Ok, double entendres taken into consideration, I am content on this beautiful, sunny day…sitting at the farm, writing. AND…I have been copying my posts from Marshmallow-Ranch-the-Facebook-page to Marshmallow-Ranch-the-web-page. This is the meat and bones of my work…what my media mentor, Janine Pettit of Girl Camper fame, points out is my most valuable online asset…Content! Content! Content!
I have been writing this blog for four years now. At least three and a half years of that saw a new essay every single day. That, my friends, is a BOATLOAD of content! Now, before you get too concerned…Marshmallow Ranch isn’t leaving Facebook…not entirely. But, it has been bothering me for quite some time when I think of the sheer volume of work I have floating out in the nether regions of the Internet that I really have no control over. In this day and age of Internet hacking, I don’t know what I would do if Facebook was suddenly wiped out and there was no record of all this writing! Out of sheer convenience, I have written every post directly to Facebook…no Word documents, no back up other than printing out about two and a half years worth of posts. It’s beginning to give me the willies, so I decided to do something about it…for a number of reasons.
First off, my initial impetus to create an independent web page came from my agent. She loves my book proposal. But, with the steady growth of social media, publishers look for your social media presence as an indicator of how big a ready-made audience you come to them with. How many books can you expect to sell just by the sheer numbers of followers you have on your blog, podcast, etc.? She told me about a fellow who had written an exceptional book but she couldn’t find a publisher because he “only” had 400,000 followers on his blog. 400,000? Oy! So, in all practicality…I either have to quit, which I am not about to do, or focus on expanding my social media presence. And, since Google does not catalog content from Facebook, I am creating and populating www.marshmallowranch.com in order to be found more easily in Internet searches.
This whole endeavor was pounded home yesterday when I was copying content to populate the new blog. I was searching for my very first blog post on Marshmallow Ranch telling you all that Mr. Virgo had died. I was scanning back through the pages when I realized that would just take forever so I typed in the date I was looking for. Suddenly, everything disappeared except for that date! Just one post! OH. EM. GEEEE! I nearly fainted! I did everything I could think of to get it back and finally logged completely out of the system, logged back in, and (BIG heavy sigh)…there it was. All four years! That clinched it for me. I knew I had to double down my efforts and get this show on the road.
There are a lot of irons in the fire for this year besides migrating content over. Ever since I did the first podcast with Janine, I have been smitten with the idea of having my own show. A year ago, she encouraged me to start and I wasn’t ready. I felt I’d best be writing the book. But, since my agent has encouraged me to build first, write second, I’ve been “given permission”, so to speak, to do something that really excites me. It’s still in the very raw thinking-it-through stage, but coming together. Another thing I’ve been approached to do is start a widow’s mentor group here in West Virginia. I am researching the Modern Widow’s Club as I like their format and have reached out to them to initiate conversation. Say a little prayer that this all works, if it is God’s will for me!
Like I said, the new website will not replace this Facebook page, but you may notice when you scroll back through the recent posts, only the first few sentences appear on the page with a link that says (Continue reading on my website at…). It will take you to my webpage. You can either leave a comment there or hit your back arrow to come back to the Facebook version of Marshmallow Ranch and like or comment. (Facebook algorithms LOVE audience participation…likes, comments, and shares are always much appreciated.) I feel somewhat awkward asking you to help me boost these numbers because, at the end of the day, the numbers aren’t the most important thing…YOU and the message are!
There is an option to leave an e-mail address, through a link at the top of this page and on the new webpage. Please leave one for me, if you don’t mind. I promise I will never abuse the privilege…I will never sell your e-mail address or spam you. I would like to create a monthly newsletter with content that is not necessarily found on the blog. I will be interviewing other experts in the grief community. I will invite others to share their stories. I am developing this site so I can reach more people who grieve. The more people we reach, the more people we help, the more people are touched by what God puts on my heart to say. Your sharing helps this site grow. It’s the Prayer of Jabez in action…it “enlarges my territory”…my sphere of influence. I wanted to be perfectly candid and open with you and respectfully ask for your help.
PLEASE keep in mind, this is a very rough draft page…it’s going to be much more colorful and reflect who I am and what I’m all about. But you’ve got to start somewhere, right? I just wanted to give you all a heads up in case you’ve run across the links already. And, as always, I am forever grateful for your audience. I love what I do…and I love all of you! ❤️
“Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.”
1 Chronicles 4:9-10 NIV