#Amazon Like App Development | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sydneymykah · 10 months ago

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☆☆THE STRUGGLE OF ROUTINE ☆☆

✧─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

Some people can just get out of bed and automatically do what they need to do to get the day started. And the same people seem to be the ones we see the most on our screens. "My Morning Routine", "My weekly regimen", "What I eat in a day", and "My Nightly Routine". These people are seemingly put together and perfect like their said routines. But here you are slouched on your undone bed, still in your pajamas, wearing makeup from the day before after waking up after 12 pm. You meaning me, lmao. ☆...

☆The struggle of routine is something we all face regardless of what social media persists to tell us. But I don't really want to talk about how "social media is fake" because that's not even fully true. Some people really do live like this and have very structured routines for their day to day lives, granted it's what pays their bills but that's still technically their routine. But I'm more concerned about talking about how DIFFICULT it is to keep a constant routine. Especially in this weird time we live in.

ミ★I'm a perfectionist. I hate when things don't go the way I want and I tend to want things one way or not at all. But life doesn't live by those rules. Life will throw whatever the hell it wants at you, whenever it feels like it. As an individual you have to learn to work around it all. For me it's an inconsistent work schedule, minor (or major) inconveniences, mood swings, and of course the main culprit is laziness/lack of discipline.

☆We've all done it. On a random day of the week you're up way too late reflecting on your life and what you're doing with it. You suddenly feel the hyperactive urge to fix everything about yourself. You want the perfect body before the summer. You want your hair to grow longer faster. You want to get all your life goals written down and planned out dow not the last minute. You want to post a 1 minute video everyday on TikTok at exactly 3 pm EST and post at least 4 pictures to your instagram every other day. So you open the notes app and make an extremely specific, unrealistic, and way too intense routine to follow everyday. You set reminders, add 30 new alarms to your phone, you fill your amazon cart with stuff you believe you'll defiantly use. And after you make yet another playlist of YouTube workout videos you go to bed confident your life is gonna change forever after this...

Now one of two things happen:

You completely throw away the routine the minute you wake up the next day

Or, you do it for a few days but eventually burnout and find yourself back where you were before, now with just more useless junk you have no room for...

ミ★I have personally been both. But we can all empathize with this because if maintaining a routine was easy it wouldn't be such a successful phenomenon online. Out of the millions of views under "my morning routine" posts, many, if not majority, of them are people who wish they can live the way these people do. I think we as people have developed mindsets that are negative first, positive later. Ever since the quarantine we've been used to online overconsumption. The idea that "more is better", and the scare that was the virus has sparked this fear in us that is wasted time. Hence us wanting to build new giant routines in the middle of the night just to eventually abandon it because our minds and bodies don't evolve or develop like that overnight. Most the time the routines are grueling and just makes us feel exhausted over accomplished. When we don't see immediate change a lot people, including myself, give up then and there.

☆Im not here to tell you how to keep a constant routine or how to become more disciplined because all that information is in the palm of your hands. Honestly at the end of the day it's about your mindset. Realizing what is around you and remembering the reality you live in. You want that body? You want that hair growth? You want to post? It's all possible but here's where the issue lies:

ミ★We forget to forgive ourselves and to be patient with ourselves. We fall under the pressure to perform for social media as well. In this digital age we try to make social media real life 24/7 and put real life on the back burner. Everything must be aesthetic or else! Or if you can't keep a constant routine for a week you're a failure! But the reality is no one just wakes up in their perfect aesthetic one day and has this perfect routine down pat the first time. Another thing that we keep doing is what everyone else is doing. Another example of putting the online first before real life. We've forgotten the beauty of growth, and how things develop overtime. It reminds me of how small artists have the potential to blow up overnight. They suddenly have all these eyes on them and then the GP turns on them simply because their exceptions don't match the artist's personal growth. I think we do the same to ourselves. But regardless of what other people, social media or even what you might even say to yourself the best way to find a good routine is get to know yourself, not someone else. And to not go by others expectations. It's good to hold yourself to a high regard and to make ambitious goals. But you should remind yourself that you want this to last and you don't want to burn yourself out trying to perfect your life like it's a speed run.

☆When following creators who makes content like this I advise to follow people you relate to first. Not saying you can't follow those extremely aesthetic ASMR morning/Night routine videos because hell I watch them too. But know that I watch them for simply that. I've come to the point where I can watch that stuff and not feel incompetent or that I'm failing in life but I digress. Don't pay attention to the many trends and what's hot, just look for people who you might see yourself in, or people who have qualities similar to yours. Physically, mentally, ect. Because if you're a black girl who wants to know how to do a specific 4C hairstyle you're not going to the white girl influencers for tutorials are you? For me I watch Jackie Aina. Her and I don't even have the same tastes in certain aspects, specifically clothing and home decor but she reminds me a lot of myself and some of my values. Her content inspires me but doesn't make me feel like I need to reinvent myself overnight. That's not realistic nor healthy. I think subjecting yourself to that will just give you an identity crisis. Her content helps me feel confident and you should follow people like that too.

ミ★My purpose of this post is not "continue to be a slob" (I'm a Taurus stellium and Venusian. Girl we don't do that over 'chere.) it's to remind and to encourage. A reminder that what you see online isn't what real life is 24/7. Doesn't mean it's all fake, it just means that life doesn't just look like one thing. Social media just tends to make our vision a bit tunneled. Yes, some peoples lives surround what they eat in a day, what they do when they get out of bed, and the steps they follow in their nighttime skincare routine. But our attachment and overconsumption to these types of creators constantly fails to remind us that they're still human. Hell even when the human creators tell y'all "hey I'm human" they still aren't treated as such but guess what? They are! So are you. You are still human. Finding a groove that works for you will take time. And many times you will fail. You will probably forget to do something, you won't have the time for certain tasks, or an inconvenience will pop up out of no where that knocks you off course. But if at first you don't succeed, try again. Social media picture perfect propaganda (lol) has made us forget that life happens and that we will essentially always struggle with routine. Some things stick, some things don't. Some routines last a long time, some only stay for a day. We live in an age where everyone's trying to move as fast as they can to keep with the trends, keep up appearances, and to make up for lost time. And as much as I love the thrill of the fast life, how can I expect to see my growth, what I like, what needs changing and how to fall into a good rhythm when I'm too busy trying to keep up.

✧─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

Xoxo, Sydney Mykah -☆

#music #music blog #musician #my music #cover song #sydney mykah #blog post #morning routine #self care #self care routine #daily routine #wellness routine

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fashion-foxy · 8 months ago

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The full overview of the Ever After High and Monster High server based games as of 4/11/2024 (also a cry for help):

This is without a doubt a loss cause. Does that mean I'll stop trying? No.

Mattel in either 2015 or 2016 decided that their weird fairytale franchise that made no money and lost them the Disney princess doll license needed a server based mobile game.

Being server based meant that you would download an app (think of this as your locked safe). In this app you would create an account. This account became your 'key' to open the safe. Unfortunately, the key only works if the company that runs the server decides your key is valid. They checked if your key was valid with their server. So, no login = no playing the game, but also no servers = no playing the game.

The current problem is we can't even make a key without the servers, and even if we could, the servers couldn't authenticate our key. So we're out of luck. BUT, if we can get a copy of the servers, then we could make a key and maybe get the server to authenticate it. This would hopefully allow us to open the safe and play the game.

So, I had an idea. Monster high also had a server based mobile game and I was hoping that they had a similar way of authenticating their keys. The best way of checking this is to see if they share a developer. Same developer likely means same way of authenticating keys. Unfortunately, it appears that MH had a different developer than EAH did.

Eah, as far as I'm aware, was developed by [x]cubegames and used RedHat Inc for their servers. While Monster High was developed by fucking unknown. I couldn't tell you who developed this. Everywhere I can find a download for it says Mattel made it but I know for a fact they didn't. The best lead I could get for who developed it was ari.games but they don't seem like a company that makes game.

The only thing I haven't tried yet is that Amazon has a version of the game that no one else does. That is supposed to be working as late as 2022. But that date concerns me because it's about the time all other eah games stopped working and were taken offline.

