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entities-of-posts · 3 years ago

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hello archivist!

i was wondering what your personal ranking of entities based on how much you like them/think theyre neat (if the corruption isnt #1 i will crawl through your window like a worm (threatening))

Hmmm if we’re just going on Vibes and not alignment, it would go a little like this…

The assholes zone:

15. The Desolation. Like the fire aesthetic, hate everything else about it and most of its avatars I’ve met (present company excluded, of course. None of you budding arsonists that occasionally come visit my Archive have antagonized me too much yet which I appreciate.)

14. The Slaughter. Personal grudge. Anyway the Hunt does everything it does but better. Except the music, gotta give it that.

13. The Extinction. New and exciting to figure out, but still the manifestation of one of the shittiest, most infuriating phenomenon of our era.

The “meh” zone:

12. The Dark. Kinda boring and always hiding stuff from Sight, which are both up there on my list of highest crimes. Also feels like it could do better but it just doesn’t, which is disappointing and annoying.

11. The Buried. So-so. Caves are pretty cool though, but only as long as they don’t actually crush you into a pulp, so… It actually takes caves and make them less fun.

10. The Lonely. Mopey. Statements always taste somehow too salty and flavorless at once. Depressing, no kick to them. I can appreciate a good fog though.

9. The Flesh. Meat is meat, whatever, who hasn’t eaten a little bit of human flesh at some point, not worth the fuss. Feels like its avatars could do some pretty impressive body sculptures, but most just… don’t do anything that interesting, which is probably because everyone who’s got gory inclinations but also actual artistic talent goes with the Stranger.

8. The End. I personally don’t especially worry or care about it, but the aesthetic is a solid 8/10 and its avatars are usually polite.

The cool kids zone:

7. The Corruption. (I know, I know, not first place. Sorry Anna.) Like the bugs, like the mushrooms, a little less fond of the plagues. Statements are a bit of an acquired taste, but you get used to the whiff of mold eventually. Actually kinda sweet, which is pretty rare for Dread Powers. Endearing.

6. The Stranger. Fun loving folks, throw absolutely indescribable parties which is both a pro and a con, easily one of the best styles, and a real sense of grotesque and panache I truly appreciate in a statement. Kind of annoying to try and See through all the smoke and mirrors though.

5. The Hunt. Not always the most pleasant of avatars, but how exhilarating! Truly gets your blood pumping like nothing else! Neither my favorite nor least favorite aesthetic-wise, but an old classic for sure.

4. The Vast. Whose heart doesn’t skip a beat at the sight of the immensity? Who doesn’t feel l’appel du vide tugging at their guts? Isn’t the vertigo just like infatuation, when you think about it? Very very beautiful, maybe a bit too open and empty to have the kind of mystery that really pulls me it.

3. The Eye. Hi 👁 Well obviously I like this one, don’t think I need to expend on that. All the extra eyeballs are a really good look if I do say so myself. We’re a bunch of nerds though I can’t deny it.

2. The Spiral. I’ve spoken at length about how fascinating and exasperating this one is already. Very enthralling colors and pattern that always gets burned into my retinas and give me a headache because I keep staring too long. Avatars can be the cockiest most chaotic bastards out there but they’re always fun and interesting and some of them are even nice. Also I’m honestly so jealous of the Doors those seem so unfairly useful.

1. The Web. Absolute queen. Unlike the Eye, not so busy being knowledgeable she forgets to be clever. I am far far too fond of the Spiders for my own good and they can be so frustratingly secretive but you don’t have all the facts. Which are: I love them.

There we go! Yes I put two of the most violent and destructive Entities at the very bottom of the list, what are they gonna do, try to kill me again? Probably, but look how well that went last time.

#honestly the Slaughter would probably be a bit higher on the list if I didn’t hold an old grudge but too bad because I sure do!#statements #Adelaide

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brownthrussy · 7 years ago

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Hey I saw your tags, & I was just wondering what is racist in su & gf? I'm just genuinely curious!

