#or it's a valid point but is poorly written or expressed or your tone is weirdly hostile

[utilitycaster]

This is sort of salty but one of my tumblr/social media pet peeves is when people assume the cause of a lack of engagement is anything and everything other than "people are not picking up what you're putting down." Like, yeah, there are people who like and don't reblog your fic or your long post, but sometimes it's because people liked your post to save it for later, read it and said "hmmmm I don't care for this" and then never cleared out their likes. I'm a big proponent of reblogging your own work that you're proud of but sometimes you have to admit that people are seeing it and saying "hard pass". And to be clear, I cannot judge with any objectivity if you are a misunderstood genius or a massive idiot, though I'll certainly have my own thoughts on it, but usually a post not getting notes isn't a conspiracy against you or other people's fear of being uncool or them not knowing how to use the website; sometimes people just didn't like what you said or even were merely totally apathetic to it. At the very least if you're incapable of humility and self reflection you should just assume you are a misunderstood genius and move on instead of sulking. If you are, in some cosmic truth, a massive idiot, this won't improve that situation, but you'll probably feel better and won't alienate people further by being both an idiot AND a sulker.

[statistical-improbabilities]

OCtober Day 9: Mentor

thanks again to @oc-growth-and-development! I swear I’ve written more this month than I have all year thanks to this.

This is another glimpse into a character’s backstory, this time for my best dude Pallas Galvan. His father is a powerful advisor to a powerful king, and Pallas really just wants validation, man.

The meeting in the war room had gone on for over five hours, and Pallas was getting tired of waiting.

He’d had to sit alone during dinner, with an empty chair across the table where his father should have been. There had been a number of other empty chairs as well for other lords and even the king himself, but his father’s was the only one he noticed. He kept looking over at it as he talked to Amadeo and finished his food, and when the end of the meal came, he couldn’t excuse himself quickly enough.

He raced through the halls of the palace, tracing a familiar path to his own room and then his father’s nearby. Both were empty when he checked, which meant that the meeting wasn’t yet over. Pallas was bored. He’d finished his lessons for the day, and none of the guards had time to spar with him, and Amadeo had princely duties of some sort to attend to.

So like any curious boy his age would do, Pallas headed for the war room. He knew he wasn’t supposed to come in, not when the king was meeting with his advisors and other nobles, but there was nothing saying that he couldn’t listen from outside. Especially when the guards held their position from inside the room during meetings.

Crouching down onto his knees, Pallas pressed an ear to the crack between the door and its frame. He could hear snippets of the weary conversation going on inside—something about borders, and controlling them, and pushing past them. “—need to push past their lines,” rumbled the king’s voice, obviously irate, and his father’s even tone arose to soothe his fury.

“A false retreat, perhaps,” said his father, and just from the sound of his voice, Pallas knew he was smiling. “It proved effective in years past.”

“Won’t that break international law?” came the voice of another advisor, dripping with condescension, but Pallas’s father was ready for that.

“Laws like that don’t apply in wartime,” countered his father. “Sabotage and deception are the tools that mark a great victory, and to not use every tool at your disposal is to admit defeat before the battle has even begun.”

They continued to speak in low and angered tones, until one of the guards on the other side of the door cleared his throat. Both Pallas and everyone inside the room fell silent, and then almost instantaneously, Pallas scrambled to his feet and started to run off.

He tore down the corridors, taking the first familiar turn he could identify in his panic, and ran smack into a guard’s chest. “It’s the Galvan boy,” said the guard, mildly surprised and mildly irritated all at once, and he placed his hands on Pallas’s shoulders to steady him. “What were you doing listening outside the war room?”

Pallas couldn’t come up with an excuse. He shouldn’t have even been in that wing of the palace. “My—my father’s been in there a long time… he missed dinner, and he—and he promised I could show him my report on the Hestrevan battles if I finished it by tonight.” It was a small hope, and most likely a useless one as well, considering how often his father had promised similar things and always been too busy to follow through, but there was always the chance that this would be the time.

The guard, however, wasn’t having it. “Go back up to your room,” he ordered, though perhaps not as sharply as he could have. “I’ll inform your father that you’re waiting there for him—after his meeting ends.” A bit dejected, Pallas could only nod, and he began the long trek back to his empty room.

Night had long since fallen by the time Pallas received a knock on his door. In fact, he’d nearly been asleep, but the sharp sound set him on alert again, and he fumbled to quickly light a lamp before hurrying to open the door.

“Pallas,” his father stated, entering the room before Pallas could tell him to come in. Pallas inclined his head slightly, then rushed to grab a nearby chair and set it beside his bed for his father. Once he had, Pallas sat back on the edge of his bed and proceeded to find his feet the most interesting thing in the room.

His father’s expression was stern. “The guards say you were eavesdropping outside the war room today.”

Pallas nodded, embarrassment turning the tips of his ears red. “I’m sorry. I didn’t—I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, the meeting just took longer than I expected, and I… thought you’d want to see my report before bed.”

His father glanced briefly towards the thin stack of papers on the nightstand. “What did you overhear?” he asked, rather than making any comment on the report. From that alone, Pallas knew he was in dangerous territory.

“Something about a false retreat. You said it’s worked in the past. It won’t work this time,” he added under his breath, not intending for it to be heard, but his father heard it all the same.

“And why not, Pallas?”

He’d naively assumed it to be a rhetorical question at first, but his father’s silence made it clear he was expecting an answer. Pallas swallowed nervously as he tried to collect his thoughts. He knew that if he answered wrong, it wouldn’t reflect well on his standing with his father.

“Because the other times I’ve read about false retreats being successful were on open land. This is about the northern border encampment? It’s in a valley between two mountains. If we pretend to retreat, we’ll have to go through a bottleneck to regain ground, which will put our army at risk and give the Osh the advantage. It won’t work.”

Looking as though he wanted to argue at first, Pallas’s father stopped to consider the point he’d made. Eventually, he nodded, conceding Pallas the point this time in a way that felt very much like a test more than anything else. At least he’d passed.

“What do you suggest we do instead?”

Well. He’d passed the first part of the test.

Pallas shifted in place, resting his head in one hand as he thought. His father’s questions made him nervous, but if he tried to ignore his father’s stare boring into his skull, it was almost like a game. A very risky game, but still a game, one where each move brought him closer to the victory that he craved.

“Use explosives to create a rockslide to block the main passage, then send additional forces to each of the smaller passages. If they try to go through us, we have the resources to fend them off, especially now that they have to divide themselves. We do too, but we have the upper hand because we know it’s coming.”

“Subtle,” said his father dryly, almost mockingly, and it would have been a condemnation had his mouth not twisted up into his signature crooked grin—the same one Pallas saw each time he looked into a mirror. “It’s not a foolproof plan… but it has some potential. I’ll give you that. And if part of the Osh army is caught in the main passage when the rockslide is triggered… it’s something to consider.”

