#tell me if my image description is too long I tried to be thorough

[dafodils-on-the-moon]

Meet the Artist!

Hi I’m Wren but I also go by LoreWren on AO3. I’m currently 20 years old and studying ecology. I’m AuDHD, and very AroAce. On this blog I post thing I find odd or wondeful or delightful, hope punk stuff, science stuff, nuerodivergence and disability stuf, and my art.

I love asks when I get them; you can ask me about:

Merlin AUs (A Captive Flame AU Masterpost, other court jester!merlin AU)

my OCs

ecology

my SPINs and current hyperfixations (now playing: Merlin, PJO, 14th century england, celtic mythology, birds)

my experience with ADHD/Autism

my faith and how it interestcs with being LGBT+/diabled

stories about — college, my 10 years working in childcare, my weird-ass family, my deeply bizzare and vivid dreams (most recent: underwater dystopia allegory for society in which I die and haunt Hunter from the Owl House)

Image description:

Meet the artist page.

Top left: drawing of the artist on a crouched pose wearing a red sweater over a white collared shirt, green cargo pants and black platform boots. They have rounded glasses, and short brown-blonde hair pulled up in a stubby pony. They are very pale, have blue eyes, some acne and a monobrow. They have almond shaped eyes, a narrow face and long nose. Above the drawing it is labeled “Wren (20 yrs)” and below that reads “she/they, Christian, AroAce, AuDHD.” Next to the word Christian there is a cross, next to the word AroAce there is a pin with the aroace flag, next to the word AuDHD there is the infinity butterfly symbol. There are several arrows pointing to the figure reading “Meet the Artist, Literally a bird, perched^tm.”

Top right: box labeled stats and skills. Inside the box there are 5 stat bars. The first is labeled “blood pressure” and is a little under half full. The second is labeled “CHAOS” and is over flowing, colorful and has several glitch effects. The next box is labeled “wonder” and is mostly full. The next is labeled “sense of shame” and is almost empty. The last box is labeled anxiety and is a little less full than the wonder bar.

Bottom: box labeled inventory contains a variety of items. Items include: iPhone in a pink otter box, purple iPad and drawing stylus, teal ear defenders, hand lotion, pincushion labeled “Stabby the Tomato,” several granola bars, pink glittery zipper box with the text “MY PILLS” embroidered on it in white with a pillbox inside, tangle fidget, uno cards, binoculars, a short sword, noise canceling headphones, and a very small stuffed white seal with big eyes labeled “poquito 🤍” riding a much larger fat seal stuffed animal with grey spots wearing a name tag that reads “Gordo.”

[love-takes-work]

Live From Beach City Outline & Review

Part sheet music book, part introductory musical lesson book, part character feature, and part music activity book!

This was a fun, unexpectedly thorough collection of the songs from Season 1 of Steven Universe, and the BEST thing about it is that we get to see the intended melodies written out on manuscript paper, with harmonies written in where appropriate, and lyrics and everything.

The only place it really falls short for me is that it tried to cram introductory music theory into the first few pages in a way that I do not think is accessible for its intended audience.

Someone who can understand these hasty definitions with very few demonstrations or examples probably already reads music, and someone who can already read and write music on the level it requires to write songs probably won't be using the adorable "write a song about ___" prompts to make up their own tunes in the provided staff paper in the book.

(I say this as someone who majored in music education. I think it just didn't take its time enough, and that taking that kind of time to present these concepts is beyond the scope of a book like this.)

There are also a couple outright typos, like "time signatue" and "Mini Music Lession." That surprised me, because those are spell-check-level mistakes that should have been edited out in a major publisher's production.

But on to the wonderful things about the book! First, it has an intro from ex-rock star Greg Universe, followed by a really authentic intro from Steven where he tells you there are a bunch of different ways to experiment with music.

I particularly appreciate this as a set-up to the complicated music lessons they're about to give, because kids who play/sing/write by ear but have no theory experience might need that pep talk if they don't get it on paper. Then they dump the music theory on you in attempting-to-be-simple descriptions, and then they give you a lovely little set of ukulele chord charts, guitar chord charts, and piano chord charts.

We move on from there to sheet music for the show's theme song, "We Are the Crystal Gems." Related activities give prompts for kids to define their own superhero team elements and write their own theme song.

Next we get "Let Me Drive My Van (Into Your Heart)," Greg Universe's old song from "Laser Light Cannon." Kids get activities to design their own band van, make up some rhymes, and write a song about their outlook on life.

Moving on, we get "Giant Woman," a fan favorite. It's catchy as heck and decorated with drawings of Opal, and the follow-up pages give us facts about the stability of various Gem Fusions, some activities about elements of dance, and spaces to design a Fusion between yourself and a friend and write your Fusion Dance song. (Wow, that's a lot to take in.)

The gorgeous song "Strong in the Real Way" is up next, from "Coach Steven." Predictably, it's decorated with Pearl art, and though it's mostly just accompanied with chord notations, it's got an intro and a bridge with two-handed piano music. I like that. The activities that follow are a little weird, discussing how to be strong and asking you to solve an odd puzzle.

Pearl gives a lesson about harp and piano history, followed by one of my favorite things: she defines arpeggios for you and says some very in-character stuff about how "broken" chords are beautiful. (Considering the song this follows is full of arpeggios, it's pretty appropriate.) You're then supposed to write a song about being strong in your way.

"Steven and the Stevens" and the nearly identical song "Steven and the Crystal Gems" get a mention next, with activities for kids to design album covers, construct and write a song for their own band, and draw multiple Stevens. I love the little "B-sides" they threw in with chords and lyrics for the goofy partial songs from the episode: "Ste-Ste-Ste-Steven" and "Big Fat Zucchini." You have to hear "Big Fat Zucchini" to believe it.

"Dear Old Dad" is here too, and even though it's kind of a monotone song, the harmony between Greg and Steven is so touching and rough in the show. Kids can draw a picture of someone they've known as long as Steven's known his dad, and you're given a little "growing up" favorites list that you're supposed to fill out now and then again in a year. (I like that they ask you to mention your favorite gemstone.) The musical activity gives you paper to write a duet.

Next is "Be Wherever You Are" from "Island Adventure," which is the sweetest little song and probably shouldn't be played on anything but ukulele. Activities let you make a list of stuff that makes you feel happy and confident, draw a picture of where you'd like to travel to, and brainstorm ideas for a musical refrain. The songwriting spot asks for an unwinding song to calm yourself or someone else.

The deceptively deep "On the Run" follows--Amethyst and Steven's duet, with art of the two of them. Activities ask you to list items you'd put in your bag for a trip, design book covers, list friendship activities, and write a song about what you like to do with your friends. And it includes a whistling lesson, coupled with the new information that apparently Steven cannot whistle!

The song "Lapis Lazuli" and its reprise "Wailing Stone" from the episode "The Message" are up next in the sheet music. Activities allow kids to draw mirror images of the Gems, list your own strengths and weaknesses, and reprise the tune of the above songs to write a song about when you felt misunderstood.

And finally, everyone's favorite (okay, maybe just mine): Garnet's song from "Jailbreak," "Stronger Than You." I really appreciate seeing the chords and breakdown for this one.

Activities are interesting: because this is Garnet's Fusion song, they of course talk about fusion, and they ask you to divide yourself into two "halves" and imagine what each would be like. Then you're supposed to write about your favorite traits about yourself, bouncing off Garnet's song celebrating herself. Finally, a music lesson about triplets presented as musical Fusions is taught in Garnet's voice. (Nice, since her song also uses triplets.) You're given space to write your own celebrating-yourself song.

And we close with a partial rendition of "Love Like You," which has played in bits and parts over the end credits here and there.

As of the book's publication, the entire song had not been played on the show, so it is not released here, but the full version is really lovely and I hope I get to see the sheet music for it someday--maybe in a sophisticated, no-activities, straight-up sheet music book for this show, including some instrumentals. Activities ask kids to write a postcard to someone they've said goodbye to, and a closing statement compares music to magic you can do.

It's a lovely little book and I just wish a better balance could have been found for the music theory at the beginning.

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

[udemytutorialfreedownload]

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Description

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Created by Rob Percival, Nick Walter, Codestars by Rob Percival Last updated 1/2020 English English [Auto-generated] Size: 7.13 GB

DOWNLOAD COURSE

READ MORE:

NLP - Natural Language Processing with Python

Complete Guide to TensorFlow for Deep Learning with Python

PMP Exam Prep Seminar - PMBOK Guide 6

The Complete Financial Analyst Course 2020

[lordofsunshadowandsailor]

replies

because many and long and thorough:

danjaley replied to your photo “A single glance sufficed for Alvar to see he would have a hard time...”

I like this thought. And it links Alvar and Tobio on yet another level.

In future updates we shall learn how their relationship developed after that first sexual encounter, but I thought I’d already leave this hinting at their paths, that is really so different between themselves. 

danjaley replied to your photoset “There lay a peculiar emptiness to the closet, though. Tobio’s clothes...”

Oh dear, this really is a large bottle of wine! ;)

And it’s a particularly beautiful one, right, @aroundthesims

tyrellsimsoficeandfire replied to your photo “The outbreak of war had interrupted the normal and predictable career...”

I like this so much. Fire always makes beautiful effects. And the background! I'm looking forward to see more of your WW I recreations.

It is so atmospheric, I agree. One can feel the ambient just because of the image of the fire pit. It must be our ancestral collective memories.

As for the WWI, this is when the steampunk accent creeps in... There is virtually nothing specific to recreate the war, so it will be more on the side of fantasy and imagination than recreation...

tyrellsimsoficeandfire replied to your photoset “There lay a peculiar emptiness to the closet, though. Tobio’s clothes...”

What a luxurious bedroom.

