Back So Soon? - A Sincere Apology

Afternoon, readers…

‘Tis I, Jack, with a sincere apology regarding yesterday’s “farewell.” If you don’t want to read all of this, the point is: I’m back. The end. If you want to hear my reasoning and stuff that needs to change now, let’s dive right into this, I guess.

If you didn’t know, yesterday I published an announcement post, saying how I was leaving the blog due to my being behind in school and how I felt this blog was pointless. And, in the post, I felt that I made the right decision by leaving, saying:

I’m sorry if you’ve enjoyed this blog and the book club, but I really think I’ve made the right decision. And this post is only going to get a few [comments] anyway, which will just prove my points even more. This blog is pointless. And I’m tired of wasting my time. I’m tired of shoving blog posts out of my weary mind. And I’m tired of being behind in life. So, I’m pushing this distraction away and moving on.

Earlier in this post, I also wrongly announced:

[…]I will no longer be an author of this blog. I don’t know if the others will be keeping this blog going, but I honestly don’t care. This has taken over my life for the worse. I want to do something valuable and impactful with my life and maybe I should start with my own community [instead of] trying to create a new one.

As you can tell, something was seriously wrong with my mind at that point. Lately, school, sports, and just life have been weighing down on me and something does need to change; my fellow authors agree about this too because we’re teenagers. There’s a lot going on right now in our lives, but what I did wrong was pinning all of my problems on the blog.

So, first off, I’d like to apologize. My decision to leave the blog obviously, though impacting some more than others, was wrong and hurtful. I deserted my friends, telling them our month’s worth of effort was pointless. But, here’s the thing, this blog isn’t pointless. While we’re still growing, I’m certain that this website can turn into something great if we continue what we’re doing and make a few minor changes when necessary. An additional wrongdoing made in yesterday’s post was the fact that I discredited all of you, our readers and participants, who actually enjoy this blog more or less. For that, sincerely apologize and thank you all for being here. 

But some things are going to have to change from now on.

1. Our Audience

This blog has only been going on for a month now, so naturally we won’t have a humongous audience. But I feel the same as I did yesterday concerning our audience. Lately, we’ve been receiving little traffic, but that’s not your fault. There are many factors currently preventing Controversial Book Club from gaining readers and followers.

First, it’s our name. 

Controversial Book Club is a title both generic and hard to find. We’ve already set the blog up to be accessed when searched on Google. However, when searched, a plethora of things pop up before our blog. Why? Because we don’t have a catchy, unique name that can be easily recognized. For now, I think this name is here to stay as we have much more important matters to attend to. But, in the future, be prepared for a sort of rebrand. We will, of course, announce it when it happens, but this is just a head up and something to think about.

Second, we need publicization.

In addition to our name, something else preventing people from finding this blog is the fact that we’re not out there. Sure, if you scroll through the hundreds of Google search results, you may eventually find our blog. But who’s doing that? Currently, the only way to access our blog is by inputting our link exactly. Now, I have been avoiding social media since we’re underage, but we may get there at some point.

So, what can you do for now?

Well, we’re asking this one thing: tell people about Controversial Book Club! We’re in the process of spreading the word via speech and constant reminders for y’all to tell people about this blog as well…and that’s basically it. But what else can we do at this point? (That wasn’t rhetorical; we’ll gladly accept any suggestions you may have! 😁) So, make sure to tell everyone you know about this. We, the authors of this blog, have all decided that our audience isn’t solely teen writers anymore. Anyone is free to read our articles and join us in the Daily Controversies.

So, please, just harness the opportunity to tell others about this blog. If you’re on YWW, tell everyone there! If you have a group chat, text them the blog’s link. If you have a blog of your own, shoot us an email and we can advertise each other’s blogs to our readers! And if you’re a parent, we’d appreciate it if you told your kids about this blog or gave us a shout-out on social media. (Not trying to be pushy or anything 😅)

2. Our Email List

At some point, you should have seen a pop-up on one of our posts requesting you to subscribe to our email list. If you are one of our 32 email subscribers, you are aware that the emails I send out are just post notifications with the occasional announcement. Well, I am the sole creator of these emails, but lately they have been a lot of work. So, I will no longer be sending out emails. Sorry, but it’s really been a lot. This is, however, a temporary thing. By this summer, I will possibly resume email notifications (unless we go on summer hiatus), but for now, we’re taking a little break.

Well, that’s kind of all I had to say. 

But the main point of this post is simply to say how sorry I am for making you all think I was leaving this blog. For that, I am eternally apologetic and ask your forgiveness. I believe this blog is something special—something that will grow and evolve into a truly amazing community of young writers. But for now, we’re just going to keep on doing what we’re doing and request that y’all tell others about us so they can join in on the fun.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for everything. And I’ll see y’all in my next Daily Controversy. Until then…

Have a blessed day!

— Jack Cuison