#surprised there isnt a template like this already
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hanging on to sanity by a single circular-pin-shaped thread
#i made it btw!#proud of it#sadly its like my only accomplishment in a year of free time#pride#pride art#i'll post the how-to that i was working on#painting it is the hard part tbh#i didn't do a great job ofc but it's still something#surprised there isnt a template like this already
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❀⋆ Boyfriend!Felix Headcanons
「❀⋆ Anon: “Headcanons for dating felix and *another request here*?” 」
thanks for the request anon, and sorry for taking a bit to answer it! the second part of your request will come soon ^^ this is 10x longer than it was supposed to be, i may be 100% team jeongin, but boyfriend felix is something else!!
i’ll also be doing this same template for other boyfriend headcanons, so don’t be afraid to send in a stray kids or day6 member!
confession:
a lot of headcanons leave these out and i hate it when that happens so here we are!!
listen
i can only see felix liking their best friend aND THATS IT
so with that statement, you guys are super comfortable with each other
you’ll literally tell him your darkest secret and he’ll be fine with it, vice versa
so when he said “hey wanna like,, go out on a date” while you two were spread out on a couch
...
you thought i was gonna say “you were cool with it”
but of course not!! your best friend just asked you out???
“did seungmin dare you to say that?”
felix looks at you with wide eyes
“i swear he didn’t! i’ve liked you for a while, okay??”
he pushes your leg with his foot (like what minsung did in two kids room)
“ow, but of course, i’ve like you for a while too dipshit”
“thanks dipshit”
firsts:
first date
if you’re reading this in the fabulous quarantine era that i’m experiencing right now,
of course you two are going on an animal crossing: new horizons date!!
it doesn’t matter if you two are right next to each other or at different locations
or if you guys go on a lil’ museum date or get swarmed by wasps, it’s still a great first date
but if you can actually go outside when you’re reading this,
or is allergic to dogs yOU KNOW WHERE THIS IS GOING- (if you are allergic, your date is the one above this is getting to long dear god)
i see him taking you to the dog cafe he always goes too ^-^
he introduces you to all the dogs and their names and personalities
treats you to whatever the cafe is serving
just,, amazing,, of course,, just like him,,
first kiss
you two were at an arcade for another date
stopping at the iconic stuffed animal claw machine
and he was DETERMINED to get that pikachu plushie for you
you stood by him the entire time, waiting for the claw to grab it
and he did it!!
once he pulled it out of the machine and presented it to you
you did a（*＾3＾）and wrapped your arms around him because that’s my boyfriend!! he got this pikachu plush for me!!
probably gave you a（*＾3＾）back and then turned into a liquid form, covering his face painted with blush
first “i love you”
probably just came out without him realizing
it was (ironically, another first) your first time sleeping in the same bed with him
you were facing each other, and you started to admire his star like freckles
“what are you staring at?” he suddenly asks you
your take aback before answering “your freckles of course”
welp, he didn’t know how to respond to that
so he decided “enough!” at how separated you two are and brought you to his chest, placing his chin on the top of your head
although it’s starting to get hot because of all the limbs surrounding you, the gesture makes your heart beat faster for him
and as your muscles start to relax and your breathing becomes slower,
you hear the faintest “good night, i love you” mumbled into your hair
and you had just enough energy to say “i love you too” back before you fell into dreamland, feeling his hammering heart
affection (hugs, kisses, cuddles, etc.):
listen listen LISTENNN
remember in skz’s video about felix the members said how felix is super affectionate??
WHY ISNT THIS TALKED ABOUT MORE OFTEN I W A N T HIM
sorry jeongin
i firmly believe (like other skz writing blogs) that whenever felix surprises you with a backhug he kisses your cheeks afterwards
aND whenever he’s feeling playful he kisses you with a loud “mWAH”
they’re actual stay headcanons now, fight me
(credits to those who thought of that!!)
then again pretends to bite your arm off while you stare at him like “0-0”
absolutely LOVES IT when you two are on the couch, he’s focusing on playing his video games on the tv and you lay down and wrap your arms around his torso (like that seunglix moment in their gone days mu:fully series?? yeah except you’re felix and he’s seungmin now lol)
totally random but bops your nose a lot and rubs your cheeks together
in conclusion: cuddly boi who we’d all die for
3 extra acts of love:
i mentioned this in skz’s bff headcanons, but it’s still a tradition for you two to eat banana pancakes! this time, it’s changed to every saturday that felix has a day off, so you can wake up together and cook a delicious breakfast!
his favorite thing to see is you dancing, whether it’s professionally or just in the kitchen cooking dinner. if he had a bad day or is really stressed out, everything washes away when he sees your dance.
even a few months into your relationship (since you two are already best friends), he’s already talking about your future with him! like how your wedding’s going to be, if you want children, he loves talking about stuff like that! he never sees himself dating another person other than you ^^
#stray kids#skz#stray kids felix#lee felix#stray kids fluff#stray kids reactions#stray kids imagines#lee yongbok#stray kids yongbok#stray kids lee felix#stray kids lee yongbok#stray kids felix fluff#stray kids headcanons#skz felix#stray kids scenarios
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March 7th-March 13th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive
The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from March 7th, 2020 to March 13th, 2020. The chat focused on the following question:
What is your overall marketing/promotion strategy for your webcomic?
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
I don't know if this counts as a strategy, but these are some of the things I do to promote my comic or my work in general. 1. Most important from what I've noticed (which I have been failing at due to stress and self-doubt lately) is to post updates to your comic frequently and consistently. It seems somewhat silly that simply putting your work out there is the best way to grow an audience, but it really is. Newly posted chapters frequently get shown on more pages and thus detected by the algorithms and potential readers. It also helps to establish trust with current and returning readers. 2. Participating in art/comic events, forums, and other comicking communities (such as this one). In a way, this isn't really marketing directly, but it is good to build connections with other creators! 3. Conventions! I actually have gotten a several new readers/followers from attending cons. It's also nice just to talk to people, get your name out there locally, and to make a little bit of money while at it. 4. Social media promotion. Tbh, this hasn't been super helpful to me, but more eyes is always a win in my book. I try to post almost every day, even if it isn't art or comic related. Having some kind of social media presence at all, even if it's small, shows people that you are working hard to connect to others. Also finding the right hashtags definitely helps with visibility.
kayotics
Overall, my strategy for marketing is to be authentic and just keep plugging my stuff. People will come if they like it. I work as a marketer for my day job, so I know what I COULD do, but I really don’t do that much since a whole marketing plan would take a lot more time than I have available to me. Some of the stuff I do otherwise: - regular updates. This ones pretty important for retaining viewers I already have. Any good marketing strategy is thinking about retaining people, not just getting new ones - self promo: this usually is on top webcomics or on social media. I get a LOT of traffic from top webcomics, and I get a good handful of people from social media. - conventions, like mentioned before, can be a great way to get people’s eyes on your stuff. I have a postcard that I hand out to people if they come by or they purchase something. - the thing I don’t do enough is post more art outside of the comic, or even just little previews. If I were dedicated to marketing, I’d be sharing sketches or illustrations on social media to grow my audience.
DanitheCarutor
Ah you know, I don't really have much of a strategy. At some point I promoted as much as I could on Twitter, adding my comic to those share/promo thread, getting in on relevant hashtag events, participating on WebComic Chat (whenever I remembered to). I've done a little promotion on forums, but there is really only so much you can do since only so many people hang out there and if your work is super niche like mine, they will pretty much avoid your promos at all cost. Lmao Other than those I don't really do much, at some point I attempted to use Instagram but the site/app is very stingy about offsite links. I also started a Facebook page, although if you don't have the money to boost your promos and don't usually have a lot going on with your comic outside of weekly updates, it won't get a whole lot of attention. I've also tried to be more active, but I'm not a good conversationalist, and I tend to be kind of a thread/conversation/mood killer so I try to avoid talking outside of Q&A prompts like this.
eli [a winged tale]
Same Dani, I used Instagram for a while too and I just don’t think the platform is a good fit for my vertical scroll comic (see exhibit 1) Twitter is a mixed bag as well and I think unless you have a solid following already, it’s hard to gain traction. What really helped was being on Webtoon’s staff pick for a couple days. I’m not sure how Tapas picked up but it’s reassuring that there’s a couple of followers gained every week when I posted regularly. So it really does sound like the first step is to have a steady update schedule (working on the buffer! Got a month’s work down today). It’s just challenging because while I could upload one page a week but on the vertical scroll sites it seems like a longer episode (6-7 pages) is valued more as a solid update. Love hearing everyone’s thoughts and hope to learn from y’all! (edited)
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
Consistency and con attendance were big ones for me, but something I learned worked well (and was really fun to do) was creating really fun, really dumb, non-canon bits of art every now and then. Following meme prompts or funny ideas from other people. If your comic can afford some humor being thrown its way, making people laugh is a great way to get some attention. No one needs to know the details of your story - they just need to relate to the characters/humor somehow. I had more than one person come across my dumb, meme-y ancillary art and go “Welp, I want to read your comic now.”
eli [a winged tale]
Memes to the rescue! What has been your favourite to do? And which one has surprised you in its relatability/popularity?
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
Two shots of vodka.
Also that terrible sweater meme. Everyone is required to do the terrible sweater meme. People eat it up.
eli [a winged tale]
Too good
Ahh I can’t wait till I can actually write silly adult characters
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Now that you mention it, the nice thing about the terrible sweater meme is it works with a WIDE variety of comics.
eli [a winged tale]
I would love to do a meme with y’all
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
"Came for the story, staying for the sick memes"
Spring-heeled Jack
I try to post updates every friday when my new pages go up on Patreon. And then I make my big post when my tapas and website update at the end of the month. Between all that, I have little flyers that I carry with me and if I'm ever in a shop that has a little self promotion section, I plan on tacking up a flyer. I do conventions, and this will be my first convention season while actively making a comic, so flyers will be handed out then as well.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
My comic isnt very comedy-heavy, and even for the funny scenes, my sense of humor isn't compatible with most people's. So a lot of the memes out there just don't work. But terrible sweater meme doesn't have to be hilarious. It can be just cute, or even weird.
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
For me, uh lmao. I sometimes make some funny strip panels and it was received well even though it's not polished for my liking lmao
Spring-heeled Jack
Keii, I feel you. I'm not good with comedy and my comic isn't meant to be funny, either, so I don't know how well a comedy meme will help me.
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
overall, I try to be honest with just self promo and asking when I have a chance "Hey pls check out my comic lol"
eli [a winged tale]
Or maybe just something relatable? Seen a couple caption this on tumblr
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I think instead of memes, what I'm gonna do is my characters cosplaying more well known characters from works that have some tonal similarities with my own. This isn't just for advertising purposes; it's something I've been wanting to do for a long time for myself. But I'm realizing it can serve some of the same purposes that memes do.
Spring-heeled Jack
That's extremely cute!
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Keyword being "SOME" Tonal similarities... Some of them aren't very similar but have a couple of parallels, etc.
Spring-heeled Jack
Oh for sure. Even if you could find that 'perfect match', it might not be a great cosplay for them, and give too much away
Are "draw the squad" prompts still a thing? I love those
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
The One White Dude and the Tiger Dude in my comic will definitely cosplay Calvin and Hobbes at some point.
Spring-heeled Jack
LOL
omg please, Keii
eli [a winged tale]
YES
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
Yeah, not every comic will have super memeable humor - but whatever you can do to break down that wall between you and a potential reader and go “Hey! Look at this. Is this relatable? Do you get the reference? Etc” Is a very good bet
Also yes squad memes are PERFECT
You can boil down your comic’s relationships so simply.
