The death of Ghettoblaster

Did you know that my die hard readers love my darker side? I already know that they love when I write about conflict. No one cares that I collect antiques or how much I love Biggie's music. They wanna read about what gets under my skin. They wanna know that I downed half a bottle of Jack and wrote about how much I hate my life. Truthfully I sometimes write about things that I shouldn't. The problem is that too many of my friends and family have access to my blog. They read it, especially when I write about controversy. What happens? It spreads like wild fire. Even the people that don't read it know what I wrote about. True I censor myself not to mention specific persons. I have written stories about some of my friends and family. They were usually anecdotes. Plus the subjects thoroughly enjoyed the piece.

I'm coming to the realization that posting the link to my blog on Facebook is killing my readership. Only about 5% of my friends regularly read my blog. The rest don't have any interest in reading it. I'm not sure if they think I will bad mouth them. I guess maybe they don't want to know that I'm human. They might have certain image of me. They might think that I'm a squeaky clean pillar of the community. If they read my occasional curse laden, whiskey fueled rants, they wouldn't be able to look me in the eye the next day. When I began the blog in January all I wanted to do was write. I had never written publicaly before. I was told that I had potential. What better way to improve then to actually do it. I never intended  to cover various personal issues. Everything from my relationship with my parents to a divorce in the family to my power struggle at work. I wanted to write nice stuff about my interests. I wanted to write funny anecdotes.

So now what do I do? What do I want to accomplish? Well I want to increase my readership. I want to write more detailed stories about my life and not offend anyone. After discussing this with one of my colleagues and avid readers I decided the best way to do that would be to separate my blog from Facebook. I will actually change to a different blog publisher. I love Blogger but I feel that having blogger.com at the end of my address is a bit amateurish. I want a domain name that includes my name. I want to be able to reach a broader range of readers. Like my friend suggested, will use a pen name, although my real name is not Ceas Calogero, all my friends know that it's me. I think the title Ghettoblaster also discourages people from reading it. I think they assume it's some kid writing random stuff. I do like the name. I grew up in the Ghetto and I like the correlation of the boom box or "ghettoblaster" that guys used to always have when I was a kid in the hood. I would like to turn this into a business or at least make a name for myself when I decide to step my game up.

There is also another aspect to my blog. I recently added Toy Polloy to my blogs. It was supposed to be a site where I could display my personal toy collection. I also decided to put some things on sale so I could make room in my dining room. In retrospect, the blogger format is not the most appropriate way to sell online merchandise. I also feel that like Ghettoblaster, most of my Facebook friends are not interested in my attempt at a home business. Some even went as far as reporting my link postings as spam. I get that not everyone is interested in buying my junk. I also feel that we are all adults, and if it's bothering you a simple message would have been all it took for me to be more sensitive to your wall space. Instead when I try to post my link again I'm told that I was reported as a nuisance by some of my friends. I will be changing my format and opening a legitimate business site with my own domain name, Paypal, and Internet advertising not to include Facebook.

Some of you may be asking, what about The Protectors? For those that didn't already know The Protectors was my other blog page where I chronicled the fictional adventures of a group of diverse vigilantes loosely based on my high school friends. That one for the time being will remain on blogger. I am revising everything I've written thus to check for continuity. I will then write some more of the back story, while I write an ebook that delves into the individual member's lives. I'm very proud of this project. I think that there is a lot left to be written about these men. I have a lot of surprises up my sleeve. Once I publish the ebook I may cancel the page.

I'm not sure exactly when these changes will occur. I have a bit of work to do to get these 3 projects going. For the mean time I will continue to post my links through my Ghettoblaster FB page. Once the new sites are up in running I will erase the Ghettoblaster FB page. the Ghettoblaster blogger page, and the Toy Polly page. I will give my readers enough notice and start a mailing list for those interested in continuing to support me. Progression is a struggle. I've never been a writer, an entrepreneur or an author. I'm learning as I go along. I do appreciate those of you that enjoy my work and for those that don't. Thank you as well.