#and also figure out how to add sound and edit that in because tiktok only does 1 min to 30 seconds

[suddenrundown]

the amount of effort i will put into bullshit

[aethelwyneleigh27]

Cod Characters General Dating Headcanons (part one)

+ Random and Some bits of Chubby Fem S/O Headcanons with mentions of different nationality S/O

+ What type of BF/GF they would be

Including John Price, Simon "Ghost" Riley, John "Soap" MacTavish, Kyle "Gaz" Garrick, Alejandro Vargas, Rodolfo "Rudy" Parra

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Fem terms and pronouns like she/her are used for the reader

ꕥ HOPE YOU ENJOY! ꕥ

My rules for requests and characters I can write for

Please comment if you want to be added to the taglist, the next part or cod content alone.

Taglist: @marshmallowinamess

A/n: Hi lovelies! Lia here, I'm back after a nerve-wracking week of school. This is a bit short but I hope you enjoy it otherwise. God I fucking hate school. I wrote all of this in a cold room, a heat pad on me (because period cramps) and at 3am so any mistakes will be edited out as soon as I'm aware of it.

This is divided into a multiple part thing (I think 2-3?) because God knows I can't fit them all in one post because of the limited amount of gifs and photos. I'll add more to these in the future, some are longer than others because I can't think. Also because I can't write them all at once, that's a lot to write okay 😭

Disclaimers/warnings: Typical Cod things, OOC characters???, Unrealistic, Some suggestive themes and language, I'm so sorry but English is not my first language so please don't come after me. Most of the content I've seen are on TikTok and Tumblr I don't actually play the game but I love the characters so much, same with any other content I have for other video games.

Tiny sidenote: the reader in this has been describe to be shorter than the characters and has been mentioned to have a soft body rather than the muscular type.

John Price

ꕥ (OH MY GOD LOOK AT HIS SMILEEE) (He's such a quokka)

ꕥ Price who literally is such a father figure, doesn't matter whether the relationship between you two is romantic or platonic. He often takes the dominant caring role.

ꕥ Doesn't smoke around you, doesn't matter if you insist he doesn't. He still won't and definitely will criticize you if you try or do smoke because he doesn't want you do end up like him.

ꕥ If there's a bit of an age gap between you, I'd say he's hesitant. Definitely afraid of what the rest of the task force thinks (He can't help it, they're basically his boys)

ꕥ John Price who wants to settle down with you, maybe have kids if you want but just a white picket fence life with you without the chaos that is war and his job.

ꕥ He only ever let's you have his hat, only when he gives it to you though. Most of the time it would be while you're out, he'd put it on your head from his. (Cowboy hat rule? I heard that in more respectful terms rather than sexual, it respectfully means that you are theirs)

ꕥ John Price who rests his chin at the top of your head no matter how much he needs to crouch down whenever hugging you from behind. Love doing it whenever you're busy doing something too. (Props for the effort because you cannot tell me he doesn't have back, neck and knee pains)

ꕥ Is constantly worried if you share the same line of work, like at first it was nothing but a tiny crush and slowly he finds himself caring about your well-being more and more over time.

ꕥ Can't help but think he's an acts of service type of guy, reaching up for things you need or better yet lifting you up so you can reach them and loves opening things for you like bottles or anything canned. (Girlies who get their nails done or wear press ons know this struggle ( I'm a press on girly)

ꕥ The kind of man who would turn on some oldies music and slow dance with you in the living room, your footsteps and breathing being the only other sounds as you smile at each other, foreheads against the other's.

Simon "Ghost" Riley

ꕥ Ghost who is such Doberman/Black cat boyfriend. Like have you seen this man? He's so tall and intimidating, one distasteful look from him and if it was physically possible that person would drop dead.

ꕥ Ghost whose a chubby chaser through and through, he just looks for something different from what he's used to.

ꕥ Is definitely a tits kinda guy, doesn't matter how big or how small they are. He'll definitely play with them in some way during doing the you know what.

ꕥ Feels like you can take him and his size better because of your plush body. Has a size kink and likes seeing it bulge a bit when he's inside you.

ꕥ You're just so soft and warm, he wants something away from what he usually feels doing his job. Not really that touchy but he gets quite clingy within closed doors.

ꕥ Likes to squeeze your thighs, his grip on them would not falter. Doesn't matter whether it's in a sexual or domestic way.

ꕥ Thinks you deserve better than what he can offer and needs constant reassurance, never says it out loud but you pick up on what he feels. (please be patient with him)

ꕥ More often than not, he thinks you're quite fragile. Even if you can protect yourself, one of his ways of showing you he loves you is through protecting you. Hence the Doberman boyfriend scenario.

ꕥ Doesn't like PDA but knows when it's necessary, him placing his arm around your shoulder is enough to keep perverts in their places. If that rando is really that bold then they'll most likely end up with a few broken bones depending on how pissed Simon is.

ꕥ If you work alongside him, he'd constantly worry about your well-being but at the same time is conflicted because he's confident that he can protect you.

ꕥ Only you and the TF141 can call him Simon, he still feels uneasy when he gets called that but when it's you saying it, it doesn't sound as daunting to him. Still dislikes in in certain tones of voice because his name reminds him of his past.

ꕥ You've seen his face, it took a long time but after that he trusted you enough to show him. The fact that you didn't find his face revolting and even kissed his scars while cupping his face was enough for him to want to marry you.

ꕥ Isn't fully insecure about his face but has his moments. (You know like the voice line where soap asks him to take off his mask and asked him if he was ugly and Ghost said "Negative")

ꕥ Takes a little while to get him to open up and little things like letting you hold him takes him a bit of time to get used to because it makes him feel vulnerable.

ꕥ God forbid something were to happen to you and he couldn't do anything to stop it, Simon would lose his fucking mind.

John "Soap" MacTavish

ꕥ Soap is a Golden Retriever boyfriend through and through. He's energetic, loyal and really affectionate.

ꕥ He's a lighthearted flirt at first because he doesn't wanna scare you off but damn does he gradually get bolder over time.

ꕥ Very hands on, touchy, and could be clingy at times unless you don't consent him, secretly always finding new ways to touch you.

ꕥ A sucker for cheek kisses, lips are his favorite but he can't help but break out a wide grin whenever you kiss his cheek. Can't help but feel kinda manly whenever you do.

ꕥ Adores making you laugh, no matter how stupid your sense of humor is he will absolutely say that joke if it gets a laugh out of you. Would be concerned if you had a dark sense of humor but will eventually get used to it. To describe it, hearing you laugh makes his heart feel full like in a content domestic way.

ꕥ Also, see the gif? You cannot tell me that he doesn't look at you that way because he absolutely would.

ꕥ Loves your weight against his body to the pint he's begging you to lay on him. You, him in the bed while he's shirtless with grey sweatpants on and you in your night clothes sharing each other's warmth with your head on his broad chest.

ꕥ Shows you silly and cute pet videos, especially the cat ones:

"[Name], look at this one!"

"Soap, we're not adopting a pet. Not right now at least"

ꕥ He was upset and gave you puppy eyes the whole time because the only time he had pet was when he was child, it was a hamster which was killed because it got sucked into the vacuum by his older sister.

ꕥ You're the only one allowed to tough his hair, he's very proud of his mohawk and will let you style it. Won't wear it out if you did something silly to it though.

ꕥ Soap who loves showing you off to everyone, loves light PDA but doesn't wanna potential put a target on your back.

ꕥ He definitely is the guy you want to take home to your family and friends (or found family <3), he's funny and easy to get along with. Very flirty with you but he'll straighten out because he's terrified on making a bad impression.

Kyle "Gaz" Garrick

ꕥ (HE'S SO FREAKING UNDERRATED WITHIN THIS FANDOM)

ꕥ He gives Labrador boyfriend vibes, you can't help but want to take care of him.

ꕥ Gaz who literally had to do a double take when he first saw you, he turned to Soap with that "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" look in a good way.

ꕥ Gaz who literally had to ask you out multiple times before you said yes thinking he's only doing it for a bet or a cruel joke.

ꕥ Constant reassurance from him because he doesn't want you to feel insecure about your looks because to him you are literally an angel.

ꕥ Loves to chill with you, cuddling and just relaxing. Maybe scrolling on TikTok occasionally and show you the funny ones he chuckled at.

ꕥ He has a sixth sense whenever you crave something, say you want chocolate or drink of some sort then he'd definitely being home whatever it is you we're craving without having to ask you.

ꕥ Kyle who has your Starbucks order memorized because he likes being the one to order things for you. Will playfully argue with you on who'll pay this time. (Don't even try anymore, he always wins anyway)

ꕥ Puts his hat on your head mostly when you're out, has done it the first time because it was hot out and the sun was in your eyes. He's picked it up from Price and once you smiled at him through the shade of his cap, he has not stopped doing it.

ꕥ Definitely a words of affirmation and acts of service kind of guy when it comes to love languages. Sometimes whenever he'd give you two thumbs up and a cheeky smile, you can't help but laugh a little.

ꕥ He's very thoughtful, so much so that he prides himself in knowing you better than anyone. Everytime you two go out to eat, when he gets something and know that you'll want to taste it (he knows damn well whether you'll like it or not when he tastes it) he'll bring it upon himself to order you one before you even say you want some.

ꕥ Soft snores when he sleeps, it's cute but you know damn well he's tired. Also I think he's very cuddly, like he just likes reminding himself that he's not alone and that his bed is warm because you're in it. Therefore at minimum always has an arm around you in bed.

ꕥ Dances in the rain with you and loves it when you pull him gently on his arm while your hands are intertwined. Takes note of how the the raindrops sometimes fall on your lashes while you look up at him smiling.

ꕥ Kyle Garrick who wants nothing more in the world to see you happy and smiling. His "this is the woman I'm going to marry" moment was when you baked his favorite cake for his birthday despite it being so hard, you nailed it perfectly. (Whether it's out of luck or skill is up to you)

Alejandro Vargas

ꕥ (idk how to write for this angry Mexican man but I'll try my best, love him and his megamind hairline though <3)

ꕥ Alejandro is definitely a flirt, a very bold on at that. He's quite forward when it comes to liking someone so yeah.

ꕥ He lives for it when you boss him around. That being said, he isn't picky about body type or any of the sort.

ꕥ Will teach you Spanish if you don't know any, definitely prioritizes the curse words and laughs whenever you jokingly call him pendejo.

ꕥ Wouldn't mind you teaching him your own culture and mother tongue. Bonus points if it's similar to his.

ꕥ Has Spanish nicknames for you because I imagine his own culture is important to him.

ꕥ Would hate it if you had the same line of work but will never take it out on you, it's just that it's so dangerous given the people he's involved with. (It's definitely Valeria)

ꕥ Speaking of El Sinombre, I don't think they had anything romantic going on. It's mainly platonic and the "betrayal" sucked on Alejandro's side. They definitely had some rivalry and the tension was through the roof. (Mainly because I headcanon Valeria as Lesbian)

ꕥ Can be so romantic when he tries, you can't tell me this mf ain't a smooth talker because he definitely is. Can be very blunt like in a forward way with his affection too.

ꕥ Likes kissing your wrist and feeling your pulse against his lips because it reminds him you're alive. (The amount of angst this scenario carries would be something I'm up for to write)

ꕥ Is sent on a fit of rage when something happens to you, say you got kidnapped then this man would tears off the walls of every building if he had to.

Rodolfo "Rudy" Parra

ꕥ (ANOTHER UNDERATED CHARACTER)

ꕥ Another Golden Retriever boyfriend. This man is just loving and dotting, very husband material.

ꕥ Loves chubby women, has a soft spot for them and just likes holding them.

ꕥ He's definitely used to the insecurity that comes with the body, also doesn't get why such beauty standards are even in place. Has and would fuck the insecure out of you again if he had to. (It's in a very gentle and loving manner)

ꕥ If you hold him in your arms, he'd be absolutely living for it. He already has had a long day and being honest he hasn't had many lovers that went far so having you care in this way about him would have him wrapped around your finger.

ꕥ Worships the ground you walk on. That's it.

ꕥ Would take everything to heart whenever you teach him or mention something within your culture if you aren't of Spanish origins like he is. He just loves you so much that it makes him happy knowing more about you.

ꕥ Would adore slow dancing with you, brings him back to reality where he realizes that he has you and that you're there.

ꕥ Terrified that one day you'll end up leaving him so reassurance would be much appreciated by him.

ꕥ Definitely a sucker for receiving forehead kisses, as for giving he likes to kiss the back of your hand.

ꕥ If ever danger presents itself to you too closely, he would have a heart attack like full on crying but not in public though.

[going-to-ikea-for-the-fries]

why did you tag your post with gaz erasure my ass? like what was hard to believe that the cod fandom has blatant patterns of purposefully removing the only black character and replacing him with everyone under the sun? your friend lied about killing themself to make them look like a victim. and you participated in harassing people who saw this for what it was. you need to step back and reflect on your own self on why you thought that your friend’s “death” was caused by people calling out patterns of anti black racism and then go on to harass them. you are not an ally by any means.

Back when I used that tag, I paired it with another tag right after, it was meant to be an aggressive call out on misinformation, I had meant for it to read as 'Gaz erasure my ass, y'all just can't read'.

(This because the original post didn't read like intentional erasure but rather like codslut thought Gaz didn't fit the post, since she also didn't use Reboot Soap, she used *Captain* Soap, idk how best to explain it but to me the two soaps are different characters so i figured it was an intentional choice to use him and keegan rather than reboot soap and gaz)

Edit: I want to add that I also used codslut's own explanation as the basis for why I didn't think it was erasure. And at this point, she's clearly not to be fucking trusted, so it wouldn't surprise me if it really *was* erasure/racism and I believed her word that it wasn't.

As time went on, I dropped the last part of the tag of 'y'all just can't read', and looking back it not only reads as a racist dog whistle but also, just in general, sounds and looks fucking disgusting.

I've said this before, but I think it warrants saying again: I *didn't* mean to say Gaz erasure doesn't exist. It does very much exist in the community and even Activision themselves often erase Gaz from promo materials.

I'd hate for people to think that I either dislike Gaz or don't see the blatant racism/dislike/erasure that happens with him on the community. That's not the case. Gaz is a main character (unlike König like so many people try to replace him with) who I absolutely adore, and I call out erasure when I see it here on Tumblr, on Tiktok and on Twitter.

I never meant to make it seem like Gaz erasure doesn't exist. I only wanted to call out misinformation... and ended up doing the exact opposite of both my intentions. I'm sorry about that. It was not just disgusting but full on stupid of me.

I also want to say that I didn't think that that screenshot post specifically or even the act of people calling out racism where they saw it was the cause for codslut possibly killing herself. That is not what I meant at all. And I don't want anyone to think I blame @soapskneebrace or @glossysoap or anyone else for that. Blood was never on their hands, I want to make that very clear!!!!

When I was confronting people, I was doing so on the basis that they're big creators with big platforms and that by accusing codslut of racism/erasure they opened the door for anons to justify their actions when going after codslut because they have so much reach and people with bad intentions need less than that to justify the hate they send people.

Looking back, I know I was in the wrong for how I spoke. I was aggressive and rude and mean, and none of the people involved deserve that. Hell, my actions were hypocritical as hell and I probably opened the door for them to get hate themselves. I'm really fucking sorry.

If I could take it back, I would. I never believed nor wanted them to believe that someone potentially harming themselves was their fault. It wasn't.

I do plan on taking a step back to reconsider not just the way I acted but everything that's happened. In fact, I was already taking said break and came online only because I got word of @/fulltacs' post.

I appreciate and thank you for holding me accountable (and by that I mean you and everyone!). And I especially thank *you* anon for wording this ask this way, and giving me, at least, a chance to explain.

[nickgerlich]

Getting Real

The social media landscape became very fragmented once Elon Musk bought Twitter. A slew of competitors were soon launched, including Meta’s Threads, which we recently explored. But there’s another new site that has quietly been trying to build a user base that has nothing to do with Twitter, instead focusing on users upset with the Instagram algorithm.

