Connect with Other Preppers

One thing that I’ve learned in my time running Prepper Website is that preppers want to connect with other preppers! I often get emails that go something like this.

I get more of these emails than you might realize!  But here is the honest truth, you’re not going to find other preppers to prep with!  And really, you shouldn’t want to!

Whoa!  What did you say, Todd?  

Yeah, you read that correct!

It is very rare for preppers to meet up.  If they do, it will be in a meetup group at a designated location.  Then, it takes a ton of time for people to trust each other before they can move to a real relationship where they are sharing information, plans and involving each other and their families in their preparedness.  It never gets to that last point!

Preppers are too suspicious of others.  Until the day they have to band together, most preppers will keep to themselves when they are in person.  Preppers feel they need to keep a high degree of anonymity.

But Should You Really Want To Connect with Other Preppers?

But not only do they not want to connect with other preppers, they shouldn’t!  Let me explain this.

People come together because of common ground.  They might be family, go to the same church, live on the same block or have deep ties in some form or other.  When a prepper meets another prepper and the only thing they have in common is prepping, it doesn’t work. 

Why?  Because prepping for a disaster is a small part of our lives.  We go to work, have families and do life. We have more in common with the parents of our son’s little league team than the person prepping across town.

I’ve heard of prepper groups who have come together for mutual support only to disband after a year with hurt feelings because prepping during good times isn’t enough to bring everyone on the same page.  Inevitably, there is a family member or someone involved who isn’t all gung-ho about the prepper lifestyle and after the first group exercise (camping trip), they were over it!

Now, this would change if there was a true SHTF situation.  An event that changed everyone’s life instantly would bring everyone to the same common goal of survival.  And surviving is a powerful motivator. But even at that, there are going to be some who have differences in how to approach “survival.”

How do Preppers Connect?

So how do preppers connect and fill that need to bond with others like them?

Well, most connect through social media.  There are many survival and prepper Facebook pages and groups.  Facebook has made it very easy to connect. They have an APP. They have Messenger.  You get that dopamine hit when you receive a notification that someone “liked” or commented on one of your posts.

But the reality of the big social media channels out there is that YOU are the product!  They are building a profile on you! All your likes, post comments and pages you follow say something about you.  Yes, they are doing it to market it to you. But with a little tweaking, in the wrong hands, what else does your profile say about you?  A ton of data doesn’t lie! It builds patterns of behavior. Do you trust the big social media giants to do the right thing with your data?  Do you trust the government to do the right thing with your data?

Recently I wrote in an article entitled, Preppers and Social Media – Maybe It’s Time to Get Anti-Social…

“But then, I started thinking that Facebook was really conforming the way that I was thinking. Facebook was conforming me to what they want and what they think is acceptable They are dictating what THEY think should be made public for others to see!

This is a form of brainwashing to a point! Due to their bans and what they deem appropriate, they cause you to operate in a way that you might not normally operate. It’s training you! You post what they say is right.”

So what is a lonely prepper to do?  

Read: The Need to be More Self-Reliant

Preppers Need to Connect the Right Way

It IS valuable to connect with other preppers who are like-minded and feel a sense of belonging.  There are many preppers out there who have a lot of knowledge that they would love to share with others.  And just because someone lives on the other side of the country, it doesn’t mean that we can’t learn from each other and strike up an online (email) friendship that is mutually beneficial to all.

Seeing the need for Preppers to connect and trying to move away from social media, I recently created the Prepper Website forums.  They are a private forum. The only way you can get access to the forum is if you purchase my ebook, “The Preparedness Community’s Guide to a Microbiz and Increasing Your Finances” for $7.

I thought it was a great idea!  I love forums. And I saw some buzz when it first launched.  But the truth is, forums are not as easy to navigate as Facebook.  People are just so used to scrolling down and liking stuff that using a forum wasn’t preferable.

The forum is still up.  I still visit it.  But it isn’t as active as I would like it to be.

A Big Way to Connect!

So what other options are there?

I started looking for another way that preppers could connect.  It had to include a way that we could connect on any device (including our phones) and that wasn’t a heavy lift to learn.

I spent a lot of time researching and reflecting on how I could help other preppers connect.  I found my answer with email.

Email?

Yes!  Email!

Think about it!  No one controls email like social media channels control their platform.  They can’t keep you from getting the email that is sent to you by utilizing some crazy algorithm.  You can easily get it on your phone. No one is making a profile on you.  

So how does this email group work?

The Prepper Website Exclusive Email Group is an email-based communication with other preppers.  This service is not hosted by any of the social media companies. It is completely hosted and controlled by Prepper Website.  Users can simply utilize their email or connect.

This is going old school.  But sometimes going old school is the best school if you know what I mean.  

So this is basically the way it works.  You send an email to a specific email address.  That email gets pushed out to all of the other people on the list.  They then can respond if they choose to do so.

Will you get a lot of emails?  Yes and No.

You could get every email that is sent if you choose. Or, you can get a digest version every day and read through the emails that were sent out and reply to the ones you want to engage in.

The Prepper Website Exclusive Email Group

The Prepper Website Exclusive Email Group costs $20 a year. That breaks down to less than .06 a day. But the dividends of being connected with other preppers is invaluable. Other benefits of the group include online meet-ups (currently every other week), member only videos and periodic webinars.

If you are ready to connect with other people through the Prepper Website Exclusive Email Group, you can do so by visiting Prepper Website.NET or clicking here.

Peace
Todd