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| May 2004 | June 2004 | July 2004 | August 2004 |
| September 2004 | October 2004 | November 2004 | December 2004 |
We Celebrated Our First Anniversary at Goddess Gift!
The week of December 14 marked the end of our first year on the World Wide Web. It's been a busy and productive year with many lessons learned (and many still to come, no doubt). It was a time to celebrate our achievements and to retain humility as new challenges appear to continue.Provided interviews as the "expert" for two women's magazines who will be featuring the website in upcoming months (CosmoGirl! and Woman's World). Big question arises--can we handle the increased "spurt" of traffic that will come with our 15 minutes of fame? Remains to be seen, but we're trying to anticipate the impact.
New Pages added to Goddess Gift Website
Added Mistletoe Musings and Winter Solstice pages and the myths of the Goddess Freya to the Goddess Gift site, focusing on the relationship of the goddesses to our winter holiday season.
Just Did It!
Acheived our goal set mid-year in 2003 to move into the top 0.5% of sites on the web in popularity as ranked by Alexa.
Alexa ranking: ranking of 62,830 (of over 16.6 million websites),
(a measure of "popularity") compared to 426,916 in February 2003Average number of 22.3 (compared to 10.2 in February 2003)
pages viewed per visitorBad News . . .
Our web host, which is noted for its reliability, developed problems that prevented customers from purchasing the Archetype Reports for three days just prior to Christmas. The problems were eventually resolved, but raised important questions about the adequacy of this host . . . consequently were are reviewing our options and may face the need to move the site.
The Price of Fame
Learned that Goddess Gift, especially the Goddess Quiz, will be featured in two national magazines...Woman's World and CosmoGirl! The two page spread in the Woman's World edition is to come out the week of February 3.
Anticipating increased traffic and sales, we struggled mightily to improve everything at the site, checking to be sure everything is in tip-top shape. Most importantly we finally managed to re-create the Forum section, making it a group of thought-provoking articles of interest (including some poetry).
Scary Stuff . . .
Men, Myths, Minds webmail got "spammed" with the MyDoom virus, creating an incredible volume of email for us to sort through to winnow out the real people. Ended up finding a great source for a spam blocker and became an affiliate. No damage done, just lots of headaches.
Keeps On Going!
Popularity of Goddess Gift, as ranked by Alexa, continues to grow.
Alexa ranking: ranking of 59,124 (of over 16.6 million websites),
(a measure of "popularity") compared to 426,916 in February 2003Average number of 26.4(compared to 10.2 in February 2003)
pages viewed per visitor
Fame, if not Fortune....
The two page spread in the Woman's World edition came out the week of February 3 and in our locale was sold out by February 7. Traffic didn't turn out to be a problem...everything functioned well at the site. A delightful one page Goddess Quiz article featuring the site has just been released in the March issue of CosmoGirl! (Cosmopolitan magazine for teenage girls).
Bits and Pieces for the Patchwork Quilt
Lots of little things that we've been meaning to do were accomplished this month. Pandora's Box now contains a recipe for Persephone's Punch, the Wild Woman Prayer, American Goddesses (an excerpt from Extraordinary Women), and Jenny Joseph's poem, Warning, that inspired the Red Hats Society.
How're ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm?
Popularity of Goddess Gift, as ranked by Alexa, continues to grow. Slow and steady now.
Alexa ranking: ranking of 57,427 (of over 16.6 million websites),
(a measure of "popularity") compared to 206,460 this time last yearAverage number of 25.8
pages viewed per visitor
Preparing the advertising edition of the newsletter consumed much of our time during the month.
Getting Ready to Launch
A lengthy page on Easter History and Traditions has been added to the Pandora's Box section of the website. Additional new pages are being readied for launching in April. A featured artist section of the Goddess Art Gallery is almost ready to launch, and research on the myths and symbols of the Goddess Ishtar has been completed.
Hot Stuff!
The March issues of teen magazine, CosmoGirl!, contained a one page "Goddess Quiz" featuring the website. Not noticeable increase of traffic at the site occured, but it sure did impress my teenage grandchildren!Two steps forward, one step back .....
A little slippage in popularity of Goddess Gift, as ranked by Alexa.
