Hanging Out Online Success Team

[AthenaCat42]

Elaine, I try to never speak because of pain. I never hang out with anyone, I never socialize. I never chit chat on the phone. Facebook is my social outlet.

It has taken years to play with, sort out, figure out, but right now I have a pretty good core tribe of friends all around the world that I talk to, share with, post with. I post silly things, I share silly, interesting things, I share my life (to a degree), I participate of many groups of interest ... similar to people saying you should find blogs & contribute for business purposes, haven't yet done that.

It has also been an evolution as my "voice" has changed. I feel in many ways the same but am getting feedback my writing is different.

I haven't yet used it to further my business, that is coming up, though I have posted a few things from time to time about putting together a coaching program.

I will think more on this, and if you have any specific questions let me know.

[Elaine Glimme]

Hi, AthenaCat,
I think you'll post the business posts when you're ready to do it. Meanwhile every time you're posting on Facebook, you're creating a presence. So every post is a step forward. It's what I'm starting to do, but I have such a long way to go.

Good luck.

[AthenaCat42]

Yes, that's what I hear, that it takes time. Besides all the general social & support chit chat & also make comments about the program I am putting together so people can become aware of it before I actually have it ready to go. Which actually will be soon, I just need to get a check from one of my bookkeeping clients so I can pay one bill, then I'm off to the races!!

[Elaine Glimme]

Good vibes to you. Be sure to notice and to cheer for the small steps, because they count.

[AthenaCat42]

Well, I guess we kinda pooped out after all that marvelous energy! Unless we moved somewhere else I'm not aware of.

Anyway, I got a very difficult blog post finished and thought I would share it here, since many people here and in Hanging Out were encouraging me to write this:

http://www.thejoyfulshaman.com/dealing- ... in-part-2/

[Elaine Glimme]

Hi,

I read your blog. You had a lot of good information. Thanks for sharing that with the Internet. I have friends who have lived in constant pain, and you have some good suggestions there.
"
Do you remember Barbara Sher's post on HO "Three stages of excitement?" That's what this thread reminds me of. Stage one - life is wonderful. There's a ton of energy. You feel as if you can do anything. That's what all of you were feeling in June. (IMHO - in my humble opinion.) Then there's phase 2 - you crash. You figure that your idea is stupid. And then there's phase 3 - somewhere in the middle. And that's where most of the work gets done. Because most work is just taking one small step at a time. There are times of excitement and times of frustration, but mostly it's just doing the work. And it's fun (mostly) but not the mountain top experience of phase one. We can't live on a mountain top forever.

And some of the people may have finished what they wanted to do.

Anyway, if you want to keep posting here, I'll watch for your comments.

Me - My wish is to finish writing the sequel to "Temporary Address." That's the easy part. The rest of my wish is to promote "Temporary Address" and "The Molly Chronicles." That's what I'm trying to learn how to do. "Temporary Address" is a serious book. I wrote "The Molly Chronicles" because I needed a break from serious. Molly is a dog and she wrote the book while I was busy playing computer solitaire. My blog is part of my marketing, but I realize that the links for buying my book aren't very obvious. I get some traffic to my blog - not much - but I'm not getting any selling. And no one knows who I am, and I'm trying to get known. So those are my steps.

I figure "Molly" is an easier sell because dog humor is popular today. I post "ask Molly" every Monday (when I don't forget). Sometimes I think I should just pack up, go home, and eat ice cream. But mostly I just keep steppin' along.

Here's my link: http://www.temporaryaddress-jody.blogspot.com


Oh, also, there's a blog post in July- "Squawk: One Flew Under the Cuckoo's Nest." I'd love to read it on a radio interview. or I'd like to do a radio interview. Or I'd like to do an interview with a dog magazine to plug "The Molly Chronicles." And I have no idea how to do any of that.

[AthenaCat42]

Yes Elaine I go in and out of inspiration and crashing. I'm kinda working in a vacuum, so that throws me off. I spent a lot of time writing up my emails and got no response and I ended up questioning what I was doing - also I have to make a commitment to share something personal - something my family knows, my friends don't ... something my family will hate, something my friends already know ... two worlds colliding. I see no way around it, I have to step up and take what comes.

Thanks for the feedback on my post! I actually had it written last October, but I wanted to put in all the links. That took hours to do yesterday, and figure out how to make it work right to have the pictures and all that. I have Part 3 ready to go, which is for friends and family, which is scheduled to post next Monday.

I have actual right-now client work to do at the moment, but next is working on getting my email blast out. I have it written, I need to learn how to set up the autoresponder.


