#Yes this is about certain well known non-Black bloggers | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

alchemic-elric · 4 years

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GET TO KNOW THE BLOGGER .

Can be used for RP and non-RP blogs to get to know a bit about the person behind the screen!

1. FIRST NAME Alias: Kira

2. STRANGE FACT ABOUT YOURSELF: i chipmunk cheek. Meaning, I don’t swallow liquid like a normal person and I really can’t. Any time I drink anything I puff my cheeks up and hold a bunch of liquid in my mouth like a chipmunk and slowly swallow it that way. My sister and my father have made fun of me for it for literal years. I don’t know why I do it. I always have. It is one of the world’s many mysteries.

3. TOP THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU FIND ATTRACTIVE ON A PERSON: –♥ I adore that whole shoulder area. Strong Arms. Yes Good. –♥ smiles. Give me big happy smiles. I adore them. –♥ hair! How someone keeps their hair says a lot about themselves and I love learning about people that way.

4. A FOOD YOU COULD EAT FOREVER AND NOT GET BORED OF: I’m pretty down with some pasta ....or sushi if it wasn’t so expensive.

5. A FOOD YOU HATE: Olives and I had to think about that one. There’s not much I hate but Olives are just plain gross.

6. GUILTY PLEASURE: I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. If I like something, I like something. If I adore something I adore it and I will not be made to feel shame because of it.

7. WHAT DO YOU SLEEP IN: t-shirt and underwear, or i might get lazy and just lay down in whatever i’m wearing. I dunno.

8. SERIOUS RELATIONSHIPS OR FLINGS: serious only please. Don’t pursue me if you wanna just mess around. Not happening. Friends before Lovers. My last relationship was 10 years long what do you think?

9. IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN THE PAST AND CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT YOUR LIFE, WOULD YOU AND WHAT WOULD IT BE: Screw My Life, let’s fix Dad’s. I’d warn him about his cancer because he died way too young.

10. ARE YOU AN AFFECTIONATE PERSON: overly i think sometimes? I was always really bad at it so I try really hard now to make sure people know I love them.

11. A MOVIE YOU COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER AGAIN: the princess bride, the lion king, The Road to El Dorado, the great mouse detective, i’m an animation nerd if you can’t tell

12. FAVORITE BOOK: uh I don’t really know honestly

13. YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO KEEP ANY ANIMAL AS A PET, WHAT DO YOU CHOOSE: I just want a bird again. I miss my baby. Be it a duck or a turkey or a lovebird....I miss Bella.....can I have a black-mask lovebird? One of the blue ones?

14. TOP FIVE FICTIONAL SHIPS [IF YOU ARE AN RP BLOG, YOU CAN USE YOUR OWN SHIPS AS WELL]: uh .....ships have never really been my thing. So..... EdLing {FMA} Chrono/Rosette {Chrono Crusade} Kira/Lacus {Gundam Seed} EdRose {FMA} Kumo/Aura (FF:U)

15. PIE OR CAKE: PIE IS THE ONLY SUITABLE ANSWER. PIE WINS EVERY TIME

16. FAVORITE SCENT: Fresh cut grass.... 2 x 4s ....woodworking, grease, oil, cutting wood all day, fire smoke - they remind me of daddy

17. CELEBRITY CRUSH: SHAKIRA IS QUEEN

18. IF YOU COULD TRAVEL ANYWHERE, WHERE WOULD YOU GO: Ireland, Japan, England, Scotland, I just would like to travel in general but I also would like to bounce around the country to visit a bunch of new conventions! (I’m a hopeless cosplayer, fight me)

19. INTROVERT OR EXTROVERT: ambivert = aka depends. (I’m bipolar it depends on which face you see)

20. DO YOU SCARE EASILY: horror and I are not friends.

21. IPHONE OR ANDROID: Android

22. DO YOU PLAY ANY VIDEO GAMES: I have a certain section of games I like but yes i do play them.

23. DREAM JOB: i’m working on becoming a better known cosplayer and getting invited to more conventions as a guest. <3

24. WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH A MILLION DOLLARS: pay off a bunch of family debts and shit, save a good chunk of it, and find myself my own place to live. Take care of my critters too.

25. FICTIONAL CHARACTER YOU HATE: Shou Tucker can burn in hell

26. FANDOM THAT YOU WERE ONCE A PART OF BUT AREN’T ANY LONGER:

While I still enjoy the series the b//n//h//a// fandom got toxic fast and I just dont like dealing with it. There’s a few others I’m not in anymore if only because of bad memories related to past relationships. Like I wish I could love y//g//o as much as I used to. =/

tagged by: Stole it from @dolcetters tagging: IT IS YOURS TO STEAL

#about the mun #mun speaks #ooc

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recentnews18-blog · 6 years

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New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/just-a-ranking-of-every-stupid-role-ruby-rose-has-ever-played/

Just A Ranking Of Every Stupid Role Ruby Rose Has Ever Played

Before she was Batwoman, she was a sexy she-wolf named Byanka.

Australia’s own Ruby Rose has just been announced to star as Batwoman in DC’s TV universe. If you’re not familiar with her work, should you be excited?

Ruby Rose has been carving out a curious niche in the acting world for a few years now, with her role in Orange is the New Black’s third season launching her to overseas success. She will play Kate Kane in a big DC TV crossover later this year, and potentially go on to star as the Jewish lesbian crime fighter in her own Batwoman show.

Given that Ruby Rose has been steadily gaining bigger and bigger roles in blockbusters – including giant-shark film The Meg, which is just around the corner — playing Batwoman could really cement her stardom. Although if you go by The Meg’s IMDb page, she already is a star: according to IMDb’s STARMeter, Rose gets top billing over Jason Statham.

As a star, Rose is defined by a weird, inexplicable aura that permeates all her roles. She’s defined by Ruby Rose Energy.

Now, you’re probably familiar with the concept of Big Dick Energy, but you may not have heard of Ruby Rose Energy. Ruby Rose Energy is Big Dick Energy’s non-binary cousin. Ruby Rose Energy is effortlessly cool, but also quietly daggy.

It’s becoming a movie and TV star while always being slightly unable to escape your past as an MTV Australia VJ, or someone who got into a brief Twitter feud with Josh Thomas over unpaid Veuve at a Melbourne club. It’s having real life charisma disproportionate to what necessarily translates on screen — just like the good old days!

Ruby Rose Energy is being the first person to quit The 7pm Project. It’s not being recognisable to virtually anyone over 40, and dating a Veronica in the year 2018. As one commenter said on yesterday’s casting news, “she’s like, everything”.

Make no mistake – this is a loving tribute to Ruby Rose and the utterly specific, weird space she has carved out in Australian pop culture since the early 2000s. There’s a lot you can learn about Ruby Rose Energy from the names of characters she plays, so here’s a ranking of all the character names she is credited with playing on IMDb – ranked by least-to-most Ruby Rose Energy.

Queer women: Please cast out queer actors in queer roles!!! CW: *casts Ruby Rose* Queer women: This is an attack

— Brittani Nichols (@BisHilarious) August 7, 2018

Presumably as a result of some mix-up on the first day on set that no one was brave enough to correct, the name of Ruby Rose’s character in this cliché-ridden Australian spin on Dangerous Minds is Hannah, while Christina Ricci’s is, no joke, Dino Chalmers.

It is with great regret that I must place Hannah at the bottom of this list, and that I cannot officially say that Dino motherfuckin’ Chalmers is a perfect exemplar of Ruby Rose Energy.

Though her performance was terrific as a woman who more or less does nothing until she gets hilariously sucked into a giant fan, the character’s name — Abigail — has very low Ruby Rose Energy and, as such, sits near the bottom of the list.

Abigail is the name of a pretty girl you pretend to like in primary school so people don’t think you’re gay, not the name of a character played by devastatingly handsome genderfluid star Ruby Rose.

Though I will never watch this weird Crocodile Dundee tourism ad, I do appreciate the rich complexity of giving a Ruby Rose character a title and a position of authority. That said, in its most Ruby Rose form, ‘Chief’ would be the character’s given name, and as such it falls on the lower end of the scale.

Ruby Rose plays a mute assassin in the John Wick franchise, and her character is named for the Greek god of war – which means we’re getting to the good shit.

But beyond the strong concept, it feels a bit pianissimo in execution; may I suggest it lengthens in John Wick: Chapter 3 to ‘Ares McIliad’ or perhaps ‘Ares Bazooka’?

Ruby Rose Energy is about throwing subtlety to the wind.

I know what you’re thinking: what name could possibly be more Ruby Rose than ‘Ruby Rose’?

Well, since her full birth name is Ruby Rose Langenheim, ‘Ruby Rose’ is technically only 44% of that, meaning it’s slightly below average Ruby Rose Energy.

My interest in Pitch Perfect 3: Aca-merican Imperialism is precisely zero, but Calamity is exactly the kind of Ruby Rose character name I come to IMDb to see.

Less impressive is the movie thinking that Ruby Rose-as-Calamity would be the front-woman of a generic guitar band called Evermoist instead of the lead singer of a desperately edgy Christian lady-rock group called SHEviticus, or GALatians, or The GeneSisters, and so on.

Calamity has the toughness of Ruby Rose Energy, but lacks that certain je ne sais quoi.

Where were you when all of America discovered Stella Carlin, and thus Ruby Rose, at once?

Was it the same place you were when Ruby tweeted about Katy Perry’s Witness, calling it “purposeful poop” and “bomb a petit”? Or when she threw a “singular fry” at a restaurant owner?

No name on this list better exemplifies the Ruby Rose Energy tendency to get into beefs with low-grade celebs that no one but tabloids would ever care about. Stella Carlin is what happens when Ruby Rose Energy gets captured in essence but lost in translation.

It’s trying just a little bit too hard.

The beauty of the current Golden Age of Ruby Rose Character Names is how often the names just sound like full sentences in and of themselves.

Adele Wolff.

I already feel like I’ve known this character my whole life. Like I’ve already followed her journey from digital marketing graduate to Instafamous, gluten intolerant Byron Bay-based wellness blogger, which I am convinced is where Ruby Rose would be at without her tattoos.

Jaxx Herd is, frankly, incredible.

The Meg pic.twitter.com/QnTjRWjxx8

— Ruby Rose (@RubyRose) July 31, 2018

What’s even more incredible is that this Ruby Rose character looks more like the human reboot of Charlize Theron’s haircut in Aeon Flux than any of the others (and they all do, a little) and honestly, I’m here for it.

Wikipedia says Bianca, but IMDb says Byanka, which is so Ruby Rose I can’t stand it.

And truly, is the root of the human condition not the internal war we wage over whether we are a Bianca or a Byanka?

