#all the images in my reference pinterest board link back to sources!
Text
snow leopard sketches ❄️ reference images can be found here
#id in alt#snow leopard#big cats#wildlife#animals#animal art#sketches#sketchbook#all the images in my reference pinterest board link back to sources!
977 notes
·
View notes
Text
Prince of Shadows, Lord of Thieves by alkat
Fandom: The King's Avatar | 全职高手
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Category: Gen
Words: 1 929
Once upon a time, their exploits were immortalized by artists and writers across the tapestry of history. Once upon a time, they were worshipped as gods and reviled as demons. None of that stopped the Met from stealing all their shit.
About the Book
FONTS: Alegreya [Google Fonts], Lato [Google Fonts]
IMAGES: all art made by myself @greenhorn-art for this fic
MATERIALS: regular ol' printer paper (8.5"x11", 20lb, 96 bright); ~2-2.5mm binder's board; Neenah cardstock (8.5"x11", 65lb, bright white); Cialux bookcloth (black); waxed linen thread (30/3 size, white); wheat paste (1:4 flour:water); paste wax (from a friend, unknown ingredients&quantities, some kind of wax and turpentine/mineral spirits)
PROGRAMS USED: Affinity Publisher 2; Affinity Designer 2; Bookbinder JS | Renegade's Community Imposer (settings: Quarto, snug against binding edge, custom signatures of 2, 1, 2 sheets).
Text & QR codes printed with colour laser printer (duplex, flip long edge), images printed with inkjet printer. QR codes generated with LibreOffice Writer, snipped, saved, and inserted where needed.
BINDING: quarto (quarter-letter) size, sewn board binding with french link stitch and breakaway spine.
.
So this one all started because the visual of HST's outfit was so fun that I was possessed by a visceral need to draw it. Inspiration slapped me across my mind's eye, and much like a medieval knight being slapped in the face by a glove (which didn't actually happen, that's a myth that sprung from the throwing down of a gauntlet. but that's beside the point), I felt bound to take up the challenge. Which lead me to draw a few more, and then I ended up binding the whole thing.
(Also, I find it really amusing that the famous Terracotta Warriors were just storage for YXs stuff. And the gang going 'shopping' at various exhibits for gifts for friends/family,, like that sure is SOME window shopping! I can hear it now: 'Oooh I'll take one one those SMASH, and that SHATTER, and throw in some of those CRASH, they're going to love these! 😇'. All in all, it was a fun little read, and fun little project! :D)
About the Art
Because this was initially a one-off drawing I tried a new art style (and struggled to at least not stray too far for the rest). It was fun and helped me think more about shape and visual focus, instead of being caught up in the details.
The crow (based off of image ID: 4039963 from Rawpixel) and the red umbrella on the front cover were filled curves made with the pen tool. The illustrations' poses were based off of a combination of images found on Google and photos taken by myself.
Pinterest is awful for sources, but it would have been handy to pin the references I'd googled. Only remembered to save the one of a man sitting at a desk. (I deliberately searched for someone sitting with bad posture because YX is described as being "slumped" over the desk. I figure that since "the laws of physics held no meaning to ["cursed souls eschewed by the natural order"]", they'd also be immune to mundane things like discomfort from sitting hunched over for too long. Back pain images were a gold mine! All I had to do was choose one with lighting that would give me a silhouette.)
The Myriad Manifestations Umbrellas and illustrations were drawn in Procreate.
I opted for a more plain umbrella design because it's not (presumably) a fantastical weapon in this story. Though the initial version did have YX cradling the donghua!MMU.
For the scene breaks I inserted the images, pinned them inline as character, and adjusted height and baseline in the pinning menu to fit.
The author wrote one scene break differently than the others, using multiple empty paragraphs instead of just one. Following suit, I used a different image for that particular break. I wanted to reference vampires somewhere, so for that break I made two bloody spots resembling bite marks. The blood spots were made with a group of shapes in Designer.
On cover design:
Because the MMU is what sparks the whole heist, I wanted it on the front cover.
Earlier iterations involved a full cover spread with a man's shadow standing before a shattered glass case, with a plaque mounted on the wall to the left providing information. The plaque was formatted like a museum label and had the author, date published, title, event collection, and story description. I'd also added a QR code to it. Ultimately, I abandoned the concept because it was difficult to decipher what is was when only looking a one cover at a time.
My second idea for the cover would have been a bookcloth-only cover with a cut-out of the MMU on the front, acting like a window showing off an image of the MMU on paper below it. (Inspired by the work of a number of folks over on Renegade's Discord. Here's a few examples gleaned from a quick search: szynkaaa's lung cutouts, some of EHyde's books, and the front cover of Spock's massive all-in-one TGCF). As fun as that would have been to try out, I felt it didn't quite suit the style of the art so I nixed that too.
Eventually I landed on the back cover design with the Met exhibition webpage. At last, I felt that the back & white and simple-shapes-background went with the artwork. The webpage viewed on the phone is based off of the Met's actual website. I took a snip/screenshot of the Met's logo from the banner at the top, then looked at their exhibitions' pages and eyeballed it to create my own. (Threw in the QR because I wanted the easy access to the fic online on the back cover). I chose to use a phone screen rather than I computer monitor because it worked better composition-wise. And besides, while YX may be allergic to owning a phone, SMC is not. I imagine that she saw the news while on her phone then messaged him.
The front cover came together after that. An umbrella for the MMU, and a pop of red. One of YX's messenger crows. A black shape in the background similar to the back cover's, sort of creating a spotlight over the umbrella and placing the rest of the cover in shadow.
Trying New Things: Applying a protective finish to printed covers
Over on the Renegade Bindery Discord, folks have spoken about using a beeswax & turpentine/mineral spirits 50-50 mix to seal printed covers (thank you Kate). According to my dad that's just a paste wax, so he threw 3 different ones at me and said 'have at it'.
I tested them out using the same paper and inkjet I'll use for the cover. I was looking at 1) whether the paste wax affected the paper colour or print quality, and 2) the finish. After applying one coat each and buffing them out I had my winner. Then I applied & buffed two more coats to it and tested 3) water resistance by dripping tea on it. The liquid beaded up and wiped away without staining -- good, three coats will work nicely.
(Test results: Mystery paste wax from a friend wins.
The commercial SC Johnson Paste Wax Original formula (intended for woodworking) has a nice dry shiny finish, but coloured the paper slightly brown -> disqualified
My dad's homemade stuff has a nice shiny/satin finish and didn't change paper's colour, but it felt slightly tacky even after buffing it -- maybe I didn't buff it enough?
The gifted paste wax has a matte finish, didn't change paper's colour (in the image below this one has 3 coats. The paper is now slightly off-white, but still acceptable), and while not as dry-to-touch as the Johnson it was not as tacky as the other homemade stuff.)
When I print out my quarto covers, I print front and back covers side-by-side on the same page*, with some guides to ensure I'm cutting and gluing in the correct place. (The guides mark the boundaries of the covers and start of the turn-ins, and stop at the edge of where I cut. Before cutting I flip it over to mark the guides [see marks indicated in image below] on the wrong side and connect them so I can see where to glue/place book. Then flip it back over to cut, right side up.)
*I'm being economical here at the cost of possible warping damage. This layout means that I'm only using one sheet of paper, but the grain is running in the wrong direction (across the book instead of preferred head-to-tail/top-bottom). This could cause warping issues, but I'm OK with that. I'm hoping that by just gluing at the edges, instead of pasting down the whole thing, warping will be minimized. (I use wrong-grain endpapers most of the time with larger books anyways).
I applied the paste wax before cutting out the covers, working carefully to avoid accidentally creasing/bending the paper (which happened twice, but it was minimal and I hardly notice it). Doing so before cutting ensured that the cover material was completely covered. Even the turn-ins -- something I later came to regret. After all, wax is used specifically so that things don't stick to it. It made it rather difficult to drum on the endpapers because I was trying to glue something down onto a waxy surface. It all worked out in the end -- perhaps due to the fact that there were multiple layers of wheat paste which could adhere to each other, followed by being squashed in a press.
92 notes
·
View notes
Note
How did you learn how to draw anatomy? And if you use any references do you have links for good sources? I want to get better at it but i find it hard to get good reference images
references, trial and error, sheer determination, and my whole drawing journey across my entire life. for sources, there are many many options but for me personally i never enjoyed doing studies. though theyre helpful, i like to learn as i go, so the refs i compile are usually multi purpose (they have a cool pose going on, or interesting lighting) and learning anatomy is sort of a secondary result of all that.
but for sources - i get a lot of pics off tumblr (you can see what kinds of images i find useful on my inspo blog @morningprince), i also save hordes of images onto my pc and phone if i see anything remotely interesting while using the internet casually. pinterest is great for sorting reference types with personalized boards, and google when you cant memorize how to draw ears, no matter what, no matter how many times you draw them (hi). there are also anatomy textbooks you can find on the internet with a little digging but ive never cracked any of these open, because again, i like to just learn as i draw, and if i run into something i dont know how to draw in the middle of a painting i'll often try to look up a ref for that specific thing on the spot.
and when you absolutely cant find the reference you need in the middle of a drawing, use your own body. the amount of awkward pics i have of myself that i forget to delete when im done using them is unspeakable. if i ever lose my phone i hope whoever finds it enjoys the plethora of totally unsexy tit pics of me on here
but yeah i feel like ive been very slow with my anatomy journey when you look at how long it took me to get here. all i can really say is dont give up, and try to have fun with the challenge of learning. the few times i have done studies i liked incorporating my fave characters onto the geometries (being into spiderman really helped as an excuse for trying some more flexible poses back in the day). i believe in you!
85 notes
·
View notes
Note
Just a follow up ask: I don't remember 100% if I did pick all the Jonathan images on pinterest. So I really could had been just an asshole. But I promisse I didn't for a second thought they were scans (because I'm stupid) or what scans were (don't ask I really have no defense for looking at those perfect images and thinking it was screenshots that is dumb and ridiculous and I don't know why I'm like this) nor edits (because I'm stupider). That's to say that I'm really sorry. I was a moron and should've looked it up with more care and asked first. I know you said you would've let me but since I never asked is not fair to keep the post. I'm again really sorry and promise I won't do that again.
No need at all to answer. I just wanted you to know that I really regreat not showing the basic care and respect for your hard work and to promisse I will never do it again. I appreciate and enjoy your work a lot.
(Also sorry if it sounds like excuses I'm really bad at apologies. I know it is my fault either way).
Hello, sorry for waiting til the next day to answer. I just wanted to address this so others wouldn't make the same mistake.
First off, I'm not mad anymore. I admit, I was a bit pissed at first, as it happened twice in one day (you and someone else) but I slept on it and contacted you and the other person, both of which have been respectful to me.
Secondly., as a creator and artist I HIGHLY encourage you to stop using Pinterest. It's a horrible website that combs the internet for content and most people save and repost the images outright without realizing (or on purpose) that said image might be someone's edit, photography, or art. Pinterest is a tool for inspiration, and if you're just building boards to be inspired that's perfectly acceptable, but once you take the image and repost it, then we have a problem.
At the best least, do what I did and clink the image and look for the source. Here's one of my edits on there, and it does link back to my page.
Thirdly, please don't beat yourself up. I've had my content taken by others before, and it's really just a case of contacting them and being civil about it. You made a mistake, but you rectified it and apologized. that's all I wanted honestly.
And for future reference, if you want to use something of mine, just ask. I really don't mind as long as there's credit. <3
10 notes
·
View notes
Text
Covert Eyes (12)
Prologue| Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6| Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11
Fandom: Spooks
Pairings: Lucas North x OC (Amy Holland)
Warnings: Stalking behaviour, anxiety, language, sexual references, smut, angst, heartbreak.
Summary: Lucas takes notice of a young woman, Amy, but his obsession and want to get to know her begin to spiral out of control. Lucas and Amy's domestic bliss hits a plateau, but then plummets back when someone from Lucas' past decides to crash the party.
Official soundtrack list: here
Comments/Notes: If you wish to be tagged in any of my tag lists for fics or characters, please let me know, and stipulate what you want to be tagged in. The above image was located on Pinterest, with no link back to the original source.
I also wanted to stipulate, and I don’t mean to be rude, but if you ask to be on my tag list and never interact (even if just a ‘like’ on the chapters I post) then I will remove you after a few weeks. Please try and show some kind of engagement, or ask to be taken off my list if you’re no longer interested.
Five months had passed now since Amy and Lucas’ first night together. It was August. Days were long, warm and bright. Jonathan hadn’t been heard from since, having obviously taken on board Lucas’ threats. Amy’s vetting had been completed: all clear, as was expected. No areas of concern.
One evening, as a cool breeze finally began to circulate, the tell-tale sign that a thunderstorm was imminent, Lucas sat on the edge of the bed, in just his jeans. He reached his hand out to Amy; she took it, then straddled his lap. “Do you think about our future together at all?” Lucas asked.
Amy smiled coyly and locked her hands together around the back of his head. “All the time. Do you?”
Lucas smiled, in almost the exact same way as Amy, in a coy and embarrassed manner. “Yeah. A lot. Where do you see us going?”
Amy swallowed and looked down. “Erm, hopefully getting married. Maybe a baby. This was never really something we spoke about before, so it’s worrying me now as to whether you want the same. I was always thinking that if I mentioned marriage and children then you’d run.”
“No. I want that with you,” Lucas said softly. “I’ve always wanted it. I suppose I just felt that, naturally, it was what you wanted, too.”
They both kissed, and within minutes, Amy was on top of Lucas, riding him. She controlled the pace, positioning herself in just the right place that would put the correct pressure against her sweet spot. She knew that exact place well. And every time they made love in this position, Amy rode him fast, and then slow, pausing to make sure that his climax didn’t come too soon. They edged, over and over, until it was impossible to hold it back. That all too familiar pressure would build in her belly and crash outward.
Both of them climaxed. Amy shook involuntarily, all of her nerve endings completely alight with electricity. Lucas let everything pour out, all the tension, the frustration.
As Lucas opened his eyes and looked up at Amy, who was smiling down at him, he knew this was it. “How about we get married?”
“What?” Amy exclaimed. “Are you serious?”
“Very,” Lucas replied.
Amy rolled off Lucas and sat on the edge of the bed, pulling her underwear and skirt back on. She heard a faint rumble of thunder in the distance.
“Talk to me,” he begged. “Amy?”
“I’m just…I’m shocked you’d ask so quickly after we spoke about it. Are you sure this is what you want?” Amy put her hand on her hip and stood at the end of the bed, watching as Lucas pulled his boxer shorts back on. “I never expected you to ask me now.”
Lucas sighed. “I knew I should have kept my mouth shut.”
“No, no.” Amy leaned down and placed a kiss against Lucas’ lips, feeling him immediately react to her. He began to grow more hungry, needing her. But she pulled away and then looked into his eyes. “Yes. My answer is yes.”
Lucas pulled Amy down onto the bed, listening to her giggle in delight. He kissed her fiercely and then watched as she lay across his legs, looking up at the ceiling. “You can have any ring you want,” Lucas told her.
Amy looked up at Lucas and laced her hand in his. “It’s not the ring that counts, it’s just being with you. Any ring that you wish to give me will be special.”
The thunderstorm continued on for the next three hours. But Amy and Lucas were too overwhelmed with happiness and excitement to care. They both sat in the dining room with a mug of coffee, discussing their future plans together.
“You may as well move in permanently,” Amy suggested. “You’re here most of the time anyway, but we can make it official from today if you want.”
