Go ahead, google it yourself: "The Big Freakin' Transition Pinterest." Upper and lower case, all caps, all lowercase, my Pinterest profile, which has this blog's URL linked in it, comes up first and second for me. If you put a comma after "Transition," it doesn't come up yet, but that's a matter of time. But it has only been 11 days, with a brand new blog, on a brand new idea, and it's on page 1 of Google results with the right search phrase. T
The Big Freakin' Transition idea, for those interested, is that we, as a society, are in an 80 to 90 year transition period between the Industrial Age and the Information Age. I believe we are not actually in either one. Because of this, some businesses and organizations, and people, have mostly made the transition into a Information Age model, and many businesses and institutions are still working from Industrial Age models and ideas. Our world seems so crazy today because it is crazy. We have old ideas over there, and new ideas over here, and things are all mixed up. We have all kinds of major social, business, mental, and societal changes happening, on all different levels, all at once. I believe that Big Picture context of The Big Freakin' Transition concept helps us understand, and cope with, the craziness in today's world. OK, so that's my idea, that's what that blog is about. It's a new idea, based on The Third Wave concept by the late futurist Alvin Toffler, and his wife Heidi. You may agree, or disagree, or not be sure about my concept. That's fine. That's not the point of this post.
My point in this post is that I have a Big Idea, and I wanted to use a blog to help promote and share that idea with more people. You as writers, artists, and other kinds of creative people, have lots of Big Ideas. Some are amazing, some are pretty cool, some are shit. The same as everyone. If you want to share your idea, and get it to spread, then you have to publish it or create the piece of art, film whatever, that conveys that idea. That's a big part of what art is, a creative work conveying some idea.
Now you have a creative work with an idea... just sitting there. If you want other people to see it, analyze it, think about it, share it, and hopefully, ultimately, accept it, then you have to promote your idea. Here's where a lot of writers and artists drop the ball. We aren't sure about it, our idea. We LOVE it, but it's scary to put it out for other people to attack and criticize. It sucks to have someone, especially people you respect, tear your creative work down. So we hold back, afraid to really put it out there in a big way.
In addition, most artists aren't natural promoters, that feels like salesperson stuff, marketing, and artists and writers aren't supposed to market their work, according to someone, somewhere, a long time ago. It's like an unwritten rule. I wasn't a natural promoter, I had to work a long time to get to that point, to promote my own work. But we want everyone, or a large group, to appreciate our work. Many writers and creative people want to "be discovered." Hey, buy a Powerball ticket, the chances are about the same. In all likelihood, you won't have your screenplay (or whatever) "discovered," unless you actually work on promoting it yourself, first.
I literally saw a post on Twitter the other day from a young woman in her 20's. It said, "OK, I wrote a screenplay, I moved to L.A., now what?" And I know that's the basic plan for thousands of wannabe writers in the Los Angeles area, and New York, and other cities with big media businesses located there. I told the young woman, "Get a job as a server in an L.A. restaurant or bar," because that's what most wannabe actors, and some writers, and directors, and producers, etc) do. Then you'll meet some cool new people, and some lame ones. You'll party in the evenings, hook up now and then, but mostly sit around with other people who are also waiting for their screenplay to get "discovered." You'll have wonderful conversations about how fucked up Hollywood is, and about that one A-list star who came into your restaurant last Tuesday, but didn't tip well. After a few years, you'll move back home to _______________, and get a job at Target. Then you'll tell everyone there about meeting stars and how fucked up Hollywood really is.
OR... you'll realize that this hear internet thing, and all that social media, are FREE platforms to PROMOTE THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF YOUR WORK!!!. You don't have to be annoying about it. You just have to start a blog, and a Pinterest page, along with whatever social media you already do. Then if you are a wannabe writer, write shit. OK, not only "shit," but write stuff. That's what makes you a "writer," actually writing stuff. Something. And put some of it on your blog. Then you let everyone on your social media know, "Hey, I wrote a blog post, here's the link." Don't spam them, just let them know.
A few people will begin to check it out. I believe in putting a counter on my blogs, because when people see one, if their are some numbers, they known someone has actually read your blog. Most people don't put counters on their personal blogs for that reason, almost no one actually reads their blogs. My Steve Emig: The White Bear blog (not a racist thing, just a nickname, to be clear), has over 128,000 pageviews (in 4 years, 3 months). I started that blog while living in a tent in the woods in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in June of 2017. For real. I didn't know if anyone would read a blog about Old School BMX freestyle, the economy, and Sharpie art. Guess what, they did. Not everyone, but a lot of my former BMX follwers, and a few others, read posts. I wrote about 700 posts in 3 years, and the pageviews add up, and compound, after a while. I retired that blog in May 2020, with 100,000 page views. It kept getting quite a few views, just sitting there.
I did basic, solid SEO (I'd been blogging a while when I started it), which was mostly just 20 backlinks from my other blogs, and then sharing it in Facebook BMX groups. AND I wrote interesting posts about BMX freestyle in the 80's. The old guys from that world liked my blog. I kept writing, and they kept reading.
