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strawberrypinky · 9 months ago

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I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed with negativity on the internet recently and thus I've decided to take matters into my own hands and spread some ✨love and positivity✨

And what better way to do that, than to recommend wonderfully written fanfiction I've come across this year? Admittedly, I haven't read as much as I would have liked, but I still want to share the few I did read. So without further ado, here are my fic recs of 2024 (thus far! Might add to this along the line):

Baldur's Gate 3 Fic recs:

O Fortuna [by @gufu-vire] on AO3 - Raphael x Dark Urge ❦ Plot: Post the events of BG3, a redeemed Dark Urge and Raphael renegotiate terms to fulfil a contract sworn upon during the crisis of the Absolute. An adventure fraught with tension, frustration, conflict, and more as the reader partners up with the devil you love to hate…

This is possibly a very biased mention on this list, because I consider Goof a very dear friend and moot, but it is a deserved spot nonetheless! I have yet to catch up with a majority of the chapters, but I'm enjoying a lot of sneak peeks and Gufu's creative process in private in the meantime. Between the conflict this story is utterly hilarious and witty and is a perfect balance between action and idle affairs. There are also so many intriguing takes on Raphael as a character & Harleep deserves a trophy on his own. I could talk a lot about this story, but truly, I cannot recommend it enough!

❦

Sleep Deprivation - [by @nyda-the-tav & Aisln] on AO3 - Gortash x Tav ❦ Plot: As Orin continues to harass the group of misfits trying to stop the Absolute, Ophelia (Tav) looks for safety in the arms of Gortash in an effort to combat sleep deprivation.

I've only recently started reading this story & both authors best believe that once I've caught up with all 50(!) chapters, I'll leave a more detailed review for Sleep Deprivation. But what I've read thus far has been nothing short of a joy, and I'm always down for a good Tav being absolutely ruined by Gortash himself. The dynamic between the supposed enemy and the hero is gripping, hilarious and not to mention really well written! Kudos to the authors! I'm really excited to read more of what you two come up with!

❦

His Star - His Queen [by @random-introverted-blog] on AO3 - Astarion x Tav/Astarion x Dark Urge ❦ Plot: An ascended Astarion kidnaps the Dark Urge/Tav from a different timeline, after loosing her in his. Desperate to save Tav/Durge from himself, Astarion follows her to rescue his love from certain suffering at his own hands.

I was recommended this story on TikTok (of all places, lol) and I wasn't sure what to expect - but holy shit. The first chapter alone had me on the edge of my seat, as you're really thrown into the action from the start, but the entire premise had me hooked as soon as Ascendant Astarion made his appearance. I often have issues with the ascended version of Astarion's character (I just looooove fixing him & I've got issues with the 'make him worse' story arc), but the exploration of what could have been in tandem with trying to save the heroine from inevitable suffering is beautiful & I can't recommend it enough. I've yet to catch up with every chapter (can you tell I've got trouble keeping up with fics, lmfao?) but either way, "His Star - His Queen" is deservedly on this list!

Note: This fic includes non-consensual sexual content

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Judgement by the Hounds [by @septembersummer] on AO3 - Gortash x The Dark Urge ❦ Plot: A look into the relationship of The Dark Urge (Seren) and Gortash, from their first meeting up to their shared end. "The rise and fall of the worst situationship of all time" indeed.

This one I actually finished (very slay), though I'm not sure I actually processed it. I went through all five stages of grief reading this and I'm not even sure I can say anything without spoiling the entire premise. Dear author, you have written possibly the most captivating and enchanting portrayal of Durge and Gortash & though I knew how it would end, I was wishing for a happy end through it all. There's nothing to say about this, other than it was utter perfection.

❦

Miscellaneous One Shot recommendations:

legacy with no memory by @discordsmuse on AO3 - Gortash x The Dark Urge The Weight of A Promise by @sserpente on tumblr [Part 2 is equally good!] - Gortash x Tav/OC kiddo. by @avocado-writing on tumblr. - Gortash & OC

to have and to hold by @littlejuicebox on tumblr. - Astarion x Tav

choices. by @deadtired-highkeyenergetic on tumblr - Astarion x Tav

how to win a custody battle in one easy step. by alltears on AO3 - Astarion x Tav

Dangerous by NaeveTheWizard on AO3 - Astarion x The Dark Urge

❦

Honourable Mentions:

I'm also giving a shout-out to @avani-telvanni & @infernaldaydreams, because while neither have written fanfiction I could recommend, I am obsessed with their respective artworks for Tav x Gortash/Durge x Gortash. You guys are absolutely amazing and I'm conistently in awe of what you create. You deserve all the recognition you receive and more 💕

Hogwarts Legacy Fic rec's: a very short list, but two are dear to me nonetheless!

