Many of our new users will have come from the Quora or Google ads Saoirse recently placed. Unfortunately, Google is freaking expensive to advertise on, so we’ll probably stop using it. In contrast, Quora costs less than 10% of Google. Yay. But Quora is a lot more niche.
So, we’ve been debating where else to advertise the site, if at all. And debating, and debating… this has been going on for days now. We’re kind of a co-con blurry mess this morning, so thought we’d try just journaling to each other about this.
Saoirse: New users are the lifeblood of this site. All the money and time we pump into the cafe and wiki mean nothing if no one comes here. Until the site is well known and popular enough to be found on search engines without advertising, we kind of need to bootstrap it.
Janet: Why not just ask our members for a membership drive, where they mention the site in other dissociative places they frequent?
Saoirse: Fair idea. I think with that question, we just did. <laugh> But part of the reason for this site is to reach out to people who don’t fit in the current dissociative community. Targeting that community… I don’t know, I’m afraid the old farts will get outnumbered here. I don’t want this site to become overrun with teenagers with 1000 anime introjects and no known trauma.
Sharon: So you’re being judgmental? We should accept everyone here. Everyone is worthy of respect.
Saoirse: I’m not saying that, exactly. I agree, everyone, system or not, deserves respect. But, at the same time, there is something to be said for keeping a community focused…
<and then our mom texted us with news about a dog our brother had found and was keeping. let’s just say our brother is a sensitive subject for some, so we got a little derailed>
Saoirse: It’s pretty fucked that we can’t admit publically that the reason our brother is a sensitive subject is he was one of our abusers. Not as bad as our father, true. But I *know* the reason we don’t talk about him is that we’re worried about hurting someone’s feelings, or being invalidated. Which is all kinds of fucked. I seriously doubt he saw his actions as abusive, if he even remembers them. Quick poll – if you’re 6 years older than your sibling, does sticking your penis in their mouth count as abuse? How about taking a bullet out of your pistol and handing to your sibling and telling them you’ll shoot them with one just like it if they do something? Ya know, I’d say yes. But oh no, can’t talk about that. Might hurt his or our mom’s feelings!
Saoirse: And that’s why we say this blog can be triggering. Because it can be. But if we can’t talk about this stuff on our own server, where can we? Feel free to talk like this in the Trauma forums – we all need a place to discuss this kind of stuff. To be heard. To be believed.
Saoirse: Anyway, I snapped more fully into the front. Protector energy and all that. Don’t know that we can continue our little journal conversation right now. I have to get ready for work anyway. I don’t know if this should be posted, but we try to be real about our life, and this is it. Going along fine, and then Mom decides to start texting us all about our brother, and bam… derailed.
Saoirse: As for the advertising thing, I didn’t mean to say that anyone on this site doesn’t belong here – anyone on the dissociative disorder spectrum is welcome. We’ll have to continue that conversation another time.