“My flat is more open plan and spacious, so the choice is yours, Aim. But I do like your flat. It’s cosy. I don’t have that many personal items to move. My kitchen utensils and furniture can be sold if needs be. And, I do have something I wanted to talk to you about. Your work. I know that it stresses you, and if I move in permanently, you can always consider going down to part time or even leaving. I earn enough to look after both of us.”
“Lucas, I couldn’t do that. It’s unfair of me to expect that you pay for everything.”
“Just think about it though. Even if you go down to part time hours. I just want to see you happy, and I know that the way things have gone recently, you’re getting more stressed with work.”
“I’ve been thinking about applying for other jobs for quite a while. Maybe even change department. A lot of the policies to do with annual leave and targets are changing, and we’ve had a high turnover anyway.”
“So maybe this is your chance to change,” Lucas suggested. “Take full advantage of this, Aim. Please.”
***
Amy’s world was growing bigger. So many opportunities, so many considerations. She was constantly smiling, constantly aglow. It had been three days now since she had accepted Lucas’ proposal of marriage. Of course she wanted to marry the man that made her the happiest she had ever been. He loved her, protected her, cared for her. With Lucas’ shifts, sometimes forming two days’ worth of work, it meant that their time together never grew stale and they had regular breaks from each other.
On that morning, three days after the proposal, Amy sat in the usual place in hers and Lucas’ coffee shop. That weekend would be shopping for a ring.
I cannot wait to put that ring on your finger and make this official. Amy could sense Lucas’ enthusiasm through the text message, mentally building the picture of his broad smile and twinkling eyes.
Amy took a sip of her coffee and looked at the background photo on her mobile phone. It was her and Lucas, huddled into the frame, attempting to take a selfie. Their smiles were natural, care-free.
“Amy?” a voice came.
Amy looked up from her phone, and into the eyes of a woman. She was blonde, easily mid-thirties, very professional in her dress of a grey ladies suit. “Yes. Can I help you?”
“You know Lucas North. Is that correct?” she asked, her voice thick with an American accent.
“Why?” Amy asked, straightening her posture. She swallowed hard and felt her heart begin to race, feeling as if some kind of confrontation or handing over of bad news was about to take place.
“You need to be careful of him, sweetheart,” the woman said, giving a condescending smile. “He’s not what he appears to be. He’ll take what he wants from you and then dump you.”
“Look, I don’t know who you are, but I really don’t have time for this,” Amy snorted.
“Well you should take time for this. Your life may depend on it.”
Amy glared at the woman and grit her teeth. “Leave me alone,” she demanded.
The woman grabbed Amy’s arm, and the two woman stared at each other hard for a few seconds. “Amy, he’ll be your downfall. The man will leave you either dead or with nothing. All he does is take what he wants. No doubt he’s playing house with you and will probably ask you to marry him next week. He did all this to me only a year ago; made me think that I was the one for him, the one he could be himself with. You’re a means to an end for him, a toy. He’ll get sick of you and leave. He builds you up, tries to ease your insecurities.”
A lump rose in Amy’s throat, and she tried so desperately hard not to choke. “Leave me the fuck alone!” Amy hissed, tugging her arm sharply from the woman’s grasp. She stormed out of the coffee shop, leaving behind a flurry of stares as customers spun around to see what had happened.
Tears were so close to coming as Amy dashed through the crowds in the high street, the words of the unknown American woman playing over and over in her mind. How did she know her name? Surely this woman had been watching her, which made sense that she would have been involved with Lucas. The two of them being intelligence officers. Was she purely a scorned lover? Everything she had said made sense to Amy; Lucas eased her insecurity, constantly told her how he could be himself, basically lived with her, and had proposed.
The words of the woman played again and again as Amy made her way back to her flat after calling in sick to work. She needed to speak with Lucas, confront him about this woman.
I need to talk to you. Amy’s text was simple and to the point. She didn’t care anymore if Lucas put his job on the line by coming out of work. If Lucas really was the kind of man that this woman had proclaimed him to be, then he would be completely free to do what he liked from that day onward without Amy in his life.
Amy’s phone rang while she stood in her kitchen, tears pouring down her cheeks. She would not be weak on the phone, she told herself. No way would this man use her weakness to his advantage, the bastard!
“I need to talk to you now, Lucas.”
“I’m at work,” his voice came. “What’s wrong?”
“Get yourself here now. I don’t care how you do it, but you need to get here now.” And with that, Amy terminated the call. For the first time in her life, she was assertive and demanding. The sorrow and anger was building inside her, and to the point where she didn’t know whether to sob uncontrollably, or throw a chair at the window. She was growing terrified that she may do something impulsive.
She paced, breathing hard. She flapped her hands, trying to calm her breathing.
Then the front door slammed. Lucas had let himself in with his own key.
Amy couldn’t help but fall into a fit of tears upon the sight of Lucas. Her dear Lucas. Beautiful. Her everything.
“What’s wrong? You’re scaring me,” Lucas said, his eyes wide. He approached Amy and reached out for her.
“Don’t. Please. Did you have a relationship with a blonde American woman?” Amy asked, her eyes red and sore. She swallowed hard again, teetering on the very edge of any kind of composure.
“Why?”
“Just answer the question, Lucas. Did you?”
“Yeah, but it ended about a year ago.”
“Oh, God,” Amy sighed.
“What the fuck is going on?” Lucas’ eyes were growing wider in fear and frustration. “Has she been talking to you?”
Amy glared at Lucas, anger building. “No, I suddenly became fucking psychic. What do you think?” she spat.
Lucas turned around on his heel, brushing his hands through his hair. “Bitch,” he spat. “She killed her boss and made it look like his suicide. When we found out, I let her go. We were using each other for information; maybe at first I thought there really was something between us, but I was naïve. Why do you think I want to keep work away from my private life? She’s the evidence that it never works out.”
Amy sat down, still sobbing into her hands. “I knew everything was too good to be true.”
“It is true.” Lucas bent down next to Amy and took her hand, gripping it tight. “Love? Look at me.”
A pair of red eyes looked back at Lucas. They were swollen with sadness. Amy’s body hitched with her breath, and as she looked at him, she felt that wave of love overtake her again. “Why do I have to love you?” she whispered. “She told me things that are too true to be just made up.”
“What things?” Lucas tried to maintain composure in his voice as he spoke, but inside, his heart was pounding so fast that he seriously felt as though it were about to break out of his ribcage. There was no way he could lose her. The two of them had come too far now in their relationship to consider a separation.
“She told me that you always said you could be yourself with her and how you’d probably wind up proposing to me next week. She’s obviously been watching me, tracking me somehow. I can’t keep taking this, Lucas. I’m constantly looking over my shoulder. The last six months and I’ve been watched more than I ever have in my life, and why? For two people, it’s because they’ve been slighted. As for you, I don’t even know why anymore. I’m just the first person you latched on to for a normal life.”
“No…no,” Lucas cried out, shaking his head for emphasis.
“I….I love you, but I can’t do this,” Amy said softly.
Lucas’ head shot up and he looked at her, tears welling in his eyes. “Please, no.”
“Lucas, it’s okay,” Amy said again, cupping his cheek. “I’m not strong enough for you. You’ll be happy one day; I feel that in my bones. But things won’t work.”
“Don’t say that.”
Tears fell down Amy’s cheeks as she watched him sob in front of her. “Go and be happy.” Amy got up from her seat, pulling away from Lucas’ grasp as he tried to pull at her legs and stop her from leaving.
“I am happy.”
Amy grabbed her handbag and disappeared out of her front door, letting it slam behind her. She left Lucas to sob on the kitchen floor.
***
Follow Forever tag list: @i-did-not-mean-to @lathalea @linasofia @xxbyimm @middleearthpixie @meganlpie @knitastically @msjava1972 @guardianofrivendell @sketch-and-write-lover @lilacpulse @asgardianhobbit98 @spidergirla5 @rachel1959
Richard Armitage tag list: @eunoiaastralwings @cryptichobbit
45 notes
·
View notes
Text
Abridged history of early 20th century Chinese womenswear (part 4.2: 1930s-hair, makeup & accessories)
Source here
Previous posts in the series:
Part 1: 1890s
Part 2: 1900s & 1910s
Part 3.1: 1920s-silhouette
Part 3.2: 1920s-design details
Part 3.3: 1920s-accessories, hair & makeup
Part 4.1: 1930s-silhouette & design
A super late Happy Chinese New Year to all fellow humans who celebrate it!! I’m going to discuss hair, makeup and accessories of the 1930s today in no particular order.
Undergarments
At one point between 1932 and 1934 women in China decided to ditch the breast binders worn since the 1890s and wear brassieres instead. This allowed the natural shape of women’s breasts to show and the contrast between the bust and waist lent the dresses of the mid 30s a soft hourglass shape. The brassieres of the 1930s didn’t have stiffening, boning or foam and relied only on their structure for support, so the shape of the breasts looked very soft and rounded.
Source here
30s Du Barry lingerie sewing pattern for brassieres and drawers. This may not be very representative because brassieres made by different companies looked different, but they usually looked like modern bras with vertical darts and no wires or foam cups.
I must again redirect you to this article on breast binding in China, if you can’t read Chinese Google Translate works just fine. There’s one thing that I’d like to comment on though; the author named breast binding as the sole reason for the small bust measures of women at the time and argued that it caused health problems and hindered the growth of the chest. I think this is true to some extent, but other reasons for the generally small stature of women in this period (and indeed the centuries before) included malnourishment, bad healthcare and lack of exercise. Women weren’t educated about healthy diets and the importance of physical exercise before the 30s, not to mention the non-existent healthcare they received, so they were much shorter and skinnier, and suffered from more illnesses than the average modern woman. Before industrialization, food production was also often insufficient so a lot of women were malnourished.
As popular as brassieres were, some Chinese women chose to go braless. However, I have usually seen braless women in advertisements/pinup posters, so I suspect this would not be very socially acceptable on a daily basis.
Source: lai yiching0926 on Pinterest. I get so many primary sources from this person y’all may as well check out their board on Chinese calendar painting it’s bomb. I also have a Pinterest board where I collect primary sources if anyone is interested, my Pinterest username is also audreydoeskaren.
However, being braless doesn’t mean wearing nothing underneath a cheongsam. Camisoles were worn on the upper body and drawers (which were becoming proto-panties) on the lower body; alternatively a slip could be worn. 30s drawers are really pretty in my opinion, they were high waisted and had an a-line shape, decorated with lace.
To my knowledge, Chinese women in this period did not yet wear girdles, corsets or any other kind of shapewear to take in the waist, at least I have never seen their edges peeking out from underneath the cheongsam. I guess this was also unnecessary as the cheongsam was a light one piece dress and didn’t require any support at the waist.
From my observation, stockings were kind of optional in this period. In the early 20s and before, Chinese women wore short stockings tied up by garters at knee level, but as the skirt hem rose to knee length in the late 20s they probably stopped doing that as the garters would show when they inevitably flash their knees. I assume longer, nude stockings would be worn, held up by a garterbelt or something, but a lot of images of this era showed women with no visible stockings. Teenagers and younger women could wear low knit socks like Western children, but these were not acceptable on grown up women unless they were doing sports. Tights were not yet a thing either.
On top of these undergarments, some women chose to wear ankle length petticoats or pants underneath the cheongsam. This was especially the case around 1934 when the side slits were mid thigh or higher and constantly showing your drawers was likely not the most respectable thing. These petticoats and pants were most commonly white and had decorative trim. Petticoats could have slits down both sides like the outer cheongsam or a flared hem. Pants were straight cut and wide legged. Later in the decade the slits became lower so petticoats and pants weren’t that necessary anymore but many women still chose to wear them, which is fine by me because I think it’s a cute look. Likewise there were many examples of women around 1934 wearing high slit cheongsam without petticoats or pants, especially if they were dancing, so this was likely a matter of personal preference (Western dances like tango, waltz, foxtrot, charleston and swing were introduced to China and popularized in the 20s and 30s. The Paramount dance hall in my native city of Shanghai is a monument to that).
Source here
Mid 30s photograph, high slit cheongsam with pants.
Source here
Later 30s fabric ad, low slit cheongsam with flared petticoat.
Outerwear
A noteworthy development in the mid 30s was that wearing actual, full blown Western fashion became popularized, but only as outerwear, sportswear or eveningwear; Western day dresses were not often seen on Chinese women. In regards to Western outerwear, a variety of them could be worn over cheongsam. In addition to the fur trim wrap coats popular in the late 20s, women wore capes, vests, suits, coats, knit cardigans and others. It was completely ok to mix and match Western accessories and jackets with cheongsam.
Source here
Short cape.
Source here
Early 30s women’s suit. I know I use this image a lot, it’s just really useful and beautiful :)
Source here
Early 30s fur trim wrap coat.
Source: Sayuu G on Pinterest, link
Long coat with lapels.
Source: Yuan Li on Pinterest, link
Cardigan and jacket. This kind of short sleeved, straight front, collarless jacket on the left was very popular in the mid 30s.
Another cute mid 30s accessory I’m very fond of is the gauntlet glove i.e. gloves that have a very wide trunk opening. I think they have an equestrian flair and look very badass.
Source: Yuan Li on Pinterest, link
1935 cover of The Young Companion. (Why are the useful images always so small? Woe is me)
Earrings were really common in the 30s, you could see them in almost all of the reference photos in this post.
Hairstyles
Since around 1930 the history of Chinese and Western women’s hairstyles had almost completely synchronized so if you know about vintage Western hairstyles you’re welcome to skip this part.
In the beginning of the 30s the most common hairstyle was a short bob with optional fingerwaves (called waterwaves in this period? I’m not great with terminology). Some bobs in the late 20s/early 30s could be so short that they look like buzz cuts. The defining feature of the fingerwave was the shimmery wave-like pattern in the hair created by pinching and combing the hair while it’s wet with setting products. Just a side note, the way fingerwaves are done in most Chinese period dramas nowadays, uh, leaves much to be desired. That’s because a lot of hairstylists just attach a wavy extension (which you can easily purchase from Taobao...) to the actresses’ forehead and call it a day, but that doesn’t really replicate the structure of the fingerwave and makes it look like the 铜钱头 in Kun Opera instead.
Source: Helen Xu on Pinterest.
Early 30s very short bob.
Source here
Early 30s fingerwave
Another very common hairstyle in the 30s was this mid length bob (either side part or middle part) with a lot of volume at the bottom. I am so puzzled as to how this is achieved, maybe with teasing or curling only at the bottom? That sounds odd.
Source here
Mid 30s fabric ad.
This ad is forcing me to go on a tangent about fabric dyes. This label, Indanthren, sold fabrics dyed from a range of blue or blue-ish colored synthetic dyes made by the German company BASF (which was merged into IG Farben at this time). Because of the introduction of synthetic dyes to China, almost all colors under the sun could be produced or imported so there weren’t really any specific color limitations to the clothing of this period.
Back to hair. Contrary to popular opinion, fingerwaves were not in fashion throughout the 30s, let alone the entire republican era. As the 30s progressed, the fashionable hair length became longer, making it more difficult for fingerwaves to be performed; they were replaced by roller sets and pin curls which are more suitable for longer hair. In the mid 30s, brush out curls with a side part were extremely popular. At this point bangs kind of became a Chinese cultural heritage and a lot of women would wear brush out curls with bangs. There are literally a million patterns for setting brush out curls and every woman probably had her own tricks, so everybody’s hair looked a tad different but the overall idea was the same as Western brush out curls: women would set the hair in the night and sleep with the rollers/pin curls to let them dry, then in the morning they would brush them out until the desirable wavy shape is achieved. Many women also used curling irons to achieve the same hairstyles with heat, which was faster and didn’t require waiting overnight. With that said, the fingerwave didn’t just disappear either, it was often used in conjunction with brush out curls to sculpt specific hairstyles. I’m not a professional vintage hairstylist so I can’t always clock if a hairstyle is done with fingerwaving, brush out curls or both. From my own experience with brush out curls, they are usually more voluminous and have more fizzy ends and the waves don’t line up so perfectly like with fingerwaves because the process is more uncontrollable (or maybe I’m just clumsy).
