Today is my tenth anniversary on WordPress. Hard to believe. I don’t post much anymore. I’m too busy working on my novels and marketing them and trying to get my newsletter going. That last one’s been a pain.
One would think that coming up with content for a monthly newsletter would be easy. After all, I wrote a daily blog for almost eight years. But every time I log into my newsletter, I go blank. Totally blank.
The problem is that I don’t want to reveal secrets that are key to my books. And not knowing which of my newsletter subscribers have read which book(s), I might easily include a spoiler.
Oh, and the platform I use for my newsletters is way more sophisticated than I am. Sigh. I spend almost as much time trying to make things work as I do crafting a chapter.
But the books are doing well. I now have six novels in a women’s action/cozy mystery series and one stand-alone, somewhat spicy romance. My Facebook page has pretty much taken the place of this blog.
I considered not renewing my subscription to WP, but I’ve met so many nice folks here and learned so much that I wanted to maintain those connections. So I’ll continue to lurk in the shadows. I might not comment much, but I’m reading!
As always, peace, people!
Praying for Eyebrowz 
Happy 10 and here’s to many more!
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Thanks!
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Much deserved success
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Thank you! I’m having such fun. Except for that pesky newsletter. Argh.
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Welcome back! Haven’t seen you around for a while 😀
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I read posts but seldom comment.
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thanks for the post. I have not written much but also renewed my subscription. I plan to spend less time being stressed about thongs I have no control over and more time writing ad a way of getting focused I have been writing newsletters for a church as a volunteer. .
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Leslie it’s good to know you are doing so very well with all the books! I am rather proud that I can say that I knew Leslie way back when- long before the Happy Valley series took off with such success. I hope you keep popping in as you can. Now go take charge of that newsletter 🙂
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Thank you! The Happy Valley series never would’ve happened if I hadn’t had the blog. It helped me get comfortable putting my words out into the world.
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Oh wow! Have missed your blogs, but it’s always great to hear you’ve been doing so well on the publishing front! Well done! 🙂 And congratulations on a whole decade on WordPress! I hit my decade at the end of last year and was frankly surprised. It does sneak up on you doesn’t it 😀
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It does! I remember the night I decided to start writing a blog. Scared me to death to hit publish!
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Wow!! And look how far you’ve come! 🙂
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Thank you! I’m having fun! Making a little extra money. And now that my husband’s retired that’s a good thing.
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Absolutely, it sounds it!
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💕congrats
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Thank you!
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Let me sign up for your newsletter! I read your first book and loved it. Time to get into the next few…
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Aww! Thank you! I believe it’s at https://leslienoyesbooks.com
It’s terrible that I can’t keep all my ducks in a row!
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Done. I admire you! What platform are you using?
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It’s all so confusing for me. A friend started me with Dreamhost and Squarespace—one’s for my domain name and one’s for the actual website, I think. Then my brother took over (my friend might have lost his sanity in his attempts to help me!) and helped me figure out how to use MailerLite.
About half the authors I know use that while the other half gravitates to MailChimp.
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I’m confused too, Leslie and I’m struggling to keep it all together as well. I know one of my subscribers here on the blog uses Mailerlite and I watch how he uses this platform with what he publishes. I signed up for his newsletter to see how he does it. It’s a learning curve.
I’m looking forward to reading more from you! I think the trick is to keep it simple. Most people have no desire to be bogged down by too much info coming into email. But I am learning a lot by the few I signed up for, and some of it is quite helpful.
Thanks for letting me know!
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I have to confess to not being an active reader of newsletters. I subscribe to a few now for research purposes, but I just don’t care for them. But, as I learned at a 20Booksto50K conference, don’t assume that your readers feel the same way you do. I think that’s what finally convinced me I needed one.
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My advice is to find a way to keep your customer emails even if you don’t do newsletters. I’ve lost my contacts when I was bumped from a platform without any explanation, and all I could get a hold of was a bot. I had a backup list of my customers’ email addresses which I did nothing with, but at least I still had them. They would have been lost if I hadn’t kept this list. Also, once there was a glitch in a social media list and somehow I lost a bunch of subscribers who had been engaging with my content and I couldn’t find them again. It’s hard to trust the socials completely because if something happens and they lose your contacts, they won’t worry much about you. They didn’t with me.
Anyway, long story short, I’m learning how to deal with newsletters even if it’s only to maintain contact information on my own terms.
Good luck Leslie, I think you are a wonderful author! Keep writing your stories! 🙂
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Oh wow! What a pain. I need to put together a list of my social media followers too. My FB account was hacked last month and convincing the powers that be that I am me has been an ongoing battle.
Thanks for your advice!!
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Never mind I can see it.
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Congratulations, Leslie, on your 10th blog anniversary!
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