Well first of all sorry about the late reply i've been pretty busy! Second of all this might be a pointless reply, considering these fandoms, but fuck it. Stevies university and its fandom loves to preach itself as being diverse and woke yet does the same stuff that other fandoms do. Remember when Garnet or Amethyst got an arc for themselves? Me neither. Literally they're both "fusion" and the "fat friend" at this point. Both get little to no development for themselves which becomes ridiculous when theres been an interesting amount of focus and detail concerning Pearl. The Sardonyx arc, you know the arc which should have shown that Garnet is allowed to show that she can be vulnerable and that hurting others has consequences, was established as a Pearl arc. Literally it focused on the one that caused said problem instead of the one that got hurt when it shouldve focused on both atleast. Its also interesting how Garnet was stoic and silent when she was Darker in season 1 yet after her immediate regeneration in the end of the season she becomes lighter and more open. It probably wasnt intentional, considering Garnet got some growth by the season to become more open since Stevie met her halves, but its a tiring trope or "Stoic black woman finally gets to have a personality out of being serious and strong" which lasted a season. By season 3 shes literally the fusion friend. Aka the only episodes where she gets some focus are concerning fusion, which isnt wrong considering she is one, but it gets ridiculous not giving her anything else to work for. Amethyst was used as a "self hate" trope, which was great initially however it got repetitive and nothing was truly done. Remember season 3 when Amethyst was like "i hate myself thx Jasper" and Stevie was like "i hate myself too ok" and had a episode dedicated to it. It didnt seem necessary to have a competition on who hates themselves more when they could've, oh i dont know, learn and show compassion to one another as well as understanding each others. While it isnt exactly racism, i just dislike how the emotions in this show is just cry cry and we never mention it ever again. "Bismuth" was a display of "angry black woman' considering Bismuth wanted to kill a dictator and Stevie was like "b-hut th' hat'll make us just as bad l1ke them!!!1" and then Bismuth got poofed for wanting to kill dictators cause she was black and mean :// i get the whole "she tried to kill stevie" she thought he was rose and before anyone says "still murder tho" well ya faves Pearl Lapis and Peridot did the same shit too while the big bad butches Bismuth and Jasper suffer forever :). "Earthings" was a favorite of mine but I thought it used Smoky Quartz at the wrong time. Like the episode literally says that Amethyst could never beat Jasper no matter how she tries which really wasnt a good lesson tbh "hard work doesnt pay off, genetics does!!". Smoky was formed from a emotional bond which was nice but i thought it wouldve been better if Amethyst had accepted stevies help and that they could be fucks up together and said fusion would happen naturally instead of using fusion as just "wow we cant do shit on our owns :/// thanks rock genetics". The rubies literally got left in space to die when they were so easy to dispatch and Steven pulled the "i wanted to help eyeball" while he left the other 4 rubies to die instead of giving them a chance since wow they're??? Their own gems and deserve a chance. Said fandom demonized Navy and called her a sociopath for gaining Stevie's and the barn lesbians trust and taking the ship. These were some detailed reasons why the fandom and show seem hypocritical when they pull their "we care about diveristy but we aint gonna bother showing it" aka if youre not white coded rip you. Connie and Lars' heritage? Not necessary since theyre not white lol. Lars got a confirmed race like 4 episodes before he became pink so if we hadn't seen him before he got pink then we wouldve never known since he wouldnt look like a poc and he doesnt talk about his heritage so he wouldnt sound like one either. The fandom was also like "omgggg look at this one pic of Connie's mom wearing Indian clothes" while refusing the claim that we dont need to hear about anyone's heritage since it isn't "realistic" for POC to talk about it. Interestingly, most white fans say this claim hmm. Blue Diamond had some concerns syrrounding whitewashing, which appears to be due to lighting/ not official design. The problem was that BD was shown to be crueler in Season 2 when she was going to kill Ruby for doing her job. Yet by her official appearance she's neon, looks white despite the Indian asthethic vibe displayed on "The Return" and her display on the Moon, and sad cause her co-worker/ gf died or some shit despite Becky Sugar saying that BD was supposed to be a representation of homophobia. A stupid trope where the homophobe was just a closeted gay. She also became so sad and gay that the fandom woobified her to being a innocent gem despite being a dictator, trying to murder a main character, owning a human zoo. The show also made her cry like 99% to make you feel sad for her cause oh no how dare our white saviour Rose Quartz murder a dictator. This also brought a stupid belief of Steven that "the diamonds woildnt be here if it wasnt for my mom !!! Fuck her" considering killing PD looks like it was the only good thing Rose has done and like out of all the things steven has a right to be mad about it was about his mom killing a dictator??? Also Amethyst's and a Gem named Concrete had their own racist beta designs. Amethyst had a chola design and Concrete, a literal black coded gem that couldnt read (an advanced alien species and the only one that cant read is the black gem?),were displayed on the art books because the crewniverse doesnt really consider the racism that theyve displayed for children to see. This show has a lot of problems and its still good, could be a whole lot better if some issues were addressed, but considering the writers and fandom refuse to address any criticism by using the "its a show for kids!!!1) says the 30 year old white gay on tunglr. Org who praises stevies university for being woke!!1 and having a gay couple. Jeez this got long but I just think its hypocritical that everyone praises this show for barely doing the bare minimum yet refuses to address any problems.While I havent watched the whole show, Gravity falls has displayed a lack of POC in their whole show. While it is a small city, it became interesting that a lot of POC were in prison.

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misterbitches · 4 years ago

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Im not intelligent at all. In the conventional sense. The ramblings of a girl who just has sooo much going in in her head it's constant. But im not a genius. Or that confusing.

It just sounds like I am bc fandoms have this issue where they can JUSTSO point out the issues in soletiing. They can pick and prod and go oh problematic! But then you go to name the problems and the difficulties within society like for ex: the idea of representation in general. Salivating over it. How fucking sad that is. How we are trained to accept it. So in a BL and also RACE in the bl genre they exploit viewers naivete both domestically and internationally. Ive seen tons of people liken being asian to being a person of color. However, in their predominantly homogenous society (or intentionally publically homogenous society), they are not "poc" (also name the of color; i dont use bipoc idc if u do but it's called being asian guys cos yall aint talkin about black ppl lmao)

They as humans seeing other humans who look like them everywhere, engage with the world differently than an american in asia or asians living outside of their home country (like bae doo nanwhen she worksnin the US is not the same as the bae doo nanworking on a korean program) I dont complain about it in everything i see bc ppl say it ALL THE TIME. but it is NOT the same. Being a person of color is very distinctly an american concept. This is all stuff people will get to know on their own if they choose to dig more.

I do my best to underline what my ugly little eyes process. How i figure things out as a black female american artist too! Im hard on shit cos i should be. I take it seriously. And even if i dont take it seriously bc THEY dont then thats their problem.

I know this is a complaint that I am not alone in. I know it's the internet. I just don't get how people can write really heavy analysis but they refuse to actually probe the underlying issues. Not everyone is me, or like my friends, but if there's way fewer people talking about this stuff it seems absolutely glaring when theres few people engaging in the way i do. It seems like im the glitch but I am thinking just as much just differently.

I really loved where your eyes linger but there was little deep class analysis. I remember few convos a bout it. I know a lot about korea (sigh being a black ex kpop fan lol mess) and i love the history but all ofnit matters! Korea's relation to labor!

People bringing up thai actors snd actresses leaving the industry and doing acting as something quick. As an artist~ who went to film school with insanely wealthy ppl and isnin tons of debt you have to understand how shitty that is. People have monetary access and they just fucking do whatever just because they want to. Meanwhile you have young people being coerced into this bullshit mainstream life to LITERALY just make money bc they dont come from a rich background. The wealth gap in thailand is BAD, theres a dictatorship, they had a fucking coup. The governments like here do not respect their people. Their marginalized groups. Trans thai women, black thai ppl, poor thai ppl. And it LITERALLY CANNOT DO ANYTHING EFFECTIVELY IN CAPITALISM. No nothing can be perfect but if it's going into our eyeballs and we can view the worlld critically then why the fuck not!???

I dont say the things i see are wrong always. I reply when i think i need to. I try and engage with others but not to kuch avail. I just want to rb stuff and tdhink lajfhhdjwhjej.

But like yea theres a lot of just wrong or misguided stuff. A lot of the times it is just historical inaccuracy in framing or idk. A refusal to think outside the box. I dont care. Theres more to life than just sort of looking and not thinking especially for othrr artists.

