#sorry for all the tags i need exposure 😭

[itsmizuover]

is it gay to look at your friend like this

[thebreakfastgenie]

girl please my dash is all billy joel polls right now 😭

I'm sorry!!! I'm trying to give them some exposure by reblogging to main but I'm only going to mass reblog once per round and the rounds get smaller. I was going to tag them but I needed to use fast reblog so the symbol would turn green and I could keep track of which ones I'd reblogged already lol.

[kitconnor]

idk if you made a post already about it but can you please explain a bit more about track tags and how to use it? your blog is such a big help thank you for taking the time to make tutorials

hey there ! i'm so sorry for the late reply, i've been away for 10 days 😭 i don't have a post about it but i'm more than happy to help you out !

what are tracking tags? in order for gifmakers to gain exposure on their gifsets, they will often use a tracking tag. in creating a user unique tag, they will follow it and then reblog things they are tagged in.

how do you create one? a 'tracked tag' is just a regular tag. common formats are: '#userx', '#tuserx' and '#userrx' or someone's username. they typically use the user's name (in place of where the Xs are on my above examples) but depending on whether or not someone already tracks that tag is whether or not you choose to use it yourself. once it's created, it's always good to follow the tag, simply because it makes it so much quicker to find in your tumblr search bar as a shortcut to quickly see if you've been tagged.

how do i determine whether that tag is taken/how do i know if someone uses that tag? to find out if a tag you wish to use is already in use, go to the search bar on tumblr, type in 'userx' and then click on the search that also has the hashtag beside it (you want to search the tag, not the words) and then it'll show whether or not it's being used. if there's no results and that tag is empty, great !! you can start using that yourself. if you search it up and posts are already there, you're best to check the dates on the post. if the dates are recent, someone is likely still actively using it. if the dates are old, that means the person who has used it has likely gone inactive and people stopped tagging them. if you try a few different variations and all of them are in use (this can happen with common names), often people will just use their username. there's no problem with it, but it's less common because people change their urls. some people even do '#user[username]', but you still need to account for changing of urls.

how do i get people to tag me? make sure you've got your tracked tag somewhere on your blog, and if you just decided to start tracking one, make a quick post letting people know ! then they'll know to tag you in things you like.

how do i tag a gifset? apart from single user tags, there are also source blog tags (i'll refer to them as SB tags). gifmakers will typically tag these source blogs depending on the content of the gif and what that blog says they will reblog, ie. #usermusic <- reblogs music content/musicians, #usergay <- reblogs lgbtq+ content from tv/film/celebs, etc. user tags are the '#userx' ones i've already talked about. users will tag people who share common interests or whoever asks to be tagged, (usually a discord thing) as they know that can be a guaranteed reblog. keeping in mind you now have space for 30 working tags, you can tag heaps of people and get more exposure !!

help - i've tagged a SB/user and they still haven't reblogged my work? there can be a few explanations for that. the first one and most likely one is that the blog runs on a queue. almost all SBs do so, in order to keep the blog constantly running. users do it for the same reason, but some will like your post once they've added it to their queue, to let you know they've seen it. it's less common for single users. the second possibility is you've tagged them in something they don't like/don't know/don't reblog. some users have content they don't want to be tagged in listed (often in 'about' pages, on their web theme or a mobile navi.) on their blogs, so you know. it's also often that people only reblog what they actually know; if you tag a user who is predominately sci-fi/fantasy media in your post about a rom-com, and you've never seen they reblog rom-coms or that rom-com before, then they chances of them reblogging your post are lower.

what's the point in tracking tags? exposure !! if you tag blogs that get more attention than yours, or blogs that are a well-known source in a particular fandom, and they reblog your work, they you will get more reblogs as a result.

let me know if you need anymore help :)

[anothersebastianblog]

