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astrovian · 1 year

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I miss RA so much when we don't hear much about him for a while. Not in an invasive way, in a "I really like hearing from/about him and when things are quiet or he is solely promoting work, I miss his personality". I wish interviewers were less annoying so I could watch old interviews but so much of the time, they just ask the same questions over and over and it's usually stupid shit like "wow ur tall how did u act in the Hobbit" or stuff that seems to make him (and me) uncomfortable like commenting on the "Armitage army" or making comments about his appearance. I think he's an interesting guy! Let me hear what he has to say about actually interesting topics! This is prompted by nothing particular but you're the only active RA blog I follow and I felt like I needed to commiserate.

I think we all feel that way anon 😭

I've said before that (in general) the questions asked by interviewers tend to be very relative & a bit boring - which, in all fairness, I can understand *a bit*. as much as we love him (and he should), he doesn't really have the brand recognition to the point where I would expect most people in a random survey of the population to know who he is just by name. so interviewers are naturally going to ask a lot more of the 'basic' questions - tbh I think most of them still go "oh, it's that guy from The Hobbit" in terms of how much they expect the reader to know. so yeah, it's shitty, but I guess I can understand where they're coming from in terms of doing their job. I don't agree with it but I can understand it

in all fairness as well, he has said in the past that the reason he doesn't so many interviews is because it's not his thing & he doesn't really enjoy them - he's said being on talk shows just really isn't in his nature, which I think most of us introverts can 1000% understand & sympathize with

but this is also why I've said in the past I wish someone would interview him using internet-submitted questions (like Audible did once). or just like - even an interview done by a fan. because while I'm sure that kind of thing would make him uncomfortable (re: because I think there's an assumption that all the questions would then be about his personal life) but at the same time I can think of so many fucking actual interesting questions just about his fucking acting process and job and characters that I deperately want to know the answers to that aren't the usual "so you're a method actor because you once voluntarily got waterboarded in the early 2000s, right??" 🙄

I wish he had a social media site *like* tumblr (note: not actually tumblr because then I would have to delete this blog 🫠) where like - there was an ask box. like with the sole purpose of us being able to fucking submit actual decent questions & every once in a while he could answer one or two if he wanted to

I feel like asking him questions on twitter is just like... bothering him & his mentions lmao. whereas a dedicated thing like an askbox is different from a mention or DM. it makes it more like a formal submission lol

so yes, I miss hearing from him when he's not doing interviews, posting on social media etc. too because he is a very interesting person & I have lots of questions I'd like answered but I also like to imagine that when he's not active on social media he's enjoying a chill life, sipping mojitos on a beach or doing a puzzle in a cozy cabin - or whatever you like - and enjoying not being at the beck and call of the public (even though I know that's a filthy rotten lie because the man seemingly never stops working in the background and I wish he would like. chill. just for a bit. for his sake.)

which is all to say in an extremely long-winded manner:

yes, when absent, I miss his public presence but also I don't begrudge it because I like to think he's just chilling & enjoying life in the meantime

#i'm so fucking sorry anon i started responding then life happened so this ended up in my drafts & i promptly forgot it was there until now #i also kinda went off on a tangent sorry but tbh y'all should know by now this will happen if you give me an opportunity lol #richard armitage

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askneruandhaku · 5 years

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Disrespectful behavior towards Neru, Haku and their fans

This is a letter of complaint, venting and opening my heart to you guys about a subject that has to do with the blog and matters lots to me.

I usually don’t address the disrespect towards fanloids and fanloid fans i’ve been seeing from Vocaloid purists since the very day i made this blog, but today is a heavy topic day.

As you guys know Miku is no longer gonna be a Vocaloid. What that means to the relationship between Piapro and Neru/Haku i do not know. If they’re gonna appear in Mega39s, if Crypton will use their image rights ever again and so forth is to be seen. But what’s going on in the Vocaloid Wiki is something i have seen coming for a couple of years now.

The Vocaloid WIki has been on a Vocaloid purism purge for a good couple of years. It started with the deletion of some character pages that were confirmed not Vocaloid like Alys or Meaw and it’s extending now to Teto, Vocalina, Acme Iku, etc. The topic of deleting fanloids was brought up by the same person who was doing the purge at the time and was ignored. Now that Miku is abandoning Vocaloid this user who to put it as kindly as i can has a hateboner for fanloids is taking the chance to get their pages completely deleted, arguing there’s the much copypasted, much more bare-bones and disorganized fanloid wiki for them if anything.

The initial purpose for Neru, Haku, Sakine, Hachune, etc having pages on the Vocawiki was to avoid confusion and correct the idea clueless fans have about them being Vocaloids. It’s there to inform and archive facts, story, trivia. I am someone against Vocaloid purism and deletion of information (fe all the interesting information on the Meaw project has been lost FOREVER wiped from the entire internet because their only wiki page with their profile and history was deleted by this same user) because it never hurts anyone to archive all the interesting tidbits things this Vocaloid fandom overall has gone through. It’s not occupying space on your computer so i don’t understand why it’s harmful for it to exist online for the curious to learn.

Because of my opposition to this direction i already had my qualms towards this user but on top of that they have given me reasons to believe they actually loathe Neru and Haku.

There are no comment sections more policed and controlled than Neru and Haku’s in the wiki. Any innocent fun cheeky comment under their page will recieve a lengthy reply from this person shutting the fan down because Neru/Haku are unoriginal Miku copies, “irrelevant” and “just memes”. It’s very disheartening for fans and disrespectful. They spread tons of misconception like saying Haku was made as a form of bullying users or that Neru and Haku have no merchandise since 2013. I myself bought official NeruHaku Piapro badges from the Animate store in my trip to Japan in 2017. Sega released in 14 a macaron set with Neru and Haku’s logos which Piapro reported on. Crypton staff featured a Haku song in their official “classics” Vocaloid collection in their playlist site Kiite... this same year.

Moreover, this person has a DA account which they use to comment rude things under MANY!! Neru/Haku artworks (such as "if they disappeared tomorrow it would have no impact") and try to get fans to ditch them for "real Vocaloids" instead, f.e. leaving comments like “sigh i’d love to see you draw Miku” (instead of Haku, etc).

Their crusade against Neru and Haku specifically borders on obsessive to me. I understand trying to clarify what's a Vocaloid and what's not to people, but why is it so important to you that you go out of your way to BROWSE arts of characters you dislike and pressure people into not drawing them any longer.

Bigger version here

Please don't listen to comments like this if you ever get them, block and move on. You're in the right to draw and love whatever characters you want no matter their recognition or label. There is a decently sized Japanese community of Neru and Haku fans over on Twitter so don't get a devastating picture of "nobody cares about those characters and if you do you're outdated" from these misinformed comments. Don't feel crazy or wrong for loving Neru and Haku in 2019 even OVER actual Vocaloids, there are many of us who love them still the most.

This is not my first rodeo with Vocaloid purists saying horrible things about Neru and Haku, however this time i had to speak on it since the person is involved in Wiki editing and it's going to affect the information available for all of us on their history, official links, artwork/concept art, most popular songs etc. This person themselves is also running the new Piapro Studio Wiki which means they will also have no future over there (even though Crypton’s Wat has recently tweeted being interested in including more characters in the MMD Piapro official model lineup in the future).

There is no point in protesting to such a stubborn person, so i’m just gonna archive Neru and Haku’s pages on the wayback machine and post links for everyone in the future. Personally i have no energy anymore to compile info, translate and make my own site about them.

But i want you guys to know. Even if i disappear for a year or two, for a long time. You all will always have a place here in my blog as Neru and Haku fans, you are valid. You enjoy whatever fanloid you want. You stan your dead fanloid, your dead Vocaloid, your Hibiki Lui, hell, whatever. Screw people who only see facts, software and data. Even their popularity “status” or recognition. Many people love Leon, Lola, Miriam, Piko... to this day. A fictional character dies when YOU decide it, when it doesn’t exist in anyone’s thoughts anymore. Not when a truly irrelevant “authority” figure Hereby Declares your Fave has Henceforth Become Irrelevant.

I made this blog at 19. I’m almost 30 now. And i still love Neru and Haku as much as when i first made this blog, if not even more!! Neru and Haku allowed me to meet some of the most amazing people in my e-life, like all of you askblog mods, but related to the subject in particular, some NeruHaku fans such as @ask-neru-and-or-haku who i still talk to every single day.

