranks on for the term SEO?

It ranks on page 2.

Now, this guide to SEO is much shorter and ranks on page 1.

In other words, it is better for you to create more content than it is to create one super long blog post.

Think of your content as fishing hooks. If you have more fishing hooks out, there is a greater chance of catching a fish.

The same goes with blogging, the more content you create (assuming it is high quality), the higher the chance you’ll have of attracting more visitors.

Think of your blog as a funnel.

At the top of the funnel, you want to attract as many people as possible. The more people you attract, the more revenue you’ll eventually end up generating.

As you can see from the graph above, 24% of customers first found out about the company through their blog.

Now, that doesn’t mean they converted into a customer right when they landed on the blog for the first time. More so, they learned about the company first through their blog.

Not only do search engines love blogs, so do people. And the trend is continually rising over time.

Blog readers will boost your conversion rate

When someone reads your blog, it builds trust and causes your conversion rate to increase.

The graph above shows how someone who reads your blog is 74% more likely to convert into a customer compared to someone who hasn’t read your blog.

Advertising is only getting more expensive each year. By blogging more frequently, you can boost your conversion rates.

But don’t expect people to convert right away when they read your blog.

The average number of times someone needs to come back to your blog before they convert is 3.15 times and they tend to convert over a 2-week period of time.

Now, you’ll also find that as you create content people don’t just open up their wallets and give you their money. You need to push them to convert.

The trend we saw is that blogs are leveraging more methods than ever to convert visitors into customers.

Email marketing is the main method bloggers are using, which isn’t a surprise. But the number 2 method is remarketing.

When I dug into it, these companies on average spend $51,409 a month on paid ads. And each year they saw their ad costs drastically increase. But what’s helped reduce their blended CPA is remarketing all of their blog readers.

In the coming years, remarketing will overtake email as the main way companies are converting readers into customers.

You’ll want to leverage this channel as well as it is much more affordable than search ads.

Growth opportunities are outside the United States

What countries do you think most blog readers are coming from? You probably are going to guess the United States or other native English speaking countries.

It used to be that way 10 years ago, but things have changed.

At one point it was 91% but now it has dropped down to 53%. This has also created a trend in which companies are now translating their content to different languages.

It’s taken a while for companies to adopt the concept of globalization with their digital marketing but now it’s catching on fast.

I was able to ride the trend before most people because I got pushed to do so by a Google employee. It was the best marketing advice and it seems to be true for pretty much every blogger out there.

As you can see from the chart above, the biggest traffic gains content marketers are currently getting are from translating their content into multiple languages.

The second biggest gain is coming from updating old content. Content marketing is no longer a game of cranking out hundreds of articles a month. If you want to continually do well, you have to maintain and keep your old content up to date.

When you are building out your content marketing team, focus 50% of their effort on updating old content.

Move over WordPress

The last biggest trend is WordPress isn’t the only content player these days. If you are going to write a blog post, might as well get the most traffic by placing it everywhere.

Medium and Tumblr are also great for content. Remember, Google doesn’t penalize for duplicate content. There is nothing wrong with putting content on your blog and then publishing it on Medium and Tumblr a week later.

You can do the same with the social shares… in addition to sharing your content on Facebook, you can publish your whole post a week later on Facebook.

And if you are creating video and audio content you can upload them to Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and any other platform that will accept it.

You’ll see huge growth in video and audio content over the next few years.

Facebook, YouTube, and every major platform want their slice of the television market.

Because of that, their algorithms are acting more favorable to content types that keep people on their platform and engaged for hours… hence, you need to expand outside of just text-based content.

It’s also why I’m big on YouTube right now. It diversifies your traffic sources in case you get hit by a Google algorithm change.

Conclusion

If you are going to take one thing from the charts above, you need to focus on translating your content to other languages as it isn’t as competitive.

In addition to that, you need to focus on creating video and audio-based content. Videos have already starting to take off, podcasting isn’t there yet, but it will within the next few years.

I would also tell you to blog, but you probably already have one. 😉

What other content marketing trends have you noticed?

The post 17 Charts That Show Where Content Marketing is Heading appeared first on Neil Patel.

from Online Marketing Tips https://neilpatel.com/blog/content-marketing-future/

[seo78580]

17 Charts That Show Where Content Marketing is Heading

I started content marketing in the early days. So early that when I first met the WordPress founder, he had just raised $1.1 million for WordPress.

