#general use WordPress template

[sktthemes1]

Why Is SaturnWP Pro the Best Multi-Purpose WordPress Theme for 2025?

In a world where digital needs evolve rapidly, having a theme that adapts to change is a must. That’s where SaturnWP Pro, a powerful universal WordPress template, steps up as the go-to solution for professionals, creatives, and businesses of all sizes.

Let’s explore why SaturnWP Pro is the leading choice for developers, agencies, and business owners alike.

Universal by Design: One Theme for All Use Cases

Unlike niche-specific themes, SaturnWP Pro is crafted for universal appeal. Whether you're building a tech startup site, a wedding blog, a coaching platform, or an NGO portal—this theme delivers.

It includes:

100% responsive design

Clean layout and UI hierarchy

Section-based structure for modular editing

Support for RTL and multilingual websites

From solopreneurs to large-scale brands, SaturnWP Pro scales to match any content and design goal.

Built-In Design System for Consistency

A huge challenge in website creation is maintaining brand consistency. SaturnWP Pro addresses this with a built-in design system:

Global color palette and typography settings

Unified header and footer builder

Multiple layout options for posts, pages, and products

This means your site not only looks cohesive but also feels professional across every page.

Customization Without Coding

You don’t have to be a developer to build something incredible with SaturnWP Pro. It supports:

Drag-and-drop editing with Elementor

Live previews in the WordPress Customizer

Advanced widgets, sliders, and block sections

From banners to testimonials, you can customize everything with zero coding knowledge. This makes it an excellent WordPress theme for non-coders and freelancers alike.

Sell Online With Confidence

Planning to run an online store? SaturnWP Pro seamlessly integrates with WooCommerce. This includes:

Product galleries

Secure payment gateways

Cart and checkout optimization

Wishlist and review options

As a result, it’s a reliable multi-purpose eCommerce WordPress theme that can grow with your online business.

Secure, Accessible, and GDPR-Ready

Security and compliance are not optional anymore. SaturnWP Pro ensures your site is:

GDPR-friendly

WCAG-accessible

Compatible with security plugins like Wordfence or iThemes

Up-to-date with the latest WordPress standards

Whether you're collecting customer emails or taking payments, your website will meet today's privacy and security requirements.

Ideal for Agencies and Developers

For agencies managing multiple websites or freelancers building client projects, SaturnWP Pro is a smart choice. Features that support developers include:

Child theme support

Clean and extendable code

Developer hooks and filters

Full documentation and customer support

You’ll save time while delivering high-performance websites with consistent quality.

Final Thought

If you’re looking for a single theme that can power any type of WordPress website, SaturnWP Pro is your best bet.

From business websites and blogs to portfolios and stores, it’s a one-stop solution built for modern demands. Take the next step in your digital journey with the fully flexible universal WordPress theme that does it all.

[freezerbnuuy]

I wrote a guide on my main blog on writing SimLit a while back, but I figured I'd amend it to make it more suitable to Tumblr and post it here as well.

Please note, that there is no one way to write SimLit; creative work is always subjective. You do not have to do everything in this guide, obviously- just focus on the bits that apply to you and what you want to write. This is a gathering of my own ideas, the way I do things, and other options as well. Depending on your writing style, some of this will be more relevant to you than other bits will. This is both for the challenge players and the people who write stories with little basis off anything going on in the game.

I have made a story / challenge-planning document that you can read about here that will give you a place to put all your ideas!

The fun part...sort of...is coming up with all your rough ideas. Things to think about are:

. Where you'll put your story: The most popular place for SimLit these days seems to be Wordpress, but there is always Blogger and LiveJournal as another option for a place to put your story. Tumblr is a great place for stories that are more picture-based and less textual, or if you plan to only have dialogue for your story text. Have a look at what different platforms have to offer to see what suits you.

Whilst I would say Blogger is a bit harder to properly customise than Wordpress and you have to rely on custom templates made by other people and some HTML editing if you want a nice blog template, it is very generous in terms of picture limit. To my knowledge, any image under 2048 on the longer width won't count toward your Photo space (as of 2025).

. Narrative or Gameplay-Driven: Some writers will write commentaries to go alongside images of challenges they're doing. Some write commentary for their general gameplay. Others use Sims solely as a way to 'direct' a story they've come up with themselves instead. Others make comics. Some do a mix of various things... Have a think about what kind of story you want to do. It might even change halfway through writing, you never know!

. Genre: You won't always have an easily-defined genre for your story, but you might have some ideas. Romance, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror, Family...the options are more or less endless. 

. Custom Content: If you use CC, it can help to look for CC you might need for your story- whether that's poses, CAS items or Build/Buy items. 

. How you will plan your story: Some SimLit authors write entirely around the game and don't pre-plan anything (brave people you are going by the seat of your pants, I used to do this but now I could never), but others like to plan story points and character notes beforehand. There are plenty of ways to plan your story, whether that's jotting ideas in a notebook or on a word processing document. There is one I already made linked at the beginning of this section.

There are also programs like Scrivener designed for writers to plan stories (it's not free, though). It depends how in-depth you need to plan things out before you write. With me, it really depends. Some story ideas, I have most of the plot planned in my head from the get-go. Other times, I only have a rough idea and have to go from there.  

. What challenge you will do: If you want to write a commentary/story around a challenge, look for one you'll find fun first. Long or short? What rules will you change or omit? How much will you let the challenge and game drive the story? Will you be writing commentary, or will you be writing in a narrrative-type style inspired by what happens in the challenge?

. Rough plot / character ideas: Write down any plot or character notes that immediately come to mind, even if you don't know if you will use them. Anything that comes to you straight away is a good place to build on later and should be jotted down whilst it's still fresh in your mind.

. How you will write your story: - Commentary VS. Narrative: Will you write a commentary around your screenshots/gameplay, or will you write it in the style of a prose-like story? You can also mix both of these approaches in various ways.

Or do you want to go about it in a different way? Maybe you could use your screenshots to make a comic-style story. Another option is to possibly have something like an epistolary novel (written almost entirely in letters) or even a 'scrapbook story' (a story told in multiple ways with multiple artifacts- letters, newspaper clippings, phone calls, almost anything).

- Tense and Viewpoint: Will you write in past tense or present tense? Will you write in third person, or first person? How many different characters' viewpoints will you have if you write in first person? (...Or are you like me, and will accidentally switch between tenses throughout the whole story?)

. Themes: It's good to think more in-depth of what themes will appear in your story. Family bonds, friendships, relationships in general, dealing with various aspects of life, prejudices, overcoming fear...the list goes on forever. Whilst I personally don't like reducing stories to tropes, tropes are always a place to start if it works for you.

. General length: Do you want to ideally write a short story, or something longer? This won't always be something you'll have in mind straight away, but that's fine. 

. How much to plan and when to start: It's up to you how much you need to pre-plan and when to start writing, but I don't start writing until I'm at a point where I know that the story can be resolved. I don't start writing straight away, in case I end up with a story I somehow can't finish. 

. Upload frequency: You won't always stick to this, since most of us are busy, sad and tired adults- but it's good to try and think about how often you want to upload chapters. Are you aiming for weekly, monthly, or just whenever you manage to get a chapter out? What I will say is please TRY NOT TO STRESS about schedules. If your readers are impatient that's their problem and they can wait until you're ready!

. Gather inspiration: Whether it's authors, shows, films, art, music...anything that gets you in the right mood and frame of mind for what you want to do. Moodboards are sometimes a good idea as well for collecting inspiring pictures. Make inspiring playlists of songs that get you in the mood for the story or characters.

. The sliding scale of 'Utopia' and 'Dystopia': On a scale of 'Paradise' to 'Hell-hole world', what's the rough state of the world in your story like? Maybe it isn't that simple, but it helps to have an idea if it's thematically relevant somehow.

. Any messages or lessons: Are there any messages you hope to get across in your story, or anything that a reader may be able to learn from it at all? Not always the case with every story, and this is not the sort of thing that you'll do intentionally. For my own story, it's very much just a snapshot of history so there isn't really much of a defined moral to the story.

This is geared more towards people who are writing mostly story-driven SimLit, since commentary and gameplay-driven stories often don't require any sort of major world-building. That, and the challenge you are doing might already have the worldbuilding situation laid out for you, like the Apocalypse Challenge or the Alien Adoption challenge, but I'll build on this a bit too.

As someone who has been Game Master for DnD and Pathfinder, I'm used to fleshing out worlds, building on lore and the like- and being a Game Master often requires you to do it on the spot sometimes. For me, it's good to have some level of lore and world-building written out. I like having a certain set of 'rules' to stick with, mainly to help keep consistency of the universe's 'rules'. This is especially important with my Magic Universe since the magic system needs a level of consistency I have to try and stick to. (That said, I have occasionally changed tiny less-significant bits of lore as I go...shh...don't tell anyone!)

But where do you start with such a thing? First off, this isn't something you have to do in massive levels of detail (unless you want to!).

Here's the general way of how I do things. Feel free to pick and choose which bits will apply to your story; you don't have to pre-plan every little last detail about your world if you don't need/want to.

--Starting with the already-established relevant worlds and lore--

I almost always start out with the 'official' stuff first. You can find this in-game, in item and world descriptions, in trailers, and on Sims Wikis. Sims isn't the most lore-heavy game for obvious reasons, but now and again you've got something to work with. It all depends on exactly what you're writing about, and how much your story will revolve around the actual Sims universe. 

--Seeing what I want to keep from the already-established worlds and lore, and what to get rid of--

I don't keep everything all of the time, and it's unlikely you will either. Sometimes your idea is better, or fits better with what you've already got in mind. Or perhaps the Sims 'lore' behind the thing is too comical and wouldn't fit a slightly more serious story.

--Start stealing ideas! (Go careful though)--

Writers worry way too much about originality, but everyone takes little bits of ideas off each other all of the time- everything is inspired by something. That, and in my opinion there’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing a story that’s a ‘love letter’ to a genre with all the tropes and cliches you can think of. 

So gather up some inspiration and see what ideas others have; have a quick read of SimLits that are similar to your idea. Look at the lore behind shows or video games that are the same genre as you are writing. Think about your favourite shows, films and video games as well. Or even look at the official Sims forum or Tumblr to see what people have done with worlds, premade characters and the like. On the official forum, there are a lot of ‘What have you done with…’ threads where people discuss what they have done with premades and in-game places.

