Grittyrustic
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Posts posted by Grittyrustic
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4 hours ago, JLSleather said:Ooo.. ouch. See, I woulda never known that, since I aint never instagrammed (or, however ya say that).
5 hours ago, treyman said:Is Instagram not working out for you? Looks like no posts since May. Also less than 50 likes from 8k followers looks like the investment in buying followers wasn't worth it.
We have two accounts, a guerrilla marketing account that our marketing debt. used to use, and then our basic account https://www.instagram.com/grittyrusticleather/ enjoy the feed.
10 hours ago, JLSleather said:Silly me. I thought this site was about leather.
I probably do know people with those throw-together "name brand" items. I have a niece who is pretty much TERRIFIED of being found wtihout something the other girls have.
But if instagram, or fakebook, or tweetybird, etc.. is all that necessary and wonderful.. I do have to wonder WHY then such talented and socially gifted (is that a thing?) people would be here wasting their time on silly old me.
I dont' date guys. So those who do, it would make sense to go where there are guys who date guys, much more than trying to convince little ole me
Just one example, really, ... I mean, WHY were you "hoping" I could "get the message"? WHY would that be important to you? In fact, if I did that, and got good at it, wouldnt' that then increase your competition? Not that either makes any difference to me... just food for thought (as in THINK, not just copy the next guy who also didn't think).
Still missing the heart of this entire thread, damn glad it's just a couple of you that are bitter about your situations. Cause I am not just making good quality leather goods, I am also placing these works in the possession or many people all around the globe and building up brand awareness. If your interested to know, we invested in a simple Canon camera and spend time taking glorious imagery outdoors and in coffee shops with some few hired models. Our work doesn't just end after we have crafted a nice bag, we then take it to another required professional level to get it seen by the right people, that's where Instagram comes in.
But I think I'm starting to understand you more, you just can't comprehend the whole marketing thing can you. That's ok because I completely understand, I have friends that are similar to you and they are satisfied with life, flipping burgers or whatever. It's no wonder you can't get the message.
I was trying to be helpful, but since you think your a waste of time then I guess your right. No point in
But I know one thing, anyone truly passionate about what they do wants nothing more than to share it with others.
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3 hours ago, JLSleather said:You make my point. Innovator of leather? What exactly do you, or saddleback, do that makes you an "innovator"? I've seen teh web site, and their product certainly looks okay on the surface (though I don't endorse it until I've touched it).
But it's very much a "marketing" business, more than a leather business. What is it that goes into their product that is so "innovative"? It looks to me like if the gal on the 4th sewing machine over quits today, they could replace her by Tuesday and continue on. Translation, what they do-- ANYbody can do.
Since YOU are clearly the smart one, I won't bother to define "innovative" for you.
I like to see a DIFFERENCE in teh product, not simply the person with the latest camera equipment and the longest speeches.
- JLS Leather
- Custom Leather Without the Hype. Really.
I was hoping you could read between the lines there and get the message but nope, so I guess ill just spell it out for you.
Companies like Saddleback utilize many marketing avenues like Instagram to increase their brand exposure and turn a profit and because of this they are well known and a house hold name. Hell I'm sure you got friends or family somewhere who own some saddleback leather goods.
But I'm sure your quality is as good if not better, just your strategy for marketing isn't a clever one. You should know, the smarter smart phones get the less people walk into stores to buy these luxuries. That's the foreseeable future my friend.
To be honest, your here ranting on as if there is a difference between this thread and Instagram. Why not take all that big talk and pour it into Instagram and make some money for your hard work, or build your brand awareness out of the local community. Cause there ain't no difference between posting in this thread and posting an image on instagram. Everytime you post in here and put down the use of Instagram it's just a big fat contradiction, hypocrisy.
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Cheers everyone! This thread is for Instagram and how to use it and for giving advice about it but all I see are posts about why Instagram and other social media platforms are useless. I stand by what I said, so if your not going to make a contribution to the topic then stop discouraging others from using it.
