#WITH SAMPLE MERCHANDISE (and other stuff)

[kathybluecaller]

👀

[bloodsadx]

I just saw your post of all your toenails, and the pins stand out to me so much!! Where do you get them from where they can all be such unique colors? Or do you make them yourself somehow?

i hit up a couple different american pin places that are in contact with overseas pin factories, i looked into the process of making pins via youtube videos to make sure i understood what is actually happening in the pin making process. i designed a lot of colorways in photoshop/illustrator and i showed friends/teased those colorways on twitter before i ordered them. it’s not especially expensive to do a bunch of different colorways it’s just general bulk pricing guidelines made some of the colors slightly more expensive per unit bc i ordered less of them. i worked with an american contact rather than using say alibaba to source a factory because i wanted to be able to ask a lot of questions and also because the american contacts usually have long relatively steady relationships with the factories which allows me to ask for stuff like 5 of one colorway without the factory just ignoring my email because of not meeting a MOQ. but it did raise the price slightly, and i think the shipping might’ve gone from china to like, rhode island, then to me, so it might’ve taken me slightly longer to get them. i also ordered about 300 i believe total with 16 different colorways so i think it was probably less annoying to the factory than if i had ordered like 16 bespoke pins or something like that.

those pins are really the only thing i’ve ever outsourced before and i was really uncomfortable for a long time with the idea of outsourcing labor because i don’t really like the idea that just b.c i’m an artist and i have ideas for stuff de facto that means my ideas are worth the material/labor cost/human cost of producing them but i watched a lot of youtube videos about how pins are made and it seemed not that bad or at least not much worse than say screen printing t shirts re: exposure to potentially toxic chemicals.

i was starting the process of making more pins of other characters but my motivation has been low on that front. the reason i’m not saying the specific website i used is because i don’t think they provided me any particular advantages over any other website i could have contacted they were just one of the first to get back to me with answers/samples and to meet my specific needs. if you’re going to make pins or any kind of merchandise and are trying to move into a process where you’re paying a few hundred dollars down to potentially sell something to other people i would recommend really looking into that stuff rather than just going off of recommendations. it’s also worth noting that a lot of american companies will insist their products are american made and then outsource the actual production but because the artwork/money was exchanged in america it counts as “american made”. and also, a lot of factories will sublet contracts from other factories and don’t typically inform clients when they do this so it is highly unlikely you will be able to actually know where your thing is made (and under what conditions); to that end, recommending a specific gobetween who might talk to 5 different factories who all randomly sublet to each other means it’s nearly impossible for me to actually recommend A Place rather than just recommending Trying To Communicate As Clearly As Possible.

[sunniedesi]

Future Diary Revolution

Even though Future Diary has pretty obscure merch and spin-offs to its name, most of the stuff related to the show is still relatively easy to find with enough research. After all, even though the franchise is almost 2 decades old, most of its media has been recorded quite thoroughly…

Emphasis on most. There’s actually one piece of media related to this franchise that I’ve never seen any English source cover, and it pains me to say that it is now lost media… or sort of. This is the audition show “Future Diary Revolution,” produced by Kadokawa and sponsored by Newgin (same company that made the pachislot and panchinko for the show), that first aired on the platform “Ustream” (now known as IBM Cloud Video) back on November 16, 2012. It finished airing on April 7, 2013. As previously mentioned, I haven’t found any English sources about this show, or any other language for that matter, except for a Spanish post on Facebook, though I wouldn’t really call it a source as it mistakes the show for being a second season.

Now with that being said, even the Japanese sources are scarce on this one. Currently the only sites that hold information about the show are the official Future Diary site, Japanese wikipedia, the japanese wiki and a blog post from one of the contestants. The information that the first three provided allowed me to understand how the show went, and it was basically an “audition game show” comprising ten stages. Now, what I mean with “audition game show” is that the point of the show was to test out the contestants’ ability at voice acting, singing and presenting to select new voice actors for Kadokawa projects. Each stage had a particular task that the participants had to clear in order to move to the next stage. The contestants would receive a message on their phones indicating whether they were eliminated (a DEAD END) or if they passed (DEAD END Avoided). Also, because of the large number of contestants, the first four stages had to have several rounds in which they divided the participants. We know what these first four stages were like thanks to the official Future Diary site; however, the site stopped providing updates on the tasks after stage 4, and stuck to reminders of when each stage was going to be uploaded to Ustream. The following is a list / description for each stage:

Stage 1 (three rounds with 294 contestants in total): 

First round: Contestants were asked to introduce themselves, what their best and worst traits were, and what they saw themselves doing in the future. From 79 people only 43 passed.

Second round: Contestants were asked to introduce themselves, and tell an anecdote of something good that happened around them. From 105 people only 39 passed.

Third round: Contestants were asked to introduce themselves, and what activity they excelled at. From 110 only 34 passed.

Stage 2 (three rounds with 116 contestants left): Contestants had to read out lines of Future Diary characters and act them out.

Round one: from 36 only about half passed.

Round two, from 40 only 18 passed.

Round three, from 40 only about half passed.

Samples of the scripts they were given:

Stage 3 (two rounds with 58 contestants left): Contestants had to present merchandise from the show

First round: They presented the Future Diary Blu-ray and DVD, as well as the music CDs. From 28 only 19 passed.

Second round: They presented the Gasai Yuno RAH figurine, as well as the book publications (manga, guidebook and spin-off manga). From 30, only 17 passed.

Stage 4 (two rounds with 36 contestants left): Contestants had to choose one song from a pre-selected list and sing it. The men could choose either Yukiteru’s theme, Kousaka’s theme or the 12th’s theme. The women could choose between Yukiteru’s theme, Yuno and Yukiteru’s shared theme, and Minene’s theme.

Round one: from 15 only 10 passed.

Round two: from 21 only 12 passed.

Stage 5 (22 contestants left): From 22, only 13 passed.

Stage 6 (13 contestants left): No one was eliminated.

Stages 7, 8 and 9: numbers on these last stages are unclear to me, as the chart on the wiki says that zero people participated in stages 7 and 8, and that in stage 9, only five people passed out of zero… which clearly doesn’t make sense. What we do know is that by stage 10, only five contestants remained.

Stage 10 (5 contestants left): Out of the five, only one winner was selected.

