Name of your website?graspingthoughts
Your name?
G.Thomas
Your Location (city, etc)
Owen Sound
Please give us a short summary of your website?
graspingthoughts provides articles that are motivational,inspirational and deal with self betterment practices and beliefs. graspingthoughts provides as much as possible references and live links to other self improvement sites, and actively functions to research and write about what kind of self improvement and spiritual practices exist. This site WELCOMES any research inquiries regarding sprituality,religion,self-help.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I am a writer and love to do research that can help other people to better find a happier way to reach their goals.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
I launched graspingthoughts.com in February of 2009
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I found this name to best describe the idea of people actively learning and searching for new ideas.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
The uniqueness I am striving for continually is to provide an unbiased view of all self betterment practices and to relay that information as best I can to people who are searching for answers and could use this website as a tool to connect them more easily to sources. What is also unique about graspingthoughts is that ANY QUESTIONS about self improvement practices or beliefs will be researched and written about here. Of course relative to time permitting.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
I intend to keep control of this site for income and the personal satisfaction of becoming a very useful and helpful website resource.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
So far I have developed graspingthoughts on a very balanced budget; but as it becomes more popular I find that the website grows and grows. The growth and development of graspingthoughts.com is being kept in complete balance. Of course though, I find that my list of work I want to do with my site exceeds my available time right now in it's early development.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would outsource some more specific niche topics to other researchers.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Yes. I know how to act quickly when things go that way because of my work experience in promotional marketing, sales management and as a personal counselor.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
The costs have not surprised me but the technical side of operating a website is an ongoing learning experience. I was surprised at how much time I was actually spending managing the publication and promotion side of things causing a bit less time for writing and research. Personally I would love to have more time for research and writing.
What has been your biggest challenge?
My biggest challenge has been organizing my time so that less of it is waisted reading items on the net which are complete trash as well as some of the websites out there when I am doing research. But that is the service I wish to promote on graspingthoughts. I wish to spend my time sorting through the stuff I read and saving people their time.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Submitting articles to directories and tracking which ones are actually getting them distributed and duplicated on other websites. Putting useful articles which people seem to like and pass on. Displaying useful links and article references on graspingthoughts.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
It is great that I am ultimately in control of my activities so that when I find a glitch or something that needs my attention right away then I can stop what I am doing and fix it. It can be a lot of work and I notice that the more effort I put into it then the website improves equally. Unfortunately reality dictates only 24 hours in a day!
ow long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
I see no problems here only perceptions. My site can evolve as it will in order to be successful. I have no intention of stopping and I feel good about the directions that it is growing toward.
What will you do when this website becomes very successful and easily maintained?
Firstly I will not give up my own activities of the site because personally I am passionate about the theme and research. But at that point my plan would be to expand into blogs and sites of more narrowly specific topics. That is exciting to me because I love to do research.
What is your website address?
graspingthoughts