Guess what, now I'm known as a solid, working (if still broke) Sharpie artist, and as a hardcore blogger. That's what writing a blog (or doing a VLOG, a video blog), does for you. It establishes you as an expert in whatever you're blogging about. You know, like this blog here, about writing. I haven't been paid to write since 1998. But I have been writing and self-publishing for 36 years now, I have written for 7 worldwide BMX magazines BITD, and my plethora of blogs have pulled in over 438,000 total page views. I've made almost no money writing, but I've written thousands of blog posts of the stuff I wanted to write. And it got read by quite a few people. A lot of people get paid to write stuff, but often stuff they're not really into, and sometimes pure garbage. I prefer to write what I'm interested in, and get it read. I do want to write to earn money again, but only doing work I'm passionate about.
So I can't tell you exactly how to sell your screenplay. But I do know how to publish a decent blog, promote that blog, and establish yourself online as a solid writer. Yes, all my current blogs are on Blogger, not Wordpress, because I'm still a tard technically, and Blogger is easy and less of a hassle. Wordpress is great, if you're a bit more tech savy than I am. Either one is fine. Just start a blog, and put something out 2-3 times a week. If you don't have any other websites, start a second blog. Do 20 posts of ANYTHING. By anything, I mean "here are 20 photos of my dog," and write a post for each one. Just a photo and a sentence or two. Whatever. Then link each post from blog #2 to your main blog. That gives you 20 backlinks, and the search engines see backlinks as vote for your blog, basically. That's all, just do 20. Then every time you do a blog post, link to it from your social media pages. That's it. That gets the search engines to start noticing your blog. That's the first part of what I did on The Big Freakin' Transition blog.
Now, for the second part, let's talk about Pinterest. If you don't have a Pinterest page, start a personal one (you can always change it to a business one, if you want). It's easy, 5 minutes, just like signing up for anything else online. There's an info section that comes up when people find your page, and you can link one website to it. Put a link to your personal blog. That's it. The search engines LOVE Pinterest. It's the 4th biggest social media site there is, I believe.
But Pinterest is different. You create "boards," like a old school bulletin board you would put on your wall. Then you collect photos (and videos now) to each board. Every board has a theme. The theme can be anything you want, you create the boards, it's up to you. It can be islands you want to visit, hot fudge sundaes, vegan recipes, cool cars, aardvark photos, whatever. Check out my Pinterest page, as an example, and check out other people's pages.
Basically, Pinterest is the online "bucket" for your Bucket List. It's interests, ideas, things you want to do, things you want to buy, places you want to go, but in photos. It's not about followers, though you'll get some after a while. It's about your interests. When you have a few minutes, get on Pinterest, and "collect" a few photos on one board or another. Check out a YouTube how-to video to learn the details on Pinterest, if you've never done it before. But just start a page, and build a cool Pinterest page over time. And have your personal blog link in the info. It will help strangers find your blog, and it is great for lazy SEO. Just building your Pinterest page, a bit now and then, helps slowly build your blog's SEO, and your own web presence.
Oh yeah, guess how producers, directors, and people looking for writers find each other these days... on the internet and on social media. Yes, AND word of mouth. But today's word of mouth often starts online. In internet marketing terms, with a personal blog and a decent Pinterest page, in addition to whatever else you do on social media, you are building your online presence, and "your personal brand." If that sounds to markety, it builds your "reputation"... as a writer, or artist, or director, or whatever.
I have a board of my #sharpiescribblestyle drawings, 170 of them. I've sold 90 or so originals in 5 years (the drawings take 40-45 hours each, or I would have sold a lot more), because of my BMX blogs, my Facebook, and more recently Pinterest. You just have to spend a little time every day or two, to put something on your blog and on Pinterest, which tells the online world, "Hey, I'm here, I'm a writer (or whatever), here's some of my stuff. Build your reputation as a writer (or whatever), as you go along. Network as your normally would, meeting people online and in the real world. When you meet someone in person, give them a card or flyer of your work, with your personal blog URL. This greatly increases your standing as an actual, working writer (or whatever). You online presence, these days, IS your resume'.
I've been into Pinterest for about 3 years, I think, maybe 4. My page is pretty solid, although I've revamped with more writing stuff lately. But putting my new blog's URL on my already established Pinterest page (URL in the info section), and that is why it's coming up in a Google search, only 11 days and about 5 posts into the blog. That and 20 backlinks. That's it. Free. A couple of hours work, no money, on a sketchy, 6 year old laptop (with an epic sticker collection on top). These two things, a personal blog and a cool Pinterest page, can do an incredible amount to promote you as a writer, artist, or whatever, in the online world. That promotes you in the physical world. What is everybody doing all day everyday? Looking at their phones. So give them something of yours to look at. It's easy, it's free, and just takes a little bit of time on a regular basis. Promoting yourself is a key part of any creative work in today's world. So those are my two big suggestions, a personal blog, and a cool Pinterest page.
Now get your blog going, and start a Pinterest page. Got it?
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