Happy New Year's Wishes - and even more, looking back with pleasure -
I cannot remember a year when more got done.

DECEMBER 28 , 2006

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S WISHES -
LOOKING BACK, WISHING FORWARD

Do you have a New Year's resolution? Or are you, like me, looking back with a sense of accomplishment?

I'll start with,
best wishes for all the good things
your heart desires.

But for myself, I need to take a moment to look back.
I cannot remember a year when more got done.
Maybe you want to take your own look back - or forward.

For those of you who want to look along with me -

The year in review:

A year ago, I knew nothing about how to make a site visible on the web. Now I've developed 2 sites, both climbing slowly but steadily month after month, both listed on Google, Yahoo, MSN. I am amazed. For that I credit Sitesell - it gave me the information and tools I needed.

For anyone interested in creating their own site and also getting it visible, here's the link:

http://buildit.sitesell.com/Elsa2.html

Last month, November, the vacation rental site had 5771 page views for the month, and the (newer) creativity site had 3917 page views. This month, it's almost 4200, and the month isn't over yet.

Yet it's only in May that the first site, our vacation rental site, went on the web. Our first dot com:

http://www.holiday-vacation-rentals-plus.com/

Timeline:

Before this adventure began. Over a couple of years, I slowly learned to design web pages for our rental places, but these pages, though attractive, were totally invisible on the web - meaning if you searched, they would never come up.

Oct 31, 2005. Bought a space on Sitesell. Massively intimidated.

January 2006. Struggled to learn to use very useful tools. I am not a techie.

March 2006. Decided, with Philippe, my partner, on a name for the vacation rental site. And from there the biggest push came - taking the web pages I had created and, one by one, doing my best to get them to be right for web spiders, web crawlers - creatures I had never even heard of.

May 2006. Finished the rental site, using a lot of the Sitesell tools. Mentally exhausted. Yet ready for more.

SITE:
http://www.holiday-vacation-rentals-plus.com/
MONTREAL VACATION RENTALS:
http://www.holiday-vacation-rentals-plus.com/montreal-vacation-rental.html
PROVENCE VILLA - LA PEYRIERE:
http://www.holiday-vacation-rentals-plus.com/france-provence-rental-vacation.html

Last week in May 2006 - work on the creativity site begins. This time I not only pay attention to the creative side, but the web side.

June. Day after day, morning to night I am gripped by images, ideas, work and more work. Slowly the images for the opening page emerge, are put together. The opening image keeps growing.

July 1 2006. Buy a space on sitesell for the creativity site. Again, if you're interested, here's the link. (Note: there's a special offered every 2 months. But the special offered now - 2 sites for the price of 1 - comes only once a year.)

http://buildit.sitesell.com/Elsa2.html

July 2006. Choose a name - long and cumbersome, but accurate about what the site will be about: elsas-word-story-image-idea-music-emporium.com. Lots of agony about the name. Want to also put creativity in the title - but that makes the name overly long, even for me.

Still July 2006. Upload page after page - the pages I've designed.

http://www.elsas-word-story-image-idea-music-emporium.com/

I can hardly wait for them to get on the web. Panting, eager, ready. Such a sense of urgency, delight, turmoil. There are so many things I'm unsure of. Not easy. But inside me, one thing is clear: the site has to get up on the web, out into the world, imperfect though it is, unfinished, but with enough ready to give people a taste of what the site is to be like.

August 7, 2006. First newsletter sent out - with the first special of the month, Caro's Quest.

http://elsas-word-story-image-idea-music-emporium.com/preteen-girl-and-ghost-dog-story.html

Not easy, that mailing - most because once again technology, a mass email program, was involved, and I go into turmoil, dread, aversion, whenever faced with yet one more tech thing to learn. Lots of time was spent looking at loads of emailers. Finally decided on a simple one - too many confusing options on the more complex programs. But I have to manually delete people who don't want updates. Taking the time to figure out what email program to use longterm - that's one of the things I want to take care of during my "time out."

Sept 7, 2006. The Idea Emporium.

http://www.elsas-word-story-image-idea-music-emporium.com/islam-basic-beliefs.html

Oct 7, 2006. My Chosen Home.

http://www.elsas-word-story-image-idea-music-emporium.com/home-is.html

Nov 7, 2006. Dr Zee's LoveLine.

http://www.elsas-word-story-image-idea-music-emporium.com/good-caring.html

and also music - fun and serious:

http://www.elsas-word-story-image-idea-music-emporium.com/wild-sensual-poems.html

http://www.elsas-word-story-image-idea-music-emporium.com/songs-about-loneliness.html

Aug 7, Sept 7, Oct 7, Nov 7, and even Dec 7 (for the first time, nothing new!) - all these dates are approximate. I liked the idea of a newsletter going out on a regular basis, but with fulltime teaching among other things, sometimes the 7th came and went, and the emailing happened a couple of weeks late.

Much more has happened, like increasing proficiency (achieved only with massive struggle and determination) with Dreamweaver, the web design program I use. That has meant reworking many pages to fit the emerging templates. It sounds so easy. It took day after day. Copernicus, Galileo, Columbus - I know my achievements are smaller, but I think I have needed a good helping of the qualities that kept them going.

Dec 28, 2006. The present. I can see that there is a long distance to go. I am also amazed at how far I've come in a year. The site includes little new creative work - except for the design of the pages. But so much creative work has been finding a home. And I can see how the home is spacious enough for much more.

2007. Zee's Cafe Cafe. And Your Creative Space - for all. Those are the two goals.

Zee's: for all kinds of alternative performers, especially spoken word with music. But that will be mainly for a few people per month.

Your Space: for all creative people. That will take even more skills - programming so anyone can upload.

But I can see all that has been done. It should, once again, be do-able, though once again daunting, intimidating, exhilarating.

In the meantime, I cannot remember a year when more got done.

New Year's resolution? I will try to take a bit more time for everyday pleasures. I will also continue on this path.

So HAPPY NEW YEAR,

Once again, best wishes for all the good things your heart desires,

And as always, welcome into my world.

signed,

Elsa

DECEMBER 28, 2006

copyright © Elsa Schieder 2006, 2011
publishing house - FlufferDuff Impressions 2006, 2011

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