#was really hard to narrow down to 4 golly | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cinnonym · 3 years

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take the day off, get a massage (cause we've got this one all under control)

Written for Day 8 - Winter Solstice of 12 Days of Supercorp @supercorpbb

Read on AO3

***

9:15 am

“Golly, am I looking forward to this day.” Kara yawns and huddles closer against the curve of Lena’s back. Her breath tickles Lena’s neck, warm and comfortable. Lena hums.

“Four.”

“Hmm?”

“That’s the fourth time you’ve said this,” Lena murmurs. “Not that I mind.” She can feel sleep tugging at her eyelids once more and relishes in the thought that she won’t have to fight it. That she can succumb to the weight guiltlessly.

Kara doesn’t reply. She’s probably drifted off again already and will wake in half an hour with the same sentence on her lips once more. Lena smiles a bit about the predictability of it all, before a yawn overcomes her and drags her down with it.

***

9:51 am

“Golly,” Kara says, sleep still blurring her words. “I love this, I really do. What a good idea.”

Lena makes an affirmative sound, somewhere between a sigh and a purr. She hasn’t felt this relaxed in months, maybe even years. The warmth of Kara’s arm around her waist, the cold of Kara’s nose against her neck, what more can a woman ask for?

“I am starting to become a bit hungry though,” comes Kara’s voice from behind, and Lena has to suppress a chuckle as she rolls around to face her girlfriend.

“Of course you are.”

“Hey!” Kara’s eyes were still closed, but they open now, blinking slowly several times until all traces of tiredness have given way to a semi-offended glare. “It’s – “ she pauses and squints at the clock “ – more than two hours after my usual breakfast time. Of course my stomach is demanding attention.”

Lena lets out a laugh. “Demanding, huh? And that although you so dislike to be ordered around.”

Kara’s on her suddenly, pinning her down so quickly that Lena strongly suspects the involvement of superspeed.

“Damn right,” she says in a low voice, letting her gaze wander over Lena menacingly. Unfortunately, the effect is somewhat undermined by Kara’s stomach releasing a protesting grumble just then. Kara blushes, and just like that she rolls off of Lena again.

“Boss said no,” she murmurs, shrugging helplessly.

Lena grins. “Good thing we’ve got all day.”

“Golly, am I looking forward to that.”

***

11:38 am

The phone rings just when Lena is beginning to contemplate a nap. The sun still hasn’t peeked through the clouds once, and so it continues to be exactly the kind of dreary that you could wish for on a day like this. The kind of dreary that practically invites you to sleep.

But the phone is ringing, and that means Lena has to make a decision. She groans as she lifts her head from Kara’s chest to look at her.

“Reject or ignore?”

Kara shrugs. Her fingers are drawing lazy circles on Lena’s back, and she looks about as sleepy as Lena’s felt just a minutes ago.

“Maybe I’ll look who it is and choose then,” Lena decides, reaching for the vibrating device. It’s Jess, and apparently it’s not the first time she’s tried to get through to Lena. They have somehow managed to miss three calls, and if that isn’t proof of a dedicated sex life, then Lena doesn’t know. She chuckles quietly.

“It’s Jess,” she tells Kara, “for the third time.”

“What does she want?”

“I wouldn’t know.” The call stops. A small flutter of worry stirs in Lena’s stomach, even though she doesn’t want to feel it. Doesn’t want to leave the comfortable bubble Kara and she have created for themselves today.

Kara seems to sense where her thoughts are going, because she takes the phone from Lena and puts it on the nightstand again.

“No work,” she says sternly, “no outside world, and no leaving the bed unless it’s for food or bathroom breaks. Those are the rules.”

Lena bites her lip. She swallows the ‘What if’s’ that lie on the tip of her tongue. She banishes the thought of work to the remotest corner of her mind and kisses Kara on her collarbone instead.

“You’re right,” she murmurs, “they’ll get by without me for one day.”

***

2:01 pm

It turns out that Kara is much less relaxed when it’s her phone that’s ringing. Or maybe it’s the amount of calls she gets. But with every time her ringtone sounds out, she gets quieter and quieter, until at one point, she grabs her phone exasperatedly, turns it off, and tosses it into the armchair at the opposite corner of the room.

“One day!” She exclaims. “One day, the darkest day of the year, and a Sunday at that! You’d think the criminals would stay at home voluntarily, snuggle up to their girlfriend maybe, enjoy a good 32 hours in bed, and just take. One. Day. Off. It’s not that hard, or is it?”

“It’s not,” Lena concurs, finishing one braid in Kara’s long and unfairly soft hair and starting another.

“I work the year round, every day. And night, mind you. Weekends, holidays, always. And I do it gladly. I do it selflessly. I do it with a smile on my face, even. But one day off. One day. Is that really too much to ask for?”

“It’s not.” Lena pauses her braiding to put a soothing hand on Kara’s head. “You’re just doing such a good job the rest of the time, people have forgotten how to take care of themselves without you.”

Kara leans into the touch with a sigh and a grateful smile. “Is it wrong that I kind of like how much they depend on me, even though it annoys me today?”

“Of course not.” Lena lightly scratches her nails over Kara’s scalp, drinking up the contented sighs that fall form Kara’s lips. “I think everybody wants to be needed. It gives us purpose. It gives us strength.” She leans down to press a gentle kiss to Kara’s forehead before she takes up her braiding again. “It’s one of the greatest paradoxes of humankind that this strength doesn’t suffice to sustain you. That you need breaks from being useful, lest your strength depletes.”

Kara nods, momentarily upsetting the row of braids Lena has already finished.

“I love you,” she says.

Lena smiles. “I love you too.”

***

3:45 pm

“I think my butt fell asleep.”

“I call your butt and raise you two legs.” Lena groans. “How do teenagers do this?”

“Do what?” Kara asks, giggling a little at the exaggerated noises Lena is making.

“Do this.” Lena gestures at the two of them, sprawled out on the mattress. “Lie in bed all day, barely moving, except to change the video game or whatever they occupy their brains with all day.”

Kara laughs, loud and hearty. “Rao, Lena, sometimes you are so odd.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Not all teenagers spend all their time in bed, dummy,” Kara says, and it’s only her fond tone that saves her from the pillow Lena almost hurdles at her. “I, for example, was a very active teenager.”

“You hardly count,” Lena retorts, sticking out her tongue when Kara narrows her eyes at her. “Because you’re always active.”

Kara wrinkles her nose, but Lena’s point holds. She huffs.

“What about you then, what did you do as a teenager?”

“I,“ Lena says dignifiedly, “didn’t experience an adolescence.”

“Lena, your adolescence was less than ten years ago.”

Lena sighs dramatically and rolls over, facing her girlfriend with a regretful stare.

“Tell that to my back pain…”

***

4:09 pm

“Isn’t it sad,” Kara muses, kneading Lena’s trapezius muscle with blissfully strong hands, “how it’s already getting dark again?”

Lena moans softly when Kara hits a particularly tense spot. “Is it?”

“Yeah.”

They are silent for a while, Kara moving slowly and methodically up and down Lena’s back, Lena shimmying in and out of consciousness. No phone has rung in over two hours, nobody has disturbed them in their self-imposed solitude, no rule has been broken so far. They are doing exactly what they’ve planned for the day, and it is nothing.

“What a good day,” Lena murmurs, “What a good idea.”

Kara gives her ass a squeeze, and Lena, well on her way to another nap, almost jumps.

“The hell?” She exclaims, which immediately earns her another slap. “What?”

Kara’s voice is a melange of amusement and indignation. “You forgot the golly!”

***

6:37 pm

They start speaking at the same time.

“It’s almost Christmas,” Kara says, and Lena murmurs “How am I already tired?” and then they look at each other and laugh.

“What did you say?” Simultaneously. “You first.”

Lena recovers faster, so she pokes Kara, who’s still laughing, between the ribs.

“Tick, your turn, please speak now.” She presents Kara her fist as a mic, which only results in another burst of laughter. Then Kara’s hand closes around hers, pulling her closer.

“Hello hello, can you hear me?”

Lena giggles. She feels carefree in a way she hasn’t felt in possibly all her life. “Loud and clearly. Please repeat your question.”

“Yes hello,” Kara says, pompous in a way that is exactly like on real TV interviews. “I didn’t so much ask a question as rather observing a fact. That fact being of course the upcoming holiday, namely Christmas.”

At this point they have to drop the act, because Lena is laughing so hard that the mic is shaking and “the connection seems to be bad, hello hello?” And Kara grins at Lena like she did when Lena first fell in love with her, wide and open and with her heart in her hands, ready to give it to anyone she thought worth fighting for. Even a Luthor. Even Lena.

“I’m looking forward to Christmas,” Lena says, but what she means is that she’s never liked the holidays much, until Kara came around and made them worthwhile.

And somehow Kara understands.

“Yes,” she says, “me too.”

***

8:52 pm

“There’ll be much work to catch up on tomorrow,” Lena sighs, playing with the thought of looking at her phone and deciding against it. “But that are tomorrow’s problems.”

Kara hums. She’s floating half an inch above the bed because she finds the mattress is too warm after bearing her body all day.

“I’m still looking forward to that somehow.”

Lena chuckles. “Yes, me too. Isn’t that weird? I thoroughly enjoyed today, but I couldn’t do it again tomorrow.”

“It’s about the – “ Kara forms the chef’s kiss gesture minus the kiss “ – purpose.” She turns on her side to look at Lena. “Or so a wise woman once told me.”

“Sounds very wise indeed. Did she also say something about the reason why I’m tired even though we did nothing all day?”

“Nope.” Kara pops the p, then lets herself fall back on the bed. “But here’s my theory: inaction is like negative action. And at the end of the day, it’s the absolute value that counts, minus or plus doesn’t matter. So if you’ve balanced action and inaction, you won’t be that tired, because they cancel each other. But if you have an overload of either action or inaction…”

“… you’ll feel about as exhausted as I do right now,” Lena finishes, her eyes already closed. “Seems reasonable. It’s compatible with my strength theory, I like that.” She yawns, and feels blindly for Kara’s hand. “Either way, all in favour of an early night, raise your hand.” She lifts their entwined hands off the mattress. “Whooo.”

Kara breathes out a laugh. “Also, if we go to bed now, then tomorrow will come faster.”

“Scientifically incorrect,” Lena murmurs, “but golly.”

“What?”

Lena snuggles into Kara’s embrace until all she can smell is Kara, and all she can feel is also Kara. She yawns again.

“Golly am I looking forward to tomorrow.”

#supercorp #sc #supercorp fanfiction #sc fanfic #supergirl #christmas #christmas fic #my writing #winter solstice #mini fic

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broomballkraken · 6 years

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Title: The Apocathary and The Dancer, Chapter 4: Seashells

Fandom: Octopath Traveler

Pairing: Alfyn/Primrose

Word count: 3970

Warnings: None

Summary: He was very good at healing physical wounds, but he was not well versed in healing emotional ones. But that would not stop him from trying, for her sake.

Primrose had never seen the ocean before. She stood at the edge of the water, her bare feet half buried in the warm sand. She took a deep breath of the salty sea air and closed her eyes as a calm breeze tickled her face. She decided that she quite liked the town of Goldshore. It was small and quaint, and she was realizing rather quickly that she liked being near the sea. She felt content and relaxed.

“Linde! Thou must not rolleth in the sand! Tis too hard to cleaneth from thine fur!” an exasperated H'aanit scolded as she chased the snow leopard down the beach, and Primrose couldn't help but let slip a chuckle. She then burst out laughing when the sand covered Linde tackled an unsuspecting Cyrus, who ended up flat on his back and dazed. There was never a dull moment with this group, but she was glad that they had time to relax and enjoy themselves on this journey. Her eyes moved to the water, where Tressa, Olberic, Therion, and Ophilia were having fun together.

There was just one person missing. When Alfyn had overheard the locals speaking of a mysterious sickness spreading through the town, he had run off on his own to investigate. She smiled when she thought of how excited he looked. He was always looking to help people in need, and Primrose knew that this would be a good test of his abilities as an apothecary.

“Shucks! It sure looks like you guys are having a blast!”

Primrose smiled as she turned to find Alfyn standing behind her, a grin plastered on his face.

“Ah, Alfyn. You've returned.” she said, “Did you manage to help any of the sick townspeople?”

“Well, about that...” he said as he rubbed the back of his neck and adverted his gaze. “It seems like I've got some competition here.”

Primrose raised an eyebrow curiously. “Oh?” she inquired. She did not expect to hear that.

“I helped out a poor girl who fell and hurt her knee. She told me her sister was sick, so I followed her home to see what I could do. But when I got there, she had no fever that I could see.” he said with a shrug, “Apparently there's another apothecary in town, and from what I've seen, she's very good at what she does. I reckon I could learn a thing or two from her.” A sparkle of admiration shown in his eyes and Primrose couldn't help but think it was cute.

“Maybe you should seek her out then. Expanding your knowledge was why you went on this journey, right?” she said.

“Yeah, I think I will! You wanna join me, Prim?” Alfyn asked. Primrose smiled and nodded.

“I'd love to, Alfyn.” she said, and she let out a chuckle as he smiled brightly at her.

“Alright! Let's go!” he said enthusiastically, and he offered his arm to her. She placed a hand in the crook and let him lead her towards the town. They stopped briefly to let H'aanit know where they were going. The huntress acknowledged them briefly before turning back to chasing Linde, who had jumped in the water and was now soaking wet and chasing a fleeing Cyrus down the beach. The duo laughed at the sight as they left on their own mini adventure.

Alfyn was all smiles as he eagerly led Primrose through the semi-crowded streets. He was pleased that she had agreed to join him in seeking out the other traveling apothecary in town. He always enjoyed spending time with her, and seeing her being at least a little interested in his profession made him happy.

“Oh? It seems there's a crowd forming over there.” Primrose said, snapping him from his thoughts. She was pointing ahead of them, and he turned his head to have a look. The crowd was gathered around a purple haired woman, who was smiling sweetly as the people spoke to her.

“Oh miss! How can we ever repay you?” one woman said.

