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residentlesbrarian · 3 years

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The Fourth Book I Read In the Dark: Of Expectations and Other Relatabilities

Of Gryphons and Other Monsters by Shannon McGee

Hey, guys, sooooo...this is aaaawwwkward. I wrote 95% of this review when I wrote the other Books I Read in the Dark series for the blog, but the ADHD hit me and COVID was still you know...a thing! So I am gonna post this review, finished of course, OH, but also pay extra close attention to the conclusion alright! Hmm...this is a bit like a time capsule...here are my concentrated thoughts from 6 months ago while I was slightly delirious on books and darkness. So go forth and uh yeah this one is...you can just feel the feral “I haven’t had access to proper internet so I’ve been curled in the corner like Gollum with my books” energy coming off it so...enjoy?

Okay, so yeah, I really didn’t have a reason to end my last review that way I just wanted to, so sue me for injecting a little excitement into a series of posts about me literally sitting in my house reading nonstop for 2 ½ days, my reviews my rules. Back to manufacturing my own excitement shall we!

It’s Day 2! I’ve just finished my last library book, whatever will I do! I could always reread The Neverending Story for the 1,273rd time, but I have a need. A need for GAY! I rack my brain, there has to be a solution. My town is without power, my local library won’t be open, but then it hits me. It’s so simple! It’s meant to be really! Like the universe knew this was coming and it made sure I was prepared! Like a prepper stockpiling mental SPAM for my stimulus needing ADHD riddled brain! I have an entire shelf of books that I haven’t read yet! Way back in Clexacon 2019 my best friend (Lookin at you @justalifelongphase) gave me way too much money from missed birthdays and Christmases all at once before the con started because the world has deemed it impossible for us to live geographically close to one another. Anyway, I went a little book-buying-crazy and have not had the time or opportunity to read any of them since then. Their time has finally come!

I figured after going full whimsy with The Lost Coast and sci-fi superhero with Dreadnought and Sovereign why not take a dip into more traditional fantasy, also this one was first in line on the shelf, yay for not having to actually make a decision! No more dawdling, let's get right into the review!

Unicorn Rating:

Blurb: Taryn always loves and hates gryphon season. She finds the lesser gryphons more cute than anything but the ever present fear that a greater gryphon might be just out of sight is terrifying, and this gryphon season proves to be the one that will change her and her families lives forever! Just let a girl herd her sheep in peace!

Disclaimer: I will try my best to not spoil anything from the book, but my book loving rambles may give more away than a traditional review. Here we go! Ramble time!

Review:

I genuinely enjoyed this book. It took me a bit longer to get through it than the others, but I think that was a combination of three things: A. I was starting to feel the fatigue of reading so much in such a short amount of time. B. Our local Wal Mart had power restored on Day 3 and our entire household went on a trip to buy non-perishable food stuffs and I was like a solitary confinement prisoner being let out into the yard for the first time in months when my phone picked up a wifi signal and it was a bit hard to get back into the swing of reading after talking to other humans, even virtually, that weren’t imaginary or in my head. C. Our power was finally restored on the afternoon of Day 3 so yet again I was inundated with the draw of technology and all of my friend-os I hadn’t talked to, but the book had drawn me in enough I did the most unmillienial thing and left my phone in a different room to charge while I finished this book before going back to the land of technology and interwebs. That should tell you something.

McGee was able to write this story in a way that pulls you in so you care about what happens to these characters and this little mountain town. You learn just enough about the world to understand where they fit within the overall weave of it, but you aren’t given a Tolkein-esc dissertation on the world lore. I felt the worries and the fears. I was concerned when the routines had to change. I mean she made me care about the freaking sheep! Sheep, people! One of the reasons I think this works so well is we are so firmly rooted in the head of our protagonist, Taryn. Imma use that lovely bridge I just built to skip right on over the plot section of the review to get to the characters first, don’t worry we’ll circle back round to the plot. I always do, but I just wanna talk about my newest set of brain babies.

Taryn is a character that, if the title of this post is anything to go by, I found very very relatable. Now I know relatability can be pretty subjective, some people can latch onto something with the all consuming, “It me!” While others just stare on dead eyed not understanding the appeal. I feel like Taryn could be that kind of protagonist. You are either going to really relate to her or you won’t understand where she is coming from at all. I obviously fall in the former category. I was the quintessential middle child, still am really, though my relationship with my parents has shifted now that I’m an adult. More mutual respect and friendship than parent to child. I always did my best to pick up the slack, if ever there was any, and just tried my best to be as little of a burden as possible to my parents. I see so much of that aspect of myself in Taryn and how she sees her place at the farm and even in the town, she has her place and her role, but those expectations are heavy. One of those expectations being that she will inevitably get married and help take over the farm from her parents and have kids to continue the line. The fact she finds the lesser gryphons that flock near the farm far cuter than any of the local boys that she will eventually have to choose from to fulfill that inevitable expectation is just...sad at best and down right tragic at worst. And her family doesn’t help matters either. They won’t let her forget that she will have to settle down with one of these local boys, a boy who would make a good husband and take good care of her and the farm. She knows that, logically, but she also wants to be in love, like her parents, and she just doesn’t feel like that for any of the boys in town. She doesn’t know how to make those two things line up. It’s a struggle between her head, the obligation of what she has to do, and her heart, what she really wants for her future, to be happy in doing what she has to do. Wow, I went off a little bit there, but this was my long winded way of saying I have never read a protagonist that really captured the utter confusion of being raised in a heteronormative environment without it being drenched in internalized homophobia and fear. Protagonists like this seem to always know something is off but just don’t have the words for it so they just hide it because they know it’s “different” and out of the norm, but Taryn is just livin’ her sheep herding life and ain’t got no time for these boy crazy fools. She knows her mom wants her to find a good boy to court her so she can marry someday but she’s still young. She’ll think about that tomorrow, and she just repeats that ad infinitum. The thought that maybe she doesn’t fancy any of the boys because well...girls...never even occurred to her. It's not how things are done in this small mountain town, not because of homophobia reasons, but just stubborn tradition reasons. We are even told there is a gay couple living in town who are staples in the overall dynamics in town, instrumental even, but the idea of having a lineage, being able to pass your land down is so ingrained no wonder poor Taryn was so in the dark about her own probable gayness till it slapped her in the face. As someone who was raised in a medium sized Oklahoma town...girl I feel you. I was 22 and in the middle of Appalacia, way up in the mountains for college when my gay awakening popped up and said “Hello!” Everything that never quite made sense in my life came into perfect clarity. Not quite what happened with Taryn, but the arrival of Aella surely helped, as pretty girls are want to do. Oh look a segue, good, cause I could talk about Taryn for literal hours and I’ve already gabbed about her too much for this review.

Aella, you smooth motherfucker. Like I wish I could possess a quarter of the smoothness that you do. Like I’m lucky to string sentences together around a pretty girl, but here you are just strutting about being the smoothest of smooth. Honestly, I just...I can’t with you Aella. On a serious note though Aella is a character that served as showing Taryn a glimpse at the world beyond her small mountain town, as much as she had no desire to leave, unlike her brother. Nope, sit down, we’ll get to you, Michael! Oh, we’ll get to you. She’s traveled and has stories from all over and she is fairly open about the fact that she only likes girls, but she doesn’t have land, responsibilities, and a family line to continue. She just gets to live her life the way she choses. And y’all know I am a sap for the hard dark characters that are totally softies underneath that rough exterior. I think Aella was a great foil to Taryn and great at showing her what she could have if she was willing to leave, to stretch what she was allowed to wish for, but of course the biggest issue with her wishing for anything was...Michael.