Fast forward to today and WordPress is worth over a billion dollars.

Similarly, when I first started with content marketing, there were less than 30 million blogs that existed and now there are over a billion.

In other words, things have changed drastically and now it’s what more competitive.

We are at a point where you already know you need to leverage content marketing. But what areas of content marketing should you focus on?

How many blog posts do you need to write? What are the best ways to monetize your traffic?

How can you ensure that what you are doing will work in the future?

To shed some light on where content marketing is headed, I’ve gathered data from 183 companies who are all leveraging content marketing. Each company makes at least 5 million dollars in revenue a year and generates less than $1.9 billion a year.

These companies are in all different sectors, from B2B to B2C, and are part of all the major industries out there. Most importantly, they have been leveraging content marketing for at least 8 years.

Now, I know many of you don’t have a company that generates at least 5 million dollars a year, but the stats and data I will show you are still relevant to your blog.

So, let’s dive into the stats to see where content marketing is headed.

Expect less traffic from social sites

What do you think has happened to social shares over time?

As you probably guessed, social shares have gone down because the algorithms (like on Facebook) really limit organic reach.

In the early days, people saw big lifts in their social share count due to the fact that these social sites were still growing in popularity. But once their growth slowed down, so did the number of times the shares each piece of content generated.

If you are wondering why just think of it this way… when people share content on social sites it drives users off of the platform. By keeping people on Facebook longer (or any other social platform), they make more money as people click on ads.

If you are expecting to grow your blog through the social web, think again. It’s slowly driving less and less traffic each year and you should expect it to get worse.

You need to take an omnichannel approach, but focus on search

Can you guess what’s the most popular traffic channel for a blog?

SEO made up 51% of the blog’s traffic and to no surprise, social media was the 5th most popular channel.

But what was surprising is that referral traffic was in 3rd place at 11% and email was at 9%.

Instead of just focusing on link building to boost your rankings, you should focus on link building to also increase your referral traffic. In essence, you can get more bang for your buck by increasing two different ways to drive traffic with one strategy.

Whether it is guest posting or generating PR, you should try and get as much referral traffic as possible as it creates steady traffic that isn’t too affected by algorithm updates.

As for email, you may think it’s dead, but it’s alive and kicking strong. Remember, everyone who works in the corporate world still uses email.

Don’t be shy about collecting emails. You can use tools like Hello Bar to do this with ease.

Now going back to SEO for a moment… here’s why you have to blog.

As you can see from the graph above, Google has continually shifted from ranking web pages to pushing up content over time. And it doesn’t look like that the trend is stopping anytime soon.

Blogs are generating, on average, 60 to 62 percent of a site’s search traffic. Sure, it’s going to be different for the Amazon’s of the world, but you aren’t them… and neither am I.

SEO is also getting more competitive because there are more blogs popping up and people are creating tons of content. But you have no choice but to do the same if you want to keep up.

You need to build a content marketing team…

Well, just look at it this way…

On average, mid-sized companies now have at least 2 full-time employees managing their blog. It’s because they know content marketing isn’t going anywhere without putting in real effort and you need to take it seriously if you want to grow fast.

And on top of having dedicated employees, the average mid-sized company has a bit more than 10 contractors working on their blog.

Now, I don’t want you to get scared by that number as a lot of those contractors are writing content. They are not working full time… it’s as simple as some of them writing only a handful of content pieces a month.

Or it could be as simple as them helping you produce video content or create infographics.

With your blog, you should consider hiring more contractors as writers instead of hiring full-time employees as it is cheaper.

It’s also more efficient to have contractors as you can scale up and down faster. On top of that, you’ll find that you will save money in the long run as contractors and consultant tends to be cheaper than full-time employees.

You need to write on average 5.7 articles a week

Out of the 183 blogs we talked to, they publish 22.8 pieces of content per month on average.

And can you guess how long each of them is?

Well, they say that if you want to rank on page 1, you need to write content that is 1,890 words.

Most of the blogs we analyzed and talked to all followed one common theme… as time went on, they started writing longer posts.

They are now averaging 2,118 words per post. In 2016 that number peaked out at 2,381 words because people started producing in-depth guides, which caused that number to spike.

But what they found over time is that writing content that is too in-depth, such as guides, doesn’t necessarily guarantee higher rankings.

