In one week Suburban Jungle will celebrate it’s first birthday! Yes, one year of building a following of tons of readers and 1000’s of visitors each month… sometimes each week. One year of amazing comments, personal email responses, and whispers at the grocery store. The gestation period for this baby was about 7 years longer than the standard 9 months, but it was well worth it.
I started this blog after signing up for FB. Before I knew it, I had hundreds of FB friends, because I am extremely popular. I realized, here is a huge audience of people that I can awkwardly and annoyingly push my material on. Due to nostalgia induced guilt, they just might read it. Since then, it has grown into a legitimate site, read by people all over the planet, literally. I have become a contributing writer for CityMommy, NewParent, SheJustGotMarried, and the JewishTimes. I have been mentioned in Good Housekeeping, and I am contributing to a hilarious book!
Because of you, I am looking for an agent and working on pitching two books. I have gotten multiple calls about writing a pilot and am very seriously working towards getting many of my articles published… articles that started out as blog posts, for your entertainment. If I did not have such amazing people following the blog, commenting, calling, and emailing, I don’t think I would have been so inspired to pursue this dream. So, I want to thank you.
This is around the time I would start to insult you, by saying something like, “It was you, the little people, the peons, that helped me, a titan of brilliant creativity. Who would ever have imagined?” But I wouldn’t dare, because I still need you little people.
I need you now more than ever. Because I am focusing on making this a career, I can not focus on marketing the blog. I need those of you who are technologically savvy to Stumble me, Mixx me, Digg me, Blog Roll me, Tweet me, and Tickle me. I made the last one up, but who doesn’t like a good tickle? For those of you who don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about, please pass me on to friends, neighbors, class lists, and Mommy And Me programs.
This is an official amendment to our contract, like getting an annoying packet explaining the change in your insurance coverage. I write a blog that is mostly article driven. If I want consistent traffic without marketing, I need to be more “bloggish,” and POST, POST, POST. So rather than let the Suburban Jungle suffer, I will enhance it with more frequent posts. Not all will be articles, I am still just one insanely talented person. But, I promise they will be witty, relatable, and sometimes short.
I will continue to give you the articles you love so much, and in return you will continue to enjoy the posts… that’s an order. You will talk about me at lunches, PTA meetings, water coolers, and play-dates. You will sign up friends to the email subscription with out their permission. You will annoy them with requests to join the Suburban Jungle group or networked blog on FB, and insist that they follow me on twitter. Most importantly, you will ignore all spelling and grammatical errors.
I will hold you to our contract, which like an insurance company, I have the right to amend at any time, without prior notice. Thanks for reading and inspiring every word! You are truly the best audience ever!
Much Love,
Jenny from the blog
I always love feedback and hope to hear from you.
The FB Suburban Jungle group will receive articles only… not the entire feed, for the full experience sign up for the FB networked blogs thing-a-ma-who-ha.
I will not have as much time to post on LinkedIn, so if you find me there, sign up directly on my site, and feel free to link to me.
Jen: I didn’t realize you have been writing this long, at least on line. Congratulations on all your accolades. I have not only signed up my friends and co-workers, but my hairdresser, my manicurist and my mail person. Even Cleo jumps on line now and then. Keep up the good work, it will pay off in the end.
Are you saying I need to be on Facebook to continue recieivng suburban jungle? If so, I am bummmmed because I so am not a FB person. What the f@#*?!
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First of all: Congratulations! That’s so amazing and I am so freaking jealous. Okay, this is not about me. I’m going to click and check and follow you all over the place. No, I’ll try not to stalk you.
BTW: Thanks for the “thanks” email. Very nice and reminded me to come by again. I enjoyed this post, but do hope to read some shorter ones. 🙂 LOL.
Thanks… Sheryl, it means the opposite. You need to keep following me here to get the most stuff. If you are one of the people who only reads on Facebook, then you need to get the Networked Blogs App. to follow the full feed.
Thanks for your worry.
JFTB
Hey Jenny — 3 little things:
First, congratulations on SJ’s 1st birthday! You’ve done well, girl!
2nd, a testimony to your readers: Join Facebook. I did and now, according to FB, I am a “Friend” of Jenny. Before, I was just a reader, like many of you. But now, after FB, I’m special, ’cause Jen and I are “Friends.”
3rd: To be really successful, you need, merchandise! I want a bobble-head Jenny from the Blog! Or a totebag. Maybe a coffee mug with Jenny’s mug smiling at me every morning. It’s all about SJ brand penetration! We see you, we read you.
Congrats!! Great news and I look forward to all you create.
This peon thanks you for thanking her! Yes, your success is because of me and don’t you EVER forget it! I found you on Linkin and thought your stuff was hilarious. So I determined that you should be in books. Therefore I subscribed and followed you on Twitter & Digged & Stumbled you. I commented on your blog to encourage you to continue. I wanted the publishers to see that you had a nice following so I annoyed a number of others to subscribe also (2 to be exact. You’re welcome.). I have used all of my energy promoting you to get where you are today. I’m glad you made it!
Awesome! Awesome ! Awesome!! I want a signed copies of you books. xoxo
I am so excited for you to get more “bloggish.” I look at the feed daily and love when there is something new… I look forward to more new stuff so I don’t have to wait so long in between posts!
7 years in R and D on art seems quite reasonable, I think the 9 months standard came from Cheetos or the Rabbit corkscrew. No, I bet they were years in the making, possibly 8. You honey, are an artist, so cut yourself a ton of slack because artists are special people. And you practice the most sophisticated form of communication: comedy, making you an EXTRA special person.
long live art, long live dogs, long live Suburban Jungle!
WTG Jenny! Congratulations on passing such a great milestone. I wish you every success with your future projects. Isn’t it amazing what can happen when an idea really takes off? =)
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooook,
So this is where I circle in around you, like cooing doves, to usher in a fantastic congratulatory speech, but my extreme jealousy kicks in and I suddenly morph into like, a ton of groaning zombies from the Thriller video and as the word, “congratulations!” oozes out of my mouth, blood and guts and stuff and things ooze out too, so it’s actually more like “congaewaedezzzzzznoohpumnummm”, and you start to really freak out and cry but then I’m all, “wait, check out my Moonwalk!” and then you’re all, “ah, OK, cool!” And then I’m like, “yeah, let me put my arm back on so I can shake your hand! I promise I don’t have Swine Flu!” But you opt for a fist bump instead and walk away backwards, (not because you’re scared to take your eyes off of me, but because you’re trying to moon walk too, because you’re competitive like that) while peripherally scanning for hand sanitizer, thinking, “dang, I gave this chick my email address?”
It may take me a few or a hundred swigs from my ginormous 80 gallon jug of Sangria I got from Rite Aid (hey, with the 6% alcohol tax they just slapped on us it just made more sense economically) to really bang out on this tear-flooded keyboard that I am so happy for you, and not deeply jealous, because I am SO above that, and that I hope you “remember me when” in case I never become famous too because I am too old and weird, which causes me to pitifully continue posting to my blog anyway because “I really, really enjoy it”.
Sigh.
Seriousness just isn’t fun, but, congratulations anyway. Oops my arm just fell off again. Ouch that hurt.
😉
Thank you all for the congrats and encouragement… InsanityKIM you wear your title well… too well. I hope you find your arm. I hate when that happens.