The winner was Kotoe Kawasaki; however, all of the five contestants left were chosen to participate in the Ustream 2013 spin-off of Lucky Star titled: “The Miyawaka Family’s Hunger.” Kotoe won the role of Hikage Miyawaka, a main character in the show. It’s unclear to me whether she won something else for being first place, but as far as her IMDB and MAL profiles show, this was her only voice acting gig. As for the rest of the contestants, here are the roles they got (real name on the left, character on the right):

Madoka Sowa - Yukina Utsumi

Kanae Iwasaki - Erika Koike

Karin Oda - Daisuke Mizushima

Natsumi Yamada - Marina Koizumi.

Despite not winning first place, all the other girls went on to work on one or more shows after this spin-off. Though I want to focus on Kanae and Natsumi here, because we do have a little more insight on them. The blog post that I mentioned earlier was from a contestant named Saya Kamide, who as far as I know was eliminated on stage 3. From her blogs, I can gather that she aspired to be a voice actress for Kadokawa, though moved on from voice acting on 2014. With that being said, the blog post about Future Diary Revolution introduced the two other girls mentioned before, and it also gives us a little more insight on stage 1. Here’s the translation of her post:

Yahoo (・∀・) ♪ It’s me, Kamide, Kamide Saya ヾ(´ω｀＝´ω｀)ﾉ(hello, hello).  Today I participated in Future Diary Revolution (｀･ω･´)!  We made our own name tags, and I put on my numbered bib as I was told hehe. ↑ And there (pointing at her photo), that’s my smug face （ ´,_ゝ｀）. And here’s a little introduction for my fellow war buddies, who participated with me ☆. First war buddy ☆ “Put some love to your ponytail ♪” It’s Natsumi Yamada (*･ω･)ノ Lately we’ve been spending a lot of time together, so I think I’ll soon be able to master an impression of her (ﾟ∀ﾟ) Ahaha. My good friend ☆ Koyoshi Team "Fluorite" In her idol activities☆ (tl note: not sure what this means, it might be referring to a team she participated in within an idol show.) It’s Kanae Iwasaki (*･ω･)ノ Kanae-chan, it's been a long time since I last saw her, and she's become so pretty that I didn't know who she was at first. She’s a good one（´∀｀*). ・‥…━━━☆・‥…━━━☆・‥…━━━☆・‥…━━━☆ There were so many participants >< I felt like I was about to burst from the start��� *sigh* We did a 30 second interview... Kamide: "Nice to meet you" my heart was beating so fast (*'-'*) Judge: "Please introduce yourself in one sentence." Kamide: “Σ(=ﾟωﾟ=;)I’m… I’m like squid! The more you eat me… rather-! Just like dried squid, the more you get to know me, you get a better taste of who Saya Kamide is! (I’m the one eating myself alive *sighs*). Judge: "What's the nicest thing that happened around you recently?" Kamide: Oh, a-a good thing?! … Ah! A new manga from a certain publication with a bu-butter (I’m screwing over my words)... butler protagonist is out! Judge: “Do you like manga?” Kamide "Yes! I love manga, anime, and the internet!" (I got a sprout of confidence all of a sudden haha) Judge: “You spend a lot of time at home?” Kamide “No!” (I-it’s not like that! (((( ;ﾟдﾟ)))) Judge: “Do you like outdoor activities?” Kamide "Yes! Come to think of it, I recently climbed a mountain!" (´∀｀) Judge: "With how many people?" Kamide: "... I was alone, actually" (Ah, I’m making it worse!!) Kamide: “Since there were no lights around, the stars and the night sky looked so beautiful! The city lights looked like a river, and the sky like a planetarium!" (That was the time for my excuuuuuuuuse haha) Judge: "Thank you. Please wait on the 3rd floor." Kamide: “Thank you very much.” *Judging ends* hehehehehe ↑ Why do I feel so worn out? I tried to collect my thoughts, but then… oh god, I felt like it went terrible ( ・Д ・) Though fortunately all three… brilliantly cleared stage 1 .｡ﾟ+.(･∀･)ﾟ+.ﾟーーー!! I'm a miracle haha That’s right: "The future can change if you believe in it." That was a line in the story… right?! Σヾ(￣0￣;ﾉ I’ll believe in the future and do my best next time!! (￣∠￣ )ﾉ And there’s one week left till Ani☆yume. Please support Future Diary and Ani☆yume (tl note: Ani☆yume is a Japanese idol show by Kadokawa. If you’re familiar with Kpop, I believe it’s kinda like the show “Kpop Star.”) 

Link for the original post:

http://blog.livedoor.jp/sayakamide/archives/1720045.html

Also a little fun fact about Saya, Kanae and Natsumi is that they all seem to still be friends (I found their Twitters while looking up information about the show and they all seem to follow and retweet each other). But even more interesting, I realized that Kanae and Tomosa Murata (Yuno's VA) also appear to be friends currently, since Kanae appears in some of Tomosa's photos on Twitter.

As far as this show now being lost media… the Ustream link provided by the official Future Diary website is now down, and when I try to run it through the Wayback Machine, I can see the page, but even with a browser that supports flash I’m unable to view the content of the video. I could be wrong, but I believe that it is not possible to run flash content on the Wayback Machine, because the snapshots don’t preserve the actual code for it to run. I’ve had first-hand experiences trying to play old Disney flash games from the Wayback Machine under a flash emulator, but it always returned a blank screen, just like the Ustream videos. I also tried to see if it was possible to recover Ustream videos in any way, but from the looks of it, the platform doesn’t store deleted content for more than 30 days. In other words, the episodes are lost… 

save for one.

The official Future Diary site kept the videos for the second round of the second stage of the show, though they were also in flash format. Just like the other episodes on Ustream, these ones returned a blank screen every time I tried to run them with my flash emulators, so I had to get creative. Eventually, after downloading a new browser and an old version of flash, I managed to get the videos to work. They’re now uploaded on my youtube channel as a single video. It doesn’t have subtitles, but I think it’s pretty clear what’s going on. The contestants go up, say a few lines from the script they were given, and at the end they receive a message of whether they passed to the next stage. It may not be much, but hopefully this is enough to preserve the memory of this very obscure show.

