#our old host used to run this blog. for the most part their base story remains but i am making some retcons and changes

[ask-the-mysterious-mr-qi]

updates coming very soon :)

i apologise for being gone so long!! life got kinda hectic. but im back and planning on posting here again :)!!

i'll be doing some minor changes and retcons (because, hello! new alter running this blog!), but im very excited!! im going to try staying consistently active on here after this hiatus ends as well.

i don't like rambling on here, but i felt an update and explanation was important! (however if you're curious there's more information in the tags!)

thank you for being patient with us.

- Ophelia

[itsclydebitches]

Discredit Pt. 2: More Recommended Reviews For A.Z. Fell’s

Alright, folks. Some notes first: 

1. You all rock. I’m sending out 20k+ virtual hugs for all the notes I NEVER expected to get on this nonsense. 

2. This is probably the final section, just because I’m not sure I can adequately follow up part one and it might be foolish to attempt it here. Let alone twice. But for now, here we go. 

3. Kudos to the anon who reminded me of Aziraphale’s cash-only policy <3 

4. Nicole Y’s review is based off an actual comment I read years ago, but heaven only knows where online it was. I’ve got the memory of a goldfish. 

5. Trigger warning for the use of a queer slur in this. It’s the same review as above, number 5 if you want to avoid it. 

6. There’s a text-only version of just the reviews at the end, after all the images. I’ll upload that to my Sparse Clutter collection on AO3 in a bit. 

Bonus 7. People thinking this is a real shop deserve all the good things in this world. 

That’s all I’ve got. Hope you enjoy! 👍

****************************************************************************

I’m a simple guy who likes simple jokes. If there’s a whoopee cushion I plant it. I will call you up to ask if your refrigerator is running and then tell you to go catch it. (Actually that one died out so thoroughly it’s actually capable of a comeback now!). Yes, I’m a dad and yes, I have a t-shirt that says Dad Jokes? I Think You Mean Rad Jokes! which I wear un-ironically every Saturday. All of which is just to say that my wife was well prepared for my stupidity when I walked into Fell’s.

I? I was not.

You see the bibles when you walk in? The ones to the left? Let them be. Don’t even look at them. Definitely don’t pick out the fanciest one you can find and absolutely don’t walk up to the owner with it held in your pudgy little fingers, grinning like a loon, cheerfully asking whether this should be in the fiction section. Just don’t. Mark my words you’ll regret it. Though your wife won’t. She’ll get a great old laugh out of it all.

In conclusion: it’s quite possible that mama did raise a fool and he just got his ass verbally whooped by a guy in a bowtie.  

***

Shout-out to Mr. Fell for being the only decent bloke in this city. I’ve popped in and out of his store for years—including before I started transitioning. So he knew my dead name, dead look, whole shebang and I was definitely nervous to play the ‘You know me, but this is what’s changed and are you gonna throw a fit about it?’ game.

You know what he said? “Oh, Rose! What a lovely choice. Crowley dear, why aren’t you growing any roses? Some white ones would look splendid next to my Henredon chair.”

That’s it. He just went straight into dragging his partner for not giving him roses. So hey, Mom? Next time you’re snooping through my social media why don’t you explain to all these nice people why the 50+yo book seller accepts me in ways you won’t. Don’t go telling me age is an excuse or that you’re ‘Stuck in your ways.’ I’ve watched Fell dress in the same damn clothes since I was ten!!

Yeah. Sorry. Rant over. Fell’s a gem. That’s my take. Rose out.

***

Anyone else in the shop when that guy started yelling about buying pornography? And then got escorted into the back room for some ‘private conversation’? Well done, Mr. Fell! Didn’t know you had it in you.

***

Alright alright alright alright I am TOTALLY calm about this.

Went into A.Z. Fell’s last Thursday. Not because I knew anything about the place. Just because I’ve been hitting up every bookshop within a twenty-mile radius, asking if they’re hosting any book signings. Long story short I self-published my novel Blight last month—which you can get for a mere £5 here but I swear this isn’t a promotional thing I’m just BROKE—and have been looking for networking opportunities, tips, stuff like that. So the owner listened politely as I explained all this. Then said he didn’t do anything of that sort, which didn’t surprise me given the shop’s vibe.

But then? Then??? He offered to let me do a signing there??????

As said. Totally calm about this. This man either plans to kidnap me or is actually giving me my first shot at an audience outside my blog. AKA totally worth the risk.

Tuesday the 9th. 7:00pm. Just in case anyone’s interested ;)

***

holy sweet baby jesus i was tripping balls last week you tryin’ to tell me that kING KONG SIZED FANGED FUCK SNAKE IS REAL

***

Witnessed the most perfect exchange the other day:

Grumpy Dude With No Manners: “You. Boy. Where’s the man I spoke with over the phone?”

Mr. Fell’s Partner Who Knows Damn Well Only Two of Them Work There But Clearly Doesn’t Like This Guy’s Tone: “Did this man give you his name?”

Grumpy Dude: “Might have. Don’t remember. Sounded like a fairy though.”

Me: “....”

My girlfriend: “....”

This Poor Sweet Startled Kid On Our Left: “?!?!?!?”

Fell’s Partner In The Drollest Voice I’ve Ever Heard: “None of us have wings. Out!”

***

This shop gets full stars simply because every time I walk in they’re playing Queen.

I mean, I’ve walked in once, but once is enough when you’ve got Crazy Little Thing Called Love blasting full volume.

***

Okay, I’m still kind of shaken up but I needed to write this out somewhere and this seemed as good a place as any.

I spilled my latte on a book. Just tripped on thin air, popped the lid, and chucked a venti’s worth of coffee all over a very expensive looking text. I didn’t mean to, obviously, but it happened and I just started bawling on the spot. Full on sobs because this semester has been absolute hell, I ruined this guy’s antique, there’s no way I can pay for it, I can’t even sneak away because I’m drawing the whole store’s attention...just all the things all at once. I really was straight up panicking and was seconds away from pulling out my inhaler. I couldn’t breathe.

And then Mr. Fell showed up.

Jesus it’s embarrassing to admit but I think I hit him once or twice. On the arms I mean, because he was trying to touch me and I figured, I don’t know, it was a restraint or something. He was going to call the police and hold me until they got there. But then he managed to start rubbing my back and I lost it like I hadn’t already been bawling my eyes out in this shop. Ever cry into a perfect stranger’s chest? I have! But if Mr. Fell seemed to mind he definitely didn’t show it. Just kept holding me while I probably ruined his shirt and then took me into the back and made me a new coffee in this cute little angel mug. He let me stay there while I called my sister and waited for her to arrive.

She’s a good twenty minutes outside of Soho, so we talked for a while. It’s not like Mr. Fell could fix my shit roommate or bio classes, but I guess just talking about it all really helped. I was a lot calmer by the time my sis arrived and Mr. Fell insisted I come back any time I wanted—for browsing or more coffee.

Of course, sis offered to pay for the book herself. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone look so surprised in my life. “Certainly not!” he said. “Contrary to popular belief, no one should pay for their mistakes. It’s what makes you all so wonderfully human.”

So yeah. Thanks, Mr. Fell.

***

This little shop must have started a book club for kids! Lately I’ve seen the same group of children hanging out at Fell’s. Three boys and a girl. They’re a bit rambunctious at times, but who isn’t at that age? So wonderful seeing literature passed down to the next generation. Even if some of it is rather questionable looking...

***

It’s an honest crime that more of you aren’t talking about what a wonderful bookstore this is.

I’m a book lover at heart and Fell’s always makes me feel like I’m coming home. I just arrived somewhere safe and familiar after a particularly harrowing day. I’ve slipped under the covers of my bed after dinner and a bubble bath. It’s something like that, but with an element of surprise too. One of the reasons why I adore private and used shops over chain stores is that little touch of chaos. You walk in and sure, there are general sections to browse, but everything is just a little bit disorganized from people leafing through books and then putting them back somewhere else. There’s no real record keeping, you’ve just gotta head to one particular corner and hope for the best. It’s not the sort of place you go to if you want something specific because the chances of them having it are slim—that’s just how the universe works—and even if they did no employee knows where it is anymore.

But if you wander the shelves for a while, crouch down low to get a look at everything on the bottom shelf, pay attention to the books that don’t have easy to read titles or any summaries to speak of... you just might find something you didn’t know you were looking for. That’s Fell’s: the comfort of the familiar and the excitement of the unknown.

*** A lot of people might assume that these stories are embellished or outright made up, but as a bookseller myself going on twenty years I believe every single one of them.

That being said, I accidentally moved a rug and found chalk sigils that look like they belong in a cult. Make of that what you will.

***

There’s a special place in hell for 21st century shop owners that only take cash. Who carries cash anymore? Not me! I haven’t bothered with that nonsense in years! You can get a card reader for 15 pounds on Amazon. Or you know what? Be stingy and pay 7 for the little attachment on your phone. This place is nuts if it thinks it’s going to survive much longer on a cash-only policy, especially with some books that look like they’re worth hundreds or thousands of pounds! Yeah, yeah, just let me pull out this giant wad of bills for you. I’ll carry them around a crime-laden city because there’s no ATM near you either.

I mean jesus, you’d think this guy didn’t want to sell anything.

***

I walked in. There was a man screaming at a fern while another threatened him with an umbrella. I walked out.

5 stars do recommend.

***

I once walked in on the same (?) guy yelling at a book for daring to fall on the owner’s head. I think that’s just a Thing over there.

***

Like a lot of people here I didn’t actually go to Fell’s for any books (flat tire, Angel Recovery taking forever) and ended up staying three hours (not because of Angel). No, I wandered towards the back and found this ancient CRT set propped on a table of books, the kind that my Dad used to watch Twilight Zone on. This lanky guy had a marathon of Gilmore Girls going... though how he was managing that with a broken antenna and no DVR, I really don’t know. But yeah. He told me to pull up a chair and I did. Guy gave me popcorn.

I wish I’d paid a little more attention to his name. Charlie? Curley? I really can’t remember, but thanks for the enjoyable afternoon, man.

***

I BOUGHT A BOOK HERE

Not sure how though. Just kinda happened. First edition of Just William. Frankly I didn’t even want the thing, but the owner basically shoved me out the door with it when I took two seconds to look at the spine. Odd that he was so willing to part with this one.

Update: ... hold up. I didn’t buy a book because I never actually paid the guy. ‘Basically shoved me out the door’ was literal. Do I go back??

***

This page has really gone feral the last couple of months so I’m just gonna bite the bullet and say it:

Anyone notice that Fell’s snake and Fell’s partner are never in the same room together?

***

I really don’t like the implications of this…

***

This is precisely why the Internet has turned into a cesspool. You all should be ashamed of some of the stuff you’re writing here. Can’t two men just be friends anymore? Two real life men? These guys aren’t some characters for you to ‘ship’ or whatever. Quit making outrageous assumptions about their sexualities and use this website for what it’s actually for: reviewing the bookshop. Honestly I’m so sick of this sort of this shit.

***

Dude. They run a queer-focused shop together with a flat on the second floor. Fell calls the guy ‘Dear’ and he’s always calling him ‘Angel.’ People have literally seen them kissing. If you want I can give you the number of my physician. He might be able to help you pull your head out of your ass.

***

What the hell is your problem? I’m literally just reminding people to stop making assumptions. It’s gross and insulting. These guys check their Yelp page. You really think they’re gonna be okay with this stuff?

Also: I’m not the five-year-old relying on insults, so.

***

Making an account purely to set the record straight: I’m the hot twink in question and I married that angel. Peace

[trainsinanime]

Red Web Mystery Reviews

Red Web is a podcast by Rooster Teeth featuring two guys from that whole Achievement Hunter thing that I can never tell apart (but you don’t need to know anything about this) about unsolved mysteries that often but not always have something to do with the internet. Let’s review the episodes out so far, because… well, no reason, honestly, I just wanted to.

Lake City Quiet Pills

Based on their information presented here, this whole thing and their explanation for it seem plausible enough. You have to assume that this group of apparently assassins is kind of bad at operational security, but there’s actually a lot of cases where big criminals got exposed because they used the same URL or E-mail address or similar.

Satoshi Nakamoto

I already knew about this beforehand, and I would say they did a good job explaining it. Personally, I think they should have gone into a bit more of how much a shit-show the whole Newsweek Dorian Nakamoto thing was; in short, there was no reason to believe this person had anything to do with Bitcoin, he didn’t even speak good english (which is probably what caused some of the misunderstandings), and it was both a huge embarrassment for Newsweek (at least I hope they felt embarrassed) and they needlessly hounded a completely uninvolved person for this.

But then they get into new evidence, and we see a problem that I think is a bit systematic: They don’t really go into how trustworthy the evidence is. Specifically, they say that the one person who can cast light on this might be… John McAfee. Fucking John McAfee. Seriously, that guy?

For context: John McAfee did indeed create the antivirus company that still bears his name. But he sold it in the 1990s, and thanks to money and drugs, he’s just gotten plain crazy ever since. There was the whole thing where he was implicated in a murder in Belize a couple of years ago; he kept blogging from a jail in Guatemala, later returned to the US, and keeps being part of outlandish schemes (including two presidential runs, though he failed to get the nomination for libertarian candidate both 2016 and 2020), controversies, and supposedly super-awesome tech startups that never go anywhere. It makes perfect sense that he’d claim to be involved in the creation of Bitcoin. It makes no sense whatsoever to believe him. If you’re interested and have way too much time, read what El Reg has to say about him.

Mortis

Oh god. This one makes me both want to laugh and cry. Mostly laugh, to be honest, because it is such an obvious nothing burger, but also weep for the internet that was.

The story is that they found a participant in an early internet warez network who wasn’t that great at OpSec. This is only fully revealed at the end, and they don’t even seem to have noticed that this case is clearly and completely solved.

Most of the humour for me comes from the fact that they’re rediscovering the old pre-social web, and are convinced that it’s all weird and nefarious. Why would one person register websites for their interests, and then never do anything with them? Because that’s what the internet was like back then in the late 1990s and early 2000s! Hey, look, here’s my ugly special-interest website from that era that hasn’t been updated in years and isn’t going to be updated any time soon either. That’s just what was normal back then. Same with a website for every person, or trying to do your own garage sales via your website. That was the thing to do back then. And yes, obviously it sucked and didn’t work very well.

They even realise that this is what „might“ have been going on, and theorise about this hypothetical early web. „Maybe if there was some website that linked all these together and allowed you to search“ - yeah, those existed. Digg and Technorati and Del.icio.us, remember those? All bought by Yahoo and promptly forgotten. And to be fair, they never worked as well as real social networks did.

But back then we had this glorious freedom. No sudden porn bans like here on Tumblr; no need to match any predefined template for what posts are, no user tracking by Facebook, nobody telling you that you’re tagging your posts wrong…

It’s understandable why we lost that web. Linking together is much easier if all content is owned and controlled by like four companies. It also makes it much easier to set up a new account; setting up a new website is just a lot of pain and knowledge you have to have that you don’t necessarily want to have.

But now we live in our monocultures and must live with whatever content decisions our corporate overlords make and then sell us as „community standards“, and the wild and weird web that we used to have is only a memory. And sometimes not even that; sometimes these new young kids treat it as a „weird nefarious mystery“. Actually, I just looked it up, and Alfredo and Trevor are both around 30, just a few years younger than I am. They were alive for at least the tail end if this. These guys could have known this shit!

So, yeah, the story here is not the mystery; it’s a lament for the web we lost.

D.B. Cooper

Again one I already knew, and I think they gave a good overview. Personally I’m in the camp of people who assume that he failed to make a safe landing.

Happy Valley Dream Survey

This seems vaguely interesting. One thing that kind of annoys me about this podcast is that they (well mostly Alfredo) generally assume that everything strange is necessarily nefarious, without any evidence. The whole thing here leads nowhere, after all.

Lead Masks Case

Again, I’m not sure how much weight to put on the other evidence they listed, especially that whole supposed UFO sighting. Yes, that one woman may have been very respected in her community and/or had a high social status, whatever that means. But the thing is that rich people who are super-involved in their church community or whatever can still (through no fault of their own) be unreliable witnesses and invent things that weren’t there, or not the way they were described.

Cicada 3301 (parts 1 and 2)

Personally I find this one less interesting because it’s not a mystery, it’s a riddle, and that’s way less fun. Much of the circumstances are weird enough, I guess.

What confuses me the most about this is how it’s supposed to be a recruitment tool, but it doesn’t seem to be very good at that. A lot of the steps don’t really seem to be that difficult and require just some fairly standard hacker skills. This is similar to the Satashi Nakamoto case, where one hint was „knows C++ programming“. Lots of people know that, and it’s something you can totally teach yourself. And if the people who were recruited through this were really supposed to program software, well… why did no part of this test whether they could do so? That’s a whole different skill. My conclusion is that this Cicada group is either a long con or a group that is nowhere near as smart as it thinks it is.

One thing to note here: They just casually assume that the FBI and NSA and so on are monitoring the whole internet, in real time, all the time. Which is true, we know that thanks to Edward Snowden. Isn’t that much more nefarious than any of the other mysteries here put together? How did we get to a place where Americans both think „this is the country that has all the freedom“ and „if you say or search for the wrong things you’ll get put on a government watchlist that’s just normal“ at the same time? Pervasive monitoring of a population is pretty much the exact opposite of freedom, but apparently we all in the western world just take it in stride anyway. That’s nothing to do with this podcast, though.

Conclusion

Generally okay podcast. The hosts are good storytellers, even if the stories are sometimes a bit shaky. It is at least at no point overly gross or insultingly stupid (unlike the official Rooster Teeth Podcast, which is both). So I think I can recommend it if you need something, anything to fill the quiet, and you’re already out of episodes of Black Box Down.

[aceandaroacts]

On Being a Happy Family of One

[This month, I'm hosting the Carnival of Aces, a blogging festival where participants respond to a topic. The topic I've chosen for this month is "Conscious and Unconscious Differences". You can see the other submissions and join in here!]

Considering the experiences you’ve had that are tied to your asexuality, how have they made you stronger?

Hi! I'm aceandaroacts. If you met me in real life, I'd introduce myself as a coder of custom software and grandma-at-heart. But this is the internet!

The most important thing to know about me is not the things I've built, places I've gone, or the experiences I've overcome. It's my attitude: "I can do this!"

When I first started thinking about topics to write about for this month's Carnival of Aces, I was torn between several ideas. I love fashion. I understand none of it, and never know what I'm doing, but I have fun with it and am trying to figure out how to be more... visible? as one of the few agender people at my company. I also have a cool history with being forced to dress like a Gothic nun half my life and building cosplays and cool Halloween costumes in the present half. But that felt a little too intersectional, and might not be as useful from an academic lens.

I thought about cryptography, clandestine communication, and the obsession with language and selective secrecy I had as a kid, and how that connects to a lot of ace symbols - the black ring on the middle finger, ace cards, cake, dragons... and how I wound up spending two months and hundreds of hours consuming all the ace content I could find, because words and language and symbols are so important!

