#and i need to advertise on tiktok more (just post videos)

[dognightmare4]

look at vex from sackboy a big adventure (available on ps4 ps5 and pc (epic games and steam))

[mildmayfoxe]

11:55pm having so many thoughts and opinions and ideas about my business and not writing any of it down. can’t wait to go to bed and remember everything i’m thinking about tomorrow :)

[anemoiashifts]

why you should stop consuming media if you want to shift.

where your attention goes, is where energy will follow. the more you focus on something, the more real it becomes.

⭑.ᐟ i made a post a while ago saying “why you should get off social media if you want to shift”. id like to expand upon that a little more. so, here’s a “why you should stop consuming media” or at the very least “why you should consume media carefully”.

you are being programmed through everything — social media, music lyrics, television, advertising, the news. this is why meta wants tiktok b@nn3d so badly. its taking away their ability to control & their influence upon you because average people spend more time on tiktok then anything else. this can be extended to news networks because more and more people are using it as news sources. media, not just social, need your attention in order to program you. as someone who has taken classes marketing, the core of what my class was, was teaching someone to be the best manipulator. my professor said to always “play on people’s emotions”. anything that has the ability to take your attention away & live in a negative & distracted stake, is taking away your ability to create the life you want to live. a lot of — if not everything — is about power & controlling you for someones benefit.

taking this into account, you can now begin to understand why television shows are called television programs. it is programming you to think & behave & make purchases. for example, the human mind does not know the difference between real & fake. if something provokes an emotion out of you — that emotion it is still real, even it was brought on by fiction. the human brain cannot truly comprehend fiction. this is why people form such emotional attachments to fictional characters because our brains cannot distinguish that they are a character or a scenario is not real.

power comes from your attention & what you focus on; what emotion it provokes.

₊˚⊹♡ why is this relevant ?

your thoughts & feelings create your reality.

by waking up every morning after a shifting attempt & saying “i didn’t shift, im not in my desired reality” is what you’re affirming to yourself. when you roll over & scroll on your phone, you are taking your attention away from persisting that you are in the wish fulfilled. you aren’t focusing on that you have already shifted. every shifting tiktok video is affirming that you aren’t in your desired reality. it’s reinforcing that idea of “you’ll shift tonight” “who would do this in your desired reality” “___ in my desired reality” — that you are still here. it’s hardly ever said “you’ve already shifted” on tiktok. again, this circles back to “playing on people’s emotions” — desperation & excitement. keeping people in a loop of shifting content instead of actually wanting to experience it for yourself. i will admit, practically everyone is guilty of this — self included. it definitely doesn’t come from a place of malice & i doubt it’s always intentional on anyone’s part but it’s something to consider that every shifting video you come across is a reminder that you haven’t shifted yet.

limit what you consume. for example, if you keep listening to a sad song, you’re going to be sad & pulled back into a time in your life that no longer serves you. it removes you from the present. the brain has no concept of time as it is a man-made idea. by eliminating media entirely (or limiting / being mindful of what is being fed to you & taking nothing at face value), you are getting that power back.

media keeps you distracted. it keeps you focused on other things & not your manifestations. it constantly brings back you into the 3d. the longer you’re focused on the 3d, the further away you will be removed from your manifestations & you will be pulled into things that fuel others desires.

[artsekey]

I'd been seeing videos on Tiktok and Youtube about how younger Gen Z & Gen Alpha were demonstrating low computer literacy & below benchmark reading & writing skills, but-- like with many things on the internet-- I assumed most of what I read and watched was exaggerated. Hell, even if things were as bad as people were saying, it would be at least ~5 years before I started seeing the problem in higher education.

I was very wrong.

Of the many applications I've read this application season, only %6 percent demonstrated would I would consider a college-level mastery of language & grammar. The students writing these applications have been enrolled in university for at least two years, and have taken all fundamental courses. This means they've had classes dedicated to reading, writing, and literature analysis, and yet!

There are sentences I have to read over and over again to discern intent. Circular arguments that offer no actual substance. Errors in spelling and capitalization that spellcheck should've flagged.

At a glance, it's easy to trace this issue back to two things:

The state of education in the United States is abhorrent. Instructors are not paid enough, so schools-- particularly public schools-- take whatever instructors they can find.

COVID. The two year long gap in education, especially in high school, left many students struggling to keep up.

But I think there's a third culprit-- something I mentioned earlier in this post. A lack of computer literacy.

This subject has been covered extensively by multiple news outlets like the Washington Post and Raconteur, but as someone seeing it firsthand I wanted to add my voice to the rising chorus of concerned educators begging you to pay attention.

As the interface we use to engage with technology becomes more user friendly, the knowledge we need to access our files, photos, programs, & data becomes less and less important. Why do I need to know about directories if I can search my files in Windows (are you searching in Windows? Are you sure? Do you know what that bar you're typing into is part of? Where it's looking)? Maybe you don't have any files on your computer at all-- maybe they're on the cloud through OneDrive, or backed up through Google. Some of you reading this may know exactly where and how your files are stored. Many of you probably don't, and that's okay. For most people, being able to access a file in as short a time as possible is what they prioritize.

The problem is, when you as a consumer are only using a tool, you are intrinsically limited by the functions that tool is advertised to have. Worse yet, when the tool fails or is insufficient for what you need, you have no way of working outside of that tool. You'll need to consult an expert, which is usually expensive.

When you as a consumer understand a tool, your options are limitless. You can break it apart and put it back together in just the way you like, or you can identify what parts of the tool you need and search for more accessible or affordable options that focus more on your specific use-case.

