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elizabethmatthewsmacleodpaxton · 4 years ago

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Holiday Gift Guide for the Movie Buff on Your List

It's the same that time of year. Time to buy gifts for your friends and family yet again as the world all over celebrates this corporate, financial, money-hungry, festive and generosity-filled holiday. Some of you may already have it all taken care of by now. Others may be last-minute shoppers such as myself and think that even now is just the start of the shopping season. No matter which you fall under, there's bound to be at the least a couple more on your list to check off. In this article, we'll give you some ideas for gifts for those movie buffs it's possible you have on your list. 1 . Movies Of course a movie buff loves movies. However , this gift selection isn't since obvious as some of you may think. In fact , it could be one of the hardest choices for a movie fan there is. There are all types with problems that may arise here. You could pick the wrong format, the wrong medium, the wrong edition. Or you could plain and simple merely pick the wrong movie. Or even more possible, buy them a movie they already own (afterall, they are movie buffs, it’s likely they have TONS of movies already making it even more likely to buy something they already have). Thus, that's why I recommend avoiding this selection unless that movie fanatic in your life has actively been hinting at a certain movie lately. In that case, go for it. Movies are definitely good for us movie buffs. But again, be careful in what you buy. Or at least save you the receipt and don't be offended when that person needs to return your gift. 2 . Netflix Now for those of you hoping get your movie buff some movies, but don't want to go through the headache of making sure you don't get the wrong issue, Netflix is your answer. Netflix allows that cinephile on your list access to all kinds of movies from the old to innovative, domestic to foreign, indie to blockbuster and so on. The great thing about this too, they get to choose which movies may be watch, while you just pay for the subscription. Netflix Gifts come in a variety of plans and a variety of lengths. You can get ones movie lover just the streaming package or you can choose a package which allows streaming, plus up to 1, two, or 3 DVDs out at a time. These can all be bought in lengths from 1 month to 1 season. For instance, a streaming package for 6 months will run you about $48. Or you can go with 2 Dvd out at a time for 1 year for about $180. No matter what the choice, it's sure to be a hit with the movie buff for you. It doesn't matter if they already have a subscription either as a Netflix Gift can simply be added to their already existing reoccuring and they'll get free months of their service. 3. Fandango Card Of course every movie buff spends ample amounts of your energy at the theater. So , along the lines of the Netflix thing, another option is a Fandango gift card (or a gift card account from a local theater). This gives your movie buff a gift that will keep on giving over the year as they revisit this theater. Each time getting to enjoy the big screen magic on your dime. The movie buff on your list will surely love a variety of like this over the months as they get to catch all the latest releases. 4. Movie Memorabilia Your typical movie ripped is obsessed with movies in probably a way you will never fully understand. As such, this means everything about movies they enjoy. Consequently, another good gift for that movie lover on your list is movie memorabilia. This ranges from movie paper prints, to shirts, to collector's items, to autographed items, to boxed sets, to film cells and art work. You can even buy scripts/screenplays/props from their favorite movies online. With many online outlets that sell this type of stuff, techniques are endless once you know some of your movie buff's favorite movies or actors, etc . 5. Movie-Related Books along with Magazines As I stated before, chances are the movie buff in your life loves everything movie-related. This goes for books and even magazines as well. Biographies on their favorite actors or movie-related books are good unconventional ideas for the movie fan in your life. There are plenty books out there designed for these types of people. From 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die to 1000 Films to Change Your Life to The 100 Best Movies to Rent You've Never Heard Of to even more specific catalogs like 101 Horror Movies You Must See Before You Die. All would be a welcome treat for the movie buff inside your life. Likewise, the movie buff in your life most assuredly likes to keep up with all things movies and get insights into the industry people so love. As such, magazine subscriptions that cater to these types are also good choices. These include print and online designs. Though I will say you'll want to go beyond the more mainstream types of Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stones, etc . Instead, look into offers like 'Boxoffice Magazine', 'Hollywood Reporter', 'Premiere', 'Empire' (UK), 'MovieMaker' or 'Filmmaker Magazine'. Likewise, you could also get them a ongoing to online industry rags like Variety. com or ProductionWeekly. com. 6. Universal Remote As you probably fully understand, the movie buff in your life definitely has a love for electronics. This is especially true when it comes to their home entertainment setup. All of that supplies can get out of hand though when remote controls begin piling up. Introduce the Logitech Harmony. The cream of the head when it comes to universal remotes. This line of remotes from Logitech range from about $100 to over $300. Any flick buff would be happy to get their hands on such a remote control to accent their setup. 7. Roku Box This is a terrific accompanying gift for a Netflix subscription. The streaming player allows the movie lover to use any of those buffering services to stream movies directly to their TV instead of having to watch on their computer or laptop. This is great for any video clip buff who would much rather watch on their big screen TV rather than their little computer monitor. The Roku container allows for Netflix instant streaming on your TV. It also allows access to such services as Hulu Plus, Amazon With Demand and more. 8. Blu-Ray Player Chances are your movie buff already has one of these in their collection. However , for any that don't a Blu-ray player is a great gift for the movie buff in your life. Providing for a high-definition movie experiencing experience, the movie buff in your life will love the immersion of watching their favorite movies in pristine hi-def. 9. Popcorn Maker Everybody knows: popcorn goes with movies like jelly goes with peanut butter. And for some reason, kettle popcorn basically tastes better. So why not bring that theater goodness into the home of your favorite movie buff giving them your gift of snacks anytime they sit down to watch a movie at home. You can find many kettle popcorn makers at under $100. Any movie buff would find it cool to have their very own popcorn maker sitting in the corner of their room in your home for access whenever they want to spend the evening watching movies (and trust me, they do this very often). 10. "Gaming" Chair These provide the ultimate comfort when sitting in front of the TV for a movie. With built-in speaker solutions and ultimate comfort, there are tons of stylish gaming chairs out there. Any movie buff would love one of these cool recliner/pedestal chairs to kick back and enjoy their movie-viewing experience. Not only does it just flat-out look cool and are they comfy, but they also provide more immersion with the speakers in the headrest and subwoofers built into the chair that make you rumble along with explosions on the screen. 11. Surround Sound System Speaking of sound, if your movie buff doesn't already have one, some sort of surround sound system is always a welcome addition to their home entertainment experience. Providing an immersion of sound to go with their viewing experience, a surround sound system is an absolute must for any movie buff that is looking to make the most of your home entertainment experience. Of course, this can be a costly gift, but the movie buff in your life will definitely be grateful. 12. HDTV Considering we're mentioning essential components, a TV definitely falls in that range. Obviously your movie buff already comes with one, but they're never opposed to a new TV (or even just a secondary TV). Whether it be a smaller LCD TV to do their room or an upgrade to a top-of-the-line brand new 3D TV, TVs are always welcome. Your film buff would definitely love you for this. With the pushing of 3D TVs, these are a definite hot item too which often most movie buffs in your life would more than happily take. Again though, this is one of the more costly gifts, so be ready to pay thousands for something like that. 13. Movie Storage You probably know this already, but the movie buff in your lifetime probably has a very extensive collection of movies. A collection they love to proudly show off as well. Of course such a collection may become something of a beast that needs taming. Enter the realm of media storage. This actually comes in a few forms as well: physical and digital. First we'll touch on the traditional physical form. This simply means shelves and shelves. If the movie buff in your life doesn't already have the shelving for their collection, or is simply running using shelf space, then a new shelf, rack or tower would be a practical and welcome gift for your movie aficionado in helping to tame that ever-growing collection and bring some order to it. Of course you have the digital entry as well. This is the same concept as storing all of your music on your computer. Many companies make devices specifically for media storage space like this. There are even companies like Kaleidoscope and PrimeArray which create systems that serve as storage not to mention servers. This means all movies are saved on a digital storage device. The cherry on top though is these devices then provide a means to share all that data across a network and have access to your entire movie collection using one click of a button on your remote. Having instant access to any movie in your collection without having to get up and also change out discs, etc . These however can get extremely expensive. Some even more costly than the TVs themselves. Nevertheless techphile/cinephile in your life would love it. 14. AFI Membership Every film buff is familiar with the prestigious American Film Company. What better way to reward their passion for films than allowing your movie buff to become part of that will institute by buying them a membership to the AFI. This can range from $60-2, 500. Offering cool perks just like movie tickets, exclusive release schedules and magazine subscriptions, an AFI membership also grants members admission to help AFI events. On top of that, your movie buff would even be able to vote alongside industry professionals for various show awards and accolades dealt out by AFI each year. To top it off, they would even get a great AFI membership card to proudly show off to friends as a sign to their dedication to films. 15. Dvd Festival Pass I'm sure you've heard of them. Sundance. Cannes. Attending these more prestigious film festivals are being a life-long dream for the movie buff in your life probably. They'd probably give an arm or a leg to get to encounter going to the prestigious Sundance festival or Cannes or the Venice Film Festival. However , these events booklet well in advance and can be costly. Thus, they don't make good last-minute gift ideas. Though, I'm sure your movie buff would probably happily take a "rain check" on a gift if it means the promise of getting a pass to one of these galas later on. Likewise, many bigger cities offer their own film festivals throughout the year. If you live near one of these, your picture buff would definitely love the chance to get to attend one of those as well.

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dailyaudiobible · 5 years ago

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02/04/2020 DAB Transcript

Exodus 19:16-21:21, Matthew 23:13-39, Psalms 28:1-9, Proverbs 7:1-5

Today is the 4th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I'm Brian it is great to be here with you as we move fully into this brand-new month that we’re. What…what and what an honor it is to share history together, right, to be here, like to be on planet Earth here at the same time. It…it could've been different. We could’ve been 100 years ago, and this couldn't have existed, but we get to share this time, this patch of history together in the world and be connected around this Global Campfire as we let God's word speak to us. So, let's get to that. For today we’ll go back into the book of Exodus. And the children of Israel are purified. They’ve been purifying themselves and getting ready for an encounter with God. Exodus chapter 19 verse 16 through 21 verse 21. And we’re reading from the Voice this week.

Commentary:

Okay. Couple things to talk about today. In the book of Exodus God has come down and has met with the people and they are completely freaked out about it. And what we see today is God giving the 10 Commandments. What we’ll see over time is basically the systematic construction of a society. And we need to remember, the people that are around this mountain hearing from God right now, they don't really have an identity other than as a slave. That's all they ever were. So, God begins with what we call the 10 Commandments because they apply to everyone. But God will continue to organize His people as we go forward through time and through the Scriptures. And some of these things we can look at and go, “well, I don't know how to apply that. That doesn’t…that…that custom is not in the culture I live in. I’m not even sure that customs still in the world today.” Or we could read our 21st-century life into a culture that existed thousands of years ago and wonder why God would want them to do that or why they would even do this or that or the other. Don't get all caught up on that. What God is doing is coming to this people and establishing an identity, His chosen people, a nation of priests. He’s bestowing an identity upon them, and then telling them, “this is what a holy people looks like”. And, so, He's telling them, “Holy people don't kill other people. Like, Holy people don't commit adultery. Holy people don't steal from each other.” What God is doing is pulling these people dramatically forward in their understanding not only of who they are as God's people, but also of who He is as God. And a culture unlike any other culture in the world at this time is being established in the middle of the wilderness where they have no way in or out. Like, they’re utterly and completely at God's mercy and He's trying to show them that that is the safest place in the world. And we would do well to learn that lesson. So, God speaks of the people, the people are terrified, and they go to Moses and they’re like, “we…we…we cannot have God speak to us, that's too terrifying. We can't even pay attention we think we’re gonna die. You speak to us instead. We’ll listen to you. God can talk to you and then you tell us, and we’ll listen to you. This is where we begin to see the prophetic voice appear in the Bible and we’ll talk about that more in the coming days.

We got to the book of Matthew today and Jesus basically just lets loose. He just pretty much confronts straight up the teachers of the law and the Pharisees. These are the people who are entrusted to lead the people in the ways of God. And just hearing Jesus talk in Matthew 23, it's…it's heartbreaking because we know Jesus has come to Jerusalem and He's gonna get killed, He's gonna die going to be awful. And the people, the people, they were…their eyes were being opened but it was the religious leaders that were blocking the path. So, what is Jesus so upset about? What were they doing? What was He calling out? He had plenty to say, but if we distill it down what was he saying? He was saying, “you spiritual leaders will stand before a crowd and lock the door of the kingdom of heaven, right in front of everyone. What you say is not what you do. You'll travel all over the world to get a convert, but once you got one you enslave them as you are.” In other words, you've converted them to your system but not to God. And He’s like, “you have it…you just…you have it backward. You’re focused on the wrong thing, the exact…exact opposite. You’re putting value on what can be brought to God instead of understanding that it has a value because of God. You tithe from your luxuries, but you've ignored the essentials of the law - justice, mercy, faithfulness. You remove fine layers of film and dust from the outside of a cup or bowl, but you leave the inside full of greed and covetousness and self-indulgence. Can’t you see that if you clean the inside of the cup the outside to be clean too? You appear at first blush to be righteous and selfless and pure but inside you are polluted.” And there's more. I mean, you can go back and read it for yourself. It’s just…this is what's got Jesus so upset because this behavior masked and cloaked in religion was keeping people from entering the kingdom of heaven. And it’s so sad because after He says these things, after He lets loose, such an opportunity for repentance here, but instead they redouble their efforts to kill Jesus. But Jesus is brokenhearted. “Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you kill the prophets whom God gives you, you stone those who God sends you. I’ve longed to gather your children the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you refuse to be gathered. This will be the first time that we move into this territory this year, the story of Jesus arrest and trial and execution. And it's…it's super easy to just kind of go theological, “well, He was born to die and that was that and that was all part of the plan. And, so, I don't really…I don't really need to know a whole lot more than that”, but when we enter into the stories, when we walk with Jesus, when we listen coming out of the Gospels what He is saying to us, when we watch Him move around we see clearly something’s different and it's what we want. We want to live like that. And Jesus is revealing the kingdom saying, “you can, you can. You just have to wake up, you have to open your eyes, you have to open your ears. It's all here, you’re just not perceiving it. But that's too dangerous. That can upset the power share that's going on between these religious leaders and the Roman government. And although Jesus is drawing a crowd and is showing up on the radar, it doesn't look like He's trying to build a militia to attack the Romans. So, later on in the Bible we’ll see a depiction of the high priest at this time saying, “it’s better for one person to die then for all of us to die.” And Jesus's is putting himself in this position. Like He's willingly putting Himself in this kind of danger in order to bring light into the darkness to ultimately bring light into the darkest of dark. But it appears that the people who missed it the most and did away with Jesus were the people entrusted to bring people to God. Jesus is basically saying, “I…I’ve come for you and you’re refusing me.” Does that not just a little bit break your heart for God?” I know you’re saying, “that sounds weird. You know, He doesn’t have feelings. He's God. He’s the most-high God. He can just make more people. He can do whatever He wants, He’s God. He can be wherever He wants. For some reason though, He loves us and…yeah…whatever…whatever reason that is, He does. For whatever…for some reason He’s still putting up with us, still believing that our eyes can be opened and…and we can stop this backward life that we’re and live forward, live from within, spilling out into the world, instead of the world flooding in and contaminating everything about us. Yes, indeed God loves you. god loves us and we will be seeing just how much in the coming days.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We love You. It's hard to try to enter into these stories and walk with You. It’s easy to just read them as stories, cute little Bible stories we've heard our whole life but it's different to try to walk those stories with our hearts and open ourselves to You and see what You are facing and to see that You've never lost hope in us, that You've never given up on us. And we’ve accused You of it plenty, but it's just never happened, that's never been the truth. And, so, Jesus we just want to say how…how much we do love You…we love You Lord and we’re grateful and the words will fail very quickly because what can we say? We don't have anybody else in our lives like You. Your goodness can silence us because there is no vocabulary to describe it. And yet, You have come for us, to gather us, to know us. You want to know us? And all we have to do is open our eyes that we’re living backwards and reveal our hearts to You completely. And we were talking about that yesterday and we talk about it again. Come Holy Spirit, we open ourselves completely. We want no deceit whatsoever between us in any way. We've seen what an honest life looks like in the Scriptures and You have invited us into that life although the path is narrow. Come Holy Spirit and show us the way. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to stay plugged in and connected in any way that you can and in any way that you will.

We will be…within a couple of weeks heading for the land of the Bible, which is an annual excursion and we will be broadcasting from there. I mentioned that yesterday, so be sure to stay connected at social media and all of that. We’ll be posting pictures continually from there. So, make plans for that ahead. We’ll be talking about it as we get closer.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage and I thank you with all my heart for your partnership. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer the mail, the address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, you can hit the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

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silverfrostheart · 5 years ago

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Help if you want jdhdhf

Here's this list of tarots major arcana bullhocky. I should note, in a fight, tarot can only use 5 cards at a time. So he's not OP lol. And he CAN run out of magic. But he's still quite strong and possibly gaster level? But Hey here's the list. It's incomplete but help if you want! I certainly need it -w-;;;;

1. The Fool

The Fool is traditionally both the first and the last card of the Major Arcana; in fact, the Major Arcana cards together comprise the Fool’s journey through life. The Fool represents new beginnings, excitement, courage, and potential.

