I think even if everyone was fit, fitness would still be worth showing off because it absolutely takes effort to be fit. It isn't about other's admiration, it's admiration of the self.

If you’re a Non-Muslim and you see a Muslim praying in public, could you please not pass in front of them?

Go behind them, but not in front. 👍

Oh, signal boost! I didn’t know this.

Okay, but also: if you see a Muslim praying in public and they have something in front of them, like a purse or a bag or something like that, you can pass in front of them, but pass in front of that object.

it’s called a sutrah, and it’s meant to act as a physical barrier between the person praying and someone who might happen to pass in front.

Also, if you did this and didn’t know, please don’t beat yourself up over it. Now you know! Muslims aren’t supposed to pass in front of Muslims praying, either, because prayer is communication with God and you don’t want to break that connection.

Spread culture, respect customs, be good people. Simple as that.

Didn’t know this.

Reblogging again

THE AMOUNTS OF REBLOGS THIS HAS JUST MAKES ME SO HAPPY

S I G N A L B O O S T

Reblog forever ! 

Similarly, if a Jew is saying the Shemonah Esrei prayer (whispered, moving only the mouth, standing facing east with legs together) don’t go in front unless there’s a barrier.

im incredibly grateful for this

boooost

girl help i’m having creation ideas above my skill level

girl help i'm having creation ideas above my motivation level

girl help I’m having creation ideas above my free time level

Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)

.

REMINDER TO

Put sunscreen on the fronts and backs of your underarms (u read that right)

Put sunscreen on your EARS, your hair part, and any place on your bald scalp, plus under thin or fair hair

Put spf on your TATTOOS and SCARS every day

Put spf on the tops of your feet if barefoot/wearing sandals

Put sunscreen INSIDE the margins of your clothes. For best protection wearing swimwear, spray yourself naked before putting base layers on (obvs avoiding sensitive areas).

Apply spray spf before you get to the beach/shore/event/whatever. Don’t try to spray it on in a breeze.

REAPPLY often

NOSE is vulnerable bc it sticks out—REAPPLY OFTEN! You can’t overdo it.

You need more sunscreen on your face than you think you do. Just go with me on this one. 1/2 tsp minimum for your face.

The best sunscreen is the one you’ll wear, so find one that agrees with your skin, doesn’t make your eyes water, and that applies easily for you. There are new dexterity-friendly spray bottles I like a lot from Neutrogena.

If spf turns you chalky, i hear overwhelmingly positive things about the brand Black Girl Sunscreen

Skin cancer is a really stupid thing to have to spend money on, and an even stupider thing to die of. Sunburns are uncomfortable. We’re all getting out again—so don’t forget to slather.

Quick addendum: the Neutrogena spray bottles were recalled in July 2021 because they were found to contain benzene, which can cause cancer. I know they’re really convenient but you really, really, really should not use them until they rectify the problem.

you know what? no *powers you off*

Oh thank God finally i can sl

Why You Can't Walk Into a Bookstore Without Buying Something

I can’t walk into a bookstore without buying something. And I can’t walk past a bookstore without going in. As you can imagine, these two problems are a deadly combination. 

I’ve been this way for as long as I can remember. I’ve taken StrengthsFinder 2.0 several times (you’re not supposed to take it more than once, but I guess I keep thinking it’s a magic 8 ball kind of test, where I can come back later for a better answer). And, every single time I take the test, this comes out as my top trait:

Input: You are inquisitive. You collect things. You might collect information—words, facts, books, and quotations—or you might collect tangible objects such as butterflies, baseball cards, porcelain dolls, or sepia photographs. Whatever you collect, you collect it because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity. If you read a great deal, it is not necessarily to refine your theories but, rather, to add more information to your archives.

Great. A hoarder of information? Guilty as charged. Thanks for seeing right through me, StrengthsFinder.

It sounds like a nice “strength” though…right? Well, it is.

Until it’s not. Until you wake up one day, realize that you have 100+ unread books on your shelf, and you still can’t walk out of a bookstore without buying several more.