One thing I tend to focus on the most when worldbuilding, is the sort of socio-political aspect of the world. 'But why does everything have to be political?', you say, but everyone's life is governed by social and political ideas - some more than others, so for me it's what makes up a big chunk of the worldbuilding because of how much it influences the characters living in that world. That, and a few big historical events I tend to think of as well to flesh the world out. If this sounds like something you feel like delving into, then here's some ideas:

NOTE: Some of this won't apply to your world or focus, so just ignore the stuff that isn't relevant to your story.

--Events in history leading up to your story--

This will depend entirely on what you story is about, but events to think about are:

. Inspiring figures from the past: For example, if you're writing about vampires, are there any in history who are still iconic to this day? What made them iconic?

. Any miscellaneous important events? My more specific ones are geared more towards conflict, but there's always going to be important events that happened that stay with people that happen in the world and they aren't always going to be bad. (Yes, the author of Divided really did just say that.)

.Changes in laws and/or major attitudes towards groups: Were there any rules or legislations that came into play that completely shook the world of your story?

.Conflicts: Wars and other major conflicts in history will linger around for years and years in various ways

Modern society 

This is looking at your present day in the story in more depth. This can help you with characterisation as well- how has modern society affected your character and their development and current attitudes? 

. Attitudes towards certain groups: Who or what is celebrated in society? Who has to deal with negative attitudes and why? How are people choosing to fight back, positively or negatively, against positive or negative change? Is there any prejudice at all, or is your world almost entirely accepting of different types of people?

. General morale: How happy are the different groups of people in your world? Is there still need for change, or are people more or less okay with the way things are? Is there an imbalance in the welfare of different groups and why?

. What's/who's popular: From people to events relevant to the story you're trying to tell, what's popular and well-known? Are there any events or people that are causing change or debate that might be addressed later?

. Fashions: It helps to think about what's fashionable in your universe sometimes, but maybe that will all depend on what kind of CC you can get a hold of.

. What the future holds: What ideas do people have for the way things may change as time passes?

-

Magic, superpowers, or other power systems

If your story has some kind of system of 'special' power- magic, or superhero powers, certain chemicals, powers granted from deities or the like- it's good to have some rough idea for how they work:

. Is this power innate? Can it be learned? Is it within the person, or is it an outside source of some kind?

. Is this power a finite or infinite source? Is it a physical object, is it ethereal/energy, a chemical, etc?

. What limits are there to the use of this power? When can it/can't it be used? What downsides are there to using this power (illnesses, magical overcharge, death, etc)? What consequences are there for overuse of the power?

-

Beliefs and belief systems

Your story might have some sort of 'collective' belief systems- common superstitions, or religions like Sims Medieval’s Jacoban or Peteran faiths, or maybe even cults. If so, it's good to outline those, though the amount of detail you'll need for it will depend on the kinds of beliefs and the story you're telling.

. What are the core / defining rules / lessons /ways of living of this belief?

. What actions/attitudes etc are rewarded, and what attitudes are frowned upon? What rewards and punishments are there for such things, if any?

. How has this belief system affected other people outside of that belief system? What do 'outsiders' think of the belief and the people that practice it?

. Are there any key figures in this belief system? Are they real objects/people, metaphysical beings, or are they not real at all? 

. Are there any specific meetings or practices etc. associated with this belief? 

. Do people of this belief own specific special clothes or objects? What significance do they have?

IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE: When it comes to world-building, ALWAYS go careful when using any real-life cultures, beliefs or events outside of your own culture etc- especially those of marginalised groups. Try to do your research as thoroughly as possible.

To avoid potential upset or misrepresentation, I either rely on fictional creations or keep things vague. For example, I'm using the lore behind the Sims Medieval's Jacoban and Peteran religions in an upcoming story to avoid making a fictional religion that people might mistake as a parody of an existing one.

Do any research you need to do

Once again, how in-depth you go depends on how far you want to go- how realistic you want it to be, how historically-accurate you want it to be...Sometimes it's good to just have enough to get a rough idea of something to add on to. For example, if you're doing a historical story, it might be worth just seeing what big events happened, social taboos, etiquette etc. just to get a feel for the rough world of your story. For anything that isn't an important topic, I'm not bothered if it's inaccurate. For example: if it turns out the soft background science of something in my work is a bit wonky, I don't entirely care. However, for serious subjects like mental health etc, I always make sure to get a good idea of what I'm doing before I write it. If I get it wrong, I could end up spreading massive misconceptions and that's the last thing I want to do. -

World-building towns and cities

Not everyone's story is going to have a huge deal of focus on this sort of thing, and additionally to the top you might want to go even further with building onto what's already given to us. So here's some other things that might be worth thinking about if you want to do a bit of extra fleshing-out for the game worlds. When I say 'individual world' I mean the actual playable worlds on their own as opposed to the ts4 worlds altogether at once. If you're doing a challenge and the challenge has worldbuilding aspects, like Alien Adoption Challenge or the Apocalypse Challenge then that is a brilliant thing to give you some level of a framework for some aspects of your story's world.

. Rough population of the individual world etc.

.Landmarks and their significance

.Tourism, what do other people like to do whilst they're there

.What sorts of people tend to live there

. What the individual world is known for the most, what puts them 'on the map', so to speak

Characters are my main focus as both a writer and a reader. I can have a good story with great characters and a thin plot, but a story with a great plot and boring characters is never going to interest me. They can also be difficult to come up with ideas for. Here is a rough idea of how I come up with characters, and how I build on pre-made characters.

Some people have written 'character interviews' - these can sometimes be helpful. You fill them out from the characters' point of view, or from a third-person perspective but about the character. The 'Marcel Proust' character interview is a great one to use, since it asks questions that will no doubt be relevant to both the character and the plot later on. Some of them have questions about favourite food, colours etc. but for me, this is more often extraneous than not. Then again, knowing too much about your character for some people is better than not knowing enough.

My own character 'interview' is here. It's technically not an interview and is just a list of things to consider about your character. You may get some use out of it.

First off, before anything: think of what to base your character on, roughly. Think of the traits of people you know or have known, think of aspects about yourself. Of course, we can't forget basing characters off of your favourite fictional characters! 

If you are writing a premade character, and you're unsure on what to expand on, first off look at their in-game traits, any information provided in trailers/promotional material, and then look at fan theories and ideas about the character. Those are good places to start if you're using a premade Sim.

As well as specific characters, think of your favourite traits, archetypes, and development types as well. One of my favourites is the downfall of a character, a tragic character whose constant screw-ups land them in a deeper and deeper mess. Even better when they start going off the rails a bit as well. I also love characters who struggle with others' kindness, who learn to let themselves be loved over time.  

Then you can get to outlining them.

The basics about your character

. Name: Is there any meaning behind this name in-story? Did the character choose it themselves or is it their birth name? What nicknames do they have, if any? Which do they like, and which do they hate? (Names don't have to have meaning. I only use meaningful names in certain contexts- most names are just names I like, names that just fit for some reason, or that a character's parents thought sounded nice). 

NOTE ON NAMES: If you want an authentic name for a character from a specific time period, look at census records for the country if they're available or see if you can find articles on people from that country and time period. You can also Google naming conventions, as they can change within a country over time as well. I also recommend avoiding baby name websites or baby-related websites when you want authentic names for characters that aren't English or American. It's best to find blogs written by people from that country. Sometimes travel blogs for the country will sometimes talk about names, authenticity and such. Sometimes Wikipedia has lists of names as well, but it's worth double-checking any info found there.

. Rough description: Height, rough weight, colours of skin/hair/eyes, the general 'vibe' of their attire or a more in-depth description. Anything notable about them, like specific jewellery, clothes, tattoos or scars/other injuries?

. Identity: This could be anything from where they grew up, gender, race, sexual orientation, or if they are an occult sim or some other made-up species or race. How has their identity affected their life? Do they face any prejudice or mistreatment for any of it at all, or does it give them more of an advantage over others?

. Family: People in a character's family, whether blood family or found family.

.Beliefs: What they do (and maybe don't) believe in.

. Protagonist or antagonist: Not always this black and white for every character, but good to think about your character's rough place in the story. Of course, one can become the other as the story progresses.

-

Character-defining aspects 

. General personality traits: You can use in-game traits and Randomise to give you ideas, or you can think of your own personality traits for the character.

. Upbringing: What it was like growing up for them. Who was good to them? Who wasn't? How have these people and experiences shaped who they are today? How was the world different growing up to what it's like now? Does the character mourn the old ways of the world or do they like the change?

. Social class: How has this affected their life?

. Education: Might also connect with upbringing here- how was school/university etc. for them?4

. Goals/dreams: Almost everyone has a goal, even if they never achieve it. Even if it's just getting out of bed to make breakfast and then getting back in again.

. Social life: Extrovert, introvert or somewhere in the middlle? What do they do when they hang out with friends etc?

. Fears: What are they afraid of? What do they do to avoid that fear, if anything?

. Any conditions, illnesses, or neurodivergence: (ONCE AGAIN, go careful when writing things like this and do research where it's needed.) How have they affected the character's life and their outlook in general? How does it affect how others percieve them, if it does at all? If applicable, what caused them?

. If not that, then general physical/mental health: How well (or not) does the character look after themselves in these ways? What do they do for self-care and distraction?

. Likes and dislikes: People, things, events, hobbies...What makes them happy and what makes them want to punch a wall? 

. Character 'flaws': Flaws don't necessarily have to be absolutely-horrible things, it can be just things that can hold the character back in some way. Some things that characters may overcome in a story might not necessarily be flaws as well- for example, introversion isn't a flaw (I wish writers would stop treating it as one), but possibly some characters may seek to try and 'come out of their shell' socially a little. Most characters have some kind of flaw or personality 'aspect' to overcome or learn to deal with, but the best kind of character flaws are the ones that actually get in the character's way in the story. The joy is in seeing how the character overcomes these flaws...or even how the character gives into them more and more as the story goes on. Wretched excess is fun sometimes!

. What they're good/bad at: Where do they excel, where do they need a little practice, and what are they absolutely terrible at?

. Any special ablities or powers: What can this character do? What are the limits of this power? How do they feel about this power? 

. Things they are known for: Whether by friends, family, colleagues or the world. What are they known for? What do people like and dislike about them?

. Ideas for development: How do you (at the moment) see the character changing? If you have any ideas for it, who or what will help to influence that change?

. Relationships with other characters: How they do (and don't) get along with other established characters, and maybe why. -

Things to think about character-wise when writing your story

Once you get to writing your character, here's a couple of things that it helps to think about- though some of it is more relevant if writing in the first person.

. What your character does and doesn't notice: How do they approach the world around them? What sort of things do they notice first in their surroundings?