What are you doing, what books, processes, etc. are you doing to learn about marketing your books? I am curious because I want to do the same thing. And I also of course want to drive traffic to my blog & get my mail list going and all that.

For radio interviews & exposure you might try Bruce & Hobbs Radio. Here's one of their newsletters they sent to me. They have a podcast.

http://us10.campaign-archive2.com/?u=a2 ... c9ba99c38b

[Elaine Glimme]

Congrats on the right-now client. A slice of success!

I think Bruce and Hobs would be perfect first start to try to get Molly on the radio. (I'm scared, but I want to do it.) So I should e-mail a note to the radio show saying that Molly would like to be interviewed, and tell them a little about her and her work. Then I need to get people to read the parts of Molly, Squawk, and Tom. Then I need to make sure that my other life commitments, babysitting, doctor appointments, and trips don't interfere with the interview. Then we need to practice so that the interview goes well. Those are the steps. Of course I'm writing them for my benefit. It would probably be a good idea to listen to some other interviews or read some other interviews to get an idea of what to talk about. I'm sure we'd be talking about more than just the Squawk story. So - gulp - I'll do it.

Please don't get isolated. it really drains your energy - at least it drains mine.

You asked about my marketing. I'm not good at it at all. I have my blog and on my blog there's a link to Amazon for "The Molly Chronicles" and to Lulu.com for "Temporary Address." I post on Facebook and Twitter, and ask people to share my posts. I have a few friends who are great at sharing, so I get more visits to my blog but that's it. I think the links for buying the books have to be more obvious. I have a book called "Twitter Marketing for Dummies." You can get it at the library if you don't want to buy it. I did a book signing, at an animal festival. Small potatoes. I sold five books. I'm planning on getting a booth at the Christmas Tree lighting. I think "The Molly Chronicles" would make a great Christmas present. When you want to get something but have no idea what they want - dog humor is in.

A friend did a radio interview and got a lot of interest for her book, so I think the radio thing is a possibility. I have a handout from a self-publisher with a lot of tips for getting a book promoted. I read it, but I haven't done all of the things they said to do. At least not yet. I find it overwhelming, and I'm trying to just focus on a small step at a time.

So that's some ideas. Maybe some will work for you. Happy to brainstorm some more later.

[AthenaCat42]

Well, it was quasi-success ... this client was one I worked with for the bulk of last year on a very intensive and important County-wide project that will affect thousands of people. I have been out of the loop for some time as they put the finishing touches on things, but she needed some data analysis for her final report. It was rather mind-bending, and I think I hurt myself trying to get it done ... today was supposed to be getting back to working on my mailings but I slept so little and hurt so much I have postponed that and am working on less mentally challenging things.

A couple interesting things of note ...

That blog I posted yesterday, the one with the link, that actually was picked up by a chronic pain magazine / website! And shouted out to thousands of people!!

Also, my Mom met these folks in some county in California neither of us are normally ever in and long story short they ended up on my doorstep here in the boonies of the Florida Keys a few minutes ago ... they read my blog with chronic pain & all (not including yesterday's post) and thought it was great! The daughter is looking to move to Key West so they wanted to pick my brain about KW, chronic pain & more. It was great fun! And they paid me $100!!! I would have talked to them for free, and frankly, I just about wanted to hold them "hostage" out of my dire need for human interaction and real, honest, conversations. But I let them go with the referral to a particular awesome & unique local restaurant and to get the unique and awesome Key Lime Pie.

So probably good I had a pain flare day today because otherwise I would have had my mind all snarled up in figuring out how to work the autoresponder thingie.

Before I forget, and related to above, I do not WANT to isolate, I do not MEAN to isolate, but I find very few people I can relate to in general, less so with my business ideas / blog / work, and then as we get into where I live and that I have chronic pain, and the particular island I am on, isolation just is the way it is. I can hang around people but unless they are the right people, people I click with, like this father & daughter who just left, it makes me worse. Pain is worse, sense of worthlessness and isolation is worse, depression is worse. Better to be physically alone and have online support wherever I can find it. My closest friends are world-wide.


Glad Bruce & Hobbs sounds like a great fit! Until I posted yesterday I never knew why I was getting their emails. As far as I can recall, I never signed up for them, but apparently it was to give the information to you!

It sounds like you have a really great plan! You can do it!! Maybe listen to a few of their podcasts, get a feel for how it goes, how long it is, how much time you have to talk, then write up questions they can ask you / Molly, and prepare answers. Maybe make a special offering just for their listeners. You can create a special page just for them to buy your books. Maybe also write up something you can give as a "freebie" so people who hear the blog can at least download that - while providing their email of course - and you can start building your mail list. Then you can send out periodic mailings, blog updates, offers. The money is in the list!