Source here
Typical mid 30s curls.
The fashionable hair length grew longer toward the end of the decade, with the finished curls reaching either the shoulder or the nape of the neck. Hairstyles became kind of rectangular in silhouette and flat at the crown. They were often pulled back at the sides to create a more rectangular shape for the face.
Source: lai yiching0926 on Pinterest.
Late 30s hairstyles.
Shoes
Again, full westernization here. 30s shoes had higher and thinner heels than 20s shoes, although they were still thicker and lower than modern stilettos. The heels were usually curved Louis heels. 30s shoes often had a single strap across the foot and a wrapped design at the toe. Spectator shoes and Oxfords that covered the whole foot were also worn. Likewise, strapless pumps were fashionable too, sometimes with an open toe design, especially toward the end of the decade.
Source: genibee on Flickr, link
1935 Sears catalogue. Maybe not very representative since shoes made by different companies looked different, just showing what was possible.
Interestingly, I have never seen an image of a 30s Chinese woman wearing boots or booties outside of an equestrian context. I guess boots either weren’t feminine enough or were too inconvenient under the long cheongsam.
Sportswear
A very interesting development in the 30s was the popularization of sportswear as a result of women doing sports. Wealthy or aristocratic Chinese women have been riding and hunting in an attempt to emulate European lifestyle since decades, but these sports remained elite and untouchable for common women; in the 30s however, more accessible sports like swimming, volleyball and tennis became in vogue. The popularity of swimming was in large part due to the influence of female swimming champion 杨秀琼 Yang Xiuqiong (her name is spelled differently in Cantonese because she was from Hong Kong), who was seen as a national hero for winning a ton of medals in international swimming competitions and breaking records. China began trying to participate in Olympic games around this period and there were also many other women athletes competing in different sports, so sportswear became a necessity.
The design of swimwear in this period followed closely the design of Western bathing suits, usually a tight, short, one piece bodysuit.
Source here
1933 cover of The Young Companion featuring Yang in a swimsuit. There was a stigma around female swimmers at this time though, mostly because of the revealing clothing they had to wear to allow freedom of movement. Many press reports called Yang a “mermaid” because of her physical beauty, trying to reduce her to a sex icon instead of the glorious athlete she actually was. All of the whack rumors about her being a concubine of some rich dude was also really disgusting and distracting from her achievements.
I’ve also seen multiple times this two piece design with shorts and a modernized 肚兜 dudou (a Qing Dynasty undergarment with a function akin to that of a corset cover).
Source: EMKAY on Pinterest
30s pinup girl in two piece swimsuit.
For land sports, women usually wore a short sleeved open collar shirt with shorts, short knit socks and flat pumps.
Source: Jason Tse on Pinterest
1933 cover of The Young Companion featuring a tennis player.
Makeup
The makeup look of the early 30s was almost identical to the late 20s look, with the thin, elongated eyebrows, large oval shaped blush and delicate red/mauve lips. This continued all the way until around 1938-39.
Toward the end of the decade, the eyebrows started to return to a normal thickness and became kind of arched instead of flat. Eyeshadows became lighter or non-existent. Women used cake mascara to darken their eyelashes, which were separated and evenly spread out. The location of the blush moved slightly downward. Red lipstick was still the most popular but the lips were plumper than in the early 30s. Overall very subtle and small changes to makeup. There were a bunch of Western and Japanese makeup companies trading in China at this point, I couldn’t name any specific ones beside Nivea which was quite popular for affordable skincare products like cream and sunscreen. I assume that actresses and pinup girls would also use Max Factor, but I’m not sure how widely used his products were among the general population. The Hong Kong brand 广生行 Kwong Sang Hong (whose Shanghai branch was called 双妹 “Twin Sisters” and whose advertisements we have seen too many times in this series) was also really popular.
I know I promised to talk about makeup more in this post but unfortunately there really isn’t much to talk about :( So see you next time when I dig into the 1940s!
#1930s#art deco#vintage hair#vintage accessories#vintage shoes#vintage lingerie#chinese history#chinese fashion#historic fashion#vintage#vintage makeup#vintage sportswear#cheongsam#qipao#abridged history of early 20th century chinese womenswear
555 notes
·
View notes
Note
If you’d like could you give some tips on drawing fabric? Or some good places to find references? Yours are so perfect to study because of how much passion is woven into every piece!
haha oh man, thank you so much! ^^
My dude my guy my buddy I understand your desire so bad, and I wish I could give helpful tips on drawing flowy fabric, but my process for understanding it is very difficult for me to explain since it is largely intuitive. That's probably a downside to being self taught, in that explaining the technical side of how you understand some things can be a struggle when you learned it through instinct and feeling (unless that's just me 0.0; ).
I'm happy to share some of the stuff I used to learn and study references from! I will preface this by saying that I still struggle with things like shirts and pants, and I mainly do better with something more freeform like a cloak or a cape. If anything, what's holding me back from sharing tips is my own limitations, haha. That being said, I'm still practicing as well, so let's do our best and practice together!
I will do a more detailed and clear tutorial on this in the future, but for now I hope this can at least provide a tiny bit of guidance:
- Essential Tips for Drawing Drapery and Folds from Art Rocket, or the Clip Studio Paint...website? I'm not sure what it is, but it's very helpful.
- Pinterest! For this I created an account just for references, proceeded to type in "cloak" or "cape" into the search bar, and pinned whatever caught my fancy. Which, looking back at my boards, was a lot 0_0;;
Pinterest is not perfect and can sometimes feature stolen or reposted art/references that don't credit the creator, and it can be intensely difficult looking for the source of a particular image. That being said, it's not a bad way to accrue a load of different references that you do find, and it's nice to have a lot of said references categorized in a specific place for you to go back to whenever you want. There's a looot of fantastic art tutorials on Pinterest that have helped me, but I lament when I can't find the original creator. Be prepared for reposted stuff, but the pins that do link to the original creator of that image can be very useful, because not only have you found a good reference but now you know who made it, and can find more good stuff from them :)
- Side note about Pinterest; they have a lot of fashion related photos and stuff that I personally study fabric from. Draw the model wearing the clothing to see how the fabric creases and lays and drapes against their form; studying that can help you begin to understand the pattern that fabric can take when drawing items of clothing on a body. Don't forget not to stick with one specific article of clothing (cloaks in my case); studying from dresses, shirts, pants, skirts, etc. will provide variety and flexibility for your understanding of fabric folds on the body ^^
- Your own clothes, blankets, forts, etc.! You also have the power of references for fabric folds if you happen to wear clothes! Which! Now that I say that I am really hoping you do! 8D
Haha but in all seriousness, studying yourself and how your clothes look on your body can really really help. (I hope it's worth mentioning that studying how clothing looks on a diverse cast of body types is also extremely important. How does fabric pull, stretch, or loosen around for a thin body, a fat body, a buff body? What happens when someone is wearing something too big for them? Too small? Just right? The possibilities are endless!)
An example below are studies of photos I took of myself pinning a thin blanket with a bobby pin and wrapping it around my body. This really helped me get a better understanding of fabric. it comes with all my personal notes for Krita brushes and everything.
An important note: brush up on your understanding of things like value and shadows! I think an essential part to getting the look of it is knowing that fabric folds come with crevices and valleys that create all sorts of shadows, so be sure to pay close attention to how light hits it and what shapes are formed as a result.
(for context this was for a hornet fanart but i refuse to elaborate due to embarrassment)
- Remember, important things to think about are how gravity affects the fabric, how the body type can affect the behavior of the folds/creases, how the thickness of the material affects the amount of folds, and what sorts of values and shadows are created.
The list can honestly go on, but truth be told, I have a rather limited list of sources (I swear I swear I looked at references and stuff, but realizing now that a lot of what I learned might just have come from Pinterest 0__0;;;; ). The things I mentioned above are probably the major things that I used to study and practice from. Try looking for particular art tutorials from other artists that explain the technical side of drawing fabric (I might have some on my tumblr in my #art references tag? I don't know if I've reblogged anything involving a tutorial on fabric, but you can always check it out in case. Hell I'm going to do that right now).
I would recommend doing a little bit of a search online specifically from other more experienced artists who share some helpful tips, since I don’t think I can very well ^-^;;. Look up random stock images of people wearing clothes and cloaks and capes; cosplays, costumes, regular casual clothes, etc. Anything can be a reference if it’s something to lay your eyes on! (If you’re going to copy from a reference for studying and decide to post it somewhere later, don’t forget not to claim it as your own and to share the source of the reference you studied from.)
Remember that it takes a lot of learning and practice, and to be kind to yourself. You can do it!!
43 notes
·
View notes
Note
how do you make your webs, like finding so much information that pertains to one idea? do you save every piece of media that you come across that speaks to you, or do you have a particular method of searching?
Good question! I only started this blog a couple months ago, so even though I have been trying to document media I come across now, it'll take a while for my own 'archive' to be full enough to reference - I actually use the goodreads quote function a lot (although, beware, there is a lot of rubbish there, a la Cassandra Clare and JK Rowling) as things are pretty well tagged to an extent, and I use tumblr to search the 'web weaving' tag for ideas relating to what I want - for example, I found some pieces of my most recent web on 'the watcher' aka male fantasies by searching 'web weaving the male gaze' and scrolling down to see if I saw anything I felt would fit. I'll also go manually through my own 'words' tag on my main if I vaguely remember something relevant, and I do occasionally go through other, much older (and better) web weaving blogs - here I will plug the incredible @luthienne whose incredible weaves and archive actually made me decide I wanted to make my own web weaving sideblog rather than just stick to keeping it all mixed into my main, very crowded blog - using tumblr's (incredibly temperamental) search function with relevant key words.
The majority of my webs do come from my own (dubious) memory, such as the Only Ever Yours quote from 'the watcher', which I read when I was seventeen or so and stuck with me, or the Dead Like Me screencaps in the 'grief in tv shows and film' web where Clancy talks about thinking he had more time with George. But often I'll remember a quote, but not remember where it's from, and that's where these other search functions become particularly helpful. If you want a part of a book, archive.org is a free resource full of books scanned in by libraries that you can borrow for free online for anywhere between an hour and two weeks, and it also has a search function where you can type the part you're looking for into the search bar and it'll tell you exactly which page it's on (and I'd actually recommend archive.org for reading full stop, whether its for work or leisure, it's an amazing resource and helped me get through my dissertation). Sometimes this search function doesn't work, or it's awkwardly spaced out or some other issue, which is when I enlist my good friend Paint 3D and screenshot and crop, highlight, underline and otherwise edit it until it looks how I want it to. Similarly, with song lyrics, lyrics.com (despite being one of the worst formatted sites I've ever seen) does a pretty good job of matching the lyrics you remember to a song, which can then be searched elsewhere (I'm partial to genius.com, but once you have a name and an artist, you can find lyrics in dozens of places) for a cleaner presentation.
I also use TinEye, a reverse image search extension to properly source what I use; there's nothing worse than using an image or quote without proper credit, and that allows you to look for the earliest use of an image that isn't from pinterest/weheartit. A good example is this image which I found on a grunge aesthetic board - I popped it in TinEye (google image reverse search is alright, but it doesn't give you dates and only really works for famous artists/artwork, everything else it uses from a 'most similar' basis rather than an exact match) and it came back one weheartit, one flickr favourites page, one pinterest board, and a twitter. I clicked on the twitter, and unfortunately it had been deleted; however, it gave me the twitter name ezoreno in the now broken link, which I put on the image after a quick scour to double check somebody under the same name was not on tumblr or instagram or some other social media that I could link to instead.
Lastly, I do use 'ranking' lists if I'm unfamiliar with a topic - although I used several shows from my own memory for the 'grief in tv shows and film' web, there are several I used despite never seeing the shows - Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Wandavision were all shows I've never watched but had seen specific moments referred to in a Buzzfeed article, which itself was ripped from a reddit thread. One of the replies I got on it, funnily enough, was saying how The Walking Dead should have been included - they're probably right, but as I responded, I haven't seen The Walking Dead and in my search didn't come across any specific moment mentioned that I could've found (episode numbers and transcripts are great for locating where in the episode to cut to).
In short, I research and borrow and cut and copy; in other words, I cheat. Hopefully this demystifies the process a bit (and stops me feeling like I'm tricking people into thinking I'm smart/at all organised).
28 notes
·
View notes
Text
30 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website
30 New Ways To Drive Traffic Towards Your Blog
Would you like to increase traffic on your 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website? There are lots of ways to get more traffic to the 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website. A lot of folks are convinced the only method to driving a motor vehicle website visitors will cost you them funds. You will find various methods of going targeted traffic that you just pay money for, and nearly all them are free. Expanding targeted traffic to your organisation, 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website, or website is paramount to developing a larger viewers. I have got enrolled in this article the best new ways to get more traffic your 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website. The advantage of improving your website visitors is almost always to increase awareness, rank, and boost revenue.
1. Jot down Article content is regarded as the most robust tips on how to get site visitors for ones 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website. What follows is a report on absolutely free brief article online websites that I specifically use around the provided with moment in time.
Squidoo.com
Hubpages.com
Isnare.com
Goarticles.com
Getarticlesdone.com
Ezinearticles.com
Articlecity.com
Technorati.com
Buzzle.com
Suite101.com
Seekingalpha.com
Associatedcontent.com
Examiner.com
Articlesbase.com
Xomba.com
Flixya.com
Bukisa.com
Triond.com
Hellum.com
Oondi.com
Shetoldme.com
Digitaljournal.com
2. Leaving comments on blog sites is one other terrific technique for earning visitors. When allowing a comment on someone else 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website be sure the site is connected to your market. Other suggestions to use in factor for your personal comment to end up being accept is always to granted website content, be polite, and figure out what your writing about.
3. Societal social bookmarking also is a base for building up site visitors. Below are my personal favorite community social bookmarking websites.
Flickr
Pinterest
Facebook . com
Yahoo and google
MySpace
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Delicious
Digg
Tweetmeme
Fark
Slashdot
Friendfeed
Clipmarks
Newsvine
LiveJournal
Encounter Up
Orkut
MyLife
Ning
Labeled
Deviant Art
4. Facebook or twitter Page may be a tool to drive traffic to your 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website. Constructing a Facebook . com Fan page may be very convenient approach and no cost.
5. Facebook . com postings absolutely are a widely used method of selecting targeted visitors to your internet site. Facebook classified ads furnish qualified, group, and primary targeted visitors.
6. Metacafe is actually a cost-free marketing station that everyone will need to use to drive traffic to their 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Websites. Are you aware Youtube . com stands out as the minute largest sized online search engine? YouTube is a online for free product we should be utilising for online marketing.
7. Reference Course is a powerful way to drive the car web site traffic throughout the word of mouth marketing. If they refer your services to their friends, offer your potential customers a discount.
8. Facebook or twitter people are a good way to push your blog post submit to further improve your targeted traffic. I join other Twitter teams with pertinent subject matter and commence putting up my blogging sites. I become lots of absolutely free website traffic utilising Twitter groupings.
9. Enroll in a forum organization to raise website visitors to your web sites. With the discussion forum collection your prepared to write-up or answer questions. In a site crew, you can actually grow to be a specialist on your niche and established authority. They are simply site web-sites for all sorts of niche categories. Let us discuss two discussion forum teams I have got making use of some time ago but still use.
