Some day, if you live that long, you may find out that advertisers
only buy advertising in magazines that have a proven readership, and
they only stay with them if they produce inquiries that lead to sales.
With digital magazines, where every inquiry is a click-through that
advertisers count by the source, there is no way to fake it and
nowhere to hide. You either have the right readers or you don't. It's
brutal.
Claiming "members" on a blog or a LinkedIn group, when your activity
really is very light, doesn't cut it. That's the difference between a
publication that contains information that people want to read for the
sake of their business, and a bitch session around a virtual water
cooler.
I really doubt if you'll ever get it, but it's the reason you will
never do anything with your writing. You can bitch, and get on a
bitching bandwagon, and ride it all around the Internet, and you'll
still be broke -- because there's nothing to your group except a
chance to blow off some steam about how everyone else is stupid while
you're so smart. It means nothing much. It's worth nothing much. And
that's what you'll always get out of it.
--
Ed Huntress