For the past year, I have been knocking the idea around of redoing my website.
Raymondmrose.com is about 4 years old now and it has been retooled, redesigned, and rebuilt a few times. Every time that I redesign / rebuild it, I’m happy for about a few weeks before I start to dislike it again. It’s never really working for me. I can never put my finger on it it, but, for whatever reason, I always feel like I need to change it.
It’s also old. The content is old. The posts are old. I have been so busy over 2014 that the website fell by the wayside. After a few months, the chasm that had grown since the last time I had updated it seemed so huge that I wasn’t sure how to cross it. The site didn’t look how I wanted it to look and the content was old.
It’s time to do something about this big hot mess.
This year, I decided to approach the website from a different direction: I want it to make money. Not only do I want to revive my publishing aspirations and I want my website to sell more.
The truth is, I haven’t put anything new out in a very long time, my book sales have dwindled, and my website doesn’t see many visitors. I need to rethink how I approach publishing and building an author site. I need to challenge the notions that I have and the common wisdom found online. I need to explore different ideas, models, programs, technology, and adapt what works for the site. There are a lot of Internet Marketing people talking about the strategies and tools they use that are successful. I plan to explore them, use them, and catalog their success.
For now, let’s state the Facts for 2014:
Website
Visits: 373
Unique views: 98
Average length of visits: 0s-30s
Last post: October 1, 2013
Book Sales
The Fire Inside: 35
Better Together: 1
The Franklin Incident: 1
Last product published: July 2012
I am writing this post the day before my 40th birthday. My 30s were a time to push in new directions and really explore what I could do and what discover what I do well.
My 40s are going to be about capitalizing on my skills and what I discovered I am good at.
I’m going to build a site that helps me create new content, sell books, convert visitors, and create lifelong readers.
I am going to build something new.
Are you with me?