Twisted Roads – Twisted Horror Stories by Matthew Tonks

What Makes Things Work? Patreon? FreeBooks?

This is my question, how do you bridge the gap between creating, to making it work with readers?

Is it the market place you aim towards, or is it the content you create?

Does Patreon work, or is it a flash in the pan idea, that you need to be known to make work successfully?

Does any of these question bridge a gap between what one wants to do, and what one is doing right now?

How do you make a career out of something, that you don’t make money out of, and, how do you make money?

Creating content for the sake of creating, or creating to sell to a market you somehow find while creating.

What a crazy amount of questions with no real answers.

Matthew Tonks
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21 responses to “What Makes Things Work? Patreon? FreeBooks?”

  1. Poet Rummager Avatar
    Poet Rummager

    Being genuinely interested in what others do is a start. I’ve always been curious how other people write and what motivates and inspires them. Time is a huge constraint with work and family, as well. I’m far from being an expert, but I find that if you start out small within your WordPress community and bond with a handful of people you admire and whose feedback matters to you, you’ve already come a long way. Nurture those handful of blogger friends, and consistently visit and comment on their posts. It’s like any relationship where you keep contact with close friends and associates. There’s always a give and take.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Matthew Tonks Avatar
      Matthew Tonks

      I enjoy the interaction here, and it’s interesting to see the different roads so many travel, how some people I follow don’t interact at all with the community, but constantly get praise for their work, and others who make it a point to interact with each and every person who come to their page get very little praise, some none at all. I see bloggers trying to reinvent themselves, and others doing the same thing, over and over again, with different results for each and all. But, one of the things I find most fascinating, is the feedback I can easily gain here, where, out there, away from the blog, it’s harder, and when you do get it, more morbid, and anti blogging, especially from some so called writers. Why are so many people negative towards blogging? Sigh, I’m almost too old for all this haha!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      1. Poet Rummager Avatar
        Poet Rummager

        Just do what makes sense to you. There’s no set formula for blogging as there’s none for just living. You might think of contacting businesses to sponsor you. You would, in turn, mention them in your blog or have a small ad of theirs posted. There are many avenues to explore if you keep an open mind and are okay with rejections. It’s a number’s game.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Matthew Tonks Avatar
        Matthew Tonks

        You can either work with, or against rejection, I’m still not sure which one I favour haha

        Liked by 1 person

  2. The Perilous Reading Society Avatar
    The Perilous Reading Society

    That it is, my friend.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. The Perilous Reading Society Avatar
      The Perilous Reading Society

      Why am I replying as a new thread? Where’s the coffee?

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      1. Matthew Tonks Avatar
        Matthew Tonks

        Haha!

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Matthew Tonks Avatar
      Matthew Tonks

      Simplicity, live with life until it begins to live with you haha!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  3. The Perilous Reading Society Avatar
    The Perilous Reading Society

    Ah, blogging is a sweet place. Feels like we’re all on the same side. Out there is a different kind of territory. I like what you’re doing with the negative reviews, stuff like that suits Twitter and Instagram if you’re not there already.
    I was reading Alexis’ reply earlier, lots of wisdom in there.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Matthew Tonks Avatar
      Matthew Tonks

      I’m connecting with it, I can see it, I’m just not getting feedback, it’s that uneasiness I don’t like, I want to know if they hated or liked it, which is why I pushed the bad reviews, to encourage the push for getting feedback. All in all it’s a ticking clock I just have to put up with, I guess I’m figuring out what I’m doing right now with everything I’ve done. The curse of life.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  4. The Perilous Reading Society Avatar
    The Perilous Reading Society

    Oh my days, if there was an answer we’d all be rich.
    Seems to come down to respect. For readers you need to be authentic, for yourself you need to be authentic. The two aren’t always gonna come into alignment, but playing to the gallery is gonna cripple your craft.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    1. Matthew Tonks Avatar
      Matthew Tonks

      Haha, isn’t it like that, you create content, you get people interested, but to get them involved, to get them to share, that seems to be the impossibility, and if you don’t know who’s buying, how can you communicate, if they don’t give you the opportunity?

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      1. The Perilous Reading Society Avatar
        The Perilous Reading Society

        You can’t control the thing you have no control over. What you can do is be yourself. Talk as if your best friend is listening. Man, Matt, you bring so much quirky to the table is like a party all by itself.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Matthew Tonks Avatar
        Matthew Tonks

        Haha, I guess by problem is, how do you engage if they don’t? I’m used to engaging, talking, but it seems impossible at the moment.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. The Perilous Reading Society Avatar
        The Perilous Reading Society

        ‘Is there anybody out there breathing?’ I guess if it’s about engagement, you go find them on their home turf… If it’s about selling your work, then that’s a different approach.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Matthew Tonks Avatar
        Matthew Tonks

        I think it’s about working out the why’s, why did they buy it, did they like it, did they dislike it, stuck in the blogger mentality of wanting to know haha!

        Liked by 1 person

  5. Alexis Chateau Avatar
    Alexis Chateau

    You get to know your audience, and treat them as friends instead of just readers and consumers. The better you know them, and cater to their preferences, the more loyal they become and the more of them you attract.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Matthew Tonks Avatar
      Matthew Tonks

      How do you know you are catering to the audience correctly? And is the audience following you, the audience you can sell to, or are you just surrounding yourself with like minded individuals who are trying to achieve the same end result as yourself?

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      1. Alexis Chateau Avatar
        Alexis Chateau

        If you know your audience well enough, all those questions are easily answered.

        As it relates to myself, most of my clients come from my blog and social media – and by most I mean roughly 90%, with rest being from referrals that come mostly from them.

        I know I’m catering to them correctly because of sales results, data analytics, and the fact that I’ve been doing this for 11 years. I’m a publicist and the owner of a public relations firm. Because of those results I can also yes, I have an audience I can sell to.

        However, my first priority is connecting, not selling. There are many people on here I follow and keep in touch with who have no use for my services and who are in completely different fields. I follow and connect because I like them and/or I enjoy their blogs, or our conversations.

        I treat my audience as people, not potential customers. No one wants to be friends with the pushy salesman, or to feel used as a customer database.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Matthew Tonks Avatar
        Matthew Tonks

        I think my audience doesn’t want to talk haha

        Like

      3. Alexis Chateau Avatar
        Alexis Chateau

        If your audience doesn’t want to talk it’s usually because you’re not speaking their language or communicating with them in the way they want to be connected with. And that goes back to knowing your audience.

        If you need professional assistance, you can find my firm at http://www.alexischateaupr.com. There’s also plenty of free advice on our blog.

        Good luck!

        Like

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