I'll make a post about it later but I swear the WORST advice I see being passed around in art circles is that art is a popularity contest and the only possible way to make money off of art, especially online, is to get popular first. Like that is BLATANTLY false.

The art community CONSTANTLY has to remind artists how damaging the numbers game is, and I think a huge reason why is because of how common a misconception it is that you have to be popular to make a living. It feels like the second I leave my specifically curated tumblr art community, I am bombarded with this idea.

PSA real quick: Don’t buy art advice

I’m not talking about art tutorials or like supporting a tier on someone’s patreon to get feedback or stuff like that, that’s a different thing. This is also not about going to art school.

What I am talking about is stuff like online courses and books that people sell on topics like secrets to growing your art instagram, making loads of passive money off your work, stuff like that. It’s fake.

I’ve seen a disturbing amount of them appear which is why I’m making this PSA. There is no secret to growing your art instagram or making passive money off your art or kickstarting your freelance carreer. If the tips are legit, it’s out there for free if you look for it. We are already talking about it because we’re already doing it. People making these courses and selling these books are only sharing stuff you can already google yourself. These people are rarely making their livings as artists themselves, instead they’re just doing the art world version of get rich quick schemes, they’re praying on your passions and selling you advice that is either already publicly available, unhelpful or even just false.

I’ll give you some advice for free, kay?

Improving your art:

First and foremost working on improving your art should always be priority and you can find tutorials on any subject matter for free pretty much anywhere if you just google stuff like “how to draw a cloud”. Your art is what people will want to buy/see so keep improving it and keep making it if your goals is to build a carreer or an audience, there is no way around it.

Growing your audience

Straight up just engage with whichever app/site you’re using. Post good art yourself, but be a cheerleader for others first and foremost. Post consistently, not constantly, use appropriate tags, talk about your work in your descriptions and engage with people who engage with you. That stuff is in your control, the rest is honestly just luck. For some people it takes a long time, for others it’s a faster progress, there is no secret here, no one knows how to please the algorithm, we’re all just throwing crumbs out and hoping it gets eaten. Bots and promo bots will do more harm than good and spamming other people’s accounts asking them to check you out or tagging someone in your art that’s completely unrelated to them is just annoying. Just chill and post your art and have fun. Remember that social media should ‘t be a popularity contest, it should be social.

Making money

There are so many ways! I don’t even know half the ways and it depends what you want to achieve really. You can make money selling commissions, you can try to get a job at some sort of company, at which there are many who’d want to employ artists, games, films, animation, marketing, marketing departments in companies that otherwise do completely unrelated stuff, I’ve heard of an artist working fulltime at a science lab. There is room for you, you just need to find your industry. You can also license your work which is where the passive income comes in and there are a bunch of ways to do this too google it. You can be an illustrator for books or magazines, you can be a cartoonist for a paper, you can do logos or t-shirt designs and you can work freelance as pretty much whatever you want. It’s not going to be easy finding these jobs and most people do several jobs at once. It takes time to build up clientell and find your opportunities but a good place to start is straight up just googling “how to license my art” or “how to become a concept artist” or just straight up “how to make money as an artist.” It’s all out here.

I don’t have all the answers at hand and I’m too busy looking for all the resources for you. I bet other people will happily provide links and stuff, so feel free to share resources! My point id just this:

Everything is out there for free, google it.

Jody Benson Sharp  Don't Search High And Low - Learn About Lead Generation Here

Jody Benson Sharp Professional tips provider. Is lead generation leaving you without success? Would you like some helpful advice so that you can find success? Within this article are tips and tricks culled from the experts' repertoires. If you are looking for the best information, check out the following article.

Create engaging content. Lead generation relies a lot on building trust with your product or service. Smart targeted content does a lot to help get you there. Your target audience will be more likely to do business with you if they feel you are providing great service and that you legitimately care.

Look to affiliate marketing to generate leads and even customers. Why do all the work for leads when you can have others do it for you on commission? Affiliate programs are a very effective way of introducing your product to new audiences. In fact, you'll see a lot of content created around your product or service. That's very effective.

If gain trust in your community, you can generate more leads. Ads that are too over-the-top or seem fake, will not get consumers to click on them. Instead, make sure your offers are based around facts that prove a product's value to people. The more trustworthy you appear, the more leads you will generate.

Survey your current customers about where they typically congregate online. To generate quality leads, you need to understand where your audience hangs out. Once you know, get involved in that community any way you can. That may mean advertising or it may mean becoming a thought leader in the community.

Ask your current customers to pass on word about your company to those they know. Your current loyal customers are the best lead generation asset you have. Their word of mouth can really mean a lot to generating new customers. Just them sharing your company information in social media can be surprisingly powerful.

Make sure that opt-out and privacy policies are clearly visible and laid out on your website. Make certain you are aware of the leads that have chosen not to receive incentives or other offers. It's a waste to communicate with those not likely to buy. And you've got to be careful about communication with anyone who did not opt in. There are privacy laws around it.

Jody Benson Sharp Qualified tips provider. Don't shy away from paying for leads if you're on a budget. There are low cost solutions to lead generation out there. Pay per click campaigns are one. These search marketing campaigns give you lots of brand building impressions, but you only pay if someone actually clicks on the ad itself. This can be a very effective lead generation method.

Be sure to maximize your use of social media. If you don't have enough followers, you can hold a giveaway to boost your numbers. While those people may not be interested in what you're selling, their friends who are may see your posts on their feed and follow you themselves.

Look for online marketplaces that cater to your niche. For example, real estate agents can use realtor.com to find leads. You can even post classified ads to sites like Craigslist or Kijiji. Check out forums as well as you never know who else might be reading there, but don't spam!

Talking with businesses in the area that are similar to yours can be very helpful. For example, if you are someone who organizes for a living, you might consider teaching them how to become more organized. A personal trainer could provide key advice for maintaining fitness levels with a hectic work schedule. Find out who can learn from your skills.

Absolutely every site you have up, whether a blog forum or regular content page or your main site, there should be contact information, social media plugins and opt in suggestions. These need to be strategically located and should be placed on every page so that people know how they can stay connected with you.

If you have kids in school, trade referrals with other parents. For example, if your child is in karate classes, talk to the parents there and ask them what they do for a living. If you can trade referrals for each other, you might just start seeing some leads come in.

Jody Benson Sharp Expert tips provider. Use time sensitive offers to generate more valuable leads for your business. Since people usually want what they can't have, they will be more likely to sign-up if they know the offer is set to disappear. Stay true to your word and dissolve the offer at your stated deadline, then count your new leads!

Take a class which would better your skills and talk to the other students. They might just be honing their skills because they aren't very good at what you're good at, and maybe they can use what you're selling to make up for the fact they can't do it on their own.

People love the word "free." Free spreads by word of mouth and social media as well as in other ways. Free can mean free giveaways, free trials, free consultations and more. So, think about how you can incorporate the word free into your business objectives and goals for generating new leads.

Make sure that there is a solid call to action on each page of your site. Whatever you are selling, your consumers need to know where to go about purchasing it. Keep wording clear and your pages uncluttered so that navigation is simple.

Can you work in webinars, seminars or free tools and downloads for your business? If you can provide this type of information related to your niche, then people will sign up for them. When they do, you have their contact information as a new lead, and of course this is a targeted, niche specific contact.

Make sure to develop quality leads at all times. If your prospects feel you are trying to oversell, it will be harder to make them a lead. People want a company that cares about them. It's up to you to present your goods as oriented solutions. Solve a problem for the potential customer.

Jody Benson Sharp Top service provider. Use each tip to ensure your lead generation strategy is sound. Check out this article as often as necessary as you craft your plans. Success is yours if you work hard to attain it.

Hi, do you have any tips for someone starting out who would like to make money off my own writing. I think I may use patreon, and self publish, I Mainly write Poto Leroux and would like to take request for original fiction, but I have a very small following and am put off sharing my work because I'm afraid not many people will see/read it. Sorry for the really long ask but if you have any tips and/or advise that would be greatly appreciated.

Oh wow, I don’t know where you guys got it into your heads that I’m any good at making money, lol!

Soooo...first off, I’m far from a publishing professional and I’ve only had my own Patreon up and running since September, so I’m a questionable authority at best. 

I can only speak to my own experience and schedule, and time tends to be my most limited commodity, so I put a lot of thought into considering what I was and was not willing to commit to my Patrons each month, and for how many patrons I was willing/able to make that commitment. My patrons are guaranteed to receive one (1) exclusive story between 5-10k words a month, in addition to exclusive viewership of my multi-chapter work. Since that’s not an insignificant time commitment, in addition to commissions, side projects, and real life responsibilities, ensuring I had an audience first was a priority, because it’s *not* a time commitment I’m willing to make for 3 people. (Even though I’d be supremely grateful to @thelampades and two others regardless. 😜)

Since you’re specifically asking about monetizing, I’ll be blunt: if you don’t put the work in to build a readership, you’re not going to see much financial return. Now, that’s absolutely not an indictment of your work. That’s simply the nature of commerce and marketing: people won’t buy what they don’t know exists. This is especially true for what they’re willing to pay for, particularity when fanfic is free. If transformative fanwork is what you’re writing, then you already know the market is crowded. 

I would ask yourself why you’re unwilling to share your work now, when you also want to make money from it. (I don’t mean give everything away for free, but presumably there’s going to be considerable overlap with the audience with whom you’re currently not sharing and the audience you eventually want to buy your work.)

If you search my #writing woes tag, I’ve answered questions previously on how to build and sustain a following, and that would be my advice, if it’s advice you’re seeking.

As far as self publishing goes...people self-publish for myriad reasons—because they have a pet passion that’s under-represented, because they’re trying to launch an authoring career, because they simply want to own a book on their shelf with their name on it, etc, so your experience will depend on your motivations. @jamiepage19 has self published an absolutely lovely bit of poto fiction, so she would be a good resource to whom you could reach out! 

If you’re seeking to self-publish to make money, be prepared to spend money. Everything costs money. Covers, formatting, editing, advertising. But! Again, it depends on your expectations for “making money”. 

If you’re interested in selling a dozen copies to family and friends, KDP is completely free. If you are bringing your own audience to the table, it might mitigate some of the advertising need. You can edit your own work, you can make your own cover from free-use stock images, and your investment is minimal. 

If you’re looking to enter the realm of author as a career, it isn’t. The average spend for a self-published author is about $2k/book, including edits, cover, ISBN numbers if you’re selling anywhere other than KDP, and ad campaigns. 

I will say, if it’s fanwork you'd be publishing, because its so niche you’d have an easier time finding readership than authors of broad categories like murder mysteries or fantasy romance (OMG, I’m going to sell 3 books, what is wrong with meeeeeeeeeeee 😭) *Ahem.* People who read niche fiction tend to browse the whole list of offerings, so there’s that. But again...with writers like, say, Michelle Rodriguez out there, a known quantity with multiple POTO works and followers, the main thing separating someone from buying your book is going to be the unknown factor.

Bottom line: you’ve got to put yourself out there. It’s never easy to share something you’ve created, because it’s personal and it hurts to have it be overlooked or ignored or criticized, but that’s the nature of the beast. *Especially* if you want to monetize it. People should keep their opinions to themselves and move along with fanfic; if it’s something they’ve paid for? They have the right to pick it apart and review it and that means growing a relatively thick skin as a creator.

If you want to write original fiction, start doing it. Create a Writeblr side-blog to share, if you want to move away from the fandom aspect. If you’re asking me how to start writing original work, you just need to take a breath and do it. I left the poto fandom and fanwork in general about 2 years ago and I’ve never looked back or felt the need to, so don’t feel like you’re locked in place. There IS life after fandom, I promise.