Also, I never directly insulted anyone, just expressed my feelings about how you all sound. And it seems like I hit a nerve, well good. I hope I did some small damage to your discouraging point of views.
FYI we do produce leather products, and we are quite established in doing it. Quality isn't top of the line but neither were 1900's split leather swiss satchels, but they still got salvaged from the Titanic in mint condition.
You don't need to take any advice from Gritty, but you could also stop being so pessimistic about this topic.
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Goodness! After reading all of your stories I actually feel like I'm on Facebook. So go right on ahead and keep pretending like your a Neanderthal in these modern times. You must think it makes you sound special or different, well I assure you it doesn't. If anything it makes you sound ignorant. Now go ahead and manipulate my words and accuse me of calling you stupid.
So I guess this ain't the place for cutting edge or having an entrepreneurial spirit or being an innovator of leather, is it? All this "I don't use Instagram or Pinterest because yadda yadday yadda" is just pure lazy self centered talk.
It comes down to two kinds characteristics in the world of business. Those who are remembered because they strived to share their passion and those who are forgotten because they didn't have the courage to take on change or were simply outwitted.
I'll remember Saddleback Leather Co. for sure. Sweet Jesus, you should see their Instagram profile.
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54 minutes ago, Big Sioux Saddlery said:Thank you Jersey! I am familiar with Facebook and have both a personal and business page there, but beyond that, all the rest is foreign to me. And I was only slightly joking when I said I need an IT person. And an office manager, and a cleaning service, etc, etc. Business is the best it's ever been, and the managerial work (and basically anything that isn't revenue producing) is getting to be too much. Thank you for the time you took to explain:-)
Well, if you would take a small leap of faith into the world of technology, it may prove to be just what you need. I worded the tutorial to the best of my ability, and I am sure you have a smart phone. Give it a go, if anything it is the same as Facebook only pictures do most of the story telling. Be sure to add a hashtag of your city and state eg. #LosAngeles #California in every post and use the location function in every post as well. You want that local patriotic traffic walking in your front door.
But none of this will make any sense until you got the hands on and the visual. Start with downloading Instagram and give it a quick spin, then read this and the tutorial. And a friendly caution, Instagram is extremely addicting. As addicting as making good leather goods, only you get to show them to the world.
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2 hours ago, ConradPark said:It's not about right and wrong and I make no such claims, rather it's about transparency. People need to be aware about the fact that without sinking money into advertising they won't be able to have 10 000 followers after only 47 posted pictures on their Instagram like you. (And according to your own later admitted advertising formula, it should have taken you between a year to one and a half to get that many followers, but I suspect that you haven't had your account for that long, rather paid for a bunch of followers at once.) In your original post you didn't mention anything about paying for followers, hence I felt it was needed to point that option out. And again, organic growth might not be more right from an business point, nor did I claim it to be. However it is without doubt - real and honest.
An "advertising formula" and a "how to use Instagram" tutorial are two completely different things. Lets stay on topic here. My original post wasnt about my account in general or how or why I have folowers. So I don't find it too relevant to make personal attacks. My original post was just a basic tutorial about how to use Instagram and drive traffic to a website for someone who isnt sure how to. If you find you have questions you can ask.
But since we are on the topic of real and honest why dont you shed some light on everything that you feel is real and honest in relation to Instagram. I also have an Instagram ad running which loads up on followers every hour all by itself. Would you consider that real and honest? If not then please explain how paying for followers through these two "advertising formulas" is different. And why one is not real and honest and why one is.
Also, it helps to acknowledge that people have different motives, agendas, financial situations, intentions and plans when doing things and not all are subject to being dishonest.
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Another great way to build a strong fanbase and brand awareness on Instagram would be to use Facebook ads. Many people don't know that Facebook bought Instagram and through Facebook ads you can advertise directly on Instagram. The advertisement will appear on Instagram as a normal Instagram posting from your Instagram account, only there will be a "shop now" link on the Instagram posting allowing potential customers and interested followers to be redirected to your website. This alone is equivalent to posting a new Instagram image every hour. We do this and we average about 15 to 30 new followers everyday with the added addition of driving traffic to our website.