Victory [by @jonquil] on AO3 - Victor Rookwood x Original Female Character ❦ Plot: Victor Rookwood is enraptured by the new, ancient-magic-wielding student attending Hogwarts - and Victor Rookwood always comes out on top.

Technically I started reading "Victory" in 2023, when it first came out, alas, it was finished earlier this year and I couldn't help but include it, because it remains one of my favourite fanfiction ever. To me, it's the best fictionalisation of "Enemies to Lovers" in a long time, as I was rooting for the villain to win from start to finish. From the wonderful characterisation of Rookwood to the alternative canon timeline and ultimately the victory of the villain - there's nothing like it and I was hooked from start to finish. I am still sad it's over, but I'm excited to read the prequel (as soon as I get to it, lmfao), because I know it'll be equally spectacular!

Note: This fic contains non-consensual sexual content.

❦

Invisible String [by @legacygirlingreen] on tumblr (though it can be found on both AO3 and wattpad too!) - Sebastian Sallow x Reader ❦ Plot: In an alternative, victorian-attitude-compliant timeline, Sebastian Sallow falls for the new fifth-year. This story explores the sweet beginnings of a tender love amidst hardships and battles ahead.

Admittedly, this is possibly the most biased fic rec ever, but I stand behind it nonetheless. While this fic started in March of last year & brought me and my platonic soulmate May, aka legacygirlingreen, together, it remains my favourite Sebastian Sallow fic to this day. The amount of love, time and creativity May put into this has me in awe time and time again. The sweet and tender love the two protagonists experience is perfectly fluffy and slice-of-life, yet the alternative version of the canon events of Hogwarts Legacy add the perfect amount of drama and action. I will always come back to this fic, because yes - It is that good.

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ooc-miqojak · 2 years ago

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Given that staff is already turning this place into Tiktok by forcing us to opt out of the terrible 'tumblr live' (tiktok but worse) every 7 days, how are we supposed to trust them on this? Especially when they say stupid shit like 'people only see 25 posts' and 'those have to immediately engage you in tumblr or else'... What??? I see hundreds of posts a day - one swipe of my thumb, and I see at least 25 posts? And since I have cultivated my dash,I see what I want to see. I even use the thing that suggests what my friends are liking - but if it gets any more algorithmic than that, I don't want any thing to do with it. If I want insta or facebook/meta bs, I'll use those? There's a reason I chose tumblr!

Push notifications are part of the technological addiction problem that's happening at present - much like a slot machine, you get a little ping/buzz, and wow! Look at the notifications! Feel the rush! You're admitting that you're trying to be more predatory and addictive, guys.

"Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr."

Oh, so you're just saying the quiet part out loud, now? You'd like to encourage the addictive nature of apps? It's already an impulse to constantly check notifications on apps - as stated, that's literally the point of push notifications. (There's a documentary or two out there that discusses this.)

So you want to reinvent the wheel in changing the way the feed/dash works, despite a poll showing that over 90% of people saying they don't want that, as well as trying to make this worse version of Tumblr more addictive?

Maybe try asking the artists and 'small creators' you claim to want to help... what they want/think would help them! Instead of forcing changes on everyone that no one wants while claiming it's for our own good. Use whatever mumbo jumbo tech-talk and excuses you want, but most of us can read between the lines, on this one.

If you force me to see blogs I'm not following on my dash 'because it's outdated' to only see what I'm opted in to see, you're no better than any other social media site, and are actively removing my reason for being here! I follow tags to find new blogs! I follow other blogs with whom my mutuals interact - Tumblr has always been a bit 'build your own experience', and that's what people love! If new users want something more like Meta or Tiktok or Insta, those already exist! Tumblr isn't hard to use by any means - you just can't be lazy and expect to be spoonfed content like on other sites... and the spoonfeeding is what people say they hate anyways! So why force it?

