#how to use social media for business

[mewsmagic]

Here's a lil comic strip about how you can protect your art before sharing it to the public!!!

Against AI and against art theft too!

Click on 'read more' to see the extra tip I mentioned at the end!

Geez been working on this since the Meta AI things blew up but I only finished just now!!

Here's the extra tip I mentioned at the end:

you can use http://haveibeentrained.com to search for your images and find out if your work has been used for AI.

In there, you can choose to opt out, but AI companies are not obligated to respect it so it isn't too much of a protection unfortunately 😭

Also be aware that they are associated with AI and they did try to badmouth glaze so artists wouldn't protect themselves; which's very bad for a company that allegedly are on the side of the artists.

Also!!! There's a new type of AI that I was just made aware of last week, Copainter.

It completes unfinished work, which can be used for 'stealing and claiming it theirs', so put a cat picture in the next wips you post as well!

Funny protective measure I know LOLLLL but here's the tests for yall cynical people:

Perhaps I'll complete this comic with this info one day, but just these 10 slides took a looot of work so probably not happening anytime soon 😭

Thank you for reading everything though, I really appreciate it and hope this will help 🫶 be careful out there, privacy issues have been crazy recently!!!

[cconfusedkat]

acts of terrorism (lesbianism edition)

[runawaymun]

the whole tiktok ban situation is super crunchy and I'm conflicted. Because on the one hand...it does feel startlingly close to a kind of censorship and I think the whole 'chinese government links' thing is pure scaremongering. But on the other hand I genuinely think that tiktok has accelerated the rate of enshittification of so, so many things. Like it has been a net harm in basically everything. Even the publishing industry is suffering now. As someone who wants to get novels published, the entire state of the publishing industry catering to tiktok and the quality of even bookbinding rapidly deteriorating in the past couple of years, I've been reconsidering and thinking about simply setting up a website/archive to self publish my work.

So...I don't know. It's not as if other social media sites (X, Facebook, etc.) haven't done harm, and it's not like huge media giants like Google haven't caused possibly irreparable damage to how things work now, but...I just distinctly remember a pre-tiktok, pre-covid world and things legitimately weren't as bad online then as they are now. Tiktok actually feels uniquely bad. The change happened so rapidly, too. At what point do we decide that a product causes enough visible harm that it needs to be removed? Because that's what tiktok is, at the end of the day. It's a product. We don't have the same clear measurement as we do with, say, lead paint on children's toys, but idk idk idk...

[melancholic-pigeon]

Alright, this is my last comment on the issue, for real this time.

@nerdykeppie is staffed by unprofessional, rude, cruel people who double down on their entitlement to be unprofessional, rude and cruel in public to their former customers.

You should know the sorts of people you're giving money to if you patronize them. The founder is liable to misread your words, lash out at you in anger over something he misunderstood, and generally behave like a tantruming child even if you go out of your way to be polite and give him the benefit of the doubt when he lashes out at you over his own poor reading comprehension.

I'm done getting into this. No, Spider is not ~required~ to be professional on his (public) personal blog which is closely tied to his business. I just think it's extremely stupid to double down on his "right" to be unprofessional on his public blog when he owns a business that is clearly tied to said public blog, because it reflects very poorly on both his personal character and his business. I think it is hilariously foolish and an extremely poor decision to openly advertise and defend your founder's unprofessionalism, which speaks of general lack of professionalism and poor judgment throughout the whole business, not just from Spider (though his lack of good judgment and public unprofessionalism is the most obvious).

So. Best of luck in the people involved resolving whatever problem in their lives that they're taking out on me, and beware interacting with them in any way because they will absolutely be rude as shit to you and then smear you in public and private for (/checks hand) apologizing for a miscommunication because you didn't mean what they incorrectly interpreted you to mean.

I can't fucking believe they still think they're in the right here and *I* am the one who needs to be ~asked not to contact them again~. You answered me THREE TIMES *after* I had blocked you because you cannot let go of the fact that you were wrong about a stupid fucking plastic pumpkin and the fact that I went OUT OF MY WAY to give you the benefit of the doubt.

(two of those three asks were frantic apologies because I genuinely felt terrible, and they were both met with meanness and scorn and snide insults about my communication failures.

Lol. Me. I'm the one who is failing to communicate and has poor reading comprehension because you misunderstood me and started lashing out like I personally strangled all of your pets for having the filthy nerve to apologize and try to clear it up.

Yeah. I'm the villain here. Sure, Jan.)

I'm done now, but enjoy having your unprofessional, cruel, immature nonsense publicly exposed. I stand by my actions (the ones I actually took in real life, not the fake pretend ones you made up because you misunderstood what I wrote) and I look forward to you experiencing the natural consequences of your own.