Oh, and also the fakeness of content creators all posting perfect photos of themselves in exotic places.

BeReal is the antitheses of all that, requiring users to shoot and share when randomly summoned by the app. Both the back and front cameras are used, so you shoot what you are seeing, but it is also inserting a picture-in-picture of you at that same moment.

And in a nod to one of the most over-used words of the day, the focus is on authenticity. No edits allowed, no filters, no nothing.Not wearing makeup? Not a problem. Locked in your office with a mountain of work? It’s OK. We all do it. Or, if you get lucky, sipping margaritas in Key West? Have one for me.

Sounds interesting, and it does address the problem of Instagram’s algorithms, the falseness, and the fact that Instagram has doubled down on reels, deprecating still photos in favor of video.

But there are some tough issues to overcome. First and foremost is that BeReal does not have a revenue model, and no matter the good intentions of its developers, it is not sustainable without one.

Then there is the sobering reality that there are only 23 million active daily (MAU) users. That may sound like New York City and LA put together, but it is not good for the long-term health of the app. It needs a lot more traction than this.

And then there’s the annoying fact that users are supposed to quite literally stop whatever it is they are doing, and take a photo. That alone has kept me from joining, because my day is so fast-paced with meetings, class, workouts, driving, and a zillion other things that, quite frankly, I can’t be bothered.

Yes, you can post a late BeReal, but it is clunky. Worse yet, it tags your post as being late, a scarlet letter if there ever were one. Shame on you for not being in the moment! It means that you violated the spirit of the app by posting something with forethought and purpose.

Interestingly, and well-played I might add, the app pursued college students. That’s a great target audience, but as my daughters have discovered after graduating and joining the workforce, they no longer have time for BeReal either. Life and work get in the way, unless you are just fabulously wealthy and have nothing but leisure time.

The growing fragmentation of the social graph means there will be tough sledding for some, unless they can figure out how to monetize a niche audience. It’s possible, as we continue to see today with magazines and cable channels. But that doesn’t work for everyone, as the streamers have found out, and are hence scrambling to consolidate.

Don’t forget that if Instagram senses that BeReal is mounting a serious threat, it will introduce its own me-too features that could squish them like an unwanted bug. For now, Instagram has far bigger fish to fry, which means keeping pace with TikTok.

BeReal may have noble intent, but the majority of Insta users still tolerate the algorithms and reels. Monthly active users are expected to reach 1.4 billion worldwide this year.

And how many did I say BeReal has? Oh yeah…23 million. Hmmm.

Nice try, but I think the gas tank is going to run dry on this one sooner than later. ForReal.

Dr “Besides, I Already Have Enough Social Apps” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[blogswithamelia]

BCM114 Contextual Report

Over the course of the semester, I have managed to create a digital artefact that explores my love of film and interest in journal spreads. I was inspired with the idea to combine these two things by the many film journal videos/posts on TikTok or Instagram where they make aesthetic spreads as well as write their opinions on the movie.

I named my account “@journalsatthecinemas” because I thought it sounded catchy and easy to remember. In order to make my account unique, I came up with the idea to post a review every day, and allocated a certain genre to each day of the week. I pitched this idea at the start of the semester, you can read that here. The themes were Musical Mondays, Trash Tuesdays, Wholesome Wednesdays (I didn't have a good word that starts with W, but this vaguely meant family, romance or coming of age movies). Toon Thursdays, Fantasy Fridays, Spooky Saturdays, and Sporty Sundays. It was a really fun idea and it gave me an excuse to watch a bunch of movies that were on my watchlist for each genre, as well as rewatch some of my favourites after a long time. 

Important Project Moments

Moment 1: Brainstorming And Account Setup

After coming up with the idea to post a different theme every day, I now had to figure out how I was going to produce the film review spreads. I had initially planned to create them on paper and post photos of them to Instagram, but after some thought I realised that would take a lot of time and money as I would have to buy scrapbooking supplies and a journal as well as hand write the reviews.

Instead, I decided to do online spreads using the photo editing app Picsart, which allows you to decorate a blank image with different ‘stickers’ as well as add photos and text. I have a lot of experience with this app as I used to use it to make collages for fun when I was younger. It is very easy to use which makes it easier to produce content faster every day as I could just create the spread while watching the film and then quickly write a review for it once finished.

To start with, I used Picsart to create a logo for my account as well as story highlights that tell my audience my posting schedule, what my account is about and the option for them to request a film for me to watch and review. I am really proud of how my account setup turned out and I think the purple theme makes my account somewhat calming and relaxing to look at. After my account was set up and ready to go, I started creating a list of what movies I wanted to watch for each theme, just so I know what to watch and don’t waste time browsing through streaming platforms trying to decide on a movie. 

Moment 2: Prototype And Audience

Once my list was ready, it was time to watch the first movie. I created a somewhat schedule in my head, I would watch the movie the night before and edit the review spread and then post it the next morning. So, I watched Burlesque, my first musical movie on the account, on Sunday, and then posted the review on Monday August 21st 2023. This made it way easier as I only had time to watch movies at night time and only had a short amount of time to post during the day, so I would watch the movie the day before and post the review on the actual day when I woke up. It was a very fun way to unwind at the end of the day and I was really consistent with posting for the most part. My favourite post that I made was my first Fantasy Friday post, where I watched Ella Enchanted, one of my favourite movies as a kid. The spread I made for that was very aesthetic and very pretty. I also touched on how Fantasy Friday was my favourite day in my week 6 progress blog post. I also collaborated with one of my classmates on one of my Fantasy Friday posts, where I posted my review for the first Narnia movie as well as her review of the second Narnia movie.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Amelia 🎞️ (@journalsatthecinemas)

This was really fun and she also posted my review of the Australian movie The Sapphires on her account. It was really fun to collaborate with her.

In regards to engagement, I wasn’t really getting much interaction with my posts. A lot of accounts would visit my profile, but not many would follow or like my posts. The most followers I got were 29 people, with most of that being people I know like friends or family.

The most liked post on my account was my September 5th Tuesday post where I reviewed the infamous movie Tall Girl, and that got 11 likes. I think this post was the most popular because this movie is a rather big meme on the internet so I think that had a factor into why it was my most engaged post.

Because I was struggling with engagement, I posted to Twitter asking for any tips that could help, and got two responses. One person suggested that I follow other accounts similar to mine and interact with their posts in order to get mine noticed, and another suggested that I use popular hashtags on my posts in order to try to get more reach, which I had already been doing. I ended up following a few other accounts that reviewed movies and my engagement went up slightly, but mostly stayed the same. I did get my first comment from this however, as one person who I followed liked all my posts and commented on my first one. Despite this, my account wasn’t getting much reach still so I was very stuck on what to do. 

Moment 3: Pivot

Unfortunately, after about a month of posting consistently every day, I began to realise how draining running this account every day was. I had initially ignored my tutors warning that it would be a lot of effort, I believed I would be able to handle it. And I was able to for the most part, it just got a bit repetitive and stressful having to do the same posting routine every day. Because of this, I stopped posting and started thinking of ways to reframe or pivot from my original idea. I came up with the idea to create weekly movie commentary videos on YouTube, keeping up the concept of watching and reviewing films, just in a different form. I touched on this in my week 9 progress post. This was a way better idea as I would have more time to watch the movie and have all week to edit the video, instead of rushing through editing a post every single day. I was inspired by what kinds of videos I could post to my reaction channel through a few other content creators I enjoy watching such as Ur Internet Mom Ash, Dylan is In Trouble, Trin Lovell and Caitlin Mckillop. Below are my tweets about the things that inspired me the most about these creators:

Conclusion

At the time of writing this report, I have yet to start my reaction channel as I am still researching how to screen record films and avoid copyright strikes on YouTube. I think this new idea however will get much better engagement as reaction videos are a very popular genre on YouTube. I am excited to see where this project takes me in the future. 

[ddejavvu]

I have a question-

How do you have the motivation and concentration to write and keep it?

I start writing, get a good amount done, literally one word or none before my mind is like, "Hey, remember that one-shot you started 5 years ago but never finished? Yeah you should go do that."

Then I get distracted on the way of doing that sometimes. I was supposed to write for my series last night but I just, apparently, needed to re-do my tumblr set up and also edit blogs.

Basically, how do you get your brain to function?

[anon because sending an ask out of it is so scary for some reason >_>]

hi love! i want to start off by saying that everyone is different, and what motivates me might not motivate you. i have ADD that's currently unmedicated, so i'm rather terrible at focusing, but here's what i normally do:

get comfy somewhere! get tea, get ice water, get a snack, light a candle, go to the bathroom, get a jacket so that you're not cold, just make it so that you don't have any reason to get up in the middle of writing! then, play some music on your phone, so that it's occupied. if you want to pick it up and use it, maybe watch tiktoks or play a game, you'll most likely shut off the music, and it will remind you that you're being unproductive. make sure you put on music that won't distract you though! i usually use songs i don't know the words to, because i have a tendency to mouth lyrics that i do know, and it distracts me. i also often play classical music, as it's instrumental and not lyrical. or, if it helps, play asmr like rain sounds, maybe a crackling fireplace, etc.

try keeping only one tab open, and make it the tab that you're writing on! it's tempting to switch between tabs if one seems a lot more fun than writing.

set small goals for yourself, with rewards after them. if you finish that paragraph, you can take a five minute break (but make sure you actually stop the break after five minutes and go back to writing!). after you figure out this tricky dialogue, read a fic instead of writing one. what i do sometimes if i'm really fucked over in terms of focusing is i will literally not let myself get up for any reason until i'm finished with a blurb so if i have to use the bathroom i get writing done a lot faster 💀

i want to say: don't get discouraged by a lack of focus. I've been on and off of pinterest all day, and i really should be writing, but sometimes you need a break. give yourself those little exceptions, because you don't want writing to become a chore or a bother. be nice to yourself, but be firm, and hopefully your writing starts flowing a bit more because of that :D

[ericspinkhair]

quarantine longings

pairing: best friend!kevin x fem!reader

word count: 3.2k

synopsis: you and your best friend have sex because quarantine made you horny

warnings: best friends to lovers, takes place during the pandemic, spoiler of 356 days (but not the end, just generally the plot), no use of condoms but only the pill, creampie, sexual fantasies, fingering, hand-job, sex, slight angst at the end if you squint

a/n: I would literally die for kevin, I love him so much. I'll be writing a multiple parts series about him after I'm done writing scenarios for every member first.

requests are open!

masterlist + requests

you slammed your foot hard against the wall and cursed in pain. you hopped on one foot to your bed, holding your other leg in agony and tasted blood as you bit your lip to keep the volume of your suffering groans in check. someone knocked on the door.

'are you okay?' your roommate asked concerned.

'no, leave me alone, kevin,' you croaked out. you wanted to suffer by yourself.

there was an awkward silence and then you heard him sigh. soon after, the door next to your room closed shut.

why were you so frustrated, one might ask? well, the pandemic was kicking your butt and you just couldn't take it anymore. when the news of the virus had first spread, no one thought it would become this serious. but suddenly everyone was walking around with masks and spent most of their time staying at home.

after graduating high school, you and kevin had decided to move in together for college because both of you were broke and couldn't afford to live alone. you had been best friends since middle school and had been convinced that it was a smart idea at the time.

and everything went smoothly for the first one and a half years. however, after not seeing anyone else since the start of the pandemic over a year ago, it became increasingly difficult to share an apartment, but not in the way one might assume. you were neither sick of each other nor did you fight a lot. to tell the truth, it was quite the opposite.

earlier, before you had kicked the wall in anger, the two of you had painted together. kevin was majoring in art and, since you didn't have anything better to do, you joined him while he did projects for his classes. you might have been majoring in journalism but you had always liked drawing and painting, even though you weren't particularly skilled. you were a naturally clumsy person, always tripping over air and dropping things. today you were hecticly moving around your hands while telling him about a stupid video you had seen and you accidently let go of the brush in your hand. it hit the side of kevin's face, leaving a wide splodge of red paint on his right cheek.

to get back at you, he jerked his paint brush and splattered some green color on your white shirt. you saw this as a challenge and soon both of you were both drenched in the colors of the rainbow, laughing hysterically on the floor, not caring that you were spreading the paint on the poor carpet.

you turned your heads to look at each other and you felt absolutely in peace. you loved this man and couldn't be more glad that it was him and not anyone else you were stuck with inside of this apartment.

he stood up to take off his stained shirt and your smile quickly faded off your face. your lips slightly parted and you couldn't help but stare at his now exposed biceps and abs.

your mouth watered and you felt heat pooling between your legs as you took your time to study his architecture. thoughts about how badly you wanted him to thrust into you while his strong arms held you up invaded your mind. you tried to shake them off but it was impossible.

occasions like this were slowly becoming a common occurrence for you.

having mostly stayed inside for over a year, also meant that you didn't have sex for that long. it's not like you were the horniest person on the planet but you still had needs that were being neglected. with kevin being home all the time you didn't even dare to masturbate, scared that he would be able to hear you through the frustratingly thin walls. you must have gone insane with all the lust building up inside you and that's why you suddenly craved to have sex with your best friend. this whole thing was destroying everything. it was hard to act normal when he was making you this nervous and heated but you tried to pretend that everything was fine anyway for the sake of your friendship.

that was the reason why you were angry and had hurt yourself. you hated the way you felt about your best friend and you hated the pandemic for not giving you an outlet to escape so you could recollect yourself.

what you weren't aware of was that kevin was no stranger to the exact same frustration.

he would need more than his ten fingers and ten toes to be able to count the amount of times he had to run to the bathroom to hide his boner because he had done so much as look at you bend over or stretch. he didn't want to make you uncomfortable but it was a challenge to try and calm down his hormones.

whenever he jacked off, images of you flashed through his mind; your sweet curves and pink lips drove him insane.

last week, you two were cooking together and you had asked him to get the salt. he stood behind you to reach for it on the highest shelf. he was forced to press his crotch against your butt cheeks and his dick hardened against his will. he quickly handed you the salt, excused himself and ran off before you could figure out what had happened.

he might not have known the cause of your sudden outburst but he sympathized with your fury because he had a lot of pent up anger towards covid as well.

he lay in his bed and tried to focus on the book he was reading but he couldn't tune out the groans coming from the room next to his. he cursed.

'stop it!' he was panicking as he saw a familiar tent forming in his pants. your sounds triggered some weird perverted part of his brain that sent signals right to his genitals. his dick was hardening and he saw no other solution to his problem than to give in to his subconscious desires.

he pulled down his pants just far enough so that his cock had enough room to spring out. it only needed a few strokes before it stood tall and angry. kevin pressed his head into his pillow and moved his hand fast. he wanted to get over with it quickly. he emptied his cum on his stomach while imagining your greedy little mouth being stuffed by his cock. he lay there panting as yet another round of shame flushed over him.

'get yourself together,' he whispered, mentally slapping himself.

***

'do you want to order japanese or italian?' you asked kevin. today was friday which meant it was time for your weekly tradition of ordering take out and watching a movie.

'definitely italian. we've already had japanese for the past four days. I need something else for a change,' kevin complained and shuddered at the thought of having to eat sushi again. the japanese restaurant prepared absolutely delicious food but he just couldn't stand it anymore.

you laughed at his pained facial expression. 'fine, italian it is.'

within twenty minutes the doorbell rang and after about half a minute kevin came back with two huge boxes.

he opened them on the small table situated in front of your couch and the smell of freshly cooked pasta seasoned with basil made your stomach growl.

kevin wanted to dig in already but you stopped him. you had to choose a movie first.

'let's watch tall girl. I saw everyone hate on it on tiktok,' you suggested.

'I think we should watch 365 days, that was all over my for you page as well,' kevin argued. you hadn't heard of it so you weren't sure whether it would be the right movie for you. the rule was that it had to be as bad as possible.