Don't homogenize. You should be expanding on what makes Tumblr great... not cutting it off at the metaphorical knees to make it like the trash that already exists. Like, say... make the tag search function more user friendly - an actual user request that's gone ignored for years. Work on that instead of forcing things no one really needs or wants or asked for.

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience.

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content.

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up.

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant.

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are.

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds.

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs.

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread.

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads.

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed.

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it.

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages.

Test what the right daily push notification limit is.

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users.

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

#Tumblr #tumblr staff #tumblr changes

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kerishaharris · 4 years ago

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Why the cool kids (and brands who hope to be perceived as such) are on TikTok

Being what I like to describe as a “tail-end millennial,” I’ve grown up both with and in the digital age. I still remember turning in school assignments completed on a typewriter as well as playing Oregon Trail in computer class on those box-shaped, neon green Macintosh screens (I’m still heartbroken that my wife died of dysentery, btw). I remember pleading with my mom to hang up the phone so I could log onto AOL, and how much thought I’d put into curating the perfect AIM away message. I joined Facebook my senior year of college when it was still “the Facebook” and for college kids only, and remember how big a deal it was to rearrange my MySpace top eight (funny how we were full-on coding and didn’t even realize it). But now, as a mom of three tweens, I can admit that despite digital and social media being both my personal experience and my chosen career, there are media formats out there that I know nothing about, and that my kids’ knowledge far trumps my own. None of these formats feel more foreign to me, yet obviously influential and equally important to the next generation, than TikTok.

What is TikTok and (dancing humanoid dogs aside) who uses it? TikTok is, by and large, the newer, cooler and way more sophisticated version of Vine (RIP to a real one). On its own website, TikTok says its mission is to “inspire creativity and bring joy.” Produced and manufactured by Beijing-based video-sharing service ByteDance, TikTok reportedly boasts 800 million users worldwide, and as of 2019, has surpassed one billion installs (Yeh, 2019). It creates and curates an experience driven by its powerful algorithm, turning all of its users into a connected network of mini-influencers through the use of trending hashtags, leveraging of popular music, and push for engagement with other users through duets and viral dance challenges, making for a meaningful, organized, and dare I say it, super fun experience for users of the app (Herrman, 2019).

In exploring the app, what I found especially interesting was the way TikTok employs a vertical feed experience prompting the user to swipe up, which sets it apart from similar apps like Instagram Stories or Snapchat. This “endless scroll” approach seems, in my opinion, very conducive to creating an almost addictive experience which can lock you in for hours and hours. TikTok appears to cleverly take advantage of the way users normally engage with our vertical screens, filling up the entire real estate of our phones with engaging video content coupled with popular music that’s perhaps a little too easy to get sucked into.

Who is TikTok really for?

As not only a mom of tweens, but also having worked in communications within the education space in various capacities since 2016, TikTok’s popularity among young people comes as no surprise to me. TikTok is primarily used by youth between the ages of 16 and 24 (Brucker, 2020). It is used by about 69 percent of young people in the U.S., and these users spend at least 80 minutes per day on the app (Perez, 2020). This is the same group that, if you ask them, considers Facebook to be that “cringey” old people app that your grandpa thinks is cool, and Twitter to be that thing where journalists and politicians bicker with other journalists and politicians. It’s unsurprising to me that young people would be attracted to TikTok, a space that can feel exclusively like their own.

For me, it is that young people's exclusivity that keeps me away from TikTok. Despite being what many consider to be a subject-matter expert on social media, I am admittedly intimidated by an app I don’t completely understand or feel welcomed on. I feel more comfortable with the apps I’ve come of age with and whose functionality is more native to my own digital experience, most notably Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I worry I may look like I’m “trying too hard” by exploring TikTok, or worse, that my presence there as a 38-year-old mom will render it an uncool place to be. My own kids reacted with horror when they noticed I had TikTok installed on my work phone, it didn’t matter that my job was to manage my then-employer’s institutional presence on social media. “Mom, please don’t make Wesleyan University a TikTok” they begged (too late guys, already secured the username for posterity). It was clear that they viewed TikTok as their safe space, and that my presence, as well as my employer’s presence despite it being an elite, well-known university, was not welcome.