The problem-- and to be clear, I do not blame Gen Z & Gen Alpha for what I'm about to outline-- is that this user-friendly interface has fostered a culture that no longer troubleshoots. If something on the computer doesn't work well, it's the computer's fault. It's UI should be more intuitive, and it it's not operating as expected, it's broken. What I'm seeing more and more of is that if something's broken, students stop there. They believe there's nothing they can do. They don't actively seek out solutions, they don't take to Google, they don't hop on Reddit to ask around; they just... stop. The gap in knowledge between where they stand and where they need to be to begin troubleshooting seems to wide and inaccessible (because the fundamental structure of files/directories is unknown to many) that they don't begin.

This isn't demonstrative of a lack of critical thinking, but without the drive to troubleshoot the number of opportunities to develop those critical thinking skills are greatly diminished. How do you communicate an issue to someone online? How do look for specific information? How do you determine whether that information is specifically helpful to you? If it isn't, what part of it is? This process fosters so many skills that I believe are at least partially linked to the ability to read and write effectively, and for so many of my students it feels like a complete non-starter.

We need basic computer classes back in schools. We need typing classes, we need digital media classes, we need classes that talk about computers outside of learning to code. Students need every opportunity to develop critical thinking skills and the ability to self-reflect & self correct, and in an age of misinformation & portable technology, it's more important now than ever.

[inthisuproar]

Was going to write this as a reply to something but realized it needed its own post.

The tl;dr is that, from the looks of it, Automattic absolutely has every intention of turning Tumblr into a marketing media platform.

I work for a marketing company. I build websites.

Specifically, I build websites on Wordpress.org, which is operated by the Wordpress Foundation.

The Wordpress Foundation is the non-profit counterpart to the for-profit company Automattic.

Automattic, as we know, is the company that currently owns Tumblr.

Now, the thing about Wordpress.org (not to be confused with Wordpress.com) is that it's very, VERY popular amongst small businesses. Not only can you build a fully-customizable website with relative ease, you can also add an online shop using another Automattic product: Woocommerce.

Not too long ago, I noticed a new feature was added to Woocommerce: A button next to each Woocommerce product which allows you to Blaze them to Tumblr right from the comfort of your dashboard:

This is what I get when I click that little "Blaze" button...

As someone who understands these tools, I understand the potential implications of these features:

The Blaze feature is basically an up-and-coming ad campaign system that's directly integrated with Woocommerce websites, which I think is the first ad marketing system of its kind. You don't have to log into a social media account to advertise your products, use a second-party integration, or even pay another service to manage your social media ads. It's all baked right into your business's website.

THIS is their planned money-maker, folks, not the rainbow checkmarks or crab armies. And the reason why Automattic would do this kind of thing is simple: Businesses are wealthier than individuals. By implementing a B2B service, Automattic can make more money off of Tumblr than user subscriptions and shoelaces will ever provide.

It's all the same song and dance. Businesses can now shove more ads into your face in a new, convenient fashion. It'll be ads that don't look like ads disguised amongst ads that do look like ads, just like it is with Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and literally every other marketing media service that calls itself a "social" media.

(Tumblr's new video feature? My guess is that it's there to prepare for video-format Blaze campaigns. Influencer-style videos are the only kind of ad format Gen-Z is receptive to, which is why you're suddenly seeing videos on every platform.)

All they really gotta do now is make Tumblr look appealing to the normies so they can draw in a userbase that isn't trying to escape the onslaught of commercialism that plagues other sites.

Tumblr is one of the last true social medias we have; a place where content is made purely for the sake of talking about it. But given the writing on the wall...I doubt it'll stay that way.

[sreegs]

Tumblr users like to build up a lot of myths about this site that still get thrown around like they're fact, but I think the biggest myth they've convinced themselves is true is that the site is unprofitable because of the users.

Tumblr's unprofitable because its model doesn't fly under the current state of internet advertising. It's also had a string of owners, leadership, and people in charge of coming up with ideas for Tumblr that don't know what they have and would be damned if they knew what to do with it. You can't make money on social media unless you collect worthwhile info from users to sell to advertisers. You also don't make money on social media by copying existing features.

Tumblr's core prop, which they has somehow survived Yahoo, Verizon, and now Automattic, is anonymity. You can't sell that information that you don't collect. Outside of that, Tumblr's a long-form blogging platform which flies in the face of short-form attention-grabbing content like Tiktok and Twitter.

The people who have been in charge of making decisions at Tumblr have never known what to do with it. A lot of them just copied other platforms' features. It got really frustrating working there, being forced to make something you knew would just languish for months before being left to rot or, hopefully, mercifully, be removed.

Meanwhile site improvements were neglected because they don't make a quick buck. This was the main reason I quit, because I just gave up on trying to make the place better only to be forced into adding a new feature that no one wants to use.

Case in point, Tumblr live. I can assure you that none of the engineers or the people who run the Staff blog, or anyone else who does actual work work at Tumblr, wanted to support it. It's not even the first time Tumblr had live video.

The thing is, though, I'm not sure that just improving the site without adding anything new would lead to long term success anyways. You need a steady stream of new users to replace the old. It's also incredibly expensive to run a social media site that hosts images and video. AND you have to moderate it, which is expensive and difficult. Even if Tumblr just made all these things better, I'm not convinced it would keep the site alive much longer. Tumblr's too expensive to maintain on this model that doesn't make enough money from advertising, and it's too expensive to be maintained on user donations.