And I thought about my life; how it compares to the default narrative, and how I'm going about building my own.

This month's theme is conscious and unconscious differences. Unconscious, as in automatic, or as in: before I knew I was asexual. Conscious, as in: intentional. It's broad enough to wrap around all the above, but specific enough in the "how does this make you stronger" bit that I think we'll still see some cool patterns and strengths arise that help to establish our own narrative tropes.

I bought "unsexy" conservative outfits before I know I was asexual. I avoided people that showed too much interest in me automatically. I unconsciously avoided conversations about dating, sex, attraction, and masturbation with friends by walking away or changing the topic. My favorite colors have always been purple, silver, black, and white. Strategy games were my favorite. I'd obsess over characters that were mysterious, building all kinds of different backstories and futures for them in my head. I never had sleepovers, and didn't understand why people would want them. I was the "lone wolf" in my friend groups - a drifter that got along pretty well with all kinds of people, but ultimately did whatever they wanted with or without company. Around 60% of my friends were adults; I had great relationships with the teachers and staff members at my school, and I knew all the local librarians by name. The gender split of my friend group was always pretty close to 50-50, and populated with extremely different perspectives - punk anarchists, exchange students, female football players, native american sci-fi enthusiasts, anorexic wrestlers, etc. I loved words, loved codes and ciphers, loved fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and music with lyrics. I avoided drama like the plague. I had a very unstable home life, and moved locations almost every year. Home only extended as far as to the skin on my body. I never dreamed about weddings or fancy houses or kids (or even pets!). P.E. (Physical Education) was the worst - I felt uncomfortable in the dressing rooms, so I would arrive early before people started undressing and would change in the restrooms so I would have privacy and avoid seeing naked people as much as possible. I never obsessed over my body - I could go for months at a time without looking in a mirror. My reputation was based on my academics and random hobbies, not my looks or relationships. People sought me out as a mentor and constantly told me I was "mature" and "an old soul". When fights broke out, people looked to me as a fair and impartial judge of the situation, and respected whatever verdict I reached. It felt a lot like being a Buddha!

Realizing I was asexual didn't change much of that, but it did cause me to face choices head-on: would I try to find a partner, or not? Would I try to live with other roommates, or not? Would I try to be attractive, or not? Would I go to bars to make friends, or not? Would I worry about having a weak social network, or not? Would I want to live in a retirement community, or not? Would I want kids around, or not? What would my milestones in life be? How would I fulfill my human need to be social? Who would I trust to take care of me in an emergency?

I'm estranged from my birth family. I'm asexual, aromantic, agender, touch-averse, romance-repulsed, sex-repulsed, and introverted as can be. I tried dating and was so miserable that I wound up finding asexuality because of it in the first place. I don't trust myself to be a parent since my own parents screwed up so badly that it left me with three mental illnesses and a decade's worth of unwinding bad life lessons. So I'm in a fun position!

The "normal" life journey story goes like this: You grow up with two loving biological parents, get your education, graduate, get further training or education via school or a first job, find your partner in life, get into a steady career, get married and live together, have kids, raise those kids, watch them get their education and jobs and move away, then retire and die at an old age. My life only has the education and job bits (retirement? in this economy? die old? on this polluted planet?). I'm not going to look for a lifelong partner. I'm not having kids or adopting. There's a whole lot of white space where everyone else has milestones, and I've consciously accepted that as okay. I'm a family of one, and it's great!

The first milestones I set for myself were to find good roommates, help out fellow child abuse survivors, and own a home. I've achieved them! My next milestone is to do something big and artsy that makes a decent amount of people happy. I have no idea what it will be, yet - right now I've been doing lots of little things: teaching workshops, building costumes, painting, home renovation projects. I'm gonna try being in a music band this year. The milestone after that will be to have a big impact via a community-service type initiative. There's a woman in my city that created an LGBTQ homeless shelter that's an actual home-like environment (seasonal housing with free counseling, job training, stocked pantry, etc. aimed at guiding people to independence and self-sufficiency) which I thought was really cool, and I'd like to do something that's on a similar scale. After that, who knows? Maybe publish a book instead of writing 12 of them and letting them collect dust? Maybe run a small rainbow-themed cafe that makes fancy desserts? So many possibilities!

It's exactly these differences that bleed into my strengths. I'm super independent/self-motivated/self-directed, because I've had to be to survive. I excel at navigating uncertainty, ambiguity, assessing risks, and forecasting outcomes and trends, because my life has a lot of uncertainty and risk compared to the average population. I'm quick to pick up on communication styles and tailor my messages accordingly, because I've had to be mindful about it when navigating my parents and people that developed crushes on me and/or became stalkers. My superpower at work is my ability to dodge all of the politics at play and get everyone on board with factually beneficial solutions (so I still come across as an objective party vs someone playing favorites or only looking out for themselves). People have faith that I'm an expert in all things IT, even when I mess up, because I ask good questions and make fewer assumptions. (I assumed I was cis for 22 years and surprise! I was wrong. Anyone can be wrong. Especially if they are never forced to think about the thing!) I'm great at organizing live events - I plan multiple award shows and get-togethers. I also run an ace & aro meetup in my city! (The experience of being isolated will make an organizer out of you real quick!) People seek me out as a mentor and coach at work because I'm already satisfied with my life and who I am, and I genuinely want to help others without expecting anything in return. I intentionally stay in touch with and work to expand my friend group, which means I have a great professional network of actual friends that I find interesting and fun to be around, and not just LinkedIn faces. If I weren't ace, I wouldn't be doing that. And if I still didn't know I was ace, I wouldn't be doing it half as much as I do now - when you really focus on it, it's so worth it!

So, yeah. Asexuality is a part of me, and it's great. How does your identit(y/ies) make you great?

[let-it-raines]

Second in Command (Ch. 17)

Summary: Life as the "spare to the heir" isn't all that it's cracked up to be when you're the supposed screw-up of the family, but people don't know what really happens behind closed doors.

Rating: Mature

A/N: Anybody like St. Patrick’s Day in November? 

On a side note, if you’ve sent me a prompt today, I’ve gotten it! And as soon as I write it, I’ll post for your reading pleasure :D

Entire story available on AO3 | HERE |

Tag list: @nikkiemms @resident-of-storybrooke @kmomof4 @wellhellotragic @profdanglaisstuff @ekr032-blog-blog @bmbbcs4evr @onceuponaprincessworld @jennjenn615 @a-faekindagirl @mayquita @captainsjedi @captswanis4vr @teamhook @skyewardolicitycloisdelena91 @branlovesouat @dreadpirateemma @alys07

Emma has allergies. She has allergies, and every year as winter blossoms into spring, flowers blooming into a myriad of vibrant shades and grass becoming green again making things seem a little less dreary, she spends day after day sneezing with her eyes slightly swollen and her nose flushed as red as a rose. She texted him last night to let him know that if he comes over today to bring her medicine and tissues so that she can be a human being when he sees her. Apparently her parents haven’t had the chance to run around the corner to the pharmacy, or she’s been too stubborn to let them know that she’s suffering. He would bet on the latter. So not wanting to anger the red-nosed beast, he shuffles through his medicine cabinet and pulls a box of tissues out of his storage closet before climbing into his car and driving to the pub in the early afternoon.

It’s about an hour before opening, and when he slips in the door to the pub they’ve left unlocked for him today, he finds David and Mary Margaret setting down chairs off of the tables. He goes to help them, flipping chairs as he asks them how their week has gone and if they’ve been enjoying the nicer temperatures outside now that it’s March unlike their twenty-five year old daughter upstairs who seems to not be able to function. They both laugh at that before telling him good luck before he heads upstairs to greet Emma, who’s sitting on the couch watching the television, her skin pale with the expected prominent red nose.

“Hello, Rudolph.”

“I will hurt you,” she threatens, her voice congested and hoarse, and he’s not entirely sure that she’s only been afflicted with allergies and not a cold. She’s never been the best at handling sickness, always leaning toward the dramatics more when her head isn’t totally clear and her body aches at the feeling of being dragged around without its full capabilities. It’s one of the few times when she’s not the invincible Emma Nolan and instead a regular person with a beating heart.

She’s vulnerable, and he’s thrilled he’s been able to see that vulnerability over the past five years of knowing her. It makes his heart swell, blood pumping through him and heating his body in happiness while Emma threatens him for joking with her.

He laughs, possibly speeding up his own demise with the sound, before leaning down to kiss her temple. “I love you, even if you’re not in the mood for any reindeer games.”

“We’re breaking up if you make one more reindeer joke.”

“Aren’t you a scrooge?”

She grumbles something under her breath, but he doesn’t bother listening to it because he’s sure it’s something very unpleasant about his Christmas jokes, instead handing her the medicine and tissues before going to fix her a mug of hot chocolate, only joining her in the living room when he has a steaming mug of the chocolate with cinnamon and whipped cream, draping a blanket over her on the couch while he settles in the recliner he bought David for Christmas a few month prior.

Emma’s apparently been binging the Great British Bake-Off, and he somehow gets sucked into it as well, watching these poor people stress over their creations and do things such as forget to turn the oven on or undercooking their bread. It’s all fun and games until the next episode comes on, and it’s themed around his family, all of the hosts wearing costume crowns as they introduce the episode and tell the remaining contestants that they have to bake a cake fit for a royal wedding and tailor it to the family member of their choice.

He groans in frustration at how ridiculous that is as Emma snorts, quickly looking over at him before burying her face under her second mug of hot chocolate. More people choose him than anyone else as he’s the most prominent unmarried family member, and while some of the cakes look damn good, he’s a bit uncomfortable with the fact that these bakers are making cakes for his fake wedding, several of them commenting on how they hope he finds love soon as he’s been quiet on the romance front for quite some time now and it’s upsetting that such a “handsome and bright young man cannot find love with a nice, proper girl.”

“I know they shot this months ago, but if I call the show and tell them I’ve solved your ‘loveless’ situation, do you think they’ll let me eat some of those cakes?”

“Hell, I could make one instead of you blowing our cover, Nolan.”

Her eyes light up at that, a true smile forming on her dull pink lips and brightening her skin with the glow of it. “Would you really?”

He shrugs. “I’ve got to do something to get you to take me back after you broke up with me for my reindeer jokes.”

“You bake me a cake, and I’ll take you back with open arms, babe.”

It turns out that the Nolans haven’t gone to buy their groceries for the week, and all that they have that even resembles a cake or the ingredients to bake a cake is a package of snack cakes that he knows for a fact Emma and Mary Margaret hate while David loves. He’d give anything to just be able to go to the grocery and do their shopping for them to help them out and to make Emma’s day better, but he can’t do that. Once he’s in the apartment, he can’t really go anywhere except for the pub, and even then, it has to be incredibly discreet and only when it’s pretty much empty down there and the lights are dimmed.

He sighs before walking the few feet to the couch and plopping down next to Emma and resting his head on her shoulder, screw her possible cold. “You’re out of luck, love. You guys don’t even have eggs.”

“It’s fine. I’m just going to pretend I’m eating the food they cook on the show. It’s not like I can taste anything anyways.”

He chuckles before wrapping his arm around the back of the couch and her shoulder, kissing her temple again while she continues to watch the frantic bakers as he responds to emails and texts about the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations for tomorrow. It’s his mother’s last year of handing out the Shamrocks to the Irish Guard, and the entire family is set to join her and speak with some of the Guard before enjoying a Guinness with all of them at the base. This year he’s being appointed with the honorary rank of Colonel of the Irish guards. He’d never done military service like Liam had after University, instead choosing to serve his family and his country through working with patronages and charities at home instead. He’d thought about it, really and truly had as he knew how great it is to honor and serve one’s country, but something was holding him back. He just didn’t know what at the time.

“What are you doing?” Emma inquires as she takes his phone out of his hand to look at what he’s reading over before handing it back to him after skimming through the words. “Is this your thing for tomorrow?”

“Yes, it’s my thing. I’m sorry I can’t be here with you tomorrow, my little miserable love.”

She turns to face him, her nose still so red, but some of the color is returning to her face. “Babe,” she reassures, “it’s fine. This is your job, and just like mine, sometimes it keeps us working crazy different hours, but we’ve figured out how to deal with it. Plus, aren’t you supposed to get to wear that fancy new uniform? The one that makes you look like you’re out of a Disney movie?”

He groans, throwing his head back because as honored as he is by this distinction, tomorrow, he’s not the most fond of the red jacket and blue sash with all of the gold tapestry. Plus, there’s a hat and gloves, and he feels a bit like he should be arriving in a horse-drawn carriage instead of a car…not that he hasn’t done the horse-drawn carriage thing before.

“Yes, that’s the one.”

“Do you have a picture of you in it?”

He does, and even if he told her no, she’d request one tomorrow. So he slides through his pictures until he finds the one his mother had taken when he’d been getting it fitted at the Palace.

“Oh, Killian,” she sighs, looking at the photo before looking back at him, her hand tracing against his jawline, “I know I poked fun, but you look so handsome like this.”

Maybe the uniform isn’t too bad if Emma likes him in it.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, I’m going to have to watch the news coverage of tomorrow just to get to see you in this since I won’t see it in person.”

“Maybe one day, love.”

The next day as he gets dressed, making sure that all of the strappings of his uniform are in the right place, he takes a picture of himself with his best smolder on his face and sends it to Emma. He can’t keep his phone with him during the event, and he’s going to be in the car with his mum so he doesn’t need to be texting Emma while his mother can see his face or possibly read his texts in such close quarters.

“Do you know who’s going to take over for you next year, Mum?”

“Not yet, darling,” she admits, softly smiling at him as she straightens her skirt. “I’d thought maybe Abigail, but I’m not sure. A part of me wants to keep doing it. I’ve always loved it, but I don’t think I’m the right person to be doing this particular one after so many years. I’m sure they want to meet someone new.”

“I’m sure you’ll find the right person, Mum.”

It’s warmer than they expected today, the spring sun feeling more like summer than something that’s melting away the last vestiges of fallen snow on tree tops and rural streets. His entire family is dressed in their military uniforms while his mother and Abigail wear winter green dress coats with tights to keep themselves warm despite the surprisingly warm weather. It’s always quite difficult to predict the weather for St. Patrick’s Day, even when they check it the morning of to make sure pre-planned outfits are suitable.

He’s stuck standing between his father and Liam while his mother hands out the sprigs of Shamrock, and while they make polite conversation with each other and the people around them, it’s all a bit stilted. He’s ready to go home the longer he stands there, but he knows that this day isn’t about him. It’s about honoring his mother and all of the members of the Irish Guard as they celebrate this festive day, his awkwardness with his family being pushed behind him for the sake of others.

Hours later when all of the shamrocks have been handed out and the pints of Guinness have been consumed, he’s back in his apartment, the lights dull as he’s reminded of the absolute stillness of his home, nothing out of place because if he doesn’t clean up after himself, a member of the staff will while he’s gone. His phone vibrates in his pocket to let him know an email came in, but he also sees several messages from Emma that she’s sent throughout the day.

Emma: Hot damn. My boyfriend is a smoking Prince Charming…or Prince Devilishly Handsome, which is much better than the Disney movies.

Emma: But seriously, you look just as handsome as I thought you would.

Emma: I know you don’t have your phone with you because you’re currently on my television, but I wanted to let you know that your medicine and doctoring yesterday has cured most of my ills and I’m more Frosty the Snow Man than Rudolph.

Emma: I think it’s three months too late to be making so many Christmas references.

Emma: Who am I kidding? It’s never too late.

Emma: Oh, also, Happy St. Patrick’s Day, babe. Love you to pieces.

Attached to the last text is a picture of her with a sparkly green headband on, two four-leaf clovers springing off the top of her head as she smiles at him. She’s got on a t-shirt that says “pinch me and I’ll punch you” and he loves her more than anything in the world, even if there’s still that slight redness at the tip of her nose. Maybe because of it.

Killian: Hey, darling. Sorry I couldn’t get back to you earlier, and I know you’re working now but I just wanted to let you know I missed you today and am glad you’re feeling better. I’ve been told that I have incredible…touch…so it’s not surprising I’ve cured your ills.

Killian: Also, I think pinching you might be worth the resulting punch. Love you, too.

“Okay,” Emma mumbles, pining her hat to her head before adjusting her curls underneath so that they fall in waves across the dark green coat gracing her shoulders and falling just above her knees, “so all I’m doing is handing out sprigs of Shamrock and chatting a bit, right? Nothing I can really screw up.”

He knows she’s more talking to herself than she’s talking to him. They’ve gone over this several times with their aides and public relation specialists, and Emma could probably recite the day in extreme detail for all of the times she’s read through her preparation packet, like she does every time she attends an event with him.

“Right.” He fixes a stray hair caught in her collar before running his thumb over the apple of her cheek, lingering there a bit longer than usual just so she knows he’s here. “I’m going to by right by you the entire time, so if you somehow don’t know what to say or do, just follow my lead, yeah?”

She nods her head before her lips slightly tick up on the sides, and he knows she’d pull her lip between her teeth if it wouldn’t mess with her lipstick.

“You’re going to do great, darling. I know it, and obviously mum and dad know it for entrusting you with this task. Plus, we’re going to your parents’ pub to drink a Guinness with some of the Guard after. How great is that for you and me to get to go back to our beginnings?”

She finally fully smiles, even if it’s just a soft little thing, but the green of her outfit brings out the green in her eyes so that she looks to be absolutely glowing even in her timid state, especially as the light from the window makes her golden hair almost glow white.

“It’s pretty great.”

The two of them head to the car where they’re driven to the Irish base in West London with their aides and their security detail going over last minute details. These are all things that he knows, but he listens and asks the questions he can tell Emma is hesitant to ask so that there’s nothing she’s unsure of, especially since he knows they’re greeting crowds outside of the base before going in and handing out the shamrock and watching the parade put on by the Guard.

His mother had given up her position at this particular engagement the year before when he’d been granted his honorary position as Colonel of the Irish Guard, and while she hadn’t known who was going to be her replacement at the time, she’d almost immediately given Emma to honor after the two of them became engaged.

“I’m kind of sad you’re not wearing the uniform you wore to this last year,” Emma sighs as they get a bit closer to the base. “I’d like to see that in person.”

“Well, my darling, this is only because that’s what I’m wearing on our wedding day, as per your request when we were going through the options. Can’t have everyone seeing me in my wedding outfit while yours is such a big secret.”

She nudges his shoulder even as she shakes her head at his cheekiness. “You’re still not seeing the dress, my man.”

He and Emma go along to greet the crowds, making sure to stop to talk to those who are particularly enthusiastic or have brought a sign for the two of them, along with special greetings for the children and elderly. He sees Emma squatting down talking to a young child with blonde hair similar to Emma, and he’s just about to go join when he hears his name.

“Prince Killian, your lady is so beautiful.”

He smiles before going over to the older woman who’s talking to him from her position in her wheelchair, stopping and shaking her hand as a wind chill gusts through the crowd.