Anyway, this movie looks bananas, Ruby Rose’s character is an overly sexualised she-wolf, and the script was co-written by someone who goes by the name ‘1kg Sugar’.

If the idea of Ruby Rose playing a character named Wendy the Android (lol) on a Canadian sci-fi show makes you think, “Huh, I wonder if they made her a horny killer fuckbot?”

The answer, unequivocally, is yes.

That they named her Wendy like she’s one of the nice mums working at a primary school tuckshop is just *Italian chef kiss* molto bene. It’s the perfect combination of ‘maybe this is the next step in human evolution’ and ‘Lorna Jane loyalty card owner’.

TheDailyMail.com Seriously Popular™ People’s Choice Award-loser Ruby Rose as… Woman.

That’s it, kids.

That’s Ruby Rose Energy.

—

Laurence Barber is a freelance writer, editor and award-winning film and television critic based in Sydney. He is on Twitter @bortlb.

Source: http://junkee.com/ruby-rose-characters/170757

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marcomguys-blog · 4 years

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Link Building Guide

Link building, in simple words, is a procedure of getting other websites online to link to your website. All the business owners and marketers are interested in building links to increase referral traffic and domain authority, which search engines consider to improve your web visibility.

Google’s algorithms are ever evolving and complicated but the links you create remain an essential factor to determine the site rank for keywords. Link building is one of the most important tactics of SEO because the links signal search engines that your website has valuable resources worthy of citation. Thus, websites with more backlinks, rank higher.

Remember one thing, all this is possible only when you do it the right way. Link building the wrong way will get your website penalized and flagged by Google.

Why is it still so Important?

No matter what you have heard but link building is still alive. It is a significant determinant of Google for ranking web pages. Google notes:

“In general, webmasters can improve the rank of the websites by increasing the backlinks to their pages from high-quality websites.”

Let’s understand its importance with the help of an example. For instance, if you own a website selling AC brackets ‘Good Guys AC brackets’ and there is another competitor ‘ Black Hat AC brackets’ selling the same product. One of the factors that Google considers to determine the rank is link popularity.

Three external websites – Website A, Website B, and Website C are linking back to ‘Good Guys AC brackets’. On the other hand, 2 external websites – Website X and Website Y link to the ‘Black Hat AC brackets’.

Apart from the number of links pointing to the website, there are other factors that Google considers for page rank like authority and relevance of the linking page, anchor text of incoming links and content optimization of your website.

So, if we assume the links pointing towards the ‘Good Guys AC brackets’ fulfills all the criteria, then they have a better chance of ranking for keyword ‘AC brackets’.

Types of Links

Google is penalizing sites that build low-quality links and thus, quality is of utmost importance. In the past, many SEO companies suggested article submission and directory listings because when done correctly, it was of no risk to the website. After the Penguin update, Google aggressively penalizes sites that build low-quality links. Let’s move to the types of links that you should and shouldn’t build to stay in the good books of Google.

Natural Links

This is the holy grail link for SEO. With these editorial links, you do not even have to ask because the website owner editorially gives them. However, a fairly good reason is required for someone to give you a link without you asking for it.

For instance, the ‘good reason’ can be a brilliant article that you have created with some influencers and through the process, more influencers become aware of it naturally. Building natural links require a lot of patience and yes, this is why these types of links are highly valued.

Manual Outreach Links

It is one of the most common types of link building you’ll notice most website owners go for, specifically if you are just starting out. The process involves, you manually contacting the website and asking them to link to your website, of course giving them a good reason why they should. Ensure to contact those who are relevant to your industry otherwise, this won’t work out.

Self Created Links

These are the types of links you shouldn’t consider because they all fall under black hat SEO, which fools the search engine into considering that the content is relevant when it is actually not. After the Penguin update, Google has started finding out these links and penalizing.

These links are not of much value and no doubt they were useful to certain websites in the past, we recommend you to be very cautious before using. A few examples of these links are

Article directories

Non moderated blog comments

Advertorials

Forum Signature

Guestbooks

User profile page

Link Building Strategies

There are many ways to get links but it often depends on the resources at your disposal and the niche you are in. For some niche’s it is not very tough to get valuable, high-quality links while for some, it requires more efforts.

With that in mind, let’s delve into the section giving out some link building strategies that can help you make it to the top, when done right

Content-Based

As you know, content is the king and all you need to do is create an asset which will get you links naturally. Below mentioned are the different content based ideas that you can incorporate in your link building strategy.

Video

How-to Guide

Infographic

Data Visualization

Image Gallery

You create these content assets to earn links to them from all those websites that find it relevant, informative, funny, etc. You can reach out to websites and let them know about the asset you created. Over time, you wouldn’t have to ask people for the links but will get it naturally.

What you can do is seed the asset with some bloggers in the community to spread the word. No doubt, this takes some time as well as an investment but it is definitely possible.

Guest Blogging

It is a process of asking other websites if they would like to publish a piece of content you write for their blog. This is often one of the best ways to earn a high-quality link with relevant content.

Google has cracked that there are website owners that use this strategy for publishing low-quality content. Thus, you need to careful while building links through this strategy because there is low-quality content flowing a lot. Google is aware and have become very good at finding those and yes of course, penalizing it.

Broken Link Building

Broken links are all over the Internet and often exist on high-quality pages. This is a very popular strategy that works for many by helping the website owner fix their broken links by offering them a valuable option to link.

Let’s have a look at the common approach, though it varies from niche to niche, website to website:

Look for broken links

Find good targets

Create content

Outreach

Let’s understand this better with an example. You have a gluten testing company and want to create links for your pages. While you are doing research, you find out that a university in your area has resource pages but are broken. You can politely point it out to the owner and suggest them to use your updated resource. If accepted, the owner then links to your page.

You can repeat this process over and over again. In some cases, use your existing content as a suggestion and sometimes create new.

Links from Family and Friends

Ask your family and friends to link to your website. While approaching them, do not forget that relevance matters the most. Remember that links from niche industry matter more than random sites.

Social Media Promotions

Who doesn’t use social media? Everyone wants to have something new to loom through every time they are on the app. Use the existing content or create new and share on your social media profile. Ask your loved ones to share the post and if it’s what people love, it will go viral in no time.

Ego Bait

This is a piece of content that is created considering to get a link based on the egos of the people featured in it. The creators hope the featured people will feel better seeing themselves in a blog post and will be more inclined to share it with a link.

This is the process of ego bait that you can follow to gain multiple links with one content:

1. Ideas and Targets

Firstly, you need to come up with an idea which goes well with your niche. For instance, if you have an organic fruit farm, you can create ego bait content like

Top ten vegan bloggers to follow

Five vegan recipes under 15 minutes

2. Content

This is the simplest step to undertake with keeping a few things in mind. Try to include as much information as possible about the person you write about in your content. Do not forget that you are trying to get the attention of the bloggers because you want them to share and link it. Make sure to include:

A link to their website and social media profiles

Picture of the blogger

Screenshot of their website

Reasons why they are included in the list and what makes them unique

3. Outreach

After the post is published your next and the most important step is to send an e-mail to the bloggers and website owners whom you have featured in the post. Make sure you send a simple email. No doubt you can add the details but we assume that the people you are sending to are busy and would not have that much time to read a long e-mail.

Images

Informative images have always been an important part of link building and so it is even in 2019. You can either get an image link naturally or by outreach.

Image link building is when you are looking for instances to link the images based on your website or brand.

Infographics are the most common types of images that get links. Images especially infographics are used by other websites also, some credit the creator while some miss. With reverse image search, you can find all those websites who have missed linking to your website and request them for a link you deserve.

This video will help you learn more about image link building.

White Hat SEO vs Black Hat SEO

As you may know, there are two types of SEO, white hat and Black hat. White hat refers to ethical Search Engine Optimization process using authentic methods of promotion like:

Link building

Keyword research analysis

Title and meta tags

Anchor text optimization

Search engine submission

Black hat SEO is known as spam indexing. This is something Google hates and penalizes websites when found. The techniques include:

Excessive usage of keywords

Plagiarized content

Excessive blog comments

Excessive meta keyword usage

Spamming

Hidden text

Link Building Metrics

You need to be aware of the multiple metrics that are associated with links. Not all links built are the same. These metrics will help you know the value of the link, helping you examine if it is worth going forward with it. These metrics will help you analyze the link profile of your own site or competitors.

Domain Authority

It is the cumulative value of your entire website. Here, we look at the entire website to know how strong it is rather than looking at individual pages.

Depending on the links pointing to your website, the PageRank is calculated by Google. It ranges from 0-10, 10 is the highest score. This metric is used to understand how strong the website is. Although the PageRank is only of a single page, still it is a reliable metric to determine the strength of the site because most will be to the homepage and the PageRank flows from the home page to other pages of the site.

When it comes to link building, the website strength is a valuable metric to use. The strength you get from the websites depends on how strong they are, which then signals to Google that you are a good site and worth ranking.

Tools you can use to measure Domain Authority

PageRank for chrome

Mozbar

Page Authority

There will be times when you will have a link from an existing page rather than creating a new one on the website. For instance, it could be something like your business is being added to the top ten restaurants in California.

Before you start, you need to know the strength of the page to know if it is worth putting in a lot of effort. The higher the Page Authority of the page, the more benefits to your SEO efforts.

Tools you can use to measure Page Authority

PageRank for chrome

Mozbar

Number of Links

You would, of course, want to track how many links you have built and how your website fares compared to your competitors.

Remember that you need to consider the quality of the links as well because not all links built will be the same, along with the number.

The number of links metric is useful in the following ways:

Measuring the success of link building project

To run comparisons between yours and competitors

The above-mentioned factors require you to consider the quality of links to get a clear picture.

Page Relevance

There have been arguments whether Google considers relevance as a strong factor in determining the link value. What we know is yes, it does because it is natural for relevant websites to link each other. However, if you get a link from CNBC homepage to your website about dairy, will you reject it only because CNBC has nothing to do with dairy? We do not go in detail about the debate people have about the relevancy. You, of course, want targeted traffic to your site to convert visitors to customers. This is why it is wise to link to websites where you think your potential customers will visit.

Position of Links On the Page

For instance, if you live you California and you have a blog on Thai cuisine. You are going to share the link with the website of your local Thai restaurant. Do you know the best area to place the link? This is something that most people do not think about because what matters to them is getting a link but the position plays an important role in conversion.

If you want the readers to come across your link, you need to position it in an obvious place, maybe in the main body or at the top. You can even position the links at the place where the content explains how brilliant the restaurant is.

Ensure not to put the links in the footer because most readers may not scroll that far and also don’t expect to find useful links down there. Also, Google does not give too much value to the link positioned at the bottom, thinking that it is not very useful for the users. It also considers the position of the links to value the page.