Spring-heeled Jack
I have four couples in my comic so those "ship dynamic" posts might be fun
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
What are squad memes?
eli [a winged tale]
I also need to be educated about squad I mean all the memes
Spring-heeled Jack
OH MAN!! They are fun as heck. You can find templates and it's a very simple character design in the template, but the poses are super silly. And then you just draw your characters in place of those simple figures(edited)
If you google "Draw the squad" you will find a bunch
renieplayerone
Oh! Ill have to try that! These squad bases look fun!
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
I still have one of those I need to finish Back when I first started sharing my work, I was surprised and delighted at how quickly people shoved it through a meme filter.
Maybe that’s another thing! If marketing opportunities present themselves as a surprise, try running with them and see where they take you Within reason, of course. Never feel forced to follow anything that people respond to in a particular way. Just take it into account and see how you feel about it.
renieplayerone
(Im here to lurk on this week's question, i have no strategy and need ideas haha)
eli [a winged tale]
Omg draw the squad looks
too many to choose
mariah (rainy day dreams)
I love draw the squad poses so much TuT I wish I had more time to draw within more of them. I think I always get a little dishearten about making memes because I feel like I need to make my jokes full illustrations but I never have time for much extra content beyond ballpoint pen sketches :T
Mei
Honestly I don't have a marketing or promotion strategy for my webcomic. I make updates every week, and I post it on my twitter and kinda plug it there. I'm actually god awful at trying to make people read my comic because I'm a little bit nervous about it, to be honest. So I just sort of leave it there and see if people find it, half the time. That being said, I tried to promote it pretty hard at conventions last year. But that didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I'm hoping to make flyers with QR codes so that people can scan it, and it'll take them to the landing page/tapas for the comic. That might be a bit easier than getting them to just search the title, plus having a flyer is a nice bit of promotion if I get the opportunity?! Making memes and drawing characters in different clothes or in squad things sounds like super fun tho and I might look into that in the future
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
It's nice to hear everyone talk about this topic. TBH I had completely stopped promoting my comic because I got too scared of backlash, being a disappointment, etc. (Initially I'd attracted a number of people who weren't actually my target audience, and that led to some less than ideal results.) But some time last year, it occurred to me that 1) I'm making this comic for my reader self (or my "hypothetical taste twin" as I like to call it)... which means 2) I only have to appeal to people like me. So I started asking myself, "What would I have to say/do to get me to read this comic?" and that made it significantly less intimidating. I haven't actually started doing self promo (though I did start plugging my updates on Twitter at least). But most future self promo I do will be based on that ^ question.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
(oh god, I was just checking out the latest update for one of the Korean webcomics I read, and the new episode is about a hikikomori... who says "I want to change, but I can't step outside because... maybe there isn't a single person out there who will understand me." THAT WAS ME but with comic promo. Well, I'm getting better and I also hope this character will, too, though knowing this comic his chances aren't so great lol...)
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I hope that wasn't too awkward to share! Tl;dr I really think the "what would I have to say/do to get ME to check out my comic" is a good approach for anyone else feeling intimidated about doing self promos.
In the same vein, but on the opposite side of the coin: I'm curious to know, what were some things that got YOU to read someone else's comic?
Some of my own answers to that aren't very relevant to what we can do for our own comics: e.g. I'm Korean and when Naver has a new comic in their pro comic lineup, I may check it out. I'm also a member of SpiderForest and I check out the applicants' comics during the app season. Stuff like that aren't really good promo options that we can take. But things that may be relevant: - 'Evocative scenery shot that doesn't show the face/ doesn't focus on the face.' MY WEAKNESS. That kinda pictures feel subtle and kind of lonely to me, even if it's a group shot. And I like stories with those vibes. -Promo includes an evocative quote. Could be from the comic itself, or from something else like a classical literature or whatever. The creator of Ark (https://www.arkcomic.com/) does this sometimes and even though I'm already following Ark, those promos get my attention.
eli [a winged tale]
Definitely the art promo now that I think of it! Merch, posters, banners etc. If the art intrigues me, I definitely take a look at the site/blurb/first chapter
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I wonder if we can semi-workshop promo art at some point? Not really intensive like "change xyz" because that's not always feasible with art, but just impression feedback like, "this pictures gives me these vibes, and makes me expect this kinda story"
I would be curious to see everyone's even if we don't workshop
eli [a winged tale]
YES
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
Yesssss
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
Yes please. I don‘t promo besides update notices simply because I have no clue to start.
Mei
Sometimes I get really attracted by the style of the story? I immediately started reading Wolfsbane because the art was cool and different from a lot of whta I'd seen on Webtoon up until that point. And then the story was perfect for me. What keii said about writing for yourself is right. Patrick Ness once said you should write the stories your younger self would have loved to pick up on a shelf
and I think that's a pretty evocative thing. At the end of the day, you should be enjoying what you're writing (hopefully). And if you enjoy it and you're having fun making it, that can rub off on the people reading it, or you find the people who like that similar vein of story?
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
(It's also 100% legit to write stories for your current self )
Mei
(oh yes 100% that's what i'm doing HEHE)
Tolkein wrote LOTR because he was like
in love with worldbuilding
was there a market for such a strange type of novel at the time? No. Definitely not. Did he write it anyway? YEAH HE DID
Deo101 [Millennium]
I really wanna do an art workshop yes.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Aight, anyone who wants an impression feedback from me, post your promo art in #art_help
Warning, my impressions may be totally off lol
Deo101 [Millennium]
Also I don't do much marketing. Mostly I try to get in with communities and learn about making comics, I just want to improve my craft. All I really do is make my updated every week, and share whatever art Ive made on my Twitter or whatever
Okay! I think I only have my cover on my phone, but on my computer I also have my banners and icon. So I'll share all those in a bit when I'm at my computer
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
(off topic but I'm sick, and when I'm sick or very tired I constantly misread words. I read "my banners" as "my bananas" and I was very confused for a couple seconds.)
Deo101 [Millennium]
My bananers
Feather J. Fern
I am terrible at marketing my own work, but I am very good at marketing other people's work. I use the "you would like it for this reason" to grab people. Unfortunately I can't do it for my comic because I am bad at seeing the good in my own work oof. I am getting better at it though.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
That's a really good way to do it!
And I can relate. My own hangup is a little different, but it can be extremely difficult to be brave for sure, whether in front of other people, or just in front of your own brain that constantly judges you.
Feather J. Fern
Yeah I was talking about a friend's comic and then the person I was talking to was like "Don't you write comics" and I was like "ahfoofjw yeah but don't look at them"
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I was thinking a lot about the whole "it's like [well known work] meets [another well known work]" approach that was discussed earlier. And I think that could be relevant here. Like, think of something that has either influenced your comic significantly, or just happens to have some core similarities. How would you market that thing? Could you market your own thing using a similar approach -- since there are similarities?
I'd thought of a really good example to compare HoK to. Then I got sad because the said example is extremely obscure outside of Korea. But now I'm like, hey, people don't have to KNOW that work. I can do this differently. I can talk about HoK the way I could talk about it.
('it' as in the other work that's obscure outside of Korea)
Feather J. Fern
I do think that's a good fast shortcut but I don't like using it becuase the shortcut sometimes makes people angry when they don't get what they like out of those two things
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
That's why I said to NOT actually bring up the comparison work
Don't name it
Just list the traits that are shared in common
Feather J. Fern
Oh sorry
I miss read
(And my name changed colours all the sudden?)
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
It's a confusing topic, so no worries
It means you leveled up
Feather J. Fern
OWO!
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Say you want to compare your work to... I dunno, DBZ, because it's got super strong aliens duking it out barehanded, blasting ki-like energy attacks, etc. Don't name DBZ. Talk about your work the way you'd talk about your favorite aspects of DBZ. "My comic has super strong aliens duking it out hand-to-hand! YEEEAH!"
OH MY GOD I NEED TO DO THIS NOW.
Feather J. Fern
Yeah! That's what I would do. (But it also helps for me that my comic has no hard reference points) but for my new comic, people are gonna compare it to Zach Bell, and Angelic Layer i think
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I'm gonna write up some drafts that I will revise and tweet at a later time
Feather J. Fern
So I jsut got to you know, not promo it as such XD
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
I want to do this too for a quick pitch
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Do it (shop talk or story help maybe?)
I'm writing a vomit draft for mine
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
Yee
Feather J. Fern
I think I will do it for Story help
(Also so I can help flesh out my new project lol lol)
eli [a winged tale]
Kei I might be suuuuper off since I read only the beginning but I sort of thought inuyasha but Korea and handsome boys
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
Sometimes you don't even realize your story can be marketed as "blah meets blah" until much later down the line - I've only started realizing the number of existing properties I've absorbed unintentionally into my comic. It's not how I'd market it on a serious front, but to a friend for story help, heck yes.
But a lot of people on Twitter seem to do that strategy for PitMAD and it works great for them, so... shrug
I guess it still belongs in a "pitch arsenal," as it were
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Yeah, the one "blah" I just thought of is something I hadn't realized for all these years. But it makes so much sense now that I look at it.
eli [a winged tale]
See that’s where I got confused but I think this is what I’m gonna aim to do: - pitch to readers: inspiration but this awesome unique thing in the comic - pitch to other comic makers: the Logline - pitch to agents: comparison works if requested and longer pitch depending on their format - pitch to family: just read it plzthanksbye
renieplayerone
or alternative pitch to family: Please dear god never read this
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
That's me
Oof... Writing the 'promote your comic by talking about the traits it shares with Another Person's Work,' I made myself cry, and that is definitely a sign I'm on the right track.
eli [a winged tale]
Right track is good!
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
It took me years to even think of an 'other more popular work' comparison for Children of Shadow. XD But at the same time, it's really different from the works I compare it to, so it's hard to say 'Read this if you like X or X because it has a few similarities in theme and tone, but is still very much its own thing'.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Yeah which is why I'm not even gonna namedrop my X.
I'm just straight up gonna talk about 'My comic has [this trait]' (and X shares that trait, but no one needs to know for the purpose of that pitch)
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
To answer the weekly question... I really don't have a marketing strategy. Marketing is my achilles heel, so I generally just throw pages up and hope someone sees them. I don't really understand social media nor do I have the energy to sink tonnes of time into it, which seems to be one of the biggest requirements for being picked up by algorithms. So my marketing strategy is just.., keep making comics and talking to other creators and hope for the best
eli [a winged tale]
I think that’s still solid Capn
Ultimately you need a product to promote
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
It's something that helps me, because while I can talk about my favorite works done by others, I feel stuck when trying to do the same with my own. So it's basically telling my brain, 'hey, you already know how to do it with other stories. Do the same thing with your own.'
eli [a winged tale]
So true Kei
renieplayerone
thats my strategy too. best case you market it great, worst case you've made a new friend so win win :3
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
My incredibly low numbers after 14 years of making webcomics beg to differ but... maybe someday I can hire someone to help me market.
eli [a winged tale]
I’m using the comic platforms rather than my own site so... sort of relying on their algorithms. I imagine it can be harder if you just post on your own website?
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Sometimes the platforms don't help much if their audience isn't into the type of comics you make
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I post on both my own website and on platforms, but the algorithms for WT and Tapas don’t seem to like me, haha.(edited)
renieplayerone
yeah same
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
One of my top favorite webcomics got a front page feature on Tapas once, but it wasn't the kind of a story that gets a lot of traction there, so it still didn't get very popular. And that was in no way a measure of its quality. It is an excellent comic, just not a good fit for that particular place.
renieplayerone
I get far more views on my site, but I get way more engagement on Tapas and WT
I actually treat those two mirrors AS marketing for the main site(edited)
eli [a winged tale]
Exactly renie! Good perspective!
I never know what different platforms tailor to...