To give you an idea, years ago I wrote a 30,000-word guide on SEO. Can you guess what page it ranks on for the term SEO?

It ranks on page 2.

Now, this guide to SEO is much shorter and ranks on page 1.

In other words, it is better for you to create more content than it is to create one super long blog post.

Think of your content as fishing hooks. If you have more fishing hooks out, there is a greater chance of catching a fish.

The same goes with blogging, the more content you create (assuming it is high quality), the higher the chance you’ll have of attracting more visitors.

Think of your blog as a funnel.

At the top of the funnel, you want to attract as many people as possible. The more people you attract, the more revenue you’ll eventually end up generating.

As you can see from the graph above, 24% of customers first found out about the company through their blog.

Now, that doesn’t mean they converted into a customer right when they landed on the blog for the first time. More so, they learned about the company first through their blog.

Not only do search engines love blogs, so do people. And the trend is continually rising over time.

Blog readers will boost your conversion rate

When someone reads your blog, it builds trust and causes your conversion rate to increase.

The graph above shows how someone who reads your blog is 74% more likely to convert into a customer compared to someone who hasn’t read your blog.

Advertising is only getting more expensive each year. By blogging more frequently, you can boost your conversion rates.

But don’t expect people to convert right away when they read your blog.

The average number of times someone needs to come back to your blog before they convert is 3.15 times and they tend to convert over a 2-week period of time.

Now, you’ll also find that as you create content people don’t just open up their wallets and give you their money. You need to push them to convert.

The trend we saw is that blogs are leveraging more methods than ever to convert visitors into customers.

Email marketing is the main method bloggers are using, which isn’t a surprise. But the number 2 method is remarketing.

When I dug into it, these companies on average spend $51,409 a month on paid ads. And each year they saw their ad costs drastically increase. But what’s helped reduce their blended CPA is remarketing all of their blog readers.

In the coming years, remarketing will overtake email as the main way companies are converting readers into customers.

You’ll want to leverage this channel as well as it is much more affordable than search ads.

Growth opportunities are outside the United States

What countries do you think most blog readers are coming from? You probably are going to guess the United States or other native English speaking countries.

It used to be that way 10 years ago, but things have changed.

At one point it was 91% but now it has dropped down to 53%. This has also created a trend in which companies are now translating their content to different languages.

It’s taken a while for companies to adopt the concept of globalization with their digital marketing but now it’s catching on fast.

I was able to ride the trend before most people because I got pushed to do so by a Google employee. It was the best marketing advice and it seems to be true for pretty much every blogger out there.

As you can see from the chart above, the biggest traffic gains content marketers are currently getting are from translating their content into multiple languages.

The second biggest gain is coming from updating old content. Content marketing is no longer a game of cranking out hundreds of articles a month. If you want to continually do well, you have to maintain and keep your old content up to date.

When you are building out your content marketing team, focus 50% of their effort on updating old content.

Move over WordPress

The last biggest trend is WordPress isn’t the only content player these days. If you are going to write a blog post, might as well get the most traffic by placing it everywhere.

Medium and Tumblr are also great for content. Remember, Google doesn’t penalize for duplicate content. There is nothing wrong with putting content on your blog and then publishing it on Medium and Tumblr a week later.

You can do the same with the social shares… in addition to sharing your content on Facebook, you can publish your whole post a week later on Facebook.

And if you are creating video and audio content you can upload them to Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and any other platform that will accept it.

You’ll see huge growth in video and audio content over the next few years.

Facebook, YouTube, and every major platform want their slice of the television market.

Because of that, their algorithms are acting more favorable to content types that keep people on their platform and engaged for hours… hence, you need to expand outside of just text-based content.

It’s also why I’m big on YouTube right now. It diversifies your traffic sources in case you get hit by a Google algorithm change.

Conclusion

If you are going to take one thing from the charts above, you need to focus on translating your content to other languages as it isn’t as competitive.

In addition to that, you need to focus on creating video and audio-based content. Videos have already starting to take off, podcasting isn’t there yet, but it will within the next few years.

I would also tell you to blog, but you probably already have one. 😉

What other content marketing trends have you noticed?

The post 17 Charts That Show Where Content Marketing is Heading appeared first on Neil Patel.

from DIYS https://ift.tt/2UGWDPC

[goldieseoservices]

17 Charts That Show Where Content Marketing is Heading

I started content marketing in the early days. So early that when I first met the WordPress founder, he had just raised $1.1 million for WordPress.

