Editing The Pen Addict 316/transcript (section)

== Stationery Content Discussion ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think you should jump in to the stationary blogging, podcasting, blogging.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Because the one difference that it has from, say, like Myke's technology comments is that it's evergreen content.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Technology content is not. So technology content is driven by news and timelines and release dates.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Stationary is not. It's more personal. It's more personality driven from a time frame perspective. It's the content I wrote 10 years ago, while things have changed about a certain pen, is still good content. So the sooner you start doing that, the bigger base you have. So you should not hesitate because you think there might be too many of these other things out there in the stationary world. I don't believe. I had a friend last night on Twitter, Davey, who said, I don't see. I'm very interested in paper. I don't see enough paper reviews. Should I start a paper blog? Yes, you should. You should start it immediately.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And that's what I'm talking about. Like identifying a niche in the market. Right. Like he's identified in areas like, well, I can't find this content. So maybe I should make it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right. So, you know, I'm going to tell anyone in the stationary game to continue to do it. Right. To start something new, start something fresh. See what your voice is. Is your voice different than what's out there? You know, don't start something like Myke said to make money or run ads on. And that's just something that comes over time if you do a good job, you know, starting things out. So, you know, but I wouldn't hesitate to tell someone to jump in today. Start a stationary blog. Start a YouTube channel. Start a Twitch stream. Start an Instagram account. You know, I think a good example of a recent blog that has kind of jumped right into the middle of the fray because she does an awesome job and she's very consistent. And she's very focused is that's Kelly at Mountain of Ink. Like she's done three, four, 500 ink reviews in the past year or two. Like she went she went all in from the jump and has has been able to stick with it. And, you know, now I love reading her work and, you know, I think she's she's doing a great job. That's a good example of someone, you know, we've all reviewed inks in the past. She says, well, I'm going to review inks, too, and I'm going to do it my way. And here's what I want to see in the blogosphere that I'm not getting and went out and created herself. So, you know, I think that's an awesome thing. So Kim's second part of the question, you kind of answered it a little bit. She says, along those lines, what advice would you give to prevent turning a hobby passion into work for those who aren't going to be doing this as a full time job? Do what you enjoy the most. Don't do it for clicks. Don't do it for follows. Don't do it for eyeballs. Don't do it for money. If you do it from a place of enjoyment and fun and happiness and true meaning to yourself, then it never becomes work. You know, if as long as you're it's only becomes work when you're not being, you know, true to like the things that you really believe in as a person. And that's different for everyone. You have to figure out what that is, what you know, what I believe and, you know, what you believe are different things. And, you know, that goes for everybody. So, you know, you definitely if it starts to feel like a job and it's not your job, then you might need to take a look at it before. And those are some of the challenges I went through back in the day. Myke, you remember these days when I was working so hard at the pen attic and getting burnt out because I was working a full time job at the same time, too. But, you know, I eventually, you know, you have these moments with yourself where you things moments of clarity that don't necessarily come easy at the time. And it leads you down these paths. And I've certainly had struggles and ups and downs through all this. And, you know, it's great to have this this community now to bounce these things off of. And anyone out there who's thinking about starting or anyone out there who has been doing this for a while and, you know, wants to be involved more, let me know. You know, I you know, the stationary community is great because there's no. There's no blogger beef. You know, there's no podcaster angst. You know, we're all one big happy family. We're all happy to support each other. We want to see everyone do well. And I think that's why we're in the situation that we're in right now where there's just such a burgeoning community around pens and inks and paper and stationary and the different formats. We can deliver that conversation now, which we didn't have, you know, five or 10 years ago. So it's fantastic. So long story short, jump in, start today, be yourself and everything else will take care of itself.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, Tony.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' WTF Tony. You know, Tony, Myke.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This is kind of a related question. What things do you automate like social media posts, etc. I forget the context of when this question first came up from Tony. Like, it's like a couple of weeks ago. I saved this because I thought it was a good question. I automate as little as possible. This is a personal thing with me. I want there to be meaning behind everything that I do. Because as someone who creates things and has a relationship with the other end of the screen or the other end of the podcast, you want to. What's the best way to say it? You don't want to be a burden to those who follow you. Therefore, I don't repeatedly link things. You know, I don't have automation schedules that repost content over and over again because I feel like that burns out readers. It's an overload. Like, I'll make up. The only thing that I can think I automate right now is when a blog post publishes. I click a button that sends it to Twitter. And you can say that's automated. I mean, you know, if I schedule my post in advance, say 9 a.m., which is generally when I post the reviews in the morning, that tweet gets sent to Twitter. So I don't have to go type it in myself. But I don't have, in case you missed it, tweets. Like, if you didn't, like, you know how to find me. I hope you enjoy my content. Here's the article I posted today. And, you know, tomorrow I'll have another one. I don't need this constant impersonal actions for, you know, my readers. That's just, it's a personal thing. Like, everyone's different. But I feel that if I am not coming at any type of communication from a direct personal, in a direct and personal way, it's not content that I want to put out there. It's extraneous to me. And I know not everyone agrees with that. And that's okay. Like, I think people should do what they feel is best for them. And I do what's best for me. And for me, that's not automating things. I hope that kind of makes sense. I think you know where I'm kind of getting at, Myke. I don't know if you are, Tony. But, you know, I've talked about, when we talk about blogging and doing it as a business, I have to ask, you know, my readers and followers and members, I have to ask them for support on occasion. And over long periods of time, you build up, you know, I call it, like, just in a mental term, you build up credit with your readership by providing them content, by answering their questions. And you, like, build up all these credits so that when you do put out the ask, like, hey, will you consider becoming a member, that they haven't been overburdened with stuff to think about other than, like, reading your content and supporting you if they're interested in. So I don't like the extraneous fluff that automation schedules provide. So that's me. That's how I tend to operate. So that's it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I wouldn't say I have such a, like, philosophical view on it. I don't really automate a lot of stuff just because if I do it, I know it's going to be done. Like, when it comes to posting of things, you know, like, sometimes, like, you know, we do a bunch of things. So, like, we have some show-specific Twitter accounts. And IFTTT looks at RSS feeds and publishes tweets for those, right? But that's kind of all that I do. I don't really do anything more like that. You know, like, I don't use Buffer or something to schedule a tweet to go. And I have no problem with people that do that. This is just my own personal thing. I don't really feel the need to do it. I employ automation in many other parts of my working life. But it's usually stuff that's just for me as opposed to things for everyone else.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I guess the short version of this whole conversation, just like the last one, is I automate the thing once.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And that's it. So, you know, I send my blog to Twitter when it publishes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' There's nothing more than that. Like, I can think of maybe I'm missing something. But that's it. Like, I don't automate anything else. Like, that gets published. So, and you know what makes that easy for me to do mine?