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Yeah, what Keiiii said. I make dark fantasy comics and both WT and Tapas favour romance, especially comics geared towards a female audience and drawn anime style. My comics aren’t particularly feminine and romance isn’t much of a focus, so they’re just not what that demographic is into.
eli [a winged tale]
I’ve been trying to remember how I came across my favourite comics and usually it’s through the art (interesting characters, unique dynamic style that I enjoy) and the first chapter holding promise (able to see what the character wants/will have to change into)
Romance has always been the best seller in the story world I think
Oh and most recently hiveworks and other web publishers have great recommendations too per genre
And comic conventions are always fun to meet creators. Sometimes If I feel I jive with someone I’m an instant fan
renieplayerone
I absolutely need to get better at having confidence enough to make friends at conventions x_x
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I have noticed my audience grow a bit since joining Spiderforest. They’ve helped me get a bit better at promotion, though marketing just isn’t my talent, lol.
renieplayerone
im always terrified haha
eli [a winged tale]
It’s a big step for sure renie! It took me like... three years going to VanCAF as an attendee before actually exhibiting and making friends(edited)
Mei
I know i'm late but i personally detest the 'this book is X meets Y!!', even though I get why people do it. I just wish they'd describe it to me like what if I'd never read either of those books......
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I would really love to get out to cons, they sound like a great opportunity for connecting with other creators. One of these years I’ll be able to get to one!(edited)
Deo101 [Millennium]
yeah im usually kinda like "okay, well are you doing anything new or are you just doing those things :/"
renieplayerone
I exhibit with the Boston Comics Roundtable and I still havent gotten the courage XD
Mei
yeah, cons are really fun even to attend or to make friends! I find it really tough though, I'm so intimidated;;
yeah Deo... same... it's like
sure, I could pitch a story as two things. Like I don't know "The Walking Dead meets Shaun of the Dead" which is semi redundant anyway
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I only use it to give people a framework for the kinds of tones and themes they can expect from my work when I have to keep my explanation short and sweet.
renieplayerone
they should have badges that say "Hi i want to make friends but you are all so awesome its intimidating be kind"
Mei
or you know... use those words to just describe the story? It may be a personal preference, some agents LOVE comparisons
Yes renie, yes!
i'd love a badge like that like
pls talk to me i'm scare
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Sometimes a few words can’t fully describe a story as well as saying: ‘It’s a little bit like X meets X but if you add [insert unique thing your story does]’
Mei
I personally find that it depends a bit too much on people having read those books or stories before. BUT if you're pitching to an agent, they've usually read those books
so then they get a sense or vibe of like, what the genre is
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
It’s all down to preference, really. Your own and the person you’re pitching to. If you don’t want to use comparisons to describe your own work, that’s valid, but try not to dismiss people who do.
Mei
so I get it, I just don't like it personally xD I think a lot of the times it takes away from your own voice and story
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
That too is part of the reason why I'm not namedropping the works
Just having my self-promo self learn from my 'promo other people's stuff' self
Mei
yeah for sure, it adds that level of excitement to your own work that you'd give to others?
eli [a winged tale]
I think a cool exercise might be to check out someone’s work here and see how you would promote it
It’s always good to see from someone else’s perspective
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
yessssss, all of my friends have been much better at promoting than I am
mostly because they have no shame regarding it but they also just... know what sounds cool
Mei
Oh i'm very good at promoting my friends' work
I sold his DnD book to a kpop stan who doesn't like DnD and doesn't play, and it was a crowning achievement
eli [a winged tale]
Like for yours I’d probably say... Manta Ray princess finds herself very much dead but is given a second chance to revive her friends and save her kingdom... just need to find someone very much living and very much not afraid of the seaghosts they have become
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
SOLID
though now I imagine Phaedra as a Manta Ray in a dress which is... not entirely untrue
eli [a winged tale]
LOL omg I haven’t even thought of that! Just thought manta Princess is a hook
Mei
Me, pointing at Cheth "I mean look at him, LOOK AT HIM and tell me you don't want to read this"
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
I guess for my work I market it from four potential angles: 1) The princess is cool and has a sword, 2) The villain is the best character, 3) The environments ain't bad, and 4) THERE'S A DOG
again, you gotta know who you're talking to and what they already like
eli [a winged tale]
In a world where a fallen god became trapped in the sea, a dead princess is given a second chance to fight for her life with a mysterious sea-bitten boy and undo the sea ghost curse that plagues the world.
Dammit I repeated world
Mei
hey... the environments are GREAT
eli [a winged tale]
Yeah Lady your environment shots are
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
ok I do try BUT BACK TO MARKETING
The number of times I see someone marketing their comic with very epic-sounding descriptors or broad generalizations... then that one day where they're finally like "oh, I have a character who turns into a hamster at nighttime" and people are like 'I'M SOLD'
And then they go ".... THAT'S WHAT YOU ALL WANTED???"
often it's those little weird details that get people interested
Deo101 [Millennium]
I wanna read about the were hamster please
Mei
sometimes I think the simplest and maybe slightly silly lines are what grabs people?
when things sound TOO epic i feel a bit intimidated
eli [a winged tale]
takes notes
Mei
but if someone were to sell me a big adventure epic as "it's hamsters and they fight the forces of evil" i'd read it
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
god yes
"Four small creatures band together to defeat a great darkness overwhelming their homeland."
No.
"Hamsters fight evil."
YES
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I.... I have no idea how to snappily describe my comics. XD
eli [a winged tale]
Same... I got to kids with wings for hair then my brain short circuits
Mei
i'd say it's the way you'd tell the story to a close friend
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
The best I came up with was 'Teenagers with supernatural powers team up with woodland critters to defeat monsters' but it sounds more adventure-y and doesn't really get at the fact that it's a dark story with horror elements and everyone's mentally ill.
Mei
like they come up to you and go "what's your comic about" "oh you know, my stupid comic's about mutant hamsters that take over the world" or something
(don't call your comics stupid none of your comics are stupid they are great)
Deo101 [Millennium]
"plant man and his goth boyfriend babysitting a ton of bozos" would probably be mine then
Mei
BEAUTIFUL
i'm sold
Deo101 [Millennium]
ghsakgjhgkhkgahgk my target audience...
Mei
i do think tho like this form of comedic one-lining may not work for something dark?
Unless you go "Spooky horror about cats that become humans at night!"
would need experimentation
eli [a winged tale]
It’s a balance I think.
Kids stranded on an island with weapons explore the darkness in human nature - Lord of the Flies
Mei
ooh yeah that's a good one!
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
A space explorer stranded on a foreign planet must join forces with the indigenous population and save his ship before his life support runs out.
Alternately
Small man goes to war with small carrot people
Pikmin
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
@Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios) I wonder if one could describe CoS the way how people might describe Evangelion, but with magical powers instead of mechs.
Teens, monsters, mental illnesses
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Probably. Though I've never seen Evangelion, but those three words work very well.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
The relationship dynamics are way different, but yeah, those three things...
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Also add trauma and cute lil animals and you have Children of Shadow. XD
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Evangelion also has trauma (though I don't know if you'd like it; this isn't a rec, just a promo discussion!) and it was refreshing to see at the time
A teen trying to fight huge monsters, even if he was doing it inside an equally huge mech, could lead to traumatizing experiences, and it was the first time I saw that seriously explored
Hmm, so I guess "teens, talking animals, monsters, mental illnesses feat. trauma" ?
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I don't know if it's similar at all, but that description reminds me strongly of Eureka 7. Wow, was that series intense,
🌈ERROR404 🌈
I really liked how the end happened - it was a nice solution to the lack of budget issue and told the story of his psyche reall well
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Though Eureka 7 was intense in a good way. I found the ending kind of unsatisfying, but admittedly I find the endings of 90% of animes unsatisfying (probably a cultural clash). But I enjoy them for the journey more than the ending.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I haven't watched Eureka 7, but the storyboard artist (one of the storyboard artists maybe?) for that anime is one of my favorite artists.
DanitheCarutor
Ah, a little late, but regarding the snappy promos I'm in the same boat as Cap'n with not knowing how to make one. At least one that would be ridiculous and totally not fitting the darker themes. I agree with all the people who have a generally hard time coming up with a pitch for their work, while having an easier time promoting other people's comics. Honestly my comic can be super boring to people who don't like pretentious, non-fantastical, angsty, character study types of stories. So it's really hard to think of a way to make it sound interesting without spoiling anything. Man! That thing when people come up to you, asking what your comic is about! Me: "Oh! Ah, it's uh, kinda sad and it has uh mental illness" -trails off with uncomfortable laughter- Them: Oh cool. -has a look of complete disinterest- Someone was actually extremely enthusiastic about the vague description of my comic, which somehow made me a mix of uncomfortable and excited.
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
I saw the conversation about blurbs and I just thought of one for a comic I'm working on! "An ecologist and a bird have a conversation about ethics"
I haven't started the comic yet so please send your critiques(edited)
and first impressions
(of the blurb)
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
"Angsty character study with a heavy dose of mental illness" <--- Could this descriptor work? @DanitheCarutor
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
kei said exactly what I was just typing
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Great minds
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
oh, i just realized i've read dani's comic
I think your description is fine?
The artsy, angsty comics I follow all have kind of short, tongue in cheek descriptions
it's hard to capture the tone of an emotional comic in one sentence so they either joke about it or make it intentionally misleading
for example Drop Out's description is something like "two friends go on a road trip" and Fritz Fargo's description is "a human dumpster fire in the 90s"
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
The dumpster fire one is insta-effective
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
Dani, maybe make your description shorter if anything?
Something like, "An emotionally stunted alcoholic attempts to make amends"
and then follow it up with kei's line about it being an angsty character study
RebelVampire
Im not gonna stop the convo cause it is on topic. However, i do want to remind ppl these #creator_babble chats are permanently archived. So thats something to keep in mind if youre gonna workshop.
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
I asked before in this discord about making my own blurb better. The main critique I got was that I included too many things that I thought were interesting and unique that a new reader probably wouldn't care about. Like how the mc's powers work. But though it's unique and important to the story, it's not going to be a main reason someone reads the comic. I revised the blurb to remove extraneous info and make the tone of the comic more apparent, and I think now I didn't lose anything and made it more concise.
I think maybe agtahr could also be summarized a bit more succinctly
DanitheCarutor
Yup, you did once upon a time but said you stopped reading it a while ago. (which is totally fine, the reason is understandable.) The mix of yours and Keii's descriptions do sound a lot better than mine. Lol Thank you Fish and @keii’ii (Heart of Keol)! I've noticed people really like the word 'angst' when you describe heavy stuff. At least when I was a teenager everyone found it appealing. I'll tinker with it a bit and use Drop_Out and Fritz Fargo as a reference. Anyways, I'm going to stop talking now, don't want to bog down the main topic.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
That's a good point; 'the best things about this story' and 'things that should go in its blurb' have an overlap, but they aren't always the same.
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
Yeah, I did but I'll probably pick it up again eventually. I remember enjoying it. If you do want to keep talking, we can move to shop talk?
mirandalorian
babbling I have the first three episodes of my webtoon ready to post tomorrow and I’m really excited and feel kinda proud that I made it this far...even though it’s not very far. It’s far for me without posting immediately end babbling
Feather J. Fern
I forgot to ask, but if people are tabling at cons, do you guys have promo stuff at your con tables for your comics?
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
Mostly a business card, but yes
carcarchu
i never did but my table partner one year had free postcards she gave out with purchase / to passerbys with her comic info and an illustration on it
kayotics
I always keep free postcards to advertise my comic on the table right next to my business cards.
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
Yep, the free postcards did wonders for me last year. They disappeared quickly!
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
Buisness cards and postcards~
Feather J. Fern
Seems like Business and Postcards are the way to go.