The best Community forums for SEO
forums.searchenginewatch.com
sitepoint.com/boards/
seoforums.org
seomoz.org/network
message boards.digitalpoint.com/
community forums.seochat.com
highrankings.com/community forum
web optimization-man.com/discussion board/
forums.blog-research.com
seoblackhat.com/online community/
10. Auction web sites is the right source to drive traffic to your 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website. Craigslist and ebay at the moment has about 60 thousand customers. How does one produce targeted traffic from Craigslist and ebay? All you should do is make a superior About Me Webpage as part of your Craigs list bank account. In your about me, website Craigslist and ebay provides to promote your 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website.
11. Newsprint Promotions is one other device to drive traffic towards your site. Contact your community place and newspaper an advertisement.
12. Search Engine Optimisation can be described as terrific strategy to commute purely natural website visitors. Make sure you improve your blog by profiting from key terms and excellent website content.
13. Backlinks space good for search marketing and cruising 100 % natural visitors. In the event your wanting to shopping for high-quality backlinks to your site there are a number vendors where they may be pay for. Let us discuss several corporations We have acquired back-links.
Thehoth.com
BruteforceSEO.com
Buildmyrank.com
3waylinks.net
Massarticlesubmitter.world wide web
14. Guest writing can assist expand your brand name and is actually a popular decision to get targeted traffic. I have enclosed a website link with various web pages rich in rating that permit guests putting up.
15. Acquiring E-mail listing helps your 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website gain plenty of traffic. I actually have enlisted many of the companies offering E-snail mail listing products to get a competitive price range.
Aweber
Get Results
Mail Chimp
Persistent Communicate with
Campaigner
Benchmark Email message
IContact
Campaign Observe
Jango Postal mail
Boomerang
Ezine Director
16. 100 % free E-make a reservation for is a different way to drive traffic towards your web site. The e-book may be a complimentary encouragement for shoppers to return to your websites and combine promo back links inside novel. There are lots of solutions to produce an e-reserve for an affordable. I actually have enrolled some online sites to own or hire someone to create an e-guide.
Freelancer
Fiverr
Fastcinco
You will also find businesses that provide choosing privately owned name legal rights. These businesses allow you to get the e-e-book and let you affect thetitle and content, contributor material, and in many cases sell them while keeping every last dollar.
Get better at-reselling-privileges.com
Plrebooks.co.great britain
Sallys-ebooks.co.britain
Floodle.world-wide-web
Plwholesaler.com
17. Clickbank assists advertise your increases and product your 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website site visitors. Majority of the site traffic will undoubtedly be from affiliates. Affiliates sign-up to build up your product or service mailing website visitors to your 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website.
18. Flickr is often a zero cost program to drive traffic to your websites. Anyone that purposes a photograph using your Flickr bill need to give images credit that should force free of charge site traffic your website.
19. Generate a weblog and drive traffic to your 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website.
20. Enroll for help answer 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Websites. The answer 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Websites certainly are a location where exactly most people destination doubts about unique niche categories who are attempting to find an remedy. Becoming the specialized on the response 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Websites will push absolutely free visitors to your websites. We have enrolled a portion of the sites one can sign up to free to send organically grown website visitors.
Explanations.yahoo.com
Consult.com
Allexperts.com
Information.com
Blurit.com
Anybodyoutthere.com
Funadvice.com
Askville.com
Askmehelpdesk.com
Answerbank.com
Answerly.com
Answerbag.com
Friendfeed.com
21. Use Podcasting to drive traffic towards your 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website. Podcasting has become the latest crazes using the internet. Podcasting is continually thriving every day, and its particular a sensible way to get a 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website targeted traffic.
22. Really simply syndication Rss feeds on the 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website will even benefit enhance site traffic. The Rss or atom Rss feeds are probably the strongest web site traffic cruising software a blogger is able to use for making back-links and achieve greater rankings in various search engines. Feedburner enables web page proprietors to create and manage their Rss or atom Rss feeds.
23. On-line 2. Websites have tremendous targeted traffic and are a fantastic way to get free of charge natural and organic web site traffic. We have enrolled some of my favorite World wide web 2. Internet websites.
Ehow.com
Typepad.com
Yelp.com
Blogger.com
Photobucket.com
Wordpress blogs.com
Craiglist.com
Wikipedia.com
Blogcode.com
Blinklist.com
Techcrunch.com
24. Email address Personal. Every one of your messages really should have your 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website correct in the bottom.
25. Business Card Printing are one more excelllent way of receiving complimentary targeted traffic. Furnish anybody you meet with an online business cards with all your 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website address. I actually have enlisted a lot of the main sites to purchase business card printing.
Vista Print out
123 Design
Zazzle
Businesscards 24
Go Printing
Juke Box
Right away Pictures
Print Athlete
Uprinting
26. Search Engine Directory site. Increase your presence with your 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website to find engine directory. I have write for the top rated search engines like yahoo to add your 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website.
Yahoo
Bing
DMOZ
Alta Vista
Go
Hotbot
Galazy
Lycos
Alexa World-wide-web
27. Destination postings on Mini Sites. Employing mini 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Websites to get hoards of targeted visitors for a 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website. These are one of the best micro 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Websites.
Fiverr
Yooker
Fascinco
Tenbux
Zeerk
Gigbucks
Dealerr
Gighour
Taskarmy
Zeerk
Mturk
28. Promote your business on outsourcing webpages. Offer your service or services to several regions. I have enlisted my personal favorite outsourcing companies.
Freelancer
Odesk
Elance
29. Establish an involved area with your web page. Using your blog provide feedback subject on the 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website allows for every individual to sign up with the dialogue. In turn you should definitely react to every person thoughts Search engines like google delights in contact. An amazing plugin I intended for Wp is Remark Luv.
30. Check out free of charge Gravator accounts. Every single time you depart a discuss personal blogs the picture and 30 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website location will instantly appearance.
Get more info visit BuzRush
1 note
·
View note
Text
How I Make Story Mood Boards
Written by request!
First, here are some mood boards that I have made. I’m linking them so I can refer to them and give specific examples--I would advise having them open while you read.
Loud the Waves Roar | Winter Song | Yellow Rose | Tirsa
Before You Start
As soon as I start developing a story, I come up with a tag for it on tumblr. Sometimes it’s the name of the story, but if I don’t have a name, I call it “project—keyword.” That way I can save anything that might be relevant until I have enough of an idea about the story to start an aesthetic. Sometimes by the time I’m ready, there are some real gems there.
Finding images
This is really difficult and usually takes me a couple hours. I start by simply searching for anything that might be vaguely relevant to the story. For Yellow Rose, some of the terms I googled included: woman, 1930s film star, witch, witchcraft, dustbowl, storm, 1930s, cabin, gardening, farmer, field, vintage car, wolf, werewolf, guitar, musician, folk music, Bonnie & Clyde. Be creative with your terms, and scroll through a few pages of results.
Google tends to return a lot of stock photos, so I also use tumblr a lot, and should use pinterest more, but sometimes google image is good enough
Find actors who resemble your characters. Bonus points if the actors have been in movies set in a similar time period.
Remember that images can be cropped and filtered. If you only need a hands, try looking with terms like “gentleman” or “teacup” or “praying” or “shirt cuffs” or something that might have a hand doing something interesting in it.
Sometimes, finding the right image is a lot of work. The guitar image in Yellow Rose is one I found, cropped, and then put through like 6 Photoshop filters before I thought it looked sufficiently vintage (and I still don’t love it.)
Save everything you might use in a folder. You’ll be surprised what you end up keeping at the end. Each of the mood boards I linked has 25-30 images saved in the desktop folder.
Words (optional)
I like to put words on my aesthetics! For Yellow Rose, I took lyrics from a Laura Marling song. The album Semper Femina is basically the soundtrack for that story. I think for the Winter Song words, I searched “relationship” or “romance” on tumblr and scrolled until I found something I liked. I pick out words fairly early in the process because I need to know how much space they’ll take up.
While doing the layout, I also decide if the words should go over an existing image or on a solid colored background, which can take up space if you don’t have a lot of images, or put emphasis on the words if that’s what you want. That’s what I did in Tirsa’s mood board, since those words are so indicative of her journey.
Layout
I look at the images and pick out a couple that I know I have to have. That helps me decide how to arrange the other pieces, and then the other images usually get picked to fill in the gaps. You can see from my linked boards that I like playing with shapes.
There is nothing wrong with a standard set up! It’s non-distracting and lets you focus on the images instead.
Some classics are a 3x3 grid of square images or a 2x4 table of images that are wider than they are tall. Both are going to be automatically balanced and easy to read.
On tumblr, images placed side by side get automatically cropped into the same dimensions. This keeps things balanced along a vertical symmetry line (the same on the left and right). If you’re working in Canva, photoshop, or another photo processing app, you’ll have more options
Yellow Rose: For this I started with the concept of a 3x3 grid. The wolf and the herb pictures were square, and the photo of the girl was nearly square, so it made sense to crop everything else that way. Instead of doing a perfect grid, I decided to put the wide image in the middle because it really captured the feeling of the wide sky being swallowed up by dust clouds. It went in the middle to keep the top and bottom balanced. The top row is Florence, and the bottom row is Rosa, so each of the girls get the same amount of images.
Winter Song: Winter Song is primarily a romance, set against a political backdrop. I knew that Irina, as the POV character, had to be more prominent than Viktor in the layout, so I put her up top. I loved that image of Emmy Rossum and knew I had to have it, so I found two images with similar proportions to go on either side of it. This mood board also tells a story as it goes down. The top row is Irina as she arrives in St. Karlsburg. The words show the change in her life that catalyzes the story—meeting Viktor. Then there are two images to show the political unrest in the city. One is a riot of peasants and one is a marching army, but both show crowds in mirror images of each other. (It’s possible I flipped one of the images to create this effect). The bottom row shows her personal life—her writing, her lover, and the long conversations they have together over tea.
Cohesion
Now for all the fiddly bits that really make the post come together. To make it look like a single art piece and not some images pulled together from google, they need to look like they came from the same source. The first thing I do is crop the images super carefully. I do the cropping first because sometimes it turns out an image won’t fit in with the others once it is cropped.
I build my aesthetic posts directly in tumblr, which is kind of janky so I have to be careful. You don’t have to do this, but I like being able to click on each image and look at it separately.
Next is color. I think it’s important that every image have a similar color feel, or that certain images are intentionally bright for emphasis. I do this by playing with saturation sliders and filters in the default photo editing software on my PC.
Part of color cohesion should be in your mind from the beginning, so you pick images with lots of blues and greens (as in the case of Loud the Waves Roar) or something like that. It makes your life easier later.
Yellow Rose: Sometimes a color choice is genre motivated. Yellow Rose is entirely sepia toned because (1) it’s set during the dustbowl and (2) it’s a metaphor for Florence’s state of mind.
LTWR: Sometimes color is setting motivated. Loud the Waves Roar is much brighter than my usual mood boards, but medieval courts were just Like That, and also it is set in a country that is tied to the sea, and blues and greens help emphasize that.
Winter Song: Sometimes color is more symbolic. All of Winter Song is slightly desaturated because it’s set in a fantasy world based on the 1910s, but there is more variety. I desaturated the city street to make it sit right with the other two images in the top row—if it was too bright, it would draw the eye and look like the most important image. The pictures of the crowds are intentionally sepia toned to look like vintage photographs or newspaper clippings (Irina is a journalist). The bottom row, Viktor’s row, is more brightly colored both the draw the eye and to show that that is the main focus of the story.
Tirsa: Tirsa’s mood board is mostly reds (her hair/blood) and green (gives a botanical/medical feeling), so I desaturated the blue sky so as not to unbalance the rest of it.
I love mood boards that are mostly desaturated except for two images in similar color that create a balance and draw the eye. Not every image should be equally important, because that exhausts the eye. Pops of color, or text to break up the images, keeps the eye interested. There’s also some color theory that goes into this, as too many different colors can look garish or cluttered, so picking a couple complementary ones and desaturating the rest can be helpful. Go with what looks right.
Once everything is laid out, I try to walk away for a little bit and come back to it with fresh eyes. Do the pieces still fit together? Do the right images draw my eye? Do I understand the essence of the story? Do I like it?
If the answers to all these questions are yes, it’s time to post.
OH AND PLEASE CITE YOUR SOURCES!!!!
12 notes
·
View notes
Text
Melbourne Festival Evaluation
The brief
To begin the second year of this course we were given two in one live briefs to work on. The first was Melbourne Festival, this is the same as the first project we had last year. This time around I already knew so much more about Guerrilla art, I can distinguish between it and more common street art such as graffiti. Because I am more knowledgable of Guerrilla art this year I was able to focus my research on the theme: Commotion in the Ocean.
The research I did of the festival and Melbourne last year showed that the festival attracts a lot of people, it is a very community oriented event. Shop windows are used to display the artwork, some people give up their homes and other indoor spaces to be converted into a temporary museum. The festival is excellent for local businesses, they get a large amount of customers in such a small amount of time. The festival also allows for the village to advertise other events they may hold to attract a wider audience.
This year, along with everything else, the festival was very different. The artwork was made and placed in true Guerrilla fashion ‘in and out without a trace’. However, the main difference was the amount of people who were able to visit Melbourne to see and interact with the artwork. It was mostly locals who were able to appreciate the work done, it must have given them a sense of security and normality seeing the posters pop up across town over the weekend.
The brief asks to focus on the impact of climate change, the type of action some people are taking, how we are impacting the environment. This gives us as a group the liberty to choose a specific theme and dive into it whilst still following our own styles and techniques. There was the option to generate 2D and 3D ideas in the initial stages. This meant that people who preferred taking a fine arts pathway were able to produce paintings, drawings and other forms of 2D art which require skills such as immense creativity and experience of working with different mediums. For example, knowledge of how each type of paint performs on different thicknesses and textures of paper.
What I learned
This project allowed me to explore the world of typography, it helped me realise that I enjoy using an iterative method to render different variations of the same word or phrase. I filled an A4 page with the word “Change”, each time I wrote it I changed one element and slowly began to change multiple. I played with the weight of the lines, spacing, size and shape. I found it hard to start my small piece of primary research on typography, so I watched an episode of a documentary featuring Paula Scher and Jonathan Hoefler. My starting point was mainly inspired by the sign designed my Scher for The Public Theatre in New York. In the documentary she went through the process of how she created the sign. I found it fascinating that the size and space of the letters were the same yet at first glance it didn’t appear that way. All the difference was made using the difference in weight of line. I have found that I enjoy typography and appreciate a great deal more than I did before this project. I thought that it was overrated and couldn’t understand how some have a career out of it.
Having been told, almost half way through the project, that words are preferred over images, made me lose track of what stage I was at. Also, that 3D work was inconvenient therefore all submissions must be 2D poster. I felt like I had to start from the beginning and come up with completely new ideas that suited the new version of the brief. Instead of starting from the beginning, I took the ideas I had and translated them to words. I saw that my peers included their artwork inside the letterforms.
Visually attractive work
I enjoyed that I was almost always referring to nature/the earth in my posters. I mostly enjoyed using water colours to colour block each drawing to give a better idea of what the poster would look like. I think the posters turned out very vibrant and stood out
There were no new materials I worked with during this project and all the work was done on paper.
What went well
The most impressive thing to me was that the owner of the festival picked my favourite designs as her favoured ones. I think this was because I put noticeably more effort into them because I enjoyed the ideas so much and wanted to see them in real life.