“Thank you, ma’am. What’s your name?”

“Susan Thomason, your Highness.”

“Tell you what, Susan,” he winks, “you can just call me Killian, and it’ll be our little secret since you’ve been so kind about Emma.”

Susan blushes as he still holds her hand, and he swears she might flutter her eyelashes. It’s endearing, and this is one of his favorite things about being who he is.

“We’ve all just waited so long for you to be happy, and I can just see it all over your face now. A man can’t hide when he’s in love.”

Well, he did for a long while, but it’s always nice to get to show his true feelings after so many years of hiding them.

“Well, I’ve been happy for a long time, but thank you, Susan. I hope you have a wonderful holiday.”

He squeezes her hand before moving on to greet other people, having to wave and not shake hands in order to catch up with Emma who seems to be in a lively conversation across the street with a group of young men. He comes up behind her and wraps his arm around her waist to pull her closer to him to help keep the chill away from her as she’s only in the wool coat dress and tights.

She turns to him and smiles when his hand rests on her side, his thumb running up and down to feel the dip of her waist above her hip while she fills him in on what they’ve been talking about to cause such jubilation.  

“So these wonderful men have been letting me know that they were part of an Emma Nolan look-a-like party at Halloween last year,” she looks over to him with this brilliant smile on her face while very obviously trying to hold in her laughter.

“Do you all have pictures?” he questions because oh boy does he want to see this.

One of the young men slaps another before saying, “I told you they’d be cool about this. They’re the cool royals.”

Emma’s cheeks flush, and there’s no way for her to hide it. He’s had some hysterical conversations before, but this one is a personal favorite now. The men show them a series of pictures from Halloween, and nearly every one of them is in a blonde wig with skinny jeans and some type of plaid shirt or sweater like Emma was favoring during the fall of last year when she could still dress exactly how she pleased. None of them look anything like her, but Emma cannot contain her laughter anymore at the entire ordeal now that she’s seen proof of their story.

“Can I take a picture with them?” she turns to ask him. They’re not technically supposed to take selfies, but Killian has done it in the past when the time calls for it. What the hell? One time won’t hurt, especially because these will probably be the last people they talk to before they have to go inside the base.

“Of course, darling. Do you guys want me to use this phone?”

They all nod their heads before arranging for the picture, Emma leaning against the barrier with all of the guys surrounding her and smiling as Killian takes a few shots of the five of them before handing the phone back and guiding Emma away to where their security is waiting for them.

“None of them look like me, right?”

“Not in the slightest.”

The wind seems to pick up when they walk into the gates of the base, and he really hopes that it calms down because if he’s chilled, he cannot imagine how Emma is suffering at the impact. They’ve got to hand out sprigs to over three hundred Guards as well as having a bit of a chat with all of them thanking them for their service and wishing them a happy St. Patrick’s Day. Emma does swimmingly, as he knew that she would, and between the two of them it only takes an hour until they’re finished and sitting in a covered partition to watch the Guards march in their parade, the mascot of the Guard, an Irish Wolfhound leading the pack.

He notices Emma shivering, and wraps his arm around her shoulder to pull her closer into his side after placing a kiss on her forehead.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I just wasn’t expecting it to be this cold. I can’t remember the last time it was this bad in mid-March. Usually I’m holed up right now with some kind of cold, so I’m thinking that’s coming after today if we stay out here much longer.”

“Just a few more minutes, and we’ll be back in the car, okay?”

He was wrong in thinking they’d only be out there for little while longer because it’s another two hours before they’re walking into the familiar walls of the pub and its heating system, Emma practically sighing in relief before immediately moving to hug her parents as he does the same, holding on a little bit tighter at being back in this place for the first time in over half of a year.

It doesn’t seem to have changed except for the obvious security cameras in the corners and an upgraded flat screen on the wall, and he’s glad to see that it’s still so familiar. Just being here brings back so many memories, and when this is all over he and Emma are going upstairs to have dinner with David and Mary Margaret like his life is a little more normal.

The Guard members begin to shuffle into the pub, all of them stopping to greet Killian and Emma even if they’ve already spoken with them, and while he’s used to greeting people, it’s odd greeting them while inside of this building where he was no one but a patron. It’s also odd that he’s in here without a cap in the middle of the day with all of the lights turned on.

The two of them are really only supposed to drink a pint and pose for some photos, but that plan is pretty much nixed the moment Will and the Nolans get behind on serving the pints. Emma immediately gets up and goes behind the bar to help out, handing out glasses and chatting with everyone while still in her dress and heels from earlier.

“Your Highness,” their new joint assistant Isabelle whispers into his ear, “Ms. Nolan really shouldn’t be seen serving beer.”

“Why not?”

“It may be seen as her cheapening the monarchy.”

“No offense, Isabelle, but that’s a load of bullocks. She’s happy and in her element, and if you want my opinion…it’s that I don’t care about the opinions of others.”

Isabelle nods before backing away and going to stand in the corner with the photographers while Emma continues to stand behind the bar serving. She is indeed in her element, smiling and laughing as she talks to the service men and women, and he’d like to join in, walking around the side of the bar and going to stand behind the counter with Emma.

“Your Highness, I’d never thought I’d see the day where you’re serving me beer.”

He peers over to see the man’s full name on his uniform. “Well, Ross, I can only say that I never thought Emma here would allow me behind the bar.”

Ross raises his eyebrow at the two of them, and Emma laughs beside him. “I couldn’t have him knocking over all of the alcohol. You see,” she leans over the counter to get a bit closer to Ross and stage whispers, “I make him a little nervous, and he could be a liability with all of that flustering while he was trying to flirt with me.”

Ross as well as some of the other men and women at the bar laugh at Emma teasing him, and she just wraps her arm around his back and rubs circles there while he laughs along at the truth behind her statement. She’s always made him a bumbling fool.

“Funny and beautiful. No wonder you got swept off your feet by a prince.”

“Oh, Ross,” Emma chuckles, “I was the one doing the sweeping.”

The entire event ends up lasting for two hours, and by the end of it this has to be the most genuine, simple fun he’s ever had at an engagement as he and Emma sit in their booth at the back of the pub and talk to all of the guards and members of their families before everyone is shuffled out of the pub and all he has to do for the rest of the day is approve the media coverage he wants released from his official accounts before going to eat dinner with the Nolans.

“So that was insane,” David sighs as he sits down in the living room while Mary Margaret puts the lasagna they’re eating for dinner in the oven. “Did any of you bother to look outside? Because the streets were packed.”

“No, I didn’t look outside. I was too busy picking up your slack, Dave.”

Killian settles down onto the couch, Emma sitting at the opposite end and settling her feet in his lap with her heels still on. She did so well today. She is really a natural at this, but he knows that all of the attention is hard on her. It’s culture shock, and she’s being fully submerged in a short time. She wiggles her feet in his lap, and when he looks over at her, she smiles before nodding at her feet, silently asking for him to rub her feet through her tights.

“I was not slacking,” David protests and oh has Killian missed being in this apartment and teasing David even if he knows that he should be nothing but cordial to the man. “I was simply overwhelmed by my daughter’s Grinch costume.”

“Hey,” Emma whines, pulling a pillow out from underneath her to toss at her dad. “I think this looks nice. I’m not quite used to the hat thing all the time, but I think this was a nice outfit. I’m festive.”

“You looked beautiful, love.”

“See,” she looks at her dad before pointing at him, “that’s how you’re supposed to treat me, Dad.”

“Killian is marrying you. He’s going to be much kinder than I am.”

“I am your daughter. I feel like you should also be nice.”

David shrugs, Emma rolls her eyes at her dad, and this entire thing is perfect.

The four of them sit down to dinner a little over an hour later, formal clothes long since discarded as he and Emma get to eat for the first time since that morning. Emma speaks to her parents every day, but he doesn’t so it’s nice to be able to catch up with them and how they’re doing. They’re still looking for a new home, and his face goes red when they say they’re trying to find a place fit for watching grandchildren. It’s a casual comment and good reasoning for their search in a home, but Mary Margaret gives Emma a very pointed look. She might as well tap her watch and tell the two of them that she’s waiting.

The pub is still open for the rest of the evening, St. Patrick’s Day too big of a day for them to close down, so David and Mary Margaret do eventually have to go downstairs to help Will, leaving he and Emma to be guided out by their body guards and walked to the car until they’re safely on their way home.

“You did fantastic today, you know that?”

Emma reaches over to tap his knee, running her thumb against the material of his slacks. “Thank you. I liked today. It was fun. Tiring but fun. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to all of this, though.”

“Most likely not, but it gets easier the more you do it, love.” He leans over to whisper in her ear so that everyone else in the car cannot hear. “You want to go get luckywhen we get home?”

She snickers at his come on, and harshly pinches his thigh, causing him to flinch back from her ear.

“Bloody hell. What was that for?”

“You’re not wearing green.”

The next Saturday is the Kidding A Goal opening, and this is the most nervous he’s been about an event in a long time. He knows it’s because this is his own personal charity instead of it being a patronage he supports, and he simply wants things to go right. He wants everything to run smoothly, the kids to have a good time, and he mostly wants it to be successful in the long run and to make some kind of difference for these kids.

“You’re pacing, babe.”

“I’m not pacing.”

“Okay,” Emma exaggerates, bending down to tie her sneakers, “then you’re walking back and forth over the same section of hardwood flooring. I think that’s called pacing, but sure. Whatever you say.”

His shoulders sag forward because she’s right. She’s always damn right, reading him even when he’s only giving the most subtle of signs to his true feelings. Of course, he most definitely is pacing, so it’s not like this is a subtle sign. Even people who don’t know him could tell that he’s nervous.

Emma stands after tying her shoes, and the both of them are in athletic clothes instead of dressing up so she looks much smaller than she usually is when they go out and she’s stuck in heels. The thought sobers him just a bit, reminding him that today isn’t like most of his other days. Of course there’s pressure from all sides, but it’s about everyone having fun. He’s going to be playing with the children more than anything else, and he can do that without a problem.

“I’m a little nervous,” he admits, tugging Emma into his side and kissing her temple. “I just want things to go well.”

She stands on her toes to press her lips against his jaw, nosing at him so that he looks down at her. “This is years in the making, Killian, and it’s a brilliant idea. The only thing that’s possibly going to go wrong is that I’m going to kick your ass today when we play the games.”

“In you dreams, Nolan.”

By the time the two of them get there, all of the kids and families are already inside, sitting in chairs in the auditorium of the facility as the concert they arranged for the children begins to wind down, the music dying until he walks out on the makeshift stage filled with all kinds of banners with their logo. He’s got to read a speech off the teleprompter, going on and on about the power of sport and teamwork, especially at young ages, before he smiles and yells, “let the games begin.”

For awhile he simply makes the rounds with all of the coaches, administrators, and wonderful people who have made his vision a reality, thanking them for their hard work and dedication not just for making today possible but for all of the days in the future. Emma does the same even if she’s never met most of them like he has, and after they’re through with their official duties, they can move on to talking to the children who are taking part today.

There’s a group of kids doing some sort of relay, running around cones and then hula hooping before having to pass the baton off to their teammate to continue the course. He doesn’t want to do it, but Emma’s got this glint in her eyes that basically says “game on.” She wasn’t kidding earlier when she told him she was going to outdo him today for the sake of competitiveness.

He and Emma get in line so that they’re paired up with each other before the next section of children start the race. When they’re told to go, he and Emma both take off, but he’s the slightest bit faster than her, always has been when not running on the beach, so as he jumps through the tires and runs around the cones, Emma lags just enough behind so that he can hand his baton off before she does. It’s not about winning, but he’s most definitely going to tease Emma about this later just because he can.

After the relay they go about talking to all of the kids on their teams, and after he finds himself finished with his team, Emma is still talking. One thing he’s noticed as they do engagements, despite her hesitancy toward a public persona, is that she is incredibly comfortable talking to people, particularly those who are not public officials or diplomats. So it’s really no surprise to him that she’s talking to a little girl as he walks over to join her.

“Do you play sports, Emma?”

“I run, and I play tennis sometimes but I think you’re already much better than I am when it comes to running obstacle courses.”

“Yeah, I am pretty good, aren’t I?”

He and Emma both try to contain their laughter, but Emma fails, her giggles passing through her lips even as she covers her mouth because this little girl is confident. He likes it.

“You know, Laura,” he begins, squatting down next to Emma, placing his hand against her back as she holds Laura’s hand, “my family plays a football match every Christmas, and Emma was on the wining team this year.”

She doesn’t seem to be too interested in what he has to say, but she appeases him anyways. “What about you?”

“Oh, I lost,” he chuckles, and Emma looks back at him and smiles, “but I tried my best and had a fun time. That’s what I want you to do today, okay? Try your best and have a good time.”

After all of the children have had time to take part in the opening day activities, more fun and games than actual sport just for today as the real coaching and practicing will start to take place on Monday, he and Emma are set to play a few strokes of tennis against each other. He’d foolishly let Emma pick the sport they were going to play when Isabelle encouraged the two of them to do a bit of an official exhibition of some sort, and she’d picked the one thing where she excelled and he floundered.

He would have expected nothing less.

It’s much warmer today than it was at the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations last week, and as they’re led to the courts outside, he wants to take his pullover off but he can’t as it has the charity’s logo and the video of this match will be used as promotion. Emma doesn’t seem to be affected by the heat at all, though, breezily chatting with one of their coaches and swinging her racket around as they walk.

They have it set up as an entire event, temporary stands constructed around the court so that as many kids as possible can watch them play. He and Emma are equipped with headsets with microphones, as Emma very kindly reminds him to watch his language for when he inevitably gets a little frustrated. Yeah, they’re trying to teach the children all about the power of sport and having a good time while trying your best, but that doesn’t mean he’s not competitive, especially when competing against a woman like Emma.

“Heads or tails,” their umpire says after the two of them stand at the net for pictures like they do in real matches.

“Heads,” Emma answers for him as she hops on her feet to warm herself up, and he already knows she’s going to be cheeky during this entire thing.

The coin lands on heads, and Emma elects to serve before taking two fingers and pointing at her eyes before pointing at him. “Don’t think I’m taking my eyes off of you for a second.”

“I would despair if you did.”

Killian insisted that this entire day is casual, so much so that no one refer to him as Prince or His Royal Highness once everything has begun. He’s simply Killian, while Emma is Emma, not going by the formality of Ms. Nolan as she’s gotten used to in the past month or so. This has kind of backfired a bit, however, because Emma seems to be much more fun for the children to chant as he and Emma rally, the yellow ball gently being passed back and forth on the blue court. Every time she gets a point on him, especially if it’s a winner, all of the kids break out into cheers that have Emma absolutely beaming across the net.

“You hear that, babe,” she teases through her microphone, probably not even realizing that she called him by her endearment for him in front of all of the people watching here and on the live stream, “I think all of your charms have gone away because it seems that I’ve got an absolutely fantastic cheering section.”

She gently hits the ball at him then, setting it up to his forehand and leaving a section of the court wide open so that he has no choice but to hit a winner, and he does, the yellow ball of fuzz passing Emma so that she doesn’t even attempt to get her racket on it. The crowd cheers, chanting for him a bit as they probably haven’t realized Emma totally let him have that, and then he hears Emma’s voice over the microphone leading the chant. When he looks over to her, she’s absolutely radiating happiness, and when he over exaggerates a fist pump, she throws her head back in laughter while all of the children do the same.

After their “match” they do a friendly handshake at the net, and when Emma pulls him in for a hug, kissing his slightly sweaty cheek, he hugs her a bit tighter before joking that she’s a regular Andy Murray.

The event winds down after that, the children tiring after eating the snacks they’ve provided, and he and Emma have to do their mini closing ceremony, giving a speech telling everyone that they hope that they had a great day and sign up forms for each individual sport or activity are at the booths in the back of the auditorium or online on their newly launched website.

When they get home, he practically collapses on the bed, not necessarily tired but relieved that the entire thing is over and that it went better than he could have ever dreamed. He just hopes that the actual organization runs that smoothly.

“That was fantastic,” Emma compliments before joining him on the bed, her head flopping down next to his as she accidentally knees his stomach, and she’s really beating up on him today, isn’t she?

“Yeah?”

The mattress squeaks the slightest bit as she turns her body to face him, soft smile on her face that makes all of his insecurities about that day fade away for at least the moment. “Absolutely. Everything about it was perfect, and some of those kids’ lives are going to change because of you. You know that?”

He does. He finally feels like he’s making an actual difference, even if it may just be a small one.  “I do. Thank you for being so great today.”

Emma reaches up to caress his face, her fingers running through his hair and pushing it back so that it doesn’t fall to his forehead anymore. God, he could fall asleep with her playing with his hair, and he almost does until Emma speaks.

“You’re going to be the best dad when the time comes. You know that, right?”

His eyelids flutter open to find her still hovering above him, hands running through his hair in a soothing motion.

“You’re sweet, love. What’s brought this on?”

“Just watching you with all of those kids today. I know as much as we talk about it and then don’t talk about it, as much as you want them, you’ve always been nervous that you couldn’t be a good dad because of your relationship with your family and the lifestyle you’d be bringing kids into, but Killian, none of that matters with how wonderful you just instinctively are.”

He reaches his hand out to cup the back of Emma’s head, threading his hands through her hair before bringing her down to intermingle their lips in a soft, slow kiss that has no purpose other than to show his affection for her.

“You’ve changed my whole world, Emma.”

[myth-and-mischief]

Using simple fairy tale motifs to solve Voltron writing issues (2 examples)

People seem to have the thought that all story ideas must be original, and you cannot borrow or reference anything from anywhere else.  But what people don’t realize is that most great stories DO borrow ideas and motifs from elsewhere; its just knowing which ones to use, how to use them, and how to make it your own.  Lord of the Rings for instance uses Norse, Finnish, and Germanic mythology, as well as Tolkein’s personal experiences with WWI and the industrialization of pastoral areas from his childhood, just to name a few.  Star Wars can be described as a samurai cowboy space opera with influences from Arthurian legends all the way up WWII.  

One of my favorite fights in VLD itself is the clone-Shiro vs. Keith fight in “Black Paladins”.  This fight pulls heavily from both the Obi-Wan vs Anakin fight (Revenge of the Sith) and Steve vs Bucky (Captain America: Winter Soldiers) in fight sequence, location, and even dialogue.  I’d also visually argue that one location during the fight looks suspiciously like the drill fight from Star Trek (2009).  