Mei
business cards!!
i might be making flyers/postcards for my comic next time though! :D
sagaholmgaard
I haven't done much to promote my comic but I've gotten some good ideas reading through this, thanks! I currently plug my updates in twitter and instagram with a cool/fun panel from the new page. I do also share WIPS and try to engage through my instagram stories (Asking things like, 'what type of benders would the Reclaim squad be in an avatar au' and making doodles for the answers), but that only reaches those who follow my IG. its good fun tho. I've done memes with the characters a few times but I didn't get much attention, LOL. But it's fun so maybe worth trying again
Spring-heeled Jack
Today I went into a locally owned comic shop and went to the guy that owns it and said "I'm a local artist and I'm writing a comic. Could I give you some small flyers to let people take?" And he said yes, and then asked if I have any physical copies. I don't yet but told him I'll bring some by when I have them. He then let me know he carries other local artists! Something cool to think about if you have a local comic shop.
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
ooo that's good to know
I droped off my zines at my local comic shop but maybe I'll drop flyers of my webcomic too lmaooo
Spring-heeled Jack
I also just ordered a business card carrier so I can tote some around with ease. I carry my flyers in my sketchbook. You should totally ask, it never hurts! Carry a few extra just in case you find yourself in a new area and find another cafe or comic shop.
I ran mine off on my at home printer on some nice quality but regular weight paper. I might need to get some more professionally done.
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I keep a handful of business cards in my wallet -- that way, any time someone says "hey, that looks cool, what are you drawing?" they get a card with the title and URL. Slowly but steadily burns through the supply.
DanitheCarutor
Seeing if my local book shops will carry copies of my comic when I print them eventually is something I'm kind of excited about! My town is hardcore into supporting local artists and writers, so that'll be something neat to try out. Although I'm a little nervous that the rating might be a little too mature for what the vendors want on their shelves.
I know of using postcards to advertise, but never heard of fliers. Maybe I'll give that a try.(edited)
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
I use double sided business cards, so on one side, it showcases some of my art, and the other side has contact info, a link to my comic website, and a QR code. It's been pretty helpful so far at conventions.
Nutty (Court of Roses)
You guys have all these sophisticated answers to this and my answer is just "scream on every social media platform I can reach and every person I meet about my comic."
Though I may not scream at people irl,,,
snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)
Let's see... I have a twitter where I repost my comic pages, and a couple mirrors that help reach different audiences. I've also carried around business cards that have my comic's URL on it. One fun strategy I've used is doing review-exchange things, in an I-critique-your-comic-if-you-critique-mine way (with the assumption that most people who read all the way through Super Galaxy Knights end up liking it). Though, that isn't really viable anymore now that the comic is 600+ pages, cuz nobody would ever agree to that trade lol. And... that's pretty much it? Though, I should note that my goal with Super Galaxy Knights isn't to make the most popular comic I can so that I can make a living off ads or patreon or print sales or whatever. If I ever do manage to make money off the comic, it'll be in "spinoff tech" (basically, video games or other media based off it). (it's the reason why a bunch of early Starstuff Stories fleshed out the abilities of the characters they focused on) I would like people to read the story because I think people would like the story, but it's not like my future depends on its popularity.
Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS
We (me and Q) are gonna (hopefully) tabeling at cons this year! I thought about doing free non permenant tattoos with our comic things. Also we have beautiful zines of the first chapter to sell. but a free postcard is also good
Desnik
promotional strategies...ah...the biggest thing I did for my first webcomic, RAWR! Dinosaur Friends, was simply update on a general platform (tumblr), using a consistent schedule and the same tags every time. That allowed some of the bigger biology/humor/critter blogs on tumblr to find me and I got a lot of people reading from their generous reblogs. I found some more niche crossover from sci-comm blog comments and dinosaur toy collector forums, because sometimes I'd have a comic that would coincide with paleontology news. It was mainly about finding my niche and bringing my stuff to that niche. To those struggling with finding readers, I would recommend distilling the contents of your comic and then reaching out to people who buy/read things like your comic. I've definitely made friends from general 'webcomic' forums and discords, but in terms of building a readership it's all about finding the niche and catering to it in a human way
In general I highly recommend shopping around for stuff like hobby blogs/forums/groups/discords that have some relation to the content of your webcomic. Those people DO want new content related to their hobby, but they don't really deal well with salesy pitches. Just be human and also a nerd for that hobby, too (nerdy enough to make webcomics about it)
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Yeah, it's like fan comic for an existing IP with an existing fandom, except it's a fan comic of a 'thing' rather than an IP (e.g. you make a pirate comic? Great! Nobody owns pirates, but there are lots of pirate fans out there!).
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
The very first customer I had at the first con I tabled at, came over and said "I like ghosts! I like the ocean! I'll take it!" And wrote me later saying it was exactly what they were looking for.
And honestly it's all because I make sure every cover has something spooky and something watery, and the genres are in the title I make it very easy for people to understand what it might be like.
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
omg the genres are in the title
that's genius
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
Definitely not planned But it helps so much!
I think if authors have a rule on certain symbols/motifs they MUST make sure come across on covers/posters/etc, that can be a good marketing strategy. With some wiggle room, of course.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I... I feel like I can barely even describe what my comic is, which makes it so hard to market. 'Do you like comics with cute animals and eldritch horrors and angsty teens that have superpowers and hidden religious symbolism everywhere?!? Then my comic is for you!' What even is that demographic, because I sure don't know.(edited)
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
@Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios) If you take away the cute animals part, that actually sounds like stuff a lot of teens are into/ a lot of people were into when they were teens. And most people love cute animals, so adding that to the mix, in theory, shouldn't reduce the accessibility too much. Buuuuut CoS has its unique flavor that's decidedly different from all the "angsty teens, eldritch horrors, religious symbolism" stuff I consumed when I was younger. I don't know how to describe that flavor, nor how to utilize it for marketing. But yeah, maybe some food for thought?
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
I've used short phrases that are sort of representative to describe my comic. Examples include "consensual mind control" "a guy whose ideal life is not being entirely alive" "friendship" and "anticlimactic conversations"
I have no idea how effective any of those are
someone tell me pls
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
As someone who just started reading your comic last night I think consensual mind control is a really cool descriptor. I haven't heard that too much before.
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
!
that makes me happy
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
@keii’ii (Heart of Keol) Heh, I'm not sure what that unique flavour is, either, but it might have something to do with me avoiding the typical 'chosen one' structure that most teen fantasy literature has. The characters are all (except Fawna) a part of the hidden world already rather than discovering it, and everyone's pretty much running around like chickens with their heads cut off rather than having any power over their situation (which is kind of a huge part of the theme of the comic). It's definitely different than the typical urban fantasy, so it's been really hard to find which audience that appeals to. From what I've gathered based on the people who comment on my website, it's mostly academics in college or beyond, for whatever reason. XD
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
Honestly I think for almost all comics their first pages were what convinced me to keep reading. Even with Phantomarine I was ambivalent about the description but then I saw the first page, and though, yeah, I'm into this.
Maybe my own comic can be the same way
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
Exactly the same with me and your comic - I was also all about that first page It's a powerful thing! I think for anyone about to delve into a comic - which is, by nature, a very visual thing - it's going to be that visual that ultimately pushes them over the edge.
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
maybe my description should just be ascii art of my main character O-O |
-(edited)
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
^ It's why I tinkered with the first page of HoK soooo many times even after it went live. But it wasn't enough; it still gave off the wrong impression as to what kind of a story one should expect. Finally, more than a year after I started posting it, I redid like 1/4 to 1/3 of chapter one from scratch. Even though it will never be perfect, I can live with it now. chapter 2 on the other hand... It's an imperfect intro to the right story, rather than an intro (good or not) to the wrong story.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
To be honest, my intro probably doesn't hit the right notes to explain what my comic is about, which may be part of my problem. It starts out seeming more like an anthropomorphic fantasy than a dark urban fantasy / horror story. That's just something I think I'm going to have to live with, because I'm tired of reworking old pages (I already do it far too much). I think my best solution is drawing a new cover that showcases the tone and subject matter better than the one I'm using now.
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
oh god, you reminded me of the 3 cover pages I spent hours on only to later scrap. Then my current cover page I did in one hour after it came to me at 4am(edited)
and it was perfect
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
XD
and my page redoings were after the reboot.
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
Cap, I don't know how representative it is of the story but I looked up the Ashes cover page and it's very impressive
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Yeah, I already redrew my intro once.... and this is the third iteration of this comic. And I'm currently redrawing the first two chapters of my other comic. I'm so sick to death of starting over. -_-
@Eightfish (Puppeteer) Oh, thank you!! I like to go all-out on covers, heh.
Kabocha
Promotion... ... is that a thing you can eat? ... A few things I've tried is business cards -- tweeting about it -- posting about it on dA... I try to stay away from services like Tapas and Webtoon because I'm not formatted for those sorts of things, and I fear I'll probably just frustrate myself. It's a delicate balance right now between remaining happy with my work and getting it seen, but overall, I guess I'm not too stressed about it since it's not a source of income for me... I just... like making comics. I've also done conventions -- Conventions are fun, don't get me wrong, but nowadays they're a really low return on interest for many shows for original stuff (except slice of life and "oh no I did a bad" types of zines -- people seem to really enjoy things like that since it's often pretty easy to relate to). They feel like they used to be easier for selling original work, but the market's gotten rougher because there's so much competition and only so many dollars. if I ever print, I'm probably going to have to lean on some marketing-savvy friends for help... Hopefully things haven't changed too much by then. I think the tool that's worked best for me in the past few years has been doing guest comics here and there, as well as using topwebcomics, oddly enough. TWC was pretty good for referrals when I started doing comics way back in 2006~2007...
sagaholmgaard
Since the topic is about promotion... Do yall know if there are any twitter hashtag events for webcomic creators? My friends in the indie game industry have certain hashtags that people can post in during specific times every week - do we have anything similar?
Kabocha
#Webcomicchat!
https://webcomicchat.com/for-creators You may also find this page helpful
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
#webcomicchat is great because you get to talk shop while talking about your own work! It's not just "look at my comic"
sagaholmgaard
Ahh!! Thank you!
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
I know some people do #WebcomicWednesday - not sure how official it is, but it gets some attention!
sagaholmgaard
I'll check that one out as well!
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
There's also #comicartistsunite too
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
webcomicchat always looked like fun, but I definitively am on the wrong side of the globe for the times it's going on
mirandalorian
Promotion is difficult. I always feel like I'm being too pushy, even for something that's free. I also feel like I built up a following that had nothing to do with comics or art and so when I switched directions to head that way, i don't get the response I would like. Reading all the thoughts here has been really helpful tho. Just got to put them into practice
Feather J. Fern
I think my current attempt for promotion is at least being more willing to promote. I have to force my fear of "I shouldn't tell people because it's not as good as (blank)" and just shove my comic into a spotlight
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
If anyone is worried about bothering people, putting variety into your promotions will make things more palatable for people for sure. I have one person on my timeline spamming the same exact post over and over again, almost daily, and it doesn't seem to be doing them any favors There's no need for a promotion every day. The people I see that do a more-obvious promotion tweet, like, weekly, or every two weeks, seem to get good results from that Sometimes less is more
mirandalorian
I need to get to that point Feathery. And ya, daily is a bit extreme imo. But I have to figure out the good balance
Feather J. Fern
Even weekly I don't do it because I feel like I am spamming and I feel awkward
Oh! Speaking of promotions, one way I found I got my comic promoted was by doing guest comics for other people! I got lots of viewers after each guest comic I did
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Yeah, for social media promo, e.g. on Twitter, you want to make your actual tweets have value -- not just things being linked off the tweets. (This is where gag-a-day kinda comics have an advantage, because each strip has entertainment value and you can just post the whole strip in a tweet.) Obviously this doesn't apply to every promo tweet; so like, weekly promo tweet that's solely about the links, as mentioned by others, is fine. But yeah, aside from those, you wanna make your promo tweets fun to read.