Idk im sorry. I dont see how i can change how i view things. I really wish people would expand their palettes too and go deeper into other means of art from places! Things not in the mainstream! Theres a lot of good thai artists and a lot of them critical as fuck about their country as they should be. Authority, austerity, patriarchy, capital, racism etc like that is central to a power thats interested in growing gains and fiscal and social power. Theres rly radical or left leaning etc ppl out there in the world and these countries in these communities. So they exist. No people in these countries dont have NO clue whats going on. Cultural relativism is alsos something people should understand. I had a good talk with ppl on here a while ago about that. Talking about shit, critiquing, but being respectful to a group. Part of thay is realizing these groups CLEARLY know their own issues and all our cultures share the same goal. Guess what it is. It rhymes with acquiring wealth. Money means you hurt people. In the post, we talked about use of "wife" and "husband" which is a stupid joke that has been "explained" a billion times and yet the explanations still dont seem to answer or justify a minor problem (it's very funny to me that a language that doesnt have gendered pronouns is now very specific about two men. Hmmm wonder why. It is annoying.)

So im not the only person on the planet doing this. Or the few ppl ive seen that do. Im not new my thoughts arent new. Ive gotten to see another side to a culture i knew not much about and that means i can put the context of my beliefs and life and try and understand thheirs. For ex i learned from ITSAY because of a sign that said 'french food' that they were the only country to not be colonized back then. Do you know how integral that history is to their region? That was an interesting detail (i didnt finish itsay bc ihad a lot going on and i was rly upset that i would see hownrich they are and i hate that.)

Anyways thats my complaint. It used to feel like a sting of rejection. I left online for months in 2019, i started organizing more, joined a union, trying to do some panther work shit like that. I learned a lot in those months and it changed my life! But when I came back, I felt so isolated. It wasnt my true friends tho sometimes theyre ANNOYINGGGGG (love u) but it was me being like "if we are going to complain guys then lets put our money where our mouth is" lets be fucking serious about it then. No say it with your chest dude. It isnt difficult. Go with the fucking flow, talk about it, critique it, think. You can still fucking like itnor love it.

I am BLACK ok and i love rap. I am a black woman. I will continue to clown black men that cant seem to not clown themselves and listen. No i wont support monetarily: drake is a creep and i hate him but i bump that niggas song. Thats fucking LIFE. I got so sick of hiding myself and it became clear that it wasnt that i wasntthinking well or hard enough. They just didnt like that i said we need to commit class suicide and inspect out middle class sensibilities and middle class wealth hoarding (google it) if thats what we engaged with. Every part of you, antagonize it. I still have my privileges; class, skin color, even my father being a nigerian immigrant, me being cis, im not str8 but not a lesbian and those are differences.

Insecurities in general but some shallow thoughts (?) on discussion in "fandom" space. FYI, this will most likely stay the same. I tend to stay in my own bubble socially IE me and my friends are similar in our views. During this awful year while running my union's account, im surrounded by like minds. Me and my friends? We changed together. We grew up and saw what we didnt like and what we want. We do our best.And i CHOOSE my life to be that way bc it should be. There is no solution. I dont believe in solutions because the solution is to abolish capital or just divest. Abolishing capital and labor are a huge one and i will die before that happens (but so help me as long as im alive? Black women to FREEDOMMMM is my motto!) so making your own path in life is the best thing an artist can do IN MY OPINION.

However with technology and stuff this puts another layer onto things. Tech, social media, this shit....it THRIIIIIIIVESSSSSSS off of conflict and shallow readings of the world. We are literally primed for it. Engagement in bites. Impossible for me with my brain; i got used to it and i paid for it by limiting my scope. Not being encouraged to THINK AND READ before just speaking

(For ex i am in iww, i helped form a branch here. It is a radical union. Unionism is imprative to me-if ur interested u should read up on some. Look up peter cole! Google inthesetimes Ilwu. Gives you some understanding. Ive always been progressive and now i am....very left idk ic ant label myself. But even in my progrssiveness i had the gall to tell my white friend, whoa has her privileges but i had mine with our class disparity, that we dont need unions, i have WORKED retail. Ive done barista work for sonoing and i do gig work. So i wasnt out of touch. I had been stiffed even with a shoot i was working on by rich kids. So i had a frame of reference . But i didnt know what the FUCKa union was and why it is imperative. Then learning about anarcho syndicalism and all these other things. It changed my fucking life but two years earlier i was this idiot spouting shit like that making one of my best friends fucking upset. We DO AND CAN CHANGE. Think!!!!)

So were i a creator for tv id just constantly try and push the buttons if i need big money. Make them sell into me (thank you sonic youth!) theres Endless possibilities guys which means theres SO MUCH TK EXPLORE!!!! When i wanna have fun with it i just have fun. When i want to think i do. I dont understand why we are so dedicated to upholding things and doing mental gymnastics to end up in a space you dont need mental gymnastics for. What about these critiques makes you uncomfortable? Saying we're all part of the problem as spectators? Im sorry but we will always be. Thats LIFE. God fuck. Fuck me. I feel so fucking worthless and stupid sometimes. I know I am not. I know i am talented and intelligent. I know my friends and family. I know how to approach ppl. I know how to tell people if they are rich but want to be progressive whatsup. I choose how i live part of that is being ok to say what i want.

Ironically consrrvatives say this shit alot. But they arent ever alone bc their ideology is default. But yea it does feel shitty. It even feels shitty when ur in left circles but people STILL dont even wanna do that. These perspectives really arent ss many as they should be. I dont want to feel so alone with it. I know there are more. I just love art and the world so fucking much, endless possibility. Endless pain but endless good.

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we-johnnygonzalez-blog · 6 years ago

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5 Real Examples of Advanced Content Promotion Strategies

Posted by bsmarketer

Content promotion isn’t tweeting or upvoting. Those tiny, one-off tactics are fine for beginners. They might make a dent, but they definitely won’t move the needle. Companies that want to grow big and grow fast need to grow differently.

Here’s how Kissmetrics, Sourcify, Sales Hacker, Kinsta, and BuildFire have used advanced content promotion tips like newsjacking and paid social to elevate their brands above the competition.

