Now Open! - The Platinum Years Network aStore!

Can we talk? I promise I won't do this often, but I'd like to talk to you about how you can avail yourself of some of our recommended books and resources, and support my efforts at the same time.

To be perfectly honest, my involvement in the Platinum Years Network is a labor of love. I am thankfully in a position to be able to devote the time and effort necessary to build the blog and website and not feel I am taking food off my table. My daytime work as a stock broker/financial planner, along with Platinum wife Melanie's work as a tour manager, supports us very well, especially now that the nest is empty. So lately, the stock market has gotten my time during the days to pay the mortgage, and you get my nights for free.

I wouldn't do it if I didn't truly have a passion for the subjects I write about, but the reality is, it can be discouraging wondering if any of this is really making a difference. Some of my friends who read regularly encourage me when they see me, and every time an article gets mentioned in another blog or makes it into a "carnival," I get jazzed for a few days.

And I always watch the traffic trends. Probably the best motivator to me is when we set a record for daily visitors and/or page views. Because as long as we're growing, I know we're doing something right. And we HAVE been growing.

But writing is hard work. As writer Dorothy Parker famously said, "I hate writing, but I love having written." There are nights when the blank computer screen can be pretty intimidating.

So here's what YOU can do to encourage ME:

1. Comment, comment, comment - Agree, disagree, add a thought, applaud, jeer, whatever. I did not choose the name Platinum Years NETWORK for nothing.

2. Send me your thoughts - You may reach me any time at platinumyears@yahoo.com. Make suggestions for topics and articles, books to review, etc., or write a whole blog article. Let me be your free editor. Again, I didn't call it the Platinum Years NETWORK for nothing, and I'm convinced that if I'm still doing this pretty much solo in a year, the PYN is doomed.

3. Buy stuff at our aStore - If you've been to many blogs, you've been to some that are just LOADED with ads, "tip jars," and other ways to get into your pocket. The "blogosphere" is still working out how its economics will work, and some of this is necessary for bloggers to be self supporting. But I find those "ad-centric" blogs a bit much. So I have opted to be very low key about this aspect, and just concentrate on building readership.

But since I AM recommending books, and I know some of you ARE buying them, Amazon.com makes it very easy for newbie bloggers like me to get up and running with what they call an aStore. I set mine up tonight in just over an hour. You can buy my recommended book, or ANYTHING ELSE amazon.com sells. You will pay exactly the same as when you go to amazon directly, and I earn a small commission on your purchase.

I have set it up so that the page you arrive at will be my recommended books page, but everything else that Amazon sells (with the exception of, um, "adult" material, will be available to you through either search or the categories in the aStore's left hand column. So you can help even more if you just bookmark this link and use it any time you want to shop at Amazon. If you'd rather cut and paste it, the link is:

http://astore.amazon.com/theplayeanet-20


Thanks for your support. :-) Bob

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