Are any grownups or brands doing TikTok “right?” Interestingly, several marketers have managed to get past this “eww, adults and brands” factor to effectively market to TikTok’s growing audience through clever advertising and engagement campaigns. Capitalizing on the popularity of hashtag challenges on TikTok, Universal Pictures turned to TikTok as a way to promote their 2018 film, The House with a Clock in Its Walls, through a #FindYourMagic campaign which prompted users to film themselves doing their own magic tricks. Leveraging the power of influence, Universal got a group of popular TikTok influencers to post their own DIY magic videos, which naturally prompted others to do the same. As a result of the campaign, Universal received 1.3 million likes on the influencer videos, generated 19,000 pieces of user-generated content, and gained 11,000 new followers (Brucker, 2020). Whether it prompted people to actually go see the film, I’m not really sure.

(Source: TikTok for Business) In my work as a higher education social media manager, I often came across other universities (typically, with bigger teams and even bigger budgets) doing great work on TikTok. From a marketing perspective, it makes sense why a university would want to invest in building an exceptional presence on TikTok. Each year, so much of your energy and efforts are dedicated to marketing to prospective students and their families, convincing them that your school is the school to attend. Based on user demographics alone, TikTok offers a captive audience for the exact age range higher ed marketers are working so hard to reach. I’m proud to say that my undergraduate alma mater, the University of Florida, was one of the first to leverage TikTok and is considered one of the best in the game. With nearly 97,000 followers and more than 1 million likes, it’s clear they’ve figured out what resonates with their audience. Most of their TikTok videos feature the beloved school colors (anyone who went to UF will tell you we bleed orange and blue), Al the Alligator (we obviously weren’t terribly creative on the mascot name), fave spots on campus and the like.

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(Source: University of Florida on YouTube)

Other major schools like Brigham Young University and Florida International University capitalize on TikTok’s penchant for dance trends and employ their mascots, Cosmo the Cougar and Roary the Panther respectively, to jump in on these trends.

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...this same video on BYU’s Cosmo the Cougar TikTok has a staggering 28 million plays, 4.8 million likes, and more than 24,000 comments.

Is TikTok here to stay?

As a perpetual student of digital and social media, I see TikTok as the wave of the future for digital and social communications and marketing. The question for me, however, is whether or not I’m going to ride that wave as a communications professional. While digital marketing is still somewhat new on TikTok, my constant fear is that the moment brands step in and try to inject themselves onto a platform, mimicking and profiting off of the way it is organically used, its core users become disinterested, abandon the platform, and look for the next big thing they can call their own. If I’m lucky, perhaps I’ll get the next big idea and launch that platform myself.

Funny but true story. As I was putting the finishing touches on this blog post, my 12-year-old daughter came up behind me chanting the following.

Her: Racism? Stop it. Bullying? Stop it. Homophobia? Stop it.

Me: Is that from a TikTok?

Her: Yeah.

Me: Figures.

SOURCES:

Brucker, N. (2020, January 6) Who is on TikTok and how can brands reach them? Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/01/06/who-is-on-tiktok-and-how-can-brands-reach-them/#1a2fe28343be.

Herrman, J. (2019, March 10) How TikTok is rewriting the world. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/10/style/what-is-tik-tok.html.

Perez, S. (2020, June 4) Kids now spend nearly as much time watching TikTok as YouTube in the US, UK and Spain. Tech Crunch. Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/04/kids-now-spend-nearly-as-much-time-watching-tiktok-as-youtube-in-u-s-u-k-and-spain/.

Yeh, O. (2019, February 26). TikTok surpasses one billion installs on the App Store and Google Play. Sensor Tower. Retrieved from https://sensortower.com/blog/tiktok-downloads-one-billion.

#tiktok #socialmedia #digitalmedia #marketing #digitalmarketing #digitalstrategy #brandcommunications

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iqbalriaz · 4 years ago

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HOW TO GET YOUR FIRST 1000 SUBSCRIBERS ON YOUTUBE – 2020 (5 TIPS)

TIP #1 – MINDSET

Alright so the first tip that most people typically tell you to start with is to choose a niche, which is definitely a key tip that we will be discussing next…

But before any of that I truly believe the most important tip I can give, especially if you haven’t started YouTube yet… is having the proper mindset.