I’d like to examine two episodes from VLD’s s7 that might have flowed or worked better using simple fairy tale motifs. I might add more later on.  Despite being born in ’91, I was orally raised on Grimm’s fairy tales by my German immigrant grandfather in such a way I wasn’t even aware they weren’t being created for me until I found a book of the tales in the bookstore. Fairy tales contain not only lessons for children to learn, but a way for culture and beliefs to pass on.  When you start to compare fairy tales to each other, you’ll find that many have certain elements, or motifs, in common. (The Aarne-Thompson system is just one system that attempts to classify tales based on motifs)

“Supernatural Lapse of Time in Another Land/Dimension” to solve the 3 year time skip

And

“A Supernatural Entity Rewards an Action of the Protagonist” to solve how Voltron gets to Earth AND ease us into/provide better reasoning for “The Feud!” filler episode

“Supernatural Lapse of Time in Another Land/Dimension” to solve the 3 year time skip

Used in stories such as:  Urashima Taro (Japanese), Oisin in Tir na nOg (Irish), arguably Rip Van Winkle (American), humans passing into fairy realms

Issue: Voltron believes that only a “few weeks” have passed since sacrificing the Castle of Lions.  They find out that actually three decaphoebs (3 years) have passed for everyone else. How the time differences occurred is never explained (or, slightly explained, but where it sits in order of events doesn’t make sense).

VLD Context:

·        Voltron fights Lotor/Sincline.  Sincline uses its abilities to pop in and out of the quintessence field multiple times.

·        Voltron and Sincline enter the quintessence field for an extended fight.  They leave Lotor/Sincline behind.

·        Appearing back in their normal reality/dimension/field, they realize that to close the rifts they have to cause a massive explosion/black hole type of force to close them.  They sacrifice the Castle of Lions.

·        A “few weeks” later, the group is captured by Ezor and Zethrid, who demand where they have been all this time.

·        Acxa, after rescuing them, clarifies that for everyone else, three decaphoebs (equates roughly to a year) have passed.  

Pidge actually offers an explanation in canon: that jumping in and out of the rift/quintessence field has caused the group to experience time slippage.  This could work very well, since it follows along an old motif of where time in a different realm (fairy, supernatural, reality) passes at a different rate than the current (mortal, our world, world of origin for protagonist of tale).  The problem lies in where Pidge/VLD says the time passage takes place vs. what canonically happens.

Following the Voltron group, they don’t even notice the passage of time.  The audience doesn’t even pick up on this fact either until it’s pointed out by Lotor’s generals a few episodes later.  However the generals (s7), direct eyewitnesses I’d like to point out, and Commander Mar sent by Honerva (s8) state that Voltron doesn’t disappear until AFTER the explosion caused by the Castle of Lions.  Therefore, canonically, Voltron appears to experience the time slippage after the explosion.

Suggestion:  Time passes different in the quintessence field.  Allura and Lotor didn’t spend that much time in the previous episode, don’t need to change that.  The split popping in and out of most of the Voltron vs. Sincline fight doesn’t need to be changed due to its speed.  Concentrate on the long fight inside the quintessence field.  This is where the 3 years slip.  Voltron pops out, have to explode the Castleship to deal with the rifts, the explosion is what drew all the attention to the area.  Have the generals’ story that they saw them disappear and never seen again.

OR

The time slippage is due to the Castleship explosion.  Have Pidge state this instead.  

Additional suggestion: Clarify WHY exactly the three year time needed to happen, because I still don’t understand why.  The injury, death, occupations, loss, etc as the result of Voltron’s choice to turn on Lotor/their absence is never brought up/Voltron never faces it.  It could happen just as poorly in an instant as it can in three years.  Is it supposed to give Sendak time to attack/invade Earth? He can still do that in a single attack. Is it to build the Zaiforge canons? Have them brought with Sendak, etc.

  “A Supernatural Entity Rewards an Action of the Protagonist” to solve how Voltron gets to Earth AND ease us into/provide better reasoning for “The Feud!” filler episode

Used in stories such as:  So common it has an Aarne-Thompson classification (480: Kind and Unkind Girls to be exact).  Essentially the hero/ine shows kindness to someone/thing and shown kindness or a reward in return, while someone who tries to follow after and treats them cruelly receives an equally cruel reward.  (The male version is often, especially in Grimm’s, a kind youngest son and two evil older brothers)

Issue(s):  “The Feud!” episode comes out of nowhere, and has little-to-no context for it happening, in combination of the creature/storm from “The Journey Within” inexplicably transporting/teleporting Voltron from their original location to Earth’s solar system.

VLD Context:

(The Feud!)

·        With no explanation at all, the episode starts out where the five paladins, and ONLY the paladins, thrown into a gameshow

·        They have to beat the gameshow to escape

·        It is only after the beat the show and wake up back in their lions that:

·        (1) apparently only the paladins shared a dream where

·        (2) Bob, the host of the show, is revealed by Cora to be an “all-powerful, all-knowing interdimensional being who judges the worthiness of great warriors… Legends say that if you meet Bob and live to tell the tale, you are destined for great things”

 (The Journey Within)

·        Voltron, while flying through the dark void/space, runs into a type of nebula storm

·        The storm strikes the lions, deactivating them, and freezes the non-paladin passengers

·        Allura states that their paladin armor must have protected them from the shock

·        (Which, correct me if I’m wrong, is a continuity error?  Shiro is shown dressed in the Black Paladin armor, yet is not protected/is frozen.  And again, I’d also question Allura’s armor, since its armor stylized after the paladin armor and not a part of the original set of paladin armor)

·        The paladins fight a space creature, each other, and their own minds

·        After defeating the… mind games…? And the creature, the storm returns.

·        Instead of escaping the storm/nebula, they go through it

·        This decision somehow carries the group “several thousand light years away”, and as deposits them in Earth’s solar system

I mention both of these episodes because I think you could either combine them together or into two connected, although not outright connected episodes.  Or move the order so that “The Feud!” comes after “The Journey Within”.

My opinion on the filler episodes in Voltron is pretty clear on this blog: I dislike to outright hate most of them.  Filler and recap episodes, though still annoying, serve a purpose in Japanese anime, especially anime that is based on a manga that is still being written. Since several chapters (usually 3) can be covered in one episode, you can catch up quickly and usually filler episodes are to give the manga time to get ahead.  And I usually forgive clever recap/filler episodes that work well, disguised, or manage to fit into the plot.

For instance, I like the Monsters and Mana episode because its fun, all the characters who are present have reasons to be there, foreshadows major plot point, and results in small advances for several characters.  My only complaint is that Keith and Lotor are not included.  Filler episodes, such as “The Voltron Show”, immensely piss me off because we are wasting time in a shower that already doesn’t have a lot of time (repeatedly showing the whole transformation sequence, starting out at half seasons at 13 episodes then cutting it down to quarter seasons etc) or stretches a whole previously done plot point.  Also, in every single one of theses filler episodes, at least one major character is missing.  Both of the above episodes Shiro is inexplicably excluded.  

I don’t enjoy the gameshow episode because most of the episode is trying to figure out what the fuck is going on, and why/how did the paladins get there.  Then, why are the rest of the passengers excluded, why is Shiro excluded?  THEN we learn that the whole thing is by this essentially god alien who judges great warriors, and if you face him and live you’re destined for great things.  WHY is this character needed?  This group are literally the paladins, they’ve already been chosen, and they’re the main characters, of COURSE they’re great.  Ok, cool, they passed, do we get anything at least? ……. No, nothing, there’s no point. (Also WHERE has this essentially god alien been doing the past 10k years?)

Then, two episodes later, the space creature/teleporting nebula or storm.  Any viewer of VLD knows that they love their deus ex machina. We, or at least I my first time viewing, know that this “tension” of being stuck out in space and slow traveling will deus ex machina itself at some point.  Yet, when it happens, it still doesn’t make any sense.  The nebula is said to be what teleports them, not the storm or the creature, but nebulas are essentially space clouds of dust and ionized gas.  

ALSO, again, why are we excluding passengers, especially Shiro?  Allura states that the paladin armor protected them, but Shiro is wearing the black paladin armor.  And, technically, Allura isn’t in official paladin armor (as in from the original group).

What I think would have flowed or worked better is to move “The Feud!” episode directly after “The Journey Within”, and move the teleportation to “The Feud!” as a reward.  There’s a motif that exists where, after proving themselves, the heroes are given a reward.  One variation is where the hero receives the reward as a direct result of an action or kindness shown to a person or creature earlier on in the story.  The hero puts a fish back into a river, the fish later arrives to retrieve the ring lost in the sea the hero has been sent to find. A powerful being disguises themselves as someone old and/or helpless, and rewards the hero for treating them kindly.

Suggestion:  Voltron receives an SOS or sees someone is in trouble.  You could even callback or nod to helping Rolo and group from season 1. They decide the help, despite their limited abilities at the moment.  The alien is Bob or revealed to be the Bob, snaps a finger, they’re in the gameshow.  We’ve now introduced some context of how the group got there, so you can enjoy what goes on. Include Shiro as a game member, include the passengers as your “phone a friend” assist in gameshows.  They beat the gameshow, are deemed worthy by Bob (for their earlier stopping, for beating the gameshow, his own rules, ec), and the reward is teleporting closer to Earth.  

You could even connect it to “The Journey Within” in that the storm and/or the creature they fight, as well as the inner journey the paladins go through, is the first part to getting to Bob.  You could outright say this (Bob tells them), its hinted (creature is seen near Bob) or not pointed out at all (viewer may or may not pick up on it).  

[pepperoniwhirlwind]

🌼~Honesty Hour~🌼 (pt. 2)

     I was asked by @lovelynhiddenkittens to do 150 questions in the honesty hour tag quite a while ago, and only did a third of it. But no longer will this be the case! Midterms are mostly over (the two biggest ones are done at least) so I can focus on more fun things, like answering these questions! Here’s my answers to questions 51-100:

51. Ever wished you were someone else?

     Yes. I have a lot of internalized shame about my body type (petite and curvy) that whenever I see someone super tall or toned I just want to be them. Even if it’s only for a day. I don’t have these wishes so much anymore though. Alex and I have been dating for 5 months (on the 21st of this month) and he loves my body type. Thanks to him, I’m learning to love myself, and learning that I don’t have to be a model to be loved~ 💕

52. One thing you wish you could change about yourself?

     My depression. I feel like it makes me a burden on everyone, and although it’s shaped who I am, has it really changed me for the better? Maybe I’m more understanding and empathetic because of it, but it’s also caused me an inordinate amount of pain, and unnecessary pain for my loved ones.

53. Favorite make-up brand?

     I don’t wear make-up often enough for me to even have a clue.

54. Favorite store?

     What I’m buying changes which store I prefer. If it’s food, I generally hit up Fry’s. If it’s home decor (Which Alex and I needed quite a bit of in recency, given that we just moved into an apartment together a few months ago) I shop at Target. If I need to buy shampoo, face wipes, deodorant, shaving cream, etc. I typically go to Wal-Mart. Does anyone really have just 1 store that they shop at? I know if I bought non-food items at Fry’s I’d go bankrupt. 😂

55. Favorite blog?

     That’s a real tough one. I love all of my Tumblr friend’s blogs. @im-here-cause-im-not-all-there posts a lot of stuff I relate to, same for @theperksofneurodivergency, who always posts great content. Seriously, I could sit here for ages and list off all the people on Tumblr that I follow, but that would be ridiculous. Rest assured that if I follow you, it means I generally like what you post.

56. Favorite color?

     I love darker colors on the cooler end of the color spectrum; mainly green, blue & purple. I even like pastel colors occasionally. Though that’s more likely when I’m being influenced by some of my alters who like lighter colors. Like Honey, who loves pastel colors, and all things sweet really. That’s why sunflowers are her favorite flower. She appreciates all the sunny and cheerful things in life. ☀️ In our inner world, she even has a garden that she tends to regularly, and grows (you guessed it) sunflowers, among other things.

57. Favorite food?

     Oh look, another tough one. Hmm... It really depends what I’m in the mood for. But my boyfriend recently started taking me to Schlotzsky’s, which has a lot of really good sandwiches. Though, I’m always down for some Arby’s. I’m in a rut there, but I don’t care. Their roast beef classic and curly fries are to die for. 😋

58. Last thing you ate?

     Speaking of Arby’s... 😆 I ate there for dinner last night in celebration of passing my proctored exam for my math class. It was worth 75% of my grade, and I wasn’t allowed to have anything (they even confiscated my bottle of water). It took 2 hours and was suuuper stressful. So my BF rewarded me with Arby’s when I passed~ 😄 This is just one of the many reasons why I love him~ 💖

59. First thing you ate this morning?

     It’s the morning right now, and I haven’t eaten yet... 😅 Does the two sips of my boyfriend’s coffee count?... No?... Okay. *sighs* I should go eat now actually, so I can take my morning meds. Thanks for reminding me, Tumblr ask!

60. Ever won a competition? For what?

     I got first place in a race once... then immediately quit the track team. 😂 Running just wasn’t for me. I’ve won blue ribbons for art (culinary and painting mostly) before at the 4-H Fair, but I don’t think I’ve ever been in a proper competition that I won. I recently participated in a Drag Show at my college, and even signed my performance (I know ASL, and I hoped it would make me stand out a bit against the competition), but I didn’t win. It was actually a really close call between all the participants, and the host/judge couldn’t decide who the audience cheered louder for, so the lady who’d set up this event had to come up and make the decision. I was one of the first people she decided should leave the stage. So, needless to say, I felt a little embarrassed and defeated afterwards.

61. Been suspended/expelled? For what?

     I never even had detention 😂 ; I was a goody two-shoes growing up. I was always the teacher’s pet, so no, I was never suspended or expelled.

62. Been arrested? For what?

     ⬆️ See the point I made above for your answer. ⬆️ I’d have to cease being a goody two-shoes first before being arrested is even a possibility, so no, my record is squeaky clean... we won’t speak of the songs I’ve illegally downloaded from YouTube though. >-> <-< Don’t tell the po-po about this, or else I’ll be forced to participate in court-ordered rehab for my music addiction. 😂

63. Ever been in love?

     Yes~ 💘 I’m in love right now, with the most supportive and understanding man I’ve ever known~ I shouldn’t have to say who at this point, but I will. It’s my BF, Alex~ ❤️

64. Tell us the story of your first kiss.

     Well, this was back when I lived in Indiana. I had a core group of friends, that all happened to be on the LGBT+ spectrum, so we were practically dripping in rainbow-y goodness. 🌈 Mich, essentially the leader of the group, is trans. While Levi is gay and Laci (she thought she was a lesbian originally, and identified as such for the time that I knew her; I don’t really have contact with any of them anymore) is bi. That just leaves Sasha, who is also bi, and she was my first kiss. Mich, Sasha, I, and others (Levi and Laci weren’t there though) all decided to play spin-the-bottle. Sasha was the first person I landed on, and I still remember her kiss. It was soft, like a cloud, and tasted like strawberries. 🍓 It was a wonderful first kiss, but I definitely prefer kissing Alex the most~ 😍

65. Are you hungry right now?

     Well, considering I just ate a mini donut with my pills... yes, yes I am. 😂 ...Don’t you judge me either! Alex and I bought a bunch of mini donuts for our last D&D gaming sesh at Tyler’s, and there was still a bunch left over, so someone has to eat them, and I didn’t feel like making a proper breakfast. Plus, the one I ate is strawberry flavored, so how could I not eat it? If anyone turns down a strawberry donut, suspect immediately that they are a lizard-person.

66. Do you like your Tumblr friends more than your real friends?

     What a savage question. No, I do not. I like all of my friends, equally, whether they’re online or offline. I only care if my friends are good people or not; and if they care and respect me as much as I do them. Whether they live nearby or not is of little importance to me. I base my friendships off of their character, their morals; not their place of residence.

67. Facebook or Twitter?

     Well, I don’t have a Twitter, and only really check my Facebook once in a blue moon. So... neither?... What, is that not an option? Fine... I choose Facebook... I guess.

68. Twitter or Tumblr?

     Tumblr.

69. Are you watching TV right now?

     No, I’m currently typing this... I am listening to music though, of course. 😆

70. Names of your best friends?

     Well, Tyler’s the only friend I have IRL that knows me, like, truly knows me. By that, I means she knows about my DID, among other diagnoses, as we’ve talked at length about both of our diagnoses before. Since she has Bipolar disorder, she gets what it’s like to have a “scary” mental illness; the ones that get characterized by media to always be violent and unhinged. She didn’t judge me or fear me, she only asked questions and tried to learn as much about my system as she could, which tells us that she truly cares and understands. I’ve told other people before, but they’re either no longer a part of my life, or were creeped out by my DID, and are choosing to forget that I ever told them in the first place. My Tumblr friends also know about my DID, given that I post about it and mention it in my blog bio, but there’s a certain level of anonymity on the internet that allows for me to be more open about it. Telling someone IRL? Now that’s terrifying. It takes a lot of trust, and given that I have had some bad reactions in the past, it makes it even more daunting.

71. Craving something? What?

     Honestly? A vacuum. And a mop, while I’m at it. I’ve been cleaning for most of the morning, and those are the only cleaning supplies that I need and don’t have. I keep trying to talk Alex into buying them, but he’s not as bothered by dirty floors as I am. He even walks around barefoot on these filthy floors! IDK how! Even if I’m wearing socks it bothers me. I don’t like stepping on anything, and the only way I don’t feel what’s on the ground is if I’m wearing shoes. So... I basically never take off my shoes except for when I’m in bed. 😂

72. What color are your towels?

     What a weird question. 😆 Before I moved in with Alex, I lived with my parents, and we didn’t have a standard color of towel. We had an assortment of colors from multiple old sets of towels, a lot of them raggedy, some of them bleached, most of them ancient. Then when I started living with Alex, we still have some towels of differing colors, but most of them are blue and soft~ ✨ The sheets and pillow cases are blue too, though a lighter shade.

73. Do you sleep with stuffed animals?

     Not anymore. I used to when I was younger though. When I was a kid my stuffed animals felt like my children. I would rotate which ones got to sleep with me each night, hug and kiss them all goodnight then tuck them in. If one of them fell out of my arms in the middle of the night, it would wake me up immediately. Not even a slow, groggy wake-up. It was like my motherly instinct was an alarm clock, so I would wake up instantly and be wide awake, frantically searching for the stuffed animal that fell out of my arms. I would then pick them up, dust them off and apologize, then snuggle them and drift off back to sleep. When I was a teenager, I mostly cuddled them when I was lonely and needed some companionship to fall asleep. Now that I snuggle and sleep with my boyfriend each night, I no longer sleep with my stuffed animals, but I still love them and keep them as decoration for my bed at my parent’s house, since I never really sleep there anymore. I nap there occasionally, but that’s about it.

74. How many stuffed animals do you think you have?

     Uhhh... I’ve never actually counted, but at least a tub full.

75. Favorite animal?

     Elephants and foxes, equally~ 💖

76. What color is your underwear?

     I’m wearing black panties at the moment. It’s satiny with lace, so it’s cute and comfy; the best of both worlds. 😉

77. Chocolate or Vanilla?

     Definitely chocolate, 🍫 provided it’s not too rich.

78. Favorite ice cream flavor?

     I’m obsessed with matcha green tea ice cream right now, OMG, it’s sooo good~ 😋 Same goes for the matcha green tea frappuccino at Starbucks. It’s the only drink there that I actually get. I’ve tried other beverages they have, and generally don’t like them, but the matcha green tea frap is too delicious for it’s own good.

