Monday, March 29, 2010

Do You Mind if I Boast a Lil' About Building My Websites?

Bein' a real 'shy' buster... I don't boast much... OK... OK... but, if a Cowboy don't show off once in a while... he'll burst!

Yesterday goin' RV Boondocking punched through another Record... My visitor count went through 11,000 visitors in a month for the first time. Hoo! Ya!... and the month ain't even over yet! Sweet! and, for the bottom line... though last month was the best the sites have paid me yet... this month is now, the best payday! Double Hoo! Ya! or I should say... The best, You, have paid me! :-)

As my workamping, RV Cottage enterprise, Building my Websites has been a Shining Times Trail! :o)

Many, Many Thanks, to all you folks that come by! Ya'll are keepin' me Flying High! I can not put into proper words, how much I appreciate the experience you've given me.

If there are some of you... who like to 'spin a story'... If you like to write, and share what ya'll know 'bout something... you might want to consider this sort of a deal... It's been a chunk of hard work, but I can tell you one thing... When ever'thing was crashing around me... Having, this, one, thing... that kept on goin'... helped me... keep on going.

Whatever you do... I'd twist your arm a bit, to get you 'off the dime'... if I could; get to work conjuring up some sort of a Cottage Industry enterprise for yourselves... It'll take time. It'll take hard work... but in the end, like it's done for me... It'll contribute a great deal... To achieving your Personal Freedom! :o)

I'm chasin' Ol' George an' Tioga... and it's a lil' confusing, 'cause I don't know if he's counting visitors... or visits... but if he is... I've got 18,600 of those 'visits'!

I sometimes feel guilty, 'bout how good I usually feel these days... I know that there's a whole lot of folks that are sufferin' through as hard a time as they've ever known... I know... exactly... what they're endurin'... Last year... right at this time... I thought my life was pretty much crashing...

Lil' Laurie had just passed, ghosts were huntin' me... and Heidi and I were... well, it was bad...

But... with a lot of good friends who refused to let me go... and a stubbornness I found... somewhere, I made it through the storm... WE, made it through the storm... and back into the Sun...

And... today... the reward for hangin' tough... is that even though we took a whuppin' in the wallet the past few years... lookin' forward is a gorgeous sunrise! :o)

The way my web sites are performing, supporting Heidi's store... and our efforts at personal downsizing ... or... what most people might call it... Frugal Living... or Frugal RVing... we are looming awful close to having a sustainable, full-time... RV Boondocking, Dream Come True! Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! ... and that is 'Cowboy' for LOL ! :o)

Don't lose hope. Hang on to each other... Hang on to Your Friends... Make the hard choices that'll strengthen your situation... Hang Tight to your Dreams, whatever they might be. Storms don't go on forever. The Sun Will Come Out Again. I Vow!

Take Good Care
Brian

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6 comments:

Doc Holiday said...

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty, poverty, nor weakness, weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

I have this hanging on my wall. I read it all the time. I bet you know who wrote it, cause I have seen you quote part of it from time to time. I think it applies to you now.

Brian said...

Suh-Weet! You guys are straight up awesome :o)

Yup... 'twas my pard Thoreau!... Too bad so many of us are such slow learners we gotta keep leaning his lessons the hard way... over an' over again! :o)

Sharlotte... I'm not immune to the 'dark times'... and I have no expectation that they'll go away and leave me alone... but those suckers are farther, and fewer between 'em... and now... Realizing, with crystal clarity... just how blessed I am with Friends and Family... I realize I am protected by an armor of sorts... It's actually, pretty awesome!

Rex Kusler said...

Wow, 11000. After all the years I've followed your blog, I've been tempted to start a blog of my own. But I don't know what I would it would be about. I don't do anything interesting. Some of us are just forced to make things up, which isn't a bad way to make a little extra money.

On the e-book self-publishing front, I have some updated info: It's really taking off. I became disillusioned with Smashwords, since I have yet to sell one copy there (gave thousands away for free for awhile). So I pulled my books from there--temporarily. Amazon, on the other hand, has been fantastic. The magic price seems to be 99 cents, which doesn't sound good when you only get 35%. But my little mystery novel, PUNCTURED, has sold over 1000 downloads in the first two months (almost 700 so far for March). 90% of all e-books are sold by Amazon, so that could be the reason. I just got an e-mail from Smashwords on Sunday, and they signed a deal with Apple to distribute to the Ibook store. So I reloaded my books from the archive. Apparently not many people buy anything on the Smashwords site, but their success may be in distributing. By the way, a few of my cohorts have sold film rights for their books by self-publishing on Amazon Kindle. Apparently there are movie producers digging through those 99 cent specials looking for material.

Rex Kusler

Ed said...

Well,now I'm in the pickle you were in last year. She won't be coming back,sooo,I'll knuckle down and getter done. You have been my back-up for attitude for quite a while now I'm going to do what I've wanted to all along. Ed

Brian said...

Rex... hmmm... you've got me thinking... been working on my 'western'... trying to get it reformatted properly... I think I'm close to having it ready... I wonder if the 'key' to smashwords isn't that they have the distribution system... and the author really needs to do the 'marketing' to drive traffic to his book?

Ed... Damn... sorry to hear that... I know exactly how being in that 'pickle' feels... It's about the worst I've ever known... just know this... if you hang tough and hold to your friends... life, and the sun, does return!

Rex Kusler said...

Brian,

That's it exactly. The authors who sell on Smashwords generate the sales from elsewhere. I have no marketing, no website, no blog. A lot of the customers on Amazon, on the other hand, are like prospectors digging through the pile looking for something good. And then they pass the word along. You have the advantage of sending your potential customers from this website to Smashwords.

I will say Smashwords is impressive in their execution and attention to detail.