Only then did Pallas breathe a quiet sigh of relief. He’d done well enough to pass his father’s test this time, and if he was feeling optimistic, he might even say that he’d impressed him with his solution. Of course, if his father brought his idea to the king and other advisors, he would claim it as his own, but Pallas couldn’t resist if that happened. It was a dangerous idea, after all.

After a moment, his father stood and made to leave. “But Father, my report?” Pallas asked hesitantly, also standing, hoping for very little. But much to his surprise, his father held his gaze, then carefully lifted the report Pallas had written and tucked it under his arm.

“I’ll review it tomorrow morning before breakfast,” his father said, and though it sounded rather noncommittal, it was more than Pallas had gotten out of him in the past. One more step closer to victory, one more step closer to approval at last.

“Sleep well, Father,” Pallas called after him, but his father only glanced back and closed the door behind him without a word. Pallas wasn’t bothered. He put out his lamp, then crawled back into bed and lay facing the balcony doors. The stars were hard to see that night, covered by clouds and poorly illuminated by a crescent moon, but Pallas hardly noticed as he drifted into a dreamless sleep.

His father had always had high standards for his behavior and his intentions, but that night, Pallas finally felt that he’d risen to meet them.

[bthump]

Based on the different arcs in the manga, what's your favorite Guts (like Black swordsman!Guts, Golden Age!Guts etc.)? Also do you prefer Femto or Neo Griffith?

Honestly, Black Swordsman Guts, especially in the Black Swordsman arc (tho he’s also p good in the Lost Children arc). The way he starts out as the epitome of the asshole antihero out for revenge and that image almost immediately starts crumbling until you’re shown that he’s terrified and pathetic and not a whole lot better than the monsters he’s fighting and really sad about a bad breakup.

The way he opens the story by banging an apostle on page one and eventually you realize that is one of a grand total of two occasions on which he’s had consensual sex. The way he ends the first arc crying after a kid swears vengeance against him. The end of the first chapter when he tortures the snake apostle and the art and tone shift to make Guts the villain and the monster the pitiable victim. Encouraging children to kill themselves because he’s upset. Refusing to admit how monstrous he’s getting when he gets temporarily possessed. Letting a zombie kid stab him.

The driving mystery of why Guts is so obsessed with revenge followed by the reveal that it’s because he had a relationship comparable to marriage with the dude he wants to kill and Griffith didn’t just betray him, they betrayed each other and like half of Guts’ motivation is guilt/distracting himself from guilt.

The way his current situation, haunted by monsters claiming ownership of him after being given to them by someone he loves reflects his childhood so effectively.

I mean yeah part of what makes Black Swordsman Guts great is what the Golden Age reveals about him too, but I’ll still take Black Swordsman over the happy Golden Age version.

For one thing, when Black Swordsman Guts is a dick, the narrative is very clear on that being a negative thing. While when Golden Age Guts is a dick (eg most of his scenes with Casca) it feels like we’re supposed to find that at least somewhat endearing. And also like… I just really, really love the way Miura starts Guts out as strong badass archetype and then immediately sets about complicating it by answering the question of: what would make a real human person this fucking over the top and ridiculous? What’s actually underneath the cool image?

Like Guts goes from badass mccool 80s action hero send up to being directly compared to Vargas in terms of how sad and pathetic he is within a couple chapters, and it’s So. Good.

Answer to your second question under the cut

This question… is actually a very tough call lol. Like yeah okay the smart money’s on the character whose introduction didn’t include a gratuitious rape scene, but I genuinely love Femto regardless? Mostly because I disregard that choice of intro since it was um Badly Written lol, and Femto had me at

And I just love dark inner monsters as a concept in general despite the author’s reliance on rape as his primary illustration of evil.

On potential alone I’d go with NeoGriffith, because boy he is full of potential to be amazing depending on where those hints about his feelings, isolation of being a singular god, etc go. But what we actually see from him is like… so bland 99% of the time. Like yeah that’s purposeful, that’s a big part of the point, but still. He does feel like a shell of the old Griffith, literally - the outside with v little of the depth (so far).

I can headcanon and theorize a bunch to make him interesting to me, and I do, but idk if that counts lol.

So as for what we’ve got on the page and how seeing him makes me feel, I’m actually going to pick Femto. Like, the same way I inwardly cheered when we saw Guts’ slasher smile at Godo’s after he killed the pig apostle, because it was such a “he’s baaaaaack” moment, I cheered when we saw Femto confront Ganeshka. I love his stupid offensive camp villain makeup, I love his stupid exoskeleton, I love what a petty asshole he is, I love how silent and scary he was when he first appeared and I love how awkward and pathetic he was when he lowered his hand and let Guts escape, I love that he expresses emotions, I love that Void had to basically tell him to shut up during his petty back and forth with Guts in his first scene, and I love him partially out of spite because Miura tried to make me hate him in the shittiest way possible.

Like yeah okay put your super gay character in vampy makeup and make him a rapist to piss off the manly protag while writing out the woman you have no idea what to do with, fuck you I love him anyway.

I have a tendency to love the characters the narrative goes above and beyond to try to get me to hate, because I don’t like being told what to do lol, and if I feel like the narrative is pushing me to feel something without properly selling it/while poorly and/or offensively illustrating it I get contrary. Like basically the Eclipse rape only made me feel hate for Miura. If I hated Femto for it, then I feel like I’d be validating Miura’s bad and offensive writing.

Which is not to say I don’t fully understand and respect people who do respond to the Eclipse by hating Femto. This is just how I personally respond to fiction lol.

[terriblesportsimagines]

Lmao Idk I just thought of something dumb of miyuki and or kuramochi sending memes to their gf maybe you can do a hc or scenario Idk I love this blog I just wanted you to do it XD

Okay, I have to say, I fucking love this ask.  At first I was like “Damn it, this will be hard…” but it ended up being fun. 

Miyuki came out a little angsty, but Mochi’s is one of the most favorite things I’ve written.

Also, I wrote this just assuming that they would know western memes because of course I don’t speak Japanese so researching Japanese memes is too time consuming.  Benefit of the doubt lovelies!

Miyuki Kazuya

You don’t know what you were expecting.  You knew yourboyfriend, and knew he was an idiot troll.  Still, you’d asked a seriousquestion, one would think you could expect at least a somewhat seriousresponse.  But nope, when you swiped your phone to unlock it to read thewaiting message, you saw only a really stupid image of a stick figure making aface, the worst kind of meme.  You instantly rolled your eyes and groundyour teeth.

He’d been doing it all day.  Honestly, you didn’t evenknow how he found the time to find all the damn memes, because he should bepracticing.  And yet, he replied to all your messages in good time, betterthan normal even, though he not actually replied to a single thing you said.

You were starting to lose your patience with him.  Youknew exactly why he was doing it too.  You were trying to get him tocommit to meeting your parents during the Golden Week break and he kept puttingyou off.  It was pretty classic Miyuki tactic of avoidance.  Hedidn’t want to do it, or was scared to do it, but also didn’t want to actuallysay no and upset you.  It was like he thought that you didn’t realize thatwas exactly what he was doing.