The Fool is also full of advice that wouldn’t look out of place stenciled onto a lime-washed board and sold at a Hobby Lobby, things like “Believe in yourself and follow your heart” and “Have faith in where the universe is taking you.”

Like that one aunt, “The Fool is all about new experiences [and] personal growth.” He is also a little pouty, and appears to have been captured in the middle of saying, “It’s their loss!” The Fool has very fine bone structure.

The little white dog prancing dog at his feet is supposed to represent a “protector,” though it’s not sure from what, if anything, a nine-pound dog is qualified to protect you. “All the tools and resources he needs” for this trip are packed into a bindle the size of a bento box. He’s wearing yellow slouch boots and carrying a single white rose — it’s like using Goop to outfit an Everest ascent.

The Fool represents innocence, a kind word for stupidity. “He does not seem to mind if he does not really know what lies ahead,” which sounds like a really passive aggressive thing to write in someone’s yearbook.

Magic ability-portals

Character who represents this card- Underswap sans

2. The Magician

The Magician (whose more metal name is The Magus) is the first card of the Major Arcana. The Magician also symbolizes fresh starts and new beginnings, because 100% of people who ask for a tarot reading want a new beginning.

The Magician is driven and goal-oriented; he can “apply skill and initiative to accomplish all [his] goals.” His description reads like a performance review. He’s also wearing a snake for a belt.

The Magician card is holding a symbolic staff and making a symbolic hand gesture. He is holding symbolic tablets, wearing a symbolic robe, and standing hip-deep in symbolic flowers. Above his head floats the symbol for infinity. The Magician is like a junior high essay on The Scarlet Letter.

Magic ability- create sheilds/forcefeilds

Character who represents this card-Canvas

3. The High Priestess

The High Priestess “sits at the gate before the great Mystery” and “in front of the thin veil of awareness, which is all that separates us from our inner selves.”

If you’re the kind of person who’s into tarot, you are the kind of person who wants to draw the High Priestess card. On a “What tarot card are you?” quiz, the High Priestess is the card everyone wants to get. The High Priestess is the Elizabeth Bennet of tarot cards.

Moreover, her message is “trust your inner voice,” which is a message absolutely everyone wants to hear. No one goes to a tarot reader to be told, “Your instincts are totally wrong.” A tarot reader’s primary job is to be an enabler — in your heart you already know you’re going to quit your job to be a yoga teacher, you just want someone to tell you that teaching yoga is your destiny.

“Knowledge of how to fix [your problem] will not come through logic or intellect but through your intuition,” she says, which is a real load off for people not overly gifted with logic or intellect.

Magic ability-

Character who represents this card-Tarot himself

4. The Empress

The card of feminine energy, the Empress represents fertility, beauty, and abundance. She may indicate either a physical or metaphorical pregnancy, which seems like something you should really nail down.

The Empress wears a bold patterned caftan she picked up in Yucca Valley. She’s sitting on a red velvet chair that looks like she found it on the sidewalk and tried to reupholster it herself. The Empress definitely uses the DivaCup.

Magic ability-Healing

Character who represents this card-Alterswap Toriel

5. The Emperor

The Emperor is the patriarch, the masculine seat of authority and power. The Emperor is paired with the Empress, even though he’s clearly at least thirty years older than she is. His expression is both scornful and wary, and he seems to suffer from mild rosacea.

The Emperor is seated on a throne “decorated with four rams’ heads, representing intellectual heights, determination, action, initiative, and leadership.” It is not at all obvious why rams’ heads should represent these things, and the last three sound like they were borrowed from Six Sigma.

Magic ability- Fire

Character who represents this card-Ferrell ( @jumpybox )

6. The Hierophant

The staid male counterpart to the much more fabulous Priestess card, the Hierophant represents institutional authority and established traditions. Like the Priestess, he is a religious figure, but in a much more orthodox setting.

No one is ever excited about getting the Hierophant, the middle school principal of tarot cards. If you were the kind of person who got excited about orthodox religious authority, you likely wouldn’t be getting your tarot read in the first place.

Moreover, the Hierophant offers good, boring advice, like “… follow due process and to stay within the conventional bounds of what is typically an orthodox approach. Instead of being innovative, you will need to adapt to the existing set of beliefs and systems that are already in place. You will need to do what is expected of you.”

But the Hierophant is not all bad. The card can also represent a wise mentor, someone like a priest, boss, or teacher. It also may represent a gateway to higher consciousness, as does without exception every other tarot card.

Magic ability-

Character who represents this card-Aion ( @cutiegrumpycerym )

7. The Lovers

The Lovers card represents love, of course, and of the most rarified kind. The lovers share the deep emotional, physical, and spiritual connection you could expect from the kind of couple who calls themselves “lovers.” The two lovers stand among symbols of fertility and intimacy. The woman is gazing at the giant flaming angel in the sky, and the man is gazing at the woman’s pelvis.

The Lovers card also represents a crossroads, and the need to make a decision. “Unlike the Fool’s choice which has no wrong answer, the choice of the Lovers is very much right or wrong.” What’s more, “these decisions or choices are incredibly important and significant so it is essential that you choose the right path.” No pressure.

Magic ability-long distance communication with someone you care for

Character(s) who represents this card- Cross and Xchara

8. The Chariot

The Chariot represents will power, control, self-assertion, and victory. Also, in a refreshingly literal twist, the chariot can represent driving. The card is a real grab-bag of mystical symbolism, including stars, moons, alchemical symbols, and two extremely irritated sphinxes, the leftmost of which is actually rolling its eyes in disgust.

Everything the Chariot says, you can imagine being shouted through a megaphone: “this struggle will ultimately make you stronger!” “get in the race and win it!” “you have to dominate and beat the competition!” “assert yourself and be bold!” “pick up those knees!”

Magic ability-augmented speed

Character who represents this card-Mans (Spidertale Sans - @jumpybox )

9. The Hermit

The Hermit looks like a thinner, tanner Gandalf. He wears the grey cloak of invisibility. Having reached the snowy summit of his harrowing spiritual quest, he now looks sad and a little sleepy.

The Hermit represents being single and loving it. “Be content with being alone or associate only with those on your level,” the Hermit says emphatically over brunch. “Do not waste time and energy on those not ready or not worthy.” (cough, *Brian*) The Hermit is constantly posting about introverts on social media.

Magic ability-Invisibility

Character who represents this card-Chronicle ( @shigxx -I HOPE THIS IS OK AAA)

10. Strength

“The Strength Tarot card represents strength,” a popular tarot site helpfully explains, but unlike the amped-up jock jam sloganeering of the Chariot, Strength here means inner strength of character.

Strength is personified by a lovely woman wearing a long white dress wreathed in flowers giving a lion a comprehensive dental exam in what is surely a very specific fetish. “This lion is happy to submit and surrender to the woman,” who has tamed him with her strength of will and really on-point eyebrows.

Magic ability-augmented strength

Character who represents this card-Altertale sans

11. The Wheel of Fortune

The Wheel of Fortune represents life’s inherently cyclical nature. Sometimes things will go well, other times badly, but in the end, balance will be restored. The Wheel also represents karma, as well as fate and the external forces that control our destinies.

The Wheel of Fortune has absolutely everything you want in a tarot card, including an angel, a lion, a bull, a snake, a Sphinx, esoteric letters and symbols from several major world religions, and an eagle that looks like the artist started out trying to draw one thing and then changed their mind halfway through.

Magic ability-

Character who represents this card-

12. Justice

The Justice card represents justice, as one might expect, and more sternly, the idea that one gets what they deserve. Justice is all about taking responsibility for one’s self, and she gets a little blame-y: “your decisions and actions have long-term consequences and your present and future circumstances are most likely a result of these decisions and actions.”

Lady Justice sits on a throne, holding in one hand a double-edged sword; and in the other, a set of scales. She looks stern and unbending. “A little white shoe pops out from beneath her cloak, reminding us of the spiritual consequences of our actions,” in a note as charming as it is inexplicable.

Magic ability-

Character who represents this card-Storyshift Chara

13. The Hanged Man

Like the Death card, the Hanged Man sounds much worse than it is. The card represents surrender: the man is described as a “willing martyr,” someone who sacrifices himself to a greater cause. The Hanged Man also represents a period of watchful waiting, and he is doing that waiting upside-down.

The Hanged Man is suspended from the World Tree, and “given the serene expression on his face, it is believed he is hanging on the tree of his own will.” (Really?) He may represent “letting go,” a thing you absolutely should not to when hanging upside-down from a tree.

Magic ability-

Character who represents this card- Error/Eri/Geno

14. Death

Books that teach tarot reading advise readers to preface the revealing of the Death card with some variant of, “Now don’t freak out…” In fact, the Death card usually symbolizes a time of change, where one door closes and another opens. This can be a very positive thing, a time of renewal and new beginnings. Then again, sometimes the card symbolizes death.

Death here is a skeleton wearing a suit of armor that indicates death’s invincibility. He is riding a horse with a very small head and red eyes. A collection of disproportionately small people bow before Death’s inevitable slaughter as he regards them with a goofy grin.

Magic ability-

Character who represents this card-Reaper (ofc)

15. Temperance

The Temperance card signifies calm, balance, tranquility, and avoiding extremes. Temperance is cautious, keeping one foot on dry land.

In her hands she holds two cups of water, one hot, and one cold, creating that mystical symbol of cosmic balance, tepid water. Supposedly, the water she is pouring is actually flowing backwards, from the lower cup to the upper one, though it’s impossible to verify that.

Magic ability-

Character that represents this card- Core frisk

16. The Devil

Unlike the Death card, which seems bad but is good, the Devil card seems bad and is bad. The Devil represents materialism, vice, and addiction. He controls our lowest, most animal desires. At his feet, a man and a woman are chained, in servitude to their baser nature. However, the chains are loose and they could slip their heads from them if they tried, indicating that their bondage is voluntary.

The Devil is more disappointed than terrifying, and his Satanic hand gesture is a dispirited wave. The chained lovers at his feet look dopey and complacent, gesturing towards the inky cave of the insatiable unconscious like it’s a showcase on The Price Is Right.

Magic ability-

Character who represents this card- Fresh

17. The Tower

Following on Death and The Devil, the Tower is a very bad card. It symbolizes sudden catastrophe. After this time of chaos, new and better things may emerge, but that’s likely small consolation during your current era of unremitting disaster.

The Tower is a sturdy-looking building that probably seemed safe, but now it has been struck by lightning and it’s on fire, and the same lovers who were so dreamily enraptured on the Lovers card and so calmly drugged out when chained to the Devil are now plunging headlong to their ruin amid 22 symbolic flames. The man’s mouth is open with surprise, while the woman’s is pursed in anger, as if to say, “I warned you about the lightning.”

Magic ability- earth manipulation

Character who represents this card-

18. The Star

After the destruction of the Tower, the Star is all love and light. The card represents joy, kindness, hope, and faith — basically anything you’d want to embroider on a tea towel.

On the Star card, a naked woman is serenely pouring water from a clear, still pool onto the grass, where it runs off in five streams said to represent the senses. The woman is pretty but in an approachable way. Behind her is a field of stars and a tree in which roosts the sacred (if extremely crudely drawn) “ibis of thought.”

Magic ability-

Character who represents this card-Nebula

19. The Moon

One might assume the Moon would be a good card, suggesting femininity, fertility, and other mystically significant things, but in fact, the Moon is a mixed bag at best. The card represents intuition, but also subconscious fears and dark impulses. The Moon is associated with the eerie, mysterious elements of our unconscious minds, including recovered memories and nightmares.

The moon itself is upstaged by all the weird animals that are roaming around beneath it. A lobster crawls out of the depths of a dark pool, symbolizing the disturbing images that bubble up from our unconscious minds, and joins two dogs baying at the moon (some interpret these canines to be one dog and one wolf). Beyond the animals is a narrow path between two desolate towers. The moon wears the expression of someone who has just said their final word of an argument in bed and is now pretending to be asleep.

Magic ability-

Character who represents this card-Nightmare

20. The Sun

The Sun is everything the Moon is not: open, positive, upbeat. Whereas the Star is serene and blissful, the Sun is way too chipper. The Sun played “Get Lucky” at his wedding. The Sun cheers for the kiss cam. The Sun likes to shout “I can’t hear you!” from the stage. The Sun means well, but all the other cards are embarrassed for him.

On the tarot card, the Sun itself looks a little embarrassed, pointedly averting his eyes from the spectacle below him: a naked, wreathed baby riding a white horse in front of a field of sunflowers, like the result of a dangerously escalating feud between Mary Engelbreit and Anne Geddes.

Magic ability-

Character who represents this card-Dream

21. The Judgement

The Judgement card means judgement, not surprisingly, but also an inner voice, sudden realization, or higher calling. Judgment is about resolution, the cathartic climax to all of your struggles. The Judgment card also looks absolutely crazy.

The card shows a group of pallid, naked people rising up from their graves in a colorless, blasted landscape to the call of a trumpeting angel. The angel appears to be faking playing a trumpet, and not even faking it well. He holds the instrument stiffly while pointedly avoiding eye contact with the zombie cult members whose arms are upraised in worship of him.

Magic ability-

Character who represents this card-Outerfell asgore

22. The World

The World is the last card of the Major Arcana, and represents the summation of the journey begun by the Fool. After all the adventures of the past twenty-one cards, the World represents accomplishment, closure, and completion.

Unfortunately, the last card of the soul’s journey is also a bit of a mess. When you hear the phrase “the world,” many images may come to mind, but one them is probably not a dancing lady wrapped in a purple shawl, holding a baton in each hand, and surrounded by a lion, a bull, an eagle, and a human figure described as a “cherub” though he looks at least 28. The lady looks a little off-balance and more than a little drunk, which is perhaps not a bad symbol for closure after all.

Magic ability-

Character who represents this card-

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janiedean · 5 years ago

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Do you think hollywood will ever get out of its “woke” phase or will it only get worse from here?