Anyways, the point is, the Tumblr users that like to proudly declare they have the power to make this site lose money are actually helping the site make money by posting and using the site. Even if you have an ad-blocker never pay for merch or whatever, your presence and activity here adds to Tumblr's usership statistics, which they use to court more advertisers. The people who have actually been keeping this site unprofitable are the people who own it and the decision makers who dictate what the next feature will be.

[chronicoverthinker]

So uhm since people are talking about my tiktok I’m actually kinda upset about two things :

1-them saying that I’m accusing mokmoklen of queerbaiting when I’ve literally put a GIANT red disclaimer saying that I am in no way accusing the author since the story it’s still ongoing and I was just going to make a rundown of what the author has done recently that has made many upset with the recent chapter

2-that after reading my 30 slides all they’ve got was me saying that the queerbaiting is because Yoshiki’s ancestor is a woman WHICH IS NOT THE CASE AT ALL.

What has actually upset many , me included with hikarugashindaupdates as well who’s a dear friend of mine , is how mokmoklen has been backtracking from the original idea of the story and is now trying to erase all the subtext and implications of their feelings for one another.

When the story first started it was advertised as BL and horror , and the kind of dynamic she wanted to develop for Yoshiki and Hikaru was way different compared to what we got now (I talked about this in detail in my video so if you wanna know more look it up).

Around the beginning of volume 3 a shift happened. It first started with mokmoklen deciding to remove the BL tag , which tbh at that time still didn’t seem like that big of a deal. Especially to me , I’ve always felt like the story didn’t need to specifically be categorized as BL for Yoshiki and Hikaru’s feelings to shine through.

But then she started to make clear how “Hikaru” CANT whatsoever feel or understand human love.

Now this is where the first problems start , because in the first volumes you can clearly see that THIS is not the case AT ALL.

And it’s not proven only by his overall behavior in the story , but also from the art she used to post.

To be fair I wouldn’t even been mad about Yoshiki’s ancestor being a woman if you told me in volume 1 , because to me it was clear that Yoshiki and Hikaru loved each other.

And fundamentally speaking , since the story is still ongoing , I know that Yoshiki’s ancestor being a woman doesn’t really take anything from the possibility of Yoshiki and “Hikaru” still ending up together. But what truly upsets me about this it’s the intentions and the meaning behind this choice.

Plus the fact that mokmoklen made it clear that now Yoshiki doesn’t feel anything for “Hikaru”. It also worries me how she still hasn’t made Yoshiki open up about his feelings for the real Hikaru either. It’s as if what was so clear to us in the first volume is now being precluded to us for whatever reason.

Hikaru and Yoshiki’s love for each other and their homosexuality is one of the main points that makes them who their are and why they act in certain ways. Their struggles to accept their orientations in a closeted and homophobic village are what makes them such layered and complex characters.

And I literally concluded by saying that I do NOT believe that if this ever turns out to be queerbaiting she ever intended for any of this to happen since the beginning. Something is going on in her life because she has delated most of her BL works on her private accounts

[emptyjunior]

I know that tumblr feels a bit of superiority over tiktok, twitter, instagram and like they Should, holding on to a dash that is directly designed by you and your fellow bloggers gets infinitely more valuable by the day and we should be proud of keeping that (cause it Is something that needs to be fought for constantly!) but can I say I don't like the attitude that everyone else on every other app is dumb and they're all normies and we're the smart ones.

Like there are people who enjoy making video content! And they should have a place where they are safely able to do that. People should be able to discuss topics that are close to them like grief, sex, gender, they should be able to review scary movies and silly horror without any of that being watered down so that the app can still sell itself to advertisers. Musicians should be able to share their music without two distant corporations making deals that silence them and destroy their income. People should be able to share tiktoks criticising their government without a bill passing instantly to silence them

People should be able to use an app that is extremely beneficial to artists and fans without a megalomaniac buying it and finding ways to paywall every feature of a website that was already functional. Minors should be able to comment on the tv show they're watching without the replies being flooded with a robot sending them pornographic images.

People should be able to use the search function on their app without it being a literal AI chatbot?? They should be able to post art they care about and build an audience without it being scraped for parts. You should be able to just find things you're interested in without the person you want to see having to participate in a tier based subscription service to be able to be seen by you.

The users of these apps aren't 'foolish' because they weren't smart enough to try tumblr. It isn't a win every time they take a hit and their app gets marginally worse. It's sad!!! And it isn't right! Yes maybe they would enjoy it if they just abandoned what they're on and came here but they shouldn't have to! We shouldn't want them to! We should never want anyone to cede any space or resources to the hungry bastards that want to take advantage of people's online communities.

Like I'm not asking every tumblr user to get up in arms and fight for influencers on tiktok, you've got your own battles here and they've got theirs there but just reminding people that if you gloat about someone else's website getting suck-ier you are applauding the person doing that to them

[australianwomensnews]

I’m staring at a freeze-frame of a bare-chested man behind the text “Why is menopause painful?” when a woman’s head pops up from the corner of the screen, wavy haired and bespectacled.

“You know what’s painful in menopause?” she says. “Having to listen to pontificating shirtless dudes who have no idea what the f--- they’re talking about.”

The woman is Dr Jen Gunter, a Canadian-born, US-based gynaecologist and author who earned the moniker “vagina antichrist” after her searing critique of Gwyneth Paltrow’s $250 million wellness empire Goop in 2017, which was selling vaginal jade eggs, espousing the benefits of vaginal steaming and claiming bras caused cancer.