1. Use content to fuel social media distribution (and not the other way around)

Prior to selling the brand and blog to Neil Patel, Kissmetrics had no dedicated social media manager at the height of their success. The Kissmetrics blog received nearly 85% of its traffic from organic search. The second biggest traffic-driver was the newsletter.

Social media did drive traffic to their posts. However, former blog editor Zach Buylgo’s research showed that these traffic segments often had the lowest engagement (like time on site) and the least conversions (like trial or demo opt-ins) — so they didn’t prioritize it. The bulk of Zach’s day was instead focused on editing posts, making changes himself, adding comments and suggestions for the author to fix, and checking for regurgitated content. Stellar, long-form content was priority number one. And two. And three.

So Zach wasn’t just looking for technically-correct content. He was optimizing for uniqueness: the exact same area where most cheap content falls short. That’s an issue because many times, a simple SERP analysis would reveal that one submission:

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...Looked exactly like the number-one result from Content Marketing Institute:

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Today’s plagiarism tools can catch the obvious stuff, but these derivatives often slip through the cracks. Recurring paid writers contributed the bulk of the TOFU content, which would free Zach up to focus more on MOFU use cases and case studies to help visitors understand how to get the most out of their product set (from the in-house person who knows it best).

They produced marketing guides and weekly webinars to transform initial attention into new leads:

They also created free marketing tools to give prospects an interactive way to continue engaging with their brand:

In other words, they focused on doing the things that matter most — the 20% that would generate the biggest bang for their buck. They won’t ignore social networks completely, though. They still had hundreds of thousands of followers across each network. Instead, their intern would take the frontlines. That person would watch out for anything critical, like a customer question, which will then be passed off to the Customer Success Manager that will get back to them within a few hours.

New blog posts would get the obligatory push to Twitter and LinkedIn. (Facebook is used primarily for their weekly webinar updates.) Zach used Pablo from Buffer to design and create featured images for the blog posts.

Then he’d use an Open Graph Protocol WordPress plugin to automatically add all appropriate tags for each network. That way, all he had to do was add the file and basic post meta data. The plugin would then customize how it shows up on each network afterward. Instead of using Buffer to promote new posts, though, Zach likes MeetEdgar.

Why? Doesn’t that seem like an extra step at first glance? Like Buffer, MeetEdgar allows you to select when you’d like to schedule content. You can just load up the queue with content, and the tool will manage the rest. The difference is that Buffer constantly requires new content — you need to keep topping it off, whereas MeetEdgar will automatically recycle the old stuff you’ve previously added. This saved a blog like Kissmetrics, with thousands of content pieces, TONS of time.

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He would then use Sleeknote to build forms tailored to each blog category to transform blog readers into top-of-the-funnel leads:

But that’s about it. Zach didn’t do a ton of custom tweets. There weren’t a lot of personal replies. It’s not that they didn’t care. They just preferred to focus on what drives the most results for their particular business. They focused on building a brand that people recognize and trust. That means others would do the social sharing for them.

Respected industry vets like Avinash Kaushik, for example, would often share their blog posts. And Avinash was the perfect fit, because he already has a loyal, data-driven audience following him.

So that single tweet brings in a ton of highly-qualified traffic — traffic that turns into leads and customers, not just fans.

2. Combine original research and newsjacking to go viral

Sourcify has grown almost exclusively through content marketing. Founder Nathan Resnick speaks, attends, and hosts everything from webinars to live events and meetups. Most of their events are brand-building efforts to connect face-to-face with other entrepreneurs. But what’s put them on the map has been leveraging their own experience and platform to fuel viral stories.

Last summer, the record-breaking Mayweather vs. McGregor fight was gaining steam. McGregor was already infamous for his legendary trash-talking and shade-throwing abilities. He also liked to indulge in attention-grabbing sartorial splendor. But the suit he wore to the very first press conference somehow managed to combine the best of both personality quirks:

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This was no off-the-shelf suit. He had it custom made. Nathan recalls seeing this press conference suit fondly: “Literally, the team came in after the press conference, thinking, ‘Man, this is an epic suit.’” So they did what any other rational human being did after seeing it on TV: they tried to buy it online.

“Except, the dude was charging like $10,000 to cover it and taking six weeks to produce.” That gave Nathan an idea. “I think we can produce this way faster.”

They “used their own platform, had samples done in less than a week, and had a site up the same day.”

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“We took photos, sent them to different factories, and took guesstimates on letter sizing, colors, fonts, etc. You can often manufacture products based on images if it’s within certain product categories.” The goal all along was to use the suit as a case study. They partnered with a local marketing firm to help split the promotion, work, and costs.

“The next day we signed a contract with a few marketers based in San Francisco to split the profits 50–50 after we both covered our costs. They cover the ad spend and setup; we cover the inventory and logistics cost,” Nathan wrote in an article for The Hustle. When they were ready to go, the marketing company began running ad campaigns and pushing out stories. They went viral on BroBible quickly after launch and pulled in over $23,000 in sales within the first week.

The only problem is that they used some images of Conor in the process. And apparently, his attorney’s didn’t love the IP infringement. A cease and desist letter wasn’t far behind:

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This result wasn’t completely unexpected. Both Nathan and the marketing partner knew they were skirting a thin line. But either way, Nathan got what he wanted out of it.

3. Drive targeted, bottom-of-the-funnel leads with Quora

Quora packs another punch that often elevates it over the other social channels: higher-quality traffic. Site visitors are asking detailed questions, expecting to comb through in-depth answers to each query. In other words, they’re invested. They’re smart. And if they’re expressing interest in managed WordPress hosting, it means they’ve got dough, too.