You’re the worst.  If you don’t want to go just sayso.   You typed and hit send before going back to what you weredoing.

Sometime later you opened your messaging app to see apicture of an American actor holding up a wine glace, a smirk on his face withblurry fireworks in the background.  You were familiar with this meme,despite its western origin and it made your eye twitch.  He was basicallysaying Congratulations on recognizing the obvious.

Well, fine, if he was going to be like that, then you’d meethis pseudo silence with real silence and see how he liked it. Bloody jackass. 

God, sometimes you just wanted to punch him in his perfectface.

It took him an embarrassingly long time to notice that youwere ignoring and/or avoiding him.  To be fair, he was busy with thespring prefecture tournament and trying to rally the team after their thirdround loss in Senbatsu, but still.  You felt like a boy should at leastrealize when his girlfriend was suddenly missing from his life.  Maybe youreally didn’t mean that much to him, and that was a depressing thought.

When he finally caught up, having realized your ire, it was four days later and he had to corner you in the hall duringlunch.  “You’re mad I don’t want to meet you parents.” He stated, a frownon his handsome face, his body blocking out all others in front of you.

Considering it took him four days to even realize you wereupset with him, you weren’t overly surprised he hadn’t figured out why youwere upset.  “That’s not why I’m mad,” you replied, closing youreyes. 

“But you are mad, at me,” Miyuki retorted, lips twisting andeyes reflecting concern.  “If that’s not it then why-”

You weren’t the type to play games, he’d gotten your messageand now you would be straight with him.  “Kazuya, if you’re not ready totake that step, that’s okay, I understand.  But tell me that. Deflecting me with stupid memes just makes me question the validity of ourwhole relationship.”

His eyes widened, then a second later darted away, hisshoulders rounding just a bit.  “Sorry,” he bit out like it was pullingteeth, and it probably was, because he had trouble with apologies andmeaningful emotions.  “I… didn’t know how to respond and I… didn’t want tohurt your feelings.”

“Well, mission not accomplished.  You know itbothers me when I’m serious and you aren’t.” You sighed, overwhelmed by theurge to touch him.  Your fingers searched out and skimmed along his belt,comforting yourself and maybe him.

“Yeah,” he admitted quietly.  “I… can’t.”

The guilt and shame was written all over his body, and ithad you reaching.  Despite the fact that you were in the middle of thehall at lunch, you wrapped your arms around his waist and hugged him. “It’s okay, Kazuya, I get it.  There’s no rush.”

He had no real problem with public displays of affection,though he still tensed when you initiated.  This time, however, he justreached back, gathering you against his chest and burying his face into yourhair.  “You really didn’t like my memes?  I’m hurt, ____-chan~” Hemurmured, a decidedly wicked edge to his tone.

“You really are the worst.” You replied, though there was asmile on your face as your cheek touched his collar bone.  “If I ever seeanother meme from you we’re over.”

Miyuki laughed.  “Sure~”

Kuramochi Youichi

When your phone went off the first time you weren’texpecting much.  You got texts all the time, and though you weren’tcarrying on any current conversations there was nothing to say your friends orfamily couldn’t start one.  You weren’t even surprised when yourboyfriend’s name popped up when you looked at it.

He was in a different class, so it wasn’t uncommon for himto text you during breaks, especially if had been a couple of days sinceyou’d been able to get together.  Opening the message, you realized it wasan image, which you opened quickly.  The second you saw it and read it yousnorted loudly and laughed, earning weird looks from your classmates.  Itwas a comic meme with poorly drawn faces, one male and one ‘female’ with blondhair and a pink bow.  Girlfriend seems to be in a weird mood… thefirst panel said over the male face.  Then in the second, Babe are youokay? Said the male face, Yeah, I’m fine said the female.  Thelast panel was the female turning into a weird blue faced, sharp toothed trollwith a curling mustache, I’m actually upset about many things that I willhold against you without you knowing!!

It was very hard not to laugh hysterically.  It hadbeen a few days since you’d been able to spend any time together, so the jokewas on point and extra amusing. 

Compelled to reply, you did a quick internet search andfound a meme you liked – an American actor in an 80s movie with fluffy hair anda confused and horrified expression, When my boyfriend can’t understand whyI’m mad.

You could practically hear your boyfriend’s cackle from aclass away.  It was pretty distinctive, but he was loud.  It made yougrin and wait in anticipation for his response.

It came surprisingly quickly.  The picture popped up onyour phone a couple of minutes later.  It was a picture of the weird fishalien from Star Wars and read It’s a trap!

Giggling like a mad woman, you did another search and cameup with the common meme Overly Obsessed Girlfriend.  This one read, I don’tlike to blink because I miss you when I don’t see you.

His reply was a picture of the main character from Futuramanarrowing his eyes.  Not sure if actually a good girlfriend or just agood liar.

“Are you okay?” One of your classmates asked you as yourshoulders shook with barely suppressed laughter.

“Yeah,” you replied.   I have the bestboyfriend.  Your heart thrummed with affection for your silly boy.

Time was running out so your meme-war was going to have tocome to an end.  But you were determined to win it and found exactly thememe to do that.  It was the baby making the achievement fist meme and itread, Dream about having the most amazing boyfriend, wake up and rememberyou do.

The bell rang, thus ending the break so you put away yourphone, still smiling and feeling really good about the rest of the day. It was a little harder to concentrate than normal, mostly because you keptthinking of Kuramochi’s grinning face, but that was okay.  It was a goodenough feeling that you didn’t even mind.

Lunch time finally hit and you stood up from your desk,wondering if you should try to find your boyfriend.  You really did misshim after all.

As it turned out, you didn’t even have time for that much,because a second after you stood up he was there, filling up the doorway toyour classroom, eyes shining under the artificial lights.  “___-chan!” Heshouted, grinning so wide it split his face in two.

You took less than three steps in his direction before hewas in front of you, picking you up and swinging you around, completelyheedless to your classmates who stared and giggled.  “Mochi!” Youcomplained half-heartedly, the effect ruined by giggles.

“Ah, sweetheart,” Kuramochi sighed happily, hugging youtightly.  “I adore ya, ya know?”