Oh, Alvar think it is so middling class, so constraining in its humbleness... But it did take a lot work to build this set!

tyrellsimsoficeandfire replied to your photo “Alvar had then ventured into yet another room of his friend’s house...”

Alvar still looks kinda hot...

Poor Alvar. He would never think of himself as hot -- did people use that term back then? --, and not in his lame post-war persona anyways... But I agree with you, he still looks fit and his partial nudity in contrast with the formal attire is kinda hot!

hyperkaos replied to your photo “The outbreak of war had interrupted the normal and predictable career...”

I keep coming back to see if you've added more to this, it intrigues me as to how it ties into everything else

And it took only a few days... Sorry to keep you waiting. I hope it makes more sense now.

declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “Tobio?” Alvar inquired, in a voice that suddenly sounded not just...”

Oh hi!!! I remember you from 'beneath the stairs!' lolol x

And what stairs are we talking about? Because Alvar has been carrying Apollo Jim since the margins of the river, up those incredible stone stairs where Death tried to dissuade and distract him :)

declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “Tobio!” He exhaled the name more than called it, and finally seemed...”

I love the blend also @tyrellsimsoficeandfire

I simply cannot imagine my game without the Greek outfits made @venusprincess-simblr, even if I am not playing the Greco-roman world any longer, so I always make up reasons to use them... :)

declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “Where do I place him, Tobio?” It could have been said that he...”

What are the scars on his face from? Crazy experiments? Acid attack? He wants to be a super-villain?

Poor Tobio. He is super nothing, except perhaps super lonely, super devastated, super sad. 

I don’t think I have described the ambush that cost his eye, have I? Then I should!

declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “With a sharp sting across his chest, Alvar deposed Apollo Jim on the...”

I love the description of Alv's perception of death by the window. Beautiful!

Thank you! I’m glad you like it!

declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “Tobio could tell why, but he wanted to listen it from Alvar. Lost Boys...”

Weeds on the soil of wealth. Wow. Your writing is masterful!

Writing is like bathing in a river that springs from yourself. You just pick the right words as they float by you.

But when I am not in the process of actually writing words down, I wonder... Did I really write that?

Thank you always for your support!

tyrellsimsoficeandfire replied to your photo “They hadn’t seen each other in nearly a decade. Freddie’s occasional...”

I always like the atmosphere your shots hsbe6. One can really feel the warmth and intimacy! Also, do I spot danjaley's fireside poses?

I don’t think I remember her poses, but I probably should... These poses are actually from two guys cuddling next to a car, on the floor of a parking lot... Not the least like this scene, actually! But when I saw it I knew it was just right for Alvar and his cousin Freddie.

tyrellsimsoficeandfire replied to your photo “Probably feeling guilty in his irresponsible repose, in dreams – where...”

I'm curious if there's some reason why they are associated with greece?

It’s the ideal time, in the understanding and idealization of the Victorian era, for their love otherwise condemned and forbidden, called then the Greek Love... I have explained it in this post, and declarations-of-drama has a comment below that adds to this, too, if you want to read my answer to it.

danjaley replied to your photo “I understand it, Alvie.” Alvar’s name in Frederic’s mouth was little...”

I was going to say they have these characteristic WW1 faces, but I've come to realize it must be the style rather than the faces, when I compare them with the Greek versions. That's interesting, as I always wonder where those types disappear to when they go out of fashion - or how we'd all look if the year was 1917...

Thank you for mentioning this! It’s very interesting isn’t it?

I did make a post with my inspirations to create the characters for LoSSS. I f look closely to their faces, they are timeless male beauties, considering Western and Classical Greek standards... And they do resemble contemporary male models or actors of our days. It’s their hairstyles and clothes and the photography of course that makes them dated, like you say.

Just like sometimes I meet Italian people who do look like a Roman marble statue come to life...

hyperkaos replied to your photo “Dreaming was all they had had for a while to keep their love thriving...”

So young, so willing to give up everything for hopes and dreams, for love, Alvar's innocence hurts

Yes, that is Alvar, at his purest in the company of the man of his life!

fancifults3cc reblogged your photo and added:

Oh no! A crime of passion!

Oh, I would say this is a crime against passion, Alvar and Freddie’s passion!

declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “You already have, Lord Phallihurst.” Tobio affirmed, after having...”

So, something mixed with the Absinthe?

This is what we know or are led to believe so far. Maybe Tobio  will find out more.

declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “Tobio could tell why, but he wanted to listen it from Alvar. Lost Boys...”

I also had to come back to this chapter to read your description again of the brothels. I've done a bit of reading about these places before now and am sort of a bit fascinated by the whole logistics of how those places conducted business and the lives of the workers etc etc. You paint a very graphic image of it.

I admit to not having researched extensively on this subject, other than reading about brothels and a little about sexuality and pornography in Victorian times -- though this is supposedly Edwardian times (or the end of it) in the story, and then WWI and the changes it brought... I’m happy you did not find any inconsistencies, but please do let me know if you spot any! 

declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “The boy stood clearly not for a sailor, though the hat could have been...”

But why would he be wearing a false tattoo? Roleplay? To be seen as a sailor boy I guess?

The tattoo matches the strange outfit, though not so strange for a rent boy who is supposed to fulfill his clients’ fantasies... 

The plots holds several small mysteries, and this is one of them...

declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “I don’t think I understand it, Alvar Andrew. You don’t intend to...”

Why is there so much concern for this boy? I'm a bit lost here.

I hope this has been answered in this post, though it is left ambiguous and rather open as Alvar does not utter a word, leaving Tobio to conclude...

I  shall have to be more explicit in the future about the link between Alvar and the boy.

declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “You are taking him to your ancestral lands? To live under the same...”

Good question! And Tobio has probably seen too many to be as bothered about him tbh

Exactly, that’s what he says, too! And the next post to this holds the revelation...

declarations-of-drama reblogged your photo and added:

Art against art…

declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “Not proud.  Not the least, not Alvar.  Not for any past weaknesses,...”

This is amazingly beautiful! The contrast really catches my eye and it's almost hard to distinguish the Sim from the painting! Well done!!! x

Thank you so much for the reblog, and your kind words, dear!

I did play a lot with this scene. I tried several choices of paintings, and different poses for Alvar, and changed the colors on the wallpaper until it matched and still contrasted with Alvar’s skin.

I’m hardly ever satisfied with lighting in Sims 3, and that the part I try to correct in PS.

I’m so glad you liked the final result, and the one shot I chose to upload from the dozen I made :)

declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “But still, quite accomplished.  As if again turned into thorn flesh,...”

Alvar should also have phantom pains, and boils would come and go to accompany the intrusion of a false support. Also he would probably call it his stump and not his amputated leg (which is by now probably lost, burned or used in medical science).

I did not reflect about this, thinking an amputated leg was both what remained and what was removed... But you are right saying that sometimes the specific word is stump... I’ll have to rewrite this, and pay more attention from now on!

declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “His temples throbbed, too, as if his heart, oscillating between...”

Why do I get the feeling that Alv wants to be one of Tob's patients himself? Was it Tobio who took his leg?

Alvar is one of Tobio’s patients! But no, Tobio did not operate Alvar’s leg -- though that is maybe a good idea...

declarations-of-drama replied to your photoset “There lay a peculiar emptiness to the closet, though. Tobio’s clothes...”

Oh! That explains a lot!

I often hesitate about making longer posts, but sometimes it’s just what it’s needed to get the whole perspective, right?

declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “Alvar walked slowly towards the armchair next to the rack of clothes,...”

Disliking women totally, as in sexually? I often wonder about things like this, such as the levels of bi-sexuality in us and how people must have coped when they were married etc in those days

I will develop this theme in the story, both from Alvar’s and Tobio’s perspectives!

declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “From the beginning of his life – love life, sentimental life, intimate...”

I watched Troy the other night and then spent around 4 hours reading up on Greek Antiquity. It was fascinating! I'm guessing this is what Alvar with his cousin is resonating of a pedarasty relationship? Like was a required part of Greek Noble youth? It was all so fascinating to learn!

Greece was not an united nation back then, so this was mostly and Athenian thing. Pederasty, as I mentioned in this post , was not just acceptable but often a desirable thing as a rite of passage. It usually involved a wider age gap than this existing in the story, with Alvar submitting to Freddie or Tobio, that are not actually old enough to be the erastes. But I’m no expert in such matters and am writing a story, not a treaty. So you are right to mention Troy, a good movie despite all the Hollywoodian peccadilloes and hypocrisy, and the love between Achilles and Patroclus, which was not the same as in pederasty, since they were practically the same age, and not Athenians.

declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “The outbreak of war had interrupted the normal and predictable career...”

A story within a story. This should be interesting! I wonder where Freddy is now? Time for Dinner! These chapters made me HUNGRY!!! lol

This is usually how I write. Stories within stories, and plenty of flashbacks, and flashbacks withing flashbacks... Like in a mosaic, or a kaleidoscope.

Freddie is dead, like it’s been said before.

And I hope you had a good dinner!

tyrellsimsoficeandfire replied to your photo “Not proud.  Not the least, not Alvar. ��Not for any past weaknesses,...”

I had the same though when seeing. @andantezen always does amazing artworks.

Thank you dear, it’s always a much needed encouragement to know that!

lifeasasim replied to your photoset “There lay a peculiar emptiness to the closet, though. Tobio’s clothes...”

Look at that room ;_;

Haha, the detail is intended to say things about the characters, that’s why I have troubled myself and gone this far...

lifeasasim replied to your photo “Probably feeling guilty in his irresponsible repose, in dreams – where...”

Gosh, this is so beautiful!

Thank you dear!