Michael was such an interesting character. I loved him. I hated him. I wanted to hug him. I wanted to punch him. Again as with the town and the people of the town I was so deep seated in Taryn’s head and feelings that her conflicted feelings about Michael and how he was acting became my feelings on the matter. Not enough to not separate a tad and see what was coming or at least try to predict it as I always do when reading, but emotionally I was right with Taryn the whole way. The one thing that really pushed Michael from just a character I was conflicted about to one I really wanna give a swift kick in the nads to, is that he knew. He knew all about Taryn’s absolute lack of romantic inclinations toward any of the boys in town and her doubts that she would ever find someone to love and marry to take over the farm. He was the only person she confided these fears in and he still selfishly followed his own pursuits with little regard to her or her worries. You sir, are a terrible brother and overall a shit human, so sit your ass down and shut your mouth.

The plot for this book was so embroiled with the characters and their journeys that I can’t talk on it much but the twists at the end and the final climax was very satisfying for me and left me excited to dig into the next book. Also something of note that I didn’t talk about in the character section cause I felt it was dragging on a touch, I really only talked in depth on our three biggest players but there is a very colorful cast of side characters ranging from Taryn’s nervous pony to the boy-who-cried-gryphon neighbor no one can stand to the troupe of hunters led by Aella’s mother to Taryn’s best friend Nia, all of whom play important parts in building that sense of caring about the people of this town and the town itself, which in turn made me deeply care about the outcome of the plot at the heart of the story. And the sheep! The god damn sheep!

One thing I do want to say before my final thoughts is that whoever designed the cover of this book in a genius because as I dug into the story I found myself constantly closing it to spout off about theories of what I thought was happening on the cover and what it all meant, I was kind of reader fatigue delirious for most of those theories but some of them I was right! I might have reenacted the Captain Holt “Vindication” gif IRL just because it felt too good not to. I just love when a “cool” cover turns out to be so much more than that once you’re “in the know”. So yeah, now y’all know to pay attention for that.

My final thoughts on this book are pretty positive. I can tell the author is building us toward so much more, hence the name of the series, Taryn’s Journey, and it feels like it. This is only the beginning and I honestly can’t wait to take the next steps with her.

Queer Wrap-up:

Hey it’s me from the future...present...whatever...so, this is when I stopped writing the review six months ago and there is a reason for that. I, kind of, agonized over what to rate this book on the scale. Multiple times having to call my brother and go back and forth just to then repeat the same arguments with myself as soon as I got off the phone. Now why was this such a hard terrible no good awful back and forth well...SPOILER WARNING...seriously anything past this point will be spoiling some character beats for the majority of the book...okay? We understand one another. DANGER ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE...or you know scroll on.

So, Taryn is never confirmed to be queer in the text of this book. Now you would have to be wearing the tightest hetero goggles in known history not to see the heavy HEAVY subtext saying THIS BITCH GAY! It’s basically a full grown elephant painted sparkly rainbow trying to hide behind a dead shrub aka not hiding at all. I so desperately wanted to give this book four of those darling unicorns but in this rare case I just don’t think I can justify it. We have a protagonist that is still figuring herself out, which is amazing that we get to see that and go on the journey with her. Some of the things Taryn does and thinks are queer coded as hell, especially if it involves Aella who is explicitly gay on the page, but Taryn herself never express whether she herself is queer. Which, fair, other really important and traumatizing things were going on and I love that about her as a character, she didn’t meet Aella and suddenly that was all she could think about. Aella, of course, is representation who I’m counting because even though she shows obvious interest (you smooth motherfucker) in Taryn she is so much more than just a love interest and her character isn’t just boiled down to her sexuality. Now in this wrap up I’m also including the doctor and his husband in the town. They are very minor characters but they give us interesting insights into the town and the people. They are accepted and treated well in town even if some do almost, pity isn’t the right word, but they seem sad that they won’t be able to have any kind of legacy or lineage. As I said in the review it’s not homophobia it’s being stuck in your ways and it’s an interesting take.

Links:

Shannon McGee Website

The Storygraph

Okay so this one is a bit of a mess. Pieces of it were written 6 months apart and most of it was written while I was kind of delirious but hey at least I can say it’s honest. I still stand by everything my past self wrote and I still really enjoy thinking and talking about this book and am excited for whenever I get around to reading the sequel to continue on Tayrn’s journey with her. This is a book I probably would never have known even existed without ClexaCon and trolling through artist alley for literally every table that had books on them. I guess, moral of the day is maybe you won’t just find great books on library shelves but on unassuming convention tables too and it never hurts to look. Trust me, I’m a lesbrarian.

Oh bet you thought this post was over. I did the sign off and everything but oh no no! I have some info and such to impart. I am WELL AWARE these reviews have been fairly inconsistent to down right sporadic. Well, this is just a little info dump letting you guys know I am gonna be putting up one more review after this one that I wrote ages ago and I mean AGES (think years, as in multiple) and just never got around to posting and then the old blog is probably gonna be going through a PLANNED dormancy while some pretty big stuff is coming down the pike. You may notice visual changes and other stuff before anything else is announced but just keep an eye out. To quote the Fates from Hercules, “It’s gonna be big!”

Okay now for the actual sign off, I got shit to do! No one look behind the curtain, it’s a surprise!

#Of Gryphons and Other Monsters #Shannon McGee #resident lesbrarian #3 unicorns #questioning girl #lesbian #heavy wlw romantic subtext #ya novel #ya fantasy #go to your local library #but wear a mask #and wash your hands #and stay 6 feet apart #be safe out there guys gals and nonbinary pals

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all-pacas · 4 years

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(also I'm really sorry if I inundate you with MESSAGE but as you may be able to tell I just finished ketching up and I am full of FEELINGS, if at any point it is even a little annoying please just say and I will feel better about doing things in a way that makes you feel better) SO YEAH BEAU AND NOTT!! honestly this confession may count as another reason she goes to Nott? because chaos crew is all three girls but there's gonna be that lil bit of awkward if you're being vulnerable *to your crush*

(no don’t worry sbout it i love spam, i love my anon spammers and asks and shit. makes me feel important somehow.)

i mean yeah beau wasn’t going to go to jester about it. i don’t think she was consciously going to nott for advice or help, although she has to know nott won’t just let this one go — but also: beau has opened up to nott several times now, starting in humperduke. they were also both in the room for caleb’s big confession, and even if beau didn’t catch the entire conversation they had acted she left, she did at least catch at the time that nott can hear terrible stuff and accept it. not that what beau has told her is remotely terrible. but nott? she’s not the worst person to tell. she’s not going to get preachy like caduceus, or make it weird or about himself like caleb sometimes can. (beau has never actually leaned on caleb the way he has her.) nott will enjoy the secret and joke it off and not treat it with gravity and massive importance, and i think that makes it much easier to talk to her than others at times.

it’s kind of like when nott died, weirdly enough. beau spoke first and it was to jokingly chose her sbout traps. nott, relieved, latched onto the joke. because that’s what nott needed, and i think beau recognized it, because it’s what she would do, too. they’re really very similar! and beau might well find it easier to say certain things to nott as a result. it’s just lower pressure. nott will get it and joke it off if that’s what beau needs.