“Thanks to your tincture, my husband is out of bed for the first time in weeks!” another chimed in. Others voiced their praise at her work, and Alfyn concluded that she must be the person he was looking for. He decided that he had to see if she would offer up any of her trade secrets. From what he could pick out from the crowd chatter, she apparently charged very little for her services, and that was one thing that she had in common with him.

Primrose was not as impressed as Alfyn was. Her eyes narrowed as she listened to the woman speak. From what she said, it seemed that she had the same views about her profession as Alfyn. She said that 'we apothecaries have a sworn duty to ease suffering wherever we go', but Primrose couldn't help but feel that something was off when she said it. Her words did not seem to have the same sincerity behind them as Alfyn's did. Or maybe Primrose was being too suspicious.

She stood off to the side as Alfyn eagerly went to speak with the woman, whose name was Vanessa. Primrose raised an eyebrow when she denied Alfyn's request to share her knowledge with him. Maybe it was the way that she hesitated before answering that made Primrose wary. Or perhaps it was the way she avoided making eye contact with him. Whatever it was, it made Primrose think that she was hiding something. Alfyn seemed completely oblivious of that fact, as he returned to her side after bidding Vanessa farewell.

“Aw, shucks! I was really hoping that she would let me in on at least some of her secrets.” Alfyn said, sighing dejectedly as he frowned at Primrose.

“I think you will do fine on your own, Alfyn. You are a smart and determined man.” Primrose said, offering him a slight smile. The smiled faded quickly as she averted her gaze and bit her lower lip. She wondered if she should voice her suspicions. She looked back at him and saw that a smile had returned to his face in response to her words, so she decided to keep her thoughts to herself.

“Lets go back and join the others. I believe it is almost time for lunch.” Primrose said.

“Good thing. All this excitement sure works up an appetite!” Alfyn said, laughing as he slapped a hand to his stomach. Primrose chuckled and shook her head at his antics and they both headed back to the beach.

After eating a quick meal on the beach, Alfyn took a walk along the shore to do some thinking. He was still pretty bummed that Vanessa hadn't revealed any of her tips and tricks, but that just made him more determined to become a better apothecary all on his own. He saw someone digging in the sand a ways ahead of him. It was Ellen, the little girl he had helped earlier in the day.

“Well, lookee here!” Alfyn said cheerfully as he approached. She looked up at him and smiled brightly.

“Hello again, Alfyn.” she said, giggling as she walked up to him and held out her hands. “Here! This is for you!” He tilted his head curiously as he knelt down to get a closer look. She was holding a seashell in her hand.

“Do you like it?” she asked, and he chuckled as she waited with baited breath for him to answer.

“Aw, I sure do. It's a beaut.” he said, and she beamed at him.

“Thank you for helping me!” she said happily.

“Well, I didn't do too much, but I'll accept your thanks.” Alfyn said, shrugging. He was glad that Ellen was feeling better. He could at least say with confidence that his healing salves were top notch.

Alfyn chatted with Ellen for a while, frowning as he learned that she collected seashells to give to their mother, who struggled with making enough money to care for her family. He laughed when she offered to give him some money. Did he really have the appearance of some dirt poor bum? He'd have to work on changing that...

“Here, Alfyn! Have another shell! You can give this one to your girlfriend!” she said, shoving another shell into his hands.

Alfyn blinked, confused. “Girlfriend?” he questioned. As far as he knew, he was as single as can be. Where did she get the idea that he had a girlfriend?

“Yeah! I saw you with a really pretty lady in the markets earlier. You two looked so happy together!” Ellen said excitedly. Alfyn's eyes widened when he realized who she was talking about: Primrose.

“O-oh, no. We're not together, Ellen. Prim and I are just good friends is all.” he said, a nervous chuckle escaping him as a deep blush rose on his cheeks.

“Aww, really? But you two looked so cute! And she was holding your arm! You must be a couple if she did that!” the girl said, nodding her head firmly. She pouted when Alfyn only laughed in response.

“Well, if she isn't your girlfriend, then you really need to give her this shell! She'll fall in love with you for sure!” Ellen continued, crossing her arms over her chest confidently.

“Well golly, if you're that sure about it, I guess I'll have to give it a try.” Alfyn said as he tucked the shells carefully into his satchel. He would be lying if he said that he didn't like the idea of being with Primrose. She was beautiful and courageous and strong and just...amazing. He may have developed a not-so-small crush on her. However, he knew that she was way out of his league, so he decided to keep his feelings a secret.

“Yay! Good luck, Alfyn! I'm rooting for you!” Ellen said. She bid him farewell and headed home, leaving Alfyn standing in the sand, with his heart racing and his face a bright shade of red. He knew that these seashells didn't have any power to make someone fall in love with him, but he still contemplated giving one to Primrose anyway. It would be a nice gift from one good friend to another. Just a friend, nothing more. The thought made him sad for some reason, and he sighed as he made his way back to the group.

Primrose spent the afternoon shopping with Ophilia. They had bought some cute clothing, and Primrose had even found a purple dancer outfit that she wanted Ophilia to try on. The cleric wasn't convinced that she would look good in it, and Primrose teased that she could just give it to Therion if she didn't like it, which caused her friend to blush madly and Primrose laughed in response.

They made it to the tavern and went inside, and found that most of the group was already occupying a table. Primrose immediately noticed the only person missing: Alfyn. Where was he? He was usually the first to show up and start drinking. A pit of worry formed in her stomach.

“Olberic, have you seen Alfyn?” Primrose asked when she approached the table. He finished taking a swig of ale and shook his head.

“No. He has not shown up yet. I thought he might have met up with you and Ophilia?” he said, and her feelings of unease grew.

“Ah, there he is.” Olberic said, pointing at the door behind Primrose. She smiled and turned around, and that smile immediately fell from her face. Something was wrong. He had burst through the door and looked like he was out of breath. He must have ran all the way here from wherever he had been. His hands were balled into fists at his sides, and his jaw was clenched tightly as a scowl was plastered on his face. Primrose's eyes widened as she met his gaze. His eyes were burning with such an intense fury that she did not expect from him. What on earth had happened?

Primrose shot to her feet and hurried across the room to him. “Alfyn?” she said, placing her hands on his arms, “What is going on? W-why are you so angry?” Alfyn closed his eyes and took a calming, but shaky, breath, letting it out slowly. He opened his eyes and looked down at her.

“Prim. I need your help. Vanessa,” he said, practically spitting out the name as if it was poison on his lips, “has been purposefully making people sick in order to sell her cures at insane prices. I have to stop her. I have to save Flynn.”

Primrose inhaled sharply. How could that woman do such a thing? Primrose knew that she seemed a bit shady, but this was monstrous. She nodded and took Alfyn's hands in hers. He stared down at their hands for a moment before his eyes locked with hers.

“I will help you, Alfyn. We will not let her get away with this.” Primrose said, giving his hands a reassuring squeeze. He managed a small smile.

“Thank you Prim. We'll need to bring some muscle with us.” he said, and soon they, along with H'aanit and Olberic, were off to confront the corrupt apothecary while the others in their group went to inform the guards of the situation.

After fighting their way through the monsters on the outskirts of town, and inside the Caves of Azure, the group managed to find Vanessa. As Primrose listened to her and Alfyn's confrontation, all she wanted to do was stab her dagger into the corrupt apothecary's blackened heart. Alfyn's tone was surprisingly calm, but Primrose saw the absolute fury hiding behind his narrowed eyes. It seemed that Vanessa and her hired goons were not going to give up without a fight, so Primrose tightened her grip on her dagger and charged into the fray alongside her friends.

After trouncing her guards and then making quick work of her, Primrose watched as Alfyn stabbed her with the Slumberthorn. She couldn't help but think that she would have done worse to that horrid woman, but Alfyn was a much better person than her. She walked up to him after he had gathered the moss he needed and placed a gentle hand on his arm. He was shaking, but it lessened after he closed his eyes and took a deep, calming breath.

“Prim...Thank you. For coming with me.” Alfyn said, a smile finally returning to his face. A wave of relief washed through her. The rage that was flaming in his eyes earlier was gone, and he seemed like his normal self again. She was very thankful for that.

“Anytime. You should hurry back. I will stay with H'aanit and Olberic to keep an eyes on them.” Primrose said, waving her hand in the direction of the unconscious Vanessa and her goons.

“I will.” he said, with a nod. He turned to go, but paused and turned back to Primrose, pulling her into a hug. “I really mean it. Thanks.” Primrose's eyes widened at the surprise hug, but she smiled and hugged him back. He really did give the best hugs.

“I get it, now hurry up and go.” Primrose said, chuckling as she gave Alfyn a gentle nudge in the direction of the exit.

“Right! I'll catch up with you all later!” he said, and off he went, to help people and ease suffering like a proper apothecary should. Primrose smiled as she watched him go, and she wondered why her cheeks suddenly felt so warm in the dank depths of this cave.

“Grown-ups aren't supposed to cry!”

Alfyn tried in vain to keep the tears from falling. He had always been a bit wishy-washy, but he couldn't help himself. He was overcome at just how selfless and kind Ellen and Flynn were. He thanked the gods that he had happened to end up in Goldshore when he did, for he had been able to save a girl with a golden heart from the dastardly scheme of a corrupt apothecary.

“Even grown-ups need a good cry from time to time.” he said, chuckling as he wiped the tears from his face. Ellen and Flynn giggled and hugged him, and he crouched down to hug them back.

“You two stay healthy for me, ya hear?” he said as he stood up. They both nodded, and he headed down the beach, barely managing to hold back more tears that threatened to escape. He walked for a bit before stopping to watched the sun as it started to slowly set over the water. He would miss this place. He decided that he liked being near the ocean. He would probably be out on the shore watching the sunset every evening if he lived here.

“Ah, here you are.”

Alfyn turned around to find Primrose walking towards him, and his heart skipped a beat because of how radiant she looked in the light of the setting sun.

“Heya. What're you doing here, Prim?” he asked, turning back to look at the horizon in hopes to hide the blush on his face.

Primrose came to a stop next to him, and her eyes stared out at the water for a moment. Unknown to Alfyn, she had heard his entire conversation with Ellen and Flynn. She hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but she did not want to interrupt, especially when she saw how absolutely sweet Alfyn was being. She was tempted to tease him a little bit.

“I was just looking for you. But, Alfyn,” she said, turning to face him, “You're eyes are all red, have you been crying?” She tried to suppress her giggling as his face turned bright red.

“Ah, no, of course not!” Alfyn said, adverting his gaze as he chewed on his lip. How did she know that he was crying? Ah, his eyes were probably red. He must have rubbed them to hard. He let out a nervous chuckle and rubbed his hands together. “I just, ah, had something in my eye, that's it.”

Primrose noted that Alfyn was a very terrible liar. Even if she didn't already know the truth, the way he avoided eye contact and his fidgeting gave it all away. It was rather cute.

“Alfyn. You know there is no shame in showing your emotions. Those two girls adored you.” she said, and his eyes returned to hers, “In fact, I think you'll make a wonderful father someday.” As soon as the words left Primrose's mouth, she wondered why on earth she had said them. It was true, but a bit awkward to say out of the blue like that.

“F-father?!?” Alfyn sputtered. He was a good many years away from even thinking of starting a family. Heck, he wasn't even romantically involved with anyone. Not that he wouldn't like to be, as the person he did want to be with was standing right in front of him at this very moment.

“Now, be sure to look after those shells.” Primrose said, smiling mischievously as Alfyn raised an eyebrow at her.

“Wait, did you, uh, see all of that?” he asked, suddenly feeling quite embarrassed, not so much that she had seen him crying, but more-so at the fact that he tried to lie to her when she already knew the truth. 'Smooth, Alfyn, really smooth...' he thought as he groaned internally.

Primrose chuckled. “Yes, I did. I apologizing for not announcing myself. I did not want to interrupt.” She felt a little bad for embarrassing him, but he was incredibly adorable when flustered.

“Aw, shucks, it's alright...” he said, gazing at the ground. The seashells...His eyes widened as he suddenly remembered what Ellen had said the first time she had given him some shells.

'Well, if she isn't your girlfriend, then you really need to give her this shell! She'll fall in love with you for sure!'

Alfyn certainly didn't believe that those shells had any sort of magical love powers, but he felt that one would be a good thank you gift to Primrose for helping him out today. He smiled and dug around in his satchel.

“What are you looking for?” Primrose asked, tiling her head curiously. He rummaged a bit longer, and she made a mental note to offer to help him organize it sometime. He eventually pulled out a beautiful, sparkling seashell, and he held it out to her.

“H-here. This is for you. Thanks for helping me out today, Prim. And for, you know, just being a great person and friend.” he said. She stared at the shell, and he held his breath as he waited for her to respond.

“Wow, this is beautiful.” Primrose said, a large smile crossing her face. She took the shell and held it in the palm of her hand, examining it in the light of the setting sun. It was really sweet of him to gift this to her, but she wondered why he would part with one, as they were a gift to him.

“But Alfyn, these were gifted to you. Why give me one?” she asked, and his immediate recoil at the question made her all the more curious to know why.

“Well, uh, you see...Um...It's...They're just...” Alfyn stumbled over his words, trying desperately to think of something else to say other than the truth. “It's just...that shell is, well, really pretty and...I just thought it suited you is all.” He decided that what he just said was just about as embarrassing as the truth, and he winced as he waited for Primrose to react negatively.

Primrose blinked at him for a moment, for she was at a loss for words. 'He really thinks I'm pretty?' she thought, feeling a heat rise in her cheeks. She studied his face closely, and sure enough it seemed that he wasn't lying. She would be able to tell if he was; Alfyn was the worst at hiding his true feelings. A warm feeling spread inside of her; she was feeling incredibly happy in this moment with him.

“Thank you. I will treasure it always.” she said, and before Alfyn could respond, Primrose boldly took a step forward, leaned up, and placed a kiss on his cheek.

Time seemed to stop as Alfyn tried to process what was happening. Her lips were warm against his cheek, and it seemed like he had forgotten how to breath. Was this really happening? He just had to be dreaming or something. There was no way this beautiful woman was kissing his cheek. No way.