Life got super difficult and tragic for me so i’ve been having difficulties to post; partly it’s adulthood but partly just my luck (had three people die on me on the course of running this askblog... two a couple months ago). But thinking about Neru, Haku, the people they brought into my life. Makes me so happy.

I wish i could be back posting here everyday. I will be back for sure, from time to time, sporadically doing answerbombs in rampages... until i’m very old i hope :) but in the meantime have my blog as a safe Neru Haku loving space. A little shrine blog. I won’t tolerate disrespect towards my daughters here or bullying towards any of you Neru and Haku fans.

Phew... that’s it. Some good old venting and... sad but unsurprising news coming from this dry, canon-limited new wave in the fandom. Not “canon” to Vocaloid or Piapro? Gotta go!

RIP Neru and Haku Vocaloid Wiki entries (2009-20??)

#akita neru #yowane haku #vocaloid #yeah i DO dare use this tag fight me #OOC #sorry about so many OOC post but this really rustled my jimmies #this is not a callout post #its not to harass the person #but im concerned about you guys getting messages like these and getting discouraged or made feel uncomfortable for supporting the girls #and i don't want you all to become surprised if their wiki entries go oop- and disappear suddenly

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ziamfanfiction · 6 years

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this week’s ziam ao3 feed

ohh look at me posting late again lol but in my defense i have to wake up at the ass crack of dawn on mondays so sunday posting gets difficult now lol so here we are. Anywho, remember to leave comments and kudos on the works you liked, make a writers day!

fics posted/updated from March 19th to the 25th

It tastes better on you. by iwasnthere

Part 2 of At First Sight

Perfect by softzbaby

Zayn Malik-Payne is beautiful.

Twelve Fic Outtakes/Deleted Scenes by watyonameisgurl (wip)

Pretty much exactly what the title says and what I've hinted at in numerous end notes of the main fic for like forever - a collection of outtakes/deleted scenes (and possibly even some eventual alternate scenarios if I feel up to exploring that) from the Twelve fic verse

[DO NOT READ if you haven't finished the first fic in the verse yet]

Part 3 of Twelve Verse

30 Days of Ziam by milehighziam (wip)

A customized 30 Day Challenge all about Ziam in different instances, not each one in the same AU/setting as the next.

Jealous of Your Cigarette by suburbanmotel

I’m jealous of your cigarette And all the things you do with it I’m jealous of your cigarette And the pleasure that you get from it And not me

-- Hawksley Workman

“The way you smoke,” Liam says. He shakes his head like he’s coming out from underwater or out of a deep sleep. Maybe he is. He moves closer. “The way your mouth moves. Your tongue.”

Zayn stops moving completely. He just stops and stares at Liam, every muscle still and frozen, watching and waiting, lit cigarette tucked lightly between his elegant fingers. “What?”

“Like, you don’t even know." Liam licks dry lips. "You don’t get it. You don’t know what it does to me. What you do to me.”

What a feeling by Mary_dutch (wip)

When Zayn is forced to spend time at his family home, he expects a lot of problems. What he doesn't expect, is the boy-next-door to turn his life upside down.

Tumblr Drabbles by JoMouse (wip)

A collection of drabbles (anything that somehow ended up less than 1K words) that I've posted on tumblr based on prompts. Various pairings (mostly Ziam, tbh) and storylines and 'verses.

Don't know 'em. Don't own 'em. Don't show 'em.

Part 8 of Tumblr Prompts

Diet Soda Society by SpookyFaces (wip)

Zayn is a villain with daddy issues. Liam is a superhero with a fragile heart.

The thing is - they are roommates. Liam would never think Zayn is his enemy, and Zayn wouldn't even guess anything about Liam being a hero at nights. They keep making excuses to each other about why they are out all the time when something happens and lying about why their bodies are covered in scratches in bruises.

Oh, and they are in love. But this is just another secret they try to hide from each other.

The Science of Love by ShiningStar324 (wip)

"There are three stages of falling in Love. Lust, Attraction, and Attachment. There are hormones help the process. Oxytocin, Vasopressin are some hormones that get us attached to one another. So all in all it's not out heart that makes us fall in love, rather our brain."

"....I love it when you talk science to me..."

Or the one where Liam isn't good with words, and Zayn knows how to use way too many of them

Shawcross Park by Niler (wip)

Liam isn't a singer, a dancer or even a builder.

Zayn is one of the above.

The Article by arcticxonedirection (wip)

Zayn just thought he would spend his life writing topics he (didn't) love... What he didn't expect was for one of those topics to love him back.

AU where Zayn works for one of the most read gossip magazines alongside his pal Louis, Niall owns his own music shop and Liam is the hottest new star while his best friend Harry might start to like the fashion column a bit more.

Demons by PubuMalik_love_ZaynMalik_FOREVER (wip)

“I’m not available.” Zayn blurted out. “You’re married?” “No.” “Engaged?” “No.” “Living with someone?” Zayn shook head. Liam was quite for a seconds, staring at Zayn as if Zayn was a puzzle that he wanted to solve. “I’ll see you later,” he said eventually. “And in the meantime… I’m going to figure out how to get a ‘yes’ out of you.” Or Zayn is a wedding planner who's coordinating his first biggest wedding with his sister Sophia as he happened to meet handsome rich Liam payne on the wedding day.

Intoxicate Me, Mesmerize Me, Obliterate Me by eternallyunleashed (wip)

There was a certain heat obtained from rebellion that even the actual throes of heat never sparked. Keeping up an image of perfection; being the good kid, the perfect son to the Mayor and Chief of Police, the city of Lincoln’s sweetheart omega, it was all taxing to Zayn. Walking the thin line of danger was exhilarating. Was it coincidental that this danger happened to be an attraction to a certain alpha who was none other than the leader of the South Side Vipers gang, who seemed to despise him and the part of town he came from? Probably not. But when had anything ever stopped Zayn?

Who's That Boy? by LonelyAquarian (wip)

What If Zayn Had The Key To A Life That Liam Never Expected?

The King Of Queens by LHSHIP (wip)

Zayn was just like every other fangirl, except he was a boy. So technically you should call him a fanboy. Since he was gay as fuck though and got referred to as "biiiish" or "guuurl" all day long anyways he didn’t even think about that kind of issue. He wouldn’t even call it an issue in the first place but some people insisted on making precise distinctions whatsoever.

His internet friends - all girls of course - thought he should be called something like "The King Of Queens" apparently being the only boy who openly drooled over singer Liam Payne. And he liked it, not only because it was his dad’s favorite TV show but also because he'd always called his girl friends queens to make them feel special.

So yes, he was one of those crazy super fans who basically spent all of their time on Twitter because of a super famous and successful celebrity who didn’t even know about their existence.

And maybe Zayn was a tiny little bit of in love with Liam Payne...

Don't Be A Stranger by ohthathurt (cloisterrific_221B)

Louis has plans for Zayn but it involves international popstar Liam Payne, who has no idea what's about to hit him... or kiss him.

Part 3 of Drabbles

Beyond Words by StoryAnonGuy33 (wip)

"Some things are beyond words" Liam added lightly, Zayn laying back down on Liam's chest. "They are, aren't they?" He commented back, Liam smiling and kissing the top of his head. "You bet babe"

Or when Liam and Zayn attend the same college and with budding and cemented feelings between the two, will things turn out the way they want?

The New Teacher by mmaree (wip)

Being a novice teacher is tough, but being a novice teacher at Payne Academy is even tougher. Fortunately for Zayn, the other teachers on the staff seem friendly enough…at first.

***

Or the one where Zayn’s dream job slowly turns into his worst nightmare. And his worst nightmare may or may not be named Dr. Payne.

#lau speaks #weekly ao3 feed #ziam #ziam fanfiction

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entrepreneurmind-biz · 5 years

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Blogging - All You Ever Wanted To Know, But Were Too Afraid To Ask

The Complete Blogging Manual

If you are already blogging, then you might want to read this just to see if you’re getting the full benefit from your blog. Or to find out if your blog… um… sucks.

Because frankly, most blogs do.

If you don’t yet have a blog, then you’re likely leaving money on the table and you don’t even know it. Blogging is a great way to reach your audience, build rapport and get people interested in handing you money for your products and services.

Plus, believe it or not, blogging can be a lot of fun!

Let’s get started…

You Already Have Blogging Skills

You might think that blogging takes a great deal of talent, but anyone, with a little coaching, can blog.