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biblioxceleste · 4 years

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🎊 I’m happy to have met you. 👌 Your character portrayal is amazing. 👌 Your character portrayal is amazing. ☺ I love our muses’ relationship! (Even the bad one xD) 💭 Your thoughts on our threads?

@hellsrhapsody

ooc: i’ve had this in my drafts for a couple days now, and every time i look at it i just blush uncontrollably. the reason i don’t often reblog these sorts of memes is partly because i’m terrified i won’t get any kind words (and therefore everyone must secretly hate me, i knOW this is irrational, please blame my anxiety) and partly because if i do get kind words like these, i just. don’t know how to respond. i’m blushin so haRD YOU HAVE NO IDEAI’m very happy to have met you too, my dear. Your Crowley is one of my favorites, and I’m glad we can explore the darker sides of his character together. I honestly love threading with you and I adore the threads we have going right now, and if we both weren’t so inundated with schoolwork I’d likely spam you with more.

just. hkgjhgkj

#scottys-rp-blogs #☾ ~ 🐾 ooc: collie speaks 🐾 ~ ☽

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blindingechoes · 6 years

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I wanna quickly apologize to my followers that are here solely for Sims content, because now you’re being inundated with Dragon Age content. Trust me, this is not the first time I’ve posted random non sims game play posts and it most certainly won’t be the last. Besides The Sims and Dragon Age franchises, I’ve also been know to spam Minecraft, Stardew Valley, and a few other games as well. But this is just to let ya’ll know that The Sims is not going away, I’m just taking a small break from the game is all. What with the screen cap issues recently and my growing boredom, I just needed something else. But I still wanna be active, hence the Dragon Age posts. Remember, if it bothers you, you can blacklist my ‘non sims’ and ‘Stacey plays other games’ tags, so you don’t have to see them 😘

#text post #posted from mobile #i love my followers #I’m really enjoying myself #so I guess in a way #sorry not sorry?#❤️#saviorhide

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writecome-blog · 2 years

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Blog Comments Examples – Why Your Blog Comments Suck

Originally posted 2020-01-01 17:02:29.

edar / Pixabay

There’s one thing that both annoys and bewilders me, and that’s blog comments. For the last few days I’ve been inundated with blog comments that just totally boggle me. I can understand why somebody would do a blog comment (in exchange for a link back to their website or whatever product they’re promoting), but come on, put some thought into it.

For the majority of blog comments, I’d probably say 99% of those comments, they just go straight into the trash bin. Whatever effort that person made, (if they made any effort at all, other than loading up a spam commenting software and hitting numerous blogs at the same time), is now as useful and as worthwhile doing as those Nigerian emails that hit your spam folder every day. So why bother doing it?

Of course you may be successful, if somebody has their blog comments turned on and auto approved, you may probably get that link back, but when you think about it, are those the kind of blogs that you want to be linked to? Do they honestly think that Google is going to look at those back-links and say, ‘You know what, I think this person deserves to move further up the search engine ranking because of these places that are linking to them?’

N-o .

And you know something else? Neither do I. Here’s my four Golden Rules to getting a blog comment approved on my blog.

1 – Know Something About The Blog You’re Posting To – If you’re an idiot that puts a blog comment on my blog, that’s got nothing to do with writing, blogging, or self publishing, forget about it. So for those who mention products, websites, and other topics, that have totally nothing to do with my blog, I’m telling you now, your comment is going straight into the trash bin.

2 – Expecting A Link To Something Unrelated To Your Blog – This is another one that bewilders me. The other day I got a short comment with a link that lead to a website that was selling penis spray.

Now if my blog was on a topic related to that, then yeah, you probably would find people that would go back through that link to find out more about that website. But my blog’s about writing and self publishing. So why would anybody go through that link to find out more about penis spray?

3 – Are 3 Words In Length – If I was looking for someone to stroke my ego, well then maybe I would fall for the odd ‘Great post, thanks’ comment that idiots post every day and expect a link back. I mean come on! Is that the best you can do? Is that the best you can add to the conversation?

For example, imagine someone did that at a dinner party. Stuck their head into a conversation and said, ‘Yeah that’s a good conversation’ and walked off. What would be your thought of that person? Dimwit? An idiot? Or would you just call security and have them tossed out? Well, for anyone posting a comment with those three words in it, you’re going straight into the trash can.

4 – Tell You What A Great Article You’ve Written By Don’t Say Why – Like the last idiot, in the previous point, we also get the other idiot that tells you that you’ve written the most amazing and magnificent post they ever read, and it’s made such a big difference in their life, but they don’t tell you what part of it did it for them. In essence, they haven’t read your post.

Again this ego stroking comment, just proves that the person in question has just loaded up a piece of software and posted the same drivel to you and everyone else. So again, you won’t be getting a link back from my blog.

Even as I’m writing this post, I know in the days, weeks, and months ahead, I’m still going to be inundated with the usual spam comments that these people think are going to work for them. What can I say? The idiots will always be a idiots.

And there will be idiots who will try to post the same brain-dead comments below this post too.

Sometimes I wish being stupid was painful.

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douchebagbrainwaves · 3 years

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THIS MAY WELL BE A BETTER PLAN THAN THE OLD ONE OF PUTTING THEM IN THEIR PLACE, BUT IT HAS THE RIGHT SORT OF PERSON, YOU'LL WIN EVEN IN A BAD ECONOMY WILL BE HIGHER THAN FOR WAITING

It definitely has a flavor of its own though. If someone went to doesn't mean a lot. Which means it doesn't cost much more to start a startup. Why did he? University Ave was Google's first. And lately hackers have sensed a change in the atmosphere. So it is pretty well established now that grad students can start successful companies. Old towns have two advantages: they're denser, because they were so cute. So there you have it. Even if your startup does tank, you won't harm your prospects with employers. At an art school where I once studied, the students wanted most of all to develop a keen sense of how much programmers like to be able to reproduce this at most colleges if you make a conscious effort to find smart friends. And there are pretty strict conventions about what a cheeseburger should look like.

The optimum is not the same as opting in. A determined party animal can get through the best school without learning anything. And after high school it was probably understood that you were supposed to go to college. I haven't tried yet is to filter out most present-day spam, because spam evolves. We didn't start it mainly to make money; we have no idea what he was talking about—that he was one of the 10 worst spammers. But as I grew older, suburbia started to feel suffocatingly fake. So a lot of people, probably the majority of people in America, have some amount of external funding, and investors tend to be early in people's lives, then the ambitious ones won't have many ambitious peers. We're a sort of Valley within the Valley, considering how close it is. Usually their motives are mixed. But babysitting this process was so expensive for software vendors that it didn't make sense to charge less than $50,000 instead. I got to college. So if you're going to learn that the world is quiet and warm and safe.

So why should one be ok for kids to say and one forbidden? Essentially, each user should have two delete buttons, ordinary delete and delete-as-spam. Kids can probably sense they aren't being told the whole story. His field is hot now and every year he is inundated by applications from would-be founders, though we do like the idea, and comfort ourselves occasionally with the thought that if all our investments tank, we will thus have been doing something unselfish. The single biggest thing the government could do to increase it. My professor friends, when they're deciding where they'd like to work, consider one thing above all: the government. It has to be open and good. But if you look, there are no external checks at all.