. Manner of speech: Formal, or informal? Do they have any mottos, catchphrases or words they use often? Do they speak about feelings a lot? Do they lie, and how often? Sometimes what isn't spoken can say as much as what is spoken.

. How they socialise and deal with others: Do they overthink things in discussion? Do they pick up on social cues? Do they often over-analyse the actions of others, or do they let everything go over their head? Are they confident in socialising, or not? Maybe their out-of-dialogue musings are complex, but they keep to not revealing much in their speech.

. How they cope with negative emotions: Do they break down, or blame others? Or do they power through it?

. In connection to some of the above points, think about your character both from the outside and inside: How do others see them? How do they think they come across to others? How do they come across to themselves? And finally, who are they really on the inside?

An important aspect to think about especially is character motivation. I've written this one separately from the bullet points since I think it's especially important given character motivation will play a major part in driving the plot along, as well as relationships with the other characters. This might not be something you'll have a solid answer to until you start writing, but it's good to have some starting ideas.

. In the broadest and simplest sense, what does your character want? Money, fame, honour, redemption, happiness, revenge...Have a think about what it is that they strive for deep down. (If you're struggling for ideas, maybe it might help to look at the in-game Aspirations, or maybe even the Traits will give you some ideas).

. How far are they willing to go to get it? Are there limits they won't go to in order to get what they want? Or are they willing to step on whoever's toes? This might be a change that occurs over the story, that's always an interesting concept. Seeing the well-behaved character slowly and gradually challenge what is acceptable...

. Who, or what 'kickstarted' this motivation? Some people just naturally come to want something, maybe as they grow up and/or their general interests, hobbies etc. change. Some motivations are brought on by events, though. Maybe harm done to a loved one motivates them to seek revenge, or something they did in their past motivates them to seek forgiveness or redemption for their actions. 

For challenge players, you can always define your characters through funny commentary, I always like seeing that. One story had one generation founder constantly break the fourth wall and be the only one who realised they were in a game and it made them stand out in a comical way.

 Let me start off by saying: Plot is my weak point. I struggle to organise ideas when both reading and writing, I always have done. As usual, for plots it's best to think of your favourite plots from stories or a 'stock plot' like The Hero's Journey, Wretched Excess etc. It's also good to think about any potential plot points that come to mind straight away, so then you have starting points and can fill in the gaps- this is generally what I do. And honestly, I don't think it's that bad to re-use themes and plot pieces sometimes. Sometimes it works better to stick with what you're familiar with, than it is to try a thousand things at once that are new or different to you.

Do you see yourself as a 'plotter' or a 'pantser'? I'm a bit of both, though I'm leaning towards more of a plotter now. I wish I could write everything by the seat of my pants, but sadly I can't. 

The way I initially began planning for a longer, more in-depth story is by making a table in a word processing document that is one column wide, with loads of rows. Just one giant row of loads of columns. Each box in this table will be for specific notes, and the order of these notes in the planning table goes like this:

. Title ideas/preliminary ideas: What it says on the tin, and the very, very first ideas for the story.

. Rough story ideas: Any ideas that come to me in the pre-planning stage go here. Ideas for anything at all- screenshots, scenes, lines of dialogue, anything!

.Background information to be aware of: Any relevant lore or research goes here. Sometimes I keep story research in a separate document.

. Previous story points to be aware of: Any previous characters or events to be aware of to aid in consistency.

. Current plot threads: Keeping track of plot threads that need to be resolved in some way, to help prevent plot holes.

. Character info: Character information in varying levels of depth. At this point, this usually only covers main characters.

. Character Development:  This almost always changes halfway through, but this is my plan for how characters will change as the story goes on, and the events and characters that will be catalysts for that change.

. Backstory: Character backstory goes here instead, to keep things organised.

. Ideas for future chapters: Any ideas at all for upcoming chapters, no matter how vague. This also includes things that absolutely have to happen later on.

. Story ideas: Various boxes, all of which have more detailed story ideas. At the moment these are defined by specific events, and these are just for the direction of the story.

. Chapter (X): The main story planning, with one box for every chapter. This is where the story starts to be sorted by chapters as opposed to just events. Things always get swapped around during the writing process: Some things get moved until later, moved to happen earlier, or omitted/changed entirely.

The general idea as I'm going, is that each chapter has to move at least something forward. We learn something new about someone, a character's actions have changed something or caused a consequence, a character has learned something, etc. Somehow things have to be different from the beginning of the chapter to the end of the chapter and that is generally how I go about it. Whilst a lot of people frown on whole chapters that 'info-dump', for some stories it might be necessary- especially for futuristic or alternate history stories where the author will need some filling-in on the general state of this unfamiliar world.

Again, how much you want to/need to plan depends on what you're doing. Nowadays I write narratively, and the game has little bearing on the actual story.

If you're going with a gameplay or challenge-driven story you probably won't need much planning, if any at all.If it helps, it's worth doing what you can to create associations of some type within your planning- whether it's symbols, bold/italic, colour-coding, anything. That might aid you in keeping important bits of the notes tied together somehow, whether it's done by scene, character, important plot points etc.

It may help to highlight important bits as well in your word processor, so you can easily find things you know you have to go back to soon. I sometimes do this since I easily get lost in my own notes...

-

Other Planning Ideas

. Starting from the end: It might be easier to go backwards if you come up with your ending before your intro. You can always start with your end point, and then figure out how you got there. 

. Mind-maps: If a massive list of boxes doesn't sound ideal, it might help do a sort of mind-map or flowchart. This is better if you are the sort of person who'd rather take in small bite-sized pieces at a time. You could have one mind-map for the beginning, middle and end, and then do little branches off for different events. And then from those branches, possibly add more for other details surrounding that specific story event, or things to remember for later on down the line. 

. 'Snowflake method': Put simply, it's writing down a simple plot point or idea and then continually expanding on it until it's at the level of detail you need for your plan- the way a typical snowflake's points branch out. As a random example: - Dave goes to get some cheese. - Dave has discovered a monster in his kitchen, and it demands a block of cheese or Dave's life. Terrified, Dave goes out to get some cheese to appease the monster. - A monster that can only live off of cheese is used to eating the bits of dropped cheese off Dave's kitchen floor, but Dave has decided to do more cleaning now his girlfriend is moving in. Desperate for survival, the monster has escaped its hiding place, demanding a block of cheese from Dave for its survival. If Dave does not supply cheese, he will be killed by the monster.

. 'Five-part narrative'/Pyramid: Breaking down your story into the five main parts of most stories: - Exposition: This is mainly setting up the world of your story - the setting, the main goings-on in the area, the characters we will be following throughout the story, and also the driving point which sets the main characters ahead doing plot stuff. - Rising action: The rising action is generally the part where the characters' antics, or possibly something caused by the world around them, sets stakes higher and puts more pressure on them. Perhaps the character has made a grave mistake. People could be after them. Or perhaps some kind of natural disaster has caused massive issues for the character. How will they come to navigate all of this? - Climax: The rise up to the 'turning point' or the height of the drama in your story. Maybe your character finally has some kind of breakdown, their actions have led them into the worst situation possible, but good can arise from this...or your character can just keep going down the slippery slope. - Falling Action: This is generally the process of gradually resolving all that has happened during the story. Maybe the main characters have realised their mistakes and aim to solve them, or perhaps your characters have overcome the main antagonist, or possibly made peace with them somehow. - Denouement: The resolution to the story, or at least where the characters end up. Then again, who's to say that everything will be resolved by the end if you want to make a series rather than a one-off? And who's to say the resolution will be a clean pretty one?

. For the challenge/game-driven writers: It helps to make notes of anything that happens in-game that could become a plot idea. Whether it's something from a mod, Lifestyles, Sentiments, or other autonomous actions- anything that gives you idea for a potential relationship change, conflict or story point, jot it down and maybe you can build on it later. If your Sims end up with positive or negative Sentiments for each other, then maybe it could be fun to come up with a reason why they feel that way.

My biggest piece of advice is: If you are stuck with what to do next in a story, let the game do some of the storytelling for you if you need to. Look at what happens autonomously, Likes/Dislikes, traits, anything caused by mods that add story depth to the game, Sentiments that people have for others etc. You probably even have mods that actually add some real depth to the game that you can go off of. It's a great way to help you get new ideas. It's gotten me through a lot of brick walls in the plot.

. Do not use ChatGPT or any generative AI! The whole point of creative writing is the CREATIVE part and neither of these are at all creative. Don't bother writing a story if you can't be bothered to do the writing.

. Be sure to try and use content warnings for aspects of the story that may need it. You can use the trigger tags and can warn in chapter headers. You can't catch everything, of course you can't, but it's a helpful way to help a reader decide whether or not it's worth getting into a story, or whether they may want to skip a page or chapter. My own story has a lot of potential triggers so I warn about them as much as possible.

. Portrayal is not automatically endorsement. Your story does not have to be entirely morally-pure and neither do your characters. Not every story is about the perfect people who do no wrong and somehow manage to tick every box on how to be the perfect Leftist. You also don't have to provide disclaimers on the fact you are not okay with what's being portrayed, but you can do so if you want to save your own skin.

. Do not worry too much about word counts. Some people like to keep an eye on word counts, but make sure you're not letting it dictate your entire workflow. It's great to have goals to keep you going, but to let them define your work entirely can get stressful. If you miss your goals, don't beat yourself up about it. 

. Use online generators if necessary! Names, plot points, rough plot outlines, there are generators for everything online. They are there both for fun and to help you get a starting point, and you are NOT cheating for using them! No other writer ever does absolutely everything themselves. We all get ideas from somewhere, so there's absolutely zero shame in using generators for ideas and such. 

. Do not get hung up on looking for writing advice. I know, I just gave my advice and yet I'm saying this! Over the years I've looked at so many writing advice blogs, and almost all of it has been useless to me in the long run. Most of my learning has been from reading others' writing, and I have also learned from other kinds of art as well- films, pictures, etc. Do not rely too much on one person's style or advice. It's no good wanting to be someone else, and take that from someone who's been super jealous of loads of creators over the years. Whether it's art or writing, I've learned more from looking at others' art than I ever have from people who've told me how to do it.  On top of that, don't let others' advice dictate what you do too much. After all, people are so quick to label absolutely anything as 'bad writing' these days. Continuing on from this point...