Because YouTube is a big commitment. You know this already if you’ve started your own channel..

But it’s going to take you much longer to create & edit a video than the ONE minute it takes to take a picture and upload it to Facebook or Instagram.

However, there’s a big reason why it takes this extra time…

And that’s because the videos you upload on YouTube don’t fade off into the abyss after 5 hours of posting (if that).

I literally have videos I created over a year ago on my channel that still get me views, subscribers, and money… to this day.

But when I post a picture on facebook it’ll last like a day and a picture on instagram lasts a few hours!

So yes, it’s definitely more work up front… but it continues to pay off for months and years to come.

And that’s a big problem with a lot of people.

All they see is how long it will take to do… not the insane amount of passive income that you can make from YouTube videos.

Because when starting out, things WILL be slow.

That’s honestly why so many people give up on their businesses because they’re so use to working a job and getting paid every hour worked.

And that’s not how it works with businesses or with YouTube…

But after a certain amount of hours and work you put in, you will make much more than you will ever make from an job that pays per hour.

So that’s why mindset is so important.

You have to try and remember why you started to begin with.

Whether that’s because you want freedom or you want to buy your parents a house or spend more time with your loved ones…

Because its not going to be easy… but it will be the most rewarding thing you ever do if you put in the work upfront.

So just make sure you don’t think that you will be getting rich overnight on YouTube like these gurus promise you…

This requires hard work and dedication… and there’s no shortcuts in business or in youtube.

Also, since we’re on the topic of shortcuts…

A lot of people think that buying views and subscribers or doing sub4sub is going to help.

And it will get your numbers higher, but not only is it against YouTubes terms and you can get your account banned for that…

But it actually ruins your channel.

People who buy views end up killing their average watch time on their videos because of it and people who do sub4sub end up having a higher subscriber amount but their videos have super low views so it makes their channel look even worse.

So make sure you’re going in with the right mindset and you don’t try and take shortcuts…

Because they really don’t exist.

I do have one tip I’ll be showing you that has allowed me to fast-track my subscriber count, but if you don’t watch all the way through you won’t get to see that, so make sure to keep reading!

TIP #2 – PICKING THE RIGHT NICHE

Now, picking the wrong niche could absolutely destroy your channel.

And a niche basically means picking an industry or a type or types of videos you’ll make around a specific industry.

Assuming you’ve already started YouTube, this would just mean making your videos more specific.

Which is something I see so many new YouTubers doing soooo wrong.

They just start uploading videos about the most random stuff.

Like they’ll be uploading videos about college one day, fitness the next day, and then football the next day.

And that’s just about the worst thing you can do for your YouTube channel.

Because any subscribers you to get, they may be interested in the video they watched that made them subscribe but if the other videos you make have nothing to do with that video…

then your subscriber count is basically just a vanity metric at that point with a bunch of people who aren’t even interested in your videos.

So when you’re first starting out you really want to try and choose a niche that has appeal to a crowd that is passionate.

A lot of people say you have to be passionate about what you talk about, and it’s definitely helpful for sure… but sometimes you just gotta try and find something that you like and that has a group of PEOPLE who are passionate about that niche.

Like for me, I really didn’t feel passionate about what I started with, but the longer I do YouTube I figure out what I’m passionate about and what you guys like the most.

But just try not to get hung up on this too much.

Because at the end of the day you can always switch your niche at anytime or start a new channel with a different niche.

But I will say that the 3 evergreen niches are health, wealth and relationships.

And those are the best niches to go into.

So you’ll want to choose a sub-niche of one of those main evergreen niches.

Like for example, for wealth… you have personal finance, make money online, etc.

For relationships you have parenting, dating, etc.

And you can go even more niched down than that too.

But it’s just about doing research on other YouTuber’s and finding out what you like the most and going with it.

TIP #3 – LEVEL UP YOUR B.A.V.L.

Now the next tip I would give again assuming you’ve already started on YouTube and you’ve already picked your niche…

I would tell you to level up your B.A.V.L.

And you’ve probably never heard that before.

But all it means is:

Background

Audio

Video

Lighting

Most people only talk about their audio video and lighting but the background can be just as important.