If more than 50% of the links pointing to your website are from the footer, then it may consider those as low-quality and start scrutinizing.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How many types of linking building are there in SEO?

As per Google, there are three types of backlinks with utmost importance – inbound links which are incoming links from other sites, outbound links which are the inks from your website to other high authority sites and internal links that help visitors find relevant content on your website.

2. How to run a link building strategy?

The strategy involves 6 steps which are:

Know your audience

List out sites that appeal to your audience

Write high-quality content

Find relevant sites

Reach out to other site owners

Use social media to boost content

3. Is backlink important for SEO?

Yes, backlinks are a crucial element for organic search ranks. As per Brain Dean, one of the most crucial ranking factor for Google is the number of referring domains. The more referencing domains, the higher the Google ranking.

An expert SEO link building company can help you deter from the negative impacts of link building on your site. We hope to have helped you brief about the SEO link building services.

#link building

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flyingvgroupca · 4 years

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A $5,000 Link Building Strategy: How Real Estate Companies and Realtors Should Generate More Clients and Referrals

If you could invest $5,000 in backlinks to secure increased rankings for your real estate website, what would you do? Would you risk, buying as many links as possible from as many sources as you can find, in an attempt to quickly rank in Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines? Or, would you rather, partner with a link building team, and work out a scalable strategy to attract trust-worthy, ‘white-hat’ links, reaping the benefits for months and years to come?

What is link building you may ask?

The story of link building traces back to Adam and Eve. There are some subtle connotations you ought to know about, which we’ll reveal in a minute. But first, let me tell you what link building is not. Link building is not a magic wand that instantly transforms you into a traffic-generating ninja. It is not the holy grail to mediocre content. It is not a push-button tool that sends hundreds of visitors to your website overnight. It is not a content marketing hack. It is not a cold email outreach template that you blast to 100’s of random leads, then sit back and wait for them to do business with you. It is not a quick SEO ranking formula. Just ask around. More often than not, you’ll hear that most real estate marketers and agencies erroneously believe these to be proven methods. Usually, they realize the contrary to be true, only after squandering $5,000. When it comes to link building for Google rankings, no budget in the world will solve your lack of organic traffic, clients, and referrals.

So what’s the alternative you ask?

You need an expert SEO team by your side, to help: Run a professional audit of your website, and then Create a custom link building strategy for your real estate website. The question is: will you be able to trust an SEO agency with your $5,000 budget? Should you pay a general SEO firm to handle your link building campaign, or should you employ a team who is highly specialized and experienced in real estate website ranking and link building? Unfortunately, Adam and Eve learned the hard way whom to TRUST. The ancient story of managing the Garden of Heaven, teaches us some vital modern SEO lessons that we can apply to our websites and businesses. This power couple lost everything they had, in a split second, such as: A one-on-one, direct relationship with the almighty God. And access to everything the Heavenly realm offered them, free of charge. The Bible reveals that our spiritual mother and father conducted what the SEO experts refer to as ‘black hat’ experiments. As you recall, the enemy, also known as Satan, used ‘link-bait’ to engage Eve in a high stakes conversation, which ultimately changed the direction of human destiny.

I’ll explain this statement in a second.

For now, understand this: For most website owners and marketing newbies, the first SEO encounter starts off with a bad experience. They get lured into believing the various ‘link building’ scams out there, and mistakenly place their trust in the empty lies promising ‘get fast rankings’ touted by the so-called ‘SEO experts’. Stop! You don’t have to tolerate their drivel anymore. Once you know the truth, the truth will set you free! What I mean is simple: test-drive the reputation of an expert, before paying for their service. Here’s what you need to do: Engage those SEO teams with an extensive proven track record in helping businesses like yours generate consistent traffic and rankings via ethical link building. Ask them to perform an SEO audit for your real estate website, and share the findings with you. If you like what you see, and your gut instinct tells you that this team is the perfect fit, then ask about pricing. Try to negotiate a smaller contract in the beginning. Maybe $1,000 or $1,500 would be enough to ensure you get a feel for their service, and see results before fully embracing their proposed strategy. I call this the ACM Method, also known as Authentic Conversational Marketing, a trust-building approach that does not pressure you into buying anything when you search for an SEO partner for your real estate business. Some important points to consider: Genuine link building starts with a ‘white-hat’ link building pro performing competitive SEO intelligence, and keyword research. Most teams are aware of this, but do not apply it correctly. Therefore, you should always double check their actual website rankings and client testimonials. Back in Heaven, everything was strategically mapped out in advance, and “link-bait” was fundamental. The fallen angel, Satan, didn’t approach our ancestors directly. He used a serpent as his furtive ally to execute his cunning plan. The goal was to captivate Eve’s attention, while she was away from Adam bewitching her and engaging her imagination (the right brain), inspiring her curiosity about the forbidden fruit. It all started with an ‘innocent’ question: ‘God said, you shall not eat from every tree of the garden?’ A strange, insidious counter idea was rapidly planted in her mind… with a single goal: To question God’s authority, and to ignore the only demand he made of man. ‘And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest ye die.’ Eve’s faith in God was battled-tested, for the first time. At least, that’s what the narrative tells us. Eve’s guard is down when confronted with this surreptitious proposal, therefore, she is swiftly mired in the swamp of lies. ‘And the serpent said unto the woman, you shall not surely die. For God knows that the day you eat, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’ Again, Satan starts to construct his arguments on the earlier, completely false premise. This reminds me of when these 'SEO experts' claim top rankings for lower than industry standard fees. Consequently, many succumb to the offer, since it seems like such an irresistible bargain. Today, Satan still claims that God is unfair, and wants to prevent humans from accessing “God-like” status and achievement. Some SEO ‘experts’ construct a similar lie when leading you to believe that you can get a certain amount of links in a specific amount of days for a minimal investment. Long story short, Eve got sidetracked, and was influenced to trust in the ‘father of all lies’ instead of the Creator himself. She was systematically indoctrinated… to look at the fruit in a “new,” distorted way, ultimately touching and consuming it. 'And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit, and did eat, and gave it to her husband with her; and he did eat.’ Both fell into the trap, designating the entire human race to either eternal life or eternal damnation. Oops.

How is this universal mega event applicable in today’s SEO and link building shaddy industry?

First, you have to understand this: SEO and link building is a skill that can be learned. Just like communication. Once you master it, you can mesmerize your audience and lure them to your real estate website, turning them into raving clients and referrals, just like Netflix is doing with their consumers. Your content has one goal: to produce loyal clients and referrals. Otherwise, your precious time, money and energy spent on content marketing are all in vain. I’d say link building it’s more of a soft skill than a hard skill since it requires more creativity and imagination than technical SEO know-how per se. In my experience, there are two types of real estate companies. One company, let’s call it A, creates its own exceptional content and then waits for links to come in. The second company, let’s call it B, publishes fabulous content, provided by or featuring third party sources, and is proactive in link building. Company A makes two major mistakes: #1 - Creating Its Own Content This method presents significant drawbacks. First, you have to invest a considerable amount of time on these 5 common, yet time-consuming, and energy-draining tasks: Research Writing Editing Rewriting Proofreading It can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 10 hours to produce a single article or blog post, depending on the content length and research. Plus, let’s consider the time required for proper graphics creation and content uploading. This may take up to 60 minutes per post. You may need multiple posts per week to generate enough demand. It is imperative that this content is highly-engaging to transform prospects into clients, right? If you’ve systematized your business in such a way as to involve your team or allow VAs to handle content research, creation, and publishing, then it’s a significant improvement to your approach. You’re left with more time to handle other priorities and challenges within your company, while an SEO expert team takes care of ‘content marketing’ via the Authentic Conversational Marketing approach I have mentioned earlier. Still, other real estate companies take advantage of a different approach, which is more sustainable and profitable, and important for you to use in your business as well. #2 - Build it, and they’ll come Sitting back and waiting to receive back-links and brand mentions from industry leaders, as well as targeted bloggers and social media pros who have access to your desired audience, is not going to drive much traffic or attention to your real estate website and content. It is essential for you to be proactive and highly-strategic in your approach, or not much will happen. Company B does two things right: #1 - It publishes content created in-house, in combination with expert interviews, and crowdsourced articles (by non-competitive, third party, ‘authority’ sources) Example: 25 Real Estate Agents Share Their Best Tips & Advice For First-Time Home Buyers The result…? Here’s the number of shares and backlinks (captured via Ahrefs)

Here’s another one 44 Realtors Tips On Selling And Buying A Home At The Same Time

This strategy, if performed right, creates a ‘wildfire’ brand exposure effect for your content, substantially increasing the number of likes, shares, comments, and more importantly, back-links to this type of content. In time, this combined effort produces consistent organic visitors, and higher web page rankings.

Who said link building for free targeted traffic was a zero cost technique and a working scheme to produce fast results?

However, what I’ve shared above is only the tip of the iceberg. Let me explain what I mean. For example, you shouldn’t publish expert roundups just to get backlinks. Think beyond this selfish vision. You’re creating this popular form of content primarily with your audience in mind, and secondly, to help build trust with the experts, for future beneficial relationships, and mutual growth. You’ll be rewarded with rankings and visitors as an afterthought. Does this make sense? I’d say, publishing expert content gives you more time and freedom to focus on your business instead of spending countless frustrating hours trying to figure out how to make your content go ‘viral.’ #2 - It promotes the content on a vast scale Crowd sourced blog posts created by real estate bloggers and agencies make one major mistake. They think that once their expert roundup goes live, traffic will melt their website servers. In most cases, the majority of these link building campaigns fall short, and is prevented from taking off due to two main reasons: The initial intention of the website owner or SEO team was to get traffic, shares and links, instead of considering their audience and producing insightful content set to spread rapidly due to its fascinating nature. That’s why some deceitful experts are featured in ‘experts roundups.’ Their responses are mainly based on theory and guessing rather than on hands-on experience. This is also the reason why poorly conceived questions are asked ad nauseum. Finally, this is why these blog posts aren’t usually optimized for SEO and ranking purposes. There’s no active outreach involved once a post goes live. In this case, some outreach is done, but it is executed incorrectly. This means that the focus is on obtaining a share or backlink request, instead of providing value for the experts involved. One expert roundup created with 50 business coaches received a 35% backlink placement response, which is unheard of in the industry. They’ve managed to provide enough value during the entire process, so that a significant number of experts have linked to the final blog post from their websites.

