You had me at Tommy Castro. I love him. I was a DJ for swing dances in the Boston area and the West Coast Swing dancers loved when I played some Tommy Castro. I love the blues. The blues rock more than rock rocks.
Re: paid vs non-paid and writing because you love to write, metrics, and all that, here's my theory: I never know if 1 tiny thing I write/say/draw/publish/think will touch someone in a way I never expected, but may be life changing or so important to them, not because I wanted to write/say/draw/publish/think a particular, but because my intentions or heart or spontaneous burst of sharing a perspective or love of something, just flies around. Sometime it lands, sometimes it keeps flying. Keep flying, Terry! Your words rock, too.
I took that blues break, much appreciated. no use stressing out about stuff we can't control. listen to more blues instead. maybe we'll all have AIPAs (AI Personal Assistants) to deal with the stats and SEO optimisations in the future, scour Notes to leave likes and comments and target stacks that are most likely to engage back, given their segment... huh, I guess that's already happening 😅
Restacked with my comment. Should have commented and also shared as a note.
Here's what I wrote (quoting your bit about not looking at metric etc):
Word.
(Perhaps I shouldn’t have restacked this, Terry. I don’t want you to feel you need to check it etc 😉.)
In all seriousness, well said. It’s sometimes easy for me to forget this. All I want to do is write, too, and to continue to find the joy, mystery and creativity in this most precious of endeavours. ✍
Such a great start to the week, Terry! As you will note from the shocking tardiness of my comment my week didn't start until Tuesday evening.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts around going paid, inspired by Tom's post - it's been really interesting learning how others stand on this.
We were in your neck of the woods for an afternoon/evening shoot last week - we could only DREAM of Bob's burgers and the company of you, Elaine and the three feline Freedmen. Before we started driving home after a late finish we enjoyed* eating lukewarm chilli out of our Thermos flasks while waiting for the van windscreen to defrost.....
*not really, actually
Oh, I can't wait for 'Inside Freedman Towers' to hit our TV screens, Terry! Are you writing the screenplay yet? Please bear me in mind when you're casting - I'd like to play either Minty or Mocha.
Thank you for sharing this amazing video of Tommy Castro and the Painkillers, I loved it!! Yes the faces and YES the keyboards, both are so good.
You wrote what is in my mind about analytics. They always make me feel yucky (that's a Canadian term BTW) and then I feel 'less than' for my response. All in all, not a great way to feel so I tend to avoid them.
Perhaps you were thinking longingly of what you want to eat when you replied for Rebecca? Just sayin!
Funny you should mention Mr. Pendergast. I met Tom last week at the Substack Seattle meet up! I read the article right after hubby helped me with my SEO and said to me, You might want to look at your analytics. I replied, I don’t view anything with the word Anal as the first two syllables.
I briefly followed one lady who was bemoaning the fact that she couldn’t hang on to subscribers. Every past post I clicked on was accessible to paid subscribers only, so there was no way to assess the appeal of her writing! Most paid subscriptions are NOT cheap, so I’ll usually wait a month or so before deciding we have compatible tastes and signing up, but there is a limit to how many paid subscriptions one can afford. (And a limit to how many subscriptions one can find time to read. Life is for more than just Substack after all.)
I have been thinking along the same lines as Tom regarding going paid, probably because, like Tom, I am retired from a lifelong career and don't want or need another job. One of the last things Tom mentioned would seem like a reasonable solution for those of us who appreciate the Substack platform and realize that it requires money to operate. I could see a modest yearly fee ($25-35) per year for writers who, after one free year, have elected to not have a paid option. This seems reasonable to me but I'm sure there are those who would disagree so enough of my persiflage!
BEST PHOTO OF YOU EVER! Had I been there before Elaine, I would have snapped you up. What were you, about 30??
I don't know who Tommy Castro is, but I could listen to him until I die. Takes me back.... Here's one for you. Lightnin' Hopkins. (Lord, have mercy!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtFqyNlsHXU
And another thing :) Your point about when a post does get popular and then you try to figure out why it does so: this damned "Why I'm Not Going Paid" post is getting way more engagement than most, and yet when I posted it yesterday I thought, "Oh Tom, this is so damned self-indulgent, nobody cares about why you're not going paid." (And I'd aver that they don't: what they care about is their own relationship with money and that's why it rang a bell.) So what do I do? Write more self-indulgent pieces or write more about money? Or (far more likely) write about what tickles my fancy and let the chips fall where they may.
Terry, you've put your finger right on another element of my discomfort with going paid: I think it would cause me to pay more attention to these stats, and the need to sprinkle my posts with reminders to go paid, and I just don't want to think about that business. I'm hard pressed to insert any buttons at all into my posts, figuring the people know what to do if they want to like or share, they don't need me to lead them around by the nose. (But I also realize that these buttons get put there whether I like it or not: reading your piece now, I see this bright red "Upgrade to paid" button in the most auspicious spot, and I'll bet you had nothing to do with it.
You had me at Tommy Castro. I love him. I was a DJ for swing dances in the Boston area and the West Coast Swing dancers loved when I played some Tommy Castro. I love the blues. The blues rock more than rock rocks.
