Self Promoting Presented by Someone Who Sucks at Self Promotion
Research and Agony

I’m passionate about writing, arts and human connection. I consider myself a creative. I’m in a space now where I feel it’s time to take it to the next level, a more serious level, a sustainable level.
I have freelance gigs but anyone who freelances knows you have to have like a zillion gigs or you’re barely making enough money for groceries. My goal is to generate a minimum of $600 a month to cover household expenses.
The photo prompt superstar, Jim Reeves suggested I start a Patreon. I’ve never considered it or looked into it before. Once he suggested it I checked it out. It provides the opportunity for reader funded writing and I’m able to offer rewards to my audience. Not only that, but after fiddling around with it for a few hours I discovered it’s a really fun and creative tool. I’m excited, feeling hopeful and looking forward to building a creative community.
All I need now are patrons and I’m all set! But, how do I do that? I have to promote myself. This is not at all my area of expertise. I often wonder how creatives of the past built up a fan base without modern technology.
Over the past few days I’ve done some research. I went to the library, yes I said the library as in the building with all the books in it, and I borrowed two books.
How to Write Short Stories And Use Them to Further Your Writing Career, by James Scott Bell
Scratch: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living, by Manjula Martin
I also read many how to articles in which the majority of them recommended an emailing list. I thought, eh. Maybe as a last resort. I know it’s scientifically proven and increases your fan base by a most likely made up percentage, but I also know I delete emails like that every day and hit unsubscribe as often as possible.
Social media is all the rage now so the first thing I did was put the links on all my social media accounts.
I put it on Facebook which I’ve recently began checking daily. I put it on my Instagram which I check once a week, I put it on my Twitter account which I hadn’t checked since May. I logged in yesterday to 399 notifications, no exaggeration. I skipped Tumblr, because does anyone still use Tumblr?
Possibly Linkedin or other sites? I’ll have to do more research to conclude which generate the most action, but at the same time I don’t want to start a reputation as a spammer. In a sense this is all so complex.
Wouldn’t it be nice if all social media sites were somehow connected? It takes time and effort to promote yourself on each and it takes funds to hire an assistant to handle it for you, and funds are something I just don’t have.
My next idea was to ask a few question regarding the subject of self promoting on Quora, even though that site physically pains me with information overload. Yeah, I got nowhere with that. I also read already published questions and answers focused on Patreon. I didn’t walk away feeling more knowledgeable after that, either.
I haven’t stumbled upon any information suggesting to start with your fan base. To me it would makes sense to start with the readers that have inspired and motivated me to keep writing, such as my following on Medium. I’ve been including the link at the bottom of each of my Medium stories since I’ve launched my account. I currently have a few open to the public posts on there.
I’ve decided the only way I’m going to promote myself and reach my goal of generating a steady monthly income is to invest one hour each day into making an appearance on each social media site.
My intended goal is to do so for one month and then reevaluating how it’s going. I’ll write regular updates on Medium for others who are interested in self promotion. I feel similar to a guinea pig on the brink of experimental horizons. I also feel the research, and trial and error are vital if I genuinely want my Patreon to take off, and I do.
I know it’s possible to promote myself successfully. Modern day writers such as J.K. Rowling, John Green, Anne Lamott and many others have gained popularity because of their fan base, as well as artists and musicians.
So I’m off on my venture! Stay tuned for self promoting updates!

You can follow my cats on “The Crazy Cat Lady Photo Blog.” Com’on, you know you want to.

