Helen Foster

Did I mention I had a new book out? Yes, I know I did - but now I have a swanky moving video thing to go with it look. Find the book at amazon.co.uk and other good booksellers or read more about why it's a bit different here notyournormalhealthblog.com/macros-for-beg…

@OliverBoyers Im more interested in what the heck a Baddie Almond Nail is.

A user has been exploiting my free trial system. Over the last 3 months, they have built 4 HUGE Pinterest profiles with Pin Generator: P1: 6.4M impressions (pinterest.com/openqueencolle…) P2: 1.8M impressions (pinterest.com/opencraftworld) P3: 2.7M impressions (pinterest.com/openqueenbeauty) P4: 10M impressions (pinterest.com/willtiptop) All for free. I closed the loophole he has been using and now he wants to pay. Should I let them back in?

@senseilp @JoniSweet That’s almost every consumer publication in the UK now. It’s one reason why I’ve given up journalism.

I was so excited when a major tech publication accepted a pitch I sent them last week. Today, I turned down the $500 assignment because the contract lacked a key clause…

@AndySkraga Coming from a journo background, my concern would be ownership of the copyright on that image. You could end up with a huge fee for usage.

Viral doesn't get much simpler than this. 🙌

@DrMJPhillips1 @nr_inthesilence Ha. My boyfriend and I have just sent about 100 different pieces of proof that we’re in a relationship for his visa. All of our friends who had to write letters said ‘can I just write ‘listen to them arguing about what’s for dinner. There’s no doubt’.

@nr_inthesilence My boys got my birthday wrong at customs ...and then proceeded to argue about it! The customs guy said that we all had to be a family based on that.

My son and I have different surnames. This means I have to always prove I am his mother when we fly solo. So today at border control he is asked who I am…Instead of saying mummy, he provides the officer my full name and my coffee order “she likes a regular skinny latte”. 😭

Can anyone explain why I just bought a new domain name over lunch when I already decided this AM that I cant actively my current three sites if I have to spend more time feeding social media. Anyone?

@James_S_Oliver I spent ages trying to find a vegan b12 from a decent brand in the UK the other day. I’m based in Aus but work for UK media. Gave up. I’ve been doing similar searches from here for 7 years, it should have taken me five minutes maximum.

The SERPs are messed up. They always show high-authority US websites, even when searching for a product in different geos.

@Amanda_Vickery Margot was a Queen. Every time I wear a long dress I channel Margot (I’m never wearing dungarees, Barbara didn’t get a look in).

It's all coming out now. The men admitting they fancied Margot not Barbara,

@guttersniper I did 30 days in Japan. But, I admit, it was cardigan weather, not coats. But even some of that stuff is not coming on the next trip. Aiming for as close to 5kg as I can get.

Eight days in Europe in one carry-on. Can it be done, she wondered ominously.

@AnneMossYeys I was saying this this morning. Travel journalism is now a largely unsustainable career as the pay does not cover the costs. Travel bloggers are now pivoting to write for FB which is not ‘how to get from A-B.’ Informational content is going to get harder and harder to access.

Sad to see this. Numerous publishers relied on a simple premise: As a publisher your job is to create good helpful content. Search engines would be out there to map out the internet and help your potential readers find your content. Because they are search engines and that's their function. But with what appears to be an ill-gained monopoly over both search traffic and monetization, Google decided to stop being a search engine. They figure the public won't notice and they may be right. An internet without small independet publishers like Retro Dodo is a bad thing. For everyone. And I think it's our responsibility as publishers to speak up.

@lfnand I’m intrigued. Helenfinuk@gmail.com

Looking for fellow travel experts, journalists, writers to join my new travel business - excellent potential to monetise our work better! Please give me a shout if you’re interested or know anyone who might be. Lisa x

@tferriss Mentally, I have 50 ready to go. Never going to read the fiction again. The non fiction is out of date. Physically, I have nowhere to take them and can’t bear to put them in the bin (I have no car).

The topic is decluttering books -- Anyone out there have advice for donating, getting rid of, or organizing an excess of books? What mental tricks or systems do you use to thin books out of your house? I have a strange difficulty here... Thanks for any and all thoughts!

@lilyraynyc Us journos being paid by the government to invent a pandemic are in the queue first. My money still hasn’t arrived. I had to give up my island and everything.

I would like to collect my paycheck, please.

It took me until yesterday to realize that there is an entire contingency of the internet that doesn't realize that SEO is a thing that exists outside of SEO for niche blogs.

@hannahfearn It does make me laugh that I avoided any kind of LARC yet, once the ship has sailed, docked and pretty much been broken down for scrap, I suddenly need one!

@hannahfearn I got one on Monday. It gives me the creeps, but it made sense to get it while I was knocked out for investigations rather than have to have it done awake six months down the line. So far, so good.

@worldlyadventur @TTWnewsletter I run a blog on Japan. I don’t live there. But I aim at people who are confused about planning their trips. Someone who lives there and knows how to use the trains, has PayPay, has a basic level of Japanese has a very different experience from a first time tourist.

Does anyone have any opinions on "parachute" travel journalism? (i.e. visiting a country w/ which you have no connections to write a story & then leave again) Should only people based in a destination write about it? For @TTWnewsletter, obviously

I was excited enough by the tiny Godzillas but Ryan Gosling just stole the whole thing. Best Oscars moment ever #iamkenough

Here is George Clooney’s response after Trump accused him of being a "Hollywood elite." "Here’s the thing: I grew up in Kentucky. I sold insurance door-to-door. I sold ladies’ shoes. I worked at an all-night liquor store. I would buy suits that were too big and too long and cut the bottom of the pants off to make ties so I’d have a tie to go on job interviews. I grew up understanding what it was like to not have health insurance for eight years. So this idea that I’m somehow the “Hollywood elite” and this guy who takes a shit in a gold toilet is somehow the man of the people is laughable. People in Hollywood, for the most part, are people from the Midwest who moved to Hollywood to have a career. So this idea of “coastal elites” living in a bubble is ridiculous. Who lives in a bigger bubble? He lives in a gold tower and has twelve people in his company. He doesn’t run a corporation of hundreds of thousands of people he employs and takes care of. He ran a company of twelve people! When you direct a film you have seven different unions all wanting different things, you have to find consensus with all of them, and you have to get them moving in the same direction. He’s never had to do any of that kind of stuff. I just look at it and I laugh when I see him say “Hollywood elite.” Hollywood elite? I don’t have a star on Hollywood Boulevard, Donald Trump has a star on Hollywood Boulevard! Fuck you!" - George Clooney actor, philanthropist, humanitarian & activist

@NinaClapperton Cool, thank you. I get it now. I thought they some how worked in your site, and I couldn’t work out what ChatGPT therefore had to do with it. Now it makes sense.

@HelenF_TWN You have to have a paid ChatGPT account and then its inside of ChatGPT. Mine works by either you uploading the images or feeding it your URL to the specific post

I'm so glad people are loving the GPT <3 It's meant to write your alt text for ya cause disabled people like me deserve a great UX, but also writing alt text kinda sucks. You can search for it in the GPT store :) it's free and always will be

@seanw_m If it starts apologising to a bloke called Dave, everybody run.