So, not the most inspiring update ever but I sincerely don't even know if this can be a thing that gets working. If you have any ideas please let me know

#ever after high #monster high #eah #mh #eah game #mh game #ever after high game #monster high game

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adbros · 2 years ago

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30 ways to make real; money from home

Making money online from the comfort of your home has become increasingly accessible with the growth of the internet and digital technologies. In 2023, there are numerous realistic ways to earn money online. Here are 30 ideas to get you started:

1. Freelance Writing: Offer your writing skills on platforms like Upwork or Freelancer to create blog posts, articles, or website content.

2. Content Creation: Start a YouTube channel, podcast, or blog to share your expertise or passion and monetize through ads, sponsorships, and affiliate marketing.

3. Online Surveys and Market Research: Participate in online surveys and market research studies with platforms like Swagbucks or Survey Junkie.

4. Remote Customer Service: Work as a remote customer service representative for companies like Amazon or Apple.

5. Online Tutoring: Teach subjects you're knowledgeable in on platforms like VIPKid or Chegg Tutors.

6. E-commerce: Start an online store using platforms like Shopify, Etsy, or eBay to sell products.

7. Affiliate Marketing: Promote products or services on your blog or social media and earn commissions for sales made through your referral links.

8. Online Courses: Create and sell online courses on platforms like Udemy or Teachable.

9. Remote Data Entry: Find remote data entry jobs on websites like Clickworker or Remote.co.

10. Virtual Assistance: Offer administrative support services to businesses as a virtual assistant.

11. Graphic Design: Use your graphic design skills to create logos, graphics, or websites for clients on platforms like Fiverr.

12. Stock Photography: Sell your photos on stock photography websites like Shutterstock or Adobe Stock.

13. App Development: Develop and sell mobile apps or offer app development services.

14. Social Media Management: Manage social media accounts for businesses looking to enhance their online presence.

15. Dropshipping: Start an e-commerce business without holding inventory by dropshipping products.

16. Online Consultations: Offer consulting services in your area of expertise through video calls.

17. Online Surplus Sales: Sell unused items or collectibles on platforms like eBay or Facebook Marketplace.

18. Online Fitness Coaching: Become an online fitness coach and offer workout plans and guidance.

19. Virtual Events: Host webinars, workshops, or conferences on topics you're knowledgeable about.

20. Podcast Production: Offer podcast editing, production, or consulting services.

21. Remote Transcription: Transcribe audio and video files for clients.

22. Online Translation: Offer translation services if you're proficient in multiple languages.

23. Affiliate Blogging: Create a niche blog with affiliate marketing as the primary revenue source.

24. Online Art Sales: Sell your artwork, crafts, or digital art on platforms like Etsy or Redbubble.

25. Remote Bookkeeping: Offer bookkeeping services for small businesses from home.

26. Digital Marketing: Provide digital marketing services like SEO, PPC, or social media management.

27. Online Gaming: Stream your gaming sessions on platforms like Twitch and monetize through ads and donations.

28. Virtual Assistant Coaching: If you have experience as a VA, offer coaching services to aspiring virtual assistants.

29. Online Research: Conduct research for businesses or individuals in need of specific information.

30. Online Real Estate: Invest in virtual real estate, such as domain names or digital properties, and sell them for a profit.

Remember that success in making money online often requires dedication, patience, and the ability to adapt to changing trends. It's essential to research and choose the opportunities that align with your skills, interests, and long-term goals.

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lunarsilkscreen · 7 months ago

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Another Internet Whitepaper

I'm just gonna get into there is no way to preface this.

1) content should be hosted in their own countries for which they are meant.

2) therefore the website should split into Nation->Sub-nation sections. So things for Michigan would be closer to those in Michigan. With U.S.->Michigan.

--"independent" Nations are just gonna have to deal with being lumped together into a united region. It's simply physics.

--country wide servers and clouds, and worldwide services will still be available; but we need to develop protocols to make it easier to distribute data and declutter the internet-cloud.

3) a separate Intranet for official use and security will need to be developed alongside this while also being completely disconnected from the worldwideweb.

4) Splits;

IP Addresses redesign;

[Country/Region]:[State/Province]:[individual]

[Individual] will need to be controlled by local The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) branches; likely to be reassigned to DMVs and SoSs.

5) Separate protocols For;

Streaming Services

Social Media Services

Bidirectional Interactions (like games and Virtual Machines)

Pornography needs to be completely identifiable by textual Web address.

5) you local region will be defaulted, but can be changed by the browser and not be hard-wired in.

Not indicating a region will automatically default to the local internet.

So typing in FBI.GOV in the U.S. will lead to the FBI website, and if you type it in the UK it'll lead to Mi:5 or something.

6) Social Media protocols will have to be integrated with the E-Mail SMTP protocols. Which will encourage a more decentralized internet. This will *also* have to find a way to work with phone text messages.

7) Cable TV and Streaming services will have to use the same protocols.

8) Because there's phone integration here; a phone number may have to be closer to a social security number going forward. Which will both be bad for animosity, but allow for people to not need login information.

-- This will technically also need to apply to your House; which will have to have an assigned street address.

9) all of these need to be obfuscated to casual observers.

10) this will deprecate our phone companies and require them to work with cable TV and internet companies in order to create more equitable protocols.

11) the current IP address and Domain Registry systems need to be deprecated; as it does not suit its original purpose.

[.xxx] will be assigned for all "adult" materials and be required for ALL "adult materials" posted online.

[.app] will be assigned for appstores.

[.store] for marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and whatever else.

[.bank] will be for banking and credit purposes

[.social] will be for social media

[.stream] will be for streaming materials,

[.np] for non-profit use only.

[.donation] for donation collections and Kickstarter like services.

[.pay] for payment services like PayPal

Non "adult materials" can be streamed through other "front ends" .

13) These human readable extensions will be simplified on the backend to reduce the total data envelope size.

14) single digit ip-adresses will have to be regulated for use for high-capacity uses. These will need to be "extended" protocols that different services can use.

This will help even out everybody's data envelopes. This will have to be part of a cloud service that can be used by anybody that needs it. With certain restrictions that are deemed necessary by local and federal governments and international treaty reasons.

15) limits on how algorithms and "bots" can ping anything at one time need to be addressed or regulated.

This will be a massive undertaking with the cooperation of all the other governments around the world.

And will be a very lucrative endeavor at the end of it all.

This is just an outline to describe the form the future internet should take and can be changed or modified as required; especially for things I cannot see.

The current corporations will be expected to develop a plan of actions in tandem with current regulatory authorities; failure to do so will create a need for an ultimatum, which we all wish to avoid.

We're also going to need to find ways to encourage competition in these sectors so that they can be upgraded and modified as needed by local areas instead of waiting on these companies to bother with it.

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blazehedgehog · 9 months ago

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Sorry you’ve been asked this repeatedly… but how is Concord, and many high-budget game cancellations, going to smoke up to investors/execs and change things? Will investors en masse just start pulling out of games industry altogether? I see you repost Today on Steam sometimes and market over-saturation seems like an actual crisis at this point.

I mean, you're exactly right. I don't understand how investors are sticking around anymore. You talk about market over-saturation and something that has spooked me for years is just how many publishers give away games or at least put them on deep discount.

Like, EGS, right. In three years they have given away almost 450 games. They give away so many games for free that I've actually stopped paying attention because it's clear I'm rarely using the client. But I've never given them a penny, and my 4-year-old EGS library is already one third the size of my 20 year old Steam library.

Now, you could say that's because Epic is burning the candle at both ends trying to shake Valve's market lead, but we could also talk about something like, say, Twitch Prime. I get a low income discount on Amazon Prime, so I get free shipping, Prime Video, and Twitch Prime for like $5 a month.

And Twitch Prime includes free games every month, right? Normally that's through some kind of terrible Amazon App for Windows, something both Twitch and Amazon seem to bury given I've never seen a download link anywhere in my entire life. Even if I knew where to download, I wouldn't do it, given I'm sure it's loaded full of tracking and telemetry. But on top of the usual Amazon App games, they've also started including keys for games on EGS and GOG.