I mean have you ever watched a video with someone who’s recording in a messy room? I Know I haven’t.

And this doesn’t necessarily mean spending a bunch of money.

Upgrading your background could literally just mean cleaning up your room.

And as far as audio video and lighting…

my entire setup cost me less than $300.

Literally.

So you don’t need some ridiculously expensive camera or lighting to make your setup look good.

And sometimes simple is better anyways.

These are just some of the things I’ll be teaching in my YouTube beta program, along with how I make high ticket commissions on YouTube.

So if you want to get a personalized experience where I walk you through step-by-step and support you on YouTube…

I have 1 spot left, so make sure you apply today before it’s too late.

But like I was saying, you don’t need to buy anything crazy.

The most expensive piece of gear I have is a $100 or $120 blue yeti microphone.

And there’s even budget microphones you could get that sound just as good.

Otherwise, I have a $50 webcam, some $10 light stands with DIY lighting from Home Depot.

And there’s so many videos out there that can help you figure out what works for your budget.

But honestly, this tip is pretty important.

Yes, you can use your cellphone and use a window for lighting – which is fine if that’s all you can afford…

But if you really want to take YouTube seriously, spending $200-$300 to upgrade your gear can make a huge difference and give your audience a better experience for sure.

TIP #4 – FOCUS & BE CONSISTENT

This is honestly one of the most important tips I can give you for anything in life, especially YouTube.

Going back to mindset, there are NO SHORTCUTS, period.

And if you want to be successful with anything… you have to be consistent and you have to focus.

Let me just tell you a quick story.

When I first started YouTube I wanted to upload 3 videos a week.

Before i ever uploaded my first video I recorded and edited 18 videos.

So that’s 6 weeks worth of videos, 6×3 is 18.

In 8 weeks, I ran out of videos.

So I only created 6 videos in 8 weeks.

The reason this happened is because I wasn’t focused.

Before I started on YouTube, all I was doing was focusing on creating those 18 videos and I crushed it.

But after I started posting, I started losing focus.

I started trying to do blogging, posting on linkedin, twitter, instagram, facebook. Fb groups, etc.

I even tried hiring a social media manager for $500 at one point.

Not to mention I was still working at this time.

So i couldn’t be consistent.

Then I decided I was going to upload 1 video a week, make that video high quality and stay consistent.

Then I started focusing on that and only that, along with my 1 support platform, which was my facebook.

And I actually started growing faster but uploading less.

So it’s absolutely crucial that you pick a upload schedule and you stay consistent and focus on that.

Don’t try to do all these other business models or platforms, pick your 1 main platform which should be youtube if you’re trying to grow on youtube, then pick your one support platform.

Some people use a second support platform, but it all depends on how much time you have to invest into your online business.

And while we’re talking about support platforms, this leads me into the next tip.

TIP #5 – GET ON TIKTOK!

And I’m not even kidding about this.

In the last few months I’ve grew to over 75,000 followers on TikTok and it absolutely blew up my YouTube channel.

Nowadays I still get some views from TikTok but what tiktok allowed me to do was to show YouTube that my videos were getting good engagment and then YouTubes alogorithm started pushing my content to more people on YouTube and it exploded my growth.

But basically everytime I upload a YouTube video, I make a shorter version of that video on TIkTok and at the end of the video I tell people to go watch the full video on my YouTube channel and link to my YouTube channel in my tiktok bio.

Then right when my YouTube video goes live, that tiktok goes live and the video gets so much more views and engagement and it shows YouTube that people like the video…

And that helps fast-track your growth like crazy!

So I definitely suggest hopping on TikTok and following all of these tips.

I truly believe this is the one thing that could be considered somewhat of a shortcut.

Because it definitely fast-tracked my subscirber count 100%.

It took me over 8 months to get to 500 subscribers and as I showed you at the begining I gained over 3700 subscribers in 28 days.

That’s the power of YouTube and TIkTok combined.

And I don’t know if TikTok will be like this forever, it probably wont.

Even today, more people are getting on tiktok.

But still, the organic growth it can give you is insane.

However, a lot of people are doing things wrong.

They are only focusing on TikTok.

But they aren’t syphoning those people onto other platforms that will be around way longer…

Like YouTUBE.

Which is what I do in all of my tiktok videos.

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