Both Sales Hacker and Kinsta take full advantage. Today, Gaetano DiNardi is the Director of Demand Generation at Nextiva. But before that, he lead marketing at Sales Hacker before they were acquired. There, content was central to their stratospheric growth. With Quora, Gaetano would take his latest content pieces and use them to solve customer problems and address pain points in the general sales and marketing space:

By using Quora as a research tool, he would find new topics that he can create content around to drive new traffic and connect with their current audience:

He found questions that they already had content for and used it as a chance to engage users and provide value. He can drive tons of relevant traffic for free by linking back to the Sales Hacker blog:

Kinsta, a managed WordPress hosting company out of Europe, also uses uses relevant threads and Quora ads. CMO Brian Jackson jumps into conversations directly, lending his experience and expertise where appropriate. His technical background makes it easy to talk shop with others looking for a sophisticated conversation about performance (beyond the standard, PR-speak most marketers offer up):

Brian targets different WordPress-related categories, questions, or interests. Technically, the units are “display ads, but they look like text.” The ad copy is short and to the point. Usually something like, “Premium hosting plans starting at $XX/month” to fit within their length requirements.

4. Rank faster with paid (not organic) social promotion

Kinsta co-founder Tom Zsomborgi wrote about their journey in a bootstrapping blog post that went live last November. It instantly hit the top of Hacker News, resulting in their website getting a consistent 400+ concurrent visitors all day:

Within hours their post was also ranking on the first page for the term “bootstrapping,” which receives around 256,000 monthly searches.

How did that happen?

“There’s a direct correlation between social proof and increased search traffic. It’s more than people think,” said Brian. Essentially, you’re paying Facebook to increase organic rankings. You take good content, add paid syndication, and watch keyword rankings go up.

Kinsta’s big goal with content promotion is to build traffic and get as many eyeballs as possible. Then they’ll use AdRoll for display retargeting messages, targeting the people who just visited with lead gen offers to start a free trial. (“But I don’t use AdRoll for Facebook because it tags on their middleman fee.”)

Brian uses the “Click Campaigns” objective on Facebook Ads for both lead gen and content promotion. “It’s the best for getting traffic.”

Facebook's organic reach fell by 52% in 2016 alone. That means your ability to promote content to your own page fans is quickly approaching zero.

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“It’s almost not even worth posting if you’re not paying,” confirms Brian. Kinsta will promote new posts to make sure it comes across their fans’ News Feed. Anecdotally, that reach number with a paid assist might jump up around 30%.

If they don’t see it, Brian will “turn it into an ad and run it separately.” It’s “re-written a second time to target a broader audience.”

In addition to new post promotion, Brian has an evergreen campaign that’s constantly delivering the “best posts ever written” on their site. It’s “never-ending” because it gives Brian a steady-stream of new site visitors — or new potential prospects to target with lead gen ads further down the funnel. That’s why Brian asserts that today’s social managers need to understand PPC and lead gen. “A lot of people hire social media managers and just do organic promotion. But Facebook organic just sucks anyway. It’s becoming “pay to play.’”

“Organic reach is just going to get worse and worse and worse. It’s never going to get better.” Also, advertising gets you “more data for targeting,” which then enables you to create more in-depth A/B tests.

We confirmed this through a series of promoted content tests, where different ad types (custom images vs. videos) would perform better based on the campaign objectives and placements.

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That’s why “best practices” are past practices — or BS practices. You don’t know what’s going to perform best until you actually do it for yourself. And advertising accelerates that feedback loop.

5. Constantly refresh your retargeting ad creative to keep engagement high

Almost every single stat shows that remarketing is one of the most efficient ways to close more customers. The more ad remarketing impressions someone sees, the higher the conversion rate. Remarketing ads are also incredibly cheap compared to your standard AdWords search ad when trying to reach new cold traffic.

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There’s only one problem to watch out for: ad fatigue. The image creative plays a massive role in Facebook ad success. But over time (a few days to a few weeks), the performance of that ad will decline. The image becomes stale. The audience has seen it too many times. The trick is to continually cycle through similar, but different, ad examples.

Here’s how David Zheng does it for BuildFire:

His team will either (a) create the ad creative image directly inside Canva, or (b) have their designers create a background ‘template’ that they can use to manipulate quickly. That way, they can make fast adjustments on the fly, A/B testing small elements like background color to keep ads fresh and conversions as high as possible.

(image source)

All retargeting or remarketing campaigns will be sent to a tightly controlled audience. For example, let’s say you have leads who’ve downloaded an eBook and ones who’ve participated in a consultation call. You can just lump those two types into the same campaign, right? I mean, they’re both technically ‘leads.’

But that’s a mistake. Sure, they’re both leads. However, they’re at different levels of interest. Your goal with the first group is to get them on a free consultation call, while your goal with the second is to get them to sign up for a free trial. That means two campaigns, which means two audiences.

Facebook’s custom audiences makes this easy, as does LinkedIn’s new-ish Matched Audiences feature. Like with Facebook, you can pick people who’ve visited certain pages on your site, belong to specific lists in your CRM, or whose email address is on a custom .CSV file:

If both of these leads fall off after a few weeks and fail to follow up, you can go back to the beginning to re-engage them. You can use content-based ads all over again to hit back at the primary pain points behind the product or service that you sell.

This seems like a lot of detailed work — largely because it is. But it’s worth it because of scale. You can set these campaigns up, once, and then simply monitor or tweak performance as you go. That means technology is largely running each individual campaign. You don’t need as many people internally to manage each hands-on.

And best of all, it forces you to create a logical system. You’re taking people through a step-by-step process, one tiny commitment at a time, until they seamlessly move from stranger into customer.

Conclusion

Sending out a few tweets won’t make an impact at the end of the day. There’s more competition (read: noise) than ever before, while organic reach has never been lower. The trick isn’t to follow some faux influencer who talks the loudest, but rather the practitioners who are doing it day-in, day-out, with the KPIs to prove it.