Fast forward to today and WordPress is worth over a billion dollars.

Similarly, when I first started with content marketing, there were less than 30 million blogs that existed and now there are over a billion.

In other words, things have changed drastically and now it’s what more competitive.

We are at a point where you already know you need to leverage content marketing. But what areas of content marketing should you focus on?

How many blog posts do you need to write? What are the best ways to monetize your traffic?

How can you ensure that what you are doing will work in the future?

To shed some light on where content marketing is headed, I’ve gathered data from 183 companies who are all leveraging content marketing. Each company makes at least 5 million dollars in revenue a year and generates less than $1.9 billion a year.

These companies are in all different sectors, from B2B to B2C, and are part of all the major industries out there. Most importantly, they have been leveraging content marketing for at least 8 years.

Now, I know many of you don’t have a company that generates at least 5 million dollars a year, but the stats and data I will show you are still relevant to your blog.

So, let’s dive into the stats to see where content marketing is headed.

Expect less traffic from social sites

What do you think has happened to social shares over time?

As you probably guessed, social shares have gone down because the algorithms (like on Facebook) really limit organic reach.

In the early days, people saw big lifts in their social share count due to the fact that these social sites were still growing in popularity. But once their growth slowed down, so did the number of times the shares each piece of content generated.

If you are wondering why just think of it this way… when people share content on social sites it drives users off of the platform. By keeping people on Facebook longer (or any other social platform), they make more money as people click on ads.

If you are expecting to grow your blog through the social web, think again. It’s slowly driving less and less traffic each year and you should expect it to get worse.

You need to take an omnichannel approach, but focus on search

Can you guess what’s the most popular traffic channel for a blog?

SEO made up 51% of the blog’s traffic and to no surprise, social media was the 5th most popular channel.

But what was surprising is that referral traffic was in 3rd place at 11% and email was at 9%.

Instead of just focusing on link building to boost your rankings, you should focus on link building to also increase your referral traffic. In essence, you can get more bang for your buck by increasing two different ways to drive traffic with one strategy.

Whether it is guest posting or generating PR, you should try and get as much referral traffic as possible as it creates steady traffic that isn’t too affected by algorithm updates.

As for email, you may think it’s dead, but it’s alive and kicking strong. Remember, everyone who works in the corporate world still uses email.

Don’t be shy about collecting emails. You can use tools like Hello Bar to do this with ease.

Now going back to SEO for a moment… here’s why you have to blog.

As you can see from the graph above, Google has continually shifted from ranking web pages to pushing up content over time. And it doesn’t look like that the trend is stopping anytime soon.

Blogs are generating, on average, 60 to 62 percent of a site’s search traffic. Sure, it’s going to be different for the Amazon’s of the world, but you aren’t them… and neither am I.

SEO is also getting more competitive because there are more blogs popping up and people are creating tons of content. But you have no choice but to do the same if you want to keep up.

You need to build a content marketing team…

Well, just look at it this way…

On average, mid-sized companies now have at least 2 full-time employees managing their blog. It’s because they know content marketing isn’t going anywhere without putting in real effort and you need to take it seriously if you want to grow fast.

And on top of having dedicated employees, the average mid-sized company has a bit more than 10 contractors working on their blog.

Now, I don’t want you to get scared by that number as a lot of those contractors are writing content. They are not working full time… it’s as simple as some of them writing only a handful of content pieces a month.

Or it could be as simple as them helping you produce video content or create infographics.

With your blog, you should consider hiring more contractors as writers instead of hiring full-time employees as it is cheaper.

It’s also more efficient to have contractors as you can scale up and down faster. On top of that, you’ll find that you will save money in the long run as contractors and consultant tends to be cheaper than full-time employees.

You need to write on average 5.7 articles a week

Out of the 183 blogs we talked to, they publish 22.8 pieces of content per month on average.

And can you guess how long each of them is?

Well, they say that if you want to rank on page 1, you need to write content that is 1,890 words.

Most of the blogs we analyzed and talked to all followed one common theme… as time went on, they started writing longer posts.

They are now averaging 2,118 words per post. In 2016 that number peaked out at 2,381 words because people started producing in-depth guides, which caused that number to spike.

But what they found over time is that writing content that is too in-depth, such as guides, doesn’t necessarily guarantee higher rankings.

