Welcome to Melissa's Page!

An Introductory Note (and an update to previous email)

UPDATE:
This is also read, with additional commentary, on Episode 1 of the Podcast.
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I committed to blogging again in 2025 and my plan is to write and publish weekly. Subscriptions are encouraging to me because it means you are interested in what I have to write! HOORAY!
In April of 2024, I decided to get back to writing/blogging. In some ways, writing is a form of therapy for me. Some blog posts will reflect that. Mostly, I write in three main categories: life lessons (share through story), travel and thoughts.
Generally, I write and post weekly - new posts go out on Thursdays.
Full disclosure, I write and post on my WordPress blog at melissaspage.com/blog and those posts will go here, too. It’s just too much for me to write separate content.
I’m working on learning the logistics of how best to make that happen. The most efficient way is to share a link to the blog post on my website. I’ll work on understanding the technical aspect of sharing the full blog post in a note here, too.
I like that Substack offers a paid subscription option and I think, for me, it works like this: You can go to a library and check out a book for FREE and read it. Then, maybe you tell a friend, and they also read it for free or they go buy the book.
Buying the book supports the author just like selecting a paid subscription here supports the author/writer/blogger. I DO have an option on my website to send “coffee money” per se, via Venmo, after you read a blog post.
So, I’ll write and post weekly and publish to the blog and Substack. You can read the content for FREE. Maybe you share it with a friend, and they also read it for FREE or maybe they decide to select the paid subscription option and support my writing. Maybe you decide to send me some coffee money via Venmo. Maybe YOU decide to select the paid subscription option.

Either way, financial contributions help supplement my income - on average, it takes me 5 hours per week to write and edit. Yes, I do all my own writing - no AI or Chat GPT assistance. Longer form posts (like the travel post about our trip to Maine) took many, many hours - I stopped tracking after a while.
I’m not sure yet what to offer paid subscribers on Substack - maybe Q&A chat or a monthly newsletter with FAQ? Or would you like to know what books I’ve read and what podcasts I’ve listened to? My favorite recipe? I’m just throwing out options here… I’m open to suggestions or I’d love to know what YOU offer your paid subscribers.
Or maybe a paid subscriber doesn’t want anything extra? Maybe the paid subscriber just wants to support my writing because they find the content inspiring, motivating, and/or educational? I guess I’ll learn as I go, and people pay to subscribe.

I’ve also committed to subscribing to ten new people a day and commenting on posts by those same people. Usually, I do that first thing in the morning as part of my morning routine. If I have a quick thought to publish here, I do that too.
And yes, I’ll commit to selecting the paid content option too.
Afterall, I shouldn’t ask anyone to do what I’m not going to do myself! ;)

Thanks for reading this far and for your support!
~Melissa
www.melissaspage.com