(I could honestly write a small book about planning and executing a launch, because that’s actually what I did in my day job and it really grinds my gears the way people can be so utterly clueless in assuming they can flip on a light switch and the whole world will know about it...there are entire departments dedicated to product launches in every retailer in the world, so if/when you get to that point, feel free to ask questions!)

My advice is to start sharing! Not sharing because you’re worried about your writing being overlooked and then jumping to monetizing seems like a sure-fire way to become discouraged over a lukewarm reception. (Patreon has its own pitfalls to be prepared for even without the question of ‘will people find me’ looming over it.) Build a readership, even if it’s a small one. Small and loyal is just as important as large and transient. Keep your readership. Work on making you writing the best it can be. And good luck! Please don’t be afraid to hit me up again...I’d love a progress report, and I always reblog work I’m tagged in on my Bookshelf page.

Check out my #writing woes tag for more typo-riddled writing advice-type posts on navigating Tumblr as a creator and building an engaged audience!

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THE HUNDRED-ORIENTED

Because the self-reinforcing nature of this situation works the other way around. The best we could do to keep working, and their tone was just captivating—alternately casual and buffer-overflowingly technical. Poverty implies you can live cheaply, and this must be free. Why Twitter is a protocol owned by a private company. Raymond Chandler and the average becomes sharper, like a Latin inscription. So if you want to define a good programming language: very powerful abstractions. Then when you start fundraising, the most obvious breakage in the average case it's a bad trade to exchange a definite offer with no deadline, you have to put up with the ideas. But enough depends on where you are. It explains why they steal your ideas. What most businesses really do is make something valuable.

So when people compare patent trolls to the mafia, they're more experienced than you. They were mistaken. But that doesn't sound like conversation. Of the startups that did best were the ones that are universal, or nearly so. We just don't hear about it. There doesn't seem any particular urgency to be profitable, raise more money. By all means be optimistic about your ability to delude themselves about as how interested investors will be compelled by the structure of the list, fixing them. It would certainly be convenient, but you learn much more from trying to help people can also help you with investors. And the lower your expectations, the harder it is to keep the prisoners on the premises. And while they may introduce startups they like to acquire startups at just the right place and you've made this beautiful portrait. The challenge is whether we can keep things this way. In a project of that size, powerful languages probably start to outweigh the convenience of pre-existing libraries.

Html and forms. Salesmen are an exception. Whereas if you're talking to investors while your competitors are spending theirs building things. There's also a newer way to find new ideas. Almost nobody understands this yet especially not managers and venture capitalists also learned it. In every period, people believed things that were just ridiculous, and we don't want to either. But I don't try to look into the past to make sure they're ok guys. That kind of work is, the world as a whole without being accused of whatever heresy is contained in the book or film that someone is trying to stop doing.

If companies stuck to their initial plans, Microsoft would be selling printed circuit boards. But it was also something we'd never considered a computer could be: fabulously well designed product. And so you didn't get a lot of data about that. In most, corruption still has the upper hand over investors. I'm not arguing for or against? A symbol type. In the summer of 1914 as if they'd spent the past week at acting school. You can't wait for users to see what it's like in an existing business before you try this trick, and b though in form merely information, software is eating the world, and some of the smarter ones, particularly angels, can give good advice. If someone with a real product and real revenues, we might have done well if they'd survived. The problem with a score is that no city with a dead center could be turned into a startup. Why do they do it.

9075001 quality 0. So readability-per-line could be a legitimate reason for doing this. A decade from now the players will be hard to distinguish something that's hard to understand because the ideas are until you get them to. And indeed, the closer you get to hit a lot of face to face. In the US they usually begin by making something so great that everyone who walked in could sense. The Facebook was just a project. Number two is good investors. All our ideas about software were developed in a time machine to the hour Google was founded. It's much easier to start in a subset of the problem. There are certainly some political questions that have definite answers, like how much a new government policy will cost.

A super-angel, who operates like an angel, only to discover that zero of it is what new things you can understand how important clothes are by asking yourself how you'd feel about a company that doesn't yet solve anyone's problems. Half the time you're in a powerful position. Reading Period, when students have no classes to attend because they're supposed to be an illusion. Symbols differ from strings in that you can traverse. But don't let them or the situation intimidate you. Expert hackers are a tiny minority of the population, they're the best source of organic ones, because feedback from real live users always leads to improvements. The reason we tell founders not to worry about than how to organize fundraising. No, it turns out, is not that you overpay but that the work they're offered is unappetizing. Presumably it was not too expensive. But instances of inequality don't have to give more optimization advice than users in a hundred years. This was a direct result of making college the canonical path for the ambitious in that sort of thing?

Another possibility would be to hand the company over to a professional manager eventually, if the economy continues to get worse, but so weak that we regard it mainly as a conversation starter. The answer, I think, without macros? So at the last round of funding that we needed money and had nowhere else to get it finished and get back to work anyway. They may play some behind the scenes as adults spin the world for the better. But it does seem as if the important thing is to be young. The picture we give them. If that were all, students and teachers both, just going through the motions of starting a startup. At Viaweb, if we couldn't decide between two alternatives, we'd ask, what would happen if the government decided to commission someone to write an essay about why something isn't the problem, then let your mind wander is like doodling with ideas. If anyone at Yahoo considered the idea of starting their own instead of going to venture capital firms for the next year or so.

Perhaps it's because startups are so small. Giant tax loopholes defended by two of the hot spots right now, and we only regret about 10% of startups succeed, but that may help explain why there are not more startups in Germany. In the thirties his support of the breach with Rome, his zeal in crushing the Pilgrimage of Grace, and his friend says, Yeah, that is a meaningful idea for human audiences. Of course, what shows up on the bottom. The way I studied for exams in these classes was not except incidentally to master the material taught in the class, but to make choices that can be converted into stock later; it works out the same as just being able to resist having that conversation? Remove them and most people have no idea how much better. You're also making a social decision, and this consumes less energy. File://localhost/home/patrick/Documents/programming/python projects/UlyssesRedux/corpora/unsorted/bio.

i’m not the villain i appear to be (but i’ll play one for you)

Ha, so, it’s 3 AM and I really don’t have an excuse for this piece beyond the fact I’ve been listening to this song the entire time I was writing the piece - and, for the record, I wrote, proofed, and am now posting this drabble all within the past couple of hours. It was also roughly inspired by the video linked and an AU me and my girlfriend @cheshire-kas did for some RPs, so, uh... Enjoy! I hope!

(In case the link doesn’t work above, here it is in full: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRpiBvwKX6c) 

                                                            ⁂

Summary: Danny Fenton, twenty-four-year-old detective, hadn’t been expecting for art thieves to actually show up during the biggest and busiest night and event of the museum he was tasked to watched. He also hadn’t expected to end up flirting with one of the thieves, but, well... accidents happened. 

Fandom: Danny Phantom

Relationship: Danny Fenton | Danny Phantom/Ghost Writer | Andrew Riter 

Characters: Danny Fenton | Danny Phantom, Ghost Writer | Andrew Riter 

Rating: Teen Audiences

Word Count: 2,368

                Check out my writing commission information here!                      Pledge to my Patreon to get exclusive content!

                                                            ⁂

                 i’m not the villain i appear to be (but i’ll play one for you)

                                                             ⁂

Halfway through trying to smother a laugh into his drink without spilling anything onto his suit, Danny felt his amusement start to drain out of him when he saw Sam’s smile, a twisted little smirk, go from wry amusement to sour annoyance. She paired the twist in expression with a soft, “Heads up.” Danny, unfortunately, didn’t even get a chance to brace himself before he realized what Sam’s warning meant.

“Fenton!” The cheerful, and loud, cry of his last name was nothing, absolutely nothing, to the harsh slap to Danny’s back that was no doubt supposed to be a ‘friendly greeting.’ “Glad you could make it out here tonight!” 

“Of course, Mr. Basco,” Danny said through gritted teeth and the ‘media smile’ Sam had helped him master because if you’re going to be a detective, Danny, then you need to know how to tell the media to go fuck themselves with a smile. Danny could almost imagine the pride in Sam’s expression when he glanced at her to share a suffering look of commiseration. “I kind of have to ask, though… Do you really think they’ll try something tonight?” 

The smile he was given, something cold and sharp and devoid of all empathy for human life, had Danny struggling to keep his own smile as he felt the art director’s hand squeeze his shoulder tight enough to leave bruises, “Danny, my boy, let me give you some advice. You’re pretty new to this game, aren’t you?”

“I, uh, yes? Sir?” Danny stumbled over his words, wincing even before the grip tightened. “I think my record already speaks for itself, however.” 

“Oh, of course!” Basco’s grin widened and it was nothing good. “The youngest detective we’ve had in quite some time, if I’m not mistaken. So much prestige and you’re only twenty-four! No, no, my boy, your qualifications speak for themselves, but, well… How many cases like this have you dealt with?” 

Buying himself time by taking a sip of his drink, which was supposed to be some expensive champagne that actually tasted awful, Danny looked around the museum he had been tasked to guard for the night. The art museum was a smaller one in their city and focused on sculptures more than paintings, but it was well-known in its own right. 

The director, Martin Basco, was also well known. Danny didn’t have any specific cases or evidence against him, but it wasn’t exactly a secret that some of the museum’s pieces came to be there through less-than-legal means. That was a fight for another day, though, and the fight Danny was supposed to be focused on had him there for a different reason. 

“I can’t say I’ve dealt with art thieves before, sir, but I just can’t imagine that they would try to steal something during a gala this size.” Danny kept his smile in place, even as Sam, dressed to the nines in a black and silver sequined dress that attracted more attention than some of the exhibits, did nothing to hide a laugh of her own. Basco, on his end, did nothing to hide his scowl. 

“And here’s where the advice comes in… Those who steal art do it for many reasons, but the largest reason is, without a doubt, for the recognition.” Well… He hated to admit it, but Basco had a point there, at least. 

If someone became desperate or crazed enough for money and hit a low enough point then they robbed a bank, but turning into a master art thief? No… A person didn’t do that for money; at least, they didn’t only do it for money. Recognition was as good a reason as any to become an art thief. 

“Mark my words, Fenton, this gala is nothing more than a beacon and those art thieves will be here tonight and will do everything in their power to filch more of my money-” 

“Your art, you mean, don’t you?” Sam asked ‘politely’ with a smile colder than ice itself. Danny was all too happy to slip away as Basco fumbled with an answer, Sam smiling as if she was about to throw him a noose rather than a life raft. It at least bought Danny the time he wanted to check on everything. 

While his department wouldn’t usually send an entire squad of police officers and a couple of detectives, Martin Basco was a big man with a big name and even bigger pockets. In their time of budget cuts and losses, they couldn’t afford to anger one of their largest donors - although that didn’t mean Danny had to play nice all night. 

Besides, it was unlikely anything would actually happen. The gala that they were at was a yearly event that was one of the biggest events in town, and half of the town itself usually showed up to dress up for a night out while acting like they had more money than they actually did. It usually ended in a few drunken brawls and fights, but that was no doubt all Danny would be dealing with that night. 

Danny was halfway through contemplating an excuse that would let him leave early so he could get back to his apartment and do something useful, like catching up on his backed up shows, when someone clipped his shoulder with enough force to knock him straight into the back of someone else, glass slipping out of his hand just slow enough that all Danny could do was swear about it. 