Yes, that absolutely does include you. 😊

A Few Tips To Get You Started…

There aren’t any right answers or perfect formulas. It’s okay to follow your intuition and even experiment.

Don’t compare. Don’t get bogged down by comparing your blog to other blogs. Someone else will always get more attention and more retweets. Learn from others but stay true to your own unique strengths.

Don’t give up. Your blog might take off in 3 weeks, 3 months or 3 years. In the meantime, keep blogging. It’s a learn-as-you-go process, and if you’re tenacious, you will find your audience and they will find you.

Focus on your passions. It’s difficult to blog for years about a topic that bores you to death. Write about what you love and the passion will show.

Be flexible. You might think your blog is about one thing, and 3 months in you realize it’s about something entirely different. That’s okay. Most new bloggers don’t find their footing right away because it takes time.

Be consistent. Blog at least once a week or more often. Blogging once a month won't get you the search engine traffic, brand awareness or customer connections you're looking for.

Know your 'why.' Focus more on 'why' you're blogging than 'how' to blog. Don't get so bogged down in technical details that you forget why you're blogging.

Why Are You Blogging?

Facebook and Twitter might be less intimidating, but blogging offers much greater potential to your business. If our content is the fuel that runs the social web, then blogs are the engine.

Benefits of blogging include:

Creating brand awareness. Keep in mind that you might very well be your own brand, depending on your business.

Becoming an authority in your field. It doesn't matter how much you know if others don't know that you know it. Share your expertise with the world and let them know you can help them.

Selling stuff. A blog is an excellent platform to show people how to do things and the best tools to get those things done.

Catching the attention of leaders in your field. Create round-up posts where you ask the movers and shakers in your niche to answer a question or two. It's a great way to introduce yourself to others in your field. Don't forget to link to their sites, too.

Creating partnerships. Do you want to partner with other marketers? A blog showcases your talents and point of view, making it easier to create connections that lead to profitable joint ventures and partnerships.

Search engine traffic. Google loves blogs because they are updated regularly with new information that is helpful to searchers.

Social media traffic. Share your new posts on social media and ask others to share them as well.

Building your email list. This might be the biggest one of all since a good email list allows you to sell products at the touch of a send button.

Blogging Action Steps

Decide to be committed. Whether you're starting a personal or business blog, be prepared to keep at it for at least 2 years. There are no shortcuts. It takes time to find your following.

Not sure of your passion? Write out 30 different blog post headlines that you would like to write. Now look over the headlines and find the common theme. Is it aligned with your business goals? Adjust and refine as needed.

Conduct an audit. Every six months, ask yourself these questions:

What posts were the most fun to write? How do you write more of these?

What posts received the most interaction or feedback? What did you learn from them?

Are you still enjoying this topic, or do you need to broaden your scope?

Use deadlines. To keep yourself from procrastinating, let your readers know when you'll be making your posts. For example, Monday and Thursday morning, or whatever. Then publish at those times, even if your post isn't perfect.

Stop worrying. Yes, sooner or later a troll will say something harsh. But 99 out of 100 people will be kind. Don't let one or two negative people keep you from publishing your posts.

Make it personal. When you write a blog post, try to connect the subject matter to your own experiences, your story or your perspective. This creates a personal touch and helps you to connect with your readers.

Stop Thinking Like a Writer and Start Thinking Like a Blogger

Blogging is different than the writing you did in high school or college because your audience is different.

Your readers are likely mixing business with pleasure when they visit your blog. They want new information, they want to solve a problem, or they're curious. But they're also hoping to be entertained, too.

If you have an easy-going manner that sounds like you're speaking to readers one-on-one, you'll do well. Injecting humour is even better. Be approachable and genuine. In other words, be yourself, or an even better version of yourself.

Tips to Help You Write Like a Blogger

Find your voice. Don't be a carbon copy of other bloggers; be yourself. You have unique experiences and viewpoints that you can bring to your blog and make it different from anything else out there. Think about how you make friends - you show the person who you really are, and they either like you or they don't. It's the same with your blog readers. Be yourself, be genuine, have a personality, and those who connect with you will stay with you and become your biggest fans because of who you are.

Don't bury the lead. Most blog readers are short on time and want their info NOW. If you wait until the end of your post to give them the good stuff, they'll never see it. You have to start out with the big benefit first and let them know right away why this post is going to make a difference in their day or their life.

Keep it short. Most blog posts could benefit greatly from going under the knife. If a sentence doesn't move the post forward, then delete it. The same goes for entire paragraphs. Shorter posts tend to work best, especially when you're new to blogging. Authority posts - those long 3,000+ word posts - are something you can work up to as your reputation builds. In the beginning, keep posts short with one main idea in each post.

Become a headline pro. There is NO getting around this - you're going to need to become an expert at headlines. Without a compelling, tweetable headline, your work will never be read. Consider writing the headline first and tailoring the post to the headline, rather than working the other way around.

Screw up. That's right; make mistakes. Be imperfect. Be human. The best bloggers are real life people who let you know they make mistakes. If you try to get every single blog post just peachy-keen perfect, you'll never publish anything. Write it, edit it, post it and move on. When you make a big enough mistake, correct it. If you make a whopper, let your readers know you goofed. They'll love you for it.

Rewrite. We said it's okay to screw up, but that doesn't mean you don't want to put your best foot forward. Write and then rewrite, because people will spend more time reading your posts if they enjoy them. Go over your writing and find the places that don't quite make sense or are downright confusing, and then fix them. You might read your post aloud since this can help you find the bits that need fixing.

Be honest. Are you sad? Depressed? Angry? Stressed? Disappointed? Worried? There is awesome power in authenticity. Write about it. You'll find some of your readers are going through the exact same thing you are. Plus, it's therapeutic for you and for them to get it out there.

Entertain. Yes, you might be writing about a business or some other serious topic, but that doesn't mean you can't entertain, too. Use stories, humour and the element of surprise to turn even dry material into something fun and interesting.

Mix it up. Use videos, photos, interviews, infographics, reviews, humour, cartoons and anything else you can think of. Be innovative.

Bring in, other authors. Once your blog has a following, bring in other writers to spice up the conversation. You might consider asking a provocative question, taking one side yourself, and having another writer take the opposing point of view.

Blogging Skills 101

As a blogger, you need to bring one or more skills to the blogging table. Of course, any and all of these skills could be learned. But I'll bet you've got at least two of these 6 skills already tucked into your own person blogging arsenal - you just didn't realize how valuable they are.

Skill #1: Story Telling

Humans are wired to pay attention stories, which is why the best bloggers tap into their natural ability to tell a great tale. Whether you're telling the story of how you failed before you found success, what you did when confronted with an obstacle, how you faced a fear or simply what you did this morning, telling stories is a great way to connect with and entertain your audience.

Skill #2: Teaching

Why do you see so many blog posts that begin with, "How to‚Ä¶?" It's because people are looking for answers to their questions and solutions to their problems. If you can explain how to do something, then you can teach. And in teaching, you can make a real difference in the lives of your readers, too.

Skill #3: Persuasion

Do you have a point of view that you would like to get across? For that matter, do you enjoy being somewhat controversial? Posts that take a definite stand, especially on a hot topic, tend to get shared on social media a LOT. And if you're skilled in persuasion, you might even be able to change minds and bring people around to your way of thinking.

Skill #4: Curation

Assembling and organizing information is a skill you almost certainly have already. Huffington Post started out as a curation site, and even today they still pull media from different sources while also creating their own original content.

Skill #5: Self-Expression

You have dreams, goals and desires. You also have fears, challenges and doubts. By describing the world inside your mind, you're giving others the gift of knowing they're not the only one who feels or thinks the way they do. And you can help them to overcome their challenges by showing them how you're able to conquer yours, too.

Skill #6: Reporting

This is accessible to almost anyone. Even if, at this moment, you know very little about your chosen topic, you can still act as a reporter for your readers. Find out how things are done, who are the experts and what they know, and report back on your blog. A great example of this is brand new make money online people, who write about their journey as they progress. They report on what works and what doesn't, as well as what others are successfully doing to make money online.

The Blog Itself

There's really no need to overcomplicate your blog. Here are a few tips for getting your blog up and running quickly and easily:

WordPress. You can use WordPress to build your blog as a stand-alone site or integrate into your current website. Pay for a quality premium theme - it's worth the extra money. Pick something professional looking and easy to use.

Track. Use tracking analytics to know where your traffic is coming from and which posts are resonating with readers.

