Simon petrikov coping FAIL compilation

Say, what are some characters you feel like had a metric ton of potential that was completely scrapped by the writers?

i feel like it would be cheating if i said all of them so. ill try and be more specific lmao <3 i was gonna show restraint and only do a few but FUCK IT you're getting the entire essay

coran. i know he's meant to be the Comic Relief character but idk. its possible to have a comic relief character who also has gravity and emotion, ykw ??? like idk i feel like all the show/fandom ever talks about is how allura lost everything (which is TRUE. SHE DID. IM NOT TRYING TO MINIMIZE THAT AT ALL.) but idk. allura was young enough that she probably didn't really have an established life on altea yet but coran??? he was an adult. fully grown, probably had friends or coworkers, even a partner and family. idk idk he lost as much as if not more than allura did and the writers barely ever acknowledged it. he isn't allowed to connect with any of the characters or have any actual genuine moments because he's supposed to be The Funny One. idk if the writing actually aknowledged his grief and trauma more, but still made him so lighthearted and goofy, that would be FASCINATING. HE STILL HAS HOPE. HE CAN STILL LAUGH. ET CETERA. but noooo he's just Silly with nothing deeper to it. sigh

in that same vein, hunk. again, he's often comic relief (and that comic relief is usually a fat joke

lotor. ik a lot of ppl have mixed opinions on the guy (fair) but like. he had SO much potential to be so many different things but i think the writers just. had too many things they wanted him to be. so his writing was all over the place because they couldn't make up their minds

haggar......again. i had SUCH a hard time pinning down any of her motives or characterization when she was the Main Villain (which to be fair might have been due to the fact that i was Mentally Checked The Fuck Out by the time s7/s8 rolled around) but like ??? i still have no idea what she was trying to do as the main villain in s7/8. she was such a menacing villain in the first few seasons but then the writing got soo confusing and needlessly complicated and i completely lost interest in anything about her character

shiro. the fact that he went through So Much but still gave the blade of marmora enough hope to risk everything to rescue him and kickstart the events of s1 ??? the fact that he Continued to go through So Much but was still a rock for the team and was still goofy and fun and dorky and lovable ?????? and ALL THAT to not even be in the show for the next 5 or so seasons and then be permanently sidelined when he DOES come back. what the fuck. like they tried to have an atlas metaphor later on to try and bring him back into the narrative but it was MEANINGLESS. sooo much wasted potential. a narrative about healing....finding love + family + connection......ending the war that has caused so much pain for Him Personally......man. we could have had it ALL

keith. i legiterally don't even recognize keith after s3 like !!! who is this man !!!!! he had abandonment + anger issues from being alone his Whole Life and instead of finding a close-knit family in space, he was isolated again and again and again, and shoved into a role he didn't want and wasn't meant for, and by the end bro was UNRECOGNIZABLE. in theory i LOVE the concept of keith learning to rely on his team more and take more of a leadership role as he grows as a person + teammate, but they had the PERFECT opportunity to do that already with keith being red paladin!!!!!!!! the red paladin is voltron's right hand!!!!!!! if the black isn't there, then red steps up to take charge!!!!!! idk. it would have been so so so so cool if shiro was only missing Temporarily and keith had to work through his own grief/fear/etc and take up the mantle of red paladin to keep the team together just long enough until shiro got back because he would NOT want that shit long-term. idk. i know keith literally got most of the storylines and arcs in the show but i still think he had wasted potential because most of those arcs fundamentally misunderstood him as a character and turned him into something he wasn't. idk

allura. she lost her ENTIRE FAMILY her ENTIRE CULTURE her ENTIRE SPECIES and it doesn't stop there lol !!!! over the course of the show she lost LITERALLY EVERYTHING. the castle of lions (the last remnant of her home), her tiara thingie (last thing she had left of her family), AND her life. what the fuuuck what the fuck. EVEN WITH the other alteans w romelle's group, allura still got discarded. like idk. she grieved her whole people and tried so hard to lead this resistance and then after she's grown so much and become a powerful leader and warrior she becomes queen of new altea. that would have been SO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

matt. he was alone in space for YEARS. like its unclear how long it was between shiro saving him from the arena and pidge finally finding him, but it was at LEAST a year, probably longer. he was a prisoner for most of that time, separated from the only two people he knew, and likely thinking they're both dead. no way to be rescued. no way to escape. and THEN when he IS rescued by the rebels, he's alone still because he's the only human!!! none of them can speak his language!!! he can't go home!!!! and ofc he fights the galra as part of the resistance and is this badass rebel leader but the show doesn't shed ANY light on how he got there. how he turned from nerdy little scientist to badass rebel leader in a space war. and just. idk. there was barely ANY matt screentime and there was so much wasted potential there

and i could keep going. i could have an essay for every single character. but alas i am sooo fucking sleepy so i must cap it here </3

Hey Mads! I don’t know if you’ve gotten any yet, so please feel free to substitute with one you’re dying to answer if I give you a duplicate.

1, 4, 12, 20, 25, 33, 40, 41, 52

And I already asked too many so I will stop.

ask me some niche otp asks

1.Who would end a heated argument by defending their actions with ‘because I love you!’ ?

Depends on the argument I would say.

If it is an argument about one getting help (they rightfully need) but think it is absurd, or they think they're a burden - you get the gist, it would probably be Nora saying 'because I love you".

If it is an argument about one getting help (they rightfully need) but think--

Nah, they're both saying that lol. It's probably the only kind of argument they'll conclude with a mutual 'because I love you'. Again, depends on the kind of argument. Other times they are more likely to come to a conclusion/compromise/understanding. It's always the subjective ones.

4. Which one is more protective? Who needs to be ‘protected’?

Nora's more protective in everyday fashion, but is probably the one who needs most protection. Trystan loves feeling secure, but is the first person who'd be willing to draw blood for you.

I love how I don't give out any straightforward answers lmao

12. Do they have many heated arguments? How do they smooth things over?

Answered here.

The short version: Usually ends in some kind of understanding. They aren't the kind of people who would give the other 'the silent treatment' (trust me they have had enough childhood trauma to not follow down that path). There's some conclusion there. Whether it be ending on a sour note or learning something new about each other they should be wary of, or a subject the other isn't fond of bringing up, etc. No argument is left astray.

20.Choose one song that perfectly describes their relationship.

First off, how dare you. Jk jk.

If I had to pick one, it's a very obvious answer. I reference it regularly in my fics, it almost became somewhat of a cultish chant but it is You're My Best Friend by Queen. It perfectly describes their relationship because Trystan's someone who sees the good in people and usually admires them, bordering on a crush but would love a friend, but Nora's the opposite - someone who deals with allies and friends every day in her line of work, but would love a partner (not in any romantic, platonic sense but in a partner-ish sense, y'know?).

It's hard to describe it but the song does it beautifully.

25. Do they have any hobbies they share?

A decent metric ton, actually. Crosswords used to be Trystan's thing but it became Nora's thing over a couple of weeks. Ever since she fixed the basketball hoop in her office, Nora cultivated her dying hobby in that sport before Trystan swooped in and fell in love with shooting hoops (at the cost of many dented furnitures)

33. Who’s the better cook?

If you want a quick, easy, wholesome meal under ten minutes that's equally nutritious, ask Nora.

If you want something elaborate, maybe a medieval recipe thrown in the mix, something five-course-esque, consult Trystan.

40. Who has an insatiable appetite? And what does the other do to help?

Assuming 'insatiable appetite' refers in a food context:

I think Nora definitely does because she kind of grew up with an athlete's diet as a kid (not to mention Chiense households will ensure you are fed until your stomach explodes) and sometimes the portion she consumes isn't wholly enough. She kind of ends up suppressing her appetite, which isn't great because her job is very active at that.

Trystan ensures she eats enough throughout the day, but he is no patron saint either. They kind of decide that if the other's famished, they'd stop by some place to get food or stock up on it at the very least.

41. Which one would take their jacket it off and drape over the other one because they were visibly shivering?

Nora does.

Trystan's one of those "oh i am from drakovia, we eat winter for breakfast" but then completely melts at the early sign of New York winter. Nora's better prepared for such circumstances since she's lived there all her life. She usually layers two jackets and gives one to Trystan no matter the circumstance.

He ends up stealing some of her jackets anyway, so it is a win-win. Trystan doesn't have to catch a cold and Nora can die happy knowing she's dating a pickpocket.

52. Describe their weekend getaway?

Technically Trystan's still yet to clear up his records, so for the time being, they can't travel outside of New York just yet. Weekend getaways aren't a staple, cuz Nora has work on the weekends too. However, if they happen to take a trip or something, they'd probably go visit a couple of art exhibits, book shops, maybe a couple of theme parks (just for the target practice stations).

It's very impromptu. Trystan would suggest a place. Nora would jump in with full enthusiasm. They get tired midway and stop elsewhere. Shenanigans ensue. They end up having a fun time anyway, even if it is literally a Saturday trip to the department store to stock up on groceries.

***

Thank you for the ask Elsa! (tbh you can send me like a million questions and I'll never get tired of them lol)

Okay, right back at you.

Silco x Vander and Caitlyn x Vi :)

Hahaha, thanks for throwing me under the bus! From those asks!

Silco x Vander

Do I ship it? Obviously

What made you ship it?

What are your favorite things about the ship?

For a ship built on two old men murdering each other, it's incredibly multi faceted. It's a big shipping lane, if you know what I mean. You have a past where they were so close, built so much together, yet misunderstood each other. You have BETRAYAL. You have years long plotting. You have scars and wounds hidden and bared. You have revenge. You have yearning, invites to rejoin, to be close again, even as Silco knows it's impossible. You have regrets. You have trauma by the metric ton. You have choking, stabbing, monsterification. You have one of them looking at the other's twisted, dead body, on a backdrop of flames, in the pouring rain, with a sobbing child in his arms.