Alexa ranking: ranking of 60,127 (of over 16.6 million websites),
(a measure of "popularity")Average number of 23.2
pages viewed per visitor
Ladies of A Like Mind
The special advertising edition, "Ladies of a Like Mind", open only to advertisers who are newsletter subscribers proved successful. Viewed by over 780 subscribers who made at least 1,000 visits (a very conservative estimate since we didn't use tracking url's) to the sites of our 9 advertisers. Over 260 came back and entered the "Searches for Sonnets" poetry contest.
Winners will be selected and contacted about their prizes around Mother's Day (May 14).
Coming Soon!
The license on the free Goddess Screensaver lapsed this month -- rather than renewing it we decided to do a new one that's even more spectacular. It's in a "draft" form now, being designed by Mindy at Peapod Design, and it is absolutely awesome!Should be ready for release sometime next month, so stay tuned!
Two steps forward, one step back .....
A little slippage, as ranked by Alexa.
Alexa ranking: ranking of 69,394 (of over 16.6 million websites),
(a measure of "popularity")Average number of
pages viewed 17.7
Spring Cleaning
Just what the goddess ordered -- located and repaired over 400 broken links and took down over 30 oprhaned pages, and generally got the website all "spiffed up". Boring work, but necessary.
It's Was a Difficult Job . . .
The Goddess Path team reviewed over 200 poetry submissions, and selected the six award-winning poems for the "Searches for Sonnets" competition associated with the Special Advertising Edition. The winning poems will be featured in this month's newsletter and on two special pages created for the website. The quality of the entries was absolutely awesome!
We didn't have a way to track the amount of traffic advertisers received except in the case of the 3 advertisers we hosted at our site. They logged an average of 137 visits per visitor . . . so I imagine the clickthroughs of others were somewhere in that vicinity. The newsletter was sent to 1,567 subscribers, there were 780 viewers of the newsletter page that was up at the website, and 290 entries into the poetry contest.
Screensaver Make-over. What a Beauty !
Now available for download at the site, the beautiful goddess screensaver lights up the screen with it's constant, intriguing transitions from one classic image and message to another.
Mindy at Peapod Design, simply outdid herself on this one.
Hanging In There . . .
Popularity of Goddess Gift, as ranked by Alexa, continues to grow.
Alexa ranking: ranking of 76,094 (of over 16.6 million websites),
Making Plans, Evaluating Progress . . .
The Goddess Gift Website has been on the web for a year and a half now, so we decided to review where we were with the plans at this stage, deciding what works and what doesn't. This process has begun.
Under review are:
1) website design -- goals identified are to improve navigation and to increase consistency of the site's "look and feel".
2) the success of the Goddess Shop. Following review we are considering eliminating the shop in its current form. Earnings are minimal (average = $12 month) and it requires a lot of work. Many visitors report they find the concept confusing. Exploring a different kind of shop, offering a few very select products that are very goddess oriented, and perhaps maintaining affiliation with Femail Creations and Romanceher.com with a few selections from their products.
3) evaluation of pricing of the Goddess Quiz and Report, with likely increase in price.
Equal Opportunity Screensaver. The Beauty Now Available for Mac Users!
Now available for download at the site for Mac users as well as Windows, the beautiful goddess screensaver lights up the screen with it's constant, intriguing transitions from one classic image and message to another.
Using Mindy's (Peapod Design), design, Steve at My Dark Canvas engineered a version for Mac users. Good job, team!
Slip Sliding Away . . .
Popularity of Goddess Gift, as ranked by Alexa, begins to slide, seems to do this occasionally..
Alexa ranking: ranking of 95,234 (of over 16.6 million websites),
The Newest Goddess on the Block
We finalized the decision to do a "total makeover" on the Goddess Shop--saving only a couple of partners (Femail Creations, Coldwater, Smallflower, Romanceher.com) that have been more productive. Will virtually eliminate the Shop by Goddess and All Goddess sections of the Shop, replacing them with . . .
...a brand new Goddess Shop featuring, for starters (drum roll, please) the Colin Heaney Glass Art Goddesses (goddess statues, shrines, and pendants). We're so excited about the incredible beauty and power of these gorgeous art pieces.
