ONLINE PRESENTS, OR ONLINE PRESENCE

Online presents are the gifts you give yourself.

And you’ve earned them, however magnificent or meager they may be.

Baby boomers know all about the differences between magnificent and meager.

So should you.

Please continue.

If you’re a writer, thinking about writing, or learning the difference between what you write and how people read it, this is a post for you.

To my regular readers in Thailand, Australia, and beyond, you already know the difference.

But feel free to add to the gift pile.

One of the most endearing online presents you’ll ever get is someone explaining how ‘You’re never alone, you’ll never be alone.’

If you are in constant contact with everyone, giving one and all equal access to your brilliance, you’re probably a marketer.

The next Big Thing is always a click away; the Life Changing information is right behind a paywall.

Do you click? Do you pay?

Was it everything you dreamed of, or needed, or wanted?

Did it bring you joy?

 

Online Presence: Your Brand

This is also called a Digital Identity.

Read all about it.

The short version: Your online presence is your brand.

Do you need to heat up an iron, throw yourself on the ground, and hold your breath for the smoke?

That seems extreme if you’re not a cow.

Are you a cow? Is that part of your online presents? A pound of fresh beef to every customer?

 

This blog is named BoomerPdx for a reason.

After much in-depth study, taking classes, and scrolling, I decided on boomerpdx because boomers were the largest generation with the most inquisitive readers.

Who wouldn’t want to read about a fellow boomer’s account of things?

OK Boomer says not too many. How can that be after the hard work identifying my target audience?

Some bloggers complain about trying to reach further than their family and friends.

Around here family and friends would be a welcome addition, but I’m not pushing them.

Why?

Everyone’s got their own life.

That I spend time working on blog posts is either interesting, or not.

I check my own online habits. Am I a boomerpdx reader? Yes I am.

If I found a blog as hardworking as this one I’d sign up on their membership box, I’d subscribe.

Would that make me one of their online presents? Even if I didn’t buy anything?

 

Show Me The Money

People have online expectations.

From one site to the next, they expect a common experience on professional websites.

They get banners, pop-up ads, affiliate marketing confessions. In other words annoyingly professional.

I’ve read posts on twitter from novelists asking, “Why does someone ask how much money I made on my last book when they find out I’m a writer?”

The answer? They’re not a writer or a reader, but they know how to count.

If you don’t give an answer with a big enough number they slide you into their ‘Hobby File.’

Why isn’t your book a best seller, a blockbuster movie, an Academy Award winner?

Where’s is your Pulitzer Prize, your MacArthur Grant, your worldwide word-of-mouth recognition?

You should at least score a Nicholl Fellowship to avoid the loser tag.

Or maybe, like me, you’re a ‘Kept Man’ who sits in a corner writing blog posts into the ether.

Sound fabulous enough? Give it a shot, but there are rules.

 

Kept Man Blogger Rules

Married people, married bloggers, need writing time that won’t interfere with married life.

Does that mean getting up a 5am and searching for the most compelling information to wrangle into a post?

Yes it does.

Will you insist on an Ivory Tower writing environment with no interruptions, distractions, or chores?

No you won’t. Why?

Because you’re not an Ivory Tower candidate with an MFA, a PhD, and a distinguished career in academic life.

Remember you’re writing a blog while navigating the potholes of life.

You’re doing the work at both ends and hoping for the best with good SEO.

Search Engine Optimization is the holy grail of an online presence.

Do it good enough and reap the rewards of online presents.

Dial in Yoast and watch the flood of readers wash up on your page.

At least that’s the promise made. If it doesn’t happen you must be doing something wrong.

You won’t be the king of it all without the right tools.

Then, when you do everything right and fail over and over to capture an audience share with special meaning?

Then what?

 

This Is The ‘Then What’

I’m sixty-nine years old.

The sixty-nine year olds I remember are all dead.

Life took them down.

Many of them were miserable old fucks who lied to themselves, to their family, to their friends.

The only people they didn’t try and bullshit were new acquaintances. You know, strangers.

They gravitated toward people like themselves to live a secret life of few questions and less accountability.

Instead it’s all about The Car, The House, The Boat, The Vacation, and their special new friends.

My last real job ended when I was forty-nine.

After twenty years on the job a sweaty fat man in charge, a new guy in the company, made an offer I couldn’t refuse.

What have I done in the ensuing twenty years? The hardest work of my life.

Anything the comes from my writing practice is a credit to my wife.

She knows the difference between a slacking slacker and a striving artist and doesn’t hold it against me.

Most of the time. It can’t be easy for her having a loyal, faithful, obedient partner.

Yes, she’s a dog person. Then there’s me. I’m no walk in the park.

If you seek online presents, she is who you want in your corner.

This is a blog of her story as well as mine because I couldn’t do it without her.

Does she agree? She’d have to read this post, so let’s keep it our secret.