Like WTF how did they not plan this? Oh, I forgot to mention one of them STILL keeping the knife with its scratched markings to the bitter end... STILL banging on about the other, his betrayal... Basically admitting he was forged, created by Vander's hands. No Vander means no Silco.

So it's a field day for 1/Fluffy stories of them young where the reader and writer are both like "haha 🙂" knowing full well what's coming, 2/angst fics galore, canon or not, and 3/reconciliation AUs. Those are as sweet as canon is dark.

Perfection.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

No, because the ship itself has an edge of controversial. I'll say, if they're made canon brothers by blood I will 1/laugh, 2/ignore and 3/keep shipping it

Caitlyn x Vi

Do I ship it? No.

Why don’t you ship it?

Caitlyn is a cop and the 0.1% of wealthy and privileged people in an Oliver Twist style fucked up system. Vi is a victim fresh out of 5-7 years in the worst mixed prison in that universe, put there by another cop without trial. The fact she's chasing cop tail hours after her release makes me weep.

What would have made you like it?

Nothing. Not in season 1. They don't have the time and space to make me ship it. I have nothing against Cait. She has room to become an excellent character. But the fact she doesn't see anything wrong with someone like Vi getting a crush on her is also extra bad. If they had slowly built them up as reluctant allies turning to tentative friends, with Vi being scary and obviously affected by... her life... and Cait slowly working through her prejudices and privileges... It could have built up to a fantastic ship.

Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

No. Maybe just that there's hope they'll salvage it by bringing the real differences between them forward in season 2, showing season 1 to be a weird honey moon period. Showing Vi coming to her senses... before doing the work mentioned above.

But that's just my taste, and clearly the dichotomy hasn't bothered most of the fandom.

🌞 🎉 and ✅ (particularly the "even if you don't mean to" part?) Also I hope you are having a gentle day!!💗

🌞 Do you have a preferred time of day to write?

My preferred time is the morning, but that isn't actually the time of day I write most. I write whenever I have the energy to write. Morning. Early afternoon. Late afternoon. Early evening. Late evening. It's a mix. :D

🎉 What leads you to consider a fic a success?

Honestly this depends on several factors: The popularity of the fandom, the age of the fandom, the pairing itself (rarepair or not), how active the fandom is on average (some fandoms engage less than others) and in the case of original fic on AO3, how well it converts to income and engagement overall. From there, I never look at hits, this is a dead metric to me, I don't care how many hits a fic has. I consider comments and kudos, and secondarily, Tumblr engagement and public bookmarks, as success metrics for me personally.

Am I writing a rarepair in a dead fandom - like The Beast that Chose Its Own Bridle? If so, than about 40 kudos total throughout the lifetime of the fic and maybe 4-5 comments per chapter makes it a raging success. Am I writing a long Fae Tales story? If so, then about 1000+ kudos and around 8-14 comments per chapter makes it a success as well as slow but steady growth on the Patreon. So you can see that this is a hugely variable set of metrics. There's nothing universal for me, except that I look at comments, and I look at kudos.

It really just depends. Some of my least read fics (like Inmates) are actually some of my faves. I just know they're good and I enjoy rereading them. So that fic was successful for me. When I started writing it I assumed no one would read it, so when one person commented, I screamed happily (this was back when I was posting it on Livejournal and Fanfiction.net lmao). Pia from back then could never have imagined how things have changed since.

But yeah, it changes, a Stardew Valley fic is not a Doctrine of Labyrinths fic is not a Fae Tales AU is not Fae Tales canon re: when I consider it successful. (For example, I always expect Fae Tales AUs to outperform the canon, I generally expect most fanfic to perform on par with a Fae Tales AU unless it's Rise of the Guardians, y'all are so engaged in that fandom).

✅ What's something that appears in your fics over and over and over again, even if you don't mean to?

If it's something 'I don't mean to' have appear, I probably don't know what it is, because I don't know that it's happening? So that part is weird, lmao. I can't answer it dslkajfsda

There are A LOT of things that turn up in my fics over and over again, to the point where I actually sell my writing based on thematic consistency: It always has trauma recovery, it always has hurt/comfort, it always has character-based writing, it always has some kind of power dynamic between the MCs that almost always leads to BDSM, it always has a hopeful or happy ending.

Other things: It generally has a few problematic faves - sometimes you'll hate 'em before you love 'em. There's almost always absent / dead or abusive parents of the MCs. Sometimes all three! There's usually one or two amazing parent-type guide figures (Lija and Mikkel, Adelais, Cassandra and Vivienne, Fenwrel and Ondine, Dr Harvey in Stain, North and Eva) who are often found (or become literal) family.

There's a heavy focus on the healing power of nature re: traumatised characters (this is literally a proven thing irl, but also I'm a Druid). Characters are usually affluent to some degree (by association or directly) by the end of the story as part of the happy ending. It's almost always going to be longer than an average novel. There's usually a light-hearted character with a heart of gold who adds levity to more serious storylines (Anton, Ash, Adelais, Luridan, Kadek, Janusz, Aidhe).

Tbh there's a ton more stuff but I'm not going to put it all here. But there are definitely very predictable things that appear in my fics over and over again. Enough that I can generally say fairly reliably, 'if you like this one, you'll probably like at least some of the others' lmao.

-

From the fandom meme!

Energy Update: Mercury Retrograde in Libra

Happy Monday? Last night Mercury stationed retrograde at 25° Libra starting our three-week-long Mercury retrograde cycle,. Mercury will march backward through from 25-10 degrees until 10/18. Normal Mercury retrograde warnings apply: things take longer in general, communication (especially internet communication) will get messy and there may be many misunderstandings, all technology can get a bit wonky, and you can likely expect to have to do some or all of the res: rethink, redo, reconsider, reawaken, realign, etc. Mercury retrograde is counterindicated, in general, for travel which shouldn't be a problem during this time. The general rule of thumb during Mercury retrograde is: think before you act, save early and often, and double-check all communications before you hit "send". Because this retrograde cycle is in Libra it will affect cardinal signs most strongly (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) with the additional signs being strongly affected being Gemini, Leo, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Aquarius. Remember to take into account Sun, Moon, AND Ascendant when considering this above information. As Mercury moves backward through Libra, we are going to be forced to confront the way that we think/talk about our relationships (ruled by Libra). There is a hint to this process as the ruler of Libra, Venus, will spend most of the retrograde in the sign of Sagittarius. Sag is a sign of freedom and expansion which is a stark difference from the often co-dependant sign of Libra. Herein you see the inherent conflict that needs resolution. Expect the bad behaviors of Libra to be in the forefront of our minds all throughout this retrograde. Libra can be seen as the OG ruler of coupledom which can look cute but often hides a lot of relationship trauma right below the surface. As a Venus sign, the appearance of a relationship - just having a relationship AT ALL - can become so all-consuming that the health of the relationship can become immaterial. In fact, there are many Libras who seem completely incapable of leaving a relationship to such a degree that they remain in toxic situations or in a very poorly matched situation for years if not decades. Here Mercury retrograde in Libra will share something in common with Venus in Sagittarius - sometimes, both signs would rather be lied to in a way that feels good than confront the truth that may be messy or hurtful. This energy has been at play all year as we round out the last of our eclipses on the Gemini-Sag axis - you can refer back to my posts about eclipse season if you're interested in following this line of inquiry further. The reason that Mercury retrograde is so impactful is that it crosses the same points on the horoscope (here 10-15° Libra) a total of three times: one in its normal forward motion (called the pre-shadow phase), then backward during the retrograde, and finally a third time as it moves forward once more (known as its post-shadow). Because of this, we can look at the aspects that Mercury makes during this Chthonic journey to get additional insight into the way in which this retrograde cycle will potentially impact our lives. In this retrograde, Mercury makes a number of strong aspects. They will form a square with Pluto in Capricorn on 10/1 and 11/3, trine Jupiter in Aquarius on 10/3 and 11/1, conjunct the Sun and Mars on 10/9, oppose Chiron in Aries from 10/14-10/29, and make a sweet sextile to Venus on 10/16. This is a mixed bag which makes sense for a Mercury retrograde cycle. As I write about each aspect please keep in mind that although I list specific dates, these aspects play out for a couple of days before and after their moment of exactitude. Additionally, because we are in a retrograde cycle, any impact of these aspects will likely last through the retrograde and into Mercury's post shadow (I'll get to that). Sun, Mercury, and Mars conjunction at 16° Libra - this, along with the Mercury-Pluto square will likely have the strongest impact on this Mercury retrograde cycle. At this time last year, Mars went retrograde

