Oh, hooray!

One of the things I think authors who are emphasizing keywords vs actual connections may be misunderstanding something fundamental about advertising online: you're not mass communicating in the sense that you're trying to reach everyone, everywhere, all the time.

This isn't a 1950s ad for toothpaste.

Rather, you're looking to connect with a small subset of people. The people who love you and your stuff, or who would if they only knew about you.

But you don't need to convince Joe Skeptic who'll never be into your vampire elf/pixie dinosaur Regency romance (dang, I think I may need to write this now...). But romance lovers? Jane Austen aficionados? LOTR fans? Folks who enjoy Chuck Tingle-type stuff? They're your audience. You only have to reach THEM.

Excellent article. Made me nostalgic. Sadly, I am affected by the pattern of skimming and reading titles to gauge the main idea and looking how many people liked it and also how many people like what I have to say regardless of having any “profound “ thoughts. Very not proud of myself. I keep thinking about the episode Nosebleed Black Mirror.
I am on Substack now, but I see it becoming more and more commercialized and oriented on likes which are eventually, for the “lucky” one are translated into the monetary compensation making this site very competitive. I
would love to hear some thoughts about Substack.

YAY!!! I love how you monitor and stay apprised of the industry. Thank you!

Thanks, Denise!

Thanks, Sally - always a joy!

Elise! Hi! Speaking of CompuServe and TRUE connections! Remember that bb reader we used to use? I can't remember the name... I'm thinking Kermit?

Let's face it: there are a lot of articles out there these days that are designed more for SEO than for humans, and there's nothing to be gained by NOT skimming. And you're right: they aren't worth our time.

But what if... what if the AIs summarize those for us and those types of things stop ranking? What if the beautifully written, actually useful and connection driven writing begins to grow in power?

Hey, you've known me long enough to know I can be a hopeless optimist!

That modem connecting sound is STILL a visceral trigger, right? And it WAS the connection that actually gave us that dopamine hit.

I'm sure you've noticed the statistics shifts on other websites. Sites with strong content and CONNECTIONS to their readers? I've barely seen the needle moving. In fact, I've seen growth. Sites that were focusing more on SEO than content? WOW. Those stats are terrifying.

Where I'm going with this series: we've seen tectonic shifts in our lifetimes. Another is coming. But just maybe... maybe it is a beautiful one? No idea, but I'm hopeful!