Also, primary research and idea generation was much for this project has been the easiest compared to past projects. I was getting ideas throughout even when I had moved on to finalise or develop another idea. I believe this was because the criteria allowed for a lot of artistic liberty. Even when it came to the theme, a lot can be explored within it especially because caring for the environment is such a hot topic and becoming much more popular. As the younger generations of society begin to develop and gain responsibility, we are much more worried about the wellbeing of all life on earth as well as the planet itself.
What went wrong
Although I was extremely excited to get started and produce a large placard, I wasn’t able to do so due to Covid-19. The weekend before the week we were scheduled to begin making, I began to experience symptoms of the virus and was housebound until I could book a test and make sure that I didn’t have it. This was very frustrating, this project was a comfortable beginning to the year and the final outcome could’ve been easily achieved. I could’ve made one in my own time but I don’t have a safe space to keep it at home and my time back at college was focused on finishing the ‘Readers’ sculptures for Derby Well.
Research
I used a wide range of guerrilla art in my research, most were relevant to the topic of nature and “commotion in the ocean”. I gathered over 100 images which I found gave me some inspiration, looked interesting or controversial or I had a specific thought that was evoked by the image. I use Pinterest as my source for all research, I find it the most efficient and easily accessed method. I can annotate each image I save to any board, I can group them into sections and share a link to the board with anyone or post it on Tumblr and I can upload images from other sources onto Pinterest and save it to the board. Although Pinterest provides a more limited range of existing examples I have found that it is good enough considering the convenience. I would like to begin using multiple sources for the same project. For example, finding examples in books, shows/documentaries or real life. Using things like google image search and Pinterest can be considered as one source because most of the content overlaps. I could’ve improved the quality of my research by annotating more of the images, I found that when I put pressure on myself to do that in one go I was feeling stuck and drained of thoughts. I should annotate each image as I find it because my thoughts on it are still fresh in my mind.
Review
The range of research I provided was wide but it would’ve been ideal to have all of it annotated as it would allow me to process my thoughts and decide what I want included in my designs. When annotating other artists work it puts my in the shoes of the audience, this shifts my perspective, allowing me to make my designs more relatable to the intended audience.
I explained the context of each image throughout, in my mind maps I identified the real life issues we are facing in terms of the theme and identified what solutions we have or ones we can easily create. By doing this I was able to direct my posters at the issues and almost use them as advertisement for the environment. For this particular project I didn’t face any big problems. A small issue I quickly overcame was the change of plans halfway through the project, I tried to convert my pictorial ideas into typography but I found that coming up with new designs focussing on the typography was more successful.
The planning I did consisted of lists set to remind myself what needs to be done. This method isn’t working for me at the moment, when I make the list no matter how urgently I need to do the content of it, I will start the first task on the list then realise that I am missing something else and start doing it or looking for a guide on how to do it (e.g. 7 band criteria). I will research alternative ways that are more effective to keep track of tasks and get them done.
0 notes
Text
Pinflux 2 Review Should I Get It
Pinflux 2 Review - Are you searching for more understanding concerning Pinflux 2? Please go through my truthful evaluation concerning it before choosing, to evaluate the weak points as well as strengths of it. Can it be worth your effort and time and also cash money?
Presenting Pinflux 2
Pinterest can be your best bet to draw in and connect with a brand-new audience. Just pin, comment and share other people's images, which consequently will certainly obtain you website traffic, produce leads as well as eventually raise sales.
Pinterest = Profits! BUT exactly how would it be if you didn't have to do every one of the above yourself and also had a robust, autoapp that maximizes your Pinterest revenues doing every little thing from choosing the appropriate content, pinning, repinning, adhering to and also all of that?
>> Inspect the tell all video below
If you have not already taken advantage of the social media platform of Pinterest as yet, currently is the next ideal time to do it, as well as Pinlux is one of the most breakthrough Pinterest website traffic automation app that is loaded with all the features as well as benefits to:
=> Bring web traffic to your web site.
=> Build recognition of your brand.
=> Develop an autostream of lengthy enduring Pinterest advertising profits
Why should you get into Pinterest Advertising and marketing?
2 million people save product pins day-to-day! That's 20 times more than there are people at Shopping mall of America!
An ordinary pin is repinned some 11 times and when someone repins your pins, their fans remain to repin your pins suggesting you obtain TONS of free traffic, leads as well as purchasers!
Pinflux is one of the most powerful Pinterest advertising and marketing automation tool that assists you obtain the actual customer traffic whether you are into e-commerce, want to promote your brand, blog or are a social media marketing professional!
- All on 100% automation. I obtained you all the inquiries put together below a little below, so you knowPinflux like the back of your hand, prior to picking a duplicate!
Prior to that check out the most breakthrough automation software application that unlocks every attribute of Pinterest:
>> Inspect Details
Pinflux opened its cart sometime back and also it has IM ers vouchig for the ease and also simpleness with which it helps you obtain quality web traffic where the competition is low and also conversions are high - on Pinterest.
It's insane to surrender this 100% super-powerful resource of wraffic when Pinflux brings it to you all without any hard work!
Exactly How to Use Pinterest for Service: 8 Strategies You Need to Know (Part 1)
With 200 million month-to-month users, Pinterest may not be a social media leviathan like Facebook, yet it's a vital social platform with deep infiltration in useful demographics. Half of all UNITED STATE millennials utilize Pinterest, for example. However it's not simply youngsters conserving their suggestions on the network: 68 percent of UNITED STATE women in between the ages of 25 and 54 use Pinterest, too. As well as while it's true that the network does have extra women individuals than male, 40 percent of new customers are men.
If you do not have a strong Pinflux 2 plan in position for just how to use Pinterest as part of your organisation strategy, you're losing out on crucial chances to reach prospective new customers.
Incentive: Download and install a cost-free guide that shows you how to earn money on Pinterest in six very easy steps utilizing the devices you currently have.
Why utilize Pinterest for business?
People make use of Pinterest for different factors than they make use of networks like Facebook as well as Instagram. Pinterest is a network where people try to find motivation, consisting of specifically looking for ideas regarding brand-new products to get. That implies they are delighted to see articles from brand names in their feeds. According to eMarketer, just Facebook outranks Pinterest in terms of affecting U.S. social networks customers' getting choices.
Greater than two-thirds of Pinners say they have actually discovered a brand-new brand name or item on Pinterest, and a massive 93 percent of Pinners (yes, that's nearly all of them) make use of the network to prepare acquisitions.
And also it's not just preparing. Fifty percent of Pinners have in fact bought after seeing a Promoted Pin, and also two-thirds take a look at conserved Pins while out purchasing in brick-and-mortar shops.
Pinterest for Organisation introduction
Considering that Pinterest is a bit different from the other social media networks, before we discuss exactly how to utilize Pinterest for service, here's quick introduction of some crucial Pinterest terms.
Pins
A Pin is just any photo or video that somebody selects to save to Pinterest. For companies, more crucial than the image itself is the web link: Every pin links back to the initial source, so Pinterest can be a fantastic resource of reference website traffic.
Boards
Pinterest users (called "Pinners") save a lot of stuff-- an incredible 100 billion Pins to day. In order to maintain points organized, they sort their Pins into collections called boards. As an example, boards from the Hootsuite Pinterest account include study, best techniques & fads, and also infographics.
Pinners can follow your entire account, or just the specific boards that fascinate them most. Then, the Pins you conserve will appear in their feed.
Feed
A Pinflux 2 feed is just like a feed upon any kind of other social network-- it's a collection of web links as well as material from boards and customers that the Pinner has adhered to.
How to set up a Pinterest account for your company
If you plan to use Pinterest to market your organisation, you ought to create a Pinterest service account, rather than an individual account. Organisation accounts offer business-specific features like analytics and the ability to utilize Pinterest advertising.
If you already have an individual Pinterest account, you can convert it to a company account. You'll simply need to fill in some additional information concerning your service and accept the business-specific terms of service.
If you don't already have a Pinterest account, right here's how to develop one for your organisation.
Step 1: Develop your Pinterest for company account
Most likely to the Pinterest for business web page and also click Join as a business.
Enter your email address, password, business name, as well as web site, as well as choose which classification your company falls into: specialist, somebody, media, brand name, seller, on-line industry, regional business, institution/non-profit, or other.
Make certain to examine the regards to solution and personal privacy policy. After that click Produce account.
When your account is created, your home page will certainly appear like the screenshot listed below. Your followers won't see this; it's just what you see when you log in. Your fans will see your profile, which you can access by clicking on the red thumb tack in the leading right-hand corner.
Pinflux 2 Testimonial & Introduction
Vendor: Cyril Jeet
Product: Pinflux 2
Release Day: 2019-Mar-28
Launch Time: 11:00 EDT
Front-End Price: $27
Sales Page: https://www.socialleadfreak.com/pinflux-2-review/
Specific Niche: Social Network
What is Pinflux?
Pinterest is the fastest expanding website traffic source for ecommerce, brands, blog writers and also even social media sites marketing professionals.
With over 250 million monthly active individuals, a high existence of women customers, and a big percent of purchasers, this system is crucial for any kind of online marketer's success.
Till now Pinterest lay untapped for automation because there was no reliable automation software application that opened every feature of Pinterest. Pinflux is the only software application that does this well.
Effective Pinterest Automation Includes
Collaborate with multiple boards across numerous IDs.
Automates pinning of fresh content.
Search and immediately find effective content from Pinterest.
Locates pins in any kind of niche and repins them to your boards.
Instantly complies with particular niche targeted profiles.
Unfollow automation for profiles that did not follow you back.
Like & activity automation.
100% assistance for hands-on actions. You can do whatever from within
What Is Pinflux 2?
Pinflux 2 is a total revamp of our really effective Pinterest automation software program.
In this version we have taken care of to make the automation truly easy by removing the application authorization process. You can automate everything without having to get your app approved, so it's really-really easy for users.
It additionally sustains scheduled of posts and also pins, as well as automation for adhere to and unfollow.
The professional version likewise sustains direct messaging the fresh followers on Pinterest.
PROS
Do all work from a single interface for all accounts.
Do jobs much faster as well as much better with automation.
Set up pins actions throughout numerous boards.
100% totally free social traffic
Perfect for Ecom Sellers & Bloggers
Super Easy To Make Use Of User Interface
Powerful Keyword Browse Technology
Complete Coverage Keeps You Updated
Exactly how Does Pinflux 2 Work?
The Three-Step Simple Website Traffic Refine
Action 1: Link all your Pinterest accounts & Boards
Action 2: Establish your key phrases & board settings.
Action 3: Enjoy your Pinterest web traffic & statistics grow.
Price & Examination
OTO 1: Pinflux Pro - $47
Improved and supercharged variation of Pinflux unlocks extra powerful automation features and also supports even more number of accounts and also boards. Perfect for expert Pinterest marketing professionals.
Pro variation has the complying with add-on functions
- 2 years of totally free upgrade
- Support for unlimited accounts
- Support for unrestricted boards
- Unlimited blog posts
- Unlimited Interaction
- Industrial license
OTO 2: Pinflux Company - $67
With this certificate, your customer can offer Pinflux and keep all the sales earnings. It's an one-time permit that enables them to offer Pinflux.
Pro version has the complying with add-on attributes
OTO 3: Viral Reach Pro - $47
Open massive web traffic from Facebook with this effective Facebook automation software application that allows you produce the social blog post for the whole month at the same time.
OTO 4: Mighty Memes Pro - $47
Usage memes to drive website traffic involve your target market as well as drive massive website traffic to your deals with one of the most powerful meme making software application.
Conclusion
"It's A Good deal. Should I Spend Today?"
Not only are you getting access to Pinflux 2 for the very best price ever supplied, but also You're investing totally without danger. Pinflux 2 include a 30-day Money Back Assurance Policy. When you pick Pinflux 2, your contentment is guaranteed. If you are not totally pleased with it for any kind of factor within the very first 1 month, you're qualified to a complete refund - no doubt asked. You've got nothing to lose! What Are You Waiting on? Try It today and obtain The Adhering to Reward Currently!
0 notes
Text
Covert Eyes (7)
Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6
Fandom: Spooks
Pairings: Lucas North x OC (Amy Holland)
Warnings: Stalking behaviour, anxiety, language, sexual references.
Summary: Lucas takes notice of a young woman, Amy, but his obsession and want to get to know her begin to spiral out of control. Lucas has decided to take a step back from his and Amy's relationship, feeling that his job will always bring about a risk in her life. But he can't seem to keep away from her. Can she forgive him for his actions?
Comments/Notes: If you wish to be tagged in any of my tag lists for fics or characters, please let me know, and stipulate what you want to be tagged in. The above image was located on Pinterest, with no link back to the original source.
“Okay, I’ll listen. On one condition: we do it at your flat,” Amy demanded. “You’re not coming anywhere near my personal space until I know exactly what is going on here.” The words shocked even Amy herself; being assertive was not something that came naturally to her, but the anger and crippling insecurity that Lucas had made her feel spurred her on.
“Fine,” Lucas replied, agreeing to the simple term.
The two of them walked in silence. Amy remained a good few feet from Lucas, keeping distance to remind herself that he owed her an explanation. She could not let her attraction and feelings get in the way, no matter how much she wanted to make up with him. She would not be seen as weak; too many times in her life and she had been cornered into the vulnerable spot. Adam had worn her down until she had felt useless, unwanted, disgusting. No one would make her feel that way again, and certainly not this beautiful bastard who could have the pick of anyone he wanted, but somehow chose her.
Around fifteen gruelling minutes later and Amy arrived at Lucas’ block. It looked a little rundown from the outside, a couple of the windows having no curtains. An old, rusty bike was propped up against the wall next to the glass doors which led into the building. The right hand glass door had been smashed at some point and was now filled in with a piece of board.
Lucas’ flat was somewhat cleaner than the outside. The kitchen was spacious, so much more than Amy’s cramped one. The main preparation area was a counter in the centre of the room. The bedroom was off to the side, with only a widened doorframe for the entrance. No living room.
Amy stood by the counter in the centre of the kitchen and leaned her arms on the top, watching Lucas as he put his coffee machine on and flicked on the overhead light. She continued watching him as he took his coat off, his back muscles and shoulders flexing under the navy blue shirt he wore. For the rest of her time here, she knew she would have to consciously stop herself from doing something stupid.
Lucas approached and stopped on the other side of the counter, his hands both palm down on the marble surface. “You’re going to make this awkward for me, aren’t you?” he asked, a smirk curling his lips upward.
But Amy didn’t smile. “I don’t want things to be any more awkward than they have to be. You wanted to talk to me, so let’s talk.”
“You’d probably guessed by now but I don’t work for the police,” he began.
“I think that’s a given, considering you told me that there are things you couldn’t disclose. I assumed your real job title is one of them.”
“Amy, will you stop with the attitude? I’m talking to you about this because I want to put things right between us. I think you are trying to make it hard for me. I get that you’re pissed off with me and upset, but please just let me explain.”
A sigh passed Amy’s lips and she looked down at the floor. “I cried over you. I shouted at myself over you. Because all I could see was that I wasn’t enough. You’d move on and find someone who really would be worth telling the truth to and someone who would be worth the risk and the effort.”
“Amy,” Lucas cooed. He shifted over to her and brushed his hands down her arms. “It was never that. I wanted to protect you. I work for MI5, and we’re always putting friends and family at risk because of what we do. When I work on an operation, I can’t have contact with anyone outside of work. I was protecting you.”
Amy looked at Lucas and fell into his arms. “I just wish you’d have at least given me a choice. You took everything away from me; I had no say or control in anything.” Right there and then, Amy had done the very thing that she promised she wouldn’t do, and that was to give in.