Publish fast. Don't spend weeks on one blogpost. Instead, create a diverse publishing calendar, determine which posts are a hit with readers, and let these popular themes dominate your blog. Publish often and fast to get plenty of feedback that helps guide your next blog topic selections.

Variety. Test a variety of posts to understand which topics and formats resonate with your readers.

Track traffic. Know where your traffic is coming from. At first, it might only come from your website and email list. But after 30 to 60 days, you might see traffic from search engines. Pay attention to how many times your posts are shared via social media, too.

Hot phrases. Pay close attention to which search phrases contribute the most traffic, track these search phrases to specific posts, and study which parts of the post-trigger the search engine rankings. Then quickly follow up on any success by writing posts that target these well-performing keywords.

Pop-ups. Use a pop-up to gather subscribers. Offer something awesome in return for their email address. Your free gift should ideally be something your ideal reader would PAY to get because that's how valuable it is to them. For example, a report or video that solves their biggest problem or gives them the benefit they most want would be ideal.

Types of Blog Posts

News. Odds are you're not going to be breaking news, but you can do something called newsjacking. Newsjacking is simply mixing your own opinions into an existing news story. You start by finding a current event that is either relevant to your business, or one that can serve as a segue into a point you want to make.

Instructional. This is perhaps the most common type of post. It teaches the reader how to do something, either step-by-step or in general. These are great for SEO because they contain the sort of language that matches search queries. For example, "How to make lasagna."

Your own interest. When you find something that you find interesting, tie it to your main theme and write about it.

Summary. When you read an article or watch a video that is particularly interesting, write a summary of it in relation to your main topic with proper attribution.

Round up. Write a fascinating question that your readers will appreciate, such as, "What one thing can you do to greatly improve your memory?" or "Starting from scratch with no connections, how can you make $10,000 in 30 days?" Then contact leaders in your niche and ask them to answer that question. Put all the answers together in one post, along with a link to each expert's website.

Tools. Whatever your niche, what are the tools or resources that will help your readers accomplish their goal? (HINT: It's okay to use affiliate links here as long as you reveal you might be earning commissions if they purchase.)

Spotlight. Write a post about somebody in your industry, or even on one of your customers. Engage readers emotionally with this person's story. Bonus points if it's a recognizable name.

Attracting Readers

To attract readers to your blog and convert them into subscribers and customers, here are a few tips:

Give away your best content. It sounds counter-intuitive but giving away the best information possible can induce people to subscribe and purchase.

Advertise. Add your blog to your current marketing efforts, including adding a link from your main website, letting your email list and social media know about new posts and so forth.

Guest post. Writing guest posts for other blogs with a link back to your own blog can send anything from a trickle to a ton of traffic.

Use simple SEO. Get a simple course on basic SEO to learn how to do this or hire someone to show you. It's not as difficult as you might imagine doing things like optimizing blog titles, optimizing content, targeting certain keywords and so forth.

Host-Guest Bloggers. Open the door to other bloggers. This lightens your workload while providing new voices and perspectives. And it brings in new traffic, as the guest posters promote their posts to their audiences on social media.

Making Your Blog Pay

Turn your readers into customers by:

Building an email list. Offer something enticing and free for your blog readers. All they have to do is give you their email address, and they get the free item, whether it's a video series, report, book, e-course and so forth. Nurture your list and promote products on a regular basis.

Accept advertising. You can sell advertising on your blog with pay-per-click or CPM (Cost per thousand impressions.) Google Adsense is the popular pay-per-click method, and ad networks use the CPM method. You could also sell advertising on your own, without using a network. You'll make more money, but there is more work involved, too. Most bloggers prefer not to place any advertising on their blogs, except for their own ads.

Sell affiliate products. You can join an affiliate network and place your affiliate links on your site. This can work well if the links are in context with teaching something. For example, a blog post on how to set up a website could easily include a link to a premium WordPress theme, to a web host, and to an autoresponder company.

Sell your own products. This is perhaps the very best way to monetize your blog. Sell your own products and services and keep all of the profits for yourself. You won't need huge amounts of traffic as you would if you were selling advertising. All you need is a core group of enthusiast fans who know, like and trust you.

"Wait! This is starting to sound like a lot of work. Tell me again why I should be blogging??"

Because blogging allows you to:

Attract an audience

Establish authority in your niche

Build rapport and engagement with your audience

Create opportunities, both personally and professionally

Organize your thoughts and learn more about your niche

Tell your own story the way you want it told

Meet new people and build your professional network

Stand apart from the crowd

Refine your writing skills

Share your knowledge

Validate your expertise

Build your email list

Make money

Taking Action

Even if you're feeling intimidated at the prospect of blogging, don't let that be your excuse not to get started.

You can always create a throwaway blog. Simply use a free blogging platform, write a new blog post every day for 30 days, and then start over with your real blog.

The experience you'll gain with the free blog will be priceless. Plus, since it's anonymous, you are free to make mistakes without worry. I guarantee, after 30 blog posts in 30 days, you will be ready to start blogging for real.

If you are looking for an easy way to monetize your site you should check out this free video training below from my friend and mentor Dean Holland. We usually charge over 200$ for this training, but as a valued reader of my blog, you can have instant access for FREE. It's packed with all the information you need to start monetising your blog. You'll also be signed up to my list and will start receiving daily tips and training from yours truly.

Let me know in the comment what you think of "The Complete Blogging Manual" and drop your website link so that I check it out. I feel very proud of this article and hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. 😊

To your success

Fred

PS: For more digital marketing and motivation content follow the links below

https://www.facebook.com/entrepreneurmindset.biz/

#Blogging #Bloggers #DigitalMarketing #Blog

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plogan721 · 6 years

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Facebook, day 1: How to conduct Yourselves.

I love doing a type of posting called Serial Posting. Serial posting is writing a series of posts covering the same subject for a short period of time. Serial posting gives the reader little bits of information that may not get covered in a normal blog. The writer may want to introduce the new subject as a way of telling

the reader that the blog may be changing sometime in the near future. My backstory of starting serial posting is (1) I have so much to say on a regular blog post, until it has to become a serial, or you will miss all of my cute little nuggets of information on the subject. (2) I do not want to spend a lot of time doing them because there are tons of information that you can find on the interwebs (Internet) until you can literally spend a whole month researching, just my take on the subject, and (3) You have a one-stop introduction to a series. I started doing some serial posting about two years ago, I did an overall series on organizing your closet on my now closed Simply Organized Crafts (which is now a Facebook-only page). The first serial posting on this blog was an intense look into social media and the basic principles on how to get started. I had the basic points of the series, and if you want to know more about the series, I will post some links below. The other back story is for the video series I finished in August, it is aimed towards those people who already have an account, already sharing content, but not quite sure on what is the next step, or how to maximize their time and money with social media.

I started to turn this into a serial posting for a week, and I was going through my thought process, I decided to turn this into a Friday weekly post. So, just like the journaling weekly series on Wednesdays, you will get an introduction to each social media platform, then when that part is over, I will have some weekly tips each Friday (hopefully) on the subject.

For this round, I will focus on Facebook. Humm, what to do on Facebook? Well, you can post events, respond to other people’s post, play games, post, including pictures, conduct business, and congratulate people. Even create or join a group. That is about the size of it. I will hit on each one of these topics as we go along.

What you cannot do (my opinion) is to curse (people do), belittle people (It happens), Spam (a big no-no for me and Facebook), and my personal favorite, trolling and threaten people. Today’s topic will may hit someone in the gut, including mine.

Why go there?

Back in August, I found out on messenger, while looking at a friend’s message, that I was unsubbed from a blogging group without warning. Maybe, it was I had not contacted anyone through Messenger that I was still part of the group. I had so many things to do that week, such as find out when the funeral of a beloved church member and learning how to work the business end of P. Lynne Designs. She had started group convos, which I could not keep up, as well as many other members, who were also booted from the group. Was she being a little too snobbish? Maybe, but my way of thinking was how in the heck am I supposed to do all the things that I am supposed to do for my business, not to mention, my family and friends when I am always answering group questions in messenger? I started to write this nastygram about this group, and I stopped to think what would happen if she read the message from my regular newsfeed, and told me to back the F---- off, I was not getting back in, and that was that? I always have to keep my temper in check, and this is what I mean about trolls. More about trolls in a minute.

Anyway, I erased what I was to say about this group, and I thought, “when I have the time, I can always ask to rejoin the group”. Both tempers in check and she gets her way by removing the non-participates. After all, it was her group, not mine. I had one, and believe me, it is not easy to run one.