Feather J. Fern
Also cameos! Cameos are a great promo
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Not gonna lie, I am lowkey paranoid about doing cameos. Someone I know had to remove their cameo of someone else's character, because that other person objected to their character being in the print version of the comic.
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
Uff
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
oh rip
Feather J. Fern
Oh man, that's rough.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I'll never even print HoK but I can still imagine someone being all "NOPE, I CHANGED MY MIND" at a later time
Feather J. Fern
I am planning to do some cameos for other people, not that Go Figure will ever be in print but I can see that problem. I think what I would say is that if you want a cameo you have to be 100% certain
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Might be a good idea to have a very simple agreement thing you can have them sign
Feather J. Fern
Yeah I was going to have a written consent form
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
"I agree to let you do a cameo of my character, and to not be a jerk about it at a later time. Signed"
Feather J. Fern
Signed and dated by both parties XD
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
There's also the broad hashtags like #webcomics and even things more geared to genres like #drama and #fantasy and so on. Doing art memes helps sometimes, too.
mirandalorian
What do you think the best hashtags to use are? Is webcomics too saturdated?
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I'm not sure about the best hashtags, but my biggest thing about hashtags on Twitter : don't use a bunch of hashtags in a single tweet!
For broad hashtags like #webcomics or #fantasy, I gotta wonder if anyone's actually checking those out...
mariah (rainy day dreams)
Yeah, I usually tag my update posts with #webcomic and my comic's name, but honestly I have no idea if #webcomic has ever helped out my post ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
mirandalorian
Ya, I typically keep it to two or less, but i always wonder if webcomic is actually useful lol
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
takes note to use something more specific than #webcomic in my next update tweet
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I think it may potentially be useful as a label for someone who's just found you on that platform, and is not sure what you're promoting. But beyond that...
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
I usually use #historicalfiction and #webcomic. Not sure which one helps more, but well, there it is.
mirandalorian
Ya, I should use the genre tag too.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Do people even search genre tags for that matter lol (a bit pessimistic, but still a genuine question)
like, I'll be the first to admit, I don't hashtag search to look for new comics to read. I don't think I ever hashtag search ANYTHING, unless it's like..... a very active trend that I am interested in (e.g. an upcoming video game that I'm looking forward to)
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
Well, the tags are popular enough to be suggested by twitter so I'd think some use them, probably likeminded folk.
mariah (rainy day dreams)
Same keii. I mostly use hashtags to look for fan art, exclusively on Instagram.
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
There's also a trend of "art sharing" tweets. I have found a couple of artists and webcomics through that kind of event, but again, the turnover isn't anything to write home about.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I wonder if readers make use of the search more than us creators do?
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I doubt it, Lee
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
:/
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I never use it as a reader, at any rate, though I don't know if others are like that.
mariah (rainy day dreams)
Though, actually that's not true, I have used hashtags to look at more things being posted within art events. So inktober, mermay, hourly comic day, etc.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
But art event hashtags are useful, because -- like I mentioned before -- those tweets provide entertainment value without anyone having to click on offsite links. e.g. the #StartToFinish tag that's hot right now.
mariah (rainy day dreams)
I have followed new artists from those tags though and then checked out their off-site stuff. It's definitely a more round about way than someone specifically looking for comics to read via hashtag
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
From my limited observation, when people are looking for comics to read, they tend to ask for recs rather than do hashtag search?
"Anyone know of some good magical girl webcomics?" etc
which is a bit of a bummer for us creators, because that is completely outside of our control. Nothing we can do about it.
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
here's the popularity for the #webcomics tag
So SOME people use it.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
@Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight) I'm gonna guess it's mostly creators using them to promote, rather than readers using them to search.
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
Also it seems to be peak in popularity in the USA
@keii’ii (Heart of Keol) the graph implies interaction, really.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
What counts as interaction?
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
tweeting it and searching it
what I'm saying is we can't know.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I don’t so much in Twitter, but I personally DO search hashtags on Insta to find new art.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
It's true, we can't know. I just personally can't imagine anyone searching for #webcomics to find stuff to read
mariah (rainy day dreams)
Insta is definitely hashtag game city.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Yeah, IG is a different beast
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Comics don’t generally gel so well with Insta’s format, though, so I’m usually seeking art and not comics.
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
just to be safe, occasionally use it
To be honest, I'm probably more likely to find and become a fan of webcomics here on this server than any social media
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Yeah, I wouldn't say "don't use #webcomics" -- use it if you have no other, more specific tags to put. But on Twitter, you don't want too many hashtags, so if you got more specific ones... use those instead!
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
I feel somewhat self conscious in getting an instagram. But I'll get one most likely.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
It might be a good idea to switch up your tags regularly? Choose two or three from a relevant list each update and see if any of those tweets get a noticeable boost in engagement.
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
Yeah that sounds a good strategy
speaking of, any other creators into historical webcomics?
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I don't seek them out, but there's some that I read.
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
yours is touching upon the historical keii with the joseon-style elements.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
It's definitely not historical but yeah, got the aesthetics going for it!
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
Yeah!
I must admit, I'm a bit starved for like-minded creators. I mean people that create historical webcomics. I know and follow a few but that's not nearly enough.
(if I'm babbling too much for creator babble please tell me!)
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Babbling is fine! But this might be better for #general or possibly shop talk as it's not related to this week's topic?
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
oh sorry, there's a specific topic here too?
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Yeah, all the channels under CTP Activities have a... topic thingie that changes weekly
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
okay got it. I'll take it there. Sorry :/
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Don't be sorry, be glad to chat about this stuff in another channel
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
With insta please be mindful that if you‘ll always post with the same hashtags, their algorythmn likely will assume you‘re a bot.
mirandalorian
Oh really?
I definitely did not know that.
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
Yup, it‘s a big annoyance. At least it was that way half a year ago, how is the algorythm now? Nobody knows.
I kinda hate insta, but it‘s the platform with the most interactions for me, although I don‘t know if it goes beyound liking my panel cutout.
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
Instagram does it‘s darnest to lock the user into theor own ecosystem.
mariah (rainy day dreams)
Yeah, hard same. I definitely get the most likes there, but I get very few referrals from insta.
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
Funnily, the only social media where I KNOW I got at least one reader from is pillowfort and their teeny-tiny webcomic comunity!
mariah (rainy day dreams)
I keep wanting to hop over there, but also starting a new social media sounds exhausting TuT one day.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I need to start using PF
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
It‘s pretty chill, reminds me of the hey-day of livejournal, with great filtering - more intended to create many small communities than one giant pot like twitter.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I don’t think any platform’s algorithms like me. I get very low engagement no matter where I post. I’m just not good at figuring out what these platforms pick up.(edited)
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
I still have three invites left for this week.
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
Does cross promotion work for you guys at all?
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
A little bit? But I think my comics are a hard sell, so I generally don’t get a lot of referrals when I cross-promote with other creators.
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
It‘s how I found this community; but otherwise, nope.
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
Now I need to check out your comics Lee. I'm intrigued!
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Haha, if you want to! If they’re not your cup of tea that’s a-okay.
mariah (rainy day dreams)
I still have three invites left for this week.
@chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa] if you don't have plans for those invites, I would definitely take one and follow you first
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
About the hashtag thing on Twitter..... I have found the hashtags #webtoon #webtooncanvas and #celebrateCANVASday to be particularly useful for those of us publishing on Webtoon Canvas. I have gained a few new readers from this, and the official Webtoon Canvas page often retweets when these hashtags are used.
mariah (rainy day dreams)
That's good to know. I'm planning to start mirroring on Webtoon so I'll have to be sure to remember to use those tags.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I need to fix my series on WT first. But I'll give those hashtags a try once that's been done
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I tried using webtoon hashtags a few times, but their page never retweeted me. It seems either random, or there’s some hidden requirement for getting a rt.
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
i use the tag sometimes but I found it more responsive if you have a vertical scrolling format comic
then they're more likely to respond to you
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Oh, yeah.... I use a traditional page format.
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
same rip
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I do combine all my pages into long episodes at the ends of chapters, so it’s kinda scrolling, but they’re just traditional pages stacked on top of each other, lol. WT definitely doesn’t like that, but I don’t have the time to reformat hundreds of pages.
Feather J. Fern
Also promo thought, I randomly joined people's streams before and then got hooked on their comics after seeing them draw on twitch or something like that
Pistashi
I struggle a bit with promo stuff, because I get too self-conscious about self-promoting and I'm the type of person that ends up doing too much of it or none of it
at the moment I'm working on making a press kit and sharing it with some blogs and networks about comics
but still, what I usually do is join groups and try to talk with people that works with art and comics
this is kind of more inclined to networking and meeting new people to talk about what we like than promoting my work to potential readers
nothing wrong with that, but looking with a more critical eye I still have a lot to learn about building an audience and reaching people who could become future readers
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
I wonder HOW much a large social media following is worth. Insta‘s shown me that it isn‘t necessarily translating into readers.
carcarchu
in my experience followings on different platforms are non-transferable. same goes with having a large following on your comic itself, doesn't necessarily mean having a lot of followers on your art accounts. that's why they say "don't build your sandcastle in someone else's sandbox"
Pistashi
that makes a lot of sense
kayotics
If you’re building your following around your own content (original art, comic updates, etc) then the likelihood that the following is transferable is higher, but it’s still not 100%. You’re competing with everything else on their timeline too.
RebelVampire
i think a thing to consider with webcomics especially when it comes to social media is that a good portion of people who follow comic creators on social media are other comic creators, not people who are just readers. and the good majority of comic creators do not have a lot of time to read other webcomics. While there are certainly exceptions, I see those very few and far in between. So the conversion rates for social media right now are super low until the dynamic of the communities on the platforms changes.
kayotics
I’d agree with that, but also having a social media presence has definitely opened up some doors to being seen by other creators, many of whom are professionals. It’s good for networking, might not be the best for gaining and retaining readers.
RebelVampire
Oh yeah for sure. My point was about conversion factor
its factor in networking is a whole other matter entirely
and is indespensible
kayotics
One thing that I didn’t mention for myself is that networking has helped a LOT with getting new readers. Word of mouth, is always the best way to advertise, and other webcomic people giving you a plug can see some really strong results
#ctparchive#comics#webcomics#indie comics#comic chat#comic discussion#comic tea party#ctp#creator interview#comic creator interview#creator babble
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Template by: @hogwartsmysterystory
I saw this post done by other people and it inspired me to make my own.
☆
Hogwarts Mystery Character Profile- Alexa Clark
General Information
Name: Alexa Marie Clark
Age: 15 (start of 5th year)
Gender: Female
Nicknames: Pip (by Jacob), Lex (by close friends), My Bow(trickle) (by Barnaby)
Date of Birth: 26 August 1973
Astrological Sign: Virgo
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Nationality: Irish
Species: Wizard, Animagus
Blood Status: Half-blood
Family
Father: Richard James Clark
Muggle
Owns his own restaurant
177 cm and of average weight, light brown hair with a reddish tint, his face is always slightly red
Despite marrying a witch and having magical children, he still refuses to believe the wizarding world exists (he believes he is sending his children to a very exclusive private school)
Makes the best Shepherd's Pie
Has family in America
Mother: Madeleine Marie Clark (nee Rosier)
Pureblood
Sorted into Gryffindor, despite coming from a line of Slytherins
When she married Richard, she was banished from her family (who thought highly of blood status).
Became a potioneer (Richard thought she was just a chemist) until Jacob's disappearance. She became so embarrassed from her son's actions that she quit her job and completely disappeared from the wizarding world and helped her husband run his restuarant.