79. What color shirt are you wearing?

     I’m actually wearing a really comfy dress right now, that I slept in as a nightgown last night. 😆 It’s gray and has a lace band on each sleeve.

80. What color pants?

     ⬆️ Once again, reference my previous entry. ⬆️ I am pantless, given that I’m sporting a dress at the moment.

81. Favorite TV show?

     Oh geez... another hard one. Let’s see... I’ll just put the name of the show I’m watching the most right now. That would have to be “Crazy Ex Girlfriend” on Netflix. Before that I watched the newest seasons of “BoJack Horseman” as well as “Orange Is the New Black”, but I’ve already finished those.

82. Favorite movie?

     Honestly, I’ve been really obsessed with “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” recently. When I re-watched it as an adult, I noticed how much more serious that movie is compared to Disney’s other films. They cover some pretty dark subject matter, and do it well... *sighs* if only they’d nixed the addition of the gargoyles. They ruin every emotional or tense scene that they’re placed in, and make the lighter scenes just plain cringey. I know they wanted to make it suitable for kids, but I think Disney underestimates what kids can handle, especially considering they reference the darker scenes subtly enough so as to keep the movie’s G rating intact. Like what about the goat, Djali, that belongs to Esmeralda? The goat could have been the comic relief, but instead they brought in the talking gargoyles. They couldn’t even do something cool with the gargoyles, like make them a part of Quasi’s imagination. He’s been alone in a bell tower for his entire life, so it would make sense that he would begin talking to the statues and giving them personalities... but no... it’s shown at the end that the gargoyles can interact with and impact the real world, making them a part of it as well.

83. Mean Girls or Mean Girls 2?

     Well, considering I’ve only ever seen the first one, and didn’t even know there was a second one, I’m gonna have to go with “Mean Girls”.

84. Mean Girls or 21 Jump Street?

     I’ve never seen “21 Jump Street”, so once again, “Mean Girls” takes the cake.

85. Favorite character from Mean Girls?

     Oh, that’s hard, especially when they’re all such fun characters. Janis is pretty cool, so she’s up there, but Karen is probably my favorite. She’s such a simple, naive soul, you can’t help but love her.

86. Favorite character from Finding Nemo?

     Dory, hands down. But I wanna give a special shout-out to Bubbles, the character from the fish tank that, (you guessed it) is obsessed with bubbles. 😆 He cracks me up every time.

87. First person you talked to today?

     Alex. Considering we both wake up in the same bed, it would be nearly impossible for him not to be the one I talk to first thing in the morning.

88. Last person you talked to today?

     Once again, Alex, given that it’s still early in the day and I haven’t seen anybody else yet.

89. Name a person you hate?

     All of my abusers. Every. Single. One. They made me feel small, worthless, and unloved. So I hope each one of them feels that way for the rest of their miserable existences.

90. Name a person you love?

     My boyfriend, Alex~ He’s my world, my hopes and dreams, and everything I aspire to be~ 💖

91. Is there anyone you want to punch in the face right now?

     No. I want to punch all of my abusers in the balls. With a baseball bat. Repeatedly, until they’re infertile.

92. In a fight with someone?

     No.

93. How many sweatpants do you have?

     Only one. I want to buy more, but that requires that I have money, which I don’t.

94. How many sweaters/hoodies do you have?

     I have my Nirvana sweatshirt, my “Nightmare Before Christmas” sweatshirt, and two hoodies with my college logo on them. One’s gray and the other is red.

95. Last movie you watched?

     “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”.

96. Favorite actress?

     I have no idea. So I’m gonna go find a list of the top 100 actresses and go from there. *some time passes* So, I found an actress I actually know, and that’s Krysten Ritter, who played Jessica Jones on Netflix’s hit series named (you guessed it again! Wow, you’re really good at this.) “Jessica Jones”.

97. Favorite actor?

     That’s a tie between Robin Williams (I really miss him... He was such a vibrant and energetic actor, who also knew how to portray more serious, and heart-felt scenes. He was a skilled actor and a good man. May he rest in peace.) and Tom Hanks. I like quite a few films starring those actors.

98. Do you tan a lot?

     Never.

99. Have any pets?

     No... 😭 RIP Batman and Robin (my previous pet hermit crabs).

100. How are you feeling?

     Productive! I practically cleaned the whole apartment in like 2 hours this morning, and just finished another third of this ask! I’m on a roll, and intend to do homework in a minute. For now though, I’d like to thank everyone who read through to the end, as well as thank @lovelynhiddenkittens for sending the ask in the first place! Sorry it’s taking so much time to finish it, but I’m over halfway done now! Whoo~! 🎉 *sets off a confetti popper and basks in the confetti shower* Anyways, take care everyone! I hope you all have a fantastic rest of your day (or night, wherever you are, just have a wonderful time!) See ya ‘round the bend~! 👋

*grabs a broom and begins sweeping up the confetti, muttering to myself* Why do I do this? Every time, I know I’m gonna have to clean it, but I do it anyway...

[where-is-the-rp]

Event Creator Interview #1  - Tuft Ananke

Tuft Ananke ( @tuftananke ) has accepted the call for an interview. They act as Director and Storyteller of the Free Company <Fantasia Players> on Balmung, a year-old company which already has a whole host of events behind them. Most recently, the Glass Phial Circus and The Show That Never Happened. 

Let us go to the core of every event creator; Inspiration. What inspired you to pick up creating events for the performance genre?

“It was an accident, actually. I applied for Keeper's Kiss almost two and a half years ago, and they had slots for performers. I was like: I don't know what this is, but okay. I had to audition, and that's when I wrote my first story. Then I got addicted, and wanted to do something like that on my own. So I went out and started up the troupe -- I was working on the foundation of it for ages before I finally made the leap. ” 

What are some of the challenges you face when you run your events? 

With a performance FC, the hardest part of putting everything together is getting the acts. We have a good space, I've MCed a thousand times, we have a good strong core of members -- it's a matter of getting enough acts. A lot of times, performers need to drop out and that means constant adjustment to the line-up. Once the event starts, if you have a good line-up, the event just rolls right on through, it has its own momentum. We had the circus yesterday, and our line-up was so great that two hours passed really really fast.

Have you ever been concerned about competition from events in the same time-slot? 

Not particularly - performance RP isn't everyone's cup of tea, and variety is what makes Balmung what it is. I find it stressful enough to worry about my own shows and getting them all set up and put together. We also have one of the more unique performance FCs, in that we're always trying to push ourselves a little further with what the game can handle and how we can make that into a better act. 

When you run events so often, something we’ve come to wonder is feedback- Arguably, some of the most difficult thing to get your hands on. Have people ever whispered you and thanked you? Have you ever received critique? 

I get thanked by the performers more than those who attend the audience. The shows run smoothly, the actors are all making friends really easily, it's really a fun and supportive environment for them. I've gotten told we put on a good show, but I've never gotten thanked. Once, I had someone get upset that our acts weren't cohesive enough for them and they told me off, though. 

Advertising is everything! Where do you advertise, and how often? 

We advertise through multiple discords and tumblr, mostly - we have an officer to post the RPC stuff, but they haven't been on in a while. We see a lot more recruits through the RPC than through anything else, though. I post across the discords two hours before a show, and we always release our posters two weeks before the events. I reblog it as often as I see it, or about three or four times per show onto my personal blog. I should probably pay more attention to WHEN other than that -- but I don't. XD

Who do you admire in the event creator landscape community? What have you learned from attending other people's events?

I really have come to admire people who can plan the events that span two, three, four different FCs. I want to do more of those, the coordination they take is amazing.  From attending other events, I've come to learn a lot about keeping the momentum of a show going, and what audiences are looking for in terms of how long, how fast, how venue and decor sets the theme of the show

What advice would you give to a brand new event running personer?

Don't be afraid to delegate and ask for help. You can't run an event alone, and the people you surround yourself with when you're working will help make it amazing.

Do you have a big dream event you hope to pull off in your career?  What is your next event?

WELL our dream event is a full on opera. One of my officers is a composer for a day job. And he's been working on writing a full-on opera, with original music, for the Fantasia Players to perform. And the next show we are doing is a summer festival, which we are going to start collaborating with other people for - one of those nice big outdoor events!

Are there any other thoughts you’d like to share with the rest of the community? 

Housing is not the beginning and the end of an FC. When I started, we didn't have a house. We performed at other venues and we had our 'home base' in another FC's basement.  A lot of people tried to tell me that without a house, my FC would never be legitimate, but those early shows were some of our best.

We here at Curious-Balmung definitely agree with that! Once upon a time, all events were open-world. Just because we now have housing, does not mean you can’t run good events - or a good FC for that matter - without a house. Don’t let the housing war get you down!

Thank you for reading the first installation of Event Creator Interviews. We’ll be back with more in 1-2 weeks! If you would like to be interviewed, please reach out to this blog or MeanderingMind#8375 on discord. 

[immersedinm]

In support of their recent EP release Wild Rivers is currently burning up the highways and byways of the states. Most recently, they were sweeping throughout the south, and Atlanta was fortunate they made a stop at Eddie’s Attic last Thursday evening. Having played the venue before, they seemed relaxed prior to the show as they were spotted happily chatting to excited ticket holders of the sold out show.

A few weeks ago, I shared their tune “Howling” before realizing they might make the long trek to Atlanta. I simply knew it was a winner. When I heard they were making Atlanta a part of their tour, they were kind enough to answer a few questions to help us get to know them a little better.

Wild Rivers is a Toronto based band with seamless guitar, steady percussion and stunning vocal harmonies, all fused together with earnest songwriting. The group began with Devan Glover and Khalid Yassein, and they were voted Toronto’s best new artist in 2015. Since then, they added Ben Labenski (drums), and Andrew Oliver (bass, guitar). Although at their performance in Atlanta, the drummer was someone else (did not catch his name) filling in for Ben. He was talented, but not sure if he was a permanent change or filling in.

1. How did you all meet? What is the story behind the name, Wild Rivers?

Devan Glover-

“A few of us met in college, and through mutual friends. A music career was something we’d all dreamed of pursuing, so after graduation we started to take it more seriously, and that summer we got into the studio to record our first album. We all got together to work out arrangements for the songs, and have been playing together ever since. It all kind of developed from there.” 

“As for the name, honestly it came from hours and hours of playing word association in the car. On long drives, we’d spitball combinations of words that we liked, writing down the ones that sounded cool and resonated in some way. “Wild Rivers” was in the running, and one day we stumbled upon a poem by Gregory Orr that we related to, titled The River (see it here). Thematically, The River resonated with us because it’s about taking a plunge into the unknown. At the time, this was exactly what we were doing, diving into a new career path and experiencing the uncertainty that comes with graduating college and having to figure your life out. The poem mentioned ‘Wild Rivers’ a lot, so that’s how we settled on the name.”

2. When I listen to your music, I feel like it has the roots of folk/rock/country music I have grown up with all my life living in the American south, but you breathe a freshness to it which makes it unique. Who are your musical influences and how does that impact your sound?  

Devan–

“We all grew up listening to lots of classic singer/songwriter, folk and rock music –  James Taylor, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, The Beatles. We draw a lot of inspiration from artists in that era – particularly when it comes to songs with a heavy lyrical focus and lots of vocal harmony. We also look to a lot of current folk/rock artists for inspiration – The Lumineers, Bahamas, Half Moon Run to name a few – but individually, our musical tastes span across many genres. I think this works to our advantage, because it allows us to incorporate certain aspects of different genres into our own music, and hopefully create something unique. When you think about it, the best bands have never been bound to a certain genre. Fleetwood Mac has songs ranging from country to pop to folk to rock. John Mayer started as a singer/songwriter, went on to put out a country blues album, and is now sampling hip hop beats in his newer music. We try to operate under the mentality that the best song always wins, no matter if it necessarily “fits” within a certain genre.”

  3. This isn’t your first big tour, what do you look forward to the most this time around? What have you learned about being on the road and staying fresh for each show?

Khalid Yassein-

“We’ve never been to the West Coast, so that’s going to be a huge highlight. We’ve had a lot of people asking for us to come out so it’ll be cool to finally play some shows out there! We’re planning on doing lots of hiking and exploring on days off. We’ve gotten a lot better at managing our sleep and exercising  when we’re on tour. We’re also always looking for healthy food and it’s fun to find new little spots. We’ve been at it long enough now that we know what works and what’s not sustainable. It’s all about balance.” 

  4. What is your songwriting style or music making process? Does the music follow the lyrics or the other way around? Is it collaborative writing or do one or two of you develop a song and then bring it to the band to complete?

Khalid-

“We go about it a lot of ways. On our first record, I  wrote a lot of the songs, almost always with music first and then building lyrics and ideas on that. Devan and I co-wrote a few on that album, which is cool because Devan is mostly lyrics first. On our new EP we co-wrote a lot with each other, as well as with a few songwriters out of Nashville which was a pretty awesome experience. You get a new feel when you step out of your comfort zone with new writing situations, it’s fun! “

  5. When y’all are on the road, what other bands are you listening to?

Khalid-

“We love all kinds of music. A lot of old classics, today we were going through the Beatles discography start to finish. Right now we’re into a rapper called Noname out of Chicago who’s incredible. And in the Americana world we’re really into new records from Rayland Baxter and Ruston Kelly. We like to mix it up for long drives.”  

They gave me a few new sounds and if you know me, you know I have already tapped into them on Spotify.

Wild Rivers at Eddie’s Attic

As we were waiting for Wild Rivers to begin, Eddie’s Attic filled up quickly with a buzz of excitement. It was a sold out show, with very little standing room. I enjoyed chatting it up with people who were there. Two pretty girls were standing behind me, and I couldn’t help overhear their strategy to try and find two empty seats. I made every effort to help them, but it wasn’t possible that night. When I explained about my blog and why I was there, they asked if the band members were friendly and nice. I explained that they were incredibly open and made an effort to answer my questions as well as chat with me before the show. Some bands don’t do that! The girls were big fans trekking miles and miles to see Wild Rivers on a Thursday night, and they actually breathed a sigh of relief to hear the band was genuine.

Certainly talent, creativity, and presence helps, but sometimes it is the extra effort to chat with fans that can make all the difference. Wild Rivers seemed polished and practiced, with no stumbles or fumbles that I could tell. They were hitting all the right notes and truly fantastic.

Wild Rivers-L-R  Khalid Yassein, Devan Glover, and Andrew Oliver

  I really tried to capture Khalid’s dreamy sincere eyes, but I didn’t bring my obnoxious lenses. Others were swooning along side me…It is a forceful combo of crazy smooth talent + good looks. He has something to say and expresses moods and emotions in a way that connects.

Wild Rivers had quiet solo moments with an acoustic guitar, as well as powerful full band, hand-clap inspiring tunes. They mixed up their songs nicely and at moments, I wished I could stand up and sway to the ever changing tempos, but didn’t want to block the view of others.

Andrew’s guitar added a depth to the songs and gave them an edge, which without, would have left them lacking. The drum and guitar complete their sound and help them to expand the possibilities.

  Some bands chat between songs and some bands don’t. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. In this case Khalid did most of the talking and it worked well. You could hear a pin drop. He gave some background to his songwriting and the premise for the lyrics. I felt the purpose behind the music, which only made me appreciate it more.

Devan has an incredible voice which puts this band on another level. I kind of expected sweet chirping blue birds to land on her outstretched hands at times. Yep, the range and control was enviable and jaw dropping. She made it seem so effortless. And yes, a woman from the audience yelled out at the end of one song, “You’ve got some pipes girl!” after she belted out a deeper tone.

  I captured a snippet of Wild Rivers performing their latest hit, “I Won’t Be Back”, from their recent EP release titled, Eighty Eight.

  I was able to nab the set list after the show, and the guy sitting next to me was reminded, and jumped up to get another one for his wife (who is also from Toronto!). She is holding it as her friends gather around. They were my pick for super fans (pictured at the foot of my blog homepage) and all went home smiling!

Here is my set list up close. Note-there is a new tune on the list, “Moving Target”. Listening, I could hear the continued growth of this band and recognize the influences of the multiple genres they described in the questions above. 

They have a host of shows from here till the first of December. Don’t miss them while they are still playing intimate venues. Check out if they are coming near you by clicking here. Wild Rivers Shows

As summer begins to loosen up its grip on us all, it was nice to begin fall with a show which proved to be really tremendous.

Wild Rivers-Interview and Photos From Their Recent Atlanta Show In support of their recent EP release Wild Rivers is currently burning up the highways and byways of the states.

[asexual-society]

Aspec & Arospec YouTube List Part 2!

Apparently there are a lot more ace youtubers that I missed on the last list…

The descriptions for each channel are pretty much just copied and pasted from their channel descriptions. Unless they didn’t have a description, in which case I just wrote ‘vlogger’.

Please note: All the content of the channels below may or may not reflect the views or opinions of this blog or it’s moderators. Nor is all of it safe for work or free of problematic elements. Please use your own discretion. 

Note 2: If your favorite youtuber is not on this list, feel free to add on! 

Enjoy!