I know so many people who are right there along with me. We love books. I suppose we all make easy fun of it because it’s an acceptable addiction. It’s one that we’re proud of, even.

But, I read a quote recently that struck me:

“If you can’t give something up, you don’t own it—it owns you.”

Damn it. I can’t give up my books. So I guess, in some weird way, they own me...

And that thought started to get to me. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be owned by any *thing*. So, I began to dig a bit deeper. I began to think about why so many of us can’t help but buy more books—even when we have a feeling we’ll never open them; even when we have dozens of other new books waiting to be read at home; even when there is a public library just as close as the nearest bookstore.

For me, I’m realizing it’s because I see every book as a truffle of knowledge. I regard education as a source of ultimate power. I worry that if I don’t buy the book right then and right there, I'm never going to have the information. I secretly love buying physical copies even though digital versions are cheaper (and faster to obtain), because looking at books on my bookshelves (plural) makes me feel smarter, somehow. That sounds dumb to say out loud, but I’m just being honest. I love how they tell a story about what I care about, what I’m interested in. I love how the books I own reflect a big part of who I am and what I love and how I think.

Books are all of those things: truffles of knowledge, sources of education, great artwork, and prized possessions. If life was one big playing field, books are the ultimate leveler. They make it possible for all of us—regardless of financial circumstance—to learn. They give people power, a voice, and a better sense of world- and self-understanding.

And still, while I am in full recognition of how incredible books are, I do not want to be owned by them. I do not want to be owned by anything.

This is what troubles me: that we’ve become a culture of people that can’t give stuff up. We keep buying more and more. Almost all of it, we really don’t need. And, in the process of us rationalizing overconsumption of anything and acting on every purchase impulse, we’re slowly becoming people who are owned by the stuff we think they own.

That’s scary.

I look at my shelves full of unread books and see all of the stuff I can’t wait to learn. A part of me gets excited when I look at them. But, a part of me also feels overwhelmed. Gluttonous. Anxious that I haven’t created more space in my life to sit in silence and read. Ashamed to be owned by random possessions.

I’m guessing a lot of you out there feel the same way.

So, I think it’s time to snap out of my book buying daze. And mostly, of the idea that I need books to prove to myself that I’m intelligent. The truth is, I know I’ll be happier if I read what I’ve got and then share the books I love with others. I only limit their potential by hoarding and holding onto them. Heck, I limit my potential when I hoard and hold on to them.

As with anything else in life, too much is too bad. Less is usually more. And, while accumulating book knowledge is a fun and worthwhile endeavor, it gets in the way when we forget that the more important thing is to have unforgettable experiences. We can’t do that sitting in a bookstore, buying more stuff.

We must remember the proper order of things…

That, at some point, it’s not about buying another story.

It’s about making room to live a story worth buying. 

lol i love how 2012!Steve primly hurls the shield with determination form and panache but post-Thanos!Steve heaves that thing over his head like FUCK U I’M OVER IT

One of the guys from my high school got married to a girl and they both hyphenated their names!!!!!!! I know it’s small but that made me super happy.

Sometimes “I’m not available” means “I’m not mentally/emotionally available” instead of “I’m not physically available” which is ok! Both of those are equally important.

“I don’t want you to be hopeful, I want you to feel fear” this girl is 43 levels of metal

If you don’t reblog this you are DEAD to me.

This is Greta Thunberg. She is an activist for comprehensive climate change policies and action. She is a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. She’s 16. She’s remarkable.

also she’s autistic and ADULTS have used that against her

Respect this young woman or die by my sword.

An angel, a demon, and the Antichrist walk their hellhound through Tadfield Village

Why do people listen to the advice of those wannabe ‘writers’. I mean they are not even published? 

Excuse you? People can still give out valuable writing advice even if they are not published. Besides, not being published does not mean someone is a bad writer.

Explain?