[sending-the-message]

Case #2- Youtube's Most Mysterious Vlogger Part 2 by JacobMielke

(Note: this is an update to my second case. To read Part 1, click here )

For the first two days, Moxxy didn’t answer my texts. Unusual for her, because she is very much a phone in hand kind of gal, but I let it go. Everyone needs space sometimes, right? On the third day she didn’t show for our coffee date and I tried calling her phone. A recorded message told me the number was disconnected. Then I began to worry. On day seven, after spending every minute I could at her favorite hangouts in hopes of seeing her, I decided something was definitely wrong.

I went to the police station to file a missing person's report and ended up making a fool of myself. We’d only known each other for about a month and a half and I’d yet to learn her address or any of her family’s names or even her last name. All I had was a defunct phone number, first name (Molly, which she hated, hence why she went by Moxxy) and description. I hoped that would be enough as Moxxy’s red hair and distinctive tattoos (of things like pokemon and Linda Blair’s face) stood out in a crowd, but apparently not. Without more information, there was nothing the police could do, though the sergeant promised to keep an eye out for her.

It didn’t matter anyway because I realized that night this was something the police couldn’t solve. They dealt in the material and their monsters were flesh and blood villains who followed the strict rules of the physical world. My monsters were more unpredictable.

I’ve never been the type to pay attention to dates unless I need to, and when I got home that day, I looked at a calendar for the first time in about a week. Then it clicked. The day Moxxy stopped texting me was July 11th, 2015. The anniversary of Scott Eric Cranston’s murder. And we’d wrapped up the case of Opperyke, the ghostly Youtuber, the week before. Or so I thought.

It was a hell of a coincidence, and I was rapidly losing my belief in coincidences.

I did fret at first that maybe I was wasting time chasing a supernatural explanation but what else could I do? Though I called myself an investigator, I wasn’t trained in any way. If the cops couldn’t find her, how could I? But I was the only one who could put the supernatural clues together, and I had to do something, even if Moxxy’s disappearance turned out to be a horror more suited to the world of police and sex traffickers and psychotic murderers.

The first step was to comb through the data we’d collected and see if there was anything relevant. It was a long shot, but thoroughness is a virtue. I made a to-do list on a sheet of paper (yes, I know that’s ridiculous given the context. I have mild ADD and a physical list helps keep me focused) and at the top I wrote the name of Opperyke’s hometown. Maybe I could find his address or family.

Next I opened the copy of Opperyke’s last video to see if he’d mentioned anything that could lead me. I’m not ashamed to admit revisiting the video filled me with dread. The last time I watched it, I had disturbing nightmares that turned out to have real world implications.

And that was before I knew I was watching and listening to a dead man speak.

I played the video but something was wrong. The image distorted, breaking Opperyke’s face into dozens of different colored lines on the screen. The audio was completely shot as well, just sounds and tones. I was about to click away when I heard a more discernible voice. It was quiet, but it clearly wasn’t Opperyke’s. I rewound that part again and again at maximum volume, trying to make it out.

“...how did...where...you and...I...help me...me, please!...Jacob!”

It was a woman’s voice. With the distortion, I couldn’t be a hundred percent sure it was Moxxy… but come on. It was Moxxy. I think anyone would have known the same in my shoes.

I didn’t know how, but there wasn’t a shadow of doubt in my mind that Opperyke was responsible for Moxxy’s disappearance. What baffled me was the sheer scale of the act. As a rule, ghosts are mostly harmless. They can barely work up the energy needed to open a door. For one to kidnap Moxxy, even if it’d somehow been in her exact location when it happened, defied reason.

Of course, that led to a possibility I really didn’t want to consider: maybe Opperyke wasn’t a ghost at all.

It wasn’t difficult to track down Opperyke’s next of kin. There weren’t many people living in Marietta, Ohio with the surname Cranston and I tracked down the Facebook profile of Melinda Cranston, Opperyke’s mother, within minutes. She didn’t post much; most of what I saw on her timeline were memorial posts for her deceased son and husband (how horrible for her to lose her son and husband in so short a time) and the occasional shared pie recipe. She wasn’t very cautious with her personal information. Her “about me” section contained her address and phone number, among other things.

I called her number and she answered on the first ring, which wasn’t nearly enough time for me to overcome my social anxiety.

“Hello?” Her voice was raspy and I hazarded a guess that she was at least a two pack a day smoker. That, or she had laryngitis.

“Hello, Ms. Cranston. My name is Jacob Mielke, I’m an author and I’m researching your son for an article I’m writing. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind answering a few questions?”

There was silence on the other end of the line and I almost thought the call dropped before Ms. Cranston angrily retorted: “My son’s tragedy is not some piece of gossip for you vultures to jump on. He isn’t a gimmick, or an urban legend, or a true crime story. He was a person. Can’t his memory get any goddamn respect?”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Cranston, I didn’t mean any disrespect.”

“This is the real world. What you mean doesn’t actually mean shit.”

“Please, this is important. Someone’s life is at stake and I think your son may be involved.”

“I’m hanging up.”

“Please, I want to know your son’s secret!” I don’t know why I blurted that out. It was an even more inappropriate thing to say to a grieving mother than the rest of the conversation (which was poorly handled, in hindsight). But it worked. Ms. Cranston was silent for several moments and when she spoke again, the anger was gone from her voice.

“Why did you say that?”

Things started to piece together in my head. “I think you know why. You’ve heard your son say it before, haven’t you?”

“That thing is not my son!”

“I know. I think it took my friend. I need to know more about it. Maybe if I figure out what it is, I can stop it. Maybe I can get her back.”

“I’ll tell you everything I know. Do you know where I live? You have to come here. There’s things you need to see.”

She refused to give further information than that over the phone, so there was no choice. I bought a Greyhound bus ticket (which wiped out my savings due to the short notice) for the next day. I called off work and told everyone I was going on a fishing trip. It was a tense journey and the longest part of it, Chicago, IL to Cleveland, Ohio, was spent in the company of a young man who didn’t believe in showering more than twice a month and had spent the entire previous night at a rave (and if I had to wager a guess, I’d say they raved in a sauna).

I had to hike part of the way to the Cranston house once I’d exhausted every possible public transportation option. When I got there, I found the door had been marked off with police tape. I spotted a man walking his dog on the road and asked what happened.

“Melinda Cranston had a heart attack. She called 911 and when the ambulance got there she was already dead. Damn shame, she was a great lady.”

Ms. Cranston was getting on in her years. It wasn’t unusual for a woman her age to suffer a cardiac arrest. As for the timing, well… coincidence? You know, that circumstance that I was sure didn’t actually exist?

Someone knocked on my motel room door later that night. There was no one there when I answered but a book was left in the hallway. It was bound in purple faux-leather and the first page identified it as Melinda Cranston’s diary. Someone had scrawled on the page: DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MY SECRET?

Some of the pages were marked with post-it notes. I turned to the first one.

Dec. 20th, 2012 One day until the end of the world apparently! I’m so glad Scott doesn’t believe that nonsense. He still insists something major is going to happen but at least he’s not throwing away his savings or anything foolish like that. Misty from down the street said…

I skimmed through the rest of the entry, which read like a love letter to a neighbor from a closet lesbian. Interesting, but not what I needed. I turned to the next posted page.

Dec. 21st, 2012 The world didn’t end! What a surprise! Not a thing happened… though Scott doesn’t seem to think so. He says that on days like this one, different worlds are closer together and sometimes things can come through. Like Halloween, I guess? I don’t know. He’s watching too many weird movies or something.

Feb. 3rd, 2013 I thought Scott let his little fantasies go. He didn’t talk about them at all last month but today he said he found a place where something came through. Apparently he was in Noonan Park walking the trails earlier and he found some creepy stone house or something. I swear, I don’t know how his mind works anymore.

There was something in my room with me. Call it my sixth sense or whatever, but I could tell I wasn’t alone. It came with the diary, I was sure of it.

March 13th, 2013 I’m so worried about Scott. He doesn’t talk, he barely eats. He just stays in his room all day. Lately he’s been talking about doing all the things he always wanted to do, like skydiving or starting that video channel of his. Should I talk to a doctor about this? I’m so scared my baby’s going to take his own life. I don’t know what I’d do if that happened.

May 20th, 2013 There was someone in Scott’s room last night. I woke up and needed to pee and while I was walking down the hall I heard him crying. Someone was talking to him. They asked if he wanted to know a secret.

That was the last entry in the diary. It was enough to piece together a rough estimation of what happened. Scott had a fixation with finding entities from other dimensions and believed something would happen on Dec. 21st, 2012 that would allow those entities passage to our dimension. He also believed he tracked down a location where one of those entities crossed over, a house in a park. Smart money was on him being correct in his theory, only the entity he found followed him back. From the sound of it, it was malevolent enough and strong enough to kill him and perhaps others (like Ms. Cranston).

There were still things I didn’t understand, like why did the entity carry on Scott’s dream of having a Youtube channel? And why was it leading me to the house in the park (it was clear to me by now this was the case)? If it wanted to kill me or teach me it’s “secret”, why the convoluted plan? It was strong enough to kill a human being and abduct another (I refused to believe she dead. Her absence didn’t make sense unless she was alive). Couldn’t it just come to me?

I looked up directions to Noonan Park. It was about ten miles from the motel, easily reachable on foot. I’d follow the trails and find the house. Whatever came next, I’d deal with it and hopefully at the end of the tunnel, I’d find Moxxy. Alive and safe.

The story of Mielke Investigation’s second case will conclude in Part 3. Read about our first case here . If you’d like updates on when the next posts are up, follow my author page here .

[rafi1228]

Learn Android O App Development using Java & Kotlin – build real apps including Super Mario Run, Whatsapp and Instagram!