Aaron Ansuini: A trans ace vlogger who talks about both asexuality, being trans, video games, art, and motivation; Twitter

Abbie Wells: Aspec singer, actress, and vlogger; Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram 

Aced It!: We are just a handful of Ace/Aro YouTubers who wanted to make a community to chat! Hang out let’s talk! ; instagram

Ace Ideas: We are a diverse group of asexuals here to share our knowledge, experiences, passions, hobbies, and stories surrounding our asexuality.; Facebook, tumblr, twitter 

Aceland Alexander Kent: Transgender-Male, Homoromantic, Aceflux-Asexual musician and vlogger. He used to run the queer information channel, Questions and Queeries ; Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, BandCamp

Ahsante the Artist: Artist, Storyteller, Harvard 2015. A place for educated discussion, spirited lifestyle, cultural critique, creative reflection, and the silly goings on in the life and mind of Ahsante; website, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Portfolio website, Patreon

Androigynous: Hey guys! Andie here. Your resident cat girl. You’ll find gameplay, art, unboxings and feline vlogs! There’s something for everyone. ✨; instagram, facebook

Antastesia: A French asexual feminism/lifestyle/travel/vegan vlogger; Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, professional website

Anthony Pero: Posting funny videos and skits with the purpose of making people laugh. I like to focus on anything from serious topics like depression to goofier subjects like my Facebook newsfeed. My channel also consists of parodies of people I know, things I see, or random events that I think need to be spoofed; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram

ArtByFlan: Sometimes I draw things. Sometimes I record myself drawing things. Sometimes I post videos of myself drawing things here!; tumblr, deviantart, facebook, twitter

Asexualise My Asexual Life:  Asexualise Your Asexual Life: Empower And Enhance Your Asexual Life. Giving Asexuals a voice in the world. It is my mission to give asexuals a voice in the world; to empower other asexuals to be comfortable and confident with their asexuality; and to give insight into my colourful asexual life, to enable others to better understand their own and to know they are not alone. I want to educate others about asexuality, so that in the future, all asexuals can live in society happily.; twitter, facebook 

Autistic Asexual fangirl Adventures: just a vlog page, random ramblings and adventures of a autistic asexual and geek who wants to try and make the word a better place.; twitter

BaptismOnFire: My name is Jack, I love horror and all things creepy. Here you’ll find videos about nightmares, monsters, creepypasta and generally spooky things! Remember to watch the skies, stay paranoid and trust no one…; Twitter, Tumblr, DeviantArt

Blue Phoenix Ace: American ace education vlogger. My goal is to educate people about Aromanticism and Asexuality, because maybe it will help someone learn the truth about themselves before they hit the age of 37!; music channel, Website, Soundcloud, Facebook

BreakfastAlexis: An asexual artist who creates animatics; tumblr, twitter, redbubble

Brian Langevin: Occasional videos discussing asexuality and life in general! This channel also hosts an archive of Everything’s A-Okay - a project Brian Langevin started alongside the project’s writer, Amy Liang, to bring greater visibility to asexuality; Twitter

Channel for Positivity l Understanding l Justice: Demisexual Korean-American motivational vlogger. Stay woke. See BOTH Sides. Social Justice. Bite-Sized Politics. Build more POSITIVITY :D Pragmatic Utopian. Diversity. Understand Humans & Relationships. Embrace Progress.; twitter, tumblr

Christi Kerr: This channel is a mix of whatever I like to do, which mainly includes vlogging but could include any number of things; Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, SnapChat, Instagram

Christine Sydelko: The youtube channel of vine-star/popular internet comedian and her boyfriend; Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat

Clara Unleashed: Denmark based asexual/biromanic vlogger. They also run the aspec focused youtube channel, My Ace Experience ; Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr

Cultlleader: Asexual Vlogger; Instagram, twitter

curlybobofelia: UK based asexuality Awareness, LGBTQ, Mental Health Awareness, Disability Rights, Child Rights & Anti-bullying Advocate vlogger; Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram

Dylan Tyler: I’m Dylan, and I suck at writing the intro things, so let’s just eat a lot of popcorn together and do an unhealthy amount of binge watching. Subscribing makes it easier to find me when you’re up for binging :) ; instagram, twitter

ElectraSnow: Demisexual artist, makeup artist, and special effects makeup expert: Twitter, Etsy, Tumblr, Facebook

Elisa Hansen/Maven of the Eventide: Voraciously vivacious Vampire Reviews. The Maven peers into the realms of the creatures of the night for a humorous analysis of vampires in media and pop culture; Twitter, Facebook

Embly: 18 years old, also the cutest small potato in the neighbourhood, wine mum, also very salty and nostalgic over a jam sandwich she lost over 2 years ago; Twitter, Instagram

Estelle Z: Music, vlogs, scrapbooks, and whatever else I happen to fancy; Tumblr, Twitter, Soundcloud, Facebook, Patreon, Gumroad

happy fish: Autistic, mentally ill, queer, nonbinary person vlogging about my life and trying to pretend I know how to function as an adult.; etsy, tumblr

Heroic Pages: Canadian, lover of books, films and imagination…and also a huge nerd!! Critter! Very much an unapologetic introvert (INTJ) ACE hermit cat lady den mother!; twitter, instagram, goodreads

JakeMale TV: I do Comedy sketch videos but also Vlogs! I share my life experiences with you so you can laugh at my mistakes. I have funny moments in my life, come and join me living my life. Click on ‘SUBSCRIBE’ to be told when I upload a new video! I advice it, MY LIFE IS WEIRD! I also do a University Advice series!; twitter, facebook, vimeo

Jeff Miller: Demiromantic/demisexual transmasculine musician, actor, and all around content creator; Patreon, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr

janeil darnell: An aroace vlogger; twitter

jennaclarek: Heteroromantic asexual. I just graduated college with a BS degree (get it) in Audio/Video Production. I’m also obsessed with Taylor Swift, strawberry cake, and musicals. I mostly make videos about books, but I also make videos about my life, my faith, and the other things I enjoy!; goodreads, twitter, tumblr, instagram, bandcamp

Jourdann: A channel that’s all about ships (the tv kind), college life, and artsy videos; Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram

kaihugstrees: Non-binary asexual. I make videos every week about my life, from travel vlogs and challenges to videos about mental health, disability, and queer topics; Twitter, Tumblr

Kelly McCraw: Akoiromantic Asexual vlogger

Marshall John Blount: Just an Ace guy trying to make it through life…This vlog will be about my everyday life and Asexual awareness…..I hope y'all will tag along on this interesting journey with me 💜💜

marsisnotcreative:��Brazilian vlogger. Does covers of songs, videos chatting about stuff i enjoy, giving opinions, rants about some things that bother me, pseudo-artsy videos; twitter, tumblr, instagram

megathornberryy: Aspec book reviewer and vlogger; Goodreads, Twitter, Instagram

Milo Stewart: My name is Milo and my pronouns are they/them. Gender confused college kid named “YouTube’s most controversial trans vlogger” by The Daily Dot; Twitter, Instagram

Mikey Neumann (of Chainsawsuit Original): Ace president of Chainsaw Original and film critic ; Twitter, Website

moonchild: My channel covers a large variety of topics and genres, some of which include asexuality, body modifications, mental health, with the occasional story time or rant video thrown in; Tumblr

Overlysarcasticproductions: Sarcastic, yet informative, summaries of classic and not-so-classic literature and mythology, as well as major historical events! (Red has stated that she is asexual); threadless, cafepress, twitter

Peach The College Girl’s Vlog: Asexual Biromantic gaming channel ;twitter, twitch, snapchat

Phoebe Saturn : i make youtube videos as a hobby and hopefully have a positive impact on your day :] ; twitter

ppusherr: Gender, Sexuality, and Social Issues solved with Positivity and Education; Tumblr

punkygirlontherock: Asexual Canadian vlogger

Ricky Dillon: American YouTube personality and singer-songwriter; Book website, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Spotify

Sally Le Page: Grey-ace UK vlogger. Aims to bring science further into popular culture by making science videos that make you laugh, make you feel and make you think; Website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr

sara elizabeth: Demisexual American make-up vlogger. i’m sara and i’m sorta obsessed with makeup and musicals; twitter, instagram

Sebastian Columbine: A horror and surrealist, filmmaker and artist in Los Angeles, California. This youtube channel surrounds Sebastian’s unique style, both in terms of fashion and beauty, as well as their lifestyle and artistic endeavors; Professional blog/website, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Patreon

skellydun: life is an experience. here are some of mine; Tumblr

SixFootNerd: British, six foot and a total nerd! Just someone talking about Movie/Tv News, Events, Reviews and Discussions; Twitter, Tumblr

Sophie Foster: Demisexual/biromantic fashion, makeup, and lifestyle vlogger from the UK; Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram

SoulOfEbony: I wanna scribble cartoons for a living and make people smile.; tumblr, twitter

Taye Nic: I’m just an 20 year old college student who is trying to live for the first time:) Lol, I just got into makeup! I also love making things, broadway, Disney, my boho chic style lol and NYC more than anything else! I also love to make friends so stop by; twitter, instagram, pinterest

The Asexual Goddess: Ace and in your face. I’m actually an introvert so i don’t know how that works

TheGothicAlice: Asexual Aromantic artist, Manic Panic dyehard, horror junkie, cynic, and part time model; facebook, Etsy, Tumblr

TheMysteriousMrEnter: Asexual/Aromantic animation reviewer; DeviantArt, Tumblr, Twitter, TvTropes, Facebook,

Vivi Addams: Feel free to hang around for a while, watch some Lego animations, hopefully subscribe… Enjoy!; Tumblr, Twitter

[fatt-twitter-updates]

Part 4 of this thread (posts in this thread are tagged itchio on this blog)

Before we even had a "Live at the Table" Patreon tier, we did a live game of Lasers & Feelings. Its simplicity means you could pick it up right now and have a great time. https://johnharper.itch.io/lasers-feelings

Also, it's been hacked a ton, so check these out too: https://itch.io/physical-games/tag-lasers-and-feelings

BFF! takes the prompt-based design of Fall of Magic and applies it to youthful adventures in the real world. We did our first ever live audience show (at SHUX 2018) with it and had a blast!

It is incredibly funny (and inspiring) to me that the co-author of the gruesome Heart: The City Beneath also designed Honey Heist, a game about bears making a complex plan to steal a large amount of delicious honey.

Playing Stewpot was without a question some of the most fun I've had with TTRPGs lately. Here's what I told Polygon about it last December:

https://noroadhome.itch.io/stewpot-tales-from-a-fantasy-tavern

[ID: screenshot of a section of a Polygon article, the text reads:

Austin Walker

Host of Friends at the Table and Waypoint Radio

In a year of constant strife, frustration, and exhaustion, is it any wonder that my favorite tabletop role-playing game is a game about fantasy heroes putting down their swords and staves and retiring?

Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern by Takuma Okada takes the excellent Firebrands: Mobile Frame Zero, with its scene-setting, characterization-heavy minigames, as a starting place. But instead of playing as mecha rivals in a dramatic duel, you play old adventuring comrades on the hunt for great ingredients. Players create archetypal fantasy heroes, and then guide them as they adapt to life in the kitchen, the garden, the market, and the town. It’s a little melancholy, very cozy, and easily the most charming game I played this year. end ID]

Anomaly takes some of the structure of The Quiet Year and blends it with the sinister supernatural investigations of things like SCP and Control.

In Beak, Feather, and Bone, you start with an already drawn but unlabeled map of a city. As you draw cards, you and your friends (representing different parts of a bird-person society) fill in the details and add complications. It is a joy.

Bell Songs is one of the most slept on games on this list. It's a Redwall-style game about being animals on adventure. Its design allows for a ton of open-ended fun, but also some considered decision making when conflict arises!

Spoken Magic feels like as sister game to Fall of Magic. As a group of wizards, you travel from place to place, using spell-words to create and solve problems. If you're like us, you'll use it to be rude and boisterous mages and have a great time.

(posts in this thread are tagged itchio on this blog)

[dgsagasblog]

Twitter: A Digital Landscape of Opportunities!

Introduction

Your idea or business needs to be seen and heard in order to grow. If you find Social media  more lucrative than the conventional form of advertising, then Twitter  is probably the best place to be. With more than 80% of Twitter users mentioning a brand in a Tweet and the average Twitter user following five businesses, Twitter marketing is a growing place for brands to engage and build an active community.

I would like to call myself a curious explorer ,  an innovator, and a digital storyteller, who likes to connect with people and that is exactly how I began my journey on Twitter. It may sound clichéd, but Twitter opened a world full of opportunities for me.  It became a virtual window through which I could learn, share ideas, and  reach out to people – not just locally, but from all over the world.  For me, Twitter is an effective digital landscape that connects like-minded people and accelerates learning and individual growth.

In fact, the world of Twitter is so vast that whichever niche of business you pursue, marketing on Twitter, or simply building your personal presence on Twitter will guarantee an audience who can eventually turn into customers!

Why Take My Word for It?

Read the below statistics and watch out for yourself how Twitter can play a pivotal role in your marketing mix.

             Data says that there are 340 million monthly active users on Twitter

     Total number of Tweets sent per day 500 million

     Twitter is used by 22% of all online US adults

     It is equally popular with men and women (24% and 21% of online Americans respectively)

 77% of Americans who earn $75,000 or more use Twitter

 27% of B2B content marketers used Twitter ads in the last 12 months

 Twitter ranked 4th globally for web traffic in October 2020

 66% of brands with over 100 employees use Twitter for marketing purposes

 Twitter’s user base is predicted to grow by at least 2.4% in 2021

 Twitter is currently valued at $36.48 billion

 Twitter is the number #1 social networking platform in Japan

 Twitter ads can reach 5.8% of the world’s population over the age of 13

(source: @omnicoreagency.com, / @similarweb / @eMarketer )

So, before you Jump on to the Twitter  Bandwagon and try Twitter for Marketing here are few tips that can help  your business gain credibility:

 Use Powerful Content: Grab  eyeballs with powerful content. Sell your business’s credibility with  interesting and powerful ideas. Do not deviate from the truth but make  things as interesting as possible. Try to avoid the beaten track and use  the information to tell a story that captures the attention. For  instance, a video about robotics and how it aids our daily lives will  surely stop you in your tracks.

 Ensure Visibility: The age-old adage ‘out of sight, out of mind’ cannot be more apt while marketing your brand or business on Twitter. Twitter marketing  is all about staying alive and in action. The more you tweet and engage  with your followers, the more visibility you stand to gain. The’  tweets’ do not necessarily have to be related to your business or brand  promotion all the time. Build interest, by sharing interesting content  and when you have your audience engaged, then divulge your service or  merchandise. Research says you can post, tweet, or re-tweet up to 15 times a day.

 Building Twitter Community: As  much as broadcasting your thoughts and ideas about your brand or  business, marketing on Twitter is important. Twitter marketing is also  about establishing personal connections with an individual or  prospective customers. Earlier it may have only been about servicing or  networking in response to a particular tweet or request from a customer,  but now you can connect with anyone with your line of interest. You can literally track down tweets, post an interesting response and consequently expand your network. Building trust by delivering services,  maintaining transparency, and connecting with prospective customers can  surely take your brand credibility a few notches higher.

 Use Twitter Hashtags and Trends:  Blend in with the Twitterati!  As important it is to make your voice  heard it is equally important to be in sync with the ongoing trends and  hashtags. To comment on important topics and trends and engage with  fellow followers, trendsetters and influencers is an absolute must.  Sharing your point-of-view across, will help you gain visibility and  connect with prospective customers, influencers, who in turn can further propagate your brand’s message. Keep an eye out for the important days and events on Twitter- which garners phenomenon traffic and action, in-process giving marketing on Twitter a shot in the arm.

 Influencers can make all the difference:  Every social media has its band of influencers. In Twitter, you can  find influencers ranging from top-shot world figures to  micro-influencers specific to industries like food, fashion, travel,  technology, and so forth. Influencers with their millions of followers-  set trends, break news, endorse brands, and support causes. If you can  share your proposition with an influencer who relates to your brand or  product or is an industry thought leader, it can open a world of  opportunities for your business. Including Twitter as part of your  marketing will enable you to reach out to people who will be interested  in your product or brand.

 Ad on Twitter: Posting paid  advertisements on Twitter may be a good Twitter marketing strategy for  newcomers to promote brands or businesses. Your profile is promoted by  Twitter and can even be seen and found by people who do not follow your  brand, business, or hashtags. This is a great way to create visibility  with people who show interest in some type of products or services. For a monthly fee, you can get a lot of exposure that organic Twitter marketing may not reap!

All set to start your Twitter Journey? Here is how you can build a noticeable business account on Twitter:

Once you have signed up for a Twitter for Business account, you need to organize it and put your best foot or in case of personnel branding like @curieuxexplorer, don the best image forward to establish your brand.

 Profile image: The profile image should ideally be  your brand logo, make sure it is clear and fits well into the small circular space designated for the profile image. Remember this will feature as an icon every time you post a tweet!

 Profile Picture/ Banner: The banner image is the best visual representation of your company. You can put up your most recent activity here, a product launch or show you have hosted or the image of any up-coming product- anything that you think deserves to be known as part of your brand promotion. Make sure you upload photos that  are clear and high quality.

 Your Display Name and Account @ Name: Your account  name is what comes after the @. The Twitter world will recognize you by  this name. Everything you do on Twitter, your tweets, re-tweets,  follows- will be linked to this name. This name also appears in your  profile URL. It may contain up to 15 characters and should be directly  associated with the name of your business. The display name appears  right above the account name and can be changed at any time, unlike the  account name. Ideally, this name should contain your brand or business  name.

 Your Twitter BIO: This is your introduction to the  world. In about 160 characters you will have to put forward your pitch  and ideally pack in a punch about your brand or business. Your business  ideals, values, and what you have on offer are ideally the things that  should feature in the bio. Additionally, you should put in your website URL, location, and the business hours if you have a shop or a store.

 Your Pinned Tweet: The pinned tweet is the first thing a visitor will when they visit your tweet stream. This should be the focal point, the biggest piece of news you wish to display on the Twitter platform. This could be an upcoming product launch, a seminar you are going to conduct or even a charity you are raising money for- your pinned tweet should reflect your pivotal business interest.  You can post interesting images or videos in your tweets, even post important links- also make sure your pinned tweet does not stay stagnant  for a long time- schedule your posts accordingly to capture maximum  interest.

Conclusion

To sum it all up- if you are a small business or a start-up struggling to find your footing in the world of business or an established brand impacted by the COVID -19 situation re-thinking your business strategy – Twitter is the place to be. Twitter marketing is one  of the most authentic ways to build your business presence and connect  with a world full of customers. It may not be easy or a one of a task,  but it is hardly rocket science. Moreover, Twitter marketing is inexpensive and mostly organic. A little bit of patience, consistency, and well-thought-out Twitter marketing strategy can translate into phenomenal business success in the long run. Twitter is perhaps the only  place that allows you to go from Micro to Macro. Connect with your  customers or followers on an individual level, deliver appropriate solutions and grow your follower base to move on to the next level!

Source — https://dgsaga.com/blog-twitter-a-digital-landscape-of-opportunities/

[makingmoneyonlinemethod]

HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE: 28 REAL WAYS TO EARN MONEY ONLINE

From online poker to selling your collection of Beanie Babies, there are lots of popular get-rich-quick, money-making ideas that always pop up. Do they work? Not really. Will you make money doing it? Maaaybe. But you’d probably make more money from your 9 to 5 job. At least then it’s a guaranteed paycheck. 

The truth is there are real ways to make money online – millions of people are doing it each day. From freelance digital nomads to savvy marketers to rising entrepreneurs, there are plenty of business ideas you can try at home using your laptop and a solid internet connection. So let’s break down how to make money online… the real way.

How to Make Money Online: 28 Real Ways

1. Start Dropshipping

Let’s start our list off with one of the most popular ways to make money online. According to Google Trends, dropshipping’s popularity is rapidly growing, highlighting its viability as a way to make money online. With success stories about how an entrepreneur made $6,667 in eight weeks or how a store owner made six figures selling just one product, there’s plenty of proof that dropshipping is a real way to make money online.

 In case you don’t know what dropshipping is: dropshipping is a business model where you sell a product to a customer, but the supplier stores, packages, and ships the product to your customers on your behalf. With Oberlo dropshipping, you have access to millions of products that you can add to your store. Oberlo’s toolkit also allows you to hand-pick your product images, edit item descriptions, and give your business a personalized vibe, so people love shopping from you.

 The best way to make money online dropshipping? Most entrepreneurs have been focusing on a few marketing strategies: running Facebook ads, having influencers promote your products, and sending Direct Messages (DMs) to potential customers on social media.

P.s. if you want to build your first dropshipping store, don't miss out on our Dropshipping 101 course.