'according to what I have heard, it's apparently even worse than 50 shades of grey,' kevin added which piqued your interest. the both of you had watched 50 shades about two months ago and you were honestly shocked by how awful it actually was. you couldn't understand why everyone had been so obsessed with it when it was first released. if 356 days was really worse, then you'd hit the jackpot. you clapped your hands.

'fine, you win. I swear if the movie isn't as horrible as you say it is then you owe me something!' he intertwined his pinky with yours to promise.

watching horrible movies was way better than watching good ones. making fun of bad storylines, stupid characters or horrible editing was one of your favorite past times.

'I guess I'll have to add are you lost, baby girl to the top 10 worst lines ever spoken. who thought ah yes this is sexy, let's have him repeat it over and over again', you complained, shoving some pasta into your mouth.

'so he's like I won't do anything without your permission while he is literally groping her boobs against her will, like make it make sense, massimo', added kevin, ruffling his hair in frustration. he almost completely forgot about the food.

'so let me get this straight: he drugged her, kidnapped her, tied her up, hung up a painting of her just because he saw her face when his dad was shot?'

'totally relatable.' both of you giggled.

you were enjoying complaining about the plot. it was horrible.

there were plenty of erotic scenes but they were honestly so funny and kinda gross that you could bare it without really being affected by them. kevin, on the other hand, had placed a pillow over his hard-on to hide the embarrassing fact that these terrible, smutty scenes had turned him on.

and then the infamous boat scene came.

massimo and laura had a huge fight, she fell of the boat, he saved her and now she was suddenly so in love with him that she begs him to fuck her. which he does.

you felt your panties become increasingly wet as the couple had steaming hot sex.

'this is embarrassing but I'm so horny,' you admitted but in a way that should have suggested that you meant it as a joke. something about this statement stirred something in kevin.

'well, what can I say?' he replied and lifted the pillow. your pupils widened at the sight of your best friend's bulge.

his eyes darkened and he looked at you with lust clearly written on his face. you reciprocated his stare with the same intensity. you tried to focus on his dark brown orbs instead of his boner but the image you had just seen was present in your mind.

his gaze shifted to your lips and, before you knew it, kevin climbed above you and pressed your back flat onto the couch.

your lips locked and you immediately buried your hands in his hair to pull him closer. you moved in sync, his lips fitting perfectly onto yours. you bucked your hips up against his crotch and earned a moan from kevin. he opened his eyes in shock as realization hit him. he quickly pulled away and jumped off the coach.

'I'm so sorry, y/n. I shouldn't have just done that. I don't know what came over me,' he apologized profusely, staring at his feet. did he really think that you didn't want this?

'give me your hand,' you told him and held out your hand.

'why?' he raised his eyebrows in confusion. you rolled your eyes.

'just do it.'

you took his hand and led it to your crotch.

'what are you- oh my god.' your juices had completely soaked through your panties and your sweatpants. 'you are so wet.'

'for you,' you added. 'there's no need to apologize. I'm literally begging you to continue.'

you didn't have to say that twice before he pulled you closer to him by your hips and engaged you in another desperate kiss. his hands were groping your butt while you let yours slide under his hoodie. you felt his naked skin and toned abs, as you rubbed his stomach. you lowered your hands and bravely palmed his boner through his clothes.

'y/n,' he hissed out against your lips. you hooked your thumbs in the elastic of his pants and underwear, and pushed the material down to his thighs. he struggled to get them off.

you stroked his hard dick as he slipped his hand into your panties to massage your pussy at the same time.

he slipped one finger inside and began working it in and out. you finally were getting the relief you had been desperately craving for for so long. kevin was skilled and your walls were trying to swallow his slim finger. you were quickly coming close to your orgasm after having abstained for more than a year. you pulled his hand out.

'I bet you can make me come even better with your dick,' you challenged kevin.

'you bet I will.' he was confident.

'let me just look for a condom.' he was already turning away to go search in his room but you held him back by the arm.

'forget about it. I'm on the pill and I want you raw. I want you to come inside me and not spill into a stupid condom.'

the idea of this sounded very tempting to kevin. he picked you up and threw you back onto the couch, drawing your hips closer to him so he could pull off all the pieces of clothing that were hindering him from accessing your pussy.

he propped up his arms next to your sides and spread your thighs apart. strings of arousal were hanging from your folds and he saw your hole desperately clench around nothing. his dick hurt from how much he wanted to finally be inside of you. he wanted to find out how close he had been able to imagine how you would feel around him.

your hole took him in easily, welcoming him happily by embracing it tightly. kevin swore he could've cum right here and there.

he went slow at first to give you a chance to adjust but you were already fully ready, rocking your hips forward to meet his thrusts.

he crashed your mouths together and you kissed him like he was oxygen and you were short of air. you smiled and your eyes rolled back, satisfied with how things had played out today and the prospects of coming looked fairly promising.

desperate for release, kevin picked up the pace, his eyes closed while fucking into you like a horny animal. he couldn't help himself and all the 'faster's and 'harder's spilling from your mouth only encouraged him to drive himself deeper into you.

you wrapped your legs around his torso in an attempt to regain the control you were losing.

'fuck fuck fuck,' you cursed, feeling your muscles starting to contract. kevin brushed away some hair that was stuck to your sweaty forehead.

'it's fine, I'm coming too,' he announced and it took only a few more thrusts before a body shaking orgasm flushed over you, making you see only white. this drove kevin over the edge too and he spilled inside you, filling you up with his hot cum. he continued to slowly ease his dick in and out of you, fucking his semen right back into you until you had ridden out both of your orgasms. he let himself fall onto the couch right next to you, panting hard.

'I very much needed this,' you sighed in content.

'same, I wasn't sure whether I could hold out any longer without having a proper orgasm.' he watched his cum drip out of you.

'we should've thought of this sooner,' you said. 'this was a great idea.'

kevin hummed in agreement.

***

so now you and kevin were having sex on a regular basis, your high score being five times in a day. it felt good to finally live out your sexuality and not having to restrict yourself. sure, you guys did it more than necessary but it was a great way to pass time and it felt fucking amazing.

today you had done it in the shower after waking up, then on the kitchen counter and you had just finished having sex in his bed.

he was spooning you from behind, his cock still placed inside of you. he nuzzled his nose into your neck.

'stop, that tickles,' you chuckled.

'sorry.'

after a while of comfortable silence you heard him let out a big sigh.

'what's wrong?' you asked as he pulled out of you. you turned around to be able to look at him.

'I don't think I can do it like this anymore,' he confessed.

'what do you mean?' you asked. 'are you talking about us having sex?'

he nodded. your heart dropped and you started feeling dizzy. you tried to search for answers in his eyes but he avoided looking at you.

'w-why?' you stuttered, trying to hold back the tears that were welling up in your eyes.

'it was amazing at first,' he started and finally raised his head to meet your gaze, 'and I went into it without much thought. I went crazy during quarantine and began fantasizing about having sex with you. then it became reality but now I understand that was probably wrong of me. I've always thought of myself as a gentleman, yet I slept with you without much thought. you see, my issue is this…'

suspense hung in the air and you were impatiently waiting for him to get to the point.

'I like you.'

you quietly gasped in surprise. you had been expecting him to say you were bad at sex and that he regretted everything but not this.

'I shouldn't be sleeping with you unless you were my girlfriend,' he finished off his ramble. you felt immensely relieved.

'do you want me to?' you asked him.

'want you to what?' kevin was confused. he had been a hundred percent sure you'd immediately jump out of the bed in disgust when he confessed.

'be your girlfriend. after all, I like you too, you moron.' you realized that you had known this for a while. you might have even been crushing on your best friend since way before the pandemic struck but it was kind of hard to track your feelings. still, you were sure you liked him too. now that he had admitted his feelings, you were able to admit yours not only to him but to yourself as well.

'wow, I didn't expect this,' kevin confessed surprised. you laughed.

'yeah, we should've realized this sooner.' he pulled you closer and kissed you. it was different than the other times. his lips moved softly against yours, in contrast to all of your rough and passionate kisses you had exchanged these past few weeks. he conveyed his emotions through the kiss.

'you're ready again?' you groaned as you felt kevin's dick harden against your upper thigh. he chuckled.

'sorry, you just turn me on so much.'

so then you did it for the fourth time. that day, you set a new record of having sex six times. you might have been happy now but still just as horny.

[ask-2p-hetaliaaa]

What would the 2ps do as youtubers?

2ps as youtubers:

Allen: Would be one of those fake ghost hunters that makes it onto Nuke's Top 5s.

"GUYS, GUYS, OHHH MYYY GODDD GUYYSSS,..... I THINK THAT WAS THE GHOOOSSTTT?? *pans to matt in a white sheet*"

Matt: Would upload funny out-of-context 5 second clips of his friends every 7 months. Gained popularity as a "top ironic humor figure"

Francois: His whole gimmick is staring into the camera for minutes on end without talking. People use him in reaction memes.

Oliver: Makes cooking videos, but in the style of Ted Nivision and twomad thanks to Allen's help with editing. Sometimes he swears in his videos, and when he does, his loyal following goes INSANE in the comments

Viktor: Makes audiobooks that peoples use as asmr to sleep. People who like Russian accents often flock to his videos as well

Xiao: Makes weed and vape reviews and 'hot boxes'; he collabs with matty smokes.

"WE'RE ABOUT TO HIT A FUCKIN OVER 9000 UHHHH DECIMIBITEABLES PUFF *coughing and gagging in mandarin*"

Luciano: Makes reviews of movies and games that have mafias and gangs. Is absolutely brutal in these critiques.

Flavio: Does makeup tutorials, fashion showcases, shopping vlogs, etc. Would basically be like the Lunch Club if it were full of drag queens

Lutz: Makes really obnoxious yet entertaining vlogs doing stupid shit around his country. Says offensive shit in a joking way that everyone is fine with. Has probably held illegal meetups in a mcdonalds

Kuro: "extreme japanese apoligizing" - makes videos along the lines of that, basically clowning on his own culture. occasionally makes anime reviews.

Gillen: Makes gaming videos out of his twitch streams. Sometimes Roland will just be walking in the background and go "Hi!!" and the chat will not shut up about him for next 2 minutes

Roland: He's like Sam O Nella Academy but Austrian- He'll mainly make parody videos of ww1 and ww2 because we all know the funny ww1 and 2 austria jokes. Since he can play guitar, he adds bits inspired by bill wurtz that are just jingles, ends up being used in memes

Andres: Uploads pirated, obscure Spanish music with blank descriptions and no other context

Egil: twomad videos, basically. everything he posts feels like adhd personified, at random points the video will go 200x speed and back to normal its chaotic

Loki: Is a prank channel, but actually funny because his pranks are "lets set shit on fire until the police get involved"

Denmark: His gimmick is making fun of Francois and trying to beat him in subscribers, but Francois doesn't even know he has a channel. People meme in a bad way like "look at this dumbass"

Bernard: Makes commentary videos like Memeulous and James Marriott, has an ongoing joke of making fun of the 1ps (in a friendly way). at random points a picture of Berwald will pop up with the vine boom sound effect

Thurston: Screams into his camera about things that make him mad, a bunch of teenage girls stan him because they think he's hot and relatable. He then made a video screaming about how much he hates his fanbase, which didn't help at all. It only attracted Bernard's fans who clowned on him

Hermes: Makes videos explaining the lore of Greek Mythology, in a girl-talk sort of way. He tried making true crime videos but kept putting his opinions in which nearly got him canceled.

Caligula: Too old to use youtube. Only has an account to like Luciano's videos.

Germania: Also too old to use youtube. But he does comment on the germanic countries videos with things like "LETS FUCKING GOOO"; has become the Justin Y. of 2p comment sections

Leonas and Franciszek: Have a couples channel that people HATE because they act so fake that it's dreadfully annoying. Has had videos made about them by Bernard, Lutz and Flavio

Anastasia: Makes videos about self-care for both men and women, similar to channels like Sexplanations. Also makes videos teaching young adults to cook simple meals, how to do unique hairstyles using wigs of different lengths and textures, how to have a clean house (making beds, doing laundry, organizing cabinets and fridges), etc. Has a large following of people who genuinely appreciate her work and motivation

Katya: Uploads vertical phone videos of her at casinos drinking champagne, playing darts, winning slot machines, etc

Egor: Similar to SomeOrdinaryGamers. Browses the deep web on his AmogOS system he made.

Raimonds: Viktor doesn't allow him to have a youtube channel

Paul: Takes videos of him rolling down hills and making fun of people at his school. Luckily doesn't gain much traction because people would definitely cyber bully him. Most of the adult 2ps have an agreement to not mention him in their videos lest their followers go after him

Wy: Takes behind the scenes videos of Oliver's videos; Her following is basically just Oliver's following who think she's his daughter (she's not) (This rumor caused a huge scandal within the Ollie simping twitter community)

Romeo: Doesn't have youtube, has TikTok and makes shitty e-boy thirst traps and POVs. Bernard wears his merch as satire in his videos.

[halfgclden]

EPISODE 32: A MAJOR OCCURANCE

The sound of spooky intro music plays and fades out. As the microphone clicks on, faint sounds of water and traffic can be heard in the background.

JADE: Hello cryptwizzlers, cryptrackers, but never cryptormentors because we’re all friends here. Welcome to a very special episode of Cryptwins in which we are not actually researching a cryptid. But! Before you shut this off and call us hacks, we are instead researching the recent disappearance of social media fitness guru; Edison Major.

More spooky music plays. There is also the sound of fingers tapping a rhythm. It's typical Joel, unable to contain his energy as he taps the dashboard in time with their intro music.

JOEL: Weeeeeeeell...Maybe we are hacks. —a pause as he laughs— Nah, just kidding. This is the real deal. I'm not sure you're ready for this. This is some spooky, and excuse my French, spooky shit. Tell us more about this Major disappearance? —another laugh— Get it?

JADE: [A short laugh-sigh is let out at Joel’s joke.] Okay, before we begin, two things. One, get ready for the barrage of major and minor jokes, courtesy of Joel here.

JOEL: Got a whole list, be ready! He lets Jade finish, but listeners can still hear the tapping sound while she speaks.

JADE: Secondly, we’re still on the road here, so if the audio is bad or choppy... deal with it? —another small laugh— Anyyyyway. Spooky is right. This all began in September of last year, when @majored posted a picture of himself in a dark basement wearing a weird costume and then immediately went off the grid. And, you know, I’m all for a social media cleanse, people do it all the time. Buuut, what really brought this to our attention was a month later, on Halloween Eve of all nights, when a video popped up of him getting his ass kicked by someone in a Kakashi Hatake costume.

JOEL: Now, I know y'all are asking yourselves "Isn't he a fitness guru? Why was some weeb kickin' his ass?" And to that I say hey! Some weebs are strong, some are Super Saiyan, and others are Kakashi Hatake, the most talented ninja in Konohagukure.

JADE: lets out a laughing wheeze.

JOEL: We don't endorse fighting here. But I digress —a laugh— back on topic. So this guy just up and disappears out of nowhere? And there's not a peep of him until we see Kakashi givin’ him the business. What does this all mean?

JADE: Okay, so, let’s get the full story. @majored goes off the grid, comes back to get his ass kicked by a Naruto character, disappears again, comes back to spit on someone and call them a see you next Tuesday, and then disappears again. And he hasn’t come back online. So what’s up with that? Well... we did a little digging.

Another spooky noise plays over the sound of Jade organizing a stack of papers.

JOEL: Daaaaaaang. I’d say those are some fightin' words, especially from someone who keeps pulling a vanishing act, don’t ya think?

JADE: They really are! I mean, he is from New Zealand, but even so, I think you don’t use that word unless you want to attract some attention. -She clicks her tongue as she gets back on topic- The video was originally posted the night before Halloween of last year, by @ime.are on Twitter. Obviously they got a lot of hate and questions after posting this, but all of them were left unanswered. The only person in the video that was tagged was Major, but upon further examination, this Ime seems to follow and have pictures with someone who happened to be dressed as Kakashi that same night, which has led many to speculate that these ninjas are the same person.