Also don't minimize your sales! Five books is better than none! It's a start! And if you feel like you need to make purchasing from your website more obvious, then do so. In terms of Christmas advertising, nothing wrong with starting with reminders even now. Not a lot, maybe one every few weeks, with more building up as we get closer and closer to Christmas.

Just keep holding that intention! Still blows my mind two people, strangers, showed up at my door, talked to me, and paid me to just chit-chat!!!

[Elaine Glimme]

Hi, Athena,

That sounds like a lot of success to me. I think that's how it works. You do something. Maybe nothing happens, maybe you get shouted out to thousands of people. Then you do something else.

BTW, I used to publish a quarterly magazine when I worked for the health department, and in one issue, I asked for feedback. Out of 2000 readers, five answered me. I tried it another time, and got two responses. So don't be discouraged if you don't get a rousing response from your e-mails. Hopefully you'll get better than I did.

I'm going to write a practice letter to Bruce and Hobbs. I have a doctor's appointment today, and I don't want to mail the letter until after the appointment.

Good vibes to you.

[Elaine Glimme]

AthenaCat, you could post under "Wishes and Obstacles" that your wish is to learn how to use the Autoresponderthingie to send out e-mails and don't know how. You would probably get some help.

Me- Doctor's visit was a huge success. So I'll mail out my letter to Bruce and Hobbs today. Again thank you.

By the way, I reread your post about your good day, just for the enjoyment of reading it. Sometimes it feels like we just slog along and nothing happens. So it's nice to know that sometimes good things DO happen.


Later in the day - mailed out the e-mail to Bruce and Hobbs. Here's hoping . . .

[AthenaCat42]

Elaine, that's a good idea about the autoresponder. I am sure several people here use aWeber. I will be looking into it later today. Well, at least that is the plan. I'm coming out of a high pain day, and am simultaneously trying to stay "on schedule" so today is "chores day". I am having a hard time sitting at the computer for more than about 5-10 minutes. I have learned from experience that when I am learning something new, it helps if I have at least 20 minute chunks. It is easier for me to make some progress.

Glad to hear you are getting a letter out to Bruce and Hobbs! Can't wait to hear how it goes! Glad your doctor appointment went well also!

Now that I'm through the hardest of my blog posts, and I've been overall doing better in all areas, I'm getting into a routine ... I'm planning to get blogs written and scheduled. As I was writing this, I was thinking to do a "serious" blog on Mondays and a recipe blog on Fridays, but I am thinking to keep it to just one day a week so I always have some content. I have a lot of recipes written up, and a lot of other "just word" blogs (i.e. no pictures, no links) that I can get up and out fairly quickly.

Also thanks for that feedback & response on my good day!

[AthenaCat42]

I'm also reflecting that days I can't to sleep until 3 am, I am finding my "workday" is the bulk of the afternoon, when it is 90+ degrees in my bedroom / office / dining room / living room during summer months (July-October). Hard to focus when it's that hot! Some people like it, I don't. Really I should be wrapping up for today and resting in the heat until it's cool enough to shower off the sweat and go to bed.

[Elaine Glimme]

AthenaCat, thank you. Bruce and Hobbs said they'd love to interview Molly. I e-mailed was it okay to do it by phone, and they said, "yes." They're booked through September, so we'll do the interview some time in October. Firm dates to be assigned later. So thank you. Sometimes the good things do happen.

Hope you have some low-pain days.

And my husband was stationed in Florida and described summers as hot and muggy, and not much fun. Summer's almost over.

[AthenaCat42]

I'm so glad to hear about your interview!! Please let us know how that goes.

I generally never have people over and 3 people showed up at my door unexpectedly with screwed me up in massive ways, so I'm trying to get back on track. I do have times I am not in pain, but those are times I don't work!! LOL. Looking at the big picture I can see I am getting better and better over time, but it's hard to see that sometimes when in the pain of the moment.

Yes, summers here (which last before May through October) are very hot and muggy. It's not so bad if you have decent air conditioning - my landlady's home is quite cool actually! But my cottage gets massively hot. I sweat even inside, and often cannot get to sleep due to being so hot and sweaty. From a pain perspective I prefer to shower once a day - from a sweat perspective I like to shower 3-4 times a day. I would then prefer to put on clean clothes, but then that would result in far more laundry than I can handle!