Below is the Ustream link in the Wayback Machine (you can’t see the video or anything relevant for that matter, but I thought I’d link it anyway)

https://web.archive.org/web/20150630165221/http://www.ustream.tv/channel/%E6%9C%AA%E6%9D%A5%E6%97%A5%E8%A8%98%E3%83%AC%E3%83%9C%E3%83%AA%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A7%E3%83%B3

And here’s the link of the official FD site’s entries about FD Revolution (the link is of the show’s initial announcement, but on the left-hand side you can see the rest of the entries from latest to newest. Also, they’re all in Japanese, but translating the pages to English with Google is enough to understand them.)

http://www.future-diary.tv/revolution/121109revolution.html

[xmoonlitxdreamx]

Hi! Feel free to ignore if you don't feel like answering. I see you've been posting about selling pokemon merchandise, and I wanted to ask if you maybe have any advice for someone who's also interested in selling merchandise but isn't quite sure where to begin?

Sure, I can give a little bit of advice! Sorry if this is super haphazard, I'm just talking off the top of my head.

Ok tbh the first thing to be aware of is that making merch is expensive. I really do not recommend getting into making and selling merch if you're struggling financially. I don't make a lot of money from this.

If you're interested in learning more about manufacturers/where to get stuff made, there's a list of them on the account @howtobeaconartist under the "resources" tab. They also have a lot of advice for selling merch in general, tho they're mostly geared toward anime convention artists.

There's also vograce, a company based in china that makes a variety of things:

I use them a lot but there's also often communication issues/minor printing complications, and shipping can get quite pricy if you're ordering a lot of things. (for example, shipping on the order of submas pillow cases + misc merch samples was almost $100.) (also I live in the US.) That said, I like to use them because they have low minimum order quantities; I don't sell a ton of merch, so it's convenient for me to be able to buy small quantities of items. They also let you split up orders between multiple designs (again, useful for lowering quantities).

Anyway, my personal recommendation for your first merch would be buttons. I get them made by cheapestbuttonsnet on Etsy:

Their prices are very affordable, and they also let customers split up an order between multiple designs. Typically I order a batch of 50 buttons, and then split it between 5 designs to end up with 10 buttons of each design. Customer service is also very responsive; if you have further questions I'd recommend messaging them on Etsy or sending them an e-mail.

Anyway you don't have to start with buttons, but that's just what I think would be the best balance between affordable for the artist + affordable/attractive for customers.

Also, keep in mind that artwork you draw for merch should be sized at least 300 PPI for prints, charms, buttons, and stickers, and at least 150 PPI for fabric printing (like pillows). This means if you want to print a 1.5 inch button, the canvas you draw on should be at least 450 px by 450 px (because 300 * 1.5 = 450). Typically I draw larger than this anyway (like 2500 px by 2500 px for most things), but note that if you draw larger that some small details may get lost.

There's a bunch of other logistic things you'll need to do before selling merch, including:

setting up an online shop (I use Etsy because they're convenient for shipping and send tax forms at the end of the year to make it easier to report income, but they have a lot of random fees)

Purchasing shipping materials (for buttons/charms, usually just bubble mailers from amazon or wherever are fine)

Setting prices (I reference other sellers on Etsy to gauge a good price for products. Another thing people often do is take the cost of manufacturing one unit, multiplying it by 3, and using that as the price.)

Purchasing business cards to include in orders (optional; I get mine from catprint.com bc I like their holographic finish and I get prints from them anyway, but there are much cheaper options out there for business cards)

Taking product photos/making graphics for products (this goes with "setting up an online shop" tbh. i hate taking product photos LMAO;;;)

Drawing the actual artwork for the merchandise lskdjflsdjf

There's probably more than this and there's more details that I'm not mentioning because this is just a short little intro, but tbh a lot of merch making is about learning along the way and seeing what works and what can be improved on.

[thosemintcookies]

So yeah apparently AI art can do hands now

And I think this is the thing I get back to. The longer these things learn the better their stuff gets. Eventually all the kinks will get ironed out. You will see computer generated images that are indistinguishable from something done manually. In fact, the applications reach farther- eventually we will see 3D art in real space, and art using traditional mediums. Like we have to shift the focus to the injustices without making quality judgements, which are in essence, identical to the ones aimed at all new mediums as they emerged. You think a couple decades ago people weren't having the same thoughts about digital art? You think these same exact sentiments aren't hurled towards modern art and abstraction in general?

Like if we have to really internalize that art is art is art. AI art is art. Sometimes it can be good art, because we live in a tech and data dense era and these mediums are becoming increasingly sophisticated in the ways they can communicate something about our relationship to tech and data, about ourselves and what we consider important.

All arguments about AI art being bad art, or not real art, is a rehashing of the elitist divisions we make, and we've been having this talk for literally centuries.

In addition I feel like we also have to be careful about the idea of "copyright" because even before the machines, it's been a murky territory. What about IPs? Remixes? Sampling? Collage? Found art? It's also limiting to think about AI art as "lesser than" because it "only" rehashes from existing pieces.

So, what is there to say? How can we better communicate the outrage? I think to the real point of it is about the unequal and frustrating power dynamics at play, especially because a lot of people who do gripe with this whole issue are artists that simply do not make that much money from their art. It's about a capitalist culture that reduces art down to Mere Aesthetic, which says that the product is more important than the intention and the process. It's about the divorcing between intent and profit. Its about the hellscape where there's merchandise sold of explicitly anti-consumerist/anti-capitalist works. It's about media industries that treat its workers as replaceable. It's about people choosing to have An Image that titilates rather than opting to foster community with like-minded fans.

And of course there are ways to fight back. Of course we can foster communities in our own spheres. We can also applaud art that has intent and direction. We can also increase systems that let artists thrive instead of being treated as cogs in a machine.

This wouldn't even be an issue if artists were fairly compensated for their labour and if people really cared about art beyond commodity value. AI art and artists who use machine learning could just be another movement of artists doing something interesting. Instead, this beautiful, terrifying technology is being used to generate soulless images for lonely men and to objectify celebrities and as leverage to further put other artists in jeopardy. It's such a fucking waste.

[stainy-derps]

I really enjoyed reading this because it gave just a bit more information about just HOW rude and fucked up this situation has been.