Seven years later, women are being bombarded with bad intel about their own bodies with rapid-fire repetition on TikTok and Instagram that trades on fear, often before hawking a pricey, unproven, potentially hazardous solution, Gunter says.

“Misinformation is the most pressing problem for women’s health today,” Gunter says before a visit to Sydney for National Science Week, including a speaking event at UNSW on August 15.

“These algorithms are creepy smart, and they favour fear,” she said. “It’s not just the original video we’re dealing with, it’s the people who stitch [which allows users to combine a video with a new video they create], then those videos get views and shares and comments, which [is rewarded by] the algorithm,” she said.

“We mistake repetition for accuracy. It’s very human. And once you are exposed to misinformation it’s very hard to then accept valid information.”

Social media may provide a vehicle for medical untruths, but it’s also a salve.

Gunter has 355,000 followers on TikTok, 289,000 on Instagram and 360,000 on X, and she’s not the only medical professional on TikTok and Instagram (not to mention scientists and official health departments and peak healthcare organisations) debunking wellness myths and providing science-backed information. Most are less sweary.

The proliferation of misinformation is understandable. It is what fills the vacuum when accurate, accessible information about women’s health is scarce.

“We know many women don’t get the healthcare they need because they are dismissed and sent home with pain. They are let down by the healthcare system, and that’s when predators or the wellness industry swoop in,” Gunter said.

Her targets include naturopaths, chiropractors, lifestyle coaches, and influencers who espouse unfounded and erroneous “health advice”.

An Instagram post that recently drew her ire was by a “body connection coach” with more than 13,000 followers who said she avoided cervical cancer screening, colonoscopies and mammograms before advertising her course for $750.

Gunter also responded to a TikTok (which had more than 677,000 likes) in which a woman recommended putting boric acid into one’s vagina to “be perfect down there”. Boric acid kills good bacteria as well as bad and is very irritating to the vaginal mucosa, Gunter told her followers.

The “worst myth” for Gunter, is the “hormone imbalance” trend, which co-opts hormonal health: the changes in hormones that influence the reproductive cycle, menstruation, puberty and menopause.

Proponents claim rebalancing hormones is responsible for an expanding array of ailments including gut problems and autoimmune diseases that can be treated with detoxes, ceasing hormonal contraception and hormone health courses.

“It’s a nonsensical thing, just a made-up term that people can turn it into whatever they want to suit their purposes,” she said.

Her approach has brought her admirers and vocal critics.

“I certainly get attacked a lot by other women,” she said. “I just want you to have the power that comes with knowledge about how your body works. You can do with it what you want.”

She recalls a patient whose husband had read online that contraceptive pills irrevocably damaged fertility.

“They were having a little trouble getting pregnant the second time, and she was literally sobbing on the floor thinking she had damaged her fertility by taking birth control pills. That is cruel,” Gunter said.

“When I started tackling misinformation online I thought I’d have this fixed in a few years, then I won’t have to have these conversations in the office any more. I was so naive.”

The spread of misinformation has been recognised by social media companies. Both TikTok and Meta employ mechanisms aimed at curbing its spread.

A spokesperson for Meta (which owns Instagram) said, “Meta is committed to stopping the spread of misinformation. We use a combination of enforcement technology, human review and independent fact-checkers to identify, review and take action on this type of content.”

In a statement, a spokesman for TikTok said, “Our Community Guidelines prohibit misinformation, including medical misinformation, that may cause significant harm to people, and we remove millions of pieces of content in Australia each year.”

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT SEO & MARKETING NEWS FOR ECOMMERCE, March 2024

Welcome to my roundup of SEO and marketing news and useful resources for ecommerce businesses, March edition. There is a lot going on with Google, and some really strong marketing pieces this time around, so let's get right to it.

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

Google launched both a core algorithm update and spam updates on March 5, with the spam update ending on the 20th. Core updates now include the Helpful Content algorithm. In early observations, Etsy and Reddit both picked up visibility in the UK. 

The Helpful Content algorithm updates late last year destroyed a lot of sites’ Google traffic. Avoid the things they had in common.  You can read the full study here. 

Ecommerce sites were some of the biggest losers in Google visibility in 2023, with Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Etsy, Target and Best Buy in the top 10 of sites whose Google appearances slipped. 

New to Google SEO? They’ve revamped their SEO starter guide for people like you. And if you are more advanced and want to learn how to optimize your website product pages, this is a good overview. 

This lengthy article on backlinks for ecommerce websites covers pretty much all the angles, including the really difficult ones. 

Reminder that if you want to rank on Google for a search term, you need to look at what is already ranking, and make decisions based on that content. [video and transcript] This works for most search engines, not just Google. 

Yes, Google crawls “high quality” content more often. I used to refer to this as Google thinking the page is “interesting”, so I guess I will need to change my wording...

While Google sends the most traffic to websites, people spend a lot more of their online time elsewhere. Market where people are, not just where your stats say they came from. 

Sadly, Google has stopped providing caches of website pages in its search results. While you can still see the caches of some pages by using the Google search Cache:[page link] as in cache:https://cindylouwho-2.tumblr.com that will eventually stop working as well. Bing still provides caches, but unfortunately both it and the Wayback Machine do not crawl often enough to give really recent results most of the time. 

Missed Google news in February? Here’s your update. And just in case you are really behind, here is January. 

Not Google

Unsure if your website has enough good backlinks? Bing Webmaster Tools will now tell you if you don’t. 