What you’ll learn

Make pretty much any Android app you like (your only limit is your imagination)

Submit your apps to Google Play and generate revenue with Google Pay and Google Ads

Become a professional app developer, take freelance gigs and work from anywhere in the world

Bored with the same old, same old? Apply for a new job in a software company as an Android developer

Requirements

A Windows PC, Mac or Linux Computer

ZERO programming knowledge required – I’ll teach you everything you need to know

Description

The Complete Android 8.0 Oreo Developer Course by Rob Percival and Nick Walter

Learn Android App Development with Android 8.0 Oreo by building real apps including Twitter, Instagram and Super Mario Run.

Wish you’d thought of Whatsapp/Instagram/Google Maps?

Me too.

But until I work out how to build a time machine.

Here’s the next best thing.

The Complete Android O Developer Course

Kicking things up a notch from my smash-hit The Complete Android N Developer Course (59,000 students + 8,500 five star ratings) — my latest course is your fast-track, skip-the-queue ticket to building high-calibre Android apps.

Because, let’s face it… you’re busy. You want results. And you don’t have time to hang around.

And while you wait for that big idea, developers in the US are making an average of $95,000 a year…

 “Excellent instruction and content. Continuously building apps keeps me engaged and drives the lessons home nicely.”

“So far it’s a great tutorial for beginners! You learn a lot of concepts in short videos and hence it’s not boring. You get to make a lot of apps which makes it lot more practical and interesting!”

“I’m a senior android developer already but this course has been a huge help in revising all the basics and making the android knowledge foundation even stronger.”

Why choose me?

My name’s Rob Percival, Udemy’s bestselling coding instructor.

I believe that if YOU succeed, so do I.  That’s why for the last five years I’ve dedicated my life to building courses that get my students coding and building apps as quickly and efficiently as possible.

With 22 courses (and counting), and half a million students to my name – I’ve built a multi-million dollar business helping people learn to code. I’d love you to join my community and start seeing all the wonderful benefits coding can bring to your life, too.

And if you don’t like what you learn? I offer a 30-day money-back return. No questions asked.

Let’s dig in.

“This course was absolutely the best thing that ever happened to me. Learned literally everything I needed in android app developing. Looking forward to take other courses from Rob Percival. A special thanks to him as well for making this course. Wish I could’ve given more than 5 STARS!”

What’s so good about Android 8.0 Oreo?

“Safer, smarter, more powerful and sweeter than ever!”

Whether you’re looking to usher in the next generation of smart TVs, fitness wearables, games consoles, game-changing AI, smartwatches — or just build simple apps for good old fashioned fun — Android 8.0 Oreo is your key to unbridled creativity.

And the potential market right now?

IS HUGE.

The Play Store gives you access to a massive commercial audience with one active billion users downloading apps, last year alone.

But, I digress.

Fresh from Google’s workshop, Android 8.0 Oreo is stable, feature-rich and functional as ever. Not only can you develop more efficiently, but you’ll get new ways to extend your app.

All you need is the right idea, or that lucky bit of exposure — and your ‘big break’ might just be around the corner…

So join my Android 8.0 Oreo revolution today and here’s what you’ll get

Learn all the new features to Android Oreo, like Adaptive Icons, Picture-in-Picture, Downloadable Fonts and Virtual Reality with Daydream.

Dive into Augmented Reality with our ARCore section. Learn how to mix the physical and digital world through a user’s camera.

Learn essential skills like Bluetooth, game development, and sending users notifications.

BONUS MINI COURSE: Get your free mini course on Kotlin. Kotlin is new programing language you can use in place of Java when making android apps. It’s gaining more and more support and is an essential skill as an Android developer.

“Amazing!! I couldn’t believe that I could develop android apps after taking this course.”

“Best teacher I`ve ever met on the internet. Wish I could give you 6 stars. Keep it up man.”

“I’m loving the speed at which the course moves through the material. As someone who learns best by trying things out for myself, this has been a huge leap forward in my skill level..”

“Unlike every other course in android and Java, this one includes many hands on coding projects that teach you how to REALLY build the stuff you want to build.”

And that’s not all folks! You’ll also get my BONUS BUNDLE to support you through your learning journey…

Because I want you to have the vERY best start in your Android journey, I’ve put together a bonus bundle packed with everything you need to kick things off fully equipped and ready for action.

Normally, this entire bundle of extras, bonuses and support would cost $$$$$$$$ for one year’s access.

However, if you sign up today, you’ll get LIFETIME ACCESS to the course materials, downloads and of course, important updates.

All for just one pocket-friendly payment of $200. 

Not a penny more.

Here’s what you’ll get:

·      $100 Amazon AWS Credit for hosting your own social apps.

·      $500 WORTH of exclusive app templates, images and audio resources to use in your apps

·      24/7 project support: via our buzzing course forums.

·      One year of FREE WEB HOSTING on Eco Web Hosting’s Advanced Package, worth £119. *Limited to one year per student not per course*

What have you got to lose?

“Simple, easy to follow, and being able to check Q&A for other people’s questions and progress makes it more fun to learn.”

“Excellent explanations. Easy-going attitude. I’ve done 2 popular Android courses on Udemy and this course had much clearer explanations than the other course I tried. I’m surprised how quickly we were able to build cool apps.”

“I learnt not only how to program but also how to reduce complexity, lines of code, code readability and many other helpful programming techniques.”

Why take this course?

For the last three months, my team and I have been diligently exploring, interrogating and appraising Android 8.0 Oreo.

Our goal?

To bring you our most comprehensive Android course yet. A rigorously tested, exhaustive (yet fun) course with serious thud factor. AKA our most extensive, thorough and detailed course on Android EVER.

In fact, click to buy this course, and you’ll get a COLOSSAL 35+ hours of delicious, chocolate-chipped, Oreo flavoured goodness to devour and enjoy at your leisure.

You’ll want to hungrily race through each digestible chapter as you naturally and easily consume each skill.

“I could not have went to a better course to start with android native development. It offers everything I wanted in my app and also provides ample opportunities to engage learner in an efficient implementation of what one has learnt. Highly recommended.”

  “Amazing course! Just finished the Tic Toe app and still going on. Being a 4+ years experienced Java developer, i can tell that this is extremely well explained. Thanks Rob!”

“For me, this is an excellent course. If you want to learn how to create Android apps without all the hassle of learning the entire history of Android, this course is a must. A lot of tutorials dive way to deep into theory which may result in tutorials becoming boring. Luckily, this is not the case here!”

Is this course for you?

This is a one-size-fits-all course for beginners to experts.  So, this course is for you if you are:

A total beginner, with a curious mind and a drive to make and create awesome stuff

A fledgling developer, with a glint in your eye and a passion for cutting-edge tech

A confident coder, looking for the key to the secret club (app developers unite!)

A pro app developer-heavyweight, with an itch to build your dream app

An entrepreneur with big ideas

Benefits to you

Risk free! 30-day money-back guarantee

Freedom to work from anywhere (beach, coffee shop, airport – anywhere with Wi-Fi)

Potential to work with forward-thinking companies (from cool start-ups to pioneering tech firms)

Rocket-fuelled job opportunities and powered-up career prospects

A sense of accomplishment as you build amazing things

Make any Android app you like (your imagination is your only limit)

Submit your apps to Google Play and potentially start selling within hours

“I really do love the challenges he puts at the end or middle of each video, I don’t think there is another course that does this and i think they all should because it allows me to apply what i learned.”

“The best course I have ever taken. Better than many of my University courses. Concepts are clear, teacher is engaging, pacing is excellent and the timing of examples is brilliant.”

“I had no knowledge of coding whatsoever (and never thought I would have any) but this course has opened my eyes as to what I’ve been missing out on. Wish I would’ve taken this a long time ago!”

Thanks for getting this far. I appreciate your time! I also hope you’re as excited to get started as I am to share the latest Android developments with you.

All that remains to be said, is this…

Don’t wait another moment.  The world is moving fast. And I know you’ve got ideas worth sharing.

Coding really can help you achieve your dreams.

So click the button to sign up today – completely risk-free.

And join me on this trailblazing adventure, today.

Who this course is for:

Anyone who wants to be an app developer: This is a complete course, just like my Complete Web, iOS and Apple Watch courses. It will teach you how to make money from your apps as well as how to code.

Anyone who wants to learn to code: Java is a fantastic language to learn how to code with.

Anyone who wants to understand how computers work: Learning to code is so much more than being able to make apps – knowing how computers work is your key to a hugely powerful world.

Created by Rob Percival, Nick Walter, Codestars by Rob Percival Last updated 11/2018 English English [Auto-generated]

Size: 6.62 GB

   Download Now

https://ift.tt/2DbQweb.

The post The Complete Android Oreo Developer Course – Build 23 Apps! appeared first on Free Course Lab.

[listiqueblog]

The 8 Tools and Strategies Proven to Acquire New Customers & Increase Customer Engagement

How is a sinking ship different from a failing ecommerce site?

At least the captain can go down with their ship!

You can’t – so you better do everything in your power to keep the customers coming.

As we approach crunch time in the world of online shopping, now seems like as good a time as any to review the best tools and techniques for acquiring new customers, increasing repeat business, and minimizing loss.

The whole ecommerce game boils down to getting people to buy your product. And then, hopefully getting some of those customers to come back again and again.

Whether you’re new to ecommerce or a grizzled vet who remembers what it was like to sell on eBay, this guide should give you some new ideas and reinforce old ones, including:

Why actionable, helpful content is your responsibility (i.e. curation isn’t key)

When to ask customers for reviews (and then how to use those!)

How to do influencer outreach to earn increased SEO (the science + the art)

How to use live chat to increase conversions and customer loyalty

Why your site doesn’t need to be beautiful, it needs to be helpful (and what the difference is)

You’ll also find recommendations on BigCommerce apps and integrations that fellow entrepreneurs use to succeed.

