Nails and the BIG SWITCH
Splitting nails and switching platforms
Just because I write doesn’t mean I know how to present it to the world. When I tell people I write and paint, their eyes get big.
“You’ve written that many books? How do you do that?”
Folks, that’s the part I do with confidence and gusto! Having to put it out there makes me ask, “How do you do that?” I present myself online like I grow nails. Grudgingly, self-consciously, painstakingly. I apply coats of reinforcement so I can forget about them and look pretty while I magik the stuff I’m natural at.
Five years ago, I started bare-bones with Google Sites. I published my books via Amazon and my paintings on Fine Art America. I dumped links and pics on site pages and bid the world come to my market stall. I hopped onto all the sosh-meeds, profiling and branding myself. My approach was to shotgun all targets. (That meant fewer trigger pulls to damage my nails.)
Three years ago, I went higher-end, purchasing a premium site, a domain, and thrashing out SEO, analytics, and tags. The premium site, though, felt like a vanity. “Yah. I have my own web page—bethanybeeler.com,” I’d casually say to folks, thinking they’d actually go to the webpage.
It was like acrylic nails. It looked good, but every two weeks when I got them refilled/replaced, I glimpsed the damage they were doing to my nails. The pandemic cold-turkeyed the acrylics. They chipped, split, and basically atomized, looking like I did nail-hygiene by chainsaw.
The same could be said of my sales. My books on Amazon chugged along at the pace of my keeping a 40-hours-a-week job. My Wix website sales? Nada. I don’t make a living on being a writer any more than I would investing the premium-website money in lottery tickets.
I write to share and want this sharing to sustain itself so I can spend 40 additional hours a week sharing.
My nails finally grew out. Between sessions, I applied Nail-Aid. Then, I baked a whole lot and painted.
My nails are my nails. My writing and painting are my writing and painting. And, of course, I bake. The latter three will be what they will be. (My nails will NOT be something I post about anymore.)
Watch here as I grow my sharing. Better yet, subscribe to share the Magik!
Love—
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