Authentic Conversational Marketing Strategy, that is covered here, is something you may want to implement in your link building campaign. If you do it right, it works without fail! If you’re interested in finding out more about a custom SEO link building strategy for quality link building results, then don’t hesitate to get in touch with FlyingVGroup, and request a free website SEO audit. You may see surprising results within 12 months when your traffic and rankings are propelled through the roof! Thank you so much for reading A $5,000 Link Building Strategy: How Real Estate Companies and Realtors Should Generate More Clients and Referrals. We really appreciate it! If you have any questions about our article, or can suggest any other topics you think we should explore, feel free to let us know. Be sure to sign-up for our newsletter to receive monthly emails on all of the latest trends and happenings in the digital marketing space. You will also receive our FREE E-Book with the Amazing Marketing Tools for Powerful Business Growth. Sign-up below! Also, if you received some value out of this article, please share with your friends or colleagues, or leave a comment/question below. We really appreciate you reading our blog and every share/comment means the world to us and allows us to continue producing valuable tools to help you grow your business! Share this PostAbout the Author

Robb Fahrion Facebook Twitter Google+Robb Fahrion is the Co-Founder and a Partner of Flying V Group. He is passionate about helping businesses grow using the power of the internet. Robb graduated from Chapman University in Orange, CA and currently resides in Costa Mesa, CA. Robb enjoys writing about digital marketing, helping his clients turn their dreams into reality, and is a HUGE Mike Trout fan. The Best Strategy to Increase Traffic and Leads to Your Real Estate Website without Any Referrals, Facebook or Paid AdsNovember 25, 2019What NEVER to Publish on a Real Estate Company Site or BlogNovember 19, 2019Real Estate SEO Tools Exposed: SEMrush vs Ahrefs vs MozPro Review (2019)November 11, 2019

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aroundtheworldin18years · 5 years

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Well….we have only gone and won £100k on a scratchcard!!!!

That’s right…ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND smackaroonies!

Lynne went out yesterday morning to drop Lily-Belle at school and popped into the local shop for ‘essentials’. As she queued she thought, ‘do you know what, if that couple down the road can win £115 million, surely we might get lucky and win a few quid that could pay for our next holiday’. A few scratches later, winner winner chicken dinner…£100k…we’re still letting it all sink in! Madness!

Now, some of our readers already know that Mummy is the budget Queen but lover of all things holidays! Not content with the cold-cash making a cosy home in our bank account, she has come to the conclusion that life is far too short and has decided to blow the lot on seeing those places that we have dreamed of for so long. After a long night checking out villas on Clickstay, we now have our TOP 10 TRAVEL GOALS 2019 plans in place.

So here goes, our TOP 10 TRAVEL GOALS 2019…..excited!

February

It’s the middle of winter here on the island of Ireland and snow has fallen across the province, so we’ve decided the first trip of 2019 should be to somewhere warm, a place where we can rid ourselves of our pasty white skin…Australia it is then. Our first trip will take us to the beautiful town of Cairns to see one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World; the Great Barrier Reef! Sea Temple 205 Palm Grove looks stunning and the girls are going to love the pool. Mummy is looking forward to some R&R in the onsite Spa, and daddy, well…I’m just hoping to join up the freckles to get a ‘ginger’ tan!

Sea Temple 205 Palm Grove: click to view Cost: very reasonable at £3,857 dingo dollars.

March

March 2019 is a BIG month in the Callaghan household; it’s Mummy’s big 4 0 birthday and also our 15th wedding anniversary! We spent our honeymoon in the Maldives so the beautiful Olana Beachfront Apartment that we have chosen is right on the beach in the Black River region of Mauritius. Perfect location to explore the beautiful Black River Gorges National Park. There are so many wonderful things to do on the island but we are especially looking forward to snorkelling in the crystal clear water and watching the dolphins go by whilst eating breakfast!

Olana Beachfront Apartment: click to view Cost: prepare to be amazed…only £3,108 which is equivalent to a large bucket of sea pearls.

April

It’s still cold on the island of Ireland so we are sticking with a warm sunny destination. Well, why not, we have just won £100k on the lottery! Although we love our holidays, neither of us have done the backpacking craze, and in all honesty, we are not about to start! Thailand is one of those places loved by backpackers so we thought we must pay it a visit! Booking a Villa in Koh Samui seems to be very popular and now we can see why! Absolutely stunning, and we’re sure you’ll agree that the Exclusive Five Bed Beach Front Villa on Koh Samui is also absolutely stunning too! What are you planning on seeing and doing I hear you ask…SO MUCH! Swim with turtles at Koh Tao, check out the Big Buddha shrine and take in the spectacular Namuang Waterfall.

Exclusive Five Bed Beach Front Villa on Koh Samui: click to view Cost: definitely not for budget conscious backpackers, £17,412. That’s a lot of wonga!

May

For those of you who follow our blog, you will know that we amor Italy and find it impossible to stay away. Winning so much money on the lottery is never going to change that! Last year we stayed in a fantastic campsite in Tuscany. We also spent an afternoon in the beautiful city of Florence which was far too short. I remember driving up to Piazza Michaelangelo and going past the most amazing houses so we thought, ‘why don’t we stay somewhere like that’. Not the cheapest but how amazing does this Florence Dream Villa look…Mummy is really hoping it comes with a live-in Chef to make her favourite Penne Arrabiatta..don’t ask! The ‘Penne Arrabiatta’ is a whole post by itself!

Florence Dream Villa: click to view Cost: not campsite rates at a whopping £18,475

July

As parents we try our best to not have the girls miss school so we plan on making the most of the 2019 summer holidays! The girls have always wanted to visit Disney so we’ve seen that there’s a great Villa To Rent In Four Corners, Florida. It’s my (non-disclosed age) birthday on the 1st and of course Independence Day is on the 4th July, so I’m sure it will be a truly memorable holiday. Disney is definitely on the ‘visit’ list and we also need to head over to Clearwater Marine Aquarium to see Winter from Dolphin Tale. Lily-Belles ultimate dream is to swim with rescued dolphins Winter and Hope!

Villa To Rent In Four Corners, Florida: click to view Cost: cheap(ish) at £5,232, we aren’t going to spend much time here apart from chilling in the pool.

This next trip isn’t terribly exciting but we have been asking Mummy’s parents to have a holiday with us and the girls for quite some time. Mummy really doesn’t understand why they don’t want to travel with us; but if I was them, I wouldn’t want to travel with us either! The Callaghan Posse are ALWAYS late, The Maclaine Crew are ALWAYS early! And who needs the added stress of being late when on holidays (Lynne, she thrives on it). Anyway, her Dad finally agreed that we would all go on a short holiday to Scotland! If we are going to Scotland I have decided that we should become King and Queen in a Timeless Castle. What do you think of this beautiful Scottish Castle located in the Scottish Borders? Perfect for us all to have our own space; if you know what I mean, and for Father-in-Law to enjoy the rolling hills and local heritage.

Timeless Castle: click to view Cost: this trip will empty the sporran of £8,567 but I’m certain it’ll gain me a few Brownie points!

August

Historically, most August’s in Ireland the weather is shocking and wet! Irish summer is normally over before it has even begun, so we have decided that we will probably need to catch a few rays after our trip to bonnie Scotland! Greece is a country that we have never been to; it looks absolutely stunning in photos and we love the beautiful white washed villas. Oh yes, we are also very fond of falafel, so where better than Greece to get the authentic deal! As we are not expecting for the ‘in-laws’ to have had a change of heart about travelling with us after their Scottish stay, a little villa for four is all that is require.d or desired. The Zephyros Guesthouse in Santorini looks perfect with it’s white-washed walls and tiled terraces. We especially love the outdoor seating area and I think you will agree that it is definitely ‘insta-worthy’. In a word…wow!

Zephyros Guesthouse: click to view Cost: £6,270 I’m getting seriously concerned about what is left in the ‘scratchcard’ money pot!

Our Top 10 Travel Goals 2019 list would not be complete if we didn’t live it up in the South of France. The town of Molleges is calling to us and we have totally fallen in love with this rustic villa named Water Lily House. Picture perfect! This ‘gorgeous gaff’ is just how we would expect a dreamy French villa to look. Astonishing and just perfect to relax in before the start of the new school term. The grounds are like something from a 1930s movie and have you seen the cooker…not that I/we plan on cooking! Lily-Belle and Matilda can’t wait to take a dip in the pool and tackle the climbing frame. No trip to the South of France would be the same without ‘rubbing shoulders’ with the rich and famous in Saint-Tropez…don’t mind if we do!

Water Lily House: click to view Cost: £14,561, well it is the South of France. Not known for cheapy-cheapy!

December

I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of Christmas or New Year. Personally I would prefer to go away for 2 weeks at this time and come home when it’s all over and normality has returned to the home. Mummy always refuses to holiday at this time due to the excessive cost. There’s no excuse now, we’ve just won mega-bucks on a scratchcard. Val d’Isere here we come. This delightfully characteristic French ski chalet is what dreams are made of; just look at those views!

Chalet Mont Blanc: click to view Cost: £18,733 so I don’t think Santa will be coming this year….he’s skint!

Last, but by no means least, New Years Eve in (drum roll please…drrrrrrr) NEW YORK CITY! What better way to end 2019, fabulous year of travel; than by ringing in the New Year in Times Square. There are no villas in NYC but we have are really lucky to have found this Gorgeous 2 Bedroom Duplex In Manhattan. A lovely apartment that is centrally located. There will be lots of clothes shopping of course; not by Mummy, but me, one can never have too many shoes you know…that is if we have a penny left in the pot!!

Gorgeous 2 Bedroom Duplex In Manhattan: click to view Cost: Saving for the shoe shopping spree so £3,093 all in…bargain!

Ok, if you’ve got this far we have a HUGE CONFESSION to make…….

….we haven’t actually won the £100k on a scratchcard…fooled ya! This post is our entry into the Clickstay Travel Blogger Competition for the chance to win a £600 Clickstay™ voucher!

We apologise for trying to pull the wool over your eyes, harmless fun, but we also hope you enjoyed reading our Top 10 Travel Goals 2019 post. Rest assured, if we do win £100k or more, then these ‘fantasy’ trips will become a reality. If you tally up above, these trips come to £99,308… a little left over for Daddy to buy shoes in New York City. Win a £100k on a scratchcard…if only…in our dreams!

Around the World In 18 Years would really appreciate your VOTE for us to be in with the chance of winning a £600 holiday voucher from Clickstay. It’s not going to pay for that stunning Italian Chateau or the beachside villa in Koh Samui, but out of this world accommodation is not what is important to us for our holidays. What is? Spending quality time together as a family when we travel!

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TOP 10 TRAVEL GOALS 2019 Well….we have only gone and won £100k on a scratchcard!!!! That's right...ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND smackaroonies! Lynne went out yesterday morning to drop Lily-Belle at school and popped into the local shop for 'essentials'.