If there’s anything you want to add, please leave us a comment or email us – don’t be shy!

Customer Acquisition Tactics: The 4-Step Process

Customer acquisition is the process by which ecommerce brands actively find and then convert net new customers to their sales cycle.

Many brands think that to effectively create a customer acquisition cycle, all you need to do is launch your website.

But that is far from the reality. Once you launch, you need to then:

Create targeted ads on Facebook

Install 1-step checkout

A/B test your copy

Get niche bloggers to talk about it

That’s how net new customers will come.

Let’s go a layer up here, though. Good customer acquisition breaks down into four major categories:

Promotions.

Design.

Testing.

Outreach. 

If you nail these four areas of ecommerce customer acquisition, you should expect to do pretty well at convincing Joe Web Surfer to buy your stuff.

What is cost of customer acquisition?

The cost of customer acquisition is typically referred to as CAC, and it is easily broken down into a simple formula.

It is the cost spent on acquiring new customers (marketing expenses) divided by the number of customers acquired for that given period.  

For example, if you spend $100 in a year and acquire 100 customers, your CAC is $1.

Additional Recommended Reading

In case we’re moving too fast: here’s a comprehensive guide on how to drive traffic to your ecommerce site.

Customer Acquisition Strategy Ideas + Examples

1. Give ‘em a deal they’ll never forget.

What’s the last thing you bought online?

Chances are, it probably was on sale, came with a discount code, or was shipped to you for free.

People love discounts.

Giving someone the feeling that they “won” a deal is a powerful way to make them like your product more than a competitor’s.

You can go about promotions in a variety of ways.

Use your social media channels to run ads featuring a coupon that’s redeemable on your website if you have a pretty solid target demographic figured out.

If you’re more into drip campaigns or interacting with customers off of social media and perhaps have a popular blog, your email list is a bona fide money-making machine.

Encourage people to subscribe to your email newsletters and occasionally reward them for access to their inboxes with an exclusive offer.

Additional Recommended Reading

To get the most out of welcome emails, check out these battle-tested templates.

If you have a less popular item in stock or dwindling inventory of a SKU that’s no longer made by your suppliers, put it to use either as a limited-quantity loss leader or throw it in as a freebie on orders over a certain quantity.

Not only does this free up valuable space in your ecommerce fulfillment warehouse, it gives customers the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from getting a great deal.

Don’t forget that when you’re crafting deals to lure in new customers, you should pay attention to related trends or the time of year.

That could mean putting together ads that drum up anticipation for the winter holidays or spoofing the new hit TV show that everyone in your demographic follows.

The only thing better than a sale is a sale that connects with the lifestyles of the people who are your customers.

BigCommerce app that could help: Coupon Pop entices new visitors to become customers with instant pop-up discount offers designed to get sales.

2. Design your website to be helpful, not sophisticated.

No one cares if your website has 1080p image sliders or embedded QR codes.

The only thing that matters is that a first time visitor can find what they’re looking for, and then buy it from you.

So keep things simple and easy to use.

Use an ecommerce database (otherwise known as a search bar) for customers that actually answers their queries — and leave breadcrumbs for them to navigate your selection of items if you have an especially large inventory.

When a visitor is ready to make the leap into becoming a customer, make sure your site has a 1 page checkout to keep things as easy as possible.

Write detailed product descriptions that tell your customer exactly what they’re getting when they order from you.

If you sell clothes, include specific sizing charts and model dimensions. You wouldn’t buy something online without knowing what you were buying — so take that into consideration when you think about your customers.

That said, writing an immaculate product description is only the first step to true customer satisfaction.

The real test is ensuring that your order fulfillment process 100% ensures that your customer get the correct product, in the right size, and on time.

Whether these operations are handled in house, or outsourced, the financial cost and soft costs of mispicks, lost inventory, and late shipments can be disastrous to your bottom line.

Additional Recommended Reading

Need to explore different fulfillment tactics more? Check out our article on ecommerce fulfillment, self fulfillment, and dropshipping.

Another underrated feature of any good ecommerce site is load time.

If you’re using a bulky web platform or cheaping out on server space, there’s a good chance you could have a higher bounce rate as visitors decide it’s not worth waiting for a page to load.

You can’t afford to lose traffic just because your load times are slow. Optimizing page load times is fundamental to your site’s chances at success.

Additional Recommended Reading

Need ideas on ecommerce store design? BigCommerce wrote a thorough guide with great examples from around the web.

BigCommerce app that could help: Live Chat Inc. One of the classic drawbacks to shopping online is that customers can’t try on or test out products.

While futuristic solutions such as virtual reality shopping could change that, specialty or customizable items will be a tough online sell so long as customers feel like they can’t know for sure what they’re buying. One method for covering that gap of uncertainty is a customer-facing live chat integration.

ZenPro Audio’s Story

Warren Dent is the owner and founder of ZenPro Audio, an ecommerce site that sells high quality audio equipment and products.

At this price point, most folks have various audio needs and order size requirements, making the product difficult to sell without direct interaction with individual customers.

That’s why Dent decided to install a live chat app. He explains the benefits best:

“I tried a half dozen or so live chat apps, and always ended up coming back to LiveChat. It’s not the cheapest. However, it has the ability to customize the chat window with logos and avatars, allows file transfers back and forth with customers, and is fast and responsive.

The admin page is very clean, and the chat page to me was the most sensibly laid out. Popup notifications work, and when you click them it carries you to the open tab and chat for immediate response every time.

The incoming chat sound is spoken as “incoming chat” which also makes sense to me, when a customer is initiating.

Afterwards, standard message sounds apply.

You can watch your customer type in real time which can be helpful.

Also, customer support is outrageously awesome –– and work, of course, via live chat. They’ve never been unavailable when I had dozens of requests to tweak my design etc.

I tried the rest and found the best in my opinion anyhow.”

How ZenProAudio 2X’D AOV

Live chat isn’t the only tool that helps convert. See how Klarna can turn prospects into customers for high-priced items.

Get a 100% Increase in AOV with Klarna

3. A/B test everything.

A/B testing is important not to see which designs are best or to use data to outwit other colleagues (though it can do both of those as well). No, A/B testing is about figuring out which options produce the highest numbers of conversions.

Ecommerce conversion rate optimization is the #1 tactic to growth for brands past the startup stage.

Why?

Because the more customers you convert (moving the needle from 2% of site visitors to 5%), the more money you make, the lower your CAC (the calculation of which is explained earlier) and the less you have to spend to acquire that customer again.

It’s smart for your brand to have a test plan for online shopping website optimization. That means that you:

Mark on Google Analytics every time you launch a new test

Have a standard for how long you run them and how many visitors must experience both versions

Have a process for executive approval to launch the winner

Move onto the net item to test to increase conversions

Repeat as needed.

This is especially true with copy on landing pages and product pages.

If there’s one thing you should remember about copywriting, it’s this:

The sole purpose of the first sentence in an advertisement is to get you to read the second sentence.

Copywriting guru Eddie Shleyner said that, and he knows a thing or two about what works and what doesn’t.

Without good copy — without the sort of hook, line and sinker content that gets customers’ eyes moving down the page — your product is as good as dead.

So write product copy.

Test out a sentence.

Test out your tone.

Test out corny jokes.

Test out every facet of your website.

Not just the words themselves, but the layout of your website. Does it make sense to have the product search bar tucked into the top right corner, or would you have larger order sizes with a full-width behemoth?

Do blue “buy now” buttons get more clicks, or are they outperformed by red? Is “buy now” a better CTA than “get this?”

The more you know, the better your ecommerce businesses will do.

Here’s a list of 5 fundamental parts of your business that need testing; if you can’t do it, then find someone to do it for you. It’s simply too important to not take into consideration these ecommerce testing scenarios.

5 Ecommerce A/B Testing Ideas:

Product copy

Landing page/lead magnet layout

Email drip campaign copy

Blog content: Video vs infographic vs photo gallery vs test

Advertising layout + copy

Best BigCommerce app for this: Visual Website Optimizer gives you 7 different testing options, including conversion tracking and A/B testing.

Additional Recommended Reading

If you’re stuck on optimization ideas, check these landing page and checkout page design articles.

4. Reach out to influencers.

People who work in marketing either love or hate influencer outreach. It just depends on your personality and whether you like cold-emailing folks to ask for favors or not.

What no one denies is that working the back channels of major media websites or Page 1 heavyweights is not an option if you want your business to succeed.

It’s mandatory.

So how do you stock your pipeline full of quality influencers? This largely depends on where it’s most effective for you to do your marketing.

Additional Recommended Reading

Stuck on influencer marketing? These nine influencer marketing case studies should help.

Building up a catalog of valuable backlinks usually starts with the content you create.

Quid pro quo is a reliable strategy for breaking into more venerable websites. If you allow someone from a relevant website to write a guest post on your company’s blog or simply link to one of their posts from somewhere on your site, you can leverage that into getting a guest post or backlink on their site.

Depending on what sort of audience you’re targeting, it might be more effective to seek out backlinks via an Instagram or Youtube channel instead of on a facebook page or on a blog post.

How do you know which channels make the most sense? By looking at our Google Analytics or BigCommerce Analytics to determine from where your most profitable traffic is coming –– and then working with influencers to get more of that.

In terms of finding influencers, free tools such as the BuzzSumo trial version or Google Alerts go a long way to connecting you with people and media channels who can make a difference.

While it’s not cheap, Pitchbox is a highly effective platform for performing keyword matches on influencer sites in your niche and scraping contact info for you to cold email in automated sequences.

It’s a huge time-saver and can get you handfuls of backlinks, especially if you craft a winning cold email.

