#Businesses advertisement

[uncanny-tranny]

This might seem like an "old man yells at cloud" situation, but it's just wild growing up and being told how dangerous distracted driving is - how, at highway speeds, you can traverse the length of a football field (100 yards, 91 meters) in a matter of seconds - how one split second sending a text while driving could result in a potential fatal crash, and then getting on the road as a driver and being surrounded by billboards. Their entire purpose is to catch one's attention, so they're lining major roads, which tend to be highways. How is it that you're told how important it is to never be distracted while driving, but still being advertised to?

At best, this type of advertising is an eyesore to pedestrians and motorists and a general waste of electricity to light it, and at worst, it is an active danger considering they are there to advertise and therefore, must catch people's attention.

I'm not even against advertising in theory, but this particular mode bothers me so much and I hate how pervasive it is - especially in large cities or highways.

[izzystizzys]

There is a scratch mark on the floor of the Council chambers that Mace has never noticed before. Not a deep one, mind, quite shallow. This matters because it’s making the white-hot pulse of agony stabbing through his eyeballs ebb momentarily. Then, he chances a glance upwards at the fidgeting Knight in front of them, and it returns in full force.

Huh, he’s never seen Oppo Rancisis’ face turn that colour before.

“Hmm”, Master Yoda hums, deep and scratchy. His expression is unreadable even to Mace beyond a baseline gremlinness, and the force with which he grips the edges of his seat is making his bones creak. Master of the Order you should become, they said. Follow the calling of the Force, you should. A fulfilling purpose, it will be. Mace is going to hunt the little goblin for sport when this is all over, and he’s going to laugh the whole time.

“Show us the livestream again, could you, Knight Parvo?” Yoda asks. Mace bursts a capillary, he’s pretty sure, and so does poor Knight Parvo, whose orange Mon Cala skin tips all the way into blood red with stress. “Most unusual, this is.”

“Absolutely not!”, Ki Adi intervenes before Mace has to, thank the Force for little mercies. Plo Koon’s tusks tremble slightly with either suppressed laughter or abject horror, maybe both, and Stass Allie has her head in her hands. “The holo stills should be enough”, Ki Adi proceeds to add, and Mace has to reconsider all feelings of grace he just felt towards his fellow Councillor.

He never wants to watch Yoda zoom in on someone’s abs again. Or Depa raise her eyebrows at the curve of thighs bent over the dripping front of a speeder.

“Speeder Wash For Our Troops”, his former padawan reads out loud from a still of what has to be hundreds of the things gathered in the public senate parking lot. “Fund Our Boys And Get A Wet Seeing-To!” The series of images features dozens of Coruscant Guard troopers in various stages of unkitted, gleaming and shining with soap suds and water. The fact that the whole thing is also massive shatterpoint after massive shatterpoint is, quite frankly, insulting.

“Well hello- oh dear”, Obi-Wan’s blue form crackles to life in his chair, followed by several sounds of choking that are definitely not him. Good, Mace thinks acidly. If he has to deal with this, then so does kriffing Skywalker. “I’m sorry, why am I looking at Commander Thorn using a washrag like a lasso on top of a speeder?”

“Oh, the Guard’s little fundraising project”, Bail Organa says, as he steps into the Council chambers. Normally, Mace likes the man well enough. Now, he just smiles and adds on, “I’ve already donated, in mine and Breha’s name. Remotely, of course.”

“The Guard’s fundraising speeder wash?”, Obi-Wan repeats, edges of his holo form flickering with what Mace suspects is Skywalker very unsubtly trying to edge in. Force, but the man really is horrible at any and all stealth, like kissing his secret wife in an open arena in front of his Master. “And they are fundraising for…?”

“GAR budget allocations have to come from somewhere”, Organa shrugs. “And with the tide of public opinion turning, they’ve been tending towards cuts. The Guard feels them more keenly than any other sector - they’ve been reduced from half to quarter rations, and medical supplies have not made more than a token appearance in the last draft. The Chancellor has cancelled three consecutive meetings on the matter, and thus it was agreed that a more hands-on approach was needed. Any surplus will go into the Army fund.”

