Classifieds, Culture Study Style
What are you doing, what are you making, what do you looking for
Culture Study readers live all over the world, doing all manner of things. That distance means we can’t necessary function like a hyper-local classifieds section, but I do think we can create a useful, niche, and lovely form of classifieds — because I’ve seen it happen over at Claire Zuckey’s great Evil Witches newsletter.
If it’s been a minute since you’ve perused the Classifieds Section, a few ideas:
On a very straightforward level: Do you provide a service or have an online (or offline, who knows, people might be near you!)? Tell us about it. Make sure to include links / social if you have them. (I know so many people who are always looking for graphic designers, for example — put your name here and people will come back to).
Do you have a specific skill that you’d like to offer others for free or a low fee? I’m thinking of proofreading, grant writing tips, finding very specific clothing items that you’ve seen on a TV show, help with PSLF applications, gardening advice, how to figure out supplemental Medicare insurance, how to get power of attorney, the list goes on. (We still don’t have a good way to message privately between commenters, so you can either post your email address OR tell people to contact me and I’ll connect you. Just say: EMAIL AHP WITH [INSERT TOPIC HERE] AND SHE’LL SEND YOU MY EMAIL ADDRESS (which I have because you’re a subscriber, not because I’m a creeper)
Maybe you just want to show us some cool shit you’re doing. Post a link to your photography, your Substack, your latest book, your music, your quilt, your design work. That’s awesome.
You want some readers for an early draft of a book or essay (or just want to talk through an idea). We’ve got a lot of voracious readers here who would love to help.
You’re looking for specific recs for a service or item either locally (e.g., “in and around Cleveland”) or on the internet (“I, personally, need a great graphic designer”)
You want a mail buddy, an email buddy, a reading club buddy. I’m trusting you all to not be skeezy here, but if you want someone to talk to — I bet someone here also wants to talk to you.
Things to Give Away. Are you downsizing and want to give stuff to people who want it and will use it? Specify whether you’ll pay the postage or you’d like them to do so. (If you want to post an image of something you’re offering, remember you can always do so using Imgur)
ANYTHING ELSE YOU CAN THINK OF IN THE CLASSIFIED VEIN
As always, this is a private, subscriber-only space. I have a lot of confidence that this is going to go well, but I also reserve the right to delete anything that feels off and/or skeevy. Don’t be butts about other people’s offerings and inquiries and let’s keep this one of the good places on the internet.