Yandex - the top search engine in Russia - was sold by its Dutch ownership group to a consortium in Russia. 

SOCIAL MEDIA - All Aspects, By Site

General

A US study of social media use found that the most popular site was YouTube, with 83% of adults using it. Two-thirds of American adults use Facebook, while TikTok is up to ��� of the US population. 

Because they do change periodically, here are the latest image and video sizes recommended for the top social media platforms. [infographic]

Bluesky is now open to everyone - it was previously invite-only. 

Facebook (includes relevant general news from Meta)

Meta has introduced several changes to its Ad options, applying to Facebook and Instagram. 

Meta had a great 4th quarter in 2023, with revenue, users, and earnings per share up. “Fast-growing upstarts Temu and Shein, which originated in China, have been pouring money into ads on Facebook and Instagram. Li said on Thursday that revenue from China-based advertisers accounted for 10% of sales for the year and 5 percentage points of growth.”

Instagram

An updated post on Instagram's algorithm and how it works. 

Instagram is still beta testing longer Reels for some users. 

If your account is a brand account, you can now run ads on Instagram with coupon codes right in them. (Some Facebook users can already do this.)

LinkedIn

Among other recent changes on LinkedIn, the algorithm is now looking to boost important content longer than just the first day or two after publication. 

Pinterest

Pinterest has its own stats package, called Pinterest Analytics, but only for “Business” accounts. They show how many people clicked on the outgoing links, how many people saw your pin on their screen, and much more. Here’s everything you need to know. 

Reddit

Reddit successfully launched on the stock market this past week, but questions remain about how this will change the site. 

Google is paying Reddit to scrape its content through the API instead of from the web. 

Snapchat

Snap was a little later than most tech companies doing layoffs recently, waiting until February 5 to let 10% off staff go. 

Threads

Threads is so new that the algorithm is bound to change a lot in the next year, but for right now, here is how it works. 

TikTok

There is an overwhelming amount of info out there on the US attempt to either ban TikTok or force its sale, and much of it is incomplete, so I will let you Google to your heart’s content if you want to learn more. If you are relying on TikTok to drive sales, this would be a good time to make sure you diversify your promotional strategy. 

You can now track trending terms on TikTok through the Creator Search Insights section. “Creator Search Insights will highlight frequently searched topics, which creators can organize by category (for example, tourism, sports, science) or tailor to their content type with the “For You” option. Additionally, creators can filter for “content gap” topics, which are highly searched but have relatively few videos on TikTok covering them.“

TikTok may be testing a photo app, which would obviously compete with Instagram. 

Twitter

What? Twitter may have lied about its Super Bowl ad performance? I’m so not shocked. 

Tumblr

Tumblr will be selling data access to AI companies. 

YouTube

This is a pretty decent article on YouTube SEO. 

(CONTENT) MARKETING (includes blogging, emails, and strategies) 

Small and micro-businesses need an email list. An email list is:  

portable (unlike most social media followers or marketplace buyers) 

is available to almost everyone, as we all need at least one email address if we are online

less susceptible to the whims of algorithms (unlike SEO, marketplaces, social etc.)  

I keep seeing people argue that no one opens emails, but the chart in the article above is proof that is still wrong. (My blog email list averages close to a 70% open rate, depending on the topic and the time I send it. My jewellery email list - which I hardly ever send to - still has an over 30% open rate. My click rates are well above the industry averages, usually 30 to 40% of all recipients for the blog list. These are much better numbers than social, and astronomically better than my clickthrough rate on Google and other search engines.)

Gmail and Yahoo both changed how they handle bulk emails such as newsletters in February. Here’s what you need to know on the basics, including authenticating yourself so your email gets through. 

Find out how to get people to read all the way to the end of your content. 

Get ready for April marketing with 5 topical ideas. National Handmade Day is April 6. 

We should all think twice before deciding to use AI to create content. “Circa 2024, generative AI does not produce new ideas or even develop its own conclusions. Rather, it regurgitates information that it has indexed.” Not convinced? Here’s another article. “AI-generated content represents the literal “average of everything online.”

ONLINE ADVERTISING (EXCEPT INDIVIDUAL SOCIAL MEDIA AND ECOMMERCE SITES) 

Google Ads can now be tracked in Google Analytics 4. 

Both Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising were up in the 4th quarter of 2023. 

STATS, DATA, TRACKING 

Google Analytics 4 tracks organic traffic differently than the previous version. Here’s how to figure it out. 

BUSINESS & CONSUMER TRENDS, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE 

I’ve probably posted this specific article before, but it is worth another read: how to communicate with customers.  For example, “Mirroring your customer’s tone lets them know you’re on their side. If a customer is formal, for example, hold back on the LOLs. If they’re more casual, relax your tone.”

According to a US study, Generation Z is skewing the traditional marketing funnel. “Per Archrival’s data, 77 per cent of Gen Zs and 79 per cent of millennials in the US are actively seeking style inspiration at least monthly, with almost half of those looking for style inspiration on social media. When asked where they learn about new brands, products and experiences, video reigns supreme: YouTube is the most popular platform with Gen Zs, followed by TikTok, then Instagram.”

Trend alert: bag charms are back. 

IMAGES, VIDEO, GRAPHIC DESIGN, & FREE ONLINE TOOLS

Almost all of these 12 video tools are free, and some can be used on your phone. 

MISCELLANEOUS

This is an older piece, but it checks out: IKEA Hacks for Craft Show Displays. A few of these could be done with non-IKEA items. 