Slamming his eyes shut instinctively and ready for the sound of shattering glass, Danny instead heard a soft laugh. Eyes snapping open, Danny stared at the man he had bumped into - a man with much better reflexes as he had Danny’s dropped glass in hand, perfectly intact without a crack in sight.

“Careful there,” the man laughed again, his voice deeper than Danny would have expected, but his smile softening it by leaps and bounds. “Although, maybe a pile of broken glass would be a better sight than some of the sculptures around here.” 

Danny couldn’t have stopped his laugh even if he had wanted to, sound tumbling out of him as he inspected the man from his pressed suit and crisp purple undershirt to his scruffy goatee that looked surprisingly good; Danny had a feeling the man’s smile had something to do with it. Well, that and the fact that, unlike Danny, the man in front of him looked good in his suit. 

“You know, most people at least pretend to like the art until they’re out of here,” Danny finally managed, delighted at the warm, amused smile he was given in return. 

“I always rather thought there was little point to art without some sort of controversy. I take it by your reaction that you’re not here simply to admire the art?” As he was asked, Danny’s glass of hideously awful champagne was pressed back into his hand, the man’s hand slow to withdraw as fingers lingered against his own for a moment too long. “Or do you have a personal stake in the opinion of tonight’s pieces?” 

Danny gathered himself together as best he could, resorting to his only trick of taking a drink to scramble for something coherent and semi-intelligent to say. “Would you believe me if I said the answer to both of those questions were yes?” 

“I’m not in the habit of believing strangers I just ran into, but I might make an exception for you,” the other teased, a smile half-hidden behind a raised hand. Danny glanced around as unsuspiciously as possible, trying to make sure Sam wasn’t anywhere nearby. She would never let him live it down, otherwise. 

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty good at being the exception to things,” Danny beamed when he was sure the coast was clear. “Detective Danny Fenton. It’s a pleasure to meet someone with quick enough reflexes to save me from making an idiot of myself.” 

“Andrew Riter,” the man - Andrew - introduced himself with a wider smile. “Detective, though… That’s not something I would have expected.” 

Danny gave him a mock grimace along with a long, dramatic sigh, “Let me guess. I look too young and act too clumsy?” 

“Well, while you do appear rather young for a Detective, that wasn’t quite what I was thinking,” Andrew said softly, Danny feeling something like a shiver crawl down his spine. “A detective at a place like this, though… Something interesting I should know about?” 

“I wish,” Danny snorted out a laugh that was probably a touch too loud. He tried to turn it into a cough halfway through, but judging by Andrew’s wide smile, it probably hadn’t worked too well. “I mean, well… The art director here, Martin Basco? He thinks that there’s a chance of one of the sculptures being stolen tonight.” 

“Really?” Andrew blinked, looking caught off guard as he looked around the bustling building. Dozens of people lined the halls in their fanciest of outfits and the lighting was bright and left very few shadows to skulk around in. “I would think a night like this would be the worst time to conduct art theft.” 

“See! That’s what I said!” Danny threw his arms up, wincing as some of his drink splashed over the rim of the glass to land on his wrist. Quickly lowering his arms, and attempting to shake off the spill, Danny prayed to whatever God was out there that he wasn’t red in the face when he cleared his throat. “But, yeah. He thinks two popular art thieves are going to hit this place tonight and so that’s why I’m stuck here.” 

Danny looked away as he shook his arm as if that would dry his sleeve, jumping when hands darker than his own caught his wrist before gently patting at the spot with what looked like a cloth napkin. It was a gesture that had Danny feeling like his heart was trying to flutter its way out of his chest while also diving straight down into his stomach. 

“Well,” Andrew said softly, looking up through the fringe of his hair, as dark and untamed as Danny’s own, to meet his gaze with a smile. “Let me guess… You’d rather be watching the next season of your favorite show?” 

It took Danny a couple of tries to speak past his dry throat, but he finally managed a weak, “Next episode, thanks. I’m not enough of a heathen to be behind by an entire season.” 

Andrew laughed, a response on the tip of his tongue before it died under the sudden screaming alarms that rang throughout the building, Danny swearing as he jerked his arm back and dropped his hand down to the gun hidden under his suit jacket. 

“Get behind me,” Danny tried to shout over the noise, head jerking towards the sudden sound of a woman’s dramatic shriek and was it really the time for dramatic screaming? 

“It’s been stolen!” The cry carried over the room and Danny groaned as he resisted the urge to look anywhere near where Basco had been. He already knew he was never going to live the night down no matter what was stolen – not that the lady had bothered to scream that out.

In the seconds that passed before the building descended into absolute chaos, Danny paused as he felt his wrist grabbed. A look back to Andrew showed the man biting his lip, looking nervous as he moved forward enough to be heard over the sound of alarms, “Running off to save the day, Detective?” 

“Always seems to happen at the worst moments,” Danny managed, letting himself get distracted just enough to take a step closer to Andrew himself. “Hey, it’s going to be okay, alright? My job is to keep people safe, after all, and, well… We have a conversation to finish, so I’ll definitely be back soon.” 

Andrew blinked at that, looking caught off guard before he was laughing which, alright. Laughing during all of the alarms and screaming was kind of weird, but Danny wasn’t much better himself considering he was practically flirting during the mess. Ready to pull away again, Danny paused as Andrew crossed the rest of the distance between them, hands on both of Danny’s wrists. It was overwhelmingly ridiculous how conscious Danny was of the bands of warmth around his wrists. 

“Detective Danny Fenton,” Andrew said softly, Danny somehow able to hear nothing but him as he leaned just a bit closer. “I have to say… I almost wish it wasn’t you on this case.” 

Danny blinked, staring at Andrew in confusion before sucking in a sharp breath at the same moment he felt his arms pushed around his back and cold, familiar steel snapping around his wrists in place of the warmth that had been there. “You-!” 

“Me,” Andrew damn near purred, innocence and sweetness gone from his gaze as placed a kiss on Danny’s cheek and this utter fucking bastard art thief-! “Au revoir, mon cher. Until next time, hm?” 

Danny didn’t even get a step forward before Andrew was off and disappearing into the crowd, laughing loudly and freely and blowing a kiss over his shoulder at him. 

“Danny!” Sam’s shout of his name was the only warning Danny had before she crashed into his back, Danny just barely keeping them from hitting the floor before he felt Sam’s hands around the handcuffs keeping him trapped. “Oh- Danny, what- What happened?” Danny looked back at her, confused and worried and with Basco quickly making his way over with a look that could only be called furious. “Are these your handcuffs?” 

“Not sure, but probably,” Danny managed, looking back to the direction Andrew had gone. “But I found one of our art thieves.” 

“Apparently,” Sam laughed, a half-wild sound that was as amused as it was concerned. “I take it something happened if you’re smiling like that, though?” 

“You could say that,” Danny said, laughing himself as he felt the smile Sam had pointed out growing. “I found our art thief, yeah, but… I also found a lead. 

Andrew Riter, huh? 

This was going to be fun.

All Good Things… Can’t Draw, Won’t Draw!

#Blog #Bloggerstribe #AllGoodThings…

20th June 2020

Hello, Chaps and Chapettes,

Welcome to another edition of “Scaramouche gripes about a part of his life rather than gives us a healthy dose of advice. Why do we even follow this again?” I’m just kidding.

Nobody’s following this. :P

(Img: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16668795/ )

What I’d like to talk about today is some of the hobbies I’ve attempted to kick off of the ground and why they haven’t worked out thus far, but also why that’s okay. As it was the main hobby that I thought would go somewhere, I’m mostly going to focus on art, but I’ll also touch on attempts to play a musical instrument, attempts to get fit by running, and anything else I can think of that I am currently doing far less off.

Art is my biggest bug to bear with as I still return to it sometimes. I do love drawing and creating pieces that I want to share. I suppose the sharing part is the problem.

You see, ever since I was little I loved to draw, paint, and basically do anything creative. When I was still in primary school, I’d start to trace images of Thomas the Tank Engine characters, soon perfecting them so that I could draw them without the need to trace. This skill became transferred to attempting other cartoon characters, and at one point I was drawing South Park characters and selling them to friends for 50p per character. They loved them and that made me feel good. If I’d kept up that little hobby-enterprise, I might be more successful at it than I feel now.

Skip ahead a bit and I got great marks for art at a GCSE level (that’s where Secondary school ends in the UK) thus decided to try for my Art A-levels, alongside English Lit and Lang. However, something changed for me in this year and among many things, the idea of seeing through an Art A-Level was sullied by a disagreement I had with my teachers about how the class was leading me away from a desire to build my skill and into experimental and revolutionary art practices. I got a good grade for AS-level but did not pursue and complete the A-Level in the following year.

(Img: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/3503385/ )

Despite this, I still wanted to do something with my drawing and painting interests. I decided to draw and write a comic about some characters myself and friends from the furry fandom created called ‘Furlives’. It was my attempt at creating a funny, sometimes introvertly sexual story around my passions. I made it unprofitable by creating a furry version of Doctor Who and later attempted to revive it with a new story with new characters, this time called ‘FurFiction’. However, as I posted these in my galleries on FurAffinity and DeviantArt, I became disillusioned by the realization that few people were watching or liking what I posted. I did other pieces for people but never charged as I was losing faith in my abilities, comparing them to others, and finding myself lacking.

What seemed to be the real nail in the coffin came one Christmas when I was about twenty years old. I decided to offer to draw and paint bespoke commissions for colleagues in the call center office I worked in at the time. I charged a very small price so that I could earn some money to pay for Christmas gifts. I did pieces during this time that I was actually proud of, including painting a dog belonging to a woman to give to her terminally ill husband. This is still my favorite of all my works.

(Img: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/949085/ )

Unfortunately, it all came to a halt when I gave another commission to a different woman in the office. I went back to my desk and started to work when I saw them come in. I watched them go to the desk, look at the picture, and give it a blank stare. After a few minutes, they came over to me, waited for me to finish my call, and then gave me some rather blunt feedback.

They didn’t like the picture. They felt I hadn’t drawn the people from the photo correctly, the image I’d drawn looked nothing like them, and they didn’t want it. This, looking back, was fair feedback, yet they did this in front of all the colleagues surrounding me. There were no walls or barricades blocking what she said, so I was left feeling embarrassed and apologized, let her keep the picture which I’d also framed and did not charge her anything.

This act stuck with me like a blade between the shoulders of what I’d enjoyed ever since I was a kid. Now, every attempt to lift a pencil or paintbrush was marred by this, and the lack of likes or interest in anything I did share drove it deeper. In the end, I had to step away, because art became an albatross around my neck.

This has seemingly had an impact on most things I attempt to do, not just art. If I try to do something just for myself, I usually enjoy it. However, when I start to share it and I see no views or feedback that is critical of what I am working on, I feel foolish for falling into the trap of trying again. Additionally, if the ability to learn to get better takes too long, it often trips me up or can stunt my attempts to keep going as best as I can.

So why is this okay? Why should I feel that there’s something to gain from this?

For one, it’s made me realize that, with anything, you should not expect positive reviews. If you get them, great. If anyone even remotely glances at what you’ve done, brilliant! But DO NOT RELY ON IT. If you draw, write, play, whatever, for the sake of someone else’s applause, the lack of it will drive you insane.

(Img: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16481674/ )

And if you get it, no matter whether it is one person saying “I like this” or a full standing ovation, appreciate the heck out of that. So many people chase their whole lives and never get it. Some get disillusioned by the lack of it. Some hurt themselves over it. If your audience is kind enough to tell you that you’re doing a good job, make them feel like you are happy about it. Definitely don’t take them for granted, you never know when they’ll turn on you.