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aubrielegault-blog · 5 years

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Photoshoot

We were standing in a parking lot at night. But it wasn’t dark, it wasn’t filled with cars and it was not silent. Behind his head, I could see a food truck with a girl handing out a gigantic ball of pink fluff rolled on to a cardboard stick. She was wearing yellow clown glasses and popping pink bubble gum. She handed the cotton candy down to a gentleman who I could tell was trying to hit on her. To the right, I could hear the dunk tank. Or people at the dunk tank. Whoever was sitting on the stool had not fallen into the water yet. I could hear clunks and clashes as the ball tried to hit the bullseye. There was a lot of laughter. Next to me was an upside-down wine barrel, currently being used as a table for garbage. I started to lean on it as he came closer to the side of my face. I could smell leftover mustard and bourbon. Behind me, there were tents- filled with delicious food like corndogs. Not just any corndogs though, after all, I was at a food event. These were corndogs from one of the top chefs in Seattle. I am sure the meat was not an actual hot dog, but something more spectacular. And the outside layer was probably a special cornmeal batter that the chef made from scratch. It’s hard to imagine a fair filled with legit, delicious, made-from-scratch food. Only foodie events can pick a theme like “circus” and turn it into something just shy of fine dining.

“You know, you didn’t need to introduce yourself to me again.” He whispered in my ear. Or maybe he said it at normal auditory level. It reminded me of a whisper since he was so close to my face. Our cheeks grazed as he pulled away, but he didn’t pull away far. He was extremely close to my face staring at my eyes, waiting for my response. He knew I would have to lean in and talk to his ear- as the vibrating noise around us was like being at a concert.

“We’ve only met once. I assumed you would briefly recognize my face and in a panic forget how you knew me so I re-introduced myself.”

The left side of his lips curled up slightly. He wanted to laugh. Or maybe he wanted to relax, he couldn’t do either. He was very tense. He looked like he wanted to grab me by my triceps and shake me vigorously.

When I first walked through the balloon archway into the parking lot I spotted Gabriel. He was talking to a group of people. We briefly made eye contact and he turned back to his friends. I figured he recognized my face and quickly pushed it aside, knowing we probably would not actually speak to each other. Just past the balloons, a line had formed, which I stood in patiently waiting to waive the badge around my neck to the doorkeeper. My pass was rare- red in color that said “staff” in bold black letters. There were only a handful of these passes roaming around the large weekend food event, Seattle Eats. I secretly liked having this pass. Every time I would approach the entrance attendant they would pause and look at me. They would wonder to themselves how I had a staff pass. They might quickly contemplate the idea that I found it or stole it. The only other people that had staff passes were the select few that ran the entire event and everyone (at least everyone in the food scene) knew who they were. And I was not one of them. No, I wasn’t in charge of the event. But I was in charge of documenting the event. I was one of two staff photographers. They found it easier to give us a staff pass so that there was no question on whether or not we were allowed inside.

And just as in other entrances, the woman scanning the passes paused when I showed her mine. She looked at my face. My face did not register and she looked at the pass again. If I have all my camera gear with me they usually put two and two together and waive me in. My camera was not strapped around my neck, so the attendant looked suspiciously at me. I told her I was one of the staff photographers and that I had the night off. My co-photographer was assigned to this particular party. Anything we were not assigned to we were encouraged to still attend and enjoy ourselves.

The attendant waved me in and told me to have fun. She said I deserved it. I stood still for a moment, taking in the scene before me. There were lights swooping across the black sky from one tent to another. A man on stilts walked by throwing pins into the air. The smells were overwhelming- too many to decipher exactly what I was smelling. I had a quick moment of... not quite panic, that’s too strong of a word. But that feeling where you’ve just entered a huge party and think- I know nobody. I reached for my camera, that wasn’t there. Typically in moments like these, I can hide behind my camera. The moment quickly passed as Nicole walked up to me. She was a food blogger and assisted me on a few shoots in the past. She asked me what events I photographed today and exclaimed how tired I must feel after I told her. When she assisted me on day-long photo shoots she would complain towards the end how tired she was. I knew she wasn’t quite cut out to be a full-time photographer. Blogger suited her just fine. She could bake banana bread, take a nice photo using natural light and post it to Instagram and not have to worry about lugging huge lights into an empty space and build not only a background scene and lighting scheme, but also build a composition using food and props. That was too much for someone like her, but for me, it was my life.

Frank, the other staff photographer, walked up and joined in on our conversation. He asked me the same thing Nicole did. Instead of stating how tired I must feel, he empathized with me and said he couldn’t wait to go to bed.

Frank ventured off to take more photos. Nicole and I started walking towards the bourbon tent. I could finally have a drink. I ordered it neat. It was a new brand of bourbon and I always try new whiskeys without ice first. We were joined by a few other bloggers. They talked non-stop about all the great food they tasted. I was in a daze, not thinking about what I ate, but what I captured as their busy words swarmed around my head. My trance-like-state was interrupted when one of the bloggers shouted at Gabriel, who was walking by with the same group of people I saw earlier.

“Gabe- your pork belly dish was delicious.” She said peering up at him. Gabriel was tall, everyone peered up at him. He thanked her, sounding annoyed. I assume chefs, at this point, are tired of seeing people swoon and are completely over their simplistic compliments. They have heard it all day, have had to smile nod and act cordially to everyone. At the after parties, I am sure they just want to be left alone and drink. I wasn’t going to say anything to Gabriel. And then the blogger asked if Gabriel knew everyone. He said no and quickly looked at all our faces. He was about to say something when a second blogger stuck out her hand and introduced herself. The third followed. And then it was my turn.

“I’m Andrea, one of the staff photographers for the event. I did photos for you...”

“Andrea, you don’t think I remember who you are?” Gabriel asked sounding more annoyed than when the blogger gave him an empty compliment. He cocked his head to one side and gave me an odd look. Like- half hurt, half perplexed. The bloggers giggled. “She’s always this humble, Gabe.” one blogger said. “Your photos were gorgeous by the way, Andrea. Didn’t you think so, Gabe?” she peered at his face, wanting his attention. He was still looking at me. He was pissed.

My memories of the day we spent together slammed into my mind- like a stenographer chucked a stack notes from the day and heaved it at my head. I buried that day with Gabriel away and didn’t think about it again. Well, okay, after about a week of thinking about the day, I then proceeded to bury it. It had been months since I did a day shoot with Gabriel. He won Seattle’s Magazine Chef of the Year and I was assigned to photograph the story. We spent a good six hours together that day, just the two of us. So at the time, it felt intimate. But I didn’t want to assume the chemistry we shared was anything more than a weird photographer-client moment. Those happen from time to time. I sit behind a lens and stare into someone’s life, they are completely exposed and vulnerable. Sometimes they end up sharing their life story with me. Sometimes we laugh and have a good time. Usually, most relax and feel comfortable with me. Sometimes we find things in common and bond over a certain aspect in our lives. Very few times, but it does happen, there is an attraction.

Gabriel turned to the bloggers and said “it was nice to meet you all” and then just walked away. I looked at the bloggers.

“Andrea, you’re so funny. It was just a few months ago that you did that photo shoot with Gabriel, right?” I shook my head yes. “And don’t you spend a lot of time with the chef when you do a shoot like that?” I nodded my head yes. “Why would you think he wouldn’t know who you were? Not to mention it’s not like your some newb off the streets, you’re a very well known food photographer.” I shrugged.

“I didn’t think he wouldn’t recognize my face. I figured he would have one of those ‘oh shit’ moments where you know the person but draw a complete blank of their name or how you know them. So I thought I’d help him out- just take the pressure off. I can’t assume that everyone remembers who I am.” I finally said.

“You are so different than other photographers. They are always so aggressive and arrogant.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” I said. They laughed and walked away, telling me to drink more bourbon and enjoy the night.

I strolled around the tents, nibbling on the bites, sipping on my whiskey. I thought about Gabriel again and then told myself not to overthink anything. After our photo shoot that is exactly what I did. I dwelled. I pondered. I even pleasured myself thinking about him. And after an absurd week, I shoved it to the deep black corners of my mind where I locked the memory door with a key and didn’t reopen it. I wanted to at least apologize to him. Apologize for reintroducing myself? That sounds strange, but that’s what I wanted to do. I found myself up against the wine barrel table, scanning for his face. And that’s when I saw him walking over to me. I tried to look at the girl in the clown sunglasses and think about cotton candy.

“You know, you didn’t need to introduce yourself to me again.” He whispered in my ear.

“We’ve only met once. I assumed you would briefly recognize my face and in a panic forget how you knew me so I re-introduced myself.” I saw the grin spread on his upper left lip and the aggravation fill his demeanor and added “I apologize. I can be very forgetful with names and so I tend to make it easier on people and just reintroduce myself.”

He leaned in again to my ear. “Andrea.” He moved his hips closer to me. He placed his pointer finger on the back side of my hand and my arms lit up with goosebumps. He waited a few seconds and then said: “Your whole body is covered in goosebumps.” I just stood there feeling the bumps and hairs on my skin rise.

“That pretty much just answered my question.”

“What question was that? “ I asked.

“Girls don’t break out into a sheet of bumps when someone touches the back of their hand for a brief moment... unless there is something there. Some chemistry. Some interest, at least.”

“I’m cold.” I said.

“It’s 80 degrees out.” He looked at my eyes.

“I can’t do this.” I turned. He grabbed my arm by the wrist and pulled.

“Can we go inside?”

“Why?”

He rolled his eyes, slumped his shoulders, cocked his head and looked at me again. “Andrea, come on. Humor me at least.”

The circus-themed after party that was held in a parking lot just happened to be Gabriel’s parking lot. Or at least the large parking lot in the back of his restaurant. I followed him around the front, he unlocked the door and we stepped inside. He didn't bother turning on any lights. There were one or two small neon lights glowing somewhere- probably from a computer screen. There was just enough ambient light that when I let my eyes adjust, I could see his face. And he was upset.

“We spent five to six hours together.” He said coldly at first. And then his tone lightened. “Andrea, tell me if I am bat-shit crazy....” he looked down at me.

“You’re not bat-shit crazy,” I said.

“Okay, let me rephrase that then. We spent one hour together. And then we spent four hours together in a completely different way.”

I smiled. “Yes.”

“So it wasn’t just me, then, correct?”

“Correct.” I blushed. He couldn’t see that my face turned hot.

He stood close to me. His broad shoulders hovered above mine. His chin could rest on the top of my head, he was that tall. His arms gently grabbed my elbows. I looked up at him.

“Andrea- that photo shoot blew me away. The first hour was cordial. We smiled. We worked. You didn’t say much. I didn’t say much. And then I relaxed. And you moved my elbow out of your shot once. And we felt it. There was a spark. Shit, it wasn’t a spark it was a damn explosion. From an elbow touch. And everything changed. You laughed more. You flirted. I opened up more. I started to tell you things no one on this planet knows. And I don’t even know why. But I did. We had fun. We were attracted to each other. We bonded. I mean we almost kissed. You know we almost did. I leaned in. You wanted it. And then you walked out the door and left me standing there like a fucking chump.” His body stiffened when he said the last part. Obviously, I had hurt his ego.