So in doing this, you can develop many new followers and customers without the need to pump out images on a timely basis. I recommend this over Google Adwords because it costs less and you have direct engagement with your audience and you have a better idea of who is interested.
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11 hours ago, ConradPark said:Interesting article for the person that is unfamiliar with social media, however you forgot to include how to do, when to buy likes/followers from 'booster companies', and pros and cons to why to do such a thing.
Also, it might be worth to mention the importance of the quality of the photos, the tactics of when and how often to upload pictures, replying to comments, experimenting with subjects, holding contests, follow other relevant users, but most importantly, the fact that real, honest, organic growth takes time.
In fact, it takes a long, long time. Most people should not expect more than a couple of thousand followers even after posting a few hundred pictures during a 18 month period. Guess there is always the one amazing exception.Hey there, good points! This was just a simple tutorial for beginners. If you could elaborate on some more technical points that would be great. I understand there are many who aren't familiar with how to use these kinds of platforms for marketing and I didn't see anything posted on the leatherworker website about it. Hopefully I was helpful to someone.
Booster companies offer services that send followers to your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest accounts and are a great way to increase brand exposure! They give off the impression to viewers that you are an established brand because of the amount of followers you have thus increasing in more followers. People like what seems popular. Of course there are pros and cons like everything has but its no different than using google adwords to increase website traffic and conversions.
I understand what you mean by "real honest organic growth", but thats not always the most efficient approach to building brand awareness. And not everyone has 18 months or years to build up a strong honest fanbase on Instagram or other fanbase platforms. The whole moral standpoint of "real honest organic growth" shouldn't limit your actual potential or ability to make a sale. In my opinion, return customers converging on your website is your primary goal and thats worth bragging rights.
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If you are looking to increase your company exposure, increase local traffic to your leather shop, traffic to a link, promoting a product or even promote your start-up company or blog. Then I would recommend the almighty little Instagram. Instagram is a mobile phone app that allows you to take pictures of things and share them with the Instagram community which is massive and still growing.
Currently Instagram has over taken Facebook as the biggest platform for building a fan-base and driving traffic to websites. It costs nothing and is the biggest trend for companies and individual people wanting to promote. All you need is the know-how. If you have never used Instagram before or have and need some tips then here are some steps I have prepared that I think make a successful Instagram post.
1. Download to your phone and create an Instagram account. Filling in all the account details like, website, name, email and so on. Use a good business name user I.D. You want to come off as a business or someone with a brand or leather shop.
2. Post an image. The image should not be a graphic designed image but an interesting photograph of something related to your field of business or an image of the actual product itself or just about anything that seems to do the trick.
3. While posting the image you will be promoted with adding a filter that changes the attitude of the image by giving it a splash of vintage or monotone colors. I prefer to use nothing at all when posting product images, just because I want viewers and followers to see the actual product I am showing. However If I am posting an image of a scene that is not directly related to the importance of showing the product then I will use a filter to enhance the scenery.
4. In the text area for the image posting you want to be a bit radical in a positive way or make a strong point about the image or be humorous. Instead of saying something common like "Genuine leather backpack" in all of your posts, you should mix it up and say something like "The first and last bag you will ever need", “20 years and counting, almost like it was never used”.
5. Followed by the text you want to write your website web-link of importance. Example: www.leatherworker.net
6. After you have written the text you want to begin adding hashtags. Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags. Hashtags make you discover-able through Instagram's search function and some other unknown functions. Your first hashtag after the text and web-link should be your company or products unique name hashtag.Example: #leatherworker. Yes, use your company name to make a hashtag.