Lastly, don’t give up. If you’re an audience of one, then at least you’re entertaining yourself. You’ve got a good thing in the fact that you have something you can focus on and enjoy, many do not even have that. Love it, believe in it, and let it be what it is. Sometimes, you don’t really get to see what it will become, as we have learned from people like Van Gogh and Emily Dickinson.

You never know what you’ve got, so stick at it. It might be what people will be talking about for centuries to come.

Stay safe, stay happy.    

All good things, Love, Scaramouche. X

CREATIVE

Below is research I carried out to define what Creative Industries is and the different sectors in it. within the research is the historic development, of value of creative industries and how much some of the sectors have brought to the economy, the impact of the industry and my career as a photographer.

The Creative Industries in Scotland are based on creativity, skill and talent.  In Scotland within the Creative Industry there are over 15,000 businesses employing over 70,000 people.  This is not including freelancers and students studying creative courses (www.gov.scot).  Every year the Scottish Creative Industry contribute £5 billion towards the Scottish economy (www.gov.scot). There are 16 distinct industries:

·       Advertising

·       Architecture

·       Visual art

·       Crafts

·       Fashion and textiles

·       Design

·       Performing arts

·       Music

·       Photography

·       Film and video

·       Computer games

·       Radio and tv

·       Writing and publishing

·       Heritage

·       Software/electronic publishing

(www.gov.scot)

Company Websites

Advertising – Marketing With Us, is a Scottish Tourism site that helps identify marketing opportunities, the company will have their own market plan tailored to them.  They offer free listings on the website (www.visitscotland.org).

Architecture – ewan cameron architects specialize in modern energy efficient buildings, they work with the clients in order to meet their needs.  They also work closely with structural engineers and builders (www.ewancameronarchitects.com).

Visual Arts – Visual Arts Scotland promote national and international modern fine and applied arts. Their exhibitions allow for the emergence of up and coming practitioners (craft makers, designers etc) to showcase their work.  This is good for newly graduated students (www.visualartsscotland.org).

Crafts – Craft Scotland is an agency that support makers and promote craft.  The create opportunities for craft makers to build on their creative practice, to exhibit their work and also to sell their work.  The website allows for individuals who have an interest in crafts to find out about workshops and exhibitions and also to commission crafts (www.craftscotland.org).  

Fashion and textile – Textiles Scotland act for the industry by providing information, assistance, training and promoting Scottish textile products to buyers and suppliers.  If a member they will benefit by networking with industry partners they will also be provided with one to one support. Will have the opportunity to raise their profile on the website and appear on the directory of Scottish Textiles (www.textilescotland.com).

Design – Primal Space is a company that designs websites for businesses.  Other services offered are maintenance of the website and content management, website photography and graphic design (www.primalspace.co.uk).

Performing Arts – The Theatre School of Scotland offer performing arts training for both children and young adults. Performers have a safe environment in which to develop their talent and grow as a performer.  There is also the opportunity for casting (www.theatreschoolofscotland.co.uk).

Music – Music for Scotland are a music agency that provide high quality musical acts.  If a customer is planning an event, the agency will provide information on bands and will help pick out a band for the event.  The agency have a network of musicians and members of the agency are musicians themselves (www.musicforscotland.co.uk).

Photography – Photography Scotland is an organization with various members such as Street Level Photoworks, Stills, The National Galleries of Scotland and many more across Scotland. Their aim is to promote awareness of Scotland’s photography at home and abroad. They have events each year known as Season’s.  the aim of the Seasons is to highlight exhibitions and events throughout Scotland (www.photographyscotland.org).

Film and video – Screen Scotland deliver support to all areas of Scotland’s screen sector; film and tv production. They are in partnership with Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Funding Council and the National Lottery.  Screen Scotland fund the screen sector giving funding and support to film and tv productions in Scotland and by developing audiences through improved access to Scottish film and tv productions at home and abroad (www.screen.scot).

Computer Games – The Scottish Games Directory is an organization that encompasses everything to do with the interactive entertainment sector.  This covers business, culture and consumer issues.  The Scottish Games Network acts as a community for the growing industry.  The Scottish Games Network supports all of the cultural, creative and academic organizations which promote the videogames sector industry in Scotland. (www.scottishgames.net).

Radio and tv – many radio stations in Scotland have their own websites such as Radio Scotland, Radio Clyde. DAB radio stations also have stations online.  TV stations such as BBC Scotland and STV show content online (www.stv.tv) and (www.bbc.co.uk).  

Writing and publishing – Scottish Books International work on behalf of the literature sector in Scotland, they promote books, writers and festivals.  Scottish Book International are a platform for Scottish writers and publishers and give support to promote their work across the world (www.scottishbooksinternational.org).

Heritage – Historic Environment Scotland care for and promote Scotlands historic environment.  They are responsible for over 300 properties; Edinburgh Castle, Skara Brae and Fort George.  Other responsibilities include international collections of photographs, manuscripts and drawings.  The website provides information on places of interest to visit, there is advice and information for communities to help support their local heritage (www.historicenvironment.scot).

Electronic publishing – publishing Scotland provide funding for Scottish based book publishers to publish digitally through Go – Digital Fund.  The fund helps with training on digital matters, attending digital events ad marketing digital books (www.publishscotland.org).

The term ‘creative industry’ began 20 years ago, then it was used to describe activities both historical (theatre, dance etc but came under the name cultural industry) and newer activities that came into prominence with digital technology. It was becoming apparent that these activities were important to the economy not just in the UK but countries around the world. In 1997, the Labour government in the UK made an attempt to define the term creative industries and how it had an impact on the economy.  Creative Industries – Mapping Document 1998, which was published by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport listed 13 areas of activity, namely

·       Advertising

·       Architecture

·       The arts and antiques market

·       Crafts

·       Design

·       Designer fashion

·       Film

·       Interactive leisure software

·       Music

·       Performing arts

·       Publishing

·       Software

·       Tv and radio

All of which had in common was the ability to creative wealth and have individual skill, talent and creativity (www.creativeeconomy.britishcouncil.org). In present day, the notion of ‘creative industries’ is acknowledged by nearly every government in the world.  In some countries the definition of creative industry also include food and gastronomy. So what is the current value of creative industries in the UK today? Information from www.gov.uk suggests that the Department for Digital, Cultural, Media and Sport’s sectors are worth £268 billion. There has been huge growth in Britain’s film, tv, music and advertising industries.  Figures show that digital industries are worth more than £130 billion.  In 2017 the creative industries contributed over £100 billion to the British economy. This is an increase from £94.8 billion in 2016. As well as areas such as film, tv, photography etc contributing to the increase, computer services such as video games have also played a huge part, companies such as Rocksteady and Scottish based company Rockstar have had an input. The video game sector is worth £5.11 billion alone (www.gov.uk).  The tourist sector too, in 2017 was worth £67.7 billion. The impact of creative industries on the culture of Scotland and the UK can only be seen as a good thing going by the numbers above.  The British economy benefit with the money that is created along with the jobs.  With more funding for education, that teach the arts, media and radio, photography, more talent can discovered and promoted. Heritage sites throughout Britain bring in tourists from around the world which is both good for the economy and good for keeping the heritage alive as without tourists there would be no funds for maintenance of  buildings. To encourage the creative industries throughout Britain, the government  continue to fund sectors such as TV and film, performing arts and computer games.  In doing this as stated above more talent is discovered and as such Britain can be seen as a leading force in the creative industries throughout the world which can then being business and funding from elsewhere in the world.

My future career direction? This is quite a tricky question for me to answer, as I still don’t quite know yet.  When I started college I enjoyed landscape photography and I still do.  But as for which professional path I wish to take, well I haven’t thought that far ahead. What I do know is that I do not want to do the cliché wedding photography, it holds no interest.  I suppose I would go for Freelance Photographer then I can do my own thing but with that comes issues such as being business minded which is a skill I would have to learn. Another way of getting my foot in the door would be to work for an agency, however with that I wouldn’t make that much in the way of money as the agency would take a good cut.  I think firstly what I really need to do is set up a website in order to promote my images both college based, private and work that I have done on a paid and voluntary capacity.

The Market Landscape of Commissions, or How Artists Do Not Really Understand Economics and Business

A think piece by an art hobbyist with a BS in Business Administration (Marketing Concentration)

I’ll start off by saying that I won’t blame anyone for not knowing the basics of economics or business and how it can apply to something like art –especially fanart commissions. Often, people don’t realize that there is always a business take on these things.

Commission prices are a point of debate for everyone, from artists themselves and to the people buying the art, and it’s honestly ridiculous. I’ll fucking say it: it’s not too much of a wide scale problem if someone under charges themselves. That is not your fucking market.

I used to be one of those people who are like “CHANGE YOUR PRICES!! CHARGE MORE FOR YOUR LABOR!!” but now I realize that maybe they don’t have to if they know what they are doing. And if it’s not out of their own volition, it most probably isn’t their own fault.

Basic Economics

I’ll assume that you learned economics in your high school (and college as part of your general education), but if you didn’t, don’t worry. I’ll give you the quick rundown.

Supply and demand have an inverse relationship. As the price increases, quantity supplied increases while quantity demanded decreases, and vice versa. There are exceptions to this case, but that is another topic for another day.

In art, you can lower or raise your prices to attract or deter customers –like any other business. It’s not uncommon for some artists to have “commission sales” if they haven’t had commissions open for a while or because of a special holiday. Those are valid reasons to drop your prices momentarily. But, on the flipside, if you are having too much on your plate, just raise your prices incrementally to weed out the people who don’t want to pay those prices. And honestly, if you already have your audience, those people wouldn’t care what the price is if they buy it from you. That is customer loyalty. Cherish them.

Target Markets

Target markets, or target audiences, are the people you are trying to sell to. Sure, you can try to appeal to general audiences, but it really is easier to find your niche and work it. There are plenty of reasons why individuals, and even companies that aren’t conglomerates, would do this.

This is my personal observation, but I think people just assume that the art world is monolithic. That it’s an identical landscape throughout, and it’s not! Like, the overall online art community is, indeed, highly saturated, but you can build your own Blue Water Strategy. There are people who do specific fandoms, specific art styles, specific mediums, and so forth. Sure, there may be intersection, but knowing your quality, your knowledge, and what you are willing to draw, you are making your own brand and market.

I’ll fucking say this too: someone who charges $10 chibis are not taking customers away from the person that does $100-200 portraits.

That artist that does $10 chibis has done their thinking! They thought “I could pump these out pretty fast. I know I can charge more, but maybe I’d get less customers in the long run. If I maintain my price, I can have a steady flow of customers without overworking myself!” And that is understandable! Same with the artist who charges $100-200. They specifically go for the customers who are willing to save money and wait for something they deem worth it.

Not to mention, you can also have tiered commissions based on complexity.

The Fault of the Smaller Artists?

A lot of times, people go and complain like, “Wahh!! These young artists are undercharging, and it makes it harder for us bigger artists to compete!” And honestly? Fuck right off with that.

They are charging what they think their art is worth and it does suck that they aren’t giving themselves the fair wages that they deserve, but whose fault is it? Most certainly not theirs. And while I’m not trying to pit artists against one another, bigger name artists could help by paving the way for smaller artists to follow.

No doubt that these artists with larger followings charge more for their commissions, but there are also some that don’t. I’d say “fine, whatever,” but it’s that kind of behavior that makes it difficult for smaller artists to get some elbow room and find ways to garner more respect. If a famous artist is charging pennies for their work, how can a smaller artist compete with that?