in the sign of Aries and squared off with Pluto in Capricorn three times. We saw a ton of these Aries-Capricorn squares last year - that was a beginning. Now, one year later, Mars has made his way halfway around the horoscope to Aries' opposite sign of Libra only to square Pluto in Capricorn again. It is likely the unfinished business from the Fall of 2020 (or earlier that year) will rise to the surface - especially around how we go about getting what we want out of relationships. You may feel unmoored or directionless in and around this Libra stellium on 10/9. Especially if you've been given messages about what you need to change in your own life (Pluto in Capricorn) but you have held onto the old rather than taking steps forward towards that change. That said, astrology is the study of second chances - it is never too late to right your path. All you need to do is start walking. Mercury square Pluto in Capricorn - This indicates unfinished business, something that you need to rethink, reevaluate, redo so that you can let go and move on with your life. You may see exes or old friends reappear during this time - keep in mind that most likely these people are reappearing for a chance of closure but some people may even see rekindlings of old romances or second chances. Just keep in mind that Pluto was the God of Death, not romance. Mercury trine Jupiter - this can be a pretty nice aspect when both planets are moving forwards but is questionable (at best) when both planets are retrograde. Watch out for making mountains of molehills, for over-thinking and over-analyzing (problems during any Mercury retrograde cycle but made worse by the influence of our Great Expander Jupiter). Here the lies of Mercury retrograde may be at their height - watch out for the ways in which we are prone to dishonestly or illusion during this time, especially the ways in which we are dishonest or harbor illusions about our relationships. Notably, Mercury will be square to Pluto at the same time that they are trine to Jupiter which indicates that the lies that we tell may be very heavily loaded during this time. Expect some serious breakups and breakdowns during this time. You may discover that you and your Others are on very different pages - even that you see your relationship in a completely different light! Mercury sextile Venus in Sagittarius - this lovely sextile happens two days before Mercury stations direct again and is definitely our path forward. What has been revealed during this retrograde cycle? Can you integrate it into your life and your relationships focusing heavily on openness and freedom? Mercury opposed Chiron in Aries - this is our pain point. Mercury will oppose Chiron within 1 degree for an incredibly long time - 15 days to be exact! This is because it happens as Mercury is about to station direct and is therefore moving so slowly that they appear to stand still for an extended period of time. This shows that the Mercury retrograde cycle has been painful and many will have to go through a time of rectification during its post shadow period afterward. Chiron is always a reminder that we need to heal ourselves - that our mental well-being is our own responsibility. There is a sense here, with the axis between independent Aries and codependent Libra in play - that we need to step away from the idea that our Others can heal us. Or the idea that our Others are responsible for our Emotional States or Dysregulations. All in all, the next three weeks may feel like a real slog. We may feel fragmented or off-track. It's highly likely that the big blowups won't be until closer to the end of the retrograde and there may be a lot of cleanups to do. There's a lot of indication of some pretty big changes in the works as this cycle works itself out. In a year when change has felt nearly impossible due to our ongoing Saturn in Aquarius-Uranus in Taurus square, a chance to actually enact change sounds pretty good to me. All in all, if you keep your patience and your wits about you and

you aren't holding on to shit that you should have let go of ages ago, navigating this astrology weather should be considered Business as Usual. Remember to give your Others a metric fuckton of space during this time - especially if they have personal planets in one of the cardinal signs. What you stifle will never grow.

You can read more about how to interpret how Mercury Rx will affect you personally in my blog post on my website.

If you like my writing, please consider supporting me by Buying Me A Kofi.

Recently Viewed: Five Features from Nightstream Film Festival

This weekend, I decided to get into the spirit of the Halloween season by buying a five-movie access pass for Nightstream, a (supposedly) horror-themed online film festival founded during the more chaotic days of the Covid-19 pandemic. And although none of my selections were quite as… traditional as I’d hoped, they certainly sated my appetite for unique cinematic experiences.

Alien on Stage: In this documentary from first-time directors Danielle Kummer and Lucy Haley, a troupe of Dorset bus drivers turned actors take their stage adaptation of Ridley Scott’s Alien from their sleepy community theatre all the way to London’s West End (with more than a little help from an enormously successful Kickstarter campaign). While the amateur thespians’ plain, weathered looks and quaint, small-town mannerisms (even Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg couldn’t have invented fictional characters this endearingly quirky) threaten to make them easy targets for mean-spirited mockery, their infectious enthusiasm and obvious passion (particularly when it comes to the charmingly low-budget, do-it-yourself special effects) transform them into quintessential underdog heroes. Their gradual evolution from ordinary blue-collar workers into unlikely internet celebrities perfectly encapsulates the tribulations and triumphs of the creative process—the overinflated egos, the pre-show anxiety, and the transcendent joy of finally performing in front of a live audience.

Mad God: Developed by VFX wizard Phil Tippett (best known for his contributions to Jurassic Park and the Star Wars franchise) over a period of thirty-four years—and good Lord, is that effort ever evident in every single frame!—this mixed-media (stop-motion animation, live-action, miniatures, puppetry, and occasional CGI) masterpiece is borderline indescribable. Imagine if Dante Alighieri, Ray Harryhausen, David Lynch, Jim Henson, H. P. Lovecraft, H. R. Giger, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Ed Wood collaborated on a project after dropping a metric shit-ton of acid; that should give you at least some idea of what to expect from the tone and visual style of this cinematic fever dream. Tippett relentlessly assaults the viewer with surreal, abstract, haunting imagery: barren industrial wastelands and enigmatic ruins dripping with filth, entrails, and excrement—hellish monuments to decay, despair, and death. The minimalistic, episodic narrative is, of course, entirely allegorical—though I’ll be damned if I can discern any semblance of “meaning” after just one viewing. And to be honest… I have no real desire to fully comprehend it. Sometimes, attempting to interpret a work of art in concrete terms is akin to swimming against the current; in this case, I found it more enjoyable to simply go with the flow.

Code Name: Nagasaki - This intimate, innovative, genre-bending documentary chronicles a young Norwegian man’s efforts to reestablish a relationship with his Japanese mother twenty-seven years after she abandoned his family. Over the course of his journey, subject/co-director Marius Lunde, an actor by trade, inhabits a variety of roles and archetypes—including samurai, hard-boiled detective, demonic beast, and average salaryman—in a series of stylized, dramatic vignettes intended to symbolize his turbulent emotional state. This intricate interplay between “truth” and “fiction”—utilizing the artificiality of familiar cinematic tropes as a means of confronting very real trauma—elegantly ties into the film’s underlying themes. Lunde’s desire for parental affection is, after all, merely a small facet of his search for his own identity; he frequently muses that he feels like a stranger in his mother’s homeland, surrounded by people that superficially resemble him, but with whom he shares little of substance in common. Beneath its deeply personal narrative, Code Name: Nagasaki challenges the viewer to contemplate what ultimately defines a human being (Culture? Ethnicity? DNA?)—an existential conundrum that propels the movie into the realm of the universal.

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes: From the surprisingly delightful One Cut of the Dead to the irredeemably disappointing Crazy Samurai: 400 vs. 1, Japanese cinema has become increasingly obsessed with 1917-esque “continuous shots” (or reasonable imitations thereof) in recent years. Although this sci-fi flavored comedy isn’t the best use of the notoriously flamboyant technique, it definitely ranks among the most clever, due to how seamlessly it marries craft and content—because the story revolves around “time travel,” it’s only logical to allow the plot to unfold in “real time.” The novel premise—a mild-mannered café owner discovers that he can communicate with his future self via an inverted two-minute video delay between his computer and television set, but must then perfectly reenact every predetermined conversation from the other side of the loop in order to avoid creating a temporal paradox (an unexpectedly complex meditation on the nature of fatalism and inevitability, considering the otherwise lighthearted tone)—lends itself to both humor and suspense, while the deliberately modest production values (a single location, iPhone cinematography, available lighting) prevent the filmmakers from letting their ambitions exceed their budget. Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is the first feature-length movie produced by the Europe Kikaku theatre group; after such an impressive debut, I’ll be watching their careers with great interest.

Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist - On August 24, 2010, acclaimed animator Satoshi Kon died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 46, leaving his final film, Dreaming Machine, incomplete and unreleased. As tempting as it may be to mourn the loss of another potential masterpiece, however, this documentary instead chooses to celebrate the legacy that the director did leave behind, outlining his entire career through talking-head interviews with his colleagues, peers, and the generation of artists that he influenced. And unlike similar “celebrity profile” films—say, for instance, Mifune: The Last Samurai—it isn’t afraid to acknowledge its subject’s flaws and blemishes; several of Kon’s former coworkers, for example, admit that although he encouraged creativity and experimentation, his perfectionism and uncompromising vision often alienated his staff—a common trait among “geniuses” and “auteurs.” All in all, Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist is a lovely tribute—albeit one that’s occasionally guilty of preaching to the converted.

How to put this-

What are the ethics of using queer coded characters and themes in a narrative that has no explicitly queer characters?

Welp, that question can be asked of many stories in media. Like, a metric shit ton. A lot. But since Lore Olympus is the flavour of the week (month? year?) for my brain, that's what I'll be applying this question to. And right away, asap, I'm talking critically about Lore Olympus. Critically as in taking a subject and thinking about what themes are in it and what those themes mean to me as a reader, not critically as in badmouthing it. Also, I'm no expert and I've only read my favourite chapters fifty million times, the other chapters maybe three times. So there's stuff I could have missed, please feel free to correct me. Also also I will be using the word queer a lot because that's what I am and what I'm talking about.

Just wanted to make that crystal queer.

Alrighty, queer-coded characters in Lore Olympus. Hello Eros, nice to be talking about you again. He's a fan favourite for some pretty good reasons. Compelling romantic sideplot, clear adversary to the asshat, and he's just plain fun. There can be plenty of heavy content when he's around, but he's also the guy that lightens the mood. Some of the faces he makes-fucking priceless. And hoo boy does he come off as the gay best friend. Romantic advice, shopping trips, make overs, the squeeing, those are some very old tropes. But he's not the gay best friend. Or at least, so vaguely bi/pan/etc that it can be written off as none of the above. The only hint we get that he's not straight is that orgy mentioned waaay back in the beginning. After that we get his backstory with Psyche and no mention of other interests since. The gay best friend trope was made when hollywood and equivalents stopped being quite so nasty to the LGBTQ+ community, but not quite to the point of queer positivity. It took signifiers that were used maliciously in the past (feminine aspects and interests) and put a humerous spin on them. Ah look, it's a guy that can expertly apply make up, how funny and nonthreatening he is. Maybe it was that funny and nonthreatening bit that the author was going for. Both Persephone and the readers just endured some pretty awful shit, so here's a new person for her support system that isn't threatening at all and brings along some lighter atmosphere. Super flamboyant and never shown to be sexually attracted to her-that's perfect, in you go.