Petite and forgetful (constantly left potion ingredients around the house for her children to accidentally get their hands onto)
Since Jacob's disappearance, she began to blame herself for not seeing Jacob resort to her blood family's ways and completely isolated herself from the wizarding world and her daughter.
Brother: Jacob Edward Clark
Born in 1964 (nine years older than Alexa)
Half-blood
Sorted into Hufflepuff due to his loyalty and patience towards his sister
After learning about the Cursed Vaults, he knew he had to get the treasure to support his family, and to give his sister some more excitement in her life. He was so determined that he forgot to take a step back to see the damage that he has done along the way.
Affiliation(s)/Organization(s):
Hogwarts
Hufflepuff
Magical Characteristics:
Boggart: A Snake (Alexa fears the unlikely, for snakes in Ireland? Highly unlikely. She fears that something that is highly unlikely is going to happen, such as running into already prevented danger. Plus she also has a giant phobia of snakes due to the rumors about the Chamber of Secrets.)
Mirror of Erised: Alexa surrounded by her family and Barnaby all smiling happily without the weight of war and curses on their shoulders.
First Wand:
Hornbeam
Dragon Heartstring
11 inches
Inflexible
Pets:
Remy (A rat she found her first year that has stuck with her since the very first day)
Franklin (Toad)
Jonas (Cat)
Patronus: Cheetah
Patronus Memory: Jacob coming home from his third year at Hogwarts with a stolen Confusion Concoction he made in class. They used the potion to confuse their father while at their cousin's birthday party the week after Jacob got back from school.
Animagus: Cat
Amortenia:
What she smells- Fresh laundry, sandalwood, cinnamon
What she smells to others- parchment, lavender, fire
Appearance:
Height: 158 cm
Weight: 62 kg
Complexion:
Tanned skin, just like her mother, with freckles sprinkled all over her face
Has eczema all down her right arm. She likes to tell others that it is a burn from fighting dragons when she was a small child. No one ever believes her.
Hair Color/Style:
Medium-length dark brown hair; tends to turn reddish when she spends too much time in the sun
Extremely frizzy so Alexa tends to constantly pull it back into a low ponytail to keep it under control and out of her face
Eye Color: Brown
Hogwarts Information:
Worse Class(es):
Flying: Although Alexa isnt the worst at flying, she prefers to be on the ground. She hates going too fast, causing her to fall a little behind during class.
History of Magic: No matter how hard she tries, Alexa can never remember years and what events happened at what time. Her concept of time goes over her head, never knowing what happened when.
Best Class(es):
Potions: Although Snape is super strict and is constantly putting Alexa down for her work, she is really good with potions due to her mother. She was always on top of her studies for potions came natural for her.
Charms: Alexa is one of the top in her year with Charms (running head and head with Ben Copper). During her free time, she tutors first-year students and is constantly practicing new charms in the Charms Classroom.
Least Favorite Teacher:
Rakepick: From the very beginning, Alexa refused to trust her. Alexa has always gotten an eerie vibe from her and refuses to get too close to her (both physically and mentally).
Favorite Teacher:
Professor McGonagall: Alexa looks up to Professor McGonagall as a mentor. Even though they are from different houses, McGonagall is always there to steer Alexa in the right direction and Alexa appreciates all of the extra help she does to keep her in the right path in life.
Closest HPHM Friends:
Rowan Khanna:
From the moment they met each other, they both knew they would be friends for the rest of their life. Together they would study for upcoming tests and prepare for the Cursed Vaults. However, as time went on they began to drift apart. But once a month they both stay up all night and catch each other up on the drama in their lives as they share Chocolate Frogs and other sweets with each other.
Penny Haywood:
The two girls bond over their enjoyment of potion making together. They constantly gives each other tips about various things without no explanation or reasoning at all. Penny is the girl that Alexa can go to whenever she has a problem. Penny always knows what to say and always calms down Alexa's nerves.
Bill Weasley:
Bill is like the replacement brother for Alexa. Ever since Jacob ran away, she has been lost without any guidance or protection. But when she met Bill, she knew she had someone to call family if she ever needs it. Bill is always there for Alexa, adopting her as his own sister. They have a close sibling relationship that has bonded them forever.
Barnaby Lee:
Alexa and Barnaby was an instant pair as soon as they laid eyes on each other. Although they did not recognize their feelings right away, the two bonded immediately. It wasn't until the Celestial Ball their 4th year that Alexa had the guts to ask Barnaby out. Even then, they were not officially dating until a week before the end of the year when they went on their first official date. Alexa has always been patient with Barnaby's slowness but it was always worth it when he would surprise her with cute sketches of bowtrickles (Alexa's favorite creature) in her textbooks and notes.
Favorite Spell(s):
Episkey- She is always injured or hurt
Accio- Lazy af
Alohomora- She is forgetful like her mother and always forgets to bring keys with her
Depulso- Alexa's go-to dueling spell
Trivia/Random Facts:
Despite having fun being a Curse Breaker, Alexa also enjoys helping and curing others. After Hogwarts she becomes a Healer at St Mungo's until right after the second wizarding war when she takes a 4 year break to help Bill Weasley with the surplus of cursed items from the war.
She marries Barnaby Lee 2 years after graduating from Hogwarts. They have a small wedding with all of their friends from Hogwarts.
Her favorite ways to pastimes include: visiting the magical creatures she has adopted, playing Wizard Chess, and going to Three Broomsticks to have a butterbeer with her friends.
Barnaby and Alexa snuck out of their houses during the summer before their 5th year (during the week of Alexas birthday) and camped out in the woods, enjoying nature and the creatures they found (both magical and non magical)
Alexa has a Weasley sweater that Molly knitted for her. Instead of the sweater having a giant A on the front, Bill told his mum (on purpose) to put a W on it (making Alexa an unofficial official Weasley)
Her favorite bands include: Weird Sisters, Journey, and Blondie
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Visit Cloud Computing: Digital Ocean vs Google Cloud vs AWS for the whole story
This post originally only focused on cost and user experience but after a real world case study and experiment I have some performance data and it is actually surprising.
Teaser here … in a head to head test between AWS and Digital Ocean one of these two out performed the other in
rate of requests handled
number of requests processed
time it took to process each request.
The same winner of those won 10 / 10 speed tests and the results were not close.
The results of these tests convinced a previously skeptical client’s IT team into switching cloud providers.
Scroll down to the section “VPS Performance” to see more about that specific use case scenario. Ultimate SEO has accounts on all but Azure and has powered its servers from AWS, Google Cloud and Digital Ocean at some point. We’ve consolidated to one provider and its the same one who performs best in these tests.
Want to see a spoiler (the answer)? Here is a summary sentence of our tests, or read on and learn why and how they win.
Testing Sites Used
Spoiler
Testing Sites Used
Server Load Testing: Loadimpact.com
Page Speed Testing: GTMetrix.com
Spoiler
Summary
The AWS server costs twice as much and delivers one tenth of the capacity and is the slowest page load in all 10 page speed tests.
The AWS server is unable to complete the full server load testing.
In every instance Digital Ocean out performed AWS.
Comparing Digital Ocean Droplets and AWS EC2 VPS
How Is This SEO?
This may seem off topic but its on topic, technical SEO is imperative … you’re not going to rank number one on Google using Shopify or Wix. It just isn’t going to happen.
Those platforms are not serious enough to deliver the configurability one needs to out perform a competitor.
It’s also apparently difficult to get solid advice on SEO Hosting from “experts” Best Blog Hosting for SEO is junk … reciting features doesn’t make a hosting plan the best…one quote notes that WordPress is already installed with InMotionHosting.com … so what!
Our web servers are preconfigured to install WordPress in every new account as well…it only saves maybe 5 minutes per user but for a web host that time adds up very quickly. So thats not a benefit for the client as much as it is for the host.
You aren’t a web host so it’s not that big of a deal. I’d like to hear about benchmarking tests they may have run to decide who is the best. And we do … but thats later.
I only mention these to point out typically articles covering which ibetter focus on the irrelevant because the author lacks a technical SEO understanding. Well, this isn’t one of those articles.
Features Aren’t Technical Specs
Unlimited bandwidth…sounds great but what are the limits? There are limits, the infrastructure that a site sits on has limitations. If someone uses a CAT5 cable instead of a CAT6 everything will be slower and you’ll find a speed limit there. Bottlenecks are designed into infrastructure by error and these can limit it. Unlimited bandwidth means nothing because there are limits … physical limits exist and can’t be avoided. So “unlimited” is a term being misused a lot in hosting today.
WordPress preinstalled saves someone 5 minutes but nothing else. These aren’t important to the Hosting performance and way too many top articles on SEO hosting confuse WordPress’s selling points with the web host’s infrastructure. That’s what this is all about after all, infrastructure and how it directly impacts a site’s Google ranking.
Google says that over half of all searches are now mobile. Mobile is extra sensitive to speed and technical SEO matters. Thats why its so important to set yourself up with the best infrastructure to build on.
Cloud Computing: Be Your Own Host
The industry standard in web hosting is cPanel. No way around it with cPanel your support opinions are bountiful where as dreamhost.com has its own proprietary server software … its no better in actuality its just far less supported by third parties. Ultimate SEO is hosted on a variety of cPanel servers that were easy to build and deploy, I made them from scratch and with templates but all in all there are 4 AWS servers, 2 Google Cloud Platform and 4 Digital Ocean currently powering hundreds of sites including this site. Cost varies wildly…
Its important to note that your web host is honestly likely run on one of these three services. Godaddy is … if you have their shared hosting your running on this environment. You’re sharing their share of the cloud environment.
Why not just skip ahead and be the master of your domain….sure it will cost more than $3 a month … but that $3 a month hosting plan is shit. You can have a decent VPS server for $5 a month with better performance.
We’re not going to mix apples with oranges though, this isnt about shared hosting plans and a VPS. The VPS will win. A good review between AWS and a traditional hosting provider is AWS vs Blue Host
Amazon Web Services
I don’t even know what I am spending, where and how it is being spent. AWS charges you for everything little thing and no matter what steps you might take it may seem like rising project costs are simply unavoidable.
Their platform to work within is NOT intuitive and it will require some play time to remember that you have to leave the virtual server’s configuration area to select an IP address to then assign it to the server. Then go back to the server and keep working. ( that will cost you money too…each ip address, not talking about bandwidth that’ll cost you too … I’m just saying the ip number ) and then return to that original area to associate it.
Don’t even think about swapping hard drives and knowing what is attached to what unless you are prepared to write down long strings of numbers and letters.
AWS does provide greater flexibility than the others on options beyond just a virtual server…but unless you plan to send 100,000 emails a day to people you won’t benefit from their email service … as an example.
Technical SEO wise I’d give AWS a D overall. Infrastructure and computing power is an obvious A+, but it’s how you interact with that that weighs the grade. More so AWS limits your resources with Throttling and Burstable CPUs … these sound good but the mean we’re only giving you part of the resource not all of it.
Poor navigation and the nickle and dime pricing is absurd. Want to monitor your usage so you can understand your bill? Monitoring costs more…its ridiculous.
They do offer reserved instances and I loaded up on those but still my costs never decreased. AWS is so hard to understand billing wise that IT Managed Service Providers will offer free excel templates to figure out your AWS monthly costs. Think I’m being over the top? Check out this calculator form sheet by AWS to forecast your expenses. It is never simple when you ask how much and are handed a spreadsheet to calculate the server costs.
Heres something crazy…why my April bill was $167 but AWS forecasts it will be $1020 in May I have no idea. I’m not adding servers…
Google Cloud Platform
Is easier to use and wrap your head around but it is considerably more expensive than either of the other options. For this simple reason…they receive an F. The additional costs come with less options and less features than AWS.