Want to stay up-to-date on a nearly daily basis? Follow me on Bluesky or on LinkedIn, or become a member of my Patreon.

[wearepansies]

Just comment and I will put out a part two-

PJO MUSIC ARTIST AU:

Percy;

-His artist name is Black Jackson. (BLACKJACKson?? Get it??? He named himself after blackjack kind of???? Ok I’ll see myself out-)

-Because he was born in Manhattan, out of poverty, he never had much, so he’s pretty much the most down to earth celebrity ever(think Adam Sandler kind of? But more fashionable)

-Advocates a lot for people with learning disabilities, and domestic violence victims.

-He mostly writes inside the genres rock and alternative.

-His first big break was with his original album, “feelyng bleu”

-While we’re on that, all of his songs and albums are spelled wrong. At first it was a mistake, but Percy slowly just made it his own thing. Made him feel a lot better about his dyslexia.

- Is the nicest guy you’ll ever meet.

-He’s also a socially awkward, insecure mess though.

- He starts every concert of his off by thanking his Mother, and asking whether “ his audience is ready to fuck themselves up tonight??”

-Absolute bicon

-Has clips of his funny exchanges with interviewers all over YouTube

Annabeth;

-Just uses her actual name.

-She doesn’t see the point in trying to make a career under a fake name. Nah. She wants people SCREAMING her name from the audience.

-Contrary to that wish though, she’s not actually famous.

-It’s more like…a hobby she does for fun, but also dreams about turning into a career.

-In reality though, she’s an architecture student who really just needs money to fix the damn sink.

- She actually knew Percy WAY before he became famous, since they were eleven actually.

-Annabeths music is more like…alternative folk.

-She uses all sorts of architecture metaphors and terms in her music.

-She doesn’t sing about buildings though. She talks about all sorts of social class problems she thinks are important. The figurative, poetic architecture language she uses is just her musical signature(and a fun way to be nerdy).

-She has a decent amount of followers.

- Is rather cold when you meet her, but is secretly just a softie.

- Is the artist who makes songs based off books and posts them on TikTok (sorry not sorry)

-She also has a podcast that’s unfortunately more popular than her nonexistent music career lol.

- She wears lots of academic looking clothes, but also has lots of flow-y looking tops, and lots of chique Greek outfits because she loves embracing her culture.

- Is friends with everyone from the famous band “Ride or Die” (Beckendorf, Silena, Clarisse, Connor, Travis, and Katie)

Grover;

-Goes by the music name “Child of the W1ld”

-He’s not really a famous music artist honestly? More like a TikTok celebrity.

-He’s famous for his pan flute and ocarina covers of different songs.

-His most popular, aka the one that made him famous, was Celine Dion’s “my heart will go on”

-Posts all sorts of TikTok’s of him playing his instruments in random places lmao

-Is the most cottage core hipster to ever cottage core.

- He and Percy are besties! They support each other whenever they can, advertise, do videos, and just chill out and hang.

- They’re such opposites aesthetically though. People were actually so shocked when they first saw them together lmao.

- Whenever Percy uploads a new album or song, he’ll make a cover of it.

-Not only because he loves his best friend, but also because it’s challenging.

-Wears an alarming amount of skirts, and pants that go halfway to his calves.

[mostlyghostie]

I really really love your art, your posts on my dash always make me excited :) I’m hoping to buy Christmas gifts from your store for some bookish friends of mine (and probably get something for myself too lol). As a budding artist myself, I was wondering if you consider it worthwhile to post on Tumblr. I’ve seen mixed reviews on whether or not it’s helpful for creators to try to generate business on Tumblr and was hoping you would weigh in :) thank you, and happy holidays!

Ah thank you so much!

I’d say that even though Tumblr has no algorithm or features to specifically try and sell products like the other social networks, I have probably generated 60% of all my sales from here.

I’m sure that if I really wanted to, I could make more from concentrating fully on Instagram, but to be honest, it makes me anxious trying to compete for attention on there. Tumblr rewards you for posting good stuff whenever you feel like it- sometimes I’ll get a thousand notes and half a dozen sales based on a post I made a year ago that has picked up momentum again, whereas you can post something at the wrong time of day on Instagram and it will never be seen by anyone. I also don’t have the time to learn how to make professional looking videos and am not keen on putting my face all over the internet either, both of which are seemingly important for Instagram and TikTok.

I like the lack of hustle culture here too, I am not bothered at all if people like and interact with my work forever without buying anything, because I’m also just sharing my work for fun. I don’t feel like I need to grow my audience because it just kind of happens organically here.

If I had to make art my main source of income, I’d need to sell a lot more so I would then probably dive into the other apps, but I’d keep Tumblr too. Oh, the Blaze feature is actually pretty fantastic, once I worked out which of my artworks the Tumblr audience were actually interested in, it’s a very simple and quick way of advertising.

(Send me a message when you order and I’ll put some free stuff in for you!)

Saying all that- you can still follow me Instagram / Shop

[da12thkind]

Tumblr and The Old Internet Re-Awakens, An Opinion Essay

This is going to be a super long post about my thoughts on the current state of the internet, with a chunk of what I'm about to say having been stuff I've already said elsewhere on other sites. To save your dash, I'll be putting a READ MORE break.

The fact that Twitter and Reddit have basically been destroyed by their own hubris is both hilarious and sad. It's funny because "ha ha rich man's hubris" but also sad because this is very emblematic of the current direction many social media companies that have been at the top for too long are going.