And honestly, seeing a man that's in a relationship with a woman whose also in touch with his emotions and feminine side, that's pretty great. But it comes in a narrative completely without queer characters. When I first saw him I was pretty sure he was a stereotype. Now that I know he isn't, I feel mixed. Straight dudes should be able to be soft. But a story with so many characters, that talks seriously about their complicated inner lives, with all these romantic relationships, all that with no queer representation? Ehhhhhhh-

Getting to the endpoint a little early there, so onto the other queer coded characters. Most notable are Athena and Artemis. Athena is very androgynous in her design. And Artemis has a very telling moment with Persephone in which she tries to push the conversation away from the danger zone of her personal feelings. A loud, embarrassed exclamation that she isn't attracted to anyone? Yeah I've seen that one before. And here's where I'd like to think somewhat positively, because this is going somewhere. It might just be a similar line as Persephone, being torn about her membership with the eternal maidens. Or Lore Olympus Artemis may very well be a lesbian or asexual as her mythic counterpart has been. There's a lot of potential in her storyline.

Heck, there's a lot of potential all over this story. Greek mythology is filled to the brim with LGBTQ+ people. Skip Zeus and Apollo, because fuck those guys. We've got Achilles and Patroclus as the most well-known, but to be fair the mortals don't heavily feature in this one. Athena was bi, Hermes was bi, Dionysus isn't born yet but again, super bi. Aphrodite and Poseidon are both in open relationships within the story, and oh hey bi the way in the myths. Just saying, the greeks were very very gay.

But even if they weren't. Guess what. When you write a story of your very own, you can make your characters be anything. Case and point with Hera. This is a very, very different version of Hera. Sure, she can be capricious and act on a whim. But this isn't the same goddess that committed cruelties against women that Zeus forced himself on. At least to our knowledge. Nerp, this author has reinterpreted her to be a very sympathetic woman, and that's without changing what she went through. Hera was always someone that endured a lot of crap from her husband, but I didn't feel bad for her when I read her stories in class because hey, she was a vindictive shrew. By changing the patriarchal perspective that has some pretty strong opinions on women scorned, to the perspective of a woman author sympathetic to the woman character who is constantly shit on by everyone around her, the author has improved on the original subject material. Change, it's a good thing.

Ok, queer themes. Again I'd like to make a point right away, and the point here is the themes I'm about to talk about don't just affect queer people. These are lived experiences for many. But being kept naive of an outside world, being unable to explore your sexuality, people trying to override you when you tell them what's best for you and your body, are all things that deeply affect the queer community. There's a very good reason this fandom has so many LGBTQ+ members. Many moments in this story are affirming to us, and that's a good thing. This story also has a lot to say about gender roles. Persephone is the most recent of women that people are looking to use for their own selfish advancement. Hera has a very powerful line about sacrificing her power and potential to make Zeus feel comfortable and happy. And boy is that a line that fits millions of women and afabs throughout history. Making people comfortable by keeping a part of yourself shoved down, whether it's your ability in a field of work or your identity. Or maybe your disability. Or your religion. Your background. Lore Olympus hits pretty hard with a very real feeling of sacrificing bits of yourself to make what people see more palatable, easier for them to deal with. Hera and Persephone have breakdowns over these forced versions of themselves, the facade that's too much to keep up.

These problems don't exist in a bubble. They are problems that weave through many different subcultures and peoples. And unfortunately, some affected people can be excluded when such problems are addressed. I don't think the author decided to be exclusive on purpose. The kindest interpretation is that this simply isn't something that affected her directly, so she either didn't think to include it or didn't feel comfortable writing from a pov she doesn't share. The less kind interpretation is that she wanted to appeal to as broad a demographic as possible, and decided this was the way to do it. I'm not inclined to think that way of her, because she's showed herself to be very empathetic and thoughtful with pretty much every other aspect. But when we become so close with a piece of media, a story that touches us so deeply, one that strives to be realistic in themes like abuse and trauma, the question comes up. What about us? Do we exist? Are our problems seen? The end result of a narrative using queer-coded characters and themes without explicitly being queer is a disconnect. A feeling of separation from a story and characters that I otherwise feel very close to. A worry that these problems are only seen by, only affecting, heterosexual and cisgendered peoples. And I realize this would be hard to cover for someone who hasn't written queer characters in this story yet, someone who may or may not be LGBTQ+ themselves. But even so, even though there would be mistakes and bad faith critics and all else, I would rather she try. I would rather be seen.

Since you mentioned that Blitz wasn't around for his kids' childhoods, I'd love to know how Blitz reacted to becoming a father/meeting his kids. Dealer's choice on which kid/kids

A much lower key then normal Blitz in this one, though good reasons why.

"Trauma, the gift that keeps on giving." Blitz muttered to himself.

Blitz wasn't sure exactly how long it had been since he had been rescued from the basement section of some company he hadn't even heard of before.

How messed up was it he knew so little about the place he was held in for many years?

About as messed up that he could barely remember any of it. He did remember being kidnapped. He remembered being locked up. He remembered trying to escape so many times before they just started drugging him to keep him calm.

After that things got fuzzy. Memories faded in and out and would sometimes mix with each other. And honestly Blitz couldn't be sure what parts of these memoires were real.

He was barely lucid for his own rescue. One moment curled up in his cell, another being supported as he was brought through blood spattered hallways that his rescuers had to fight through on their way down to him. Then a moment in the back of a familiar van he remembered in that moment driving before.

A minor memory of someone asking for him to look them in the eyes, and himself muttering "I'm driving, Moxxie can't drive for shit."

Then the next time he woke it was in a actually comfortable bed, in a cozy room. He would fade in and out of consciousness then, time to time knowing he was being checked on or hearing conversations.

Like about the chemical mix that existed out there that had samples of his blood in it. The one no one knew what it did.

Even Mavis, Moxxie and Millie's kid who apparently was a chemistry genius, knew what exactly the chemical mix was supposed to do. All that Mavis knew for sure was that it contained traces of Blitz's blood. She also suspected that whatever it was suppose to be, the mix was suppose to be addictive.

All that did not bode well.

He only knew all this because he had been half awake when that conversation had gone down near the guest room, probably thinking Blitz would not be up for awhile. He had heard a lot more then anyone else wanted him to hear right now, fearing he was in a more fragile condition then was enough to handle so much and so deep information.

Maybe they were right. But Blitz never did like feeling like he was fragile. He might not have a choice in that feeling. Now that the drugs were out of his system he was greatly more aware of his surroundings. Also a lot more aware of his growing anxiety.

This couldn't last. That's what his brain was telling him. That the ones who captured him in the first place were going to come back for him, drag him back and bring everyone else down with him.

He didn't want to think about that. So he needed to get out of bed. He needed to do something that wasn't laying there listening for sounds and trying to decipher if they were threats or not.

So at three in the morning Blitz headed down into the kitchen.

The light to the kitchen was on. Blitz entered the kitchen, not sure who to expect.

It was Orpheus.

He remembered this one slightly from the rescue. He had been present, as well as Mavis and two other strangers. Strangers though they were concerned and helpful. Which, was a rarity in hell.

The tallest of the three strangers, Orpheus stood out in the kitchen. Just all height with a brown feathers and a imp horns and tail.

Orpheus was making coffee, the coffee maker working and Orpheus keeping a eye on it. Then Orpheus turned, realizing he was no longer alone.

"Oh!" Orpheus said, seeing Blitz. "You're awake."

Considering for the last few days Blitz had been recovering from the metric ton of drugs in his system and had not left the bed in the guest room since being brought to it, Blitz could see why Orpheus was surprised to see him up.

"I'm done sleeping for now." Blitz said.

"Oh. You did sleep a lot." Orpheus said.

A lull of silence. Then Orpheus lifted up the coffee pot, the coffee having finsihed then.

"Coffee?" he asked.

He spoke with this soft tone, like afraid that if he raised his voice too high that all eyes would be on him and that was just something he did not want. He had some stories, judging by the scar over his eye and the limp to his steps.

"Yeah, sure. Why the fuck not." Blitz said.

Blitz fully entered the kitchen and sat at the kitchen table. Orpheus took out two mugs from the cupboards. After filling one mug and handing it to Blitz, he filled his own. Orpheus chose a comically large coffee mug that Blitz was sure was a novelty mug and not meant to be drinking from. This did not stop Orpheus from pouring coffee from the pot into it and then taking a sip from the mug.

"That's a lot of coffee." Blitz said.

"I don't sleep anyways. Might as well have as much coffee as I want." Orpheus said.

"Not judging. If coffee is your worst addiction then you're doing a lot better then a lot of people in hell." Blitz said.

"I guess that's true." Orpheus said.

Another lull. Blitz could tell Orpheus had something to say. But couldn't quite bring himself to say it.

"What's your name?" Blitz asked suddenly.

Orpheus blinked his two, red eyes, the question catching him off guard.

"Orpheus. " he said.

"Right, okay. And the other two are..."

"You mean Glitz and Kalamity?" Orpheus asked.

"Yeah, them. You three... what's your deal? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to be rescued and that you all helped but.. why? Kind deeds for no reason are not a thing in hell." Blitz said.

If the owl like hell denizen wasn't already nervous, he was more nervous now.

"It's... it's kind of a lot to explain right now and since you just got rescued we were kind of thinking that we give you time to recover-" Orpheus said.

"You three are my kids, aren't you?" Blitz asked.

Orpheus nearly dropped the cup.

"How did-"

"People are going to tell you I'm a idiot. And yeah, I fucking can be. But I'm also not entirely stupid. You three have so many features of your other parent and my features, and the math checks out. Plus I doubt total strangers would get involved in the shit it took to pull me out of that place." Blitz said.

"You seem very calm about it." Orpheus said. "Finding out you have three kids suddenly."

Blitz shrugged.

"I did my mental freaking out earlier. I'm good now. " Blitz said.

Blitz looked to Orpheus, thinking a moment.

"You have my horns." Blitz said.

"I've noticed that too." Orpheus said.

"Tell me more about yourself." Blitz said.

The eye ridge over Orpheus's good, right eye went up a bit.

"Are you sure? It's a lot. And you-" Orpheus said.

