Misty on Nostr: Pick where you Publish or Perish ++ https://m.primal.net/KutO.jpg Whenever you're in ...
Pick where you Publish or Perish
++
Whenever you're in business, some things will remain the same. Other things you must reevaluate and change as necessary.
These evaluations must be based on data and not purely emotion.
I know why I started my X account: to have a "personal brand" and to win a paying subscriber base for those who love reading my columns.
I had a three-phased approach, as building quickly was not possible with the restrictions I previously had.
Phase 1 was completed last year.
Phase 2 is 75% complete.
Phase 3 depends on the success and timing of Phase 2.
I originally had a book, subscriber-based products and services planned (and currently offered), and premium services. Three tiers of products and services to meet the needs of what I thought was my target audience.
Some of the things I'm reevaluating include my publishing models and marketing efforts.
- Do people want to pay for the stories I published now? -> No.
- Can you market your newsletter (where you can publish your stories freely?) -> Not without being heavily dinged by an algorithm (platform doesn't matter as they all penalize you for doing so).
- Can I publish for free under a rigid schedule for the next two to three years? -> No. I've been publishing on X for almost two years for free, but not all posts are stories that provide value. They can't be.
- Can you freelance the other products and services currently offered through DMs and other such things? -> Yes.
My biggest problems are:
1. I wanted to be paid for my stories, not necessarily my services. Big preference there. But people only want to pay for them if they're actual fans of your work, and it still requires publishing them (good stories, not just random posts) for free (for how long?) before you can switch to paid.
I won't be happy selling services forever. That's not why I got into this.
2. I've never had, and still don't have, anything to offer exclusively to a paying subscribe base that people are willing to pay for. I can't pour my heart and soul into my stories, publish them for free for "exposure," etc., only to provide something even more valuable to paid subscribers on top of it.
The stories themselves are the value.
I think that if I had something else to offer outside of the paid services already available through my newsletter to offer paying subscribers, I would have discovered it in the last two years.
I've tried niche blogging in the past. Again, the publishing grind and energy issues were too much, and, honestly, I was not too fond of every second of writing about something I didn't care about. If you want to make money with that, you have to grind in monetizable niches, none of which I'm enthused enough to write for free for 2-3 years.
The things I care about are not monetizable on a large scale. I already have these things set up, but this brings us back to the marketing issues.
I would probably have to live on Facebook to find the target market for those things.
One service's target market can be found on X but is probably more accessible on LinkedIn.
Repurposing my content from here for both of those places would require scrubbing and rewriting in ways that are slightly less authentic than now.
By the way, I hate that.
-->> Why do you have to write inauthentically so that people can listen to you in the first place? <<--
So, where do I go from here?
What do I do now?
If I continue with this, I must redo my newsletter and start writing heavily on Facebook, which will require more energy expenditure—more than I was prepared to suffer through going forward. I've sacrificed more than I care to share over the last 18 months. It was my final push, so to speak.
To sell my services truly in a practical way, I have to start writing heavily on LinkedIn.
What does that leave for my X account?
I decided to ask AI.
The results partially prompted this post.
I know I can be successful, but that doesn't matter if people aren't willing to buy what you're selling.
The most popular topics here on X are niches I do not engage in, which means my reach will never be extensive. I can use trolls' fodder to make more money, but their garbage is taxing.
When you get large enough, and you know there are groups of people dedicated on these platforms solely with the sole intent of destroying a person, it makes you question (at least for me as a woman) when this stops being worth it.
It's not worth it for me to compromise my self-respect or morals to "gain more views." Logically, my reach will never be what it needs to be to have decent ad revenue payouts or a large-paying subscriber base—at least on X.
Substack? - Nobody sees your work (grind for 2-3 years for free, and then will they pay for what you're already publishing for free? Nope.)
Beehiiv was good and can be good for some, but their prices are steep unless you have a large subscriber base, which I do not have. After next spring, I won't be able to justify its cost going forward.
Medium? - Been there, done that. The constantly changing rules mean you never know what you'll be paid. The best-performing topics are, again, things I don't engage in or I'd have to write in ways that compromise my morals and values.
Nostr? - People can pay directly if they want to, and that's a great thing, mainly because they aren't forced into an amount. However, the daily active user base is still minimal, and how accounts are discovered or preserved isn't done in a typical way. In some ways, you have to be even more social than in other places. This can mean a larger energy expenditure issue, especially for introverts.
Now, experts are citing the need to be visible in 2024 and teach what you know, or you will fall by the wayside. Other experts tell you to lead conversations before your industry suffers at the hands of the less experienced.
It's a neverending cycle.
I thought I could avoid all that this time, but maybe I was just fooling myself.
--> I truly believe a person is never stuck, and in their core, if they get very quiet and are willing to be brutally honest with themselves, they already have the answer. <<--
Somewhere in here, I already know the answers. I just need to get quiet enough to sense them.