7. After your company hashtag, you want to add 29 more. These 29 more hashtags should be related to your product and its scope of business. I usually add 14 hashtags directly related to the product itself and 15 hashtags related to the industry. As you input hashtags into your Instagram postings you will be given random lists of different hashtags showing the amount of users who have used these hashtags in the past . This is important because the more people using your choice of hashtags basically means the more exposure you will get from using that hashtag.Example: 14 hashtags related to the product itself would be #backpack #briefcase #bag #messengerbag #satchel #laptopbag etc...and then 15 hashtags related to the industry #menswear #mensfashion #mensstyle #businesscasual #travel #hiking #business #mensaccessories #leathergoods #leatherwork etc...
Here is an example posting from my Instagram account. At the bottom it shows the amount of people who have liked the posting. It doesn't show the amount of followers you obtained from the posting, but once people follow you they will see everything you post in their home feed and in search as well. Example Instagram Post
This is my personal way of posting on Instagram and it has played a decent role in giving my company and product extra exposure. I hope this post was very helpful to you. If you have any question about this feel free to reply.
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On 11/12/2015 at 0:37 AM, TinkerTailor said:What do you guys use?
I currently use 1 app to crop my photos square and downsize them for web, and another that batch watermarks with text only 5 at a time with the free version.I want to be able to point a piece of software at a folder, and batch process them. Basic prompting to choose the cropping area, and the rest of the operations just happen, resize, watermark, crop, rename to new resave to new folder. I would like to be able to use a graphic logo for the watermark. I would like the whole thing to be as close to free as i can get. Any chance it exists??
Best free program I know of is photoscape. You can batch watermark over 100+ images at a time and batch edit all image sizes in a single folder with the click of a button. Try it out, you will be happy you did. And it costs absolutely nothing.
1. After downloading this free program go to "Batch Editor", drag and drop every file you want in there and then in the right side pane under the "home tab", set your dimensions.
2. Then in the same right side pane select the "object tab" and then add your logo. Place your logo in the respective location you want it to be (it will appear on all images in the same location). Right clicking the logo as it is on the images will give you options to reduce the clearness/opacity and size of the logo making perfect for your intended needs.
3. Then in the top right hand corner select convert. After that you can choose to change the title of each individual image in a counting manner if you want. A new folder will be produced with all converted/edited images.
This is the single best image editing software I have come across.
Oh and the "filter tab" located in the right side pane allows you to add some really cool graphics to all images added to the batch editor.
Have a go at it!
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17 hours ago, immiketoo said:I may be the only one here wondering this, but WHY are you trying to sell leather bags to leather workers. Its like selling chickens to poultry farmers. Or ice to Eskimos. (Shakes head in disbelief)
Hey there I get your point, it makes a lot of sense. Although I believe leather shops and the business of leather comes in all shapes and forms as does any other field of business, trade or hobby. Some of us have websites and some of us have physical retail shops and both of which sell leather products made by ourselves and made by others. Maybe for you our services aren't needed, but for others, extra products on the shelf might spur up some positive commotion in their local communities increasing traffic and transactions. This is the bread and butter, the basic fundamental for any business to survive, and it might just be a really good thing for some. In any case, we aren't into limiting ourselves or others and so we believe that a well informed community makes for the best.
Also you should know, it's more than just trying to make a sell or make money. We just want to help and be helped, mutual gaining partnerships with other retailers of fine leather goods.
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Modern Design Tool Tech Craft Backpack, only $147 usd
PRODUCT DETAILS:
- Material: Distressed leather
- Colors: Dark Brown / Dark Chocolate.
- Sex: Unisex
- Style of Bag: Backpack, rucksack
- Weight: 1.5kg / 1500 grams
- Length: 13.38" / 34cm
- Height: 17.32" / 44cm
- Width/depth: 5.11" / 13cm
FEATURES:
- Interior zipper pocket.
- Interior wallet slot.
- Interior cell phone slot.
- Two interior pen / pencil slots.
- Interior laptop sleeve protection.
- Interior tablet sleeve protection.
- Large internal compartment.
- Five external front side extruding pockets.
- One external hidden backside zipper pocket.
- Two adjustable leather shoulder straps.
- Topside leather handbag handle.
- Durable polyester inner lining.
- Accented with stainless steel plated hardware.
- Handmade with industrial strength thread.