... I sat on this for a while and I honestly don’t know how to take it, because woke means absolutely nothing put on like that and it’s not like if movies address social justice issues or start caring about accurate representation or whatnot or what we mean for woke it’s automatically a bad thing, but like the problem with any hollywood production is that hollywood makes movies thinking about money first and artistic value later unless we count a handful of directors/people who can go a good movie that will make money (spielberg/zemeckis etc) or who are at a point in their career where their CV is so out of this world good that they can afford to do whatever they want and/or are huge names who made history who have their own money/circle/clout or their own production company (scorsese, clint eastwood etc). also��the second contingent problem is that most people only watch mainstream movies that were released recently which means that everything that comes out these days is supposedly groundbreaking when in truth it’s not 99% of the time.

ps: this rant has very vague spoilers for the 2019 joker so like... thread carefully but it’s really really vague xD

now, since I apparently decided to go at this pseudo-seriously even if I think the question means all and everything, I’ll try to, but basically:

if by woke we mean performative representation/performative social justice themes/*insert-token-character-here*, it’s a 100% question of what the studios think the audience wants vs what makes money vs milking the thing until it’s dry. I mean, I’m talking in general about a genre no one on tumblr cares about, but as someone who loves bad/trashy testosterone-driven action movies every single time I see one with the Badass Female Character Inserted By Force Because The Studio Said They Needed At Least One Quota Because Otherwise People Say It’s Not Feminist I roll my eyes a lot because if I’m watching a genre which is the male equivalent of the female empowerment romcom (ie: if romcoms are the-empowerment-fantasy-for-girls the trashy action movie is the same for guys) I don’t need the Fake Strong Female Character in it because I’m not watching it for the feminism, but until people will worry about the bechdel test as the ultimate proof a movie is good then we’ll get the token character that makes no sense, but since these days the hype is there, you’ll get it because the studio wants the money;

on the other side, if we mean people want actual representation and should push the studios to have it/not whitewash characters etc it’s an entirely legitimate complaint and I don’t think hollywood should *get out of the woke phase* or whatever, but my issue is that most of the time it ends up turning performative as well. as in: you know the dark tower movie? (yeah, yeah, I hate it, I earned the right to trash talk it) when they racebent the lead everyone was screaming at how woke and progressive it was... except that they didn’t wanna hear/didn’t want to discuss the fact that the only reason they did that (imvho) was that they adapted seven books in one movie, cut the female disabled character who’s also mentally ill who’s actually black in the original canon and since they didn’t want to get called out on having done that, they racebent the lead so they looked progressive, but do we really think that doing that rather than adapting the actual black character they had which would have required at least some effort is more progressive? idk but I think it’s not. anyway: i’m all for people pushing for this, but they need to be coherent. in the sense that for all I don’t agree with clint eastwood’s political views, if you watch gran torino where the protagonist becomes friends with his vietnamese hmong neighbor, all the hmong characters were actually cast from hmong actors and if you look at interviews online with hmong people about that movie the opinion is that even if the script could have been better for some of them, they were delighted that he cast from their community and didn’t cast from another asian ethnicity that for any producer would have meant the exact same thing because figures if producers gaf about accurate casting when it comes to that. but like, hollywood won’t gaf about that until people are vocal about needing good and specific rep and not just generic ‘as long as it’s X it’s fine’;

that also goes for wanting more movies with minorities having a role - hollywood will go for giving minorities roles as long as it gives them good money/clout, but it won’t care for good movies about minorities or minority actors having good roles until people are vocal about it and/or it means money loss if they do it wrong;

(caveat: this obviously excludes actors from minorities whose work transcended that - meaning, for example will smith gets cast 85% of the time based on part and not on his skin color because he’s uber famous and he made his name in a specific genre and so on, but like we’re talking about the people who made the Upper Level of Superstar Hollywood)

anyway tldr: hollywood american movies were always 95% made for the money and reflect what they think the audience wants to pay for, which means that if hollywood producers think that people want fake woke movies then they’ll give them the fake woke movies.

this also goes hand in hand with the other problem I mentioned ie that people don’t watch movies that aren’t recent so hollywood can get away with pretending to be original when it’s actually not. now since we don’t wanna diss anything, i’ll mention a movie I actually did like *drumroll*... joker.

or, to specify what I mean:

tldr, I thought that joker was a very well-executed and planned and shot movie which had a good idea and went down well on it and was basically the batman movie nolan dreamed he was doing with the black knight and whose point was telling you that a sick system that abandons the weakest people in it (poor, mentally ill etc) and mocks them as if it’s their own fault that they aren’t better than that eventually breeds chaos and hurt and crime and it’s the fault of the system/the people in charge who don’t see it. now: that’s the least original idea in existence and I’ll go on it in depth later. except that..

when I go look at recs especially from american media, there’s a polarization between ‘OMG THIS INCITES VIOLENCE IT’S HORRIBLE IT’S DANGEROUS’ and ‘OMG THIS IS A NEW MASTERPIECE I’VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT BEFORE GROUNDBREAKING AMAZING NO ONE EVER DID IT BEFORE’, which to me is imvho showing very clearly where we have the issue;

as in, issue one: OMG IT INCITES VIOLENCE BLAH BLAH it’s the oldest excuse in existence that has been disproved over and over and it’s just another proof of how puritan/calvinist is the viewership because the point is not inciting violence, it’s showing that as stated not giving a fuck about people who need help means growing discontent that then explodes... which again, you don’t need to read freud’s theory about the masses to know that if the majority of the population lives in shitty conditions you get revolutions;

issue two: the only original/innovative think joker has going for itself is that it’s a movie that has a way wider audience than usual *and* an actual comic book/genre film to discuss the aforementioned issue going in depth into it and not sugarcoating it. but other than that... the deconstruction of the hero/villain in a corrupt world was already in watchmen if you want a genre movie and there have been endless others pointing that out except not that mainstream (because again everyone knows what batman is and who’s the joker, watchmen is a lot more niche), the spectacularization of THAT THING on television was already in network that came out in the year of the lord 1976 and the entire movie was basically an homage to taxi driver when it came to how it was filmed/structured and I guessed 95% of what was gonna happen in the first fifteen minutes. it’s nothing groundbreaking whatsoever, but apparently everyone thinks it is because they haven’t seen either of the above movies or any other that predated this one;

now, joker is a movie I actually liked so I don’t see the lack of originality as a bad thing because that wasn’t the point, but like just to say one, hearing people say that mad max fury road was revolutionary feminist action movie and nothing else ever happened before it when there have been four alien movies before, the valid terminator movies (one and two obviously), kill bill and so on, as in stuff that existed in the eighties was honestly meh because I did like MMFR but again it was hardly groundbreaking (maybe it is for this decade and for other reasons but not for the plot). now, both of these are good movies, but like....... 95% of nolan’s movies are hailed as top originality masterpieces and imvho he’s good but not that good and if people think dunkirk is the best war movie ever it’s because they haven’t ever seen an actual effective war movie (like I can’t even believe some people said it was like two hours of saving private ryan’s first twenty minutes, five minutes of SPR were endlessly better than all of dunkirk and SPR is hardly the best war movie out there), same for about anything he does. now, that’s way beyond the wokeness discourse, but the point is that if people don’t watch other movies and then think that hollywood’s performative woke stuff is peak progressive movie when it really really really is not then hollywood isn’t going to bother producing better stuff that’s both progressive and quality (which can happen I mean have we all seen philadelphia, even if that is like... not exactly mainstream hollywood and it was a risky movie to make but anyway not the problem). tldr: people need to stop acting like the last ten years of movies have been the only era in cinema where you got progressive movies because it’s not true and for one I can 100% assure you that for all its faults tied to the era, the defiant ones is a lot more seriously woke and effective when it comes to discussing racism in the US than 85% of the contemporary stuff I see.

so, idk what you meant with the original question, but imvho: hollywood will produce fake-performative woke movies until the audience contents itself with fake-wokeness instead of actual good material or until people decide to finally stop watching only blockbusters and also give money to indie filmmakers or like nonamerican filmmakers and anyway hollywood goes where the money goes.

which mean that if the activism irl doesn’t stop being performative and becomes serious and therefore automatically turns into people asking for serious rep and not the token character/plot, you’ll keep on getting fake woke movies. (also the day people stop saying GO WATCH THAT MOVIE BECAUSE IT’S WOKE without having even seen it and having read the summary on tumblr will be amazing, but that’s not the day.)

that said, since the idea behind a lot of the fake wokeness is actually right (ie: we need more women/minorities of every kind in movies or television/we need more rep that aren’t blonde blue eyed tall white guys/we need to cast ethnical minorities properly etc) we can hope that people actually grasp the message and we get more and more movies that cast people correctly or who have good rep for the good reasons and I’m all for it because that is a good thing. fake wokeness is not.

but anyway: hollywood stops being each single trend it is when that trend stops selling. that’s your answer. and until we all think that the oscars are top cinematography choices in existence, it’s not gonna happen.

to end it all: no one is obliged to watch hollywood movies. actually, it’s highly advised to spend your money on either foreign movies or indie movies or independent movies or riskier projects rather than hollywood blockbusters if you don’t want fake progressive stuff also because those movies usually gaf about the issues they touch and if they get money maybe it means more of them get made.

and this was my rant, idk if that’s what you wanted to hear but I guess that’s what I had to say on the topic.

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #janie rants #movies for ts #joker for ts #idek #long post for ts #Anonymous #ask post

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qqueenofhades · 5 years ago

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The whole don't do what the audience expects blah blah blah is the main reason why the marvel movies done by the Russo brothers felt a little lackluster. It's also the reason why I became disappointed by the mcu. I find this way of storytelling problematic and shallow. It doesn't live up to the hype they build and doesn't withstand the test of time. A good story will drag you to it over and over again.

Ahahaha, well, having had a Long Ass Thing To Say about GOT, I guess I can say More Things about the MCU.

I had…. mixed reactions to Endgame. I also noted immediately that I had big problems with how the female characters were written, existing solely as bit-part supports to the male heroes, and how dirty they did Natasha in particular. Also, while I sympathize with not wanting the story to leak ahead of time, the spoiler paranoia for this movie was pretty beyond insane. If RDJ was the only cast member who got the full script, and the actors themselves didn’t know what was going on or who they were acting across from (aside from being told they were at a wedding with Tony’s funeral at the end, which… yeah), then just maybe the idea of having to outsmart the audience/keep them in the dark is a little out of control. I recognise that the MCU is at least as big a cultural property as GOT, but it’s still… a comic-book movie. A comic book movie that ended with a lot of aliens fighting superheroes with suits and flying horses and magic death jewels and whatever else. It’s not absolutely sacred inviolable stuff, here.

That said, while parts of Tony’s death did work for me and I didn’t think it was totally impossible, that was mostly thanks to RDJ’s acting rather than the overall writing for the movie. Why… why couldn’t he have survived? Why couldn’t he get to grow old with Pepper and officially adopt Peter and have him and Morgan be cute siblings and to actually get to rest after everything he had done? They already laid the tragedy on thick with the five years of post-apocalypse and getting to see everyone living with that and so forth. They didn’t also need to make Tony die in order to make it stick. I can see the bare-bones storytelling logic in defeating Thanos (who was a punk-ass villain to start with, but genunely terrifying in some ways, just for reflecting the sociopathic powerful white man identitype) requiring a cost/permanent death, but also… see above. Flying horses and super-suits and huge alien CGI battles. This is not remotely a “realistic” story. Nobody needs to go into a comic-book movie expecting some grimdark social commentary/homage to Realism. If anything, it has the liberty to be even more fantastic and to subvert the “People Need To Die/Suffer Horribly For Fiction To Be Realistic And Allow Sophisticated Cynical Modern People To Suspend Their Disbelief” axe that keeps getting ground.

Frankly, it seems as if all media for the past several years (thanks in no small part to the stratospheric popularity of GOT) has been competing to outdo each other in Grimdark Realism, while audiences beg, increasingly harried and Tired, to just let us have a happy ending once in a while. The thought has clearly been that happy endings are for old-fashioned sickly-sweet Disney movies and intelligent people these days want to Hurt over their fiction, and/or be battered repeatedly in the face with it. As anyone who has ever read my fics and/or yelled at me about them can attest, I am a big fan of conflict, drama, angst, and genuinely bad things happening in a story, and am often drawn to characters who are dark and flawed and have a lot of issues to work through and who mess up and make real mistakes, because all that is the messy, complex heart of a story and generates dynamic issues and compelling arcs. But the point is never to just have it happen and to leave it there and for it never to be dealt with. The point of those bad things and those messes is for it to be resolved in a way that, if not completely happy, at least makes sense and is emotionally resonant.

Basically, we are more aware than ever these days that the world is a nightmare and that horrible things happen to good people all the time. Part of the appeal of fiction is the notion that things can happen for a reason and be controlled and guided to an ultimate outcome and that a creator you trust won’t just put your favourite characters through the wringer and leave them there to make some pseudo-intellectual point about The Nihilism Of The World. That way we can experience stories and suffering and genuine high stakes and conflict and chaos, but have some undergirding rationale and to experience it as entertainment and escapism, rather than constantly be exhausted by media determined to be cleverer and Grittier than its audience. Human beings love stories and always have. But the happy ending going out of style in the last 5-10 years is… not a great development. Either it’s forced as a saccharine heteronormative nightmare that doesn’t serve the characters at all (see the Harry Potter epilogue, the Timeless Abomination) or it’s just thrown away entirely because we have to understand, as if we don’t know, that Bad Things Happen.

As a Steggy shipper, I admittedly had many feelings over Steve going back and getting to have a life with Peggy. But I could also see the point of the metas that argued the contrary and who wanted Steve to move on and face the world he had now (though I do 100% approve of Sam becoming Captain America and Steve getting to rest and passing the torch). It also did feel a little too much like See Look, No Homo with Steve/Bucky, even while they were patting themselves on the back for 5 seconds of a nameless extra talking about going on a date with a man. That is not and will never count as queer representation. So when we’re either getting exhaustingly boring and Straight ™ happy endings or none at all, that is also representative of a media that hasn’t really caught up to what audiences really want these days. Hence why, as many people have pointed out, fanfiction is so popular as entertainment right now. Fic writers love the characters and rarely write stories just to have them suffer pointlessly or not to develop the source material in any way. When you’re reading fic, you can have some confidence that the ship is going to get together and the bad things happen for a reason and the ending will not make you regret having started it or pants you over being involved at all. As long as media is trying to be Sophisticated ™ and smarter-than-thou and to pack in Plot Twists, it’s really never going to be satisfying, because honestly, there are very few creators that are both smart and empathetic enough to pull it off.

Anyway. Once again, I ramble. But yes.

#mcu #endgame spoilers #anonymous #ask

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runicbeast · 6 years ago

Text

Self-shippers, wanna see something cool?!

I've been scrolling through / following the #self shipping tag for a while. Noticed I have like, a F/o set up most people probably don't have that I'd love to share / teach anyone else to make! Just shoot me a message, don't be afraid, I literally have nothing better to do and love when people take interest in whatever I'm up to! I'm not worried about damaging any Street CredTM on my main here, I haven't been relevant in forever, if at all.

(This is my first time using a “Keep reading” cut off, since this post is sort of long. I think that sends folks to my blog, sorry if my font is hard to read in, idk how to change it. There’s always copy-pasting into a word processor)

The place where this amazing thing lies? Google Sheets. I guarantee you, it's useful for WAY more than data entry. I've been building up this "F/o set up", let's call it King Kong, an arbitrary name I'd given it that just sorta stuck, since 10/14/17. It all started with the Grade Book template.

Wow, it's been a while since I looked at the base template, so much has been changed since then. Not gonna show the real thing / parallel to this page, because sensitive info, but I will talk 'bout it's features. No one's ever asked and I never plan on sharing the sheet itself, so I'm just gonna rant on all the capabilities (and if anyone's interested, I can share some formulas to help build your own)

Note: This is all 1 Google Sheet, made the whole thing myself except for the /very/ base, which I think was the School Grades template? It's been a year since I started it, it didn't start this awesome.

There's a page full of graphs, info grabbed from my F/os to find what I'm attracted to. I hope to build The Ultimate OC, or one geared towards myself one day with this info.

You get one (1) graph. Looks like I have a preference.

The most used page is the Mobile viewport, or "Mobile RE", (Mobile Random Events) shaped to fit my phone. In the center is a randomized prompt, with pieces taken from another page. A different F/o is generated for each prompt, sometimes multiple (road trips are fun). Some prompts have a "switch" that is effected by character traits, such as characters listed as "Introvert" or "Extrovert" , or “Punchy-fist” or “Pacifist” may see a slightly different prompt

Example prompts -

"Spongebob Squarepants seems to have caught a bad case of the hiccups. Seems frustrating ~ You're just glad it ain't you."

(Has an Honest / Dishonest switch) "While you and Spongebob Squarepants are walking around town, you find a wallet. You could care less what is done with it, but Spongebob Squarepants insists the wallet be returned to it's owner. It's even got the ID in there and everything, so you oblige. One good deed a day." (While the Dishonest may just pocket it)

(Note: Spongebob ain't in there, just first rando I could think of XD)

I usually just peek at these for like a sec / enjoy 'em / imagine 'em in the moment, but you can write as many prompts as you want, even using them as actual prompts for drawing or fanfiction writing! I’d love to share the premise of some of the prompts I’ve collected if anyone is interested there.

There's also a refresh button, a break switch (seen here "Turned off for editing"), 25+ color themes (got "Chocolate" set in the pic), Night reading mode (love reading white words on black text, it’s on 99% of the time), Game modes such as "Best of" which just shows my favorite prompts, pronoun / name dropdown lists. want your F/o to call you your nickname? One of your kin names? Genderfluid and don’t want to be locked down?.

Sound too good to be true? Hell naw mate, shit's real. Just needed to put a little work into it and boom there it is!

Looking outside the viewport, there's a currency system (Pearls), along with that, a gambling prompt exists (Though I have to calculate winnings / make changes manually), Merchant's Prompt (they can buy stat boosting / effect items w/ pearls), Inventories, Statuses (Cursed Tiki effects a character's stats), Holiday indicators for seasonal prompts, you bet your ass I have a column for each character's MBTI / Enneagram, friendships between characters, even across media sources if it works.

Testing laboratory to check if new characters I've found would fit here (linked because it wouldn’t upload to the post for some reason?)

Team Puzzle the F/os are working on, it's 82% done ~ Each piece is picked up when a certain prompt comes up.

I may not have a self-insert made special for self-shipping or a detailed story of how I met any of 'em / life together like most you have, which is super cool. But I've got this.