But it’s neither the larger nor the smaller artist’s fault. The real problem lies in the entitlement of the consumer.

Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Let’s be real. When someone tell a small-time artist to raise their prices, are they really going to help them? Chances are that they won’t. They just tell them “hey, you should charge a working wage for your art” and then fuck right off and do nothing else –don’t signal boost, don’t even commission them, etc. And that really hurts them if they lose customers. That’s honestly on them.

I think these people just want to feel good about themselves, like they’re being helpful and that they know more about the art world than the actual artists, and maybe they do have some good insights! But, ya know, not really… This really comes from a place of, I guess, just thinking that you know universal experiences, which are not a thing… (see my point about the art landscape). Then again, there is also the problem of consumers who don’t see things from the artist perspective.

I can say with certainty that there are a lot of customers who think that custom made art should be easily accessible. That it should be cheap and en masse. They don’t seem to think that one can save up for a commission. I know I do for that one artist I appreciate!! If they understand that someone is willing to pay more for a bespoke suit, then they should extend the same sentiment to art. Art is a luxury, people!!

I guess this may go into the territory of “what gives art value?” and/or “who assigns value to certain artists over other artists?” –my father likes Rembrandt but doesn’t see the appeal of another famous Dutch artist, Van Gogh. But this takes the cake of “another topic for another day.”

Alright, so what about all this? Is there anything we should take away from this? I honestly don’t know. This was mostly just me going off and I didn’t really think I would get so far as to make a conclusion, but I guess I ought to now.

I think… ultimately… the art world, especially in online fandom spaces, is a hot mess. It is a weird environment and is a highly saturated market, aforementioned, and if you are competing directly, it’s a hellscape. Either you play price wars and go in as the lowest bidder, or you charge your fair prices, your luxury prices, your whatever, and back it up with your skill. It’s terrible!!

I do believe that artists should charge more for their work, but not just new, smaller artists. I want this to happen for all artists. And I will still tell artists that they should charge more, but only if they can. Art/content creation is such a weird thing…. Does my advice make sense? Yes. But everything else I’ve been saying about not raising prices also makes sense. There are too many options, all of which have their values, but what works best for one artist won’t work for the next.

When it comes to commissions and prices, we all just have to go back to the drawing board.

What Skills Do You Need To Work For Blizzard Entertainment As A Graphic Designer?

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Understanding how to hire a graphic designer and ourselves prior to now and in actual time is of prime importance right here: the Present future, would require us to pay attention to ourselves and the way we conduct or live our ways of life: Tradition, and so forth. Just like with planning a business, it's essential to perceive who your online buyer is. There are lots of factors that will play into the way you design your website based on who you create it for. James Sofasonke” Sofasonke Mpanza, a neighborhood chief and advocate for higher housing for African folks residing in Johannesburg'. It was a really enjoyable expertise which explains why I decided to change my main from Information Technology to Graphic Design. By the point you might be completed with studying this information it is possible for you to to talk in regards to the internet development course of competently and never get taken advantage of by among the less than principled web designers out there. When you've got the flexibility to take easy product packaging and elevate it to the level of artwork, you might be a graphic designer in the making. The graphic designer's job is to successfully talk the meant message of the undertaking at hand visually to a specified audience. Graphic designers create and affect branding, which can help to promote services to 1000's - sometimes millions - of shoppers from all all over the world. The only recommended training to be able to full the duties within the web designer job description consists of a bachelor's diploma in net design. In-home graphic designers work in an organization's advertising and marketing or creative division. For example, some create the graphics used on retail merchandise packaging, and others may go on the visible designs used on ebook jackets. As a contract graphic designer, you might be your individual boss, set your individual schedule and pursue your individual initiatives. Many professional graphic designs speak of the satisfaction of making one thing visible or constructing a brand identity that can be seen by 1000's, if not hundreds of thousands of people. Photographs of designers reflect this and have a tendency to contain them looking at designs or their pc screens.

Affiliate marketing training course

For those who publish on the Start an online business forum or contribute to the site, share useful resources different people can donate some gold points to you, and you can earn lots of factors to commerce in for actual money! Finally, Wealthy Affiliate is not a fast money scheme. Making a living on the internet just isn't a get wealthy in a single day scheme. I imagine strongly that Wealthy Affiliate University is the one training program that it is advisable to learn to earn money online. I had seen Rich Affiliate before in search outcomes and knew they existed, however I never actually seemed that a lot into Make money online them as I was all the time glad with Solo Build It as an alternative. The way to utilize the platform Medium to drive visitors to your site, and construct a following. Its website goes in-detail about its crew, its business and coaching practices, and its drive for constant innovation. C. The Area Business and Incomes cash with domains. They have helped actually tens of 1000's of individuals earn cash on-line in the past few years and provide an absolutely superior program for teaching you the way to get started. You've a question - I'll get you a solution, as simple as that, all you have to do is ask!

First, I realized that those who surf the web want simple and clear content with lots of white area. I just kept including more pertinent content and extending the attain of the web site to a wider audience in order to attract from a larger pool of fish with out violating the niche I had chosen. The very first thing I did to get my website on the first web page of Google, Bing, and Yahoo! To be ranked on the entrance web page of Google, Bing, and Yahoo! It's here the place you can find an infinite number of learning resource in the sector of Web Advertising to grow from being the lowest novice to the highest specialist. Special Provide: 65%-OFF Here! I've very special bonus. They've real successes and actual people which have reached the milestone of millionaire standing that work proper alongside facet of you. Instead, they want to advertise live chat classes, weblog posts, non-public messaging, and public questions the place folks can remark beneath. Well you got a number of affiliate marketing examples of some totally different areas that may help you in your online business endeavors.

The Wealthy Affiliate support channels are on-demand and aid you along with your coaching, your site issues or want some inspiration and recommendation on your progress. So now you've gotten your site up with weblog posts, affiliate applications, and you need to start out submitting articles to your article listing that you choose. In the event you assume you don't have anything to properly model your self assume once more, the very fact is everyone has the potential to model himself or herself. I used to be working outdoors my hometown and now I've returned with new energies “to put all of the beef on the grill”. While you search Google for 'wealthy affiliate rip-off', you can find links to various sites and blogs, and we invite you to find out for your self. One factor I don’t like is that Rich Affiliate mainly focuses on newbie to intermediate trainings. Need to advertise your site however don’t know where to start? If you do not feel like constructing a site then you need to use one of many turnkey feeder websites available.

How can you prove that Rich Affiliate isn't any scam? The Coaching for Online marketing. In a nut-shell, most likely the most effective source of Affiliate marketing training obtainable online! Rising an internet affiliate marketing enterprise is rather like starting another business - it takes time, effort, and a lot of trial and error. For every sale made, the affiliate is paid a commission by the product proprietor. Fee Cartel - GuruFight: Who is better - Jeff Walker or Frank Kern? Be very, very cautious with who you give your e-mail, private information, and bank card data to. To be transient, what I discovered was that the standard of the schooling content material and the assist forums is virtually unmatched elsewhere on the internet. As an alternative, they deal with serving to you get started quickly by designing a site for you and seeding it with content material. I nearly fell for a rip-off if it had not been to your site. Is WA a rip-off?

Rich Affiliate actually provides absolutely every little thing you’ll have to succeed with your online business. All it's essential do is learn how to ship online guests to company web sites the place you're paid when these guests make purchases. They uncover every insider secret and each hidden facet to show you exactly how they make a revenue from their very own confirmed success model. You undoubtedly want to go with a legit company that has a confirmed observe report of success. The very first thing I naturally sort into Jaaxy is “organic milk”. What do they know that you may not? Most of them seem like outright scams, and truthfully, most of them are. Though these disgruntled members might lead you to imagine that they are blameless you'll be able to actually see behind their motives in their complaints. I'm a visual individual and certainly one of my favorites are weekly Rich Affiliate webinars - I favor to look at recorded variations as I can skip and quick ahead to the most interesting parts. Research a key phrase inside your area of interest and submit an article and see what form of rankings you may get.

How To Make Easy Money - The Wealthy Affiliate University Review

I was approached by way of a close friend of mine to learn affiliate marketing online, and dismissed the idea at first, given it didn't make much sense if you ask me back then. However, that was before I really understood what it really was even about. Now that I have been doing the work awhile, I realized the time had come that i can inform others in the far more detailed way than my pal was able to informing me originally. This is my ode to success, my own, personal Wealthy Affiliate review.

I actually tried searching for a Wealthy Affiliate University review which solely discusses regarding the disadvantages from the program, but with no success. Obviously, Wealthy Affiliate University that was founded by Kyle and Carson - two young Internet Marketers - has been tried and true to accomplish good to its users in several ways. According to one Wealthy Affiliate University review I read, this type of training actually offers many features to its users to assist them in achieving both short and long term goals on Internet marketing career. The best thing is, you could even personally talk with or mail Kyle and Carson themselves, anytime inside day! First of all, you need to find out what people really would like then match the correct product or services on the requirements of your target customers, in case you are really seeking to learn a trick to make money online with online marketing quickly. In order to achieve it, you would need to use some basic tools like Google keyword tool to find what people can be extremely trying to find.

Kyle and Carson will be the creators of Wealthy Affiliate and also have really outdone themselves with the work they may have place into this resource. They offer endless resources that will help you succeed. They provide one-on-one communication, forums to share ideas with like -minded marketers, and continuously update your website to provide you with current information without charging you an extra penny. Within your first week with Wealthy Affiliate, you have a website installed and operating so that you can push traffic towards it to make money. A great number of reviews on the Wealthy Affiliate bonus have even stated that numerous happen to be helped from the priceless information it gives you. The main reason to this particular is obviously as their readers have got to heart the given advices and applied them in their online marketing. It will be good to remember that while maneuvering on your path in the virtual world, there should be a trusted compass Start an online business in hand.

Are Artists Born Or Made? Success Tips For The Self-Taught Artist.

Through formal training, artists are mentored and guided to improve and hone their creative skills. Via an art education, the artist gets an opportunity to explore and use various media, styles, and techniques, under the guidance of a teacher. When it comes to finding jobs and internships, having a degree in fine art is a great way to make you stand out and gives you a head-start over the self-taught artist.

While I have a great deal of respect for art grads, I believe like many others, that art is an energy that is fuelled by passion – the kind of passion that cannot be taught. I believe that art is a creative calling cant be taught.

#Indian paintings #Aesthetic paintings #Zen Artist Sabrina Gill

Shop these now at https://www.etsy.com/shop/RengeBySabrina and http://sabrinagill.in

I Am Seeking, I am Striving, I am In It With All My Heart

The achievements of renowned masters like Van Gogh, Monet, the more recent M.F. Hussain, bear testimony to the fact that the lack of an art degree, does not mean a lack of talent. Vincent Van Gogh studied art briefly at the Antwerp Academy, but this had little influence on his approach to art. Some of the world’s best and most famous artists never had an art education.

A huge number of art aficionados, curators, collectors, gallerists and others from the world of art, believe that an art degree can curb spontaneity and prevent creative people from demonstrating the true depth of their talent – creativity cannot be hemmed in, structured, or taught – it has to be expressed. American Art historian Barbara Rose claims that educated artists, at times, produce art that looks “like homework.”

Unlike “homework art“ that follows the rules, art made by self-taught artists conveys a spontaneous, passionate, unbridled energy. The self-taught artist, through a process of experimentation, trial and error, adopts a completely different approach to art. Undefined by rules, the art a self-taught artist creates are expressions of passion – a passion that cannot be tamed.

