#if you don't like how I engage with content I like

[tangents-within-tangents]

Like fr to everyone talking about headcanons/AUs/"having fun" in the notes: the word you are looking for is REinterpretation. Not to go webster or anything but

-Interpret: explain the meaning of information, words, or actions. (explain, expound, clarify)

-Misinterpret: interpret something or someone wrongly. (misunderstand, misconstrue, mistake)

-Reinterpret: interpret something in a new or different light.

It seems in fandom spaces the word interpretation is often used at times when what they actually mean is reinterpretation (or sometimes just reaction or impression, ex: your opinion of a character is subjective and valid, but that's not the same as an interpretation).

If your "interpretation" is completely divorced from or contradicts the text, it's not an interpretation anymore. It's a reinterpretation. A reimagining. And yeah you can totally have your fun, go off! Just don't act like it IS an interpretation. Because valid interpretations come with supporting evidence, which is the whole point of the og post.

I think this bit from OP's other reblog describes it best:

this is one way it gets messy that fandom is a space for both media analysis and transformative works even though those two things don’t always co-exist comfortably or necessarily serve each other.

This is the crux. Both happen in fandom because both are a form of engaging with a work that you appreciate. But one literally relies upon analyzing what IS presented in the text, and the other upon reinventing and transforming that text (and headcanon sometimes straddles this line in between). So the important thing is recognizing the distinctions and not mixing them up. And it goes both ways:

-“He would never act that way” we know, it’s an intentional recharacterization bc we're exploring something different right now

-“But he's just a poor meow meow” not relevant right now because we're analyzing how the writing actually portrayed him

Textual evidence doesn't matter when we're just having fun and making incorrect quote memes, and headcanons don't matter when we're analyzing thematic content. The distinction helps us to have more productive conversations. And crossing the streams can sometimes take us to harmful or frustrating extremes.

To borrow an example from Rowan Ellis: You relate to a Taylor Swift song and feel seen in your queer identity? That's great, no one can stop you from experiencing the song that way even if Taylor didn't intend it. But if you turn that around and say this is proof that Taylor herself must be secretly queer, or worse that she's somehow queerbaiting? Please stop!

Another example: Someone once pulled the "we're just having fun, you can scroll past" card on me when they were straight up bashing the writing for not going the way they wanted. Please, have your fun, I won't stop you. Write a fix-it au where your blorbo comes back to life. Vive la fanfic! But when you say "the writers should have done [random specific thing] if they wanted me to believe he was truly dead" whilst blatantly misinterpreting the thing the writers did do to confirm it so it can fit into your theories/denial? That's not 'just having fun' anymore, that's flawed/unfair criticism and I'mma push back on it. (I didn't actually, just for the record)

Headcanons by definition are not canon, and I think you'll find most people are totally fine with you having whatever headcanons you want, so long as you don't start claiming that they are canon or that your way is the only way. That's where people have a problem.

But even headcanons that don't contradict canon, that could fit into ambiguous gaps where canon did not confirm or deny the possibility either way, are still headcanons. They aren't presented in the text itself and therefore not useful to analysis and criticism.

And I think this is where the distinction can feel blurry at times. Because some headcanoning is based on evidence from the source material. So some may think it's the same as media analysis, but I'd call it extrapolation rather than interpretation. It uses canon evidence in more of a imaginative/conspiracy theory/inspiration to bounce off type of way. Especially since fanon is often about filling in gaps.

Fanon focuses on the story, and treats it almost as if it and the characters are living. But media analysis relies upon treating it as media. On recognizing it was written by a person who made choices and used literary devices and elements intentionally to convey meaning (even if we can debate on what that meaning is).

Subtext is not just whatever you want to project onto a story. Subtext is an actual literary device. Meaning that is intentionally implied by the author because you shouldn't spell everything out and it's important to let the readers participate. It's what the characters aren't saying but the author is.

Unreliable narrator is also a literary device, that is intentionally crafted and indicated throughout the whole text. It's the author saying something through the character saying the opposite. It's not an excuse to ignore whatever you want to ignore of what the narrator says.