JOEL: So we all know Halloween's a spooooky season. Perfect for parties and all that jazz. But all those costumes make it a perfect time for disguises. Was that even the real Major? Was the person who spit the real Major? Who is this Ime and how do they fit into the story? And who— a pause for dramatic effect and muffled laughter as he tries to stay serious— is this mystery ninja? Tell us more!

JADE: Alright, alright. So this mystery ninja goes by Abel, or @_kllledbycain on the Gram. At first glance, they look pretty much like every other TikTok e-boy; black and white photos, pet snake, the insinuation that they’re dead, whole nine yards.

JOEL: snorts when Jade announces their handle, and again at her eboy comment, wheezing. It's true, it's true!

JADE: And this stuff is so common right now, so nothing really raises any eyebrows, right? Right? Well, tell me, why would a Tik Tok goth go around beating the crap out of a random influencer? Stay tuned for the theory. First, we’re gonna take a step back and look at the whole situation, because, of course, it doesn’t end there.

JOEL: Ohhhh snap! I'm on the edge of my seat, and I bet our listeners are too.

JADE: [clears her throat] So if we go back to the original poster of the video, @ime.are, and we take a look at their Insta, who is on it but... @devinitely? Okay, so @devinitely is in the same place as @majored, clearly, and, for anyone that doesn’t know, she’s been doing a bunch of collabs with @loganvance. This places not one, not two, but three influencers all together in this place where weebs are running around assaulting people.

JOEL: Okay. Okay, I need to know! Where are they? What's bringing all these influencers together? Are @devinitely and @loganvance part of something much more sinister than it seems? [He makes a funny face at Jade and wiggles his fingers, before dropping his voice to a stage-whisper.] Is it some kind of twisted influencer cult?

JADE: Shhhh, Joel, spoilers.

JOEL: [He laughs.] Sorry, sorry!

JADE: [muffled laughter over the sound of more papers rustling.] So, any skeptics out there might say, oh, well, this Ime Are is just a lucky person who happens to be in the presence of more than one social media personality. However, Devin follows the weeb that may or may not have kicked Major's ass. And, according to a cast photo of Rocky Horror, on her boyfriend's Instagram, both the weeb in question and the hot man that tore the two apart were part of the cast. This would be a great time to mention that a link to the video is in the description, as are all the pictures from social media that I'm referencing.

JOEL: [to Jade but loud enough for the mic to pick it up at regular volume] Oh snap, you got everything together in a link? Like, I could click the link to check it out right now? — A pause as he does just that.— Woah, cryptwizzlers, she's not kidding. Click the link in bio, you won't be disappointed. Okay, Jade...hear me out. Given that it was Halloween, the night of nights. Do you think that...maybe it was all an elaborate event? Was it staged? Is any of this real?

JADE: Oh, my dear brother, always the skeptic. Don’t you think that it’s a bit much for him to stop posting entirely in order to get publicity? And we mustn’t forget the spitting on someone in South Dakota, that’s not exactly his brand. Unless he’s trying out something like Taylor Swift and Reputation but... I digress. No, I don’t think any of this is staged, and I’ll tell you why. Let’s go back to the weird cow print basement post. You know who also happened to post something about some cowboy party? Oh, um, Devin’s boyfriend? A picture of him, Devin, and Logan? Which... puts them and Major in the same place on the night that he disappeared.

JOEL: Not a skeptic! Just trying to get all these questions answered. —A laugh— You're right, that's 180 from the online presence he used to have. All theories aside, —a pause— I'd love to go to a cowboy party. Get me a glow-in-the-dark cowboy hat. You know they make 'em. —He laughs again, mouthing 'what?' to Jade.—

JADE: Oh, def. We're getting matching hats. Check out our merch in a few weeks —she laughs— Glow in the dark mothman themed cowboy hats, talk about a niche.

JOEL: Snap, we have to do that now, 'cause I want one real bad. But okay, back on track. This cowboy party. The origin of this theory, yeah? Oh snap...what were those three doing in the same place as Major? And all in cow print too? That's....majorly suspicious! [He trails off into laughter, his voice doing that wheezy thing when someone's trying to finish their sentence before cracking up. Recovering, he adds the following.] Wait, wait, wait. What about—

JADE: Yes, yes, yes. —she cuts Joel off as though he's finished his sentence, chuckling at his joke— Patience, my dear twin, we will get there. —the smile is evident in her voice—

JOEL: I feel like somehow, I ended up as your Padawan for this episode. — he laughs—

JADE: You heard it here, I'm absolutely schooling Joel this episode. — she laughs— First, we're going to backtrack all the way to the original poster again. You know we snooped their whole page, and they're pretty regularly posting pictures with this person, @rengaaay, who isn't an influencer but she makes some of those sick ass roller skating videos... this isn't sus, just cool, link in the description. —a slight pause as she tries to get back to her train of thought— Anyway, what is sus is that she tags two people in her photos all the time... But no joke guys check out their Insta profiles they look different in like every other picture. Which, uh, could just be editing but also could be something.... more sinister? Hold onto that thought.

JOEL: That's such a good handle, dang! Better than @lumberjoel, honestly. I have to say I'm jelly. We should get branded rollerskates, maybe @rengaaay can advertise for us if we ship them. JK...unless? —more laughter as he waits for Jade to get back on the train and pulls up the profiles in question to take a look for himself— Huh...is it editing? Are they masters of disguise? Makeup professionals? —He starts to say something else but is pretty sure he's figured out where Jade's going with this.— What could be more sinister than human chameleons?

JADE: [The sound of papers shuffling can be heard] Oh, yeah, so, it's weird but I think every time the siblings are in a pic together they look more like each other? I dunno if this really makes sense but seriously dudes check the post with this episode because it has a bunch of photos side by side and... yeah. You pull a photo of them by themself and it's like okay, I know what this dude looks like and then you put them side by side and... I dunno, makeup? Contacts? Cloning, mayhaps? And, just so that I'm not just holding on to one thing too much... check their post from August 12th, linked below. Their brother... doesn't have a shadow. Why would you edit that out of a photo? No way are they going that hard to be memelords.

JOEL: Okay, let me look at this. Wha— That's weird as hell. How much hair dye do these two use? Hm. Could be clones? —snaps his fingers—Definitely clones. —he snorts loudly, laughing before clearing his throat— Ahem, uh. No shadow? That's dedication! I dunno, maybe it's some new challenge for the 'gram. Oh...but wait. I found a video. Look, Jade. No shadow. In a video. What the—

JADE: A video, guys. —A moment of muffled laughter before her mic cuts out, but the sound of it clicking on again is followed almost immediately— This is a big family, guys, and a big weird one because their other brother @sleepyfinch... Okay, wait, he himself is pretty normal, super cute, shout out, but guys, ghouls, you know who he has tagged in a recent post? Yet another influencer. Except this one is from Italy? @gaborealis; essentially, he’s a medium, so if you didn’t believe that the supernatural were at play beforehand... buckle up.

JOEL: Wait, wait, I'm still on the video thing. Who has time to edit a video? —his voice cracks when he says video and he covers his laughter as he focuses—

JADE: [wheezing] Shut up —there is no malice in her voice, and she’s laughing too.—

JOEL: So weird, I love it. Oh snap— the @gaborealis? It's time to get ghosty! —echoes "ghosty" and hums the Cha Cha Slide tune for a couple seconds— Okay, so wait. Does this mean everyone's favorite medium is also in the same place as...three? Three other influencers and this weird family of....maybe shapeshifters? No? Too crazy a theory?

JADE: You know what they say, cryptoddlers; no theory is too crazy. Everything Einstein came up with? Theory.

JOEL: Bringing Einstein into it, huh?

JADE: Oh you know it. —a snort— Anyway, according to Devin’s boyfriend’s Instagram, it doesn’t end there. @spencerkeahi, a youtuber and disability rights advocate who comes from Hawaii is also there with that gaggle. Shout out to @elidrising for tagging people and location. So what are these influencers from all corners of the globe gathering together for? Well, let’s take a look at the original poster again. You go on their Twitter, and a few months back it’s all just videos of people... fighting? In some sort of underground place. Mayhaps... the same creepy basement that Major posted his last photo? —a small gasp, as though she’s surprised by this— No, that must be a coincidence... or is it?

Another spooky sound plays

JOEL: @elidrising is the man, dang! Are you tellin' me there's a...—he lowers his voice to a whisper— secret influencers-only Fight Club? I wouldn't put it past @devinitely TBH. Honestly, I'd join one...even though I guess I've broken the first rule but talking about it, huh? Actually— Jay, do you think we'd even be allowed to join? Are podcasters influencers? Poll in my story right now, let us know what y'all think.

JADE: Right now? Joel, this isn’t going up for another week, at least. —She’s obviously trying to sound less amused than she’s coming off— Once we get the blue check we’re influencers, so we’ve got a few million followers to go, I think.

JOEL: Yeah, right now! They'll hear that when the episode goes up and respond in real ti— Oh, no. You're right. Oops. No poll in my story, y'all. False alarm. Blue check, huh? You heard it here, cryptwizzlers, we're gonna get that blue check. Tell your friends, tell your family. Heck, tell that cute barista at your coffee shop to listen to our podcast! We might just do a giveaway when we get that lil' blue swoosh.

JADE: [clears her throat.] You know what’s a great way to get us that blue check, though?

A different, light sort of spooky music begins playing in the background, meaning that it’s time for the ad break

JOEL: Take it away!

JADE: Checking out a little app called Creature Comforts. Alright guys, not that this show isn’t one hundred percent real as it is, but for real, I love this app. A dating sim that features everyone’s favorite... for lack of a better term, monsters. Did you watch the Shape of Water and go, “Damn, I’d tap that”? Do you want to snuggle with a Sasquatch? Do you just wish you could find yourself a GF with more eyes? Well, have we got the app for you. Creature Comforts lets you do all this and more. A choose-your-own-adventure game where you can smooch beasts, marry Mothman, and ignore the outside world. It’s seriously all I want. And, if you enter the code cryptwins— that’s the name of the podcast you’re listening to, no capital letters, when you download the app, then it’s only 99 cents to play without ads. Which, trust me ghouls, is worth it. I don’t want anything interrupting my cut scene with the most stunning eyes in West Virginia.

JOEL: Don't forget that scuba diving date with Nessie! Or, or...that half-day hike with Bigfoot. —he's laughing again smh— There's a reason Jade does the ad reads and not me. But, I can tell you that Mothman is sure to sweep you off your feet. And it's not just because he can fly.

JADE: It’s the —a pause for finger snapping— alliteration for me. But that’s Creature Comforts, exactly how you think you’d spell it, don’t ask us ‘cause we’re dyslexic, and cryptwins, like the name of this podcast. Tweet us @cryptwins to let us know how far along you are, who you’re pursuing, and what mysteries you unlock about their backstories. Now... I think it’s time for a timeline, just to get us sorted out, what do you think, Joel?

JOEL: Personally, I'm still tryin' to land a date with the Creature from the Black Lagoon. I guess we'll see what happens. Aw heck yeah! Give us a timeline, give us the dirt. — a laugh — Give the people what they want!

JADE: Okay — the shuffling of paper is heard once more — We start in September: @majored goes off the grid after posting a creepy picture of himself in a weird outfit in a spooky basement. This is around the same time that the Scarlet Surfer was in NYC for fashion week, which @majored accompanied him to, meaning that it isn’t entirely out of the question for him to still be in New York. Also on social media at this time is @devinitely and @loganvance also both is cowboy outfits, though the creepy basement is absent from both of them.

JOEL: I guess September isn't too early for weird Halloween stuff to start? What with the spooky basement and everything. Right? And everyone loves a cowboy moment— or have cowboys become the new clown? I heard there was a clown renaissance and people like them now? I don't really know where we stand on the whole clown— what?

JADE: I see our next hot debate. Cowboys: Hot or not? Personally, I liked cow print, but I can see cowboys going out soon. Once they reach killer clown status is when it’ll be ideal for me.

JOEL: Personally, I vote hot. And uhhh, not to kinkshame you Jay, but killer clowns are a no from me.

JADE: [tsks] Kinkshamed, by my own brother no less.

JOEL: [a loud laugh] You know I'm just kidding. No kinkshaking, ya heard? I'd literally let the Jersey Devil step on me so. To each their own.

JADE: [snorting] Um, gross.

JADE: Now to October: There is a production of Rocky Horror, a cast photo is uploaded to @elidrising, the account of @devinitely’s boyfriend. This places not only @devinitely and @loganvance in Montauk, but it also places @crispyboiz and @_kllledbycain in Montauk too. These are two of the people that are suspected to belong in the video by @ime.are, in which (suspected) @_kllledbycain, dressed as Kakashi Hatake attacked @majored, only to be torn apart by good citizen @crispyboiz. This video is the first that we’ve seen of @majored since his last post, and he offers nothing in response to it.

JOEL: Okay. Okay. Now, you know I love a good shadow-cast of Rocky Horror. I've always wanted to play Frank. I would rock that part. Am I wrong? —he laughs— But okay, that's - count 'em - three influencers in one place? If @elidrising is there, we can assume @devinitely is too because she was in the same location as, uh, whatshername? Logan? And that's the same location as @ime.are. Who took the video of  Kakashi kicking @majored's ass. @_kllledbycain— more like killedbyKakashi, eh? Seriously why are all these people together?

JOEL: [as an afterthought] It's gotta be a cult.

JADE: November to December: Nothing happens with @majored, @ime.are also offers nothing except for quote unquote “#teamkakashi”, which is funny because they never tagged Kakashi, but anyways. Upon deeper inspection, there are videos on their Twitter from last May, of people in a fighting ring. And then people fighting on a lake? But the fighting ring looks super dangerous and I dunno, like you said, cult-y? Fight-club-y? Call it what you will. In any case, we are led to believe that this fighting has been going on for some time in the background.

JOEL: Okay, come on. That’s definitely a cult. I’ve seen the movie, can confirm. — he groans— Literally what is an Italian astrologer doing there? Wait, wait, wait. Montauk? You said Montauk. Montauk, as in on Long Island. As in like —he drops his voice to a stage-whisper— the part of Long Island that peeps believe to be the site of a government cover-up involving kidnapping, mind control, and time travel? The part that inspired Stranger Things? That Montauk? Snap. I can’t believe I didn’t put two and two together sooner. Jade, Jade. What if this is, I don’t know, like, MKUltra 2.0?

JADE: Yes, yes that Montauk, I’m glad you picked up on that. Look, I’m not saying that it’s an influencer’s-only thing, but I am saying that some might be in the area, and maybe involved. At the same time throughout all of this, we have a culmination of more influencers seeming to know this network of people. @gaborealis, an Italian astrologer, is seen in pictures of @sleepyfinch, who was also in the production of Rocky Horror, and has pictures with @crispyboiz and, god, this name is a freaking nightmare, @_kllledbycain. Not to mention this guy has many pictures of weird… family members? Who sometimes look alike? Okay, but seriously, @kodakola and @sonofpeter, how is your hair not straw at this point? Is it wigs? I think my hair would simply fall out. And y’all using Insta filters or what, cause… I’m not gonna get into it, let’s keep going.

JOEL: Maybe they're makeup vloggers or something. Gotta change up the look for views, right? Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe and uhhhh, smash that follow button— or whatever YouTubers say. —he laughs— Okay but seriously, yeah. @sonofpeter, @kodakola, whatever you two are doing to your hair, let me know because I'm trying to bleach my hair and dye it bright purple without it falling out. And since we're doing it at our next stop, well, your advice will probably be too late. But still, what are your secrets? Is it...clones?