To give you an idea, years ago I wrote a 30,000-word guide on SEO. Can you guess what page it ranks on for the term SEO?

It ranks on page 2.

Now, this guide to SEO is much shorter and ranks on page 1.

In other words, it is better for you to create more content than it is to create one super long blog post.

Think of your content as fishing hooks. If you have more fishing hooks out, there is a greater chance of catching a fish.

The same goes with blogging, the more content you create (assuming it is high quality), the higher the chance you’ll have of attracting more visitors.

Think of your blog as a funnel.

At the top of the funnel, you want to attract as many people as possible. The more people you attract, the more revenue you’ll eventually end up generating.

As you can see from the graph above, 24% of customers first found out about the company through their blog.

Now, that doesn’t mean they converted into a customer right when they landed on the blog for the first time. More so, they learned about the company first through their blog.

Not only do search engines love blogs, so do people. And the trend is continually rising over time.

Blog readers will boost your conversion rate

When someone reads your blog, it builds trust and causes your conversion rate to increase.

The graph above shows how someone who reads your blog is 74% more likely to convert into a customer compared to someone who hasn’t read your blog.

Advertising is only getting more expensive each year. By blogging more frequently, you can boost your conversion rates.

But don’t expect people to convert right away when they read your blog.

The average number of times someone needs to come back to your blog before they convert is 3.15 times and they tend to convert over a 2-week period of time.

Now, you’ll also find that as you create content people don’t just open up their wallets and give you their money. You need to push them to convert.

The trend we saw is that blogs are leveraging more methods than ever to convert visitors into customers.

Email marketing is the main method bloggers are using, which isn’t a surprise. But the number 2 method is remarketing.

When I dug into it, these companies on average spend $51,409 a month on paid ads. And each year they saw their ad costs drastically increase. But what’s helped reduce their blended CPA is remarketing all of their blog readers.

In the coming years, remarketing will overtake email as the main way companies are converting readers into customers.

You’ll want to leverage this channel as well as it is much more affordable than search ads.

Growth opportunities are outside the United States

What countries do you think most blog readers are coming from? You probably are going to guess the United States or other native English speaking countries.

It used to be that way 10 years ago, but things have changed.

At one point it was 91% but now it has dropped down to 53%. This has also created a trend in which companies are now translating their content to different languages.

It’s taken a while for companies to adopt the concept of globalization with their digital marketing but now it’s catching on fast.

I was able to ride the trend before most people because I got pushed to do so by a Google employee. It was the best marketing advice and it seems to be true for pretty much every blogger out there.

As you can see from the chart above, the biggest traffic gains content marketers are currently getting are from translating their content into multiple languages.

The second biggest gain is coming from updating old content. Content marketing is no longer a game of cranking out hundreds of articles a month. If you want to continually do well, you have to maintain and keep your old content up to date.

When you are building out your content marketing team, focus 50% of their effort on updating old content.

Move over WordPress

The last biggest trend is WordPress isn’t the only content player these days. If you are going to write a blog post, might as well get the most traffic by placing it everywhere.

Medium and Tumblr are also great for content. Remember, Google doesn’t penalize for duplicate content. There is nothing wrong with putting content on your blog and then publishing it on Medium and Tumblr a week later.

You can do the same with the social shares… in addition to sharing your content on Facebook, you can publish your whole post a week later on Facebook.

And if you are creating video and audio content you can upload them to Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and any other platform that will accept it.

You’ll see huge growth in video and audio content over the next few years.

Facebook, YouTube, and every major platform want their slice of the television market.

Because of that, their algorithms are acting more favorable to content types that keep people on their platform and engaged for hours… hence, you need to expand outside of just text-based content.

It’s also why I’m big on YouTube right now. It diversifies your traffic sources in case you get hit by a Google algorithm change.

Conclusion

If you are going to take one thing from the charts above, you need to focus on translating your content to other languages as it isn’t as competitive.

In addition to that, you need to focus on creating video and audio-based content. Videos have already starting to take off, podcasting isn’t there yet, but it will within the next few years.

I would also tell you to blog, but you probably already have one. 😉

What other content marketing trends have you noticed?

The post 17 Charts That Show Where Content Marketing is Heading appeared first on Neil Patel.