2. Try Print on Demand

Print on demand is proving to be a popular option too. Graphic designers are turning to the business model to sell their designs on clothing and other products to monetize their art better. With their unique designs, they can create a consistent and established brand for their business.

Print on demand is similar to dropshipping in the sense that you don’t need to carry inventory or ship out products to customers yourself. There are two slight differences, though. First, you can add branded labels on packages. Second, shipping costs are excessive, making it difficult to create a sustainable business unless you charge higher prices or sell higher quantities.

The best way to make money with your print on demand business? Free marketing channels. Your best bet would be to promote your products for free on Instagram, Pinterest, or with  Instagram influencers who convert their audiences well.

You can get a complete overview of print of demand vs dropshipping by watching us get into a healthy debate with Wholesale Ted about the pros and cons of each business model.

 3. Make Money with Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways to make money online. Throughout the years, its popularity has gone up and down, but it continues to prove to be a stable way to make money online. The best part about affiliate marketing is that you can be an affiliate for nearly any company, from Shopify to Amazon to Uber to FabFitFun.

Affiliate marketing allows you to earn a living by promoting other brands. If you’re a savvy marketer, you can earn a commission from sales by promoting retail products, software, apps, and more. While earning a commission may seem small, keep in mind that you can be an affiliate for several brands and include several affiliate links on a single blog post.

If you really want to make money online doing affiliate marketing, your best bet is to focus on content marketing. By building out a blog with several pages of high-quality content, you essentially create an asset you can call your own. The best part about focusing on content marketing is that if an affiliate program shuts down, you can switch the affiliate link to a competitor without negatively impacting your side hustle income.

4. Start a YouTube Channel

If others can make money from YouTube, so can you. The highest-paid YouTuber is 7-year-old Ryan, who reviews toys on his YouTube channel, which made him $22 million in 2018. Another high earner is Jeffree Star, who’s made more than $18 million on YouTube and has a cosmetics brand that sells about $100 million in products annually. His YouTube (and Myspace) fame helped him use his influence to make money online beyond his YouTube earnings.

Your YouTube channel should focus on a single niche so you can build a strong, loyal audience. For example, you can create makeup tutorials, stream video games, review products, teach skills, create prank videos, or anything else you think there’d be an audience for.

The secret to making money on YouTube is to create content people want that either educates or entertains. You can use a headline that’s witty to entice people to watch, or you can use keywords that are optimized for YouTube search. Once you’ve reached the 1,000 subscriber milestone, you can officially monetize your channel with YouTube ads.

 5. Become an Influencer

Building a personal brand can also help you make money online. Did you know in 2019, Cristiano Ronaldo earned $975,000 for every sponsored Instagram post, making him the highest-paid influencer? While it may seem like reality stars, singers, and athletes are the biggest influencers, keep in mind that even smaller-scale influencers can make more money today than they did a few years back

To become an influencer, you need to build a healthy following. The easiest platforms to do that: YouTube and Instagram. Some of the biggest non-celebrity influencers often gained their first taste of exposure on these platforms. You might want to check out how to get more Instagram followers if you want to build a big Instagram audience.

To make money as an influencer, you can charge for sponsored posts, speaking gigs, create your own online store and sell products, add affiliate links in your bio, sell your photos, sell ads on your own podcast, get paid as a brand ambassador, create a book, get paid to appear at events, and more.

6. Create an Online Course

Sharing knowledge is one of the best ways to make money online. If you’re an expert on a subject, you can monetize your knowledge by creating courses online. You can sell your course on Udemy or, if you already have your own audience, on your own website. Some entrepreneurs earn as much as $5,000 per month with online courses.

To create a popular and successful course, your best bet is to watch other courses on your topic. Then, look at the reviews. What are the aspects that people praise, and what are the things people hate? How can you create something better than what’s already been created? Focus on creating content that solves the biggest complaints while emulating the positive aspects people rave about.

The platform you sell your course on will determine how to best make money. If you sell your course on Udemy, you don’t have to do much to promote it. You can almost set it and forget it. Maybe promote it to some blogs or on your own website. However, if the course is hosted on your own website, you might want to run ads to promote the course. You can also build an email list so you can continue to promote future courses to that same audience. 

 7. Publish an Ebook

With Amazon KDP, it’s never been easier to publish an ebook. All you need to do is write the ebook, format it, create an ebook cover, publish, and promote it. Back in 2013, I created several ebooks on Amazon (took all but one down), and even though it didn’t make me rich, I still make some money from it.

You can choose to hire a writer for your ebook, a graphic designer to design the cover, or a freelancer to format the ebook for you to help minimize the work you need to put into it. It’s best if you focus on keywords based on popular searches on Amazon. I often use the Keyword Tool, which allows you to find the words people use while searching so you can craft your title around it.

To make money online selling ebooks, you can market it in a number of ways. You can give away your ebook for free for a few days. This helps you rank high in search results for some time and get some reviews, which helps you rank better for paid listings. Plus, I like to create custom graphics on Pinterest that match the “Pinterest style” rather than just placing the ebook cover as a pin. This has helped me get some clicks to my ebook from Pinterest.

8. Start a Blog

Blogging is one of the oldest methods for making money online. People who love writing tend to start blogs with a niche focus. For example, a blog about procrastination, cars, dropshipping, toys, etc., is often a narrow enough focus so you can build a loyal following, but big enough that you can cover a lot of ground.

You can start a blog on various platforms, from Shopify (remove the checkout feature, so you don’t have to pay a subscription as you build it out) to WordPress. When you start your blog, focus on very specific keywords with a tight focus and continue to expand into other but relevant categories as you grow and dominate new spaces. This will allow you to build a massive blog over time. Remember that design is also important for making a good first impression on visitors. Here are 20 blog design inspirations to help you launch your blog.

There are several ways to make money blogging. You can add affiliate links in your posts (don’t forget a disclaimer). You can monetize with AdSense by placing ads strategically on your website. Sponsored posts can help you make money from specific brands – this is popular among review bloggers. Bloggers can also sell digital or physical products on their website either (hint: you can add Oberlo products to your website). You can also use it to build authority so that you can eventually get speaking gigs, television deals, or big contracts from clients. 

 9. Consider Freelancing

The easiest way to make money online is to take your current job in your 9 to 5 role and do it online instead. For example, if you’re a writer, administrative assistant, graphic designer, teacher, developer, etc., you can  market these skills and find clients online who are willing to pay you for them.

There’s a never-ending list of websites for each sector of freelance jobs too. For example, freelance writers can apply for jobs on specific online writing job boards, but also general freelance websites like Fiverr, Freelancer, Upwork, and all the others. If you find that your job doesn’t have direct online money-making streams of income, you can look for other transferable skills you may have. 

To make money online as a freelancer, you need to start by building out a strong portfolio. That may mean doing some free work with some reputable mid-tier brands to start. Once you gain a strong portfolio, you can start reaching out to potential big clients to earn more money online. Remember, freelancing is a numbers game: the more personalized emails and applications you fill out, the more likely you will get a response back.

10. Create an App

If you’re not a developer, you’re probably looking at this money-making idea and feeling a bit stuck. Fortunately, there is a way to have an app made that doesn’t involve any programming skills.

These days, marketers are using freelance platforms to find affordable developers to create apps for them.

When it comes to making money on your app, your best bet will be to add it to Google Play and the App Store. And while it may seem counterintuitive, having a free app can help you make more than a paid app. With a free app, you can add ads or premium features to help you make money. Since the free app will attract a higher volume of people, it’ll be easier for you to upsell them.

 11. Become a Writer

With a growing interest in content marketing, more brands are looking for great writers to create content. The secret to succeeding as a writer is to be an expert in a niche. A lot of writers try to be generalists, writing for a wide range of categories, from food to tech. However, having a niche focus as a writer allows you to write better content. 

When you have experience in the niche, you can add a different perspective to a piece of content. That means you’re not just saying the same thing as every other article online. And that’s what brands really want to pay for — your thoughts, experiences, and inside information into their niche.

If someone asks for a marketing writing sample, send them marketing writing samples. Don’t send a finance article. Or a fitness one. It’s hard for a hiring manager to know how well you understand the niche’s industry if they can’t see a relevant writing sample. Apply to opportunities suited to your skills and experience. Also, if your pitch doesn’t have a list of links to writing samples, it’s going to get ignored.

12. Create Side Gigs

Side gigs can help you make money online while you keep your full-time job. If you’re looking to make an extra couple hundred dollars per month, this is a great idea. The work doesn’t always last long-term, but it can.

Use platforms like Fiverr to create gigs. When you’re new to Fiverr, you’ll want to focus on offering a low price so you could get your first review. I’d recommend getting a friend to buy your gig to leave your first review so you can get started faster. Treat the friend like a client and actually deliver a finished product that you can feature on the platform on your portfolio. 

The thing with Fiverr is that it’s also a numbers game. If you look at top Fiverr users, you’ll see that they have multiple gigs available. The more gigs you have, the more likely you are to be found.

If you don’t want to get paid Fiverr prices, you can turn to platforms like FlexJobs to find side gigs. Under their jobs section, you can search for contract or telecommute opportunities. The great thing about the telecommute opportunities on FlexJobs is that you can apply for them in any city in the world. 

FlexJobs has a variety of side gigs from writing, business, design, accounting, and more. So if your talents don’t match up with anything else on this list of money-making ideas, you might want to try a side gig from FlexJobs, and start making money online. Apply to multiple opportunities to land a few small side gigs. 

13. Do Translation Work

If you need to make money now, translation work is a fairly underserved niche. You’ll need to be fluent in at least two languages to do this successfully. So if you’re bilingual or majored in a popular language in school, this may be a great money-making idea for you to try out.

You will need to show proof of your ability to translate. If you have a language degree or experience translating text, make sure to show samples of your portfolio. Most companies will require a translation test. Keep in mind that you need to be fluent in the languages you’re applying to be a translator for. So you can’t use translation tools.

14. Sell Your Stuff

When you’re desperate to make money now, sometimes the only option is to sell your stuff. If you’re unemployed and struggling to find a job, selling your possessions is a great way to make money fast. You can earn money online using the links below, or you can head to a pawn shop. Keep in mind the shipping costs associated with selling online. Be sure to charge the buyer for it if you’re shipping products internationally. 

Most people immediately think of selling their junk like books, DVDs, and CDs. But most people don’t want to buy those things. It’s 2021 – are you really going to buy a CD? Probably not. So don’t waste your time trying to sell it. When you’re thinking about how to make money fast, focus on items of value like laptops, TVs, phones, furniture, designer handbags, or clothing. Try selling the same items on multiple platforms. For example, you might try selling your product in Facebook groups and Instagram instead of just one of them. If you sell your stuff everywhere, there’s a chance of someone finding it.

Be sure to take amazing photos and edit them. An online retailer doesn’t upload images as is. They hire a photographer to take great photos. Images are enhanced. The background is often removed. Approach your product post like an online retailer. Avoid taking pictures of products on tables. If a product is on a table, remove the background to make it white. If you don’t own high-end photography equipment, you can consider taking this product photography online course to learn how to take stunning product photos without the fancy gear. 

After you’ve figured out stuff to sell online, start your own online store using Shopify. You’ve proven that you’ve got what it takes to be an online retailer. So, now you can start making money from home.

 15. Become an Online Tutor

You can make a lot of money online and choose your own hours by being an online tutor. According to Studenomics, Bohdan made $2100 from tutoring. What’s interesting is that he built up his client base through word of mouth, visibility, and great group rates. While sciences and maths often have a high demand for tutoring positions, you’ll also find English popular among international audiences. If you’re an expert on a topic, tutoring may be the right platform for you to make money fast.

Having a degree or experience in a language is essential for this type of job, so showcase your degree, high grade average in a course, or other proof that you’re qualified to tutor that topic. If you have a teaching degree, you may be more likely to land a tutoring position. If you’ve spoken at a conference or event about the topic, you might also be considered for an online tutoring, teaching, or mentoring position. Focus on tutoring in your field of expertise. If you’re not the best, you probably shouldn’t be tutoring on that specific topic.

16. Drive Your Car

If you own a car, you can make some spare cash as an Uber driver or delivery person. If you don’t own a car, you can still be a delivery person using your bicycle or moped. Uber drivers looking to make even more money off their car can turn their car into an advertisement using Free Car Media. Your car will be wrapped with a removable vinyl decal. There have also been cases of Uber drivers selling products in their cars. As a driver, you’ll often start talking about what you and your passenger do for a living.

Want to know how to make money fast driving Uber? If you own your own side business, you can showcase your products to your passengers if they’re interested. Not all will be, though. However, if one expresses interest in your products, you can have products for sale under the driver’s seat for a passenger to sift through. If customers don’t have the cash, you can ask them to pay its cost with Uber’s tip function. 

17. Become a Virtual Assistant

With so many entrepreneurs building businesses, the demand for virtual assistants is increasing almost daily. As a virtual assistant, you’ll do a variety of tasks. Writing, order processing, bookkeeping, social media, and customer support are just a few of the tasks you might be asked to do as a virtual assistant. 

You can earn money online on websites like Virtual Assistant Jobs, Indeed, or Upwork. Many virtual assistants have also found ways to make money online by reaching out to brands and entrepreneurs, asking if they’re interested in hiring a virtual assistant. Using a combination of job posting applications and outreach, you’ll be more likely to make money fast. Build an active social media presence on Twitter and LinkedIn to help you find new clients.

18. Become a Twitch Streamer

Twitch streaming is becoming increasingly popular. While it started out as a gaming platform, it’s quickly evolving to include other types of content. To make money fast on Twitch, you’ll need to grow your following. If you’re consistent, streaming on Twitch can help you build a sizable audience fast. 

You’ll need to find a popular game or channel that isn’t overly competitive so that people can easily find your content. In order to make money online from streaming, you’ll need to have a consistent style to your channel: is it going to be funny, educational, or entertaining? Engaging in the chat feature on Twitch is another way to grow your following. You’ll want to communicate in popular chats. However, you’ll also want to engage with those chatting on your streams as well.

There are five ways to monetize your Twitch channel: selling products, brand sponsorships, fan donations, subscriptions, and Twitch ads. As a Twitch streamer, you’ll want to focus on tapping into all five monetization methods to ensure the highest financial gains. You could make more on Twitch than YouTube, making it one of the best money making ideas for video creators.

19. Invest in Stocks

You can also make money fast by investing in stocks. If you aren’t an expert in picking stock, you might want to skip this money making idea. While it can have one of the highest rewards, it can also result in money loss if you’re inexperienced. If you currently hold a 9 to 5 job, look into your company’s financial programs. 

Do they allow you to invest in company stocks? If so, sign up for it. At least with a company stock program, you have some influence in the company’s success as an employee. If your company has an RRSP matching program, you can also sign up for that if your goal is to save up for retirement or a down payment on your first home.

20. Sell Your Photography

Whether you’re a professional photographer or just love snapping great pictures, you can monetize your photography in several ways. You can make money fast by posting your photography services in local Facebook groups for your community. 

If you’re looking for more exposure, you can use a site like Burst. However, if you’re looking to monetize your phone photography quickly, you can use Foap. Learn more product photography tips to help you start making money with photography.

21. Sell Your Clothes Online

You likely have clothes you haven’t worn in the past year. And you don’t have the intention of wearing them ever again. Rather than letting them take up space in your closet, why not make money off of them?

Whether you sell your clothes, handbags, or shoes, there are quite a few websites that allow you to sell your used fashion items. Poshmark, Refashioner, TheRealReal, ThredUp, and Tradesy are a few of the online sites where you can sell your used apparel. 

You could make money online by selling on several different platforms. If you’re looking to sell items in person, you can use Facebook buy and sell groups in your community to find people online and sell the items in person. I’ve personally sold in these groups before and know they work.

22. Become an Extreme Couponer

When money is tight, using coupons can help save you a few bucks. However, with websites Coupon Chief, it can also help you make money online. Such websites offer a Pays to Share program where you’ll receive some percentage of sales from the coupons you share on their platform. You’ll need to add coupons that haven’t already been shared. In return, you’ll make a 2-3% commission. 

It’s like affiliate marketing where you share referral links and get a commission when someone buys through your link. Coupon companies are known to pay their affiliates regularly, so it’s a legit way to earn money online. Coupon Chief has already paid out over $1.4 million in commissions.

23. Sell Domains

If you regularly buy domain names but fail to use them, you can always try to sell them for a profit. Selling domains is ultra competitive, though. If you own a one word .com domain, you’ll have a better chance of selling. Words that have high search volume sell well too. 

Also, domains that are on trend at that moment have a better chance of selling. For example, a year ago, fidget spinner domains were an easier sell than they are now. You can search for available domain names and buy a custom domain through the Shopify domain registration platform.

You can sell your domains on GoDaddy’s Domain Auction. Look through the domains with the highest bids to see what type of domains sell well. It’ll help you know whether or not your domains are worth selling and how much money you can make selling them.

24. Sell Your Designs Online

Graphic design is an amazing skill that you can monetize in several ways. You can go the print on demand route and sell your designs on your own custom products. Alternatively, you can pitch your designs on a crowdsource platform like 99 Designs. You can create your own graphics, templates and more and sell them on marketplaces like GraphicRiver or Creative Market. Or you can pick up some clients and work as a freelance graphic artist.

25. Review Websites, Apps, and Software

 If you’re passionate about user experience, User Testing pays reviewers $10 to give other entrepreneurs feedback on their websites and apps. That’s one fast way to make money online. You’ll be given a set of questions that you need to answer as you browse through their website. 

Through a video, you’ll communicate your ideas and feedback to the entrepreneur while navigating their website or app. Your video is only 20 minutes in length, so if you do three videos per hour, you’ll make $30. It can be pretty competitive, so you have to act fast when a new website or app is added to be reviewed. Those who want to earn money online by reviewing software can use a tool called Software Judge.

26. Get a Part-Time Job

When you’ve done whatever it takes to make money fast but struggle to make an impact, sometimes you’re left with no choice but to get a part-time job. A lot of the money-making ideas on this list are great for building up to. They can be really successful over the long-term too. But if you’re struggling to make money fast enough, you might need to apply for a part-time job in your field. You can browse part-time jobs on job bank websites like Indeed, Monster, or a job website for your industry.

Whether you’re looking to make an extra couple hundred a month or grow a successful six-figure brand, I hope these money making ideas have inspired you to take action. Learning how to make money fast or how to make money from home is an important part of success, but the execution is what helps you make money now.

27. Become a TikTok Consultant

One of the trendiest new ways to make money online is to become a TikTok consultant. Brands will contact you for brainstorming video ideas, developing engaging bios, and more. It’s the perfect money-making opportunity for digital nomads – you can run the entire business from your smartphone. Compared to Instagram, TikTok is relatively new and untapped, so helping brands grow brand awareness on the app might turn fortunes.