"Kid." Blitz said, taking a sip of his coffee. "We're both not sleeping and I have nothing but time."

Orpheus nodded.

"Fair enough then."

They talked for long into the morning light.

Melvin and the Silent Diagnosis for a Brilliantly Broken Psyche

Hypothetical Diagnosis Insecurity masked with narcissistic tendencies characterized with compulsive obsessions driven by blatant autism, and no that is not an immature insult I test extremely highly for Asperger's myself Here's the Evidence: (I will state before hand that Melvin-borg is a completely separate character in my mind, and thus will not be included in this particular theory.  Melvin decided not to turn out like him, so they are canonically separate characters) He is obviously and frequently inspired by George and Harold, but his deeply embedded fear of rejection makes him dangerously bitter, and it doesn't help that everytime he breaks out of this protective shell, he is rejected or betrayed once again. It’s important to note that while he may be high-functioning (aka: Aspergers) he is still Autistic. That’s because Asperger’s is not a form of autism- it is autism. Period. And any kind of autism or mental attypicality left untreated can develop in to many, many other severe mental disorders, or, in general, make life a metric heck ton harder and complicated than it already is. I also need to confess that I test highly positively for autism myself as well as being an INTP female (Myers-Briggs Personality Test). Not to brag, but all that combined with my naturally creative nature makes me rare af, but it also means I can't communicate or handle stress #liketheothergirls, so that has lead me to being/feeling bullied and ostracized.  I also have anxiety and depression issue which run in my family, and mild insomnia, and may or may not be relapsing into an eating disorder. Paired with psychical problems like acid reflux and severe neck tension, health, whether psychical or mental is of uttermost importance to me.  It suffices to say, autism is not easy to deal with and if not taken care for properly a person, especially if not made at least aware of what autism truly is, it can truly ruin their life. Combined with the neglectful nature of his parents (at least in the books) I and many others in this fandom truly believe Melvin is at least autistically coded. Not only does this fit the archetype of his character but it also fits the theme of the books to a TEE. At its core, CU, of all things, is a children's book series, about living your best life despite not being “normal.” Even characters like the teachers or Mr Krupp who strive for “normality” are shown to actually have deeply repressed creativity, or, in some cases, deep trauma from their own childhoods. It suffices to say that I resonate deeply with Melvin. Say what you want about him or me, I was able to relate to him the second he spoke his first line in the second book. Sorry to turn this into a long vent, but I feel it is best to use myself to support this theory as well as harder evidence, even if it is mostly a means of self-therapy. To start, we both are obsessed with school even to a detrimental degree. Ever since head-start (Pre-K but a million times better), these "book-smarts" were the first thing I ever truly excelled at. When the other kids bullied (or as I now know as teasing) me, I would lose myself in a stack of homework or a book 2-3 grades past my grade level (this is before I drew or wrote as a main hobby). Similarly, Melvin is rarely seen without a book or gadget, just like me. We both over analyze things and hide our feelings. We both have intense crushes on others but are terrified to dare express them, or do but to nothing but awkwardness. We were both science kids, and fascinated by words and/or numbers alone (I still am just in a more artistic way). We both struggle to communicate and relate to others. We both have a unusual sense of humor and are highly observant of surroundings all the while missing what’s in front of our noses. We both have interests that quickly spiral into obsessions and dropping the obsession only when sick of it. We both practice similar forms of stimming. We both not only thrive but crave control and structure with the world around us, even to the point of being "control freaks" and creating odd habits, routines, and rituals regardless of whether they are necessary or make sense. We both have an intense fear of intimacy and rejection to the point of practicing self-isolation and in some cases self harm or other unhealthy coping methods (seen with Melvin over eating sweets or over working himself. For me it’s disordered eating or self flagellation, something I have all but completely dropped but still) We also both tend to see ourselves as inferior to others and attempt to mask those feelings with a superiority complex (I feel bad for my siblings but I didn’t know what I was doing, and no it was not abusive just sibling rivalry and I’m the oldest anyway, and we are country kids and understand “rough-housing” =/= using each other as a punching bag, but accidents happen I'm sorry) We both seem to become easily overstimulated and have explosive mental and emotional breakdowns when things just . . . become too much However the harsh divide between male and female and fictional and nonfictional means we both present certain traits differently. Whereas he presents a more linear line of thinking my mind is overwhelmingly sporadic. Also, I have over sensitivities to touch and light (and sometimes certain noises, but not anything not normal? Wfk.) But maybe he does have oversensitivity but I can't think of an example off the top of my head. Enough about me however. I know Melvin and autism has been done to death.  Hell, I just did it to death.  My actual theory is more on the inner mechanisms of his mind and predicting how he will develop should the series allow for full character development. Also, similar to my Krupp theory, I will be listing his crimes out and give him a proper sentence for his age and maturity level (which will be light as I am sympathetic to his plight).   This is already getting too long, so Imma try to finally get to the point.  Characters with autism are honestly a mixed bag, sometimes there as standardized as my mystery Daddy Sherlock Holmes and other times they are as subtle as Pearl or Peridot from Steven Universe (has Rebbaca Sugar confirmed this? sorry). Honestly, it does distress me that autism is almost always used to have an evil genius character or some weird side character for brownie/ diversity points. (this makes me a bit hypocritical I guess, considering my own stories. I guess tropes are tropes for a reason) And while Dav Pilky May not be subtle with his scholastic politics or humor his one spectacular tool in his writing books has always been, when it comes to his characters, showing instead of telling. This is something I latched on to even as a kid, and I was already thinking up theories on the characters before I even knew character theories were a thing.  Like what happened to Harold's Dad (hint, hint).  Why was Harold's sister rarely used?  Does Mr Krupp actually like their comics (a now accepted theory, but not just min? And many many others I'm probably never gonna write.  It took until how long in the books to reveal George and Harold have ADHD? Before that they were simply described as being as smart as Melvin but just in different ways. Personally I feel that autism is inverted ADHD. This is an opinion I’ve recently formed so if I’m wrong bloody attack me in the comments. Anyway, Melvin presenting autism makes him the perfect foil to George and Harolds’ more sporadic antics. The only true difference between autistic folks and ADHD folks is that those with autism tend to crave a structured environment full of rules, and set goals to achieve, while such an environment is HELL to children with ADHD (aka:George and Harold). (Even though if with adults they can trust, children with ADHD thrive in structured environments if they are surrounded by adults or authority figures they can trust.)  I know some will tell me ADHD is on the spectrum, but I just learned this like actually the other day and don’t fully understand it.  My prediction is that Melvin will eventually and naturally mellow out if just because staying so high strung all the time is a huge waste of mental energy.  I know good as hell I had to.  Also, he mellowed our in the books and went from a screeching revenge exacting lil narcissistic white boi prick to a person who simply wants to pursue his interests and even helping George and Harold (selfishly, but help nonetheless). He even went from enjoying the fame and attention of hero-ing to realizing it did not fufill him. Indeed quite the opposite.  His true passion lay in solving world problems through science, and I don't think the ending for him in the books could have been any more perfect considering his character.   In the Netflix show, similar to how I think Krupp's personalities are merging, I believe that Melvin will eventually become more like his Broski alter ego (which I calmly demand more of).  Overall, given that this show needs to go back to the status quo more often than not, I don't think his core character will ever change, and it doesn't need to.  Multiple times throughout the series he's been shown to crave friendship from George and Harold, despite audibly hating him . Textbook Tsundere, I know.  He will form a friendly rivalry with George and Harold, I have almost no doubt about that, taking the season 1 finale, season 2 finale, season 3 first episode, and halloween special into consideration. (Yeah, if someone will send me clips I will give them my eternal gratefulness) To conclude, because by god this is long, Melvin is, SHOCKER, just a little kid.  A little kid who likes muffins and dolls and has big hopes and dreams.  A little kid whose love for science and unrecognized creativity is channeled into making inventions that are even more impressive than those of Professor P (sorry P).  But he is a little kid with his own needs and stuggles which at this point remain unmet.  His parents are canonically neglectful, I cannot repeat that enough times.  The effects of neglect are a hell-hole of its own regardless of growing up with undiagnosed autism.  But that's just a theory- Alright, that was a banger, I guess next up is Melvin-borg since writing this has given me some interesting ideas for him.  Let’s see how long this hyperfocus train will go!

Happy Release Day To Blood-Bound!

What did it feel like to write a demisexual character in an erotic romance? By Kaelan Rhwiol

Asexuals aren't interested in sex or are repulsed by it, right? Well, yes and no.

Many asexuals have little interest in sex, or they may lack sexual desire. Some asexuals lack attraction, meaning they may experience sexual desire but lack attraction to others. The asexual spectrum is incredibly broad and varied. There are so many ways people experience being asexual, but there aren't a metric ton of fiction books exploring those individual realities.

Sex very much repulses some of us, and anyone talking about asexuality needs to know that aces like that exist. People also need to know that my kind of ace exists, too.

That for some of us, we can and do have sex for a lot of different reasons. As many varied reasons as there are individual aces; including wanting to please our partners because it pleases us to do so, to wanting to have children, to experiencing connection, to enjoyment. Some of us, given the right circumstances, can and do enjoy the act itself, really. We're still asexual.

 Have I blown your mind yet?

 And what in the world does this have to do with the book I have releasing today? My BLOODBOUND?

 A couple of years ago, after figuring out that I'm demisexual, I did what I usually do and looked around for fiction books, ideally in my favorite genres of romance and SFF that featured demisexual main characters.

I didn't find many. In fact, I only found three. Three books and two of them were self-pubbed, so not well known. Thankfully there are more now, but at the time I felt that I needed to write a book in order to see someone like me on the page.

A gray-ace who very much identifies as asexual who happens to be in a happy relationship and who enjoys sex. One who, for all intents and purposes was a sex-repulsed ace until I wasn't. Until I needed to start identifying as a gray-ace instead. I wrote all of that into BLOODBOUND.