We're studying the feasibility of adding a line of goddess perfumed oils, notebooks for the Goddess Report, and perhaps notecards. Bottom line: high quality items that fit closely with our site.
Not Quite Right.....yet!
Heard from a customer that the MacGoddess Screensaver wouldn't download properly. Seems as if the problem is with version 10 for Macs and possibly for AOL.
In the meantime, it apparently will download and work on the Mac if the download part is done using Internet Explorer. We're working on it and hope to have problem resolved, so stay tuned!
Two steps forward, one step back .....
A little slippage, as ranked by Alexa.
Alexa ranking: ranking of 96,025 (of over 16.6 million websites),
(a measure of "popularity")Average number of
pages viewed 19.5 (up a little)
Glass Goddess was Well Received
We received several orders for goddess pendants and one for a hand held goddess.
Psyche pendants (yoni) were so popular that we sold out and had to backorder to get inventory up to a "safe" level. Other than this fulfillment did not prove to be a problem, although computer "fritzing" just as I was leaving for vacation (because I spilled iced tea in the keyboard, duh!) and coordinating with homebase via email took some creativity.
Have sent a query re: carrying goddess herbal soaps to MidnightHerbs in Georgia. Also plan to get the line of goddess oils developed and on the site later this month.
Slip Sliding Away
Oops! Alexa. ranking falls from 96,025 to 106,925 (of over 16.6 million websites). ??All our fans on vacation??
Juggling Lots of Balls This Month!
Added pages on Pele, the Volcano goddess, and on Labyrinths. Working frantically to get the revamping of the Goddess Shop (and a special edition of the newsletter to announce it) completed by mid-October.
Work on the Goddess Path, our book under contract with Quiet Time Press is progressing but slowly.
Everyone's On Still On Vacation ???
Popularity of Goddess Gift, as ranked by Alexa, continues to slide a bit.
Alexa ranking: 101,963 (of over 17.4 million websites)
On the Other Hand....
Google page rank, a measure of site popularity and the perceived value of the site is 6.0 on a scale of 10. Any site having a page rank greater than4 is considered to be a very valuable site. Currently Google is showing 351 unique links into the site, Yahoo and Looksmart however show several hundred more.
And We Believed Them!
The good news is that our webhost, Lanset, moved our website to a "bigger and better webserver" that will speed up page building and provided service, saying that we "shouldn't notice any change" after th move.
The bad news is that, boy did everything change. Seemed to spend much of the month fixing problems that appeared after the move. But all's well that ends well.....everything seems to be back to where it was before the move.
Needless to say work on the Goddess Path, our book under contract with Quiet Time Press, barely progressed at all. Thank the goddesses for our editor, Deborah Granger, who is being very patient.
Still at the top of the charts, but not at the summit.
Popularity of Goddess Gift, as ranked by Alexa, continues to slide.
Alexa ranking: 111,123 (of over 17.4 million websites)
Have cut back on pay-per-click advertising to save funds. This may be the explanation.
Branching out....
Sales of the Goddess quizzes continue to grow, have had a few orders for the aromatherapy oils and soaps, and the goddess pendants are proving quite popular. Even sold one shrine this month.
Whew! What a lot of work!!
Decided to move Men-Myths-Minds to a new webhost. SiteBuildIt has become too expensive, considering they do not seem to be developing the capability of cgi-bin and integrated shopping cart that can deliver the Goddess Quiz and Gods Reports.
And that meant that we would also lose the SBI mail service to deliver the Goddess Path Newsletter. So it's been relocated to Bravenet.com.
Unfortunately the move was not altogether an easy one. When subscribers were asked to confirm their subscription at Bravenet, the link provided was broken in the emails many of the subscribers received. Although we were able to email everyone instructions on how to fix the links, it was a complicated process. Not everyone was up to the challenge.
Of the 2,732 subscribers, only 1,104 made it onto the new list at Bravenet. Some of the "lost souls" were undoubtedly "dead" addresses, but still we grieve and hope they will find their way back to us. It is encouraging that new signups are large...perhaps some are former subscribers.
The Silver Lining....
Numerous subscribers took the opportunity to write to tell us how much the newsletter meant to them. It made all the work worthwhile!