Characters aren't people and they don't actually make any choices. Everything they do, everything they are, was written and crafted by the author.

(In short, when I analyze character arcs or critique writing choices, I'd love for the discussion I get to point out things I may have overlooked or misinterpreted. Not for it to just shove in a bunch of irrelevant headcanons, character personifications, and Watsonian explanations that have nothing to do with my arguments.)

Fanon is very open-world concept (and open multiverse lol), but analysis is about looking at what the author did give you, what they chose to include or not and what it is meant to show us.

Writing is about crafting an iceberg that implies a keel under the water. Therefore analysis is about studying the iceberg to try to interpret that keel. And fanon is about exploring the whole ocean. And transformative work is about idk cutting off chunks and making ice sculptures.

All of them are very cool and fun in their own right but I think we can see how they can definitely clash and get in each other's way.

Not “Only my reading of canon is correct” or “Interpretations are subjective and all valid” but a secret third thing, “More than one interpretation can be valid but there’s a reason your English teacher had you cite quotes and examples in your papers, you have to have a strong argument that your interpretation is actually supported by the text or it is just wrong and I’m fine with telling you it’s wrong, actually.”

[juricel]

god your yandere smc lives rent free in my head i wanna punch him, kick him in the shin and then give him a lil kiss

also if you're feeling up for it and your requests are open, would you mind writing some headcanons about yandere smc w/ a reader who is defiant but not really in the "kicking, yelling, screaming" way but in the "i will do my best to make your life miserable and inconvenience you as much as possible " (think refusing to talk or engage, entertaining herself in isolation, snarky backtalk; very much "cat making eye contact with you while pushing a glass off the table" energy, defiant yet still subdued)

bonus points if the reader is usually an affectionate person and continues to be like that w/ candy apple (hugs her/pats her head, speaks nicely and sweetly to her, treats her like a lil sis/daughter)

thank you so much for your time!! your writing is amazing!!

a/n: i'm flattered! and please do feel free to do so, anon... he more than deserves it with how he's been treating the reader in my fics.

— yandere! shadow milk cookie x defiant! reader hcs

໒꒰՞ ܸ. .ܸ՞꒱ა ۪ ׂ CONTENT WARNING: manipulation, physical abuse, heavy possessive and obssessive behavior, unhealthy relationship, implied forced established relationship, mentioned and implied mindbreak, stalking, potential ooc.

𖦁‎ oh, he would adore your defiance! shadow milk cookie loves games, and he would view your defiance as such and daresay, it certainly has became his favorite game, even taking over the throne of his most beloved hobby of breaking cookies apart and observing them falling down the never-ending rabbit hole from illusions.

𖦁 your distant attitude towards him wouldn't faze him whatsoever either, and if anything, his lovesickness would delude himself into thinking it was a natural reaction of yours from being in love; oh, you're not listening? oh, that is no biggie for him! he'll simply blabber your ears off, isolating yourself? has his dear forgotten? he is an omniscient presence within earthbread and his kingdom, there is no way to flee from him, he'll just trail along behind you! being a petulant thing against him? oh, that's adorable! surely, you jest! breaking one his precious gifts he spent his time on solely for you? oh, silly little you! how clumsy you are! being such a nice lover, he'll put it back together! you didn't mean to break that, don't you? you didn't, right? he'd break your arms. regardless of how you much you pay no heed to his presence, he is an everlasting existence and will forever be right beside you! there is no escaping him and his sight, it is just as fate concluded, after all!

𖦁 candy apple cookie—although, you treat her nicely—doesn't mean you're still exempted from her trickery for her undying loyalty to shadow milk cookie overshadows anything to her; she'd allow her to braid her hair, all the while inquiring you why you loathe shadow milk cookie when he's just protecting you from the cookies outside, in love even! in that sickenly sweet tone of hers dripping with deceit. she'd even ask you to come with her for something she proclaimed was in dire need of help for only to lead you to back to shadow milk cookie with a cheerful face, giddily probbing shadow milk cookie if she did good.