So for $5 a month I've been getting 5-10 games on three different storefronts, including ones I'm actually going to install and play games through. And games I actually want to play, too, like Industria (GOG), Arcade Paradise (GOG), Loop Hero (EGS), Ghost Song (GOG), Shredder's Revenge (EGS), etc.

On top of the 2-3 games EGS normally gives away per month, on top of whatever else may be happening elsewhere. GOG may be giving away its own free game as part of a sale promo, for instance. So if we're talking annually, I pay $60 a year for Twitch Prime for roughly 144 games all put together. If you subtract Prime, that's still probably over 30 games a year, totally free.

And then you figure out places like Humble and Fanatical, entire storehouses that specialize in very cheap bundles.

At some point it's not even "for gamers on a budget." This is just the way the industry is now. Even games that sell well will plummet in price and end up in bundles or even just get given away for free. Deathloop, Outer Worlds, Evil Within 2, Plague Tale, Dragon Age Inquisition, Midnight Suns, Callisto Protocol, Arkham Knight, Control, Nioh, Prey...

I did not pay a penny for these games, but I own them. A consumer is very happy with that but it does not seem like a sign of a healthy industry. That is money being spent and spent and spent and spent, but it's not going back in to develop new games. It feels like this industry is hanging by the thread of FOMO alone, because if you can wait a year, maybe two, either you'll get a game straight up for free, or at least for 75-80% off.

Who would actually invest in an industry that has been bleeding so violently for so many years?

#questions #Anonymous

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wizard-of-interesting-failure · 3 months ago

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Those animated sex toys look like they should be characters in the Sausage Party movies! 😆 🍆

I had never heard of those movies before. I now know there's a mobile fighting game called Sausage Legend in which the main characters cameod back in 2017. The game is still up but reviews suggest it is now ad-flooded to the point of unplayability while simultaneously hinting at a once great golden age of sausage combat. The publisher (Milkcorp or Milk Co. Ltd. depending on where you look and who you ask) has disappeared from the google play store and left only this app behind but has multiple other published and equally fucked looking games on the apple store.

Also the sequel series Sausage Party: Foodtopia released an eight episode first season on Amazon Prime Video less than a year ago. A second season is allegedly in development despite solidly middling reviews, but the article Wikipedia cites for this only seems to confirm this via an offhand comment about how they'd like a third season.

What said article does do is describe the original Sausage Party as a "well-received 2016 sleeper hit", the animation as "going for Pixar-quality CG animation", and the episodes as "produced [...] back to back, Lord of the Rings style".

Now, this is not to denigrate any of the aforementioned media. If anything it serves as a reminder that the production of any major project is a long and gruelling process into which countless hours are poured, demanding a nigh endless supply of passion, energy, and stamina from the staff working on it. It's easy to forget when you're just looking up information or consuming the media yourself, but projects like this represent a significant chunk of many people's lives spent to provide you with the things you enjoy.

It's worth taking the time to be grateful and to recognise that this stuff doesn't just pop out of thin air, as much as the AI bros of the world think it does. When I juxtapose the inherent ridiculousness of the Sausage Party series with the comparisons its creators make to LotR and Pixar, it is not to imply they're wrong for making those comparisons; it's to point out that while some things are better known than others, they all have this aspect, this craft behind them. A guy making penis jokes on this scale is investing in those penis jokes. That does matter, and regardless of your personal opinion on a work's quality or merit, that effort can be respected so long as it's not being actively put towards hurting people.

That said, what the fuck.

#not wizardposting

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pratanumindpowerdevelopment · 7 days ago

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25 innovative ways to earn money without investment as a web content writer

Here are 25 innovative ways to earn money without investment as a web content writer — all designed for minimal to zero upfront costs but leveraging your writing skills, internet access, and creativity:

1. Start a Niche Blog with Free Platforms

Use Blogger or Medium.

Monetize later via AdSense, affiliate links, or paid guest posts.

2. Offer Content Writing Services on LinkedIn

Use LinkedIn to offer your services directly to small business owners, coaches, and startups.

Share writing samples as posts.

3. Write on Medium Partner Program

Earn money based on read time and engagement.

Focus on trending topics like AI, productivity, or self-help.

4. Create and Sell Email Templates

Design copy for eCommerce, marketing, or re-engagement campaigns.

Sell them on Gumroad or directly to startups.

5. Offer WhatsApp Marketing Content

Provide short sales messages, product descriptions, and stories for WhatsApp campaigns.

Great for local businesses.

6. Approach NGOs and Small Businesses

Offer to write their web content, brochures, or social posts for free.

Ask for testimonials and referrals.

7. Guest Post for Payment

Many websites pay for high-quality guest posts (e.g., Listverse, A List Apart).

Focus on niche topics like tech, travel, wellness, or finance.

8. Write and Sell Micro-eBooks

Use Google Docs to create eBooks (5–10 pages) on topics like freelancing, budgeting, etc.

Sell via Payhip or Gumroad.

9. Start a Newsletter on Substack

Offer free tips on writing, freelancing, or digital marketing.

Monetize later with paid subscriptions.

10. Edit and Reformat Resumes or LinkedIn Profiles

Offer services to job seekers, especially freshers or mid-career professionals.

11. Offer Product Description Writing for Online Sellers

Reach out to sellers on Meesho, Amazon, Flipkart, or Etsy.

Offer 5 free samples, then convert them into paying clients.

12. Write SOPs and Admission Essays

Cater to students applying to foreign universities.

Join education-related Facebook groups to find leads.

13. Use Canva to Create Content + Visual Packs

Bundle social media captions with images (like 30 captions + 30 designs).

Sell as digital products.

14. Create Content Writing Courses (Text-Based)

Use Google Docs or Google Sites.

Sell via Telegram, WhatsApp, or Facebook groups.

15. Become a Quora Partner

Start answering questions strategically.

Some users still receive bonuses for high-performing answers (depends on the invite program).

16. Review Apps or Websites

Send cold emails to app developers offering reviews or user guides.

Ask for a small fee in exchange.

17. Use Affiliate Links in Blog Posts

Join programs like Amazon Associates, Hostinger, Canva, or Grammarly.

Write SEO-optimized content and embed links.

18. Offer Language Translation + Content

Combine writing with translation if you know regional languages.

Create bilingual website content.

19. Write Sample Lessons for EdTech Platforms

Contact online tuition or learning platforms.

Offer demo lessons, notes, or practice tests in English.

20. Partner with Local Shops for Google Reviews

Write polished business descriptions or Google Map listings.

Charge ₹200–₹500 per listing.

21. Join Facebook or Telegram Freelance Groups

Post your skills daily, share samples, and network directly.

22. Offer Tagline and Slogan Writing Services

Brands always need punchy copy for ads or banners.

Create a portfolio on Behance or Google Drive.

23. Write Scripts for YouTubers and Reels Creators

Many small creators need writing help for intros, narration, or subtitles.

24. Write Press Releases

Offer low-cost PR services to startups and artists.

Submit to free PR sites or offer syndication.

25. Conduct Writing Challenges or Classes

Run 5-day writing challenges on WhatsApp or Instagram.

Offer a certificate + upsell a full writing course later.

#earning #income

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priyanshuw3teck · 14 days ago

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Why a Digital Marketing Agency Beats Freelancers in 2025

In a fast-moving digital world, businesses are confronted with a tough choice in 2025: to hire a freelance individual or a full-service digital marketing organization? As with many other decisions in our lives, there are advantages and disadvantages to hiring a freelancer versus going with an agency. In the case of the task at hand, it was possible that the freelancer could be cost-effective and/or flexible in their approach than an agency. However, considering all things digital marketing can change so quickly, I feel it is better for the business to go with a scalable agency. After all, digital marketing is not a process with a beginning and an end; it is best viewed as a process with a process over the long-run to receive all advantages out of your work. And a freelancer cannot provide that. This blog will discuss why hiring a digital marketing agency is the best option in 2025, and how on the whole provide far more comprehensible digital marketing options than a single person can provide.