I realize some folks still may be too shy to contact me, so here's some useful formulas to start with -

=IF(A1="word", "Yes it is word" , "Nope it's not word") ^ You can nest this formula like there's no tomorrow. Can be used with below for random chance. Ex. Under 50 is tails, over is heads

=if(iserror(SEARCH("thing to find",A1)), "Not contain", "Contains" ) ^ Similar to above, checks if a cell CONTAINS a cell instead of is EXACTLY that word

=RANDBETWEEN(1,100) ^ Classic out of 100 randomizer, but numbers can be adjusted

=CHOOSE(RANDBETWEEN(1,2), "Apple", "Banana") ^ Another random choice. Can def have more than 2

=INDIRECT("column letter" & cell with row number) ^ This thing is very smart, let’s you outsource the location of a cell

Say these are all in column A - Red (A1), Blue (A2), Yellow (A3)

=INDIRECT("A" & B1)

Then in B1 or something you have either the number 1, 2, or 3. It will use that number to know where to grab the info from :)

I use this in my main Mobile RE viewport, the row number is randomized outside of it, also allows info / notes on specific prompts to come up in a separate cell since they use the same row but a different column

=INDEX(HP!D1:D88 , L21 , 1 )

^ Incredibly similar to the above “indirect” formula. I grabbed this straight from the sheet. L21 is like B1 in the other formula, and the HP!D1:D88 is like “A” in the other, but this one grabs info ACROSS SHEETS, HP is in a different tab than this formula is in! Very useful

=index(E129:M129, randbetween(1, counta(E129:M129) ) ) ^ Big ol' text randomizer. This one is for a single prompt tho

And that's like 99% of my formulas, I probably have minor ones floating around tho. Reblog if you've been inspired / want to contact me to make your own / want to spread this around!

#self shipping #self ship #oc x canon #oc shipping #self insert #i hope this is useful to someone or other #reader x canon

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patrickwcutler · 3 years ago

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1. Too often we all fall into the most ridiculous social norms, that really have nothing to do with our lives or happiness or where we are heading, and many people will push these completely non-sensical ideas and rules on you just because that’s what they consider “normal” and believe you should do the same to “fit in” and not cause any trouble. The main reason people do this is because deep down inside they can’t make any logical sense of their own lives.

2. Fear of rejection or lack of social acceptance makes you ask for permission for the most ridiculous things in this world, when it’s almost never necessary.

3. Apologizing does two things: Creates an “easy” way out of a tough situation (which in reality it really doesn’t) and is very effective for social conditioning. How ridiculous is apologizing? I’m willing to bet at least, at BARE MINIMUM, 50% of apologies are completely fake. A simple example, when I was in school as a kid, I was “forced” to apologize to a teacher in a situation where I absolutely did nothing wrong. I refused to do it for weeks, until I was harassed by soooo many *adults that I had to do it and I finally did. It was the fakest apology I ever gave and the WORST feeling I’ve ever had in my life. I regret it to this day. I mean what were they gonna do to me as kid? Kick me out of school for not apologizing for something I didn’t do wrong?

This had nothing to do with anything, other than social conditioning, a teacher that has such a fragile ego and low self-esteem, that they need students to bow down to them and apologize to put that student in their *place. Imagine being that LOW of a person, that as a teacher you need a student, a kid to apologize to you, so that you can move on with your life?

That’s just one example, but apologizing never really accomplishes anything and it’s used more for social conditioning and psychological control than anything else.

4. You have 100% control of your life, BUT always be cautious of who you hang around with on a regular basis, as their mindset will always effect yours. Your 4 best friends is your future.

5. Nothing meaningful was ever achieved without doing something crazy, dangerous, or completely wreck-less. Everyone dies. You will die some day. So why stay with ONLY the things you “know” and are “comfortable” with. Get outside your comfort zone as often as possible, and you’ll discover a world you never knew existed.

6. No Explanation.

7. Most people use their issues or problems or whatever went wrong in their lives as “crutches” and excuses to feel sorry for themselves and play the “victim” card. And they replay this cycle over and over and over again, then wonder why their lives haven’t gotten any better. When in reality you could 100% do the reverse and using everything that went wrong as you primary motivation to achieve as much as you desire in this world. It’s all about perception and perspective, which perspective would you rather have?

8. IF you think you need to be with a certain person to be happy. If you think you need to live in a certain place to be happy. If you think you need a certain material thing to be happy. IF you think your happiness is ENTIRELY based on whether you’re in a relationship or not. I have some bad news for you: You’re never going to be happy.

This is one of my biggest criticisms of human behavior today, which has been magnified by social media. So many people in this world feel that you are ENTIRELY defined as a person by your relationship status. Facebook’s algorithm has made everything worse as it ONLY focuses on promoting 110% positive stories because like any corporation it’s focused entirely on money, and you’re not gonna make the most amount of money possible if you promote truthful posts.

So the 24/7 around the clock message that people get by going on Facebook, is that ULTIMATE Happiness is ONLY achieved if: You’re in a relationship, married, have kids…XYZ…Those are the MOST TRULY happy people on planet Earth. When in reality nothing could be further from the truth.

So what you’re saying, and telling me is: Your HAPPINESS is ENTIRELY based on someone else? Read that again: Your happiness is entirely based on someone else?

Truth is being in a relationship can make you happy for a certain period of time. But if you are basing your ENTIRE life on a relationship, the hour glass will run out eventually, and you’ll be left wondering: What went wrong? True happiness is found in a goal, a purpose, or a mission in life that you are constantly pursuing. Your relationship status is simply a part of it.

9. Many people stay in terrible relationships or situations FAR longer than they should for one reason: FEAR. Fear of leaving what they *know. Fear of the *unknown. Fear of being *alone. When in reality, all they are doing is letting a slow acting cancer destroy them over time instead of dealing with short-term pain and uncertainty. Be comfortable with uncertainty, cause if not, you’ll find yourself more often retreating and quitting to *comfortable, toxic situations that have zero benefit to you long-term.

10. Don’t worry about what other people are doing, instead think about how YOU can completely dominate the situation you’re in and control the outcomes. You have ultimate control over your own world.

11. Always be cautious of who you hang around. If you ever wake up one day and say “Man I honestly mentally just feel like complete garbage, where a couple months ago I felt great, what happened?” The first thing I’d recommend is analyze who you’ve been hanging out with lately, and you’ll most likely find your answer. Most people in this world are not inherently bad, but naturally they will push their beliefs on you, so you need to be able to step back at times and say: “Is this hurting or helping me?” Secondly ask yourself: “Am I lowering my standards I have set for myself to fit in with a certain crowd or have more friends or be more socially acceptable?” If the answer is YES, then you should re-think your situation as lowering your standards for anyone is just not worth it long-term for your growth and overall mental health.

#law of attraction quotes #law of intention #11 rules to life #11 rules for life #12 rules for life #inspirational #inspiring quote of the day #motivational quotes #motivational quote of the day #law of atraction #law of success #millionaire mindset #mindset monday #monday motivation

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zappr-upsell · 4 years ago

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MarketPal Review – Get Everything You Need To Sell & Market Your Products & Services

The economic activities become to a near-standstill because of the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic. And for those who are still a newbie like you, running a small business during tough time might be a bit of a roller-coaster.

But the fact is that although the country goes into lockdown, customers are still wanting and needing to buy things, creating opportunities for you to boost your online business.

So, this is definitely your time to start recovering and rebuilding your business website and online services agency to serve the needs of your targeted customers.

However, website building is always a hassle task and I’m sure that none of you want to split your small budget to those expensive courses or software out there.

Then, this cost-effective product – MarketPal will completely your best choice as it will help you to easily create lightning-fast pages, pop-ups, splash pages, sticky bars and send unlimited emails. It is absolutely an all-in-one product for you!

From now, you are able to sell courses, books, digital products or services, build a huge list, and promote affiliate offers with very little effort.

Follow my MarketPal review to discover more!

MARKETPAL REVIEW – THE OVERVIEW

Creator Dr. Amit Pareek & Er. Ashu Kumar

Product MarketPal

Launch Date 2020-Sep-10

Launch Time 10:00 EST

Official website 👉VISIT OFFICIAL SITE

Front-End Price $47.95 – $67.95

Bonuses Yes, Huge Bonuses

Skill All Levels

Guarantee 30 Days Money Back Guarantee

Niche Tools & Software

Support Еffесtіvе Rеѕроnѕе

Recommend Highly recommend!

WHAT IS CALLED MARKETPAL?

MarketPal is world’s only app that creates lightning fast pages, pop-ups, splash pages, sticky bars and sends unlimited emails with zero hassles.

With this product, you have complete control over your traffic, leads & profits, you will no longer lose any traffic, leads and profits with any 3rd party dependency. There are 50+ more cool features with limited-time commercial license that this MarketPal left no stone unturned to give you an unmatched experience.

ABOUT THE CREATOR

This product is brought to you by Dr. Amit Pareek and Er. Ashu Kumar. If you have been in this field for a while, you might have heard this name quite often as they have cooperated to launch many high-quality products.

Some of their remarkable products such as Agenciez, Advance Video Marketing DFY Business PLR, TikTok Marketing DFY Business PLR, [PLR] Next-Level LinkedIn Marketing DFY Business, Kaptiwa and recently with the success of MaxDrive Reloaded.

This time, they continue to introduce you to this outstanding MarketPal which is believed to be sold like hotcakes once it’s launched out.

Key features

MarketPal Is Packed with GROUND BREAKING Features that makes it Most Powerful App

Create Any Type Landing Page: Lead Page, Sales Page, Membership, Bonus, Product Review Page & More… Or Create A Complete Website

Next-Gen Drag And Drop Editor To Create Pixel Perfect Pages Or Templates From Scratch

100+ High Converting & Beautiful Page, Popup & Email Templates

Mobile Friendly, Beautiful & Fast Loading Websites & Pages- So You Don’t Lose A Single Visitor, Lead Or Sale.

Build SEO Friendly & Social Media Optimized Pages For More Traffic.

User Friendly Business Central Dashboard- You’ll Have Everything You Need Under One Roof At Your Fingertips. No Need To Purchase Multiple Apps.

Precise Analytics To Measure The Performance And Know Exactly What’s Working And What’s Not

Unmatched Webinar Set & Forget Integration- Get Your Subscribers Auto-Registered For Your Webinars With Only A Few Clicks

Automatic Ssl Encryption- 100% Unbreakable Security

No Need For Expensive Domains Or Hostings – Host Everything On Our Lightning Fast CDN Server

Get 50,000 Page Views Monthly For No Additional Charge

Free Hosting Is Included (Storage Space Upto 250 GB & Bandwidth Upto 250 GB/Month)

100% Newbie Friendly & Fully Cloud Based Software

Import Your Subscribers without Losing Even a Single Lead

Build Massive Profitable Lists From Blogs, Websites, Lead Pages Etc

Send Unlimited Beautiful Emails – Promote affiliate offers, Build Relation with Newsletters

Boost email delivery, click and open rates instantly

Craft Awesome Emails Using Our Intuitive Editor

Deep Analytics – Know your Opens, Clicks & Impressions to boost results

Boost Open Rates With Elegant Personalization Options

Seamless Integration With The Most Popular Autoresponder Services

Advance Subscriber Management to Manage Subscribers with Ease

Inbuilt List Cleaning and List Checking Included

Use Exclusive Smart Tagging For Easy Segmentation & Send Exclusive Emails

Sub Domain Names Included. Even Add Your Own Custom Domain Names

Behavior Orientated Pop Up Technology To Never Lose Your Leads

Capture Maximum Audience Attention With Unmatched Sticky Bar Notifications

100% GDPR & CAN-Spam Compliant Lead Capture and Emailing System

Live Chat – Customer Support So You Never Get Stuck

Send Unlimited Emails Directly into Inbox for more Opens & Clicks

Completely Cloud Based System with One Dashboard to Manage them All

Currently Sending 100 Million+ Emails, Running 25000+ Landing Pages for over 15000+ Happy Customers

Create Unlimited Pages, Emails, Engagement Boosters for Unlimited Campaigns without Any Restriction

Total Control over your system without worrying about compliances or blocking

Over 100+ Integrations to Connect with Your favourite Marketing Platform and Migration

Behaviour Automation to Triple Your Profit on any WordPress, Shopify or any other Sites

Boost Your Ecom sales by 3X with Most Advanced Sales Booster System Ever

Commercial License to Charge 1K-5K from clients each and every month

Super-Fast & Easy to Use

100% Mobile Friendly

Step-By-Step video Training

No Hosting, No Domain Needed

Safe, Secure & 100% GDPR Complaint

Advance Reports & Analytics

And many more other exclusive features that are in development:

Comes with 100+ DONE-FOR-YOU Pages, Forms, Notification Pop-Ups & Email Newsletter Templates

Create Unlimited Lead, Promo, Social, Webinar, Video, Affiliate etc. Pages

Create Unlimited Forms to Embed on Any Page or Website

Create Unlimited A.I. Based Notification Pop-Ups

Create Unlimited Emails & Newsletters

Create Unlimited Projects & Campaigns

Drive Unlimited Visitors to Generate Unlimited Leads & Convert them into Loyal Subscribers & Customers

Also, Import Your Existing Subscribers to Send them Unlimited Emails & Newsletters

Manage All Your Subscribers in Just 1-Click

Works Seamlessly with Any Website be it WordPress, Shopify or Any Other

Show Your Best Offers, Deals, Lead Forms using Artificial Intelligence for MAX Conversions

Send Unlimited Emails & Newsletters using 3rd Party as well as Your Own SMTP

For Newbies, No Need to Take SMTP, Send Emails & Newsletters using FREE SMTP of Google, Hotmail & Yahoo

Integrate with Zapier for 360-Degree Communication with Your Subscribers

Get a Well-Researched List of 150+ High Converting Funnels to Market & Sell for Instant Profits

Get Overview of the Performance Statistics to Know The Market Response

Join Powerful FB Group of Like-Minded People who are helping each other to Enjoy Success Together

👉VISIT OFFICIAL SITE

WHY SHOULD YOU CONSIDER THIS MARKETPAL?

Stated in today MarketPal review, this tool has great features to turn your worries into a huge opportunity:

[+] No more paying monthly to website or landing page builders, popups tool or email marketing service

[+] No more frustration of using old school slow website & page builders or poor email delivery

[+] No need for buying a domain or expensive hosting services.

[+] No worries for losing visitors or leaking traffic – everything is in your control!

[+] No worries for lack of technical, designing or marketing skills

[+] Say no for hiring expensive & unskilled designers and freelancers

[+] And…say big no to all complicated & money-sucking multiple apps

“Time is money” and this is your time to start creating any type of lead page, sales page, coming soon, membership, bonus or product review page, a complete website, pop-ups, splash pages, sticky bars and send unlimited emails all from 1 central dashboard without any technical hassles with this outstanding MarketPal.

Everything you need to create unlimited marketing pages, capture unlimited leads, send unlimited Emails & drive unlimited traffic to any page or offer easily is done-for-you inside this package.

All you need to do now is just push the buying button and you will have complete control over your traffic, leads and profits.

Furthermore, by using this product, Dr Amit has generated 1000K+ in sales & 400K+ in affiliate commissions in the last 12 months.

There are also 300+ TOP marketers and more than 10,000 customers are successfully using it and ABSOLUTELY loving it.

And now you can completely do the same. It’s your turn to get all the leads, sales, and profits you could ever desire from your online business.

WHO SHOULD TRY THIS MARKETPAL?

With all functions featured in today MarketPal review, this tool is suitable for those who want to effortlessly get max visitors, get max engagement, max conversions, max emails delivery, max leads & ultimately max sales with zero tech hassles.

If you belong to the following list, you should seriously take it into consideration:

♥ Business coaches

♥ Affiliate marketers

♥ E-com sellers

♥ Software sellers

♥ Online astrologers

♥ Online tutors

♥ Self-repair manual & guide providers

♥ Online games sellers

♥ Freelancers

♥ Bloggers

MARKETPAL REVIEW – PROS & CONS

PROS:

♥ 100% newbie friendly

♥ 200+ DFY templates included

♥ Drag and drop editor with freeflow

♥ Limited time commercial license

♥ Sell courses, books, digital product or services

♥ 100% GDPR and can-spam compliant

♥ No worries of paying monthly

♥ Dedicated support team

♥ 30 days money back guarantee

CONS:

X Up to now, there is none

Pricing

For a limited time, you can grab MarketPal with early bird discount price in these options below. Let’s pick the best suited options for you before this special offer gone!

Front-end: MarketPal ($47 – $67) 👉VISIT OFFICIAL SITE

3 Hours EarlyBird – 10th September’20 (Thursday) – 10 AM to 1 PM EST

Marketpal Start Edition – $47.95

Marketpal Pro Edition – $67.95

(Discount will be applicable only on Pro Edition)

With 11% discount Coupon Code – “palearly11” on Pro Edition

10th September’20 (Thursday) – 1 PM EST

Marketpal Start Edition – $47.95

Marketpal Pro Edition – $67.95

(Discount will be applicable only on Pro Edition)

From here Time Sale will be Started with 1 Hour Timer and Price will increase by $0.01 every hour.

