Self portrait
Or maybe Clint Eastwood
A few days ago I received this email:
“Apreciado Jim:
Un real . You are over the top for a blog (lot’s of our age people don’t even know what that is) and I am blown away with all of the great stuff that you have on the site.
Are you getting funded properly? We both are not “Capitalists” but I want this to go viral.
There are many people like me.
In fact one of my fraternity brothers “not the billionaire” started a blog that got really popular and he just did a book. I will forward that piece.
However, you hit the heart of many people Jim. How can you take this Galactic, and why on earth did you spend so much time in the HVAC world?? Actually it is a great place to grow….
Best,
Dave”
Holy smokes, Dave! Thanks for the exceedingly kind words, and the permission to use your message in this post.
I have been basking in the glow ever since.
Dave is a business pal of mine from a previous life. He is a senior international executive with a major US based company. He was born and raised in Colombia and he knows I’ve been trying to learn Spanish. Hence his intro in the email.
He is a guy for whom I have great respect and coming from him such kind words carry much weight. I didn’t even know he was reading this stuff. That got me thinking.
One of the odd things about blogging, at least for us beginners, is it’s like talking to yourself. I get some nice feedback in the comments occasionally but sometimes I wonder what, if any, readership it’s getting. Wordpress allows me to see how many people visit and what articles they click on. That number has been growing nicely. Those who choose to comment are a tiny minority. Of the others, I’m left to wonder if their reaction is like Dave’s or if they read a few lines and thought, “What a bozo!” before moving on.
Hopefully, more of you cast your vote with Dave. If so you might be interested in some of the answers to his questions:
The good news is that it costs me nothing other than time and effort to do this. So, no funding is needed. The bad news is, there is also no money in it, at least not yet. I’m not sure how to monetize it, but I think I need a much larger audience to attract advertising.
I did just learn that some of you may be seeing ads on the blog. They never appear on my version. Wordpress tells me they place these and it provides revenue to them. That, in turn, provides their hosting service to me for free. Works for me; hope they aren’t a distraction for you.
Converting some of this material into a book has been on my mind of late. The blog is a nice discipline to keep writing in a way I never would otherwise. Seems publishing a book has also gotten far easier, as this guy describes:
http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2012/01/self-publishing-your-own-book-is-the-new-business-card/
It would be great to see this blog it go viral! If you are willing to help….
- Anytime you see an entry that might appeal to your friends and associates, please send out an email with a link.
- Encourage them to subscribe. It’s free! You, too, and all your family.
- Please comment on the blog entries and click on the button that sends you emails when other comments are posted. Slowly this is growing but it seems folks are afraid to be the early contributors.
- If you have a blog and think something here would be of interest to your readers, by all means please link to it.
