I jumped into the Hatoful Boyfriend guide without being finished with the other overhauls I had planned for the site, and those efforts in conjunction with the daily work I put towards my Kawaii Shopping and Finer Fashion Shopper blogs as well had me feeling so overwhelmed, I could barely accomplish anything at all!

So I’m slowing down for a bit.  Hatoful Boyfriend posts are going to be put on hold until I finish posting all of my completed pony plushes, which I’ve gotten reeeeeaaally far behind on.  There are THIRTEEN more ponies I’ve finished since I last updated!  So I’ll be spending the next day or so putting my photos of them together in neat little images and uploaded straight into the gallery that’s on this page (also on DeviantArt).

Then I’ll hurry along through Shuu’s path in Hatoful Boyfriend and get those posts up in the coming days after that!  Ideally, we’ll have the Hatoful Boyfriend posts finished with before this week is up.

And THENNNN I’ll get back to work on the other projects I’ve mentioned here and there in my posts.  The book about sewing cute plushes and things will be resumed, as well as the packages of downloadable items such as icons and wallpapers.  I still have a lot of irons in the fire, but I need to keep reminding myself not to try to accomplish them all at the same time!  Doing so leads only to exhaustion and disappointment when I inevitably don’t accomplish the far-too-many things that are on my to-do list.

So keep an eye on the Pony Plush Commissions page for the newest ponies!  After that will come all of the other fun stuff I just mentioned. c:

Useful Link: Download Hatoful Boyfriend here!

To speed these posts up a bit, I’m skipping a chunk of content that happened during our heroine Bunny Bani’s Summer break. It’s not that the events weren’t interesting (they were), it’s only that they are side-story arcs that are unrelated to Shuu’s, and really the focus of this playthrough, if you hadn’t noticed, was to reach Shuu’s ending.

So basically, what we’re skipping over is the meeting of a biker chick sparrow named Azami, and a short meeting with an adorable blue gentlebird budgerigar who would have been our boss if we decided to work part-time at the cafe for him, but Bani-chan decided to give the position up to Ryouta instead, since he needed the job more than she did. (And just as a bonus note to my readers: if you want to complete Azami’s little side story, DON’T give the cafe job up to Ryouta. You’ll see what happens!)

Anyway! On with today’s post. Remember, we’ve skipped much of the content of Summer vay-cay. There’s still some time left before Bunny starts going to school again, though, and that’s where we’re picking up from right now. c:

Oh boy oh boy, let’s ask somebirdie out! …SNKFDSHKBFKLKGH LOOK WHOSE NAME IS ON HERE!!

Whoops our fangirling almost scared him away.

He called me fascinating. *o*

squealing.gif

wait

Yes that is far less creepy thank you

So he’s a little bit weird!  This is only a minor hurdle!  I’m sure he’ll turn out to be just fine as we become closer friends!

That laugh again… Come on, this is supposed to be romantic.

Successful date GET!

Some nights later…

A fateful encounter!  Perhaps a romantic stroll through the park at night…?

…The music is playing again… This game has changed how I feel about Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy forever…

Well I’m sure it’s not anything too suspicious.

He’s disposing of the bodies.

So is murdering!

Whoops!

And Nanaki-san knows a thing or two about oversleeping.

Uhhh I guess we’re kind of a WHOLE DAY early…

Sure, let’s help teach’ out.  See, we got free tea out of the deal!

I like sweet tea, too! n3n

All right, now time for the REAL first day of school.

Chapter 2, begin!

And our heroine finds a discarded student ID.  Let’s return it to someone responsible. u3u

Wh – no – I said “responsible,” not “murderous.”  On the plus side, it’s nice to be greeted with something besides “What are you doing here?”

… u_u

I THOUGHT WE HAD SOMETHING

Well, that was quite a change of attitude.   What was THAT all about?  Hoho…

Is it just me or is the doc getting creepier…?

Previous: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Next: Part 5 | Part 6

Useful Link: Download Hatoful Boyfriend here!

Useful Link: Download Hatoful Boyfriend here!