A few minutes later and the two of them were sat side by side on stools at the counter, drinking coffee. “You can’t tell anyone what I do, Aim.”
Amy chuckled. “I gathered that,” she said. “You can trust me, Lucas. I think I can keep the story up if anyone asks. That’s if…”
“If what?”
“We go back to how things were. And make a go of something.”
Lucas cupped her cheek, moving in, and kissed her. They kissed hard for a minute, then Lucas’ lips delved down onto Amy’s neck. And he stopped. “I missed you,” he sighed. “So much. Forgive me, please.”
Amy kissed his head and held it against her. “Please don’t cut me off like that again. I know we’re not serious serious or anything, but…”
“What? You’re not serious about me?” Lucas replied, looking up at her and grinning. “I’m deeply offended by that.”
“No, you know what I mean. You know that I have feelings for you, and I’m trying not to get ahead of myself.”
“Has anyone ever told you that you think about things way too much? But it’s what makes you so wonderful.” Lucas looked at her for a second, his gaze locked with hers. He saw a hint of something negative, her brow furrowing slightly. But she seemed to realise that he was right and the furrow disappeared, and she reciprocated his smile.
“I don’t have work tomorrow, so does that mean we stay here or you come back to mine?” Amy asked. “Oh, and it was because of you, I might add, that I had three days off work sick.”
Lucas chuckled. “I do apologise. Shall I pay you for the trouble?”
“Depends on what currency you’re paying in, doesn’t it?”
Fuck! He wanted her.
***
Amy woke early, as she normally did. The clock on the bedside table showed that it was half five. It was still dark, and Amy’s eyes scrambled through the blackened room for something to grab hold of. In her mind, she could vaguely remember where the doorway was back into Lucas’ kitchen.
She pulled on her underwear and the blouse she had been wearing the day before, and walked into the kitchen, feeling around the wall for the light switch. Her feet became cold on the tiles and she winced, growing accustomed to the feeling. Finally she found the light switch and went on to make herself a drink and check her phone which was in her hand bag.
Amy flicked through her phone apps and drank half a glass of water. When suddenly the sound of groaning alerted her. It was coming from the bedroom.
Lucas was tossing and turning, calling out in his sleep. His words were incoherent.
“It’s okay,” Amy cooed, sitting on the edge of the bed. She took his hand and held it, her thumb rubbing along his knuckles. “Shhh.”
Slowly his eyes opened, and he felt peace wash over him at the sound of that voice. “Amy,” he whispered.
The sound of her voice being whispered made her think back to the night previously. For the first time in her life, Amy had heard her name be spoken with such want and lust. This whole experience of being so wanted was alien, but exciting. She wanted to please him, bring him to the brink, just so she could hear him say her name like that and be the reason he toppled off the edge of such primal pleasure.
Lucas smiled at her, trying to focus on his features through the dark.
“Do you want me to get you anything? A drink? Something to eat?” Amy asked.
Lucas pulled himself up more fully and flicked on the bedside lamp. “Just a glass of water please, love.”
Once Amy had fetched the glass of water, she sat beside Lucas on the bed. He gulped most of the glass of water down in just a few seconds. “Do you normally have nightmares?”
“Most nights. I’ve, erm, never told anyone outside of work, but I…”
“It’s okay. You don’t need to tell me right away if it bothers you,” Amy replied. She nudged up to him and put her head on his shoulder. “We don’t have to tell each other everything in one night, you know?”
“No, I want to. I was in a Russian prison for eight years, on a mission. Hence my tattoos,” he said simply. There was no other way that he could tell that part of his life. It was as simple as that. He swallowed hard and looked at her, surveying her reaction. He watched as she looked down at the bed, and then her green gaze lifted back to him.
“Really, it’s okay,” she said softly. “You’re home now and we’ve got plenty of time to talk about it. One step at a time, yeah?”
***
Lucas joined Amy back at her flat, preferring to spend time in a place that was all about her. He wanted to be surrounded by her favourite things, the aesthetics that matched her personality, and her sanctuary.
And that was how their relationship fully began. Amy cooked for him, soothed him at night when he woke from nightmares, pressed his clothes. In fact, for the first two weeks, Lucas only went home twice. Work had quietened somewhat, only making him step out on deployment once for an overnight stay in Portsmouth, keeping a look out for a potential subject coming into the UK by ship. Nothing came of it, which meant that Lucas could get straight back to Amy.
Lucas remembered a time in his life, only months previously when he couldn’t feel any emotions. His inner being felt numb, still living in a constant reminder of the torture in Lushanka. It was as if all that pain had completely burned away his nerve endings, emotionally and mentally. But Amy made him wake up with a smile, and gave him a want to continue on living. She had made him feel.
One morning he sat on the end of Amy’s bed, watching her brush her hair and get ready for work. He was already dressed, in his usual jeans and a black shirt. “I love you,” he said softly.
Amy turned around, her face moulded into an expression of disbelief.
“What?” he asked with a smile. “You weren’t expecting that?”
“Not exactly, no,” Amy giggled.
Lucas reached for her and guided her to sit on his lap, facing him. He brushed his fingers through her hair and kissed her brow. “I feel like I fell for you as soon as I saw you,” he whispered.
Amy blushed and giggled. “I know you’re a spy and everything, and lying is part of your job, but you’re getting good at it with me.”
“Why would I lie about that?” Lucas asked, his face stern and straight.
The smile dissolved completely from Amy’s face as she could see that she had hit a nerve somewhere within him. Her self-deprecation had always been a natural self-defence mechanism, so no one could hurt her. If I say I’m ugly and fat, then no one else can tell me. No one else can have control over me and tell me what to believe. I believe it through my own words.
Lucas shifted off the bed and turned his back to her. “I’m sick of these remarks, Aim. You’re accusing me of being a liar and that this is all a joke. You say that you feel something for me; I don’t know if you really do.”
“Now who is accusing someone else?” Amy retorted.
“See? So, stop it!” This was the only time that Lucas had ever been demanding with her, telling her to do something rather than asking.
Amy looked down at the cream carpet, feeling ashamed at causing such an outburst in Lucas. He had always been gentle with her, reassuring, and confident. But now that had changed. With only a few negative words about herself, she could make him flip in complete contrast.
They went for breakfast that morning, in their usual place, where they had first met. But now they sat side by side, not opposite each other. Lucas would lean his elbows on the table and get as close to her as possible, his shoulder touching hers. He would look at her doodles in her ring-bound notebook.
“You need more materials, Aim,” he said. She was still using a biro and lined paper. “You need a proper sketch pad and pencils for stuff like this.”
“I have bills to pay,” Amy giggled. “It’s just a little pastime I do in a morning anyway, nothing too serious.”
“Your drawings are brilliant though. You’re wasting your talent.”
***
Follow Forever tag list: @i-did-not-mean-to @lathalea @middleearthpixie @linasofia @xxbyimm @meganlpie @knitastically @sketch-and-write-lover @msjava1972 @guardianofrivendell @lilacpulse @asgardianhobbit98 @spidergirla5 @rachel1959
Richard Armitage tag list: @eunoiaastralwings @cryptichobbit
Covert Eyes tag list: @glimmering-darling-dolly
51 notes
·
View notes
Text
Today’s post is a little bit different to my usual content but I hope you find it interesting and/or useful. I’m going to tell you all of my tips for gaining more followers on Pinterest and also introduce you to an incredible little tool called Tailwind which can help you to really boost your Pinterest following.
If you are just a casual user of Pinterest then getting to your next follower milestone may not be a huge concern, but if you’re a blogger or a business then your following and engagement are of the utmost importance. Hopefully the tips and advice in this post will give you all the information you need to start building more followers on Pinterest. This information is partly formed from my own experiences, and partly from attending training provided by Pinterest.
So why should you use Pinterest?
If you are sharing your content on the internet (whether that’s a blog post, artwork, or selling your hand-whittled aardvark figurines) then Pinterest is a fantastic way to share it and get you noticed. It’s a beautiful site that combines the most inspirational, fantastical images (Impossibly clean homes! Impossibly clean children!) with the most down to earth, relatable tutorials and tips.
It’s great for inspiration: whether that’s fashion, home decor, make up, blog tips… you will find it all here. Interestingly, Pinterest do not see themselves as a social media site – they class themselves as a search engine. If I’m looking for a recipe or tutorial or inspiration I will always search on Pinterest before Google, which is a pretty interesting shift when you think about how much Google used to dominate internet search.
Finally, the best thing about Pinterest is that it’s ridiculously fun! If you love Pinterest as much as me, you can follow me HERE.
Here are my tips on how to maximise your Pinterest content and use:
Don’t just spam your own content. Pinterest really likes diverse content sources, so if you only post your own blog/business content they essentially see you as a spammer and will treat you accordingly. The 80:20 rule is a good one to go by when it comes to Pinterest: your pinned content should be 80% content from other people and 20% from you.
Name your boards intelligently. When I started out on Pinterest, I tried to think of hilariously clever, pun-filled names for my boards. But when you think about the way that people search for content, no one will ever be searching for ‘N A I L E D I T’, they’ll be searching for ‘easy nail art’. You can still have fun with your titles, but just think about what people will be searching for.
The above tip also applies for the description box. This is your chance to kill many birds with one stone. For example, if you have a selfie of you in a great lipstick, your description box should name the lipstick and brand. But it should also cover anything else that might appeal to people looking at that picture: blunt fringe, checked shirt, pearl earrings, neon pink lipstick, freckles… think about every way that that photo could be described and be relevant to others. Think of it as Pinterest SEO. But remember that RELEVANCE is key – no one likes a keyword stuffer!
You can have as many boards as you like. Unlike many other content sharing sites, it’s rare that someone comes to your profile and decides to follow you based on that (compare that to Instagram, where your feed and profile are very important). So don’t worry if you have a lot of boards that aren’t cohesive and aren’t well laid out… it really doesn’t matter.
That last tip is also linked with this one: Split up some of your bigger, more generic boards. I have seen better results since I split boards into smaller, more niche ones. For example, I had a huge board called ‘street style’ which I have now split into ‘spring/summer’ and ‘autumn/winter’.
A board should have a minimum of 40 images on it in order for Pinterest to see it as a ‘real/worthwhile’ board. I get around this by making my boards private until I have 40+ pins and then I publish it once it’s ready.
Keep an eye on emerging trends. In the past, certain trends have spread like wildfire mainly down to Pinterest (mermaid hair, flower walls, watercolour tattoos) so keep your eyes open and your ears to the ground to get a board up quickly and ride that popularity wave!
Lastly, you should be pinning regularly. It’s like with any content sharing site: your content can’t be seen by potential followers if you’re not posting the content…
…And this is where Tailwind comes in. Since I started using Tailwind, at the end of the last year, I have gained over 6,000 Pinterest followers – almost doubling the number of followers I had when I started! But more importantly, the traffic to my blog has drastically increased. In fact, Pinterest is now consistently listed as my second biggest traffic source (just after Google) which is incredible! Read on to hear how Tailwind helped me to get more followers on Pinterest.
Before we get into the nitty gritty of Tailwind, if you click THIS LINK*, you can get a free month of Tailwind and – full disclosure – I get a small credit on my account for referring you. So it’s a win-win! This is not a sponsored post: I have used Tailwind since November ’16, I pay for it myself, and I genuinely love it.
I’ve put some screenshots below from my Pinterest analytics, showing how my average monthly views/engagement (left) and my website visits (right) have increased drastically since I started using Tailwind. I don’t like to toot my own horn but a 313% increase of average monthly views of my pins and a 650% increase of daily clicks is seriously impressive! So, toot toot!
#gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
Between November ’16 and March ’17, I was pinning ~20 images a day. Then at the beginning of March I bumped it up to ~40 pins a day. And you can clearly see the jump in the graphs above. I might do an experiment and go up to 60 pins a day and see if there’s another bump. I’ll update this post if I decide to do that. Now that you’ve heard about the results, let’s backtrack for a minute…
What on earth is Tailwind?
It’s a website that connects to your Pinterest account and allows you to schedule pins – it’s as simple as that! It suggests time slots that fit with your audience and even suggests similar pins to the ones you’re posting.
How do you schedule pins?
I downloaded the Tailwind Chrome browser extension which means that any time I’m on a blog/website/article, I can click the little button in the bottom left corner (left hand image below). When you’re on Pinterest, a little Tailwind bird appears in the top corner of each image (as you can see in the screenshot on the right, below). Once you click those buttons a box pops up, allowing you to schedule that image into your timeline. Both of these additions make it really easy for you to schedule on the go. But more about scheduling later…
#gallery-0-6 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-6 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-6 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-6 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
(BTW that beautiful palette photo above is taken from Hayley’s blog)
Tailwind’s free account lets you schedule up to 100 pins a month, so you can try it out to see if you like it without parting with any money. I used the free account for about a month or so before upgrading to the ‘Plus’ plan, which is $9.99 a month (if you pay yearly).
I would recommend starting by scheduling ~5 pins a day to see how you get on and then build up if you want to! At the moment, Tailwind pins 40 images a day for me and it happens automatically at evenly spaced time periods so that I can just forget about it. I’ve put an image below that shows my current schedule: the opaque green slots are my existing ones, and the white, dotted-line ones are further slots being suggested by Tailwind to best fit with my audience. This is so helpful as a large number of my audience are based in the US, and obviously I can’t be awake all night pinning in order to target them!
It should go without saying that you still need to actually spend the time scheduling to fill your slots. I probably spend about an hour a week setting up my pins for the following week – but as I love using Pinterest I don’t really mind it. Plus, having a schedule means that Tailwind can be pinning for you while you’re on holiday or if you have a really busy period coming up.
Posting 40 pins a day may seem excessive, but when you consider the 80:20 rule that’s eight pins of my own content per day… which is the content from an average blog post for me! Plus, I’ll often pin one image to several boards – e.g. a single image could fit on my Dream Handbags board, my neon make up board, and my spring/summer fashion board – so your schedule often fills up a lot quicker than you’d expect.
Another thing I have found really helpful about Tailwind is that it also offers much better analytics than the Pinterest back-end. The analytics are a great way to tweak and target my content better and therefore grow my following. Knowing your audience is key to gaining more followers on Pinterest and so you should be checking your analytics at least once a month to make sure you are on track.
Lastly – in case you heard the same horror stories as me and were wondering – Tailwind is approved by Pinterest so you don’t have to worry about your account being suspended for using it!
*Breaaaaathe* And that’s how I got more followers on Pinterest! I hope you have found this post helpful, and I hope you try out Tailwind and love it as much as me. Please leave me your Pinterest links in the comments – I always love finding fresh blood for my timeline! Don’t forget that if you sig up using THIS LINK* you can get a free month of Tailwind to see if you like it (and I also get a referral credit) so we both get a treat!
Here are my current favourite boards of mine if you’d like to come follow me: Editorial Make Up ; Beautiful Women ; Nail Art & Manicure Inspiration ; Yellow & Grey Home ; Kate Moss
Lex
*As mentioned above, this is not a sponsored post. I paid for my own Tailwind subscription and will continue to do so. However, if you sign up using my affiliate link, we both get a bonus so yay!
== PIN ME!! ==
How To Get More Followers On Pinterest (PLUS An Introduction To Tailwind) Today's post is a little bit different to my usual content but I hope you find it interesting and/or useful.