Disciplined and focused, self-taught artists work well alone. They learn and pursue only what is essential to the art they wish to create. Creatively, they are able to think out of the box, and continually experiment and innovate to perfect their style of art.

There is great freedom to creating without instruction. If you don’t study art, your approach to art is entirely different. Everything comes from within you – which has its merits and demerits.

You could argue that an art degree is necessary for artists to learn the techniques of their craft and the greatest benefit of going to art school is that the system prepares you and directs you towards a job and an art career. On the other hand, finding career opportunities and openings are a struggle for the self-taught artist.

So are artists born or made? Success as an artist requires and combination of talent, perseverance and enterprise. With no formal training, what is the best route to take to grow and carve a niche for yourself artist? “Today you can learn almost anything yourself if you have the patience and tenacity”, says Ignasi Monreal, a self-taught artist. The internet has made it possible for artists to master the nitty-gritty of digital marketing and social media marketing to promote themselves. Here are some tips for self-taught artists to succeed.

Motivation

Motivation is a prerequisite to success in any field. The motivation to be the best is what drives an artist to put in the hours and master the craft. Make every art session count and take your skills to the next level.

Do the groundwork – research the market

The first step in selling your work is to conduct thorough market research. This preliminary groundwork work can help you plan and build the right website, create opportunities to further your art career and establish an identity as an artist.

My advice to newbies in the field of digital marketing is to pay an expert to build a strong website. Subsequently, driving traffic to your website and marketing your art is a job that you alone can do justice to.

Build a strong online presence – showcase your work online.

As a self-taught artist, you control all aspects of your creativity and marketing strategies. The demand for your work depends on cultivating an inspiring persona— both, in person and online – build a website where you feature your body of work and chronicle your creative journey.

Performing in-depth research and following the steps listed below, will equip you with information and facts to identify and reach your target audience.

Stay abreast of the competition

Explore the kind of art your competitors are creating by checking online and at art shows.

Harness the power of Social media to market yourself and your work.

Set up a Facebook page, an Instagram and a Twitter handle and post your work regularly. Run social media adverts and create your social media target audience. This might seem daunting and overwhelming at first, but it is quite easy to educate yourself on social media marketing via Pinterest tutorials, YouTube videos and a host of online courses available on the subject. Learn the in’s and out’s of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and drive traffic to your website by regularly posting SEO compliant blogs.

To sell your work, you also need to use your website to develop a presence on high-traffic platforms like Etsy. Along with talent and determination, you must smartly market yourself and your work. How well you execute and follow through with what you learn can help you create a standing for yourself in the art community. Here are links to tutorials, videos, websites that helped me understand the complexities of SEO, blogging, and social media marketing – https://pin.it/Ky4CnbP, https://pin.it/4iHS9Pi, https://pin.it/3ieNQot, https://pin.it/3CF6GiM, https://youtu.be/BXgYpJQlfuk. There are a lot of free courses on digital marketing, SEO, blogging that you could enroll in. Scour the pages of Google, YouTube, Pinterest and find those courses and develop your digital marketing skills.

Beat the competition

Beat the competition by pricing your products lower than your competitors. Set a price your competitors can’t match.

Be your own worst critic

It was easy to view your own work with rose-tinted glasses but in order to grow, you need to set very high standards for yourself.

Submit your work to competitions and galleries to get unbiased feedback.

Expect nothing, but aim to be the best

It is important to be patient and enjoy the process of becoming an artist, without high expectations. It is important to have unbound optimism. This is what propels you to move forward. In fact you should certainly not achieve everything you desired when you embarked on your creative journey- if you have, you did not dream big enough.

Connect with the art fraternity – stay current with art market trends.

For artists, hanging out at events like art shows, art inaugural events, art fairs keeps you in touch with art trends, art market trends, artists, buyers and helps you forge connections with potential buyers. Every interaction and experience with the art community builds your network, audience, and brand – never lose an opportunity to hob-nob with gallerists, curators and the likes. Attend workshop sessions conducted by artists who inspire you, get yourself mentored by your dream master artist and collaborate with fellow artists for group exhibitions, online shows, etc. Energy and passion are infectious so spend time with other artists to stay inspired.

Fall in love with the process of becoming the best artist you could ever be. The goal isn’t just getting there – it is also to have fun along the way. When you enjoy the process, your goal becomes a milestone, not a finishing line.

Shop these now on https://www.etsy.com/in-en/shop/StudioSabrinaGill

and http://sabrinagill.in/

Yes And, A Good No, and the Dangers of Wing-Walking

I did a weird thing for an improviser to do today. I declined an offer.

“No” is something people say every day. Kids say it a lot. I don't have kids; I had cats, and they would often say something very much like no. But in improv, we're taught to say yes. Specifically, when someone on stage with you says something to define the shared fictional reality, we call that “making an offer.” When that happens, you're supposed to accept it and heighten it as far as it will go.

If your scene partner says that you're both monkey space pirates and it's time to capture the frigate of the talking bananas, well then you just better put on your monkey space suit, pull out your monkey space cutlass, and get ready to fight! Is it ridiculous? Of course, it is. (I mean how are you going to pull out your space sword after you’ve already put on your space suit? Stupid monkey pirate!) Nevertheless, you Yes And! It's banana hunting time! Take no banana prisoners! Eat all you kill! #YOLO #LivingThatMonkeySpacePirateLife #blessed

There was this guy with an interesting online tool for facilitators --  bizarrely enough, a different online tool than the one I talked about yesterday. (I’m networking a lot, y’all. And by y’all, I mean cold vastness of Tumblr.)

This guy was ready to make me his U.S. distributor-partner for his product. No buy-in, all commission, and the ripest territory on the planet. Perfect side hustle, if not a full hustle for the right person.

I said no.

It f*cking terrified me.

Beyond the pros and cons of the opportunity and the reasoning for my decision, what most intrigued me was my emotional reaction. I'm not destitute. My spouse and I are okay, even in the midst of COVID. Why did it freak me out so much to say “no”?

Honestly, I think there are a lot of reasons. Here are the ones that kept me up tonight.

Yes And is great medicine if you have the disease it’s meant for.

If your team or entire organization has become a stalled, “no but” culture, work on Yes And. When you and/or the system has become so stable that it's stagnant and momentum towards a vision has become inertia towards change, work on Yes And. When you need to shake things up and create opportunity for positive disruption, work on Yes And.

Cut to 20 years later.

I’ve done Yes And. I’ve taught it a lot. I’ve seen what happens when a room of people have to make a decision and their only experience running things is from a career spent in improv. It has come to me as no surprise that the hypocrisy of the improv community was laid bare by the #MeToo movement. A healthy respect for no is crucial.

This is when some improv people tie themselves in knots. “It’s not that we’re asking people to say ‘no’ to each other, but to say ‘yes’ to themselves.” Fine. Whatever looks good in your Bullet Journal. Even if improv didn’t need a worldwide reckoning around consent, it would still need to learn how to say a “good no.”

A Good No means Listening to your Full Self

To explain this, let’s go back to why we try to break people of “no” when they first start taking improv classes. It’s because their “no” at the time is usually based in fears.

I’m afraid of looking stupid so I say no to anything my partner says -- I just can’t risk it

I’m afraid of not understanding what’s happening so I say no to anything too crazy

I’m afraid of not being funny so I say no to anything to too normal

And, if you squint enough to read between those lines, you’ll see similar fears that show up in almost every meeting at work:

I’m afraid of looking less valuable so I say no to my peers’ ideas -- they might keep mine from being recognized

I’m afraid of putting my name to something that fails so I say no to innovation -- or at least no until we have all the necessary data (because by then the opportunity will have passed and we can blame a lack of good intel)

I’m afraid of not making a name for myself so I no to the simple, no-frills solution that will work, but that no one will notice

These are the bad noes. (These are not the Glengarry noes.)

There’s nothing worse than watching an improviser try to improv while fundamentally afraid of the art form and uncomfortable with themselves. Improv and all theater begins with a fearlessness around “nakedness.” Don’t really get naked when improvising. We get too many letters. Instead, take Peter Brook’s advice from The Empty Space:

“The creative actor also longs to cling on to all he’s found, he too wants at all costs to avoid the trauma of appearing in front of an audience, naked and unprepared—still this is exactly what he must do.” (Brook, 1968, p.142)

It sucks to be naked like this while doing bar-prov in front of a bunch of drunks at 12am, so we teach Yes And. It’s probably not so much “be more naked on stage,” but more, “it’s awkward to try to cover yourself on stage so we’re all going to just keep covering each other. Trust that your partners are there to keep the grossest parts from hanging out.” That’s Yes And.

When improvisers understand that, you start to see them use “no” again. But now, it’s not an awful, awkward, scene-halting “no.” It’s authoritative, exciting, and directional. A good no can be the best yes and. It doesn’t stop the motion, it transforms it.

Back At Work: Good Noes are Good News

Time to read between the lines again, to see how this translates from improv to the boardroom -- by which, of course, I mean Zooming with your team members while you all pretend to be wearing pants.

Once we have a foundation of Yes And, and our default setting is to rally around each other and support each other. Then, revisiting No makes sense. You can bring your full selves to it. You’re not making the “no” choice out of fear.

This is great news because then you can say no with complete candor but also complete support. You can say, “here’s where I’m at right now.” People know where you stand and can factor in your real, honest feedback. If the team knows that everyone on the team gets what “Yes And” means, they can hear “no” in a whole new way.

So why was I so upset about saying “no” today? Like everyone who's ever done therapy, I blame my stepfather.

The First Law of Wing-Walking

Amazingly, it is not, “you don’t talk about wing-walking.” You apparently talk about it a lot, especially while your stepson is growing up in your house.

My stepdad was in Organizational Development. (So, I guess you could say, I’m a “legacy,” or whatever. #NBD) 30 years ago, he would often say, “Matt, remember the first law of wing-walking:

Don’t let go of what you’re holding onto until you’ve got hold of something else!”

Years on the couch. (For other stuff. Not for that.)

I’m in a lot of transition right now. I’m trying to launch a new company. I’m trying to do right by the companies I work for now. And COVID feels like a bad time to be dreaming big, but I am.

But I don’t feel I am holding onto anything. I’m just keeping a ton of different stuff in reach. I haven’t “burned my boats,” and yet, they are drifting further and further from shore. Without me.

I have a beautiful vision for my future, but I haven’t gotten anyone to buy it yet.

And then comes this guy, and he has something to hold onto.

Getting Lost in the Role

One of the best moments in a long-form improv is when you find a truly interesting character that you can consistently play from scene to scene. You “have” them.

The audience is intrigued. You feel good at improv when you play them. And, best of all, you get to stop thinking about who you are for a while. All of your anxieties about “am I good at this? What should I do next?” have to leave a message at the beep. You’re somebody else now. And they’re busy.

But what about when you’re decidedly not getting lost in the role. You just feel “lost.” That’s kind of where I am at right now. Not as bad as the “upside-down,” but definitely the “in-between.”

And here’s this guy, and he has a branded polo shirt with my name on it if I want it.

But I don’t.

I want a branded polo shirt with my own company’s name on it.

And yes, in his mind, I could have absolutely built my own company while I did this for him as a sideline. There were plenty of Yes And reasons why this would have been a great partnership. He helps facilitators. I help facilitators. Except I’m not really helping facilitators yet. I just want to.

Whose Thing is it Anyway!?

So, now I think I can finally come to the point. Sometimes you have to pass up good things.

