[rajacombinator]

1) don't make it personal, 2) don't blame your users, blame yourself.

Put yourself in their perspective. When you visit a random website, do you think about the webmaster or people behind it? Or do you treat it like a tool to get something done? If your users aren't buying what you're selling, it's because it's not relevant or you're presenting it poorly.

[wishiknew]

If I were a music beginner and I saw an experienced player offering me an insight into his playing and his email address to help me, I'd become a fan. I actually follow some rather mediocre people online just because they put stuff out there on a regular basis. They're all less shy than me when it comes to promotion, that's for sure. To me a plain-text site like HN is great but I may need to stop thinking like me when it comes to content promotion.