Getting Started on my Early Returned Missionary Project

A couple weeks ago I wrote a blog post about how I had written a book about returning home early from an LDS Mission (a result of two parasites), submitted it to Deseret Book for publication, and a couple months later received a rejection notice from them. It was disappointing, partially because I'd worked so hard on the book, but also partially because it felt like another door shutting on a conversation that really needs to get going: the conversation about those who return home early from a mission through no fault of their own (generally the result of a physical or mental illness).

According to this article from returned missionary Drew Botcherby, "Each year 1.5 percent of missionaries come home early for health-related issues. If that doesn't sound like a lot, remember that the number of missionaries currently serving is around 74,900. That number is expected to peak around 95,000 over the next couple of years. That means over 1,100 come home every year, and that number will increase to over 1,400 each year." That means 3-4 missionaries come home early from their missions every day! This needs to be talked about!

In my post I stated that this wasn't the end of my attempts to get the conversation started. As I continued to talk to other people about my book and my desire to talk about these returned missionaries, I continued to get positive feedback for it. Yet as I talked, I realized that it really is a very niche book, and a publisher like Deseret Book would be hesitant to take it on because, well, how many copies are they going to sell? It's a long tail topic. Yet it is an important topic.

So, I've decided to use the medium that serves the long tail the best (the internet) and get a website going about missionaries who return home early. I want this website to be a place for missionaries to go when they just need some spiritual support. Maybe I'll even include some links about physical support (inspired by the same article from Drew Botcherby). Both forms of support are important. What I struggled with the most was the spiritual aspects of returning home early: the feelings of unworthiness, of not trying hard enough, of being punished by God, etc. When I later ran into people from my mission I felt "marked" as the "girl who returned home early," even though these people never did anything to make me feel that way. 

Right now, I'm in the brainstorming phase. Here's a picture of the first page of my brainstorming: 

The other page has a list of topics. I had to force myself to stop brainstorming because it was beginning to consume me, and ignite some old anxieties about having to act now or my project will never take off (which is never true. I always follow through on projects that I start--well, almost!).

Anyways, I've begun to look into things like "search engine optimization," domain names, hosting a website, etc. My husband has been a fantastic resource for the technical side of setting up a website and has done a lot of the researching for me. This has helped me a ton because I'm not really programming saavy or super tech saavy. I had no idea there was a difference between registering a domain and hosting a website. He's more than happy to help me out with it though, so I'm going to let him. I was looking at Google Sites for hosting, and my husband found other sites that produce templates for a website. For now, I'll probably use Google Sites since it offers free hosting (although I'll still get my own domain), which will save me about $60 per year. Down the road if I want more power behind my site I may pay the extra $60, but for now Google Sites will serve my purpose.

Then there are the other things like how many times per week I'm committed to blog. I think 3 posts per week about certain topics, a guest blog once a week, or a question and answer blog once a week would be good. But first, I have to get it noticed which means I need to get some blogs up there until I can do the extra stuff. And I'm in school right now and have little extra time to blog. Should I get co-bloggers? That would help spread out the workload and provide insights about things that I did not experience. I would like to stay in charge so I can monitor the tone/voice of the other authors to make sure it gets the importance of our message across, but is still respectful towards the church and respects the anonymity of those they may be speaking about. I'd need to set rules. I wouldn't be a tyrant, but I'd still like to maintain control over the website and its content. 

These are my thoughts so far. Any input from others is always welcome. I'm hoping to get this website up and going very soon.