Fortunately, it was not a dream, but it ended too quickly as Primrose pulled away, and laughed at the flabbergasted look on Alfyn's face.

“What's the matter? Never been kissed on the cheek before?” she teased, and he remembered to breath again as he gasped for air. She chuckled and turned away from the water.

“Come, Alfyn, let's go meet the others. It's about time for dinner, I think.” Primrose said, looking back at him and smiling. He stared at her for a moment before nodding and his legs seemed to move of their own accord as he followed her to the tavern, while his mind was occupied with trying to determine if he was still alive. He was in the presence of an angel, after all, so it would not surprise him one bit if he had died and gone to heaven.

#octopath traveler #alfyn greengrass #primrose azelhart #alfprim #fanfiction #jade writes fanfiction

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sarsaparillaswords · 7 years

Text

Winter Soldier Arm Made From Paper

I did a Bucharest Bucky cosplay last Halloween and I’m pretty proud of it. Here’s a close-up:

People have been asking me how I made it and it’s much easier to explain with pictures so I promised them a long tumblr how-to and here it finally is. This is just a forearm, meant to be worn with a henley to cover the upper arm and a glove over the hand. If you want to do a full arm and shoulder then I won’t be able to help you. I mentioned to my husband that I was considering making a full arm for next year and he gave me a look of panic, which is kind of funny because I was the one with glue all over my fingers. The house didn’t even get that messy but whatever. Husbands are still worth it and so is this arm. Here’s another close-up to show off my fake muscles:

Why paper? When I first decided I wanted to do a Bucky costume, I looked at some other examples online. By far the most popular method was thin craft foam manipulated with a heat gun, but the noise and smell would probably have disturbed my child, and I didn’t want to invest in a piece of hardware that would be used once and then contribute to my household clutter forevermore. Finally, although supposedly craft-foam technique is not that difficult, I found it a little bit intimidating whereas I built this forearm with a technique from kindergarten, when we all made papier-mâché* balls by pasting newspaper strips onto balloons.

* I went to the trouble of googling the spelling for papier-mâché and it’s full of accent marks, so I’m going to cut-and-paste it into this whole post, even though it makes me look like a huge nerd. Which I am.

To make this fine, if somewhat time-consuming, specimen of cosplay craftsmanship, you will need a bunch of trash you already have and a couple inexpensive things:

1) some newspaper (a couple issues of one of those free monthly papers is probably enough, since nobody except my in-laws subscribes to the paper anymore)

2) some lightweight material for padding (more newspaper or old plastic bags)

3) an old pair of pantyhose, old t-shirt, or stretchy scrap fabric

4) tape (I used masking tape but duct tape would probably be better)

5) plastic wrap

6) a small (8 oz) jar of mod-podge ($4-$7, matte, satin, or gloss is fine)

7) a small (3 oz) can of chrome paint ($3-$6)

8) a short length of elastic or very stretchy fabric and some thread (~$2)

9) a small, cheap paintbrush. The cheapest you can find (<$1)

The complete how-I-made-it story is below the cut, plus more terrible cell phone photos and unnecessary brilliant commentary.

I spent about a month planning this thing and only 4 days making it. The whole time, I was screaming internally because although I had the whole thing planned out, I didn’t actually know for sure if it would work until I did it. But it did. Here’s how:

Step 1: make an arm-shaped form to build the papier-mâché over.

Back in my misspent youth, I successfully drafted a homemade dress pattern by having a friend duct-tape me into a T-shirt. This works on the same principle. You need some kind of flexible stuff (stretchy fabric is best) to make the base layer and keep the tape from sticking to you. I cut a leg off an old pair of panty hose and slid it over my arm. Honestly a plastic bag would have probably worked just as well. A piece of thin knit fabric (like a piece cut from an old T-shirt) would be even better. Just make sure you don’t have any exposed skin where the tape will go. Then wrap tape around your arm until the whole thing is covered in a shell like this:

You may notice that I used masking tape. I had this idea that I could capture some muscle definition by using a thinner, narrower tape. This was a mistake. Even while flexing to get the most out of my wimpy muscles, it didn’t really work. Also the panty hose wanted to contract and the tape wasn’t sturdy enough to counter that until I put a whole bunch of layers on. So save yourself a headache and use duct tape (tried and true). Your arm is widest while bent, so do most of the work in that position, but straighten it and move it around a bit to be sure that you will have room to move your arm when the thing is done.

Cut a slit in your crazy tape-sleeve to get it off and tape it back together, then stuff it with old plastic bags or newspaper so it will hold its shape.

(At this point in my project, I looked at my sad tape arm and decided by golly, it would have muscles if I had to make them up. So I taped two long pieces of crumpled newspaper where the most prominent muscles of the outer forearm would be. I don’t have a photo of this step, but I do have a nice forearm drawing tuturial and a muscle diagram in my art advice tag. Maybe those will help. Or you could be smart, unlike me, and skip the muscles.)

Step 2: use your arm form as a base to build a layer of papier-mâché

I covered the base with plastic wrap to make sure that my papier-mâché wouldn’t stick to it. Then I used Mod-Podge to paste overlapping newspaper strips over that base. If you aren’t familiar with Mod-Podge, it looks and smells just like white glue. There are probably a lot of different kinds of paste that would work here, but Mod-Podge is inexpensive and readily available. (Also, the hippy aesthetic really goes with my hairstyle.) I quickly discovered that it worked best if I applied the glue to the arm itself with a brush, then laid the newspaper strip over it and smoothed it down with my fingers. It took me a few tries to figure out the best way to lay the strips. As a result, that all-important valley between the “muscles” got papered over and I had to resort to cutting a slit in the paper and pushing it in a bit. It worked--just barely--but it was a real headache.

Look! Muscles!

So what is the best way to lay the strips? Definitely not like the picture above! In my opinion, a diagonal spiral around the arm works best, allowing you to lay the strip evenly and also keep track of how much you’ve covered in that layer, like this:

Start your strip near the wrist and let it lay the way it wants to go to stay smooth. This might result in a small gap or overlap with the strip next to it--don’t try to force them to line up exactly.

Let dry 30 minutes between layers. I did about 3 layers, or roughly the thickness of a sheet of notepaper. I figured that my arm would provide a lot of structure, and I wanted to be sure I could cut it with ordinary scissors later!

Step 3: repeat the process to build a second papier-mâché layer

Once I figured it was thick enough, I let it dry overnight, then wrapped it in another layer of plastic wrap (IMPORTANT!) and started pasting again. About 5 layers this time, or about the thickness of a notecard. I wanted this layer to be very smooth. If I’d had the time, I might have tried to do a “build-up finish” as described on the Mod-Podge jar, but it was only 2 days before Halloween so I just didn’t have time. Instead, I made sure that all my paper strips were torn rather than cut, which made a much less visible edge. Also I finally figured out the diagonal thing.

Then I coated it in a thick layer of Mod-Podge and let it dry for an hour or so.

Step 4: Draw lines for Winter Soldier Arm plates

The reference images I had were...not great...so eventually I had to shrug and make up something that made sense to me, for a very loose definition of “make sense.”

Was Zola high when he designed this?

You can kind of see the diagonal paper strips under the lines here.

I did this with different colored Sharpie pens. The purple lines are for cutting. Some of the red lines are guide lines, some are where the thinner grooves in the plates go.

I had planned to make those grooves by pressing hard with an old ball-point pen. However, I found it hard to get a good grip on this rounded thing so the line came out shakier than I liked. I panicked and decided not to do the rest, hoping no one would notice, which was a shame because the groove actually looked awesome once the paint was on.

Step 5: Cut up the outer shell

Let me pause here for a moment.

If you are reading this, then you may be thinking “this sounds like a lot of work!” Which it was! But the worst part was I didn’t know if it was even going to work at all. I didn’t have those completed photos to reassure me. I had a backup plan which was “wrap aluminum foil around my arm and call it good enough” As I built up the structure, it was starting to look like the principle was sound, but I had a lot of work ahead of me and I could still screw it up.

It was late at night on October 29th and I had to make a cut. After that, there would be no going back.

I needed to cut the tube open so that I could get my hand through it. My plan was to cut just to the right of the row of narrow plates on the inner arm. So I did.

The cut itself was fine! I pulled out the stuffing and nothing exploded or stuck to itself. The problem was that it was way too big, probably because of that muscle padding I added way back in step 1. Near my elbow especially, it was maybe an inch too wide. This might not seem like a lot, but when you are trying to hide the edge under a pushed-back henley cuff, it’s frigging huge.

Step 5a: PANIC

After I was done panicking, I had a pretty cool idea so I ended up doing this:

It’s weird now that I’m thinking about it, but I had no difficulty closing up that gap. Maybe I squeezed it a bit to train it but nothing fancy. It really wanted to curl up on itself already.

Step 5b: Cut up outer layer

This is a little tricky because I had to cut just to one side of the thick sharpie line, then just to the other side, which in practice means cutting a thin strip off the edge of every piece, to make the little gaps between the plates that give the arm its characteristic look.

I used ordinary scissors from an office supply store for most of this, new-ish but nothing fancy. For some of the fine details I turned to a pair of embroidery scissors that I had lying around and wasn’t too attached to (because this kind of thing is bad for embroidery scissors) Imagine my feeling of inverse accomplishment at achieving this:

Like a beautiful flower made of cosplay despair.

While I was doing that I was also waiting for the paint on the under-layer to dry as described in...

Step 6: Prep the under-layer

I needed some elastic to hold the join snug closed over my arm, but I had a bit of metallic stretch velour fabric left over from my kid’s R2-D2 costume, which I had saved every scrap from because it was so expensive. I figured it was stretchy enough to use in place of elastic so I did some estimating and hand-sewed in a panel and...I’m not going to go into depth here. It worked fine but honestly it was so not worth it. In the end, that overlap from step 5a hid most of the join, so I could have just stapled in some elastic and a little flap of cheap silver lamé or something. Then I painted it. I had to mask it so the fabric wouldn’t get paint on it which goes to show how poorly I was thinking things through by this point because it would have been so much easier to paint it first and then add the elastic/stretch fabric/whatever.

The paint I used was Testors 1290 Chrome Spray Enamel from a local store that specialized in model train supplies. I ran down there the morning of October 30, because of course I was doing everything last minute and panicked as is my way. Nor had I taken the time to check any reviews of paint brands. So it was that I found myself standing in the store holding a can of 1290 Chrome in one hand and a of 1246 Metallic Silver in the other. “Chrome.” I murmured to myself. “Metallic Silver. Chrome. Metallic Silver.” I eventually bought the Chrome paint because it “sounded shinier” and because I could use it to make Mad Max jokes.

WITNESS ME!

Chrome was probably the right choice, as this review demonstrates, but on the other hand I might have gotten an even better finish with a different brand, but maybe not in that convenient 3-oz size.

Remember how one of the reasons I chose papier-mâché over heat-treated craft foam was to avoid bad smells? Well, this stuff reeks like you wouldn’t believe. And, forgive me for being such a hippy, but this kind of paint is very high in harmful VOCs, so if you want to use this stuff, if at all possible, do your painting outdoors to minimize health risks. It’s not like you’ll die from painting one arm, but the more often you use this stuff, the more careful you should be.

Getting back to my Epic Forearm Story, I was concerned that some of the paint would have difficulty reaching the under-layer through the gaps between the plates so I gave the under-layer a single coat of paint to avoid any weird paint shadows. It was good practice getting a smooth coat and I was feeling pretty confident about my painting skill. Too confident.

Step 7: Glue cut-up pieces of outer layer onto under-layer

At this point, it was starting to look like my mad project would work, but only if I could finish it on time. This wasn’t reducing my stress levels any, because now I had sunk hours into this project and I had something to lose. I was also concerned that the mod-podge might have difficulty sticking to the chrome paint finish. I lined up the first piece and patiently held it in place until it had dried enough to hold its position after I put it down. Then I waited another half hour or so for it to cure. The resulting join was quite strong, but it was taking flipping forever.

Then I remembered that I didn’t hate life or myself and also that I owned a bottle of super glue. The rest of the pieces went on lickety-split.

(Super glue is not durable enough for extended wear, so if you want to wear this for more than a single Halloween, use the mod-podge)

At this point I had meant to apply another thick coat of mod-podge to seal the edges and make the foundation as smooth as possible but I completely forgot, and maybe just as well because I was rapidly running out of time. Instead I went on to...

Step 8: Apply Chrome Paint finish

The first coat went on beautifully. I was really getting the hang of this, I thought. I put the last coat on just before bed, but this one spot needed a touch more paint, I hesitated just moment too long and...bam. Saggy, bubbly finish. It was so bad it looked like it might actually start to drip, so I grabbed a piece of newspaper and kind of wiped/scraped off some of the excess paint were it was collecting at the points, hoping all the while that I wasn’t marring the finish even further. I was practically in tears but even if I’d had the time, it’s not like I was going to start over so I went to bed and hoped for the best.

In the morning it didn’t look so bad, but I was worried about the edge digging into my arm so I tried to put a strip of that silver fabric over the edge to cushion it a bit, except that fabric is really hard to glue and it only just barely dried enough to wear in time for the trick-or-treating event that afternoon.

Step 9: Wear to widespread acclaim

Or not. Most people didn’t notice that I was wearing a costume at all, which is what happens when you are out on a busy sidewalk with an adorable 3-year-old child. Or people noticed, but didn’t remember Bucky well enough to recognize it. I got a complement on my “nice bracelet” so I guess the metal effect wasn’t too bad. But then I insisted on going to my Friendly Local Comic Book Store to enter the costume contest, and even though it was out of our way and I didn’t win, it was worth it to see the look on the face of the woman working there, just one look of admiration from a fellow nerd and I was over the moon. Hours of work, justified.

In conclusion, this construction method looks great but is somewhat uncomfortable to wear. It would have been better if I had lined it with felt or something. Also this was probably way more difficult than craft foam in the long run. Still, it is very light-weight, relatively cheap to make and allows for muscle contours if you are into that kind of thing. It might have been the best Bucky forearm ever but I flubbed the finish. If anybody decides to make one like it, please show me a picture or something, and learn from my mistakes. Finally, don’t get in any fights with spider-lings.