I assume by being “published” you mean through a publisher and not through self-publishing. Most publishers are for-profit. Meaning they want to make money. However, they don’t like taking chances and spend money on publishing a book that might not sell well. No matter how good of a writer you are, the chances of hearing “Sorry, there is no market for your book”, are extremely high unless you have something to show for it:

Followers on social media, success of your self-published book, email subscribers, website traffic, etc. Anything that shows the publisher that your book will sell increases your chances of being published dramatically. Many times, writers are approached by the publisher!

I have had this conversation with many of my writer friends, and some of them think this is unfair. What you often see is famous people writing a mediocre book and using their fame to have it become a best-seller. Except I don’t think it’s unfair. It’s business. As a writer, you are your own business. Many writers seem to forget this fact!

Let’s take Lang Leav as an example. You might have heard of her as she was dominating the poetry section on Tumblr in ‘13 and ‘14. She amassed many followers on Tumblr by sharing her poetry. She then self-published her book ‘Love & Misadventure” and promoted it on Tumblr.

“How did you get published?

​I self-published my first book, Love & Misadventure. As soon as it was listed for sale, my book began to top best-seller charts and caught the attention of two literary agents in New York. I signed up with Writers House and was promptly offered a publishing deal by Andrews McMeel.” (source)

My honest opinion about her work is that it’s poetry for the masses and that she is not necessarily an astounding or great poet. However, her first book has 38,943 ratings on Goodreads (source)

Key to success? Posting her work online, good branding, nice poetry, building a loyal following.

Let’s take fifty shades for example. (YES)

E.L. James used to write twilight fanfiction. Many people loved her Twilight fanfiction so a publisher called The Writer’s Coffee House contacted her, they changed all the names in her work, and the rest is history.

I hope this explains it a little. Publishers mitigate the risk of their investment not being profitable by publishing books that have a high chance of being successful. There are many great, unpublished writers out there sharing valuable advice. Those people not being published has more to do with them not knowing how to increase their chances of being published, rather than being a bad writer.

Currently on a bus from Nice to Paris. It’s a 13 hour drive so I am going to dump a lot of information for people who want to sell a book right now or ten years from now. The sooner you start using this strategy, the more successful you will be.

First of all, if you have a lot of reach (audience), meaning that you have a few thousands of followers on social media, and a publisher contacts you, you always want to ask them if you can self-publish first! Always! If they refuse, you really want to think twice about signing their contract. Why? Because publishers are using your followers to sell your own book to. Self-publishing gives you around ~70% profits. Publishers often offer you a contract giving you 20%. Shady af. I don’t like that shit and I so often see small authors being used like that. Yes, publishers do help with editing etc., but depending on your reach, it’s up to you to decide if hiring an editor yourself isn’t a much better option. So, always SELL to your own fans first self-published if you can. THEN, if the publisher thinks your book has potential beyond your followers, work with them and sign the contract. Don’t let them profit off your fanbase and then leave you hanging. 

If you are going to write a book, you need to talk about it! A lot. At least 6 months in advance. Preferably two years. You need to build up some anticipation among your followers. You need people to be aware of it and WANT it. It’s like a book. You don’t just tell your readers the plot in 5 sentences and that’s the book. You need to build up the story. And then BOOM, Karen just turned page 170 and she doesn’t know what’s coming for her, but she’s gonna be shook and love it. Same with promoting your book. Nobody is gonna give a shit if you say: “oh hi, you didn’t know but I wrote a book. You can buy it here”. You gotta talk about it long before you publish it.

Chances are, you don’t have a following at all. In this day and age, social media is all the hype. There is this misconception that you need millions of followers to make a living online. Not true. Let me introduce you to 1,000 True Fans, an article written by Kevin Kelly in 2008. Read it. It’s eye-opening and practical!

“A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author – in other words, anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.”

How to get 1000 fans as a writer (also works for artists)

Your main focus should be on creating content and growing your reach (audience). Focus on building an email list and a simple website. Why an email list? For the same reasons everyone else always asks for your email when you sign up for something: so they can reach you.