. Do not let others' writing advice become super-strict rules. Including my own! The problem with some people and their advice, is that they tend to think their way is the only way, for everyone. And as I mentioned earlier, people are quick to slap the latest cool 'smart writer's term on anything. Remember when Mary-Sue/Marty-Stu started off as an overpowered character who never faces consequences, but then seemingly became any character with supernatural powers and/or unnatural hair and eye colours? Remember when we got taught 'said is dead' in primary school, and then authors and Internet writers suddenly became obsessed with it to the point where you were terrible for using 'said' at all?

All of those writing blogs demanding complete originality when every conceivable story is inspired by something, subconsciously or otherwise? Getting thrown overboard for using clichés? The same three authors being used as a style model? It's great to take inspiration from other people, but don't think that others' writing advice is always 100% going to improve your writing because as I have said ad nauseum throughout this whole thing- art is subjective. Even if the advice-giver is an excellent author that's been published 1205 times, that doesn't necessarily mean their way is the only way for everyone. My likes and dislikes are not ultimate. Neither are theirs, and neither are yours. Write the clichéd character, add the cool thing because it's fun, use 'said' all of the time, enjoy yourself.

. Also worth adding that just because someone writes their writing 'advice' in an incredibly harsh or 'my way is the only way' manner, it doesn't mean they're 100% right and that you should change how you do things because a bored stranger on the Internet thinks they're the last word on how to create things. You are not going to please everyone, and that's fine. And let's face it- some people are never pleased. Ever. Don’t write to please these types of people, it’s not worth it. I've come across them plenty of times in the past on creative websites, and I've fallen into the trap of trying to do what they say because they must be right, right? And really, why should I? Why should anyone?

Don't fall into the trap of feeling like you have to do what the angry man on Wordpress told everyone to do. Maybe these types occasionally have something good to share, but you should only use writing advice you find genuinely helpful to you.

. When it comes to doing research on things like stereotypes or tired archetypes / plotlines for certain marginalised groups, be aware that everyone has a different opinion on what is harmful and what isn't. You cannot write a character of any experience that every single person will agree with or consider to be a sympathetic portrayal. One man's good representation is another man's problematic.

You are also occasionally going to find some people writing these portrayal guides who will consider every experience out of their own individual one to be wrong (I've come across plenty of 'how to write autistic characters' guides where the autistic writer is convinced their experiences are the only kind of 'proper' autistic experience... and we are all very different people in reality!). Try to get a rough idea from multiple sources and go from there.

. In addition to the above: Go careful where you get your research/advice from. I will happily admit when I don't know what I'm talking about sometimes. Other people, not so much. Go careful who you choose to do any research from. On top of that, when you are looking for advice specific to a culture or identity, most of the time it's best to find things written by people who are actually a part of the group. It's good to be as thorough as you can.

. Be imperfect. No-one is a perfect writer, though some certainly think they are! Perfectionism is common, but in my opinion it holds people back a lot of the time. Don't stress too much- SimLit is meant to be a fun hobby.

. Always aim to finish your work. Even if you have to pull a plot point out of your backside to do it, try to finish everything where you can. I have only ever discontinued one story, and that was only five chapters into it. If you're having trouble, don't be afraid to leave a project for a while. I find in the meantime, I come up with new ideas. Sometimes a necessary distance to a project is needed to see it in a different light, and then any issues can be (hopefully) figured out.

. Don't get caught up in the 'reboot loop'. It's a dangerous game, to constantly want to re-do your work. I'd know - I have a personal project that's been rebooted over 10 times and still not completed that's been a work-in-progress since almost 2014. Don't get caught up in it otherwise you'll never finish anything. If there's something you don't like, assess first if it's best to just move on with the story despite it. In connection to my above point, I'd rather a story be finished badly, personally, than not finished at all.

. Do not get put off by low reader numbers or lack of comments. It's part of the creative process- either you'll get feedback or you won't. People nowadays tend to go for shorter stories either due to not having time, language barriers are also a thing that can put people off a longer prose-based story, or due to the modern age trying to make everything as succinct as possible - and like I said earlier, a lot of people are tired busy adults and likely won't have time.

Some things are also typically more niche than others.

Do not publicly whine or guilt-trip people over lack of feedback or attention. There are always going to be times where lack of attention to your work will get you down, and in my eyes, that's a good sign to take a break from it until the passion for creation comes back to you. Otherwise the story will likely suffer for it as will your wellbeing.

. Do not get put off by negative critique. Critique can be helpful, but let's face it, many people often don't know how to write a good or useful critique and a lot of people nowadays want to be a edgy, feisty caustic critic, might as well say it. Even if someone is nice about it, your first reaction might be ‘owch’.

Keep the useful critique in mind, bin the rest. You don't need to change anything about your story, at the end of the day nobody can force you to do that - but it's also not healthy to ignore absolutely all critique completely. Sometimes others' ideas can be helpful. Sometimes.

. Jarte - A free fancier version of Wordpad that I use for note-taking and plot-planning.

. My planning document and character questions linked earlier.

. MyNoise - If you like background noise to focus but music isn't for you, these are various noise machines. It includes chanting, white noise, natural sounds (thunder, rain etc), bar ambience and much more. There's an amazing selection.

. Writing Plot Prompts and Generators - A bunch of generators for plot-related events. Rough plots, possible things that could go wrong, ideas for how characters meet and general writing prompts. 

. Character Generator - A bunch of character-related generators that will generate all sorts of ideas- from rough descriptions, to in-detail outlines, to causes of death, and a separate generator for ideas for LGBT+ characters as well.

. Evernote- a free (with paid options) note-taking app for mobile and for PC. It allows you to create to-do lists, clip whole web pages, screenshots, articles PDFs and bookmarks - great for storing research or other important things! You can also sync your PC notes with your mobile ones so you always have a space to dump your ideas wherever you come up with them.

. Random Town Name Generator - with some fun tidbits about town naming in general.

. Fantasy Map Generator - for the super-world-builders!

I hope this has given you something of a starting point, or has otherwise given you something else to think about. Happy writing!

[screentones-webcomicresources]

There are many web hosting companies to choose from if you're taking the plunge into making your own website with a comic content management system (CMS) like ComicControl or Grawlix, a Wordpress comic theme like Toocheke or ComicPress, or a HTML template to cut/paste code like Rarebit. While these solutions are generally free, finding a home for them is... generally not. It can be hard to choose what's best for your webcomic AND your budget!

We took a look at a few of the top hosting services used by webcomics creators using webcomic CMSes, and we put out a poll to ask your feedback about your hosts!

This post may be updated as time goes on as new services enter the hosting arena, or other important updates come to light.

Questions:

💻 I can get a free account with Wix/Squarespace/Carrd, could I just use those for my comic? - Web hosts like this may have gallery functions that could be adapted to display a series of pages, but they are very basic and not intended for webcomics.

📚 Wait, I host on Webtoon, Tapas, Comic Fury, or some other comic website, why are they not here? - Those are comic platforms! We'll get into those in a future post!

🕵️‍♀️Why does it say "shared hosting"? Who am I sharing with? - "Shared hosting" refers to sharing the server space with other customers. They will not have access to your files or anything, so it is perfectly fine to use for most comic CMSes. You may experience slowing if there is too much activity on a server, so if you're planning to host large files or more than 10 comics, you may want to upgrade to a more robust plan in the future.

Web Host List

Neocities

Basic plan pricing: Free or $5/month. Free plan has more restrictions (1 GB space, no custom domain, and slower bandwidth, among other things)

Notes: Neocities does not have database support for paid or free accounts, and most comic CMS solutions require this (ComicCtrl, Grawlix, Wordpress). You will need to work with HTML/CSS files directly to make a website and post each page.

Hostinger

Basic plan pricing: $11.99/month or $7.99/month with four year commitment (monthly, 1, 2, and 4 year plans available).

Notes: Free domain for the 1st year. Free SSL Certifications. Weekly backups.

KnownHost

Basic plan pricing: $8.95/month or $7.99/month with four year commitment (monthly, 1, 2, and 4 year plans available).

Notes: Free DDOS protection. Free SSL Certifications.

InMotion Hosting

Basic plan pricing: $12.99/month or $9.99/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, and 3 year plans available).

Notes:  Free SSL Certifications, free domain names for 1 and 3 year plans. 24/7 live customer service and 90-day money-back guarantee. Inmotion also advertises eco-friendly policies: We are the first-ever Green Data Center in Los Angeles. We cut cooling costs by nearly 70 percent and reduce our carbon output by more than 2,000 tons per year.

Reviews:

👍“I can't remember it ever going down.”

👍“InMotion has a pretty extensive library full of various guides on setting up and managing websites, servers, domains, etc. Customer service is also fairly quick on responding to inquiries.” 👎“I wish it was a bit faster with loading pages.”

Ionos Hosting

Basic plan pricing: $8/month or $6/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, 2 and 3 year plans available).

Notes: Free domain for the first year, free SSL Certification, Daily backup and recovery is included. Site Scan and Repair is free for the first 30 days and then is $6/month.

Reviews:

👍“Very fast and simple” 👎“Customer service is mediocre and I can't upload large files”

Bluehost

Basic plan pricing: $15.99/month or $4.95/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, 3 year plans available).

Notes: Free domain and SSL certificates (for first year only). 24/7 Customer Service. Built to handle higher traffic websites. Although they specialize in Wordpress websites and provide updates automatically, that's almost a bad thing for webcomic plugins because they will often break your site. Their cloud hosting services are currently in early access with not much additional information available.

Reviews:

👎"The fees keep going up. Like I could drop $100 to cover a whole year, but now I'm paying nearly $100 for just three months. It's really upsetting."

👎"I have previously used Bluehost’s Wordpress hosting service and have had negative experiences with the service, so please consider with a grain of salt. I can confirm at least that their 24/7 customer service was great, although needed FAR too often."

Dreamhost

Basic plan pricing: $7.99/month or $5.99/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, 3 year plans available).

Notes: Free SSL Certificates, 24/7 support with all plans, 97-day moneyback guarantee. Not recommended for ComicCtrl CMS

Reviews:

👍“They've automatically patched 2 security holes I created/allowed by mistake.” 👍“Prices are very reasonable” 👎 “back end kind of annoying to use” 👎 “wordpress has some issues” 👎 “it's not as customizable as some might want“

GoDaddy

Basic plan pricing: $11.99/month or $9.99/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, 2, and 3 year plans available).

Notes: Free 24/7 Customer service with all plans, Free SSL Certificates for 1 year, free domain and site migration.

