4d • General discussion
June 1 News and VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE ABOUT THIS SKOOL
Hi Backyard Dog Trainers!
Today is the last day of the May BINGO Challenge. Thank you to all who participated! Congratulations to Emily and Dunkin, Lori and Drover, and Lori and Doby for completing Bingo! And EXTRA congratulations to Charlotte and Bluebell, Jen and Sommer, Emily and Tali, and Emily and Brady for earning Bingo Blackout!
Now, for something more serious. I've invested a fair bit of time and effort in this Skool group, but probably not enough to grow it to the point of being worth the money I'm paying every month to keep it open. This is my fault, but between looking at my dwindling bank account and my limited time available, I think that I need to make a change. I imagined this would be a group where people would interact with each other and drive the group a bit, but it seems to have dwindled to only a few people who interact with me based on my prompts.
Skool is designed to be a site for people who want to make money and sell classes in their communities. I've not monetized the community in that way. However, to keep it going, I need to figure out something so that I'm not spending hours of time each week AND paying Skool to keep it afloat. My credit card bills say I need to take a different route, ha! I'm also very scattered across platforms, and that's making it difficult for me to have a successful work/life balance.
As I see it, the options are for me to 1. create short courses or offer lessons through this Skool (but there would have to be people who want to purchase these regularly), or 2. move the group to a free platform and change up how it works. I'm leaning toward #2 but could be convinced of #1 if there is interest.
In regards to moving the group, I feel like my options, based on what I know right now, are to create a Facebook group, which most of you are familiar with, or to create a Substack. I already run Facebook groups, and I already have a non-dog-related Substack, so I'm comfortable using both platforms.
A Facebook group would allow people to post easily and would allow and encourage a lot of general chatting, which is what I thought would happen in this Skool group, but it's not. The notifications on Facebook are better than those on Skool. No matter what I do here, I don't get notified that people have posted until much later (if at all). I feel like it's easier to spot a spammer/scammer on Facebook and keep them out. I don't like trying to decide who is a scammer here and who is not.
The disadvantage is that it would be on Facebook, a social media platform that some of you avoid. I specifically chose this group to be off social media because it was a "selling point" to at least a few of you. I like that it's away from the "scroll," and you can immerse yourselves here without that distraction. However, I'm not sure if any of you who are participating are, in fact, the anti-social media people. :)
Substack would be driven by me. I'd send out messages that would go to your email if you want to receive them there, or you can go to the Substack website, or install the app on your phone. There's a chat feature for general talking, and I believe those could be divided up, but I wouldn't have all the categories that we do now. The regular discourse would be more like "I write a post with exercises or a challenge, and you reply to it," and so on. You can look back through previous "articles" (their wording -- the Substack itself would be considered a newsletter). There are places where you can read other notes or newsletters from people you are interested in on Substack, but there's not a social media component. You wouldn't have a page people could write on or anything like that. You could simply receive emails and email me back if you prefer to read and get info, but not participate with others.
Substack would allow me to move you all to a new spot without you having to do anything. Facebook would require that you click on the group and rejoin.
I'm up for discussions of any kind on this topic. If you really love and appreciate this group the way it is, or you have a vision that can make it better, I'd love for you to share that in the comments. If you'd prefer it move to Facebook and have it work like other Facebook groups do, let me know. If you would never do Facebook but would like to try Substack, please tell me about that too. The nice thing about Substack is that I would keep all your email addresses and such and you would only get mail from me, it wouldn't be part of the big, loud place that is Facebook.
I feel like, while moving to Facebook might get some more people talking and more activity, I actually would prefer to go the Substack route. I could even create a Facebook group that directs people to the Substack, perhaps. So I guess it could be a "both" rather than an "either/or," but I really need to for "less work for Brenna" also.
If you've made it to the end of this message, I appreciate you and am glad you are on this journey with me in Backyard Dog Training Matters!
--Brenna
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June 1 News and VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE ABOUT THIS SKOOL
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