So, what is the proper way to deal with Facebook?

Simply answer: be yourself, but not in such a way that if you have a nasty attitude, it comes off on your posts, your responses to your friend’s post and other things on Facebook. You may share, and share often, but not in a way that lands you in Facebook Jail or having people unfriend you. I might mumble and grumble while I am posting something that I may disagree with (not clicking the like button), but put things in a nice way, so that your friends see your POV (Point of View), and not come back with something nasty as well. I will address this in Twitter, Instagram, and even LinkedIn.

So, now that we got of that out of the way, let’s talk about the elephant in the room, Trolls

I have talked about trolls until I am blue in the face, but it bears repeating: If you disagree with something, do not like it and do not make a comment, in fact, just don’t. Actually, I am now seeing more trolls on YouTube than any other social media platform. People are getting better about it, but I am still seeing some posts on Facebook, where people are posting (or reposting) cursing and basically belittling a post. I usually exercise this basic rule: If I do not like what is being said, delete it, shut the person up for 30 days (meaning you do not see their posts for a while), or unfriend them. You do not have to explain, just get them off your newsfeed. They do not have to unfriend you, and if they find out through a mutual friend, they do have the right to ask you (In person) why? Simply tell them. Do not berate them, give a simple explanation. If they explain that they are in a bad place in their life, tell them that you can be supportive outside of Facebook and that you are willing to listen. At that time, you can simply explain to them your friend situation, like why you unfriended them in the first place. For me personally, I am a sensitive person and my father reads what I put on Facebook, and often questions my posts. I am also friends with several former pastors. Besides, you have to break away from Facebook (and any other media) because face to face contact is better anyway.

How would you like to play a game? (a quote from War Games (1983))

As a general rule, I do not play games until all of my work for the day is done. Every once in a while, I may play one during the day, if I am waiting on something. I do not allow people to invite me to a game, and I don’t invite my friends. It is not important to play a game. I also do not spend money on games. If I run out of a move, need more virtual coins or points, the credit or debit card does not come out. Why? Because it is a waste of your money. If you are on a budget (and most people should be raising their hand on this comment), or you need to pay for a bill, which is the last thing you need to run out of real money for because you need virtual money to build a building on SimCity BuildIt. Not worth it. Games are a time waster as well. So why do I play a game? To blow off steam or to wind down. I do not have any games promoting violence. Why? Because it can get into my psyche and make me think bad thoughts. This is just me. I do have to warn you, I do play a lot of eating games (Candy Crush, Cookie Jam Blast, or kitchen games where you have customers you need to feed and make money from). Maybe this is the reason why I am always hungry, LOL.

Invites and Force Joins

Sometimes, when one of my friends has a new group, I do not mind receiving an invite. It is to help out a friend or more importantly to support them. I received two recently. One from a close friend and a friend I barely know. Both made me a member of their group. As a general rule, I do not want to get an invite, and before I have a chance to look at your group, I am a member. I decided to stay in both groups, but the one that I am not friends with in person, it was not a support for her, it was a support for all things business, and I was not very happy. I may drop it at some point, especially since she is spamming my newsfeed all over the place. Now, the other friend sort of did the same thing, but the difference is I know her in person, I know what her struggles have been through in the last few months with her health, and we talk a lot. Makes a big of a difference to me.

Until we meet again….

So, with that being said, please do not force a person to join your group. Yes, after you send the invite, it might sound good to that person to join, but let them join on their own. I realize that I have 10 groups where the invite was sent, but I never joined.

I will speak more on this and other topics while I am focusing on Facebook and other social media platforms. In the meantime, I hope you have learned something a little more about Facebook in this post. I will also cover Facebook Live, which for some reason morphed into Facebook Watch, sending messages through Messenger, and Facebook for Business, which is something I am learning myself since I recently joined it. I will also touch on pages, personal and business, and spamming (the hacking and posting a post over and over again about a topic-trust me it is not pretty for neither one). These are little nuggets of advice I want to give to you each Friday.

Until Next Friday, God bless you.

from Blogger http://bit.ly/2OYZzHE via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Blogger

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initiateblog · 6 years

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How to Become a Freelance Writer

Are you tired of living with your parents and ignoring emails from FedLoan? Have you been "Working on a Podcast" for two years now? When you tell people you're a writer, do your friends occasionally voice the realization that they've never actually read anything you've written?

Dude. Me too.

I've been a freelance writer for ten minutes now and nobody asked my opinion on this topic but that's only because they haven't had the chance. So if you're ready to hear some practical, ready-to-apply advice, read this post by experienced mommy blogger Elna Cain.

If you're stalling because you're afraid to put yourself out there emotionally and professionally, let's do this.

1. Write a bunch of fan fiction that no one will ever see.

Mimicking the voices of people who followed their dreams and succeeded is one of the best ways to start a bunch of stories that you'll never have to finish. It's also a great way to waste time on work you'd never be caught dead sending to a publisher unless your name is Stephenie Meyer, E. L. James, or Cassandra Clare.

You may even get a sick thrill from going back to your old stories and seeing that HexOnTheBeach09 is beside herself that you never wrote another chapter. She'll never know what happens after Luna Lovegood publicly declares her love for Dobby in order to show Ron and Hermione that it's not so hard to share your feelings. As the mysteriously MIA author, you may know exactly what hijinks would have ensued but, for Merlin's sake, don't upload that final chapter. You're too old for that baby stuff.

2. Post detailed analyses of popular movies and television on Facebook.

This is your chance to remind everyone from high school that your BA in screenwriting means that you're still destined for great things even though you currently do administrative work for your parents' medical practice. Your move to LA that you bragged about publicly may have fallen through after that miraculously-won meeting with that big-time tv producer ended up making you feel sexualized, objectified, and dejected.

But the #metoo movement is coming for that guy and in the meantime, you can contemplate what it means to be a badass feminist who doesn't let a man get in the way of her dreams and goals.

3. Spend twenty minutes writing the perfect tweet, then delete it.

Any writer will tell you - Twitter is where you'll find jobs, it's where you can showcase your ability to get your point across succinctly, it's where presidents are made. Twitter is a necessity and there's nothing you can do about it so suck it up and shoot for at least five shareable nuggets of content a day and if that seems like a lot, then you clearly don't have anything to say.

If you're worried about making a mistake, don't. Nobody's actually reading your tweets.

Follow me! @iamtheintiate.

4. Let your friends and family know what you're up to.

They may have a paid gig for you and you may be able to get a testimonial out of it but probably you've been trying so hard to look like you absolutely love your current life and job that they're going to be a little surprised you're asking them for help. That's ok. Push through. The more embarrassing it is to start a new life, the less likely it is that you'll chicken out down the road. And if nobody responds? ....Yeah, that sucks.

5. Develop a meditation habit.

Ok this one's a little complicated. If you were a child worshiper of the American Media Machine which told you your entire life that meditation is silly and spirituality is nuts, your journey to coming around to mindfulness techniques may have been a whole thing. Certain truths had to be learned, unlearned, and rearranged before you could become open to that kind of thing. I mean, everybody thinks that Cory always loved Topanga but he sure didn't show it until she stopped being all weird and new-agey. And Yoda was all about being open-minded until it came to having feelings.

To sort out this mess, it helps to have a mother who doesn't question her spirituality for a minute. One day, she'll have a vision of an ancient goddess who tells her to bring you to Egypt. She'll drag you down the Nile with a group of astrologers and self-proclaimed shamans who do rituals at the ancient temples that are far outside your comfort level. You'll think your mother is insane and you'll hate her, hate her, HATE her for half the trip. Then one morning, you'll be sitting outside the Temple of Philae, watching the sun rising over the Nile. Long, moving shadows will drift across the hieroglyphs that were carefully carved into the wall behind you a thousand years before Jesus was born. You'll hear the Call to Prayer echoing over the water from a half a dozen mosques. Suddenly, you'll feel something deep in your soul...

A certain... connection. To something ...greater.

Eventually, many of the people you're traveling with will approach you individually and reveal that they used their meditation time to actively send you all their love and you'll have to admit that maybe they're not so crazy because you felt it.

So explore this side of yourself by downloading a meditation app like Insight Timer or Calm. It'll help with all the rejection and disappointment you're about to embark on but it'll also keep you focused and help you get to sleep at a reasonable time.

I love you, Mama.