Don't give money to childish jerks.

[mayordeas-clone]

every other month twitter rolls out a feature that makes the platform utterly unappealing. some people swear it off forever. then a month later they are still posting on it like nothing happened

[tj-crochets]

Hey y'all! I am once again in health insurance hell, and could really use some help. I have a specific US health insurance question, but it might get long so it's below a read more

My employer offers two health plan options, and they are both absolutely terrible. I want to get my own health insurance, but the insurance broker lady I used when I worked part time says I can't, because I can get health insurance through my employer, even if I opt out. I spoke to another health insurance person today, and she said if I get a letter on company letterhead saying I'll lose health insurance on [date], as long as it's 60 days or less from now, it counts as a qualifying event and I can buy my own health insurance. She said opting out counted as losing health insurance. Do you know anything about this? How do I get health insurance as an individual NOT through my employer even though my employer offers it? The plans my employer is offering are Aetna, and Aetna is the absolute worst and I despise them as a company so much one of my long term goals is to warn people against them. They suck! They refused to pay for my inhaler until I got my doctor to fill out a form like three times, and also I had to email them A LOT and fill out a LOT of surveys with an emphasis on how horrifying I found it that they as a company clearly valued profit over their customer's lives, and would in fact prefer their customers die before they could reach the ER in case of an emergency, as evidenced by their refusing to pay for my rescue inhaler, a necessary life-saving medication. They also require I fill that form out every year, just in case I magically stop being in the small minority of people who get severe adverse reactions to albuterol and levalbuterol

[kayayeteae]

.

[pepprs]

ok two things.

not that i need to clarify and not that anyone needs to know more detail but. to clarify from my post last night: my brother did nothing wrong by showing his music to me AT ALL. but there are two things that are hard about it and i hate to say it but the bigger one is… he has the same spark i used to have and feel like ive lost forever snd him making unfathomably beautiful music makes me… jealous. or at the very least mournful about what happened to my own musical / poetic pursuits and skills and how i feel like i will never be able to do anything like that again bc ive lost myself and feel detached from my life and am frozen like a dear in headlights. and the second thing is he’s in a lot of pain rn with his own situation and we don’t communicate abt it except in ways that are extremely like.. strained and sheepish and i feel like a bad big sister for not being more affectionate and like trying to force through the barrier and be lovey dovey with him basically bc i think he needs / wants that even though we’re both weird about it. lol

my cousins posted a picture of them smoking together on their ig story and my mom screenshotted it and sent it to me and my siblings w/o knowing that ig tells you when you screenshot someone’s story and is now doubling down on how righteous she is abt taking a screenshot bc they’re being stupid and smoking when it’s unhealthy. and my dad is telling her “people are allowed to be you g and make mistakes” and she’s continui ng to double down abt how when she was their age she didn’t care about fitting in and just accepted that she didn’t fit in instead of engaging in bad behavior etc etc. like first of all our cousins didn’t hurt anyone by posting that why did she need to screenshot it 💀 they’re going to read into that for sure and i don’t blame them like it’s just so weird and im so fucking embarrassed abt it. and second of all lkke… you are not better than them for not smoking or doing other stuff and also them smoking isn’t necessarily abt fitting in. shut up 💗 [UPDATE post cancelled apparently ig doesn’t notify ppl when they screenshot stories anymore. but my point abt her being judgy abt young ppl being young ppl remains]

[galariangengar]

I feel like I’ll never be able to have any free time and get back into art/creating… I’m always so busy doing as much as possible to get into a nursing program somewhere. And I know nursing school is gonna be A LOT too and starting a nursing career as well, but I’ve always had this interest and love for art and have always had this urge and want to get back into creating. But I’m either always busy with school/adult shit or utterly fucking exhausted and doing horribly mentally… I really hope I can get to that point where I can get back into art and have it be part of my life again…

[vt-scribbles]

Hey, so, listen.

As an ex-christian, now-agnostic: Do Not run around throwing your religion at people unprompted.

I 100% understand and respect that this is a touchy subject. I was once the same type who was afraid that everyone around me was going to hell and it was MY JOB to try and save them.

Listen. As someone who's seen both sides now, I only have this to say:

People's religion or lacktherof is

Their Business.

And ONLY their business. Leave them alone. I don't care if you think you're helping. A lot of people have really bad religious trauma, and this sort of thing can make them extremely upset or uncomfortable. On top of that, just like a telemarketer or a door-to-door salesman, randomly showing up to someone's 'internet door' and trying to shove your beliefs down their throat will Never. Work. It will never change someone's mind. It will ONLY make them block or avoid you.