Our products are located in our China warehouse where they have each already been handmade, quality checked and packaged. Each leather article is shipped from our China warehouse with DHL Express and Fedex International priority. We accept paypal for direct purchases or there is the option to check out on our website at the link provided below.
If you are interested in this leather backpack please just send me a private message or send me an email.
Thanks for looking,
Noah Nichols
noah@grittyrusticleather.com
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Classic Sleek Brown Leather Backpack, only $100.73 usd
Product Details:
- Material: Distressed eather
- Color: Brown
- Sex: Unisex
- Style of Bag: Backpack, rucksack
- Length: 12.59" / 30cm
- Height: 15.74" / 40cm
- Width/depth: 5.11" / 17cm
- Weight: 1.1kg / 1100grams
Features:
- One external front side zippered pocket.
- One external side zippered pocket.
- One large internal compartment.
- Two leather adjustable shoulder straps.
- External topside leather handbag handle.
- Made with quality easy glide & easy access metal zippers.
- Accented with brass plated hardware.
- Durable polyester fabric interior is lining.
- Handmade with industrial strength thread.
Our products are located in our China warehouse where they have each already been handmade, quality checked and packaged. Each leather article is shipped from our China warehouse with DHL Express and Fedex International priority. We accept paypal for direct purchases or there is the option to check out on our website at the link provided below.
If you are interested in this leather backpack please just send me a private message or send me an email.
Thanks for looking,
Noah Nichols
noah@grittyrusticleather.com
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Vintage Brown Distressed Leather Backpack, only $93 usd
Product Details:
- Material: Distressed leather
- Color: Khaki
- Style of Bag: Backpack, rucksack
- Sex: Unisex
- Weight: 1.0kg / 1000 grams
- Length: 31cm / 12.20 inches
- Height: 41cm / 16.14 inches
- Width/depth: 13cm / 5.11 inches
Features:
- Three external front side pockets.
- Interior walled zippered pocket.
- Large internal compartment.
- Internal compartment leather safety tie.
- Two leather adjustable shoulder straps.
- External topside leather handbag handle.
- Accented with brass plated hardware.
- Rugged interior leather texture.
- Handmade with industrial strength thread.
Our products are located in our China warehouse where they have each already been handmade, quality checked and packaged. Each leather article is shipped from our China warehouse with DHL Express and Fedex International priority. We accept paypal for direct purchases or there is the option to check out on our website at the link provided below.
If you are interested in this leather backpack please just send me a private message or send me an email.
Thanks for looking,
Noah Nichols
noah@grittyrusticleather.com
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Fine Dark Brown Genuine Leather Briefcase, only $137 usd
Product Details:
- Material: Distressed Leather
- Color: Dark Brown
- Sex: Men
- Style of Bag: Briefcase, laptop bag, messenger bag
- Length: 15.74" / 40cm
- Height: 12.20" / 31cm
- Width/depth: 4.13" / 10.5cm
- Weight: 1.5kg / 1500grams
Features:
- Two external front side pockets.
- One external backside zippered pocket.
- One adjustable leather shoulder strap with leather comfort pad.
- Two internal walled pen pencil slots.
- One internal walled phone slot.
- One internal walled wallet slot.
- One internal walled zippered pocket.
- One internal Centralized A4 zippered pocket.
- One internal laptop sleeve protection.
- Large internal compartment.
- Durable polyester fabric interior is lining.
- Made with quality easy glide & easy access metal zippers.
- Handmade with industrial strength thread.
- Accented with brass plated hardware.
Our products are located in our China warehouse where they have each already been handmade, quality checked and packaged. Each leather article is shipped from our China warehouse with DHL Express and Fedex International priority. We accept paypal for direct purchases or there is the option to check out on our website at the link provided below.
If you are interested in this leather briefcase please just send me a private message or send me an email.
Thanks for looking,
Noah Nichols,
noah@grittyrusticleather.com
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Hello everyone, nice to meet you here.