5. Come up with a gimmick.

You can't do fake "How-To" articles. That's my thing now. I pissed all over this tree, nobody's ever done it before, and now it's mine. Find your own thing.

6. Build a blog and/or website.

Is it the most beautiful blog and/or website you've ever seen in your whole life? Then you're not ready to put yourself out there yet. People need to see it and think, "What magic have I stumbled upon?! This person is the next Hamilton!" It should remind them of something treasured from their childhood that they forgot. It should bring back scent memory of their favorite lover.

The longer you work on that website and/or blog, the less chance there is for you to try at something and fail, so feel free to take your sweet time.

Feel good?

I don't know about you, but I feel pumped. I'm totally ready to start thinking about considering getting started and I hope you are too. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to reblog it, tweet it, pin it, insta-it, snap it, reddit, and share it on Facebook. I'd ask you to send it to any paying employers you know, but I think we're all in the same boat here.

Love you.

#writing #writingtips #bloggingtips #blogger #blogging #writeblr #how to become a freelance writer #freelance writing #freelancewriters #freelancewriting #writing tips #writers of tumblr #procrastination #fanfic #fan fiction #beginner

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kansascityhappenings · 6 years

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Why Russian trolls stoked U.S. vaccine debates

Watch Video

Russia’s meddling online went beyond the 2016 US presidential election and into public health, amplifying online debates about vaccines, according to a new study.

The recent research project was intended to study people’s decision-making process around vaccines. It ended up unmasking some unexpected key players in the vaccination debate: Russian trolls.

The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health on Thursday, suggests that what appeared to be Twitter accounts run by automated bots and Russian trolls masqueraded as legitimate users engaging in online vaccine debates. The bots and trolls disseminated both pro- and anti-vaccine messages between 2014 and 2017.

The researchers started examining Russian troll accounts as part of their study after NBC News published its database of more than 200,000 tweets tied to Russian-linked accounts this year. They noticed vaccine-related tweets among the Russian troll accounts, and some tweets even used the hashtag #VaccinateUS.

These known Russian troll accounts were tied to the Internet Research Agency, a company backed by the Russian government that specializes in online influence operations.

“We started looking at those tweets, and immediately, we were like, ‘These are kind of weird,’ ” said David Broniatowski, an assistant professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at George Washington University who was lead author of the study.

“One of the things about them that was weird was that they tried to — or they seemed to try to — relate vaccines to issues in American discourse, like racial disparities or class disparities that are not traditionally associated with vaccination,” Broniatowski said.

For instance, “one of the tweets we saw said something like ‘Only the elite get clean vaccines,’ which on its own seemed strange,” he said. After all, anti-vaccine messages tend to characterize vaccines as risky for all people, regardless of class or socioeconomic status, the researchers wrote in the study.

The consensus among doctors is that vaccines are safe, effective and important for public health, as they help reduce the spread of preventable disease and illness. A Pew Research Center study found last year that the vast majority of Americans support vaccine requirements.

Since the start of the new study, most of the tweets have been deleted as part of Twitter’s efforts to suspend Russian troll accounts, but Broniatowski said that he and his colleagues stored several in their own archives.

The researchers were stunned to find Russian troll accounts tweeting about vaccines, but unraveling why they would stoke the vaccine debate was mind-boggling, too.

Why trolls tweet about vaccines

For the study, the researchers collected and analyzed nearly 1.8 million tweets from July 2014 through September 2017.

While examining those vaccine-related tweets, the researchers discovered many bot accounts, including “content polluters,” which are accounts that disseminate malware or unsolicited commercial content. The researchers also uncovered a wide range of hidden online agendas.

When it came to the Russian troll accounts, the researchers found 253 tweets containing the #VaccinateUS hashtag among their sample. Among those tweets with the hashtag, 43% were pro-vaccine, 38% were anti-vaccine, and the remaining 19% were neutral.

By posting a variety of anti-, pro- and neutral tweets and directly confronting vaccine skeptics, trolls and bots “legitimize” the vaccine debate, the researchers wrote in the study.

“This is consistent with a strategy of promoting discord across a range of controversial topics — a known tactic employed by Russian troll accounts. Such strategies may undermine the public health: normalizing these debates may lead the public to question long-standing scientific consensus regarding vaccine efficacy,” they wrote.

Overall, the researchers found that Russian trolls, sophisticated bots and “content polluters” tweeted about vaccination at significantly higher rates compared with average users.

The study remains limited, in that it’s difficult to determine with 100% accuracy who is behind a Twitter account, and “the Internet Research Agency is certainly not the only set of trolls out there,” Broniatowski said.

Additionally, it’s even more difficult to determine an account’s true intent. But the researchers and other experts have some ideas about why Russia might want to fuel America’s vaccine debate.

It may be a strategy to promote political discord, Broniatowski said, adding, “we cannot say that with 100% certainty, because we’re not inside their head.”

“The Internet Research Agency has been known to engage in certain behaviors. There’s the one everybody knows about, which is the election. They also tend to engage in other topics that promote discord in American society,” Broniatowski said.

So, considering that the agency has engaged in hot-button debates online before to promote discord, the new study suggests that the intent could be the same when it comes to fueling vaccine debates.

Historically, the Russian government has not responded to CNN requests for comment regarding accusations of using social media to influence public opinion in the United States.

Between 2014 and 2017, the Internet Research Agency trolls were running many social media experiments to build division among Americans, said Patrick Warren, an associate professor of economics at Clemson University. Warren was not involved in the study but has conducted extensive research on Russian trolls.

The brief use of the #VaccinateUS hashtag among troll accounts could have been an experiment, he said.

“Apparently, they tried to get this hashtag going to get people to fight about vaccines, and it never got picked up,” said Warren, who shares with his colleagues a database of more than 3 million tweets from Internet Research Agency-linked social media accounts.

“I would call that an experiment that they abandoned,” he said of the hashtag.

Warren added that he was not surprised to learn about Russian trolls posting vaccine-related tweets.

“I don’t know if it would seem strange once you understand their goal, which is basically to divide both sides against the middle. They’re going to grab onto all of those social issues. So for example: black lives matter, all lives matter; immigrants are destroying America, immigrants are great for America,” Warren said.

“It’s basically the hot-button political issues of the day. They’re happy to grab onto whatever is salient,” he said. “I think that they want us focused on our own problems so that we don’t focus on them.

“If most of our energies are focused internally with divisions inside of the United States — or divisions between the United States and, say, Europe — that leaves a window open for Russia to expand its sphere of influence.”

So it seems, such an effort to spread divisive misinformation — including in the form of public health messaging — is nothing new.

In the 1980s, there was a Soviet campaign to spread false news about the AIDS epidemic in the US. The campaign began with placing an anonymous letter in an obscure newspaper in India, the Patriot, with the headline, “AIDS may invade India: Mystery disease caused by US experiments,” according to a 2009 article in Studies in Intelligence, a journal published by the CIA’s Center for the Study of Intelligence.

Eventually, “[w]ith the end of the Cold War, former Soviet and East German intelligence officers confirmed their services’ sponsorship of the AIDS disinformation campaign,” according to the article.

Messages ‘that aren’t scientifically sound’

Russian trolls could have amplified online vaccine debates in other countries as well, but more research is needed to determine that, said Renee DiResta, who researches disinformation online as the head of policy at Data For Democracy, a volunteer group of scientists and technologists, and who was not involved in the new study.

DiResta pointed to how Italy’s Five Star movement and its coalition partner, the far-right League party, both have voiced their opposition to compulsory vaccinations. She also has seen some Twitter accounts linked to Russian trolls tweeting in Italian — but she doesn’t speak the language to translate what those tweets say.

“We know that in Italy, the Five Star movement ran on an anti-vaccine platform. I do think it’s worth it to go look at the social media conversation in Italy to see if inauthentic accounts were capitalizing on those divisions or involved in that debate,” DiResta said.

In the meantime, however, she said that the new study on Russian trolls meddling in US online vaccine debates is an example of how there has been growing distrust in science and public health initiatives, such as those underlying vaccinations.

“Both real people and trolls are capitalizing on that mistrust to push conspiracy theories out to vulnerable audiences,” DiResta said.

“This isn’t just happening on Twitter. This is happening on Facebook, and this is happening on YouTube, where searching for vaccine information on social media returns a majority of anti-vaccine propaganda,” she said. “The social platforms have a responsibility to start investigating how this content is spreading and the impact these narratives are having on targeted audiences.”

