It has been an interesting experience with getting this blog going. I didn’t think it would take off right away and I’ve been correct. I’ve only promoted it to a few of my friends, and in a few posts on Facebook. I’ll look into doing some search engine optimization (SEO), and we will see what happens. Of course, adding more content will help.
You will note that I’m going to be pretty open with the nuts and bolts of the blog. This is just another hobby to me, so I’m going to share it. My goal is to make this a collaborative community site with my readers participating and perhaps also being authors on it to share their own experiences. We are taking the adventure together.
My annual costs look like they are going to be just under $100 a year. I got a great rate at bluehost for $35 a year. It looks like as of this posting that are running a special for $2.95 a month, which is the plan I’m using. I buy my domain names through MyDomain which has .COM domains for $9.99Â for the first year.
I have also purchased the Jetpack tools and Akismet Anti-spam from WordPress.com. I forget what they cost, but I have found them to be worth it. So far, I have had zero comment spam.
Right now I’ve got subscription accounts turned off. The first several subscribers were from the .ru domain, which I find highly suspect. A subscriber user does have some access into the wordpress database and that causes me some concern. I’d really hate for somebody to destroy this thing or use it for some bad purpose. Post a comment with your thoughts on it.
Monetization is something I’m going back and forth on. This is not a blog I plan to make money with (that will be another blog). I do want to offset the annual fees to run this thing, and perhaps purchase some equipment or supplies to make the blog better. I’d like to get a Gopro or two, or perhaps a full blown video camera and sound recording rig. You will see some links in the blog and those are often affiliate links. If you click on them and buy something, the blog will get a few cents or credits to pay for hosting. I did set up a Patreon account as well. Every little bit helps.
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That’s it for now. I’m working on another Fish Keeping post and deciding what the next topic will be.