Back in December when I was making plans for 2024, I expected to ramp up everything across the board. Throughout 2023 when things started to get chaotic I just doubled down and kept pushing harder to stay on top of things. Now as the first quarter of 2024 is coming to a close I've realized that wasn't sustainable, namely because I've started failing to maintain all of my existing projects. Most notably I haven't hit the planned campaign launch date for issue #4 of ANVIL or stayed on top of the site itself. Rather than hash out the reasons for this I'll just state that I need to reduce and refocus on my primary goals.
My most important goal for 2024 is ensuring the quality of ANVIL: Iron Age Magazine throughout the year and delivering all four issues on time. After fulfilling issue #3 and as I prepared for issue #4 I've decided that the upcoming campaigns on IGG and FMC will be the only ones for 2024. Creating campaigns and coordinating sales between three locations has created minor, but persistent problems that drain time. I apologize if you are an IGG or FMC customer, I will be making IronSmith subscriptions available there through April. That said, AnvilMagazine.com will always have the best prices and most up to date offers throughout the year.
One of my goals for the past year has been a full rebuild of the site, and needless to say that hasn't happened. This is one of the consistent things that has been pushed back, along with maintaining a steady stream of content. As things have become more sporatic, daily site visits have stopped increasing, and I can't blame people. I've also fallen behind on the prompts, as winners haven't been featured as they should have been, and February voting just started today. Overall this is the biggest place where things have not met expectations, and it's a disservice to authors of articles and prompt submissions. I'm committed to getting things moving in the right direction again.
In addition to reducing the number of campaigns, I will also be cutting down on some of my other projects and activities that aren't directly related to the site or ANVIL. I did over a year of Sunday night streams, and I had a great time doing them. However, I don't believe they're something I need to be prioritizing currently. In general I will probably be a bit more reclusive until I get things back on track. I have things I'd like to do with streaming and video content in the future, but I'm forcing it into the backseat for the time being. This will extend to most other social media, and I may be a lot less responsive than I have been there. Please don't take it personal, and remember you can always send an email.
At the outset of the year my goal was to start setting up shop at a few conventions. Unfortunately the first one I'd targeted was delayed, and since then I've re-evaluated how much time and effort it would take. For now those things are on hold.
Overall I'm not sure if this was worth a site update post, but I was feeling quite guilty about the state of things. This worry was part of what kept me from being as productive as I needed to be. With that done, and a more focused plan, I expect good news going forward. I greatly appreciate all the support and patience people have shown me here.