If so, your old tastes were not merely different, but worse still, neither does the developer of the filter is in the individual databases, then merely tuning spams to get through the best school without learning anything. One of the MROSD trails runs right along the fault. They could have chosen any machine to make into a star. How well you're doing a few months later will depend more on talent are always more admirable. Whatever they're doing, you'll be doing. But this process builds up waste products that ultimately require extra oxygen to break down, so at the end. And that's in the best case, both components of the antidote is chance meetings with people who help you—are driven by the demands of the work they do. So future founders may not have to be dragged kicking and screaming down this road, but like many things people have to be. How much do we have to teach startups this? With OS X, the hackers are back. If you're young, you occasionally say and do stupid things even when you're smart.

Michelangelo. I think few realize the huge spread in the value of 20 year olds. That's where companies cross the line. In this case, it might be easy for General Electric to bear are enough to prevent younger companies from being public at all. In some cases you literally train your body. When I was about 19. Most successful startups not only do something very specific, but solve a problem people already know they have. If you're young and smart, you don't have to be working for an existing company to do that you have lousy judgement. It's not their money.

So the lower we can get the response rate—whether by filtering, or by going to work for a while to recover. There is something very American about Feynman breaking into safes during the Manhattan Project. Riskier career moves pay better on average. Probably the best we'll do is some kind of competitive game with the spammers. They wouldn't all grow as big as Florence. Any strategy that omits the effort—whether it's expecting a big launch to get you? Airbnb. In the best case. So if you can make something that appeals to people today and would also have appealed to people in 1500, there is a gradual continuum between rule breaking that's merely ugly using duct tape to attach something to your bike and rule breaking that is brilliantly imaginative discarding Euclidean space. Stanford must be smart.

If you want to learn what lies are told to kids, read almost any book written to teach them about issues. Wearing suits, we're told, will make us 3. 9734398 paul 0. So don't say I didn't warn you. As a founder, you're buying stock with work: the Big Launch. This is possibly even more disgusting than getting inside the mind of someone who responds to a spam. I'm an advocate of whitelists, but more as a way to make yourself find the best answer: if you can imagine someone surpassing you, you should think far more about who you can recruit as a cofounder than the state of the economy. Viaweb. Good design is often strange. People buying technology for one.

Thanks to Ken Anderson, Jared Tame, rew Mason, Harj Taggar, Trevor Blackwell, Parker Conrad, Sam Altman, Geoff Ralston, Jackie McDonough, and Jeff Clavier for inviting me to speak.

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marnathas · 6 years

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How to NOT request hypnosis

So then, a fair while back now I wrote How NOT to join the hypnokink community, which is self-explanatory, and this is a bit of a natural follow-up. We see people jump into hypnosis communities, all horny and excited that these things exist, and that they might get someone to do it with, and make a bee-line for making a request to play with people, and just... no. Stop. You're almost certainly going to get nowhere, and all of us older-timers are looking going "Oh another one.". Honestly it annoys me a decent amount, so this is part rant, part genuine advice for anyone who is of the gender/role combinations that are low in demand and/or high in supply.

Take a chill pill: Alright, you've found a place. Awesome. Look around, see what the place is like, and before your genitals lead you to asking people to play, in whatever way shape or form that request might become, stop and take a deep breath. You're here. You don't need to instantly be trying to get your hypno rocks off. Appreciate the community, odds are it's awesome.

DO take part in the community: No, seriously, we have to give this advice over and over and over again. You are far more likely to enjoy yourself, and potentially find a play partner, if you're an active part of the community, and thus showing people you're a cool person. No, talking to people privately, and posting in the requests channel (if it exists) doesn't count. Go and join the conversations, get to know people. That's generally what these places are for, not just playing.

DON'T PM/DM people out of nowhere: At the very least, be very careful about doing so. A lot of people, the women especially, get inundated with people messaging them trying to get them to play with them, and it's pretty awful and makes people want to leave the place. If you want to get to know someone, and you know they're open to being messaged, and there's an indication they'd be fine with you doing so, sure. But don't just start messaging people out of literally nowhere asking them to play with you. It's not cool.

DON'T pounce: People will talk about hypno stuff, and ask questions, and so-on. Those are not invitations to get jumped on by people looking to play with them. Nobody likes seeing someone reply to a question someone's asked ending it with "PM me if you want to do that" or some variant. It's creepy, and unwelcome. If they're after play, they'll ask for that specifically.

DON'T say you have no limits: It's not true. You have a limit somewhere, certainly. Saying that rings alarm bells in people, because it probably means you haven't thought much about what you actually want. There's nothing wrong with saying some things are no-gos, and helps reassure everyone else that you won't get yourself into a bad situation.

DO offer what you like, or what you're after: Again, it helps. If you're a subject, then it helps give the hypnotist some direction. If you're a hypnotist, it helps subjects know if playing with you would work for them or not.

DO look up some basic info and ideas on safety during hypno play: Regardless of which side of the pocket watch you're on, know how to ensure the play is safe, and how to mitigate bad situations. This shit is important, please do it.

DON'T treat people as kink vending machines: You're asking, and communicating with, real people here. We're not here to give you hawtness. It's a two-way street. Nobody is entitled to get attention or play from anyone else. If you're just treating people as a means of getting what you want, we're going to pick up on it.

DO keep in mind the person you're asking: This is a bit similar to the above but different. Everyone approaches this differently, and has different needs. Be aware of that, as the same request can be cool with some people, and kind of hurtful to others. For instance, if you're simply after a hypnotist to do something, don't go asking people who want serious connections to do it. Because you're just going to make them feel like shit that you aren't asking them because you want to do stuff with them specifically, but just because they fill the checkbox of "Hypnotist", and not all of us are alright with that.

DO vet people beforehand: The benefit of being in a community, is people become known quantities. If someone wants to play with you, ask around about them, look up their past message history, their introduction, get a feel for who they are. If they're purely someone pouncing on every available subject, for instance, and not interacting with the rest of the community, maybe avoiding them is a good idea. Just because someone has offered, doesn't mean you have to. Keeping yourself safe is a good lesson to learn, and hopefully not the hard way.

DO give feedback afterwards: You've successfully gotten to play. AWESOME!! Let the person know how you felt, what you liked, what worked, what didn't work. Check in on them too, as they might be emotionally drained a bit afterwards. Aftercare is a thing, yo. Even if it's a one-off (in that case tell them straight afterwards before you part ways into the intertoobs), as not only does it help them figure out what worked, and what to improve on, but it can help you to figure that stuff out too better, by talking about it!

And lastly, DON'T spam requests: This is self-explanatory I think!

So that's it for me here, this actually ended up longer than expected, but was kinda fun to write. Hopefully it helps someone at some stage? XD

#Blog #Hypnosis #Hypnosis community

17 notes · View notes

callie-ariane · 4 years

Text

Good Omens giveaway - wisesnail’s 2021 calendar

Having just received wisesnail’s beautiful 2021 Good Omens calendar and been practically in tears at both the artwork and the quality of the calendar itself, I’ve decided to do another giveaway and, having had her prior approval, I’d like to buy the calendar for 5 fans of wisesnail’s artwork.

I’ll pick five people at random (I’m not going to use any fancy algorithm; it’ll just be a random selection, probably choosing people from different parts of the world) and then will order the calendar and have it sent direct to each person.