“Surely it can’t be that dire”, Oppo protests, a slightly less concerning shade of purple now. Senator Organa shrugs again, jostling the smattering of cracks slowly building around his person in a way that makes Mace wince quietly. “It’s all publicly available data, Masters.”

It really can be that dire, as it turns out. And quarter rations is only scratching the surface of how dire, considering the Guard has apparently never had access to bacta in all their posting, and also includes requisitioning forms available to the Senate for reconditionings and decommissionings, two words Mace has only heard Ponds whispers amidst shuddering in the early days of the war before Shaak Ti went off and just about tore some throats out over it.

“Alright”, he concedes, rubbing at his temples. “Fair enough, we have failed to tackle a massive blind spot in the Guard’s well being. There is no Jedi assigned to Coruscant, and that’s an oversight on our behalf. But how in the everloving kriff did this get past the Chancellor and Commander Fox?!”

Who have both signed, black on white. Bail Organa smiles cryptically. “Well, if you scroll a bit past that one image, up to the industrial speeder in the back - Commander Fox is currently having credits stuffed into his codpiece in the back, I believe.”

“HE’S WHAT IN THE WHAT NOW”, Commander Cody screeches through the speaker of Obi-Wan’s holo image, and Mace has to summon every bit of Jedi-serenity he possesses in his body to keep from dropkicking a cackling Yoda through the chamber windows.

[pixelcatsend]

Our next opening starts today, January 19th at 6PM EST and will go until January 21st at 6PM EST!

Pixel Cat's End is a virtual pet site where you collect and manage a village of cat-like creatures. You can dress them up, give them jobs, build and decorate their homes, and take them on tabletop-rpg-style adventures.

Come down and get yourself some small, round little kitty not-cats! Features:

The tiniest baby kittens you have ever seen in your entire life.

A very slow/casual-paced game that you can easily keep up with even if busy with work or school.

Say goodbye to the gender binary.

Giant (friendly) magical moose with hundreds of eyes, if that sweetens the deal for you.

Some future features:

Ascend your cats to their final form and give them antlers, wings, and spare eyes.

[COMING SOON] Mercats. Yes, you heard me. Mermaid kitties with little fishie tails and fluffy kitty pawsies. They will be yours.

Magical kitty cat powers (and terrible consequences for unlocking the secrets of the universe).

Find us at pixelcatsend dot com

[starryfictionalgirl]

Watcher announcing they’re leaving YouTube and putting all their new content behind a paywall via a new streaming service in a nutshell:

[elftwink]

to preface this post i am anti-advertising i think we should explode the entire industry but it's sooo funny when you people make posts like "and they don't even work!!" like. sorry to be the bearer of bad news but yes they do. that's why we have to put up with so many despite everyone hating them and thinking its annoying. because they actually work really well and make a shit load of money

[nemfrog]

A future in frogs. Modern Mechanix. February 1936.

Internet Archive

[lynpheas]

obsessed with the idea that flora and helia are always in everyone’s business. like, they aren’t necessarily nosy, but flora is friendly and approachable so people will just confide in her and tell her the most obscure/weird/aggravating bullshit going on in their lives. helia’s not friendly and approachable, but, to the average outsider, he seems reserved and maybe…stoic? so definitely someone you could just chat about something you don’t want spreading to everyone. and, yes, flora and helia do not immediately spread every word of gossip that reaches them to everyone they know. but they have grown awfully used to knowing everything that’s going on with everyone. and comparing notes with each other 👀

[twilight-deviant]

Watcher fans sure are entitled and a little insane, ngl. "No one is going to sign up for your service! We're all poor! You've made the worst decision, and you'll be back in no time!" Saying this directly to the creators really reminds you of how low the respect for people you don't personally know has gone. I miss the forth wall between creator and audience.

I get and fully understand not having the money to support them, but... Watcher does have fans with money. A lot of them actually. They have merch sales. Their live tour sells out most venues. They have thousands of supporters on Patreon, where the cheapest tier is $5. They're able to gauge the rough finances of their staunchest supporters; that's how they landed on the subscription price. Yes, this move will reduce their viewership in sheer numbers, but to say all of their fans are broke and none will follow/support is factually incorrect.