“I... “ I didn’t know exactly how to respond. I had those two little people on each of your shoulders screaming at me. One said, “Do the right thing, Andrea.” And the other said “Fuck it, Andrea. Grab him and kiss him.”

I looked up at him and said, “Look. It happens from time to time. There is something about a photographer- when alone with his or her client- that sometimes things get heated. Sometimes you bond. Or other times there is a slight attraction. I’ve had a few times where I’ve become good acquaintances, even kind of friends with my clients. And it was probably just that you felt comfortable with me, and I enjoyed photographing you- and it felt... well more intense at the moment, but in reality, we were just working together.”

His finger touched the back of hand again. I flushed. Bumps scattered across my entire body. “That’s bullshit,” he said as he flung his arm around my back, pulled me to his chest, lifted my chin slightly with his other finger and kissed me. All I could think about was how amazing this felt. It made sense. It felt real. It felt right. There was nothing awkward about it. We didn’t hit teeth or use too much tongue. He relaxed. I relaxed in his arms. And we had an amazing few minutes of perfection.

Suddenly, I pushed him away. “We can’t do this,” I said.

He looked stunned. “Andrea. I’ll call her right now. You can call him right now. And then I will carry you up into my office and this” he motioned between him and myself with his hands, “this can continue. And it can continue until I walk you down an aisle. and it will continue forever.”

Most women, shit, almost all men would be extremely taken back by the thought of a proposal from someone you’ve spent about 6 and a half hours with. But I wasn’t. He wasn’t either. What he said didn’t scare me. He picked up his cell phone and hit one button.

“Kristi. I am deeply, deeply sorry.” He said with a mournful tone. “I will properly talk to you tomorrow morning because I do not want to do this over the phone, but it’s imperative that I do this right now. It’s over. I am breaking up with you. And yes, I will give you a full explanation tomorrow face-to-face.” And then he hung up the phone without hearing her response.

I thought it was harsh but at the same time, he was honest with her. And he is the type of person that would break-up with you face to face, but he simply could not do that. He needed me now, but he wanted to have me with a clear conscious. He looked up at me. It was my turn. He knew it would not be as easy for me. Not because I was more attached to my current boyfriend that he was attached to his girlfriend, or ex-girlfriend now. But he knew that my personality and really just being a woman that it would be harder to be that brutally honest. So he took my hand and he said “It will sting for about five seconds as the words come out. Get it over with, rip the bandaid. And whatever you do- do not listen to the response. You can say exactly what I said- word for word if you like.” I asked him if he had done this many times before. He said no, this was his first. And he said it would be the last time he will ever have to break up with someone.

“How can you be...” he knew what I was going to ask. He knew my last word was going to be “certain.” He interrupted me and simply said, “I know.” And then he paused, looked at me, and added: “And you know too.” And I did. It was the strangest feeling in the world. I knew I was standing next to the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with. I dialed my phone. I said verbatim exactly what Gabriel said to his ex. And then I hung up the phone.

He interlaced his fingers through mine and led me upstairs to his office. He opened the door to his office and motioned me to walk inside. As I passed him he said, “That was one hell of a photo shoot, Andrea.” He shut the door behind him. “That it was, Gabriel,” I said. And we made love on his desk.

#shortstory photoshoot romance foodphotographer chef

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funnythingshere0-blog · 6 years

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Just A Ranking Of Every Stupid Role Ruby Rose Has Ever Played

New Post has been published on http://funnythingshere.xyz/just-a-ranking-of-every-stupid-role-ruby-rose-has-ever-played/

Just A Ranking Of Every Stupid Role Ruby Rose Has Ever Played

Before she was Batwoman, she was a sexy she-wolf named Byanka.

Australia’s own Ruby Rose has just been announced to star as Batwoman in DC’s TV universe. If you’re not familiar with her work, should you be excited?

As a star, Rose is defined by a weird, inexplicable aura that permeates all her roles. She’s defined by Ruby Rose Energy.

Queer women: Please cast out queer actors in queer roles!!! CW: *casts Ruby Rose* Queer women: This is an attack

— Brittani Nichols (@BisHilarious) August 7, 2018

It is with great regret that I must place Hannah at the bottom of this list, and that I cannot officially say that Dino motherfuckin’ Chalmers is a perfect exemplar of Ruby Rose Energy.

Ruby Rose plays a mute assassin in the John Wick franchise, and her character is named for the Greek god of war – which means we’re getting to the good shit.

But beyond the strong concept, it feels a bit pianissimo in execution; may I suggest it lengthens in John Wick: Chapter 3 to ‘Ares McIliad’ or perhaps ‘Ares Bazooka’?

Ruby Rose Energy is about throwing subtlety to the wind.

I know what you’re thinking: what name could possibly be more Ruby Rose than ‘Ruby Rose’?

Well, since her full birth name is Ruby Rose Langenheim, ‘Ruby Rose’ is technically only 44% of that, meaning it’s slightly below average Ruby Rose Energy.

My interest in Pitch Perfect 3: Aca-merican Imperialism is precisely zero, but Calamity is exactly the kind of Ruby Rose character name I come to IMDb to see.

Calamity has the toughness of Ruby Rose Energy, but lacks that certain je ne sais quoi.

Where were you when all of America discovered Stella Carlin, and thus Ruby Rose, at once?

Was it the same place you were when Ruby tweeted about Katy Perry’s Witness, calling it “purposeful poop” and “bomb a petit”? Or when she threw a “singular fry” at a restaurant owner?

It’s trying just a little bit too hard.

The beauty of the current Golden Age of Ruby Rose Character Names is how often the names just sound like full sentences in and of themselves.

Adele Wolff.

Jaxx Herd is, frankly, incredible.

The Meg pic.twitter.com/QnTjRWjxx8

— Ruby Rose (@RubyRose) July 31, 2018

Wikipedia says Bianca, but IMDb says Byanka, which is so Ruby Rose I can’t stand it.

And truly, is the root of the human condition not the internal war we wage over whether we are a Bianca or a Byanka?

Anyway, this movie looks bananas, Ruby Rose’s character is an overly sexualised she-wolf, and the script was co-written by someone who goes by the name ‘1kg Sugar’.

If the idea of Ruby Rose playing a character named Wendy the Android (lol) on a Canadian sci-fi show makes you think, “Huh, I wonder if they made her a horny killer fuckbot?”

The answer, unequivocally, is yes.

TheDailyMail.com Seriously Popular™ People’s Choice Award-loser Ruby Rose as… Woman.

That’s it, kids.

That’s Ruby Rose Energy.

—

Laurence Barber is a freelance writer, editor and award-winning film and television critic based in Sydney. He is on Twitter @bortlb.

Source: http://junkee.com/ruby-rose-characters/170757

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sweetsuccesssociety · 7 years

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Udemy Versus Teachable for Online Courses

There are many different options out there to host your online course. In fact, you could do it completely on your own by installing a membership plugin on your WordPress site and having people log in.

To share my embarrassing history of what I used to do before I knew anything about online courses; when I developed my first online course, yes, the one you read about that only had two students to begin with, I put it on a password protected page on Vimeo. It looked completely unprofessional, although it did work and the students accessed the information and created what they needed to from it.

That being said, since then I have had the opportunity to work with a number of different online course platforms and have identified my two favorite ones. Now, this is not to say these are the only two things you should consider. I do encourage you to go out there and figure out which of these programs might be most appropriate for you.

However, don’t wait too long to make a decision because indecision can keep you paralyzed from taking action and may leave you weeks or months behind your schedule. So, today I am going to talk about just my two favorite online course platforms and they are very different. Although it can be beneficial for people to use both, there are also situations where you need to consider putting a course on one versus the other.

How to Choose Between Udemy and Teachable When Hosting an Online Course

In my opinion, the easier but more expensive that involves set up and getting your own account is Teachable. So, teachable is a platform that allows your course to look extremely professional from the student perspective. You probably need to pay for a membership to Teachable. There are several different tiers. I believe there is a free one, where you can make a free course on Teachable, so you could test it out.

There is also a $39 level and there is a more expensive monthly level as well. So, take a look into their options. Figure out which one is more appropriate for you. Teachable is right for you, if you want to own all of your content recorded in the way that you want and have as long videos as you want. You do not have to go through any additional kind of like rigmarole.

You could even put PDFs up on a Teachable page. You could take your videos that you recorded in your home office today with a non-professional microphone and put it up on Teachable. While I don’t recommend doing that, it’s something you can certainly pursue. Teachable allows you to have a school where you can host all of your courses together. So, you can see an example of mine at laurateachesyou.com. You could see all of the courses that I currently have available where enrolment is open for those people.

Because Teachable is more expensive, the tradeoff is that you can get your materials up more quickly. Teachable is right for you if you already have an audience of people interested in buying your course. If you have been a blogger for years and if you have developed an email list of thousands of people who use Teachable because you don’t need the promotional power of Udemy.

Why Consider Teachable for Online Courses

Teachable allows you to have a professional looking page with courses where students can see how far they are through the course-they can sign up for multiple courses. Once they are in your school or in my Teachable, it’s very easy to manage. It is more expensive and depending on the level that you select, you could have to pay certain portions of your revenue directly to Teachable.

Now one other aspect of Teachable that I’d encourage you to be aware of before you get started is the management of affiliates. If you are on the cheaper program, they will pay your affiliates, if you are not using third party integrations like striper PayPal. So, for that reason they actually hold your payments for up to 45 days. However, it makes it much easier on your affiliates because of this.

So, I switched to this delayed 45-day payment because it was that much easier to payout my affiliates. They do it directly, I don’t have to worry about it. If you try to use the third-party integrations and say you sell a course for $200, but you owe an affiliate 50% of that, when you get the money after the Teachable fees or any other fees that may apply, then you are going to have to pay that 50% out the affiliate.

That could create a lot of difficult issues with regard to keeping track of it. Particularly, if you are getting course sales all the time because you will be getting paid very frequently. Just to recap, Teachable is appropriate for:

Those who want to upload their course quickly.

Those who already have course materials and don’t want to have to go through redoing it in case it doesn’t meet Udemy quality standards.

Those who have an audience of individuals already willing to buy.

Reasons to Consider Using Udemy for Online Courses

Udemy is a massive online open course marketplace, where thousands of people post their courses every single year. This is most appropriate for you if you have no audience. I uploaded a course on Udemy a couple of years ago, just to see what would happen with it and one of the things that I liked the most about it is that I don’t have to do a ton of work to get a couple of sales every single week. So, they do all of the marketing for you because they have a big email list, they are targeting your course sometimes on Facebook, if it’s gotten great reviews, they’ll put an ad up on Facebook.