There are a few provisions around this, so if you’re interested in applying, read the blather under the Keep Reading below.

Deadline for application: 11.59 p.m. (GMT) on Monday 16 November.

To apply for the giveaway, send an email to the following address (which I’m not doing as a hyperlink for obvious reasons): billandteeb at hotmail dot com.

(It’s an old email which I barely ever use, so if it gets spammed to death it doesn’t matter.)

Put “Wisesnail’s calendar” in the subject line, and give me the following details:

Your Tumblr/general online name and the country to which the calendar will need to be sent (I don’t need a full address at this point, just the country).

I don’t need any further details at this point. (It’s up to you if you want to tell me why I should pick you in particular, or generally try to butter me up, but it really will be a random selection!)

If you’re one of the chosen recipients, I’ll email you on Tuesday 17 November to ask for your name and postal address. PLEASE NOTE: the calendar is too big to go through standard letterboxes, so you’ll need to be sure to have it delivered to an address where it can be left if it won’t go through a letterbox. ALSO NOTE that if I email you to say that you’re one of the winners, I’ll need your name and address by Friday 20 November at the very latest so that I can get the orders in to wisesnail and she can get the orders into the post. (If you apply, you might want to keep an eye on your Junk mail on the 17th in case my email goes there.)

I promise to try and email the unsuccessful applicants after the deadline, but if there are more applications than I can cope with, I might have to do a general notice here on Tumblr after I’ve picked the lucky five.

Anyway, so … that’s happening. It just seemed like a nice thing to do. To save me from being inundated with lots of applications, please do the decent thing and only apply if you really can’t afford to buy the calendar yourself.

I also reserve the right to withdraw the offer if my personal circumstances change and I suddenly can’t afford to do this any more.

But in the meantime, good luck if you do decide to apply. NOTE: you must apply by email to billandteeb at hotmail dot com; I won’t take applications over Tumblr’s Personal Message/Ask/Email system.

Love and hugs, Ariane x

Deadline for application: 11.59 p.m. (GMT) on Monday 16 November.

#Good Omens #wisesnail #@wisesnail #Good Omens calendar #good omens artwork #Michael Sheen #David Tennant #Neil Gaiman #Terry Pratchett

75 notes · View notes

lakelandseo · 3 years

Text

What's Changed (and What Hasn't): The 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey Results

Posted by morgan.mcmurray

You're tired of hearing it and I'm tired of saying it, but 2020 really has been a year like no other. SEOs and marketers around the world had to deal with their day-to-day work moving home, alongside a host of natural disasters, civil rights issues, and a pandemic that will alter our industry and global economy for years to come.

We could have held off on launching this year's reader survey, but we decided to move forward anyway because we know your work and your interests have been impacted, and we wanted to know how much.

I'm excited to share with you the results from that survey in this post. We'll go through what's changed — and what hasn't — for our readership since our last survey in 2017, and detail what those insights mean for the Moz Blog in 2021.

Methodology

We published this survey in July 2020, with questions asking for details on the professional occupations of our readers, how those readers interact with the blog, and what those readers like to see from the blog. We also included COVID-19-specific questions to gauge the pandemic's impact on our readers. The survey was shared on the blog, through email blasts, and on our social media accounts.

The percentages shared in the sections below are part of a total of 388 responses we received over four months. This is actually our first data point, showing that engagement with surveys has shifted drastically since our 2017 survey, which got nearly 600 responses in just one month. Given the interruptive nature of 2020's events, we won't let that difference discourage us from utilizing surveys in the future. Where able, I've compared 2020's results to those of the 2017 survey, to better visualize the differences.

Answers were not required for all questions, so if something did not apply to a respondent, they could leave the answer blank or choose a variety of "no opinion" or "N/A" options.

We don't typically include demographic or geographic questions in our reader surveys, but given the overwhelmingly positive response to the Gender Gap in SEO and Diversity and Inclusion in SEO surveys published this year, we will do so moving forward. Understanding the struggles SEOs and marketers face in the industry due to race, gender, and sexual orientation is imperative to understanding how to best work with and for everyone, and we acknowledge that shortcoming in this year's survey.

Who our readers are

Let's dive in. First up: the questions asking readers to tell us more about themselves.

What is your job title?

The word cloud below is an amalgamation of the top-used words in response to this question, and the size of the word correlates to the number of mentions that word received.

No surprises here: number one (by far) was "SEO". Our readership remains heavily SEO-focused in their occupations, with content marketers coming in close second.

What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?

That said, 2020 saw an increase in respondents in the lower percentage brackets of readers who use SEO strategies in their daily work, specifically the 1-10% and 41-50% ranges. This could be due, in part, to the broadening of tasks assigned to SEOs in the marketing industry, as several respondents also mentioned a need to wear multiple hats in their organization.

On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?

The majority of our readers remain intermediately knowledgeable about SEO concepts, leaving plenty of room for new learnings across skill levels.

Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?

While the majority of Moz Blog readers are still in-house SEOs and marketers, an interesting takeaway for us in 2020 is the increase of those who are independent consultants or freelancers from 11% in 2017 to just under 17% in 2020. We'll make sure to take that into account for our content strategy moving forward.

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?

Far and away, the challenge most often mentioned in response to this question was the high volume and rapid cadence of new SEO information, new tools, and algorithm updates. Readers are struggling to determine what to focus on and when, what to prioritize, and what even applies to their work. We can certainly help you with that in 2021.

Other frequently-mentioned struggles were familiar to us from previous surveys, showing us that the SEO industry still needs to address these issues, and that the Moz Blog can continue offering up content in response. These issues included:

Lack of resources and cross-functional collaboration at work.

SEO prioritization at work.

Lack of consolidation in analytics and reporting tools.

Difficulty explaining the value of SEO to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Difficulty explaining what SEO CAN'T do to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Attracting new clients and customers.

Having to wear multiple hats.

How our readers read

Keeping in mind all that context of who our readers are, we dug into preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.

How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?

As an increasing number of readers rely on social media channels for their news and content consumption, the shift from frequent readers to "every once in a while" readers is not a surprise, but it is a concern. It also necessitates our incorporation of social media engagement as a top KPI for blog performance.

Given the multiple off-blog distribution methods and frequency of prompts to take this year's survey, we saw a sharp increase in "non-reader" responses from 1% in 2017 to 6% in 2020. That said, it's interesting that Moz email and social media subscribers who weren't Moz Blog readers felt motivated to take a survey entitled "Moz Blog Reader Survey". We've taken note of the topics requested from those respondents, in the hopes of encouraging more engagement with the blog.

On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?

While desktop and laptop computers remain the most common way to consume blog content, mobile phone use saw an increase of nearly 10 percentage points. Mobile phones have only improved in the last three years, and it's no secret that we're using them more often for actions we'd normally take on a computer. As we move toward blog CMS improvements in 2021, mobile-friendliness will be a priority.

Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?

Across the board, we saw a decrease in the number of respondents listing other SEO news resources, as well as the first instance of a social media platform in the top 10 resources mentioned. This only serves as further evidence that social media is continuing its growth as a news and content medium.

What our readers think of the blog

Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for readers to consume, and more.

What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?