You smiled and cuddled as close as you can get.  “Rightback at you~”

[aijee]

hello! i’m the anon who left the 6-part ask regarding mg a few months ago (i refer to those asks bc i’m back to drop more thoughts about mg and might touch on what i previously said). i wrote this whole thing disregading word count, believing i could drop it all in one go because i managed to log in to my tumblr, but it seems i still have to break it up… lmao i don’t know how many parts this will be or if i could post it all tonight, but i will signify the very end with “6-part anon” :)

Cont’d with response under the cut (I made some executive decisions about where the paragraphs break lol so it’s not all one block of text):

they want to be famous; that part just came along with the package. then i read in your bts post, you see mg as more wrapped up in entertainment, having star power with a bright personality, liking the limelight. reading that, i do agree, but i guess ive never thought of that before. i think wanting to be a star and wanting to be in the spotlight can seem self-centered. i hope im not coming across like im judging everyone who wants to be famous as “bad” because that’s not what i’m trying to do, but i think it’s safe enough to say that wanting to be famous means wanting people’s attention on you. i’m trying to tread carefully but i suppose i am saying that on the surface, wanting to be a big star can seem a little selfish in the sense that you want to boost your image, present your best self at all times, want people’s eyes on you and want them to think good things about you. combining those general thoughts about wanting to be a star, with my thoughts about mg in particular, is interesting to me.

i’ve always seen him as someone so selfless, so lovely, so considerate towards others. throughout idotsc, you’ve written him throughout as someone so amiable, liked by everyone, and also selfless and considerate. and in chp 7, his reaction twds the pictures is... well, I think they’re pretty true to character, and again i think it shows selflessness. then the ‘Love Languages’ text that OP had written— while, of course, OP doesn’t know him and everything is an assumption to a certain degree, I think their writing summarizes in one place what I observed about mg through the content available to the public: he constantly gives to people around him, exhibiting sincerity, words of gratitude and acts of service. at the same time, i definitely agree with what you said about his star quality, so i think that was the first time i really stopped to examine my thoughts about stardom and how some things may not be mutually exclusive.

“stardom” also makes me think about his recent incident, because of course, such incidents are definitely a potential consequence of fame. during that time i’ve also come across several opinions saying that they’re not surprised if a current idol was a past bully… i don’t remember exactly what people said but i think it was somewhere along the lines of, if they were so confident and cocky since predebut, then they might have had the qualities of a bully. something like that. i think from the outside looking in, it may be easier to equate star quality with a diva attitude/disregard twds others.

one thing i’d like to add is sth that a famous person said abt fame, and why they value it more than money, bc if they meet a fan, the look on the fan’s face upon meeting them gives them a feeling money can’t buy. and i suppose from this angle, being a star seems selfless. with svt too, they expressed how meaningful it is to them that theyre able to bring us so much joy. i think from the outside looking in, it may be easier to equate star quality with a diva attitude/disregard twds others. one thing i’d like to add is sth that a famous person said abt fame, and why they value it more than money, bc if they meet a fan, the look on the fan’s face upon meeting them gives them a feeling money can’t buy. and i suppose from this angle, being a star seems selfless. with svt too, they expressed how meaningful it is to them that theyre able to bring us so much joy.

i hope this all makes sense; i had lots of thoughts and wanted to try to write them. i struggled to understand why one would want to be a star, and went in circles questioning if i thought it was more selfish or selfless, and what one’s true motives might be behind wanting fame. ik u implied u embrace long writing bc you also write in length, but i’m less eloquent than you are so i hope this was fine! thank you again for having a space where people could offload their thoughts :) ~6-part anon~

There’s a lot to unpack here, isn’t there! A buffet of food for thought, for sure. I can’t possibly respond to everything written here because there’s just so many points, so I’ll write a few points. As always, take what I write with a grain of salt.

I don’t think there’s anything bad or inherently wrong with pointing out that, hey, people who are interested in a profession necessarily tied to a public image probably to show off or want attention. These things are perfectly natural to want, even for people who aren’t celebrities, because we’re (1) inherently social creatures and a lot of our survival is contingent on external success, and (2) we are brought up to feel validation from others, especially in an age where our lives are much more on display. But I can see why “selfishness” may be thrown in the mix because we often look down on attention-seekers and “popular” people, many of whom exhibit arrogant/tone-deaf behaviors. On the other hand, it’s understandable that an idol with a big public image necessitates putting their best foot forward all the time to maintain good opinion of them and to earn more money, frankly.

I’ve probably repeated myself too many times, but something I’ve been grappling with recently is this black-and-white mindset/judgment system we often have of others (very much exacerbated by social media, e.g. witch hunts). Bad is bad, good is good. I’ve thought this way for a long time of myself in an upbringing that always punished/looked down on bad behavior (or what was considered behavioral flaws, like speaking out against elders, swearing as a femme person, etc.) rather than acknowledging that “bad” behavior can be exhibited by people who also do and act “good.” In short, while I can only speak from my perspective, I think we’re programmed to subconsciously seek behavioral perfection for a number of reasons: we were raised that way by family; and/or society; we feel judged by the presence of social media and greater access into our lives; accessibility to celebrities and “perfect” public figures makes us judge ourselves by comparison; education systems that poorly address internal learning as well as external learning, etc.

In Mingyu’s case, there’s nothing wrong with seeing and continuing to see him as all those good qualities in my opinion. There’s nothing wrong with grappling with potential past problematic behaviors of your faves, as long as you’re critical and open-minded about the parties involved (which is rarely ever a fanbase at large, but the skewed authority of a fanbase is a different can of worms). Idols are human, which means dealing with the good and bad that comes with interacting humans. Contrary to popular belief (and I write this sarcastically), people CAN change. People should be ALLOWED to change. Characters are static. People are not. And it’s sad to say that this is still an issue in the K-Pop world. 

As hard as it sounds, a person who bullied others in the past could still have good or pure intentions for becoming an idol. They could still feel fulfillment from making others happy; is that a bad thing? I personally don’t think so. Or maybe a person’s intentions for becoming an idol could be mixed good or bad, who the fuck knows? Not us. Honestly, I firmly believe that we fans don’t have the right to make definitive moral judgments of idols in the first place because we don’t know them personally. That, and people are extremely complex and hard to categorize, as much as we want to because it’s easier to do so. People are messy. Real life teaches us that more than the Internet does imo.

In any case, I don’t think selfishness and selflessness are mutually exclusive in the same way a person can be both good and bad. I learned that language, too, is a powerful vehicle that influences how we think. In that vein, with how compartmentalized definitions are in specific words, perhaps we think that their existence/practice is separate, i.e. being “selfish” is never being “selfless” because each word’s definition exists solely in their respective word and not the other (hopefully that makes some sense).

TL;DR: I think wanting attention and validation from others is okay and not inherently a bad thing, and people are fucking messy and rarely good without the bad (and vice versa).

Pretty sure I rambled a ton as well and probably didn’t hit that many points that you offered, anon. You ended up putting me on a thought train as well!

[garden-of-succulents]

I've taken some time to think over and process recent criticisms that people have made of me. Thank you to everyone for being patient while I took this time to reflect--I think that a brief review of my behaviour in the past has shown that I often respond poorly and clumsily in the heat of the moment, and these conversations benefit when I give them the thought and effort they deserve.

I am responding to people whose direct responses to me, or public commentary, seemed to indicate they wanted some sort of response from me. I hope I've addressed everyone; please let me know if I've missed anyone. I have also, as was requested, cleared out my OMGCP-related blocklist.