So what did it feel like to write that?

It was hard, very hard. I've been known to liken it to scraping the main character, Rhian, out of my soul with a sharp blade and then bleeding her onto the page. Because a lot of the time it felt exactly like that. I had to relive a lot of relationships where I wish I hadn't gotten sexual with people, and that wasn't pleasant. I also had to examine a lot of my feelings and experiences from a semi-impartial writer's viewpoint. So yeah, it wasn't easy.

I write almost exclusively own voices work, meaning that my characters share parts of my marginalizations'. Most are queer or mentally ill; some are kinky, some are mixed-race or non-binary, some are autistic or have survived a lot of trauma, some experience the pain of a sibling's death, but they're all parts of me. I find I do my best writing when I'm passionate about the subject, and for me, lived experience gives me a unique perspective into a lot of intersectionally marginalized identities.

I'm used to the experience of writing bits of myself and my life into my work. So I expected writing BLOODBOUND to be similar, hard, but not too hard, easier in fact than writing things I'm not. 

It didn't turn out that way. Rhian, my demisexual assassin, is the most of me that I've ever put on the page before and BLOODBOUND was the hardest book I've ever written. Rhian exposes the most personal aspects of myself in a lot of ways, the parts that I feel are most likely to be the worst reviewed, and the most hated parts. Why do I feel that? Because demisexuality is still so misunderstood, so unknown, and aces, in general, get a lot of hatred to start with. Demis tend to be the red-headed step-children of the asexual spectrum in my experience.

During the writing of it, I felt like I had to be so very careful with concepts and word choices, and at times I questioned what the hell I was doing writing an ace character who enjoys sex of all things, in an erotic romance!

But why not? Why shouldn't people like me be able to see ourselves on the page as well? Why shouldn't people who used to be sex-repulsed, like me, or who just never had any interest or understanding for it, (me at other times in my life) have that experience, that reality, to read? I think we should; I think we need to have that, as much as any other marginalized identity needs to see themselves. It's imperative for us to have mirror books. Those books that we can see ourselves in.

So no matter how worried I am, or how afraid I am that people won't connect with this very profoundly personal part of myself, shared through the vehicle of my main character, I still wrote and shared it. I needed to. Even if it hurts.

I've worried, all along, from the time I had the idea all the way up through writing, submission, acceptance, cover design and editing that demisexual readers will hate my book. It can only show my experience of being demisexual, which may be remarkably different from other demis. It has had four demisexual sensitivity readers, so hopefully, we've caught any issues there may be with representation, but it can't represent all of us, because I'm only one person. Maybe it can let some of us see ourselves though, and that was my goal in writing it.

To let some of us see ourselves.

For more of the author check out: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest If you’d like to check the story out the first chapter and a giveaway are on the Erotica for All blog!

barryorchestra presents Top 50 of 2019 - Introduction & #50

It’s that time of year again!

The time when I give you what you didn’t ask for but also didn’t know you needed. If you’re new to the game, this is the run down. I listen to a shit ton of music, I make a list of my favorite tracks, I post them on social media, as well as this blog. My metrics are: how the song personally affected me, replay value, content, as well as style. I also give myself a time window of going back 2 years, just to be able to catch things I missed, but only if it wasn’t immensely popular.

Last year was all about the bangers, the fun, catchy songs you live life to and work to. 2019 still has some of those, but I turned 30. I’m thinking deeply about life and love and everything in between. So this year might be a little less fun overall, but I still have a little something for everybody if you’re willing to follow me down this road. The challenge is to get through the ENTIRE list...no skipping, just let it rock and allow yourself to feel what you feel in response to the art. 

Also, here are the links to the full playlist by itself:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6RPwgF8faK7q9lSMqgoKHR?si=SAOqK52WRKmiMy_H6b1m-Q

Google/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z52zuwTa6aQ&list=PLYBS6-ZMRwTVu6olYIu4GjA25bscdBB12&index=2&t=0s

#50- Priscilla Renea - Jonjo

I read the liner notes of albums, I google the producers and the songwriters listed on the credits of tracks, so of course I knew about Priscilla Renea way before she dropped an album. She’s written at least one hit for just about every pop or R&B woman in the industry for the last decade, but she’s come into her own as an artist on her 2nd album “Coloured”. The album was inspired by incidents in Priscilla's childhood in rural Florida, relationships, and racial trauma. She classifies this as a country album, but she brings the pop, R&B, and hip-hop influences that she loves into the mix. Make no mistake though, there are traditional country songs on this record, and she pulls them off well, but the record still feels like more of a playlist than a straight country record. I went into this wanting to hear what a country album by a black woman sounds like, and although I kind of wish she stuck the landing a bit more consistently, the final product is something that I’m more likely to play on a regular basis...so I really can’t complain!

Jonjo is a modern take on those silly, nonsense country songs that aren’t meant to mean much, but they’ll set a honky tonk or a hoedown on fire. Keep in mind that this record came out several months before Lil Nas X decided to marry country with hip hop...dare I say it...she helped engineer this wave of country trap with some of the songs on this record. This was produced by Honorable C-Note, a producer who’s more known for his work with 2 Chainz and other trap rappers than anything else. His hard hitting 808s and hi-hats make a interesting contrast over the traditional country instrumentation. The song didn’t need them, but the addition takes it over the edge and makes it sound modern. The same can be said for the other track that he produced, “Gentle Hands”. The record is fun, and Priscilla’s vocals sound great. Can we please let black women in country music? Maybe then I’ll start paying more attention.

Hi! I was wondering what headcanons do you have of Jaspearl and maybe Jaspearlapis, since your ask is open. It is always amazing to see your art, one of the blogs that go under my "art goals" Hope you have a wonderful day!

Hey ‘Nonnie! Asks are usually open and thank you! That’s a really inspiring thing to read! I’m really honored!

Headcanons? Huh. Sure do have a cadre of them, some are even related to what I want to put in that CYOA comic I started almost a year ago ((really should continue that)). Some headcanons for Jaspearl:- Metric ton of bonding about recounting past traumas and era 1 - Cuddling. Jasper is a gross cuddler once she starts to get out of her shell.- Number 1 favourite pass time: sparring. - Number 2 favourite pass time: tacky flirting and come backs while sparring.- Jasper tells all the bad pick ups. Mainly for laughs with mixed results.-They talk in quotes sometimes. It’s either high literature from HW or from Connie’s books.- Pearl can dip Jasper no problem. - Whatever their fusion dance is, I bet Jasper lifts Pearl at one point.- Relationship wise it’s always shifting who is in “charge”. They function more like a very dynamic tag team.- Arm latch™- Screaming Pearl Spear Technique.

Jaspearlapis (once everyone roughly works out how to function around the other):- P and L likely watch Jasp workout together while they chat.- They prolly both sit on Jasp when she does push ups.- Team Overdramatic. - The sass is really strong with them. - A fight against them would be them 60% roasting the ever living snot out of the enemy and the other 40% would be them a horrifyingly effecient tag team on the battlefield. Add Peri/Sugulite in there and they’ll wrap the Diamonds in their own Palanquins like a Christmass present. Literally.- They build ridiculously elaborate sand castles.

Hope you have a nice day too!

Optimized the Hell Out of Your Client’s AdWords Account? Don’t Drive More Traffic, Do This Instead

This is Dale (okay, it’s actually Corey, our Director of Campaign Strategy), but we’ll call him Dale for the sake of this post). Dale is the Manager of Paid Media at a local digital marketing agency.

Look at Dale’s face and tell me you don’t see yourself .

Dale is an AdWords wizard, so much so that he’s optimized his clients’ accounts to the point where he can no longer get a notable conversion lift.

He’s tried everything: changing bids, testing ads, adding negative keywords, sitelinks, geography targeting — but no matter what he tweaks, he’s unable to push beyond the dreaded conversion plateau.

Dale is stuck between a rock and a hard place; he can either ask his clients for more money to send more traffic to their not-so-specific site (rock), or he can keep banging his head against his desk (hard place, literally).

But wait, Dale! There’s another way — one that doesn’t result in head trauma. One that has the potential to supercharge your client’s ad spend and help you retain more clients (not to mention make you the hero of your agency and the envy of your co-workers — ooh la la).

That “other way” is to focus on the post-click experience.

What is the post-click experience and why should you care?

Before we define the post-click experience, we need to dissect what goes into a conversion rate.

A conversion rate is the result of three very important components coming together:

Your client’s offering (the thing or service they’re actually selling)

Your client’s industry

The surrounding marketing strategy (this is where you can have the biggest impact as an agency marketer)

The marketing strategy can further be broken down into pre- and post-click strategy. The pre-click experience is whatever happens before your client’s prospect clicks through on an ad — it’s what you’re already spending 80% of your day optimizing deep in the trenches of AdWords, Bing, Facebook, Twitter and Google Analytics. It’s all about getting people to the next stage in the funnel.

The post-click experience, on the other hand, includes whatever happens after your client’s prospect clicks through — everything from how accurately the landing page copy matches the ad’s promise to how well the page conveys the offer to how much the page asks of your visitors and whether the ask is aligned with the visitor’s current buyer stage.

You might be thinking, Cool, but this falls outside my job description. And you’d be right.

But let’s face it, if your agency is only focused on improving the ad experience, you’re drastically limiting the impact you can have on your client’s on-page conversion rates. Convincing your team to allocate time and resources to optimizing the post-click experience will result in converting more of those clicks you work so hard to get.

The image on the left represents the visitors that drop off after they click through your ad. However, allocating resources to the post-click experience via landing page optimization can help you drastically impact on-page conversion rates without increasing ad spend — more like the image on the right.

Focusing on the post-click experience (or where people land after an ad) won’t just increase on-page conversion rates. It can impact other metrics you’re trying to impact while optimizing in AdWords.