THE END.

#cosplay #winter soldier #bucky barnes #marvel cosplay #cosplay how-to #cosplay instructions #metal arm #cosplay stories #marvel #mcu #ca:cw #cosplay armor #what are good tags I don't know #my posts #my art

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noirlevity · 7 years

Text

Pairing: Gureferi Prompt: Fun Times Genre: Romance. Rated T. No warnings Words: 4, 408 Summary: Guren and Ferid acting lovey dovey.

A/N: I got a little too carried away.

---

Everything didn’t really seem difficult. In fact, everything seemed to be going well: Ferid gave Guren a distraction from his stress at work. They spend time together as much as they could. Gurenfor the most part had already came into terms with his feelings. He just accepted it as it is and was perfectly happy with what he had with Ferid.

Gurenhad beenbusy because his surveillance work was still ongoing. Feridmost of the time visited him at his apartment, and offer to cook for him.

Ferid knew that Guren’s work was tedious. He knew that it also involved putting his life on the line. Since he had been given the chance to be close to him, he wanted to be there for him, even if there was still some hesitation that he could not shrug off; even if there was still doubt, that maybe, it would still be better if he stayed away from him. But what was he to do?

On the other hand, for Guren, Feridbecame a habit; he became a routine; perhaps even an addiction. EverytimeGuren came home to his apartment, he always foundFerid in the kitchen, wearing his red apron, his hair tied in a lovely bun cooking for him. The smell of thick powder of flour wafting in the air in ribbons; the scent of broil and soup and beef would tickle his nose. He would feel blessed, that even if he was a brooding, lazy jerk sometimes, he still had something like this waiting for him when he came home.

Sometimes when he was not busy, he would ask Ferid if he could come to Ferid’s apartment to share a cup of coffee and just talk about random things. Even if he had the keys to Ferid’s apartment, Guren’s visits were always at an appointed time. This was also one of the things that he was conscious about. He felt insecure just thinking about himself being just an extra in Ferid’s life. He didn’t really know what he is to Ferid. Were they just people who wanted to fill each other’s loneliness? Were they just two people trying to figure out the attraction that they mutually felt towards each other andtry tofigure out whether or not what they hadwas the thing people write poems about? Guren didn’t know. He never thought of anything as deep as this before.

On top of that, they still haven’t had sex. They still haven’t kissed nor touched beyond holding each other’s hands.

Guren found it hilarious that such a thing could really happen. He was not one who would hold back when lust overcame him. But whenever he is with Ferid; whenever he looks at him being his innocent, joyful self with no motivation of wanting to have sex. No matter how he wanted to touch him, he could never try.Whenever it was like that, he was embarrassed at himself. He would crinkle his nose, rub it, and breathe out just to fend off the feeling of wanting to touch him. He knew too, that he wasn’t really a good partner, a good boyfriend for that matter.

Sometimes, he forgot that what they both had didn’t really have any labels. He really couldn’t say that they were lovers. For how can two people who meet each other and not have sex be lovers? They can be regarded as friends, but it did not necessarily encapsulate the entirety of their relationship. They had romantic feelings for each other so they can’t be friends. Then what were they?

His mind was always filled with thoughts of Ferid, their relationships and how much he didn’t want this all to ever end. Because he liked being with him; even if sometimes Ferid was a jerk; even if sometimes he would point out Guren’s flaws without mincing his words; even if he would do things that would sometimes piss Guren off because of anticipating things too much, because of planning things too much. Ferid thinks too much, really.

But this is the reason why they work well with each other. Ferid completes him; fill in his gaps. He too, completes Ferid, fills in the void in Ferid’s soul that the other had always been trying to satisfy but could not.

---

Feridcame to his apartment. He brought his wine and cooked for Guren.Ferid was a good cook. And for that Guren was a very lucky man.

Across from him, Feridsmiled coquettishly and asked him about his day. It was the usual round of conversation that they usually shared. He talked about what he had done at work like some sort of daily report to Ferid. Ferid always listened to them with all ears, commenting from time to time whenever Gurenstarted complaining about his work. He told Ferid the murders had completely stopped. It was weird, but they still had to be high on alert. Ferid looked at him with curious eyes. He narrowed them with purpose and drank his wine in one full swig.

Ferid checked the time and excused himself. He was saying that he needed to go. Guren frowned. He followed Ferid with his eyes and then stood up to follow him to the door. When Feridtook his jacket on the clothes rack, Guren grabbed his arm to stop him from going.

Guren raised his eyes seemingly trying to figure out about the state of the weather. He let go, leaned on the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. Putting on his weight on his left foot.

“It’s probably snowing hard outside. Just stay for the night.”

“Worried about me? Oh, that’s so sweet of you darling Guren~” Ferid giggled, coy, and very much a tease. His lips curled in an amused grin.

Guren rolled his eyes. He wanted Ferid to stay. The room just somehow feels lonelier whenever he was gone.

“Oh~ If you want me to stay, you better tell me a good reason why I should take you up on your offer. hmmm,” Ferid thought purposely, “Think of something good and worth while that will appease me.”Ferid smiled--that smile of his that was bordering on annoying.

Guren frowned and looked at Ferid. He pondered. When he came into a conclusion, without any hesitation, he put back Ferid’s overcoat on the clothes rack and then lifted him up, carrying him bridal style, taking Ferid by surprise.

“Guren!”

Ferid acted like a damsel in distress about to be ravished.

“Oh golly~ brute, kidnapper! Somebody help me.”

“You. You really overdramatic things like this don’t you?” Gurencomplained, feeling awkward.

“Dear, I’m just kidding~ please be a sport for once and humor me will you?”

“Haven’t I humored you enough?”

Ferid shook his head.

“No. Never. You never indulged me in my games. You always brood and crease your thick eyebrows and ponder about things, and curse your job to hell all the time~ so you really almost always just give me the cold shoulder whenever I try to crack my perfectly crafted jokes that I am quite sure would bless your ears.

“Ah~ And put me down please.”

“No.”

“But why?” Ferid whined. He swung his legs aggressively in an effort to break free from Guren’s clutch.

“You never stay the night. You never let me stay at your place too. If I let you go now, you’re going toreally leave.” Guren cleared his throat. The things that he was saying embarrassed him.

Ferid snuggled against his chest and acted like a cat by nuzzling his head against Guren’s shoulder.

“Ah~ what a brute you are. Then please take me to bed.”Ferid wrapped his arms around Guren’s neck and embraced him.

“I’m doing just that. No need to order me.”

---

“Shall I prepare the bath for you?”

“Oh please do~ Thank you dear.” Ferid paused, and then grinned. He added, “Do you want to go in together? Guren-s-a-m-a?

Guren blushed. Whenever Ferid’s being like that, he couldn’t help but get turned on a bit. He threw a towel at Ferid. The towel landed on Ferid’s face, covering the other’s playful grin.

“Hey! That was rude.” Came a muffled complaint.

“Shut up and take a bath already!”

Ferid took away the towel away from his face.

“Guren, stingy!” Feridwhined. He pouted, turned on his heels and strutted into the bathroom.

Guren can’t believe how Ferid can be so insufferable sometimes. But he still loved this part of him.

---

Both of them were done bathing. Ferid was drying his hair using a towel, while Guren was combing his hair. Guren was throwing furtive glances at him. Ferid was only wearing Guren’s large polo shirt with only boxers underneath. His long legs were exposed. They were creamy, pale, and with the perfect amount of muscle and bone. Ferid massaged his scalp sensually, as though Guren was looking at a shampoo advertisement that wasn’t proper to be an advertisement because it showcased something that could arouse.Cocking his head to the side, and exposing his pale neck, Guren felt hot and bothered just looking at him.

Ferid didn’t seem to notice this, or so Guren thought. He had no idea, that Ferid knew what he was thinking; he didn’t know that Ferid was actually burning with embarrassment—embrassment and amusement really. Ferid had always liked the attention he was getting from Guren. He always liked the fact that Guren found him irresistible. And as such, he had always put on a show for him; teased him; lured him.

When he finished drying his hair, he walked past Guren and went to the bathroom to hang the towel. Guren followed him with his gaze. He couldn’t get his eyes off Ferid’s hips, and the plump of his ass that he could see through the white cloth of his shirt.

Ferid came back grinning at him; his eyes mere chinks, as if he was hiding something that he would like Guren to force out of him.

“Ne, where am I going to sleep?”

“Here.” Guren pointed on the bed and then added with a sneer, “On the bed with me, of course.”

Ferid’s facial muscles went taut. Hestared at Guren pensively. He thought he heard it wrong.

“Kindly say that again.”Ferid smiled that ominous smile of his.

“You’re sleeping in bed with me.”

“Ah~ Guren, dear, do you really want to sleep with me that much? I’m shocked and horrified.”Ferid embraced himself dramatically as though afraid that his chastity would be taken away.

“Quit it. I’m not going to force you to do anything.” Guren patted the back of his head. “I just want to sleep beside you.”

Ferid was surprised at Guren’s words.

“Aah~” Ferid hummed. “I like the sound of it. I’ll sleep beside you then.”

Ferid was nervous of course. He had been nervous from the very beginning, ever since he sensed that Guren might want to make him stay the night. He couldn’t entirely understand his feelings. He was happy but at the same time there was a sense of foreboding that he was feeling. There was fear. He was afraid of being too deep in this.

He tells himself he should try.

Ferid sat beside Guren. He fiddled with his fingers and waited for Guren to say something. Guren stood up, turned off the lights, and turned on the night shade. The sallow light illuminated the room.Ferid followed Guren and slipped into the covers after him. They just lay there beside each other staring at the ceiling without speaking.

Ferid closed his eyes, he listened to the sound of Guren’s heartbeat. It was such a calming sound. He flared his noise and inhaled the smell of soap and powder that wafted in the air—Guren’s smell.

He too smelled of Guren now. He was covered in Guren’s scent, and he felt comfortable.

Guren turned to Ferid, looking at him as he lay there beside him. He turned to his side just to gaze at him more. Even after how many times he looked at Ferid, he still found him beautiful. It was not the usual way he found girls beautiful. Ferid was beautiful because of the elegance in his features, the softness of the lines that make him up, and how it is mixed with angles and ridges, and curves and lines. Furthermore, he was beautifulbecause hewas a mix of calmness and chaos; of light spring rain and downpour; of innocence and sensuality. And he compliments the rage that was in Guren.

“Ferid,”Guren whispered. He wanted to touch him just a bit. He wanted to feel his body against his.

“Yes?”

Guren shifted his gaze. He was hesitating to ask Ferid about what he wanted to do. But he must.

“May I embrace you?” It was hard for Guren to be polite. He was never polite. As a consequence, he was blushing really hard.

Ferid opened his eyes and turned on his side to look at Guren. He was surprised at the gentleness in Guren’s voice. This wassomething new toFerid’s ears. Ferid blinked as he gazed atGuren. A faint smiled painted over his mouth as he scooted closer to Guren. He leaned in and bumped their foreheads together.

“Of course, please embrace me. I’m always cold right? Warm me up.”

Guren tugged Ferid and embraced him, letting him rest on his chest. He ran his hand through Ferid’s hair and kissed the other’s temple.

“We are dating.”

“We are, aren’t we? It looks like we are. Even if I didn’t say anything to that effect.”

“Could we? Can I be with you?

“Of course~ I’d be with you too. This isn’t something that is vague right? This is already a matter of fact. I am yours and you are mine.”

“Ah.May I kiss you?”

Ferid raised his head and gazed into Guren’s violet eyes.

“You want to?”

“I’ve always been wanting to kiss you, you know. For awhile now.”

Ferid smiled. He shuffled on the bed, giggling, being playful. He proppedhimself upon the bed using his elbow as support. He just stared at Guren. Looking at Guren’s handsome face, he reached out to touch him. He really loved Guren’s purple eyes; his unruly hair that was sometimes distracting when he didn’t comb it; his thick eyebrows and his sharp eyes that always looked judgmental.

Feridwas still nervous. His hands were stiff, and if he had the capacity to fluster, he knew that this is the time for him to blush like a tomato. He pressed his fingertips together. It was one thing to pretend these things didn’t bother him, and one thing to hide what he was truly feeling. He had to act like how he usually does, like the usual Ferid, so playfully he hums,

“You may my dear~”

Ferid closed his eyes.

Gurenroused himself to kissFerid on the mouth. Ferid opened his eyes prematurely. As a consequence, he saw Guren’sface come closer. He saw how Guren’s closed his eyes shut as he was about to kiss him, and that made him feel something clench inside of him. His ears perked up. He heard Guren’s heartbeat, loud and frantic, and it was making him dizzy. When he finally felt Guren’s soft lips on his, he fought the urge to cry.

This was their first kiss.

It was tender and sweet; the complete opposite of anything that was Guren. Gurenwas brash, reticent, and almost unattached sometimes. But that kiss told Ferid another thing: it told him that this time around, Guren belonged to him.

Guren withdrew, flustered. He couldn’t look Ferid straight in the eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

“I can’t believe your lips would taste that good. Crap, I’m.. I think I’m..”

Feridleaned in this time, and kissed him. He withdrew, then smiled mischievously at Guren who was flustered and already breathing heavily. Bedroom eyes roamed on Guren’s curled mouth. Ferid was getting into the mood himself.

“Kiss me again.” Ferid purred.

Guren smiled wryly. He tucked a lock of hair behind Ferid’s ear, held his face in place and then leaned in to kiss him again.

Guren kissed him softly. Then, his mouth started moving, sucking on Ferid’s mouth. In increments, the passion in his kisses got more intense. He tilted his head, tightening his hold on Ferid and breathing on Ferid’s mouth as he lifted his lips after planting lingering kisses on the soft skin.