Highlights especially since without Adblock nearly any article website is shite to navigate:

"Daylight Media’s Ben Curtis, who’s represented Markiplier for eight years, wasn’t particularly surprised by the deluge of nos. As he tells it, Hollywood has never been willing to take his client seriously. The feedback? “’Oh, the YouTuber? No, thanks.’ Just totally dismissive,” he says via Zoom, insisting the entire reason that they did Edge of Sleep as a QCODE-produced podcast first was because they wanted something to be able to show skittish buyers when they ultimately shopped the TV adaptation. It was also the reason that Curtis, whose client roster over the years has included Rami Malek and Veep‘s Timothy Simons, urged Markiplier to do his second podcast, Distractible, an unscripted offering featuring him and a few buddies.

“I went to Mark three years ago and I said, ‘Hey, look, I’m not getting a lot of love and respect for you in the market, you should do a podcast because I know you can build one of the biggest podcasts in the world. And at that point, I think traditional Hollywood will say, “Oh wow, you just knocked out Joe Rogan from No. 1 on Spotify. Let’s pay attention,”’” says Curtis. “And then he did that, and people still didn’t care. It’s been seven years now of trying to get traditional Hollywood to pay attention.” (For the record, Spotify did, allegedly inking an eight-figure dealfor Markiplier to host video episodes of Distractible and other podcasts.)"

----

"In 2023, with a nearly completed series, they took it out once more. This time, they did so with the first episode available for potential buyers to preview. Again, they were greeted with a succession of passes. Curtis, who’s also an executive producer on the project, isn’t even sure they bothered to open the link and sample it. “It was the same thing, ‘No.’ ‘No.’ ‘No.’ And that’s the point at which 99.9 percent of Hollywood quits, it’s over,” he says. “But we knew, with Mark, you have this special ingredient that people truly undervalue — and he’s a complete genius in marketing to his fans.”"

Then they talk about how Unus Annus's success a little.

"At one point, Curtis says there were 1.3 million concurrent viewers watching; and, in 24 hours, he says Markiplier managed to sell $19 million of merchandise. “And that was something that we couldn’t pay people to write about or talk about. No one cared,” says Curtis, who acknowledges he has a chip on his shoulder on his client’s behalf. “I mean, there’s less than 50 people in the entire world who could do that. We’re talking, like, Taylor Swift, Kardashian type stuff.”"

Like the amount of disrespect given to him simply because of being a youtuber. Potentially not even watching the pitch episode of a nearly completed series? No one covering his successes before that?

And then the conclusion:

"Almost instantly, and without any real promotion, it had broken into the Prime Video’s Top 10, where it remained, hovering around No. 6 or 7 through the weekend.

By Friday, a trailer dropped on both QCODE and New Regency’s social media, and Prime Video posted a clip on its social channels. A paid media buy launched that day, too. Later that evening, Markiplier called an “Emergency Meeting” of his fans, which turned into him hosting a three-hour livestream, during which he urged everyone to tune in and rate the series, as his goal now is to stay on the Top 10 TV chart for 30 days. In success, there will be a second season, and ideally distribution outside the U.S. According to the Amazon site, content providers to Prime Video Direct receive 50 percent of net revenue for titles that are available to buy or rent. By Sunday, 1.2 million had checked out the livestream video just to hear him field questions about the making of the series, his first foray into scripted and dramatic TV. (He talked, too, about Iron Lung, a bloody film that he acts in and directs, for which he’s currently seeking a theatrical distributor.)

The irony of its success over on Prime Video, one of many platforms that passed on Edge of Sleep when it came through the traditional channels, is not lost on Markiplier or his rep. “We definitely want to break glass,” Curtis says. “We want people to pay attention to the fact that this guy who was told no over and over again is so powerful that he can launch a TV show to great success on his own.”"

Holding the future of his project being able to just have an established place to host, when we're talking about something he's largely put his own money and work into, over a goal that is kind of ludicrous, while also limiting his marketing and providing none of their own... Is beyond ridiculous.

A little background as to why the Markiplier fandom is panicking about The Edge of Sleep.

So YEARS ago. Mark was in a podcast called The Edge of Sleep, which was adapted into a TV series... Which was never released

Until

Mark made a movie adaptation of a video game, Iron Lung. He's put all his energy into this film, directing, producing, editing, even starring in it. the movie is done, and he's working to get it released in theaters.

We, the public don't know why, but we know that some doors have been locked on the release of Iron Lung, however some big wigs somewhere have promised that if his popularity alone can put Edge of Sleep in the TOP TEN a lot of doors will open for Iron Lung. He wasn't allowed to even say where it would premiere, nor was it advertised AT ALL

So now, Edge of Sleep has shadow dropped on Amazon Prime in the US. Three days BEFORE they even told Mark it would air. In order to get this man's work out in theaters this thing has to get to the top ten by word of mouth alone.

So. Watch Edge of Sleep! It's an apocalyptic horror. There are some mild gore warnings (blood, knife mutilation, brain dissection, self harm). Even if you can play it in the background and let it run just so it gets views thatd be helpful.

Stick it to the Hollywood Bigwigs! Show them YouTubers can have an audience! Open some doors for creative people trying to show their work to a bigger audience!

[ashteam-blog]

Growing your Biz giving away stuff

In the competitive landscape of modern business, companies are constantly seeking innovative strategies to stand out and attract customers. Amidst this quest for attention, one tactic has proven to be a game-changer: free giveaways. While it may seem counterintuitive to give away products or services without immediate monetary gain, the long-term benefits of this approach cannot be overstated. Let's explore why free giveaways are not just a gesture of goodwill but a strategic investment in business growth.

1. Building Brand Awareness

In a crowded marketplace, brand recognition is key. Free giveaways provide an opportunity for businesses to introduce themselves to potential customers who may not have discovered them otherwise. Whether it's a sample of a new product, a trial subscription to a service, or branded merchandise, these giveaways put your brand directly into the hands of consumers. As people experience the quality and value of what you offer, they are more likely to remember your brand and consider it in the future.

2. Engaging with Your Audience

Engagement is the cornerstone of any successful marketing strategy. Free giveaways create an interactive experience that fosters a deeper connection between businesses and their target audience. By encouraging participation through contests, challenges, or social media campaigns, companies can spark excitement and generate buzz around their brand. Moreover, engaging with customers in this way allows businesses to gather valuable feedback, insights, and user-generated content, which can inform future product development and marketing efforts.

