DD is 4 years old!

Debatably Dateable is 4 years old! My oh my, how big she’s grown! I can’t believe this blog is 4 years old today!

If I’m honest, I did not put much effort into my blog this year. I go through waves of inspiration and droughts, and I’ve had an extremely long drought this year. Fall 2019 I was doing great with my queue and I think that honestly held me through. When the summer started I did start to work on new content. But I haven’t really been active on here and the stats really show from July 2019 5,003 to this July (just last month).

6,000 !

I am proud that DD has over 6,000 followers, I appreciate every single one of you for taking the time to read the thoughts and feelings I share. I hope my honesty has helped some of you feel connected to something outside of yourself. I’m also proud to stay that I’ve posted 700 articles/poems over these 4 years and I’ve loved exploring so many topics with all of you!

She’s helped me launch 3 poetry collections now and I’m so thankful to have WordPress as a platform to share my work with all of you!

Purchase any of my books on amazon here!

March Playlist – Newly Single

If you’re Newly Single, I’m here for you girl!! It’s time to hit the bar and break some hearts!! Let’s jam out!!! (click on the years to be taken to the music videos!)

1.Miss Me More (2017)

Kelsea Ballerini sings about the changes she made to make her boyfriend happy in their relationship. She’s facing the fears and worries she had about being single again. She’s remembering dreams and happy memories of the person she used to be. She realizes she’s happier on her own and the new freedom she has.

2.Buy my own Drinks (2019)

Runaway June This songs starts out with Runaway June being recently single and going out to the bar by herself. Post break up, its good to stay busy and not hide yourself away in your room. This song is about finding your independence again and not needing a man for any of the things you might find them doing during a night out. In the end, she knows she doesn’t need anyone else, she can take care of herself.

3.Do Better (2018)

Lil Donald This song is all about finally not being sad anymore about a break up. You’re feeling better, you’re looking better and you’re remembering that you deserve better than your past relationship. You realize that he’s not treating you right and you deserve someone loyal and faithful. You deserve a real man who will show you how much he appreciates you.

4.Feeling Good as Hell (2016)

Lizzo is here to pick you back up and dry your tears. She’s reminding you that you’re looking good and should be feeling even better. This relationship has been getting you down and it’s time to leave that behind so you can go back to being the Boss of your life. He’s no longer draining your energy, you can focus on yourself and achieve all your goals.

5.Don’t start now (2019)

Dua Lipa is letting us know how quickly she recovered from a break up. It seems like maybe he was the one to initiate the break up and thought she might be brokenhearted for longer. But she’s already putting herself out there and meeting new people and if he doesn’t want to see her out here living life then he should stay home. I really enjoy this little jab she gets in during the chorus ‘walk away, you know how’. She’s already moved on and he doesn’t need to concern himself with where she is now.

News on my Third Collection

I had been modeling my previous collection formats by very excellent, well known Poets published by big name companies. As a new, small time, self published poet, that’s really not the best idea! Big publishers want more material from their poets, that’s not necessarily what the readers want. The industry is focused on markets and money. That’s not where my focus should be.

I ran a poll on Twitter and changed things up!

So my third collection started off about 170+ pages and I’m now working towards getting it under 100 if I can. The idea now is to really split the collection into 2 different books. I’ve done some crazy editing to cut the book down.

With this new concept, I’ll be reconfiguring my title and cover as well as sequence of the poems. In short, this third collection is getting a massive remodel, which right now is mainly tearing down the old walls till we’re down to the studs. I’m not worried about my third release date so this construction schedule suits me just fine.

We may have another collection this summer! More updates to come!

Where I Ache 6 months old!

Where I Ache is 6 months old and I wanted to thank everyone on here, in the Poetry community, and the book blogger community for showing this project the love and support you all have!

At the end of the month, I’ll update everyone on my next project coming down the pipeline, until then check out these reviews and consider purchasing Where I Ache yourself on Amazon!

Some reviews from Goodreads, read them in full here

January Playlist – Cheating

We have the first playlist of the 2020 series! I’m hitting the ground running here because January we’re talking about Cheating! (youtube links of the songs included!)