They’ll promote it in their coupons and newsletter that they send out and they also do huge sales – they do huge sales all year long, but they do really big sales twice per year for Black Friday and then again in January. So, you can make a significant amount of money with doing very little marketing work on your end. One of the downsides of Udemy is that it’s not really appropriate or going to work well, if you have high dollar courses. So, if you have courses that cost more than $200, to get the most out of Udemy you are going to need to opt into their promotions program which discounts your course up to 75% or as low as $20, depending on the individual price of your course.

So, you would keep more of the money for sure if you post it on Teachable, but if you have no audience, then no one is signing up to begin with. The difference with Udemy is that they have a massive audience and they are doing a lot of the promotion for you. So, I think it’s more appropriate for courses where you don’t mind getting paid $5 or $10 per course sale. These might be your shorter courses etc.

I also strongly recommend having a free course on Udemy first so people can get to know your style and the type of material you’d cover and then may be consider opting into your other one. You do not own the students and Udemy, so when you send emails, it is under Udemy’s guidelines.

There are certain things you cannot do like direct people to your personal website to buy something else etc. That’s well worth keeping in mind; you can email people using their promotional and educational announcements, but they are very strict about what you can say in those messages.

Also, one big hassle for me at the outset was getting my video approved and my audio quality approved. They are very strict about audio quality so if you have a bad microphone or no microphone, do not record your course first and then try to upload it to Udemy because you can spend five hours recording a course and then have them say that it doesn’t meet their quality guidelines and you are going to have to go back and do it again anyways.

Thankfully, they have a review process where you can upload a short video and they will give you feedback about whether or not your screen is blurry, whether the audio is high quality and some things you can do.

I had a lot of problems with echoes and developing my little at-home recording studio. It actually took me and my fiancé three weeks to get it to a place where Udemy would accept it and only recently have I been able to do what is known as talking head videos where it’s anything but Power Point screen or sharing my screen and it’s actually me talking on video. So, set aside some time for that.

They will give you feedback. It will take some time to tweak it. However, the biggest benefit for me of Udemy is, like already mentioned, I like to spend my time directly promoting my high dollar courses to my email list, my YouTube channel and my podcast listeners directly.

For the other courses that I have developed, that are approximately an hour in length that I don’t mind making less money for, I put them up on Udemy because there is more of an audience there and Udemy is going to do all of the promotional work for me.

So, I am recording that course once, I may update it once or twice a year, I’ll log in every so often to answer student questions and that’s it.

And there are very rarely student questions if you structure you course the right way; you should not have a lot of questions where you have to jump in every single day unless you are getting tons and tons of students. So, I love that it’s very low touch for me to put a course up there. I have a free course and then I have a number of paid courses and I make money from that every single month without really having to think about it or work too hard at it. If you are thinking about setting up a Udemy course, I recommend checking out instructors who teach courses about making money on Udemy.

Some of my favorites are Dave Espino and Phil Ebiner; they have great courses about developing materials for Udemy and how they’ve leveraged it into really successful six-figure businesses. So, learn from someone who has done it already. Do not reinvent the wheel and follow Udemy’s guidelines. Udemy may be better for you, if:

You have shorter courses that you don’t mind putting at a lower price point.

You don’t have an audience at all and want to test the market to see if there is interest for your idea.

You want to gain reviews and feedback to develop this into a more comprehensive course that you can later charge more for.

The post Udemy Versus Teachable for Online Courses appeared first on Sweet Success Society.

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#Udemy Versus Teachable for Online Courses

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cramerhurley00 · 2 years

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Nice of Fashion Blogs

The Internet is chock filled with them -- fashion blogs involving different shapes and forms, expounding upon the merits regarding skinny jeans compared to boyfriend jeans. Or why pink may be the new black in addition to all of that jazz. Proceeding online today means getting your load (whether you prefer it or not) of the latest fashion trends through vogue blogs. Perhaps a few people would argue that fashion is not that important and it's something they might do without. However , if you think about it, style has long been part involving our lives : it has always greatly influenced culture and culture, largely because it truly is designed possible by factors like the weather condition, the environment and considerably more significantly, by a great individual's personal experiences, beliefs and beliefs. Fashion even assisted define certain eras in history which often involved class discrimination, the thin series between royalty plus non-royalty and sometimes social dressing restrictions. In the old days in European Europe, government regulations prevented the bourgeoisie from wearing great clothes so they would not look like vips. In China, the dragon was regarded as a symbol involving the emperor and thus, should not necessarily be worn by simply non-royals. During Entire world War II, the length of American women's skirts seemed to be restricted due in order to fabric rations. This just goes to show, trend has always already been a significant influence inside our life which we've always lived with it instructions we just don't this. Today's fashion-conscious people or fashionistas, because they are fondly known to, live with trend in different methods. They use fashion blogs as some sort of means to verify out new trends not to end up being perceived as cool or in, although to understand what men and women on the roadways are wearing. Style bloggers themselves have got a firm grip within the latest styles plus shy away through those that lean towards the "outrageously expensive" and suggest instead, what is cheap but stylish. Another reason style bloggers are well-liked is because they will themselves were once fashion outs - outsiders who, credited to their persistence and perseverance in gaining an advantage over the so-called "snobs" in typically the fashion industry, possess become lauded reporters. They send the fashion world spinning using their honest takes on this season's collections via honest and even real takes about the current tendencies and how the particular ordinary folk may possibly be able to carry them off of. They also end up with a myriad of skillsets from where they get a lot more influence intended for their blogs. Several of them web host fashion events or dress the home windows of the world's many famous and finest fashion storefronts. Still, others shoot glimpse books and in many cases go walking the catwalk on their own. Such will be the achievement of fashion blogging and site-building that even some other major industries love advertising, want a piece of the action. Because fashion bloggers will be faithfully followed by women everywhere, these people have become potent personalities whose words are read and even taken to cardiovascular like one would certainly the Bible. And advertisers and stores are eager in order to get their products moved in big ways. Yes, vogue blogs are here to stay. In fact, this can be safely said that they are slowly but surely replacing magazine editors while the leaders of style and fashion. Vogue blogging is one industry where the particular huge payoffs offset all the dangers - fashion writers may very well be the vogue world's answer to high corporate earners in the world of business that make business suits appearance good. Today's girls connect with their own inner fashion cantatrice by means of reading fashion blogs. With Additional info and everything concerning fashion posted on these websites, it features become easier for fashionistas to up-date their looks in addition to wardrobes to always keep up with the particular times. Click right here for more lifestyle info.

#berry look clothing reviews #click here #more info #here #read more #website #get more info #check here #Additional info

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drqid-blog · 7 years

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Dissertation Proposal

BCU Visual Communication Contextual Studies

VIS5027 Identifying Direction

Dissertation Proposal

1. Working Title

Does a GIF hold artistic value?

2. Dissertation Proposal [1000 words]

Within this essay will be a look at the GIF format, how it became so popular within today's culture and whether you could class a GIF as having aesthetic value. Since the 1990s artists have used the internet as a platform to upload, publish and share their art work to a multitude of people at the click of a button but has this diluted the value of the ‘art’ these people are creating, this is what this essay hopes to research thus reaching an understanding of this fad.

The graphics interchange format most commonly known as a GIF, was introduced to the world in 1987.The GIF was perfect for running image transfers compatible with the slow internet connection at the time. It was also popular because it allowed colour which made the black and white encoding format RLE outdated. In 1998, the GIF format was opened to the public starting the craze that has developed massively over the past couple of decades.

GIFs have gone through many different stages of popularity, style and usage. In the late 1990s the GIF was mostly used for adverts for big companies, they were usually used for many different graphical contexts and so the background was mostly transparent with classic animation just like the GIF on the old apple website (fig 1). The style of GIF suddenly changed with the birth of Myspace (fig 2). A craze of similar websites started up because all the younger generation wanted to personalise their own websites with these bold, flashing GIFs. The abundance of these glittery monstrosities allowed people to have whatever they felt like on their websites, making this fad the most important thing for kids in beginning of the 21st century. However more recently the most popular GIFs are those made from TV clips, funny YouTube videos and internet art. The beginning of Tumblr and other similar blog creation websites brought around this craze of these looped sequences made from captures of moves for example a clip from the new film Zootopia (fig 3) has become very popular in such a short amount of time. The ease of sending GIFs to people via iPhone and Facebook message has also even started to promote people communicating using GIFs. Although this craze just seems like a bit of fun, what can we really get from looking GIFs? Do they hold artistic value or are they all just for a laugh or to relive a certain moment from a film?

Art and beauty are two concepts in our society that has an impact on our emotions, health and even to help broaden our minds. It makes us think of concepts that we wouldn’t usually be able to think about, for example Impact of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a book by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) changed the way we think about slavery because she portrayed slaves as people with aspirations and desires just like everyone else and not just a piece of meat to be bought and sold. Watching a certain film could make you change your view on life, or even influence you to change your lifestyle. However, would you say that a GIF could change your life? Philip Intile (also known as pi-slices) would argue that yes, a GIF can change your life. Philip Intile is the founder of the GIF Artist Collective creating moving pictures that loop endlessly on and on for Tumblr, Imgur, Reddit and many more. The GIFs that he makes (fig 4) are becoming increasingly popular for how simple they are and this leads you to believe that people are considering GIFs artistically valuable.

The branch of Philosophy that concerns itself with art and beauty is called Aesthetics. It started in the eighteen century and although a lot has changed since then a lot of the work by philosophers is still relevant today. David Hume (1711-1776) stated that taste in art may be relative to the individual but overall, it is not random for example a GIF may be liked and enjoyed by many people but that doesn’t mean that it holds artistic value. People can judge how much a piece of art is worth; otherwise we would have no system put in place to determine how important some art is compared to others. For example, Van Gogh’s art work is more valuable than a drawing done by a child, why is this and how can we tell? David Hume’s theory on art and value is that there is the ideal critic who can judge art on a non-biased and educated view point. It is a wonder what David Hume and his ideal critic would say about modern day gifs and within this dissertation I am to understand what it is he would say on the subject.

Another view on Aesthetics and the value of art comes from Hugo A. Meynell. He believes that there is an objective standard within art; ‘the goodness of a work of art is in the impact on the consumer and not within its concept or use’ i.e art is not like a fork or spoon, an object you can determine how useful it is by just looking at it. You need to experience art, the objective nature of its beauty does not live in the object, but the impact it has on its viewer, reader or listener. From this view point I believe many people would determine that a GIF does hold artistic value as many people feel gifs evoke an emotional response in the viewer.