We last left off with our heroine looking forward to the last week or so of her first semester at St. Pigeonation’s.  Let’s see how these final days before Summer break play out!

Here’s a chance to score one more shot at the Doc before the semester’s over!

Well, at least he’s actually here instead of Yuuya. I wish he would be happy to see me. ;~; This Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy music isn’t helping us confirm his mental state at all…

Oh oh! A chance to redeem ourselves! Yes, Iwamine-sensei, I came all the way to the infirmary just to hear your -

…What. He sounds like who?

…Unsure if I should be flattered or frightened by that comment… Bani-chan was kicked out, but he doesn’t sound like he hates us any more.

Today is a Summer festival. Let’s check it out!

The wishes that you find on the tree are indicative of which birds you have the highest relationship levels with currently. Papyrus, Yuuya? Really? But even his ‘handwriting’ isn’t as bad as Nanaki’s… who seems to have confused his wish with some other scrap paper of his. Shuu’s message wins the whole day, though.

These are, believe it or not, Bunny’s choices for her own wish. Just what kind of festival is this, anyway?!

Back at school, Ryouta hooks us up with some juicy gossip. Wait… students turn up as WHAT?! Why does my hot doctor have to be so darn suspicious?? Well, let’s continue on our way to the infirmary.

Something’s going down…

What?? Yuuya is lying and trying to get me to cover for him! I care for the doctor more than I care for defending him, but on the other hand, I don’t want to see Yuuya turn up in the school’s lunch food or writing supplies…

Hahaha forget Yuuya, that liar. I want Iwamine-sensei to like me; that’s far more important! 8D

Yay! I made him happy! Unfortunately Yuuya is probably going to end up as quill pens. But the doctor likes me!

If only real-life school went by this quickly. Before we get too excited for Summer break, let’s just make sure my help won’t be needed at the infirmary.

…Bummer.

Sigh.  Maybe he doesn’t like me yet after all.  I wonder if I should ask about the rumors of missing students…?

Yes, it might be kind of cool if he were secretly murdering students, and even cooler if Bani-chan were made to disappear, too. Yes. This relationship is working out perfectly. Nothing to worry about at all.

And mysteriousness is sexy!  And not life-threatening at all!

Summer break is next! But does that mean we won’t see the doctor at all?? Wait and see…

Previous: Part 1 | Part 2
Next: Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

Useful Link: Download Hatoful Boyfriend here!

Useful Link: Download Hatoful Boyfriend here!

If you remember from last time, we left off about to select what our extracurricular activity was going to be!

We are doing this.  I’ve got bad vibes from the doctor, but he’s really cute, so what’s the worst that could possibly happen??

Yuuya what the heck.  Not only is “aphrodisiacs” spelled wrong, but you sound totally suspicious.

NEED YOU EVEN ASK?  Open drawers are an invitation.  Snoop, snoop, snoop!!!

OHGOD NINJA DOCTOR.  Thankfully he calmed down a bit when he learned I actually worked here…  Whew!  Off the hook for now, but why do I feel like that was such a close one…?

Okay Shuu some of the things you say are just scary.

By the way, Bani-chan lives hunter-gatherer-style in a cave.  Why are houses off-limits to humans?  I’m not sure if we’ll find out during this playthrough…

Field trip!  Let’s chat with our friend Ryouta.

What friends are for.  If your friends try to tell you otherwise, eat their lunches anyway.  It’s how you show them you care.

Another day, another sporting event I guess.

Sorry, I don’t do physical activity.  But maybe Bani-chan can hook up with the hot doctor in the first-aid tent!

…Or maybe Yuuya will be there instead.

Ah, see, Bani-chan and I are following the same train of thought after all.  Whatever is Dr. Iwamine up to, though?  Anyway, Bani-chan spent the Sports Festival patching up damaged doves with Yuuya.

Summer already? How time flies.

The first semester is getting wrapped up now – it won’t be long before Summer break!  How will Bani-chan fare before the semester ends, and how will she spend her Summer?  FIND OUT NEXT TIME…

Useful Link: Download Hatoful Boyfriend here!
Previous: Part 1
Next: Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

Okay, so it’s about pigeons.  And it’s a dating game, of the otome variety, if you know the term.  In a high school setting.  Yes, it really is an actual game; someone thought of this.  And then made it.