Ferid couldn’t help but moan. He opened his mouth slightly, and at that moment, Gurenpushed his tongue inside. Guren’s mouth tasted sweet. His breath of mint toothpaste made Ferid unable to resist him.At the outset Ferid was passive. But as Guren challenged his tongue, he found himself kissing him back with the same intensity. Hands idly lying on the mattress were now clenched on the sheets. Hands that were clenched now roamedGuren’sarm and waist. Clasped fingers tightened, and before Ferid knew it, he was already pulling him close, tilting his head and moaning inside Guren’s mouth. Sucking on Guren’s tongue, nibbling those cracked lips of his, Ferid was tempted to see blood. He opened his mouth for a more intense kiss, burying his fingers under layers of Guren’s thick hair, gripping and then pulling them.

Kissing Guren made Ferid feel like wax melting from being exposed to fire. He was melting, and he could no longer think straight nor judge the situation he was in using a rational mind. He just wanted to cling to Gurenlike that, to grab him, yank him towards him and just kiss him with abandon; kiss him with a kiss that he had been holding back for years; for lifetimes.

Guren’s hand travelled downFerid’s bottom. He groped his ass, making Ferid jolt at the sensation he was feeling. He panted, “Guren, ah~”

Guren continued to fondle him. He kissed Ferid’s cheek, and planted wet kisses down on theother’s neck. He bit Ferid’s shoulder and moaned, “Crap, I can’t hold back.

“Guren~”

“Tell me to stop and I’ll stop.”

“Don’t stop. Ah~ I want you, ” Ferid panted.

Guren undressed Ferid; it was like an unwrapping of a gift. He teased his parts and licked him. Ferid on the other hand was busy undressing him too. He moaned against Guren’s skin. He licked his flesh and was holding the urge to bite. He licked the mark on Guren’s shoulder and planted wet kisses on it.

Guren couldn’t help but harden to his full length at the way Ferid licked him. His mouth circling against his skin, sucking, made him insane. He couldn’t help but imagine his mouth encircle his member. Ferid was breathing hard. He was fighting the urge to suck Guren’s blood. He swore to himself that he wouldn’t, but he was just too delicious. He was just too tempting.

Finally succumbing to his urge, Ferid bit Guren on the neck and sucked.

“Ferid, what are you…”

The sensation of being bled was unlike anything Guren had experienced. He felt weak. He clung to Ferid with desperation. Lust overwhelmed him. Ferid licked the wound that he had left Guren and then pushed Guren on the bed. At the corner of his mouth, blood trailed down. Ferid looked like a murderer. But rather than fear, Guren felt something else; it was submission.

Feridjust stared at him. He didn’t say anything. He just stood up. Guren knew what he was thinking. He was going to runaway from him. And so, with every ounce of energy he had left in his body,Gurengrabbed him. He wrapped his arms around Ferid’s waist and embraced him.

“Don’t go.”

Ferid with his glassy eyes just stared down at him. Guren knew that whenever he was like this, whenever his joyful face turned stern and grave, he was being difficult on himself.

“But I hurt you..”Ferid’s voice faltered.

Guren tightened his embrace on Ferid.

“It surprised me a little bit, but… it won’t make me scared of you.”

Ferid turned around. He cupped Guren’s face and looked at him with adoration in his eyes. Then he embraced him. They rolled in bed: Ferid snuggled close to Guren and allowed himself to be pet.

That night, Ferid watched Guren sleep, afraid that when the sun comes up, Guren would change his mind, about everything.

---

The rays of the sun filtered inside the bedroom, dappling both Ferid and Guren’s figures. It was Saturday morning. Guren was still fast asleep in bed.Ferid went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast and to make coffee for both of them. When he was done making coffee and cooking a pair of pancakes for Guren, Ferid sat on the table and drank his coffee peacefully.

Guren’s apartment felt like it was a place made just for them. It felt like home. Well, anywhere where Guren was was home. Ferid remembered something. He went to get his bag. When he returned he was holding a cream paper, ragged on the edges and had blots of brown spots on its surface because of age. The musty smell wafting from its sheet still had the same calming effect on him. It brought him back to the very first time he and Guren met in this lifetime.

---

“What’s wrong mister? Why do you look sad?”

“Oh no dear. I’m not.”

“Is there something on my shoulder? Are you sick? You’re so cold, you sting.”

“Araa~ Guren-kun..”Guren grabbed Ferid’s hand, surprising the latter.

“Child~ you shouldn’t talk to strangers. I might be a bad person you know.”

“I thought of that. But no bad person would tell me something like what you just told me.” Guren glanced around,

“And.. this place scares me more mister.”

At this, Guren clutched his bag and burrowed his chin on top of his bag, letting Ferid’s hand go. He pouted.

“Ahahah~ aren’t you the cutest thing? You are embarrassed!”

“No I’m not!”

“Oh yes you are~”

“Am not.”

“Oh well, whatever suits you.” Ferid shrugged.

They fell silent. Ferid’s soft laughter turned into the eerie rustle of the leaves, to swirling foliage and to the tap tap tap of Guren’s calf against the old bench.

Guren started humming row your boat again. When idea came to him, he stopped humming and took something out of his bag.

Ferid turned to him, curious at what the child was up to.

“Here! You can have this mister, this will cheer you up.”

Ferid looked closely at the card little Guren offered him. He squinted his eyes and leaned in a bit, slowly closing in. His hair fell softly as he leaned, so he tucked a lock behind his ear. He smiled bit, making the child blush.

“Uwaaa~ I’m honored. Isn’t this sweet of you to give this precious little thing to a stranger like me?”

“Not really.” Guren averted his eyes.

“Our teacher said to write a love letter toa person we’ll love in the near future. You are beautiful mister. And I want to marrya beautiful person someday.”

Ferid took the card, breathe in its scent. It had the scent of innocence and purity of a child; of sunbeams and daisies; of happiness.

He decided that whenever he missed Guren he could always read the letter.

----

Ferid started reading. He was greeted by Guren’s childish scribble,

Dear Person I am going to love in the future,

Wherever you are I know I will love you more then candy. When we grow up we will have our own house. I hope it is as big as my house. I hope I find you soon. I hope you like cats because I love them very much Shinya loves them and so does Mom.

Love,

Guren

Ferid had read the letter a thousand times already, but it still never fails to make him smile.

“Hey! What are you doing grinning like that?”

Ferid raised his eyes and was surprised to see Guren walking towards him with horrible bed hair. He sat on the letter to hide it from Guren.

“Nothing dear~ I’m just thinking of how brilliant you were last night. Mmmmm~ ”

Guren scratched the back of his head. Ferid noticed that there was something that was bothering him. His gaze shifted to the puncture wound on Guren’s shoulder and frowned.

“I’ve always thought you were mysterious Ferid. But I didn’t.. know you were…”

Ferid was already prepared for whatever Gurenwould say.

“A Vampire?Nosferatu? Vampyr? Ah~ What other names have you associated creatures like me? Pray tell.”

“But you can have sex..”

Ferid chortled a chuckle.

“Oh~ about that… We didn’t have sex though?”

“Oh right. I totally forgot.”Guren rolled his eyes.

He sauntered towards Ferid and kissed his crown.

“Still mine.”

Ferid’s eyes widened. He didn’t know what to feel. But to assure Guren nothing was bothering him, he tried to be his joyful self.

“Yes still yours dear~ I’ve prepared your breakfast. Eat first and then we’ll go out and have fun.”

“Nah, can we just lay in bed again?”Guren leaned down kissed him on the neck. Ferid grabbed him by the arm as a consequence.

“That tickles! You’re going to jump me again aren’t you?”

Guren withdrew, flustered. Noticing Guren’s embarrassment, Ferid added,

“But I wouldn’t mind it dear~ so rest assured.”

Guren pouted. His eyebrows formed a crease. He stood up. He was now blushing really hard. It puzzled Ferid why he was being like that. He was always composed when it came to his feelings.

“I love you.”Guren said, almost in a whisper.

Ferid’s eyes widened. He almost blushed. He felt awkward hearing Guren’s confession. He had told him something of that kind before on their first date, but hearing him say it now, with his face red and clearly embarrassed, he couldn’t help but feel embarrassed himself.And seeing Guren act unlike himself; seeing him reduced to this blushing fool,Ferid felt odd. He shifted his eyes from left to right and was overcome by a mix of happiness and awkwardness.

“Your reply?”

Ferid felt cornered.

“I need to hear it Ferid. Or I’ll die.”

Guren might have been acting weird, but his pushy character was still intact.

Ferid stood up. He took Guren’s hand and stared intently into his eyes. Guren was frowning. He looked angry. Ferid smiled sweetly, genuinely at him. He cupped Guren’s face and kissed him on the forehead, then on the eyelids, on the tip of his nose, and lastly on the mouth. Ferid withdrew and stared into Guren’s violet eyes. He embraced Guren, feeling all of him; cradling all of him.

“I love you dear.”

I have been loving you all this time.

----

#gureferiweek2017 #gureferi #guren ichinose #ferid bathory #ons #fics

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marie85marketing · 7 years

Text

The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO

Search engine optimization — SEO — is one of those “you love it or you hate it” topics.

Some get a charge out of the challenge of keeping up with those wily engineers at Google.

Others would rather eat a bug than try to figure out what “headless crawling” means and which redirect is the right one to pick in months that end in R.

I have to confess, I’m in the bug-eating camp on this one.

Fortunately, although technical SEO is still important for some sites, there’s a crazy-powerful optimization technique that people like me can get really good at.

Yes, it’s content. (You already knew that, because you’re smart.) Yes, it has to be good content. And yes, I’m going to talk about what, specifically, “good” means.

But first, I’m going to talk about my most important search optimization rule.

The great rule of SEO

My first and primary rule, when thinking about search engines, is never to do anything for the sake of SEO that screws up the experience for the audience.

That cuts out some downright dumb behavior, like overstuffing your content with keywords.

But it also helps you evaluate new advice that comes along. If it makes your site less useable, if it makes your message less effective, or if it alienates or confuses your audience … you should probably skip it.

Here are nine SEO recommendations that also work to make your site experience better for the human beings who read your content, listen to your podcasts, and actually pay for your products and services.

#1: Answer actual audience questions

Want lots and lots of people to visit your site, and stick around once they find you? Answer their pressing questions, and you’ll get your wish.

People fire up a search engine because they have unanswered questions. If you’re smart and knowledgeable about your topic, you can help with that.

Tutorial content is wonderful, but also think about questions like:

Why is [the thing] so hard to get started?

How competitive is [the thing]?

How can I get motivated to do more of [the thing]?

Is there a community of people who want to talk about [the thing]?

Where can I share my own stories about [the thing] and read other people’s?

#2: Use the language they use

Hand in hand with answering real audience questions is using your audience’s language.

That brings us to our friend keyword research. (Check out Beth’s post tomorrow for more on that.)

It’s too bad that some people still think keyword research means looking up a bunch of word salad that makes sense to rooms of computers in Silicon Valley.

Keyword research means figuring out the language that real human beings enter into search engines to find your stuff.

There are great tools out there for finding those turns of phrase. You can also add in some smart social media listening and pay attention to how people talk on the web about your topic. (This is also a good way to find more of those “problems people care about” I talked about in the last point.)

By the way, you don’t have to feel chained to a narrow set of word combinations that you found with your keyword research tool. Use the keyword phrases you find, absolutely, but don’t use them so much that it gets weird. You don’t have to do an in-depth study of latent semantic indexing — just use synonyms.

(Kind of like a real writer does. Golly.)

Use metaphors and analogies. Use a few big or unusual words (if they’re natural to your voice). Flesh out your list of keywords with all of the fascinating and creative things that writers and artists do.

#3: Cover topics comprehensively

Content and SEO experts love to write articles about precisely how long your content should be. Over the years, the recommendations have gone up, and then down, sideways, and any other direction you might think of.

My advice: your content should be as long as necessary to make your point.

Some ideas can be expressed quickly, with punchy, interesting little posts.

Some ideas need more time to develop fully. They deserve a longer format or a content series that gets published over time. You could even dedicate specific months to covering a subject in more depth, like we’re doing this year on Copyblogger. (Have you noticed? Three guesses what March’s topic theme is …)

A strong series can be repurposed into ebooks (or a whole ebook library, once you have a solid archive), podcasts, infographics, SlideShares, videos, and premium products like courses.

Stop falling for the myth of the “goldfish attention span.” Twenty-first-century audiences have plenty of attention for the things they care about, as long as you make the content easy to consume. Which brings us to …

#4: Create a user-friendly experience

It doesn’t matter how brilliant your content is — if it’s published in walls of tiny gray type, without subheads or line breaks, most users will skip it.

It’s actually really simple to take a strong piece of writing and make it much more accessible by formatting it well.

Make sure everything on your site is easy to read, watch, or listen to. Give everything a clear call to action, so people know what to do next. And establish clear paths to the outcomes your users want … using smart content marketing strategy to present useful options at every point along the way.

While we’re on the subject, if your site looks like it was published in 2003, you need a makeover. Immediately. Premium WordPress themes are a massive bargain for the design expertise (and clean back-end code) they give you in a turnkey package.

Also, users and search engines share a hatred of hacked websites. Use secure tools, including reputable themes and quality hosting, and a good monitoring service like Sucuri to make sure nothing funky is going on.

#5: Write about the whole picture

Covering your topic comprehensively matters, but it’s not just about going deep.

There’s also a real benefit to looking around and going wide with your content.

What’s the context for your topic? Who else is publishing about it? What are the trends? What’s changing? How is the larger environment shaping what’s going on? Who do you agree with? Who do you disagree with?

What do people need to know before they dive into your thing? Where do they start? Where do they go next?

If you write about social media marketing, write about people who have given up on it. Write about people who haven’t started yet. Write about how the larger culture and worldview are changing social media … and how social media is changing the world.

Every topic takes place in a larger context. If that context interests your audience, it should be part of your content mix.

#6: Cultivate your community of topic experts

Link-building is one of the most important topics in SEO.

Here’s a secret:

Link-building is community-building.

Even if your competitors aren’t into the whole “co-opetition” idea, there’s a larger community that cares about what you do.

My friend Jim is an orthopedic surgeon who creates YouTube content about surgical procedures. Other surgeons might (but probably won’t) link to him, because he’s a true competitor — you only get your knee operated on once. (We hope.)