1. Full-Service Digital Marketing Solutions

Unlike freelancers, who often specialize in one or two areas, a digital marketing company in Jaipur like W3Teck offers a complete suite of digital marketing services:

SEO in Digital Marketing

Social Media Marketing Services

Google Advertising and PPC Services

Web Design & Development

Mobile App Development

Ecommerce SEO and management services

These integrated solutions mean your campaigns are aligned, your messaging is consistent, and your brand grows across all channels.

2. Expertise Across Multiple Domains

Digital marketing today is far more than SEO or running a few ads. It’s about combining skills in copywriting, meta-ads, Google search ads, ecommerce SEO, Amazon account management services, and app development.

Agencies employ experts in each of these domains:

SEO Specialists and SEO experts to manage rankings

Certified google ads specialist and Facebook Ads Managers

Web designers and app developers for performance and UX

Content strategists and copywriters for better engagement

A freelancer simply can’t match this level of specialization and teamwork.

3. Scalable Campaigns and Reliable Delivery

A common problem with freelancers is bandwidth. As your marketing needs grow, a freelancer might struggle to keep up. Agencies, on the other hand, are built to scale.

Need to run a YouTube video promotion, design ecommerce websites, and launch meta ads simultaneously? An agency has dedicated departments to execute all these tasks without delay or compromise.

4. Data-Driven Strategies and Transparent Reporting

Leading digital marketing agencies use data to drive decisions. With access to tools like:

Google Analytics

Fb Ads Manage

Heatmaps and conversion tracking tools

Advanced PPC Advertising dashboards

agencies ensure every rupee spent is measurable and optimized. Freelancers may not offer real-time reporting or insights, and you may end up flying blind.

5. Access to Premium Tools and Platforms

Premium tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, SurferSEO, and paid ad intelligence platforms can cost thousands monthly. The best seo agencies and marketing firms already have access to these tools and include them in your package.

This gives your brand a competitive edge without the extra expense.

6. Better ROI with Strategic Campaigns

Digital marketing companies craft long-term strategies tailored to your business model. Whether you’re an ecommerce company, a mobile app developer, or a local service provider, agencies analyze your market, customer personas, and competitive landscape to build data-backed campaigns.

Freelancers often focus on task execution, not on holistic brand strategy or revenue-driven campaigns.

7. Compliance, Quality Control, and Brand Safety

2025 brings stricter regulations around user data, AI-generated content, and ad compliance. A social media marketing company in India must now ensure:

Ad policy compliance across platforms

Ethical usage of data and AI

Unified brand messaging and tone

Agencies have compliance teams or SOPs in place. Freelancers rarely do.

8. Reliability and Project Management

Agencies operate with structured workflows, deadlines, and deliverables. With project managers, account strategists, and performance analysts on board, you never have to chase someone for updates.

Freelancers might go unresponsive during personal emergencies, vacations, or if overloaded. Business momentum suffers.

9. Cross-Channel Marketing Mastery

Marketing in 2025 demands omni channel presence. A single campaign may involve:

Google Search Ads

Facebook Meta Ads

Instagram Marketing

LinkedIn Ads

Amazon and Flipkart marketing

Email automation

Web push notifications

Only an agency can build and manage this ecosystem seamlessly.

10. Long-Term Partnership for Business Growth

Freelancers often operate on a short-term, task-based model. the best marketing agencies however, align their success with your business growth.

They constantly refine strategies, test new platforms, and update tactics to ensure consistent revenue and brand value growth.

11. Dedicated Support, Consultation, and Strategy Building

A reputable agency doesn’t just execute campaigns — they become your marketing partner. Expect dedicated support, regular consultations, strategic brainstorming sessions, and periodic reviews. These consultations lead to better budgeting, brand positioning, and faster decision-making, giving your business the edge it needs.

12. More Cost Efficient in the Long Run

Freelancers may offer cheaper services phase by phase, but agencies are often much more efficacious in the end. Their process is repetitive, which cuts down on the chances of mistakes, keeps lengthy revisions down, and makes for better conversions. Plus, agencies can often find separate ways of productizing their services to offer you tools, reports and consulting that you would pay extra for a la carte if you were contracting separate freelancers to accomplish these things independently.

Conclusion: Go with a Digital Marketing Agency for 2025 and Beyond

Having a Digital marketing agency is no longer just a nice to have, it is a must have for any business looking to exist or grow within digital in 2025. SEO digital marketing complete ecommerce solutions, google business advertising, app development - all of this can be accomplished with an agency that has loads of experience across the board.

A quick note if you are looking for the best digital marketing agency has proven results, offers end-to-end services, and has a transparent communication style: W3Teck is the best option for you.

The sooner you invest in a partner to grow smarter, scale faster, and benefit from their knowledge and expertise, the only question you will have is what to do with the extra time you have as your marketing becomes more effective and efficient.

Explore our services:

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the-most-humble-blog · 4 months ago

Text

🛑 Subscription Fatigue: You Don’t Own Sh-t Anymore

The Great Ownership Heist—And You Paid for It

Once upon a time, when you bought something, it was yours. Forever. No extra fees. No fine print. Just a simple transaction: money exchanged for permanent ownership.

Now? Welcome to Subscription Hell—where you don’t own sh-t anymore, but you sure as hell keep paying for it.

In the last 15 years, corporations have collectively f-cked us over by shifting from selling products to selling access. The goal? Make sure you never actually own anything again.

And somehow, we just let it happen.

📉 The Subscription Takeover: How You Got Trapped

Remember when you bought CDs and they were yours forever? When you bought a game and played it whenever you wanted, without an online connection or a monthly charge? When software didn’t demand a recurring payment just so you could type a damn document?

Those days are dead.

Instead of a one-time purchase, everything is now a rental. ✅ Music? Spotify. Apple Music. Tidal. ✅ Movies? Netflix. Disney+. HBO Max. (Oh wait—it’s just “Max” now because marketing execs are idiots.) ✅ Video Games? Xbox Game Pass. PlayStation Plus. Nintendo Switch Online. ✅ Software? Adobe Creative Cloud. Microsoft 365. Even f-cking calculator apps now have subscriptions.

Everything is locked behind a paywall. And the best part? You never actually own any of it.

💸 You Will Own Nothing—And Pay Monthly for It

We used to buy things. Now we “subscribe.” And this shift wasn’t an accident. It was a slow, calculated effort to make you permanently dependent on corporations.

Think about it:

A one-time purchase = company makes money once.

A subscription model = company makes money forever.

It’s not just greed—it’s financial entrapment.

📌 Want to listen to your favorite music? Too bad—Spotify just removed your favorite album. Pay up or be at the mercy of whatever they decide to keep. 📌 Want to keep using Photoshop? Adobe wants $20 a month for eternity. Cancel? Poof—no access. 📌 Bought a car? Congratulations! Your heated seats now require a f-cking subscription.

Wait. Cars?! Yes.

🚗 BMW’s $18-a-Month Heated Seat Scam: The Final Boss of Greed

If you want a perfect example of how far this bullsh-t has gone, look no further than BMW.

BMW now charges a subscription for heated seats in some of their cars. Yes, you read that right.

The seats are already installed. The heating element is physically there in the car you bought. But unless you pay BMW $18 a month, they won’t let you use it.

Let that sink in.

You own the car. You own the seats. But the company still controls what you can access.

It’s like buying a house and being told you have to pay a subscription to use your own kitchen.

This is the future.

🎮 Gaming: Where You Pay to Rent the Past

Gaming used to be simple. You bought a game. You played it. It was yours. Now? Everything is a f-cking subscription.

🎮 Xbox Game Pass – Pay monthly or lose access. 🎮 PlayStation Plus – Rent your library or watch it vanish. 🎮 Nintendo Switch Online – Oh, you thought you could play old NES games? Pay up.

And it gets worse.

Now, developers release unfinished games and patch them later. Want a full experience? Buy the DLC. Oh, you wanted to actually own the game? Too bad, it’s “live service” now.

In 2004, you could walk into a store and buy Halo 2, a complete game, for $50. In 2024, you spend $70 on a game that isn’t even finished and still get hit with battle passes, microtransactions, and pay-to-win mechanics.

And yet—we just accept it.

