How to Support this Site — Dead End Follies

Oct 20

Oct 20 How to Support this Site

Dead End Follies quietly celebrated its eleventh birthday last September. So quietly I forgot about it, just like I forgot about its tenth anniversary last year. I think that not celebrating milestones is somewhat of a healthy thing. It means I don’t run this site for recognition. That I do it because I love doing it first and foremost. But it doesn’t mean the peculiar form of internet solipsism I seem to suffer from is entirely good. Things cannot forever stay the same.

Five years ago, I switched my discoverability strategy from social media to SEO with great success. The idea was not to be another one of the millions of voices screaming for attention on social media, but rather be a purveyor of answers to Google users. It worked. I have several thousand users coming from search engines now. The pitfall of this strategy is that for a hundred (or a thousand) answer seekers, only one becomes a regular reader.

Maybe not. Maybe I’m wrong about that. I might have a thousand semi-regular readers who don’t give feedback because they simply get what they want and move on every day. If you’re one of these people this message is for you. This site is free. I don’t ask for money either through a paywall or Patreon because I believe it’s a place of personal expression first and foremost. But if you enjoy Dead End Follies, here’s how you can help it grow with little effort.

Visit the site directly. Type www.deadendfollies.com in the search bar of your internet browser whenever you’re checking out my latest reviews
Talk about Dead End Follies to a friend. You have a geeky friend who thinks the world has gone crazy with Disney content? You might be sitting on my new best friend. Whether you share it on social media or over the phone doesn’t matter. The best referral is someone you trust. Be that trusted voice.
Instead of using the sloppy search function on the site, type let’s say “Blake Butler 300 000 000 Dead End Follies” on Google and help me get some sweet credibility juice.
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Especially the latter two, which I’ve been slowly building up over the last couple years. I’d love to hear from you. I use Facebook mostly for discussion about the content. Twitter mostly for quips, wisecracks and discussions about trends. Instagram, I try to have a more personal approach on. If you’re already member of one, please consider joining the others. You’re not going to get the same schtick. Promise.
Follow me on Goodreads. Know what I’m reading in advance. Learn what DIDN’T make it to the site and get to talk shit about my updates. It’s like a Discord sever for book dweebs like us.
Sign up for my monthly newsletter. You get one premium, exclusive piece of content every four to five weeks and a recap of the most popular content from the previous month. It’s perfect for a) whoever doesn’t have the time to browse the site every week. b) People who like the site a lot. It’s one email a month and I don’t push product or sell your information. There’s a lot of love put into it and it’s worth your while.
Send me emails. Whether it’s an earnest discussion or a truckload of shit. Show me that you care. Either about me or about whatever topic we’re disagreeing upon. Sometimes it’s healthy to get the fuck outside of your own head, you know? Getting emails from Romanian graphic designer calling my site ugly and offering a redesign is getting old. Untargeted PR communications too. Let’s talk about movies, metal or whatever you’re into
Suggest stuff for review. Either via email or social media. There’s a chance I might ignore it, but there’s one of my readers who suggested me Negative Space by B.R Yeager recently. I bought the book within 24 hours. Even if I don’t review your suggestion, I get a better feeling for what you care about and I can adjust my overall programming in regard to your tastes.
Share this post. Please share it with whoever you think might be interested with the site. Algorithms and randomness being what they are, the power to make the word travel is in your hands.