When I began the process of designing this website and blog, I had to seriously ask myself the question “why?” Let me back track a little bit; I should have titled this post “The reason why I post and all that entails,” but that seems too wordy.
Just a little background
I have been successfully employed full time for the past ten years. I don’t have an enormous salary, but I do enjoy good benefits and the satisfaction of honest labor. That said, the means certainly do not meet the ends. I don’t live a lavish lifestyle by any means, but building this homestead has been financially taxing. From purchasing land to financing our house construction as well as future costs – buying a sawmill, buying a tractor, building a barn, getting married, having children, building another (yikes!) house to suit our growing family’s needs – it all costs money.
Due to that, I’ve often pondered ways to enrich my earnings. I held down a part time job as a local zoning administrator for almost a year, and while I learned a lot from it, the stress of the job didn’t make it worthwhile. That, and the fact that I’m away from home more than the average person as it is. My job requires me to work 56 hours a week; thats 832 more hours away from home every year over an average 40 hour a week schedule. I certainly don’t want to be gone anymore.
I was also happy to say that I built my own local photography business. While I didn’t get rich doing it, it was a good way to supplement my income. Through a lot of hard work, I was able to stay employed as much as I could want. That said, there wasn’t much enjoyment in working for other people. That, and the fact that I was occupied every weekend of every summer. I realized that going forward, there wasn’t much point in pursuing something that was not dear to me.
While I still have a love of photography, the only way I was able to earn any income was by contracting weddings and photo shoots, and not from selling my own photos. In that sense, I was no longer creating something but capturing an event. And that’s just not what I set out for.
Over the past few years I have dabbled in ways that I can earn extra income from home. In that time I have (unsuccessfully) created several different websites. I say unsuccessful because they failed to earn any income, and that was the goal all along. I realized that I was going about it the wrong way.
So, why?
So back to the matter at hand. I realized that those websites were unsuccessful because they weren’t pertaining to topics that I was passionate about. Interested, yes. Passionate, no. Around the same time that this website really came to fruition my father passed away unexpectedly. Since then, not a day goes by that I think of something I would like to know about him, or ask him.
That thought has resonated with me, and at the very least I think that someday, if my children decide to read any of my ramblings, this will give them a unique opportunity to learn about the creation of our homestead – from my perspective.
So that’s my driving force, my unborn children. That, and I am desperately passionate about what this project entails. I know that we’ll be covering a wide breadth of topics – for that’s my nature. I am intimately interested in a variety of topics all pertaining to homesteading, and I’d like to share my experiences with like minded people.
That’s nice, what does it all mean for you?
In the early days of this blog I decided to populate some key areas with a minimal amount of ads from Adsense. You’ve seen them – they’re everywhere. Not only on this site, but everywhere. I did it because, that’s just what you’re “supposed” to do when you create a website. Write some content, post some ads, and watch the checks roll in. Or not.
Again, I was trying to capture parts 1 and 2 all in one nutshell. Document our story, and hopefully earn something extra from it. Here’s where I outline some changes going forward.
First of all, in the coming weeks I will be removing all (gasp!) ads associated with Adsense. My rationale is that: it’s annoying! I’ll be the first to say that I can’t stand dodging ads when I read an article. I hate to be perpetuating that.
Secondly, it’s pointless. Maybe it’s from the fact that my site has little to no traffic, but there just isn’t the revenue stream to validate keeping any ads. Furthermore, the fact that they’re so distracting signals their demise.
Here’s what I am going to do
All that’s fine and dandy, but I would still like this site to earn something for my work. Along with the death of Adsense on this site, you will see a simple Amazon link. I have signed up to be an Amazon Associate, in which I gain a small commission if you buy something from my link. Since I love to read, I thought I would share some titles that I have found interesting, or pertaining to the topics of this site.
My goal in doing this is that, readers who want to support me can by purchasing a book that I recommend. All readers won’t have to suffer through ads in the process. I will also, periodically, review books and equipment that I have personally used (or read) and found worthy of recommending.
I’ll share part two of my future revenue streams in a future post, but it’s a good one!