📚 Digital Books: You Don’t Even Own the Words Anymore

🚨 Amazon can delete books from your Kindle remotely. This isn’t a conspiracy—it already happened.

In 2009, Amazon literally deleted George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from people’s Kindles without warning. The irony? A dystopian book about government control vanished from devices overnight.

If you “buy” a Kindle book, you’re not actually buying it. You’re purchasing a license to read it.

This means:

If Amazon wants to remove it, they can.

If your account is banned, you lose everything.

If they change the Terms of Service, tough luck.

You don’t own sh-t. You’re just renting access to words on a screen.

💀 Welcome to the Paywall Apocalypse

Subscription fatigue isn’t just annoying. It’s economic warfare.

Everything is now a pay-per-month nightmare, and the endgame is control.

🔴 Digital art? Subscriptions. 🔴 Smart homes? Subscriptions. 🔴 Car features? Subscriptions. 🔴 F-cking TOOTHBRUSHES?! Yes, there’s now a subscription service for toothbrush heads.

The goal is simple: Make sure you never fully own anything again.

🛠️ Can We Fight Back?

Honestly? It’s hard. These companies engineered dependence so well that it’s nearly impossible to escape. But here’s what you can do:

✅ BUY physical media. DVDs, CDs, game cartridges—real sh-t that can’t be deleted remotely. ✅ AVOID auto-renewing subscriptions. Make them work for your money. ✅ Look for one-time purchase alternatives. Stop paying Adobe $600 a year for Photoshop when one-time payment alternatives exist. ✅ Support anti-DRM (Digital Rights Management) products. If a company lets you actually own what you buy, reward them.

We probably can’t stop the subscription model entirely, but we can slow it down by refusing to throw money at companies who abuse it.

🚨 FINAL THOUGHT: THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO OWN ANYTHING—BECAUSE OWNERSHIP IS POWER

Owning something means independence. Owning something means they can’t take it away. Owning something means freedom.

That’s why corporations are systematically stripping away ownership in favor of perpetual payments. They don’t want you to have assets—they want you to have bills.

Welcome to the new world order: 💰 Own nothing. Pay forever.

And the worst part?

We let them do it.

💀 REBLOG if you’re tired of paying for sh-t you should already own. 💬 COMMENT the worst subscription scam you’ve seen. 🥩 LIKE if you miss the days of actually owning things. 🚀 FOLLOW for more savage takes, economic red pills, and the dark truth about the world.

#SubscriptionFatigue #YouDontOwnShit #CorporationsAreEvil #DigitalScam #CapitalismAtItsWorst #GreedOverload #EconomicSlavery #PayForever #BrokenSystems #WTFCapitalism #HardPillsToSwallow #FactsOverFeelings #BigTechBullshit #BrutalHonesty #CulturalCritique #DarkAcademia #SavageCommentary

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moonlit-tulip · 2 years ago

Note

What's your favorite ebook-compatible reading software? Firefox EPUBReader isn't great, but I'm not what, if anything, works better.

Very short answer: for EPUBs, on Windows I use and recommend the Calibre reader, and on iOS I use Marvin but it's dying and no longer downloadable so my fallback recommendation is the native Apple Books app; for PDFs, on Windows I use Sumatra, and on iOS I use GoodReader; for CBZs, I use CDisplayEx on Windows and YACReader on iOS; and I don't use other platforms very often, so I can't speak as authoritatively about those, although Calibre's reader is cross-platform for Windows/Mac/Linux, and YACReader for Windows/Mac/Linux/iOS/Android, so they can serve as at least a minimum baseline of quality against which alternatives can be compared for those platforms.

Longer answer:

First off, I will say: yeah, Firefox EPUBReader isn't great. Neither, really, are most ebook readers. I have yet to find a single one that I'm fully satisfied with. I have an in-progress project to make one that I'm fully satisfied with, but it's been slow, probably isn't going to hit 1.0.0 release before next year at current rates, and isn't going to be actually definitively the best reader on the market for probably months or years post-release even assuming I succeed in my plans to keep up its development. So, for now, selection-of-ebook-readers tends to be very much a matter of choosing the best among a variety of imperfect options.

Formats-wise, there are a lot of ebook formats, but I'm going to collapse my answers down to focusing on just three, for simplicity. Namely: EPUB, PDF, and CBZ.

EPUB is the best representative of the general "reflowable-text ebook designed to display well on a wide variety of screens" genre. Other formats of similar nature exist—Kindle's MOBI and AZW3 formats, for instance (the latter of which is, in essence, just an EPUB in a proprietary Amazon wrapper)—but conversion between formats-in-this-broad-genre is generally pretty easy and not excessively lossy, so you're generally safe to convert to EPUB as needed if you've got different formats-in-this-genre and a reader that doesn't support those formats directly. (And it's rare for a program made by anyone other than Amazon to work for non-EPUB formats-in-this-genre and not for EPUBs.)

PDF is a pretty unique / distinctive format without any widely-used alternatives I'm aware of, unless you count AZW4 (which is a PDF in a proprietary Amazon wrapper). It's the best format I'm aware of for representations of books with rigid non-reflowable text-formatting, as with e.g. TTRPG rulebooks which do complicated things with their art-inserts and sidebars.

And CBZ serves here as a stand-in for the general category of "bunch of images in an archive file of some sort, ordered by filename", which is a common format for comics. CBZ is zip-based, CBR is RAR-based, CB7 is 7-zip-based, et cetera; but they're easy to convert between one another just by extracting one and then re-archiving it in one's preferred format, and CBZ is the most commonly distributed and the most commonly supported by readers, so it's the one I'm going to focus on.

With those prefaces out of the way, here are my comprehensive answers by (platform, format) pair:

Browser, EPUB

I'm unaware of any good currently-available browser-based readers for any of the big ebook formats. I've tried out EPUBReader for Firefox, as well as some other smaller Firefox-based reader extensions, and none of them have impressed me. I haven't tested any Chrome-based readers particularly extensively, but based on some superficial testing I don't have the sense that options are particularly great there either.

This state of affairs feels intuitively wrong to me. The browser is, in a significant sense, the natural home for EPUB-like reflowable-text ebooks, to a greater degree than it's the natural home for a great many of the other things people manage to warp it into being used for; after all, EPUBs are underlyingly made of HTML-file-trees. My own reader-in-progress will be browser-based. But nonetheless, for now, my advice for browser-based readers boils down to "don't use them unless you really need to".

If you do have to use one, EPUBReader is the best extension-based one I've encountered. I have yet to find a good non-extension-based website-based one, but am currently actively in the market for such a thing for slightly-high-context reasons I'll put in the tags.

Browser, PDF

Firefox and Chrome both have built-in PDF readers which are, like, basically functional and fine, even if not actively notably-good. I'm unaware of any browser-based PDF-reading options better than those two.

Browser, CBZ

If there exist any good options here, I'm not aware of them.

Windows, EPUB

Calibre's reader is, unfortunately, the best on the market right now. It doesn't have a very good scrolled display mode, which is a mark against it by my standards, and it's a bit slow to open books and has a general sense of background-clunkiness to its UI, but in terms of the quality with which it displays its content in paginated mode—including relatively-uncommon sorts of content that most readers get wrong, like vertical text—it's pretty unparalleled, and moreover it's got a generally wider range of features and UI-customization options than most readers offer. So overall it's my top recommendation on most axes, despite my issues with it.

There's also Sigil. I very emphatically don't actually recommend Sigil as a reader for most purposes—it's marketed as an EPUB editor, lacks various features one would want in a reader, and has a much higher-clutter UI than one would generally want in a reader—but its preview pane's display engine is even more powerful than Calibre's for certain purposes—it can successfully handle EPUBs which contain video content, for instance, which Calibre falls down on—so it can be a useful backup to have on hand for cases where Calibre's display-capabilities break down.

Windows, PDF

I use SumatraPDF and think it's pretty good. It's very much built for reading, rather than editing / formfilling / etc.; it's fast-to-launch, fast-to-load-pages, not too hard to configure to look nice on most PDFs, and generally lightweight in its UI.