3. Generating Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Word-of-mouth remains one of the most powerful forms of advertising. When people receive something for free and have a positive experience with it, they are inclined to share that experience with others. Whether it's through social media posts, online reviews, or conversations with friends and family, satisfied customers become brand advocates who amplify your message far beyond your initial reach. As this word-of-mouth marketing spreads, it creates a ripple effect that extends the reach and credibility of your brand, ultimately driving more sales and referrals.

4. Building Trust and Loyalty

In a world where skepticism towards advertising is prevalent, free giveaways offer a tangible demonstration of a company's commitment to its customers. By providing value upfront without asking for anything in return, businesses can build trust and credibility with their audience. This trust forms the foundation of long-term customer relationships, leading to increased loyalty and repeat business. Customers who feel appreciated and valued are more likely to remain loyal to a brand and advocate for it in the future.

5. Stimulating Sales and Conversions

While the primary goal of free giveaways may not be immediate sales, they can have a significant impact on driving conversions in the long run. By offering a taste of what you have to offer, you remove barriers to entry and make it easier for customers to try your products or services. Once they experience the value you provide, they are more likely to make a purchase or upgrade to a paid subscription. Additionally, free giveaways can create a sense of urgency and scarcity, prompting people to take action before the opportunity is gone.

In conclusion, free giveaways are not just a cost but an investment in the growth and success of your business. By strategically leveraging giveaways to build brand awareness, engage with your audience, generate word-of-mouth marketing, build trust and loyalty, and stimulate sales and conversions, you can unlock new opportunities and propel your business forward. So don't hesitate to embrace the power of free giveaways and watch as your business flourishes in the hands of satisfied customers.

This Tool is one of the Best I have seen on the market today! << ==

[thespyglassofvision]

Recently I ran a few polls about recycling (well, the three Rs to be more accurate) and the results more or less lined up with what I expected (The sample sizes were extremely small so expect some level of inaccuracy in the data)

First, I asked about which of the three Rs people hear about the most often, and Recycle won by a landslide, with Reduce being approximately 1/12th the amount, and Reuse falling in between the two (albeit pretty far towards the lower end)

And then I asked about which one people feel is the most impactful, and guess what? Reduce won by quite a big margin.

My take on this is that companies have no way of making any profit from Reducing consumption, so it gets promoted the least.

Reuse has *some* benefit to companies, for instance Starbucks allowing customers to bring their own coffee mugs allows them to save money on supplies, or grocery stores providing customers with reusable bags that double as advertising (or merchandise, depending on how you look at it)

But Recycling involves bins, waste collection trucks, automation lines and filtering stuff, etc. I'll be honest I don't know all that much about the details of recycling, but I've heard much of it ends up going to the landfill anyway and you just end up paying extra fees to feel like there's a *chance* you're not adding plastic to a trash heap somewhere

And I believe in all this lies the reason behind why there's such a disconnect between what's actually impactful (or at least perceived as such) and what ends up being talked about. All three are important of course, but reducing the amount of disposable plastic being purchased is much more impactful than trying to repurpose the plastic which has already been put out into the world and used

Reuse sits in the middle of all this as it's talked about fairly often, but not nearly as much as recycling and has it's own set of problems (Like increasing CO2 emissions to reduce plastic waste)

I don't know if all of this is already common knowledge or if I'm totally off-base here but I'd love to hear other people's thoughts! I've had this idea floating around my brain for quite a while now and I find it really interesting to see how well the results of the aforementioned polls lined up with my intuition

[skylitcreations]

(I'm gonna preface this by saying I live in the US, so some of these details will be different for various countries, but hopefully, you'll still get the idea)

When I was able-bodied, I used to go out all the time even though I'm more introverted cuz I just enjoyed exploring new places and revisiting places I liked. Nowadays, I rarely go out on my own and when I go out with others, I have to make sure they're willing to deal with how slow I am and using disability seating, taking breaks frequently, etc. You just find yourself not even bothering to go out much because you know it's irritating for the other person even if they're patient with you.

I also used to exercise 6 days a week and was consistently half the weight I am now. Most of my clothes no longer fit and I am left with only a few shirts and pants to go out with because whenever we do have money to invest in clothes I have to put it towards more pajamas for around the house since regular clothes can irritate my skin and be harder to move around in compared to loose pajamas. I also used to clean my entire home once a week and meal prep twice a week. I now can't stand up or bend over as much as I need to do those tasks, especially that often.

I wasn't able to do my job and had to leave it and attempt for Social Security. It has been years and I'm still trying for it, but while trying for it, you're not allowed to have income over a certain amount each month to even be considered so you're not allowed to really work enough to pay for things during that time because that 'proves' you're not disabled. But they do not supply any funds during the time they are working on your case, so you have to somehow pay rent and bills (especially medical ones) without a proper job. Oh, and you may or may not qualify for reduced cost health insurance so you could end up having to pay hundreds of dollars a month towards health insurance, medical bills, and prescriptions. And I'm talking hundreds of dollars per category there, not altogether. And you somehow have to manage rent and utilities on top of that and my 'wife' (quotations are there for a reason I'll get to later) can only pay for so much of that and my disabilities slow me down on the one thing I can still manage to do: art commissions. And I make a lot less from that than I did at a 'real' job and actually have to dedicate more of my time to it because I have to constantly be drawing if able. On top of that, a freelance artist has to also try to constantly boost their stuff, manage orders, keep customer service mode on constantly, trying to keep clients updated as they go along, trying to draw pieces to the side that could get more eyes on their work to bring in more customers, figuring out how merchandise is made and ordered, getting samples from different companies to do quality testing which takes money they haven't yet earned to try and invest in what they hope will make more money later, figuring out how to sell their skills and advertise them in ways that get people's attention, and that doesn't even cover everything. I am technically working MORE than I was before for about half the pay. Don't you think I'd rather just have a job that I can clock in to and clock out each day so I can properly relax when I'm home? Instead, I never get the chance to fully properly turn customer service mode off.

Sure, I love drawing, but I miss drawing just for fun instead of it being my job and me having next to no time to draw things for myself. I'm a slow artist and add my chronic pain on top of that and I can't even work at my fastest since I'm constantly having to take breaks to deal with my arm, hand, and back pain throughout, which doubles that turnaround time. Let's not even go into how chronic fatigue can make me literally too tired to even manage to stay awake long enough to get things done, too. It's maddening tbh.