My name is Noah Nichols, I am the owner of Gritty Rustic Leather. We are an international retailer of fine distressed full-grain and top-grain leather briefcases and satchels! We offer dropshipping services, wholesale services and product placement for select retailers in The United States and Canada.
Happy to be here and looking forward to making new friends and business partners!
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Hello everyone,
Nice to meet you, my name is Noah Nichols. I am the owner of Gritty Rustic Leather. I hope everyone is having a great day when you read this. I searched the Leather Worker website for leather briefcases and to my surprise I couldn't seem to find any one working in this field. Anywho, we are an international retailer, wholesaler and dropshipper of fine genuine distressed leather briefcases and leather bags of many sorts. There a couple of things we are looking for, and in light of it we believe we may be able to help other leather retailers by working together.
One of the things that we are looking for are leather shops located in the United States that would be willing partner with us in selling our products. Our proposal is very flexible in terms that we would be willing to place a couple of our products in some stores at no cost to retailers, and see how they do. Retailers can price the products at any cost they want as long as it is above what is listed on our website. yes I know what your thinking, "that is a big risk", but we are confident that the end result would be a positive one. (This proposal would be subject to approval, of course. In other words we would have to do some research on interested retailers before proceeding).
Another thing we offer is dropshipping for websites that can't find enough product to sell. Basically, dropshipping means, retailers can list our products onto their websites at a higher cost than whats on our website. And when the product sells on the retailers website, the retailer can proceed to place an order for it on our website and give us their customers address to whom we would ship the product to. There is little if no cost or investment for anyone except for us. We have a return address located in California so in the event of an unhappy retailer's customer the products can be easily returned. And if you haven't taken a look we have outstanding products at superb cost. All retailers who would like to try this zero investment proposal would get a 25% discount of any product listed in our store.
Last but not least we offer wholesale prices for anyone who is brave enough to make larger investments.
If you are interested in anything I have discussed here, you can send me an email at noah@grittyrusticleather.com and we can talk about it and see where it goes.
In any case, check out our website Gritty Rustic Leather tell me what you think. Looking forward
Noah Nichols Owner/Founder
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We are actually interested in finding leather shops around the world to sell our products. I think this idea might work out ok if the fee wasn't so high. We currently just stopped selling on ebay because of fees like the 10% fee offered here. However, we do have a seller who we dropship our products for but the method of doing it is slightly different than the one proposed here. In the sense that, this other retailer would copy images and product descriptions from our website and add it to his own website at higher price than ours, and then of course when he makes a sale he just sends the address to us within his payment and then we ship to his customer. In this way, there are no fees but a mutual benefit. This retailer actually makes a decent profit without having to do much at all. So asking for a fee in this kind of situation basically means you have a well established website/selling platform with tons of traffic and many potential buyers, kind of like Ebay and Amazon selling platforms. Here is a blog I wrote on dropshipping and what it actually is. Your proposed idea is not actually dropshipping.
Instagram Marketing
in Marketing and Advertising
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That's a very uneducated thing to say, and most of which is laughable. Again your missing the the subject of the entire thread.
The Instagram post that I used to explain "how to post something on Instagram" was a successful one. It had a fair picture of interest, an opening sentence about the picture and some hash tags to really bring in people interested in the post. It did everything that my tutorial explained to do.
And keep in mind there buddy, It was I who had the motive to help out and give some simple tutorial about how to possibly get your products in front of a larger crowd by using Instagram.
"People might take me more more seriously if we hadn't payed for followers........" Anyone can pay for followers if they want, anyone can buy anything they want. And you think your single individual opinion or "judgement" carries some serious value, that's lame man no one cares what you say. No one needs to take me serious either cause the world already knows about Instagram. Now you know where to go when you need a simple easy to find tutorial
Come to truth, I looked at all of your posts and it doesn't seem like you have even come close to stepping in the light and sharing how to really do something, better gets to typing.
Why don't you go and donate some money to the healthy minded people who maintain this thread. Maybe you can open an Instagram account and make some extra sales to cover the cost while your at it.