While the trends regarding readers' opinions on relevancy remained similar between 2017 and 2020, we saw about a 6% dip in respondents who said 81-90% of posts are relevant to them, and increases in the bottom four percentage brackets. These results, paired with the topic requests we'll cover later, indicate a need to shift and slightly narrow our content strategy to include more posts specific to core SEO disciplines, like on-page SEO and analytics.

Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?

Given the breadth of topics on the blog and the wide range of reader skill levels, we're happy to see that, for the most part, readers find our posts just about right on a scale of too easy to too advanced.

In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?

Similarly, it's great to see that readers continue to be satisfied with the amount of content served up in each post.

How often do you comment on blog posts?

RIP, comment section. A trend we've seen over the last several years continues its downward slope: 82% of readers who took part in the survey never comment on posts.

When asked for the reasons why they never comment, we saw some frequent responses:

"I have nothing to add."

"It wouldn't add value."

"I'm still learning."

"I never comment anywhere."

"I don't have enough time."

"Follow-up questions go unanswered."

"I read posts in the RSS feed."

"English isn't my first language."

"I'm not signed in."

Blog comment sections and forums used to be the place for online conversations, so this drop in engagement certainly signals the end of an era. However, these concerns also give us some areas of improvement, like working with our authors to be more responsive and improving comment accessibility. But sorry to those who prefer not to sign in — without that gate, we'd be inundated with spam.

In contrast, here were the reasons for commenting:

"I have a question."

"I have a strong emotional connection to the material."

"I strongly agree or disagree."

"I want to add my personal experience or advice."

We definitely encourage readers who do have questions or concerns to continue commenting!

What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?

Outside the responses along the lines of "No changes! Keep up the good work!" for which we thank you, these were the top asks from readers:

More thoughtful feedback from and interaction with authors.

More variety and diversity in our author pool.

More video content.

More specific case studies, tests, and experiments.

More step-by-step guides with actionable insights showing how to solve problems.

Ability to filter or categorize by skill level.

Diversity in location (outside the US).

These are great suggestions, some of which we've already begun to address!

We also received only a few responses along the lines of "keep your politics out of SEO", specifically referencing our Black Lives Matter support and our posts on diversity. To those concerned, I will reiterate: human rights exist beyond politics. Our understanding of the experiences our co-workers and clients have had is essential to doing good, empathetic work with and for them. The Moz Blog will continue our practice of the Moz TAGFEE code in response to these ongoing issues.

What our readers want to see

Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?

Survey respondents could choose multiple topics from the list below in their answers, and the most-requested topics look very similar to 2017. A noticeable shift is in the desire for mobile SEO content, which dropped from being requested in 33% of responses in 2017 to just under 20% in 2020.

In 2020, we certainly had more content addressing the broader marketing industry and local SEOs impacted by the pandemic. To better address the relevancy issue mentioned earlier, the top four core SEO subjects of on-page SEO, keyword research, link building, and analytics (all included in over 50% of responses) will become blog priorities in 2021.

Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?

The way readers want to consume those topics hasn't changed much at all in the last three years — the desire for actionable, tactical insights is as strong as ever, with the request for tools, tips, and techniques remaining at 80% of respondents. These types of posts have been and will remain our go-to moving forward.

COVID-19

Moving into our last and newest section for the survey, we asked readers questions regarding the way in which they consume SEO-related content during the COVID-19 era.

Has your consumption of SEO-related content changed due to COVID-19?

Only 34% of respondents said that their consumption of SEO-related content had changed as a result of the pandemic, a number we expected to be higher. It's encouraging to see that so many readers were able to maintain a sense of normalcy in this area.

Of those who did see a shift, these were the most common reasons why:

Job loss and job hunting

Shift to work from home and being online 24-7

E-Commerce industry shifts

Online engagement shifts and ranking and traffic drops

Loss of clients and constricting budgets

More time to read paired with less time or opportunity to implement learnings

Would any of the following topics be helpful for you as a result of COVID-19 impacts?

Along those same lines, the most popular topic requested as a result of COVID-19 impacts with 27% of responses was tracking/reporting on traffic and ranking drops. Content and marketing strategies during a crisis came in close second and third, with 24% and 21%, respectively.

The answers to these questions show us that pivoting our content strategy in spring 2020 to address areas of concern was helpful for about a third of our readers, and probably contributed to the relevancy issue for the other two-thirds. We'll continue to include these topics (on a smaller scale) until we see the other side of this crisis.

What happens next?

Primary takeaways

You asked, and we hear you. Moving into 2021, we'll be writing on more technical, core SEO topics along with issues on the business side of SEO. We'll also be building out our Whiteboard Friday series to provide more fresh video content. And as always, we'll strive to provide you with actionable insights to apply to your daily work.

Given the steep decline in comment section engagement, we'll be encouraging our authors to be more responsive to questions, and to interact with you on social media. Make sure to follow Moz on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with the blog and our guest authors.

Finally, stay tuned, as next year we're planning UX improvements to our blog CMS to address usability and accessibility concerns.

My genuine thanks goes out to those readers who took the time to give us their feedback. It is immeasurably valuable to us, and we're looking forward to applying it to all the amazing content we have coming your way in 2021.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season, Moz fans, and happy reading!

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

0 notes

epackingvietnam · 3 years

Text

What's Changed (and What Hasn't): The 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey Results

Posted by morgan.mcmurray

We could have held off on launching this year's reader survey, but we decided to move forward anyway because we know your work and your interests have been impacted, and we wanted to know how much.

Methodology

Answers were not required for all questions, so if something did not apply to a respondent, they could leave the answer blank or choose a variety of "no opinion" or "N/A" options.

Who our readers are

Let's dive in. First up: the questions asking readers to tell us more about themselves.

What is your job title?

The word cloud below is an amalgamation of the top-used words in response to this question, and the size of the word correlates to the number of mentions that word received.

No surprises here: number one (by far) was "SEO". Our readership remains heavily SEO-focused in their occupations, with content marketers coming in close second.

What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?

On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?

The majority of our readers remain intermediately knowledgeable about SEO concepts, leaving plenty of room for new learnings across skill levels.

Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?

Lack of resources and cross-functional collaboration at work.

SEO prioritization at work.

Lack of consolidation in analytics and reporting tools.

Difficulty explaining the value of SEO to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Difficulty explaining what SEO CAN'T do to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Attracting new clients and customers.

Having to wear multiple hats.

How our readers read

Keeping in mind all that context of who our readers are, we dug into preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.

How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?

On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?

Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?

What our readers think of the blog

Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for readers to consume, and more.

What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?

Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?

In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?

Similarly, it's great to see that readers continue to be satisfied with the amount of content served up in each post.

How often do you comment on blog posts?

RIP, comment section. A trend we've seen over the last several years continues its downward slope: 82% of readers who took part in the survey never comment on posts.

When asked for the reasons why they never comment, we saw some frequent responses:

"I have nothing to add."

"It wouldn't add value."

"I'm still learning."

"I never comment anywhere."

"I don't have enough time."

"Follow-up questions go unanswered."

"I read posts in the RSS feed."

"English isn't my first language."

"I'm not signed in."

In contrast, here were the reasons for commenting:

"I have a question."

"I have a strong emotional connection to the material."

"I strongly agree or disagree."

"I want to add my personal experience or advice."

We definitely encourage readers who do have questions or concerns to continue commenting!

What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?

Outside the responses along the lines of "No changes! Keep up the good work!" for which we thank you, these were the top asks from readers:

More thoughtful feedback from and interaction with authors.

