I tried doing some experimenting for audience growth over the past couple weeks and discovered something interesting about myself. I don’t need an audience at all.
I tried a couple of things. First, I went on Reddit. I created an anonymous Mr. Boring profile with references back to the site and subscribed to several various related subreddits; personal finance, productivity, minimalism, financial independence. I started commenting on existing threads and started a couple of threads. The thought was that I would learn how to make intriguing content while also building a brand and following. Once I felt confident that I had both, I would start plugging my site and see if I could get some readers.
The other path I tried was I reached out to a handful of the content creators that I follow. I didn’t ask them to guest post or see if I could guest post for them or even ask them to help spread the word. I just asked for feedback to see how I could do things better.
After going through both of those exercises, I started questioning why I was taking the time to do those things. Doing that outreach was very far out of my comfort zone that it felt like good practice, but that was the only real value I could see. I know some people want to become influencers, some people want to be heard and have a voice, some people want to be the center of attention, and some people do it for a living or to help them channel their energies. All of these are fine, but none of them related to my beacons. I didn’t need an audience to accomplish any of the things I’m set out to do.
But then why maintain the site in the first place? That’s an excellent question. I’ve gained value from creating content for the site. I can’t deny that. Let’s deconstruct that a bit.
I’m a big fan of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Creating content for this site has forced me to do Habit 2: Begin With The End In Mind. All of my goals and ambitions are nothing new. But I haven’t put my current goals down on paper before and tried to organize them. They were only flying around in my mind, hoping to see the light of day. With this site, I’ve started to write out plans on how to achieve what I want to accomplish in life instead of just winging it and letting persistence push me through. On top of that, by organizing my projects and starting a weekly update, I was able to see how much I was overloading myself — double whammy by writing it all out.
The other way it’s helped is the imaginary audience. Let me explain. I don’t know if this is normal, but as a little kid, I would always imagine I was talking to someone when I sorted out my thoughts. It was usually someone I liked or respected. However, it was often someone who I wasn’t close enough to so that I could share my thoughts in real life. The internal dialogues I would have would always be one-sided. They would involve me explaining to this person what I was thinking and what was going on with my life. It’s not that I didn’t have friends that I could talk to about stuff. I just preferred not to tell people the innermost thoughts. I didn’t trust people to share that information. What I put out to the rest of the world was always more fine-tuned and structured. Or at least I thought it was, even if the reality is what I presented to the world was very similar to my internal dialogues.
I’m an introvert. I’m guessing extroverts tell their life story to real people all the time. Instead, I keep my life story to myself and let my actions represent my story to the world. I prefer it this way. I don’t burden people, even close friends or family, with that constant energy drain. Active listening takes a lot of energy, and I wouldn’t want to put that on other people. The reality is probably worse; that most people would only pretend to listen. Internal dialogues are so much better.
This site is an internal dialoguing on steroids. Thinking about what I’m trying to write to my audience, an audience that I know is non-existent from checking my analytics, let’s me sort through my thoughts. I’m able to toss them around, massage them, refine them, and then put them down on paper to get them out. I even discreetly discuss them with real people to distill them even more before sitting down at the laptop. It’s provided focus and direction to these internal dialogues.
If I were to turn the site off, I would lose my outlet. That’s not something I want. Not now at least.
(Written 2019.03.17)
I tried a couple of things. First, I went on Reddit. I created an anonymous Mr. Boring profile with references back to the site and subscribed to several various related subreddits; personal finance, productivity, minimalism, financial independence. I started commenting on existing threads and started a couple of threads. The thought was that I would learn how to make intriguing content while also building a brand and following. Once I felt confident that I had both, I would start plugging my site and see if I could get some readers.
The other path I tried was I reached out to a handful of the content creators that I follow. I didn’t ask them to guest post or see if I could guest post for them or even ask them to help spread the word. I just asked for feedback to see how I could do things better.
After going through both of those exercises, I started questioning why I was taking the time to do those things. Doing that outreach was very far out of my comfort zone that it felt like good practice, but that was the only real value I could see. I know some people want to become influencers, some people want to be heard and have a voice, some people want to be the center of attention, and some people do it for a living or to help them channel their energies. All of these are fine, but none of them related to my beacons. I didn’t need an audience to accomplish any of the things I’m set out to do.
But then why maintain the site in the first place? That’s an excellent question. I’ve gained value from creating content for the site. I can’t deny that. Let’s deconstruct that a bit.
I’m a big fan of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Creating content for this site has forced me to do Habit 2: Begin With The End In Mind. All of my goals and ambitions are nothing new. But I haven’t put my current goals down on paper before and tried to organize them. They were only flying around in my mind, hoping to see the light of day. With this site, I’ve started to write out plans on how to achieve what I want to accomplish in life instead of just winging it and letting persistence push me through. On top of that, by organizing my projects and starting a weekly update, I was able to see how much I was overloading myself — double whammy by writing it all out.
The other way it’s helped is the imaginary audience. Let me explain. I don’t know if this is normal, but as a little kid, I would always imagine I was talking to someone when I sorted out my thoughts. It was usually someone I liked or respected. However, it was often someone who I wasn’t close enough to so that I could share my thoughts in real life. The internal dialogues I would have would always be one-sided. They would involve me explaining to this person what I was thinking and what was going on with my life. It’s not that I didn’t have friends that I could talk to about stuff. I just preferred not to tell people the innermost thoughts. I didn’t trust people to share that information. What I put out to the rest of the world was always more fine-tuned and structured. Or at least I thought it was, even if the reality is what I presented to the world was very similar to my internal dialogues.
I’m an introvert. I’m guessing extroverts tell their life story to real people all the time. Instead, I keep my life story to myself and let my actions represent my story to the world. I prefer it this way. I don’t burden people, even close friends or family, with that constant energy drain. Active listening takes a lot of energy, and I wouldn’t want to put that on other people. The reality is probably worse; that most people would only pretend to listen. Internal dialogues are so much better.
This site is an internal dialoguing on steroids. Thinking about what I’m trying to write to my audience, an audience that I know is non-existent from checking my analytics, let’s me sort through my thoughts. I’m able to toss them around, massage them, refine them, and then put them down on paper to get them out. I even discreetly discuss them with real people to distill them even more before sitting down at the laptop. It’s provided focus and direction to these internal dialogues.
If I were to turn the site off, I would lose my outlet. That’s not something I want. Not now at least.
(Written 2019.03.17)