Ever since the muskrat purchased Twitter, it was clear from the beginning that something seriously wrong had happened, with worse decisions to follow. Something I hadn't realized was just how extensive the ripple effects of this would be. Reddit is now being destroyed by their leader's desire for more and more money, as if they needed any more.

I've been having this conversation with my friends via Discord and with strangers on the Starmen dot net forums. The writing is on the walls. The internet is moving towards a future that caters to advertisers more than its users. If there's even the slightest hint of getting more money by screwing over users, the higher ups of a given site will be chomping at the bit.

Where does that leave us?

Well, with Reddit and Twitter both now in a state of complete and total self-destruction, albeit rather slowly, we have seen an influx of new and returning users. Fantastic! I love when an old place gets new life breathed into it.

That being said, I don't believe that Tumblr is the bastion of The Old Internet, far from it, and many of you would agree.

Instead, I think that the resurgence in Tumblr's popularity could be just the first step towards the return of The Old Internet. We have the power to go back to the days of making our own websites. Information on web design and web programming are available online for free, in addition to many places offering free hosting services for a basic website or blog that don't need many bells or whistles (just don't go to GoDaddy).

Tumblr, in my opinion, once you know how to use the advanced editing tools, can make for a great "Baby's First Web Blog." There are some users on here that have made GORGEOUS blogs that will absolutely blow you away.

What about peer-to-peer communications?

We've seen that Discord has been another victim to the plague that is internet gentrification. They've removed the discriminators for usernames, had a store put in, and so many other little changes that have consistently annoyed the end users.

That being said... Discord is not going to be falling apart anytime soon. It's still a fantastic way to connect with many people at once and have quick access to all your different communities.

However, you could make the case, and I certainly try to, that internet forums fulfill the same thing. It is true that forums for many topics have drifted into the void of internet history, but is that not simply the nature of the internet? Communities sprout up, thrive, have an internal way, break apart, and start anew. We've seen that with many Discord servers, albeit rather small ones.

I will still hold my ground that forums should be revitalized if we truly want to go back to the days of old.

What does the future hold?

I... don't know. Despite my vast horde of opinions, research, and second-hand accounts of what The Old Internet was like and how The Current Internet is becoming, I cannot say for absolute certainty that we will see a total collapse of these tech empires. At the very least, however, I do believe that they will become hollowed shells of their former selves.

I have yet to talk about YouTube and its history, and, to be quite frank with you all, I simply must avoid that topic for now. All I will say is that I implore my fellow content creators, specifically those that create Video On-Demand content for YouTube and TikTok, to look into creating your own websites to host your content in the event that something happens to these empires, too. If you don't have offline copies of your videos, do so when you can.

That will be it for now. Thank you for reading this essay. I love your faces. Stay safe.

[lucigraves]

Can't scroll through any social media without reporting/blocking an ad every other post. Personal creations get no traction. Endless amounts of art tossed into the void only to get drowned out beneath ads or bad faith opinions from someone with 100k followers (majority of whom are either bought or bots) who's completely lost touch with reality. Most social media runs exclusively off of a negative feedback loop, you spend so much time being angry at someone who hit post on something just for clicks. They don't think about you, they don't think about consequences because they're making $ off of you being upset.

Can't drive down a highway without being blinded by full LED screens bigger than my house advertising businesses I've known about for 10+ years. The cost of keeping every light on all 25 billboards in a 10 mile stretch would cover the cost of universal housing for the local area for 5+ years. 5 more storage units pop up in whatever land is left for sale.

Can't listen to a streaming service without an ad after every song. Can't listen to podcasts without 10-20 minutes of paid advertisements; all of them are either gacha games (gambling), weight-loss fads, pyramid schemes, therapy with unlicensed physicians who data mine your personal info or some brand you'd have to be living under a rock to not know. Every YouTube content creator makes videos exclusively about covering some topic or fad you should avoid on TikTok, seemingly bringing the topics even more attention than it had before; 30 minutes long with a 10 minute paid advertisement in the middle.

Can't make important phone calls without being met with automated help systems that never have an option for the issue you're having. If you're lucky enough to get sent to a real person you end up waiting 15+ minutes on hold and most of the time get disconnected before you get through, successfully wasting 30 minutes to an hour of you're limited free time.

Every streaming service has new shows and movies every day. One season, three if you're really lucky. And no more 12-24 episode series, now its 8 episodes, because that's whats bingeable. Nothing good approved for more than 2 seasons and maybe a double feature movie to tie up all of the loose ends they thought they had time to finish up before they dared to put a queer character in their cast. Is buying the media physically worth an ad every 20 minutes? Does it even exist physically; or is it another series that'll be lost to time because corporate noticed they can't make an extra $0.05 on every stream.

Every other ad is temu or shein, every product photo is blatantly ripped off of some individual creator on etsy who handmade the item and hasn't gotten a sale in 6 months. Every corporation relies on stealing from solo artists and creators and mass-producing their one-of-a-kind pieces. If they're lucky enough they'll be allowed to do a collab with a big company, all so they can make 2% of the profit.

All of this on top of having to work however many hours you need to to survive, to get by on (probably) the bare minimum, to scrape by. To pay rent to someone who owns 15 properties and charges you double what they pay monthly. Hoping (for your wallet's sake) that you don't have any emergencies lest you empty out what little savings you've been able to put aside. You get maybe 3 hours of free time in your day between keeping up with household needs. All of that, only to have to fight your way through all of the advertisements to try to enjoy the few minutes of free time you get for yourself.