Reviews:

👍Reasonable intro prices for their Economy hosting, which has 25GB of storage 👍Migrated email hosting service from cPanel to Microsoft Office, which has greater support but may not be useful for most webcomic creators. 👎 Many site issues and then being upsold during customer service attempts. 👎 Server quality found lacking in reviews 👎 Marketing scandals in the past with a reputation for making ads in poor taste. Have been attempting to clean up that image in recent years. 👎 “GoDaddy is the McDonald's of web hosting. Maybe the Wal-Mart of hosting would be better. If your website was an object you would need a shelf to put it on. You go to Wal-Mart and buy a shelf. It's not great. It's not fancy. It can only hold that one thing. And if we're being honest - if the shelf broke and your website died it wouldn't be the end of the world.The issue comes when you don't realize GoDaddy is the Wal-Mart of hosting. You go and try to do things you could do with a quality shelf. Like, move it. Or add more things to it.” MyWorkAccountThisIs on Reddit*

Things to consider for any host:

💸 Introductory/promotional pricing - Many hosting companies offer free or inexpensive deals to get you in the door, and then raise the cost for these features after the first year or when you renew. The prices in this post are the base prices that you can expect to pay after the promotional prices end, but may get outdated, so you are encouraged to do your own research as well.

💻 Wordpress hosting - Many of the companies below will have a separate offering for Wordpress-optimized hosting that will keep you updated with the latest Wordpress releases. This is usually not necessary for webcomic creators, and can be the source of many site-breaking headaches when comic plugins have not caught up to the latest Wordpress releases.

Any basic hosting plan on this list will be fine with Wordpress, but expect to stop or revert Wordpress versions if you go with this as your CMS.

🤝 You don't have to go it alone - While free hosts may be more limited, paid hosting on a web server will generally allow you to create different subdomains, or attach additional purchased domains to any folders you make. If you have other comic-making friends you know and trust, you can share your server space and split the cost!

Want to share your experience?

Feel free to contribute your hosting pros, cons, and quirks on our survey! We will be updating our list periodically with your feedback!

[nyancrimew]

Hi!!

I’ve been super inspired by your blog and want to try coding my own personal website from scratch, I’m just not sure where to go for hosting it! Is Wordpress a must even without using templates? Every resource on this turns out to be an ad for Squarespace. What worked for you/what would you recommend?

Thank you!

hi hi, i put the source code for my website up on github yesterday (link below), and as most personal blogs by like nerdy folks it doesn't use a CMS or anything but a static site generator (in my case eleventy) which allows you to write blog posts and stuff in templates with usually markdown and then compiles it all to static html files so your site requires barely any resources and doesn't really have ANY attack surface. feel free to look at how i did my site to get a bit of an idea of the possibilities!

[tempural]

Hi!! I wanted to say that I loved reading about your journey of creating a personal website. I'm still unsure between Vercel and Netlify. I have a small question to ask. See, one of the reasons I want to make a website is to archive drawings and journal/sketchbook. Would you have any tips for creating an area on my website just for the diary/journal, which has tags, files for each entry, etc.?

Bello!

Really happy to hear about your interest in websites! I want everyone to make their own site so I don't have to log into social media and get instant tummyaches ♥

Vercel vs Netlify: I think I settled on Vercel for absolutely no reason whatsoever. I just made a site on Netlify, then tested on Vercel, and now I have like 5 websites on Vercel so I just kept using it LOL. I'm sure a more tech-savvy person would know the difference - I think they have certain integrations with specific programs.

Creating a diary or journal with tags:

There's a couple of different ways you can do that, with different levels of work needed.

you got me yapping again:

This sadgrl tutorial might be outdated and may or may not work, but explains the process better than I can.

Easiest: make a journal on Dreamwidth, or another blogging site (wordpress??) that allows easy tags and RSS feed, and embed that RSS feed onto your site.

This requires almost no HTML set-up, and the easiest to organize tags, but you don't truly have the data on your own site since it's just embedded.

When I snuck into a web design class at college, this was one of the methods that the professor used for a blog within a portfolio site LOL.

Shit like wordpress is what a LOT of ~professional~ sites do for their blog section. They code it separately from the main site haha. It's the most popular thing, but not necessarily the best. And wait til you read on what the CEO of wordpress has been having meltdowns about... he owns tumblr too!

It's made with a tutorial for Neocities if that's what you use.

Medium: Set up zonelets.

It will require some HTML and JS editing, but will help automate making headers/footers for each page of a blog.

I've never used it myself, but I see other people speak highly of it.

HARD FOR ME CUZ I'M A GORILLA: I believe a lot of professional web devs will slap your face with their coding cock until you use a static site generator (SSG) to make your site.

You will need some coding knowledge to set up the tagging system since it doesn't come with it enabled by default. But it's made explicitly to be an alternative to big Static Site Generators which are...

It requires some more intimidating knowledge, because it's a lot of scripts that turn files that are not HTML/CSS/JS into plain HTML.

Also you have to use the command line, and that doesn't come with buttons that tell you what you can do. You have to copy/paste all that shit or memorize the code to 'dev build astro' and it all looks silly.

I've used Eleventy, and now am using Astro. Other people use Hugo or Jekyll or some other stuff with crazy names like Glup Shitto. I hate all these sites cuz none of the words mean anything to me. This is a common theme for me and tech. I don't know what NODES or CONTENT or ISLANDS are!!!

I had the most success attempting to learn how to use a SSG by downloading a template and altering it with github + VScodium. Here's the template page for Astro. You click on a theme you like, and it takes you to its github page. (If you don't want to use evil Microsoft stuff sorry. Skip this entire section.) Follow the instructions on the page for "forking" the glup shitto. When it tells you to run commands, I run those commands through the terminal window in VScodium. These tutorials never tell you what these commands do cuz they assume you already know. Usually those commands automatically install the files you need onto your computer, and create the final files.

You can see my wip here for a "tag system" that SHOULD show members of a web listing haha but I don't know what I'm doing and I have a reading disorder AND don't know cumputer good.

THEORETICALLY this will be the simplest and easiest way to maintain tags and files, because after you set it up you just have to write the "content" of the blog page. And you don't have to set up the header/footer ever again. I see the vision, and potential, but I am not there yet when it takes me 5 hours a day to figure out what any of the words in the documentation mean and I don't want to ask an actual tech person cuz they will be like 'obviously just press the Blip on the Repository and then Suck My Ass in the command line".

(side note I haven't updated fujofans in like a year cuz I'm struggling with this part to make updating easier).

Con: the final HTML/CSS code is really ugly if it's "minified", and a lot of themes use """"""professional"""""" CSS libraries like Bootstrap and Tailwind that I honestly think are ugly cuz that's what every fuckin' tech website uses to style their pages and make them look Professional and Minimalist with stupid code like style="500-w dark-gray-balls D-cup-bra" on every single element. Even Toyhouse uses Bootstrap. Eugh!

But maybe you're smarter than me and can wrangle these things better!

That was really long. Woops. I hope you can slug through this wall of text and find something helpful. Feel free to email me if you have any more specific questions. I may or may not be helpful.

If someone else sees this and has better suggestions for making BLOGS, please chime in. I'm begging you.

[valeriehalla]

Hi! I juuust found your work, and I like it (namely through that formatting post, but now I'm actually reading through CURSE/KISS/CUTE and, hey! It is cute! Aster's growing on me)!

I'm actually in the process of writing another book—er, webnovel. Something free because I want people to have the chance to actually invest themselves in it—and I wanted to ask! Did you code the site all yourself, or did you use something as a framework? And, to someone who doesn't know much code, what would you reccomend?

Asters are always growing in odd places ...

I coded the whole entire thing myself. I even coded a ton of backend tools that live on my computer for automating tasks like formatting pages and converting images. I did all of this because I’m a freak...? And I wanted to optimize for fast, lightweight page loads with no server-side rendering. (The entire website is static HTML.)

For someone less inclined to hubris than me, depending on your skill level or interest in learning web code I would recommend either:

just using Wordpress (every web host in existance has a big glowing button labeled “install wordpress” for making a wordpress site and there are endless templates for formatting any kind of post you can imagine with no coding required), or

picking a static site generator and using that (for a fast and lightweight website but one that you might have to do a little coding to finish out the way you like it).

Notably, one thing I don’t recommend is using SquareSpace. For one thing, they have an adult content ban on the books; for another, if you ever do want to do something as basic with your website as “upload an HTML page you coded yourself”, you’ll find yourself locked out in the cold, because that’s grown-up stuff and they don’t like you doing that. (Learning this the hard way is the reason I ended up making my new website myself. A nice thing about a static site is that not only do you have complete control, but it’s fully portable, too: just paste the files into whatever web host you like and it’ll work just the same.*)

*except sometimes you gotta configure your .htaccess a bit etc

[3liza]

after my post yesterday about not sharing viral videos of "dancing dogs" because they're just videos of animals dying slowly of agonizing neurological disease I tried typing "canine distemper" into tumblr search and discovered another one of those weird little heatsinks of tumblr spam. 99% of the posts in the tag/search category (the latter actually, the tag itself doesn't seem to work/is blocked) were spam, mostly 0-note chatGPT rambling with unclear goals either for SEO or for sales. a lot of Indian spam in particular is on Tumblr, as well as either fake or real veterinary clinics posting filler articles about pet topics. none of this stuff gets any engagement and most of it seems to be referral dead ends, eg, it doesn't have any links out that are being clicked by either humans or crawlers, but I find it everywhere.

porn spam is very straightforward by comparison, porn bots are trying to farm leads in the form of live men who reply to them and can be added to databases of live leads, or they want conversions into account signups or sales off-site. sometimes actual adult content creators are doing their own marketing here and again the goals of their advertising is normal, and other times porn ads are malware or social account hijacking bait etc. but the generic marketing slop spam that comes up for terms like "canine distemper" is a little more puzzling.

I think some of these blogs are probably being used inside web templates off Tumblr to just host content elsewhere on the web, but as far as I'm aware thats not really a standard website building technique, most people just use a blog template or WordPress or something. if you go on the Black Hat World forum you'll find plenty of buying and selling of established accounts in good standing on various socials, either through hacked accounts or accounts that have been deliberately created and then farmed over months or years to look as real as possible, but Tumblr accounts aren't really in demand as far as I'm aware

I don't think it's particularly interesting and definitely not sinister, it's likely a case of lost automated processes or some sort of testing of marketing generators that's just using Tumblr as the planting bed.

[talenlee]

Dev Pile 2025-06 — Starter Kit

Making dev piles is a new experience for the blog in that they are explicitly deliberately timely. Where most of the work on this blog is thrown weeks, sometimes months in advance if it doesn’t fit neatly in a single spot, I am trying to make sure I write any given Dev Pile article covering the ‘week before’ the article goes up. This is a new kind of work for me, and it’s necessitated working ahead.