But runners would link to him. Skiers would, too. And sites about staying athletic as you age.

Think about the community of web publishers who have the audience you want. Develop relationships with them. Support each other.

This isn’t, of course, about spamming people you don’t know and begging them for links. It’s about making yourself a valued participant in a larger ecosystem.

One terrific way to build amazing connections (and the links that go with them) is to publish guest content on excellent sites. Try it in a lazy, cheap way and it’s spam. Put the effort in to craft genuinely excellent material that serves their audience (and invites them to come check you out), and it’s a winning strategy.

#7: Keep things organized

Good technical SEOs know all about creating a logical site structure that’s easy for search engines to parse.

As I may have mentioned, I in no way resemble a good technical SEO. Instead, I rely on the Genesis framework and common-sense tags and categories to keep my site properly organized on the back end.

But it pays to keep yourself organized on the front end as well. That means making sure your navigation makes sense for what your site looks like today, not two years ago. It means you take your most valuable content and get it somewhere people can easily find it. And it means you link to your best content often, so your audience naturally continues to find and benefit from it.

#8: Quit being so damned boring

You can do everything “right” for SEO and still get no traction.

Why? Because no one links to you, no one visits your site, and no one recommends your content — it’s too similar to a thousand other sites. It’s boring.

If your niche is incredibly narrow and no one else can write about it, maybe you can get away with boring. Even then, it’s risky.

Be interesting.

#9: Don’t rely (solely) on SEO

And the final SEO tip?

Don’t try to make the search engines your only source of traffic.

Relying on one source of customers for your business is unacceptably risky.

Relying on a monolithic megacorporation as your one source of customers is insane.

Google doesn’t care about your business. Not even a tiny bit. Not even if you give them a lot of money every month for ads.

Make sure there are lots of different ways that potential customers can find you. Keep your eyes open for new opportunities. A platform that was a dud for you last year might offer a lot of promise today. And keep growing your email list, so if you do have a traffic hiccup, you still have a way to reach your most loyal audience.

So … let’s talk search engines

While search engine optimization shouldn’t be the only way you get traffic, it can be an important way for great people to find your site. So this month, we’ll be talking about smart ways to optimize your site for search … without messing up what you’re doing well.

Where are you on the SEO spectrum? Do you enjoy it, maybe even geek out about it, or are you in the eat-a-bug category? Let us know in the comments.

Image source: Jill Heyer via Unsplash.

The post The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO appeared first on Copyblogger.

0 notes

hypertagmaster · 7 years

Text

The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO

Search engine optimization — SEO — is one of those “you love it or you hate it” topics.

Some get a charge out of the challenge of keeping up with those wily engineers at Google.

Others would rather eat a bug than try to figure out what “headless crawling” means and which redirect is the right one to pick in months that end in R.

I have to confess, I’m in the bug-eating camp on this one.

Fortunately, although technical SEO is still important for some sites, there’s a crazy-powerful optimization technique that people like me can get really good at.

Yes, it’s content. (You already knew that, because you’re smart.) Yes, it has to be good content. And yes, I’m going to talk about what, specifically, “good” means.

But first, I’m going to talk about my most important search optimization rule.

The great rule of SEO

My first and primary rule, when thinking about search engines, is never to do anything for the sake of SEO that screws up the experience for the audience.

That cuts out some downright dumb behavior, like overstuffing your content with keywords.

#1: Answer actual audience questions

Want lots and lots of people to visit your site, and stick around once they find you? Answer their pressing questions, and you’ll get your wish.

People fire up a search engine because they have unanswered questions. If you’re smart and knowledgeable about your topic, you can help with that.

Tutorial content is wonderful, but also think about questions like:

Why is [the thing] so hard to get started?

How competitive is [the thing]?

How can I get motivated to do more of [the thing]?

Is there a community of people who want to talk about [the thing]?

Where can I share my own stories about [the thing] and read other people’s?

#2: Use the language they use

Hand in hand with answering real audience questions is using your audience’s language.

That brings us to our friend keyword research. (Check out Beth’s post tomorrow for more on that.)

It’s too bad that some people still think keyword research means looking up a bunch of word salad that makes sense to rooms of computers in Silicon Valley.

Keyword research means figuring out the language that real human beings enter into search engines to find your stuff.

(Kind of like a real writer does. Golly.)

#3: Cover topics comprehensively

My advice: your content should be as long as necessary to make your point.

Some ideas can be expressed quickly, with punchy, interesting little posts.

A strong series can be repurposed into ebooks (or a whole ebook library, once you have a solid archive), podcasts, infographics, SlideShares, videos, and premium products like courses.

#4: Create a user-friendly experience

It doesn’t matter how brilliant your content is — if it’s published in walls of tiny gray type, without subheads or line breaks, most users will skip it.

It’s actually really simple to take a strong piece of writing and make it much more accessible by formatting it well.

#5: Write about the whole picture

Covering your topic comprehensively matters, but it’s not just about going deep.

There’s also a real benefit to looking around and going wide with your content.

What do people need to know before they dive into your thing? Where do they start? Where do they go next?

Every topic takes place in a larger context. If that context interests your audience, it should be part of your content mix.

#6: Cultivate your community of topic experts

Link-building is one of the most important topics in SEO.

Here’s a secret:

Link-building is community-building.

Even if your competitors aren’t into the whole “co-opetition” idea, there’s a larger community that cares about what you do.

But runners would link to him. Skiers would, too. And sites about staying athletic as you age.

Think about the community of web publishers who have the audience you want. Develop relationships with them. Support each other.

This isn’t, of course, about spamming people you don’t know and begging them for links. It’s about making yourself a valued participant in a larger ecosystem.

#7: Keep things organized

Good technical SEOs know all about creating a logical site structure that’s easy for search engines to parse.

As I may have mentioned, I in no way resemble a good technical SEO. Instead, I rely on the Genesis framework and common-sense tags and categories to keep my site properly organized on the back end.

#8: Quit being so damned boring

You can do everything “right” for SEO and still get no traction.

Why? Because no one links to you, no one visits your site, and no one recommends your content — it’s too similar to a thousand other sites. It’s boring.

If your niche is incredibly narrow and no one else can write about it, maybe you can get away with boring. Even then, it’s risky.

Be interesting.

#9: Don’t rely (solely) on SEO

And the final SEO tip?

Don’t try to make the search engines your only source of traffic.

Relying on one source of customers for your business is unacceptably risky.

Relying on a monolithic megacorporation as your one source of customers is insane.

Google doesn’t care about your business. Not even a tiny bit. Not even if you give them a lot of money every month for ads.

So … let’s talk search engines

Where are you on the SEO spectrum? Do you enjoy it, maybe even geek out about it, or are you in the eat-a-bug category? Let us know in the comments.

Image source: Jill Heyer via Unsplash.

The post The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO appeared first on Copyblogger.

via marketing http://ift.tt/2n5QnzJ

#IFTTT #marketing

0 notes

layralannister · 7 years

Text

The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO

Search engine optimization — SEO — is one of those “you love it or you hate it” topics.

Some get a charge out of the challenge of keeping up with those wily engineers at Google.

Others would rather eat a bug than try to figure out what “headless crawling” means and which redirect is the right one to pick in months that end in R.

I have to confess, I’m in the bug-eating camp on this one.

Fortunately, although technical SEO is still important for some sites, there’s a crazy-powerful optimization technique that people like me can get really good at.

Yes, it’s content. (You already knew that, because you’re smart.) Yes, it has to be good content. And yes, I’m going to talk about what, specifically, “good” means.

But first, I’m going to talk about my most important search optimization rule.

The great rule of SEO

My first and primary rule, when thinking about search engines, is never to do anything for the sake of SEO that screws up the experience for the audience.

That cuts out some downright dumb behavior, like overstuffing your content with keywords.

#1: Answer actual audience questions

Want lots and lots of people to visit your site, and stick around once they find you? Answer their pressing questions, and you’ll get your wish.

People fire up a search engine because they have unanswered questions. If you’re smart and knowledgeable about your topic, you can help with that.

Tutorial content is wonderful, but also think about questions like:

Why is [the thing] so hard to get started?

How competitive is [the thing]?

How can I get motivated to do more of [the thing]?

Is there a community of people who want to talk about [the thing]?

Where can I share my own stories about [the thing] and read other people’s?

#2: Use the language they use

Hand in hand with answering real audience questions is using your audience’s language.

That brings us to our friend keyword research. (Check out Beth’s post tomorrow for more on that.)

It’s too bad that some people still think keyword research means looking up a bunch of word salad that makes sense to rooms of computers in Silicon Valley.

Keyword research means figuring out the language that real human beings enter into search engines to find your stuff.

(Kind of like a real writer does. Golly.)

#3: Cover topics comprehensively

My advice: your content should be as long as necessary to make your point.

Some ideas can be expressed quickly, with punchy, interesting little posts.

A strong series can be repurposed into ebooks (or a whole ebook library, once you have a solid archive), podcasts, infographics, SlideShares, videos, and premium products like courses.

#4: Create a user-friendly experience

It doesn’t matter how brilliant your content is — if it’s published in walls of tiny gray type, without subheads or line breaks, most users will skip it.

It’s actually really simple to take a strong piece of writing and make it much more accessible by formatting it well.

#5: Write about the whole picture

Covering your topic comprehensively matters, but it’s not just about going deep.

There’s also a real benefit to looking around and going wide with your content.

What do people need to know before they dive into your thing? Where do they start? Where do they go next?

Every topic takes place in a larger context. If that context interests your audience, it should be part of your content mix.

#6: Cultivate your community of topic experts

Link-building is one of the most important topics in SEO.

Here’s a secret:

Link-building is community-building.

Even if your competitors aren’t into the whole “co-opetition” idea, there’s a larger community that cares about what you do.

But runners would link to him. Skiers would, too. And sites about staying athletic as you age.

Think about the community of web publishers who have the audience you want. Develop relationships with them. Support each other.

This isn’t, of course, about spamming people you don’t know and begging them for links. It’s about making yourself a valued participant in a larger ecosystem.

#7: Keep things organized

Good technical SEOs know all about creating a logical site structure that’s easy for search engines to parse.

As I may have mentioned, I in no way resemble a good technical SEO. Instead, I rely on the Genesis framework and common-sense tags and categories to keep my site properly organized on the back end.

#8: Quit being so damned boring

You can do everything “right” for SEO and still get no traction.

Why? Because no one links to you, no one visits your site, and no one recommends your content — it’s too similar to a thousand other sites. It’s boring.

If your niche is incredibly narrow and no one else can write about it, maybe you can get away with boring. Even then, it’s risky.

Be interesting.

#9: Don’t rely (solely) on SEO

And the final SEO tip?

Don’t try to make the search engines your only source of traffic.

Relying on one source of customers for your business is unacceptably risky.

Relying on a monolithic megacorporation as your one source of customers is insane.

Google doesn’t care about your business. Not even a tiny bit. Not even if you give them a lot of money every month for ads.

So … let’s talk search engines

Where are you on the SEO spectrum? Do you enjoy it, maybe even geek out about it, or are you in the eat-a-bug category? Let us know in the comments.

Image source: Jill Heyer via Unsplash.

The post The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO appeared first on Copyblogger.

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#Local SEO

0 notes

goldieseoservices · 7 years

Text

The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO

Search engine optimization — SEO — is one of those “you love it or you hate it” topics.

Some get a charge out of the challenge of keeping up with those wily engineers at Google.

Others would rather eat a bug than try to figure out what “headless crawling” means and which redirect is the right one to pick in months that end in R.

I have to confess, I’m in the bug-eating camp on this one.

Fortunately, although technical SEO is still important for some sites, there’s a crazy-powerful optimization technique that people like me can get really good at.

Yes, it’s content. (You already knew that, because you’re smart.) Yes, it has to be good content. And yes, I’m going to talk about what, specifically, “good” means.

But first, I’m going to talk about my most important search optimization rule.

The great rule of SEO

My first and primary rule, when thinking about search engines, is never to do anything for the sake of SEO that screws up the experience for the audience.

That cuts out some downright dumb behavior, like overstuffing your content with keywords.

#1: Answer actual audience questions

Want lots and lots of people to visit your site, and stick around once they find you? Answer their pressing questions, and you’ll get your wish.

People fire up a search engine because they have unanswered questions. If you’re smart and knowledgeable about your topic, you can help with that.

Tutorial content is wonderful, but also think about questions like:

Why is [the thing] so hard to get started?

How competitive is [the thing]?

How can I get motivated to do more of [the thing]?

Is there a community of people who want to talk about [the thing]?

Where can I share my own stories about [the thing] and read other people’s?

#2: Use the language they use

Hand in hand with answering real audience questions is using your audience’s language.

That brings us to our friend keyword research. (Check out Beth’s post tomorrow for more on that.)

It’s too bad that some people still think keyword research means looking up a bunch of word salad that makes sense to rooms of computers in Silicon Valley.

Keyword research means figuring out the language that real human beings enter into search engines to find your stuff.

(Kind of like a real writer does. Golly.)

#3: Cover topics comprehensively

My advice: your content should be as long as necessary to make your point.

Some ideas can be expressed quickly, with punchy, interesting little posts.

A strong series can be repurposed into ebooks (or a whole ebook library, once you have a solid archive), podcasts, infographics, SlideShares, videos, and premium products like courses.

#4: Create a user-friendly experience

It doesn’t matter how brilliant your content is — if it’s published in walls of tiny gray type, without subheads or line breaks, most users will skip it.

It’s actually really simple to take a strong piece of writing and make it much more accessible by formatting it well.

#5: Write about the whole picture

Covering your topic comprehensively matters, but it’s not just about going deep.

There’s also a real benefit to looking around and going wide with your content.

What do people need to know before they dive into your thing? Where do they start? Where do they go next?

Every topic takes place in a larger context. If that context interests your audience, it should be part of your content mix.

#6: Cultivate your community of topic experts

Link-building is one of the most important topics in SEO.

Here’s a secret:

Link-building is community-building.