Rant: I've always avoided Sebastian/ofc or Sebastian/reader fics in general, because that's not my cup of tea + cringe-worthy most of the times, but stumbled upon one text in tags...and its summary reminded me of the whole subset of fic tropes developed since 2020😭 they really write 200k long angst fics about a non-celeb gf who's been hidden but happy, then he signs with CAA, and the gf and him suffer so much. The fake gf changed since 2020, but the plot is alive and kicking. And the most unpleasant surprise is to find out this stuff is written (at times) by some big fan/update accs who seemed relatively normal. It's just way too close to reality (e.g., they include all his actual trips, other real people who aren't even celebs, like his friends, etc) to accept it's a totally innocent fantasy, because there's very little new plot added. Uuuuuh. I fully realise fanfiction barely has borders, and it's not like they describe gang r*ape or violent murder of AO/AW, but it still feels so weird to read the same stuff as in comments on certain blogs in a form of a fic, see it being praised. Feels like a new level of exposure to this conspiracy side of the fandom. I know an easy solution: not look at such fics, yeah, and I won't, but i needed to get it off my chest 😂 Sorry it got long!

Posting this without adding comments bc i don’t have anything to say really 😂 but also i am at work lmfao

[ladyartemesia]

i've been posting stories and they haven't been getting as much engagement as (i think) they should. like they don't even reach 100 notes. ik we have to write for us, but some days, it gets really challenging to (hypothetically) pick up the pen and write. how are you coping with the new system? any tips?

Hey lovely,

Let me tell you something that might make you feel a little better…

When I posted my first full one shot, it got around 30 notes in the first two months it was up.

And about 15 of those notes were me reblogging myself 😁

You write for yourself. But I know—as a writer—at least to some degree we post for other people.

Some Tips? Here’s What I Got…

I don’t know when the ‘new system’ came into play but I know that using the tags correctly is by far the best thing you can do.

Don’t be afraid to recommend your work if people ask for recommendations. Don’t be afraid to recommend your work to networks that accept recommendations.

Join collabs if you can. START collabs with other authors. Just do it. There are no rules stopping you and people love them!

Always have a banner. I hate to say it but people pay attention more if you have one. It doesn’t have to be a particularly good banner. Just an image or even a gif works. You can just have the title on a block of color and that will work. It catches people’s eye.

Have a good summary that clearly states what the story is about. People need to know what they are getting into. I’ve read some summaries that confused me or just left me with no information at all. Usually something like “you were the last breath of summer and he was always winter”… Being poetic is really cool and beautiful, but if a reader has no idea what kind of story it is, they might not bother. (I made that fake summary up so if your fic has that as a summary I AM SO SORRY I was not trying to target anyone.)

Taglists and Teasers really help get your fic exposure. It’s a small way for people to read a little of the story and decide if they want to read more! And if they DO want to read more then they often really appreciate the offer of a taglist. I won’t beat around the bush—taglists can be a lot of work (especially if you don’t have a good system down) but they are worth it and they help get eyes on your work. People can miss stuff they genuinely want to read without them. (We won’t talk about the fact that evil tumblr glitches occasionally decide not to tag people 💀 because 😭)

My Final Tip is This:

Share and recommend other people’s work.

Make rec lists of your favorite stories. And don’t be afraid to put yourself on them. Show you want to be a part of the community. Show support and make connections. People will pay attention.

Ask other authors to beta read for you—and be willing to beta read for them!

It took a long time before my work was reblogged by more than just me. And I don’t think everyone should have to wait.

There are more than enough readers to go around. If I read a story and I enjoy it, I share it. Just because I had to wait doesn’t mean everyone else should. I want to keep the community strong and that means doing what I can to support other creators when I am able.

In the very beginning no one but my two closest friends reblogged my work and I reblogged theirs. Between us we had about 10 followers and 6 were p*rn bots 🤣😂 (a little later D joined our band of merry misfits and she had a bigger base than us, but was still a smallish author at the time—so then there were 4 of us reblogging each other).

Now people call all four of us ‘big’ authors (a label none of us really embrace to be honest 😅 the connotations of that term are not always positive and the definition is pretty nebulous as well. To a person with 1 follower, 100 followers is a ‘big author’ so it’s very subjective) and although we each have very different styles, the one thing we all do consistently is share.

Supporting your fellow creators is the best thing you can do. I can’t tell you how many times I looked at the accounts of people who shared my work/recommended my fic and clicked on their masterlists simply out of curiosity. I have become friends with authors who shared my work. I have found new favorite authors because one of them shared my work or commented on it. I like to support those who are willing to support others and I’m not alone in that.

[itsmizuover]

hermit mizuki