And then it garnered enough attention on this side of the ocean to warrant a translation of the full version of the game in English.

It was released last night, and you can download it right here, a marvelously appropriate Valentine’s Day gift indeed.

What do you mean you don’t want to play the absurd dating game about schoolgoing pigeons??  OF COURSE YOU DO.

Okay, so let me level with you on some things about this game.  It isn’t some slapped-together April Fool’s joke.  There is a legitimate backstory behind the concept of the game’s premise, and it’s more intriguing than you think.  Furthermore, no matter which bird you decide to pursue romantically, you are guaranteed an entertaining and fleshed-out story.

So, let’s check out this game I’m playing, Hatoful Boyfriend.

I know what you’re thinking.  This looks ridiculous!  Okay, so it is ridiculous.  But it’s also really fun!  It’s crazy and fun!  Crazy-fun!  And I can promise you that before you’re halfway through your story, you will entirely forget that the characters are pigeons.  Really!  Okay.  I’m done trying to convince you of Hatoful Boyfriend’s legitimacy.  Let’s just play.

Bunny Bani.  That’s me.

Hmmm…

And then our friend, Ryouta Kawara, shows up:

Hey!  That’s not a bird, that’s a boy!  No, no, it’s just an image that’s simulated for you so you can attribute a human face to your birdie friend.  You’ll never see his cute Shotaro face again after this introduction.

The first term begins.  Bunny Bani goes about her first day of school, meeting all kinds of new birdie friends!

There’s Nanaki Kazuaki, our homeroom teacher.  Tends to doze off in mid-sentence.

The transfer student, Sakuya Le Bel Shirogane.  Bani-chan is optimistic, but he just sounds like a snob to me!

A trip to the library introduces us to this shy fellow, Nageki Fujishiro.

A commotion in the hallway just after that brings us face-to-face with Yuuya Sakazaki, the kind of birdie everybirdie should know.

Oh, dear.  Most players should want to avoid the intimidating doctor, Shuu Iwamine, after hearing Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy playing so ominously in the background of this introduction…

and then there’s Oko San.

That’s all of the birds that will be introduced for now.  If you happen to scope out the Demo Version of the game (along with the English Patch) because you’re not committed enough to drop ~$5 on the Full Version, these are all of the birds that you’ll see.  However, now that the full version is out, there is one… special… additional… character.

I’ll try to scope him out as best as I can, but the truth is I’ve already played through this once (last night, just after I finished downloading it), and went through the whole game without so much as a glimpse at the new guy!  Looks like you’ll just have to sit tight and read along with my adventures if you want to see if I can find him this time. :3

Now, before we end this introduction to our pigeony adventure, let’s see the first set of options we’ll get to choose from.  Let’s choose what Bunny Bani will spend most of her time doing after class!

Oh, oh??  What is this?  ’Infirmary Staff’?  This is especially interesting, because remember that I said I already played through this once last night?  Well, that fourth option was not there that time!  There is an absurd amount of replay value packaged up inside Hatoful Boyfriend, not only due to the branches and branches of stories, but because of stuff like this – options that aren’t even available to you unless you’ve cleared the game a certain number of times.

And thus ends part one!  Which after-school task will Bani-chan choose??  Which bird will capture her romantic affections, and will she survive the ordeals ahead??  The implications are more grave than you even know…

One last time, here’s the link to download Hatoful Boyfriend for yourself.

Next: Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

I know I haven’t been blogging here as much as I keep saying I’d like to, but I have a reason! I have so many cool ideas planned for this site this year, and they’re all being worked on EVERY DAY! We’re still only just getting started in 2012 and I can’t wait to see what kinds of other developments occur through this year, besides the neat things I have planned~

Here’s something exciting: What with January ending and February beginning, payments and checks have all been sent out by all the online affiliate networks I’ve joined and made a secondary income out of. And while I first started getting tiny trickles of payments in November (I started affiliate marketing in October), this past January marks an important landmark: I made my first $100 entirely from commission-based revenue!!

