Old Fashioned Way
The late actor John Houseman became famous in the 1980’s for his ‘Smith Barney’ Financial Group commercials wherein reference to Smith Barney he slowly drawls out at the end of the commercial,
“They make money the old fashioned way, they eeeaaarrrnnn it!”
That’s the way I feel about this blog. If I make a penny from this blog it’s not because of all the techniques I know to ‘market’ MEA.
Yours truly succinctly summed up the purpose of ‘My Ebay Adventure’ from the start in my first post.
Due to the substantial ‘Learning Curve’ and limited exposure to blog marketing techniques, any growth in MEA’S viewership will predominately depend on:
- Great Content
- Word of Mouth
Great Content: What the heck is that? OK, I’ll tell you. It’s putting together a few paragraphs of honest, well thought out text that haven’t been said before. Sounds simple huh? Try it sometime.It’s so easy to lose your voice out hear on the Internet. So many writers fall into the trap of writing what others want to hear for the sake of the almighty buck they’ve become more like word prostitutes than honest writers. Tell me I’m wrong, I dare ya!My intention is to make oodles of money by various online methods but not with MEA. I’ll have other blogs and websites someday soon where my money-making intentions will be crystal clear to the viewer. But common on, there should at least be a few quiet respites on the Interent where you can go to get away from all the surface fakery out here. Why is it becoming harder and harder these days to find a website that looks beneath the 6 inch depth where everyone else is desparately clawing for their pot of gold?
As small as MEA’S viewership is I’ve already felt the tug of writing what ‘you want to hear’ as opposed to ‘what I have to say’. That’s not a creatively healthy sign and I believe leads to poor writing. Here are the writing criteria I use on ‘MEA’:
- Brutal Honesty
- Originality
- Day to day experience
- Humor
- Fun to write
- Has a point
I had a ball writing ‘The Shiny Surface’. You wouldn’t believe how hard I had myself laughing. I thought you might enjoy that experience and I embelished a bit here and there to help you ‘get it’, but I wrote that article for me not you.
We’re all so worried about what everyone thinks of us and whether we’re going to lose readers. Baloney! I hope to have thousands of readers to MEA someday but not at the expense of the writing criteria outlined above. That’s just not fun. It’s what I’m doing now at my present full time occupation and risking all to get away from.
It’s called; working for someone else.
Word of Mouth: I’m not going to be like some who say they don’t care whether others read them or not. I do. I hope many enjoy my writing and come back because they want too. But those who do come back will do it because my content and writing style suits them, I’m certain it will not please everyone. In fact I’m depending on that in order to prune readers whose interest in ‘MEA’ is only superficial. Those readers should not waste their time here. ‘MEA’ is not a ‘me too’ website.So those of you who enjoy my writing and look forward to ‘My Ebay Adventure’ go ahead and tell a friend. Tell them someone on the Internet is actually doing something unique, real and an adventure worth following.The time is quickly approaching when I’ll be able to post more frequently and in more interesting ways. To get the ’skinny-minny’ subscribe to MEA’S Expeditions! Newsletter. The inaugural edition is just around the corner.
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Comments
Thanks Andrea,
Robs a hoot and it seems like the more I get to know Sydney the more down to earth she seems to me. I great quality to have as you rise up the ladder of success like she has.
It’s been awhile since I said hi. Hope everything is going well with you and Peter. Keep the faith, push on forward in your own adventure and dare to dream big dreams Andrea.
I’m firmly convinced the vast majority live lives of ‘quiet desperation’ and sell their souls for a pacifier and security blanket called a 401K or pension plan or stock options or 4 weeks vacation or a Cadillac Eldurado. How do I know? I’ve been there and done that, except for the Cadillac
Everyday we get up and believe we’re closer to our dream, we are! It’s no more complicated than that. Our dream may not have surfaced onto the material world but it is closer to reality. I’m determined to make my dream a worthy dream, deeper than simply a hefty bank account. In my dream that’s the easy part! Money is only the first rung on the ladder of my dream, a necessary tool to be used to realize a grander vision. Someday I’ll share it.
Take care,
Mark
Mark …Write on brother
looks like i’ll be hooting for free now that Adsense have slapped my wrist 
Anway write from the heart mate
Rob
…”eeeaaarrrnnn” money? What a quaint idea in this Age of Entitlement!
“Hey, I bought a $29 ebook last week and I’m not a millionaire yet. That proves this Internet stuff doesn’t work!”
I honestly don’t understand how we’ve gotten this mentality that wealth is owed to us, that it should be easy and above all, it should be fast. Oops, make that instant. Mature and disciplined people (like you, Mark) know better, though, and as always, those people will get what they want and the whiners won’t. I’d forgotten that fabulous John Houseman commercial. He looked and sounded just right for the part, didn’t he? Thanks for the reminder.
Hey, Mark
With my opinion and $3.00, you can buy a cup of coffee (at that chain that serves the most noxious stuff imaginable which I won’t mention by name but has a green and brown logo and rhymes with “aw shucks”):-)
However, IMHO, you provide entertaining and informative content that your readers look forward to receiving. That’s something you can’t put a price on, especially in today’s antiseptic world where neighbors don’t say hi to each other and everything is done online.
It’s nice to have a few “cyber neighbors” like you and Rob and Sydney to sit and visit with a while…
Thanks, and keep up the great work!!
Andrea