You wouldn't want someone to come into your inbox and shove 'your religion is fake and you're brainwashed' down your throat unprompted, would you? Wouldn't someone shoving their beliefs in your face be uncomfy? Yeah.

[tiredsadpeach]

Losing my fp is gonna fucking hurt but I just idk I can’t find a way this is gonna end well so I’m coming to terms with it

[catgirlwizard]

still can't believe i used to post on this website every day and now I rarely go on here cause I've got a live in partner and we have 2 cats together and i spend all my time with them or cleaning or doing diy projects or taking care of the pets or drawing or trash picking/craigslist searching and stealing moss and plants from neighborhood sidewalks and having gay sex and cooking dinner and fantasizing about how we'd decorate a house together and planning our wedding we're gonna have some day and researching last names we can have as a couple jdkfhgsdf. anyways, he's the sweetest most supportive partner I could ask for and I'm incredibly lucky to have them. monday night I went out with a grocery cart to collect trash and he was like 'hope you find something good! let me know if you need help :D" and when i called him asking him to walk 10 minutes to help me carry an end table cause my cart was full of rugs and halloween decorations he didn't question it, he was just happy for me. and yesterday he saw how i arranged my collection of loose bones on the bookcase we built together and complimented it. and even though i've got plants in every sunny window in the house he still offers to buy me more, and supports me taking clippings of stuff wherever we go so I can root them at home, and buys me cut flowers all the time cause he knows I like them. even though everyone else is like 'decomposing roadkill is weird' or 'trash is gross, don't you have enough stuff?' or 'where are you even going to put more plants, enough is enough' my partner just supports and encourages my weird hobbies. even when he doesn't enjoy the hobbies he still listens to me talking about it because he likes seeing how excited I get. and I'm really lucky to have someone like that <3

[noxtivagus]

woah i. wrote a lot.

[subjectsix]

I don't know I'm not done talking about it. It's insane that I can't just uninstall Edge or Copilot. That websites require my phone number to sign up. That people share their contacts to find their friends on social media.

I wouldn't use an adblocker if ads were just banners on the side funding a website I enjoy using and want to support. Ads pop up invasively and fill my whole screen, I misclick and get warped away to another page just for trying to read an article or get a recipe.

Every app shouldn't be like every other app. Instagram didn't need reels and a shop. TikTok doesn't need a store. Instagram doesn't need to be connected to Facebook. I don't want my apps to do everything, I want a hub for a specific thing, and I'll go to that place accordingly.

I love discord, but so much information gets lost to it. I don't want to join to view things. I want to lurk on forums. I want to be a user who can log in and join a conversation by replying to a thread, even if that conversation was two days ago. I know discord has threads, it's not the same. I don't want to have to verify my account with a phone number. I understand safety and digital concerns, but I'm concerned about information like that with leaks everywhere, even with password managers.

I shouldn't have to pay subscriptions to use services and get locked out of old versions. My old disk copy of photoshop should work. I should want to upgrade eventually because I like photoshop and supporting the business. Adobe is a whole other can of worms here.

Streaming is so splintered across everything. Shows release so fast. Things don't get physical releases. I can't stream a movie I own digitally to friends because the share-screen blocks it, even though I own two digital copies, even though I own a physical copy.

I have an iPod, and I had to install a third party OS to easily put my music on it without having to tangle with iTunes. Spotify bricked hardware I purchased because they were unwillingly to upkeep it. They don't pay their artists. iTunes isn't even iTunes anymore and Apple struggles to upkeep it.

My TV shows me ads on the home screen. My dad lost access to eBook he purchased because they were digital and got revoked by the company distributing them. Hitman 1-3 only runs online most of the time. Flash died and is staying alive because people love it and made efforts to keep it up.

I have to click "not now" and can't click "no". I don't just get emails, they want to text me to purchase things online too. My windows start search bar searches online, not just my computer. Everything is blindly called an app now. Everything wants me to upload to the cloud. These are good tools! But why am I forced to use them! Why am I not allowed to own or control them?

No more!!!!! I love my iPod with so much storage and FLAC files. I love having all my fics on my harddrive. I love having USBs and backups. I love running scripts to gut suck stuff out of my Windows computer I don't want that spies on me. I love having forums. I love sending letters. I love neocities and webpages and webrings. I will not be scanning QR codes. Please hand me a physical menu. If I didn't need a smartphone for work I'd get a "dumb" phone so fast. I want things to have buttons. I want to use a mouse. I want replaceable batteries. I want the right to repair. I grew up online and I won't forget how it was!

