Thank you kindly Eric, as always, for your support and insights.

We certainly appear to be living in quite a unique time right now, one in which it seems that it’s often not enough to “merely” be a writer because one must also be a marketer or an entrepreneur of some sort.

Or perhaps it’s always been the case that writers must be effective marketers but the Age of the Internet is now making that reality all the more apparent.

It seems to me that the (sad?) reality today is that it’s very difficult to earn a sustainable income purely off of content creation unless you manage to amass a massive following and, in turn, start earning big advertising dollars, payments via affiliate products/services, etc.

Those who tend to succeed in the content creation and marketing spaces are those who use their content as a vehicle to introduce readers to for-sale products and services.

It might be the case that, at least for the time being, people are just far too hesitant to pay for content as such in order for content creators to make a living off their writing, podcasts, videos, etc. (again, assuming that advertising dollars and such aren’t playing a role).

Those who have big audiences can create and successfully monetize books, for instance, but that’s because their work reaches so many people that a small percentage of them is bound to be willing to pay for content.

These days I’m thinking much more about how I can use my (very small) audience and email list to successfully monetize my knowledge, skills, and experiences.

I’m still trying to figure it all out, so to speak.