I've been spending some time working on this newsletter, Creative Destiny. I'm trying to find a balance between sharing my work publicly on social media platforms, and having a direct way to reach my audience. Today, I'm going to share what I've learned so far.

There are many newsletter tools you can use, but I decided to go with Buttondown because it's simple and easy to use, and the customer support is really good. I've been a fan of newsletters for a while, because I enjoy signing up for them and getting information and creative stuff right in my inbox. But for some reason, I never thought about making my own until recently.

I was partly inspired by Social Media Escape Club and Seth Werkheiser, who runs his site as a way to help creators and artists think beyond social media sharing. After all, we all know that while social media platforms might help you reach your audience, you're still at the mercy of those platforms if they change their algorithms or lock you out. It's also challenging to keep up a steady "posting schedule", which can quickly become exhausting and distract you from creating the art itself. (Not to mention all the ethical issues around social media's design.)

So, the newsletter is kind of my answer to reaching my audience in a more direct way. I'd like people to learn more about the behind the scenes process in my work, and I considered options such as running a membership, but I knew that would be hard for me to run consistently. Although memberships can be great for people who have time to devote to it, I'm not able to start one right now.

Instead, I'll be writing at the newsletter, and if you want to learn more, you can easily sign up for free. This allows me to go at my own pace, and you can still learn about how I approach creativity and what I'm working on. I've been really enjoying writing here, too!

Social Media Pressures and Other Alternatives

I've been thinking a lot lately about alternatives to the high-pressure world of mainstream social media, and I'll share a few that I found. Some of them include Mastodon, which is slower-moving and calmer for me to use, and Pixelfed, which can be good for image-sharing. But even with these, I want to make sure I don't overuse them. 

Another alternative is sharing my work directly on my website. This has been extremely useful when people ask to see what I'm doing, because instead of sharing social media links, I can share a website as the hub for all my work. 

Another place I’ve had fun experimenting with is mmm.page, which is a great place for people who want to create unique and imaginative websites. You can look at my page here: https://mmm.page/destinyuniverse

I'm going to keep exploring options that offer even more independence down the road, such as low-cost or free self-hosting.

Having offline files and documents of my work has helped me be less dependent on social media, too. I can always store and organize these files, and then upload my art or writings to the sites I choose. But because the main archive of my work is offline, I won't lose everything if a social media site changes.

When I can, I also take part in real-life art shows, which gives me another way to share my work directly with people. It's a great way to meet other artists, too.

Sometimes I work with organizations and artists who share my art on the big social media sites, because they choose to have their accounts on there. However, I'm not maintaining my own accounts on those platforms right now. It can be hard sometimes, because that means I have to directly find my audience, but I also have way more freedom and less stress about losing my work at any moment.

I've noticed a lot of artists are shifting away to independent alternatives, and I encourage that! There are ways to share your art outside the mainstream avenues, and I hope some of these ideas can work for you, too!