Billing is more transparent and you can understand why your bill is what it is at least. But Google also makes unilateral decisions for you like blocking smtp and ssh access. Sure its more secure but it makes email and server maintenance a nightmare. You can add those to nonstandard ports in the firewall but then you have to keep up with an oddity.
Documents like this Connecting to Instances make it seem like not a big deal, but these will not allow you to move a file from your computer to the server like SFTP would.
They are expensive, offer less and needlessly shot you in the foot with their restrictions. Thats why I stand by the F as an overall grade. Now infrastructure capabilities … A+ no doubt about it…but you’re paying a premium and placed into a box.
Digital Ocean
I received no compensation or thank you from anyone for writing this … Digital Ocean is my B+ graded cloud solution. It’s the cheapest, and they don’t seem to charge you a fee for tools that are required for the main product to function, unlike AWS and their static ip addresses.
They have the least ability and options outside of a virtual server. If you want a database server that’s in the works unless you can use Postgres. UPDATE Sept 2019: SQL Databases are now fully supported and available. That’s limiting, but it is also not important if you’re just running a few web servers that will already have MySQL installed on them anyhow (if a LAMP server template is utilized).
Digital Ocean is the no frills, no surprises, cloud computing option. The reason I have so many servers is because I am migrating everything off AWS and Google Cloud to Digital Ocean…it’ll be cheaper. A lot cheaper…we’ll discuss performance in this article.
That’s right… $20 vs $121, $177 and $120 from AWS, GCP and Azure. I didn’t really consider Microsoft Azure just because I have reservations moving into their sphere or control where every thing you need to do is addressed by yet another Microsoft product that usually has little imagination in it.
Test out a server in each environment and I think you’ll quickly take to the Digital Ocean option.
But in deciding the winner of this debate I figure a more scientific method could be used….so let’s divide the debate into areas that can be scored and assessed.
Amazon Web Services vs. Digital Ocean
Ease Of Use
As previously noted, the Digital Ocean’s dashboard is very streamlined compared to AWS. With AWS you have to configure your network, and several other parts such as the keys before you can make a server that’s accessible to the internet. Digital Ocean you can literally have a server running in less than a minute from a single screen.
Base Cost
Digital Ocean’s costs are inclusive of bandwidth, hard drive size, ip addresses and more. Everything you need to have a server is right there in one easy package. Their packages include:
RAM CPUS BAND SSDHD PRICE 1 GB 1 vCPU 1 TB 25 GB $5/mo
$0.007/hr 2 GB 1 vCPU 2 TB 50 GB $10/mo
$0.015/hr 3 GB 1 vCPU 3 TB 60 GB $15/mo
$0.022/hr 2 GB 2 vCPUs 3 TB 60 GB $15/mo
$0.022/hr 1 GB 3 vCPUs 3 TB 60 GB $15/mo
$0.022/hr 4 GB 2 vCPUs 4 TB 80 GB $20/mo
$0.030/hr 8 GB 4 vCPUs 5 TB 160 GB $40/mo
$0.060/hr 16 GB 6 vCPUs 6 TB 320 GB $80/mo
$0.119/hr 32 GB 8 vCPUs 7 TB 640 GB $160/mo
$0.238/hr 48 GB 12 vCPUs 8 TB 960 GB $240/mo
$0.357/hr 64 GB 16 vCPUs 9 TB 1,280 GB $320/mo
$0.476/hr 96 GB 20 vCPUs 10 TB 1,920 GB $480/mo
$0.714/hr 128 GB 24 vCPUs 11 TB 2,560 GB $640/mo
$0.952/hr 192 GB 32 vCPUs 12 TB 3,840 GB $960/mo
$1.429/hr
Amazon Web Services doesn’t allow an easy comparison. Everything is charged individually it would seem. They have a tool called Simple Monthly Calculator, its a spreadsheet basically … first off if you need a calculator it’s obviously not simple.
To compare something with the $5 option from Digital Ocean I used the calculator and a t2.micro which is 1cpu and 1g ram with a 25 GB SSD drive, with 2 ips and 1 TB of data transferred to the world costs about $21.49 but that’s also after a -11.00 discount … without the discount it was 32.49.
So at $5 to $32
Digital Ocean Wins
But wait there’s more and this is the why you’ll switch to Digital Ocean.
Options
Monitoring and alerts can be configured on both platforms .. both allow scaling up and adding additional storage as well as internal networking. AWS though has an expansive offering of options and wins out in this area.
AWS Wins
Billing Options
Digital Ocean allows for credit cards as well as paypal. AWS allows credit cards and bank accounts. The difference then is Paypal vs Checking Accounts and since this is a cloud computing, tech product … Im going to prefer Paypal to a tool that has been around for hundreds of years. So we’re going to hand it to Digital Ocean.
Digital Ocean Wins
Freelancer Friendly
Each can transfer servers to other accounts. I’ve only been successful in doing this with Digital Ocean and not AWS. The AWS process is more tedious and you can give a server away that you aren’t an admin of anymore but still are responsible for billing somehow. That sucks!
Digital Ocean Wins
Support
AWS only offers free billing support…although if you ask them a tech question they do tell you “as a courtesy” here is an article that might help…but tech support itself is out of your reach for free. Digital Ocean allows you to message them and I’d assume some tech level of support for their platform without charging.
Digital Ocean Wins
So all in all…
The winner is Digital Ocean over GCP and AWS.
but … now an added update to question these assertions…
VPS PERFORMANCE
Testing Digital Ocean to AWS head to head.
Two test servers with the same site exact site tested at the same time on the same tools. In these tests we’re trying to speed up a client’s slow page load speeds. We’re at 97% optimization of the site, we’ve unloaded some sliders but still 5 second homepage loads. We are determined to be at 3 seconds…and we think we have the answer in addressing the client’s hosting infrastructure.
But before we can make the switch, testing had to be done and we had to convince the IT team to look at more than just AWS. As technical SEO “experts” we have to get their buy in to ensure the projects success isn’t discounted because we get viewed as just marketing people.
Below is adapted from communication between Ultimate SEO and the client.
Two Part Question, then price considered.
How many users can the server handle?
EC2 Unlimited – Expensive but it’s just a checkbox away in availability.
Same test on each by loadimpact.com. Simulates 25 users for 3 minutes. Detailed results included after this summary.
Server: Test2 On Digital Ocean
The average response time of the system being tested was 36ms, and 10497 requests were made at an average request rate of 59 requests/second.
Server: Test3 On AWS
The average response time of the system being tested was 481ms, and 4401 requests were made at an average request rate of 25 requests/second.
Findings From Server Load Testing
The AWS Server takes more than 10 times longer to server half the pages requested, at half the rate given to the Digital Ocean server. So it failed before reaching full capacity of the test.
How fast can a typical page be delivered?
For this test we’ll use GTMetrix.com with 1 user 7 tests per server and then an average with the lowest score and highest noted.
Test Run
Test2
Test3
1
7.0s
7.4s
3.8s
6.2s
3
4.1s
5.7s
4.2s
4.9s
5
4.3s
4.7s
2.9s
5.6s
7
2.7s
5.3s
3.6s
5.1s
9
3.5s
4.5s
3.4s
4.4s
AVERAGE
3.95
5.38
Ultimate SEO ran the GTMetrix.com tests at the same time, that way it was similar network traffic and each one in its own browser tab. * These tests are not reliant upon our local machine and are just between GTMetrix and the target.
Conclusion
In this test the AWS server adds an average 1.43 seconds over 10 tests. In no test was AWS faster than Digital Ocean. The fastest test for Digital Ocean was 2.7s with AWS at 4.4s. Digital Ocean’s fastest is below our goal, AWS is 1.4 seconds above or 45% more than our goal. GTMetrix gives both servers an A for optimization, meaning neither can be optimized more … its infrastructure and content now. Each site has the same content.
AWS could do better but they appear to “throttle” performance much tighter. Even using C class servers instead of T class resulted in lack luster performance.
If there is anything wrong with my methodology let me know and you’re free to repeat these tests.
Want $50 Credit To Test Digital Ocean? Here is a link, it also gives me a credit full disclosure. Test Digital Ocean Out And Receive A $50 Credit × Dismiss alert
How Does Performance Change When We Test A Web Server that has a separate dedicated Database server
Server + Database Server Configuration VPS
Now that we’ve tested and found Digital Ocean to be the cheapest and fastest VPS lets try some optimizations and see if they provide real world benefits. The easiest to test is the offloading of the database to its own separate server. Since this creates a dedicated database server I choose to build the database on a very small machine. A $5 1 CPU 1 GB Ram server was created from a LAMP server and it was given an internal ip address and placed within the same firewall as the site server which also had an internal ip address. Internal addresses did appear to save connectivity time and avoid firewall involvement.
This shows the blue line … response time as steady and unaffected by the growing requests and users on the site.
The average response time of the system being tested was 33ms, and 8716 requests were made at an average request rate of 49 requests/second.
This wasn’t remarkably better than the original server but that server did show a couple brief spikes where this has none. It would likely only be of real value when large amounts of traffic are experienced.
GTMetrix shows individual page loads are unaffected by the SQL off loading. So the benefit is again only pronounced when many requests are made.
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The Weeping Woman: A Candidate’s Experience
There’s something really special about an art museum. The way it demands silence and reverence. The colors. The ideas. Their allure isn’t only in the silence but the unique experience found in each and every museum around the country. Whether in Cleveland or Chicago the collections of art are so vast that in every new country or city, you can find inspiration in a piece you’ve never seen before.
I didn’t grow up in some fancy art family and frankly, I don’t know a damn thing about art. But I still remember my first art museum experience. I was 18, peeking around corners and feeling like I was in a maze of really beautiful things for the first time in my life.
While the other kids laughed, giggled and whispered I found myself taken away. I would imagine what it was like to paint. To model. To sit in a warm room in Venice creating this art and wondering what their conversations must have been like, if they spoke at all. Looking at brush strokes. Trying to read into the secrets and smirks.
That’s what I love about the museum in the first place– the curiosity it inspires. The surprises in every corner. It’s mentally stimulating in a way so few things we experience daily can be – digitally or in real life.
Art is either plagiarism or revolution.
There’s a lesson here for employer brand and recruitment marketing teams who want to “stand out” and even more importantly, a question we should be asking: how do we create these curiosity-driven experiences in a digital framework? Memorability, of course, is the ultimate recruitment marketing tool. That’s what most companies are aiming for after all– simply for you to think of them when the time comes for a job, aspirationally for you to apply. Yet the current state of affairs leaves a lot to be yearned for.
The disturbing bottom line is this: we’re all working from the same mold. We clone and replicate the templates, tailor and customize headlines instead of rewriting them. How do you really think you’re going to stand out if you’re just doing what everyone else is doing? How do you consider yourself best-in-class for doing the bare minimum?
Yet creators and leaders are led to believe that best-in-class recruitment marketing is a process and success comes with templates. They A/B test their winner against a nuanced version of the same thing. They liberally borrow from their competitors. They assume that a candidate experience journey is linear but the fact is, much like the art museum, it’s really a lesson in nuance, creativity, and curiosity. Lessons we seem to have forgotten as we’ve templatized and replicated instead of being creators.
The challenge with translating something as inspiring as an art museum experience into a digital medium is that we have a series of biases and assumptions going into every digital interaction– both on the side of the consumer and the candidate. We’ve “been there, done that” and there’s not much that’s truly extraordinary when it comes to a web page or online video.
This bias translates into how we react to materials that market jobs. We can sniff out a templated headline from a mile away. That’s why recruiters started sneaking “re:” into the subject lines– all to try and beat the bias. To convince us that this was worth opening. At volume, we see these tactics at least 40 times a day from marketers. Candidates have built digital immunity.