When you are not sure of your path forward or not confident the path you want will happen, the universe will sometimes send you lifeboats. And you may not realize you’re only saying yes to it because it’s a lifeboat. It’s better than flapping around in the water.

But is that a good Yes?

Is it going to bring you closer to your path forward? Or will it give you hours of distraction so you’ll have the perfect excuse not to move forward? What will you say when you look back?

“Yes, I really wanted to have my own monkey space pirate ship, but while I was building it, another monkey came by and offered me a chance to work part-time on his ship. I figured I’d get back to mine eventually, but I just kept doing so well on his. His is awesome now! As for mine, I don’t know. Maybe when I retire.”

Just writing that has me shaking a little, like an honest-to-god baby panic attack. Not a full-blown attack, but one you would serve around on a tray at a cocktail party.

I was terrified of saying no today because of all the fear of passing up a good thing.

But now, as I reflect on it, having spent the last 1700+ words ruminating on it, I realize that what’s f*cking terrifying is taking a good thing when it’s not actually your thing.

Don’t get me wrong; many of the best accomplishments have been the work of dedicated people working diligently for other people. If you see an organization with a mission you believe in, that treats you right, and treats the world right, jump on that.

But if you know you need to now do something on your own, even if it fails miserably. If you need to pass up the good thing so you can have the space to create your own, do it.

Say a good “no” to the stuff that isn’t truly for you. 

Even when it’s terrifying.

Affiliate Marketing: How to Turn Product Recommendations Into Passive Income

 Smart entrepreneurs running a thriving business know there’s always more they can do to make that business grow. One way of taking things to the next level is by finding an alternate stream of income. That doesn’t mean starting a second business, but finding ways to complement and grow the business you have by offering more value to your customers and followers.

If you aren’t participating in affiliate marketing, it’s time to consider taking advantage of this lucrative revenue stream.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is an online sales tactic that lets a product owner increase sales by allowing others targeting the same audience—“affiliates”—to earn a commission by recommending the product to others. At the same time, it makes it possible for affiliates to earn money on product sales without creating products of their own.

Simply put, affiliate marketing involves referring a product or service by sharing it on a blog, social media platforms, or website. The affiliate earns a commission each time someone makes a purchase through the unique link associated with their recommendation. Done well, this performance-based opportunity can go from side hustle to profitable business by netting you a healthy income.

How does affiliate marketing work?

To participate in an affiliate marketing program, you’ll need to take these five simple steps:

1.   Find and join an affiliate program

2.   Choose which offers to promote

3.   Obtain a unique affiliate link for each offer

4.   Share those links on your blog, social media platforms, or website

5.   Collect a commission anytime someone uses your links to make a purchase

Commission rates vary dramatically, depending on the company and the offer. On the low end, you’ll earn about 5% of the sale but, with some arrangements, you can earn as much as 50%, usually when promoting a class or event. There are also affiliate marketing programs that provide a flat rate per sale instead of a percentage.

Benefits of the affiliate marketing model

Affiliate marketing offers several benefits to affiliates (i.e., you), one of which is its ease. Your side of the equation simply involves handling the “marketing” side of building and selling a product—educating customers. You don’t have to worry about the harder tasks, like developing, supporting, or fulfilling the offer.

Affiliate marketing is low risk. Since there’s no cost to join affiliate programs, you can start making money with an established affiliate product or service without any upfront investment. Affiliate marketing also can generate relatively passive income through commission—the ideal money-making scenario. Though initially you’ll have to invest time creating traffic sources, your affiliate links can continue to deliver a steady paycheck.

Finally, successful affiliate marketing offers the potential to significantly scale your earnings without hiring extra help. You can introduce new products to your current audience and build campaigns for additional products while your existing work continues to generate revenue in the background.

Before you get too excited, know that great affiliate marketing is built on trust. While seemingly there are an endless number of products or services to promote, it’s best to only highlight those you personally use or would recommend. Even when a product interests you or fits within an existing hobby, becoming a great marketer for that product takes a lot of work.

How to find affiliate programs

If you’re wondering how to get your feet wet in affiliate marketing, you’ve got a few options. Not every company offers affiliate programs—some businesses manage their own affiliate programs while others use an affiliate network.

An easy way to find affiliate programs is to visit an affiliate marketplace or platform. Browse your niche to find top performing affiliate platforms. Here are some of the most popular:

·         AffiliateNetwork

·         AvantLink

·         CJ by Conversant

·         ClickBank

·         FlexOffers

·         LinkConnector

·         RevenueWire

·         ShareASale

Another option is to visit the websites of the products and services you use and like to see if they have an affiliate program. Large companies often have programs they promote on their site, such as Amazon Associates or the Shopify Affiliate Program.

You also can take a more direct approach. Reach out to the owner of a great product you come across and see if they offer an affiliate marketing program. If they don’t, they might be happy to set up an arrangement with you, such as offering you a special coupon code to share with your followers. The best deals often are found when you’re the first to inquire and have a relevant distribution channel, such as approaching the seller of a new fitness product if you’re a health and wellness blogger.

Affiliate marketing programs will have terms of service you need to follow, so read the fine print. For example, your link usually will have a cookie with a specified timeframe, and some programs don’t allow you to purchase pay-per-click ads using the product or company’s name.

Choosing your first affiliate program

As you brainstorm products or browse through affiliate platforms, the most important criteria to keep in mind is that the product should be aligned with your audience, or the audience you hope to build. Ask yourself, is it something your target audience would find valuable? Does it fit with your area of expertise?

A food blogger probably wouldn’t promote beauty products, for example. A wide range of other products would make more sense, such as cookware, meal kits, gourmet ingredients, or even aprons.

Also make sure the product or service you’re promoting is a fit for the platform you’re promoting it on. For example, home decor and clothing are well suited to image-heavy platforms like Instagram. However, if you’re promoting more in-depth purchases, like software, your review may convert better on longer-form platforms, like a blog or YouTube.

Creating a plan to promote your affiliate offer

As we mentioned earlier, affiliate marketing revenue eventually can become a form of passive income, but you still have to do some heavy lifting up front. The success of your program will depend on the quality of your review.

To create a good review, it’s best to get personal. Share your experience in your blog, social media post, or video. If you’re writing a personal review, give a candid opinion based on your experience with and knowledge of the product. The more open you are, the more authentic you will be. People will be more comfortable following your advice if they feel they can trust you.

Trust is a key factor in your affiliate marketing efforts, because people need to trust you enough to act on your recommendations. The level of trust you’ll need to make affiliate sales depends on your industry and the products you’re recommending—for example, it takes more trust to be an effective affiliate for a $1,000 course than it does for a $20 t-shirt.

Beyond just sharing your experiences, you can build trust by limiting the number of affiliates you promote, or by only becoming an affiliate for products you personally use, and sticking to your area of expertise. For example, people trust my recommendations for Canadian financial apps, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to have much luck as a Sephora affiliate. —Desirae Odjick, founder of Half Banked

Talk to a product expert

Another option is interviewing others who use the product or service, or even interviewing the person who makes or sells it. This can give your review more depth, creating a narrative for the reader.

Create a product tutorial

While your success with affiliate marketing can depend on the overall size of your following, another way to drive higher-converting traffic is by providing a tutorial on the offer. People often perform “how to” searches on Google, such as “how to save money for college” or “how to decorate a laundry room.” If you offer a tutorial that solves a searcher’s problem and clearly showcases the value of the product, your referrals will make more sense in context and you’ll provide the customer with a stronger incentive to purchase the product you’re recommending.

Find relevant search terms

If you’re promoting an offer through a blog post, research which keywords someone might use in a search engine to find an answer to a related problem.Google Ads Keyword Planner is a good tool that can help. (It’s free to use, but you’ll need to create an account.)

Consider your angle

Depending on your offer, figure out how much energy you should invest in instructional or tutorial content, which is often a natural lead-in to someone trying a product for themselves. For example, you could record a video of yourself using and getting the most out of a physical product, or showing off the benefits of a digital product, like software. Unboxing posts are popular, so if you receive the product in the mail, document your experience opening it up.

Set your distribution strategy

Once you’ve written your promotional content, share it on your website or social media platforms. If you have an email list, you can create an email marketing campaign. And be sure to have an affiliate marketing hub on your website with a Resources page where you share a quick list of all of the tools you use and love.

Try offering a bonus

Sometimes marketers promote their affiliate programs by offering bonuses to anyone who purchases the offer. For example, you could give a free ebook you wrote to any follower who makes a purchase. Promotions like this encourage customers to buy by sweetening the deal. They’re especially persuasive if the bonus you offer is something you normally sell, because then shoppers can see its actual dollar value added value right on your site.

You can find several examples of affiliate bonuses in action when business coach Marie Forleo opens her popular B-School for entrepreneurs each year. To encourage sign-ups through her affiliate link, Laura Belgray, Forleo’s own copywriter, offers a one-on-one copywriting session as a bonus. Marketing coach Amy Porterfield adds a bonus bundle, with an invitation to one of her live events, access to a private Facebook group, Q&A sessions, and a variety of downloads. Adding a bonus can be a good way to stand out if several other affiliates are promoting the same product.

Keep things legal and above board

Don’t forget to disclose to followers that your post contains affiliate links. For one thing, it’s required by the FTC. But explaining the reason for your affiliation also can help you connect with your audience. For example, the financial independence bloggers at Frugalwoods offer this disclosure: “Frugalwoods sometimes publishes affiliate endorsements and advertisements, which means that if you click on a link and buy something, Frugalwoods might receive a percentage of the sale, at no extra cost to you. We only write about, and promote, products that we believe in. We promise not to tell you about stuff that's dumb.”

If you need help figuring out what language to use in a disclaimer, it’s worth taking time to consult a lawyer.

Examples of businesses using affiliate marketing

Looking at some of the companies that participate in affiliate marketing will provide you with inspiration—as well as proof that this is a legit and lucrative revenue stream.

Wirecutter

Wirecutter, a site promoting gear and gadgets—from kitchen tools to travel gear—that was acquired by The New York Times in 2016, says it only makes recommendations after “vigorous reporting, interviewing, and testing by teams of veteran journalists, scientists, and researchers.”

BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed Reviews started out as a gift guide and expanded into reviews of various product categories. What makes the site unique is that it covers a variety of ordinary items, giving top picks at three different price points. BuzzFeed’s reviews are quite thorough, which provides lots of value to the reader. Here’s arecent post on toilet paper and another on women’s white t-shirts.

Ready to get started with affiliate marketing?

Earning money with affiliate marketing programs can be a rewarding way to add a new revenue stream without taking on too much risk. All it will cost you is your time. By investing the hours upfront, you can continue to reap the rewards.

Ricky sayegh md Top Tips About Lead Generation That Anyone Can Follow

Ricky sayegh md Top service provider. Do you know how to generate new leads for your business? Do you know the best techniques for finding new customers and generating interest in your products or services? If not, you need to read the following article. By doing so, you can learn the techniques of truly effective lead generation.

To generate the most promising leads for your business, your website needs very clear instructions for the visitor. Make your offer stand out from all other content on the page and make sure it's easy to understand. The visitor should have no problem identifying your offer and knowing how to get in on it quickly.

Utilize consumer feedback and case studies to produce a larger number of leads. Consumers like to see supportive data before providing you with their personal data or purchasing dollars. Use proven studies that illustrate the benefits of your wares, and publish written testimonials given to you from satisfied customers.

Look to affiliate marketing to generate leads and even customers. Why do all the work for leads when you can have others do it for you on commission? Affiliate programs are a very effective way of introducing your product to new audiences. In fact, you'll see a lot of content created around your product or service. That's very effective.