Briefly, about that: I have, in the past, blocked people for two main reasons. The first is that they're producing fannish content (fic, art, or meta) that triggers my anxiety, which my body reacts very poorly to; the other is that I have disagreed with them about something, but know that they are significantly younger/less privileged than I am, and blocking is one of the tools I use to make sure I don't impulsively strike up an unfair argument about something unimportant.

I would like to apologize for the distress and insult my blocking users caused them; it was not intended. I have been investigating ways to curate my online experience to what I can manage with mental health that varies from day to day, with less of a negative effect on other people and maintains their ability to draw my attention to important conversations.

Although I believe listening to criticism is important, especially on topics where I am privileged or ignorant, this is something I have to balance with my mental and physical health; I have to carefully budget time and energy to engage with it when I am capable of thinking clearly and deeply. Sometimes I'm able to seek out and read criticism, but sometimes I'm not. I miss conversations or misunderstand peoples' points. I know this is frustrating to people who do not have the luxury of ignoring or escaping these issues in their daily lives, and I'm sorry.

On a practical note, I am taking pains to make sure that people can contact me through my des-zimbits account, but I should make clear that unfortunately, I cannot accept anon messages and I am very unpredictable about seeing things written on blogs I do not follow; my friends are not in the habit of telling me about criticism made by third parties. There have been times that I only found out long after the fact that someone has put enormous amounts of time and energy into critiquing my behaviour on their blog, and become upset that I have not responded or changed. In those circumstances, I never saw the original posts in the first place. I don't have a complete solution for this, but I encourage people to tag me or message me a post they think I should see; if you don't want to deal with me thereafter, just say, "Don't reply."

I am making this apology not in hope that anyone will change their opinion of me or forgive me. I know that people of colour in this fandom are frustrated by white fans' inability to listen and respond in a way that makes things better, and I know that my own behaviour has contributed to that. My sincere desire here is to make it plain that I am willing to listen and try, and perhaps even make other fans feel that they can directly approach me with their frustrations and concerns.

I am beyond grateful to the fans of colour who have expended energy and time educating me, criticizing me, talking to me, and helping me. Your willingness to be open about your feelings and experiences, and to speak truth to power, have been unspeakably helpful in helping me see my blind spots, and understand the effect my behaviour has on other people. I know that it takes a lot of energy and courage it takes to speak about such a painful and infuriating subject. I want to thank the people who, despite my resistance at times, continue to engage me in these issues. Your feedback is valuable and appreciated.

@dexydex and @georgiapeche, re: this post

You’re right, I haven’t been responding correctly to your criticism. I’ve taken it too personally instead of taking a step back to consider your perspectives in a more nuanced and empathetic way. Thank you for all of the emotional labor you’ve expended up until this point trying to get through to me. I’m sorry that I’ve made it your responsibility to teach me what I’m doing wrong rather than go out and learn for myself. I’ve been complacent in the ways I’ve interacted with my own privilege. I’m sorry that my apologies have fallen flat time and time again. I’m sorry I haven’t done enough yet to unlearn my implicit racism. This is something I will increase my efforts to address and correct in the future. It is not your job to forgive me. It is not your job to absolve me of any ill will.

phillipsheabutter, re: this post

You're right; Kent's behaviour in canon is cruel and abusive, which Nursey's isn't. My response to them is very backwards the usual responses. I am especially sorry that my answer about him didn't address the word "hate", so I flatly said that I "hated" him, which is a strong and unwarranted negative assessment to make of his behaviour. This was especially wrong of me because the behaviour I was criticizing is a response many Black readers identify with, to the experience of having their emotional responses intensely policed and invalidated. It is a testament of my ignorance and prejudice that I felt this perspective was something I could choose to discard when thinking about him.

As to how I struggle to have empathy for one behaviour but not the other, I can't offer any excuse for my racism, but I can briefly explain: I’ve tried to articulate in the past that Kent’s narrative strongly evokes people and relationships that have been incredibly formative for me, and that I have dedicated years of personal searching and academic study to understanding Kent's kind of extreme behaviour and maintaining relationships with people who display it. My relationship to invalidating behaviour is still too raw and painful to talk about in detail, but in short, it was something I had powerfully negative experiences with when I was young, and as an adult I have found it deeply distressing when it was directed at me; I have embraced a career based around validating emotions. I hadn't yet truly realized the extent to which it is used as a coping mechanism by African Americans--the majority of Black people I have known have been first- or second-generation Canadians hailing from Africa or the Carribean, who have had expressed different cultural and racial experiences to me, and I haven't consumed enough American media to truly understand where Nursey is coming from. I struggle to relate to him as much as I do to characters like Ransom whose cultural experiences and coping mechanisms are more familiar to me.

In equating Nursey to generic white hipsters I encountered this behaviour from, I was erasing his Blackness in favor of pointing to an implied socioeconomic privilege that in no way makes up for or safeguards him from the experiences of being a Black man living in the United States. That wasn’t just wrong of me, it was careless and racist.

There’s a lot to his character that I’ve yet to explore and it was wrong of me to say I hate him when I haven’t done enough work to understand who he is or where he comes from. I'm going to work more to expand my knowledge and find deeper empathy for him.

@oluranurse, re: this post

You’re right, I keep making the same mistakes over again. I can understand how frustrating it feels when a larger blog says repeatedly that they will be different, and better, but the results are disappointing at best. I can only hope that by taking the time to listen, really listen, to your feedback, that someday I won’t have to apologize for my mistakes (because they will few and far apart).

I realize that as someone who doesn't have Borderline Personality Disorder, it is potentially problematic that I am so invested in its fictional depiction, especially given the extreme stigma against the disorder by members of my own profession. As I've explained before, however, it's a condition I've had significant personal experience with, and writing about mental health issues helps me build the skills that may let me someday write coherently about my own C-PTSD. What's more, I am not pulling these conditions out of nowhere or treating them lightly; I'm a licensed mental health professional, and I take a great deal of care to root my mental health headcanons in close analysis of the source material. The diagnoses I suggest for characters are by no means the ultimate truth about them and alternate perceptions of them are wholly plausible

I would like to talk more about your classification of BPD as "a mental illness that fandom likes to give to characters that have 'bad attitudes'," but on a separate occasion where that discussion doesn’t detract from the real conversation we’re having here.

In reference to the disagreement I had with brenbits, I still believe that the way they engaged me could have been more direct, and less heated, from the start. But I respect that other users confront issues they find problematic differently.

In reference to my post about dealing with criticism, I understand that the tone implied something much different than what I intended. I was attempting to be a resource for content creators who feel discouraged by discourse and offer show them how to respond to said criticism in a thoughtful and nuanced way. I realize how ironic that may sound considering some of my past responses. I know that in that post it sounds like I will apologize and defend every microaggression and racist comment that comes my way. That was never the case, but I’m sorry I did such a poor job of articulating that. Times that I have provided this service include helping writers find essays written by members of minorities about common difficulties or pitfalls in depictions of their experiences, or in helping them personally connect with someone who has the cultural competency to assess a situation, and is willing to expend the emotional labour of providing an author with a critique.