The week this article is being ‘written in’ is the week after Cancon. I had a plan for this week: I was going to spend the week writing an article developing the game dev I did, at cancon, in the dull periods at the table between the sales. Thing is, this year, that did not happen – Cancon was pretty much completely constant, so much so that the first day I didn’t even notice I never pulled out my notebook and what notes did get taken during the whole event were surface, or sketching out some minor ideas.

Therefore instead of a single intense focus here, this is going to be something of a hello and hey, here’s how to get started article about game making, tools, and prototyping.

Who Can Make Games?

You can make games. I can make games. Anyone who wants to can make games. The access you have to industrial scale production equipment to make the game you’re designing into something that looks like conventional product is a little more attainable than you may think, thanks to modern tools.

The core of you making games is this: Can you explain a set of rules to another player that let them understand how to play the game?

Great, then you’ve made a game. The next step is working out how to make that game the kind of game you want it to be. And to paraphrase what Adam Savage once said, the difference between doing game development and screwing around is just writing things down.

Tools

First things first, if you have a tool you like for any of the stated purposes, then you should use the tool you like. The tools I describe here should all be free, but that can make them less convenient in ways you may not like.

To write rulebooks, I use LibreOffice. This is a text editor in the same vein as Pages and Word, and much like Google Docs. We’ve pretty much solved ‘writing in a document for a computer user to read’ as a format, and that format has been kinda the same for thirty years. Notably, a formal editor like this lets you do tables and give texts formatting entries like heading styles, which means you don’t have to work to translate that stuff to a website like a wordpress content management system. Under the hood, these two things know how to talk to one another.

Notepad is a valuable tool as well for when you need ‘scrap’ text – no formatting, just some numbers or the like, but literally anything will do here.

Almost inevitably any given game design I have will need a spreadsheet. Sometimes a spreadsheet lets me present a skeleton of a game, with say, a sheet of 52 entries that just indicate the information on a card’s face. That means I use LibreCalc, but I only started using that seven months ago, when I learned about the IFS function. The version of Excel I was using from 2007 didn’t have this ‘new’ functionality, and I found that very useful. You may ask: How often do you need ‘IFS’ in game development and the answer is never. There are definitely thihngs I can use spreadsheets for, but these functions are not super necessary.

To do visual editing I use GIMP, pronounced ‘noo-imp,’ because gimp is a silly word to use in everyday conversation and it has worn its welcome out in my tongue. GIMP is a program that takes some getting used to, but the heart of what it is is a powerful photoshop-level program that puts almost everything it has directly under your control, including warp tools, healing tools, stamp tools and other simple filters. I will usually use GIMP to generate a template file or example for how a card should look, and then, when I want to put those cards into a file to make a pdf for printing, I turn to…

Scribus! Scribus is my layout and DTP program that I avoid using in every situation I can. I dislike Scribus interface a lot, and as a result, I route around it – I try to make sure that if I’m doing something in a design that Scribus ‘could’ do, I will ensure that Scribus is the only thing that can do it, and if something else can do it, I’ll do it that way. This is a combination of familiarity and convenience: Scribus is by no means a bad program, I’m sure, but I don’t like using it and it feels very easy to break things, which means when I do use it, I’m probably using it ‘wrong,’ and a Scribus expert would want to correct my technique.

For making simple slideshow videos, where I just show a thing, talk about it, and move on, I use the program OBS, which you can use for rules tutorials or explainers. OBS has its own ability to do slides – which you can make in a slideshow program like Google Slides or powerpoint or Prezi if you like – and then you talk over it, advancing the slides in OBS. It’s a very powerful, very flexible tool, but I can understand if it’s a bit overwhelming to start with.

If you want to record audio for your game, which is a cool thing to do, I use Audacity. It’s a simple audio program if you’re just using it for its basic functions, but it can be great if (for example) you want to record audio diaries of your creation process.

Also, mixed in with this is, cardboard, paper, scissors and glue. Playing cards need a standardised form so you can make a ‘blank’ deck of cards by taking an ordinary deck of cards and putting large, white, laundry stickers on each face, ‘wiping’ it so you can write what you want on the face.

Art Though?

I use free art where I can. There’s a lot of art assets, paid and free over on itch.io, which you can definitely use to make your game work look more interesting than base. And of course…

Bandaid tearing off time,

There are free image generators that you can use if you are comfortable with that. My advice is that you should only ever use generators for ‘zero value’ forms of media; that is, nothing you intend to sell and nothing you intend to use as identifying for yourself; don’t use a generator for a logo for your identity or brand, for example, because that’s uncopyrightable and then someone can just copy it. Even if they don’t, the fact they can undermines the copyright value of designing your own logo and title.

But yeah, image generators are available online. When I need an image for an example, the one I recommend using is dezgo, because it doesn’t require a login, doesn’t require you to pay money, and all it asks of you is time to let it finish working. You’re not going to get timely bulk media out of it, but that means, in my mind, that any artwork it generates is going to be worth scrutinising and editing to make it more appropriate to your needs. This is part of a greater conversation, but for now, the important thing is that if you’re going to use generative tools you need to make sure you recognise what they’re bad at and what they’re bad for.

Getting Started?

Alright, you have some tools to make what you have in mind more possible. What I recommend you do, and I will delve more into this later in the week, is make a prototype, and then, once you have the prototype, look at it seriously.

You’re going to have to get your head around the question what do I like without asking the followup question why at first. What is it about your prototype that satisfies you? What would you change if you could? Why isn’t it satisfying to you, what about it makes you concerned. Are there things you haven’t thought about because of biases you have? Is it a game you can’t play with one hand?

The point is the prototype marks the point you start finding out. You don’t need a perfect game to prototype – indeed, I have a lot of very ugly games as prototypes and I think those ugly prototypes work really well as a place to start working out what to do next.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[reimenaashelyee]

do you know any good places to put webcomics? is it best to just make your own website for them? I'm not really into sites like webtoon or whatever...

If you don't want much setup, you can make a Tumblr and use the Simple Webcomic Theme (or any other theme, as long as you set it so the blog shows 1 post per page for long form serialised work, or in a full-size grid for funny comics).

There are still other alternative platforms like Comics Fury, Comics Gator and Drunk Duck, those have been around before Webtoons.

If you are comfortable with HTML, CSS or generally learning/playing around with independent website setup, then you can go to Neocities or Wordpress. I use Wordpress (the dot org) for my personal website, The World in Deeper Inspection webcomic and the Comics Devices library, but that's a system that's worked with me and my brain for 11 years now.

Neocities allows you total freedom, but you really have to be comfortable with learning since this is old-school website building. There's a webcomic template though.

Squarespace or Wix is fine if you use their blog system.

I don't recommend Carrd for webcomics! I just don't think the infrastructure (one-page site) is flexible enough for yourself or your readership.

My general opinion is that I'll always recommend having your webcomic in a place that you can control, or at the least, easily export to another platform. I've been through so many eras of platforms rising and falling. And exporting all the posts/art you upload on that one dying platform only is an ordeal that you would want to avoid (ask me, who's working on manually transferring stuff from Twitter and Deviantart to my personal website OTL)

[emiliers]

Vocaloid Lyrics Wiki is Migrating to Miraheze!

Been a while since I made an actual original post, and not sure how many of my original followers are still here (or even care about this kind of thing, considering I'm mainly a politics blog nowadays, but you know, this is basically the only social media platform I have anymore, not counting Discord).

Anyway, for the past few years, I've picked up a CN -> EN fan translating hobby and have been sporadically translating some vocal synth songs, posted at my own Wordpress as well as the Vocaloid Lyrics Wiki. Those who were in the fandom in the 2010s have probably heard of the wiki before, since it was basically the main hub of translation activity back then.

Well, almost fifteen years later, it's still going strong! And, with recent changes in implementation to Fandom policy, the wiki has finally decided to throw off the shackles of Fandom webhosting and move to Miraheze instead. I'll copy-paste the blurb I wrote for other vocal synth wiki discord servers about this:

Hi, so some folks might be aware of this already, but Vocaloid Lyrics Wiki has migrated to a new site on Miraheze. The admins of VLW has written a Google Doc explaining in detail the whys of the migration, if you want to check it out, but the long and short of it is that the new policy on lyrics removal has made our stay on Fandom untenable. Miraheze, in contrast, has agreed to host us and been much more transparent on actual policy. And, since they're on a newer MediaWiki installation with much more freedom in terms of what extensions we can install, we've been able to implement new templates and quality of life improvements on the new wiki! There's still a few kinks to work out on the new wiki, but we're open for editing now! Feel free to spread this message to other relevant servers/websites (with the exception of the old Fandom wiki -- the admins are planning on making an announcement themselves over there, once they're ready). And if you have any further questions, you can join our Discord or comment on our General Discussion page on the new wiki.

I am 100% biased because I helped with the migration (and have been wanting to move off Fandom for ages now), but I think the new site looks great!! And if anyone ever visited the old site and went "wow Fandom sucks, clicking back immediately", now you don't have to do that!

I'm also Emiliers on there -- as I am everywhere -- so feel free to hit me up!

[sktthemes1]

Complete Guide to Generic WordPress Theme - SKT Generic Pro Features & Benefits

Transform Your Website with the Powerful Generic WordPress Theme

In the ever-evolving world of web design, finding a theme that combines versatility with professional aesthetics can be challenging. The Generic WordPress Theme by SKT Themes bridges this gap, offering a comprehensive solution that caters to diverse website requirements while maintaining superior quality and performance standards.

Understanding the Generic WordPress Theme Advantage

The beauty of a Generic WordPress Theme lies in its adaptability. Unlike themes designed for specific industries or purposes, this theme serves as a blank canvas that can be molded to fit any vision. This flexibility makes it an invaluable asset for web developers, business owners, and content creators who need a reliable foundation for their online presence.

Design Philosophy Behind the Generic WordPress Theme

Clean and Modern Aesthetics

The Generic WordPress Theme embraces minimalist design principles while ensuring visual appeal. Clean lines, strategic white space, and thoughtful typography create an environment where your content truly shines. This approach ensures that visitors focus on your message rather than being distracted by overly complex design elements.

User Experience Priority

Every element of the Generic WordPress Theme is crafted with user experience in mind. Intuitive navigation, logical content hierarchy, and smooth interactions create a seamless browsing experience that keeps visitors engaged and encourages them to explore your website further.