JADE: Joel! —she’s laughing again.— Timeline and then theories. —she clears her throat— After that long silence, a Tweet emerges. January 8th. "Can’t believe @majored SPAT on me and called me a C-Blank-Blank-T when he checked into @SDFamilyMotel last night”. This places Major across the country from where we believed him to be, but acting so strangely that one must wonder… was that really him? Or was it someone that just looked like him? Or was it a cry for help? Nothing’s been heard since from @majored, which I guess… leads us to our theories. —a pause— You were saying… clones, Joel?

JOEL: Sheeeeesh, this is not @majored's year. I gotta say, this sounds totally different from the vibe that this guy used to put out on his social media. Obviously Instagram is fake blah blah blah, you know the spiel, but like. Damn. He spit on them? —a pause as he considers what his sibling has said— You know....I think that's a really good point. Was that even the real him? Will the real Ed Major please stand up?

JADE: I know. It just seems out of character, and terrible for a reputation, but it also would make sense if... One, this is a fake @majored, meant to stir up controversy before he goes underground again. And with an action like spitting on someone and calling them a name like that? Who cares what the dude does after that? Unfollowed, cancelled, whatever. And why would this guy want to go underground, well, I'm glad you're so interested. Well, the official Cryptwins theory is that maybe... just maybe, the crazy, government cover-up Montauk that we all know and love isn't that far from truth. We see that they have means of covering up shadows —she lets out a laugh— and people whose faces just change? And who else is there, @spencerkeahi, someone who explains rehabilitation, maybe someone who has experience helping people get used to being a clone? @ime.are, a nurse who enjoys taking videos of people fighting? It all adds up, people!

JOEL: Yeah, seriously. With the real @majored MIA, there would be no one to combat the backlash from this supposed...clone? Imposter? And maybe that’s what they want. Looks like Montauk isn’t the ideal vacation spot anymore, huh? Even if their seaside cabins are super chill and homey. But I digress. Something sinister is going on. Something bigger than we can even imagine. A secret underground facility that’s...cloning influencers? Training them? Your guess is as good as mine. And that’s why we’re on this road trip, isn’t that right Jade? To get some answers?

JADE: Exactly. —it sounds as though she is holding back a laugh or a cough.— Cross country roadtrip in which we explore different topics like this one, and on the way, we'll document our progress and any spooky encounters. Check out our insta, @cryptwins to get all the updates, and consider hitting us up on Patreon if you want us to be able to afford the gas to get all the way to the east coast.

JOEL: I’ll be posting behind the scenes content in the “ROADTRIP” highlight on my Insta throughout the trip so be sure to check my stories. You might get lucky and find some special codes for Creature Comforts but, hey. You didn’t hear it from me. -he laughs and there’s the distinct sound of a bag of chips being opened- What Jade meant to say is gas and snack money. So yeah, go go go! Check out the Patreon! We might even do a giveaway at the end of our trip, get you guys some cool souvenirs we pick up on our travels. Not a bad idea, eh?

JADE: Joel, my ears are literally bleeding right now. Thanks. Anyway, our second theory will also be exclusive to our Patrons, so be sure to get the full video there. Cryptwins... out...

Her voice fades out and the music from the beginning fades in, takes over, and plays until the end of the track.

[fordanoia]

Tagged by @endae​ - helping me infuse some Self Positivity with this one, thank you bro

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 8 (ish) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome work!

8 Is A Lot. In total, I posted 16 fics in 2020 if you count each chapter by itself, and uhhh a lot less if you don’t. Considering 2020 though, I mean I’m not gonna be hard on myself with this.

Still not doing 8 here though. 

1. I Think I Saw You - This was... definitely my fic of the year. Inspired by a tiktok/song, this just flew off. I’m really proud of this one too because I committed it to being solely from Stan’s perspective which helped give the spooky/mysterious immersion.

I’m gonna make a whole post about like... the big heart of this fic later, but I think ghost stories have some strong emotional cores and even if I splunder(ed) the heart of the story a bit it’s probably the first fic I’ve had to rival Gotham Falls in terms of heart.

It was like some bad joke, except there wasn’t a punchline here.

Stan smiled to himself, imagining how she would have told him about this.

‘I’ve been doing tarot readings on my calls now. Your brother’s missing. Describing the card’s meaning adds up so much time.’

He tried to think about that, about how funny that part of the situation would have been, how funny it was because it was pretty much how it would go down if it happened.

2. Journal 3 Transcribed - It’s not a fic, BUT it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and it was a labor of love. Exactly what it sounds, I transcribed all of Journal 3 into a google doc.

3. A Blinded Eye for a Blinded Eye - This was a great fun little ficlet series (still a wip)!! I love it a lot, actually. It’s Stan and Ford trying to figure out what’s going on with a Ford that’s been wiped via memory gun. Honestly, any other series fics I do for gf after this point will likely be in this same format of short and sweet chapters.

Stan jammed the chair underneath the door handle.

Ford opened the medical folder left behind labelled ‘F. McGucket’, flipping quickly through the information with fingers that kept slipping on the papers. The address was quick enough to find, but he kept looking for anything else that could help. He had to find out what Fiddleford McGucket meant, what he was in this story.

4. Even Stone Crumbles - A Classic staple of mine - a Paranoid!Ford One shot that flows into existence at 3am. AU of basically ‘but what if Ford just broke down when Stan touched his shoulder’

5. Gotham Falls - I only posted one chapter of this in 2020 (y i k e s), but I’m happy with it all the same! This is, and has always been, my passion fic. It’s Primarily the fic that I actually came into fic writing for gf for and it’s one I’ve always had big plans for to finish. In 2021 I’m going to try to lower my self expectations though so, you know, I can actually post more chapters for it.

An inquisitive voice, responded. “Hello.” Though fairly grainy across the line, it was still composed in a very precise manner.

It immediately brought Ford back to the practiced, polite formality ingrained into the voices he heard at scholarly conferences from the more seasoned and reputable scientists. Every note carried just so with an absolute, natural ease as though they had never spoken any other way. An inimitable result from countless meetings and intellectual discussions with fellow scientists for several years.

The voice had always filled Ford with a quick and easy reverence before, knowing what had been behind those perfected tones. The same voice from Cobblepot filled him with an icy and unerringly certain wariness of the man. Oswald Cobblepot had not been active in legal business for long, his activities as The Penguin, however, stretched back many years in the newspapers.

As everyone says - don’t feel bad about what you didn’t do, be proud of what you did manage to do despite the circumstances. 

Also just saying 2020 I shaved with fire so just know that circumstances can’t stop you from Every part of living.

(tagging, if you’re up to it and sorry if this is double tagging you, and whoever is welcome: @fexiled, @pinesbrosfalls, @novantinuum​, @eregyrn-falls​)

[kipskat]

Men, I'm sure there's a good part in you that desires to not end up 'not seeing her as your future'. (Jayzam-zoned)

And I mean, for the greater majority of men out there, I have always believed that the sane and average man would date a woman without the intention of playing with her feelings or hurting her.

But - even if the intentions are harmless, a lot of relationships still end up either spiraling to their destruction or continuing lifelessly on a plateau for years.

I'm offering you some new perspective that might just help your relationship move forward.

And I'm sharing this from my experience, observations, and failures I've had in the past. And sharing this as a married man to another man - because except for those who are obviously being whiteknights and simps, we don't really see a lot of men to men advices here on social media.

These are things your woman might not be able to fully express to you but would like to...

.

1. WHILE YOU ENJOY PLAYING

... videogames or hanging out with your friends all week, and it seems like you're taking it easy in life, your woman is gradually getting anxious about your future together.

They said a man matures later than a woman because their prefrontal cortex develops late. The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that helps people set and achieve goals. That's why at the age of 25, the average woman sees herself settling down within 5 years, while the average man finds it hard to see even see himself at all within 5 years.

If this is true for you, it's about time to realize that you don't have to wait for that function to kick in. If you are in a relationship with a woman, you are responsible for her. Her dreams and aspirations in life can not wait just because you still haven't figured out yours.

.

2. IF YOU ARE IN YOUR EARLY OR MID 20's

... you need to understand that a woman has a biological timetable that she needs to beat. If she wants to have a handful of children in the very near future, understand that she needs to start making a family now. If you are serious about your future together as a family, think hard about this one.

.

3. YOUR WOMAN WANTS TO SEE YOU

... become fully independent. A help from your family, especially if you come from a well-off household, is truly a blessing. But your woman will always prefer seeing you striving, struggling, and working hard independently rather than getting everything you need from your family.

Remember, you are making your own, new family. Your family's wealth might have impressed her before, but things are different now. What she wants to see is how you are able to establish family with her, and not how much money your family can shell out to you every month.

.

4. SHE DOESN'T WANT TO OPEN UP THE TOPIC

... about marriage. Do you know how hard and embarrassing it is for women to open up the idea of marriage? While they or you both desire it, she doesn't want to come off as needy or insecure by initiating the conversation about getting married. Do not take this for granted. Just because she isn't talking about it, doesn't mean she doesn't want it.

This is by far the number one reason why women get stuck in 6-8 year long dating relationships. They can't afford to ask but their man won't ask either. Remember that the purpose of dating is to get to know each other. No sane woman believes it takes 8 years to get to know the other person, so you best bet that she is waiting for you to start talking.

Discuss it. Set timelines and deadlines. Think of it as your new project, or a new mission. Think of it as a quest that you need to finish before you can level up. Don't be stuck as a noob, take the first step.

.

5. DEEP INSIDE SHE WOULD TRY TO BLAME HERSELF

... for every screw up that you made. It sounds illogical, yeah, but most women do this. If you ever cheat on her and have an affair with another woman, she'll get hurt, of course. But on the aftermaths of it all, she'll try to figure out what she did wrong, where she lacked, or what the other woman got it better than her. She'll start to compare herself to other women and get more insecure about herself. She will feel guilty about something she never did.

So just don't do it.

Even in minor, more tolerable issues, she would still try to see if she has already done her best or if she could have done better.

.

6. SHE DOESN'T LIKE TO BE FORCED TO COMPROMISE

... on everything. You might already know that your woman is very emotional. It might not appear on the surface, but a whole lot of them use their emotions as their deciding factor.

Sadly, that is also the reason why so many women are stuck in toxic relationships again and again and can't seem to move forward. They are vulnerable to emotional deception, and some really despicable men out there know this and use this to manipulate the relationship.

That being said, I'm sure that's not you. But be aware of this the next time you screw up: she's torn between getting angry at you and loving you. And most of the time, women choose to love. That's why they get hurt because they keep on choosing to love, over choosing to move on. They keep on hoping for that slightest possibility of feeling loved back.

I've always joked about this to my wife. "What if you found out that I cheated, and I asked for your forgiveness, will you forgive me?"

She doesn't want to answer it every time, but as followers of Christ, we both know for a fact that she WILL forgive me.

That said, this idea never made me happy or never pushed me to entertain the thought of having an affair. Why? Because of how much damage it will put through her heart, her mind, and her soul, to deal with unfaithfulness and shame, and ridicule, while she has to put up with me and accept me back.

It's not something a proper man would ever do to her woman.

So if ever you're even thinking about messing around with another girl while you're in a relationship with your woman, think about this.

.

7. SHE WANTS YOU TO LEAD

... in all aspects of the relationship. It doesn't matter if you're a shy one, if you keep to yourself, or if she has a more dominant personality. It might not seem like it, but she would want to see you be the best man you can become by leading her.

Knowing where to eat or where to go is different than being able to guide her through life's most difficult challenges. She wants to see that you can be relied on in almost every aspect of your lives together.

Lead her emotions. If she's angry, learn to model how to communicate despite negative emotions. If she's happy and ecstatic, be joyful yet stable.

Lead her through decision making. In my experience, what a woman wants is not a man who makes all the right decisions in life, but a man who can pull himself up through all the bad decisions he's made. If there is need to admit a wrong decision and give an apology, then do so. Wise decisions are great, but so is accountability.

Lead her through proper perspectives and worldviews. If you see her scrolling her Instagram feed, or sharing 'sana all' posts on Facebook, appreciate her and encourage her to find the beauty in what you already have.

Lead her spiritually. Most often than not, your woman sees her relationship with God as something personal. But if you're building a family together, someone needs to be the spiritual head of the household. Invite her to study scripture. If you're not there yet, talk to her about finding a church you can both try and attend. And in the simplest forms, pray for her and your future together.

There are many things and areas in life that she wants to see you lead. But maybe it's the idea of knowing you can take good care of her and your family in the future is what matters.

.

8. YOUR WEDDING DOESN'T HAVE TO BE EXTRAVAGANT

... but it has to be special. Understand that she's scrolled past countless of wedding photos on Facebook that almost looks like it costs over a million to set up. While it might entertain her mind for a while, she will always be happy with the thought of being married to you. It doesn't have to be as grand as your friend's wedding. Just start the damn wedding is what she cares about.

If this is what's keeping you from proposing or making plans, make sure you understand why weddings happen in the first place. It's a covenant between the both of you and God. Those TikTok dance numbers is not something God cares about. Not even that 4-6 tier cake or those fancy lights and decoration.

Start with the essentials and then add the non-essential elements of the wedding only if you can. Your woman will love you for it. What matters to her is that you finally and officially belong to each other.

-

I tried to keep this as close to the Jayzam-zone issue as possible, but it's 3 AM and my words are leaking out of my mind.

So if you want to "see her as your future", start seeing her differently today.

And don't be pressured if she tags you in this post for you to read. That's how mature relationship works. Lots of things need to be discussed.

--

I'll write more if I have to and edit this post to add more . Follow the page to stay tuned.

P.S. bawal mag LQ sa comments section. Discuss it in person or sa messenger.

--

CTTO: The Imperial Patriarch of FB

[rkyuna]

    ・  MBC DANCE CONTEST UPLOAD   ━━━━         ›  DON’T CALL ME ANGEL   ₊

to say yuna’s father had reservations ever since her stint on the mgas was an understatement. sure, yuna had thought he’d get over it sooner or later. but she didn’t think he’d be so against it up ‘til now -- she was still enrolled at hanlim, a place that cultivated the next, brightest stars on their generation so it’s come to be expected that yuna would find herself back onto her star-filled path sooner than later.

what yuna doesn’t expect is her father, in all his not-so-stern glory, sitting her down the day after her birthday with his doubts about the mbc dance contest flyer he had seen loitering by the floor of her bed.

“you were a wreck after you were eliminated, what if it doesn’t turn out the way you want it to again?”

yuna deadpans, a sudden sourness filling her mouth. “what -- you don’t believe in me, dad?”

it hurts, yes -- to be reminded of her blunder. after putting it all behind her, yuna had thought she’d been renewed. that after months of contemplating what would be her next step, for this to come falling into her lap just days before her sixteenth birthday, yuna could only deduce it as something called fate.

“it’s not fair for you to be treating me like some baby! jessica and yoona unni were able to send in their videos, what makes me so different?”

just because she was the youngest of her family -- didn’t mean she liked being babied. if her own siblings were allowed to join the contest, why couldn’t she? her arms stay crossed as she leans further into her seat, staring dejectedly at her father as he stared right back ; grimness filling in the lines that had grown around his face in the last few months.

“i just don’t want you to get hurt, yuna.”

“i won’t, i promise.”

not like it’s a promise she can keep -- but she crosses both her fingers behind her back, just in case.

                                                     ━━━━━━━━━━    

she’s not born with it. that is for sure, from her experience at mgas, to revisiting video upon video of her performances, one could tell from one look that yuna had a long way to go when it came to dancing. but it didn’t negate the fact that -- despite her missteps and rigid movements -- she looked good. and that’s what mattered, right?