With regard to the time that I answered the question, "Are genderbends transphobic?" I shouldn't have answered, given that I am cis. I will make an effort in the future not to summarize trans peoples' opinions, and step back to amplify the voices of trans people who have already made their thoughts accessible.

I feel that the fandom should do more to support content creators and to talk through (especially with younger creators) what they could be doing better in terms of representation. I do understand, however, that doesn’t mean members of the fandom should have to stand for racist and stereotypical content and/or be grateful that it even exists.

You’re right, I’ve been complacent and racist in how I treat POC characters. I need to take a step back, consume more media and academic material related to the experiences of these characters. I need to immerse myself in the positive representations and transformative works this fandom already has for these characters. I need to make these already available transformative works more visible by interacting with them on my blog in ways that are supportive and enriching. I need do more to change my racist thoughts and tendencies because this is a comic made by a WOC that seeks to better minority representation and inclusion in the sports world. I need to be more present in how my behavior affects the experiences of others in this fandom.

I also concede that I do not understand the inherent danger that POC and trans people endure daily. I cannot take your concerns for granted just because I don’t understand them at first. It’s my personal responsibility to seek out information and understanding. I’m also sorry that I have focused more on my personal reaction to criticism rather than on the concerns raised about my behavior. I have many privileges in this fandom, I need to do a better job of utilizing them properly.

@eriquebittle, re: this post

You’re right, my apology focused too much on my feelings and not how my actions have hurt others. I was attempting to start a conversation I wasn’t ready to engage in properly. My apology was lackluster and nothing new at best. As I’m addressing in other posts, I am working on active change. From now on, I'll give the performative white guilt a rest and focus on listening and changing my behaviour.

@senor-lapin, re: this post

I meant what I said about doing my best. However, my apology was neither warranted in the way I handled it nor effective at articulating how I’m taking steps to fix my racist thoughts and actions. As I’ve addressed previously, I have removed the blocks I placed on other members of OMGCP fandom and will work in the future not to exclude them from the discussion. I will listen, research, and reflect for as long as I need to in order to understand my critics. That is the least I owe them.

@duanlarissa, re: this post

I was ineffective in trying to articulate or consider an intersectionality between neurodivergence and racial identity. The way I addressed Nursey and Dex’s relationship was very simplistic and downright racist. There’s a lot of nuance to their relationship that I haven’t begun to explore and shouldn’t have commented on. Nursey has every right to negotiate Dex’s behavior in a way that keeps him both mentally and physically safe.

@onethousandroaches, re: this post

It isn’t worse. You’re right.

In trying to dissect different aspects of his personality, I was not only minimizing his experiences and struggles, but othering and essentializing him. It was racist. I was racist. I need to consider and accept every part of his identity. I need to take a hard look at what I haven’t liked about him in the past, accept that I’ve been narrow minded and prejudiced, and unlearn those tendencies. I need to set a better example of how white fans should support characters of colour (especially Black characters in a fandom created by a Black woman). I need to use the privilege I have (as a white person, as a popular blog) to support this character and the people who enjoy him. All of him.

[oversought]

i think there's an appeal for certain people in writing 'problematic' (read: racist, homophobic, transphobic, etc.) characters & plot lines because it gives people an easy excuse to void themselves of responsibility for how writing those subjects poorly and in certain ways can hurt people. it gives them an easy shield to hide behind. it gives them an excuse not to reflect on their own beliefs and how they may be harmful. it gives them an excuse to be racist or homophobic or whatever else & say 'im not racist, my character is!' regardless of whether or not they themselves have done/said [insert harmful thing here]. 

it makes it really easy to detach themselves and excuse themselves from the table that is, say, racism for example when-- as im sure many will tell you-- you’re not. you’re not excused from the table just because you’ve proclaimed yourself “not a racist” and that sort of detachment is exactly the kind of mindset that allows people to let themselves get away with saying/doing racist things. it’s like when someone brings up how something someone has done is racist and they immediately say “im not racist”... writing problematic characters who are racist and saying “im not racist, my character is” makes it really hard for poc to approach you to say “hey this is racist” because ?? you’ve already established you don’t think you’re racist and you think yourself absolved of ever doing anything racist which isn’t how it works. this applies to all other issues here too regarding homophobia, transphobia, etc.

im sure this isn't the case for everyone, but it’s frequent enough that it has made a lot of us extremely cautious of writing with characters in the ‘problematic’ vein with regards to complex social issues like racism and homophobia. 

in my personal opinion, the rpc very much overuses 'ic =/= ooc' to the point it is less of a way of protecting the mun from people who might exploit them for their character and more of a way for the writer to excuse things they’ve written that are harmful. ic =/= ooc is for clarifying your views aren’t the same as your character’s, not for giving yourself a free pass to say and do harmful things or write things in inappropriate, oppressive ways. ic =/= ooc is not meant to be used to void yourself of responsibility for writing something harmful. you still wrote it, it still has impact... if someone is bringing attention to the harm it does then it's very well a possibility (and very likely) that it's because (even in a fictional setting from a fictional character) you've written something irresponsibly in ways that have genuine repercussions and are harmful. 

this is all not to mention how incredibly uninspired it is for the only 'problematic' things characters can be in the rpc is racist or homophobic or whatever else, it just lends itself to a lack of creativity and willingness to expand outside of writing things that in living memory are still actively hurting people and contributing to the still alive & well oppression of marginalized groups.

to be frank all of this goes especially to the people who are white/cis/straight writing racist/transphobic/homophobic characters !!! 

to expand more on that if you’re straight and writing a homophobic muse...  1) the chances of you harboring homophobic beliefs (conscious, unconscious or otherwise) are extremely high (straight people, and even us non-straight people, have been conditioned from day one to hate non-straight people, it is a facet of how our society raises us) and this is harmful when writing a muse who is actively homophobic because it detaches you from your own potentially homophobic beliefs and gives you a free pass to say “i’m not homophobic” even if you are  2) you’re absolutely guaranteed at some point to be playing against both muns and characters (the writer being most important here) who are not straight, in doing so you open up the potential to write harmful things in ways that are triggering for them or-- most frequently-- contributing to that marginalization in some way. this is especially true when by extension you refuse to recognize how you yourself could be homophobic, re: detachment.

so when you-- a straight person writing a homophobic muse-- have someone point out that “hey, this is really harmful to me as a gay person and you’ve written things in ways that contribute negatively”, and you jump to say “oh well, ic =/= ooc, it’s my character not me!” you have immediately dismissed the lived experiences of an actually gay person. it’s a covert form of tone policing. it’s a way of saying “well, you can’t distinguish ic from ooc so your concerns and criticisms aren’t valid.” and that’s the bottom line. 

this is exactly why im so personally hesitant to rp with characters written these ways. there are so many things you can add to a character to make them 'problematic'. i just feel like if your default with problematic muses is something to that ilk regarding racist, transphobic, etc. characters then i-- as someone who is impacted by many of those things personally-- have every right to be cautious & have criticisms of that. 