Examples of Ecommerce Influencers:

Ezra Firestone

Richard Lazazzera

Sujan Patel

Noah Kagan

Shayla Price

Krista Fabregas

James Thomson

Daniel Wallock

Rieva Lesonsky

Andrew Youderian

Emil Kristensen

Tracey Wallace

Overview of Customer Engagement Tactics That Work

Customer engagement is how much interaction your marketing, merchandising and business as usual activities inspire in your customers. In other words: how often do your customers engage with you?

Customer engagement is a good measuring stick for customer lifetime loyalty and a brand’s overall messaging effectiveness.

Brands typically begin measuring customer engagement once a prospect has bought something –– or turned into a customer.

This is because once you have those new customers coming through the door, it’s time to focus on the next step: getting them to buy again.

What can you do to foster a better relationship and drive trust with your existing customers and ensure that they come back to you for future purchases?

The key to converting new ecommerce customers into repeat customers lies in keeping them interested in what you’re offering. How you do that depends most of all on your brand and what you’re trying to accomplish by engaging with them.

Good customer engagement breaks down into four major categories:

Rewards

Social media

Content creation

Post-purchase experience

6 Examples of Customer Engagement Strategies

1. Build loyalty through rewards.

Making your product appealing to customers on an emotional basis is a powerful way to build loyalty.

After all, when marketers use words like “loyalty” that have emotional connotations, it’s clear that the endgame is to make people feel like your company is more than just a brand and they’re more than just customers.

They want to feel valued.

How do you make someone who paid hard-earned cash for your product feel special? You reward them for it.

Give out discount codes to customers who review you on Amazon.

Have a digital punch card on hand for repeat buyers so they get their 6th product refill for free.

Organize members-only meetups and get your customers talking about your brand to each other and within their social circles.

You can grow customer lifetime value in just a year if you follow these tips.

True brand loyalty – “My daddy only drove Fords and so do I” – is incredibly valuable, hard to fake, and hard to earn.

By showing your customers that you’re willing to give them an exclusive discount, you demonstrate that you want their business and want them to feel satisfied with your product.

Best BigCommerce app for this: Smile.io incentives customers to share your brand with their friends through social media as well as encourage customers to post positive reviews in exchange for future discounts or redeemable rewards points.

Formerly known as Sweet Tooth, the app integrates with BigCommerce businesses with the sole purpose of building customer loyalty through incentives such as discounts and reward points.

Lisa Chu, owner of toddler fashion company Black n Bianco, knows the importance of keeping her customers hooked to her brand.

“Month by month my conversion rate and traffic started to increase [with Smile.io]. By rewarding our customers I built brand loyalty and created a positive feedback cycle of happy, passionate and vocal customers. Rewarding them really helps keep my brand relevant and competitive. Smile.io is the perfect app because it incentives customers to post reviews (especially the positive kind!) and share our brand with their friends through social media.”

After using BigCommerce for 4 years, Black n Bianco integrated Smile.io led to an increase in customer engagement of 38%.

Most businesses would kill for that sort of return on their investment. Maybe you don’t need to kill at all; you can test ride it and start getting the love from your customers you always dreamed of.

2. Reflect your audience’s tastes in your social feed.

There’s nothing sadder than seeing an inactive social media page for an ecommerce business.

How are you supposed to connect with your customers?

Have them call an (800) number? That would be acceptable if your customers were in the senior age bracket and this was 2010.

But even grandma has a Facebook account these days, so you pretty much have no excuse.

Do some research and put together a core list of social media channels you want to focus on.

The plan of attack for successful customer engagement varies depending on your goals and what network you’re using.

Tractor company John Deere uses a clever Instagram hashtag that their customers might use when they’re out in the field on a combine harvester or perhaps dressing up their youngest as tractors for Halloween.

It connects the image of practicality and reliability that characterize the brand with current owners, aficionados, and potential future customers.

Le Creuset knows its customers tend to be passionate about cooking and swoon over food porn. There’s no better social media platform for this than Pinterest, since the focus is on images (in this case of gorgeous browned crusts, sumptuous stews, and other culinary delights).

Oftentimes their enameled cast iron pots are not even in a shot; all you see is a close-up of a freshly-prepared meal with a link to the recipe.

This exemplifies the goal of social media and online customer engagement: you’re not trying to upsell, you’re giving them value for something they already got.

In some ways, this overlaps with the goal of creating loyalty. Either way, the end result is the same: by reflecting your customers’ tastes on the appropriate social media channel, you keep them interested and poised to buy from you again when the moment presents itself.

3. Create useful, actionable content.

It’s not just enough to share other peoples’ creations on the company Twitter account.

You need to proactively create content that your customers will appreciate and find useful.

If done right, your content should not only augment the experience of your customers; it should also be shared and reposted by other influencers, too.

Quality content comes in a variety of forms.

You could release a series of guides or mini ebooks that correspond to the product you sell.

Maybe host a YouTube channel or a podcast with tailor-made episodes.

Or pay bloggers to publish short stories that feature your item just as it was intended.

Whatever content you make, it should connect existing customers to your brand.

So what does useful, actionable content look like in the real world? Here are a couple examples.

Blue Bottle Example

If you’re a coffee addict, you’ve probably heard of Blue Bottle — they’re a heavyweight in the world of subscription premium quality coffee.

They have a few brick and mortar locations, but the creme de la creme of their revenue comes from their ecommerce store.

For anyone who loves coffee, their website is a treasure trove of useful information about how to make the perfect cup.

Whether that comes in the form of a Bialetti or a cold brew, Blue Bottle has step by step guides with clear photos and written instructions that walk you through the process of making coffee the way you like it.

When creating content to engage with existing customers, they asked one simple question — What’s the best complement to our excellent coffee? — and the answer was this series of useful guides.

Excellent content doesn’t need to sell your brand at all; it just needs to feature it.

Ipsy Example

Ipsy understands that principle and that’s why their partnership with popular makeup and cosmetics artists on Instagram is such a brilliant idea.

They run a subscription service that sends out a personalized selection of sample-sized cosmetics and makeup once a month, and they use Instagram for the heavy lifting of content creation.

The brand re-posts images with permission from Influencers like Ashly to help grow their audience and engage with fans.

Turn Your Instagram Fans Into Customers

Instagram Shopping is now available for U.S. sellers. Install it here. And download the guide below for 80+ examples of brands already using it.

Get 80+ Instagram Shopping Examples Now

4. Follow up on purchases.

There’s one other way that your business should cater to existing customers: right after the sale.

As you probably know from experience, after you buy something the novelty slowly fades away.

Sure, you’re going to be addicted to your new PS4 for the first couple months that buy it. But eventually other distractions or new toys get in the way and all of a sudden the only reason you use it is when you want to watch Netflix on a Sunday night.

When a new customer comes along and buys something from you, don’t wait til the novelty has worn off to approach them with a social sharing incentive or free product in exchange for answering a survey.

While this is anecdotal and not the same as a scientific survey, most online shoppers I know tend to leave reviews for products within a week after they made a purchase.

Additional Recommended Reading

If you’re having trouble with abandoned shopping carts, you might want to learn how to reduce them — and gain more purchases.

Greg Bullock, director of marketing at longtime BigCommerce website TheraSpecs, has advice for any ecommerce business looking to increase customer engagement in the post-purchase phase.

“Like most ecommerce companies, we use an automation tool — in this case ActiveCampaign — for outreach before and after a purchase. Our precision-tinted glasses often require some time in order for customers to experience relief for their light sensitivity, and we want to experience that journey with them as well as help set and manage their expectations.”

Keeping in touch with customers and demonstrating that you care about their experience after the sale helps to create a positive feedback loop.

That’s only natural when someone places their trust in your brand and is rewarded with a quality product and a friendly email asking if there’s anything that can be done better.

Bullock says that looking for feedback is even more important if a customer isn’t satisfied with their purchase:

“We have automated emails that go out from our service team to learn more about how TheraSpecs are working, and we want to engage with that customer in order to share in their joys of relief or provide service if there are any issues. For those who offer positive feedback, we like to delight them by offering a discount on their next purchase as well as the opportunity to share their story on our blog and social channels.”

This is why following up with customers matters: if you do it right, it just turns right back into good marketing for your brand.

Key Metrics For Customer Engagement:

Email open rate

Email click through rate (CTR)

New versus repeat visitors

Time on site

Bounce rate

Frequency rate (how often the same visitor returns)

Repeat purchase rate

Customer loyalty program activity

The Complete List of Tools

Here is a final list and links to all the tools mentioned in this piece:

Active Campaign

Smile.io

Buzzsumo

Pitchbox

VWO

Live Chat

Coupon Pop

Klarna

What’s your secret to winning new customers and making repeat ones? Tell us in the comments below!

Want more insights like this?

We’re on a mission to provide businesses like yours marketing and sales tips, tricks and industry leading knowledge to build the next house-hold name brand. Don’t miss a post. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

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The 8 Tools and Strategies Proven to Acquire New Customers & Increase Customer Engagement published first on http://ift.tt/2wGG0YJ

[incaseofsurvival]

That Fat baby is my big sister; Lady with the legs is our mum. (I wasn’t alive when this picture was taken.)

I was always a “tender headed” child. That is, I cried when I got my hair combed.

I don’t remember when my mother[1. My mom is awesome and I love her to pieces and wouldn’t trade her for anything or anyone. She’s super nice and when the car dealer tried to screw me I called her to straighten them out– and she did. She’s wonderful and inspiring and shit at doing hair. She gets her’s done at a salon(not black) every weekend.] started relaxing my hair. I remember that it was probably, in part at least, my fault. At least once a week, getting my hair combed was the worst thing that could ever happen to me. It was exhausting for our whole family.