𖦁 to shadow milk cookie, your defiance is none but a mere game to him, however, the moment you went against him and betrayed him by helping pure vanilla cookie within his spire? oh, that is when he actually takes your advances seriously. why are /you/ helping that pesky little thief? can't you comprehend that he's punishing him for taking what was his? don't tell him that you fell for that querulous cookie's lies? yes, surely, pure vanilla cookie did something to you that turned you against him, truly! what a fiend, stealing his soul jam and then you? oh, he is gonna crumble him into pieces! he vows on the witches the moment he's done with him he would be beyond recognization. you, on the other hand, unmistakably needed some tweaking—yes, he'd need to find a way for you to not do that again, surely, his sweet dear wouldn't mind being confined, would they?

a/n: extremely short compared to my other works but i do hope its fine.

[cvntroach5000]

LaDS Men - "Been having fun without me?" 🔞

suggestive, slight crack, dialogue heavy, no use of y/n, reader is deadpan and unbothered

content warning: mentions of sex toys, implied masturbation, discussions of sex

While helping you move to a new apartment, he accidentally stumbles upon your box of sex toys.

Xavier ✨

He walks into your bedroom, pouting as he holds the box.

"You know, you can just call me whenever you feel... You know."

Of course Xavier Mr. Jealous-Of-Himself Lumiere would have beef with a box of sex toys.

You walk over to his slouched form, pulling him down to hug him to your chest and massage your fingers over the nape of his neck.

"If you want, we can use these together next time."

He buries his face deeper into your bosom, ears practically glowing red.

"I guess that's acceptable..." He grumbles.

His grouchiness persists and you can tell what he's thinking about as he continues to help you unpack. But it's nothing blowing his back out can't fix.

Zayne ❄️

He can deduce the contents of the box without looking inside and doesn't really want to intrude on your privacy by peeking in. He carries the box to your bedroom, calling out to you from the doorway.

"Love, I found this box in the bathroom. Where would you like me to put it?"

"Just leave it on my bed for now, I'll put it in my closet later. Thanks."

Masturbation is completely normal and using sex toys is a novel way of making the process easier and more pleasurable. He forgets about that box almost immediately, instead focusing on helping you unpack.

Rafayel 🪸

Feeling nosy, he immediately inspects the contents of the suspicious box and is very smug about his findings.

"Oh, that's fun! You didn't tell me you had such a collection. Since I've already seen yours, how about I show you mine and we play together, hmm?"

"Sure, but please don't get aroused right now, there aren't any good, clean surfaces to achieve coitus on and I'd like to get most of the unpacking done today."

He places the box on your bed, blowing a raspberry on his way back to the door.

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry, cutie. I'm your perfectly behaved unpacking partner for today. Buuut, if we happen to be done early, I won't say no to you sitting on my face~"

Sylus 🥀

When he finds a peculiar box amongst your belongings, he doesn't hesitate to peak inside. Your relationship is equal, and just as you can go through his things as you please, so does he with yours.

"I see you've got some interesting items in this box, sweetie. If you want, we can add things like this to our bedroom activities. Just tell me what kind you'd be interested in and I'll take care of it."

You hum, the gears clearly turning in your head as you've never really considered the possibility before, "Ok. I'll think about it and let you know."

"That's what I like to hear."

He goes back to unpacking, a little more satisfied than he was previously.

Caleb 🍎

He suppresses the wave of possessiveness that washes over him in favor of taking the opportunity to try and fluster you.

"Well, well, well... Look what I found. So... I think it's sufficient to say you missed me while I was gone?"

You blink at him before softly raising your eyebrows.

"Gone as in presumed dead?"

"Y-Yeah?"

"Caleb, are you implying I masturbated while thinking of my deceased foster brother?"

"Well, when you put it like that—"

Ok, this was not going in the direction he wanted it to.