Many content creators struggle with two things: algorithms and platforms dying. Instagram’s algorithm makes it so that if someone doesn’t hit ‘like’ on your content for a while, your content gets pushed all the way to the bottom of their feed. Why? Because IG wants you to stay on their app as long as possible and thus shows people the content they interact with the most first. The second reason is, at some point people are not going to use their Myspace, Tumblr, Wattpad, or Instagram account anymore. Someone might have a million followers on Myspace, but right now, if they update their profile, maybe a thousand people will see it if they are lucky. So, how do you keep reaching the people who followed you in the first place? EMAIL.

Email is fantastic for two reasons:

So, if you ever shoutout your book or art store, you are guaranteed that everyone on your email list sees it.

I recommend MailChimp for sending batch emails. It’s free for up to 1,200 email subscribers, and that’s plenty for small businesses.

But how do you get people to sign up for your email list? Well, there are a million ways to that, but first, we need our website and we need to actually reach people!

Let’s first focus on reaching people

Create a social media account on each platform that makes sense to you. Opt for the same username everywhere to strengthen your brand. Then post your content to each and every single one of these platforms, but add in a call to action. Write a personal caption on Instagram, or write things in the tags on Tumblr. The best advice I can give to writers on Tumblr is to reblog writing prompts and write a story and include a ‘READ MORE’.

Now the problem is: getting people to reblog your story. You could try DMing bigger blogs, but chances of them reblogging your story are slim. DM your followers instead and ask them to reblog your story if they want. If you don’t have followers, go through a tag of your choosing. Filter on ‘recent’ and DM those. You need to hustle a bit. It doesn’t matter if you wrote the story today or two years ago. If you think it’s good content, then you can self-promote it until it gains traction.

For Instagram: Never use popular tags. Avoid them like the plague. I would even go as far as to not use tags at all. But if you use them, only choose niche tags. Why? Bots. There are so many of them. You NEVER want bots following you on Instagram. Every time you post something new, your post gets ‘tested’ in batches of followers. 20% (this is not proven, but I feel pretty confident about this number) out of the first few people who see your post need to like it, or else Instagram stops pushing your content out to more people. Bots never like your posts. If your post fares well and stays above the 20% it gets pushed out to more people, and it will eventually land on the explore page. I don’t have much experience using tags, but if you use them, make sure bots do not target them.

Post your content everywhere. Writing on Wattpad. Art on DeviantArt etc., and always link to your website! All your socials must link to your website, this is key to build your email list.

Also, quick tip for IG, if you want to grow really fast, make sure your content is well received. Most of your post should have a like/follower rate of 20%. In the beginning, the increase in followers is barely noticeable. But once you have 1k followers, it snowballs! Furthermore, some Instagram pages, often businesses, have a terrible like/follower ratio. Less than 1% of their followers like their content. Why do they even bother with Instagram? Only a small portion of their followers see their content since so few people like it, and so it doesn’t get pushed to the feeds of the rest of their followers. Why do they bother? Email. Many businesses, big or small, use their Instagram account as a funnel to get email subscribers. Email is always more important to a business than followers for email lasts much longer and isn’t subject to algorithms, except the spam filter. However, if you are on Instagram as an artist or writer, strive for both: high engagement and collecting emails.

Now that you are having your email list, website, and your social media accounts are growing, it is time to promote your newsletter (email list) beyond the links to your website on social media. We are striving for 1k email subscribers. It’s not a lot. My advice is to message all your followers. Copy paste the same message asking them if they want to subscribe. Make it personal. I want to know who the artist or writer is. I always enjoy someone’s content more if I know the person behind it. I want to know who you are.

But, at this point, you might be wondering: why would people subscribe to my email list? What to send emails about in the first place? Think long and hard, put yourself in your follower’s shoes. If you asked me:

If you are an artist:

Obviously, not everyone is going to sign up for your email list. But try your best to make something special. The goal is to:

You are not selling the cheapest shoes or pens in the world. You sell art and books. Build a relationship with your audience!