When I need to do fancier things, I fall back on Adobe Reader, which is much more clunky on pretty much every axis for purposes of reading but which supports form-filling and suchlike pretty comprehensively.

(But I haven't explored this field in huge amounts of depth; plausibly there exist better options that I'm unaware of, particularly on the Adobe-reader-ish side of things. (I'd be a bit more surprised if there were something better than SumatraPDF within its niche, for Windows, and very interested in hearing about any such thing if it does exist.))

Windows, CBZ

My usual CBZ-reader for day-to-day use—which I also use for PDF-based comics, since it has various features which are better than SumatraPDF for the comic-reading use case in particular—is an ancient one called CDisplayEx which, despite its age, still manages to be a solid contender for best in its field; it's reasonably performant, it has most of the features I need (good handling of spreads, a toggle for left-to-right versus right-to-left reading, a good set of options for setting how the pages are fit into the monitor, the ability to force it forward by just one page when it's otherwise in two-page mode, et cetera), and in general it's a solid functional bit of software, at least by the standards of its field.

The reason I describe CDisplayEx as only "a solid contender for" best in its field, though, is: recently I had cause to try out YACReader, a reader I tried years ago on Windows and dismissed at the time, on Linux; and it was actually really good, like basically as good as CDisplayEx is on Windows. I haven't tried the more recent versions of YACReader on Windows directly, yet; but it seems pretty plausible that my issues with the older version are now resolved, that the modern Windows version is comparable to the Linux version, and therefore that it's on basically the same level as CDisplayEx quality-wise.

Mac, EPUB/PDF/CBZ

I don't use Mac often enough to have opinions here beyond "start with whatever cross-platform thing is good elsewhere, as a baseline, and go on from there". Don't settle for any EPUB reader on Mac worse than the Calibre one, since Calibre works on Mac. (I've heard vague good things about Apple's native one; maybe it's actually a viable option?) Don't settle for any CBZ reader on Mac worse than YACReader, since YACReader works on Mac. Et cetera. (For PDFs I don't have any advice on what to use even as baseline, unfortunately; for whatever reason, PDF readers, or at least the better ones, seem to tend not to be natively cross-platform.)

Linux, EPUB

For the most part, my advice is the same as Windows: just go with the Calibre reader (and maybe use Sigil as a backup for edge cases). However, if you, like me, prefer scrolled EPUB-reading over paginated EPUB-reading, I'd also suggest checking out Foliate; while it's less powerful than the Calibre reader overall, with fewer features and more propensity towards breaking in edge cases, it's basically functional for normal books lacking unusual/tricky formatting, and, unlike Calibre, it has an actually-good scrolled display mode.

Linux, PDF

I have yet to find any options I'm fully satisfied with here, for the "fast launch and fast rendering and functional lightweight UI" niche that I use SumatraPDF for on Windows. Among the less-good-but-still-functional options I've tried out: SumatraPDF launched via Wine takes a while to start up, but once launched it has the usual nice SumatraPDF featureset. Zathura with the MuPDF backend is very pleasantly-fast, but has a somewhat-unintuitive keyboard-centric control scheme and is hard to configure. And qpdfview offers a nice general-purpose PDF-reading UI, including being quick to launch, but its rendering backend is slower than either Sumatra's or Zathura's so it's less good for paging quickly through large/heavy PDFs.

Linux, CBZ

YACReader, as mentioned previously in the Windows section, is pretty definitively the best option I've found here, and its Linux version is a solid ~equal to CDisplayEx's Windows version. Like CDisplayEx, it's also better than more traditional PDF readers for reading PDF-based comics.

iOS/iPadOS, EPUB

My current main reading app is Marvin. However, it hasn't been updated in years, and is no longer available on the app store, so I'm currently in the process of getting ready to migrate elsewhere in anticipation of Marvin's likely permanent breakage some time in the next few years. Thus I will omit detailed discussion of Marvin and instead discuss the various other at-least-vaguely-comparably-good options on the market.

For general-purpose reading, including scrolled reading if that's your thing, Apple's first-party Books app turns out to be surprisingly good. It's not the best in terms of customization of display-style, but it's basically solidly functional, moreso than the vast majority of the apps on the market.

For reading of books with vertical text in particular, meanwhile, I use Yomu, which is literally the only reader I've encountered to date on any platform which has what I'd consider to be a sensible and high-quality way of handling scrolled reading of vertical-text-containing books. While I don't recommend it for more general purposes, due to awkward handling of EPUBs' tables of contents (namely, kind of ignoring them and doing its own alternate table-of-contents thing it thinks is better), it is extremely good for that particular niche, as well as being more generally solid-aside-from-the-TOC-thing.

iOS/iPadOS, PDF

I use GoodReader. I don't know if it's the best in the market, but it's very solidly good enough for everything I've tried to do with it thus far. It's fast; its UI is good at getting out of my way, while still packing in all the features I want as options when I go looking for them (most frequently switching between two-page-with-front-cover and two-page-without-front-cover display for a given book); also in theory it has a bunch of fancy PDF-editing features for good measure, although in practice I never use those and can't comment on their quality. But, as a reader, it's very solidly good enough for me, and I wish I could get a reader like it for desktop.

iOS/iPadOS, CBZ

YACReader has an iOS version; following the death of my former favorite comic reader for iOS (ComicRack), it's very solidly the best option I'm aware of on the market. (And honestly would be pretty competitive even if ComicRack were still around.) I recommend it here as I do on Linux.

Android, EPUB/PDF/CBZ

It's been years since I've had an Android device, and accordingly have very little substantial advice here. (I'm expecting to move back to Android for my next phone-and-maybe-also-tablet, out of general preferring-open-hardware-and-software-when-practical feelings, but it'll plausibly be a while, because Apple is much better at long-lasting hardware and software than any Android manufacturers I'm aware of.) For EPUB, I recall Moon+ reader was the best option I could find back circa 2015ish, but that's long enough ago that plausibly things have changed substantially at this point. For CBZ, both YACReader and CDisplayEx have Android versions, although I haven't tried either and so can't comment on their quality. For PDF, you're on your own; I have no memories or insights there.

Conclusion

...and that's it. If there are other major platforms on which ebook-reader software can be chosen, I'm failing to think of them currently, and this is what I've got for all platforms I have managed to think of.

In the future... well, I hope my own reader-in-development (slated for 1.0.0 release as a Firefox extension with only EPUB support, with ambitions of eventually expanding to cover other platforms and other formats) will one day join this recommendation-pile, but it's currently not yet in anything resembling a recommendable form. And I hope that there are lots of good reader-development projects in progress that I currently don't know about; but, if there are, I currently don't know about them.

So, overall, this is all I've got! I hope it's helpful.

#Archive #Social #Ask #Ebooks #Infodump #the short summary of why i want to find a web-based epub reader is:#currently i'm learning to read japanese.#one of the natural next steps for me to take in the japanese-learning process is to start reading actual books.#i have some very useful browser extensions—yomichan and jpdbreader—which make reading japanese in-browser more convenient than elsewhere.#(jpdbreader in particular is probably the best training-wheels-ish japanese-reading tool i've found to date.)#however i can't use firefox extensions in non-firefox reader apps such as calibre #and browser security limits are such that i can't use them on other extensions' associated webpages either #thus i need to find a non-extension-based website i can get to display my japanese books so i can then read them with those extensions.

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cindylouwho-2 · 10 months ago

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RECENT SEO & MARKETING NEWS FOR ECOMMERCE, AUGUST 2024

Hello, and welcome to my very last Marketing News update here on Tumblr.

After today, these reports will now be found at least twice a week on my Patreon, available to all paid members. See more about this change here on my website blog: https://www.cindylouwho2.com/blog/2024/8/12/a-new-way-to-get-ecommerce-news-and-help-welcome-to-my-patreon-page

Don't worry! I will still be posting some short pieces here on Tumblr (as well as some free pieces on my Patreon, plus longer posts on my website blog). However, the news updates and some other posts will be moving to Patreon permanently.

Please follow me there! https://www.patreon.com/CindyLouWho2

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES

A US court ruled that Google is a monopoly, and has broken antitrust laws. This decision will be appealed, but in the meantime, could affect similar cases against large tech giants.