"Either way, while you were gone, not only did I masturbate thinking of completely different people, I also engaged in intercourse with several other individuals. Now that I have answered your frankly intrusive question, I ask that you put my things on my bed and return to your station. Thank you."

Even though it's his arm that's cybernetic, his brain short-circuits and he stands dumbly in your doorway for another five minutes before finally complying with your orders and dejectedly going back to his task.

[astralcities]

prev no offense but i don't think you're really engaging with OPs point here! it's not that comedy is bad or worth condescension, it's that people are decrying ai as a tool as being fundamentally awful–unless it makes them laugh, in which case it's maybe kinda-sorta okay. like. the point of this post is to illustrate how people are exhibiting a kneejerk moral panic when they're actually legitimately resonating with AI content sometimes. also you should sometimes morally interrogate what you find funny but that's not really the point of this innit

related to last reblog. the AI panic as it exists on social media right now, decoupled from any real analysis of labour relations, is a mass epidemic of millions of people giving each other moral OCD.

you people discard anything that isn't completely pure; you flame a music artist and spread callouts about them for using an AI generated soundbite as a sample, you boycott a movie for using an AI tool to clean up audio recordings, you disavow an entire scientific field for using AI for statistical modelling, you send death threats to some 15 year old kid for playing with character AI. you have this compulsive need to signpost being "anti AI" every time you are "tricked" into feeling a genuine emotion. you are so afraid of experiencing an emotional response to "morally corrupt" art or technology you think it's gonna turn you into a "morally corrupt" person.

there's no end goal to this behaviour, you're going to keep categorising your feelings into ones that you are "allowed" and "not allowed" to feel; you're going to keep resonating with things that you don't fully morally agree with, you're going to worry yourself sick by fighting the part of yourself that appreciates aspects of it. It's an endless spiral. stop encouraging each other with this behaviour, it's like the pro-ana shit all over again.

just let yourself feel for fucks sake. your emotional response to a shitty little AI voice clip of ben shapiro talking about lolita dresses has no bearing on what you believe is good for the world. and I know you people are trying to suppress your emotional responses the way you comment "this is the only good use of AI" under any popular comedic AI generated video, cuz apparently comedy is the only emotion exempt from moral interrogation for most of you

[hyperfixingfr]

Hey guys, just a quick warning on the user makiyaaaahm who you may have seen in the tags recently with disturbing content (disclaimer; do not harass, just report + block)

There's a kid below the age of Tumblr usage (11 years old) going around the fandom and posting disturbing content that depicts them and glorifies them as a murderer that they are posting untagged. I attempted to speak to them about how this behavior is unacceptable and hurting people, but they spent the entire time shouting at me venting to me about how they're so mentally ill and can't help but draw themselves as a glorified killer, before proceeding to deny that they were venting to me or glorifying themselves as a murderer. It really disgusted me as someone who is mentally ill because this isn't acceptable behavior in a fandom with such a demographic that NEEDS to have this sort of content tagged. I tried to tell them that this was unacceptable and they can't deny responsibility for how they're hurting other people just because they're mentally ill and that they need to get help and find ways to heal so they aren't suffering anymore, but eventually they blocked me because they didn't want to listen. The behavior they displayed and the way they spoke to me was really disturbing and I worry about this kid being engaged with on here. Please just block and report them. I tried my best to push them towards getting help but like I said, they blocked me. If you want to send them resources so they can get help I wouldn't be against it but otherwise don't engage and just simply report and block. I don't like knowing that someone this unstable is online at SUCH a young age and I really want you guys to steer clear of this person so they aren't negatively influenced any further. I can't force them offline and I don't intend to, but they really shouldn't be here if they can't even come into a social space without spewing out triggering and glamorized material of horrific topics into a kids fandom. Really, they shouldn't be here given their age. They're not stable. Someone else (who also isn't a good person but we won't get into that) seems to have told them off as well in asks but that didn't get through to them either. I only said something because I got a direct notification of them reblogging something with disturbing text.

