Category: Thoughts and Reflections

Not Brands, but Reference Groups

Daily writing prompt
What brands do you associate with?
View all responses

I don’t associate with any commercial brands, but I do associate with what this question is getting at.

I don’t believe people associate directly with brands, except perhaps with trucks — there are “Chevy people” and “Ford people” in the US, and a few deranged “Tesla bros”. People associate with reference groups, which they use to identify themselves as a part of. This is something I learned in a consumer behavior class many, MANY years ago.

Bangkok, Thailand – April 16, 2022 : Stanley of pink stainless steel thermos travel mug to keep the drink warm or cold. Stanley Go Vacuum Bottle 12.5 OZ

Reference groups can be associative — “I am a member of this group”. For example, one of my reference groups is “college professor”, which makes me prone to buying gas-efficient vehicles and Starbucks coffee. Reference groups can be dissociative — “I would not be caught dead being a member of this group”. I am vehemently not a member of the reference group that listens to Kid Rock and drinks Budweiser beer. Last, they can be aspirational — “I would like to be a member of that group.” I would like to be a member of the upscale ecologically conscious consumer who has a home composter and a butterfly garden landscaped by someone else.

We buy brands because of their association with reference groups, because we want to be a member of that reference group. We refuse to buy certain things from our dissociative reference groups. We don’t so much say “I’m a Ford person” — unless we’re talking about trucks, and even then, we buy them largely based on our perceptions of who’s in that group. I will excuse myself to drink my home-roasted coffee, which marks me as part of the aspirational group “coffee snobs” now.

WordPress is a Mystery

How popular is WordPress as a blog, anyhow?

According to this source, WordPress.com users published over 52.3 million blog posts and more than 4.9 million web pages in January 2024. That’s nearly 2 million a day.

I didn’t realize that WordPress was so big. How does anyone get their posts seen? How do people occasionally find my page? I guess it’s all about hashtags, but I don’t know that my hashtags are all that special; yet I sometimes have those moments where sixty-something people find me. Even yesterday, 15 people found an older post of mine. How did that happen?

I suspect to really be seen, I would have to spend money on their SEO tools and advertising. I don’t have the budget for that, especially for the fact that this is not where I advertise books (at least not very often). I’d have to be a lot more serious and intentional for this blog to be something I promote. I guess WordPress’s workings will just have to be a mystery to me.

Hostinger Tutorials. (2024). Top 23 WordPress Statistics: Defining Trends and Insights for 2024. Available: https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/wordpress-statistics?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwl6-3BhBWEiwApN6_kgCefZ7YZq2h_l318pel9KTNgBKulOMO8vnDd-9-fbWuZwLA7sNG_hoCPdYQAvD_BwE [September 19, 2024].

Testing my Theory

I have a theory that posting at 8 AM on a Tuesday morning (Central Daylight Time, UTC +5) will yield very few hits. I’m testing it here.

Photo by Anni Roenkae on Pexels.com

In the app Loomly, the app can tell you which times are optimal for posting to each platform. It’s a strategy I use for determining when to post. Not always, but often. Loomly does not connect to WordPress, so it’s not useful for determining times.

Another thing is that WordPress has a more world-wide spread. I have readers on occasion from India, Cameroon, the UK, many other African nations, Bangladesh … This is not the case on other platforms. What is the optimal time for these places?

So consider this a test. Let’s see if I get even my normal amount of visitors.

Readers

Yesterday was my best day ever as far as engagement on WordPress goes — 65 hits and at least 24 (hard to count them) likes. I think I have figured out how that happens one day, and the next there’s hardly any hits. It all has to do with whether your post makes the front page. And by some strangeness, I think three of my posts found their way to the front page yesterday.

Photo of woman sits on the wooden bench and working on laptop computer outside

There are so many of us on WordPress, all wanting hits. There are only so many of us who can spend time on the front page. What is the algorithm and how can we take advantage of it? I honestly don’t know, or else I would. I would love to have a lot of readers.

I have about 100 followers, but they’re not regular readers. I think I have about 10 regular readers. What would I do with 100 regular readers? With 2000? I think I’d fall over, and then when I recovered, I think I’d occasionally promote my books.

Does anyone want to read my books? Here they are.

2001st Post!

This is my 2001st post! I missed post 2000 because I wrote in answer to one of WordPress’s prompts. But I’ve actually stuck to this for 2000 posts!

My first post was Calling All Creatives, and it had four views. I get a few more views now, but would still like more readership. My most popular post was an anniversary post which got 65 views. My 2000th post was on the prompt “My Most Valuable Lesson” today.

What have I learned from 2000 posts?

  • One doesn’t get to 2000 posts by deciding to get there; one keeps writing one at a time until it happens.
  • Posts are better with pictures.
  • Using the supplied prompts boosts number of readers, and some of them stay on as regular readers.
  • WordPress does a far better job of sorting out riff-raff than Blogger. I have no more links from webcam girls showing up in my feed.
  • I can’t predict which posts will become more popular.
  • Not every reader likes the post, but enough do.
  • 2000 posts is a lot of posts.

Here’s to 2000 more posts!

My Most Valuable Lesson

Daily writing prompt
Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.
View all responses

“Not everyone will like you, and you won’t like everyone.”

I did not learn this lesson until I was in my thirties, in a difficult situation. I attended an inpatient program for sexual abuse survivors in complex circumstances, and I was being bullied by one of the women there in group therapy. Instead of writing her off as a — many words come to mind, none of them kind — I alternated between trying to ingratiate myself to her and defending myself. Just as I had done in my childhood when people bullied me.

I spent a lot of time crying about my mistreatment. Then, in a one-on-one with my social worker, she said, “not everyone will like you, and you won’t like everyone.” I stared at her. Wasn’t it normal to be liked by everyone? Wasn’t there something wrong with me if not everyone liked me? No, and no.

This became my mantra when faced with bullies or even people who just didn’t like me. I didn’t have to grovel to people who didn’t like me. I didn’t have to make them like me. I had the right to exist, like everyone else.

No Motivation (again?)

I have written nothing substantial for almost three weeks. I am panicking.

Writing is my flow activity, yet I don’t feel like writing. I have no ideas possessing me; the item I was writing seems to have bogged down. I have briefly thought of putting the writing down, doubting my ability to write. Standing at a crossroads, I ponder the path I will take (and cringe at this sentence.)

I need to get motivated. I need something to write, something that captures my imagination, which seems to have gone on strike. Not necessarily to get another novel written; I have too many novels already. But just to write something.

I’ve gone through this before, haven’t I?