I am against using extra incentives that have nothing to do with what you do to have people subscribe to your list. If you do giveaways, then make sure it’s something you sell yourself. Don’t give away a bunch of books you didn’t write or a laptop. You will get people signing up because they want the laptop, not because they are interested in you. Instead, as an artist, do a commission giveaway (people who want your art will sign up) or give a discount for your Esty shop etc., Writers: out of the people who sign up, one person can give you a prompt for a short story, for example. Or give away your book if you have already written one!

(By the way, I see some artists doing amazingly well with commissions on Tumblr already! My advice would be, if you want to keep doing this for a long time, go start your website and email asap. So that ‘if’ Tumblr dies, (at this point I am not sure if it’s even possible for this site to die) you can still reach your audience and keep doing commissions.)

Prioritize your website and email list over your Patreon

Patreon is great. As a creator I love it. However, when does someone become a Patron? For me: first, the rewards need to be good. But second, I need to care about you as a person. You can’t promote everything at the same time. It’s best to focus on one thing for a period of time. I suggest you first build up relationships with your email subscribers, so they get to know you better and give an f, then plug your Patreon.

This might look a bit counterproductive to some of you. After all, you want to go from A (content) to B ($$$) as fast as possible. But I highly recommend you implement this extra step if Patreon is one of your sources of income. You will end up with more Patrons.

Starting a website and collecting emails

You need a domain name. Preferably a .com. Name it after yourself or your brand/store. There are many ways to go about starting your website.

Here are three:

There are plenty of others out there, but these I have used and are reputable. Feel free to add your hosts to this post.

For email marketing automatization I recommend MailChimp. There are many options, but MailChimp is by far one of the most used and has therefore many one-click-install website integrations, making it is easy to set up. By the way, sending 2-4 emails a month to your list is more than enough.

Hope this helps some of you out. It’s simple but not easy. Also, give it time. You don’t get 1000 email subscribers overnight. The sooner you start the better. And, yeh, you have to put in some time and energy. In my opinion, it’s worth it. Spend 90% of your time creating, the other 10% doing the less fun stuff. If you want to increase your chances of success, being published etc, this is a good way to start. My advice would be: Don’t rely on being discovered or going viral. Rather, increase your chances of being discovered or going viral by strengthening your foundation for success.  

Reading material

I just finished reading the first link of the reading material and what stood out is that email is seven times more likely to convert someone into a customer than social media! That’s insane! Thank you, dear person, for posting this. Going to make a website this weekend!

@elizxa-beth you really should! I think your art is amazing. A friend of mine from college does this. She has ~3k followers on Instagram and only ~400 email subcribers. She gets 90% of her comissions through email. About 12 a month! And that’s a lot since she charges anywhere from $75 to $200 for a comission. You could do the same! (:

I think I will! Thank you <3

So I created my own website with Wix today and here are some tips for anyone who wants to start a website using Wix:

1. Let Wix build a website for your first with ADI. Play around with it and publish your website. Then edit it again. Go to ‘site’ and select ‘Go to Wix editor.’ Now you have full control over how your website looks.  2. There is a small learning curve. It might be complicated in the very beginning but don’t give up. Get some snacks and work on your website. It’s actually fun. It took me around 3 hours to create mine.

3. Wix has a built-in email sign up form and email marketing tool called ‘Shoutout’. So you don’t need mailchimp. You can still connect mailchimp to Wix if you prefer.

4. Do wait with upgrading your website until they send you the 50% discount coupon to your email.

5. Signing up for Wix is free. If you upgrade you get a free domain as well! 

This is solid advice, but OP forgot to mention the two most important reasons as to why you should have your own website and create an email list. 1) a dot com domain without [.tumblr].com or [.blogger].com in front of it looks professional and conveys trust. 2) You own the website and email list. Tumblr and Instagram accounts are being deleted left and right without warning. Even some creators on Patreon have gotten there accounts banned for no reason at all other than staff messing around. No one can delete your website and email list. You have full ownership.

PSA: you are allowed to reblog this super long post to help out artists and writers!

This is some great advice