I wanna show you guys this - not to toot my own horn at all, but to offer an example of how crossposting and networking among ourselves can increase our membership. First, this:
I'm guessing most people have noticed that we've garnered several new members in the past week. Now, only one has actively engaged, and there's no telling which if any of the others will - but the point is, visibility and relatively cogent or compelling points can bring people here.
So this works. And it is not abusive to the other sites we use, so long as we operate within their ToS, and offer something of value to their sites.
Onto my point: We have several good writers here. I would like to encourage and even appeal to all IAL members to think about whether you feel you might be able to duplicate this effort. I'm no great writer - no better than many here. I have opinions, and am able to take some extra care in expressing them in a venue like RedState.
We obviously want to be careful. Do our best work. Don't everyone dogpile the "recommend" button at the same time with an IAL link in our signature. But otherwise, this could be something that would propel the site forward. The piece crossposted to this thread has been at the #1 spot on the list for a week, knocked off this morning by Rick Santorum himself. It only reached #1 because a few people here recommended it early, saving it from falling down the list into obscurity, giving it enough time to become visible to more people.
That is a formula going forward that I intend to use, and I encourage everyone who has the confidence or desire to try their hand, to do so.
It's a little tricky, in that once you post at RS, you can't edit. Here you can.So, you have to compose the piece at RS in their edit window, then copy that to a new post here, post HERE FIRST so you can copy the IAL url, then go to RS and post the piece, with the IAL cross-post url. Then come back here, and edit your post to add the RS cross-post url for your piece.