Oh, and those quotation marks before? Yeah, you're not allowed to be legally married (at least in the US) and get Disability pay. You have to choose one or the other. So my 'wife?' I can't risk getting legally married to her while I'm trying to get disability or else I'm automatically disqualified. Yep, that means we don't actually have marriage equality! I spent most of my life thinking I'd never get married because I was LGBTQ+ and once I finally had the right in that category, I had to worry about Disability shortly after. I have accepted I'm not allowed to get married by this point, but it's absolutely depressing, especially knowing we could save so much money right now if we could both be on my fiancée's health insurance.

Being limited to mostly staying at home is not as awesome as people think. Your entertainment options between watching things and playing games may be pretty expansive but you get tired of being cooped up and not getting out as often because lived experiences are entirely different to watching others live out those experiences for you. I always dreamt of one day going to Disney when I could manage the funds and time off for it, but I never did. And I never got to go as a kid. And now I have to worry about if I could even manage to have fun with all of the pain I'd get with all the walking I'd have to do because walking or standing that much even with a cane sounds like torture. I may never get to go now. And that's just one dream bucket list experience that I will never properly have and may never even get close to having.

And let's not even get into how it's so much harder to maintain exercise and diet when moving hurts like hell and is sometimes impossible and cooking is a lot harder to do so you end up with health problems you never would've dealt with before when you were able-bodied and they just keep piling up on each other over time so you can actually get even worse and you constantly have to worry about what regular daily task you may be unable to do next.

I also wanted to be a doctor if art wouldn't pan out and eventually felt I'd be fine with that being my main job and art staying a hobby. But I couldn't keep up with university when my problems started developing. And now my hands are too shaky from all the meds and such I've had to do over the years just to stay awake, so performing surgery is out of the question. Even then, I wanted to be a psychiatrist/therapist because I love helping people and trying to analyze how they think and figure out what might help. But to get the schooling on top of everything else is impossible for me right now and might be for the rest of my life. And you can tell people that you're disabled but because most people don't have a proper idea of how that is like, they will still constantly think you're just being lazy when you haven't bettered your life yet, as if that is something you can control. They set the system up for you to fail and/or give up, and the world is set up for the able-bodied. Just navigating everything and adjusting when you need to is a struggle in and of itself, but things seem to want to mess you up at every turn. You know how those who are left-handed will talk about how most things in the world are made for those who are right-handed by default? And they either have to figure out how to make being left-handed work with those things or they may end up forced to train their right hand enough to act as the dominant one despite the fact that it isn't. Being disabled is like that but to a larger degree because those who are left-handed are at least generally thought about when people produce things that involve your hands, but most people don't think about your disabilities because they simply don't realize they need to think about it when creating/inventing things.

Because of this, most of us have to figure out aids to buy and use around the house just to do normal tasks. For example, I have to use a shower chair because I can't stand long enough for a full shower and moving around in a shower is hard as well. I couldn't just get a chair to put in there, though, cuz most regular chairs can't withstand water exposure. I also couldn't just buy any shower chair, but one that would fit into my tub, work best with my issues, be big enough to fully support me and be able to withstand my weight. I have had to try and find things to help me do regular daily tasks like that around the house and then have to wait till I have enough funds to afford them and even then those tasks will take so long to do and take so much out of me that I haven't figured out a way to even do a tenth of the stuff I used to be able to. So things end up piling up until someone can help me catch up. And the research to figure out this stuff and find things takes a lot longer than you'd think because you have to try to fit a puzzle piece that doesn't fully fit since it's very rare for a disability aid to be made specifically for which things are limiting the function you're trying to accommodate.

Basically, being disabled is not fun and implying that we are 'living the life' just cuz maybe we can keep up with a show or something better is incredibly insulting.

Able-bodied people usually see home as a place to relax and wind down.

Disabled people usually see home as a cage with a TV.

Fuck you if when a disabled person says their unemployed and stuck at home you say "that's the life hey?" IT'S NOT ITS FUCKING TORTURE

We CAN'T do things, basic tasks, looking after ourselves, walking, thinking, being mobile, we spend everyday in pain that would make you cry. Do you still think that's the life? Waking up with bed sores? Having seizures constantly and no one helping figure out why? Having to spend hours setting up and disconnecting from medical equipment that keeps you alive? That's your goal?

We don't spend our time at home just fucking around.

I wish I could work, I wanted to be a doctor, but I can't even drive anymore.

So don't you dare say you want this life, that I'm living your dream staying at home.

[glowalleysblog]

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[regina-bithyniae]

Tempting to say bookstores are on a death spiral - whenever I go to a Chapters there's less and less space actually devoted to books, more towards other products (toys, games, etc). The books are also shifting away from good stuff towards trend-chasing. Half the history section was devoted to Trump-era autobiographies, tell-alls, and culture war.

Viewed from the outside it looks like video game stores follow the same pattern, more weighted towards merchandise.

My father used to take my sister and I to the book store to sit and read for hours when we were younger - now there's just not enough content to make it actually worth spending that much time sampling a few books. The sci-fi/fantasy section at one used to be 3-4 aisles, now that's merchandise and the books are stripped down to 1.5 aisles at the other end of the store.

[solradguy]

You know if there's any Daisuke art of Jack-O'? I know he's drawn the other Valentines in a few concept/promo pieces, but haven't seen much if any Jack-O' from him.

Yeah there are a couple. It seems most of the art is from that weird period of GG around Xrd when the series was getting back on its feet after buying the IP back from Sega, and they're hard to get even scans of. Most of the Jack-O' art was for merchandise. Here's what I do have for her though:

Xrd Rev arcade version main visual (scan from the Xrd Visual Book)

Sketch done with a signature for someone on Reddit.

This was a tapestry for a Famitsu thing. Rare digital Daisuke art!

Tapestry drawn for some kind of Famitsu special pack for Xrd Rev. I think this was a placeholder image while the colored version was finished up.

This matches the style of the Famitsu tapestry sketch above but I couldn't actually find it on any webpages (or on Famitsu).

This probably wasn't done by Daisuke but I would kill a man for this mug so I'm including it anyway. It was sold in the same drop as the above colored tapestry.

I couldn't find a source for this one though the SAMPLE text makes me think it was another merchandise illustration for Famitsu. It might not be by Daisuke, but the shading matches his digital art style.