as i’ve already stated: it's very easy to use a 'problematic' character to excuse one's own problematic practices, beliefs, actions, etc. it's also very easy in an rp setting to sympathize with and excuse the actions of 'problematic' characters in ways that potentially are detrimental. 

i know for me that seeing people sympathize & excuse the actions of their heinously racist characters leaves a bad taste in my mouth. it sends a message to me that if you can forgive and excuse the awful actions of a fictional character, who's to say you won't jump to excuse the actions of a real life, flesh and blood racist whose actions have more clout? especially when people are already and actively doing that in the rpc... and i say this knowing full well ic isn't the same as ooc, but once again --- it's so easy to excuse your own harmful behaviors by hiding behind a 'problematic' muse that for a lot of people-- re: marginalized groups-- it becomes an issue of "is it safe for me to rp with this person?" or "are they willing to take responsibility if they write something inappropriate that hurts me?" or “do they really believe these things that actively harm me in my day to day life offline?” 

it’s really easy for people who aren’t impacted by those issues to detach themselves from their hand in those things when writing problematic muses of that variety. it’s easy to detach and say “i’m not racist, my character is” so when something comes up and you say something actually racist, you feel you’re void of that notion and that responsibility. it also contributes to this culture that the accusation of doing something harmful is worse than the harmful thing itself, when... no. it isn’t. 

also, just to clarify when i say 'hurt' and ‘harmful’ im 1000% not just referring to hurt feelings or discomforts, what i mean is: contributes invariably to concepts that marginalize and perpetuate oppressive ideologies in ways that genuinely [insert ist/phobic] people can easily latch onto to excuse their own thoughts and actions that are [insert ist/phobic here]. 

listen, i get the appeal of screaming "ic doesn't equal ooc!!", it gives you a free pass the levy the responsibility onto someone else (even fictional) and it gives you a free pass to pretend like you can never contribute to those things. i get it. it has appeal. but when marginalized groups especially are telling you you're writing things that hurt us and that is your immediate response it just displays  1) a lack of responsibility and accountability for things that you have written and things that you have done  2) a lack of understanding or care of how these complex issues even in regards to something as simple as rp can cause genuine harm and contribute to the lack of safety of certain peoples. 

it’s really not hard --- just take responsibility for what you've written when it hurts people on the level of ists/phobics & more importantly, respect that a lot of us aren't comfortable writing with your racist/homophobic/transphobic/etc. muses because many of us have seen first hand how people hide behind that in harmful ways. it's not rocket science.

the 'fiction isn't reality' narrative is false and harmful as well as creates this shield from anyone harmed by what you're writing in ways that prevent them from speaking out. it posits that those hurt by what you’ve said/done/written/believe/etc. are unreasonable and delusional somehow which just so happens to be the exact narrative violent racists, homophobes, etc. use to tarnish the seriousness with which marginalized groups are taken. 

more importantly however, i want to see people respect others who are made uncomfortable by these things --- and rightfully so. 

the people writing those topics are the first to jump to lament on about how people should respect their right to use violent racial slurs in their writing and write a violently racist character and to respect their right to do that, but god forbid people have valid criticisms and don’t want to associate with those things! let us be upset about these things, let us express our criticisms and concerns about these things, let us not associate with these things if we want. no matter what anyone says even if they’re actively trying to educate you can stop you from writing your shitty, uninspired racist muse, we can’t stop you. we know we can’t stop you. 

however, shutting down our voices when we speak up about something harmful is not ok. allowing us to have our criticisms without positing us as unreasonable or even delusional would just go a long way as far as progress goes. respect that those subjects might be things people don’t want to fuck with and let them be angry when things hurt them. cry typing a 12 paragraph long post about how ridiculous it is people don’t want to write with your violently racist character because they’re ‘problematic’ is a facet of tone policing and another part of why some of us don’t want to write with your violently racist character; we know how writers will use violently racist characters as an excuse for how they’re not racist even when they’re actively doing/saying racist things.

i’m not white, i’m not straight or cis, i’ve been through a lot of things related to those two aspects of myself. just as well, a lot of writers in this space are not white, cis, or straight... it’s heinously disrespectful and i’d say flat out abusive to assume that non-white, non-cis, non-straight writers are fine with writing against a character that is actively saying racist, transphobic, homophobic things when we are literally dealing with that offline already. 

please --- accept and respect that a lot of us have criticisms, valid criticisms at that, and a lot of us feel unsafe with regards to ‘problematic’ muses in the vein of racism, transphobia, homophobia, etc. and we especially feel unsafe and uncomfortable with the writers who refuse to take responsibility with these things & seek to void themselves of any hand in them. it happens so so much with writers of ‘problematic’ characters that i just can’t imagine our fears and discomforts and worries being in any way unreasonable. 

degrading us for that just completely foregoes any understanding of how racism works and you can claim to be so progressive and #Woke writing a racist character and understanding that he’s racist, but degrading writers of color for not wanting to write with your racist character is... well, what do you know, neither progressive nor respectful and is actually racist. 

my point is, there’s a lot of unpack regarding these types of characters and the people who tend to write them and more often than not it can contribute to a lack of safety for marginalized groups and facilitate harmful ideologies in the rpc.

just food for thought.

[hikariobsessions]

(This might be a little late and you don't need to reply to this I think.) I really liked your response! I enjoyed reading it! (I'm not too good at expressing my tone, but I'm really happy.) I also liked how in some of your points, you added basic storytelling such as show vs tell and how characters should be written as if they were real people, not flat. Maybe the writing for mc improves later (hopefully). This opinion is probably a minority so I hope you aren't getting bashed for it o Ao;;;

Ahh, thank you for reading ahaha ^^;; And no worries, I didn’t receive any duplicates :)

I’m glad you liked the response :’) And I have my fingers-crossed too, but honestly, everything about the ENG version of the game isn’t bad~ I stand my ground on what I’ve said about the writing and the MC, but where they keep the themes and character arcs of the guys true to the original has always stayed with me :) That’s where the stories shine in both apps~

It’s just that there are times when the execution (the writing, basically) has been poorly done in the ENG App, and because of that has been less consistent compared to the JP App~ But again, that’s just me ^^;

And yes, but honestly I don’t mind being in the minority – isn’t stopping me from writing those rants haha~ And I try to be rational a lot (although I have profanity caked everywhere), I like to believe that it allows people to stop with their assumptions and look at it from a different point of view, but not everyone has been like that. Like this lovely lady.

But I’ve since turned off my anon after the first ask that was attacking me because if you want to say something to me, say it without being a wuss and own up to every word. 

