It's a Squeaky Green Go-Ahead

I recently decided to dip my toe into the water and post an article on Fb and check out the response, not only in the comments on Fb but also to see how many would take up the invitation to subscribe to my brand new out of the box newsletter.

The little ripple from my toe-dip was encouraging enough for me to now put my foot into the water and hopefully not into my mouth. More than 100 views and the 12-15 people who took a bit of a plunge and subscribed to my newsletter on a free plan is motivation enough for me to keep it up. My focus now has shifted to living up to the expectations, if there are any, of my new readers.

In my first story shared on social media I explained that a few short months ago I had registered on Medium, and a few weeks later on Vocal and then on Substack. That story was written and published on Substack, on which I'm still finding my way around as there seems to be more to it than just writing and publishing. Aside from some differences in rules and conditions the same basic concept runs through all three platforms. It is an opportunity to express oneself through writing and earn an income if you are in a Stripe-supported country, which I'm not.

Payment processing options

For those of you wondering why I chose Substack instead of Medium and Vocal the reason is that Substack is looking at other payment processing options besides Stripe, and cryptocurrency is one of them. Brazil and India are on an option called beta which I don't anything about. When I queried that, they suggested I fill in an application form to go on beta, which I have done. It's wait and see what happens next.

So I figured let me start building a subscriber list on Substack in the meantime so that when another payment option becomes available I will be in a position of already having subscribers, free plan at the moment they may be, but ready to offer subscribers paid options.

What to write, what to write…

To get back to what this article is about, I’ve published a few stories on Medium and Vocal, some of them on both platforms with a few tweaks and am still really finding my feet as to what direction I’m going with the writing. Topics I know a lot about, life lessons and experiences (who gives a rat’s arse), advice (it better be bloody good or you're just another patronizing asshole) skillsets, (you better know what you talking about), the list goes on… I think anything a person says or writes that starts with the word “My…” or “When I… (my hand shoots up), to mention a few, is a red flag for the listener or reader.

So I’ll go with honesty as the best policy.

It’s a learning curve with minefields as is life, but more so when you are putting it “out there”, and I’m not talking here about casual posts on social media, although that can also go horribly wrong with bad consequences on occasions as some of us may have already experienced.

There goes the anonymity safety bubble

As I mentioned earlier, I have published a few articles on Vocal and Medium, platforms that have large audiences of supposedly millions of readers, but it’s ok as on these two platforms I’m just another no-name hack trying to cut it as a writer on the platform and get some followers. One of the thousands!

It’s tougher though when you are starting a newsletter that you hope people will find interesting, meaningful, even newsworthy, and enjoyable enough to be worth their while to subscribe to. And that’s writing to a readership that doesn’t know me, has never heard of me.

Here’s the crunch though. And it only struck me as I was busy writing my first post last week and then sunk in deeper as the week progressed.

It’s out there on Facebook!

Relationships, the good the bad, and the ugly

The tickler is that I know many of the audience on Fb and many of them know, know about, or have heard of me. There are family, friends, former work colleagues, acquaintances, second generation, third generation through “mutual friends”. There is history! Heck, some of us were in school together, the army, pubs, church, funerals, holidays, had many, many drinks together, some of us still do when we get a gap.

Laughed, cried, puked together, been in a relationship with, good, bad, ugly, toxic, deep, not so deep, part-time full-time, and finally, over. Or is it? Who knows where a path can lead? One way or the other writing is a sharing of yourself to one degree level or another, and it can be tough and embarrasing when you know there are readers that still have or even had a connection with you.

It's so much easier to share through writing to the unknown masses out there.

Beware memory refreshers and tread with care

Out of sight is not necessarily out of mind, and today through social media, communication is but a click away on your phone or desktop. Some memories, beautiful, not so beautiful, precious, and downright terrible, never go away.

Many memories are personal and best only shared with those involved in the memory. I have to make sure mutually shared memories are respected that way in my newsletter. No name, no shame, no pain.

At the end of the day, one needs to remember that you as the writer are expressing your thoughts and ideas, and even if you are sharing your expertise to a certain (unknown) audience who are interested in your topic, you are still writing for yourself and not compromising because it may upset someone you know on social media.

For me, honesty is still the best policy.