Paying It Forward With My Winnings, Should I Win The Challenge

In response to Coffee Challenge: Promotional article to my newsletter

Yan Huang
6 min readFeb 5, 2022
Photo by Matheus Bertelli from Pexels

A writer writes for the sheer joy of the written word.
A singer sings for the auditory satisfaction of the expressed voice.
A dancer dances for the exuberance of the moving body.

What most of these creatives do not enjoy is the marketing of their works because sometimes it feels more coerced than natural. Yet in this day of social media and NFTs, anyone who has successfully cultivated a practice or a mindset to market themselves seems to stand a better chance of succeeding, whatever that may mean.

I struggled for years with online marketing and promotion of what I do or create. Many had encouraged me to just go for it as most of us want to read real stories and struggles of how one goes from zero to hero(ine). No one wants to read a 10–10 perfect life story.

When I was battling cancer at 23, I started a WordPress blog. It was mostly to document my experiences, thoughts, and interests. Even though I did not share it with my family and friends, I secretly wished that the blog would go viral. After all, writing to yourself can be pretty lonely sometimes.

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Yan Huang
Yan Huang

Written by Yan Huang

Building connections one word at a time. | Bylines in few start-ups | Cancer survivor at 23 | More stories at http://yuyanhuang.substack.com