Did you violate a Facebook policy? Meta is now offering a “training course” in lieu of having the page’s reach limited for Professional Mode users.

Google Ads shown in Canada will have a 2.5% surcharge applied as of October 1, due to new Canadian tax laws.

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES

Search Engine Roundtable’s Google report for July is out; we’re still waiting for the next core update.

SOCIAL MEDIA - All Aspects, By Site

Facebook (includes relevant general news from Meta)

Meta’s latest legal development: a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas over facial recognition and privacy.

Instagram

Instagram is highlighting “Views” in its metrics in an attempt to get creators to focus on reach instead of follower numbers.

Pinterest is testing outside ads on the site. The ad auction system would include revenue sharing.

Reddit confirmed that anyone who wants to use Reddit posts for AI training and other data collection will need to pay for them, just as Google and OpenAI did.

Second quarter 2024 was great for Reddit, with revenue growth of 54%. Like almost every other platform, they are planning on using AI in their search results, perhaps to summarize content.

Threads

Threads now claims over 200 million active users.

TikTok

TikTok is now adding group chats, which can include up to 32 people.

TikTok is being sued by the US Federal Trade Commission, for allowing children under 13 to sign up and have their data harvested.

Twitter

Twitter seems to be working on the payments option Musk promised last year. Tweets by users in the EU will at least temporarily be pulled from the AI-training for “Grok”, in line with EU law.

CONTENT MARKETING (includes blogging, emails, and strategies)

Email software Mad Mimi is shutting down as of August 30. Owner GoDaddy is hoping to move users to its GoDaddy Digital Marketing setup.

Content ideas for September include National Dog Week.

You can now post on Substack without having an actual newsletter, as the platform tries to become more like a social media site.

As of November, Patreon memberships started in the iOS app will be subject to a 30% surcharge from Apple. Patreon is giving creators the ability to add that charge to the member's bill, or pay it themselves.

ONLINE ADVERTISING (EXCEPT INDIVIDUAL SOCIAL MEDIA AND ECOMMERCE SITES)

Google worked with Meta to break the search engine’s rules on advertising to children through a loophole that showed ads for Instagram to YouTube viewers in the 13-17 year old demographic. Google says they have stopped the campaign, and that “We prohibit ads being personalized to people under-18, period”.

Google’s Performance Max ads now have new tools, including some with AI.

Microsoft’s search and news advertising revenue was up 19% in the second quarter, a very good result for them.

One of the interesting tidbits from the recent Google antitrust decision is that Amazon sells more advertising than either Google or Meta’s slice of retail ads.

BUSINESS & CONSUMER TRENDS, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE

More than half of Gen Z claim to have bought items while spending time on social media in the past half year, higher than other generations.

Shopify’s president claimed that Christmas shopping started in July on their millions of sites, with holiday decor and ornament sales doubling, and advent calendar sales going up a whopping 4,463%.

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fashion-foxy · 4 months ago

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Going Foward With The EAH Server Based Mobile Game - My thoughts as of 24/2/25

This post will highlight my current thoughts and what I plan to do regarding this game, as well as that it most likely will not be playable ever unless some mericle happens. This is a very long update and is the first one in a while, so I have a very short recap under the cut.

INTRODUCTION/RECAP (Feel free to skip if you are familiar with my GMGA posts/updates):

Hi, I'm Foxy, I run @girlymobilegamearchive

I use the #GMGA updates and #Ever After High game tags for talking about my project of making now defunct stereotypically feminine mobile games easily accessible. I use the ever after high game tag for anything regarding this game. Recap is I found a game just titled Ever After High and went on a long journey trying to get it in a working state. Eventually, I gave up. I have since Un given up.

Actual Update:

I have recently found the versions 2.3.1 2.3.2 and 2.2. I use version and build interchangeably. I know their different. What you basically need to know is that these are just different updates to the game. Previously, I only had versions 2.4 and 1.10. What these new versions have confirmed is that:

There was a major update to the game with every new Netflix special that was released. (I already suspected it but it's nice to confirm it.

This game was not only being maintained (i.e. servers still kept up and on the appstore) but actively getting updated with new content from 2015 - 2022. (This is similar to the timelines of the other 3 EAH games, most of which did not have the same development teams)

This game, IF I find a functional version, will not be compatible with modern android (about android 13 to 15, which is what I consider modern. If you have an android device, i can almost guarantee this means you.) The version I can confirm will it will work if it ever does is Android 7.

Let's break down all of these discoveries.

1. Confirmation of all specials having a themed version:

Originally, I thought 2.4 was the epic winter build because Apple was the school winter shawl. However, both 2.3.1 and 2.3.2 feature her in the EW outfit, this with the DG outfits featured on the Amazon Appstore page and footage I found of the WTW build confirms this. I will try to find as many builds as I can.

2. Why were most EAH games made in 2015 and updated until 2022?

So, admittedly, it seems odd that the EAH mobile games were made in 2015 and continued to be updated years after the franchise was cancelled. But here's my theory. So, these games are pretty simple and could be made in about 6 months to a year. EAH and MH were doing pretty well, so naturally, they expanded into multimedia, more specifically games, around this time. They contracted Animoca to make Charmed Style and Tea Party Dash, worked internationally on Baby Dragons, and contracted [X]cubegames to make this game, Ever After High. [X]cubegames then worked with RedHat Inc for server maintenance. I don't what exactly happened in Mattel but either they just kinda forgot the games existed, or they were actually making enough money to beat maintenance costs. Then I think Mattel looked back into their MH and EAH games around 2022. Why did they decide to look into the MH and EAH properties in 2022? Well, that's when the MH reboot came out! So, in 2022, they were like, OK, let's go talk to Animoca and our home development team and whoever the hell else we contracted to make MH games. So, they went to talk to them and were like, hey, its not very profitable for these games to still be active, and we're rebooting the brand. And the companies said cool, but what about EAH. Mattel had forgotten EAH games existed and could really like to not make disney upset since they had just gotten the disney doll license back and got all EAH games shut down.

3. The EAH app will not be functional on modern android:

The EAH app was built for Android 5 to 7 and uses storage permissions for those versions. In the more than 7 android versions that have been released since then, the storage permissions have changed completely, and the game won't even recognize it. This is one of the many many reasons why we should just rebuild the game instead of trying to resurrect its long dead corspe, but I don't feel especially qualified for that. Maybe in the future, that'll change, but for now, I'm just going to work on archiving what the game was.

(BTW, sorry if the talking about the games in the main tag is annoying)

#ever after high #ever after high game #gmga updates

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the-sleepy-archivist · 1 year ago

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Backing Up Fanfiction with Calibre + FanFicFare (with screenshots!)

If you've been reading fanfiction for any significant length of time, you've probably had the horrifying realization that a fic or series that you absolutely loved was deleted. Maybe the author was harassed or stalked, maybe they didn't want an abandoned WIP lying around, or maybe they just didn't like the fandom any more. Whatever the reason, it is so important to back up your favorite fanfictions.

Calibre is one of the most popular ebook management softwares available, primarily because:

It is full-featured and fairly easy to use

It has a large plugin ecosystem (like Firefox's addons)

It's available for most operating systems

It's completely free

By "ebook management", I mean it can do things like indexing and searching a library of your books, downloading covers and metadata for them, etc. I originally got Calibre for backing up ebooks I had purchased from various online stores in case they ever shut down (like Microsoft Books) or decided they wanted to take a book back (like Amazon has done), and so I could read in whatever app I wanted.

BUT, remember that plugin ecosystem I mentioned? JimmXinu took advantage of that to create FanFicFare, a plugin that allows Calibre to download stories from over 100 creative writing sites (primarily fanfiction archives, but also erotic writing sites among others).

Just paste in the URL to an AO3 fic, for example, and it will:

Download the fic in your preferred format (EPUB, MOBI, TXT, HTML, others)

Fill in all the metadata for you (story name, author + AO3 pseuds, the fic's order in a series, if the fic is complete or not, word count, all tags, etc.)