More variety and diversity in our author pool.

More video content.

More specific case studies, tests, and experiments.

More step-by-step guides with actionable insights showing how to solve problems.

Ability to filter or categorize by skill level.

Diversity in location (outside the US).

These are great suggestions, some of which we've already begun to address!

What our readers want to see

Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?

Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?

COVID-19

Moving into our last and newest section for the survey, we asked readers questions regarding the way in which they consume SEO-related content during the COVID-19 era.

Has your consumption of SEO-related content changed due to COVID-19?

Of those who did see a shift, these were the most common reasons why:

Job loss and job hunting

Shift to work from home and being online 24-7

E-Commerce industry shifts

Online engagement shifts and ranking and traffic drops

Loss of clients and constricting budgets

More time to read paired with less time or opportunity to implement learnings

Would any of the following topics be helpful for you as a result of COVID-19 impacts?

What happens next?

Primary takeaways

Finally, stay tuned, as next year we're planning UX improvements to our blog CMS to address usability and accessibility concerns.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season, Moz fans, and happy reading!

#túi_giấy_epacking_việt_nam #túi_giấy_epacking #in_túi_giấy_giá_rẻ #in_túi_giấy #epackingvietnam #tuigiayepacking

0 notes

bfxenon · 3 years

Text

What's Changed (and What Hasn't): The 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey Results

Posted by morgan.mcmurray

We could have held off on launching this year's reader survey, but we decided to move forward anyway because we know your work and your interests have been impacted, and we wanted to know how much.

Methodology

Answers were not required for all questions, so if something did not apply to a respondent, they could leave the answer blank or choose a variety of "no opinion" or "N/A" options.

Who our readers are

Let's dive in. First up: the questions asking readers to tell us more about themselves.

What is your job title?

The word cloud below is an amalgamation of the top-used words in response to this question, and the size of the word correlates to the number of mentions that word received.

No surprises here: number one (by far) was "SEO". Our readership remains heavily SEO-focused in their occupations, with content marketers coming in close second.

What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?

On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?

The majority of our readers remain intermediately knowledgeable about SEO concepts, leaving plenty of room for new learnings across skill levels.

Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?

Lack of resources and cross-functional collaboration at work.

SEO prioritization at work.

Lack of consolidation in analytics and reporting tools.

Difficulty explaining the value of SEO to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Difficulty explaining what SEO CAN'T do to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Attracting new clients and customers.

Having to wear multiple hats.

How our readers read

Keeping in mind all that context of who our readers are, we dug into preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.

How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?

On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?

Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?

What our readers think of the blog

Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for readers to consume, and more.

What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?

Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?

In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?

Similarly, it's great to see that readers continue to be satisfied with the amount of content served up in each post.

How often do you comment on blog posts?

RIP, comment section. A trend we've seen over the last several years continues its downward slope: 82% of readers who took part in the survey never comment on posts.

When asked for the reasons why they never comment, we saw some frequent responses:

"I have nothing to add."

"It wouldn't add value."

"I'm still learning."

"I never comment anywhere."

"I don't have enough time."

"Follow-up questions go unanswered."

"I read posts in the RSS feed."

"English isn't my first language."

"I'm not signed in."

In contrast, here were the reasons for commenting:

"I have a question."

"I have a strong emotional connection to the material."

"I strongly agree or disagree."

"I want to add my personal experience or advice."

We definitely encourage readers who do have questions or concerns to continue commenting!

What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?

Outside the responses along the lines of "No changes! Keep up the good work!" for which we thank you, these were the top asks from readers:

More thoughtful feedback from and interaction with authors.

More variety and diversity in our author pool.

More video content.

More specific case studies, tests, and experiments.

More step-by-step guides with actionable insights showing how to solve problems.

Ability to filter or categorize by skill level.

Diversity in location (outside the US).

These are great suggestions, some of which we've already begun to address!

What our readers want to see

Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?

Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?

COVID-19

Moving into our last and newest section for the survey, we asked readers questions regarding the way in which they consume SEO-related content during the COVID-19 era.

Has your consumption of SEO-related content changed due to COVID-19?

Of those who did see a shift, these were the most common reasons why:

Job loss and job hunting

Shift to work from home and being online 24-7

E-Commerce industry shifts

Online engagement shifts and ranking and traffic drops

Loss of clients and constricting budgets

More time to read paired with less time or opportunity to implement learnings

Would any of the following topics be helpful for you as a result of COVID-19 impacts?

What happens next?

Primary takeaways

Finally, stay tuned, as next year we're planning UX improvements to our blog CMS to address usability and accessibility concerns.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season, Moz fans, and happy reading!

0 notes

nutrifami · 3 years

Text

What's Changed (and What Hasn't): The 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey Results

Posted by morgan.mcmurray

We could have held off on launching this year's reader survey, but we decided to move forward anyway because we know your work and your interests have been impacted, and we wanted to know how much.

Methodology

Answers were not required for all questions, so if something did not apply to a respondent, they could leave the answer blank or choose a variety of "no opinion" or "N/A" options.

Who our readers are

Let's dive in. First up: the questions asking readers to tell us more about themselves.

What is your job title?

The word cloud below is an amalgamation of the top-used words in response to this question, and the size of the word correlates to the number of mentions that word received.

No surprises here: number one (by far) was "SEO". Our readership remains heavily SEO-focused in their occupations, with content marketers coming in close second.

What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?

On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?

The majority of our readers remain intermediately knowledgeable about SEO concepts, leaving plenty of room for new learnings across skill levels.

Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?

Lack of resources and cross-functional collaboration at work.

SEO prioritization at work.

Lack of consolidation in analytics and reporting tools.

Difficulty explaining the value of SEO to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Difficulty explaining what SEO CAN'T do to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Attracting new clients and customers.

Having to wear multiple hats.

How our readers read

Keeping in mind all that context of who our readers are, we dug into preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.

How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?

On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?

Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?

What our readers think of the blog

Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for readers to consume, and more.

What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?

Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?

In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?

Similarly, it's great to see that readers continue to be satisfied with the amount of content served up in each post.

How often do you comment on blog posts?

RIP, comment section. A trend we've seen over the last several years continues its downward slope: 82% of readers who took part in the survey never comment on posts.

When asked for the reasons why they never comment, we saw some frequent responses:

"I have nothing to add."

"It wouldn't add value."

"I'm still learning."

"I never comment anywhere."

"I don't have enough time."

"Follow-up questions go unanswered."

"I read posts in the RSS feed."

"English isn't my first language."

"I'm not signed in."

In contrast, here were the reasons for commenting:

"I have a question."

"I have a strong emotional connection to the material."

"I strongly agree or disagree."

"I want to add my personal experience or advice."

We definitely encourage readers who do have questions or concerns to continue commenting!

What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?

Outside the responses along the lines of "No changes! Keep up the good work!" for which we thank you, these were the top asks from readers:

More thoughtful feedback from and interaction with authors.

More variety and diversity in our author pool.

More video content.

More specific case studies, tests, and experiments.

More step-by-step guides with actionable insights showing how to solve problems.

Ability to filter or categorize by skill level.

Diversity in location (outside the US).

These are great suggestions, some of which we've already begun to address!

What our readers want to see

Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?

Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?

COVID-19

Moving into our last and newest section for the survey, we asked readers questions regarding the way in which they consume SEO-related content during the COVID-19 era.