OTO 1: Elite Edition ($37/Month or $197 one time)

Remove All Limitations To Go Unlimited & Unlock PREMIUM Features to Get 300% More Engagement, Leads & Profits Faster & Easier With This Elite Upgrade

Break Free & Go Limitless

Add Unlimited Contacts For All Your Mailing Lists

Create Unlimited Email Mailing Lists

Send Unlimited Emails To Unlimited Subscribers

Setup Unlimited Businesses Of Your Own Or Your Client’s

Run All Your & Your Client’s Landing Pages On Your Own Domains With UNLIMITED Custom Domains

Get Unlimited Visitors On Your Pages

Drive Unlimited Leads From Your Pages

Create Unlimited Pages With No Restrictions

Create Unlimited Personalized User Segments

Get 100 EXTRA Ready-To-Use Lead Pages, Popups And Email Templates

Create Webinar Registration Journey With Exclusive Automation Technology

Advanced Subscriber Management With Suppression List

Get The Untapped Power To Send File Attachments With Emails

Clone Any Page, Popup or Email, And Save Templates For Future Use

Advanced Campaign & Project Management

Auto Webinar Platform Integration

Boost Relation & Conversions with CRM integration

20 Amazing Entry/Exit Animation Effects For Your Popups

Schedule Notification Campaigns to Set Start & End Time or Particular Day or Week

Complete Team Management Upto 5 Members

Get All These Benefits At An Unparalleled Price

OTO 2: Enterprise Update ($47)

Unlock Access To Commercial Grade Online Marketing Features For A Low One Time Price!

Everything included at this level of MarketPal is prime real estate. I’m talking about a house on the boardwalk, but without the fancy pricing. You won’t believe what’s awaiting you at this level when you upgrade today.

Industry’s First Free Flow Funnel Builder To Plan & Create Your Profitable Funnels From Scratch Quick & Easy

Setup Entire Email Follow-Up Sequence When Someone Subscribes

Advanced Analytics For Boosting Your Email Campaigns ROI

Unlimited A/B Testing For Email Campaigns – Choose The Best Performer

Unlimited A/B Testing For Lead Pages & Popup Campaigns

Pin-Point Accurate Analytics For Lead Pages & Popups

Effective Bounce & Unsubscribe Management

80+Extra DFY professional, Mobile Responsive & Ready-to-Go Templates

20 MORE Attention Grabbing Entry/Exit animations

Commercial Use

Provide Services to Clients & Charge Them

OTO 3: Agency Suite ($47)

This Agency Upgrade puts you on whole another level with a touch of a button and enables you to enter in $250 Billion freelancing industry.

From next generation funnel building technology with DFY fresh templates to removing their LOGO, complete business panel to manage your client’s biz from single dashboard, working in collaboration to adding your team members or freelancing staff to manage everything easily, the agency upgrade has it all.

MarketPal With Agency License To Provide – Funnel, Landing Page And Website Creation Services To Your Clients With DFY support

120 Brand-New Funnels And Pages Templates – 20 Fresh Templates Every Month For Next 6 Months In Different Niches

Done-For-Your Business Management Panel to Manage All Your Client’s Businesses From A Single Dashboard

Present Yourself As An AUTHORITY- Easily Remove Our LOGO From Your Client’s Pages And Funnels

Work Collaboratively & Share Proven Funnels Templates With Your Team Members, Clients & Group Of Marketers

Sell Funnels To Other Marketers To Add Extra Monthly Revenue To Your Business

Add Unlimited Team Members – Inhouse & Freelancers

Get Accurate Logs For Team Member’s Activities For Effective Monitoring

OTO 4: Premium Membership ($27/Month or $197/Year or $497 one time)

Convert More Visitors into Customers to 10X Your Business with DotcomPal (An Online Sales Solution Builder for Entrepreneurs)

DotcomPal enables you to skyrocket visitor’s engagement and literally push them towards desired marketing goal at every customer touchpoint of your journey/sales funnelto boost the conversions& sales.

It boosts conversions at customer touchpoints like website/shop, blog, landingpages for ads, sales pages, follow-ups and customer trainings to 10X your business from same traffic.

You can boost engagement on existing sales funnels or build a high converting customer journey/Sales funnel from scratch using DotcomPal without any technical hassles. It’s Easy & fast with DFY templates &hand-holding support.

MarketPal Review Conclusion

Thank you so much for reading my MarketPal Review. I really hope it did help you with your buying decision. This system is coming out with many bonuses for the early bird. Take your action ASAP for the best deal.

REMEMBER! If you purchase through my link, you will be supported 24/7; That means you can contact me ANYTIME when you get trouble in using or can not contact with the authors/ product supporters. I will help you RIGHT AWAY!

Besides, if you buy this product through my link, you can also get these huge bonuses below (Please remember that these bonuses are not for the TRIAL or FREE versions):

👉VISIT OFFICIAL SITE

You can have an opportunity to receive extra bonuses if you finish 3 steps below:

Step 1: Order the product by Clicking here.

Step 2: Choose 1 of my huge Bonus Packages below! Remember that you can pick one more bonuses pack for each Upgrade you purchased!

Step 3: After your purchase goes through, email your receipt & your chosen bonuses pack to me at [email protected] so I can confirm your purchase and email you information about how to access to your bonus material.

I Will Always Update New Bonus

Now, Check your bonus below!

»»Plugin Bonus Package««

»»Theme Bonus Package««

»»General Bonus Package««

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remelitalia · 4 years ago

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How to Choose The Right PPC Agency

In 2017, PPC advertisers invested over $10 billion dollars.

If you stacked that many $100 dollar bills on top of each other, you’d have a nearly seven-mile tall tower of money. So, that’s a TON of money.

But year after year, global ad spend across every major PPC channel is growing even higher.

Source: Statistica

And this explosive growth isn’t happening for no reason.

It’s happening because PPC works. It’s the classic “spend money to make money” model. From social media to paid search, PPC is a smart way to see quick results.

But that’s only true if you know what you’re doing.

Which… is where an experienced PPC agency comes in. They spend countless hours experimenting and learning everything there is to know so you don’t have to.

So if you’re looking to hire an agency to create and manage your PPC campaigns but aren’t sure where to start, you’re in the right place. In this article, I cover:

What to look for in a PPC agency

How to work with them for maximum results

Steps to finding the right agency

My top five recommendations

Let’s dive in!

Know your goals and desired outcomes

PPC campaigns exist for a wide variety of reasons. And it’s crucial to have a clear picture of what you hope to achieve before you go through the process of finding the right PPC agency.

Without this essential set of information, you’ll have a hard time making an educated decision.

So before you get started, sit down with your team and set clear goals and expectations. There aren’t any right or wrong answers, but it’s good to understand this from the get-go.

Your goals may include:

Adding more qualified leads to your automated sales funnel

Selling more of a specific product or category of products

Increasing the number of visitors to a landing page

Building awareness for your brand

Right now, you need to set an overall goal for your next campaign. Understanding your expectations makes it easier to communicate what you’re after and ensures everyone’s on the same page.

The idea is to reach a high-level agreement on why you want to hire a PPC agency.

You should also consider the level of participation you want to have throughout the process. Do you want to be super hands-on, or are you hoping for someone to completely take over?

Lastly, don’t worry about the finer details just yet. You can work through the specific metrics and KPIs you want to measure later when you actually sit down with your new PPC partner.

7 characteristics that make a great PPC agency

Now you have a crystal clear picture of your goals, expectations, and level of participation. So it’s time to start talking about what characteristics to look for.

Not all PPC agencies are equal. Some excel at specific advertising types, while others specialize in creating excellent customer experiences across every platform.

One isn’t necessarily better than the other, but it ultimately depends on what you’re looking for.

So use these characteristics as a baseline for creating a list of viable options. They’ll help you narrow your choices down to those PPC agencies that are worth every penny.

From there, you can sit down with them before making a final decision.

Let’s get started!

1. They value data, analytics, and results

PPC is an exciting form of digital marketing because you can directly tie revenue generated to ad spend. So data and analytics are crucial to the success of future campaigns.

The best PPC agencies understand how to use numbers to strategize new ideas that improve your overall ROI. They use what they already know and what they learn about your target market to develop high-yield campaigns.

Furthermore, they also understand the importance of collecting as much information as possible as well as sharing that data with you.

If it’s not clear on their website, be sure to ask questions to help you gauge this before working together. You can ask things like:

What tools do you use to measure essential PPC metrics?

Will you actively share data and results with us?

Do I have independent access to analytics and reporting?

Is a full analytics report included with your offer?

If so, what do you include in those reports?

2. Strategic partnerships and first-party data sources

The longer you’re in business, and the more campaigns you run, the more first-party data you gather about your specific audience and how they behave.

But the best PPC agencies have an extensive database of their own first-party data as well.

Furthermore, they know how to use it to predict your audience’s buying behavior based on similar industries and past clients. And they may also connect with first-party data sources to tap into their pool of information as well.

Aside from data, smart agencies partner with leading search and social media platforms. Partners are the first to know about new changes and updates.

This means they’re ahead of the game when things change.

Which… seems to happen by the second. So, these strategic partnerships give PPC agencies in-depth insight non-partners don’t have.

Look for indications of this on their website or ask about it if you’re unsure.

3. Knowledge of local search

82% of smartphone users turn to search engines to find businesses close to them. They use phrases like “near me” to decide where to eat lunch, go shopping, and find entertainment, among other things as well.

Furthermore, 76% of those searches lead to an in-store visit on the same day.

Source: Think With Google

So, local search isn’t something your business can afford to ignore if you want to drive foot traffic to a physical location.

Whether you use your business to sell products or meet with clients, it’s crucial to show up in search results at the right time.

Make sure to choose an agency with a strong knowledge of local search (both paid and organic). You may not be able to find this information on their website, so be sure to ask questions.

During your first call, it may help to ask things like:

How do you approach local paid search objectives?

Can you share any local PPC results you’ve produced for similar businesses?

We want to reach our local community. Can you tell me a bit about how that works?

How do you measure the success of location-based keywords?

Do you use bid modifiers for location-specific queries?

4. Strong mobile optimization capabilities

Mobile devices account for over half (53%) of clicks on search ads. The era of designing creatives and writing copy for desktop first… is over.

It’s more important than ever before for PPC ads to be easily accessible on devices of all sizes.

And the world of mobile optimization is tricky, especially when combined with ever-changing search and social algorithms. So it’s crucial to hire a PPC agency that knows how to tackle this transition to on-the-go browsing.

Some agencies may highlight this as a feature on their website, while others may not. So be sure to ask questions during your initial phone calls to ensure they know their stuff.

To gauge this, you can ask things like:

Can you share any mobile-specific results for previous campaigns?

What’re your thoughts on designing PPC ads for mobile rather than desktop?

Do you provide mobile-optimized copy and display ads, or suggestions to improve them?

Do you leverage bid modifiers for mobile devices?

5. They focus on the right PPC channels

Whether you’re interested in search, social, programmatic, shopping, or multi-channel PPC campaigns, it’s essential to find a PPC agency specializing in the platforms you want to use.

There’s no right or wrong marketing channel. But it does depend on your end goal.

Some agencies may only manage search campaigns while others may consult, design, and manage paid social media campaigns. No two campaigns are alike, nor are two PPC agencies.

So first, you have to understand what you’re looking for.

What channels are you considering? Do you need help with design or ad copy as well? Maybe you want a collaborative project, or perhaps you prefer entirely hands-off.

Decide what you need and expect from a PPC agency and use that to guide your decision.

Be sure to sare your expectations and goals during your first meeting to ensure they’re a good fit.

6. Impeccable keyword research

The quickest way to see a return on your investment is by targeting commercial-intent (transactional) keywords. People searching for things like “Buy iPhone X” or “best web hosting services” are ready to buy.

But making more money isn’t the only goal behind PPC advertising. Maybe you want to grow your email list to add more leads into your sales funnel. Or raise brand awareness. Or drive traffic to help increase ad revenue.

Regardless of the end goal, your PPC agency must understand your campaign’s purpose and help you choose appropriate keywords to target.

This isn’t something you can usually find on their website. So you’ll have to do some digging.

Here are some great questions to ask during your first call:

How do you decide what keywords to focus on?

What keyword research tools do you use?

Can you tell us about your keyword strategy for a similar business?

What metrics do you use to decide if a keyword is performing well?

7. Well-versed in all things digital marketing

PPC advertising doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

It’s usually a small piece of a broader digital marketing strategy.

And the best PPC agencies know this and work to create effective campaigns and PPC strategies to support your high-level business goals.

Sure, PPC requires strong keywords that target the right audiences. But it goes much further than that as well.

Great agencies understand the big picture and oftentimes can help improve other pieces of your digital marketing system because they’re great marketers themselves.

How to work with a PPC agency

Now you know what to look for in a PPC agency.

But if you’ve never worked with one before, you may feel unsure of what to expect going into your new partnership. And there are several things you can do as a client to enhance the overall experience.

Doing these things helps put both your business and your agency in a strong position for success.

Set clear goals and communicate your expectations

We talked about this briefly at the beginning of this article, but I want to come back to it again because it’s so important.

Your goals and expectations set the stage for the rest of your partnership.

It’s critical to understand your goals and communicate them with your PPC agency. The best agencies use your goals and expectations to develop a strategic plan that works well for both of you.

So if you’re hesitant or unsure of what you’re after, sit down with your team and revisit this. And make sure you know how to communicate what you want.

Gather and share data from past campaigns

Any first-party data you have can significantly impact the outcome of future campaigns.

Think back to previous partnerships or campaigns you’ve run and gather that information into a clean and easy-to-understand report.

Then, share it with your agency.

Hard data is the best way for them to learn more about your audience’s attributes and behaviors as well as what worked, what didn’t, and why.

This way, they don’t have to reinvent the wheel or start their research from scratch.

Choose one point of contact

To avoid confusion, choose one central point of contact for communications from your agency. This ensures there are no miscommunications or wasted time from several people managing that relationship.

You can certainly have a team working on the project but limit communications to one person.

It also helps simplify things for your agency as well. They always know who to talk to, and they don’t have to worry about waiting too long for your response.

Be prepared for advice and suggestions

PPC agencies are excellent at what they do, so it’s essential to listen to their advice and suggestions. This could be advice on improving your home page for conversions or redesigning landing pages to increase sales.

Perhaps it’s a suggestion to improve your ad copy or headline.

Always remember they’re the experts, and you hired them for a reason — they know their stuff. So take the time to listen and keep an open mind throughout the process.

Ask all the questions you need to ask

There’s no such thing as a stupid question. And there’s no such thing as too many questions, either. If you’re unsure or confused about anything, the best thing to do is ask.

There’s nothing wrong with not knowing, but there is something wrong with not asking about it.

This helps you learn, and it also helps clear up any confusion about the project. You can rest easy every day, understanding the hows and whys of your campaign.

How to find the right PPC agency for you

There are hundreds (if not more) of PPC agencies to choose from. And choosing the right one is often the hardest part of getting started.

But the best PPC agencies for you specialize in the types of campaigns you’re interested in. They should also have in-depth knowledge of your specific industry. These characteristics combined help pave the way for the best results.

It may also help to make a list of your expectations and requirements before starting your search.

From there, list the companies you’re considering. Be sure to include:

Their specialty areas

What makes them stand out to you

Why they seem like a good fit

Pricing if it’s available online

Any negatives about their business

Then you can use your requirements and expectations to cross off agencies that don’t match what you need. Lastly, schedule a call with the remaining agencies on your list.

This is your chance to interview them just as much as it’s their chance to interview you.

So ask all your questions and take notes throughout the meeting so you can come back to them when making a final decision.

The 5 top PPC agencies

Now you know what to look for, what to expect, and how to decide.

Here are my top PPC agency recommendations for different business types and sizes to kick off your search.

1. Neil Patel Digital — Best multi-channel PPC company

At NPDigital, we leverage our first-party data and search partners to create multi-channel campaigns designed to meet potential customers wherever they hang out online.

Furthermore, we focus on using data to design an excellent customer experience regardless of how and where they interact with your brand.

And now more than ever, consumers are researching before they buy.

We care about giving shoppers the content and information they need to make informed decisions, all while helping you conquer your PPC goals.

From paid search and social media to Amazon and shopping ads, your PPC campaigns are in good hands.

2. Loud Mouth Media — Best small agency in the UK

Hiring a partner close to your time zone can have a massive impact on the type of communication you have as well as how long it takes to get a response.

If you’re in Europe or the UK, Loud Mouth Media is an excellent small PPC agency serving big clients like Volvo and BBC, as well as small businesses around the world.

And there’s a reason Loud Mouth Media’s won the “Best Small PPC Agency” in the UK two years in a row — they’re phenomenal at what they do.

With the data and results to back it up.

Plus, they’re Google, Bing, and Facebook partners, so Loud Mouth Media is an excellent choice if you’re interested in those channels.