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17 Charts That Show Where Content Marketing is Heading

I started content marketing in the early days. So early that when I first met the WordPress founder, he had just raised $1.1 million for WordPress.

Fast forward to today and WordPress is worth over a billion dollars.

Similarly, when I first started with content marketing, there were less than 30 million blogs that existed and now there are over a billion.

In other words, things have changed drastically and now it’s what more competitive.

We are at a point where you already know you need to leverage content marketing. But what areas of content marketing should you focus on?

How many blog posts do you need to write? What are the best ways to monetize your traffic?

How can you ensure that what you are doing will work in the future?

To shed some light on where content marketing is headed, I’ve gathered data from 183 companies who are all leveraging content marketing. Each company makes at least 5 million dollars in revenue a year and generates less than $1.9 billion a year.

These companies are in all different sectors, from B2B to B2C, and are part of all the major industries out there. Most importantly, they have been leveraging content marketing for at least 8 years.

Now, I know many of you don’t have a company that generates at least 5 million dollars a year, but the stats and data I will show you are still relevant to your blog.

So, let’s dive into the stats to see where content marketing is headed.

Expect less traffic from social sites

What do you think has happened to social shares over time?

As you probably guessed, social shares have gone down because the algorithms (like on Facebook) really limit organic reach.

In the early days, people saw big lifts in their social share count due to the fact that these social sites were still growing in popularity. But once their growth slowed down, so did the number of times the shares each piece of content generated.

If you are wondering why just think of it this way… when people share content on social sites it drives users off of the platform. By keeping people on Facebook longer (or any other social platform), they make more money as people click on ads.

If you are expecting to grow your blog through the social web, think again. It’s slowly driving less and less traffic each year and you should expect it to get worse.

You need to take an omnichannel approach, but focus on search

Can you guess what’s the most popular traffic channel for a blog?

SEO made up 51% of the blog’s traffic and to no surprise, social media was the 5th most popular channel.

But what was surprising is that referral traffic was in 3rd place at 11% and email was at 9%.

Instead of just focusing on link building to boost your rankings, you should focus on link building to also increase your referral traffic. In essence, you can get more bang for your buck by increasing two different ways to drive traffic with one strategy.

Whether it is guest posting or generating PR, you should try and get as much referral traffic as possible as it creates steady traffic that isn’t too affected by algorithm updates.

As for email, you may think it’s dead, but it’s alive and kicking strong. Remember, everyone who works in the corporate world still uses email.

Don’t be shy about collecting emails. You can use tools like Hello Bar to do this with ease.

Now going back to SEO for a moment… here’s why you have to blog.

As you can see from the graph above, Google has continually shifted from ranking web pages to pushing up content over time. And it doesn’t look like that the trend is stopping anytime soon.

Blogs are generating, on average, 60 to 62 percent of a site’s search traffic. Sure, it’s going to be different for the Amazon’s of the world, but you aren’t them… and neither am I.

SEO is also getting more competitive because there are more blogs popping up and people are creating tons of content. But you have no choice but to do the same if you want to keep up.

You need to build a content marketing team…

Well, just look at it this way…

On average, mid-sized companies now have at least 2 full-time employees managing their blog. It’s because they know content marketing isn’t going anywhere without putting in real effort and you need to take it seriously if you want to grow fast.

And on top of having dedicated employees, the average mid-sized company has a bit more than 10 contractors working on their blog.

Now, I don’t want you to get scared by that number as a lot of those contractors are writing content. They are not working full time… it’s as simple as some of them writing only a handful of content pieces a month.

Or it could be as simple as them helping you produce video content or create infographics.

With your blog, you should consider hiring more contractors as writers instead of hiring full-time employees as it is cheaper.

It’s also more efficient to have contractors as you can scale up and down faster. On top of that, you’ll find that you will save money in the long run as contractors and consultant tends to be cheaper than full-time employees.

You need to write on average 5.7 articles a week

Out of the 183 blogs we talked to, they publish 22.8 pieces of content per month on average.

And can you guess how long each of them is?

Well, they say that if you want to rank on page 1, you need to write content that is 1,890 words.

Most of the blogs we analyzed and talked to all followed one common theme… as time went on, they started writing longer posts.

They are now averaging 2,118 words per post. In 2016 that number peaked out at 2,381 words because people started producing in-depth guides, which caused that number to spike.

But what they found over time is that writing content that is too in-depth, such as guides, doesn’t necessarily guarantee higher rankings.