Re: paid vs non-paid and writing because you love to write, metrics, and all that, here's my theory: I never know if 1 tiny thing I write/say/draw/publish/think will touch someone in a way I never expected, but may be life changing or so important to them, not because I wanted to write/say/draw/publish/think a particular, but because my intentions or heart or spontaneous burst of sharing a perspective or love of something, just flies around. Sometime it lands, sometimes it keeps flying. Keep flying, Terry! Your words rock, too.
I took that blues break, much appreciated. no use stressing out about stuff we can't control. listen to more blues instead. maybe we'll all have AIPAs (AI Personal Assistants) to deal with the stats and SEO optimisations in the future, scour Notes to leave likes and comments and target stacks that are most likely to engage back, given their segment... huh, I guess that's already happening 😅
Also, funny ad convo, Terry.
Restacked with my comment. Should have commented and also shared as a note.
Here's what I wrote (quoting your bit about not looking at metric etc):
Word.
(Perhaps I shouldn’t have restacked this, Terry. I don’t want you to feel you need to check it etc 😉.)
In all seriousness, well said. It’s sometimes easy for me to forget this. All I want to do is write, too, and to continue to find the joy, mystery and creativity in this most precious of endeavours. ✍
Such a great start to the week, Terry! As you will note from the shocking tardiness of my comment my week didn't start until Tuesday evening.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts around going paid, inspired by Tom's post - it's been really interesting learning how others stand on this.
We were in your neck of the woods for an afternoon/evening shoot last week - we could only DREAM of Bob's burgers and the company of you, Elaine and the three feline Freedmen. Before we started driving home after a late finish we enjoyed* eating lukewarm chilli out of our Thermos flasks while waiting for the van windscreen to defrost.....
*not really, actually
Oh, I can't wait for 'Inside Freedman Towers' to hit our TV screens, Terry! Are you writing the screenplay yet? Please bear me in mind when you're casting - I'd like to play either Minty or Mocha.
Thank you for sharing this amazing video of Tommy Castro and the Painkillers, I loved it!! Yes the faces and YES the keyboards, both are so good.
You wrote what is in my mind about analytics. They always make me feel yucky (that's a Canadian term BTW) and then I feel 'less than' for my response. All in all, not a great way to feel so I tend to avoid them.
Perhaps you were thinking longingly of what you want to eat when you replied for Rebecca? Just sayin!
Funny you should mention Mr. Pendergast. I met Tom last week at the Substack Seattle meet up! I read the article right after hubby helped me with my SEO and said to me, You might want to look at your analytics. I replied, I don’t view anything with the word Anal as the first two syllables.
I briefly followed one lady who was bemoaning the fact that she couldn’t hang on to subscribers. Every past post I clicked on was accessible to paid subscribers only, so there was no way to assess the appeal of her writing! Most paid subscriptions are NOT cheap, so I’ll usually wait a month or so before deciding we have compatible tastes and signing up, but there is a limit to how many paid subscriptions one can afford. (And a limit to how many subscriptions one can find time to read. Life is for more than just Substack after all.)
Cool blues clip, nice read. Thanks Terry.
I have been thinking along the same lines as Tom regarding going paid, probably because, like Tom, I am retired from a lifelong career and don't want or need another job. One of the last things Tom mentioned would seem like a reasonable solution for those of us who appreciate the Substack platform and realize that it requires money to operate. I could see a modest yearly fee ($25-35) per year for writers who, after one free year, have elected to not have a paid option. This seems reasonable to me but I'm sure there are those who would disagree so enough of my persiflage!
BEST PHOTO OF YOU EVER! Had I been there before Elaine, I would have snapped you up. What were you, about 30??
I don't know who Tommy Castro is, but I could listen to him until I die. Takes me back.... Here's one for you. Lightnin' Hopkins. (Lord, have mercy!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtFqyNlsHXU
And another thing :) Your point about when a post does get popular and then you try to figure out why it does so: this damned "Why I'm Not Going Paid" post is getting way more engagement than most, and yet when I posted it yesterday I thought, "Oh Tom, this is so damned self-indulgent, nobody cares about why you're not going paid." (And I'd aver that they don't: what they care about is their own relationship with money and that's why it rang a bell.) So what do I do? Write more self-indulgent pieces or write more about money? Or (far more likely) write about what tickles my fancy and let the chips fall where they may.
Terry, you've put your finger right on another element of my discomfort with going paid: I think it would cause me to pay more attention to these stats, and the need to sprinkle my posts with reminders to go paid, and I just don't want to think about that business. I'm hard pressed to insert any buttons at all into my posts, figuring the people know what to do if they want to like or share, they don't need me to lead them around by the nose. (But I also realize that these buttons get put there whether I like it or not: reading your piece now, I see this bright red "Upgrade to paid" button in the most auspicious spot, and I'll bet you had nothing to do with it.
"Do you have ANY idea how rude you sound?"
The British are the only people in the world who can sound polite and rude at the same time. The rest of us are still trying to figure that out.