Generate an ebook cover from scratch OR using art that was embedded in the fic

From here you can just click on a tag to find all other fics in your library with the same tag; you can also click into the author or the series. It's almost like having a mini-AO3 on your computer, one that is always available and where fics never get deleted.

Installing Calibre

Download Calibre from here, choosing the appropriate copy for your operating system

Run the Calibre installer and click through the wizard. For most people the default options work well.

Open Calibre; the Welcome Wizard should appear and walk you through initial setup

Choose your language, and the place on your computer where you want Calibre to store the fics/ebooks that it downloads, then click Next.

Select the device you use most often to read fanfiction on. This helps Calibre decide what format ebooks should be stored in (but you can override it with FanFicFare later)

You should now have Calibre open with an empty library. NOW we want to install several plugins to teach it how to handle fanfics.

Installing Calibre Plugins

First up is Count Pages. This plugin counts the words and pages in a fanfiction and shows it in Calibre so you know whether the fic you're looking at is a oneshot or a behemoth.

Look for an icon like the one below and click it to open Calibre preferences.

2. Under the "Advanced" section, click "Plugins"

3. At the bottom of the Plugins dialog, click "Get New Plugins"

4. Type "Count Pages" into the "Filter by name" search box at the top right. Once the plugin is visible in the list, click it, then click "Install". It will bring up a prompt about the security risks, but we are only installing well-known plugins today (ex. ZimmXinu has been developing FanFicFare for over a decade). Click Yes to install the plugin.

5. It will then prompt you to restart Calibre in order to begin using the plugin, but just click "Ok" because we're going to install a couple more plugins first.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for three more plugins: "Generate Covers", "EpubMerge", and "FanFicFare"; once all 4 plugins are installed, close Calibre completely and open it again. You should now have several new buttons on your Calibre menu bar:

FanFicFare is now installed! But we still have a little bit of work to do to unlock its full capabilities.

Configuring FanFicFare for Your Fanfic Site of Choice

So FanFicFare is now installed, but right now if you tell it to look at a fic on AO3, it will be browsing AO3 as a new, anonymous user without an account. This means that:

It won't be able to see explicit fics because it hasn't accepted the "See adult works" prompt

It won't be able to see locked fics (ones you can only read if you are logged in to AO3; these are very common nowadays as authors try to prevent AI engines from scraping their fics and flooding them with spam comments).

So we need to configure FanFicFare to accept the adult prompt (if you'd like to download anything rated higher than T), and we also need to give it our AO3 username and password so it can download locked fics on our behalf.

Click the dropdown arrow to the right of the FanFicFare button in the Calibre toolbar. A dropdown menu will appear. Click "Configure FanFicFare"

2. At the top of the "Basic" tab, select your prefered download format (if you prefer a format not listed, like PDF, don't worry, Calibre can convert it for you later).

3. Click the "Personal" tab in the FanFicFare settings dialog, then click "Edit personal.ini"

4. It will open a very basic text editor where you can type your personal fanfic site details for FanFicFare to use. If the box is small and text is cut off or hard to read, resize the editor window by hovering over the edge of the window until your cursor changes into an arrow with two heads, then click and drag to expand the window.

5. Type "is_adult" (without the quotes) into the Find bar, then click Find. The first result should be this a line that looks like "# is _adult:true". Delete the "#" and the space after it to uncomment the line; the text color of that line should change from yellow to green and light purple.

6. Type "archiveofourown" (without quotes) into the Find bar, then click Find until you see a section that looks like the one below (it should be the first or second result):

7. Type your AO3 login details after the "username" and "password" text. Do not put any spaces between the colons and your username or password. Note that your password is stored in plaintext in this file, so don't let anyone else get a hold of it.

8. Skip this step if the only site you're interested in downloading from is AO3. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for each fanfiction or erotic writing website you use. There are only a few sites in personal.ini out of the box, so you may have to copy a specific site's configuration section from defaults.ini, which has example sections for all 100+ supported sites.

9. Click "OK" to close the personal.ini text editor, then click "OK" again to close the Customize FanFicFare box.

Whew! Lots of clicking but you're done now! Time to download some fanfic.

Downloading or Updating Fanfic(s)

Copy the URL of the fic (I'm using one from AO3 for this example).

Click the FanFicFare button on the Calibre toolbar. It should automatically detect that you have a URL from a supported site in your clipboard and paste it into the dialog

If you want to download multiple fanfics in a batch, you can hit enter and paste more URLs into the box, one per line. NOTE: please do not try to download like 30 fanfictions at once; a bunch of people doing that can strain AO3's servers, and your account might have its download capability temporarily throttled to prevent that.

5. Click OK. Calibre may look like it's frozen for a few seconds, but this is normal during the metadata fetching process. Once it figures out which of the fics you pasted actually need to be downloaded, it will unfreeze and begin downloading them

6. Once Calibre has begun downloading your fics, it will display "Jobs: 1" with a spinning icon in the bottom right corner of the Calibre window. If you click that, you'll get a progress bar of what it's doing

7. Once Calibre has finished downloading your fics, it will display a summary of the job in the bottom right corner of the Calibre window. In this summary, "good" updates meant that a fic had to be downloaded, while "bad" updates indicate fics that didn't need to be updated (because you already had them on your computer) or that could NOT be downloaded due to an error (usually a fic that was deleted or hidden in a private collection). You can click "View Log" if you're curious about which fics were downloaded and which were skipped. In this example, 2 fics were missing from my library and were downloaded, while "Where the Sand Meets the Sea" was not downloaded because it was already on my computer and up to date.

8. Exit the FanFicFare log if you clicked into it, then click "Yes" to accept the results and add the downloaded/updated fics to your library. The fics should appear in Calibre almost immediately. Then FanFicFare will kick off a second job by calling the Count Pages plugin to grab a word count for the new/updated fics. Once that job completes, just click "Yes" in the job summary window that appears in the bottom right of Calibre to store the word counts in your library.

And you're done! You just backed up your first fanfictions :)

Downloading a Series

FanFicFare can actually pull all of the URLs for individual fics in a series for you automatically!

Copy the AO3 series URL (not to an individual fic in the series)

In Calibre, click the dropdown arrow to the right of the FanFicFare button on the menu bar, then click "Get Story URLs from Web Page"

3. FanFicFare should automatically detect that you have a supported web page in your clipboard and paste it into the text field. Choose the download option you prefer: downloading each fic in the series as a separate ebook, OR combining every fic in the series into a single ebook, commonly called an anthology. Note: anthology ebooks can get rather large in file size if they have embedded fanart in them.

4. Once you pick an option, FanFicFare will grab the URL of every fic in the series and automatically paste them into the FanFicFare fic download window. From there on out just follow the normal steps for downloading those fics (this will start at step 3 in the "Downloading Fic(s)" section above).

Updating Fanfictions

Just wanted to note that you can update fanfictions in multiple ways. You can either:

Select ebooks in your Calibre library, then click the dropdown arrow next to the FanFicFare toolbar icon and click "Update Existing Fanfiction Books" OR

Take the URLs and just download them like you would a new fic. FanFicFare will automatically replace your existing copy with the updated one. This way you can just paste in the URL from an AO3 subscription email alert instead of having to hunt down the fic in your library first.

For Advanced Users

FanFicFare can actually pull the URLs off of any page of multiple fics - this includes pages of bookmarks. For example, if you want to download fics that you have bookmarked and tagged with "favorite", just filter your bookmarks for that tag and then use the resulting URL in the steps for "Downloading a Series". Note that FanFicFare doesn't handle pagination, so if you have multiple pages of results for that bookmark search, you'll have to paste in each paginated URL separately.

Summary

Well this got WAY longer than I meant it to. I think my background in technical writing is showing - this is probably more detailed than the average tumblr user wants or needs. But whatever, at least it's thorough. If you found this guide useful, please reblog it! The more people who back up fics, the better the chances that those fics will be available if you want them later. And if you end up using Calibre extensively, consider donating to the one-person developer team to keep the project going :)

#ao3 #archive of our own #calibre #fanficfare #calibre plugins #backup #backing up fanfiction #long post #archival #back up the things that make you happy folks #mine

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