What I Do To Give Back
Well, it’s not exactly philanthropy. When my daughter was born, I went all hog wild for girly dresses and cute things to put in her hair. I found out almost immediately that hair bows are way too expensive and that surely people can make them on their own.
The thing was, I had little idea as to how to begin. So, I looked online. Surely I would find some instructions. I mean, when I need a knitting pattern or instructions on how to decorate a cake, there are hundreds of sites just begging to help me out for free.
But on the hair bow front, nothing. Well, not Nothing. There were at least a dozen people online who had packets of instructions they would sell me form anywhere between $15 and way over $50. Huh? You want me to pay for craft instructions?
So, I figured out a few sets of instructions on my own, consulted friends and dug around online. Eventually I had enough material to put up a site called Girly Things (not to be confused with my blog of the same name). As time has passed, I get more and more traffic and my site ranks well in the search engines for keywords like free hair bow instructions, or just plain hair bow instructions. People have donated additional designs – instructions they have figured out on their own and taken the time to photograph step-by-step.
Overall, it has become THE place to come if you want to start making hair bows. I get e-mail all of the time from women who are just thrilled to have found the instructions, or women who have used my website as a springboard to successful businesses that are now allowing them to stay home with their kids rather than working outside the home.
It’s been a sweet venture for me. I can’t live off of it, but it fills me with goodwill and happiness daily to hear from people who appreciate my efforts.
[...] gives a great example in her post What I Do To Give Back on how you can get traffic from the search engines just by creating a free resource and regularly [...]