I know there's at least one more marker illustration that I don't have a copy of that's floating around out there somewhere. There's probably more merchandise with unique (ie, not reused game assets) art out there too. It's so hard finding official Jack-O' art!!!

Oh, yeah, there's also this:

Rock on 2Night Guilty Gear Live 2016

It's PROBABLY the cosplaying soundtrack chick but who am I to keep risqué Daisuke Maybe-Jack-O' a secret? Daisuke also played the guitars for this, which is cool. More often than not it seems he's too busy working on stuff and someone else does the guitars for him.

[doritofalls]

I would love to see your kiyo merchandise. I want to get some if my own, but it's hard as a lesbian to justify getting pretty boy merchandise and also without context he looks like a nazi which doesn't help. But let me gaze upon your shrine. I would like to see him.

;;;ok but only for you anon nobody else look

added nagito for filler and clout - wasn’t a very planned purchase, but i came across a local seller and a very good deal, so here we are. it Is the nicest figure i own, the base and pose are both fantastic. 

i’ve got the vivimus keychain - i’m really satisfied with the quality and design, but it’s pretty huge! i’m used to like, gashapon sized rubber straps, and the vivimus line is just reasonably bigger. 

i also have the kiyo acrylic charm from the halloween themed stellamap cafe collab - generally speaking, stellamap cafe collabs are my favorites when it comes to v3 merch, because the illustrations are just SO cute. and it is no different this time!! i really like this one, and the reference to his execution is just, funny in a very morbid kinda way. 

alsooo have two shinsai fancomics. i’m a huge fan of miu miura’s art (right) and this one’s holding up too - they portray emotions and horror so well, and they really did kiyo justice in this one. sadly they only have one other kiyo focused comic and i’m on the edge with picking that up because i’m not huge into the angie kiyo ship. they did a lot of komaeda/komahina focused comics though, and i’ll probably pick up a couple more of those in the future. 

rou’s style is very different with a much heavier BL touch, but i liked the comic well enough for the ship. will probably pick part 2 up if i see it on a reasonable price in the future. 

not pictured is stuff i was able to bag in recent months but is yet to arrive!! 

generally speaking, i’m not huge on suya chara, the illustrations are very hit or miss for me - but this drv3 lineup they did came out super cute imo, and i love this kiyo :’] i wasn’t looking for this one in particular but it popped up for a very good price. 

super excited for this one though!! i’ve been on the lookout for this doujinshi for a while. i couldn’t find much info about it online other than the sample images and a vague description, but the art seems gorgeous and i’m always up for gen kiyo stuff. there’s not a ton of it - most doujinshi understandably is either at least vaguely ship based or just porn, which is not the kind of thing i collect. 

i am also trying SO hard to find the sanrio collab kiyo standee under 1000 yen, but no luck so far. fingers crossed, they are VERY cute. 

as far as being a lesbian and hating kiyo’s fit goes - i completely feel you on both of those points!!!! being a lesbian and curating a collection that may involve pretty boy merch - my general rule of thumb has been only getting merch of gay people which. worked so far - though most of my collection is of girl characters (which is its own challenge entirely because this hobby comes with built in creepy male gaze bullshit). as a lesbian who relates to male characters but not on a level of attraction it’s really a niche.

also god, don’t get me started on kiyo’s outfit;;; there’s a reason i hadn’t drawn it proper despite having made fanart. i wouldn’t even mind the milita/bdsm inspiration, there’s an interesting cross-section to note between those sub-cultures as well if you wanna go there, but rui really just didn’t try. as much as i’ve looked at his silly outfit enough to distinguish it, it really gives a nazi vibe at first glance (which REMAINS stupid because it in no way ties into kiyo as a character. i’m ripping my hair out). either way though, if you dislike the outfit, there’s a fair amount of merch with alt outfits! (several of the graffart collabs and the sweets paradise collab comes to mind)

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Just came back home from Resin R0se this past weekend and saw M!randa of C@li there with a booth. She advertising her services like she usually does as well as selling other non dolls stuff etc etc., but you know what she didn’t have? Dolls cast by her. Not ONE.

All she had were pictures of her master copy of Eliza open for preorder, a sign up for a mailing list, a print out (not physical samples) of resin colors, and various merchandise of the only art she has of Eliza. That’s it. Not even a head or even resin samples or even pics of customers dolls she’s cast. Straight up NOTHING to show she is a proper casting service but that didn’t stop her happily offering preorders for her doll that she hasn’t cast yet. What’s funnier is she was advertising to artists to cast their dolls to be in time Resin R0se 6 MONTHS AGO “guaranteed” to make it in time, and she couldn’t even make not ONE fully cast of her doll???

Like I know people have been suspect her on this blog, but I feel those suspicions are justified, especially after this weekend. I really feel like she’s running a scam

~Anonymous

[timeclonemike]

Harry Potter And The Necessity Of Fan Fiction

Anyone out there who really wants to undermine Harry Potter - and presumably JK Rowling by extension, otherwise what’s the point - needs to increase engagement with it, not try to boycott it. Pop culture phenomenons that survive long enough to become phenomenons in the first place can only die from three things:

1. Saturation. Like somebody who eats too much of their favorite food, so much content is consumed that it makes them sick, either from monotony or from literal over consumption. It’s like bacteria in a petri dish, eventually all the food is used up and the sample starts to choke on its own waste. All advertising dies this way, and this is why corporations keep cycling their ad programs to try to keep things “fresh” or to be more accurate, repetitive enough to get a good return on the advertising budget but stops before the ad cycle self destructs and the brand itself becomes toxic.

2. Change in growth environment. The franchise, IP, or content was able to take advantage of a very specific combination of circumstances in order to spread quickly, and once those circumstances changed, they lost inertia. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could be found all over the place in the 1980s, but so much of the setting and characterization drew on the cultural norms of that era that any attempt to reboot the franchise in later decades has met with mixed success at best. The same things happened to Ghostbusters, GI Joe, Power Rangers and Transformers, although the last two managed to weather societal changes and cultural shifts better for various reasons. (Built in seasonal overhauls to costume design and vehicles, designed to create and move more merchandise, leaves the door open for changing settings and cultural mores.)

