What's Another Email In Your Inbox Going To Matter?

As a bit of housekeeping, let me explain a few changes going on with the site.

As I alluded to last week, I have finally given up being on any form of social media. Twitter was the biggest of them, and it was where many of you saw I had posted something new. Since Christmas I’ve been keeping to a resolution to write something every day, and to the shock of everyone in my house, I’ve actually kept it.

I suspected when I deleted my Twitter account last week that the numbers on the site would drop to zero. I mean, just like the question about a tree falling in the forest and it making any noise, if you post something on your website, how is anyone going to know? Only reason I could think of was you’d written something every day for months and people just developed a habit of checking on your site regularly.

I certainly haven’t done THAT.

But the numbers haven’t really changed at all. Yeah, there aren’t any huge spikes that usually come when I write something suggesting coaching changes at Virginia Tech, but take them out and everything looks kind of normal when I write about Maggie, food, or life in general.

So I looked at where some of this traffic was coming from, learned my site has a module that captures subscriptions, and some 20-plus people have been getting an email every time I post something. After getting over the thought of “wow, I’ve been annoying over 20 people for quite some time,” I realized there could be a good use for this.

I hate bothering people. I don’t do mailing lists, I don’t do mass emails and I only text people I’ve known for a long time when it regards stuff I’ve posted on the site. But over the weekend I got several very nice emails from people I used to talk with regularly via Twitter, and it occurred to me adding their names – and a few others who seem to like stories about Maggie, my crazy family and sports – probably wouldn’t mind.

I have, and if you’re on that list, you’re getting notice of this post via email. If I’ve made a mistake, please let me know immediately and I will remove you. The email gives you a real email address that I will see replies to (vs. going into some administrator bulk mail account) so I’ll take care of it immediately. The subscription module also gives the option of subscribing by author (I write everyone so that’s not going to do anyone any good) or by category.

I do index every post by subject, so if you only want to see the posts about Maggie, I can do that. Same with food, Virginia Tech, life in general, etc. The category of a post is right under the headline to the right of the date. You can click on it and see only the posts that apply to that category and never be bothered with the rest of the site.

So this is a long-winded way of saying you might be getting an email from the site you didn’t expect. If you don’t want it, just reply with “unsubscribe.” If you want it to be only for a specific category, reply and tell me which category. And if you are reading this and didn’t get an email, just click on the link at the bottom of the page that starts with “info” and I’ll add you immediately.

This site has never been about numbers; it has always been my hobby and a place to write. It has also led to many an email that referenced a post, then transitioned into a conversation that started with “how have you been?” I’d like to keep that going with many of the people I’ve met on social media.

But I don’t want to bug anyone.

That privilege is reserved specifically for my wife, daughter and dog 😊