++
Whenever you're in business, some things will remain the same. Other things you must reevaluate and change as necessary.
These evaluations must be based on data and not purely emotion.
I know why I started my X account: to have a "personal brand" and to win a paying subscriber base for those who love reading my columns.
I had a three-phased approach, as building quickly was not possible with the restrictions I previously had.
Phase 1 was completed last year.
Phase 2 is 75% complete.
Phase 3 depends on the success and timing of Phase 2.
I originally had a book, subscriber-based products and services planned (and currently offered), and premium services. Three tiers of products and services to meet the needs of what I thought was my target audience.
Some of the things I'm reevaluating include my publishing models and marketing efforts.
- Do people want to pay for the stories I published now? -> No.
- Can you market your newsletter (where you can publish your stories freely?) -> Not without being heavily dinged by an algorithm (platform doesn't matter as they all penalize you for doing so).
- Can I publish for free under a rigid schedule for the next two to three years? -> No. I've been publishing on X for almost two years for free, but not all posts are stories that provide value. They can't be.
- Can you freelance the other products and services currently offered through DMs and other such things? -> Yes.
My biggest problems are:
1. I wanted to be paid for my stories, not necessarily my services. Big preference there. But people only want to pay for them if they're actual fans of your work, and it still requires publishing them (good stories, not just random posts) for free (for how long?) before you can switch to paid.
I won't be happy selling services forever. That's not why I got into this.
2. I've never had, and still don't have, anything to offer exclusively to a paying subscribe base that people are willing to pay for. I can't pour my heart and soul into my stories, publish them for free for "exposure," etc., only to provide something even more valuable to paid subscribers on top of it.
The stories themselves are the value.
I think that if I had something else to offer outside of the paid services already available through my newsletter to offer paying subscribers, I would have discovered it in the last two years.
I've tried niche blogging in the past. Again, the publishing grind and energy issues were too much, and, honestly, I was not too fond of every second of writing about something I didn't care about. If you want to make money with that, you have to grind in monetizable niches, none of which I'm enthused enough to write for free for 2-3 years.
The things I care about are not monetizable on a large scale. I already have these things set up, but this brings us back to the marketing issues.
I would probably have to live on Facebook to find the target market for those things.
One service's target market can be found on X but is probably more accessible on LinkedIn.
Repurposing my content from here for both of those places would require scrubbing and rewriting in ways that are slightly less authentic than now.
By the way, I hate that.
-->> Why do you have to write inauthentically so that people can listen to you in the first place? <<--
So, where do I go from here?
What do I do now?
If I continue with this, I must redo my newsletter and start writing heavily on Facebook, which will require more energy expenditure—more than I was prepared to suffer through going forward. I've sacrificed more than I care to share over the last 18 months. It was my final push, so to speak.
To sell my services truly in a practical way, I have to start writing heavily on LinkedIn.
What does that leave for my X account?
I decided to ask AI.
The results partially prompted this post.
I know I can be successful, but that doesn't matter if people aren't willing to buy what you're selling.
The most popular topics here on X are niches I do not engage in, which means my reach will never be extensive. I can use trolls' fodder to make more money, but their garbage is taxing.
When you get large enough, and you know there are groups of people dedicated on these platforms solely with the sole intent of destroying a person, it makes you question (at least for me as a woman) when this stops being worth it.
It's not worth it for me to compromise my self-respect or morals to "gain more views." Logically, my reach will never be what it needs to be to have decent ad revenue payouts or a large-paying subscriber base—at least on X.
Substack? - Nobody sees your work (grind for 2-3 years for free, and then will they pay for what you're already publishing for free? Nope.)
Beehiiv was good and can be good for some, but their prices are steep unless you have a large subscriber base, which I do not have. After next spring, I won't be able to justify its cost going forward.
Medium? - Been there, done that. The constantly changing rules mean you never know what you'll be paid. The best-performing topics are, again, things I don't engage in or I'd have to write in ways that compromise my morals and values.
Nostr? - People can pay directly if they want to, and that's a great thing, mainly because they aren't forced into an amount. However, the daily active user base is still minimal, and how accounts are discovered or preserved isn't done in a typical way. In some ways, you have to be even more social than in other places. This can mean a larger energy expenditure issue, especially for introverts.
Now, experts are citing the need to be visible in 2024 and teach what you know, or you will fall by the wayside. Other experts tell you to lead conversations before your industry suffers at the hands of the less experienced.
It's a neverending cycle.
I thought I could avoid all that this time, but maybe I was just fooling myself.
--> I truly believe a person is never stuck, and in their core, if they get very quiet and are willing to be brutally honest with themselves, they already have the answer. <<--
Somewhere in here, I already know the answers. I just need to get quiet enough to sense them.