And before the usual "why are you bUlLyInG a child" anon ask comes in... Children need to be held accountable and given appropriate consequences and I've already held them accountable. They openly admitted to not wanting to do anything about this with excuses so the best option for consequences that aren't unfair or rude is to make sure people aren't engaging with them until they stop with their extremely harmful behaviors. They don't get a pass for their behavior even with mental illness (as someone with mental illness) because there's a difference between struggling and acting on bad stuff + making others suffer. I would even excuse it if they had been like "omg sorry I was having a mental break" but they only tried to defend themselves having done it by being like "I'm just mentally ill I can't help it" lol. And again children need to be held responsible for their actions or else they grow into adults who think they can do whatever they want

[getvalentined]

Ah. I think the issue is that people see criticism as hate? This isn't the case at all; I hold things I like to a higher standard, I'm more critical of things like I like than things that I don't. I get how this can come off as abrasive to a lot of people, but I believe that it's impossible to appreciate the true depth of anything if you only engage with the positive aspects and reject any impression of negativity.

If I don't like something, I generally don't really bother unless it's something that is impacting my quality of life. (ie: if someone is being a piece of shit to me I'm gonna talk about it, this is not fiction, this is different.) It takes a lot of energy to dig into a character or a work of fiction this deeply, and it's not worth it to do for something I don't like.

I've said repeatedly that I don't like this character as a person, but that I love him as a character. I talk a lot about how I think he's got one of the best-written stories in the entire series.

That story shows a wonderfully flawed human being whose flaws build up until the facade he's been hiding behind for his whole life breaks under the weight. That's part of the beauty of it, that's part of the tragedy of it, that's what makes his story so good.

The problem is that he's a liar, and some of his fans would rather believe the lies than actually get to know the character for who he is. But he's genuinely a wonderful character. I don't just admit this, I will die on this hill—he's such a good character. He's so well-written. He's so consistent, and this newer presentation is spot-on.

[holymotherofwmps-the-reblogging]

Ok, though 'I heard the dog dies' is so valid 😔 I'm sorry classic fandom (of which I am part of) but that was just twisting the knife ok pat the goddamn dog you lying liar.

Also 'my fave died at Troy' so relatable (crying in Hector).

'spoiled the ending' LOL people in the text Is spoiling the ending all the time too. It's the experience not the end what matters.

I don't think people would like to read something because they have been pressured into it.

As long as they don't make up stuff about the text and claim it's true while not having read it (that is, enjoying the content without being asshole to other people) it's cool, everybody is free to choose how to engage with the fandom ❤️

Things I reply when ppl ask me why I still haven't read the Odyssey :

I've already been spoiled the ending

I've heard the dog dies

I don't like the main guy

I don't want ppl to think I'm an Epic fan

My favourite character died at Troy

I like feeling special (((in this niche sphere of greek myths fan)))

It feels a little over the top that the Odyssey happens to a guy named Odysseus

It's too mainstream

[inkskinned]

im gonna start a fight; and, at the same time, i need you to take this in the most good-faith way possible, but:

videos that involve body-checking and intentionally (and uncritically) show a mealplan of an unhealthy number of calories are just a revamped version of pro-ana food diaries.

and yeah, i know there's arguments. i address some of them under the cut. but at the end of the day, we're just coming back to romanticizing mental illness; we've just found a better platform for it.

this is already something we've done. we knew it was wrong and tried to stop it. and tbh. it just wasn't enough.

there are people who argue "well, what if you have an eating disorder, you can't help it if you don't eat!" except that as someone with an ED; we are not infants. we know what we're doing. part of having an ED is that you are like, maybe too self-aware. even if we can't help our own food choices, we don't need to fucking romanticize the disorder - something we've been warning you about since 2013. there are hours of setup, filming, and editing that go into these videos. they do not happen to fall into place randomly. there is a reason they are pieced together to be beautiful, bright, inspiring.

