July – Aiming to Launch Mid/End of August

Let’s face it, June was intense. There was very little sleep, a lot of logistics with a move at the end of the month, ongoing renovation work in our apartment, trying to manage two dogs in that chaos, and a heatwave. I’ve tried as best I could to keep tabs on what I was doing and when, and obviously because I was lacking sleep, there were a lot of task items started all at once (thank you rabbit-hole-loving-brain), so then obviously a lot of going back and forth between tasks. I will do a better job in August to streamline the progress recap format.

I initially wanted to aim for a mid/end of July launch, and quite frankly that was very ambitious. However, when I look at the progress made over the past two months, I have to admit I’m quite impressed because at this stage, I have two completed and edited short stories 1-3K words, over 10 more that are mapped and fleshed out. about 15 flash stories drafted (400-1K words), an editorial calendar for In The Mirror pieces, and, well, this here that goes backstage.

The site is fully functional and is missing some design tweaks for better readability and overall experience, but the vision is taking form.

PWME: JULY 2025 ACTIVITY & PROGRESS RECAP

✅ Key Progress Made in July

1. Story Editing & Publishing Cleanup

• Confirmed story formatting, layout, and structure for:
  • The Guesthouse Agreement
  • Snowed In With Her Ex
  • The Forbidden Review
  • Her Curves In Silk
• Finalized cliffhangers and CTA phrasing for flash erotica stories
• Shifted story pages entries into clean, readable form with appropriate category tags

2. Visual & UX Polishing

• Refining of static pages layouts with
• Revisited story card styling to allow:
  • Read time estimates (planned)
  • Visual teasers or blurbs
• Started visual and copy overhaul of:
  • Backstage
  • In the Mirror
  • In a Hurry

3. Email Marketing & Automations

• Finalized toolstack: MailerLite + Zapier
• Created 5 segmented subscriber groups:
  • Coming Soon signups
  • Flash story readers
  • Long-form readers
  • Backstage visitors
  • Mirror article readers
• Set up onboarding logic:
  • Created initial MailerLite automation for Coming Soon group
  • Tested Zapier connection with signup forms (success)
  • Drafted welcome email flow outline (polls + onboarding cues)

4. Functionalities Refinement

• Floating like buttons and comment buttons on stories
  • Resolved duplicate icons bug
  • Styling cleanup planned
• Benched modal-linked comment icon idea:
  • Kept simple scroll-to-comment flow
• Confirmed all related posts working via custom dynamic logic
• Fixed layout bug on mobile caused by sticky title + sidebar conflict

5. Branding, Copy

• Reevaluated PWME’s tone:
• Revised core static pages and story intros
• Reinforced core values:
  • Realism, personal stakes, exploratory pleasure

6. Platform & Growth Research

• Explored visibility strategies for pre-launch:
  • Threads posting (brand voice, hashtag strategy)
  • Instagram planning
  • Reader feedback channels (polls, comment prompts)
• Assessed erotic story platforms (Literotica, Reddit, KDP) for testing story arcs and reader interest – Published The Forbidden Review on both Literotica & Reddit.
• Decided initial monetization will focus on:
  • Kindle Direct Publishing for long-form stories
• Pushed gated content plan to a later phase

 

️ August Carryovers

• Finalize:
  • Featured teaser story + CTA on homepage
  • Read time + blurbs on story cards
  • Part II of ‘The Forbidden Review”
• Clean ups:
  • WP ULike styling
  • Footer
  • Privacy Policy, T’s & C’s, GDPR compliance
• Polish:
  • Backstage, In the Mirror,
  • All archive pages (categories, tags, authors, etc)
• Research:
  • Reader poll integration tool
  • Threads and IG post cadence for pre-launch campaign

️ Timeline Snapshot – July 2025

Date	Milestone
July 1–5	TIME OFF!!!
July 6–10	Segmented MailerLite groups created; Zapier integration tested
July 11–15	Style and tone updates drafted for site copy; Long-form and flash stories edited
July 16–20	Long-form and flash stories edited; Backstage and Mirror sections flagged for overhaul
July 21–24	Threads & IG pre-launch strategy explored; poll tool research begun; more edits on stories
July 25–26	Email automation flow tested; CTA/teaser layout drafts planned
July 27–31	August prep tasks defined; brand voice updates set for implementation with two distinct pen names