[cozidreamsreimagine]

How to Create Designs That Work for Your Print-on-Demand Business

Running a print-on-demand business is both exciting and challenging. Whether you're selling on platforms like Redbubble or managing your own store, creating designs that resonate with your audience is the key to success. But how do you craft designs that not only look great but also sell? In this blog post, I’ll guide you through the process of creating designs that work for your print-on-demand business, with tips and tricks tailored to help you stand out in a competitive market. Let’s dive in!

Why Design Matters in Print-on-Demand

In the world of print-on-demand, your designs are your product. Unlike traditional retail, you’re not selling physical inventory—you’re selling ideas. Your customers are drawn to your creativity, so your designs need to:

- Capture attention: Bold, unique designs stand out in search results.

- Resonate with your audience: People buy designs that align with their personality, values, or interests.

- Fit the product: A design that looks great on a t-shirt might not work on a mug or phone case.

Understanding these principles is the first step to creating designs that work for your business.

Step 1: Know Your Niche

The most successful print-on-demand businesses are niche-focused. Instead of trying to appeal to everyone, target a specific audience.

- Research your audience: Who are they? What are their interests, hobbies, or values?

- Find trending niches: Use tools like Google Trends or Redbubble’s trending searches to discover what’s popular.

- Create for your passion: If you’re passionate about your niche, it will show in your designs.

For example, if your niche is cozy, minimalist designs, you could create products that appeal to people who love hygge-inspired aesthetics.

Step 2: Brainstorm Unique Design Ideas

Once you’ve identified your niche, it’s time to brainstorm ideas. Here’s how to get started:

- Use keyword research: Tools like Redbubble’s search bar or Pinterest Trends can help you find popular themes.

- Look for inspiration: Check out competitors, social media, or even nature for fresh ideas.

- Think seasonally: Holidays, seasons, and special events are great opportunities for themed designs.

Pro tip: Keep a notebook or digital folder for design ideas. Inspiration can strike at any time!

Step 3: Master the Tools of the Trade

You don’t need to be a professional graphic designer to create stunning designs. With the right tools, anyone can make high-quality artwork.

- Free design tools: Canva, GIMP, and Inkscape are great for beginners.

- Professional software: Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator offer advanced features for experienced designers.

- Mockup generators: Use tools like Placeit to see how your designs will look on products.

If you’re new to design, start simple. Minimalist designs with clean lines and bold typography are often bestsellers.

Step 4: Optimize Your Designs for Products

Not all designs work on every product. To maximize sales, tailor your designs to fit specific items.

- Consider placement: A design that looks great on a t-shirt might need adjustments for a mug or sticker.

- Use high-resolution files: Print-on-demand platforms require high-quality images to ensure sharp prints.

- Test your designs: Upload them to mockup tools to see how they look on different products.

For example, if you’re creating a design for a phone case, make sure the key elements aren’t cut off by the edges or camera hole.

Step 5: Write SEO-Friendly Titles and Tags

Even the best designs won’t sell if no one can find them. That’s where SEO comes in.

- Use relevant keywords: Include terms your audience is searching for, like “minimalist phone case” or “funny coffee mug.”

- Write descriptive titles: Instead of “Cool Design,” try “Retro Sunset Design for T-Shirts and Stickers.”

- Add detailed tags: Use a mix of broad and specific tags to improve your visibility.

For example, if your design is a cozy winter illustration, your tags might include “winter mug,” “cozy vibes,” and “holiday gift ideas.”

Step 6: Promote Your Designs

Creating great designs is only half the battle—you also need to market them.

- Leverage social media: Share your designs on Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok.

- Engage with your audience: Respond to comments and messages to build a loyal following.

- Collaborate with influencers: Partner with creators who align with your niche to reach a wider audience.

You can share behind-the-scenes content, like your design process or mockups, to connect with your audience on a personal level.

Step 7: Analyze and Improve

Finally, track your performance to see what’s working and what’s not.

- Check your analytics: Platforms like Redbubble provide insights into your sales and traffic.

- Experiment with new designs: Test different styles, themes, or niches to see what resonates.

- Listen to feedback: Pay attention to customer reviews and comments to improve your designs.

Remember, success in print-on-demand is a marathon, not a sprint. Keep learning and adapting as you go.

Final Thoughts

Creating designs that work for your print-on-demand business takes time, creativity, and strategy. By understanding your niche, mastering design tools, and optimizing your listings for SEO, you can build a successful shop that stands out from the crowd.

You have the power to turn your ideas into products that people love. So, what are you waiting for? Start creating today and watch your business grow!

Looking for unique, cozy designs that inspire and stand out? Visit my Redbubble shop to explore a collection of creative products made just for you!

[sociocosmos]

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