Mastodon Banners

My Newest TDG Promotion

Borrowed from the Internet. Mastodon probably won’t mind!

One fear many writers and other creative people have is the fear of their work being lost forever. When we depart from this world, with no one else to give attention to our work, our work is likely to be relegated to the dustbin of history.

Unless of course, we become recognized to some extent. Then other people will be commenting on our work. But most of us will be unrecognized.

I don’t consider myself a great writer. So I will not be writing for The Atlantic or The Economist any time soon. My TDG novels will not be on any best seller lists. There are many better writers competing for these spaces.

While I am not a great writer, I have a unique topic. The world needs to build a new democracy. My six years working inside a political party gave me the insights to invent this new democracy. I have called it Tiered Democratic Governance (TDG).

Most of my Medium writing has been directly or indirectly about this democracy. Unfortunately the Medium audience has, despite our current political turmoil, not given much credence to this idea. And, unfortunately again, Medium has been my best forum to express this idea. All other forums have been even more dismal. The TDG is still stuck in the starting gate of the Overton Window.

By 2022, I had published about 250 articles on Medium. I wanted a better way to preserve this work than just on my computer and the jumbled Medium archive. I thought I should put this work to a blog on my TDG website. I have seen other writers preserve their works in a similar way.

I had another motive than just posterity. I have always been looking for new ways to promote the TDG. Since many of my articles are somewhat timeless, they can be reintroduced to the world again and again. But republishing these articles on Medium did not seem honest to me. But I could put links to my blog articles directing traffic from Mastodon to the TDG blog and my other inventions.

I tried Twitter about 10 years ago. I could not figure out how to make this forum work for the TDG and my other inventions. So I dropped this forum after a few months. Today, Twitter (now X) is controversial and is probably on a downward slide. I should not be associated with this forum.

Mastodon is a Twitter clone. But its ownership is more organic, which I appreciate. And Mastodon would allow me to post links to my blog articles; I would not get the designation as a “clickbaiter” because most Mastodon posts are clickbait. So I joined in February 2023, making several TDG posts per day.

The best part of my Mastodon strategy is that it only takes me two minutes to make a Mastodon post. I do not have to rewrite or reformat my blog articles. In essence, I am recycling my Medium work for not much effort.

Traffic to my website was about two visitors a week before Mastodon. It kind of stayed that way after. Not much tangible action, but I was slowly building my Mastodon following.

First Round of Mastodon Graphics

Mastodon does allow graphics to its posts. But I was not using this feature. I commissioned my artist to create these 468x60 graphics in May 2025

Traffic to the TDG website went from two visitors a week to 15.

Second Round of Mastodon Graphics

I introduced these graphics in September 2025:

Traffic went from 15 to 40 visitors per week

In December, traffic dropped to 10 visitors a week, but the former traffic returned in January.

Third Round of Mastodon Graphics

Then in early February 2026, I added these graphics

So far, traffic seems to have dropped to about 20 visitors a week. It seems this third batch does not resonate as well. It has a bigger emphasis on the yellow graphics: the messaging that average people will build this new democracy. It seems average people don’t want this responsibility.

I will be experimenting with what graphics work better in convincing people to visit the TDG website.

The TDG Novels

Peripheral Graphics

I have other graphics I occasionally put into Mastodon posts. These graphics show my other inventions to the world.

Conclusion

I make about eight Mastodon posts a day. It takes about 6 weeks to cycle through my 558 articles on the TDG blog. To many of my 290 Mastodon followers, it looks like my 558 articles and 65 banners are somewhat fresh.

Mastodon banners are my newest way to promote the TDG. Maybe the repeated messages will convince my Mastodon followers to take the TDG more seriously. I will likely continue with this promo for at least one more year.

I’m not so optimistic these days. I have resigned myself to the Van Gogh effect. You know, the Dutch painter who could not give his paintings away — and lived in destitution. Not even cutting his ear off got him the notoriety he so wanted. But he sure became famous after his death.

And don’t worry, this bottom Medium writer won’t be doing the ear-cutting-off trick. My challenge is to ensure my TDG work is left in enough places for others to find it after I am gone.

Or maybe in 2030, when the Democratic Party fails to deliver what many Americans want, these people will finally take my ideas seriously. Can I be that hopeful?

P.S. If any of these banners are speaking to you, let me know. I will give them a higher frequency in my Mastodon posting.

Further Reading

[embed]My Grandparents had a Grade 4 Education Life in the Peasant Lanemedium.com

[embed]TDG & Zoom: Finding Connection, Purpose, and Hope Good for your psyche!medium.com