there's this woman who pretty much only posts daily plans under a normal amount of calories, and everyone defends her saying but it's better than nothing! and i'm like. except she opens those with images of her showing off her body and provides no context in the video or caption that suggests that she believes what she's doing is unhealthy. she has hundreds of thousands of followers on a platform designed for young kids and teens. i refuse to believe that by accident her content just happens to be cheery advice on "healthy" versions of starving.

for any other symptom of mental illness, we would be incredibly enraged by this kind of placid acceptance of a "tips and tricks" fast-start guide. imagine if people posted pink & pretty videos saying "best places to cut yourself" as if it was a fucking storytime. we, as a society, are so fucking fatphobic that we would rather accept blatantly harmful displays of self harm than admit that we are obsessed with a hyper-thin body type.

i am not suggesting someone never talks about their disorder. i talk about mine. actually, it's a plot point in my book.

here's the difference: i recognize it's a fucking mental illness. i am very careful to never mention a specific weight, eating pattern, or calorie plan. i always make sure to position it as something that ruined my fucking life. i do not put cheery music in the background and hearts and sparkles over my worst moments. i do not film it in bright light. i do not start each passage with an image of a thin body followed by "here's how to look like her."

eating disorders should not be framed as aspirational. and the problem is that society worships the "after" image, so long as you don't get too sick. there is a reason so many people who quit being "influencers" will later admit - i wasn't eating well that whole time; an obsession with food was completely destroying my life.

we let any uncredited, uncertified person write the most backwards, fucked up shit about how to get the body you desire! because the underlying, secret belief is: well, at least they're thin! and the real thing that fucking gets me each time - they make fucking money off of it. their irresponsibility and societal harm literally pays off for them.

"why do you care so much." "don't like it don't look." "so what if people experiment with new ways of thinking of food?"

thank you for asking. we're about to get extremely personal. it's because when i was 18 i discovered "thinspiration"/"thinspo." and it absolutely influenced, shaped, and codified my pre-existing eating disorder. i went from having some troubling habits and traits to being incredibly unwell within what felt like a matter of days. there were actual pages designed to train me on how to have an ED correctly. it was all so suddenly easy. i was sick; and the nature of the illness meant - i wanted to be sicker.

it takes an average of 7 years for a person to fully recover. i know this personally - even now, 10 years from the worst of it, i still fucking struggle. i am so much happier now and i eat what i want and i literally don't think about food at all (19 year old me would shudder) and yet - i still fucking know the calories of plain toast with butter.

an eating disorder is one of the deadliest types of mental illness. over 1 in 4 people with an ED will attempt suicide.

and i'm sorry. i just do not see the exchange rate of "high rate of engagement" versus "the value of a human life."

[qcomicsy]

Lately I've only been wishing to grab a comic about my favorite character and just have a genuinely good time reading it.

[aaronstveit]

people who are saying 'no' on that "is listening to an audiobook the same as reading?" poll are super annoying and i hate that we have this same discourse every couple of weeks but it's reallyyyyyy interesting to me that so many people are saying that you aren't 'interacting' with the story in the same way because, the inherent ableism of that aside, you absolutely can analyze and think critically about a story even if you don't physically read it. you can listen to a story and think deeply about it and i think you're all very very weird to believe you can't. just because you only half-listen to things doesn't mean the rest of us don't pay attention and think deeply about it.

[scentedluminarysoul]

Antishippers are kinda wild

"I don't get why people like (this thing), it's a huge ick/trauma for me."

That's totally fine, actually. You don't have to interact with something like that at all!

The problem comes in when you make moral judgments about what people like IN FICTION.

If you don't understand : fine

If you say people are bad because they like a thing you don't : not fine

How can people like it? It's simple actually:

Because it's not real. It's fiction. The people involved are not real and and cannot be harmed in any way.

If engaging with content harms you because of your trauma, don't engage with it.

Nobody forces you to. You're free to filter and block to your heart's content.

But claiming people are morally bad for something they enjoy in fiction is bigotry, actually. Bigots think like that.