Even if your competitors aren’t into the whole “co-opetition” idea, there’s a larger community that cares about what you do.

But runners would link to him. Skiers would, too. And sites about staying athletic as you age.

Think about the community of web publishers who have the audience you want. Develop relationships with them. Support each other.

This isn’t, of course, about spamming people you don’t know and begging them for links. It’s about making yourself a valued participant in a larger ecosystem.

#7: Keep things organized

Good technical SEOs know all about creating a logical site structure that’s easy for search engines to parse.

As I may have mentioned, I in no way resemble a good technical SEO. Instead, I rely on the Genesis framework and common-sense tags and categories to keep my site properly organized on the back end.

#8: Quit being so damned boring

You can do everything “right” for SEO and still get no traction.

Why? Because no one links to you, no one visits your site, and no one recommends your content — it’s too similar to a thousand other sites. It’s boring.

If your niche is incredibly narrow and no one else can write about it, maybe you can get away with boring. Even then, it’s risky.

Be interesting.

#9: Don’t rely (solely) on SEO

And the final SEO tip?

Don’t try to make the search engines your only source of traffic.

Relying on one source of customers for your business is unacceptably risky.

Relying on a monolithic megacorporation as your one source of customers is insane.

Google doesn’t care about your business. Not even a tiny bit. Not even if you give them a lot of money every month for ads.

So … let’s talk search engines

Where are you on the SEO spectrum? Do you enjoy it, maybe even geek out about it, or are you in the eat-a-bug category? Let us know in the comments.

Image source: Jill Heyer via Unsplash.

The post The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO appeared first on Copyblogger.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2lwbSgM

#DIYS

0 notes

seo53703 · 7 years

Text

The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO

Search engine optimization — SEO — is one of those “you love it or you hate it” topics.

Some get a charge out of the challenge of keeping up with those wily engineers at Google.

Others would rather eat a bug than try to figure out what “headless crawling” means and which redirect is the right one to pick in months that end in R.

I have to confess, I’m in the bug-eating camp on this one.

Fortunately, although technical SEO is still important for some sites, there’s a crazy-powerful optimization technique that people like me can get really good at.

Yes, it’s content. (You already knew that, because you’re smart.) Yes, it has to be good content. And yes, I’m going to talk about what, specifically, “good” means.

But first, I’m going to talk about my most important search optimization rule.

The great rule of SEO

My first and primary rule, when thinking about search engines, is never to do anything for the sake of SEO that screws up the experience for the audience.

That cuts out some downright dumb behavior, like overstuffing your content with keywords.

#1: Answer actual audience questions

Want lots and lots of people to visit your site, and stick around once they find you? Answer their pressing questions, and you’ll get your wish.

People fire up a search engine because they have unanswered questions. If you’re smart and knowledgeable about your topic, you can help with that.

Tutorial content is wonderful, but also think about questions like:

Why is [the thing] so hard to get started?

How competitive is [the thing]?

How can I get motivated to do more of [the thing]?

Is there a community of people who want to talk about [the thing]?

Where can I share my own stories about [the thing] and read other people’s?

#2: Use the language they use

Hand in hand with answering real audience questions is using your audience’s language.

That brings us to our friend keyword research. (Check out Beth’s post tomorrow for more on that.)

It’s too bad that some people still think keyword research means looking up a bunch of word salad that makes sense to rooms of computers in Silicon Valley.

Keyword research means figuring out the language that real human beings enter into search engines to find your stuff.

(Kind of like a real writer does. Golly.)

#3: Cover topics comprehensively

My advice: your content should be as long as necessary to make your point.

Some ideas can be expressed quickly, with punchy, interesting little posts.

A strong series can be repurposed into ebooks (or a whole ebook library, once you have a solid archive), podcasts, infographics, SlideShares, videos, and premium products like courses.

#4: Create a user-friendly experience

It doesn’t matter how brilliant your content is — if it’s published in walls of tiny gray type, without subheads or line breaks, most users will skip it.

It’s actually really simple to take a strong piece of writing and make it much more accessible by formatting it well.

#5: Write about the whole picture

Covering your topic comprehensively matters, but it’s not just about going deep.

There’s also a real benefit to looking around and going wide with your content.

What do people need to know before they dive into your thing? Where do they start? Where do they go next?

Every topic takes place in a larger context. If that context interests your audience, it should be part of your content mix.

#6: Cultivate your community of topic experts

Link-building is one of the most important topics in SEO.

Here’s a secret:

Link-building is community-building.

Even if your competitors aren’t into the whole “co-opetition” idea, there’s a larger community that cares about what you do.

But runners would link to him. Skiers would, too. And sites about staying athletic as you age.

Think about the community of web publishers who have the audience you want. Develop relationships with them. Support each other.

This isn’t, of course, about spamming people you don’t know and begging them for links. It’s about making yourself a valued participant in a larger ecosystem.

#7: Keep things organized

Good technical SEOs know all about creating a logical site structure that’s easy for search engines to parse.

As I may have mentioned, I in no way resemble a good technical SEO. Instead, I rely on the Genesis framework and common-sense tags and categories to keep my site properly organized on the back end.

#8: Quit being so damned boring

You can do everything “right” for SEO and still get no traction.

Why? Because no one links to you, no one visits your site, and no one recommends your content — it’s too similar to a thousand other sites. It’s boring.

If your niche is incredibly narrow and no one else can write about it, maybe you can get away with boring. Even then, it’s risky.

Be interesting.

#9: Don’t rely (solely) on SEO

And the final SEO tip?

Don’t try to make the search engines your only source of traffic.

Relying on one source of customers for your business is unacceptably risky.

Relying on a monolithic megacorporation as your one source of customers is insane.

Google doesn’t care about your business. Not even a tiny bit. Not even if you give them a lot of money every month for ads.

So … let’s talk search engines

Where are you on the SEO spectrum? Do you enjoy it, maybe even geek out about it, or are you in the eat-a-bug category? Let us know in the comments.

Image source: Jill Heyer via Unsplash.

The post The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO appeared first on Copyblogger.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2lwbSgM

#DIYS

0 notes

seoprovider2110 · 7 years

Text

The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO

Search engine optimization — SEO — is one of those “you love it or you hate it” topics.

Some get a charge out of the challenge of keeping up with those wily engineers at Google.

Others would rather eat a bug than try to figure out what “headless crawling” means and which redirect is the right one to pick in months that end in R.

I have to confess, I’m in the bug-eating camp on this one.

Fortunately, although technical SEO is still important for some sites, there’s a crazy-powerful optimization technique that people like me can get really good at.

Yes, it’s content. (You already knew that, because you’re smart.) Yes, it has to be good content. And yes, I’m going to talk about what, specifically, “good” means.

But first, I’m going to talk about my most important search optimization rule.

The great rule of SEO

My first and primary rule, when thinking about search engines, is never to do anything for the sake of SEO that screws up the experience for the audience.

That cuts out some downright dumb behavior, like overstuffing your content with keywords.

#1: Answer actual audience questions

Want lots and lots of people to visit your site, and stick around once they find you? Answer their pressing questions, and you’ll get your wish.

People fire up a search engine because they have unanswered questions. If you’re smart and knowledgeable about your topic, you can help with that.

Tutorial content is wonderful, but also think about questions like:

Why is [the thing] so hard to get started?

How competitive is [the thing]?

How can I get motivated to do more of [the thing]?

Is there a community of people who want to talk about [the thing]?

Where can I share my own stories about [the thing] and read other people’s?

#2: Use the language they use

Hand in hand with answering real audience questions is using your audience’s language.

That brings us to our friend keyword research. (Check out Beth’s post tomorrow for more on that.)

It’s too bad that some people still think keyword research means looking up a bunch of word salad that makes sense to rooms of computers in Silicon Valley.

Keyword research means figuring out the language that real human beings enter into search engines to find your stuff.

(Kind of like a real writer does. Golly.)

#3: Cover topics comprehensively

My advice: your content should be as long as necessary to make your point.

Some ideas can be expressed quickly, with punchy, interesting little posts.

A strong series can be repurposed into ebooks (or a whole ebook library, once you have a solid archive), podcasts, infographics, SlideShares, videos, and premium products like courses.

#4: Create a user-friendly experience

It doesn’t matter how brilliant your content is — if it’s published in walls of tiny gray type, without subheads or line breaks, most users will skip it.

It’s actually really simple to take a strong piece of writing and make it much more accessible by formatting it well.

#5: Write about the whole picture

Covering your topic comprehensively matters, but it’s not just about going deep.

There’s also a real benefit to looking around and going wide with your content.

What do people need to know before they dive into your thing? Where do they start? Where do they go next?

Every topic takes place in a larger context. If that context interests your audience, it should be part of your content mix.

#6: Cultivate your community of topic experts

Link-building is one of the most important topics in SEO.

Here’s a secret:

Link-building is community-building.

Even if your competitors aren’t into the whole “co-opetition” idea, there’s a larger community that cares about what you do.

But runners would link to him. Skiers would, too. And sites about staying athletic as you age.

Think about the community of web publishers who have the audience you want. Develop relationships with them. Support each other.

This isn’t, of course, about spamming people you don’t know and begging them for links. It’s about making yourself a valued participant in a larger ecosystem.

#7: Keep things organized

Good technical SEOs know all about creating a logical site structure that’s easy for search engines to parse.

As I may have mentioned, I in no way resemble a good technical SEO. Instead, I rely on the Genesis framework and common-sense tags and categories to keep my site properly organized on the back end.

#8: Quit being so damned boring

You can do everything “right” for SEO and still get no traction.

Why? Because no one links to you, no one visits your site, and no one recommends your content — it’s too similar to a thousand other sites. It’s boring.

If your niche is incredibly narrow and no one else can write about it, maybe you can get away with boring. Even then, it’s risky.

Be interesting.

#9: Don’t rely (solely) on SEO

And the final SEO tip?

Don’t try to make the search engines your only source of traffic.

Relying on one source of customers for your business is unacceptably risky.

Relying on a monolithic megacorporation as your one source of customers is insane.

Google doesn’t care about your business. Not even a tiny bit. Not even if you give them a lot of money every month for ads.

So … let’s talk search engines

Where are you on the SEO spectrum? Do you enjoy it, maybe even geek out about it, or are you in the eat-a-bug category? Let us know in the comments.

Image source: Jill Heyer via Unsplash.

The post The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO appeared first on Copyblogger.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2lwbSgM

#DIYS

0 notes

seo90210 · 7 years

Text

The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO

Search engine optimization — SEO — is one of those “you love it or you hate it” topics.

Some get a charge out of the challenge of keeping up with those wily engineers at Google.

Others would rather eat a bug than try to figure out what “headless crawling” means and which redirect is the right one to pick in months that end in R.

I have to confess, I’m in the bug-eating camp on this one.

Fortunately, although technical SEO is still important for some sites, there’s a crazy-powerful optimization technique that people like me can get really good at.

Yes, it’s content. (You already knew that, because you’re smart.) Yes, it has to be good content. And yes, I’m going to talk about what, specifically, “good” means.

But first, I’m going to talk about my most important search optimization rule.

The great rule of SEO

My first and primary rule, when thinking about search engines, is never to do anything for the sake of SEO that screws up the experience for the audience.

That cuts out some downright dumb behavior, like overstuffing your content with keywords.

#1: Answer actual audience questions

Want lots and lots of people to visit your site, and stick around once they find you? Answer their pressing questions, and you’ll get your wish.

People fire up a search engine because they have unanswered questions. If you’re smart and knowledgeable about your topic, you can help with that.

Tutorial content is wonderful, but also think about questions like:

Why is [the thing] so hard to get started?

How competitive is [the thing]?

How can I get motivated to do more of [the thing]?

Is there a community of people who want to talk about [the thing]?

Where can I share my own stories about [the thing] and read other people’s?

#2: Use the language they use

Hand in hand with answering real audience questions is using your audience’s language.

That brings us to our friend keyword research. (Check out Beth’s post tomorrow for more on that.)

It’s too bad that some people still think keyword research means looking up a bunch of word salad that makes sense to rooms of computers in Silicon Valley.

Keyword research means figuring out the language that real human beings enter into search engines to find your stuff.

(Kind of like a real writer does. Golly.)

#3: Cover topics comprehensively

My advice: your content should be as long as necessary to make your point.

Some ideas can be expressed quickly, with punchy, interesting little posts.

A strong series can be repurposed into ebooks (or a whole ebook library, once you have a solid archive), podcasts, infographics, SlideShares, videos, and premium products like courses.

#4: Create a user-friendly experience

It doesn’t matter how brilliant your content is — if it’s published in walls of tiny gray type, without subheads or line breaks, most users will skip it.

It’s actually really simple to take a strong piece of writing and make it much more accessible by formatting it well.

#5: Write about the whole picture

Covering your topic comprehensively matters, but it’s not just about going deep.

There’s also a real benefit to looking around and going wide with your content.

What do people need to know before they dive into your thing? Where do they start? Where do they go next?

Every topic takes place in a larger context. If that context interests your audience, it should be part of your content mix.

#6: Cultivate your community of topic experts

Link-building is one of the most important topics in SEO.

Here’s a secret:

Link-building is community-building.

Even if your competitors aren’t into the whole “co-opetition” idea, there’s a larger community that cares about what you do.

But runners would link to him. Skiers would, too. And sites about staying athletic as you age.

Think about the community of web publishers who have the audience you want. Develop relationships with them. Support each other.

This isn’t, of course, about spamming people you don’t know and begging them for links. It’s about making yourself a valued participant in a larger ecosystem.

#7: Keep things organized

Good technical SEOs know all about creating a logical site structure that’s easy for search engines to parse.

As I may have mentioned, I in no way resemble a good technical SEO. Instead, I rely on the Genesis framework and common-sense tags and categories to keep my site properly organized on the back end.

#8: Quit being so damned boring

You can do everything “right” for SEO and still get no traction.

Why? Because no one links to you, no one visits your site, and no one recommends your content — it’s too similar to a thousand other sites. It’s boring.