Here’s what I mean…

Let’s say your client is a Canada-wide alternative health clinic. Right now you’re running ads for each of its 18 locations, but your client has provided you with a generic, catch-all page on their website, to send all this ad traffic to. This generic website page lacks a clear call to action, and the copy doesn’t match the ads, which are hyper-targeted based on location and service.

Example of a generic, catch-all webpage, with your ad’s offer circled in red.

You know that a more targeted page would perform better, so you convince your agency to create several targeted landing pages instead. You create unique pages for each service this client offers (like massage therapy, homeopathy, and acupuncture )and drive very specific ads to these corresponding pages. You can even go as far as to use Dynamic Text Replacement to ensure the search intent is reflected from ad to landing page.

Example of a targeted landing page, with a single call to action and a headline which matches the ad copy.

In this case, by focusing on the post-click experience with dedicated landing pages, you’re indicating to the visitor they’ve made a “good click.” Your agency starts to notice an increase in on-page conversions, which results in lower cost per lead; you’re doing more with the same ad spend. But here’s the clincher: Your client’s AdWords Quality Score improves, thereby — wait for it — lowering CPC. (Insert mind-blown gif here.)

Virginia-based digital agency Workshop Digital did it. They were able to test their way up to 20-22% conversion rates — four times the leads their client was getting prior — without driving more traffic, but instead by allocating resources to the post-click experience.

What does focusing on the post-click experience look like?

The simplest and most impactful way to improve the post-click experience is to introduce landing page design and optimization as a service your agency provides.

The first step is to build dedicated landing pages for your client’s campaigns using best practices and insights about your client’s industry from the Conversion Benchmark Report. (This will take some collaboration with your client to determine which offers to roll out.)

The second step is to optimize your client’s pages to increase the conversion rate over time, like Workshop Digital did:

“We started testing everything from images to backgrounds, slideshows, videos, copy, headline placement, form placement, button placement. At first we just played around with what we thought would work. And we started slowly seeing improvements. Every landing page iteration we tested would get incrementally better.”

Optimize your client’s entire AdWords funnel, convert more prospects and lower your cost-per-acquisition with dedicated landing pages from Unbounce.

How to offer landing page optimization services at your agency

Working landing pages and optimization into your agency’s offering doesn’t have to be a mammoth task (we promise!).

Get everyone on board

We get it, there are a ton of people that need to buy into landing pages and optimization before your team can start running with it.

They’re like you; they need evidence that what you’re proposing will actually help the business, the bottom line or even just make their lives easier. Lucky for you, here are four reasons you can provide your team:

Build long-term relationships with your clients by launching and optimizing specific, targeted campaigns versus one-off, generic campaigns.

Unlock a new revenue stream for your agency (Montreal-based digital agency Webistry saw a 23% increase in revenue by offering landing pages and a 50% increase in average retainer fees by offering optimization services).

Get ahead of (or at least on par with) your competition, who might already be offering landing page and optimization services.

Improve your client’s AdWord’s Quality Score and break through the conversion plateau… basically impress the heck out of your client.

Price your services

Working landing pages and optimization into your pricing can be tricky, and what works for one agency may not work for the next.

Is landing page design a staple service of yours? Will you offer follow up, maintenance and optimization services? Or are landing pages simply an add-on that you’ll teach clients to maintain themselves? Here’s how a few successful agencies already do it:

Include landing pages in your retainer fee, like Utah-based Disruptive Advertising. They include landing pages in their pricing, whether their client uses it or not. (And guess what? 95% of their clients do use it.)

Charge your client for landing pages directly, like digital marketing agency Third Wunder, who establishes a flat fee and then makes additions based on the client’s needs, or Titan PPC, who charges a flat fee of around $500-$700 for a custom landing page.

Pitch it to your client

Getting your client on board is slightly different from getting your agency on board, although the premise is the same: Show them how it will improve their business. Here are a few points that might stick.

Sending ad traffic to your catch-all page with a high attention ratio is a waste of money. Dedicated landing pages, on the other hand, have an attention ratio of 1:1, and therefore a higher chance of conversion.

Landing pages increase ROI thanks to a principle called message match, whereby your ad copy matches your landing page copy.

You can keep upping your ad spend… or you can optimize what you’ve got. Landing pages compound PPC efforts so you can convert the traffic you’ve already got, versus paying for more traffic.

And for future clients, consider doing what Webistry does and don’t give clients the option. Landing pages and optimization are an essential part their offering, and help them get the best results for their clients.

Final thoughts

As a paid media manager, you may never have focused on the post-click experience… but it could make your job optimizing a ton easier.

Armed with the tools required to build and optimize your client’s ad-to-landing-page experience, your team will amplify your PPC efforts, impact the metrics that matter and, ultimately, impress and retain the people who matter the most: your clients.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 http://unbounce.com/marketing-agencies/adwords-plateau-try-landing-page-optimization/

Optimized the Hell Out of Your Client’s AdWords Account? Don’t Drive More Traffic, Do This Instead

This is Dale (okay, it’s actually Corey, our Director of Campaign Strategy), but we’ll call him Dale for the sake of this post). Dale is the Manager of Paid Media at a local digital marketing agency.

Look at Dale’s face and tell me you don’t see yourself .

Dale is an AdWords wizard, so much so that he’s optimized his clients’ accounts to the point where he can no longer get a notable conversion lift.

He’s tried everything: changing bids, testing ads, adding negative keywords, sitelinks, geography targeting — but no matter what he tweaks, he’s unable to push beyond the dreaded conversion plateau.

Dale is stuck between a rock and a hard place; he can either ask his clients for more money to send more traffic to their not-so-specific site (rock), or he can keep banging his head against his desk (hard place, literally).

But wait, Dale! There’s another way — one that doesn’t result in head trauma. One that has the potential to supercharge your client’s ad spend and help you retain more clients (not to mention make you the hero of your agency and the envy of your co-workers — ooh la la).

That “other way” is to focus on the post-click experience.

What is the post-click experience and why should you care?

Before we define the post-click experience, we need to dissect what goes into a conversion rate.

A conversion rate is the result of three very important components coming together:

Your client’s offering (the thing or service they’re actually selling)

Your client’s industry

The surrounding marketing strategy (this is where you can have the biggest impact as an agency marketer)

The marketing strategy can further be broken down into pre- and post-click strategy. The pre-click experience is whatever happens before your client’s prospect clicks through on an ad — it’s what you’re already spending 80% of your day optimizing deep in the trenches of AdWords, Bing, Facebook, Twitter and Google Analytics. It’s all about getting people to the next stage in the funnel.

The post-click experience, on the other hand, includes whatever happens after your client’s prospect clicks through — everything from how accurately the landing page copy matches the ad’s promise to how well the page conveys the offer to how much the page asks of your visitors and whether the ask is aligned with the visitor’s current buyer stage.

You might be thinking, Cool, but this falls outside my job description. And you’d be right.

But let’s face it, if your agency is only focused on improving the ad experience, you’re drastically limiting the impact you can have on your client’s on-page conversion rates. Convincing your team to allocate time and resources to optimizing the post-click experience will result in converting more of those clicks you work so hard to get.

The image on the left represents the visitors that drop off after they click through your ad. However, allocating resources to the post-click experience via landing page optimization can help you drastically impact on-page conversion rates without increasing ad spend — more like the image on the right.

Focusing on the post-click experience (or where people land after an ad) won’t just increase on-page conversion rates. It can impact other metrics you’re trying to impact while optimizing in AdWords.

Here’s what I mean…

Let’s say your client is a Canada-wide alternative health clinic. Right now you’re running ads for each of its 18 locations, but your client has provided you with a generic, catch-all page on their website, to send all this ad traffic to. This generic website page lacks a clear call to action, and the copy doesn’t match the ads, which are hyper-targeted based on location and service.

Example of a generic, catch-all webpage, with your ad’s offer circled in red.

You know that a more targeted page would perform better, so you convince your agency to create several targeted landing pages instead. You create unique pages for each service this client offers (like massage therapy, homeopathy, and acupuncture )and drive very specific ads to these corresponding pages. You can even go as far as to use Dynamic Text Replacement to ensure the search intent is reflected from ad to landing page.

Example of a targeted landing page, with a single call to action and a headline which matches the ad copy.

In this case, by focusing on the post-click experience with dedicated landing pages, you’re indicating to the visitor they’ve made a “good click.” Your agency starts to notice an increase in on-page conversions, which results in lower cost per lead; you’re doing more with the same ad spend. But here’s the clincher: Your client’s AdWords Quality Score improves, thereby — wait for it — lowering CPC. (Insert mind-blown gif here.)

Virginia-based digital agency Workshop Digital did it. They were able to test their way up to 20-22% conversion rates — four times the leads their client was getting prior — without driving more traffic, but instead by allocating resources to the post-click experience.

What does focusing on the post-click experience look like?

The simplest and most impactful way to improve the post-click experience is to introduce landing page design and optimization as a service your agency provides.

The first step is to build dedicated landing pages for your client’s campaigns using best practices and insights about your client’s industry from the Conversion Benchmark Report. (This will take some collaboration with your client to determine which offers to roll out.)

The second step is to optimize your client’s pages to increase the conversion rate over time, like Workshop Digital did:

“We started testing everything from images to backgrounds, slideshows, videos, copy, headline placement, form placement, button placement. At first we just played around with what we thought would work. And we started slowly seeing improvements. Every landing page iteration we tested would get incrementally better.”

Optimize your client’s entire AdWords funnel, convert more prospects and lower your cost-per-acquisition with dedicated landing pages from Unbounce.

How to offer landing page optimization services at your agency

Working landing pages and optimization into your agency’s offering doesn’t have to be a mammoth task (we promise!).

Get everyone on board

We get it, there are a ton of people that need to buy into landing pages and optimization before your team can start running with it.