Anti-vaccine sentiment has taken root in some European countries. Cases of measles have reached a record high in Europe this year, with more cases recorded in the first six months of 2018 than any other 12-month period this decade, the World Health Organization reported this week. In general, it remains unclear what influence online vaccine debates have on such sentiment — if at all.

More research is needed to determine how these actions by Twitter bots and trolls might impact public health, said Jon-Patrick Allem, a research scientist at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study but has conducted separate research on social bots and trends.

“There are messages being put out there that aren’t scientifically sound,” Allem said.

“This has the potential to drown out scientifically sound messages from health care providers, and from the public health community in general, on the best way to make a health-related decision,” he said. “When people are looking at these messages, does it matter to them? Does it lead to an attitude change? Subsequently and ultimately, does it lead to a behavior change? Does a person who sees a thread on Twitter discussing the pros and cons about vaccination, does that cause hesitancy for a parent deciding to get their child vaccinated? These are the next sets of questions that will need to be answered.”

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2018/08/26/why-russian-trolls-stoked-u-s-vaccine-debates/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2018/08/26/why-russian-trolls-stoked-u-s-vaccine-debates/

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animator19 · 7 years

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Interview with Alex Hirsch from after he had finished Gravity Falls

https://www.themarysue.com/alex-hirsch-interview/

Alex Hirsch: My main goal after Gravity Falls was finished was to take a vacation a BIG one and I spent about a year doing everything I couldn’t do while I was serving solitary confinement at Disney. I visited Hawaii, Japan, Portland, Burning Man. I did conventions in New York, Russia, Rio. My goal was to say “yes” to anything that wasn’t work. Sort of like Grunkle Stan on his worldwide boat tour with Ford, I needed some time away from the shack. But GF is a weirdness magnet after all and I can’t resist its pull forever. When Disney asked if I’d want to do Journal #3 I said yes immediately. It’s the number one thing I’d want to read if I was a fan, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

Kaiser: Was the Journal done in stages? i.e. was the original draft for the black light version, or did you have to come back and do that once the sales proved viable?

Hirsch: Definitely stages, the very first thing I asked when they brought up the possibility of doing a journal was whether we could include the black light messages, but we were told that it would be way too expensive and to just try to forget about it. Then when the book came out and was topping the NYT bestseller list, Disney Publishing agreed to release a special edition for the superfans and give me my dream of black lights.

The challenge then was to try to fit the new messages over the old pages as though they always belonged. But these are fun challenges. Probably the hardest part was on the “Floating Eyeballs” page—there’s a spot where you see text coming from under a Polaroid. But in the Special Edition Journal, the polaroid is finally removable, so I needed to think of sentences that would credibly end with the words you’ve already seen

Kaiser: On that subject, Disney never seemed particularly keen on releasing much GF merch. Has the success of Journal 3 re-opened the conversation on things like the BluRay set?

Hirsch: The day that Disney bought Star Wars (AFTER buying Marvel) was the day I knew my merch dreams for Gravity Falls were basically toast. The company is too huge and we’re barely a blip on the radar to their consumer products division. Luckily the enduring popularity of the show has resulted in a few departments within the company sticking their neck out and trying cool experiments like journal 3. Everyone was surprised by the success of the journal except the fans. Their appetite for more continues to impress even this long after the end of the show. I’m hoping those numbers increase our likelihood of getting a DVD but I can’t make any promises.

Kaiser: Were you involved in getting The Mystery of Gravity Falls (@TheMysteryofGF) permission to do what is (according to them) small batches of sanctioned merch like the stone Bill figure and Grunkle Stan bobbleheads?

Hirsch: That guy is like my guardian angel. He’s some kind of brilliant, crazed super-fan who understands the show better than Disney ever did. Honestly, I don’t know how he contacted Disney and got the sanctioned merch—he’s some kind of wizard. I hope he runs the company one day.

[Note: I reached out to @TheMysteryofGF to check on this. Turns out I was slightly incorrect in my question. They have worked in conjunction with Disney on at least one occasion, but for the most part the merchandise they’ve made available has been of their own initiative, sometimes with help from an outside contractor. They also work with Bioworld, who provides the GF license to Hot Topic, in creating certain items.]

Kaiser: How did you approach fan interaction during the series? The codes are obviously built into the show from the get-go, but did you think it would catch on like it did? Did the response require you to adjust planned fan engagement on the fly?

Hirsch: The scope, size, influence and presence of fandom culture has gone through a complete and total revolution between now and when I first pitched Gravity Falls in 2011. Keep in mind- my first job was on Flapjack back in 2008-ish. Back then, you would release a cartoon into the ether, and it would basically disappear into a black void after airing. There’d be maybe two drawings on DeviantArt, maybe a message board with a few comments, and that was it.

That was the entirety of online feedback between cartoons and creators at the time. (And even those paltry scraps of feedback were still huge compared to fandoms when I was growing up. There was nobody in 1991 willing to die to make sure that their ship of Tommy Pickles and Reptar came to fruition. At least no one with a way of getting that opinion in front of Klasky-Csupo)

Tumblr’s rise happened just around the same time as Gravity Falls‘s premiere in 2012, so I was totally unprepared for the level of passion and engagement and fan art that would happen. I had to evolve along with all this in real time as it happened.

Kaiser: I always found it curious that you’d hold Twitter Q&As, but then delete the answers within a day.

Hirsch: Probably the best formats for answering questions were Reddit AMAs—I enjoyed doing two of those—and interviews. I occasionally answer questions on twitter when the mood strikes me, but Twitter is a TERRIBLE place for meaningful discourse.

Twitter has an ephemeral conversational glibness built into its core, but it ironically also has this incentive to cast every word said in bronze and isolate it from its context. It’s like if everything you said at a dinner party with every guest was carved into the wall and permanently became part of the house decorations. I’ll frequently prune my twitter posts to keep my feed clean from the residue of 100 little back and forths. Even if I tried to leave everything up, it disappears into the feed anyway. No matter how many times I say “There is no Season 3” people will never stop asking.

Kaiser: Obviously, that’s got to be a trial and error process. Any regrets?

Hirsch: I honestly don’t have many regrets from my engagement with fans, because everything that happens, positive and negative, is a learning experience and teaches me something about our world and the culture we live in. And overwhelmingly it has been positive. Back in the pre-fandom-culture days I never could have imagined I’d get such an overwhelming tidal wave of creative, kind, validating responses to my work. It’s every creator’s dream. It’s absolutely worth any weird prickly trolls or growing pains that come along with it and I’m insanely grateful.

Kaiser: The Cipher Hunt had to be an enormous undertaking to put together. How’d you go about organizing it? Did you ever take part in any ARGs (Augmented Reality Games) yourself that inspired you?

Kaiser: The Cipher Hunt was the most fun thing I’ve ever done.

I’ve never been part of any real-world treasure hunts, but as someone who grew up with games like MYST I love puzzles; the idea of doing one in the real world was too tempting to pass up.

The entire thing was organized by me and my buddy Ian Worrel, Gravity Falls‘ Emmy-winning art director. I’m a restless idea guy and he’s this master executor/craftsman—we were both totally in love with the idea of using our newfound free time to put something together totally for the fun of it, to build this strange Rube Goldberg Device and then watch how the fans would interact with it in real time.

Kaiser: Did you split up duties as far as where to put what? Who made the statue?

Hirsch: The statue was made by a brilliant props/effects fabricator in LA, Fon Davis of Fonco, a friend of a friend who was willing to make something weird for a price. Ian did most of the intellectual legwork in terms of figuring out which clues would lead to where, and I wrote all the actual codes. We took a road trip up to Oregon together to hide some of the final clues and had a lot of fun.

I hid the clue in Russia personally, which was a little terrifying. I knew if I got caught trying to hide a tiny magnetic capsule with a code scroll rolled up into it, Putin might not take to kindly to the optics of that. But Bill Cipher was smiling down on me that day and it went without a hitch.

Kaiser: Shifting a bit to the series itself: I recall you mentioning that the writing for season 2 had to be somewhat rethought because so many people had figured out the Author’s identity. Did that change how you wrote Ford’s arc? Were there other things you wanted to explore in general, given more time?

Hirsch: The truth is, no matter how many grand plans you have in your head, no matter what tentpole plot points or ideas you imagine, everything changes when you actually sit down to write. You discover what the show is as you make it through collaboration, trial and error, and what feels right.

