A plea and a pitch

I am thinking about writing this plea to you for some time. The pitch is incidental.
By you, I mean to those of you who know me personally. I was considering writing to you individually, or even to call each of you personally. What was holding me back was my emotions. My quiet desperation that I have to ask. That you could not figure it out on your own. But my feelings should not get in the way of the goal, which is figuring out how I can make something of this blog.

I started it in 2012, and for ten years, I did not make any serious effort to market it. I was hoping that it will grow on its own. I was hoping that people who like it will spread the word. That they will not take it for granted.
But just a couple of days ago, I was watching a Peter Diamandis video, in which he took a break for a really cheesy commercial that he delivered himself. His net worth is 200 million dollars. I realized that people who need it the least, are the most obnoxious self-promoters. Dennis Prager is another shameless self-promoter, and I could name many more. Maybe I should stop being so shy about it.

At the start of this year, I moved my blog to Substack. Not only because it is more convenient than a hosted Wordpress site, but because I firmly believe that it is the future of writing and publishing. Substack is a writers’ platform. I will write a more focused post on both Substack and the changes it represents, but for now, I just want you to know, that I had many good reasons for the move.  Even Margaret Atwood has an account on it.

The concept and the business model of Substack is as follows:

Anybody can have an account.
Once you joined, you can subscribe to any newsletter/blog on the platform for free.
You are encouraged, but not required, to support the publications you you subscribed to.

Once you decide to become a paid subscriber, 10% of what you are paid, goes to Substack. That is their business model.
Some publications keep everything free; some give extra content to paid subscribers; some give you only teasers of their content. Some publication restricts the ability to comment to paying subscribers.
You can have a lot for free. Most people read for free. The typical ratio of paying vs free subscribers on a blog is about 5-10%. I am not planning to go paid until I hit a thousand readers and even then, I will keep the posts free.
You can also start your own publication, but it is not a requirement.
You can create your own mailing list to share what you like, and of course, you can share anything to your preferred social media platforms. Explore Substack; you will not regret it. I like it because compared to Facebook and twitter it is a place for grown-ups.

When I moved, I just imported my mailing list into it. That is why you are getting this email. You have an account, but not a profile. To complete the setup of your account, I highly recommend that you create an alias (a name you want to be known by) and an avatar (a picture to go with the alias).

When you go to the homepage of my blog: Politics is Personal you will see recommendations to other blogs on the site. Check them out. I like them for a reason.
For example: on top of writing excellent articles, Robert Malone sends out a cartoon collection on every Friday and Sunday. They make my day and will do the same to you.

That was the pitch for Substack, now the plea for helping me:

I write. Many of you are telling me that I write well. You are telling me that you like it, but I often have the feeling that reading my blog is your dirty little secret, something you wouldn’t really want anybody to know about.

Telling me that I am good is not helping me. I need you to SHOW your support. It is very simple:
I am asking you to like, share and comment on my posts.
If you like it, click on like and share it! If you do not, let me know why in a comment.
If you really like the whole effort, meaning the blog and my effort in general, then recommend it. When you do that, you can write a blurb telling others why you like it

It is not only about you and me. If you have any social media account, you must understand that the algorithms must be fed. When you like, share, comment or - God forbid – recommend with a blurb, you are feeding the algorithm to make my work more visible. Sharing my post on facebook/messenger/twitter or sending all your contacts an email telling them what a nutcase I am is far more helpful than a personal email telling me how great I am.

It is not only about you and me. Believe it or not, I strongly believe what I say. I know that my voice is in minority, but I think it should be heard. When you help me grow, you help the voice get louder.
When you help me grow, you help the cause of reason and decency, which I try to represent.
We are in a culture war and we all have to take sides.

It is not only about you and me. Feedback is important for more than one reason. Quite often, I have genuine questions. Substack has a feature to put polls into a post and I am itching to try. See below.

Building a community means that I have to understand you.
The tagline of this blog is “Politics is Personal”. Do you mind, or do you like that I link everything to my personal experiences? Let me know in the comments!
Sometimes I will try new features, like I did with my PiP digest. I got no reactions, so I dropped it.
Can I ask you about new features to gage your interest? I really wish to build a community, not just a list of readers. With most of you, the personal connection I already have.

Very often, mostly with controversial subjects like the Ukraine war, for example, I would like to know where my readers stand. Is it ok to ask whether you agree with my points or not?

Here are the things I would like you to do:

• Read the blog on the web or in the app, not in the mail!
  It looks better there and you have access to all Substack features.

• If you like the post, then click on the like button (it’s a little heart)!
  After you click, it will show in red.

• Let me know what you think: COMMENT!!!
  I really, truly, genuinely want to know.

• Share the posts you like on your preferred social media platform.

• Share them with your friends and family!
  We all have some, and trust me, my ideas can be great conversation starters.

• Very often I ask questions in my posts.
  I mean them, they are very seldom rhetorical. Answer them!

The following is my very first attempt to use Substack polls

Thank you for your answers, but I still hope for a comment as well :)
… and as for the rest of you, who do not know me personally, you probably know already what to do: like, share and mostly: comment so that I can get you know better!