Has your consumption of SEO-related content changed due to COVID-19?

Of those who did see a shift, these were the most common reasons why:

Job loss and job hunting

Shift to work from home and being online 24-7

E-Commerce industry shifts

Online engagement shifts and ranking and traffic drops

Loss of clients and constricting budgets

More time to read paired with less time or opportunity to implement learnings

Would any of the following topics be helpful for you as a result of COVID-19 impacts?

What happens next?

Primary takeaways

Finally, stay tuned, as next year we're planning UX improvements to our blog CMS to address usability and accessibility concerns.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season, Moz fans, and happy reading!

0 notes

xaydungtruonggia · 3 years

Text

What's Changed (and What Hasn't): The 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey Results

Posted by morgan.mcmurray

We could have held off on launching this year's reader survey, but we decided to move forward anyway because we know your work and your interests have been impacted, and we wanted to know how much.

Methodology

Answers were not required for all questions, so if something did not apply to a respondent, they could leave the answer blank or choose a variety of "no opinion" or "N/A" options.

Who our readers are

Let's dive in. First up: the questions asking readers to tell us more about themselves.

What is your job title?

The word cloud below is an amalgamation of the top-used words in response to this question, and the size of the word correlates to the number of mentions that word received.

No surprises here: number one (by far) was "SEO". Our readership remains heavily SEO-focused in their occupations, with content marketers coming in close second.

What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?

On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?

The majority of our readers remain intermediately knowledgeable about SEO concepts, leaving plenty of room for new learnings across skill levels.

Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?

Lack of resources and cross-functional collaboration at work.

SEO prioritization at work.

Lack of consolidation in analytics and reporting tools.

Difficulty explaining the value of SEO to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Difficulty explaining what SEO CAN'T do to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Attracting new clients and customers.

Having to wear multiple hats.

How our readers read

Keeping in mind all that context of who our readers are, we dug into preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.

How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?

On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?

Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?

What our readers think of the blog

Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for readers to consume, and more.

What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?

Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?

In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?

Similarly, it's great to see that readers continue to be satisfied with the amount of content served up in each post.

How often do you comment on blog posts?

RIP, comment section. A trend we've seen over the last several years continues its downward slope: 82% of readers who took part in the survey never comment on posts.

When asked for the reasons why they never comment, we saw some frequent responses:

"I have nothing to add."

"It wouldn't add value."

"I'm still learning."

"I never comment anywhere."

"I don't have enough time."

"Follow-up questions go unanswered."

"I read posts in the RSS feed."

"English isn't my first language."

"I'm not signed in."

In contrast, here were the reasons for commenting:

"I have a question."

"I have a strong emotional connection to the material."

"I strongly agree or disagree."

"I want to add my personal experience or advice."

We definitely encourage readers who do have questions or concerns to continue commenting!

What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?

Outside the responses along the lines of "No changes! Keep up the good work!" for which we thank you, these were the top asks from readers:

More thoughtful feedback from and interaction with authors.

More variety and diversity in our author pool.

More video content.

More specific case studies, tests, and experiments.

More step-by-step guides with actionable insights showing how to solve problems.

Ability to filter or categorize by skill level.

Diversity in location (outside the US).

These are great suggestions, some of which we've already begun to address!

What our readers want to see

Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?

Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?

COVID-19

Moving into our last and newest section for the survey, we asked readers questions regarding the way in which they consume SEO-related content during the COVID-19 era.

Has your consumption of SEO-related content changed due to COVID-19?

Of those who did see a shift, these were the most common reasons why:

Job loss and job hunting

Shift to work from home and being online 24-7

E-Commerce industry shifts

Online engagement shifts and ranking and traffic drops

Loss of clients and constricting budgets

More time to read paired with less time or opportunity to implement learnings

Would any of the following topics be helpful for you as a result of COVID-19 impacts?

What happens next?

Primary takeaways

Finally, stay tuned, as next year we're planning UX improvements to our blog CMS to address usability and accessibility concerns.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season, Moz fans, and happy reading!

0 notes

camerasieunhovn · 3 years

Text

What's Changed (and What Hasn't): The 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey Results

Posted by morgan.mcmurray

We could have held off on launching this year's reader survey, but we decided to move forward anyway because we know your work and your interests have been impacted, and we wanted to know how much.

Methodology

Answers were not required for all questions, so if something did not apply to a respondent, they could leave the answer blank or choose a variety of "no opinion" or "N/A" options.

Who our readers are

Let's dive in. First up: the questions asking readers to tell us more about themselves.

What is your job title?

The word cloud below is an amalgamation of the top-used words in response to this question, and the size of the word correlates to the number of mentions that word received.

No surprises here: number one (by far) was "SEO". Our readership remains heavily SEO-focused in their occupations, with content marketers coming in close second.

What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?

On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?

The majority of our readers remain intermediately knowledgeable about SEO concepts, leaving plenty of room for new learnings across skill levels.

Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?

Lack of resources and cross-functional collaboration at work.

SEO prioritization at work.

Lack of consolidation in analytics and reporting tools.

Difficulty explaining the value of SEO to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Difficulty explaining what SEO CAN'T do to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Attracting new clients and customers.

Having to wear multiple hats.

How our readers read

Keeping in mind all that context of who our readers are, we dug into preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.

How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?

On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?

Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?

What our readers think of the blog

Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for readers to consume, and more.

What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?

Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?

In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?

Similarly, it's great to see that readers continue to be satisfied with the amount of content served up in each post.

How often do you comment on blog posts?

RIP, comment section. A trend we've seen over the last several years continues its downward slope: 82% of readers who took part in the survey never comment on posts.

When asked for the reasons why they never comment, we saw some frequent responses:

"I have nothing to add."

"It wouldn't add value."

"I'm still learning."

"I never comment anywhere."

"I don't have enough time."

"Follow-up questions go unanswered."

"I read posts in the RSS feed."

"English isn't my first language."

"I'm not signed in."

In contrast, here were the reasons for commenting:

"I have a question."

"I have a strong emotional connection to the material."

"I strongly agree or disagree."

"I want to add my personal experience or advice."

We definitely encourage readers who do have questions or concerns to continue commenting!

What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?

Outside the responses along the lines of "No changes! Keep up the good work!" for which we thank you, these were the top asks from readers:

More thoughtful feedback from and interaction with authors.

More variety and diversity in our author pool.

More video content.

More specific case studies, tests, and experiments.

More step-by-step guides with actionable insights showing how to solve problems.

Ability to filter or categorize by skill level.

Diversity in location (outside the US).

These are great suggestions, some of which we've already begun to address!

What our readers want to see

Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?

Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?

COVID-19

Moving into our last and newest section for the survey, we asked readers questions regarding the way in which they consume SEO-related content during the COVID-19 era.

Has your consumption of SEO-related content changed due to COVID-19?

Of those who did see a shift, these were the most common reasons why:

Job loss and job hunting

Shift to work from home and being online 24-7

E-Commerce industry shifts

Online engagement shifts and ranking and traffic drops

Loss of clients and constricting budgets

More time to read paired with less time or opportunity to implement learnings

Would any of the following topics be helpful for you as a result of COVID-19 impacts?

What happens next?

Primary takeaways

Finally, stay tuned, as next year we're planning UX improvements to our blog CMS to address usability and accessibility concerns.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season, Moz fans, and happy reading!

0 notes