Commitments | The Dreaming Cafe

When I joined Derek Sivers email list last year he sent me a personal note.

“Wow!” I thought. “This is real!! And, way cool.”

I thought about what it meant to me to be contacted personally, not just with an autoresponder, by the man behind the blog/website.

I realized I wanted to do that. I wanted to connect with people and know more about them. I wanted my readers / subscribers to be more than just a faceless name in a database.

Today, I too, email all of my new subscribers. Sometimes it may not be right away, but I do contact them. And, if they have a blog or website and they share it with me, I check it out. If they are on Twitter and share their ID, I follow them and say hello.

It’s not a marketing ploy. It’s about connecting to people, getting to know them better and building a community.

I know how much it meant to me when Derek emailed me and if someone has taken the time to subscribe to my newsletter I want them to know that I appreciate it.

This morning Chris Guillebeau at The Art of Non-Conformity shared what commitment meant to him in the post Overnight Success, Year Three. What he wrote about resonated with me and reflects my own commitments to myself and my readers.

Ken Robert today also talked about commitment, about keeping promises to yourself at Mildly Creative in his post Gearing Up For Your Next Big Move – Realizations from My Relocation.

These two posts led me to think about my own my commitments and promises to myself, especially those related to The Dreaming Cafe. They were the catalyst for me to write this post.

Over the last few weeks I have been thinking of ways to reach more people, to grow The Dreaming Cafe. In addition to just personally emailing new newsletter subscribers and answering emails from readers, I wanted to commit to reaching my readers more consistently. I wanted people to know they could rely on me to be here for them to share stories and resources to help them on their creative journey to self discovery.

I know how I feel when I find a new blog and connect with what the writer has to say only to discover they post sporadically, only once or twice a week, or only once a month. I feel frustrated and disappointed.

I don’t want people to feel that way when they visit The Dreaming Cafe. I want them to know that I will be here, consistently, just about every day. To make this happen I set the goal of having 500 blog posts by December 31, 2010. This means writing and posting five to six times per week for the rest of the year.

Keeping my promises to myself and to my readers is extremely important. It’s a matter of honor and self respect and about respecting those who have joined The Dreaming Cafe community.

So, here is my commitment to you, the reader:

Follow all new subscribers on Twitter. (Don’t forget to tell me who you are.)

Friend all new subscribers on Facebook. (Again, don’t forget to tell me who you are.)

Personally email all new subscribers and find out more about them and how I, and The Dreaming Cafe, can help them.

500 blog posts by December 31, 2010 – Sharing stories, videos, tips, resources, book reviews, interviews, and anything else related to the creative journey to self discovery.