Mailing lists and email

I'm trying to decide what I want to do when it comes to a mailing list. There are a lot of good services out there that charge you a nominal fee to keep track of email addresses from your fans. These companies are great and do wonders for most people. My problem is I don't want to spend money on a mailing list I'm not sure is going to help me in any way.

What I'm thinking about doing is using this blogger account to send notices to everybody who subscribes to it. This means I will use it just to update everyone on finished projects and where they can get them.

I guess I could use it to talk about things that interest me. I can use it to create a conversation between me and my readers. I could use it to let people know about what I am reading. If I do all these things then I guess I am using it for what most bloggers use their blogs for.

What I might do is make a point to get people to sign up for the email notifications. This means if you are opted in to receive notifications on this web blog, every time I make a post you will see it.

I am also thinking about making my email address public. I'm thinking about letting people email me when they read my books. I know that's asking for a lot of punishment. I know people are going to start emailing me all kinds of good and bad comments. I will set myself up to receive a lot of spam. This is all part of the decision.

The reason I'm thinking about doing this is for the feedback. If I have a lot of negative comments coming my way through email then I know I have to do something about it in future projects. If I'm getting good feedback, I know I'm doing something right. I can also use the feedback to inspire new projects. There may be questions I can answer in long form, as a book I can offer to my readers. 

I can also use the feedback to figure out what my audience is really interested in. If I'm getting a lot of responses about the same thing then I can focus on that one thing and create a solution.

Whatever the case, I think I'm going to start making some small changes to my workflow. 

I need to find a way to write every day and to edit every day and to release books on a more regular basis. I have allowed myself to fall into a rut, not writing for the past three or four weeks. I am going to find a way to inspire myself to write more. I'm not sure how I'm going to do this yet but I am hoping you will be active and respond to me and let me know how you get yourself to sit down and write every day.

Don't worry about what other people think

Today I am trying to decrease my #stress and #anxiety by being #happy about what I #amwriting and #love getting any response people might have to it, be it good or bad.

I find I worry about what other people think about my writing. I pondered the reason why today when I sat down to write this post. There are several reasons I might feel a little uncomfortable with people reading what I have to say. For one, they might disagree with me. They might disagree and then in turn, try to prove me wrong.

These readers might also laugh at what I might have to say. They may not take me seriously or find my writing thoughtless or insignificant. They might go to their friends and point and laugh. I just picture being on a elementary school kickball field, A group of kids standing together pointing and laughing because I had just missed the ball and landed on my rear end. Maybe that's what might happen if I put my writing out there. Maybe I will miss the point, land on my proverbial rear end, everybody in the world laughing at me.

I've come to realize over the last 10 years or so that most people are not even aware of what you're trying to do. They may read your writing, think about it for a brief moment and then continue on their way without a second thought. They might agree with you and send you a small note saying they do. They might disagree and let you know why they disagree. That's okay. Every person has their own opinions.

Most people are not out to get you. They're not interested in pointing and laughing. They have their own problems and their own concerns. They're probably worried about what they might be doing that you might laugh at.

If they do take the time to tell other people how bad your writing is or how wrong a specific point was, they just advertised your writing for you even though it was negatively. There'll be a percentage of people who will come read your writing just to see if their friend was right. They will want to make their own choice. That means more people will read your writing.

I don't know if anybody is actually reading my blog. I think a few people have come back on a regular basis whenever I post something new. I definitely don't have the largest reader base but that's not really why I write these posts. I write them to help myself write every day. This is the third day in a row I have written a blog post. I'm not really setting myself any goals as to how often or how long I will be writing, but I like the idea of writing every day even if it's only a paragraph or two. We will see if I can keep the interest of my readers and possibly draw new readers to the blog. If I can, that's awesome. If I don't, well, I can live with that too.

I am trying something different today on this post. I added a few hashtags to the beginning of the post to see if I can draw any readers from Twitter. When I post this blog entry, it automatically sends a tweet on Twitter with the first line or two of the post. If I can get it to show up on some of these popular hashtags then maybe more people will come read the blog. It's an experiment and I don't know if it will work. I will let you know what comes of it.

Well I was going to try and write something...

I'm sitting here on my lunch break trying to think of something to write about. I wanted to update my blog but what to write about has been rather difficult. 

I'm trying to find something I can write about on a regular basis. I am thinking about letting you read my thoughts as they come out of my brain. Sometimes they makes sense but most of the time what comes out is utter nonsense.

I am hoping I can find something I can share with you every day when I am on my lunch break. I will sit down and write several things that I have been thinking about and then spend time dictating it on to my blog. This will allow me to release some of the creative juices that don't get released when I am working in the store.

One of the things I have thought about doing is writing sections of the books I have outlined in my notebook. There are probably about two dozen books I have outlined and have yet to sit down to write. If I can get myself to write for at least 15 to 20 minutes then I will have a decent size blog post to send out to you. 

My only worry is it won't be interesting and you will just laugh at me and walk away from the blog. I guess it's not really the reason I write the blog. Usually I write to focus my mind and think about the things I want to write about. I write about things that are going on in my day so I can leave them on the blog instead of allowing them in my writing. 

I think what I'm going to do right now is to finish some of the outlines that are towards the last few pages of my notebook. I started them with a chapter number in mind and I write down the ideas for each chapter. If I can come up with enough ideas to make an entire book then I can go ahead and start writing it. I have three of these notebooks I have filled up. There are dozens of outlines in them so I will never run out of things to write about.

Writing in Bed

I am writing these words while I'm laying in bed. You may be asking how am I writing while I'm in bed. The easy answer is I'm dictating into my phone.

Sometimes I have great ideas while I'm trying to go to sleep. These are the moments when I am most inspired to write. When this happens I either turn on the light grab my notebook and write down the ideas, or I grab my cell phone open a document and start dictating what I want to write.

If you are sleeping next to someone and they happen to be in the bed with you, dictating may be rather annoying. If you were talking to your cell phone, you might get slapped by a person trying to sleep. This might be the moment you may need to get up and go to the living room and sit in for the computer and start typing. Your significant other will appreciate it, and you will most likely get more written.

Write more, Earn more

I am finding that if I write on a regular basis, the money will start to flow my direction. I have been trying different websites for posting blog posts. The name of the website I have been using is BubbleWS.com. I have already requested my first payment of $50. It is supposed to be here by the first week of September. I am very close to being ready to request my second payment of $50. The only problem is the website is suffering from some bugs keeping me from that threshold.

The old website I used to write on called squidoo.com has sent out an email stating that they have sold their business to HubPages. So this means they will not be paying me anymore. I wasn't making much from them anyway. I haven't made more than $15 or $20 in the last six months.

Today I think I have decided to start writing more on this Blogger.com blog. I think there is a better possibility of earning money here than there ever will be on any other third-party website. One day maybe I might spend some money on my own blog again. As of right now, I don't know when that's going to be.