Now, I read up a lot about affiliate marketing before and as I first started monetizing my Web site and blogs. And so many of them stated that your first goal to work toward is that first $100. That first $100 is your sign that you’ve done it – you’ve got a blog with traffic coming in to it, some regular readers, and now it’s just a matter of keeping it going with more products and promotions, and soon you’ll have another $100, then $500, and even $1000 is an eventual certainty as long as you keep at it – and those higher numbers are so much easier to attain now that that uphill climb towards your first $100 is reached.

If you’re a little confused and find yourself asking, “Wait, what’s affiliate marketing? What blogs are we talking about?” that’s okay! I’ll give you some quick background info. There are a toooooon of informative articles you can read about affiliate marketing itself so I won’t go hugely into it here, but basically affiliate marketing is advertising products and linking to them using a code that is unique to you. When someone else clicks that link and looks at that product, or any other products from that site you linked them to, there’s a cookie there that remembers that YOUR LINK is the one that led them there. If they purchase something, a percentage of that sale gets paid to you! You can basically think of affiliate marketing as getting paid by commission to advertise products. The two blogs I have monetized to specifically work as affiliate blogs are both on Tumblr – Kawaii Shopping and The Finer Fashion Shopper.

And here’s the very best part – my sales in January were so good, I actually reached WAY over $100! My total cumulative earnings from all of my affiliate programs across these few months actually totals to closer to $200! Remember how I mentioned I first started getting payments in November? My first paycheck (it was from my favorite affiliate program so far, LinkShare!) was for only $34. And I’d previously received a $50 payment for referring someone to use my Web hosting provider, Hostgator. I was already at $84! So close to $100 after only one month of affiliate marketing!

My sales seemed to decline in December, and I barely made any sales. I think I stayed teetering at that $80-90 range that month. But that was fine, as the holidays were very busy and I didn’t have a huge amount of time to dedicate to my blogs. When January came around, I became aware of something I had seriously neglected to address – I hadn’t implemented any SEO techniques to my two Tumblr blogs! Was it even possible to optimize Tumblr blogs for search engines? All I had to do was Google “Tumblr SEO tips” and there were my answers! I’m thankful I’m already so familiar with HTML and a small bit of the SEO I’d worked on for my own personal site (the one you’re reading from right now!), because that knowledge made it easy to implement H1 headers and turn post tags into meta keywords, and those kinds of things.

Well, immediately after implementing those SEO techniques, I witnessed a significant spike in the traffic my blogs were getting, which in turn led to a DRASTIC increase in clicks through to all of the products I was promoting there. My sales through LinkShare jumped from $20 that month to nearly $40, and then finally reached $50 right before January ended. Holy cow! From that program alone, I’d MORE than reached my first $100 earned online!! 8O And as if that weren’t enough, on the very last day of January, I received a surprise e-mail from Amazon Associates stating that my payment for the month had been processed. Since I haven’t promoted products from Amazon as much as I have from other sites, I’d nearly forgotten all about them! When I logged into my Amazon Associates panel, I was beyond ecstatic to find that I’d accumulated $55 in sales there – all from links I’d created back in November. The SEO techniques I’d only implemented in January had even brought traffic to some of my much older posts!

So those two payments from LinkShare and Amazon alone would have gotten me to my $100 goal, but don’t forget that I had nearly reached $100 beforehand! I absolutely owe this spike of success to search engine optimization. If this past month’s increase of traffic and sales are a reliable indicator, it isn’t unreasonable to anticipate making at least $100 a month from these blogs, regularly. And if traffic and sales continue to increase, well then… I am certainly incredibly hopeful for the future! And what’s even more – I also spent some time in January joining even more affiliate programs! I also have tricklings of earnings from Share-A-Sale and Google Affiliate Network, and I’m hopeful that those will blossom into larger earnings in the coming months, just like LinkShare and Amazon Associates did after only a few months. c:

I can’t complain at all about my experience with affiliate marketing and encourage others to use their blogs for the same. If you want to get started just like I did, join LinkShare and search through their categories of merchants to find some online retailers that fit your niche. Other programs to check out are Share-A-Sale, Amazon Associates, and Google Affiliate Network.