I’m no saint but I respond to dickery in my own way, but there is a very big difference between people who are disagreeing but are self-aware and know how to communicate in a civil manner, and actual attackers. But clearly, these “bullies” are just as shy as anyone else. “Spinless” as our God of War would say~

But you’re the first ask I’ve gotten that actually expressed her viewpoint with amazing clarity and validity, that it just made me smile to see you in my inbox ^_^ This goes without saying, but I love you for it~ Keep doing you hun, and if you ever want to talk you know where to find my blog ;)

Cheers

[euro3plast-fr]

8 steps to keeping your automated email outreach personal

Make sure you're using this steps to maximize email outreach

It is difficult to argue against the benefits of automated email outreach when it comes to online marketing, be it for promoting your blog posts, software or conducting general sales pitches. However, the biggest challenge is to make them look personal enough. Sending emails is the easy part. The challenging part is to get responses from the people we send the emails to. With the number of emails that reach a person’s inbox, you really have to find a unique way of standing out in your recipients’ inbox.

To give you an idea how little tweaks can change the way your campaigns perform, here are some stats:

Research conducted by MailChimp indicates that by adding both, the first and the last name of the recipient in the subject of the email can increase the open rate by 2X when compared to adding just the first or last name.

Another research by HubSpot shows that businesses that send 16 - 30 emails a month see 2X open rate than those that send 2 or fewer emails. It is worth noting that open rates plummet when the number of emails exceeds 31 per month.

Even a slight change in a word count can determine the effectiveness of your email campaign. For instance, research carried out by Retention Science illustrates that emails with subject lines that contain 6-10 words enjoy an open rate of more than 20%.

Now that we know that even the smallest aspects can impact the effectiveness of your email campaign dramatically, how do you achieve the ultimate result when it comes to influencer outreach and people who have no idea who you are?

Download our new Business Member Resource –Email Marketing and Marketing Automation Buyers Guide

This guide is for senior marketing managers and email marketing managers who are using, selecting or reviewing email marketing service providers and marketing automation platforms.

Access the Email Marketing and Marketing Automation Buyers Guide

It goes without saying that it is absolutely vital that meaningful relationships are built with as many influencers as possible. Getting responses from those influencers is always a tough task. They are busy people who have a lot on their plate, let alone a large number of individuals knocking on their doors. Thus, your emails have to be as unique as possible in order to capture their attention.

Here are some of the ways you can give your outreach emails a personal touch

1. Use your email account when sending emails

Instead of using third-party email marketing services, use your own corporate email address to send campaigns. When you use third-party marketing services, the email almost always ends up in the Updates or Promotions tab of the recipient’s email account and are very unlikely to be read.

2. Send to the correct address

Although this sounds so obvious, pre-made email lists and databases have become so widely used that people barely take the time to find their target audience’s correct email address. In many cases, the emails obtained using these tools are incorrect or even non-existent. If you have not verified the emails, you may be engaging in a futile effort sending to emails that may not be correct in the first place.

The best advice is always to avoid purchasing pre-made lists.

Make use of tools like Email Hunter or Voila Norbert to find email addresses by simply searching for a person’s name and website address.

3. Make your email unique and valuable

If you are utilizing email outreach to reach influencers, it is highly likely that you are not the only one trying to reach them. If your email tells them something new that they needed to know, they will surely appreciate the heads up. Take time to research your topic before sending the emails to anyone, be it an influencer or your subscriber. After all, what may be outstanding to you may not be very impressive to them. Make sure your email is properly articulated in order to show your real value to the audience.

If you’re conducting blogger outreach, ensure to familiarize yourself with their blog’s content and topics and show that you’re aware of their work.

 4. Create a connection

When trying to connect with someone new, you would want them to care about you and contribute positively to your initiative. In order for them to show interest in you and your work, they need to see that you appreciate, and more importantly, are familiar with their work. Your research should help in the process of finding the talking points that will assist you in your course to build a genuine connection.

5. Use an appropriate tone

In order to capture the mind of your outreach target, you have to use a tone that resonates with them. Although it is quite challenging to determine the ultimate tone without an established relationship, their writings and social platforms should give you some decent pointers as to the best approach to take. Avoid extreme language as this will almost certainly lead to negativity.

6. Keep your email brief and personal

Your email should be brief and only contain the most relevant information. An example of a precise introduction would be to tell the prospect how you found their information and what you have in common. Then go to your reason for reaching out to them. A call-to-action or a simple question is a great way to end the email. This way, the prospect will almost feel compelled to reply to your email or click a link that you may have provided.

7. Express your appreciation

It is important to make sure that your recipients know that you don’t take the fact that they took the time to open your email and read it for granted. Expressing your appreciation for someone’s time can make a huge difference in how they perceive you and subsequently respond to you. Avoid using phrases like “Looking forward to your swift reply”. You don’t want to come across like you are coercing the person to respond.

8. Make sure you get your point across

If you a reaching out to a brand or an influencer, you must be very precise in making sure that they understand exactly what you are asking for. Remember, no one has the time to sit back and try to determine what your email is all about - especially if you haven’t had any prior communication with the person. It is always good to take a “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” approach when asking someone to do something for you. Try to give first and then ask for something in return.

Reasons why your automated email outreach campaign might fail:

Automated email campaigns can be very tricky. A conservative person would think that automated emails are almost identical to spam and should not be sent. But an individual who likes to test things will look at all the software at their disposal and see a great opportunity to expand their reach.

1. Lack of quality leads

Having a list of high-quality leads will go a long way in determining the success of your campaign. At the same time, you should double-check your list to make sure that the leads are valid and up-to-date. The most profitable leads tend to be the ones collected directly on your website. Hence, invest enough time into researching the audience that you want to reach and avoid buying leads that have no connection to you or your business. This way, you will keep your ‘bounce-back’ rate at a minimum.

2. Copying other people’s emails

The best emails are the ones that are specifically tailored for specific audiences. In other words, they should be written by you. This does not mean that you shouldn’t research some successful examples and explore various templates that work. But these should only be used for inspiration.

3. Using the wrong context or no context

A good email should resonate with its reader in a significant way. The body of your email should be in the proper context. Avoid reaching out to a big number of contacts using the same message as this only makes it sound too generic.

4. Complacency

Even if your campaign is working at any given moment, there is always a way that you can make it even better. Always test your subject lines to see whether there are any tweaks that can make them more effective. An automated email campaign is a continuous process of improvement.

5. Poorly crafted subject lines

The subject line is what determines whether your audience will give you an extra second or discard you in a flash. This is why it is so important to invest enough time into crafting the best subject line. The subject line is just as important as the email itself.

  Although email open rates are not as high as they used to be, email outreach remains extremely robust (when done carefully). The best advice is to avoid sending the types of emails that you don’t like receiving yourself.

Thanks to Dev for sharing his advice and opinion in this post. Dev Sharma is founder of WPKube, a popular WordPress resource website. His work has been featured in a wide range of publications, including Forbes, TNW, SpeckyBoy, Creative Bloq, Huff Post, SEJ and Smart Blogger. You can follow him on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.

from Blog – Smart Insights http://www.smartinsights.com/email-marketing/email-communications-strategy/8-steps-keeping-automated-email-outreach-personal/