Many internet artists would also argue that Gifs are a wonderful creation and hold just as much artistic value as a film or a piece of art in a gallery. Robin Davey, an illustrator and animator states ‘for me it’s a supplemental skill to my career in illustration and animation, with that said gifs have been hugely valuable in populating my work and getting my name out there’. This statement is quite useful within this dissertation as it shows how gifs are useful in the world of illustration and animation. The research that will be conducted for this dissertation will include an interview with an internet artist who makes many gifs to have a look at those who make them, as well as producing surveys for the audience to tell us how useful and artistically valuable the public think they are.

The combination of knowledge from philosophers like David Hume with the opinions of internet artists and bloggers alike will help to bring some reasoning to this question of Gifs and their artistic Value. Is this just a craze or is there something more hiding behind the endless loops of The graphics interchange format?

fig. 1

fig. 2

fig. 3

fig. 4

3. Reference List

Art & Education. (2017). The Affect of Animated GIFs (Tom Moody, Petra Cortright, Lorna Mills) | Art & Education. [online] Available at: http://www.artandeducation.net/paper/the-affect-of-animated-gifs-tom-moody-petra-cortright-lorna-mills/ [Accessed 22 May 2017].

CARPENTER, J. (2017). Can GIFs be considered legitimate art?. [online] Stuff. Available at: http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/70413738/can-gifs-be-considered-legitimate-art [Accessed 22 May 2017].

Carpenter, J. and Carpenter, J. (2017). Meet the artists turning GIFs into legitimate careers. [online] Washington Post. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/07/20/meet-the-artists-turning-gifs-into-legitimate-careers/?utm_term=.a1fd5d8a782b [Accessed 22 May 2017].

McGorrigan, B. (2017). Objective aesthetic values in art. 1st ed. University of Nottingham.

Philosophynow.org. (2017). What is Art? and/or What is Beauty? | Issue 108 | Philosophy Now. [online] Available at: https://philosophynow.org/issues/108/What_is_Art_and_or_What_is_Beauty [Accessed 22 May 2017].

Snyder, S. (2017). Summary: David Hume, "Of the Standard of Taste". [online] Academia.edu. Available at: http://www.academia.edu/3018449/Summary_David_Hume_Of_the_Standard_of_Taste_ [Accessed 22 May 2017].

Web.mnstate.edu. (2017). David Hume on the standard of taste - basic outline. [online] Available at: http://web.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/web%20publishing/Hume%20on%20the%20standard%20of%20taste-LectureNotes.htm [Accessed 22 May 2017].

Willette, J. (2017). Kant and Art for Art’s Sake. [online] Arthistoryunstuffed.com. Available at: http://arthistoryunstuffed.com/kant-art-for-arts-sake/ [Accessed 22 May 2017].

4. List of Images

ali0044 (2017). Gif of what apples website looked like in 1990. [image] Available at: https://appadvice.com/post/gif-apples-website-late-1990s/727581 [Accessed 22 May 2017].

CompuServe (1989). a rotating globe in gif format. [image] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIF [Accessed 22 May 2017].

DISNEY ZOOTOPIA GIF. (2017). [image] Available at: https://giphy.com/gifs/3NtY188QaxDdC [Accessed 22 May 2017].

pi-slices (2017). trippy abatract sunflower. [image] Available at: https://giphy.com/gifs/trippy-abstract-3ohzdOtBjFE3JwFBHG [Accessed 22 May 2017].

5. Chapter Structure

· Introduction

-introduce my subject and aims

History of a GIF

-section surrounding the history of a GIF, how it got to be so popular

-look at the beginning where it wasn’t allowed within the public domain

-look at the 21st century,, the starting point really.

-how gifs are affecting us now, using them almost instinctively.

· From a Philosophical view point

-David Hume and his idea on the ideal critic and what he would say about gifs

-Kants idea on concept; it holds no artistic value.

-Hugo’s idea it is the audience that gives it meaning

· What do internet artists have to say?

-my primary research interview with an internet artist

-my results from surveys

-what internet artists must say about gifs

· Conclusion

-come to a rational conclusion based on all the data gathered.

6. Reading List

Belloc, H. (1967). On. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press.

Berleant, A. and Carlson, A. (2007). The aesthetics of human environments. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press.

Carlson, A. and Berleant, A. (2004). The aesthetics of natural environments. Peterborough ON: Broadview Press.

Gracyk, T. (n.d.). The Philosophy of Art.

Guter, E. (2010). Aesthetics A-Z. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Nanay, B. (n.d.). Aesthetics as philosophy of perception.

Sheppard, A. (2009). Aesthetics. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press.

Soderholm, J. (1997). Beauty and the critic. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.

Stecker, R. and Gracyk, T. (2010). Aesthetics today. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Townsend, D. (2005). Hume's aesthetic theory. London: Routledge.

Townsend, D. (n.d.). Hume's aesthetic theory.

7. Primary Research

The Gif Collective

-message the gif collective and ask for an interview

-ask them to put a survey up on their Tumblr asking questions about my dissertation title; do you think a gif is a work of art? Does a gif create an emotional response in you?

Famous Gif Artist (Maybe Robin Davey)

-interview him on the importance of Gifs and how they have changed your life

Survey for The Public

-send out surveys to the public asking them similar questions to the survey sent out to the followers on the Gif Collective.

0 notes

yes-dal456 · 7 years

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8 U.S. Solo Travel Destinations You Probably Haven't Thought Of

For Glamour, by Perri Ormont Blumberg.

If pushing yourself out of your comfort zone is at the top of your agenda this year, booking a solo travel experience might be a good place to start. Friends weekends and romantic getaways are great—and often very necessary—but there’s something potentially life-changing about testing your own boundaries by exploring new places on your own.

"Solo travel makes you more outgoing. It requires you to engage with people you normally may not need to speak to and can open your mind to all different types," says Dr. Magdalena Swierczewski, the founder of ExplorerMD. "You also learn more about yourself, as you have time to observe, reflect, and learn who you are and how you react to certain situations. Solo travel makes you feel strong."

Where to start? If you're planning to go abroad, Dr. Swierczewski suggests spending time researching areas of interest and familiarizing yourself with the culture and customs, specifically as they pertain to women, since safety should always be a first priority.

Still, solo travel doesn't always mean hightailing it to faraway lands or planning a once-in-a-lifetime voyage.

"If you have the travel bug and want to [go] solo, a good way to start is short-distance domestic travel," says Dr. Swierczewski. "You have the language down, which gives you more confidence, and after a few trips, you can graduate to international solo travel." Plus, trips around the country can also be shorter—even if just a long weekend—making them ideal for those of us who can't duck out of work for weeks on end.

Read on for eight cool, unexpected American destinations to consider this year.

Norfolk, Virginia

This mid-Atlantic destination is often overlooked and ripe for entourage-free exploration. Art enthusiasts will love strolling through the NEON district, a mural-filled neighborhood where you can visit the Glass Wheel Studio, catch a comedy show, or attend an opera performance. Later, head to the cozy bar at Todd Jurich’s Bistro for drinks and some hand-harvested Eastern Shore oysters.

Juneau, Alaska

Nervous about undertaking the epicness of Alaska? Fear not. "Embarking on this kind of trip makes a woman stronger than she already is, but you have to have your head on your shoulders," says Dr. Swierczewski. "Try to stick to well-known tours if that's your thing, or get some recommendations from friends that are reliable," she advises. One of your best bets? Pearson’s Pond Luxury Inn & Adventure Spa. This non-traditional getaway focuses on relaxation and restorative wellness in the state’s gorgeous outdoor terrain. You’ve got easy access to the city’s nearby Glacier’s Pond for canoeing or kayaking and trails for hiking and biking.

Finger Lakes, New York

Don't miss this stunning region of upstate New York made up of 11 lakes and more than 120 wineries. First solo mission: Grab a spot aboard a boat with Water to Wine Tours. To stay, try Firelight Camps, which offers yoga and complimentary s’mores at nighttime bonfires (life's all about balance, folks). Not into glamping? Try Belhurst Castle, which offers a hell-yes-it’s-complimentary wine tap built into a lobby wall. There’s also the cozy Inns of Aurora perched upon the gorgeous Cayuga Lake.

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

If an unexpected seaside escape is your cup of tea, consider Bay St. Louis. Once ravaged by Katrina, this resilient town on the water has seriously artsy vibes. Boutique-hop through Old Town (quirky Smith & Lens gallery and The French Potager are musts) and then Vinyasa-flow your way through your #NewYearsGoals at Treehouse Yoga followed by a visit to Mockingbird Café for a cup of near-perfect coffee. If you can swing it, treat yourself to a restorative day at Spa at the Bay in Hollywood Casino Gulf Coast.

Cape Neddick, Maine

If lighthouses, coastal charm, and all the lobster sound appealing, check out this under-the-radar town in the Pine Tree State. Slink into the welcoming embrace of Cliff House, perched upon craggy cliffs where the Atlantic meets the shore; it has a newly renovated spa complete with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the ocean. You’ll never know what characters you’ll meet at the s’mores pit or any of the other resort’s nightly activities.

Columbus, Ohio

Get lost at the Columbus Museum of Art before swinging by writer’s haven, Thurber House, where literary types can geek out over touring the historic former home of the New Yorker cartoonist James Thurber. Cap off your independent adventures with a night or two in Hocking Hills (about an hour’s drive), a peaceful countryside oasis with hiking trails, waterfalls, and ecotourism excursions like rappelling and zip-lining. We dare you to leave the swinging chair on the porch of your rustic log cabin at the Inn at Cedar Falls, though the inn’s spa hiding in the deep beauty of the woodlands may convince you.

Portsmouth, New Hampshire

It’s hard to beat that exhilarating feeling of arriving in a new city, boots on the ground, liberated from any agenda but your own. But let’s be real—giant cities like New York or Los Angeles can be overwhelming when flying solo. Portsmouth, a colonial New England town, combines the best of the countryside with big-city amenities. Foodie? Portsmouth is on the culinary upswing, thanks to multiple James Beard semifinalists like Matt Louis (Moxy is a must) and Evan Mallet (you’ll be dreaming of Black Trumpet’s chickpea-dredged eggplant fries for months). And Portsmouth may be a small seaside community, but any craft beer fan will tell you Smuttynose Brewery is among the best with good reason. Go on a brewery tour or take a short drive to one of the state’s many microbreweries. Treat yourself to a night at Wentworth By The Sea and stroll the boardwalk at Hampton Beach.

Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Satisfy your creative side by getting lost at Reynolda House Museum of American Art; hang out on the Green downtown with plenty of cool art and food trucks; geek out over the history of this 1766 Moravian settlement; and grab a treat at Winkler Bakery, which has been doling out treats since the early 1800s. Happy hour, you say? The nearby vineyards and wineries are a great place to unwind.