Checking in…
Just doing a non-Bikram post for a change (although it will probably come up anyway).
So, I’ve been thinking about Oasis a bit today, primarily on my train ride home from family Easter stuff. Just wondering what the right move with it is. Not that I have any issue with doing it, but taken purely from a ROI standpoint, it is a horrible timesuck and money pit.
Of course, I also think a big issue is that it isn’t yet the site we were supposed to launch. And while I already have opportunities to expand us in many directions, many of which could lead to bring in more income compared to the time investment, without the tech side being attended to, it has more opportunity to lead to frustration.
This really needs to be a conversation with Adrian, of course. If he’s not on board to move the site forward, then it becomes a matter of questioning whether the site *can* move forward. We can’t pay a techie to do a lot of the stuff that would get us in a good position, and few people will work for a percentage of the take based on nothing but speculation at this point.
Ultimately, it has to come down to… is this my life’s work? As the site exists already, is the amount of time I give to it additionally making enough impact? I’m approaching 40 now, so it is time to start running it like a true managing editor, just sending the books and DVDs around, having the kids review them, and then post the stuff? More traffic cop than active role, and transition out of that in a year or so?
As my role had been defined in the still-unfinished relaunch, it was going to be to start conversations and such, to attract new users and retain old users. Basically, the core success of the site is the journals and the community. But without the rest of the relaunch, it isn’t really coming together for me. We’ll see…
One major switch for the site, however *is* going to be part of the new yoga attitude. And that is, Oasis is next-to-last, and my even newer blog is last. Don’t worry, my to-do list is kept pretty darned small.
I don’t think I’ve ever really developed the discipline to be a full-time novelist. Giving effort to other things to “pay the bills” presupposes the novels won’t do it alone, which is a negative thought. But here’s the reality, the site pulls in ridiculously low amounts of money.
However, on some level, I was giving it more effort than my novel. So, that has to change. Right now, everything has to take a back seat to the novel. Yoga can still happen early, though, as I feel so grounded and balanced after class, it brings good energy into the picture.
But nothing else. No errands. No websites. Nothing.
There are easier ways to get your viewpoint into the world than blogging and interviewing people and that is… do something whereby people interview YOU.
But the big question that already has an answer. Is any of this stuff more important than finishing the novel?
The answer is, without hesitation, no.
Starting tomorrow, I will switch from a somewhat-daily look into my Bikram practice, into an exploration of my writing practice. For the next 30 days, writing will happen. Every day, without fail. Usually, I wait until there is distance or some breakthrough or setback before babbling on here, but the yoga journal sort of showed me there is an ebb and flow, but with that ebb and flow there is progress. I think I always sabotaged progress in the name of consistency, as though that can be measured over a day or two.
So, I’m doing this not only to document what is happening, but because I see the application of the yoga simplicity to the writing to be a useful enough exercise to document. Also, my schedule is pretty free, aside from three days of lessons with the Dalai Lama later in the month. So, not much in the way of interruptions.
Oasis is officially in the backseat and will remain there somewhat until I find out what’s up with Adrian (I normally only blog about me here, and never mention other names, but Oasis is pretty much known as a two-man project, so… I don’t want anything read into my NOT naming him directly, heh. You can’t win sometimes). If he isn’t going to find the time to make the site work, and we don’t come up with a strategy to move it forward, then I can’t keep spinning my wheels. If anything, I would say switch the name over to journals full-time, dump the magazine aspect entirely, swap logos, and we’ll just move all the magazine content over to that system under a specific alias or something, continue with the reviews, a few interviews, stop the podcast (before it starts), and let it grow by word of mouth alone, which has worked for 11+ years.
We shall see… I think the website focus is a subconscious indicator that the novel isn’t going to pay enough money. I’m more interested in finding out if that is actually true right now.