Technical Specifications and Capabilities

Advanced Customization Framework

The Generic WordPress Theme includes a robust customization framework that allows users to:

Modify color schemes without coding knowledge

Adjust layout structures through drag-and-drop interfaces

Configure header and footer elements

Customize widget placements and functionality

Implement custom CSS for advanced modifications

Cross-Browser Compatibility

Ensuring consistent performance across different browsers is crucial for reaching all potential visitors. The Generic WordPress Theme is rigorously tested across major browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge, guaranteeing a uniform experience for all users.

Plugin Compatibility

The theme works seamlessly with essential WordPress plugins, including:

WooCommerce for e-commerce functionality

Yoast SEO for search engine optimization

Contact Form 7 for communication features

Elementor for advanced page building

WP Rocket for performance optimization

Business Applications of the Generic WordPress Theme

Corporate Websites

Professional organizations benefit from the Generic WordPress Theme's clean design and corporate-friendly features. The theme supports team member showcases, service presentations, and client testimonials, making it perfect for establishing credibility and trust.

Portfolio Websites

Creative professionals can leverage the theme's gallery features and customizable layouts to showcase their work effectively. The Generic WordPress Theme supports various media types and provides multiple presentation options for different types of content.

Blog and Content Platforms

Content creators appreciate the theme's typography options and reading-optimized layouts. The Generic WordPress Theme ensures that articles are presented in an engaging, readable format that encourages audience engagement and social sharing.

SEO and Marketing Benefits

Search Engine Optimization Features

The Generic WordPress Theme is built with SEO best practices in mind:

Schema markup implementation

Optimized page loading speeds

Mobile-first indexing compatibility

Clean URL structures

Proper heading hierarchy support

Social Media Integration

Modern websites require seamless social media connectivity. The theme includes built-in social sharing buttons, social media feed integration, and Open Graph meta tags that ensure your content appears correctly when shared across platforms.

Performance Optimization Strategies

Loading Speed Optimization

The Generic WordPress Theme prioritizes fast loading times through:

Compressed CSS and JavaScript files

Optimized image delivery systems

Efficient database queries

Minimal HTTP requests

Content delivery network compatibility

Security Considerations

Security is paramount in today's digital environment. The theme follows WordPress coding standards and security best practices, providing a secure foundation for your website while remaining compatible with popular security plugins.

Getting Maximum Value from Your Generic WordPress Theme

Best Practices for Implementation

To maximize the potential of your Generic WordPress Theme:

Plan your content structure before customization

Optimize images for web delivery

Configure caching mechanisms

Implement SSL certificates

Regular theme and plugin updates

Ongoing Maintenance and Updates

SKT Themes provides regular updates for the Generic WordPress Theme, ensuring compatibility with the latest WordPress versions and security patches. These updates also include feature enhancements and bug fixes based on user feedback.

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

Return on Investment

The Generic WordPress Theme offers exceptional value through:

Lower development costs compared to custom themes

Reduced time-to-market for new websites

Minimal ongoing maintenance requirements

Professional results without hiring developers

Multiple website usage rights

Long-term Benefits

Investing in a quality Generic WordPress Theme provides long-term advantages including consistent performance, ongoing support, and the flexibility to adapt as your business grows and evolves.

Final Thoughts

The SKT Generic WordPress Theme represents a smart investment for anyone serious about creating a professional online presence. Its combination of versatility, performance, and ease of use makes it suitable for beginners and experienced developers alike. By choosing this Generic WordPress Theme, you're not just purchasing a design template – you're investing in a comprehensive web solution that grows with your needs.

Whether you're launching a new business, refreshing an existing website, or managing multiple client projects, the Generic WordPress Theme provides the reliability and flexibility necessary for online success. Its proven track record and continuous development ensure that your website remains current with web design trends and technological advances.

[piyushathwani7251]

What is a Website? A Complete Beginner’s Guide

In today’s digital age, having an online presence is not a luxury — it’s a necessity. Whether you're a business owner, content creator, or just someone curious about the web, understanding what a website is and how it functions is essential. In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about websites, their components, types, benefits, and how to create one.

What is a Website?

A website is a collection of publicly accessible web pages that are linked together and share a single domain name. These pages are hosted on a web server and can include text, images, videos, forms, and other elements that users interact with online.

In simpler terms, a website is your virtual space on the internet — like your home or office in the digital world. It allows you to communicate, sell, educate, entertain, or showcase anything to a global audience.

Why is a Website Important Today?

In a world dominated by smartphones, search engines, and social media, a website acts as your central hub online. Here's why it’s important:

Visibility: A website helps you appear in search results when people look for your products, services, or information.

Credibility: A professional-looking site builds trust among your audience.

Accessibility: Your website is available 24/7, allowing customers to reach you anytime.

Marketing: It's the foundation for all your digital marketing efforts.

Sales: With e-commerce, your website can directly generate revenue.

Core Components of a Website

Every website has several key components that make it function properly:

1. Domain Name

This is your site’s address (e.g., www.digitalcreator.org.in). It’s what users type in their browser to visit your site.

2. Hosting Server

Web hosting stores your website’s data and serves it to users when requested.

3. Content Management System (CMS)

A CMS like WordPress, Joomla, or Shopify makes it easy to build and manage content on your website without coding.

4. Web Pages

These include the homepage, about us, contact, services, blog, etc., that make up your website.

5. Navigation

Menus and internal links guide visitors through your website.

Types of Websites

Different websites serve different purposes. Here are some common types:

1. Business Website

Used by companies to promote services, share information, and connect with clients.

2. E-commerce Website

Allows users to buy and sell products online. Examples include Amazon and Flipkart.

3. Portfolio Website

Ideal for creative professionals to showcase their work.

4. Blog or Personal Website

Used by individuals to share ideas, stories, or niche content regularly.

5. Educational Website

Used by schools, institutions, or educators to provide learning materials.

6. Non-profit or Government Website

Focused on delivering information and services to the public.

How to Create a Website (Step-by-Step)

Creating a website doesn’t require you to be a tech expert. Follow these steps:

Step 1: Choose a Domain Name

Pick a short, relevant, and memorable domain name. Make sure it reflects your brand or purpose.

Step 2: Get Web Hosting

Choose a reliable hosting provider like Bluehost, SiteGround, or Hostinger.

Step 3: Select a CMS or Website Builder

Use platforms like WordPress, Wix, or Shopify to start building your website.

Step 4: Design Your Website

Choose a theme or template. Customize colors, fonts, and layout to match your brand.

Step 5: Add Content

Create and publish pages like Home, About, Services, and Contact. Use quality visuals and optimized text.

Step 6: Optimize for SEO

Use keywords (like website) naturally, optimize images, and ensure fast load speed.

Step 7: Launch and Promote

Once satisfied, make your website live. Share it on social media and start your SEO or ad campaigns.

Best Practices for a Great Website

Responsive Design: Ensure your site works well on all devices.

Fast Loading Speed: Use compressed images and optimized code.

Clear Navigation: Make it easy for users to find what they need.

Secure (HTTPS): Use an SSL certificate to protect data.

Call-to-Action (CTA): Guide visitors toward actions like “Buy Now” or “Contact Us.”

Examples of Great Websites

A well-designed and fully functional example is www.digitalcreator.org.in. It demonstrates how a website can showcase services, build trust, and attract new clients efficiently.

LSI Keywords to Keep in Mind

While writing or optimizing your website, include these Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords to enhance search performance:

Web design

Online presence

Website development

Internet site

Web page

Digital platform

Domain and hosting

CMS (Content Management System)

Website builder

E-commerce site

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is the purpose of a website?

A website helps individuals or businesses share information, sell products, provide services, or connect with others online.

2. How much does it cost to build a website?

Costs vary based on design, features, and hosting. Basic websites can cost as low as ₹3,000–₹10,000, while advanced ones may go up to ₹1 lakh or more.

3. Do I need coding skills to create a website?

No. Tools like WordPress or Wix allow you to build a full website without writing any code.

4. How long does it take to build a website?

A simple website can be built in 1–2 days. More complex sites may take a few weeks.

5. What makes a website successful?

A successful website is user-friendly, fast, mobile-optimized, secure, and offers valuable content with clear calls-to-action.

Conclusion

Understanding what a website is is the first step toward establishing your digital footprint. Whether you're planning to launch a personal blog, online store, or professional portfolio, your website will serve as the foundation of your online presence.

If you're ready to build or improve your website, visit www.digitalcreator.org.in — your one-stop destination for digital marketing and website development solutions.

[notfinancialadvice]

# atty rambles about wordpress

this is a tag I am creating because I am chewing hard on this bone and it is a weird stress reliever

as is this blog in general

SHOPIFY BLOG VERSUS WORDPRESS STORE

WordPress Store

WordPress can host (reasonably well) an ecommerce store. Via WooCommerce (their main system), Shopify's "here is a button" system, and/or countless other things.

WordPress does blogging very, very, very effectively at a very, very low cost. Pick a host, press a few buttons, you have a wordpress blog. Depending on the host, but for almost all of them, 99.9% of your maintenance will be handled for you.

The issue is less "an issue" and more "reality" in that a WordPress store is not a store, and so between 50% - 95% of the "store mechanics" are not in the box -- they have to be built, designed, written, maintained.

"Thank you for your order!" pages -- etc. there are ten billion tiny gears to a shop -- all have to be built. Maintained. Etc.

Shopify Blog

Shopify can handle the store mechanics very well. If your needs are specific and/or huge, you'll probably struggle, but to be blunt, at that level you are a medium-sized business (my opinion) and should be looking into a more bespoke system anyway. Either using Shopify as a backbone and/or something unique.

I am explicitly talking about thousands of products and hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales.

If you are not at that level, it (probably) can do everything (almost everything) you need it to do for somewhere between a few hundred and several hundred dollars very well-to-extremely-well.

Except. Blogging.

There is a limit of authors to users on your account, you cannot easily access or sort backend metadata (but you can create it, I say, interestingly enough, I say, angerily).

Tags, no categories, also difficult to sort.

Your ability to sort tags is brutally elementary. As is designing specific templates (tags, author, etc.)

It is an extremely weak system.

I think this is one of the reasons why art shops tend to be... difficult... to build and maintain.

Before there was social media (fuck I'm getting gray) there were blogs and webrings -- these still exist of course but not nearly in scope or scale.

Social media is "blog, public, in a forum" -- so it allows art shops etc. to replace / augment (let's be honest... replace) blogging, which has allowed ecommerce platforms the ability to ignore blogging as a platform to construct and flesh out.