I’m the little one with “spiked bangs” (I liked to pretend it was a choice…)

My father would pace from one room to another like he really needed to visit the kitchen seven times in the 90 hours it took my mother to braid my hair so I looked like a little brown unicorn (three braids were the worst, but the woman only had so much patience).

“Maybe you could just let her rest for a bit?” my father suggested on the way back from pretending to need stuff in the kitchen again.

My hysterical sobbing ebbed a bit as I baited my breath hoping my mother (or some compassionate ghost that had recently taken her over) would shrug and let me run off to lick my wounds. And then maybe she’d forget and it would be over!? Muhahaha!

Sike! If looks could kill… My dad was finished with his rubbernecking and attempted intervention and my sobbing picked up again[2. From the pictures, it seems like my Dad isn’t around or we’re not cool anymore (I feel like because of black people stereotypes I need to say this). My dad is still around and I love him to pieces and take him to see sci-fi movies when I miss him and he and my mother are still happily married, living in the suburbs.].

One day this ritual ended and we moved on to boxes of relaxer.

I wasn’t happier but at least in-between treatments I could comb my own hair. Small victories, FTW!

The kit, like similar hair dye kits, came with chemicals that are to be kept separated until there is science to do. It also came with gloves and all the instructions in the world in tiny fine print. I don’t think my mother ever really read the instructions. Instead she, like many people, read the pictures.

Mix the stuff, base the scalp with Vaseline, part the hair, work quickly, rinse thoroughly.

Inevitably, some of these steps were skipped intentionally or accidentally. My mother kept her nails long so the whole basing the scalp thing was always a fight.

“It’s going to burn me.”

“Not if we do it fast. Sit.”

“You get gloves; I should get some protection too.”

After years of chemical burns and back and forth, I started basing my own damned scalp. And I was so thorough. I did my ears and baby hairs and the back of my neck. In all, each time I used about half a container of Vaseline. I wasn’t fucking with these burns anymore.

Eventually, I started going to the hairdresser to get my hair relaxed and DID.

I’m pretty sure this little number took a year. I asked for cornrows and the hairdresser was too lazy to do them and chose to do twists instead.

People who aren’t Black Women might not know this but Black hair salons are the worst version of a business ever. There’s that joke about CPT (Colored People Time)… It’s not funny when going to get your hair done is a six-hour affair. I’m not even kind of exaggerating.

Six hours. And it’s not because of elaborate styling or super delicate processes that require careful time management. No, it’s because of Fuck you, pay me.

There’s genuinely no good reason EVERY black hair salon I’ve ever been to has been a vicious time suck. It just is what it is.

Maybe the women doing hair needed to stop doing hair (all of the women at this salon) mid-way through processes and order then eat some food (true story). Maybe they misjudged how long it would take to do the client(s) before me and are now running behind by 2 hours (true story). Maybe the stylist is on the phone with her ex and has been for ages and will get you me when she gets to me (true story).

From the rundown nature of every black salon I’ve been to—I don’t WANT to be sitting in a broken chair reading VIBE from 3 years ago in a rented space in a project building (true story)— to the rundown nature of too many stylists I’ve encountered, I gave up on Black salons late in high school.

In high school, I decided to start relaxing my hair myself.

How hard could it be? If I was unsure, I just erred on the side of caution and might not have had bone straight roots. Whatever.After a while, I got more comfortable with blow dryer-free wash and go styling. I went longer and longer between touch-ups until I stopped doing them altogether.

Freshman year of college I grabbed my hair at the roots and felt where the unrelaxed, natural hair ended and the relaxed hair started—this was my line of demarcation.

I started cutting in the front and didn’t want to live with a mullet so kept cutting until it was all gone.

I didn’t look too bad with super short, natural hair. Sure, my makeup was always on point and I never went out without earrings but compensations aside, I looked good.

My mother saw me over winter break and disagreed. She grabbed my hair (Damn it, there was just enough for her to grab a fistful) and exclaimed, “What have you done!?”

“Mum, we’re in the middle of the food court and it’s gone so if you could just let it and my hair go…”

She sucked her teeth and I thanked God we were in public meeting my cousin’s small children for the first time. “Can I touch your hair!”

“Sure.”

“It’s soft!” (children are always shouting to me.)

My dad loved it. He’s 100% for natural hair. Maybe from the experiences of his youth or mine… Either way, he was for The Big Chop.

Years later, out of college and into the workforce I got lazy.

Natural hair is hard work. My hair is thick and my arms are weak.

I research different kinds of relaxers, though I’m not totally sure what I was looking for. Maybe the most gentle or the most effective or the least chemically.

I used a kid’s relaxer kit and based my scalp generously.

As an adult, I got pretty good at doing my own hair. I was quick and efficient and cared the most about my scalp and ear health. I only did the relaxer lightly to just weaken the curl, not kill it completely.

I could blow my hair out if I wanted or I could keep it looking a little natural. The best of both worlds.

One Saturday afternoon I’m in the bathroom happily parting the hair and applying cream when a cluster of hair swings from its group on top of my head right into my face. Not just my face but my wide open eye.

“FUCK!”

“What’s wrong with you?” my Chinese-Italian (Asian&White) fiancé shouts from the other room not quite sure if this is worth pausing his game for.

As I scramble to remove the gloves and get to the kitchen sink where I can safely rinse my eye, I ask him to read the paper that came in the relaxer kit to see if there’s anything else I need to do. Eye drops? Ointment? Counter agent?

“It says to wash your eye thoroughly with water.”

“Okay good. Thank you.”

My expectation was that he’d put the paper down, pat himself on the back and go back to his computer.

Nope.

As I’m getting in the shower he says, “You actually put this on your body?”

“No… Just my hair and just at the roots.”

“It says to put in on your hair but not your scalp. How do you put something on your hair but not your scalp?”

“Um, you’re careful? I mean if it gets on you scalp for too long you get chemical burns.”

“You just got it in your eye!”

“So you don’t think we should relax our kids’ hair?” I asked with a chuckle.

Genuine horror. “People put this shit  on children?”

Hm.

At the rehearsal dinner for our wedding, one of my aunts asked me what I was going to “do about my hair”

Initial visceral reactions and presumptuous defensiveness of blackness and MY choices quelled, I said, “Probably stick some flowers in it.”

And I did.

#gallery-0-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

At my wedding with Unati and flowers in my hair!

Super Growth Hair Story! I was always a "tender headed" child. That is, I cried when I got my hair combed.

[khaleesifemme]

2016 Wrap Up: Books

Here are four books that fucked me up in 2016, only one of which was published in 2016: The Virgin Suicides (Jeffrey Eugenides), Room (Emma Donoghue), Sweetbitter (Stephanie Danler), and The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood).

By “fucked me up” I mean that, regardless of any more complicated feelings I might have about their overall quality/content/lens/characters/etc. and whatever, each of these stories deeply affected me to the degree that they feel worth briefly writing about now, as I begin my 2017 reading list.

The Virgin Suicides—Although I’d never read it, I was of course familiar with the story and decided to read it after a classmate in my fiction workshop used it as a point of comparison when discussing the style of one of my short stories. This was one of those books that couldn’t be wrapped up entirely. The mystery of the Lisbon girls and the overarching theme that the boys—those “we” narrators—never really knew them is, after all, the whole point. Anything more than what this novel is able to offer would have been too much. While there is very obviously a forward-moving plot to this story, it is much more a sort of snapshot of female (and male) adolescence and a satisfying and stunning one at that. I admired how Eugenides kept his reader constantly aware of the story’s spooky and devastating destination while mostly remaining firmly planted in the very real, thorough, and ordinary descriptions of suburban teenage life; this is both part of what makes the novel so beautiful and also what allows it to expertly avoid veering off into cliche true-crime territory. In addition, the further I read, the more it continued to blow my mind that this novel was written by a man.

Room—While it has nothing to do with the quality of this book, I have to say that reading Room just after leaving my assistant preschool teacher job made it all the more affecting to me. Having already seen the movie before the I picked up the novel, I generally knew what to expect but was still stunned by Donoghue’s ability to write through the eyes of a child attempting to make sense of extremely adult realities. Her decision to tell this story not from the point of view of Ma, a woman kidnapped as a college student and held captive in a backyard shed for years, but instead through the eyes of Ma’s son Jack, who she had by her captor and who has never seen the outside world, is what allows Donoghue to recycle a story that otherwise might have felt a little too familiar or sensational. This novel delves into the most private aspects of mother-child relationships, dealing with what happens when the relationship becomes somewhat mutual in terms of the give and take of care-taking roles.

Sweetbitter—I didn’t finish this book on my first attempt. In fact, it took three. I started reading it over the summer but couldn’t get past the first twenty or so pages. I was similarly deterred when I tried again sometime in September. A couple months later, I got far enough in that I was 1. able to keep reading, fully immersed, and 2. unable to decide whether I loved or hated this book. The best answer I have now is okay, I kinda love it and I also acknowledge that, like anything else, it is imperfect which only makes it more beautiful and true. Sweetbitter is a very smart book. There are ideas laid down in the first few pages that come back down, surprisingly and succinctly, probably 100 pages later. Most notably, there is the way we are introduced to different sorts of tastes and then, later, when Tess begins hooking up with Jake, the taste descriptions are recycled in a sexual context. This novel felt extremely real, as the coming-of-age story that it sets out to be, and it’s possible that much of what initially irritated be about this book are just side-effects of writing that sort of story. It was very difficult for me, for example, to want to read about a character who has no clear goal and, while beautifully done, the blankness of the novel’s main characters and its reliance on “white space” to tell the story were both very off-putting throughout the first 100 or so pages. It takes an extremely long time for things to start happening in this book but, when they do, you start to get it. Or, at least, I did. The further I read, the more I understood that this book was foremost about the intricate little moments Danler offers and then, stepping back, the larger image they collectively create.

