So a year or so ago – January 11, to be precise – I published a piece on this blog about some of the changes that I was going to be making.
I’d been experimenting with podcasting for a few months leading up to the post, and had really enjoyed the experience.
Additionally, due to the work I was doing professionally, the desire, if you like, to write as I used to had diminished somewhat. Indeed, from the blog post itself,
Over the course of the last 2-3 years, that personal approach [to my blogging] has seen my content creation drop off, from almost daily posts to 2-3 times per week, to what it is now – infrequent. And that’s fine, because that’s what growth and evolution is all about. But over the holidays, I realized I want to be even more personal, and engage with you on a true, one-to-one basis. Which brings me to the changes coming.
The changes I spoke of were moving to a weekly newsletter format, but a very personal one that continued the approach I had on my blog – and anyone that visited and commented over the years will know what I mean, since I used the Postmatic email commenting system.
Similar to the types of newsletter that Paul Jarvis, someone I admire greatly, sends out, each weekly note would be my thoughts on life, our role in it, being a better person, and where we fit in the world.
And, for the last year or so, that’s what I’ve continued to do, along with the podcast that had really made me fall in love with the format.
On Scratching the Itch
But recently, I’ve been having an “itch”, if you like, about revisiting the blog. It’s for a few reasons:
- Working on some cool projects professionally, and helping people with their goals from a content and messaging point of view, has reignited a love of frequent creation outside of this newsletter.
- When the blog was “alive”, one of the cool things about it was the community that lived around it through the comments after a post. As mentioned, this was in no small part down to the Postmatic email comment plug-in that I used.
- In relation to that, I’ve had more than a few readers of this newsletter mention how they miss that community, and the easy ability to converse with others at their own pace due to the simple format that is email.
So, my thoughts are – as they stand today, anyhoo – that I’m going to jump back into blogging, and have the comments section open again.
This means that, if you want, you can also read some of the stuff I put out outside of my newsletter, and that’ll include guest posts from others that I admire in the space.
If you like what you read, it’s really simple to comment on a post.
- Read the post and, at the end of it, you can leave a comment in the comment box. You just need your name and email address to do so.
- After you comment, you’ll get an email notification saying “You’re now subscribed to this conversation”.
- Any new comments, or replies to your own comment, will be sent to you via email.
- Hit the “Reply” option on your email, type your comment, and hit “Send” – it’s as simple as that.
- To ensure your email inbox doesn’t get overwhelmed if a post becomes particularly busy with comments – if there’s more than 4 comments in one hour, for example – you’ll receive a daily digest of all new comments, each with a little “reply” link next to it. If you wish to reply to a particular comment, hit its reply link.
Hopefully that makes sense – sometimes I can waffle on and dilute the instructions I’m trying to convey, so apologies if that’s the case here!
Trust me, it’s a really simple system, and perfect for anyone that prefers the relaxed mode that is email.
Consistency and Continuation
With regards to my newsletter, nothing’s changing. It’ll still come out each Sunday (mostly), and it’ll still talk about stuff that I think we all care about:
- being a good person
- being a good supporter of those that can’t support themselves
- creating the kind of work that’ll make an impact in the bigger picture.
You can still hit “Reply”, and it’ll come straight to me so we can start conversing, and that’s something I always look forward to.
If there’s any slight difference, it’s that I’ll include a link to any blog post or podcast you may have missed since the previous newsletter, in case you wanted to catch up or check it out.
There might also be the occasional heads up of my availability to work on projects, if that’s something that interests you, as my work calendar opens up a bit from the end of this month.
Anyhoo… this is just really a heads up on some little changes.
Thanks so much for being with me – it really is appreciated, and I hope that continues in the weeks and months ahead.
Until the next time, be well, be safe, and be kind to each other,
