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7th February 2022

What To Read In Your Free Time

girl with a book to read
Photo by Min An : Pexels
This is a collaborative post

We have an extremely busy world today, a busy schedule, jumping from one meeting to another, and we barely have time for personal development or mental rest. Books have been known to play a key role in personal development and improve one’s psychology.

Adults tend to think they left reading books when they graduated from University, and college students couldn’t wait to stop reading. But as we move on in each phase of our lives, we tend not to know what to do, how to handle a situation, or what next step to take.

Delightfully, tons of essay examples have addressed every phase of our lives. Famous literature from intelligent writers has several hacks to deal with difficult situations in life. A literary work like the book thief takes us through a fictional story and a life hack for friendship and what comes with it.

University education makes us think reading should be a sport. Students read essays and literature only because they are compelled to read. But, books are more than that. So, whenever you have free time and choose to relax your brain, we have put together some amazing literature to read. The books in this article have passed the test of time, and they have constituted the must-read books. Pick up any of the following books and enjoy the smooth words of these amazing authors.

The Book Thief

The Book Thief is written about the life of a young orphan, Liesel Meminger. She was taken in by an older couple. We also found out that the title was from Liesel’s extreme obsession for books that she’d go about stealing books. She had also gone through the burning piles of the mayor’s library and almost burned herself.

Liesel’s later had a brother who was a Jew and looking for a hideout from the Nazis. The two new siblings had their friendship grow quickly because of their common love for novels. The Book Thief helps us learn the fear and struggle of the news during the Nazi war, and the old couple taking in homeless children in a time of distress shows hope for humanity.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

This famous literature text by Steven Chbosky takes readers through the life of Charlie, a 15-year-old schoolboy who had lost his closest friend. Charlie’s school life was a bit of a struggle as he now finds it difficult to fit into his group of friends. This book takes us through Charlie’s past relationship with his immediate family members and his newly found friends.

Young Charlie keeps a journal that helps us understand how different he is from the rest of his peers. Perks of being a wallflower are filled with both humor and deep emotions at the same time. With the great moments in this book, I was not surprised that it was nearly adapted into a movie.

The Godfather

Mario Puzo’s ‘The Godfather’ is another classic one that has not lost its taste over several centuries. It depicts the tyrant life of Don Corleone – an influential individual in the then-American society. His influence seems to spread like the air we breathe in. Don Corleone has influenced every sector in society, which made him the most feared man on earth. In this book, we get to experience Don’s charisma, open-handedness, and of course, his deadly side. Trust me; no one wants to fight Don Corleone or his family.

The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is a historical thriller that solves a murder mystery. The book is rich in the Christian culture as it traces the possibility of the defendant of Jesus Christ through a child he had with Mary Magdalene. The Merovingians in France believe they are from the defendant of Jesus Christ. This book is suspense-filled and culturally enlightening.

How To Win Friends And Influence People

Of course, I will recommend one that puts you in line with people. This book is a lifesaver. It doesn’t only give you something to get over boredom; it also enriches you with hacks on building your self-esteem. Dale Carnegie’s book has sold over 30 million copies since its publication. You sure want to get over a boring life and learn how to win friends and maintain relationships with people.

Conclusion

Well, the list of the texts above can get longer than this. There are millions of literature to read that will leave you fulfilled. We have a long list of thrilling books and lifesaving books waiting to be picked up.

These books don’t only fill up your space; they don’t only give you something to do, they also let you see the world for what it was, what it is, and what it could be. These books have highlighted the errors we have in our society, both past and present. Also, they provide some solutions to these problems. Like I said earlier, get a book up to your face and clutch it unto your favorite cup of coffee

Top 5 Tips For Selling Your Handmade Crafts Online

woman sitting at a desk selling her handmade crafts online
Photo by ANTONI SHKRABA : Pexels
This is a collaborative post

Do you love doing handmade crafts? Have you found yourself hoarding all of your finished products at home, taking up more space than needed? If so, why not make your hobby into a profitable business by selling all your finished products online?

Aside from freeing your home from the clutter, selling all your crafts can be an excellent way to increase your income. If you plan to pursue this kind of business, here are some tips you can use to increase your chances of selling your crafts online.

Create an Online Store

An online store is where you can display your crafts. It should be your first step on your online selling journey. You can opt to use e-commerce sites such as Amazon, Etsy, or Redbubble.