3. Stryde — Best for eCommerce and B2C businesses

If you’re a B2C business or running an eCommerce store, Stryde is a superb choice because they specialize in eCommerce digital marketing for businesses of all sizes.

Furthermore, the B2B and B2C industries couldn’t’ be more different when it comes to PPC.

And there’s no one better to strategize and manage your product-focused campaigns than an agency that solely works with eCommerce and B2C businesses.

Plus, they have an extensive portfolio of case studies that prove they’re great at what they do.

4. KlientBoost — Best for landing page design + management services

PPC ads drive traffic, and landing pages (typically) convert that traffic into revenue or leads.

So it’s no surprise that landing page design and optimization are crucial to successful PPC campaigns regardless of your industry and business type.

If you don’t have an in-house designer or struggle with creating conversion-focused landing pages, KlientBoost is an excellent PPC partner for your business.

Aside from PPC and social media management, they also specialize in designing new landing pages and optimizing existing ones to help you reach and exceed your PPC goals.

Their in-house team of designers and developers is ready to help you craft excellent customer experiences from their first click to their last.

5. Directive Consulting — Best for SaaS and B2B businesses

B2B businesses and SaaS tools face their own set of unique challenges when it comes to PPC campaigns. After all, you’re targeting other businesses… not individuals.

So you need a PPC strategist and partner that understands how to overcome those challenges.

Directive Consulting specializes in helping software companies conquer every marketing channel from paid search and shopping ads to SEO and CRO.

Whether you’re looking solely for PPC or interested in an entire digital marketing plan from one of the top agencies around, Directive is a fantastic choice. Plus, they offer digital marketing education, and they have a pool of first-party SaaS data you can tap into.

You + the right agency = reliable results

Choosing the best PPC agency for your business is just as important as crafting the perfect copy, designing eye-catching creatives, and publishing conversion-focused landing pages.

There’s no doubt you have a powerful message and life-changing products for the right audience. Plus, you owe it to them to put it in front of them when they need it.

The right PPC agency helps you do just that while helping you generate more leads, make more money, and get more eyes on your brand. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

The good news is that you now know what to look for throughout the process. So next time you’re looking for your dream PPC agency, use the tips, tricks, and characteristics we talked about.

And remember: an excellent PPC partner and reliable results can make a world of difference for your business. You deserve it and your customers do too.

What do you look for when hiring a PPC agency?

The post How to Choose The Right PPC Agency appeared first on Neil Patel.

Original content source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/ppc-agency/ via https://neilpatel.com

See the original post, How to Choose The Right PPC Agency that is shared from https://imtrainingparadise.weebly.com/home/how-to-choose-the-right-ppc-agency via https://imtrainingparadise.weebly.com/home

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jjpocketbook · 4 years ago

Text

How to Choose The Right PPC Agency

In 2017, PPC advertisers invested over $10 billion dollars.

If you stacked that many $100 dollar bills on top of each other, you’d have a nearly seven-mile tall tower of money. So, that’s a TON of money.

But year after year, global ad spend across every major PPC channel is growing even higher.

Source: Statistica

And this explosive growth isn’t happening for no reason.

It’s happening because PPC works. It’s the classic “spend money to make money” model. From social media to paid search, PPC is a smart way to see quick results.

But that’s only true if you know what you’re doing.

Which… is where an experienced PPC agency comes in. They spend countless hours experimenting and learning everything there is to know so you don’t have to.

So if you’re looking to hire an agency to create and manage your PPC campaigns but aren’t sure where to start, you’re in the right place. In this article, I cover:

What to look for in a PPC agency

How to work with them for maximum results

Steps to finding the right agency

My top five recommendations

Let’s dive in!

Know your goals and desired outcomes

PPC campaigns exist for a wide variety of reasons. And it’s crucial to have a clear picture of what you hope to achieve before you go through the process of finding the right PPC agency.

Without this essential set of information, you’ll have a hard time making an educated decision.

So before you get started, sit down with your team and set clear goals and expectations. There aren’t any right or wrong answers, but it’s good to understand this from the get-go.

Your goals may include:

Adding more qualified leads to your automated sales funnel

Selling more of a specific product or category of products

Increasing the number of visitors to a landing page

Building awareness for your brand

Right now, you need to set an overall goal for your next campaign. Understanding your expectations makes it easier to communicate what you’re after and ensures everyone’s on the same page.

The idea is to reach a high-level agreement on why you want to hire a PPC agency.

You should also consider the level of participation you want to have throughout the process. Do you want to be super hands-on, or are you hoping for someone to completely take over?

Lastly, don’t worry about the finer details just yet. You can work through the specific metrics and KPIs you want to measure later when you actually sit down with your new PPC partner.

7 characteristics that make a great PPC agency

Now you have a crystal clear picture of your goals, expectations, and level of participation. So it’s time to start talking about what characteristics to look for.

Not all PPC agencies are equal. Some excel at specific advertising types, while others specialize in creating excellent customer experiences across every platform.

One isn’t necessarily better than the other, but it ultimately depends on what you’re looking for.

So use these characteristics as a baseline for creating a list of viable options. They’ll help you narrow your choices down to those PPC agencies that are worth every penny.

From there, you can sit down with them before making a final decision.

Let’s get started!

1. They value data, analytics, and results

PPC is an exciting form of digital marketing because you can directly tie revenue generated to ad spend. So data and analytics are crucial to the success of future campaigns.

Furthermore, they also understand the importance of collecting as much information as possible as well as sharing that data with you.

If it’s not clear on their website, be sure to ask questions to help you gauge this before working together. You can ask things like:

What tools do you use to measure essential PPC metrics?

Will you actively share data and results with us?

Do I have independent access to analytics and reporting?

Is a full analytics report included with your offer?

If so, what do you include in those reports?

2. Strategic partnerships and first-party data sources

The longer you’re in business, and the more campaigns you run, the more first-party data you gather about your specific audience and how they behave.

But the best PPC agencies have an extensive database of their own first-party data as well.

Aside from data, smart agencies partner with leading search and social media platforms. Partners are the first to know about new changes and updates.

This means they’re ahead of the game when things change.

Which… seems to happen by the second. So, these strategic partnerships give PPC agencies in-depth insight non-partners don’t have.

Look for indications of this on their website or ask about it if you’re unsure.

3. Knowledge of local search

Furthermore, 76% of those searches lead to an in-store visit on the same day.

Source: Think With Google

So, local search isn’t something your business can afford to ignore if you want to drive foot traffic to a physical location.

Whether you use your business to sell products or meet with clients, it’s crucial to show up in search results at the right time.

Make sure to choose an agency with a strong knowledge of local search (both paid and organic). You may not be able to find this information on their website, so be sure to ask questions.

During your first call, it may help to ask things like:

How do you approach local paid search objectives?

Can you share any local PPC results you’ve produced for similar businesses?

We want to reach our local community. Can you tell me a bit about how that works?

How do you measure the success of location-based keywords?

Do you use bid modifiers for location-specific queries?

4. Strong mobile optimization capabilities

Mobile devices account for over half (53%) of clicks on search ads. The era of designing creatives and writing copy for desktop first… is over.

It’s more important than ever before for PPC ads to be easily accessible on devices of all sizes.

Some agencies may highlight this as a feature on their website, while others may not. So be sure to ask questions during your initial phone calls to ensure they know their stuff.

To gauge this, you can ask things like:

Can you share any mobile-specific results for previous campaigns?

What’re your thoughts on designing PPC ads for mobile rather than desktop?

Do you provide mobile-optimized copy and display ads, or suggestions to improve them?

Do you leverage bid modifiers for mobile devices?

5. They focus on the right PPC channels

Whether you’re interested in search, social, programmatic, shopping, or multi-channel PPC campaigns, it’s essential to find a PPC agency specializing in the platforms you want to use.

There’s no right or wrong marketing channel. But it does depend on your end goal.

Some agencies may only manage search campaigns while others may consult, design, and manage paid social media campaigns. No two campaigns are alike, nor are two PPC agencies.

So first, you have to understand what you’re looking for.

What channels are you considering? Do you need help with design or ad copy as well? Maybe you want a collaborative project, or perhaps you prefer entirely hands-off.

Decide what you need and expect from a PPC agency and use that to guide your decision.

Be sure to sare your expectations and goals during your first meeting to ensure they’re a good fit.

6. Impeccable keyword research

Regardless of the end goal, your PPC agency must understand your campaign’s purpose and help you choose appropriate keywords to target.

This isn’t something you can usually find on their website. So you’ll have to do some digging.

Here are some great questions to ask during your first call:

How do you decide what keywords to focus on?

What keyword research tools do you use?

Can you tell us about your keyword strategy for a similar business?

What metrics do you use to decide if a keyword is performing well?

7. Well-versed in all things digital marketing

PPC advertising doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

It’s usually a small piece of a broader digital marketing strategy.

And the best PPC agencies know this and work to create effective campaigns and PPC strategies to support your high-level business goals.

Sure, PPC requires strong keywords that target the right audiences. But it goes much further than that as well.

Great agencies understand the big picture and oftentimes can help improve other pieces of your digital marketing system because they’re great marketers themselves.

How to work with a PPC agency

Now you know what to look for in a PPC agency.

Doing these things helps put both your business and your agency in a strong position for success.

Set clear goals and communicate your expectations

We talked about this briefly at the beginning of this article, but I want to come back to it again because it’s so important.

Your goals and expectations set the stage for the rest of your partnership.

It’s critical to understand your goals and communicate them with your PPC agency. The best agencies use your goals and expectations to develop a strategic plan that works well for both of you.

So if you’re hesitant or unsure of what you’re after, sit down with your team and revisit this. And make sure you know how to communicate what you want.

Gather and share data from past campaigns

Any first-party data you have can significantly impact the outcome of future campaigns.

Think back to previous partnerships or campaigns you’ve run and gather that information into a clean and easy-to-understand report.

Then, share it with your agency.

Hard data is the best way for them to learn more about your audience’s attributes and behaviors as well as what worked, what didn’t, and why.

This way, they don’t have to reinvent the wheel or start their research from scratch.

Choose one point of contact

To avoid confusion, choose one central point of contact for communications from your agency. This ensures there are no miscommunications or wasted time from several people managing that relationship.

You can certainly have a team working on the project but limit communications to one person.

It also helps simplify things for your agency as well. They always know who to talk to, and they don’t have to worry about waiting too long for your response.

Be prepared for advice and suggestions

Perhaps it’s a suggestion to improve your ad copy or headline.

Always remember they’re the experts, and you hired them for a reason — they know their stuff. So take the time to listen and keep an open mind throughout the process.

Ask all the questions you need to ask

There’s no such thing as a stupid question. And there’s no such thing as too many questions, either. If you’re unsure or confused about anything, the best thing to do is ask.

There’s nothing wrong with not knowing, but there is something wrong with not asking about it.

This helps you learn, and it also helps clear up any confusion about the project. You can rest easy every day, understanding the hows and whys of your campaign.

How to find the right PPC agency for you

There are hundreds (if not more) of PPC agencies to choose from. And choosing the right one is often the hardest part of getting started.

It may also help to make a list of your expectations and requirements before starting your search.

From there, list the companies you’re considering. Be sure to include:

Their specialty areas

What makes them stand out to you

Why they seem like a good fit

Pricing if it’s available online

Any negatives about their business

Then you can use your requirements and expectations to cross off agencies that don’t match what you need. Lastly, schedule a call with the remaining agencies on your list.

This is your chance to interview them just as much as it’s their chance to interview you.

So ask all your questions and take notes throughout the meeting so you can come back to them when making a final decision.

The 5 top PPC agencies

Now you know what to look for, what to expect, and how to decide.

Here are my top PPC agency recommendations for different business types and sizes to kick off your search.

1. Neil Patel Digital — Best multi-channel PPC company

At NPDigital, we leverage our first-party data and search partners to create multi-channel campaigns designed to meet potential customers wherever they hang out online.

Furthermore, we focus on using data to design an excellent customer experience regardless of how and where they interact with your brand.

And now more than ever, consumers are researching before they buy.

We care about giving shoppers the content and information they need to make informed decisions, all while helping you conquer your PPC goals.

From paid search and social media to Amazon and shopping ads, your PPC campaigns are in good hands.

2. Loud Mouth Media — Best small agency in the UK

Hiring a partner close to your time zone can have a massive impact on the type of communication you have as well as how long it takes to get a response.

If you’re in Europe or the UK, Loud Mouth Media is an excellent small PPC agency serving big clients like Volvo and BBC, as well as small businesses around the world.

And there’s a reason Loud Mouth Media’s won the “Best Small PPC Agency” in the UK two years in a row — they’re phenomenal at what they do.

With the data and results to back it up.

Plus, they’re Google, Bing, and Facebook partners, so Loud Mouth Media is an excellent choice if you’re interested in those channels.

3. Stryde — Best for eCommerce and B2C businesses

If you’re a B2C business or running an eCommerce store, Stryde is a superb choice because they specialize in eCommerce digital marketing for businesses of all sizes.

Furthermore, the B2B and B2C industries couldn’t’ be more different when it comes to PPC.

And there’s no one better to strategize and manage your product-focused campaigns than an agency that solely works with eCommerce and B2C businesses.

Plus, they have an extensive portfolio of case studies that prove they’re great at what they do.

4. KlientBoost — Best for landing page design + management services

PPC ads drive traffic, and landing pages (typically) convert that traffic into revenue or leads.

So it’s no surprise that landing page design and optimization are crucial to successful PPC campaigns regardless of your industry and business type.

If you don’t have an in-house designer or struggle with creating conversion-focused landing pages, KlientBoost is an excellent PPC partner for your business.

Aside from PPC and social media management, they also specialize in designing new landing pages and optimizing existing ones to help you reach and exceed your PPC goals.

Their in-house team of designers and developers is ready to help you craft excellent customer experiences from their first click to their last.

5. Directive Consulting — Best for SaaS and B2B businesses

B2B businesses and SaaS tools face their own set of unique challenges when it comes to PPC campaigns. After all, you’re targeting other businesses… not individuals.

So you need a PPC strategist and partner that understands how to overcome those challenges.

Directive Consulting specializes in helping software companies conquer every marketing channel from paid search and shopping ads to SEO and CRO.

You + the right agency = reliable results

Choosing the best PPC agency for your business is just as important as crafting the perfect copy, designing eye-catching creatives, and publishing conversion-focused landing pages.

There’s no doubt you have a powerful message and life-changing products for the right audience. Plus, you owe it to them to put it in front of them when they need it.

The right PPC agency helps you do just that while helping you generate more leads, make more money, and get more eyes on your brand. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

The good news is that you now know what to look for throughout the process. So next time you’re looking for your dream PPC agency, use the tips, tricks, and characteristics we talked about.

And remember: an excellent PPC partner and reliable results can make a world of difference for your business. You deserve it and your customers do too.

What do you look for when hiring a PPC agency?

The post How to Choose The Right PPC Agency appeared first on Neil Patel.

Original content source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/ppc-agency/ via https://neilpatel.com

The original post, How to Choose The Right PPC Agency, has been shared from https://imtrainingparadise.wordpress.com/2020/08/26/how-to-choose-the-right-ppc-agency/ via https://imtrainingparadise.wordpress.com

0 notes

marketingcomcaio · 4 years ago

Text

How to Choose The Right PPC Agency

In 2017, PPC advertisers invested over $10 billion dollars.

If you stacked that many $100 dollar bills on top of each other, you’d have a nearly seven-mile tall tower of money. So, that’s a TON of money.

But year after year, global ad spend across every major PPC channel is growing even higher.

Source: Statistica

And this explosive growth isn’t happening for no reason.

It’s happening because PPC works. It’s the classic “spend money to make money” model. From social media to paid search, PPC is a smart way to see quick results.

But that’s only true if you know what you’re doing.

Which… is where an experienced PPC agency comes in. They spend countless hours experimenting and learning everything there is to know so you don’t have to.

So if you’re looking to hire an agency to create and manage your PPC campaigns but aren’t sure where to start, you’re in the right place. In this article, I cover:

What to look for in a PPC agency

How to work with them for maximum results

Steps to finding the right agency

My top five recommendations

Let’s dive in!

Know your goals and desired outcomes

PPC campaigns exist for a wide variety of reasons. And it’s crucial to have a clear picture of what you hope to achieve before you go through the process of finding the right PPC agency.

Without this essential set of information, you’ll have a hard time making an educated decision.

So before you get started, sit down with your team and set clear goals and expectations. There aren’t any right or wrong answers, but it’s good to understand this from the get-go.

Your goals may include:

Adding more qualified leads to your automated sales funnel

Selling more of a specific product or category of products

Increasing the number of visitors to a landing page

Building awareness for your brand

Right now, you need to set an overall goal for your next campaign. Understanding your expectations makes it easier to communicate what you’re after and ensures everyone’s on the same page.