3. Deconstruction. Any sort of speculative fiction story is subject to invalidation as time passes and the assumptions the story was based on get challenged or outright proven false. This is most common with science fiction stories that predicted casual space travel, intelligent robots, nuclear war, and so on. It can also crop up with countries in the story outlasting their real world counterparts - the USSR is the most common case. Harry Potter isn’t a science fiction series, but it qualifies as speculative fiction on the grounds that it answers a hypothetical question: If there was a secret society of wizards and witches and other people who used magic hiding from people who could not use magic, what would that look like?

Ironically, this is the Achilles Heel of the whole setting. Rowling’s Wizarding World is basically a British Empire that managed to accomplish by magic what the real world British Empire could not accomplish with early adoption of the Industrial Revolution and the mightiest navy on the planet. So many assumptions about how other countries’ wizards and witches do things is written through the lens of British Colonialism; they basically do things the way the British Wizards do, but with different accents or thematic changes lifted directly from a superficial, often stereotypical, understanding of that country’s history and culture. The worst parts of the setting, the transphobia and antisemitism, draw directly from that kind of cultural myopia.

For our purposes, it doesn’t matter if Rowling made the whole magical world a reflection of British biases deliberately, subconsciously, or accidentally but doubled down when called out about it. Having said that, I think it was the doubling down part specifically. I base this theory primarily on the performance of her books before and after she got a publisher to accept Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: She was rejected many times, and her non HP stuff after the main series finished has failed to live up to the same popularity. The Harry Potter series is all she’s got going for her, and while she’s got enough money now to toss it at all sorts of anti-trans organizations and think tanks, that wasn’t always the case. Of course she’d double down if it looked like somebody was attacking the one thing keeping her afloat.

(This is also supported by an anecdote from Stephen Fry, who narrated the audiobook versions; he was having trouble with the phrase “Harry pocketed it” and called up Rowling to see if that could be changed to something like “Harry put it in his pocket” and it’s implied that Rowling was still upset about what she thought was a patronizing remark from Fry when he narrated the first book. Not only did she refuse to approve the change, she included the same phrase in every single book going forward. Doubling down on an unpopular position also makes sense for that kind of petty, vindictive personality.)

Which brings us back to the topic of deconstruction, in a roundabout fashion. For every call back that Rowling successfully makes in later books to plot details in the earlier ones, there are five to six contradictions. She didn’t have a grand magnum opus waiting in the wings to be delivered in seven easy installments. She was scribbling as fast as she could to find something that publishers would take on so she could put food on the table. Once she had the tiger by the tail, she couldn’t let go. So the series proper and its fictional setting are riddled with plot holes, paradoxes, and question marks - the supplementary works, from the defictionalized reference books to the stuff on Pottermore to the Fantastic Beasts films, just pour gasoline / petrol on the fire.

This is where and how the Harry Potter hydra can be slain; deconstructing the fundamental flaws in both the setting and the storylines of the individual books. There are three ways to do this: Original Fiction, Parody, and Fan Fiction. Original Fiction is, not gonna lie, the hardest. You have to come up with a setting, characters, and narrative arc that not only avoids the pitfalls in the work that first inspired / enraged you, but that new work has to stand on its own merits. You also have to thread a needle when it comes to similar settings and ideas; Harry Potter was not the first fictional story involving a school where magic is taught, but it is far better known now than works like A Wizard of Earthsea or Wizard’s Hall, so any new stories with that particular story convention will automatically be compared to Harry Potter, and if there are too many similarities, then that’s when accusations of plagiarism come out.

Parody is easier, but not necessarily easy. I recall that the stop motion show Robot Chicken had a whole set of sketches based on Harry Potter, ranging from one year’s Defense Against Dark Arts teacher being Chris Angel, to the entire plot of Chamber of Secrets becoming an elaborate metaphor for Dumbledore’s erectile dysfunction (Or maybe it was Goblet of Fire. It’s been a while). These sketches, regardless of comedy value, couldn’t stand up on their own, they were part of a show with the premise that EVERY form of media was subject to parody. Likewise the webcomic Sluggy Freelance did several spoof arcs making fun of Harry Potter, with most of the humor coming from the fact that main character Torg had no magical ability whatsoever and shouldn’t have been at the wizarding school at all; these were interspersed as interlude episodes between other parodies and the comic’s main story arcs. Even Sir Terry Pratchett’s Unseen University and Wizard stories in Discworld derived most of their entertainment value from outside context elements in the rest of the story; they were the B Plot, while the A Plot followed Rincewind’s reluctant heroism, Death’s philosophical commentary on life, the City Watch’s struggles to stay on top of the chaos that was Ankh Morpork, or contrast with the different magical and social customs of the Witches of Lancre. Comedy that takes aim at a specific book, TV show, film, video game, or other media is like a virus or parasite that can only survive by infecting a very specific host; this is why older episodes of Saturday Night Live can seem so surreal to younger audiences, because the younger viewers have no context to make the parody work AS a parody.

Fan Fiction is the easiest and these days most accessible medium of deconstruction, because all it takes is an AO3 account, critical thinking skills, and time. There are apparently quite a few fics out there that throw the “back to status quo” mentality of the canon ending out the window and show Harry becoming a political spanner in the works for the Wizarding World in general and the Pureblood voting blocs in particular, and I’m not sure how many stories throw out the canon views of what a specific country or culture’s magical counterparts look like, but there’s plenty of potential. (A friend of mine came up with a whole system of American Wizarding Politics and Aesthetics based on the American Old West while he was watching Fantastic Beasts because the setting as he saw it made no damn sense.) My favorite HP fanfic, Harry Is A Dragon And That’s Okay, is filled with deconstructions and reconstructions of plot details throughout the entire seven book series, from historical contradictions in History of Magic to the Unfortunate Implications of the Being / Beast / Creature category division used by the Ministry of Magic. A more comedy oriented fic, Oh God Not Again!, pokes fun at Rowling’s lack of internal consistency between books by having Harry use future knowledge to change the course of events and troll the hell out of all his peers and teachers at the same time.

And then there’s those fics where trans characters use magic to transition. Not only does this fly in the face of Rowling’s personal politics, it does so while not putting another dollar, pound, or euro in her pockets. In the same way that Rowling used a combination of Secret World and Coming of Age and Changeling Fantasy story conventions as a Trojan Horse for her personal views, fanfic authors can create vehicles for their own values using Rowling’s already established setting and characters. If the resulting stories are better in quality than the source material, so much the better.