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sierrabinondo · 6 years ago

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summer tour day 9

i was going to make this entry the last few days of tour, but i typed too much for day 9 so now pittsburgh gets its own whole post HAHAHA.

day 9 - pittsburgh, pa

photo credit: julie yi photography

p i t t s b u r g h.

what a weird day. we had the least amount of time in the city but it was definitely not short of action and adventure.

on friday june 8th, day 9, we slowly woke up in Q’s basement one by one. actually it was more like, all of WSA woke up one by one, jaime waking up in a crevice between the wall and the furnace LMAO, and destination dimension already being packed up and up and at ‘em before we could even wake up shindle fully. it was hard to get ready because we didn’t have a full bathroom in the basement, just a toilet. joe was bugging about not having showered. at this point i was personally going on day three or four without a shower because i was just using baby wipes and dry shampoo. i’m gross and i didn’t care whether or not i got a full shower in every single day.

this was also the day anthony bourdain died so i was not in a super cheery mood. it didn’t affect me fully but enough to feel a sad pit in my stomach. coverage surrounding his death played on TVs hanging inside the bridge stone diner in reading, OH where the tour package ate breakfast together. i ordered an omelette and vegetable soup (yeah idk i could not explain to you my train of thought there), noooot jersey diner food but not awful. just a cheap breakfast before the next drive.

i volunteered to drive us to pittsburgh since santino was feeling wiped and i felt pretty alert. we listened to the new dance gavin dance as we drove through northern ohio and then western virginia. we arrived to pittsburgh about an hour before load-in. i hadn’t done my makeup and reeeeally needed to get ready, and wasn’t done by the time the pittsburgh local bands showed up for load-in. makeup in the van took me FOREVER even though the mirror was RIGHT THERE in front of me in the driver’s seat because i kept getting eyeliner in my FRICKIN eye and had to wipe the entire eyeball ZONE and do it ALL OVER AGAIN.

we played with two bands- haven state, and then we’re gonna call the other band, led zepplin.

led zepplin was a band that we were in contact for weeks leading up to the show. they told destination dimension a long time ago they were welcome to use their gear because they understood the touring band struggle. but a week before the gig i have the drummer hitting me up to ask if they can borrow our band’s gear. weird, but i didn’t second guess because he had also offered weeks prior to put us up for the night. figured, he’s doing us a huge solid. why wouldn’t we loan our gear? it was super nice of him, and we were excited to meet him and the rest of his band.

so we show up to load in and led zepplin is there early to help us load in all of our gear (awesome!) and introduce themselves. they were friendly and helpful. the other band haven state also shows up to load-in, and somehow they and led zepplin got into some confusion about the line-up order. led zepplin thought they were going first, but they were going last after destination dimension. originally led zepplin were borrowing our gear, but now they were going to ask destination dimension, and then use santino’s WHOLE rig.

photo credit: julie yi photography

haven state were so wonderful. i forget how we found them but they were a band i was easily excited to see play on this tour. i was shy at first because of the confusion going down over the line-up and i wondered if it was my fault LMAO, but i later learned it was all led zepplin apparently.

haven state’s sound can be explained like this- think the contortionist or northlane, but with just a singer and no screams. josie had such beautiful tone and then the band was playing some really cool poly-rhythmic stuff. we all bonded with them very quickly. santino bought one of their shirts and instantly threw it on haha. they said they were happy to meet us because it was nice for them to play with a similar band - one that borrows inspiration from heavy bands but doesn’t succumb to the pressure of adding screams to fit in with a certain sound.

our set went pretty well, and we sold merch! i was very happy, i felt pretty good. i didn’t feel like it was a perfect set- i actually killed it on “willow” but ate shit on “sooner or later” LMAO, but everyone in the room was really receptive to our performance which was great.

i find it weird that led zepplin is still downstairs for haven state and then during our set. they brought a lot of people, but they nor anyone they brought came upstairs at any point until right before they had to go on. hmm. whatever. after we played i ran down quickly to order beer and food so that i didn’t miss too much of destination dimension. i asked the bartender (who was from jersey! small world) what beers she had on tap that might be from pittsburgh and all she had to offer was this pineapple beer. it was a little too sweet for me, but i paid for it so i drank it! it also wasn’t bad i just don’t like sugary drinks haha.

some biker guy came over to hit on me and it SUCKED. i should have told him i shidded and farded my pants but as always i chickened out and just said “okay thank you” until he went away. he was like, “i just wanted to let you know that you are absolutely STUNNING,,, and i think,,,,, all beautiful girls deserve to be told they are beautiful,,,,” he continues, “well i am going to go hang out with my FRIENDS over THERE --------> ;) ;) ;) now ;) so have a GOOD night” and then it was over finally!

i also let the santana jukebox meme die in pittsburgh. all these venues use touch tunes which i have the app installed for, and every single time the app would prompt me to reload credits even though i already wasted like $10 doing so each fucking time, which i thought would be enough for plays ALL OF TOUR but i guess not. i refused to waste any more money i was done haha.

smiling moose had some delicious food. i got pierogies that came with a beer cheese dip and a garden salad. later on i ended up also ordering another beer, a sole artisian terp lord double IPA with honey that was INCREDIBLE. sooo good. that one might be my favorite all of tour.

during destination dimension’s set, i notice led zepplin finally came upstairs during their last 2-3 songs. but their heads were down looking at their phones the whole time. apparently the second that DD was done, they approached them shaking their hands and saying “awesome set dude! can we use all of your gear?”

literally all of it. the drummer only brought STICKS.

they also asked for a guitar. tony grabbed his second guitar from the DD van and the guitarist tuned it down. the guitarist that used santino’s rig broke his noise reduction pedal. both nights after, santino had to just ditch that pedal because it started causing signal issues.

not all of us watched them. we were pretty pissed off and lamenting the fact we had to stay with these clowns. we were getting pretty bad vibes from them.

well, there was somewhat good news lmao.

after led zepplin plays, the drummer who was putting us up for the night disappears. his friends are still kind of hanging around as we are packing our gear and merch up. we had until 10 to get out of there because the side of the street we were parked on was only for the public until then. the drummer messages me on facebook saying “hey i had to run because of an emergency, but message me when you’re leaving”. so we start to formulate a game plan for food before settling in for the night. it’s like, 9:20ish at this point. santino really wants food (it was probably milk and cookies i dont remember lmao), and so we figure we’ll stop somewhere along the way. i’m about to ask the drummer for his address when i see DD talking to one of the guys from led zepplin.

they seem to be asking the guy for the drummer’s number or contact but i hear him say something about not being able to access the internet or his data? he then turns to me and was like “well, i can give you his number...” and gives me the drummer’s number.

i queue up a text to the phone number and say, “hey! we were just about to head over, wanted to get your address before we left so that we could figure out a place to stop for food on the way.”

a few minutes pass. we’re all shooting the shit outside the venue kinda talking about how weird the night was. i remember clearly anthony, jeremy and jaime were standing in front of me when i finally got a response back. my mouth was agape before i started laughing:

“HEY! Fuck, we kind of had an emergency at our house, my roommate got robbed at gunpoint deliving pizza and hes not doing so well. He kinda freaked out on me when I told him I was having you guys stay. Im so sorry, I forgot to check with my roommates, theyre not gonna be down with anyone crashing here tonight, Im so fucking sorry. I'm gonna ask around for you guys tho, I feel absolutely terrible”

i turn to josef and santino and say, “pull up hotwire.com right now.”

photo credit: julie yi photography

the whole lot of us erupt in raucous yelling and disbelief hahaha. after not watching any of the bands and borrowing all of our gear, this WHOLE time, the dude had NOT ASKED HIS ROOMMATES IF THE TOUR COULD CRASH EVEN THOUGH HE WAS THE ONE WHO OFFERED US A PLACE TO STAY AND HAD BEEN TALKING TO US WEEKS LEADING UP TO THE SHOW.

the bit about his roommate being robbed at gunpoint, in my opinion, could be true. and was grounds to maybe not have us stay over last minute. maybe we were fucked either way. but it was the fact that he never asked his roommates, and he admitted that. this was someone who was also in a pretty popular touring band. how could he not have asked ahead of time if it was cool? he could have even omitted that part completely, and the fact that he didn’t makes the ‘robbed at gunpoint’ alibi questionable.

chris takes out his phone and makes a phone call. by some divine miracle his friend jorge was awake, answered, and was able to house all 10 of us last minute. the only catch was that we had to drive out three hours to state college, PA - now.

we ran across the street just in time before the nearby coffee shop closed and we got coffee for the drive. bizzarely enough, i felt so amped up and kind of excited at the prospect of a last-minute three hour drive that i volunteered to drive. the barista was not excited that we were coming in 15 minutes before closing, but after some chatting and some apologizing on my behalf because i apologize for everything lmao, it turns out he’s a huge springsteen fan and goes out to LBI in jersey every year for summer vacation. in that moment i felt so dumb for not having my friend bobby mahoney’s band cards because this guy needed to hear them, so i prayed he would remember his band off the weight of our coincidental meeting alone.

i wanted to make this drive fun, so i played the first 90′s playlist on spotify that i could and we had our most fun drive all of tour. we stopped at sheetz on the way to pick up some alcohol about an hour in (PA u lucky jerks y’all got convenience stores with liquor), and then we were back on the road. after the playlist played for a bit, we took turns playing requests. we played everything from TLC, to destiny’s child, to aaron carter, to the pokemon: the movie soundtrack. we reveled in nostalgia like a bunch of LOSERS but it was so much fun and as a result the drive flew by.

we arrived to jorge’s house in state college around 1:30 am. though a little worn out we drank beers and hung out for a couple hours before going to sleep. instantly several people queued up to shower lmao.

i took this pic at like 2:15 am and sent it to my mom bc she love shandy

i felt like this happened for a reason haha. and i think we were actually much happier with this outcome, which was why we were blissfully having conversation and enjoying each other’s company. this was probably our third tour package sleepover in a row and neither band was getting sick of the other. by this point i think we also had started up our tour group chat too, someone lumped us together so that we could more easily communicate but most importantly share memes haha.

it’s happy mishaps like this, these spontaneous adventures, that make tour so fulfilling. on tour, i escape from the draining monotony of my life and am liberated by solely having the obligation to wake up and gig every day. it’s such a freeing feeling. which is why the last stretch and coming home were so, so difficult.

oh, and the drummer never followed up to check if we found a place to stay.

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caredogstips · 7 years ago

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Top 10 pas in envision books

Dads often get a raw deal in image volumes – often absent or else caricatured as the not-very-smart or the fix-it-all-with-my-toolbox papa. Here Sean Taylor picks the best well-rounded daddies in a selection of fabulous image volumes for papas day

You get more mums than dads in visualize journals. Perhaps thats intelligible. Mums still tower largest in the living conditions of numerous picture-book-aged juveniles. But perhaps it shows our world, in which absent-minded father-gods are ever more common. One route or the other, it would be good to have more papas present in the lives of children, and it would be good to have more papas in word-painting journals.

Sean Taylor with his son Rafa.

And theres something else. The pas who do appear in stories for young children can be quite restricted references. Theres the above-it-all daddy, speaking the newspaper. Theres the not-very-smart father, whos simply a pun. Theres the fix-it , daddy with his toolbox. Theres the about-to-be-absentdad , off to employment. Even the all-loving , Guess-How-Much-I-Love-You kind of dad can feel one-dimensional.

So for my top 10, Ive chosen works peculiarity father-gods who are both at the center of the tale and more alive than the caricatures. The notebooks are ordered approximately by age of reader: younger firstly, older last-place. I hope theres something new for you to find and enjoy.

1. Some Dogs Do by Jez Alborough

A special tale told( as Jez Alborough brilliantly does) in few words and with verses that read just right. A young hound announced Sid is so filled with happiness that he moves! But he cant persuade anyone that this has happened. Hes tittered at. bird-dogs dont fly it cant be done, says his teach. Dogs dont fly! reproduce his friends. This leaves Sid alone and lamentable. But his father comes by. He asks whats wrong, and it saves the day. Sids dad believes in him. He understands Sids free spirit because he shares it. And these two things( literally) lift Sid up again. Its a wonderful image of the magical a father-son alliance can do.

2. The Parent Who Had 10 Children by Bndicte Guettier

A whimsical fable, first are presented in France. The papa in question does everything for his 10 brats. He takes them to institution. He cooks their snacks. He tells them storeys. He caresses them good night. Then, requiring a crack, he constructs a secret ship. He says hell leave the children with their grandma, and sail away for a long vacation. But he cant live without his minors. Hes back soon. The ten babes connect him in the ship. Its an engaging depiction of what it is to have( or be) a affectionate mother. The ludicrous realism outline you in like a nursery rhyme. Precisely right for younger painting volume readers.