These platforms are free to use and are widely popular amongst handmade crafts enthusiasts. Your e-commerce is also an excellent landing page for your online marketing campaigns. So it is like hitting two birds with one stone.

But if you are looking to have a website of your own, you can still do that without paying anything. All you need to do is to use a free website builder and utilize it as an online store where your crafts are displayed. For example, if you plan to sell handmade leather bags, like the ones from Willow Handmade Leather, these site builders can easily give you great minimalist design ideas, perfect for selling handcrafted bags. Perhaps the best thing about free site builders is they also grant adequate control over the site’s design and usability. 

However, you should consider that without establishing an online presence, it would be hard for you to generate traffic on your website. On the other hand, e-commerce sites have better traffic due to constant site visitors. In short, you might have less difficulty acquiring traffic for your online store on an e-commerce site.

Make Use of SEO

SEO is the most effective technique in digital marketing. Digital marketing, on the other hand, is a new way of marketing a business both online and traditional enterprises. Many digital marketing agencies, such as Gorilla 360, offer SEO and other digital marketing strategies that can help you market your business to the right audiences.

Your online appearance is vital since you are only operating your business online. It is why investing in SEO is a must for your business to be noticed. Hiring a professional SEO agency will help you target your marketing campaign to highly relevant people.

After that, they will funnel those leads into your marketing campaign and convert them into paying customers. SEO is a complicated technique that only a few can master. So, if you want successful marketing for your brand, you should hire an expert in this field and let them do what they do best. They have in-depth knowledge and sufficient experience that can help your online store accomplish your SEO goals. Working with a team of professionals allows your online business to grow locally or globally. 

Establish Branding

A strong and easy to recognize brand is your business’s best asset. Your brand is the first thing that customers will notice, yet it is also the last thing that will stay on their minds. Therefore, you should create a high recall brand for your audiences.

Your brand is what makes you unique. It is the one that will make you stand out against your competitors. Additionally, good branding will increase the value of your business, which makes attracting more customers easier to do.

Before you even start building your website or engaging in SEO, you should take time to establish your brand first.

How do you want your business to be remembered by your customers? Do you have a specific theme in mind that you want to stick with and incorporate into your brand? You should figure out what you want your business to become and create your brand around that thought.

Utilize Social Media Platforms

Social media is the best place to sell your products. Facebook, for instance, already has Millions of businesses advertising their products or services on their platform. These companies are located worldwide under different industries.

Moreover, social media is where people spend most of their time. And if you create your presence on social media, you will be likely to have a lot of potential customers seeing your products. It is also considered a free and effective way to market your business online, although you can buy TikTok followers without risks (or indeed followers for another platform like Instagram) if you’re willing to spend a little money to expand your reach further.

Using social media is also straightforward. Almost everyone worldwide knows how to use and navigate social media platforms, making it easy for you to create an account. Create a business page and post your products there. You can also use these social media accounts to promote your business or any new products you are launching.

You can also successfully sell handmade crafts on social media by creating optimized content, including videos, stories, reels, long social media posts, and blog posts. Ensure your social media content uses appropriate keywords and hashtags to make it easier and faster for prospective customers to search for your products online.  

Also, engage regularly with your followers to build rapport, show professionalism, and position your brand at the forefront of the consumers’ minds. Create relevant and unique content regularly. If someone asks questions or queries, answer them as quickly as possible. You may also send direct messages to interested buyers in case they could use more valuable details about your product.

Set Your Price Right

Handmade entrepreneurs either price their crafts too low or too high. Pricing your items for sale can be a tricky part of establishing a handmade business online. The first thing you should remember when pricing your products is that it should cover the cost related to making it and running your business which, of course, include your hourly wage. This way, you can achieve the returns on investment (ROI) you want for your online store.  

After you establish how much you have to spend for the materials of your item, plus the added operational cost of your business and your hourly wage, you can now add profits to the price. You can also add markup for customer discounts, wholesale prices, and cover incidentals.

Start Selling Your Precious Crafts Online

Now that you know about these tips, you can start selling your products online and profiting from your hobby. Imagine earning money from the thing that you love doing. Who knows, one day, you might be able to leave your 9-5 job and have a consistent cash flow selling your crafts online.

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