Be sure to maximize your use of social media. If you don't have enough followers, you can hold a giveaway to boost your numbers. While those people may not be interested in what you're selling, their friends who are may see your posts on their feed and follow you themselves.

You don't just have to buy ad space in local newspapers to get your ads in there. Instead, consider writing an article on a topic related to your business. For example, if you are a landscaper, you can write about how frequently to water your lawn and what the best time of day is.

Talking with businesses that sell complementary products or services can help you generate leads. For example, a landscaper could share their know-how about seasonal flowers. Yoga instructors can give tips for easy stretches that can be done quickly through the day. Think about whether other professionals can learn from your endeavor.

When trying to optimize your lead generation efforts, it's important to remember that visitors can happen upon any page of your site. Therefore, placing complete contact information and sales info on every page should be a top priority! If you consider every page a potential landing page, you understand what the visitor needs to see there.

Ricky sayegh md Top service provider. Have visitors to your blog subscribe to it. A reader who subscribes to your blog will receive reminders that your blog is updated. This is a secondary way that your current customers will generate new leads. Blogging is a critical element of generating new leads for any business, and it does so in many ways.

Remember that people respect honesty more than hype, so when you try to generate more leads, leave an open and honest offer on the table. Adding bells and whistles just makes you look like a generic salesperson who will do whatever it takes to get people to buy. Generate leads with a quality presentation and you gain permanent customers instead.

One of the fastest and easiest ways to generate leads is through referrals for your services! Offering existing customers incentives for referrals, such as a certain amount of money discounted the next time they use your services, will let you have several leads quickly. It's a foolproof way to get new business!

Be sure to use a blog to create fresh new content on the regular. Write about topics that people actually want to read about, such as how-tos, interviews, details from local events or expert tips and tricks. If you are creating content which is worth reading, you will be sure to build leads.

Don't overlook the importance of low-cost advertising to help generate new leads for your business. You can start to build up the interest of buyers by placing ads on blogs and popular websites. Make sure your ads have a great call-to-action in order to generate the interest of more buyers.

Say thank you in your marketing efforts. If someone fills out a form, have an email set up that sends them a thanks. If a person contacts you directly for more information, immediately give them a verbal thanks. Thank you goes a long way to building quick trust, and that means a stronger lead.

Test your lead generation marketing campaigns. Sometimes simply changing a call-to-action or offer will lead to a whole lot more leads being generated. You won't know unless you test. You should always be testing something. This can have immediate and lasting effects on the leads being generated by your company.

Invite your website visitors to sign up for email notifications in return for special discounts and promotions. Everyone wants a bargain. If you make the discounts enticing enough, people will sign up. This is a good way for you to build up your lead database and to advertise your specials.

What local publications could you write in? For example, if you are a plumber you could write a piece for your neighborhood newspaper on how to unclog a toilet the right way. If there are any homeowner-specific publications, you may find that they generate even more leads than a general paper.

Lead generation is effective as a tool to create business quickly for your company. If you are looking for a fast and cost-effective way to accumulate multiple clients at once, lead generation helps you reach interested parties with the products or services you wish to offer, priced on per lead basis.

Ricky sayegh md Top service provider. Lead generation is one of those subjects that seems simple at first, but can be quite tricky in practice. You may just need some good advice so that you can know how to generate leads most effectively. Fortunately, the article that you have just read has taught you what you need to know.

Network marketing success stories- Real life MLM success stories

There are many Network Marketers who have had great success in their MLM business. In this blog, we shall discuss the people with their MLM and network marketing success stories to help you get that ounce of motivation to begin your network marketing Success career. Also, Check out the Network Marketing Experts who are already into Network Marketing business.

List of Top MLM Success Stories in Network Marketing

Motivational Stories for network marketing will lead you to find success in the network marketing business.

Read on and see how these stalwarts in the business performed to be in this list of top Network Marketing success stories!

#1. SARAH ROBBINS

Her MLM Success story in the Network Marketing business is beyond dreams. Ms. Sarah Robbins was leading a normal life and was a school teacher. The shaky economy drove her in constant fear of losing her job. In order to avoid a penniless situation in case she lost her job, she started selling Rodan and Fields products. Her only intention at that time was to earn a bit of extra cash to supplement her regular income.

With a bit of hard work, she could soon earn more than her regular income and decided that she would quit her job as a school teacher and concentrate fully on multi-level marketing. This decision fetched her six-figure income as a commission on sales. Sarah was so successful that she is the only consultant to date who was inducted into the Rodan + Fields Hall of Fame before the age of 20. She is also the first one to get into the Million Dollar Circle. Today, she is one of the top-selling consultants of the company.

#2. ERIC WORRE

Eric Worre is a veteran in the field of network marketing with an experience of nearly 30 years. eric worre net worth is around $40 million! Shocking, right?

He initially began his network marketing career as a distributor and then grew on to become the president of a multi-level marketing company that had a turnover of $200 million. He eventually began his own business and became the president of The People’s network.

Now, he has retired from the network marketing business as a distributor and is fully engaged in coaching other new recruits in the field and helping them to be successful network marketers. He started a platform called Network Marketing Pro and regularly gives presentations to his subscribers and audience.

In 2013, he wrote a book on the subject named Go Pro – 7 Steps to Becoming a Network Marketing Successful Professional that sold more than 1.5 million copies and is on the list of best sellers on Amazon.

#3. RAY HIGDON

By February 2011, he managed to earn $46,000 in a single month and had broken the previous earning records with the company. By June of that year, he had earned more than $52,000, another golden feather in his cap. He is now into network marketing consulting and devotes most of his time to offering advice and tips to help others to succeed in network marketing.

His net worth is approximately $15 million dollars.

#4. DONNA JOHNSON

Like almost all other network marketing success stories, Donna Johnson had very little to boast of when she started out in network marketing. She didn’t have a college degree and was a single mom. She was working as a swimming coach in her neighbourhood and income was very little.

Fast forward to 40 years later, her income is more than $1 million per year, and is the leader of one of the top network marketing companies in the world, Arbonne. This company is one of the top multi-level marketing companies in the world. Under her leadership, more than 1,000 people have reached the leadership level in Arbonne’s program. This is a designation that earns them a white Mercedes.

Donna has been very wise in deciding how to use her MLM earnings and has invested some of her earnings from her network marketing career and invested them in projects that give a great return on investment. She now runs a bed and breakfast in Jamaica and regularly donates a part of her earnings to charity. She is a patron of Streams of Mercy, a charity organisation that helps orphans in India and other third world countries.

#5. JERRY SCRIBNER

Jerry Scribner was a usual American and was living a very average life. He had a construction job and was not at all fully satisfied with it. He is a huge supporter of warm market prospecting since it was a friend who introduced him to the multi-level marketing business. Since he was hugely in debt at that point in time and broke, he was quick enough to get into the business. From this hopeless financial situation, he went on to become one of the top earners in the industry. Right now, he is ranked as the #12 highest earner and has an $860 million company named Steam to his credit. He has opened up a blog channel where he shares his knowledge and the tips and tricks to succeed in the business. He also recommends books to read and videos to watch through the blog.

#6. MIKE SIMS

Mike Sims is a network marketer from Alabama. He attended Auburn University and after his graduation, he got a job in finance. He was dissatisfied with the 9 to 5 job and started on his network marketing career alongside his regular job. Initially, he started working with two network marketing companies and went on to become a top earner with each of them in a very short span of time. With just his contributions, the two companies managed to earn $500 million in revenue.

Mike also became one of the top earners and distributors with Zija International, a nutritional supplement and wellness company. He is also a winner of President Millionaire Rank with Wor(l)d Global Network. With immense experience and success in network marketing. Mike launched his own company, Mike Sims Worldwide. He specializes in real estate, apparel design, Forex currency traders, and venture capital investments.

#7. DAKOTA MCLEARN

Dakota McLearn is a unique entity in the networking marketing industry, which makes his MLM success story all the more impressive and unique. He was so successful in his network marketing career that he was able to earn enough income from his MLM company, Empower Network to enable him to retire at a very young age of 19.

Dakota is from Canada and was working for a long hour every day and 60-hour every week in the construction industry before he took a baby step in the network marketing industry. He was quite impaled by the idea of living from one paycheck to the other for the remainder of his life that he put his heart and mind in network marketing so that he could retire early.

With the network marketing career and a blog for giving out network marketing advice, he managed to earn enough money so that he could retire to the exotic beaches of Thailand at a tender age of 20., Dakota put together a blog that brought in enough income to allow him to retire to the beaches of Thailand before he even turned 20.

#8. MARGIE ALIPRANDI

Margie Aliprandi is extremely proud to proclaim herself as a self-made multi-millionaire. She is also kind enough to devote much of her time to help other people who are new into network marketing to earn a good income and become successful network marketers themselves.

Margie is a former beauty pageant winner who won both Miss Teenage Utah and Mrs. Utah. Her interest in pageants and pursuing her goals by maintaining a high level of self-confidence and self-esteem would go on to help her find success in network marketing.

Before she began her network marketing career, she was a music teacher and a single mom. She started with a MLM company called Neways International in 1989 and quickly became one of the company’s top-sellers. She was earning a five-figure monthly income in just her first year.

She went on to become the first distributor to earn the Crown Diamond ranking. This was the highest level of Neways International. Over the course of her network marketing career, she managed to build up a team of more than 250,000 people and is currently in the top 1 percent of network marketing producers.

#9. JORDAN ADLER

Network marketing does not bring you success, fame, and fortune in very little time. Jordan Adler is a perfect example of that truth. He did not taste much success during his first ten years of his network marketing career. He worked with ten different companies and could not manage to recruit a single distributor for each of them. He soon went bankrupt and by the time he was 35, he was in debt of around $36,000 across 22 credit cards. He had just over $200 dollars in his bank account and was jobless for over 2 years. He earned a severance of $4000 per year from his old employer. His network marketing success story began much later. In the next 36 months, he earned more than 20 million from various network marketing companies. He is the author of Beach Money and is a TEDx speaker and a very successful writer.

#10. ALEXANDRA LAIGLE

Alexandra Laigle was an employee of the US Department of Defense and has had phenomenal success with Lularoe. In 2016, she sold around 1,000 items of clothing from the brand out of her home every month. Alexandra got in with the clothing brand in the early stages of its business and this proved to have had a hand in her enormous success. When she launched her own store in 2015, she had just 2,000 other consultants under her belt. That number grew over 35,000 now.

Due to her glorious success with the company, her husband has quit his regular job in the financial field to help her go on with her business. She still works with the Department of Defense and regularly sells $80,000 worth of clothes monthly and earns around a $21,000 bonus check from the company every year.

From the above top 10 Inspiring network marketing success stories, Sarah Robbins, Margie Aliprandi, and Jordan Alder are coming under Top MLM Earners in the world.

After reading the MLM Success Stories of famous Entrepreneurs do you wish to boost up your Network Marketing Business?MLM is a great career option if you are looking for a full-time job or a bit of extra cash to supplement your income. All you need is great skills for marketing and networking, along with a good MLM software to help you manage your recruits and their compensations very easily. If you are looking for good MLM software, contact Infinite MLM today!

Reference: www.directsellingstar.com – Network Marketing Success Stories

Eric Worre was my mentor in my early days. He is really an ideal mentor. His story has motivated me and many network marketing seekers. Today I saw his motivational mlm story here in the top list. I must say other peoples stories are also the prefect example of motivational.

This content was originally published here.