It may not be a decision everyone agrees with, but severing the limitations of advertisers and youtube in favor of artistic freedom is a good thing. Yes, even if it comes with a loss of revenue. They understand that risk.

Also, I'm begging people to stop treating this like "another Netflix" or something and instead look at it as, "I am supporting a creator I like, similar to Patreon." They literally said in the video that they don't care if you share accounts. Get five friends, and you'll pay $1/mo.

I hate feeling compelled to rant in favor of their decision because I have my own reservations about whether it's the best move. However, I know it's not a choice they made lightly, and I like to think they understand that they'll need to branch out like crazy to entice subscribers.

[vintageadsmakemehappy]

1951 IBM International Business Machines

[dandyads]

Blockbuster Video (Canada), 2001

[munsons-mutiny]

Sticker Preorders End Tuesday: Midway Reminder

Link to Etsy store here!

[kply-industries]

[mockupcloud]

Italobrx Brand Identity

Mockups used in this project ⚡ mockupcloud.com

Design by be.net/imevelynlobo

[presiding]

[netherworldpost]

"Say, your advertising your project's existence was just a little zine, wasn't he?"

I will never advocate being anything less than professional with Staff. Raging user at social media network is not effective or good for anyone.

A(n alleged) decrease of commitment on their part to a platform I am committed to is not a comfortable position

Ultimately, they are treating this like a business decision, which is fair

So am I. We both have an equal right to self preservation and project growth.

Here is an outline post on how to make zines in the thought line of "I run a small widget and I want people to remember I exist."

It's not for everyone, it's not the only solution, it's not perfect, it's not a one-size-fits-all. You'll have to modify it.

MY PLAN

My current numbers as of this writing is to produce a small zine using 1 sheet of paper on a custom-printed envelope and mailed to customers once a month.

Retail price will be $10/year, production cost per customer is just shy of $14/year, so each sign up costs the company $4/year (about $0.33/month).

Free shipping (simplifies things)

Billed 1 year at a time. Payment processing has a floor of $0.30, costs would be destroyed if we handled it monthly.

No auto-renew. This easily could become an experiential nightmare for customers and us as a shop. Reminders will be included during the last few months.

1 sheet of paper cut in half and folded in half stapled into a zine. Very limited space. Fun, bright, we can produce it quickly in-house. Small so it doesn't create a project backlog.

For us: this project is not to make money.

It is to remind folks we exist when they remember "oh hey Someone's Birthday is coming up, I should get a card from Netherworld Post Office. Maybe a few labels to decorate the envelope, a sticker or two for my water bottle."

From past experience, a handful-percent of customers on this kind of system will make the entire system profitable, annually.

The rest will enjoy it tremendously, which pays dividends in unexpected and myriad ways. Word of mouth of mouth of mouth of mouth of mouth (etc.)

Ultimately: the risk is brutally small.

YOUR PLAN

Can be whatever you want.

Part of the reason my costs are so high is because I want custom printed envelopes. If I got blank envelopes then rubber stamped them, I would save about 25%

But. I explicitly want crisply printed multi-colored envelopes

(because we are going to sell envelopes in time, so it's a continual proof of production in terms of what we can do)

You could also charge some or all shipping. Or raise the price. (Or not do any of this!)

There is a pin company in Canada that sends me a reminder every six months or so that they exist and like clockwork I buy a packet of pins and stickers. Not every reminder, probably 2-3 times every 3-4 years.

Same idea.

Some folks will prefer email newsletters -- which they don't pay for, that's great, we offer that too.

Online advertising exists. It can be cheap. It is always at least medium-level complicated.

Moving into the woods and saying "no social media networks for this biz!" is not practical (or us and for many)

Rebooting an audience every 5-10 years on a different network is not practical

I HOPE TUMBLR OUTLIVES ME

It is my sincere and legitimate hope that this site continues, grows, evolves, strengthens. For both personal and professional reasons.

I similarly recognize that my goals and theirs may not continue to align forever -- and that's far more my problem than theirs.

Here is the zine guide link from the beginning.

Here is our shop's landing page with newsletter signup for when we launch.

Good luck everyone (staff explicitly included in "everyone")

[lacquerheadd]

Next time you're bleedin' to death, just think: Dr. Zed!