100 Followers : Our First Milestone!
31 Aug 2020My Dearest Mad-Readers,
It has been a long (though rather short compared to some) and difficult road paved with dreams and failures, with delight when my stats boomed up one day but also the desire to quit as soon as they raced down a few days or weeks later. I expect it will keep being challenging, yet I find this challenge most exciting. As our community has reached its first milestone, I would like to show you my gratitude by answering some questions you may have had.
Question Time
1. How long have I been blogging ?
Not long, actually. I began in March of this year.
2. Why blog ?
To be honest, I did not expect blogging to turn out as one of my major passions. I had simple goals in March. I merely wanted to write in a different way. I did not even care so much about my readership at the time. That has changed. I see blogging as a way to express myself, but also to combine all my interests whilst being of help to anyone who may have a question I can answer.
3. Do I intend to get a social media account soon ?
I have a YouTube account, and a Good-reads account. I do not intend to create another social media account. I do not believe in Facebook, nor Twitter, nor Reddit, or whatever you like to call it. They are all the same to me. I see Good-reads and YouTube differently, since they actually offer a service which has the potential to make the world a better place. Do not mistake me however. Social networks all have that potential, but I do not believe that we, humans, can handle their firepower (if you take my meaning).
4. Will I ever have a newsletter ?
I am thinking about it but I am not yet sure. Would you be interested in one ? What news would you like to hear from me ? Tell me in the comments below ! ;)
5. Will I write more in French in the future ?
Yes. I have not made up my mind about a fixed publishing timetable yet but I am currently experimenting on what works best for me (and you). I believe I will soon switch to 2 or 3 articles a week : 1 or 2 in English, 1 in French. It should leave me some time to publish at least a video a week and work on my other projects. Since I need to make some money to survive, I believe my freelance activities will have to take most of my time at some point. I am not there yet, though...
6. What are some of my projects for the future ?
- Youtube : One my my priorities for the future is to develop my YouTube channel. My skills are still pretty sketchy, to be honest, but I am so into it that I don't believe it can go wrong. I just need to put in the work, and everything will be okay :)
- Blogging : I have been designing a publishing schedule, for both my YouTube channel and this blog. It is not yet set in stone, but I want to do a few articles, and one or two videos a week. This will of course depend on how much time everything else takes, but I will only deal with that when the time comes.
- Teespring : I don't know how many years I have been dreaming about having my own T-Shirt designs, but it has been a while (and that is a euphemism)... I have not created any designs yet, as this blog has been keeping me busy, along with other personal things. However I am most excited to the prospect of doing it.
- Amazon.com : It has not been very successful this month but I have partnered with amazon. You may know if you read this post.
- Patreon : If you wish to support my efforts, it is still time to be the first to do it. Patreon is a platform I believe in, since it allows creators and their audiences to share what they love.
- Freelancing : I have heard about many French and English websites, and despite how hard it may be, I am determined to try and become a successful freelance writer. Since I have other skills, it is possible I do other things, such as teaching, consulting or even building websites... Not that the latter thrills me the most but I am open to what the world will offer to me.
- Publishing books : I have been writing for so many years, writing books is an obvious step to take. I am still working on most of my projects however. I see myself more as a Tolkien (I wouldn't pretend to have his talent, but it may take me 20 years to write my first epic-fantasy trilogy...) than a Sanderson, if you see what I mean. ^_^
World building rules !
7. Am I still motivated to get going ?
Some of you might consider it bad taste to quote Hannah Montana (but I don't care, I'm the writer here!), yet I will do it anyway :
Life is a climb, but the view is great.
Sometimes blogging is difficult and I wonder whether it is worth my time. However I love it more than I have ever loved most activities I have been given to practice. It allows me to combine all my extremely diverse skills, and I am not sure anything else could do that. Plus, I want you to remember something else : everything sucks, some of the time.
Whatever you do, there will always be hardships and things you would rather not do, however passionate you may be.
Signing Off
If you liked this post, you may like this post too. If you have any more questions for me, feel free to ask in the comments or to shoot me an email. I do my best to answer to everyone of you with the shortest delay possible.
If you want to be among all the amazing (and proudly mad) people in this community, you only need follow this blog (via email or WordPress). If you aren't following this blog yet but trust its future content will rock as the one which preceded, subscribe and get notified whenever I publish a new article. I am not yet a superstar on YouTube, but you may still subscribe to my channel to support me. I am working on some new content, which I hope you will enjoy.
Take care of yourselves,
Phil.
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