[jemandrr]

Unironically, Ben Shapiro's greatest win against the left was turning left/centerleft laypeople off from the idea of a 'debate with facts and logic' because of his bad faith arguments. Like it's almost...triggering to people, and that leaves a lot of people with unsharpened ideas and an unwillingness to explain them in a rigorous manner.

One example phenomenon that this has fed into is a continuing degradation in the lines of thought people use to reach certain conclusions - so person A expresses opinion X that person B agrees with, but because person B never really sees the entire line of thought laid out by anyone else, their formulation of opinion X based on their own intuition might randomly lean on some idea Y which person A doesn't care about. As a result, if Idea Y lacks actual backing, person B might wrongly defend opinion X and give an impression that the entire thing is flimsy, or person B might lose their own footing and assuredness and change sides.

I also think that he so badly mangled the concept of debate in the casual public consciousness that it's a contributing factor to the vague anti-academic sentiment in recent years. (Which, while academia as an institution has problems, there's certainly an undercurrent of less directed discontent that is contributing to low public opinion of education as a whole - and a greater feeling expressed on social media that 'casual reference of marquee media' is in a way insulting to people who have not consumed it, rather than an invitation to partake or something you can pass by without caring. Not on tumblr though, where we see Dracula and then we read Dracula.)

tl;dr his pseudo-intellectualism meaningfully contributed to certain common sentiments of anti-intellectualism because of how badly and annoyingly he and the people who emulate(d) him did/do it.

[astradyke]

oh no talking about my own life again? on my blog? i should be stoned

[dreameralive]

unfortunately i just don't really care about shipping much when it comes to the slenderverse, especially MH, which makes it. difficult to interact with the fandom on here

[azeeyfinance]

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If you have expertise in your niche, create a course or webinar and sell it on platforms like Teachable, Udemy, or directly on your blog.

4. Grow Your Traffic

Collaborate with Others: Guest post on other blogs, collaborate with influencers in your niche, or participate in blogger round-ups.

Use Pinterest: For niches like lifestyle, food, fashion, and travel, Pinterest is a powerful tool to drive traffic. Design eye-catching pins that link to your blog.

Paid Advertising: Once you’ve optimized your content and built some organic traffic, consider investing in paid ads (Google Ads, Facebook Ads) to boost traffic further.

5. Optimize for Conversion

Clear Call-to-Action: Whether it's signing up for an email list, buying a product, or clicking an affiliate link, make sure your blog has clear CTAs (calls to action) to guide your audience toward the next step.

A/B Testing: Experiment with different designs, headlines, and strategies to see what resonates best with your audience and leads to higher conversions.

6. Track and Scale

Use analytics tools (like Google Analytics) to track your traffic, identify top-performing content, and make data-driven decisions.

As your blog grows, consider outsourcing tasks (e.g., content writing, social media management) to focus on scaling your income.

Summary of Monetization Methods:

Affiliate Marketing

Display Ads (e.g., Google AdSense)

Sponsored Posts

Selling Products/Services (Digital or Physical)

Membership or Subscription

Freelance Blogging

Creating and Selling Courses/Webinars

By combining these methods, consistently producing valuable content, and growing your audience, you can turn blogging into a profitable venture.

[serpulalacrymans]

i feel like part of me has died. i can't write at all.

everything i write sucks, and i wish i could have the same burst of energy i had before. i have so many ideas in mind, but when i put them into practice they don't have the same shine as i imagined.

i'm stuck in a place mentally, and i thought everything would get better when i finally had some free time. it didn't. i feel trapped, i feel empty, i feel like part of me is mentally dead.

i'm not having fun at all. i'm tired.

- i know you. you know me. you don't have to answer me at all. i just wanted to take some weight off my mind.

Repackaging your way of life can make it more exciting if that's what you're struggling with. Learn new ways to express your hobby. Try different ways to write. Be more poetic. Be more juvenile. Try it out on paper. Try a free site or app for writing. Look up online tutorials and discover new words to use... It won't fix you. But it might help for a little while.

A passion isn't a passion anymore if it feels like a chore. People change. So do their passions. I'm sorry.