To give you an idea, years ago I wrote a 30,000-word guide on SEO. Can you guess what page it ranks on for the term SEO?

It ranks on page 2.

Now, this guide to SEO is much shorter and ranks on page 1.

In other words, it is better for you to create more content than it is to create one super long blog post.

Think of your content as fishing hooks. If you have more fishing hooks out, there is a greater chance of catching a fish.

The same goes with blogging, the more content you create (assuming it is high quality), the higher the chance you’ll have of attracting more visitors.

Think of your blog as a funnel.

At the top of the funnel, you want to attract as many people as possible. The more people you attract, the more revenue you’ll eventually end up generating.

As you can see from the graph above, 24% of customers first found out about the company through their blog.

Now, that doesn’t mean they converted into a customer right when they landed on the blog for the first time. More so, they learned about the company first through their blog.

Not only do search engines love blogs, so do people. And the trend is continually rising over time.

Blog readers will boost your conversion rate

When someone reads your blog, it builds trust and causes your conversion rate to increase.

The graph above shows how someone who reads your blog is 74% more likely to convert into a customer compared to someone who hasn’t read your blog.

Advertising is only getting more expensive each year. By blogging more frequently, you can boost your conversion rates.

But don’t expect people to convert right away when they read your blog.

The average number of times someone needs to come back to your blog before they convert is 3.15 times and they tend to convert over a 2-week period of time.

Now, you’ll also find that as you create content people don’t just open up their wallets and give you their money. You need to push them to convert.

The trend we saw is that blogs are leveraging more methods than ever to convert visitors into customers.

Email marketing is the main method bloggers are using, which isn’t a surprise. But the number 2 method is remarketing.

When I dug into it, these companies on average spend $51,409 a month on paid ads. And each year they saw their ad costs drastically increase. But what’s helped reduce their blended CPA is remarketing all of their blog readers.

In the coming years, remarketing will overtake email as the main way companies are converting readers into customers.

You’ll want to leverage this channel as well as it is much more affordable than search ads.

Growth opportunities are outside the United States

What countries do you think most blog readers are coming from? You probably are going to guess the United States or other native English speaking countries.

It used to be that way 10 years ago, but things have changed.

At one point it was 91% but now it has dropped down to 53%. This has also created a trend in which companies are now translating their content to different languages.

It’s taken a while for companies to adopt the concept of globalization with their digital marketing but now it’s catching on fast.

I was able to ride the trend before most people because I got pushed to do so by a Google employee. It was the best marketing advice and it seems to be true for pretty much every blogger out there.

As you can see from the chart above, the biggest traffic gains content marketers are currently getting are from translating their content into multiple languages.

The second biggest gain is coming from updating old content. Content marketing is no longer a game of cranking out hundreds of articles a month. If you want to continually do well, you have to maintain and keep your old content up to date.

When you are building out your content marketing team, focus 50% of their effort on updating old content.

Move over WordPress

The last biggest trend is WordPress isn’t the only content player these days. If you are going to write a blog post, might as well get the most traffic by placing it everywhere.

Medium and Tumblr are also great for content. Remember, Google doesn’t penalize for duplicate content. There is nothing wrong with putting content on your blog and then publishing it on Medium and Tumblr a week later.

You can do the same with the social shares… in addition to sharing your content on Facebook, you can publish your whole post a week later on Facebook.

And if you are creating video and audio content you can upload them to Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and any other platform that will accept it.

You’ll see huge growth in video and audio content over the next few years.

Facebook, YouTube, and every major platform want their slice of the television market.

Because of that, their algorithms are acting more favorable to content types that keep people on their platform and engaged for hours… hence, you need to expand outside of just text-based content.

It’s also why I’m big on YouTube right now. It diversifies your traffic sources in case you get hit by a Google algorithm change.

Conclusion

If you are going to take one thing from the charts above, you need to focus on translating your content to other languages as it isn’t as competitive.

In addition to that, you need to focus on creating video and audio-based content. Videos have already starting to take off, podcasting isn’t there yet, but it will within the next few years.

I would also tell you to blog, but you probably already have one. 😉

What other content marketing trends have you noticed?

The post 17 Charts That Show Where Content Marketing is Heading appeared first on Neil Patel.

17 Charts That Show Where Content Marketing is Heading Publicado primeiro em https://neilpatel.com