The Handmaid’s Tale—It’s a little ridiculous that, as a young feminist fiction writer, I hadn’t already read this masterpiece. It had been on my intended reading list for ages and, the day after Donald Trump won the election, I went out and bought it in an impulsive and odd little act of rebellion (or something like that). This book rings with truth and it completely messed me up, both in terms being totally overwhelmed by its content and awed by Atwood’s skill. After Trump won the election, everyone around me was talking about the importance of being revolutionary in your art and writing about important things. In terms of reading to learn and reading to write, The Handmaid’s Tale felt like a perfect place to start.

[udemytutorialfreedownload]

The Complete Android Oreo Developer Course - Build 23 Apps!

The Complete Android Oreo Developer Course - Build 23 Apps!

Learn Android O App Development using Java & Kotlin - build real apps including Super Mario Run, Whatsapp, and Instagram!

What you'll learn The Complete Android Oreo Developer Course - Build 23 Apps!

Make pretty much any Android app you like (your only limit is your imagination)

Submit your apps to Google Play and generate revenue with Google Pay and Google Ads

Become a professional app developer, take freelance gigs and work from anywhere in the world

Bored with the same old, same old? Apply for a new job in a software company as an Android developer

Requirements

A Windows PC, Mac or Linux Computer

ZERO programming knowledge required - I'll teach you everything you need to know

Description

The Complete Android 8.0 Oreo Developer Course by Rob Percival and Nick Walter Learn Android App Development with Android 8.0 Oreo by building real apps including Twitter, Instagram, and Super Mario Run. This course was recorded using Android Studio 3.0.1 (which is a great introduction to the development environment!) For a smooth experience I'd recommend you use the same, but students can still use the latest Android Studio version available if they prefer! Wish you’d thought of Whatsapp/Instagram/Google Maps? Me too. But until I work out how to build a time machine. Here’s the next best thing.

The Complete Android O Developer Course

Kicking things up a notch from my smash-hit The Complete Android N Developer Course (59,000 students + 8,500 five star ratings) -- my latest course is your fast-track, skip-the-queue ticket to building high-caliber Android apps. Because let’s face it… you’re busy. You want results. And you don’t have time to hang around. And while you wait for that big idea, developers in the US are making an average of $95,000 a year…  “Excellent instruction and content. Continuously building apps keeps me engaged and drives the lessons home nicely.” “So far it's a great tutorial for beginners! You learn a lot of concepts in short videos and hence it's not boring. You get to make a lot of apps which makes it a lot more practical and interesting!” “I'm a senior android developer already but this course has been a huge help in revising all the basics and making the android knowledge foundation even stronger.”

Why choose me?

My name’s Rob Percival, Udemy’s bestselling coding instructor. I believe that if YOU succeed, so do I.  That’s why for the last five years I’ve dedicated my life to building courses that get my student's coding and building apps as quickly and efficiently as possible. With 22 courses (and counting), and half a million students to my name - I’ve built a multi-million dollar business helping people learn to code. I’d love you to join my community and start seeing all the wonderful benefits coding can bring to your life, too. And if you don’t like what you learn? I offer a 30-day money-back return. No questions asked. Let’s dig in. “This course was absolutely the best thing that ever happened to me. I learned literally everything I needed in android app development. Looking forward to taking other courses from Rob Percival. A special thanks to him as well for making this course. I wish I could've given more than 5 STARS!”

What’s so good about Android 8.0 Oreo?

“Safer, smarter, more powerful and sweeter than ever!” Whether you’re looking to usher in the next generation of smart TVs, fitness wearables, games consoles, game-changing AI, smartwatches -- or just build simple apps for good old fashioned fun -- Android 8.0 Oreo is your key to unbridled creativity.

And the potential market right now?

IS HUGE. The Play Store gives you access to a massive commercial audience with one active billion users downloading apps, last year alone. But, I digress. Fresh from Google’s workshop, Android 8.0 Oreo is stable, feature-rich and functional as ever. Not only can you develop more efficiently, but you’ll get new ways to extend your app. All you need is the right idea or that lucky bit of exposure -- and your ‘big break’ might just be around the corner… So join my Android 8.0 Oreo revolution today and here’s what you’ll get

Learn all the new features to Android Oreo, like Adaptive Icons, Picture-in-Picture, Downloadable Fonts and Virtual Reality with Daydream.

Dive into Augmented Reality with our ARCore section. Learn how to mix the physical and digital world through a user's camera. 

Learn essential skills like Bluetooth, game development, and sending users notifications.

BONUS MINI COURSE:

Get your free mini-course on Kotlin. Kotlin is a new programing language you can use in place of Java when making android apps. It’s gaining more and more support and is an essential skill as an Android developer. “Amazing!! I couldn’t believe that I could develop android apps after taking this course.” “The best teacher I`ve ever met on the internet. Wish I could give you 6 stars. Keep it up, man.” “I'm loving the speed at which the course moves through the material. As someone who learns best by trying things out for myself, this has been a huge leap forward in my skill level..” “Unlike every other course in android and Java, this one includes many hands-on coding projects that teach you how to REALLY build the stuff you want to build.”

And that’s not all folks! You’ll also get my BONUS BUNDLE to support you through your learning journey…

Because I want you to have the vERY best start in your Android journey, I’ve put together a bonus bundle packed with everything you need to kick things off fully equipped and ready for action. Normally, this entire bundle of extras, bonuses, and support would cost $$$$$$$$ for one year’s access. However, if you sign up today, you’ll get LIFETIME ACCESS to the course materials, downloads and of course, important updates.

All for just one pocket-friendly payment of $200. 

Not a penny more.

Here’s what you’ll get:

$100 Amazon AWS Credit for hosting your own social apps.

$500 WORTH of exclusive app templates, images, and audio resources to use in your apps

24/7 project support: via our buzzing course forums.

One year of FREE WEB HOSTING on Eco Web Hosting's Advanced Package, worth £119. *Limited to one year per student, not per course*

What have you got to lose?

“Simple, easy to follow, and being able to check Q&A for other people's questions and progress makes it more fun to learn.” “Excellent explanations. Easy-going attitude. I've done 2 popular Android courses on Udemy and this course had much clearer explanations than the other course I tried. I'm surprised how quickly we were able to build cool apps.” “I learned not only how to program but also how to reduce complexity, lines of code, code readability, and many other helpful programming techniques.”

Why take this course?

For the last three months, my team and I have been diligently exploring, interrogating and appraising Android 8.0 Oreo.

Our goal? 

To bring you our most comprehensive Android course yet. A rigorously tested, exhaustive (yet fun) course with serious thud factor. AKA our most extensive, thorough and detailed course on Android EVER. In fact, click to buy this course, and you’ll get a COLOSSAL 35+ hours of delicious, chocolate-chipped, Oreo flavored goodness to devour and enjoy at your leisure. You’ll want to hungrily race through each digestible chapter as you naturally and easily consume each skill. “I could not have gone to a better course to start with android native development. It offers everything I wanted in my app and also provides ample opportunities to engage the learner in an efficient implementation of what one has learned. Highly recommended.” “Amazing course! I just finished the Tic Toe app and still going on. Being 4+ years experienced Java developer, I can tell that this is extremely well explained. Thanks, Rob!” “For me, this is an excellent course. If you want to learn how to create Android apps without all the hassle of learning the entire history of Android, this course is a must. A lot of tutorials dive way too deep into a theory which may result in tutorials becoming boring. Luckily, this is not the case here!”

Is this course for you?

This is a one-size-fits-all course for beginners to experts.  So, this course is for you if you are:

A total beginner, with a curious mind and a drive to make and create awesome stuff

A fledgling developer, with a glint in your eye and a passion for cutting-edge tech

A confident coder, looking for the key to the secret club (app developers unite!)

A pro app developer-heavyweight, with an itch to build your dream app

An entrepreneur with big ideas

Benefits to you

Risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee

Freedom to work from anywhere (beach, coffee shop, airport – anywhere with Wi-Fi)

Potential to work with forward-thinking companies (from cool start-ups to pioneering tech firms)

Rocket-fuelled job opportunities and powered-up career prospects

A sense of accomplishment as you build amazing things 

Make any Android app you like (your imagination is your only limit)

Submit your apps to Google Play and potentially start selling within hours

“I really do love the challenges he puts at the end or middle of each video, I don't think there is another course that does this and I think they all should because it allows me to apply what I learned.” “The best course I have ever taken. Better than many of my University courses. Concepts are clear, the teacher is engaging, the pacing is excellent and the timing of examples is brilliant.” “I had no knowledge of coding whatsoever (and never thought I would have any) but this course has opened my eyes as to what I've been missing out on. I wish I would've taken this a long time ago!” Thanks for getting this far. I appreciate your time! I also hope you’re as excited to get started as I am to share the latest Android developments with you. All that remains to be said, is this… Don’t wait another moment.  The world is moving fast. And I know you’ve got ideas worth sharing. Coding really can help you achieve your dreams. So click the button to sign up today – completely risk-free. And join me on this trailblazing adventure, today.

Who this course is for:

Anyone who wants to be an app developer: This is a complete course, just like my Complete Web, iOS and Apple Watch courses. It will teach you how to make money from your apps as well as how to code.

Anyone who wants to learn to code: Java is a fantastic language to learn how to code with.

Anyone who wants to understand how computers work: Learning to code is so much more than being able to make apps - knowing how computers work is your key to a hugely powerful world.

The Complete Android Oreo Developer Course - Build 23 Apps!

Created by Rob Percival, Nick Walter, Codestars by Rob Percival Last updated 1/2020 English English [Auto-generated] Size: 7.13 GB

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