( at least that’s what yuna liked to think )

but opinions change and somehow needing something to stimulate her interests back into its right path, she had signed up for some dance classes. to fix the rigidity, to up her visual fluidity and somehow translate it practically into dance. 

it didn’t help that the ahjummas that lived next door would not let her live down the embarrassment that was getting eliminated so early on in the competition. she wanted to be remembered but not for losing. even for yuna, there were some limitations to negative press. and that had been hers. 

she had grown dim, and while she didn’t love the arts, didn’t feel any romanticized attachment to it -- she enjoyed them enough to want to still try. a huge sigh as she stares longingly at the advertisement playing right before another one of the choreography videos she watches, mbc’s flashy logo appearing right before the dance contest details and the fast-approaching deadline end the ad.

ugh. there was no choice, was there?

and while she didn’t love dancing, nor did she believe it was her god-given birthright to somehow be good at it -- with her birthday coming in just a few days, and the deadline for the dance contest falling close behind -- yuna had to figure out something, quick, before her time was up.

                                                  ━━━━━━━━━━      PRESS PLAY .

she scours the web for a choreography that benefitted her in two ways: befitting of her skills -- figuratively speaking -- and was aesthetically pleasing and powerful enough to make a mark. because if she wasn’t remembered, what was the point?

if yuna had a say in what she wanted to portray herself as -- she wanted it to be impactful, memorable and well-ingrained in the minds of her viewers. she wasn’t a youtuber by any means. if tiktok or vine counted -- she’d call herself more of an influencer, than anything else.

but with the few videos she’s put up, and the following from her other social media accounts, somehow the subscriber list had grown to a point that yuna knew to be anxious for whatever she put up next. as a young girl who made a point to heavily ignore the critics on her comment section, she was also still a young girl with a sensitivity streak that rivaled no other.

( which adds to the reason as to why her father feared for what to come )

but it’s something she can’t have weighing her down.

the moment she turns on that camera to perform the choreography she had spent days searching for ( and even a few more learning ) there’s no turning back.

would this make up for her blunder on the mgas? probably not.

but it was worth a try.

kyle hanagami’s choreographies are challenging. they require a skill that yuna does not have but she fesses up all of what she can manage in favor of star quality -- and that was just what kyle’s choreographies all held. a spunk of individuality and rebelliousness that yuna felt was so deeply embedded into her own being that even her father couldn’t help but agree that it had yuna written all over the steps the moment she had shown him the choreography she was going to cover.

relying on confidence alone was risky but she thinks she’s improved enough in the last six months to shake the nerves that pelter through until the very tip of her nerve-endings. it wasn’t like she couldn’t just edit out her mistakes, right?

( or would that be cheating? )

the beat is heavy in the dance room, secluded among the rest as some of her peers loom behind the phone camera to watch her from the screen ; making sure she stays in frame rather than running off the side. it’s happened before when she had tested the lighting ( and while she didn’t have any professional equipment, and she couldn’t really trust her friends to hold the phone steady enough -- this would have to do ) and found that she wasn’t even in frame for the first 30 seconds of the song ( a majority of the choreo considering how long it actually was: if she recalls it was barely a minute ) .

it’s a lot of attitude -- she realizes, as she goes through the motions in her head before she signals for the song to play. it’s a performance of not only her body, but her face and she feels it reflexively stiffen at the sound of ariana grande’s chorus fading to welcome miley cyrus’s verse.

it’s definitely more sharp moves than any of the other choreographies she had practiced before -- a lot more hitting the beat of the song, never a misstep -- something yuna realizes she does often if she feels herself quickening in pace rather than keeping in tempo.

and unlike exo’s namesake song, yuna had taken ages to make sure she didn’t mess up her own tempo with the song.  

she breathes in deeply right before the beat jumps and she’s sauntering forward ; fast movements ensue for sharper movements. so fast that she feels the whip of blonde locks against the nape of her neck ( a part of her regrets not tying her hair up ) as she spins and her arms are moving this way and that -- a languid motion sped up to match the rhythm of the song as she crouches then rises.

as fingers run through her hair ; she feels the smile finally break -- the breath in her lungs ripped out of her as she’s moving from one side of the frame to another. each step bringing another motion to ripple through her features. she grows in confidence as the lyrics finally hit its core -- a nail to the coffin, empowerment stemming from the very breadth of her hair to every smile she flashes at the camera. the haughtiness in her expression running through her fingertips as she moves in the way her girls’ hip hop teacher had taught them just a week ago -- sensual, but powerful.

it didn’t need to be sexy -- not for yuna, no. she just wanted it to be impactful.

memorable.

because wasn’t that the point of it all -- just as she turns one last time to face the camera, as the song fades, and her smile is dripping with confidence, chest heaving with the need to breathe -- 

( if she could help it ) yuna just wanted to be remembered for trying.

( and not failing, this time )

[tuliptiger]

I! Would also love to see this studied so we can use whatever the results are to help change the things we're able to. I have been sitting here trying to figure out how to word my thoughts though.

I disagree with the hypothesis that people are chronically understimulated or at least I disagree with that as a general statement. I think that we're plenty stimulated but more importantly people with all sorts of different interests find their own stimulation just fine.

I love nature and the natural world, merlin, ebird, Inaturalist and good old notebooks and field guides are my favorite activities to go outside and do. More than anything I love birding. I also have education in natural resources and plan to live out my life with that as a career.

That being said, this last field season I worked exclusively outside, four 10 hour days outside in an area I absolutely am in love with. I still stayed up, often into the following days, watching tiktok and "satisfying" videos. Looking back I think I was stressed from, well everything. Needing money to pay for everything, the world's entire situation and americas fucked up (sorry for the language but describing it would deserve it's own post) cultural and social shifts. (While I love my career natural resources notoriously doesn't pay well, at least not the FS)

Those videos never actually made me feel better and often ruined the following day, anything I learned was questionable at best and completely devastating at worst, and the ratio of actual content I'd care about vs the rest of it was completely drowned out by the sheer volume of the library of content.

I found bird feathers and animal bones (environmental story telling forest edition), looked at bugs, spotted every animal and bird I could lay my eyes on. My crew and I would eat local berries and take breaks under the bluest sky I've ever been under, experience the awe-some views and sounds of being so far away from civilization the only way to contact us was through our radios.

That did NOT change my consumption of "stim videos" and quick content. My knowledge, curiosity, and adoration of nature was not correlated with my media use. Maybe for some people those things can be related, we're people and we're variable and nebulous but I think the issue is deeper than people being understimulated both mentally and physically.

If I had to put in a guess I'd say the larger issue is honestly stress, work and value (capital, value, worth) culture ie if you aren't creating value you are worthless. I'd also wager in correlation with these constant feelings of needing to be active and creating value, people are uncomfortable with being bored more than anything else these days.

(Sarcasm) If you're bored you can and should be making money right? How else is anyone going to pay their bills, go on vacation, have a stable life, or retire? Don't be lazy and stop staring at bugs. (End of Sarcasm)

I do not think boredom is bad at this point in my life, I'd even go as far as to say it's necessary (this would deserve it's own post to explain what I mean by this but I hope the meaning is clear enough) But capitalism doesn't have any room or patience for boredom, inactivity and monetarily valueless exploration. That's only good for your long term health and wellbeing and unsatisfied, ill people spend more money.

Addition: I rambled way too much, I am not currently good at condensing information. I just wanted to add on another piece of the puzzle, because it's really not one big thing it's a thousand different things I think.

Anyway...I just wanted to add that our infrastructure is so unfriendly to people just existing let alone exploring in urban AND rural areas it makes me furious. Birding these last couple years has really exposed me to this too. I can almost never find safe locations to pull off of roads to set up my binos or spotting scope to look at birds. Cities rarely have TRUE "loiter" friendly areas, parks are ok but USUALLY not the best for the purpose of learning about ecosystems or native ecology (unless you have a really cool city planner/city council that built parks around the idea of the local ecosystems).

I have never felt safe or welcome in residential areas either and they aren't particularly interesting in terms of biodiversity. Down town areas are out of the question due to noise, population and overall lack of the natural world. Unless you're buying things from shopping areas people dont take too kindly to you checking out the bushes and grasses around either. Urban areas don't encourage a slower pace of life and curiosity for the natural to me.

Again, if I'm not spending or making money and I'm only interested in my pretty cheap and free hobby I'm not welcome. And the final thing, this is, of course, just from my experiences and the places I've traveled. This does not encompass the entire USA let alone the world nor does it cover everyone's lived or future experiences.

I would be interested in resources and studies of why this trend of stim videos and quick content is on the rise though. I don't think any of us will like the answers but it would be a step forward to shift our society hopefully. If nothing else it could give individuals the chance to learn something about their habits to make the change for themselves.

My random unsubstantiated hypothesis of the day: the popularity of "stim" videos, fidget toys, and other things like that is a warning sign that something's Deeply Wrong with our world.

Don't freak out. I am autistic. These things are not bad. However, can we just...take a second to notice how weird it is that there are entire social media accounts full of 10-second videos of things making crunching noises, people squishing slime in their hands, and objects clacking together, and that enjoying them is mainstream and normal?

It seems that nowadays, almost everyone exhibits sensory-seeking behavior, when just a decade ago, the idea of anyone having "sensory needs" was mostly obscure. It is a mainstream Thing to "crave" certain textures or repetitive sounds.

What's even weirder, is that it's not just that "stim" content is mainstream; the way everything on the internet is filmed seems to look more like "stim" content. TikToks frequently have a sensory-detail-oriented style that is highly unusual in older online content, honing in on the tactile, visual and auditory characteristics of whatever it's showing, whether that's an eye shadow palette or a cabin in a forest.

When an "influencer" markets their makeup brand, they film videos that almost...highlight that it's a physical substance that can be smudged and smeared around. Online models don't just wear clothes they're advertising, they run their hands over them and make the fabric swish and ripple.

I think this can be seen as a symptom of something wrong with the physical world we live in. I think that almost everyone is chronically understimulated.

Spending time alone in the forest has convinced me of this. The sensory world of a forest is not only much richer than any indoor environment, it is abundant with the sorts of sensations that people seem to "crave" chronically, and the more I've noticed and specifically focused on this, the more I've noticed that the "modern" human's surroundings are incredibly flat in what they offer to the senses.

First of all, forests are constantly permeated with a very soft wash of background noise that is now often absent in the indoor world. The sound of wind through trees has a physiological effect you can FEEL. It's always been a Thing that people are relaxed by white noise, which leads to us being put at ease by the ambient hum of air conditioning units, refrigerators and fans. But now, technology has become much more silent, and it's not at all out of place to hypothesize that environments without "ambient" white noise are detrimental to us.

Furthermore, a forest's ambience is full of rhythmic and melodic elements, whereas "indoor" sounds are often harsh, flat and irregular.

Secondly: the crunch. This is actually one of the most notably missing aspects of the indoor sensory world. Humans, when given access to crunchable things, will crunch them. And in a forest, crunchy things are everywhere. Bark, twigs and dry leaves have crisp and brittle qualities that only a few man-made objects have, and they are different with every type of plant and tree.

Most humans aren't in a lot of contact with things that are "destroyable" either, things you can toy with and tear to little bits in your hands. I think virtually everyone has restlessly torn up a scrap of paper or split a blade of grass with their thumbnail; it's a cliche. And since fidget toys in classrooms are becoming a subject of debate, I think it pays to remember that the vast majority of your ancestors learned everything they knew with a thousand "fidget toys" within arm's reach.

And there is of course mud, and clay, and dirt, and wet sand. I'm 100% serious, squishing mud and clay is vital to the human brain. Why do you think Play-Doh is such a staple elementary school toy. Why do you think mud is the universal cliche thing kids play in for fun. It's such a common "stim" category for a reason.

I could go on and on. It's insane how unstimulating most environments humans spend time in are. And this definitely contributes to ecological illiteracy, because people aren't prepared to comprehend how detailed the natural world is. There are dozens of species of fireflies in the United States, and thousands of species of moths. If you don't put herbicides on your lawn, there are likely at least 20 species of plant in a single square meter of it. I've counted at least 15 species of grass alone in my yard.

Would it be overreach to suggest that some vital perceptive abilities are just not fully developing in today's human? Like. I had to TEACH myself to be able, literally able, to perceive details of living things that were below a certain size, even though my eyes could detect those details, because I just wasn't accustomed to paying attention to things that small. I think something...happens when almost all the objects you interact with daily are human-made.

The people that think ADHD is caused by kids' brains being exposed to "too much stuff" by Electronic Devices...do not go outside, because spending a few minutes in a natural environment has more stimuli in it than a few hours of That Damn Phone.

A patch of tree bark the size of my phone's screen has more going on than my phone can display. When you start photographing lots of living organisms, you run into the strange and brain-shifting reality that your electronic device literally cannot create and store images big enough to show everything you, in real life, may notice about that organism.

[lindarifenews]

What is TikTok, Who Uses it, and Should Brands Care About It?

What is TikTok in three words? Real short videos.

Or, as The Verge put it in a few more words, it’s “the closest thing we have to Vine,” the former video-sharing app owned by Twitter.

According to TechCrunch, TikTok is “the Instagram for the mobile video age.”

No matter how you describe it, the app is taking the digital world by storm, and marketers are taking note.

Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.

A short history of TikTok

Since the app launched in 2016, TikTok’s user base has grown to include more than 500 million people. It’s also just passed the one billion-downloads mark.

It shows no sign of slowing down, with a whopping 75 million sign ups in December 2018—up 275% from the previous year.

Those aren’t the only landmark figures worth noting. The app, which is especially popular with Gen Z, has already courted controversy.

In February, TikTok was fined a record $5.7 million over child privacy law violations. And the app has come under scrutiny for child nudity and solicitation.

In response, TikTok has increased security measures and launched online safety campaigns, teaming up most recently with Internet Matters.

But is TikTok as big a deal as it seems? Is TikTok a good fit for you brand? Luckily, we have answers.

Learn about TikTok stats, demographics, and early brand content to decide if it’s time for your brand to get on board.

What is TikTok?

TikTok bills itself as a “destination for short-form mobile videos,” but of course it comes with all the trappings of a social media community, too.

Video creators can share vertical, looping videos between 15 and 60 seconds in length. An extensive editing toolkit, with an array or filters and effects, and a massive music library, lets users tune and score their content to clever and comedic effect.

TikTok is often mistaken as a lip-syncing app. This is likely because it was preceded by Musical.ly, a social app that was built around just that.

In 2017, TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance, purchased Musical.ly for $800 million. Bytedance had already launched Douyin, the forerunner to TikTok, in China. After acquiring Musical.ly, the two platforms merged and launched TikTok.

In China, the app still goes by its original name, Douyin.

https://t.co/vaIuTLbM5y announces at their party in Hollywood last night that they are now #TikTok!! Excited for this rebrand and merger, it will be more appealing to a wider age range of users and creators. pic.twitter.com/ju9ojSWsG6

— CJ OperAmericano (@OperAmericano) August 2, 2018

Key TikTok stats:

In February 2019, TikTok exceeded one billion installs from the App Store and Google Play. More than half of these installs occurred in 2018.

Valued at $75 billion, TikTok’s parent company Bytedance surpassed Uber to become the world’s most valuable start-up.

By November 2018, the TikTok app was downloaded nearly 80 million times in the United States.

Sensor Tower estimates TikTok made approximately $3.5 million in October 2018 from in-app purchases.

In November 2018, Facebook released Lasso, a “clone” of the TIkTok app that is currently only available in the United States.

How does TikTok work?

From TikTok’s algorithm, to duets and hashtag challenges, there are many facets of the TikTok platform worth knowing.

What can you do on it?

Here’s a point-by-point summary of the main things you can do on TikTok.

Videos

Watching and creating videos are central to the TikTok experience. Videos and slideshows can be uploaded or created in-app with stop and start recording, timers, and other effects.

Music

TikTok’s extensive music library and integration with Apple Music is where the app edges out all other social platforms.

Creators can add, remix, save, and discover songs and sounds via playlists, videos, and more. According to Genius, TikTok plays a big role in helping tracks climb the charts.

Video editing

During post creation, users can apply visual filters, time effects, split screens, transitions, stickers, GIFs, emoji, and other effects.

Interaction

TikTok users can follow accounts that they like, and give hearts, comments or shares on videos they enjoy. Videos, hashtags, sounds, and effects can be added to a user’s Favorites section.