They’re like you; they need evidence that what you’re proposing will actually help the business, the bottom line or even just make their lives easier. Lucky for you, here are four reasons you can provide your team:

Build long-term relationships with your clients by launching and optimizing specific, targeted campaigns versus one-off, generic campaigns.

Unlock a new revenue stream for your agency (Montreal-based digital agency Webistry saw a 23% increase in revenue by offering landing pages and a 50% increase in average retainer fees by offering optimization services).

Get ahead of (or at least on par with) your competition, who might already be offering landing page and optimization services.

Improve your client’s AdWord’s Quality Score and break through the conversion plateau… basically impress the heck out of your client.

Price your services

Working landing pages and optimization into your pricing can be tricky, and what works for one agency may not work for the next.

Is landing page design a staple service of yours? Will you offer follow up, maintenance and optimization services? Or are landing pages simply an add-on that you’ll teach clients to maintain themselves? Here’s how a few successful agencies already do it:

Include landing pages in your retainer fee, like Utah-based Disruptive Advertising. They include landing pages in their pricing, whether their client uses it or not. (And guess what? 95% of their clients do use it.)

Charge your client for landing pages directly, like digital marketing agency Third Wunder, who establishes a flat fee and then makes additions based on the client’s needs, or Titan PPC, who charges a flat fee of around $500-$700 for a custom landing page.

Pitch it to your client

Getting your client on board is slightly different from getting your agency on board, although the premise is the same: Show them how it will improve their business. Here are a few points that might stick.

Sending ad traffic to your catch-all page with a high attention ratio is a waste of money. Dedicated landing pages, on the other hand, have an attention ratio of 1:1, and therefore a higher chance of conversion.

Landing pages increase ROI thanks to a principle called message match, whereby your ad copy matches your landing page copy.

You can keep upping your ad spend… or you can optimize what you’ve got. Landing pages compound PPC efforts so you can convert the traffic you’ve already got, versus paying for more traffic.

And for future clients, consider doing what Webistry does and don’t give clients the option. Landing pages and optimization are an essential part their offering, and help them get the best results for their clients.

Final thoughts

As a paid media manager, you may never have focused on the post-click experience… but it could make your job optimizing a ton easier.

Armed with the tools required to build and optimize your client’s ad-to-landing-page experience, your team will amplify your PPC efforts, impact the metrics that matter and, ultimately, impress and retain the people who matter the most: your clients.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 http://unbounce.com/marketing-agencies/adwords-plateau-try-landing-page-optimization/

Optimized the Hell Out of Your Client’s AdWords Account? Don’t Drive More Traffic, Do This Instead

This is Dale (okay, it’s actually Corey, our Director of Campaign Strategy), but we’ll call him Dale for the sake of this post). Dale is the Manager of Paid Media at a local digital marketing agency.

Look at Dale’s face and tell me you don’t see yourself .

Dale is an AdWords wizard, so much so that he’s optimized his clients’ accounts to the point where he can no longer get a notable conversion lift.

He’s tried everything: changing bids, testing ads, adding negative keywords, sitelinks, geography targeting — but no matter what he tweaks, he’s unable to push beyond the dreaded conversion plateau.

Dale is stuck between a rock and a hard place; he can either ask his clients for more money to send more traffic to their not-so-specific site (rock), or he can keep banging his head against his desk (hard place, literally).

But wait, Dale! There’s another way — one that doesn’t result in head trauma. One that has the potential to supercharge your client’s ad spend and help you retain more clients (not to mention make you the hero of your agency and the envy of your co-workers — ooh la la).

That “other way” is to focus on the post-click experience.

What is the post-click experience and why should you care?

Before we define the post-click experience, we need to dissect what goes into a conversion rate.

A conversion rate is the result of three very important components coming together:

Your client’s offering (the thing or service they’re actually selling)

Your client’s industry

The surrounding marketing strategy (this is where you can have the biggest impact as an agency marketer)

The marketing strategy can further be broken down into pre- and post-click strategy. The pre-click experience is whatever happens before your client’s prospect clicks through on an ad — it’s what you’re already spending 80% of your day optimizing deep in the trenches of AdWords, Bing, Facebook, Twitter and Google Analytics. It’s all about getting people to the next stage in the funnel.

The post-click experience, on the other hand, includes whatever happens after your client’s prospect clicks through — everything from how accurately the landing page copy matches the ad’s promise to how well the page conveys the offer to how much the page asks of your visitors and whether the ask is aligned with the visitor’s current buyer stage.

You might be thinking, Cool, but this falls outside my job description. And you’d be right.

But let’s face it, if your agency is only focused on improving the ad experience, you’re drastically limiting the impact you can have on your client’s on-page conversion rates. Convincing your team to allocate time and resources to optimizing the post-click experience will result in converting more of those clicks you work so hard to get.

The image on the left represents the visitors that drop off after they click through your ad. However, allocating resources to the post-click experience via landing page optimization can help you drastically impact on-page conversion rates without increasing ad spend — more like the image on the right.

Focusing on the post-click experience (or where people land after an ad) won’t just increase on-page conversion rates. It can impact other metrics you’re trying to impact while optimizing in AdWords.

Here’s what I mean…

Let’s say your client is a Canada-wide alternative health clinic. Right now you’re running ads for each of its 18 locations, but your client has provided you with a generic, catch-all page on their website, to send all this ad traffic to. This generic website page lacks a clear call to action, and the copy doesn’t match the ads, which are hyper-targeted based on location and service.

Example of a generic, catch-all webpage, with your ad’s offer circled in red.

You know that a more targeted page would perform better, so you convince your agency to create several targeted landing pages instead. You create unique pages for each service this client offers (like massage therapy, homeopathy, and acupuncture )and drive very specific ads to these corresponding pages. You can even go as far as to use Dynamic Text Replacement to ensure the search intent is reflected from ad to landing page.

Example of a targeted landing page, with a single call to action and a headline which matches the ad copy.

In this case, by focusing on the post-click experience with dedicated landing pages, you’re indicating to the visitor they’ve made a “good click.” Your agency starts to notice an increase in on-page conversions, which results in lower cost per lead; you’re doing more with the same ad spend. But here’s the clincher: Your client’s AdWords Quality Score improves, thereby — wait for it — lowering CPC. (Insert mind-blown gif here.)

Virginia-based digital agency Workshop Digital did it. They were able to test their way up to 20-22% conversion rates — four times the leads their client was getting prior — without driving more traffic, but instead by allocating resources to the post-click experience.

What does focusing on the post-click experience look like?

The simplest and most impactful way to improve the post-click experience is to introduce landing page design and optimization as a service your agency provides.

The first step is to build dedicated landing pages for your client’s campaigns using best practices and insights about your client’s industry from the Conversion Benchmark Report. (This will take some collaboration with your client to determine which offers to roll out.)

The second step is to optimize your client’s pages to increase the conversion rate over time, like Workshop Digital did:

“We started testing everything from images to backgrounds, slideshows, videos, copy, headline placement, form placement, button placement. At first we just played around with what we thought would work. And we started slowly seeing improvements. Every landing page iteration we tested would get incrementally better.”

Optimize your client’s entire AdWords funnel, convert more prospects and lower your cost-per-acquisition with dedicated landing pages from Unbounce.

How to offer landing page optimization services at your agency

Working landing pages and optimization into your agency’s offering doesn’t have to be a mammoth task (we promise!).

Get everyone on board

We get it, there are a ton of people that need to buy into landing pages and optimization before your team can start running with it.

They’re like you; they need evidence that what you’re proposing will actually help the business, the bottom line or even just make their lives easier. Lucky for you, here are four reasons you can provide your team:

Build long-term relationships with your clients by launching and optimizing specific, targeted campaigns versus one-off, generic campaigns.

Unlock a new revenue stream for your agency (Montreal-based digital agency Webistry saw a 23% increase in revenue by offering landing pages and a 50% increase in average retainer fees by offering optimization services).

Get ahead of (or at least on par with) your competition, who might already be offering landing page and optimization services.

Improve your client’s AdWord’s Quality Score and break through the conversion plateau… basically impress the heck out of your client.

Price your services

Working landing pages and optimization into your pricing can be tricky, and what works for one agency may not work for the next.

Is landing page design a staple service of yours? Will you offer follow up, maintenance and optimization services? Or are landing pages simply an add-on that you’ll teach clients to maintain themselves? Here’s how a few successful agencies already do it:

Include landing pages in your retainer fee, like Utah-based Disruptive Advertising. They include landing pages in their pricing, whether their client uses it or not. (And guess what? 95% of their clients do use it.)

Charge your client for landing pages directly, like digital marketing agency Third Wunder, who establishes a flat fee and then makes additions based on the client’s needs, or Titan PPC, who charges a flat fee of around $500-$700 for a custom landing page.

Pitch it to your client

Getting your client on board is slightly different from getting your agency on board, although the premise is the same: Show them how it will improve their business. Here are a few points that might stick.

Sending ad traffic to your catch-all page with a high attention ratio is a waste of money. Dedicated landing pages, on the other hand, have an attention ratio of 1:1, and therefore a higher chance of conversion.

Landing pages increase ROI thanks to a principle called message match, whereby your ad copy matches your landing page copy.

You can keep upping your ad spend… or you can optimize what you’ve got. Landing pages compound PPC efforts so you can convert the traffic you’ve already got, versus paying for more traffic.

And for future clients, consider doing what Webistry does and don’t give clients the option. Landing pages and optimization are an essential part their offering, and help them get the best results for their clients.

Final thoughts

As a paid media manager, you may never have focused on the post-click experience… but it could make your job optimizing a ton easier.

Armed with the tools required to build and optimize your client’s ad-to-landing-page experience, your team will amplify your PPC efforts, impact the metrics that matter and, ultimately, impress and retain the people who matter the most: your clients.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 http://unbounce.com/marketing-agencies/adwords-plateau-try-landing-page-optimization/