Thanks for all the input, everyone. I am surprised and gratified that there haven't been any negative comments.
I have decided to go for it.
Someonw much wiser than me once said the key to happiness is to find something you love to do, and someone who will pay you to do it.
I've never had that. I think, no, I KNOW I stopped even searching for it long ago.
My biggest lifelong love is Comic Books, but I have no talent for art or writing. Well, fiction writing anyway (I could never get into a character's head). Plotting I could have done, but that's something writers and artists get to do after they've proven themselves.
Sci-fi is another, but with the same lack of applicable talent.
And now there's this; e-smoking, e-cigs, vaping, reviewing, YOU GUYS, these forums...
You've opened my eyes that THIS IS MY THING!!
Doing these reviews can sometimes be a real chore. Yet I keep doing them. Me, who never started a project he didn't drop before finishing.
I've been dealing with and communicating with sellers, posting my keyboard off, taking questions via PM, Youtube, E-mail, in the forum threads, etc. Me, who has social anxiety and usually feel like I just want to be left alone. Yet, I keep doing it.
I've got problems I don't usually make a big deal of. Bi-polar, ADD, mildly autistic, insomniac, social anxiety, prosopagnosia, and migraines. All undiagnosed until the last couple of years. My subconsciously self-taught coping skills have been laughable; ducking, dodging, hiding, avoiding, these are how I've gotten through life. When effort and will fail me, I run.
But not here. Not with these. Not with you guys. For some reason, although I may hide from what feels like too much pressure for a day or a week, somehow I just keep coming back.
Hell, I'm actually organizing get-togethers!
THIS IS MY THING!
So, what will I do, and how will I do it?
Well, until I have a website to unveil I'm not going to go into details, but I have ideas beyond affiliate programs and ads. I will set things up so that by my approach and method I make it clear that I am NOT working for the retailers, but for YOU.
You are not my audience, you are my employers. YOU are my clients.
The "paychecks" may be sent by the sellers, but they'll just be passing along the money. It will (hopefully, anyway) come from YOU.
And I am going to make a real commitment to serving you well. I have a couple ideas brewing how I can be of more service to the community. And while most of it will have to wait until I have a website set up, I will start with doing more of the things I am doing already.
I won't be selling anything, no merchandise at all.
Blog posts, answering questions, giving advice, and producing more reviews faster (but of course without comprimising on quality). These will be my stock in trade. I am going to comit here and now, publicly, to spending at least as much time at that as I would a job.
I already almost do, but to paraphrase Hancock, I can do better, you deserve better, and I will give you more and better.
That is my mission statement and my commitment.
Stay tuned.
I have decided to go for it.
Someonw much wiser than me once said the key to happiness is to find something you love to do, and someone who will pay you to do it.
I've never had that. I think, no, I KNOW I stopped even searching for it long ago.
My biggest lifelong love is Comic Books, but I have no talent for art or writing. Well, fiction writing anyway (I could never get into a character's head). Plotting I could have done, but that's something writers and artists get to do after they've proven themselves.
Sci-fi is another, but with the same lack of applicable talent.
And now there's this; e-smoking, e-cigs, vaping, reviewing, YOU GUYS, these forums...
You've opened my eyes that THIS IS MY THING!!
Doing these reviews can sometimes be a real chore. Yet I keep doing them. Me, who never started a project he didn't drop before finishing.
I've been dealing with and communicating with sellers, posting my keyboard off, taking questions via PM, Youtube, E-mail, in the forum threads, etc. Me, who has social anxiety and usually feel like I just want to be left alone. Yet, I keep doing it.
I've got problems I don't usually make a big deal of. Bi-polar, ADD, mildly autistic, insomniac, social anxiety, prosopagnosia, and migraines. All undiagnosed until the last couple of years. My subconsciously self-taught coping skills have been laughable; ducking, dodging, hiding, avoiding, these are how I've gotten through life. When effort and will fail me, I run.
But not here. Not with these. Not with you guys. For some reason, although I may hide from what feels like too much pressure for a day or a week, somehow I just keep coming back.
Hell, I'm actually organizing get-togethers!
THIS IS MY THING!
So, what will I do, and how will I do it?
Well, until I have a website to unveil I'm not going to go into details, but I have ideas beyond affiliate programs and ads. I will set things up so that by my approach and method I make it clear that I am NOT working for the retailers, but for YOU.
You are not my audience, you are my employers. YOU are my clients.
The "paychecks" may be sent by the sellers, but they'll just be passing along the money. It will (hopefully, anyway) come from YOU.
And I am going to make a real commitment to serving you well. I have a couple ideas brewing how I can be of more service to the community. And while most of it will have to wait until I have a website set up, I will start with doing more of the things I am doing already.
I won't be selling anything, no merchandise at all.
Blog posts, answering questions, giving advice, and producing more reviews faster (but of course without comprimising on quality). These will be my stock in trade. I am going to comit here and now, publicly, to spending at least as much time at that as I would a job.
I already almost do, but to paraphrase Hancock, I can do better, you deserve better, and I will give you more and better.
That is my mission statement and my commitment.
Stay tuned.