If your niche is incredibly narrow and no one else can write about it, maybe you can get away with boring. Even then, it’s risky.

Be interesting.

#9: Don’t rely (solely) on SEO

And the final SEO tip?

Don’t try to make the search engines your only source of traffic.

Relying on one source of customers for your business is unacceptably risky.

Relying on a monolithic megacorporation as your one source of customers is insane.

Google doesn’t care about your business. Not even a tiny bit. Not even if you give them a lot of money every month for ads.

So … let’s talk search engines

Where are you on the SEO spectrum? Do you enjoy it, maybe even geek out about it, or are you in the eat-a-bug category? Let us know in the comments.

Image source: Jill Heyer via Unsplash.

The post The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO appeared first on Copyblogger.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2lwbSgM

#DIYS

0 notes

seo78580 · 7 years

Text

The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO

Search engine optimization — SEO — is one of those “you love it or you hate it” topics.

Some get a charge out of the challenge of keeping up with those wily engineers at Google.

Others would rather eat a bug than try to figure out what “headless crawling” means and which redirect is the right one to pick in months that end in R.

I have to confess, I’m in the bug-eating camp on this one.

Fortunately, although technical SEO is still important for some sites, there’s a crazy-powerful optimization technique that people like me can get really good at.

Yes, it’s content. (You already knew that, because you’re smart.) Yes, it has to be good content. And yes, I’m going to talk about what, specifically, “good” means.

But first, I’m going to talk about my most important search optimization rule.

The great rule of SEO

My first and primary rule, when thinking about search engines, is never to do anything for the sake of SEO that screws up the experience for the audience.

That cuts out some downright dumb behavior, like overstuffing your content with keywords.

#1: Answer actual audience questions

Want lots and lots of people to visit your site, and stick around once they find you? Answer their pressing questions, and you’ll get your wish.

People fire up a search engine because they have unanswered questions. If you’re smart and knowledgeable about your topic, you can help with that.

Tutorial content is wonderful, but also think about questions like:

Why is [the thing] so hard to get started?

How competitive is [the thing]?

How can I get motivated to do more of [the thing]?

Is there a community of people who want to talk about [the thing]?

Where can I share my own stories about [the thing] and read other people’s?

#2: Use the language they use

Hand in hand with answering real audience questions is using your audience’s language.

That brings us to our friend keyword research. (Check out Beth’s post tomorrow for more on that.)

It’s too bad that some people still think keyword research means looking up a bunch of word salad that makes sense to rooms of computers in Silicon Valley.

Keyword research means figuring out the language that real human beings enter into search engines to find your stuff.

(Kind of like a real writer does. Golly.)

#3: Cover topics comprehensively

My advice: your content should be as long as necessary to make your point.

Some ideas can be expressed quickly, with punchy, interesting little posts.

A strong series can be repurposed into ebooks (or a whole ebook library, once you have a solid archive), podcasts, infographics, SlideShares, videos, and premium products like courses.

#4: Create a user-friendly experience

It doesn’t matter how brilliant your content is — if it’s published in walls of tiny gray type, without subheads or line breaks, most users will skip it.

It’s actually really simple to take a strong piece of writing and make it much more accessible by formatting it well.

#5: Write about the whole picture

Covering your topic comprehensively matters, but it’s not just about going deep.

There’s also a real benefit to looking around and going wide with your content.

What do people need to know before they dive into your thing? Where do they start? Where do they go next?

Every topic takes place in a larger context. If that context interests your audience, it should be part of your content mix.

#6: Cultivate your community of topic experts

Link-building is one of the most important topics in SEO.

Here’s a secret:

Link-building is community-building.

Even if your competitors aren’t into the whole “co-opetition” idea, there’s a larger community that cares about what you do.

But runners would link to him. Skiers would, too. And sites about staying athletic as you age.

Think about the community of web publishers who have the audience you want. Develop relationships with them. Support each other.

This isn’t, of course, about spamming people you don’t know and begging them for links. It’s about making yourself a valued participant in a larger ecosystem.

#7: Keep things organized

Good technical SEOs know all about creating a logical site structure that’s easy for search engines to parse.

As I may have mentioned, I in no way resemble a good technical SEO. Instead, I rely on the Genesis framework and common-sense tags and categories to keep my site properly organized on the back end.

#8: Quit being so damned boring

You can do everything “right” for SEO and still get no traction.

Why? Because no one links to you, no one visits your site, and no one recommends your content — it’s too similar to a thousand other sites. It’s boring.

If your niche is incredibly narrow and no one else can write about it, maybe you can get away with boring. Even then, it’s risky.

Be interesting.

#9: Don’t rely (solely) on SEO

And the final SEO tip?

Don’t try to make the search engines your only source of traffic.

Relying on one source of customers for your business is unacceptably risky.

Relying on a monolithic megacorporation as your one source of customers is insane.

Google doesn’t care about your business. Not even a tiny bit. Not even if you give them a lot of money every month for ads.

So … let’s talk search engines

Where are you on the SEO spectrum? Do you enjoy it, maybe even geek out about it, or are you in the eat-a-bug category? Let us know in the comments.

Image source: Jill Heyer via Unsplash.

The post The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO appeared first on Copyblogger.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2lwbSgM

#DIYS

0 notes

nathandgibsca · 7 years

Text

The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO

Search engine optimization — SEO — is one of those “you love it or you hate it” topics.

Some get a charge out of the challenge of keeping up with those wily engineers at Google.

Others would rather eat a bug than try to figure out what “headless crawling” means and which redirect is the right one to pick in months that end in R.

I have to confess, I’m in the bug-eating camp on this one.

Fortunately, although technical SEO is still important for some sites, there’s a crazy-powerful optimization technique that people like me can get really good at.

Yes, it’s content. (You already knew that, because you’re smart.) Yes, it has to be good content. And yes, I’m going to talk about what, specifically, “good” means.

But first, I’m going to talk about my most important search optimization rule.

The great rule of SEO

My first and primary rule, when thinking about search engines, is never to do anything for the sake of SEO that screws up the experience for the audience.

That cuts out some downright dumb behavior, like overstuffing your content with keywords.

#1: Answer actual audience questions

Want lots and lots of people to visit your site, and stick around once they find you? Answer their pressing questions, and you’ll get your wish.

People fire up a search engine because they have unanswered questions. If you’re smart and knowledgeable about your topic, you can help with that.

Tutorial content is wonderful, but also think about questions like:

Why is [the thing] so hard to get started?

How competitive is [the thing]?

How can I get motivated to do more of [the thing]?

Is there a community of people who want to talk about [the thing]?

Where can I share my own stories about [the thing] and read other people’s?

#2: Use the language they use

Hand in hand with answering real audience questions is using your audience’s language.

That brings us to our friend keyword research. (Check out Beth’s post tomorrow for more on that.)

It’s too bad that some people still think keyword research means looking up a bunch of word salad that makes sense to rooms of computers in Silicon Valley.

Keyword research means figuring out the language that real human beings enter into search engines to find your stuff.

(Kind of like a real writer does. Golly.)

#3: Cover topics comprehensively

My advice: your content should be as long as necessary to make your point.

Some ideas can be expressed quickly, with punchy, interesting little posts.

A strong series can be repurposed into ebooks (or a whole ebook library, once you have a solid archive), podcasts, infographics, SlideShares, videos, and premium products like courses.

#4: Create a user-friendly experience

It doesn’t matter how brilliant your content is — if it’s published in walls of tiny gray type, without subheads or line breaks, most users will skip it.

It’s actually really simple to take a strong piece of writing and make it much more accessible by formatting it well.

#5: Write about the whole picture

Covering your topic comprehensively matters, but it’s not just about going deep.

There’s also a real benefit to looking around and going wide with your content.

What do people need to know before they dive into your thing? Where do they start? Where do they go next?

Every topic takes place in a larger context. If that context interests your audience, it should be part of your content mix.

#6: Cultivate your community of topic experts

Link-building is one of the most important topics in SEO.

Here’s a secret:

Link-building is community-building.

Even if your competitors aren’t into the whole “co-opetition” idea, there’s a larger community that cares about what you do.

But runners would link to him. Skiers would, too. And sites about staying athletic as you age.

Think about the community of web publishers who have the audience you want. Develop relationships with them. Support each other.

This isn’t, of course, about spamming people you don’t know and begging them for links. It’s about making yourself a valued participant in a larger ecosystem.

#7: Keep things organized

Good technical SEOs know all about creating a logical site structure that’s easy for search engines to parse.

As I may have mentioned, I in no way resemble a good technical SEO. Instead, I rely on the Genesis framework and common-sense tags and categories to keep my site properly organized on the back end.

#8: Quit being so damned boring

You can do everything “right” for SEO and still get no traction.

Why? Because no one links to you, no one visits your site, and no one recommends your content — it’s too similar to a thousand other sites. It’s boring.

If your niche is incredibly narrow and no one else can write about it, maybe you can get away with boring. Even then, it’s risky.

Be interesting.

#9: Don’t rely (solely) on SEO

And the final SEO tip?

Don’t try to make the search engines your only source of traffic.

Relying on one source of customers for your business is unacceptably risky.

Relying on a monolithic megacorporation as your one source of customers is insane.

Google doesn’t care about your business. Not even a tiny bit. Not even if you give them a lot of money every month for ads.

So … let’s talk search engines

Where are you on the SEO spectrum? Do you enjoy it, maybe even geek out about it, or are you in the eat-a-bug category? Let us know in the comments.

Image source: Jill Heyer via Unsplash.

The post The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO appeared first on Copyblogger.

from SEO Tips http://feeds.copyblogger.com/~/277832258/0/copyblogger~The-Wise-Content-Marketers-Guide-to-Sensible-SEO/

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soph28collins · 7 years

Text

The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO

Search engine optimization — SEO — is one of those “you love it or you hate it” topics.

Some get a charge out of the challenge of keeping up with those wily engineers at Google.

Others would rather eat a bug than try to figure out what “headless crawling” means and which redirect is the right one to pick in months that end in R.

I have to confess, I’m in the bug-eating camp on this one.

Fortunately, although technical SEO is still important for some sites, there’s a crazy-powerful optimization technique that people like me can get really good at.

Yes, it’s content. (You already knew that, because you’re smart.) Yes, it has to be good content. And yes, I’m going to talk about what, specifically, “good” means.

But first, I’m going to talk about my most important search optimization rule.

The great rule of SEO

My first and primary rule, when thinking about search engines, is never to do anything for the sake of SEO that screws up the experience for the audience.

That cuts out some downright dumb behavior, like overstuffing your content with keywords.

#1: Answer actual audience questions

Want lots and lots of people to visit your site, and stick around once they find you? Answer their pressing questions, and you’ll get your wish.

People fire up a search engine because they have unanswered questions. If you’re smart and knowledgeable about your topic, you can help with that.

Tutorial content is wonderful, but also think about questions like:

Why is [the thing] so hard to get started?

How competitive is [the thing]?

How can I get motivated to do more of [the thing]?

Is there a community of people who want to talk about [the thing]?

Where can I share my own stories about [the thing] and read other people’s?

#2: Use the language they use

Hand in hand with answering real audience questions is using your audience’s language.

That brings us to our friend keyword research. (Check out Beth’s post tomorrow for more on that.)

It’s too bad that some people still think keyword research means looking up a bunch of word salad that makes sense to rooms of computers in Silicon Valley.

Keyword research means figuring out the language that real human beings enter into search engines to find your stuff.

(Kind of like a real writer does. Golly.)

#3: Cover topics comprehensively

My advice: your content should be as long as necessary to make your point.

Some ideas can be expressed quickly, with punchy, interesting little posts.

A strong series can be repurposed into ebooks (or a whole ebook library, once you have a solid archive), podcasts, infographics, SlideShares, videos, and premium products like courses.

#4: Create a user-friendly experience

It doesn’t matter how brilliant your content is — if it’s published in walls of tiny gray type, without subheads or line breaks, most users will skip it.

It’s actually really simple to take a strong piece of writing and make it much more accessible by formatting it well.

#5: Write about the whole picture

Covering your topic comprehensively matters, but it’s not just about going deep.

There’s also a real benefit to looking around and going wide with your content.

What do people need to know before they dive into your thing? Where do they start? Where do they go next?

Every topic takes place in a larger context. If that context interests your audience, it should be part of your content mix.

#6: Cultivate your community of topic experts

Link-building is one of the most important topics in SEO.

Here’s a secret:

Link-building is community-building.

Even if your competitors aren’t into the whole “co-opetition” idea, there’s a larger community that cares about what you do.

But runners would link to him. Skiers would, too. And sites about staying athletic as you age.

Think about the community of web publishers who have the audience you want. Develop relationships with them. Support each other.

This isn’t, of course, about spamming people you don’t know and begging them for links. It’s about making yourself a valued participant in a larger ecosystem.

#7: Keep things organized

Good technical SEOs know all about creating a logical site structure that’s easy for search engines to parse.

As I may have mentioned, I in no way resemble a good technical SEO. Instead, I rely on the Genesis framework and common-sense tags and categories to keep my site properly organized on the back end.

#8: Quit being so damned boring

You can do everything “right” for SEO and still get no traction.

Why? Because no one links to you, no one visits your site, and no one recommends your content — it’s too similar to a thousand other sites. It’s boring.

If your niche is incredibly narrow and no one else can write about it, maybe you can get away with boring. Even then, it’s risky.

Be interesting.

#9: Don’t rely (solely) on SEO

And the final SEO tip?

Don’t try to make the search engines your only source of traffic.

Relying on one source of customers for your business is unacceptably risky.

Relying on a monolithic megacorporation as your one source of customers is insane.

Google doesn’t care about your business. Not even a tiny bit. Not even if you give them a lot of money every month for ads.

So … let’s talk search engines

Where are you on the SEO spectrum? Do you enjoy it, maybe even geek out about it, or are you in the eat-a-bug category? Let us know in the comments.

Image source: Jill Heyer via Unsplash.

The post The Wise Content Marketer’s Guide to Sensible SEO appeared first on Copyblogger.

from Copyblogger http://www.copyblogger.com/sensible-seo/

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