My suggestion is WordPress (or someone else) replace Shopify's blogging system with a native structure

I would be willing to pay a huge chunk of cash for this. I hate Shopify's blogging system, it is so weak. I do not want to maintain a billion things on my own, so I am not interested in using blog-shop-structure.

I am fleshing out the Post's blog on Shopify's system anyway because it is the best possible of uncomfortable choices.

I am aware of all of the Shopify blogging apps. They are paint on a house that needs to be rebuilt.

[vaastu-naresh]

How to Make Passive Income Online

In today’s digital age, making passive income online has become more accessible than ever. Passive income allows you to earn money with minimal ongoing effort after the initial setup. Whether you want to supplement your existing income or build a full-time online business, there are various ways to generate passive income. Here are some of the best methods:

1. Start a Blog

Blogging can be a great way to earn passive income by monetizing content through ads, affiliate marketing, and digital product sales.

How It Works: Write high-quality content targeting a specific niche.

Income Sources: Display ads, sponsored posts, and affiliate marketing.

Tools Needed: A domain, hosting service (like Bluehost or SiteGround), and a content management system like WordPress.

Tip: Focus on SEO to attract organic traffic.

2. Create and Sell Online Courses

If you have expertise in a particular field, you can create and sell online courses on platforms like Udemy, Teachable, or Skillshare.

How It Works: Develop structured course content and upload it to an online learning platform.

Income Sources: One-time purchases or subscription-based access.

Tools Needed: Video recording equipment, course planning software, and an LMS (Learning Management System).

Tip: Offer free mini-courses to attract students and upsell premium content.

3. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing involves promoting other companies’ products and earning a commission for each sale generated through your referral link.

How It Works: Share affiliate links in blog posts, social media, or YouTube videos.

Income Sources: Commissions from product sales.

Tools Needed: An affiliate program like Amazon Associates, ShareASale, or CJ Affiliate.

Tip: Promote products you genuinely use and trust.

4. Sell Digital Products

Selling digital products is a great way to make passive income because they require no inventory or shipping.

How It Works: Create eBooks, templates, printables, stock photos, or software and sell them online.

Income Sources: Sales through platforms like Gumroad, Etsy, or Shopify.

Tools Needed: Design software like Canva, Adobe Photoshop, or a digital marketplace.

Tip: Automate delivery using online platforms.

5. Invest in Dividend Stocks

Dividend stocks allow you to earn passive income through regular payouts from companies in which you invest.

How It Works: Buy shares in dividend-paying stocks and collect payouts.

Income Sources: Stock dividends.

Tools Needed: A brokerage account like Robinhood, Fidelity, or Vanguard.

Tip: Reinvest dividends to compound your earnings over time.

6. Create a YouTube Channel

YouTube offers multiple monetization options, making it a lucrative passive income source.

How It Works: Upload engaging videos on a topic of interest.

Income Sources: YouTube AdSense, sponsorships, and affiliate marketing.

Tools Needed: A good camera, microphone, and video editing software.

Tip: Be consistent and create valuable content to grow your audience.

7. Dropshipping Business.

How It Works: Set up an online store and partner with a supplier.

Income Sources: Profit margins from product sales.

Tools Needed: Shopify, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce.

Tip: Focus on trending products with high demand.

8. Sell Stock Photos & Videos

If you’re a photographer or videographer, selling stock images and videos can be a great passive income stream.

How It Works: Upload high-quality images and videos to stock websites.

Income Sources: Royalties from stock websites like Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, or Getty Images.

Tools Needed: A professional camera and photo editing software.

Tip: Research in-demand content to maximize earnings.

9. Write and Sell an Ebook

If you have knowledge or experience in a subject, writing an eBook can generate passive income.

How It Works: Publish an eBook and sell it on platforms like Amazon Kindle or Gumroad.

Income Sources: Royalties from book sales.

Tools Needed: Writing software like Scrivener or Microsoft Word.

Tip: Promote your book through social media and blogging.

10. Rent Out Property on Air.

If you own property, you can rent it out on Airbnb for short-term stays.

How It Works: List your property and manage bookings.

Income Sources: Rental income from guests.

Tools Needed: An Airbnb account and a well-furnished property.

Tip: Optimize your listing with high-quality photos and great customer service.

[createncodewebtechnologies]

Best Web Design and Hosting for Small Business

User experience (UX) is a top priority for a successful small company website. This features responsive layouts that guarantee smooth surfing across devices, clear information hierarchy, and easy navigation. Websites should captivate users with eye-catching graphics, excellent photos, and interactive features that are consistent with the brand's identity. For small businesses looking to establish a strong online presence, investing in quality web design and reliable hosting is paramount.

Creating a powerful brand identity is essential. In order to create a unified image that makes an impression on visitors, this entails using logos, colors, and font consistently throughout the website. Retaining user interest also requires interesting material that speaks to the demands of the target audience, including educational blog entries and captivating product descriptions.

How to Make a Website for a Small Business

Select a User-Friendly Website Builder: Website construction is made easier by the intuitive interfaces of platforms like as Squarespace, Shopify, and Wix. Because these builders frequently have drag-and-drop capabilities, consumers can alter their websites without knowing any code23.

Choose a Domain Name and Register It

A memorable domain name is crucial for internet branding and represents your company's identity. Make sure it is pertinent to your services and simple to spell.

Select a Trustworthy Web Hosting Provider

The performance of the website depends on the hosting provider selection. Important things to think about are:

Uptime Promise: To reduce downtime, look for hosts that have 99.9% uptime.

Loading Speed: To improve user experience, try to keep page load times under three seconds.

Features of Security: To safeguard your site2, be sure the server offers SSL certificates, frequent backups, and virus detection.

Customer service: For prompt problem solving, round-the-clock assistance can be essential.

Create the Visual Identity for Your Website

Make an eye-catching layout that complements the style of your brand. Make use of top-notch photos and keep design components consistent.

Plan the Navigation and Site Structure

Logically arrange your information to make it easier to navigate. A site with a clear structure makes it easier for people to find information fast.

Create Key Pages

Home, About Us, Services/Products, Blog, and Contact Us are all important pages. Every page should contribute to the general objectives of the website while fulfilling a distinct function.

Top Web Design Platforms for Small Businesses

WordPress:

Flexible and customizable with thousands of plugins and themes.

Ideal for businesses looking for scalability and SEO features.

Wix:

Drag-and-drop functionality for easy website creation.

Suitable for businesses without technical expertise.

Squarespace:

Modern templates and built-in e-commerce features.

Perfect for visually appealing designs.

Shopify:

Best for small businesses focused on e-commerce.

Features include inventory management, payment integration, and analytics.

Weebly:

Affordable and user-friendly.

Ideal for small businesses needing basic functionality.

[mahamid110]

👉 Neuro Review ✅ Features, Pricing, Bonuses, Discount and OTOs 🚀

🧠 Overview

Neuro Review is a cutting-edge AI-powered tool designed to simplify content creation, video editing, and marketing efforts by leveraging advanced automation and analytics. Perfect for marketers, content creators, and small business owners. 🚀

👉 Click Here for Get Instant Access Neuro 🖰 >>

👉 Click Here for Get Instant Access Neuro 🖰 >>

✨ Features of Neuro Review

AI-Powered Content Creation 🖋️ Automatically generates high-quality, SEO-friendly articles, product reviews, and blog posts.

Video Review Editor 🎥 Create and edit product review videos with ease using templates and AI assistance.

Voiceover Generator 🎙️ AI-powered voiceovers in multiple languages and accents.

Analytics Dashboard 📊 Track performance metrics like views, engagement, and conversions.

Integration Capabilities 🔗 Works seamlessly with platforms like WordPress, Shopify, and YouTube.

Multilingual Support 🌍 Expand your reach with content and videos in multiple languages.

User-Friendly Interface 😌 Intuitive and beginner-friendly design to save time and effort.

💲 Pricing

Front-End Plan: Starts at $47 one-time. Includes core features like content creation and video editing.

OTO 1: Pro Version 🚀: Price: $97 one-time Unlock advanced features like unlimited projects, premium templates, and analytics.

OTO 2: Agency License 🏢: Price: $197 one-time Offers agency rights, client management tools, and bulk project handling.

OTO 3: Reseller License 🔁: Price: $297-$497 Allows you to sell the tool and keep 100% of the profits.

👉 Click Here for Get Instant Access Neuro 🖰 >>

🎁 Bonuses

When purchasing Neuro Review through promotional links, you may receive:

Exclusive Training Videos 📚 Master the platform and its features with detailed tutorials.

Content Marketing Toolkit 🛠️ E-books and resources to enhance your marketing strategy.

Custom Templates 🖼️ Unique designs for faster project completion.

Lifetime Updates 🔄 Stay ahead with the latest features at no extra cost.

👉 Click Here for Get Instant Access Neuro 🖰 >>

👉 Click Here for Get Instant Access Neuro 🖰 >>

👉 Click Here for Get Instant Access Neuro 🖰 >>

🔥 Discounts and Special Deals

Early Bird Offer: Get 20% off during the launch week.

Bundle Discount: Save up to 30% by purchasing the full OTO package.

Use Coupon Code: 30% Off Cyber Monday Offer For The First 25 People!

🚀 Why Choose Neuro Review?

Saves time with automation.

Boosts productivity and engagement.

Offers versatility with content and video creation tools.

👉 Click Here for Get Instant Access Neuro 🖰 >>

💬 Final Thoughts

Neuro Review is an excellent choice for anyone looking to streamline content and video marketing efforts. With its advanced features and competitive pricing, it's a must-have tool for modern marketers. 🌟

👉 Click Here for Get Instant Access Neuro 🖰 >>

Frequently Asked Questions!

Q. Do I need any experience to get started?

None, all you need is just an internet connection.

​And you’re good to go

Q. Do I need to purchase anything else for it to work?

Nop, Neuro is the complete thing.

You get everything you need to make it work. Nothing is left behind.

Q. Is there any monthly cost?

Depends, If you act now, NONE. 

But if you wait, you might end up paying $997/mo

It’s up to you.

Q. How long does it take to make money?

Our average member made their first sale the same day they got access to Neuro.

Q. What if I failed?

While that is unlikely, we removed all the risk for you.

If you tried Neuro and failed, we will refund you every cent you paid

Q. How can I get started?

Awesome, I like your excitement, All you have to do is click any of the buy buttons on the page and secure your copy of Neuro at a one-time fee

👉 Click Here for Get Instant Access Neuro 🖰 >>