However, you need to have a few talents before you begin offering TikTok consultancy to businesses. The most important is knowing how to create viral videos that get people to engage with brands. If you don’t have the expertise in this platform, you can still learn how to create killer contact by taking this TikTok course.

28. Sell Greeting Cards

If you have a knack for picking out the perfect greeting card for different occasions, this might be an easy way to make money online. However, I don’t recommend that you market your services to anyone and everyone – it’s not a smart way to do business. Instead, you can open a greeting cards brand geared towards a certain segment of the population.

 For example, you can make greeting cards that cater to C-level executives wanting to thank their Senior Vice Presidents for making profitable decisions last year. Or you can target healthcare professionals wanting to thank their patients for choosing their clinic. For designing the cards, you can use an online graphic tool like Photoshop or Canva. These tools make it easy to put together nice-looking cards that will cheer anyone up.

Conclusion

Making money online can help you earn some extra side hustle money, but it can also help you escape your 9 to 5 job so you can become a full-time entrepreneur. By making more money, you gain more financial freedom, improve your financial security, and inch closer to living life on your terms. It really is possible to earn a living online if you work hard and stick with it. 

[karisworld77]

Video Marketing Tips To Skyrocket Your Traffic

The Ultimate Guide to Video Marketing

Buy now attention- all video marketers and email marketers… personalize, notify and customize any video and get high user engagement, leads & sales with this ultimate video marketing technology a cloud based software requires no complicated installation, no hosting and no technical hassles.

Video is also a nice addition to your content marketing. Outside of your main website, you’re likely creating content like blog posts, articles, or guides. When you create new written content, just like this guide, include video to make it more engaging! and remember, videos themselves are pieces of content. Video content marketing as a term is often used interchangeable with video marketing, especially when it refers to the non-advertising parts of video marketing.

So, you’ve finally published a bunch of videos for your business. Great! now, how do you get people to actually watch them? just like blogs, or any other inbound-angled marketing, videos need strategy to fuel their success. Use these publishing and promoting guidelines to get the maximum mileage out of your video marketing.

The old model of video marketing does do what a lot of brands think they need – it just delivers video. But that thinking creates problems around strategy, promotion, measurement, and, fundamentally, the impact that piece of video will have on the audience (and ultimately, the brand). Following the new rules enables you to practice video marketing with a more holistic approach that is more likely to achieve your business and your audience’s goals.

Blogadvice, tips, tricks, and more. Inspiration hubvideo examples from the pros. Content libraryreports, webinars, and videos. Case studiesread through our many customer stories. Video marketing guidefrom strategy to analytics. Video sales guidevideo throughout your sales process. Video production guideprofessional videos on your budget. Featured reads 2020 video trends report find answers to big questions around video in business.

Why You Need to Focus on Video Marketing in 2019

A good video marketing strategy focuses on diversity. You should experiment with the types of videos you want to offer. It is always good to provide your audience with a variety of content to enjoy and engage with. A majority of brands find customer testimonials to be the most effective. They act as social proof and help you build trust and credibility.

In addition to the entertainment aspect, more and more marketers are focusing on video marketing strategies because of how beneficial they are. Think about it from your own perspective for a minute. Would you rather read a long page full of text or watch a quick video to learn about a new product? would you rather spend time reading about the steps of a company’s sales process or watch an animation to associate each step with a visual aid? if you’re like 80 percent of the population, you’d rather watch the video.

With extensive digital marketing experience, 1 source media group is able to implement a strategic approach to video marketing. We will target your ideal audience in your local area or across the united states through calculated video content that is efficiently marketed. Our focus is to target your demographic through social media and youtube. 1 source media group is able to promote your video message anywhere.

In producing video marketing, be sure to keep your buyer’s persona in mind. Persona is a representation of how your target audience behaves, what are their goals, and what motivates them to buy a product. This information can be acquired from demographic and market research that you can find across the internet. It helps you focus your content so that it’s suitable for your audience. With detailed data, you can improve your overall marketing campaign and increase conversion rate.

Newsflash! creating a video is not video marketing. It’s easy to see why people confuse these two terms though; most of the online chatter is about the production of online videos, and few focus on promotion and distribution, which is what online video marketing is really all about. If you’re a smart duck (and i’m guessing you are since you’re reading this), you know that promotion is vastly different from production. And as such requires a whole different set of tools, tactics and strategies.

The 12 Types of Marketing Videos

I think that a major hindrance to creating videos is not feeling lost about what you are going to create! i have great news for you: adding video marketing to your content marketing strategy offers great flexibility in its various types and formats: educational videos introduce viewers to a concept or a field. These usually branch out to a number of topics and require very careful planning.

Video marketing works best when it has a purpose. "creating a viral video" doesn't have a purpose. Here are eight examples of different types of marketing videos with a purpose that we cover in our guide: option 1. Testimonial videos – to build trust. Option 2. Product demo videos – to boost conversion.

Different types of video content are going to serve different marketing purposes and there’s no shortage of content types out there. Let’s talk about a few of the most common types of videos used for marketing. 1. Product/service videos product or service videos explain and show what a product or service does as well as the tangible benefits.

Online videos are an essential part for any business's content marketing because of its popularity across all age groups. Video is also widely shared on social media and via messaging apps, increasing the reach of your business information. Most importantly, video marketing is proven to improve leads and sales. Types of video you can create include explainer videos, branded videos, animated videos, and more. Video content marketing can be a challenge, but with the expert help of a video content marketer you can achieve the business benefits you want.

If you already filmed a commercial for tv, it’s as simple as uploading it online—although viewers would definitely appreciate something new for the online version. You could upload a longer version online with “extra footage,” like walmart’s online tv commercial with more famous cars. How to master video marketing once you have an idea about the types of marketing videos that will work best for your brand, the real challenge begins: making them and marketing them. Here are 9 expert tips for marketing your videos like a pro.

How to Make a Video for Your Business

The preference for video content is not just limited to streaming online movies and shows or watching youtube video clips, video is now extending into brands with studies showing that consumers (over 50%) are interested in video content from brands or businesses that they support ( hubspot, 2018 ). Facing the growing demand by users for more visual content, more brands are building video into their marketing strategy to build sales, brand awareness, trust, and a growing customer base. Platforms like instagram , youtube, and facebook are the most common.

Marketing , strategy emily watts0 comments share we live in a world where people look for solutions to their problems on the web. From social media platforms, blogs, websites to video streaming services, there are so many things to keep us from boredom today. And not only for those of us who use the internet for personal needs to keep up with the latest trends and news; businesses also use these tools to run their promotional activities.

It has been proven that video content has increased conversion rates in sales. However, poor production quality may have the reverse effect on a consumer. Products and services that are not presented well can drive away prospective business. As with all marketing techniques, quality should always be of the highest concern. When creating video ads and promotions for your website, be sure to carefully consider your ad campaign.

In 2019, marketers at all types of businesses, small or large, can make video work for their budget and goals. You can shoot a complete 4k video right from your smartphone. And even if you don’t know how to edit videos, there are user-friendly, professional-grade video editing software options for all levels of content creators.

Apart from being a rich, visual medium, there are a lot of perks to making online video marketing part of your digital strategy. Simply put, the numbers tell a compelling story. These video marketing statistics highlight precisely why so many companies, in industries across the b2b and b2c spectrum, are taking advantage of this medium—and why video marketing should be part of your business, too.

5. Educational or How-To Videos

We all love learning new things. If brands find a way to make learning faster, quicker and fun, all the better! in the top of the funnel, a lot of your target audience is out there searching for new info – that’s where educational videos come in. Educational videos offer real value to your audience that they can apply to their everyday lives.

Educational “how-to” videos can be extremely popular. Use this video marketing format to teach your target audience something they want to know. Brands often use these videos to teach customers how to get the most out of their product, or to build a trusting relationship with potential customers. Here’s one of our “how-to” videos in which we show viewers how to start a t-shirt business:.

Educational videos tell viewers about your business/product, hitting on three main points: what your product or service is the benefit behind your product or service how your product or service works now, it doesn’t have to be in that exact order but those three points will provide viewers with enough information to know whether they want to continue learning about your company or not.

One of the best ways to grow your customer base is to help more people find out about who you are and what you do. Rather than getting lost in the crowd, you want your business to stand out among your competitors. With videos, you quickly convey what your core values are. You can increase exposure to potential customers by offering entertaining, educational videos that inform them about your company and help them remember your name.

Want more info? Look no further. https://gibsongirlsmarketing.com/services/

[dominickcbws081]

How to Outsmart Your Peers on learning letters

The Ultimate Guide To Life Skills You Can Teach Your Kids At Home During

Incredible list curated by Jenny Rosenstrach (author of Dinner, a Love Story, amongst others) and Andy Ward, book agent extraordinaire. Has 2,000 math lessons for K-8 (Y1-Y9). It's an adaptive platform which users would usually need to pay for however you can register for 90-day complimentary trial here. Interactive math video games for ages 6-11 with quick-fire questions on everything from number bonds to increasing and dividing.

Solve math issues by collecting numbers while moving a marble through a series of mazes. In the Apple store. Extremely addictive. Uses off-screen, enjoyable activities to engage kids in building numeracy in manner ins which don't feel like school, focused on kids aged 3-9. (They also have iOS and Android apps.)Five-minute inquiries used to begin the day, take a break, or stimulate interest, with prompts like "Can turtles live outside their shells?" and "Why are rubies red?" Doug is a former grade school teacher who guides concerns, utilizes visuals, and asks concerns.

Have enjoyable and stay curious." Bless you, Doug. There's "discovery" about animals, science, history, and geography, then games with fun tests by topic (like dinosaurs, comets and meteors). However a real gem is "Primary Resources" which are discovering materials by subject (history, science, location, math, art and design, and PSHE, or personal social, health and economic education, which is a topic in the UK).

Development at its finest. Differentiated scientists blog about their advanced discoveries in accessible language for young readers, and after that kidswith the help of "science coaches"provide feedback and help the authors improve the short articles before publication. Subjects include brand-new advanced research (brand-new discovery) or core ideas, crucial ideas that are basic for understanding a clinical field.

The smart Trick of Home-school Parents Offer Tips To Teaching. That Nobody is Discussing

This typically matches researchers with classrooms, however there's a sign-up for families too. Among our coworkers says her 7-year-old son simply learnt more about fossils from taking part in this program.GEOgraphy Focus Maps, nation descriptions, flags, and more.Crash Course Children Fifth grade science made cool.Free School Brief videos about art, classical music, kids's literature, and life sciences.SciShow Children For more youthful kids (3-7) on whatever from coral reefs, why is fire hot to how to state goodbye.TheBrainScoop Emily Grassley, primary curiosity correspondent for the Field Museum in Chicago, shares the work and research study of natural history museums with the world.SciShow The tricks to what makes the universe tick.Science Max Science experiments at house. Learn more about"experiences in Raspberry Pi"or how to configure Python.Mike Likes Science Mathematics and science raps("you have two points on a line; you need an equation butit slipped your mind; slope-intercept is what you need; y= mx+b"). Need we state more? slogan is "Learn a language forever. Free."is complimentary for students for 3 months this spring. Teachers have begun offering classes online, such as these educational YouTube videos in English and Spanish.

One couple is hosting art lessons on YouTube at 2 pm ET for two weeks(beginning Mar. 16). Lessons will be archived. The beloved, acclaimed children 's book illustrator( Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Knuffle Bunny, etc.)invites kids to draw together with him daily at 1 pm ET on YouTube. Yeah, envision. Up until then, this site is loaded with creative projects, videos on photography, drawing, animation, and music. Connects instructors to kids for small video.

conference classes. From Shakespearian insults, fashion style through the ages, Harry Potter-themed chemistry, fractions, and the sociology of Disney bad guys, there's something for everyone. for kids and households from Typical Sense. You've become aware of March of the Penguins, but what about Infants? Or Imba methods Sing, 2 on offer?Fun? Maybe, maybe not. However definitely a beneficial life skill. Special deal now for Covid-19.

From telling the world to War (the card video game), this is an useful list of the obvious(rock-paper-scissors )and the not-so-obvious(shoe disarray). Make them provide more!Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery Course discover to prepare. Pineapple Street Studios is inviting kids to make a podcast about their experiences being, as the title says, stuck at house. Dance while developing a sweat. Tweens like this(hold a dance-off if the brother or sister competition will not fire up WWIII). Kids may be naturally feeling sorry for themselves. Help them help themselves by assisting others with greater needs. Charity Miles is a free US mileage tracker app that contributes cash to charities based on the number of miles you stroll, run, or bike. You understand you will be telling them, and retelling them, forEver. Will make everybody feel excellent. Produce a family server and get everyone on it for some co-creation. The his staple in lots of UK homes digests and bundles the news news for tweens and just landed in the United States.

9 Simple Techniques For Home-schooling For Kids

One Quartz's worker's 11 year-old reads the magazine cover to cover and loves the video games at the end. Produced by Vermont Public Radio and hosted by radio veteran Jane Lindholm, it interviews scientists, historians, and professionals of all stripes about some of the most important issues of our https://diigo.com/0jgbxy times. Do animals get married? How are noodles made? Why do we poop and fart? Grownups are guaranteed to discover something in each episode, and to actually enjoy listening. Eliminate any assumptions about woo-woo soul searching for the kindergarten set. Hosted by a yogi with an aggressively pleasant Australian accent and a big creativity, this is an indoor workout that's fun, needs no equipment(other.

than wifi and access to YouTube), and will get their wiggles out. Free not-for-profit with courses in mathematics at all levels, in addition to science, liberal arts, test preparation, and computing. Quizlet is an app for making flashcards and diagrams. Kids can design their own or find study sets that already have actually been produced, whether by their own teacher or someone else's. It's complimentary( you can, however, purchase research study guides created for specialized exams like AP tests, the MCATs, and the CFA), and kids can flawlessly change between mobile and desktop versions.

[hectorykcp083]

7 Things About Digital Marketing Agency Your Boss Wants To Know

The Best Strategy To Use For Online Marketing Tips For Small Businesses

When budgets are limited, on the internet Digital Marketing Agency Services marketing may be the initial cost you aim to reduce. Let me quit you right there. While conventional advertising and marketing techniques are pricey as well as tough to determine, tiny businesses have actually never had higher accessibility to affordable, trackable advertising tools. The most effective method to market your business could be a whole lot more easily accessible than you think.Email advertising and marketing is the attempted as well as true digital advertising and marketing network with a typical return of $38 for each $1 spent.Small business marketing services are just the start. Begin your complimentary 60-day trial.

marketing for local businesses

today. Find out a lot more about our 60-day free e-mail advertising and marketing test. You must be marketing at all times wherever you are - Top Digital Marketing Agencies. As a result, you require a compelling lift pitch. Research reveals the ordinary attention period of a grownup is about six to eight secs. That's at all times you need to get hold of somebody's attention. Spend the time to craft an awesome elevator pitch. The return on your financial investment will pay huge rewards in regards to developing business possibilities. You do not need to believe huge when it comes to your advertising and marketing efforts. Believe in your area. What's going on in your community?Sponsor a Little League group or a 5k charity walk/run.

Be familiar with your suitable consumer and think of how and also where they spend their time. Then look for possibilities to enter front of your customer with your marketing message. Placed with each other a group of collaborating, non-competitive organizations in your location as well as agree to cross-promote. You can use discount coupons, fliers, reciprocal internet site web links, bundled promos or social media platforms.

I'm a huge follower of networking. I do not think there is any far better means to construct a company than to venture out there, shake some hands, and also learn more about individuals. Networking calls for a time commitment as well as it does not provide pleasure principle, yet a solid network is just one of the biggest properties any kind of organization person can have.

Not known Factual Statements About How To Market A Small Business

the best marketing company

Nonetheless, there are many companies seeking qualified, subject-matter specialists who can offer to their groups. Take a deep breath and also volunteer. You don't have to be a pro as long as the details you share is useful to the audience. As well as the benefit the extra you do it the much easier it obtains.

I started my company career in the area of public connections and also business has actually altered significantly because of innovation. Top marketers such as 2DaMax Marketing. Today, a small company proprietor can accomplish a lot without hiring a specialist company. Register for Help a Reporter Out. You can react to reporters' queries that are looking for story suggestions and also resources.

Do not be shy concerning requesting for customer recommendations. The bulk of individuals claim they want to offer a reference if asked, however really few take the effort to do it by themselves. Referrals make it simpler to obtain in the door with brand-new consumers. If you aren't asking for them, you are missing opportunities.

That's why establishing strong relationships with your client base is important. Among the means you can do that is by interacting with people via email advertising.Ask consumers for their email address when they visit your shop or internet site. After that, make your interactions useful, helpful as well as professional something your consumers will look ahead to receiving.Coupons are a great way for many services to attract brand-new clients. Vouchers can additionally create return gos to. For instance, if you give a client a promo code for a discount rate to utilize on future service, there's a high likelihood they'll be back. If someone has the opportunity to experience your item or solution, chances are they will certainly desire to acquire more. Don't be terrified to offer a person a complimentary test or a sample. These ten low-cost advertising approaches will help you engage consumers, construct partnerships, as well as eventually maintain your brand name top-of-mind. It's not constantly regarding the money you need to spend on advertising and marketing, it has to do with the time as well as effort you place right into it and also most of all, the significance it has for your clients. We'll reveal you functional, step by action tiny business advertising and marketing ideas to help you develop your brand, promote your organization, and also get new consumers. Don't have many bucks to invest in your biz? No concerns there are lots of advertising and marketing strategies you can make use of that will not blow your small marketing spending plan. Allow's see just how far you can stretch those dollars! Here are 20+ advertising and marketing suggestions for tiny organizations servicing a small budget plan. If you can create it yourself, all the far better( is n't totally free always far better?). Even if composing isn't your strong factor, you shouldn't have way too much difficulty getting somebody on your team to crank out some short articles for your blog. Attempt top 10 listings, pointer collections, best techniques for your market, etc. Video clip web content is truly beneficial, and also while it can set you back large bucks to obtain professional YouTube video clips generated, there.

The Best Strategy To Use For How To Use Social Media For Small Business

's nothing wrong with giving it a shot yourself or working with a film pupil off Craigslist. Wistia supplies an excellent video tutorial revealing you how to shoot expert-looking video footage on your routine old iPhone! If video clip noises like as well much of a challenge, try making slide decks as well as sharing them on SlideShare. Some host solutions supply advertising and marketing price cut codes as part of their membership offerings. Inspect and see if yours does.

Reddit, a bare-bones social media network self-titled as the" front page of the web," can be an effective tool when utilized purposefully. Reddit is composed of a very tech-savvy audience that bristles at any kind of apparent marketing techniques. In Reddit, there are subcategories( referred to as subreddits )that handle some of the narrowest, most certain passions around.

There's a subreddit for lockpicking (/ r/lockpicking), a subreddit for unicycles(/ r/unicycling ), as well as there's also a subreddit for admiring beautiful handwriting (r/PenmanshipPorn ). (And also naturally there's one for Search Engine Optimization.) Locate your specific niche as well as dominate.