Three Months Mark

Hi everyone, hope your days are going well! I just realized the other day that I have passed the 90 day mark - which means I could start doing trainings myself. But what to talk about? My mind just whirls around with ideas.

So, for now, at least, I'm going to give my site a little recess. I'm not getting the traffic I'd hoped for, and I blame myself for choosing a niche that is difficult to monetize. This makes me think I need to start all over with something else. And I'm not sure what that will be.

One idea I have is to make a site about small-acreage hobby-farming. I had a 2.5 acre property with a small house and a detached garage (which had been used as a mechanic's garage) some years ago. When we moved in, it had no fencing anywhere at all. I transformed that garage into a 2-stall barn with a tack room and STILL a garage space to park a car.

I learned a tremendous amount about fencing, too - did the entire property, put up dividing fences so I could rotate pasture, and have a paddock with the barn serving as a run-in (but also had dutch doors so it could contain an animal.

We had chickens, too: I built a chicken house out of an old wooden jungle gym type of thing that my kids no longer used.

I was surprised to see that there were hardly any sites out there dedicated to starting up a small hobby-farm - so perhaps that's the way to go next. My husband grew up on a 40-acre cattle ranch, and he knows quite a bit, too - so perhaps between us we can be expert helpers for people who want to have such a place.

Other than that, the winter is settling in, and I get the blues and the blahs at this time of year, and I'm feeling discouraged - but, I WILL NOT QUIT. I'm in here on an annual membership, and I'm going to learn everything I can, and help others as much as possible.

As for success, my site is nicely filled out, and indexed on Google. The sitemap has something like 250 urls! How did that happen?! lol Well, it did happen. I also have earned a few cents from Adsense and Shareaholic both - but that's it. Although GWT says I have 500 hits per month, I know that's next to nothing. And the clicks are single digit for the most part.

Still - with this foundation I feel I can come up with something more lucrative, and as I get further in I might even do a WA site. It almost feels like we're competing against one another when we do that - but I get that we are selecting a narrow slice of readers from our particular 'perspective.' I've seen some amazing sites that Bootcampers have made, with brilliant technique. I applaud you all.

I'm also thinking of dumping Amazon. Today I contacted them, and learned that they "have ways" of figuring out if people shopping through my site are people I know - maybe they spy on our activities, and if we are marketing on FB, that would disqualify ALL of our friends from helping us earn. That sucks, to be honest.

Anyway, yes, so - this is my three month update. I know it is at this point that many give up, and I understand why. But I'll keep going - and see what the next 11 months bring.

Thanks to anyone who bothered to read this far. I am proud to be a part of this community, and proud of myself for learning so much in such a short time - and being able to 'talk shop' with Mr B58 is a bonus, too! He even bought me a couple of books on Wordpress. Awww.