I just want to start off by saying, I started writing this in April… Yeah, I’m a horrible person I know. I’m going to attempt to set this update up in such a way that it’s segmented so you can just read what you want, and skip over other parts. We’ll see if I can do it cleanly. If not, it’s going to be multiple updates. So let’s get this show on the road…
I know I am normally very informal when I write these, and it’s honestly not going to change, even if the grand plans I envision for the site come to fruition. I’m working on a better outline for that btw, just in case any of you are interested in what my end goal for the site is going to be.
The update will be broken up into the following categories to make it easier to read.
Not much else to say about it all. And I know I keep saying it, but as you all should know by now, I don’t hide much from you. I do, and always have, believed in transparency, everywhere, and I’m not going to sugar coat anything for you, or hide any aspect of what I’m doing from you. On that note, if you have any questions, ever, about the site, the newsletter, the activity packets, or what I’m doing, and why I might be doing it, just ask. I will always do my best to answer any questions you may have, period!
Now without further ado, have fun and let’s get started.
The eventual plan for the site is honestly quite elaborate and involved, and while I know enough web design and coding, I don’t know anywhere near what I need to know to do this all on my own. I also don’t have an income stream available to me right now to pay someone to help me. Also I don’t have any friends who could help me, and I’m pretty hesitant to just trust anyone to help me out as well, for obvious reasons. So long story short, it’s likely going to be a very, very long time until I can get this site anywhere close to where I want it. Unless my wife gets a job tomorrow making $1 Mil a year, lol.
Ok, I digress so back to what’s supposed to be an update. I really am trying to take a more proactive approach to the site, with updating and such. If you haven’t noticed, there has been a theme update and a bit of a layout update as well. I’ve changed the main colors, added some pages and reworked how a few things are layed out. The more astute of you may recognize the color scheme. I like it, but I’m still working on how a few of the colors are working together, but I think it’s getting there. I’m also working on a complete redesign of how I’m displaying the extra content/resources I have on the site. I’m trying to find a nice way to make it easier to update and better to look at. It may take a while till I decide on something, but hopefully it won’t take too long.
Also, related to the site, I’m going to start being more transparent with everyone on the site about costs. I’m sure everyone knows, or at least imagines, but this isn’t exactly free. On that note, I’m going to put up a budget that I actually go through monthly, and any offset that comes in. I’m doing this for a few reasons. One, when I start pimping out the Patreon more, it will make sense to everyone why I’m doing it, and two, when I start looking for advertisers and/or affiliate links it doesn’t surprise anyone. Any and all ads will of course be curated and targeted, such as ads for little gear, coloring books, stuffies, etc. Not sure how that’s going to work yet, but I’ll figure it out. I’ll also be the one going through all ads and making sure they, and the sites they go to, are on the up-and-up.
I figured I should put this in here kinda next to the site update, since they are similar in the fact they are both online. I’ve lately spent some time looking at our social media stuff again. I’ve set up auto posts, mostly so I don’t have to remember to do it, but I’ve set them up right now for our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook (just for updates, I don’t expect anyone to follow it for obvious reasons), Discord, and Telegram. Right now it’s only set up for the Activity Packets though. So when an Activity Packet is sent out, it updates all those social medias to show that a Packet has been sent. As far as twitter goes, I do really intend to use it more, but I’m not really good at it, cause I have a “don’t give a frick” attitude which isn’t exactly made for a “professional” social media to have. If anyone is better at it than me, I’ll take some tips/help if you want to give it, lol. Also, I’m having a bit of a hard time trying to figure out exactly how I want to use them, so once I have that figured out, it may go a little bit better. Lol. But long story short, the socials are at least being used a bit right now, but for a limited use. If you want to follow them, that would be great, even though you all get email updates. But if you have anyone to share them with that would be nice, help spread the word a little bit, that’s really the main point of them, is to help get the word out there and get people following.
We also have a few other socials that we don’t really use much yet, such as TikTok (not really sure how I want to use it yet, I’m still working on that idea) and we also have a patreon for just some general help in paying the bills.
This kinda goes along with the last update where I said I was going to be more up front about costs of the site and stuff, and since Patreon is a “social media” site, I may as well lay it out a bit here.
What it boils down to is this, I make these activity packets cause I want to, and I know people like them. I am never planning on charging for them. However, if you want to support what I do, there is a Patreon set up so you can support the cause. Right now there are 2 teirs, a $1 and a $5. It’s normal Patreon stuff, so it’s per month. Right now the only perk you would get for donating through Patreon is helping me, as well as a custom @nolittleleftbehind.com email address. That’s kinda all I can think of right now that’s easy to do, and it at least gives people something for supporting us. I am working on discord roles as well, as soon as I get the two linked. I will expand on the Patreon at another point in time, likely when I put the information up about the cost of running NLLB. Unless I get enough feedback that basically says just post the cost, we get the rest. lol.
These are all used mainly as just update platforms. So anyone not on the email list can see we released an Activity Packet. Also, they can be shared, by you at your discretion, so that it can hopefully bring more people to the site, and get more people signing up for the Newsletter and Activity Packets. Moe people, means more people who may be able to/want to support us, which makes things much easier on me.
I do have other plans for the Twitter, and I honestly started to use it for what I want, then life happened, and I stopped doing updates. Also, I don’t have the extra funds to pay for a “content manager” so using any of the free ones I can only make a buffer of like 5 posts, which isn’t a lot, and it meant about every 3 days I had to get on and do more prep for the next series of auto posts, and it got to be a bit much on top of everything else I have on my plate. Hence why I’m also always looking for people willing to lend a hand to help out, properly vetted people of course…
Telegram and Discord are for the most part being used for the same purpose right now, places where the NLLB community can go and hangout/chat. Right now the Telegram is totally SFW and will likely remain that way. The Discord is mixed, but there is a NSFW tag that you must ask for to be able to see anything on the discord that is NSFW, other than that, the discord from sign up is SFW unless someone breaks the rules, and that will be dealt with accordingly, but the base and “publicly” accessible Discord is SFW.