In the future I might post a bit about the techniques I use and precise strategies that I implement in each of my Tumblr blogs when I make posts about products. c:

Thanks for reading!

Hello once again, all of you lovely persons!! I hope that all of you had fantastic holidays and a wonderful New Year, and haven’t broken any resolutions yet!

I posted a small announcement on my commission page that I was going to be on break for a couple of weeks there, and had every intention of writing a full blog post announcing my absence as well, but then an INCREDIBLY-POORLY-TIMED INCIDENT OCCURRED: the charger for my laptop shorted out and so I had no power and could not access anything. D8 So, I am terribly and deeply sorry if anyone tried to contact me and I could not get back to you.

Right now, however, it’s time to go through all of my messages and comments and get back to everyone!! And then it’s back to work on sewing up everyone’s ponies!!

FURTHERMORE, what with it being a new year and all, it’s time to pave a new path for myself and really offer some substantial things to this blog. I know I keep talking and talking about this Boutique idea of mine, and it was my resolution last year to get it going. I still wanna do that, but we’ll likely see some other immediate things I can offer here before then. c: I’m thinking of downloadable packages of icons and desktop themes, some with licenses included so you can use the graphics in your own design endeavors – Web design of your own, independent games, and the like.

Would you believe that I intend to publish a book soon, too?? I’ll self-publish a physical copy through Lulu but also have a downloadable PDF ebook available on this site (cheaper alternative). It will be on the subject of sewing cute, tiny things.

Other thing I need to do on this site: post the photos of finished ponies that I’ve already submitted to DeviantArt.

*cracks knuckles*

November 2011

Gemdas is an OC Pony by Roundrockb!

I like the colors a lot. @3@ Like chocolate with vanilla frosting… I am told by Roundrockb that the colors are inspired by the Pokémon Eevee.

Please respect the artist and do not use this image for any purposes (forum avatar, signature, Web graphics, banners, any personal use or commercial gain). (Exceptions?)
Do not trace, copy, or alter in any way. Do not remove signatures or watermarks.
Do not save and/or upload elsewhere (Photobucket, Flickr, Tumblr, etc.).

November 2011

Sometimes I open up Corel Painter and I’m like “Man, why don’t I use this more often?! It’s great!” and then I’m like “why do these colors turn white when they try to blend with each other” and “why do the edges look awful when I paint on the layer below this” and “why aren’t any of the shortcut keys NORMAL” and other technical things that are annoying…

So here, finally, is my Thundercats fan art. I don’t think Tygra looks quite smug enough. He also has the weirdest hair ever.

Thundercats belongs to Studio 4C I think
Please respect the artist and do not use this image for any purposes (forum avatar, signature, Web graphics, banners, any personal use or commercial gain). (Exceptions?)
Do not trace, copy, or alter in any way. Do not remove signatures or watermarks.
Do not save and/or upload elsewhere (Photobucket, Flickr, Tumblr, etc.).

Hey everybody! Hope everyone had a a great Thanksgiving!

So I guess the day after Thanksgiving is some kind of crazy shopping day or something??

I got in my inbox this morning a note from my Web host provider, Hostgator, that every service they offer is 50% off for today only.

If you’ve been thinking about starting your own Web site and hosting, I’d jump on this chance! Hostgator is great. I went with the cheapest hosting option (Hatchling Plan) and everything I could have needed for my site was provided (e-mail addresses, mailing lists, subdomains) plus tons of other stuff I might never need but I’m sure would benefit other people!

A run-down of their prices look like this for today:

• Shared hosting: Normally $4.95;Today $2.48/month
• Reseller Hosting: Normally $24.95; Today $12.48/month
• VPS Hosting: Normally $19.95; Today $9.98/month
• Dedicated Servers: Normally $174; Today $87/month

It’s a pretty sweet deal!

Anyway, I thought I’d just pass this along in case anyone else was looking to building a site or getting a domain. c:
Here’s the link again to Hostgator’s page, where you can check out what packages are available right now!