3. Petes a Pizza by William Steig

Its raining. Pete cant go out to play ball with the guys. So hes in a bad humor. His father thinks it might clap Pete up to be made into a pizza. Hes right, of course! Dad kneads him and twirls him up in the air. He disperses on cheese( actually torn up fragments of paper) and applies him in the oven( actually the sofa ). This is a celebration of the parents ruse of distracting a grouchy brat with a little bit of zany comedy.( Good maneuver in the book, as far as Im concerned .) And what a wonderfully affection, inventive, energetic father William Steig has created! Pete titters like crazy. And the sunshine comes out at the end.

4. Oscars Half Birthday by Bob Graham

One of many memorable situation volumes from a master of creating papa, mums, children and all human being.( Too fairies, in fact .) A household become strolling to a green slope in the city to celebrate newborn Oscars six-month birthday. Bob Graham covers “the worlds” as a jumble of various types of lives, done beautiful by the excitement that can come between them. And in this story, theres special attention paid to minutes of prayer that children and mothers can conjure up, if they require. I enjoy the dirty-old-town give, with its colourful graffiti. And I like the spiky-haired daddy. He realise the sandwiches. He goes on with the stuff of the family daytime. He does it with love. And hes concerned one of my favourite of all situation work completes. When the kids are asleep, he pushes back the furniture and dances with Mum

5. At the Crossroads by Rachel Isadora

A brilliant volume( who are able dare publish this today ?) by the author of the evenly brilliant Bens Trumpet. In a South African township, some infants expect their migrant-labourer parents to arrive home after 10 months “. They wait, in celebratory mood at first, but with increasing tiredness and uncertainty as the day and the night go by. They tell legends to stay awake. But a very young drops-off asleep. A truck plucks up. Its not their fathers. Then the working day sunups. And, with it, the parents arrive. Theres hardly any characterisation of the pas. They come to life through most children excitement and perseverance. So does the deep emotion of an absent-minded father returning. My boys have often choice this volume at bedtime. And they know it well enough to look up curiously when the papas arrive – to check if there are snaps of joy in my eyes. There typically are.

6. Were Off to Ogle For Aliens by Colin McNaughton

Colin McNaughton was once a prolific word-painting notebook manufacturer. His perky, colorful contact is much missed. I ever feel that there are conventional filaments in it – from pantomime, or music hall even. And you dont get those working in some cool, sharper contemporary drawing journals. Were Off to Appear For Aliens is a lovely yarn. The daddy is McNaughton, himself. The legend starts with his newly published book being delivered. He demo it to his family. And here, the second largest journal is glued into the first. The book-inside-the-book is a catchy verse anecdote about a room passage McNaughton once reached. After a cord of accidents, he fell in love with a exquisite alien girlfriend and she tripped back with him. Its another original dad: irrepressibly playful, eccentric and warm. And theres a amaze. The final spread uncovers McNaughtons wife and kids have big-hearted, overhead eyeballs and additional arms…so the whole story is genuine!

7. Dont Let Go by Jeanne Willis, is borne out by Tony Ross

A story about a father-daughter relationship told in tempo and verse. Megan wants to visit her daddy. But her father is too busy to take her. Megan recommends memorizing to go her bicycle so she knows how shape the expedition alone. Dad schools her. Hes patient and promoting. I wont “lets get going” ,/ Not until “theyre saying”. So Megan overcomes her anxieties. She announces out, Okay, you can let go now! Then shes off into the delight of a first bike go( illustrated by Tony Ross, with a magical style, as a passage past a tiger, into jungle .) Meanwhile Dad is left behind, knowing hes “lets get going” of his daughter in more ways than one. Prepare in the big-hearted, wide world of a windswept park. Lovely writing, as always, from Jeanne Willis. And another human-hearted pa, alive on the page.

8. Ted by Tony Di Terlizzi

This one is for older paint work readers. The narrator is a six- or seven-year-old boy who lives with his rather serious papa. Ted is a large, pink imaginary sidekick who shows up one day, talking about birthdays and raspberries. Antics follow, which get the narrator into deeper and deeper trouble with his father. They develop a barmy game called monopoly twister. Ted causes the boy a bad haircut. They paint the walls. Then they spate the house. Dad cant take it. NO MORE TED! Ever! he speaks. But theres a good twist. Ted tells the boy not to worry. He says he was once “his fathers” imaginary sidekick. They used to play infinite plagiarists. He even remembers where Dads atomic blaster doll is lay. When Dad visualizes his old plaything, remembrances wake up in him. The tale is about to change. And the three of them end up playing cavity pirates monopoly twister.

9. The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski, illustrated by PJ Lynch

A longer narration, more for 5-8 year-olds. It is illustrated with great skill and thought, by PJ Lynch.( And its another one that produces tears to my sees most ages I read it !) Jonathan Toomey is a wood-carver who has moved to a village, far from where his wife and baby succumbed. So this is not a usual situation work pa. He is solitary and suffering. The widow McDowell and her son, Thomas, are newcomers to the hamlet. In their move, they have lost a treasured nativity defined. So they expect Jonathan Toomey if he will carve them a new one. The carpenter reluctantly concurs. His middle warms to both Thomas and Thomass mother. He carves a beautiful replacement nativity defined. In the realise, he faces his terrible loss. And the final, beautiful, image is of the three of them walking side by side on Christmas day with laughter in their eyes.

10. My Dads a Birdman by David Almond, is borne out by Polly Dunbar

Lizzies mum has died and her leader cant cope. In fact, hes decided hes a bird. He thinks that if he was able to make a good duo of backstages, hell fly across the River Tyne and triumph the Great Human Bird Competition. David Almonds eye for whats treasured in the human drama “were living in” stirs this a profoundly enjoyable storey. Its junior myth rather than a portrait notebook. But it does have wonderful artwork by one of best available scene book illustrators at work these days: Polly Dunbar. So Ill objective my list with this. Lizzies father is just the sort of rounded, hiring daddy Im pointing to. Hes wounded and inarticulate. But he brims with stuffs that they are able make a good leader: desire, fun, devotion, intensity. And the floor has a positive outcome, as he and Lizzie try the impossible.

Photograph: PR

Sean Taylor is the author of numerous notebooks for children of many different ages. He is also the father-god of two young sons. His new picture book, A Brave Bear( is borne out by Emily Hughes, is issued by Walker Books) is a fib of a father and a son on a red-hot day.