The idea is to reach a high-level agreement on why you want to hire a PPC agency.

You should also consider the level of participation you want to have throughout the process. Do you want to be super hands-on, or are you hoping for someone to completely take over?

Lastly, don’t worry about the finer details just yet. You can work through the specific metrics and KPIs you want to measure later when you actually sit down with your new PPC partner.

7 characteristics that make a great PPC agency

Now you have a crystal clear picture of your goals, expectations, and level of participation. So it’s time to start talking about what characteristics to look for.

Not all PPC agencies are equal. Some excel at specific advertising types, while others specialize in creating excellent customer experiences across every platform.

One isn’t necessarily better than the other, but it ultimately depends on what you’re looking for.

So use these characteristics as a baseline for creating a list of viable options. They’ll help you narrow your choices down to those PPC agencies that are worth every penny.

From there, you can sit down with them before making a final decision.

Let’s get started!

1. They value data, analytics, and results

PPC is an exciting form of digital marketing because you can directly tie revenue generated to ad spend. So data and analytics are crucial to the success of future campaigns.

Furthermore, they also understand the importance of collecting as much information as possible as well as sharing that data with you.

If it’s not clear on their website, be sure to ask questions to help you gauge this before working together. You can ask things like:

What tools do you use to measure essential PPC metrics?

Will you actively share data and results with us?

Do I have independent access to analytics and reporting?

Is a full analytics report included with your offer?

If so, what do you include in those reports?

2. Strategic partnerships and first-party data sources

The longer you’re in business, and the more campaigns you run, the more first-party data you gather about your specific audience and how they behave.

But the best PPC agencies have an extensive database of their own first-party data as well.

Aside from data, smart agencies partner with leading search and social media platforms. Partners are the first to know about new changes and updates.

This means they’re ahead of the game when things change.

Which… seems to happen by the second. So, these strategic partnerships give PPC agencies in-depth insight non-partners don’t have.

Look for indications of this on their website or ask about it if you’re unsure.

3. Knowledge of local search

Furthermore, 76% of those searches lead to an in-store visit on the same day.

Source: Think With Google

So, local search isn’t something your business can afford to ignore if you want to drive foot traffic to a physical location.

Whether you use your business to sell products or meet with clients, it’s crucial to show up in search results at the right time.

Make sure to choose an agency with a strong knowledge of local search (both paid and organic). You may not be able to find this information on their website, so be sure to ask questions.

During your first call, it may help to ask things like:

How do you approach local paid search objectives?

Can you share any local PPC results you’ve produced for similar businesses?

We want to reach our local community. Can you tell me a bit about how that works?

How do you measure the success of location-based keywords?

Do you use bid modifiers for location-specific queries?

4. Strong mobile optimization capabilities

Mobile devices account for over half (53%) of clicks on search ads. The era of designing creatives and writing copy for desktop first… is over.

It’s more important than ever before for PPC ads to be easily accessible on devices of all sizes.

Some agencies may highlight this as a feature on their website, while others may not. So be sure to ask questions during your initial phone calls to ensure they know their stuff.

To gauge this, you can ask things like:

Can you share any mobile-specific results for previous campaigns?

What’re your thoughts on designing PPC ads for mobile rather than desktop?

Do you provide mobile-optimized copy and display ads, or suggestions to improve them?

Do you leverage bid modifiers for mobile devices?

5. They focus on the right PPC channels

Whether you’re interested in search, social, programmatic, shopping, or multi-channel PPC campaigns, it’s essential to find a PPC agency specializing in the platforms you want to use.

There’s no right or wrong marketing channel. But it does depend on your end goal.

Some agencies may only manage search campaigns while others may consult, design, and manage paid social media campaigns. No two campaigns are alike, nor are two PPC agencies.

So first, you have to understand what you’re looking for.

What channels are you considering? Do you need help with design or ad copy as well? Maybe you want a collaborative project, or perhaps you prefer entirely hands-off.

Decide what you need and expect from a PPC agency and use that to guide your decision.

Be sure to sare your expectations and goals during your first meeting to ensure they’re a good fit.

6. Impeccable keyword research

Regardless of the end goal, your PPC agency must understand your campaign’s purpose and help you choose appropriate keywords to target.

This isn’t something you can usually find on their website. So you’ll have to do some digging.

Here are some great questions to ask during your first call:

How do you decide what keywords to focus on?

What keyword research tools do you use?

Can you tell us about your keyword strategy for a similar business?

What metrics do you use to decide if a keyword is performing well?

7. Well-versed in all things digital marketing

PPC advertising doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

It’s usually a small piece of a broader digital marketing strategy.

And the best PPC agencies know this and work to create effective campaigns and PPC strategies to support your high-level business goals.

Sure, PPC requires strong keywords that target the right audiences. But it goes much further than that as well.

Great agencies understand the big picture and oftentimes can help improve other pieces of your digital marketing system because they’re great marketers themselves.

How to work with a PPC agency

Now you know what to look for in a PPC agency.

Doing these things helps put both your business and your agency in a strong position for success.

Set clear goals and communicate your expectations

We talked about this briefly at the beginning of this article, but I want to come back to it again because it’s so important.

Your goals and expectations set the stage for the rest of your partnership.

It’s critical to understand your goals and communicate them with your PPC agency. The best agencies use your goals and expectations to develop a strategic plan that works well for both of you.

So if you’re hesitant or unsure of what you’re after, sit down with your team and revisit this. And make sure you know how to communicate what you want.

Gather and share data from past campaigns

Any first-party data you have can significantly impact the outcome of future campaigns.

Think back to previous partnerships or campaigns you’ve run and gather that information into a clean and easy-to-understand report.

Then, share it with your agency.

Hard data is the best way for them to learn more about your audience’s attributes and behaviors as well as what worked, what didn’t, and why.

This way, they don’t have to reinvent the wheel or start their research from scratch.

Choose one point of contact

To avoid confusion, choose one central point of contact for communications from your agency. This ensures there are no miscommunications or wasted time from several people managing that relationship.

You can certainly have a team working on the project but limit communications to one person.

It also helps simplify things for your agency as well. They always know who to talk to, and they don’t have to worry about waiting too long for your response.

Be prepared for advice and suggestions

Perhaps it’s a suggestion to improve your ad copy or headline.

Always remember they’re the experts, and you hired them for a reason — they know their stuff. So take the time to listen and keep an open mind throughout the process.

Ask all the questions you need to ask

There’s no such thing as a stupid question. And there’s no such thing as too many questions, either. If you’re unsure or confused about anything, the best thing to do is ask.

There’s nothing wrong with not knowing, but there is something wrong with not asking about it.

This helps you learn, and it also helps clear up any confusion about the project. You can rest easy every day, understanding the hows and whys of your campaign.

How to find the right PPC agency for you

There are hundreds (if not more) of PPC agencies to choose from. And choosing the right one is often the hardest part of getting started.

It may also help to make a list of your expectations and requirements before starting your search.

From there, list the companies you’re considering. Be sure to include:

Their specialty areas

What makes them stand out to you

Why they seem like a good fit

Pricing if it’s available online

Any negatives about their business

Then you can use your requirements and expectations to cross off agencies that don’t match what you need. Lastly, schedule a call with the remaining agencies on your list.

This is your chance to interview them just as much as it’s their chance to interview you.

So ask all your questions and take notes throughout the meeting so you can come back to them when making a final decision.

The 5 top PPC agencies

Now you know what to look for, what to expect, and how to decide.

Here are my top PPC agency recommendations for different business types and sizes to kick off your search.

1. Neil Patel Digital — Best multi-channel PPC company

At NPDigital, we leverage our first-party data and search partners to create multi-channel campaigns designed to meet potential customers wherever they hang out online.

Furthermore, we focus on using data to design an excellent customer experience regardless of how and where they interact with your brand.

And now more than ever, consumers are researching before they buy.

We care about giving shoppers the content and information they need to make informed decisions, all while helping you conquer your PPC goals.

From paid search and social media to Amazon and shopping ads, your PPC campaigns are in good hands.

2. Loud Mouth Media — Best small agency in the UK

Hiring a partner close to your time zone can have a massive impact on the type of communication you have as well as how long it takes to get a response.

If you’re in Europe or the UK, Loud Mouth Media is an excellent small PPC agency serving big clients like Volvo and BBC, as well as small businesses around the world.

And there’s a reason Loud Mouth Media’s won the “Best Small PPC Agency” in the UK two years in a row — they’re phenomenal at what they do.

With the data and results to back it up.

Plus, they’re Google, Bing, and Facebook partners, so Loud Mouth Media is an excellent choice if you’re interested in those channels.

3. Stryde — Best for eCommerce and B2C businesses

If you’re a B2C business or running an eCommerce store, Stryde is a superb choice because they specialize in eCommerce digital marketing for businesses of all sizes.

Furthermore, the B2B and B2C industries couldn’t’ be more different when it comes to PPC.

And there’s no one better to strategize and manage your product-focused campaigns than an agency that solely works with eCommerce and B2C businesses.

Plus, they have an extensive portfolio of case studies that prove they’re great at what they do.

4. KlientBoost — Best for landing page design + management services

PPC ads drive traffic, and landing pages (typically) convert that traffic into revenue or leads.

So it’s no surprise that landing page design and optimization are crucial to successful PPC campaigns regardless of your industry and business type.

If you don’t have an in-house designer or struggle with creating conversion-focused landing pages, KlientBoost is an excellent PPC partner for your business.

Aside from PPC and social media management, they also specialize in designing new landing pages and optimizing existing ones to help you reach and exceed your PPC goals.

Their in-house team of designers and developers is ready to help you craft excellent customer experiences from their first click to their last.

5. Directive Consulting — Best for SaaS and B2B businesses

B2B businesses and SaaS tools face their own set of unique challenges when it comes to PPC campaigns. After all, you’re targeting other businesses… not individuals.

So you need a PPC strategist and partner that understands how to overcome those challenges.

Directive Consulting specializes in helping software companies conquer every marketing channel from paid search and shopping ads to SEO and CRO.

You + the right agency = reliable results

Choosing the best PPC agency for your business is just as important as crafting the perfect copy, designing eye-catching creatives, and publishing conversion-focused landing pages.

There’s no doubt you have a powerful message and life-changing products for the right audience. Plus, you owe it to them to put it in front of them when they need it.

The right PPC agency helps you do just that while helping you generate more leads, make more money, and get more eyes on your brand. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

The good news is that you now know what to look for throughout the process. So next time you’re looking for your dream PPC agency, use the tips, tricks, and characteristics we talked about.

And remember: an excellent PPC partner and reliable results can make a world of difference for your business. You deserve it and your customers do too.

What do you look for when hiring a PPC agency?

The post How to Choose The Right PPC Agency appeared first on Neil Patel.

How to Choose The Right PPC Agency Publicado primeiro em https://neilpatel.com

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phancystuff · 7 years ago

Text

Trying to Remember How it Feels (To Have a Heartbeat) 1/7

Pairing: Dan/ Phil (Phan) Summary: Dan moves into a new apartment in London and, though it’s a step up from his old apartment, his landlord gives him strange warnings while he’s touring the place-- something about the last renters leaving because of ghost sightings. But, Dan doesn’t believe in the supernatural. He quickly changes his tune when he meets Phil Lester, the ghost haunting his apartment. Well, if haunting means quickly becoming the best friend he’s ever had. (Title from Harry Styles’ song Two Ghosts) Notes: This is the first part of my Spooky Week Special! This fic is almost 100% already written and I plan on updating it every day until Halloween. Please note that, although this fic has the warning of major character death, it is not in any way graphic. Tags/ Warnings: ghost au, Halloween, major character death (obv. it’s a ghost au lol), depictions of panic attacks, angst, fluff, HAPPY ENDING, mentions of suicide (it happens in a movie they watch)

Read it on A03 Completed fic masterlist here

Dan woke up that morning in a mood, which is never a good thing when you’re supposed to do something particularly adult-y. Something like tour a new apartment because the one you’re currently living in is literally falling apart at the seams and your neighbors drill ridiculous DIY projects at all hours of the day. Dan’s YouTube channel had been doing pretty well lately, too, and he could finally afford a better apartment. He had made it hard on himself in the beginning by refusing to get a roommate, but he liked his space. It didn’t matter, anyway, it was finally time for him to move up in the world and trade his current hamster cage for a slightly bigger one. And yet, there Dan was, the morning of an apartment tour, on his third coffee, and still feeling like someone had hit him over the head and shoulders while he was sleeping. Sickly sweet Starbucks lattes weren’t even touching his exhaustion; it was that serious. So maybe that’s why, later when Dan was touring this potential apartment, he couldn’t be bothered with the stupid things that were coming out of the landlord’s mouth.

The white, middle aged man, who had introduced himself as Paul, had just closed the door to the master bedroom and was leading Dan to the kitchen when he glanced back at Dan. “Yeah, I just want to give you full, fair warning. The last renters left because they kept seeing a ghost.”

“You don’t say?” Dan hid his eye roll, answering uninterestedly. He didn’t know what the landlord was playing at, but ghosts didn’t exist and this was a nice apartment. He couldn’t be scared away from it. It was an old building, but it had recently been renovated and featured new, shiny appliances. The space wasn’t huge, but it would work perfectly for a 26 year old, single YouTuber. It had a great view of the city and an elevator to aid in the moving process.

“Yeah, ghosts! I mean, I never saw any ghosts, but I do get a weird feeling when I walk around here.” Paul rambled on and Dan leaned against the kitchen counter, staring at him. “From what I hear, the last landlord that owned this property didn’t carefully inspect the place and it ended in some poor bloke dying. Not really sure how; it was back in 2010. But, obviously, everything’s ship shape now.” The man trailed off, gazing around at nothing in particular.

“Uh huh,” Dan answered politely, but distractedly, crouching down to look at the controls on the impressive-looking stove. He wasn’t really listening.

“Oh, yeah! The stove is new and state-of-the-art--” as the landlord barreled into more information about the admittedly nice stove, Dan totally forgot about the weirdo’s ghost comments.

***

A week later, Dan was moving into his new apartment. He had spent a few days weighing his options, but had ultimately decided to apply for the flat that Paul had showed him. The application had been accepted quickly and now Dan was staring at his new home with a large, heavy cardboard box in his arms. Thankfully, his parents and younger brother were kind enough to give up their Saturday to help Dan out. They were hoping to get it all done in a day. Dan glanced back toward the street and felt overwhelmed by all of the boxes, furniture, and stuff in the moving van. As he made trip after trip from moving van to apartment, he felt increasingly thankful for the elevator in the building.

Dan, his parents, and younger brother were in and out of the apartment all morning with boxes and furniture. “Fuck, Dan, when did you get so much shit?” Alex collapsed on the sofa that the four of them had finally fit it into the far corner of the lounge. He glared at Dan, who just rolled his eyes at his moody teenaged brother. Dan couldn’t really say much; he was moody too when he was sixteen. Dan was just glad that he didn’t start his YouTube channel until later in his life. Less cringe-worthy stuff on the internet, that way.

“Sorry Lexy,” Dan put emphasis on his little brother’s childhood nickname, “How about you let me know what I don’t need and I’ll bin it. Would that make you happy?”

Alex puffed out a breath, “Yeah, start with the shoes. You have enough to make the average girl jealous.”

Dan crossed his arms, “sexist little punk.”

“Self-absorbed twat.”

“Wanker.”

“Assho--”

“Boys! Enough.” Their mum suddenly appeared at the opening to the lounge, looking at her offspring disappointedly. “Daniel, you’re 26, you should know better.” Dan looked down at his toes, feeling more remorseful that he was 26 and was still being disciplined by his mum. Alex just looked smug, until their mum turned to him and crossed her arms. “Alex, Daniel is your older brother and he needed our help today. So don’t complain. We’re family, we help each other. That’s what family does.” Alex rolled his eyes in response.

Dan collapsed next to Alex, letting a sigh escape his lips. “Thanks for helping me, you guys. Even though some of us are annoying little pillocks who should be locked in a room until their bodies are no longer being ravaged by hormones--” he looked pointedly at Alex-- “I really appreciate the help.”

“Well, of course you need help, it’s not like you can afford movers on a YouTuber’s salary.” Alex snipped, shoving his shoulder against Dan.

Their mum looked between them with exasperation, throwing her hands up. “I give up! Brothers! So nasty to each other!” She turned around, exiting the flat to get more boxes. Alex giggled.

Dan looked at him unbelievingly. “Did you really just giggle?”

Alex met his stare with furrowed brows, “No, I didn’t fucking giggle. Why would I giggle? The only funny thing here is your career path.” Alex shoved himself off the couch, “come on, you lazy fuck. You aren’t gonna pass all the work off on us.”