Virtual money

TikTok offers in-app purchases of coins, which users can buy to give to creators. Prices for coins start at $1.39 for 100, and go up to $139.00 for 10,000.

Live streaming

Some creators have the ability to livestream on TikTok.

Profiles

In addition to tallying followers and accounts followed, TikTok user profiles also show how many hearts the user’s content has received. As on Twitter and Instagram, official accounts are given blue checkmarks. Popular creators are also designated with orange checkmarks.

How do people typically use it?

TikTok is at times hilarious, searing, bewildering, and poignant. Creative users have already found an abundance of ways to express themselves on the app.

Trends on TikTok move fast, but here are the main ones that have found lasting power.

Challenges

TikTok challenges typically prompt users with a popular song or hashtag like #LiteralLyrics or #AirplaneChallenge to create their own video around the theme. Challenges can go viral fast, especially since TikTok often features the hashtag on the search page.

Late night host Jimmy Fallon helped increase the app’s mainstream visibility when he launched his own hashtag challenge, #TumbleweedChallenge, on his show.

Duets

Duets are a popular collaborative feature on TikTok that allows users to take another person’s video and add themselves to it. These videos typically play on a call-and-response format, with room for a partner inherently built into them.

Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.

Cringe videos

Cringe compilations may be difficult for the pre-YouTube generation to wrap their heads around. Essentially, these videos aim to make audiences cringe with painfully-awkward-yet-supposedly-sincere performances. Cringe videos often creep their way into challenges and duets.

Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.

Get the free guide right now!

React videos

Under the share option of someone’s video, users can choose to post a reaction. YouTubers may have pioneered the reaction genre, but TikTok users have perfected it. A user can record their reaction while the video plays, and then position where they want their overlay video to play alongside the original.

The TikTok algorithm

Like most social media platforms, TikTok is all about user-generated content. But unlike Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other sites, TikTok revolves less around people you follow, and more around introducing users to new content.

Fed by its algorithm, the TikTok For You feed shows users content it thinks they will like, and makes adjustments based on their behavior over time. As New York Times columnist John Herrman put it, “Imagine a version of Facebook that was able to fill your feed before you’d friended a single person. That’s TikTok.”

TikTok demographics

TikTok and its parent company Bytedance are guarded when it comes to sharing statistics and user data, but here’s what we know so far.

Age

Tik Tok is especially popular with teenagers, a demographic commonly referred to as Generation Z. According to Global Web Index, 41% of TikTok users are between 16 and 24 years old.

On Douyin, in China, 75% of users are between 18 and 35 years old. Unsurprisingly, this segment also happens to be the most active on the app.

Geography

TikTok, under its native Douyin alias, is of course popular on its home turf in China where it has 500 million monthly active users.

While China may be the biggest user base, TikTok is available in 154 countries worldwide, with 40% of its users located outside China.

India has a particularly large user base, and accounts for approximately 25% of app downloads to date. In Thailand, a reported one in seven people have downloaded the app. And in Japan, the app had approximately 9.5 million monthly active users in the last quarter of 2018, with an average of six sessions per day.

In the United States, the TikTok app has been downloaded more than 96 million times.

Gender

In an interview with Glossy, Jenny Lang, managing partner of Integrated Investment at UM Worldwide, notes that TikTok has an actively engaged female audience. Within the 16-24 year-old age range, she says the app has a reach of 60 %.

In China, the male-to-female gender ratio on Douyin sits at approximately 4:6.

Should brands pay attention to TikTok?

If Gen Z is a target demographic and your brand is not on TikTok, you may be missing out. But even if your brand targets a different age range, teenagers tend to be ahead of the curve with spotting what’s cool before it’s really cool.

Think this is the first real ad campaign I’ve seen on @tiktok_us. @kerrymflynn pic.twitter.com/zt3JcSYCz0

— chris harihar (@chrisharihar) January 26, 2019

Advertising on TikTok

The list of brands on TikTok already includes Nike, Fenty Beauty, and Apple Music. While TikTok has yet to unveil advertiser options in North America, it has apparently been testing in-app ads since as early as January 2019. A few ad sightings have already been reported, including a Disney Kingdom Hearts promo.

Rolling through TikTok and got an ad from Specialized Bikes that just takes you to their profile when you tap “Learn more” but then brings up “video ads do not support this feature” when you tap on the promoted music track. pic.twitter.com/hBmedThVON

— Jeff Higgins Can See Out Of His Eye Again! (@ItsJeffHiggins) February 14, 2019

According to Nanjing Marketing Group, the Chinese version of the app (Douyin) sells splash and newsfeed ad placements that cost up to one million Renminbi per day (roughly 200,000 CAD). These ad placements, as well as native video ads and branded Hashtag Challenge ads, are available in Japan as well.

Sponsored ads for Five Feet Apart, a film starring teen heartthrob Cole Sprouse, have also been appearing in the upper carousel of TikTok’s search page feed. The ad includes a sponsor disclaimer and includes the option to buy tickets in the app.

Branded hashtag challenges

Guess was the first fashion retailer to enter the fray in September 2018, partnering with TikTok to create the first branded content takeover in the US. The #InMyDenim hashtag challenge tapped prominent content creators to demonstrate how Guess transforms looks from blah to banging, and was able to rack in more than 37 million views.

Calvin Klein’s “My Calvin” campaign reportedly earned 10 times the engagement it had on a similar initiative it ran in 2015 starring Justin Bieber, reports Glossy.

Influencer marketing on TikTok

Some brands, such as Universal Pictures have dabbled in TikTok influencer marketing campaigns. To promote the premiere of its film, The House with a Clock in its Walls, the studio scouted popular creators to share branded content.

Douyin is reportedly signing contracts with influencers in China, some of who make up to 100,000 Renminbi per post (almost $20,000 CAD). Because the app does not track account creation and video posting dates, some caution that bots and faux-influencers are harder to spot.

Branded stickers on TikTok

Just in time for the Super Bowl, TikTok released NFL Player AR stickers, a product comparable to Snapchat’s branded stickers and filters.

Specializing in short highlights means there’s lots of room for sports brands to get in on the action, as evidenced by Red Bull’s feed. The professional soccer team Inter Milan also joined TikTok in December 2018 in a bid to better connect with young audiences.

For its part, Tik Tok has released a full-fledged ad campaign of its own, targeting the North American market on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.

Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.

The post What is TikTok, Who Uses it, and Should Brands Care About It? appeared first on Hootsuite Social Media Management.

What is TikTok, Who Uses it, and Should Brands Care About It? published first on https://likesfollowersclub.tumblr.com/

[kadobeclothing]

8 Social Media Platforms That Weren’t Founded in the U.S.

In 2018, North America discovered a viral new app called TikTok. Within just a year and a half of its launch, it reportedly grew to over 800 million active users.

As tech journalists and bloggers dug into the origin of the odd video app, some were surprised to discover that TikTok, which took America by storm, was actually inspired by an app created by the same company in China.

Researching social media platforms not founded in the U.S. can be helpful when trying to learn about audiences that live in other countries, especially those that live in highly censored areas like China or Russia. In areas like these, where people might not be able to access common U.S.-based networks, like Facebook or YouTube, tech companies have built their own social media empires. Whether you’re interested in international marketing, or just want to learn more about how audiences around the world interact with the internet, learning about the top global platforms that weren’t created in Silicon Valley can be an eye-opening experience. Below, I’ll walk you through eight of the most popular social media platforms around the globe, including TikTok’s origin platform — Douyin. 8 of the Biggest Global Social Media Platforms QZone and QQ Owner: Tencent Origin: China (Available globally, Chinese language-only) Name’s Origin: QZone and QQ were shortened from the original name, OICQ. The O stood for “open” while ICQ is an instant message term that sounds like “I Seek You” when said allowed. Reported Users: 517 million active users on QZone with 653 million monthly users on QQ. QZone is a social media channel while QQ is a messaging app that links to a QZone account. The two apps serve as an alternative to Facebook in countries like China and South Korea, where the U.S. platform is blocked. The overall platform’s story began in 1999 when QQ launched as a desktop messaging site. QZone, a social media site and app, launched in 2005. In 2019, as mobile-first mindsets grew in millennial and Gen Z audiences, Tencent transformed the QQ website into a standalone app. QZone still serves as a social media platform while QQ is now similar to the Facebook Messenger app. To help you better visualize how people have used QQ and QZone, here’s a quick analogy: When U.S. millennials like me were children, we raced home from school to message our friends on AIM. Then, as we reached our high school years, we ventured onto Facebook, where we could message people, create a profile, and post updates. Meanwhile, in China, people in my age group might have messaged friends on QQ’s messaging website instead of AIM. Now, QQ users might use its sister app — QZone — for a social media experience that’s comparable to Facebook. Then, to message friends, they use QQ. Here’s an example of a current QZone profile that shows just how similar the platform is to Facebook:

Source On QZone, users are encouraged to publish posts, videos, or even music. Like Facebook, they can also connect with friends, see a feed of updates, comment, share or react to posts, and update cover or profile photos. The QQ and QZone are great examples of a social media brand that gained traction long before we signed on to well-known platforms owned by U.S. tech firms. The usership of QQ and QZone might be so strong in China because young audiences discovered the brand for its messaging tool and were able to join and enjoy its full social media network later on. Although Facebook launched 2004, one year before QZone came out, Tencent had already captured the millennial demographic with QQ, figured out how to grow its product competitively with QZone, and continued to add features to pull in Gen Z audiences. While QZone and QQ seem like Facebook alternatives, their history of growth is fairly parallel. And, as one of the ten biggest social media platforms globally, QZone is worth knowing about if you plan to market to Asian territories with heavy censorship. WeChat/Weixin Owner: Tencent Origin: China (Available globally) Name’s Origin: The app’s original name was Weixin, which translates to “micro letters.” In a play to become a more globally used app, Weixin rebranded to WeChat in 2012, Reported Users: 1 billion active users WeChat launched in 2011, before competitors like Kik and WhatsApp. The messaging app was rolled out by Tencent, which also created QZone and QQ. Similarly to WhatsApp, WeChat allows free text-based chats and voice calls. It also has a Moments feature similar to Instagram or Facebook Stories. Like many U.S. platforms, you can place fun animated stickers and filters on images or videos sent within the app. To join WeChat, users need to know someone on the platform and have them scan an activation code that a user receives when logging in for the first time. Once users are logged in, they can access WeChat’s messaging feature, send video messages to friends, and host virtual phone calls with one or more contacts.

Source Aside from using the platform for friend-to-friend communication, users can also take advantage of more entertaining features. For example, while one feature allows people to play in-app games live against friends, others include video or photo filters that can be used in chats or video calls. Here’s a quick video that shows a popular game being played on the WeChat app:

WeChat also connects to a number of third-party or Tencent-owned apps so that a user can take on multiple tasks, like hailing a ride or paying friends money, directly from WeChat.

Source At this point, Facebook, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and other major social media apps are using a similar strategy of pulling additional features into their platforms to keep users logged in longer. For example, many of today’s top messengers allow group video calls, offer in-app games, or let users send money. Weibo (Also known as Sina Weibo) Owner: Sina Corp. Origin: China (Available globally with text in Chinese.) Platform Name Translation: Loosely translates “microblogging.” Reported Users: Projected to hit 500 million monthly active users in 2020 Weibo, also called Sina Weibo, is the biggest Chinese microblogging and social media platform. The social channel made news in 2017 when it reached more monthly active users than Twitter. Since then the app’s continued to grow. Reports suggest that more than 30% of Chinese internet users now have an account on the platform. When you visit the website, it’s automatically in Chinese. However, you can use Google Chrome’s translator to convert the text to different languages. To give you a better idea of how Weibo works, here’s what its desktop site looks like with the English translation turned on.

Like Twitter, Weibo offers a central feed where you can see the latest or highest performing posts. To toggle through different types of posts, you can click a category on the list in the left sidebar. On the left, you can log in to an account and see “Hot Topics” similar to Twitter’s “Trending Topics.” If you continue to scroll down, you’ll also see a box that allows you to search for people — similarly to Twitter’s “Who to follow” block. To help you see just how similar these two platforms are, here’s a picture of Twitter’s feed.

While Weibo’s layout and microblogging mission is similar to Twitter’s, the Chinese platform emphasizes videos, photos, and trending content, while Twitter still puts an emphasis on the accounts sharing the content. Although Twitter also prioritizes trending content, you can easily see which of your followers posted, liked, or retweeted it before seeing the content in a tweet. This allows audiences to subconsciously focus on the person who tweeted something as well as the tweet itself. These slightly different layouts might also suggest that the audiences of each platform prefer to consume content differently. While Twitter’s audience might prefer the human connection aspect of its site, those on Weibo might want to jump straight to the content. Douyin Owner: ByteDance Origin Country: China (Available only in China: TikTok is available globally) Name’s Origin: Douyin loosely translates to “shaking sound” or “vibrato.” Reported Number of Users: 400 million active users Douyin is the Chinese-only counterpart to TikTok, which is owned by the same company. TikTok specifically is a merger of Douyin and the Musical.ly lip-syncing app. Both social media apps specialize in allowing users to create, edit, and share short-form vertical video that’s less than 60 seconds. After Douyin launched in early 2018, it grew to 150 million active users in year one. ByteDance then purchased a similar lip-syncing app called Musical.ly and created TikTok, a global app that merged the best features from each original app. Since launching in late 2018, TikTok’s also seen viral growth by gaining roughly 800 million active users. Like Douyin, TikTok also sees a large number of international influencers from countries like India. While Douyin and TikTok are very similar short-video apps and are often confused as the same thing, they have a slightly different set of features, are powered by different servers, and have different levels of censorship due to regulations around the world. Douyin isn’t accessible for us to preview in the U.S., but news outlets describe it as being even more advanced than TikTok — particularly when it comes to ecommerce. For example, while TikTok just recently rolled out advertising options, Douyin reportedly allows users to triple-tap a video with a product featured in it to go to a brand’s ecommerce store. Users can also use the app for virtual tours of hotels, stores, or travel locations, and then visit the websites affiliated with these tours. Unlike TikTok, Douyin also reportedly allows users to geotag themselves at a store or location. This could be helpful for providing brand awareness to local brands. When it comes to what Douyin and TikTok have in common, both are apps where users can share short videos that can feature musical overlays, fun filters, and text overlays. Videos on each platform must be 60-seconds or less. From photos I’ve dug up online, it looks like the platform’s design is very similar with some slight design differences. The screenshots below show a video ad and the platform’s search feature:

Source As a comparison, here’s what a video ad and the search feature look like on TikTok:

Both apps are also centered around a video feed that algorithmically shows users videos from followers or videos that they might enjoy based on previous content they’ve viewed on the app. When users enter the app and see the feed, one video will begin playing automatically. To see other videos, users simply swipe up on that feed. Here’s what this looks like on TikTok:

Aside from the shared features, both fast-paced social media channels are favored by younger generations — especially Gen Z. While over 50% of TikTok’s audience is younger than 34, it’s also been reported that Gen Z has flocked to Douyin. Douyin and TikTok’s success story is a great example of how one unique international platform can change the way we consume content in other countries. Prior to TikTok’s launch in the Western hemisphere, many Americans hadn’t seen anything similar to it since Vine — a similar short video app and feed that was discontinued by Twitter in 2016. Not only did Douyin and TikTok replace the need for Vine, but both apps also catered to Gen-Z and Millennials, two mobile-first generations known for short online attention spans and heavy consumption of video content. Kuaishou Owner: Kuaishou Technologies Country of Origin: China Name Origin: No translation could be found. Number of users: 400 million monthly active users Kuaishou is a short-video app that competes with Douyin. This platform started as a GIF sharing site called Kuaishou GIF. It was like GIPHY in the sense that anyone could create, post, and share GIFs on the network. In 2012, Kuaishou dropped GIF from its name and pivoted to a short video platform. Its interface is now very similar to Instagram’s. It doesn’t have a Stories feature like Instagram, but it features similarly looking profile formats and feeds where users share short vertical videos rather than photos or other content.