As I said, I honestly have no idea what I’m going to use this for right now. I’m thinking maybe just videos of the behind-the-scenes stuff here, like what I do to create the Activity Packets, me testing the Arts & Crafts, some of the baking/cooking stuff. I’m not 100% sure yet, and I’ll take any/all input anyone has about it.
I’ve been trying hard to find anyone willing to contribute anything to helping out, even if it’s just writing a bit here and there to help me with “filler”. I have found someone acting as an editor however, so that makes me happy and helps out a ton! I’m still on the lookout for good content to post on here, since I’m not particularly good at my own posts sometimes (when it comes to written content). I may be in the lifestyle, but I don’t have any particular tips or tricks I could share to help others out, or informative wisdom, etc. So, when I do find something, you will all know, cause I’ll put it up, and then it will be more clear exactly what I mean, lol.
Most people won’t have noticed, but I have updated a few of the “resources” as well. I added a few sites to the list of things, and I really am working on compiling a list of resources for you all as well. Such as content providers, accessory makers, cute shops, etc. As I find them, and vet them as best I can, I will provide links and such for them. If anyone has a small list of their own, I’d love to hear from you!!! I mean I’d love it if someone were to come along and tell me “hey, I’ll do this for you, I have a ton and will look for more and do it all for you!” but I know that is unlikely to happen, so I’m not holding my breath for that one. But if you know anyone who may be up for it, or you yourself would be, just drop me a line, I’d love to chat.
I have also been working on updating how a few things look with the resources as well. I’ve been wanting to add my stuffie list back to the site, and have been looking at how to make it better, at least display wise. The big issue is of course the vast amounts of different kinds of stuffies that exist, so I think that’s honestly a losing battle. But I do have an idea that may help with that as well. Though it is again dependent on my time availability and coding skill. Long story really short, it’s a stuffie database that you can use to show off your stuffies, and see other stuffie collections.
I’m always trying to find new and useful things to put on the site, and I need to update many of the things I do have on there now. But really, if you have any suggestions, I’d love to know. Do you have a favorite place to go for soothing music, fun coloring pages, great coloring supplies, etc. Literally anything, I’d love to see about adding it to the list of resources for our group/community.
If any of you have any ideas or requests for recipes, let me know, I’ll either dig into my library of recipes, or look up a few new ones. I’m also trying to expand the recipes on the site anyway to include more food, vs just sweets and treats, but for the most part the Activities Packet’s will continue to host at least Snacks/Treats/Sweets of course. If you have recipes of your own, that you make often, I’d also love to hear about them! I have a rule that nothing on my recipe site, thus the Activities Packet, gets posted unless it’s actually been made (by me). I would however be willing to take recipes made by other fans/users. So if you have a recipe you like, and are willing to share, and take a photo or two, that would help me out a ton. It gets hard having to make the recipes every month. I’m running out of backlog, so I’m having to find new stuff, and put it out, and it gets a little tough adding baker/cook to my weekly workload.
I’ve had a few random thoughts lately of things I can add to the Activity Pack to see if I can help boost engagement and hopefully make it a bit more interactive as well! Here are just a few of them… Feel free to discuss and let me know your thoughts, or ideas if you have any…
I know it’s just a few ideas, and I swear I had more the other day, but I was just thinking it’s at least a start of an idea. It’s kind of spinning off an idea I’m already working on, at least a few of the ideas, that I’m going to use all of you for feedback eventually, and I’m sure you all will love it! lol. Plus, everyone who helps, gets one for free. A beta version, and a final version. That’s less impressive than it sounds, there are only like 6 of you right now who regularly interact with me, and only 17 people on the mailing list, lol.
I was also thinking about doing something else in the Packets as well, like a story. Idk really, but maybe just kinda making up a story, like a choose your own adventure kinda thing, and have you guys vote once a month on the next step, and then at the beginning of the month you’ll see the next part… Idk, just random thoughts here. I was also thinking that I could start a story, and have some kind of drawing where if you want to enter it, you can get drawn to continue the story. Basically I would start the story, write a paragraph or so, then someone gets drawn, and they get to continue the story in the next edition, and then another person and so on. Honestly it likely wouldn’t be every edition, it would be every other at least I think. But I think that would be a fun idea.
Lately I’ve been getting some pretty positive and uplifting messages from some of you lately, props to you. It honestly means a lot to me to hear that stuff from you all. Makes it easier to keep going doing all this. Sometimes it gets hard with work and everything else revolving around in life, but the words of support and encouragement really mean a lot to me. So again, thank you.
On a completely unrelated note, I’ve started a NLLB Minecraft Server. It’s Bedrock. I’m going to likely start one for Java as well so that way at least everyone can play to some extent. I have both, so I can play either version. Just in case anyone is interested. Who knows, maybe it will be something we all enjoy at some point, idk. We’ll see.
I’ve also been tossing around the idea of making a calendar… Not really sure what I would do with it yet, but I’m still thinking about it. I’m wanting to make it a colorable calendar. And if I did that then I could either “let it loose” before the year, so you can all color it in one go, or release it one month at a time in the Activity Packs. I want to put the activity pack themes on them, but I like the idea of them being a surprise as well! Lol. That’s more of a community vote I think.
Also, I know I drone on and on about you all, but I always mean it. I, and NLLB would be nothing without you all. And I always love hearing your support, but I cherish your feedback even more. I try my best, and sometimes I don’t think or something, or know something, and your feedback is always key!