How To Stand Out In A World Of Abstracts
I believe we’re rapidly approaching a time where our typical tactics won’t work. We might already be there. Here are some basic ways you can shift the tides and get a response in a world full of templates:
Be Simple. Stop using the HTML template. Write to people. About yourself. The most powerful words in the world are “me, my, you and I.” I’ve tested it. I know.
Focus on People. Instead of writing a 300-word email, let your people do a 1-minute video. Let your people shine, not your copywriters. They’ll tell your story in a way that connects.
Value over Features. Instead of focusing on some new widget or gadget, tell people a story. Show them how you can change lives.
Change The Medium. Use video, use text, use direct mail. Email isn’t the only way. That means we need to figure out how to get people subscribed now and ID what engagement means in a text if we actually want to be best-in-class.
Take A Risk. If you’re a little nervous about it, it’ll probably work.
In a world where everyone is cloning to create, be the artist.
The post The Weeping Woman: A Candidate’s Experience appeared first on Fistful of Talent.
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PDL: Picks , Plans, and Personality
PDL: Picks , Plans, and Personality
Welcome Sports Fans… wait what is it… Puclonians. Alright! Welcome Puclonians to another PDL article. The PDL Commissioners have analyzed all the applications and have decided to go with these coaches:
Norwalk Nosepass- Hydra
DC Crobat- Bigby
Pittsburgh Piplups- Zcron
Detroit Pyroars- Dr.Shamu
New Jersey Jolteons- DizzyD
Salt Lake Combees- Lynian
Columbus Gallade- Geo
Jacksonville Jangmo-o- Aggie
London Landos- Ozzy
South Hampshire Scyther- H3nz
Hershey Herdiers- Uncle Oshawott
Vancouver Vigoroths- xVforVIKINGx
Brisbane Heatrans- Sparky!
Miami Delphox- FackLuigi
Baltimore Oricorio- R.Sigma
Hartford Wailmers- Clod9
Bedford Necrozma- Dennis
Minnesota Nidokings- Snag
Miami Lanturns- Seth Vilo
Blackfoot Scrafty- RottedMushroom
Italian Azurills- Whimsicott
New York Yanmegas- Lampc
Belper Beedrills- BritishGent
Toronto Tyrantrum- SavageFire765
Let’s give a round of applause for this season’s coaches as they will spend the next 15 weeks (then playoffs) battling it out to determine who is the PDL Season 2 Champion!
I’ve announced the coaches in their pick order for the draft. Quick recap: The PDL drafts in a snake style format where pick will go 1-24 for Round 1, then 24-1 for Round 2, with this alternating every round for 10 rounds. I know a lot of the coaches have already started strategizing what they would like to draft and how they think things will play out. Now that the pick order has been released, most of the planing gets scrapped and you can revise your strategy from what is most likely to be available. For example if you are pick 24 in the draft, it is very unlikely that Tapu Koko will still be up for grabs, so you should probably not plan your draft around not getting Tapu Koko. However, if you are in one of the first spots, you only need to have a couple of Round 1 picks planned and there are quite a bit of very powerful R1 picks, so choose wisely!
How to create a good backup plan
It is almost inevitable that in a 24-person draft league that you will be sniped when trying to pick a Pokemon. It happens to everyone, and the better prepared you are for those snipes, the better your draft will turn out. This starts with a good plan. Let’s say you want to complete that famous Fire-Water-Grass core, and you already have a Fire- and Water-type, and there is a good 30ish picks before your chance to take a good Grass-type. Depending on the draft and how many people have their own Grass-type, they might start all start getting grabbed. There is a trend in draft leagues once one person starts branching out into a popular type or role, everyone follows suit to try and get the next best option for their team. To avoid panicking and making a bad choice, it is always a good idea to list down all the viable Pokemon of the given type you are trying to get by their tiers. This way in the draft you can see which ones get taken and what still remains for you.
So you want that Grass-type and let’s say Shaymin was your top option and that gets taken, but you still have the option of Roserade in the same tier. However, right after Shaymin someone else snags up Roserade. The top 2 on your list are gone, however you can still get Decidueye, which you have placed at your third spot. The person right before you takes Decidueye… what are you going to do? Luckily, pokemon has given us a plentiful amount of grass types over the years so there are many options still available like; Dhelmise, Whimsicott, Tsareena and if you decide to branch into T2/T4 there are more options like Breloom, and Rotom-M. The more you prepare what other mons you can take to fill the roles you want the better your draft will go. You will be able to make your pick, both with something that fills the roles and without the sense of panic that draft day can be infamous for.
Interview with Commissioner Ozzy
Clod9: Welcome Ozzy and thank you for taking the time to answer some questions about the PDL. To start, You have been around since the beta draft, and over the course of Beta to Season 2 of PDL there have been a lot of changes between Mons getting put in different tiers, new mons being added and different rules. What would you say has been the biggest change to PDL since beta?
Ozzy: Starting with the big question! I was there at the start only as a coach initially, I wanted to get better at battling and saw that as an excellent opportunity, which it was. The beta then evolved into the PDL we know now. The most obvious and biggest change in my opinion is the number of coaches. In the beta there was only 8. We then triple that for season 1. This became interesting to manage in season 1 but for the most part we had excellent coaches that were keen to compete every week.
C9: I know there has been a lot of comments on the tiers, for those that think something is mistiered, what would you say is the best way for them to get their voice heard? (You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to)
OZ:The tiers have changed. To start with we used an existing template originally for the Beta and Season 1. We have tried to make things fair for both the experienced coaches and new coaches, finding that balance is hard. I am still relatively new to draft format and even battling so I do rely on the other commissioners to make the really hard tier decisions. After Season 1 we published a survey for coaches to voice their opinions to improve the season and I took the time to read them all. Some changes will reflect their opinions. But at some point we have to accept we can’t make everyone happy, but we try. Unfortunately by the time this article comes out I can see it will be too late to make any changes. But maybe we may take in any additions, there is no harm in asking. PM me to get that pokeball rolling.
C9:Much isnt know about the Beta league; how did you do/ what kind of team did you draft?
OZ: First rule of Beta League, you don’t talk about Beta League……….
Well fortunately I still hold the Beta Hub that I can refer to for this question. I do remember that we actually did the draft over like 1 week, for 8 guys! It felt like it would take forever. I would be submitting my choices whilst walking the dog sometimes!
So I was relatively inexperienced to battling at the Beta, actually ‘relatively’ is a complement. So the type of team was a collection of mons the did not necessary have any synergy and if they did, I didn’t know it.
M-Gyarados
Garchomp
Mamoswine
Tangrowth
Dusknoir
Raichu
Victini
Crobat
Togetic
Registeel
The beauty of having only 8 coaches is the amount of mons available to you. And now looking at the team it wasn’t to bad a team. I ended up 6th with 4 wins and 4 losses with a 0 differential so I couldn’t complain about that performance either
C9: How did that team vary between beta and last season?
OZ: So season 1 team consisted of:
Garchomp
Slowbro
M-Mawile
Uxie
Breloom
Torkoal
Electivire
Chatot
Scolipede
Regirock
Garchomp was a favorite of mine in the Beta so wanted that straight away and I like the bulk of the Regi’s. Rest of the team was different and I tried to create a balanced team. I was happy with this bunch of mons though they did me well, even Chatot got some kills.
C9: You drafted Registeel and Regirock the last two seasons, can we expect a Regice this season?
OZ: Quiet possibly……
C9: It seems like you have learned a lot and improved drastically since Beta to Season 2, how do you think you will fair going up against some new coaches and some returning veterans?
OZ: Well I suppose I have, but when you have 0 experience the only way is up! I am a big believer in learning from your mistake and I made a lot of them! But more importantly, members of the community were a great in help, providing me with advice and tips before during and after battles. I don’t accept to be winning the crown in season 2 but I am aiming for playoffs this season! The biggest thing for me though is to enjoy myself. Even if it ends in a loss, as long as I had fun that’s what counts. Cheesy but true!
C9: I know last season that you just missed playoffs by tiebreakers. Does that sting or is it just more motivation to go for it next season?
OZ: No it didn’t sting. I started off the season poorley and to get to a possible playoff spot was a real surprise. I couldn’t have asked for a better finish.
C9: What was your favorite mon on your team?
OZ: Well I want to say Garchomp but thats an obvious answer and slightly boring. M-Mawile interested me during the summer league. A certain gym leader had one and I would always find myself having a hard time with it. So I wanted her for the PDL. Mandy was a good lass, with me at the helm she managed 8 kills. Looking through the data though Garchomp got 10. So Georgina wins it.
C9: Would you share one of your craziest sets that you ran in PDL and if it worked?
OZ: Not running EQ on Electivire! I’m still learning sets and going crazy seemed a bit too ambitious last season. Maybe this season I will feel more confident. One of my proudest prepared mons was a Taunt, Nasty Plot, Heat Wave chatot. I won’t bore you with the battle but it was one of the battles commentated on the YouTube channel.
C9: You also do a lot of the behind the scenes work with the doc, which looks amazing by the way, did you learn to do that on your own or did you have prior training beforehand?
OZ: Why thank you. Not really, apart from usual stuff I got taught at school many years back. It has been mainly self taught with some assistance. I had looked through other examples to point me in the right direction. I enjoyed making it though. Even the hub evolved during season1 which I have yourself to thank for. This season I have made some improvements so it runs smoother as well. Even potential new segments for PDL coaches and non PDL coaches to take part in.
C9: Ok lets learn about you as a pokemon Fan. When did you start listening to PUCL?
OZ: It will be about 1 and a half years now I reckon.
C9: What pokemon generation did you start with?
OZ: Gen 1!!!! However I didn’t play Gen 3 – 5. I only got back into it at the back end of Gen 6.
C9: What is your favorite region?
OZ: Kanto, probably for nostalgic reasons.
C9: Who is your favorite pokemon?
OZ: Arcanine. I love dogs and that was the first dog pokemon I came across. Well growlithe was but Arcanine is bigger!
C9: If you had to pick: Attack or Special Attack?
OZ: Attack, There is that saying, the best form of defense is attack.
C9: What is your battle style: Stall/Hyper Offense/Bulky Offense/Balance?
OZ: I have a new style its called hyper confused. Both me and the opponent can’t figure it it!
C9: Do you prefer Speed or Trick Room?
OZ: Speed
C9: What is your favorite Weather; Hail/Sand/Rain or Sun?
OZ: Living in the UK it always rains so not that! I would like the Sun. No actually that doesn’t work either that can get uncomfortable. It’s snowing here at the moment so hail isn’t my favorite. However sand brings back bad memories, it get everywhere! So the winner is……. A nice spring day. That ability is coming in Gen 8.
C9: Electric/Misty/Grassy or Psychic Terrain?
OZ: Electric terrain so I don’t fall asleep.
C9: Favorite status to inflict: Sleep/Freeze/Paralysis/Burn or Poison?
OZ: Paralysis if that helps me be quicker I am all for it.
C9: Have you watched the Pokemon anime? If yes, what is your favorite Theme song? I’m personally a huge fan of Pokemon Johto.
OZ: I want to be the very best! Like no one ever was!
C9: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today. I know you are rebranding your team for this season of PDL, would you like to announce that now?
OZ: Well in the Beta League we had the Darlington Dusknoirs
Season 1 was the Essex Electivres
Season 2 I have been seeked out to coach the infamous London Landos. I am very excited to see what they bring this season, the potential is there for sure!
C9: And are you ready for this season of fun and excitement?
OZ: OOOOOOOOO YES!!! Good Luck and most important Have Fun coaches!
from PDL: Picks , Plans, and Personality
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