Source Like Douyin or TikTok, the video features of Kuaishou seem fairly similar in that users can leverage sound bites and basic editing tools in their content. Like many social media platforms with videos, Kuaishou also allows users to overlay text and stickers to images or videos.

Source From looking at a variety of videos that have been uploaded on to other sites from this platform, it seems like many Chinese residents have used this app to highlight their unique skills and musical talent. Here’s a video that highlights multiple short videos on the platform: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0JCLvFVfDU A number of users have also shared videos that highlight and celebrate aspects of rural China. Here’s an example that Kuaishou posted on its own YouTube page:

In 2019, Apple distinguished Kuaishou as a global app that was defining mobile video storytelling trends. This came shortly after the app notably added ecommerce and monetization features that enabled creators in poverty-stricken rural China to make money from it. Aside from its short-videos, Kuaishou also allows users to live stream content to their friends or followers on the platform. Similarly to the short video feature, the stream has allowed users to film longer videos that highlight their skills. VKontakte (VK) Owner: Mail.Ru Group Country of Origin: Russia Name’s English Translation: VKontakte loosely translates to “in contact with.” Reported Number of Users: 500 million users VK, the biggest social channel in Russia, is like a mix between Facebook, YouTube, and the illegal ’90s downloading service LimeWire. This platform allows users to publish and share text-based posts, photos, video files, and music files with their connections. When it comes to this platform’s user interface, it looks eerily similar to Facebook, with some slight tweaks to page layouts. Here’s what VK’s main feed looks like:

Source And, here’s an example of what a profile page looks like:

Source Aside from allowing users to share their own content, they can allegedly upload and stream copyrighted material such as music and movies. This has allegedly been abundant on the platform since its launch, but legal steps have not been taken against it. The social platform is owned by Mail.Ru Group, a tech company that owns Russia’s main search engines and OK.RU, a social platform noted below. Reports also suggest that this company has affiliations with the Russian government. At the moment, some experts suggest that liberal-minded internet users spend time on Facebook, Russia’s more conservative users spend time on Mail.Ru-owned sites. In a recent Vice article, one user from Moscow described how Facebook was seen as a liberal network. “It’s become more ‘woke’ to be on Facebook because most Russian liberal intellectuals use it,” the user explained. “It’s kind of like Twitter for us, it’s where you follow people when you want to see what they think.” It is interesting to think that while U.S. internet users of all political backgrounds tend to argue their points on Facebook, people with certain political affiliations might stick to using one platform or another based on political affiliations in countries like Russia. Odnoklassniki (Shorthand name: OK.RU) Owner: Mail.Ru Group Country of Origin: Russia Name’s English Translation: Odnoklassniki translates to “classmate.” Reported Number of Users: 200 million users Odnoklassniki, or OK.RU, is a website that specializes in connecting people with their past classmates. The social media platform is set up like a blog, similar to Tumblr, where users can share life updates, images, or videos, which then show up in other user’s home page feeds. Along with their classmates’ content, a sidebar shows users the most popular videos that have been posted on the platform. Below is a look at the feed. While the site is in Russian, I’ve used Google Chrome to translate it so you can get a better idea of what people are posting.

Like Tumblr, users can also click on the name or image of another user in a post to find that person’s profile. These profiles are similar to Facebook’s layout in that they show a cover photo, a user’s top followers (called “participants” in the image below), and then a feed of their own content.

While this platform is similar to both Tumblr and Facebook, Russian citizens don’t commonly use those two platforms as much as OK.RU. Additionally, with warnings that Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram could be banned in Russia, it’s not shocking that tech companies in this region have innovated to create similar alternative platforms. As we’ve seen with the Chinese platforms on this list, many of the top global social platforms have been inspired by or created as an alternative to U.S.-origin sites that were censored or censored. These continent-specific social media industries could be a theme we continue seeing in different areas of the world. If you’re an international marketer, it can be helpful to identify segments of your audiences that might not be able to access the platforms you use for social media marketing. As you do this, you should also research any alternatives that you can access to promote your content or product in those audience’s locations. The Similarities of Global Social Platforms Despite their critical differences, social media industries around the world have some fascinating similarities to that of the U.S. For example, while many of North America’s most prominent social media apps are owned by Facebook or were created in Silicon Valley. Most prominent global platforms were created by Tencent or other major tech firms based in China. Similarly, the two biggest Russian platforms are owned by the same company. Although many of the apps above were created and launched in highly censored areas, they don’t seem to be falling behind on innovation due to these governances. Because international social platforms have evolved on a similar timeline as many common U.S. platforms, it seems like these geographies are building their own parallel social media industries, rather than just racing to create alternatives to our own platforms. One thing that does seem different between international and domestically launched social media platforms is that many of the examples on this list emphasize direct communication more than content, while our own platforms emphasize content and user experience. While every social media platform we use today does have messenger with various features, only a few of them are or were ever standalone messengers. For example, QZone and WeChat built their initial audiences as messenger apps and broadened their features from there. Meanwhile, Snapchat and WhatsApp are the only top platforms that started as direct messengers. While Facebook Messenger is one of the most prominent text messaging platforms, it is an expansion of Facebook’s original News Feed-centered platform. If you’re interested in reaching international audiences, you should pay attention to the social media platforms they most commonly use, and what they use them for. This will give you insight on what types of content these groups engage with, what motivates them, and what strategies could persuade buying decisions. If you want to tap into an international audience, but can’t access some of the platforms on this list, you can alternatively consider testing out a campaign on a globally accessible platform like WhatsApp and WeChat.

Source link

source https://www.kadobeclothing.store/8-social-media-platforms-that-werent-founded-in-the-u-s/

[plogan721]

How to Start a Blog

It is the New Year, and there are people who want to start something new and different.  Writing is usually one of those hobbies that people want to start doing, but, for the most part, they are clueless on how to start or where to start.  10 years ago, I was in that same place most people are in when the itch to start writing kicks in.  I loved writing, but I was not sure if I had the skills to be a writer.  In the past, I was that person who had tons of spelling and grammar mistakes, and I did not care when I started my blogs. One of my problems was that I was always an impatient writer. This lead to being a careless writer. Another problem was I never did any research.  I wanted the paper to be done and done quickly.  If I did any research, I copied the text word for word without putting my spin into what I was reading and still meaning the same thing.

Photos from Pixabay

Side Note:  I want to take this moment to talk about the art of writing in general.  I find writing a lost art and a lost skill. We, as humans, may not like to write with pen and paper anymore, but in order to write an effective paper, both in pen and paper or digitally, you need to know how to write basic sentences.  Social media has made us lazy and I must admit at the time it includes me. We depend on the computer to correct our mistakes and this includes, spell checkers, grammar checkers, instead of watching what we say, and how we write it.

You should know the difference, for example, between words that sound the same but have two totally different meanings.  You should know where to insert a comma, and the difference between a noun, a pronoun, an adjective, and a preposition, and how to use it.  In social media, you SHOULD ALWAYS punctate a sentence with a period (.), an exclamation point (!), or a question mark (?), no matter what Twitter says.  A person should not try to figure out what you are trying to say to them in a Facebook post or Tweet.  Learn how to spell.  I am saying this because it does not matter if you want to be viewed as a professional writer to your friends on social media, or when you write for a blog or a business, the rules do not change.  Blogs may be more relaxed, but that’s about it.  Okay, rant over. Back to my story.

When I first started writing the papers that my teachers wanted, I did it on a typewriter or wrote it as older people would call, “long-hand”.  By the time I graduated from high school, the home computer started becoming a thing in the household.  Now we have smartphones, tablets, and all sorts of devices that make starting a blog easy and fun to start.  The key to writing is to have content that interesting, informative, and relatable.

Are blogs still a thing?

I was asked on Quora.com if starting a blog in 2020 was a silly idea, and it is not.  In fact in an age where Instagram, YouTube, Tiktok, and Snapchat are the marketing norm, writing a blog is still relevant today, as it was over 10 years ago when I first started.  Another fact is that some bloggers use their blogs as an addition to the vlogs that they put out.  Blogs today are more of a marketing tool to sell their products than to give out information about their products. For instance, If you have a brand to promote with products to sell on your website, you need content that promotes the very thing you want to sell.

For example, if you are a crafter and you sell paintings your life in the Columbus, Ohio area, You would create an e-commerce website with portraits of downtown, the Eastside, and Southside of the city.  You decide to create a portrait of a family enjoying the Ohio State Fair.  Once you have the concept of the painting, who the family is and represent, and what they are doing.  Next, you create a story about this family and why they are important on your blog website.  Perhaps, you may not want to do that, but write a post on how to bring life to your portraits or how to bring light and shadows to portraits for intermediates or the beginnings on how to paint for beginners. 

Tip: Whatever you decide to do on your blog, make it interesting, informative, and relatable to your website or brand.

So how do you start a blog?

I was looking to see how you start a blog in 2020.  Yes, I know how, but you have to remember that I started writing my blog 10 years ago, and well times have changed slightly. A person I found called Blog starter suggested you start a blog in these 6 simple steps:

1.    Pick a blog name.  to me, pick a name that is easy for a reader to remember and is not already taken.  For instance, I wanted to name my business and blog, P Lynn Designs.  Lynn is my legalized or government middle name. Of course, the “P” stands for Patricia.  The problem with it is there was already a blog with that spelling, and I did not want people and companies I deal with to get confused with that spelling.  I chose to use P. Lynne Designs because I always wanted to change the spelling of my middle name since the 10th grade (my parents had a fit about it), and a period (.) to further distance my blog and business from the other P Lynn Designs. Little did I know how much the website servers hate it.  Etsy still calls my shop, Plynne Designs.

2.   Get your blog online. Yes, it is important to find a self-hosting site.  I use SiteGround, and I could not have been any happy with the site.  Right now, all three blogs are still on Blogger, which is not a self-hosted site.  It is owned by Google, which means Google has a say so to the things you can and cannot do on your blog.  WordPress is the type of blog that most bloggers use.  Yes, there are sites like Wix, and it is a good blogging website, but you want something that can stand the test of time. I am very confident in Siteground. 

Also, register your blog with a domain name.  I use GoDaddy, but any hosting site that allows you to create a website or blog will allow you to create and register a domain name.  Godaddy is cheaper for the first year.  Renewals, however, are $17.00, at least that is what I paid yesterday.

Photo by Becca Clark for Pixabay

3.   Customize your blog.  Once you have created a blog name, registered the blog and domain name, you will want to pick a theme.  You can use the default theme, which is usually named after the year it was created (Twenty Nineteen is the theme that is currently activated on my new My Ambiance Life site), but if I were you, I would pick a theme that resonated with your blog.  Twenty Nineteen is not that theme, so I will have to change it.  Also, choose a theme that has a “parent-child relationship (main and sub-main pages).  We could get into plug-ins later, but there are thousands of plug-ins to suit the style you want to go into for your blog.  One tip:  do not fall in love with too many plug-ins.  The reason is a server is a great big computer, and if you fill your blog with too many plug-ins, it will take longer for the blog to load.  If your blog takes to long, you could push away some readers who only want to get to your post, read it, make a comment, and move on.

4.  Write and publish your first post.  Once you have customized your blog, it is time to write your first post.  It is important that reach your audience and provide the answers that they seek, even if your post is for mere entertainment.  Here is what I do in order to write a post from start to publish:

With that being said, when I first write a blog post, I plan it out. This takes about 15–20 minutes. Next, anything that I am not familiar with, even if I am well versed in the topic, I research the parts I am not familiar with. after the research, I write a rough draft, which takes about an hour or two. Then I proofread and edit the post. this takes about 30 minutes. Lastly, I will add photos, affiliate links, and other things that may draw a reader’s attention.

I tell readers that the way to start a blog post is to start with a concept.  Choose a topic.  I always use motorcycles as a starting point but this time I am not.  Let’s take Disney as a subject.  I know, there are Disney movies, property, theme parks, food in the theme parks, and shows.  Yes, you have to be able to break this Whenever you write a blog, it does not matter if it is 500 words or 5000 words, always plan out your topic and do your research, especially on a topic you are not familiar with. So, I would have to say that depending on what I have to do that day, it will take me about 24 hours from concept to publishing the post. This is an estimated time. Some posts may take a little longer, while others may be shorter than 24-hours. Once you have written and edited your post you want to

5.  Promote your blog.  After all, if you do not tell anyone that you have written a new blog post, how are you going to get clicks throughs and traffic.  I will admit that I have a hard time doing, and I have a degree in marketing.  Silly, huh?

There are many ways to promote your post.  Currently, I am in at least 5 groups whose sole purpose is to allow you to promote your blog posts and 3 groups that allow you to promote my YouTube channel.  I am also on 3 Twitter groups that allow blog post promotion, and I use Tailwind to promote my posts through Pinterest and Instagram.  About YouTube, while you are uploading your video to your channel, fill out your description of what the video is about.  You can place a call to action link in the description area.  This is where you can place a link to your blog and everything that links your social media to both the blog and video channel.

There are also websites that allow the promotion of blogs as well.  One such website I am on is Bloglovin.  The way Bloglovin works is you submit your blog to the site.  There is a code you put on your blog that allows Bloglovin to grab your post every time you post it on your blog.  That is all there is.  For those in fear of coding, it is super simple to plug it into the backend of your blog site or ask any teen to do it for you.  They would love to be paid a couple of dollars for the chance to sharpen their skills.  There is always a catch and, in this case, follow other bloggers and like their posts.

One word about marketing.  It is getting harder and harder to promote because of states like California, who a few weeks ago passed a law that if a person does not want to receive any communication from a third-party company, you, as the company they are communicating with have to honor that request, and you need to display it on your blog or website.  This is something that requires some more discussion on the matter, and since I live in the State of Ohio, the only way it affects me is if I am doing business with a customer who lives in California.  What you need to do is be strategic about marketing, and research what is allowed in your state or country because if you are not careful, marketing can cost you additional thousands of dollars over what you have estimated the cost to be in your yearly budget.

6.   Make money blogging.

This is a tricky subject as well.  I cannot tell you the full details on how, except what I am trying to do, which is through affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, and products. 

Tip: Find what works for you and your blog.  Do not try everything, because everything may not work for you and your type of business. 

This ties into promoting your blog:  Promote companies that are in line with your business and brand.  If you are a crafter, find craft companies that you use on s regular basis.  I love my Cricut Electronic Cutting Machine.  I have been using one since 2005 when the first one started selling.  I am now using the Cricut Maker exclusively, which not only cuts paper, but Balsa Wood, Acetate, and fabric to name a few materials.  I have every single type of blade this machine can use, and I have invested money for this machine.  I also have the older Cricut Explore (1st edition), but it is on standby, in case something goes wrong with the maker.  It almost did 5 weeks ago when Microsoft updated the operating system, and I found out the computer kicked out my Bluetooth for all Cricut machines because, hey, it was not made by Microsoft (the little turds), so, I couldn't work neither machine.   “This is the very reason why I do not like automatic updates, Microsoft, stop this nonsense.”

Yes, I sometimes promote the heck out of Cricut machines, including the EasyPress, which I need time to learn. But if you want to earn some money, you need to put in the work to allow your blog to earn that extra cash.  By the way, Cricut does not pay me to say these nice things about their products by giving them to me, I buy them with my own money.  There is that aspect too, which I will dive into through the year.

Well, another long blog post is done and ready to publish.  Remember these 6 principles to having a profitable blog, and I just touched the surface on this subject.  There is plenty of content to cover with blogging for beginners.  Blogging is not for everyone, and there is a 7th principle that I have not touched on, and that is what if you have to quit.  I have done that on a couple of blogs that I no longer write, and I will touch on that topic later.

Until then, be well, and do not give up.

from Blogger http://bit.ly/38J3EGj via IFTTT