In your question, you say season 2 had to be “rethought” but that implies that there was this already finished season 2 totally written out in our minds. But that’s not the case. All we knew after Season 1 was over was “Ford comes out of the portal. Bill probably creates the apocalypse. Dipper & Mabel complete their arcs. Fun stuff happens in the meantime.”

Figuring out how it all fits together in the writers’ room, discovering new things and surprising yourself—that’s the fun part of writing. We didn’t really know who Ford was, from a personality perspective, until we sat down to try to write him. The same is true of Dipper, Mabel, Grunkle Stan, and Bill. You learn as you go.

Kaiser: Fascinating! I suppose I must’ve heard about very early discussion, and extrapolated … as GF fans are wont to do. How embarrassing.

Hirsch: Casting also hugely affects a character. You have an idea of what a character is like in the writing room, but then when the actor comes in, everything can change. We cast JK Simmons as Ford late in the process. He was instantly perfect, but changed how we thought about the character. Regarding things I would love to explore if I could go back in time, I would definitely add a full episode about Wendy if I had the chance. We always wanted to give her more, but we never quite cracked a story that worked for us. But I do think she deserved more!

I deliberately tried to give her more of a role in Mabelcorn and Weirdmageddon Part 1 to make up for the lack of Wendy elsewhere. Linda Cardellini was amazing to work with. She gave the character such a grounded performance. Really was exciting to watch her work.

Kaiser: One of the issues around the show was representation/diversity, and there were a lot of rumors about what Disney would/wouldn’t allow—the little old ladies falling in love in “The Love God” is probably the most famous example. Any comment?

Hirsch: Definitely. If you’ve been following me for a while you’ll know I’ve never been shy about discussing my frustrations with Disney’s censors and this was one of the most frustrating incidents of all. Back on “Love God” there was a scene in the script that described a few random couples in a diner falling in love in through the power of cupid’s magic.

When one of our storyboard artists presented the scene to me, she’d made one of the couples two lovable old ladies. It was sweet and casual and I knew INSTANTLY that it was going to turn into a huge fight with Disney. So naturally I left it in. The note came back immediately “The scene of the two old ladies kissing in the diner is not appropriate for our audience. Please revise.” I responded with a one word answer: “Why?”

This basically broke the censors. The couldn’t think of a single way to phrase an answer to that question so they made me talk on the phone so there would be no paper trail. They were terrified of sounding like bigots—but I honestly don’t think they were bigots, I think they were cowards. They basically admitted that there was no good reason why I should change it, but that they get complaints about this stuff from various homophobic parents and would rather avoid the headache, and couldn’t I just drop it?

I said that if we did that we were basically just being held hostage by bigots and screw that, lets rise above this crap and just pull the trigger. The worst thing that can happen is that we get some letters. Who cares? Disney’s a giant company, we can survive some letters from some cranks. I don’t think they necessarily disagreed—but there’s no incentive in their job to say yes to things. But I kept going back to them.

We probably had 6 or so conversations about it. It’s one of the only times I had a face to face meeting with the censors. I didn’t want to go back to my board artist and tell her that I lost this fight. I wanted to win, and I wanted to set a precedent, and I argued that little things like this could mean the world to people and that anyone who was pissed off deserved to be pissed off. But despite my greatest efforts it finally came down to “change the scene or we’ll cut it out of the episode ourselves.”

I felt awful reporting to the artist that I’d lost this one. But I didn’t stop trying. In the last episode, I had the two police offers, Blubs and Durland, flat out say they loved each other, and I didn’t get a single note. I think the censors were finally less scared of complaining parents than they were of having to deal with how annoying I am again.

Since then, times have thankfully changed. I hear that Disney has allowed same-sex couples in Star Vs the Forces of Evil, and the Nickelodeon has done the same in Loud House. Both studios are way behind CN and what they’ve done with Steven Universe, but progress, slowly but surely, is being made. I would love to see a new Disney animated show have the guts to show a proper same-sex kiss on air. One of these networks is going to do it—I encourage Disney to keep growing and be the first.

[Note: We now enter the portion where I completely gave into my fannish id for a second. I hope you’ll all forgive me.]

Kaiser: Two things, purely to satisfy my curiosity as a fan: A) did Pacifica stay with her parents post-series? It seemed like a seriously bad situation, guardianship wise. B) what WOULD Bill have done if Ford had decided (that is, been dumb enough) to take him up on his offer?

Hirsch: I think a lot of fans read more than I meant into the awfulness of Pacifica’s parents. I never imagined them as being abusive, just very controlling—living vicariously through their daughter, treating her like a prize more than a person. I grew up in a town with some rich families and it was something I witnessed more than once—parents trying to make their kids extensions of their own reputation. Pacifica is still only a kid, so I think she’d continue to live with them, but I think she’d start to have a very needed rebellious phase to discover who she is outside of her family name.

I definitely imagined Pacifica getting a side job at Greasey’s Diner working with Lazy Susan after the family lost their mansion. I think learning the value of a dollar and having to interact with the town riff-raff would be good for her.

Re: What Bill might have done, like all things that happen off camera, that question has no true canon answer. But if I had to speculate, in my gut I think Bill would have incinerated Ford on the spot the moment he got the formula to shut down the barrier. I don’t see Bill as a romantic, sweet, or charitable character. He’s a psychopath who takes what he can get. He sees people as toys and when he gets bored of playing with them tosses them aside. I think at that point he was done playing.

Kaiser: Makes sense. There’s a decided inclination to read Bill as being sincerely impressed with Ford on some level because that’s the trope (i.e. Q in Star Trek), but it’s not quite in keeping with how things shook out, is it?

Hirsch: That’s not how I imagine Bill. I see him as a serial manipulator. While he’s “seducing” you with flattery his brain is somewhere else imagining playing ping-pong with a severed head. But people are free to imagine any headcanon they like! I’m genuinely excited by other people’s interpretation of the characters–but I never forget my own.

Kaiser: Is there a story behind that doodle you and Roiland (the creator of Rick & Morty) did of Rick and Stan? That’s a crossover that’s never coming, I’m sure, but I love the cross-show elements.

Hirsch: There’s been a lot of hay made out of the little winks about Gravity Falls in Rick & Morty, and vice versa, the truth is just that we’ve been friends since before we had TV shows, and enjoy messing with people. Although if we WERE planning something big we’d definitely deny it—so I guess you’ll never know!

Kaiser: You left one seriously huge plot thread open with Bill’s coded message in the finale and then the secret Axolotl page of the Choose Your Own Adventure book. Is that something you might come back to, or just a mystery for the fans to chew on?

Hirsch: In terms of Bill’s secret message … I like stories that complete their emotional arcs, but still leave some lingering threads to chew on. It gives the fans something to theorize on, and it gives me a window back into that world if I ever choose to return to it.

Kaiser: Do you have a medium you’d prefer? Or would it just depend at the time?

Hirsch: All depends on my schedule—and the creative urge. I’m involved in a number of projects right now, so it’s hard to say. Comics are definitely a possibility. And maybe a special one day. Honestly my dream would have been to do a Gravity Falls theatrical feature—Disney discussed it with me for a while, but ultimately (and probably rightfully) determined the show wasn’t big enough to warrant it. But if some lunatic wanted to give me 50 million dollars to make a Gravity Falls movie I’d probably do it!

Kaiser: Is there anything you can say about your other project (the one you publicly announced for Fox, or anything else), or is it too soon?

Hirsch: It’s too soon to say anything specific. I will say that Gravity Falls opened a huge number of doors and opportunities for me but I’m being careful not to announce anything until the time is right. (And most of the announcements and leaks you’ll see online about various things I’ve been involved with have been either inaccurate or premature) I can say that I have been working on a feature project that hasn’t leaked online (if you think you know what it is, you’re wrong!) that I’m very very excited about, but owing to the nature of the parties involved I can’t say anything. I’m counting down the days until I get to announce what it is.

Kaiser: As a closer, you published a series of tweets not long ago about the stigma against being allowed to fail that animators face. Do you have any advice for them?

Hirsch: Haha! Oh, that. My latest tweetstorm was specifically about a trend I see in animated series development, where executives will “develop” a show to death and waste time, money, and goodwill trying to come up with a risk-proof TV pilot. But every creative act is inherently risky. The key is to create an environment where risk is encouraged, and failures have as small a cost as possible. I believe failure is the first step to success. The key is to fail as quickly as possible and try again. To treat failure not as a terrifying ending but rather as an opportunity to learn something.

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