#build following on pinterest#grow followers with tailwind#how I doubled my followers on pinterest#how to gain pinterest followers#how to get more pinterest followers#how to schedule images on pinterest#how to schedule pins#how to use pinterest#how to use pinterest as a blogger#how to use pinterest as a business#how to use tailwind#pinterest for beginners#tailwind tutorial uk#tips for using pinterest#using tailwind as a blogger
1 note
·
View note
Text
The Mail Order American Dream Part II: The Hunt is On! An Extremely In-Depth Guide to Finding That House
Hello Friends! I’ve gotten a number of amazing emails about last week’s post on kit houses, and have decided (after many requests) to write a more in-depth guide to picking out mail order houses in the wild, using a few examples from my own hunt in Greensboro, North Carolina.
THIS IS A LONG ARTICLE. NOW IS THE TIME TO OPEN IN A NEW TAB OR OUTSIDE THE TUMBLR APP.
Preparing for Battle: Gathering Online and Print Resources
Like most obscure things in the world, there are several online communities for kit houses and their identification, and these communities have been very active in putting resources such as old catalogs online.
Here is a brief list of really helpful resources to get you started:
Online
1.) Comprehensive list of mail order home catalogs available online.
2.) Plans from AntiqueHomeStyle.com and AntiqueHome.org (these include some regional companies like Southern Pine Co. as well as materials on interiors and pattern book houses.
3.) The Daily Bungalow on Flickr - a valuable resource for supplemental material. Most (but not all) of the catalogs on this page are listed chronologically in Source 1.
4.) Complete Index of Aladdin Home Catalogs - every Aladdin catalog printed is available here. Totally worth a tab of its own.
5.) Sears’ Master List of Confirmed Sears Houses
Books
1.) Houses By Mail: A Guide to Houses from Sears, Roebuck & Co.
If your interest in mail order houses is more than a passing fancy, I recommend picking this book up, as it’s a handy and comprehensive guide organized by roof shape.
If you don’t feel like purchasing the book, Dale Hynes has put together Pinterest boards organizing the Sears houses in the same way as the book, and has an extra collection of houses not included in the guide.
2.) Houses from Books: Treatises, Pattern Books, and Catalogs in American Architecture, 1738-1950 by Daniel D. Reiff
If you’re serious about getting into the kit house game, this book is for you. It has great historical facts, and most importantly, examples of kit houses from the catalogs and how they’re built in real life. I recommend ordering this book directly from Penn State Press rather than Amazon, as it’ll save you $30 and the shipping is pretty rapid. My book came a mere two days after I ordered it.
Step 1: So You Think You’re Looking at a Kit House - Preliminary Signs
Location
If you remember from last week, kit homes are commonly found in 3 places:
1.) First Generation Suburbs (streetcar and railway)
For the purpose of this article, I’m going to use the neighborhood of College Hill, an early streetcar suburb of Greensboro. College Hill is outlined in red and is the bottom right with an arrow pointing at it saying ‘oldest suburbs’.
2.) Near industrial sites (as company housing)
3.) First Generation Auto Suburbs
BUT this is not always the case! Some kit houses were built as farmhouses on the outskirts of cities or in rural areas. It’s a case by case basis, which is why identifying kit houses is so fun!
Architectural Style
Last week, we went over styles that were common for kit houses, and if there are many houses of these styles grouped together, you might be looking at a kit house community!
You might also be looking at a pattern-book house community, which is more difficult to discern, because the execution of pattern book houses was left to the individual contractors and carpenters, and each local carpenter had their own style and flourishes.
Queen-Anne style houses, for example are more likely to be pattern book houses than kit houses because the height of their popularity was right before the beginning of mail order houses, though certain models ran as late as the 1930s, as we shall see.
Repetition
You might think you’re looking at a kit house neighborhood because you are looking at many houses that appear to be duplicates of each other. Houses that are identical or nearly identical to each other may be the most incriminating sign that you are looking at a kit house community, though pattern books may again be at fault.
Step 2: Pinpointing the House on a Map
1.) The Address
You cannot, I repeat, cannot identify whether or not a house was a kit house unless you have the address. If you are leaving the area where the house was found, write down the street name before you go, and fill out the details later via Google Maps.
For example, I’m going to use the example of 304 Tate Street, a house seen below.
2.) Getting photos at multiple angles
A good idea when looking to identify a house is to get multiple pictures: one from the front, and at least one from the side. This picture suffices because it is at an oblique angle, and details such as window layout can be seen clearly. The more complex a house is, the more angles you should try and capture.
(A good idea is to take screenshots in Google Street View.)
Step 3: Finding Your County’s Public Records
Unfortunately, most counties’ public records websites are difficult to locate, as they are usually pushed way down in search results by for-profit services. Here are some tricks for finding your county’s public records site without having to scour through several unhelpful and poorly-designed government websites.
1. Google the house’s address. If you see a result from Zillow or another real estate aggregator, click on it.
(I recommend Zillow because their layout is a little more detailed.)
Important: check Zillow to see if the house is currently a rental. This is important later on. In this case, it is a rental.
2. Scroll down until you see a little link saying “county website” or something similar. Click on this link.
3. A really ugly website will come up looking something like this. You will often see a row of links for different statistics. Click on one that says “Buildings”, “structures” or something similar.
4. Congrats! You’ve found a page just about your house! The best part is, you can find other records much more easily now. Somewhere at the top of your page, you will see something like “New Search.”
Open this link in a new tab, and keep it handy for quickly searching for different addresses. It should look something like this:
Bookmark this page for easy access if you’re searching for more than one kit house.
Step 4: Interpreting Your House’s Public Records
Go back to your house’s Building’s page.
We’re going to go over this page step by step in order to use this resource to the highest of its abilities.
A.) The Year Built
RULE NUMBER 1: HOUSES BUILT BEFORE 1908 ARE NOT MAIL-ORDER HOUSES. They are probably pattern book houses.
This is literally the most important piece of information in identifying kit houses. Without a date, it’s game over, as architectural styles last a lot longer than individual kit house models. You may be thinking you’re looking at your house, but if you don’t know the date, you could be 10 or 20 years off.
B.) Remodeling and Additions
You know what this means: you’re looking at a house that’s not gonna look exactly like it does in the catalog. This is important. A lot of people get caught up in the idea that the kit house should match the catalog perfectly, when this is almost never the case. In this case, the house has 3 additions. Fortunately, additions are often in the back of the house, so the front facade should remain relatively unchanged.
We can reveal a lot from the fact that the renovations were done in 1979. This can mean a number of things:
Many of the renovations were probably upgrades such as central air and heating
Additions dating from an earlier time period (10-20 years after the house was built) are much more dangerous, because these were often aesthetic upgrades made so the house fit in more with the styles of the time. Additions from the 70s and after were most likely mechanical or safety improvements.
If the house is for rent, many of the adjustments may have been for the purpose of subdividing a house into apartments. In this case, the remodeling is interior. Common changes made by landlords when they turn a single family home into a multi-family dwelling include:
Removing fireplaces. In the screenshot, you’ll see a bit that says “Interior Adj.”: One Fireplace (1). This more often refers to removing or sealing off a fireplace than adding one, especially if the place is being rented out to college students.
Adding onto the back of the bottom story of a house. This is common because it’s the easiest way to create more space for less money.
Enclosing all or part of a front or rear porch. Again, this is an easy way to add livable/rentable square-footage.
C. Main and Addition Summary
Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and you should see a bit that looks like this. This is also a very helpful tidbit that will help in your identification:
This image lists the main structure along with all of the additions and their square footage, and their codes.
Here is how to read this image:
Basically, those little squares represent parcels of square-footage not found in the original blueprints, which helps a lot when looking at the plans in the house catalogs. The original dimensions of the house was 26 feet x 33 feet, as can be gleamed by the table and simple math.
D. Other Info (not as helpful)
These represent the current stats of the house, and not necessarily the original house plans, so they’re not as useful as the other data available.
Step 5: Finding Your House - Catalog Time!
Okay, here’s the fun part, especially if you like millions of tabs. A good start is opening each of the online sources listed at the beginning of the article, in a new tab. Especially this one.
For SEARS HOUSES:
Have your copy of Houses By Mail or Dale’s Pinterest Page open to make quick work of the Sears catalog houses, which could otherwise take forever. These resources sort the houses by their shape, making comparison easy.
Each house has the catalog dates and model numbers, making elimination a breeze.
A.) For each non-Sears source, open the catalogs corresponding to the date your house was built in new tabs.
For example, my house was built in 1920. I would open each catalog from 1920 in a new tab. If you can’t find a specific catalog for your house year, (e.g. there’s no Montgomery Ward catalog for 1920), a good idea is to use the catalog from 1 or 2 years before the given date.
BUT KATE - Which companies should I include in my Search???? There are so Many! I would start with those whose business extended coast to coast. If you live on the West Coast, there are several resources for West Coast homes from AntiqueHomeStyle.com and AntiqueHome.org. For now, ignore pattern books.
Here are companies who should be included in your table:
Sears
Aladdin
Harris
Wardway (Montgomery Ward)
Lewis
Gordon Van Tine
Sterling
Bennett
Bolded ones are the most common.
B.) Make a Table for easy elimination
A good strategy for quick and easy elimination is to make a table with the following values as columns:
House Year
Address
Style (e.g. 1 story craftsman; foursquare)
(n number of columns for names of companies, so one column for Sears, one for Aladdin, one for Harris, etc.) Once a catalog is exhausted, if the plan was found, write the name in this columns; if not, x it out.
Notes
C.) If you have multiple models that look similar (we’ll get to this in a second.)
Either open similar images in new tabs and flip through them, or copy and paste the images (taking screenshots is your friends) into a document along with the pictures of the original house. For example:
Step 6: Confirming Your Identification
Sometimes, it’s really easy to find the house you’re looking for. In the case of 304 Tate Street, a rather unusual house, I found it staring back at me from the pages of a Bennett Homes catalog, virtually untouched.
As we can see, there are some things that are slightly off, such as the windows on the side. The spacing between them is accurate once you take into account the different angles of the pictures. The dimensions match those from the chart earlier, ignoring the additions.
Things that are different: the house on Tate Street was built into a hill, which explains the different foundation. The columns are slightly different, but the placement is correct. The Tate Street house omitted the exposed rafters, a stylistic - not structural - decision.
A.) The Importance of Plans
Here’s an example that isn’t so easy but also isn’t impossible.
Spoilers, it’s this house:
You’re probably saying, “no it’s not, idiot.” It’s true,
This is the difficulty of identifying a kit house that has been heavily modified from the original.
First of all, the plan is mirrored from the original, a common switch at the time of construction. Many catalogs provided mirrored versions of their plans. (Hence why the chimney is on the opposite side.)
The distinctiveness of elements such as the closed eaves and the overall layout of the house (with additions) compared to the plan, makes a confirmed spotting of this mail order house from Lewis Manufacturing, Co, built in 1920.
The entirety of the porch has been closed in and another room has been added to the front of the house.
During reroofing, the roofer chose not include the bit of roof that splits the first and second story of the cross-gable, leaving an indentation on both sides where that strip of roof used to be.
All of the windows have been replaced, leaving no originals. This happens frequently, as windows with the dimensions of the originals became rare, or too expensive to have custom built. The result is remodeling the house around more standard contemporary window shapes. This is how windows with three mullions get split into two, as can be seen on the side of the house.
B.) The Importance of Dates
Here’s another example. This one is recreated from page 276 of Daniel Reiff’s book Houses from Books. The heavily-modified house, a confirmed Sears Modern Home No. 170, built in 1915, is seen here with the original catalog drawing.
The point is, a remodeled kit house can look nothing like the original.
What makes it even more difficult is when the renovations do not change to the square footage or the mechanical systems of a home, leaving them unreported by public records. Often, small changes made to update the exterior of a home to a more popular style (often from newer house catalogs!) are difficult to trace.
Here are a list of things that are the most likely to be different from the catalog picture and the plans:
Building materials and colors.
Front porch layout (e.g. number of columns and their spacing/style)
Window size and style. Most kit house windows are almost never original.
Number of windows and window layout (such as omitting a middle window, or adding sidelights.)
Removal of small windows.
Enclosed porches
Removal of fireplaces (not necessarily chimney)
Chimney that is originally internal is moved to an exterior wall, which was less expensive to build back in the day.
Architectural details. Craftsman columns can now be Tuscan. Exposed rafters can be enclosed.
Plan is mirrored or partially mirrored.
Balconies removed/enclosed.
Carport or port cochere added
Here’s a list of things least likely to be different from the catalog picture and plans:
Removal of dormers
Removal of chimney
Total removal of porches
large changes in rooflines/roof structure
Chances are, if the side windows of the house look totally different from the original drawing, it’s more likely that you have the wrong identification. This is especially the case with Craftsman bungalows.
I leave you with one final example recreated from Reiff (p. 286). This house, built in 1909-10 was remodeled in 1929 to look like the Aladdin Standard.
This is why dates are SO IMPORTANT. House plans cannot travel back in time. If the plan dates after the house was built, the house is not built from that plan.
Well folks, there you have it.
I hope this has helped y’all with your kit house identification, as much as it has helped me streamline my own search.
Stay tuned for Thursday’s house roast FROM ALASKA. Yes, there are McMansions in Alaska. Next very special surprise McMansion Hell post that many of y’all have been asking for for months now.
If you like this post, and want to see more like it (plus get sweet access to behind the scenes stuff), consider supporting me on Patreon! Not into recurring donations? Check out the McMansion Hell Store - 30% goes to charity.
Copyright Disclaimer: unless otherwise, pictures are from the Public Domain.
#architecture#history#kit houses#sears houses#sears modern homes#wardway houses#gordon van tine#mail order houses#houses#1920s houses#victorian houses#house plans
465 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Ultimate Guide to Pinterest Marketing
When I open up Pinterest, I’m in trouble.
That’s because I know I could potentially sit there for hours on end browsing pictures and videos beautiful decor for my apartment, fun new workouts to try, outfits I want to buy, and much more.
In the past, I’ve purchased items directly from Pinterest. I’ve also pinned content to my boards so I can refer to them in the future, use them as inspiration, or share them with my friends.
Marketers target Pinterest users by sharing content that’s too irresistible for us to pass up. And with over 250 million people on Pinterest, why wouldn’t marketers want to be on the platform? Not to mention 90% of users say they look to content on the network to make purchase decisions.
So, how can your business use Pinterest as a marketing tactic to help improve your brand awareness and conversions?
In this guide, we’ll cover the answer to that question as well as which Pinterest marketing strategies you should implement, how small businesses can benefit from the platform, and which tools you can use to ensure your Pinterest marketing strategy works for your business.
But first, we’ll review what the platform is and how it works — let’s get started.
What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is a social media platform in which users explore, share, and store visual content they find inspiring, helpful, or entertaining.
Users add, or Pin, their chosen content to boards with a common theme to keep it organized and so other users can discover new content related to their interests.
If you haven’t yet opened a Pinterest account, learn more about that process here. Once you sign up, you can begin sharing content and, therefore, social media marketing on the platform.
To make the most of the platform, upload your business’s content from your computer or mobile device, Pin content you find on the platform, and add content you find on the web using the Pinterest browser button.
Engagement is key. Follow the boards of your friends and competitors, “Like”, and comment on others’ Pins, re-Pin (or repost) content, and share links to your website and blog in your Pins.
It’s important to note there are personal and business accounts on Pinterest. Choosing a business account will allow you to gain access to Pinterest Analytics and other features including a visual search tool, a native video player, and the ability to run Pinterest ads if you choose — making the platform ideal for marketers.
Now, let’s review some Pinterest marketing strategies to help you improve your influence with and impact on your audience.
How to Use Pinterest for Marketing
Distribute your content.
Build a community.
Educate customers.
Drive website traffic and boost online sales.