I wish I could put this into words in a more palatable way, but I'm just so tired of being frustrated that so much of my limited time on earth is being wasted so someone else can make $0.0005 on 30 seconds of my life. I'm tired of being advertised to. There's so few places left worth my time on the internet anymore, because they prioritize a few cents to the ceo over me.

[aeolianblues]

Realising. I have (/had) a lot of sympathy for NME, since they played a big part in shaping musical and pop culture, and crucially, I started reading NME in 2013. The things artists said about them being two-faced shits did not really resonate with my experience of reading the NME. I'd spent a decent amount of time over the years, watching people like Andrew Trendall do good, in-depth and considered interviews with artists, often video ones that are less easy to manipulate if you will, that actually treated musicians like complex, thinking, feeling human being trying to express themselves through art, and writers like Rhian Daly who wrote a lot of the news stuff pretty factually— none of the snark that accompanied every news story of the past. I was fairly sympathetic to their cries of no one supporting journalism anymore, and I was saddened by them going out of print in 2018, and I agree it's a hellish landscape for journalism in general; worse for a non-news, leisure magazine like a music mag. I was happy that they were coming back in any form at all, with those bi-monthly (every 2 months) magazine drops.

I realise now (after the Fontaines incident, which I thought was in extremely poor taste after they'd spent the week before that posting clips of Andrew's 30-minute interview recorded at Grian's house) that had I been reading NME even 5 years before I started, I might certainly have been in the chorus of people celebrating the publication's woes. They were fucking horrible. Particularly from the late 00s onwards, they just got more and more tabloid. They ragged on new bands repeatedly. If you looked a certain way, if you had certain sentimentality, they would eat you alive, even as any other infrastructure in place to give you a boost slowly fell apart.

I realise now that they were on the back foot. They were playing niceys because they knew that they got way more publicity out of doing a collaborative Instagram post with pink pantheress than she got out of it. They went down the tiktok artist discovery route, they branched into covering K-pop (notably, not in NME Asia, as they did with indie bands from Asia, but in the UK/global NME). All just finding the artists with the largest audience they could woo or at least expose their website advertisers to. BTS don't need the NME, their fans don't even read it. They are too busy compiling 'x weeks since BTS has been in the Spotify charts; stream BTS, army!!' charts on twitter. All BTS gets out of this is saying they've fulfilled UK/English language press obligations, and maybe hopefully exposed themselves to someone over age 35.

Then the Oasis reunion happened. 35 articles a day. And the minute they found an opening to rag out a new band, throw them to the dogs (Oasis fans over the age of 45), they did. Stirred up this shitstorm—the Fontaines 'controversy' is that their guitarist and bassist aren't Oasis fans. That's 'controversy'. That is the stupidest thing i've heard. They're allowed that opinion. To turn it into a focal point story also is to imply that this is a point we should take note of and cross-examine. I think they did Fontaines so fucking dirty, and it reminded me of why people were wary of these magazines in the first place. They wait until they have the moment and momentum to sell you out, and they do at the first chance. So distasteful.

So yeah, this felt like old-school NME bullshit. No wonder most millennials don't feel too kindly about them. Gen Z readers caught them at a low ebb.

I'm not saying burn them all down! I'm saying this culture and attitude still very much exists in journalism, dormant as it stays right now. Look at the tabloids.

[theoristwiki]

Wiki Updates

Hey Theoryandahalf here. Sorry this update is a long time coming, we got very busy. We also started to advertise the wiki on Reddit. Please consider upvoting our posts or spreading the news as we still need more editors!

Here's the roundup of updates over the last month (give or take a few days):

New Entries

Reality Check Food Theory on the Road (stub created) Memories on Repeat (LoreFi Album) MORTY Ronnie Edwards (technically not new but entry was completely rewritten to be more respectful)

Updated Entries

MatPat's Game Lab Santi Massa Jason Parker Ash Lee (minor edits) Stephanie Patrick (early history finished) MatPat (updated up to 2016) Creators in Fashion Deadlock The Science A Little Theorizing Music Used in Game Theory Pet-U-Cation

Edit: Forgot to add we updated every single GTLive season so that there is a short summary of major events. I also started to backfill all of the decorations on each of the backgrounds and bestie Declan updated the GTLive year pages so we have pages for each year. Woo!

Added Episode Entries

Style Theory Does Waterproof Makup Actually Work? Can Feng Shui Cure My Depression? Is TikTok Shop the Next Amazon? TikTok's Color Test is TRASH! How to Finally Stop SHEIN! What is the Ken effect? The Barbie Movie Made Me Question EVERYTHING! Can Caffeine Beauty Product ENERGIZE YOU? I Found the Best and WORST SunScreen for Your Skin

Food Theory I went to Rainforest Cafe for the LORE! New York Pizza is BEST…and I Can Prove It! Your Mom was WRONG About Chicken Noodle Soup! Bees are Fish No, Vampies DON'T Hate Garlic! Star Wars Blue Milk is Real…But Don't Drink It! Expiration Dates DON'T Mean What You THINK…

Game Theory Roblox Doors Just Opened the Gates of Hell! Doki Doki Literature Club! Meet the NEW Monika! Monika Has ESCAPED! Sonic's Rings Are a SCAM?!

Film Theory Is 001 the Father of 456? Could Squid Game Be LEGAL? What Everyone Got WRONG About Squid Games! Attack on Titan's Biggest Mystery SOLVED

Misc

Creator Garanseho shouted out the Wiki on his Theorist videos! Please check them out:

If you made it this far, as always thanks for reading! Please consider joining us!