“Will you stop being such a prick?” Dan also pushed himself off the couch, already forgetting about the giggle that he had very clearly heard. Instead, he was thinking about offering to order pizza for everyone so they could have a much-deserved lunch break.

***

Later that night, Dan worked in his new bedroom, making his bed and unloading the boxes that had been haphazardly stacked about. The whole process of bringing in his stuff had taken the better part of the day and then his family stuck around to help Dan start to unpack. They didn’t really get far with it, before Dan was insisting that he could handle the unpacking part and that his family had done enough for him. Of course, Alex had made a relieved sassy comment that Dan had ignored and Dan’s mum checked and double-checked that Dan was ok to do it alone. Dan’s dad suggested going out to dinner and everyone had been more than happy to comply.

His family left long ago and Dan was alone in the apartment. It seemed so big and empty. Every footstep seemed to echo. Dan hated new places. It would get better when his stuff was unpacked and arranged. Until then, Dan just blasted some Vampire Weekend and rifled around in the boxes marked ‘bedroom.’ Whenever Dan moved somewhere new, he set his bedroom up first. The bed was the most important thing, especially since it was pushing 10:00 PM and Dan had gotten up disgustingly early that morning. After the bed was made, Dan went through the process of setting up his computer. Connecting to the internet was blessedly easy, but that was because the internet provider had already been in a couple days ago to install the router and ethernet jacks. Dan had stressed to them how important it was to get everything sorted and they had complied.

Fixing up his bedroom also included building his video background, which was always one of his favorite spaces to decorate. Of course, the iconic butt chair was there. He hung fairy lights around his bed frame and delicately put various knick knacks on display on his bedside table. Posters were hung, clothes were folded and stuffed into his chest of drawers, books were fitted into his new bookshelf, bedsheets were smoothed down, and slowly the boxes disappeared. Dan broke them down and slid them in the hallway, promising himself to take care of the pile rather than trip on it for the next two weeks. Before Dan knew it, it was 1:30 AM and he was crashing, quickly.

Dan silenced Ezra Koenig and tore off his clothes, changing into soft pajama bottoms. He lay down on his bed, groaning at the feeling of his aching body sinking into a blessedly comfy memory foam mattress. Dan had paid a small fortune for the bed, but it had been so worth it. He slept like a baby in it. Dan got out his phone, checking his social media accounts for any important updates. He reblogged some fanart on tumblr, watched some of his friends new YouTube videos, and liked some tweets. Dan himself tweeted, ‘of course the first thing i set up in the new flat is my bed. it’s where all the magic happens and by magic i mean sleep.’ Dan spent a few minutes replying with sassy comments to fans, before feeling his eyelids start to drift closed.

“Ugh, the lights. Gotta get the lights.” Dan murmured to himself, forcing his eyes open. He rolled to the left, aiming to get out of the bed, when the lights were suddenly off. Dan perked his head up, looking around in the room that had just been plunged in darkness. He couldn’t see a thing. He groaned, thinking about how he would already have to contact the landlord about electricity problems. “Stupid faulty electricity,” Dan pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes. “Whatever, it can wait until morning.” Dan pushed the bedcovers down, wiggling under them. They were barely over his body when sleep overtook him.

Dan slept late and when his eyes finally cracked open, the sun was obnoxiously brightening the room. Dan put ‘dark curtains’ on his mental shopping list and pushed the covers off his body. He lay there for a second, observing the ceiling (and praising the lack of cracks in it).

Moments later, his feet touched the floor and he remembered the electricity the previous night. Curious, Dan pushed himself out of bed and padded over to the light switch on the wall. He flicked it experimentally and watched the overhead lights come on and off, on and off. They were working perfectly. There must have been a brief, scarily coincidental, power outage the previous night.

Dan went into the kitchen and made a coffee and popped some toast into the toaster, thanking both his past self for packing some food to sustain him as he moved in, and his mother for unpacking the food immediately. Dan got out his phone as he waited for his breakfast and sent a quick text to his mum. ‘Bless you for unpacking my food.’ She sent him a heart emoji without hesitation and asked him about his first night. He made light conversation about unpacking and sleeping, but quickly said goodbye to her in favor of breakfast.

Dan opened up the notes app in his iPhone, looking at the list of video ideas he had going. Although he had tons of unpacking to do, he was due for a new video soon. He didn’t want to spend a lot of time with a script or with editing, so he figured it was time for another video in his “Quick and Dirty with Dan” series. For these videos, he would essentially set up a camera and rant/ philosophize about a subject for five minutes. He only edited out the “um’s.” They were fun. People cared about his opinions on things, surprisingly. Dan composed a quick tweet: ‘any requests for a quick n dirty?’ and he watched the responses flood in. Of course, plenty of his fans suggested lewd things, inspired by the name of the series. Several tweets said ‘Donald Trump’ and there was no way that Dan was going to fall down that hole. Dan scrolled through his replies, munching on a bite of buttered toast. One tweet jumped out at him and he thumbed the text, liking it. ‘Talk about your experience with/ opinion about the supernatural! Like ghosts, not the show lolol.’ Immediately, Dan recalled the weird conversation he had with Paul the landlord about the ghost that apparently haunted this apartment. It would be a perfect story to include in his video.

When his toast was eaten and cup of coffee was drained, Dan tottered back to his bedroom, maneuvering around boxes. Dan made his bed and changed into his signature black outfit. He set up his camera and lighting equipment and sat down in his chair, checking the viewfinder to make sure that his video background looked agreeable. Dan pressed record, speaking his regular greeting of “Hello internet!” and barreling into the topic of the supernatural.

Three or four hours later, the video was being uploaded onto YouTube. Dan’s more scripted videos took much longer to create, which was why he really liked this series. Dan left the video to do its thing and went to unpack the kitchen, blasting Britney Spears and singing along badly. “Toxic” came on and Dan picked up a wooden spoon, holding it to his mouth and purring out the first words of the song, “baby, can’t you see?” He danced around the kitchen. About halfway through the song, Dan noticed that he was hearing double. There was another voice under Britney’s that wasn’t his own. It wasn’t a particularly good voice, either. It missed some of the notes entirely. Dan furrowed his brow and picked up his phone, checking that Spotify hadn’t accidentally given him a weird, cover version of the song. It hadn’t. Dan paused it and silence enveloped the kitchen. He pressed play again and the song was back to normal, Britney back to her sensual self. Dan felt a little unnerved, thinking about the electricity and the weird mystery voice. He considered exploring the apartment a little, checking closets and corners for possible squatters. In the end, he didn’t do anything of the sort, laughing at himself instead. He needed to get the place set up, then maybe Dan wouldn’t feel so jumpy.

Dan paused Britney and checked the status of his video. He was surprised to find that it had already uploaded successfully. He was impressed with the internet speed. He scrolled through YouTube comments, liking a few clever ones. He rarely replied to YouTube comments, unless one was especially funny. He didn’t find any funny ones, but did notice quite a few that looked exactly identical.

‘Umm wtf ghost at 1:33??????’

‘YOU BETTER BELIEVE IN GHOST STORIES, DANIEL, YOU’RE IN ONE!!!11! 1:33’

‘1:33 Ghost. Ghost. Ghost.’

‘Seriously, what the fuck is that at 1:33??’

Dan rolled his eyes at the comments. These weren’t new on the world of YouTube. People loved creepy things and once one person commented a timestamp and a ghost sighting, it was like a disease. Dan clicked the timestamp on one of the comments, fully expecting a shadow or stuffed animal falling over.

Instead, Dan felt like his heart stopped.

He paused the video. He suddenly felt hot, heat prickling across every inch of his skin. In the video, in the dark doorway of his bedroom, there was an unmistakable figure. A man. He was barely a glimmer, but, boy, was he there.

Dan stared at the screen, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him. There was literally no fucking reasonable explanation for what he was seeing. Dan tried to rationalize it, but was coming up with nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Instead, he was thinking about the landlord’s comments, the mysterious giggle that he thought was Alex, the electricity problem, the strange voice he heard while singing “Toxic.” Dan started shaking. He was afraid to play the video and watch what the figure would do. But he had to. Curiosity ate at him. Slowly, shakily, Dan pressed play and watched the entryway. The man looked up at Dan in the video. Dan blanched at the man’s pale skin, dark hair, and piercing eyes. He didn’t look unfriendly, watching Dan with curiosity. In the video, Dan was saying something about “the idea of ghosts scaring the diddly heck out of him,” and Dan saw the ghost’s mouth quirk up in a smile, before he was simply phasing out of frame.

Dan paused the video and released a breath that he had been holding.

“Sorry for intruding on your video.” Dan screamed, actually screamed, jerking violently in his chair. It pitched back and he crashed to the floor. The room echoed with the sound of the loud crash and Dan felt momentarily dazed. He stared up at the ceiling, wondering if someone had slipped him hallucinogenic drugs without him knowing. Alex would probably get a kick out of doing something like that. Suddenly, a figure came into Dan’s view, looking at Dan upside down. It was the figure from the video. The ghost? The hallucination? Dan’s eyes widened at the man. He looked… concerned. “Oh dear, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. Are you all right?” Dan noticed the voice had a Northern tinge, and now was really not the time to notice such a fucking stupid detail.

“Me? I-I-- well, I-I. Are y-you? Ghost? Who, who, who are you?” Dan stuttered pathetically, trembling all over. He felt cold and hot at the same time. He wondered briefly if he had a fever. Maybe he hadn’t woken up yet and this was a dream.

The figure covered his translucent face in equally translucent hands. “Oh god, I’ve really muffed this up. Of course you would be frightened.” He removed his hands from his face and stared down at Dan. “Won’t you get up? We could go to the lounge? I’ll introduce myself properly!”

Dan just lay there, trembling. He blinked his eyes over and over, willing the ghost to disappear. He wasn’t awake. He was asleep. This was a dream. He pinched himself. It didn’t work. He slapped himself in the face. Nothing happened.

“Hey! Don’t hit yourself!” Dan jumped again. He stared into a pair of ghosts eyes a moment longer and decided that he should at least pick himself off the floor. He did so, probing the back of his head and wincing at the tender spot that was definitely bruised. Methodically, he picked the chair up off the ground and tucked it under the desk, trying to breathe evenly. It was a losing battle. Finally, Dan snapped, and the floodgates opened. He began breathing harder, the unmistakable feeling of panic sweeping over his body. He felt lightheaded and numb. Dan sat down on the floor, hard, breath coming faster and faster. He pushed himself against the wall of his bedroom, trying to get as far away from the ghost as possible. His breath wheezed out of him, specks of spit flying out of his mouth. Dan pressed his head in between his knees as he lost feeling in his fingers. He didn’t feel real. He was terrified. What was happening to him? “Hey, hey, now. It’s ok. God, I’m so sorry, Dan. It’s ok. Breathe. Slowly, slowly now.” Dan knew that the voice was coming from the object of his fears, but it was good advice. He tried his best to take it, trying to control his lungs. He used every trick he had learned throughout his life of living with anxiety. He imagined that his lungs had legs and were running away and he imagined himself running after them, catching them in his hands. He listened to the soothing repetition of “it’s ok, shh, slowly now” coming from the mouth of the fucking ghost across from him. Dan picked up his heavy hands and brought them up to his own neck, dragging his fingers along the sensitive skin there. Anything to ground him. Anything to make him feel real again. Minutes later, Dan’s breathing began to slow. He focused hard on forcing it to stay slow. “There ya go, good. I’m not a bad guy. I couldn’t hurt a fly, I promise.”

Dan looked up at the ghost who had crouched down in front of Dan’s crumpled form. He would have looked like a completely normal guy, if not for the see-through skin and the slightly hovering body. This was the first time Dan was getting a good look at him and he was surprised, to say the least. The man in front of him was more like a boy. He had long, black hair that was cut into a style resembling cool 2007 emo myspace kids. Interestingly enough, he was sporting a worn, blue shirt and grey sweatpants. He had piercing blue eyes. “You’re a ghost.” Dan’s voice was shaky and monotone. He felt exhausted. Dan realized that his face was wet with tears. When he had a panic attack, he often couldn’t tell the difference between hyperventilating and sobbing. It all blended into one disastrous experience.

The figure looked embarrassed and Dan thought he saw the ghost’s face turn red. “I am a ghost. I’m sorry.” The ghost scratched at the back of his head. “Dan, I feel terribly. I should have realized that you would have reacted like this. I accidentally drove the last renters out and I never even purposefully revealed myself to them. God, I’m just an idiot. I just couldn’t believe that you were a YouTuber and I got so excited to see the camera and--”

“--Ok, ok. It’s, um, ok, I guess.” Dan cut the ghost off. He blew out a shaky breath. “How do you, um, know my name?”

The ghost looked embarrassed again. “Oh, I heard your family call you Dan. That sounds so creepy. Sheesh,” he refused to meet Dan’s eyes. “I wish I could leave you alone forever, but I-- uh-- am kinda tethered to this place. Can’t leave.”

Dan nodded slowly, deciding that, if this was happening and this was reality, he might as well be cordial. “Oh. Well, do you have a name?”

Phil clapped his hand over his face and Dan couldn’t help but jump a little, body still on edge. “I’m really cocking this up. Yes of course I have a name, I’m so rude. Phil Lester, at your service!” Phil stuck his hand out at Dan who just stared at it. Phil slowly retracted it, “sorry, habit.” The ghost coughed, “sorry.”

“Right. Um.” Dan chewed his lip and stared at Phil with wide eyes. What was the proper etiquette when it came to ghosts? He couldn’t offer Phil some tea and cakes, for chrissakes. Dan suddenly remembered something Phil had said only seconds before. “You know YouTube? How?”

Phil smiled a sad smile and crossed his legs. He looked like a monk who had achieved enlightenment with his hovering. “I had a channel back in the day. I had a lot of fun with it.” Phil stared at his legs, picking at the fabric covering his knee.

“Oh! Wow, you were a YouTuber?” Dan couldn’t hide his disbelief. What were the odds that the ghost tethered to his new apartment had also been a YouTube when he was alive? Dan wasn’t even going to dwell on how weird that sentence was. “What was your username?”

Phil met his eyes and smiled shyly, “oh, um, it was amazingphil.” Dan raised his eyebrows. “I know, I know. I made it in 2006.”

“That’s fair; everyone had quirky usernames back in the day.” Dan remembered his first youtube channel name and was briefly thankful that he never made a single video on it. He couldn’t imagine what kind of professional life he could have with a name like ‘danisnotonfire.’

“Yeah, I guess. But mine was particularly silly, huh?”

“Not as bad as danisnotonfire,” Dan said, laughing a little.

“That’s your channel name?!”

“Oh no, no. But it was the account I made when I was 16. I never used it to make videos, thank god.” Silence followed Dan’s comment and he was struck by the sudden realization that he was having a fucking conversation with a ghost. “Hey-- did you turn off the lights last night?” Dan tilted his head to the side slightly and Phil looked abashed.

“Um, ah, yeah. You had just worked so hard and looked so comfy. I just flicked them off for you, it wasn’t hard.” Phil cleared his throat, “electricity is one those things that I can manipulate.”

Dan hummed to himself. “So you were watching me last night?”

Phil’s eyes widened. “Sorry! Sorry! Bad habit! I don’t see many people. It’s just nice to--” He cut himself off. “I think it’s about time for me to leave you alone. You need some space,” Phil nodded to himself, “I need to get out of your space.”

“Phil! Phil, wait! I still have--” and then the ghost was gone, as quick as he had appeared. “--questions.” Dan finished lamely.

Dan looked around his bedroom, almost surprised to find that it hadn’t changed; only Dan’s perception of it had. Everything was too bright and crystal clear, like he had been swimming underwater with his eyes open until that moment. Dan shakily got up off the floor and made his way to the bed, collapsing on it. He didn’t bother to put on different clothes or get under the covers. So, a ghost was haunting his new apartment. What was he supposed to do about that? Let the landlord know? The landlord already knew; he had bloody warned Dan. Tell his parents? His subscribers? Well, his subscribers had already seen it. Curious, Dan pulled his phone out of his back pocket and scrolled through his replies on Twitter. The ghost was literally the only thing that any of them were talking about. Dan checked the views on his video and his mouth dropped open. It was almost to one million views, which was pretty normal for him, but it always took a couple of days for the views to add up to a million. His video was going viral. Dan locked his phone and placed it on the bedside table. What was he supposed to do about this? He began to drift asleep, the exhaustion of his panic attack weighing him down into the mattress. Phil had been a YouTuber when he was alive; maybe Dan would ask him his opinion. Before Dan could consider how odd of a concept it was, he was asleep.

Chapter two

#phan #phanfiction #phanfic #ghost au #halloween #spooky week #spooky week special

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