1.Thru your phone – Cardi b

Released in 2018 in Cardi B’s debut album Invasion to Privacy. This is a song for when you just found the proof of the lies and cheating you’d been suspicious of. The anger you feel for your partner taking you for granted and not appreciating the love and relationship you two have. The chorus then mixes in that soft pain of your heart breaking realizing your relationship is forever changed. This song takes place in the night when your partner is still asleep and you’re all alone in this heartache and betrayal.

2. Say My Name – Destiny’s Child

This song is featured on Destiny’s Child’s second album The Writings on the Wall released in 1999. This song was a total bop while I was growing up. It focuses on the first time you’re noticing your partner is acting different. They’re not being as open and affectionate as they normally are and you’re beginning to wonder if it’s because they’re with someone else. You don’t like this shady behavior and you want them to be honest.

3. The Thunder Rolls – Garth Brooks

Released in 1991 on Garth’s No Fences album, this song parallels a storm in town with the storm brewing in the relationship. She hopes it’s the storm in town that is keeping him out so late but when he does return home, it’s the storm in her heart that tells her he was out with someone else.

4. I’m Not the Only One – Sam Smith

Released 2014, In the Lonely Hour album, Sam Smith really knows how to make your heart want to break down and cry. I’m glad these lyrics mention the crazy aspect. When you start to suspect betrayal, you analyze all the conversations and actions differently. In order to try to throw you off their trail, a cheating partner will call you crazy and make you feel guilty.

5. Wasn’t Me – Shaggy

From the 2000 Hot Shot album, this song was a hit with it’s reggae flair. This is from the perspective of the cheater getting caught in the act. Shaggy includes many details of the character’s cheating and the song includes a friend’s advice to deny it all! In the end, he wants to apologize to his girl and thinks his friend is a player. But once a cheater always a cheater?

6. Irreplaceable- Beyonce

I know Beyonce was also in Destiny’s Child, already featured on this list, but this single remained at the top of the US Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for 10 weeks! The song starts as a guy is getting kicked out of the house and packing up all his things, which are to the left in the closet. Through the song we gather that a guy took his partner for granted, stepped out on her, and never thought she could find someone like him again. She’s savage though, as her next guy will be there in a minute.

7. I Hope – Gabby Barrett

American Idol alumni, Gabby releases this hit in July 2019. The song starts with off wishing a couple well on finding true love. But this song finishes off our Cheating Playlist so we know that can’t be the end of the story! I love songs with a great twist and this one will have the happily married belting out these lyrics like they know this heartbreak first- hand.

Poetry Book Mini Reviews

From My Years – Jamey Boelhower

This collection touches on reminiscing on past loves and past lives. A reader gets a melancholy feeling of childhood, school days, and relationships with parents. I really enjoyed the heartache and yearning of the past. This poet has great descriptions of the scenery in his poems. I really enjoy the writing style of repetition and line placement, I’d definitely read more collections from this poet. Some favorites in From My Years include Left at Home, Morning Memory, and Hate is a Loan Shark.

Rose Petals Under a Reaper’s Robe: Unveiled – Vontress Ortega

You can absolutely feel all the anger, betrayal and determination coming off the pages in this collection. This collection is right up my alley with its writing style, I loved it! Vontress touched on so many topics that are personal for me involving relationships, self love, and current society. This collection felt very cathartic and I really enjoyed going through that emotional journey with the speaker. I would recommend this collection to just about every girl friend of mine.

2020 series announcement

You’ve come to know, every year I do a theme series!

2017 Love Fest

2018 Advice Column

2019 Poet Interviews

and now here we are with

2020 – All the Feels Playlists!

Each month will cover a different aspect of love or love lost such as: break up, steamy desire, jealousy, and forever love. I’ll put together a playlist of about 7 songs that fit the theme.

Who hasn’t made a playlist as they’ve gone through a break up?!

I’d love to hear what type of playlists you are all looking forward to! Any suggestions are welcome!

End of the Year Goal Check In

I wrote some goals for 2019 back in December and we’re full circle now! I did a 6 months check in since these goals were only for the first 6 months of the year anyways.

Goals for the first six months of 2019

Goals have to be measurable in order to know if you’ve reached them or not. Although I’m not happy to focus so heavily on numbers, it is an easy way to measure a goal. My goal is to increase my audience and have a successful poetry career. These numbers will help me keep track of those goals.