These strategies represent ways to add Pinterest to your greater marketing efforts. Here are a few benefits to using Pinterest for marketing.
1. Distribute your content.
85% of Pinners search for and prefer visual content. This makes Pinterest a uniquely strong place to distribute all types of content, including written blog content. Unlike Instagram, users can click-through live links.
On Pinterest, you share content on Pinterest boards. Boards save all of your Pins and distribute your content for your followers to explore. You can have as many boards as you want, and they can be organized into themes, ideas, plans, or types of inspiration to make it easy for your audience to find the content they’re looking for.
You can also invite people to join your boards — which would make your board a “group board” — if you want other contributors to add content they believe works with your board’s theme. This is a great way to increase engagement and interaction on your profile.
2. Build a community.
Online communities bring together like-minded people and serve as helpful hubs for businesses.
With a Pinterest community, you can count on your followers and fans to interact with your boards, consume your content, and make their way to your website — driving traffic in the process.
There are over 335 million people who use Pinterest every month. By treating your Pinterest board as a two-way street through which you can interact with and engage users (not like a one-way billboard), you can build a loyal community of Pinterest users who may become customers, too.
How to Build Your Pinterest Following
Although you can search for and add specific friends via their name, Facebook account, and other identifiers, this is time-consuming and would make it nearly impossible to substantially grow your following.
Instead, consider the following methods to build out your base of fans and followers on Pinterest.
Promote your Pinterest account via your other social networks.
Follow accounts you believe would want to follow you back.
Watch what your competitors are doing to increase their base of followers and learn from their techniques.
Use keywords and hashtags in your posts (we’ll discuss these tactics in more detail later).
Ask influencers to re-post some of your content to gain the attention of their followers.
Pay for a Pinterest ads account to run ads on the platform.
3. Educate customers.
Pinterest is rife with tutorials, infographics, how-tos, and links to additional educational content. Given it’s propensity for visual content, it’s a powerful channel to educate and engage customers.
While creating and sharing content for your Pinterest profile and marketing to users, be sure to keep your target audience in mind.
Similar to the way you would when creating new products, developing your branding, or posting to other social networks, you want to ensure you’re pushing out content that appeals to your target audience, current customers, and buyer personas on Pinterest.
You can do this in a few different ways:
Research your buyer personas to determine what type of content would be most helpful and appealing to them.
Survey and ask your current followers and customers for feedback on what they want from your company on Pinterest.
Look at what your competitors are doing well (or not) to help you think about new ways to push out your content and make it unique.
View the boards of your current followers and customers to aid in your understanding of who your audience is and what they’re most interested in.
4. Drive website traffic and boost online sales.
Pinterest, unlike Instagram, allows you to link your visual content to another website — namely, your website. This feature allows you to share both written and visual content and direct users back to your website in the process.
This is a powerful addition to your marketing as it can boost online sales, too. Many brands use Pinterest to showcase product images while sharing content.
For example, this board, created by the clothing company Madewell, serves as a source of travel inspiration and is paired with real products they sell to get their audience excited about their brand, the lifestyle they promote, and the idea of purchasing some clothing.
Source
By integrating Pinterest on your website, you’ll be able to easily drive traffic from one of your web pages directly to your Pinterest profile so your leads and customers can begin viewing your content in seconds (and hopefully follow you!).
These Pinterest widgets and buttons allow your website visitors to interact with your Pinterest page via your website and give them the ability to view and follow your profile or go directly to a specific Pin or board. The network’s widget builder helps you quickly customize, create, and add this feature to your site.
Source
Pinterest Marketing Strategies
Sign up for a business account.
Choose the right categories for your content.
Use unique images and videos.
Leverage keywords.
Add hashtags to your content.
Share your content on other social networks.
Follow, engage, and interact with other accounts.
Use social media best practices.
Analyze your results.
These 9 Pinterest marketing strategies hold value for businesses of any size, in any industry. This universal approach to marketing is one reason Pinterest is such a valuable social media tool.
1. Sign up for a business account.
To market to your target audience, you should create a Pinterest business account. As mentioned, this free account provides you with access to Pinterest Analytics (which we’ll review in more detail shortly) and other handy marketing features such as a profile that clearly states you’re a business, Pinterest widgets, and Pinterest tag. If you already have a Pinterest account and want to convert it into a Pinterest business account, you can also do that without losing any of your content or work.
Note: If you’re looking to enhance your business account and run ads on Pinterest, you can do so by upgrading your account — and setting up your method of payment because this part of Pinterest is not free — to target your audience more aggressively with the help of the platform’s Ads Manager.
2. Choose the right categories for your content.
By choosing the right category for your content to be shared in, your Pins and boards will become more searchable for users looking to discover content similar to that of your business. Users can search for specific categories on Pinterest or simply go to the “Categories” section of any profile on the platform to view all content related to the topic they’re searching.
Source
Some of the most popular Pinterest categories include travel, health and wellness, and beauty.
3. Use unique images and videos.
Similar to other social networks, Pinterest contains a plethora of images and videos. Not only do you want to ensure you’re posting images and videos that will help you promote your brand and market your products/ services, but you’ll also want to ensure they stand out against all of the others on the platform. Otherwise, why would a user choose to follow you over your competition?
Here are some ways to ensure you’re sharing great and unique visual content on Pinterest:
Use branded images without faces — these receive 23% more Pins on the platform than those with faces.
Create and share branded videos to promote your products and company. 75% of Pinterest users say they’re likely to watch branded videos about topics that interest them.
Pay to use Pinterest’s Promoted Video feature if you have the budget.
Share images and videos that show your products in action so viewers can more easily envision themselves using them.
Avoid excessive blank (or white) space in your images — images with 30% less blank space in the background are pinned most.
Create videos between 30-90 seconds long because they’re proven to have the highest performance.
Create specific boards to share images of your company’s most helpful data visualizations and infographics if you have them for your audience to use as resources for their businesses.
4. Leverage keywords.
By using keywords throughout your profile, posts, Pins, and boards, you’ll be more likely to organically appear in users’ feeds and searches. Keywords and phrases on Pinterest are related to specific niches being searched by users.
For example, if you sell suitcases, you might use keywords and phrases like “vacation” or “going on a trip” throughout your profile and Pins. This way, when a user searches one of those terms, your profile and images of your suitcases will appear on their feeds.
Here are some locations in which you can insert keywords on Pinterest to improve your chances of organically ranking through search:
Bio and profile
Pin descriptions
Board titles
Board descriptions
Image-Alt-Text
For those of you who choose to pay for Pinterest ads, there’s also an option to use the platform’s keyword targeting tool to help you reach your audience through your ads.
5. Add hashtags to your content.
Hashtags — which are keywords and phrases preceded by the “#” symbol — are another great way for you to organically market to and reach your target audience. Hashtags on Pinterest work the same way they do on most other social media sites (like Instagram, for example) and when leveraged, make your content more search-friendly.
Hashtags on Pinterest are used to help users identify Pins and boards about a specific topic they’re searching. When users click on a hashtag you include on a Pins, they’re brought to a page in which they can view all content ever posted on the platform tagged with that specific hashtag. You should add hashtags to your Pins, boards, and promoted content (if you have any) to ensure the greatest amount of visibility.
6. Share your content on other social networks.
To promote your Pinterest account and content, you should share your Pins, images, and videos in other areas to improve your chances of being seen and followed. For example, you can claim your business’ Pinterest account on Instagram, Etsy, and YouTube so your followers can easily learn about the other platforms you’re on and how they can view more of your content. Additionally, claiming your account will provide access to analytics and data on all of these Pins so you can see the other networks your audience is most interested in.
You can also link your Pinterest profile to your Facebook and Google accounts so you can easily add and find friends, share content across networks, speed up your login on all accounts, and backup your profile in case you lose or forget your password details.
7. Follow, engage, and interact with other accounts.
When you follow and interact with other Pinterest users and their accounts, you’re able to initiate and maintain personal relationships between them and your business. This type of engagement has the potential to make your followers feel a level of loyalty towards your brand that keeps them coming back to your profile for inspiration, ideas, and to buy products.
Here are four ways you can build strong and lasting relationships with your target audience through your marketing tactics on Pinterest:
Follow new accounts of users who state or show they have interests related to the work your business does and the content you post (you can do this by searching keywords and hashtags or reviewing the people who follow your current audience members).
Re-Pin, Like, and comment on the content your followers and fans share.
Respond to the messages your followers write on your content to personalize their experience on your profile and make them feel heard.
Create engaging posts that showcase your expertise in your industry, teach your followers how to do something, or get them involved (in a giveaway or contest for example).
8. Use social media best practices.
When using Pinterest, be sure to follow the same social media practices you would on other social networks. Examples of this include remembering to interact and engage with your followers, regularly post to (and update) your account, and avoid blatant self-promotion that feels pushy and forced to your audience.
Additionally, you can focus on the following five best practices to boost engagement on Pinterest.
Encourage your followers to feature your brand in their content (and maybe offer to repost them or re-Pin their content if they do).
Provide your audience with an incentive — such as a prize — for choosing to follow and interact with you as well as create posts featuring your products and branding.
Offer your audience discount codes, coupons, as well as details about your latest products and updates to existing products to keep them coming back to your profile.
Ensure your content is helpful and useful for your audience members — all content should have a purpose and/ or meaning.
9. Analyze your results.
If you’re putting all of this effort into marketing on Pinterest, it’s probably safe to assume you’re going to want to ensure the work you’re doing improves your business’ conversions and brand awareness.
So, you’ll need to analyze the results of your Pinterest marketing efforts to keep track of your referral traffic, number of engagements, leads generated, and anything else you’re interested in learning more about. The easiest way to do this is through Pinterest Analytics.
Pinterest Analytics provides you with four major types of information including:
Metrics about your profile as a whole.
Insights about the number of people who save and re-Pin your content.
Platform metrics to understand how people interact with your content via both desktop or mobile.
Data about your most popular Pins.
Pinterest for Small Businesses
If you have a small business, you may be wondering whether or not putting all of this effort and time into implementing Pinterest marketing strategies is actually worth it.
Short answer? Yes, it is.
Pinterest is one of the more versatile, affordable, and impactful marketing tools for businesses that are looking to convert more leads, drive traffic to their websites, and increase brand awareness to use.
Plus, Pinterest users have the highest purchase intent of any other social media users. Let’s discuss some more ways small businesses, like yours, can benefit from creating a presence on Pinterest.
Tell a visual story.
Pinterest helps you tell a visual story about your brand. Through pictures and videos, you’re able to show — rather than tell — your audience what you’re about as a company, the things you value, what and who you support, and the types of products and services you sell.
Pinterest provides you with a unique and engaging way to introduce your small business to platform users.
Humanize your brand.
Social media of any kind can help you humanize your brand and give it some personality — Pinterest is no exception. On the platform, you’re able to reach out directly to your audience members, chat with them one-on-one or as a group, and assist them through any difficulties or roadblocks they encounter while doing business with you.
You’re also able to show your audience and followers how much their support and business mean to you through giveaways, videos of your behind the scenes work, latest company news, product information, promotions, and discount codes.
Creating and maintaining these business-to-customer routines early on humanizes your brand, sets the tone for what your company will be known for, and shows customers how you intend to grow with them in mind.
Feature your blog posts.
You can use Pinterest to feature your inbound marketing efforts such as your blog posts or content offers. For example, you can Pin a photo or video to a board and include a link to blog post about that visual content. This not only promotes your blog posts but it also drives traffic directly to your website.
Source
Display your work and showcase your expertise.
Pinterest is a great way for your small business to display your work and showcase your expertise in your industry. Examples include Pins with images and videos of your work, infographics, data visualizations, and blog posts.
Due to the fact you might not be a recognized brand yet, doing this is important. That’s because as your business grows and you become more well-known, you’ll be more likely to be recognized as an industry leader and a business with helpful and applicable content for audience members.
Drive traffic to your website.
Pinterest is a great way to drive traffic to your business’ website — this will help your small business generate leads and conversions. You can share URLs in your profile as well as on your Pins and boards. For example, you may choose to post content with a link to your email sign up page, “About Us” page, or blog.
Conduct market research.
Pinterest is a great resource for conducting market research. It’s especially helpful for small businesses that may not have a large following quite yet or the experience to know exactly what their audience members expect and want in terms of content.
With Pinterest, you can easily review what your competitors — and the companies in your industry that are more established than yours — are doing. This will allow you to discover which tactics they’re using on the platform and see what’s working for their audience members. You can also look at the content your audience Pins as well as who they’re following and interacting with.
Pinterest Marketing Tools
There are a number of tools you can use to help you reach your target audience and engage users on Pinterest. There are three major types of resources to help you accomplish this — account management tools, image design and creation tools, and follower count and community growth tools.
1. Social Media Management Tools
Social media management tools help you schedule posts and organize your content on any social network, including Pinterest, prior to actually posting it.
This way, you can ensure everything is shared and pushed out as planned. Social media management tools often have analytics capabilities as well, which you can use in tandem with Pinterest Analytics.
Some popular social media and Pinterest management tools include:
Hootsuite gives you the ability to schedule your Pins in advance, gain insights into your data and analytics, and measure your results on Pinterest.
Tailwind provides you with analytics about your Pinterest profile, a data reporting system to help you determine what’s doing well with your audience members, and advice about the best days and times to share your Pins.
Sprout Social allows you to take advantage of a range of features to help you reach your target audience and buyer personas through Pinterest. These include platform analytics, engagement tools, post scheduling capabilities, and details about the type of content your audience wants.
2. Pinterest Image Design and Creation Tools
Pinterest image design and creation tools allow you to design, edit, create, and publish professional-looking photos and images for the platform (along with any other social media site and your website).
Considering Pinterest is a visual social network where users discover eye-catching, beautiful, and creative images and videos, it’s important your content looks perfect so you can attract more followers and engagement on your profile.
The following three tools are great for anyone who doesn’t necessarily have a background in fields like graphic design or art but still wants to share unique and polished content on their profile.
Canva allows you to create professional images for Pinterest with their over 1 million images, graphics, templates, and icons available to choose from.
Pablo provides you with a way to create beautiful images for Pinterest in under 30 seconds with easy-to-use effects and templates.
PicMonkey gives you the ability to create and edit images and has advanced image editing tools such as masking, mirroring, and double exposure.
3. Follower Count and Community Growth Tools
Follower count and community growth tools on Pinterest are available to help you promote your profile and content as well as increase your number of followers and engagements. The following three tools were created to help you accomplish this specifically on Pinterest.
PINGROUPIE provides you with the number of Pins, users, and followers on different group boards on the platform so you can determine whether or not you want to join and Pin your content on it.
Loop88 helps you to create shareable content they’ve determined is ideal for Pinterest to help you attract your target audience and grow your following.
PinFollow gives you a detailed look at who’s following your Pinterest account, who you’re following back, who you follow that isn’t following you back, and how your follower count is growing over time.
Start Marketing On Pinterest
Pinterest is a powerful marketing tool with the ability to help you organically increase brand awareness, boost conversions, increase sales, and create long-lasting relationships with your target audience and buyer personas.
You can achieve all of these things for your business by following the Pinterest marketing strategies we reviewed and incorporating the available tools and resources to help you succeed as a business on the platform.
So, sign up for a business account and begin creating unique and engaging content to market to your customers and followers on Pinterest.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2012 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
Source link
source https://www.kadobeclothing.store/the-ultimate-guide-to-pinterest-marketing/
0 notes
Last Seen Blogs
skvwalker
never tell me the odds
sil-viper
Silas V
sneakerfeed
Naamloos
ipsivietnam
IPSI VIET NAM
vulpes-incendium
Vulpes Incendium