The Blog

Work on writing a media kit

Contact companies for sponsorship (and actually get one!)

Gain another 1,000 followers

Update: I’ve looked into some samples of media kits but I still don’t think my stats would stand out enough for it to make sense to create one just yet.

I’ve joined some other affiliation programs that I’ve been working on instead of doing any sponsored posts yet. There are some programs that have tougher qualifications so I still need to work on my stats. I am making a small bit of money from google Adsense so it’s great to see me recovering some of my self hosting spendings.

Debatably Dateable has gained over 1,770 followers since December and I couldn’t be happier! I love love love watching this blog grow! I hope to get another thousand in these next 6 months!

The Final Results: 3968 June, to 5719 dec = 1750, from my 5k monthly views article, my traffic is growing which helps my monetary goals.

Cracked Open

Between GoodReads and Amazon, have 20 reviews

Get 25 more books sold

The Update: I have 18 reviews so I can’t be too upset there but I did not even get close to selling 25 more books so that stings a little. I don’t see these numbers getting much higher as the year goes on. I’m not sure how to help boost sales as the book continues to age.

The Final Results: I thought Where I Ache sales would be the only ones coming in after the summer but surprisingly Cracked Open still sees some action on Amazon so that’s great news.

Social Media

Twitter – gain 2,000 followers

Instagram– gain 1,000 followers

The Update: For Twitter I only gained 1,270 so far but feel free to come check out what I talk about there! Oddly enough, for Instagram I’ve gained over 2,125 followers so it looks like I got my goals switched around! I hope to get to the 2k+ on Twitter in the Fall.

The Final Results: I finally started taking a deeper look into these numbers and found it was wasted efforts! So I’ve switched my focus to Pinterest, read more about why I made these changes here.

Next Poetry Collection – Where I Ache!

I want to add 50 exclusive poems to my next collection before I work on publishing it

Have 10 reviews before release date

Sell twice as many as Cracked Open (over the course of the year)

The Update: I have 55 exclusive poems! I am absolutely ecstatic about that! Cracked Open had 20 illustrations and Where I Ache has somewhere around 35 so I’m also pumped about that!

Where I Ache was only released 2 weeks ago and there’s already 14 reviews on Goodreads so I’m very happy about that! Definitely check them out!

I’m only 2 weeks in of course but I’m already even with Cracked Open’s first month of book sales so that’s a good start for me!

The Final Results: Where I Ache currently has 20 reviews on Goodreads and another 5 on Amazon so I think I did a bit more work during release time on my second collection and I’m happy to see it paid off. Not sure what I’ll want to do about my third collection in the new year.

All those reviews have unfortunately not resulted in more sales than Cracked Open had in it’s first 5 months. My third collection is returning to more Cracked Open style so we’ll see if that has anything to do with it.

Because I don’t want to solely focus on numbers, here are some

Non numerical goals:

Connect with new readers who resonate with my poetry.

Have my poetry help someone through a difficult time.

Have a company see value in my writing.

Keep a healthy number of articles in queue.

The Update: I’ve definitely found new readers and also fellow poets through my Poet Interview Series! I’ve been so lucky to connect with new readers who were interested in reviewing Where I Ache and many have said the sensitive topics covered in the collection have helped them remember they are not alone.

I haven’t really pursued this one aside from submitting Where I Ache to one of the major publishing companies. I’m not sure that I will do much for the rest of the year for this.

I have over 30 posts in queue for the past several months and it is amazinggggg! (knock on wood)

The Final Results: I still have not made the jump to working with companies and I don’t think I will in 2020, my only focus would probably be Google Adsense and working on more traffic to eventually switch to another ad company.

The past few months I hover around 50 articles in queue would has been so awesome and even with that I’ve added more posts into my schedule. At the beginning of the year I would post 10 times a month, then I went to every Monday, Wed, and Friday posting about 12-13 times a month and lately I’ve made the jump to about 15-17 times a month so I’m hoping that will all help with traffic and the like.

My goals for 2020 will mostly follow the same path of check the sales of my books and trying to increase site traffic so I’m unsure if I’ll set specific numbers for this coming year. Thanks for following me along through 2019!