February, 2004. CAN-SPAM laws, new SPAM filters, and other obstacles conspire to keep Joy Letter readers from opening their emails from me. I study how to follow law and still deliver ezine to those who opt in to receive it. I get less email than I used to in response to articles, and it’s a new world in email-land. Meanwhile, my e-commerce business continues to grow steadily and I now make a viable living from website … oh yeah, and I’m still in debt, which I’m working hard to get out of.

June, 2004. I launch a new website, www.selfhelpsalon.com, which I spend entire winter developing. At last minute, my advisors make me get rid of ‘zany New Age guru’ who was gracing site’s pages, and stick to topic at hand. We do an entire re-design in 10 grueling days, and I still launch on schedule. As usual, advisors were right. (But believe me, zany guru was really fun.)

October, 2004. Still in debt … sigh. Probably will be for a while, but boy have I learned A LOT about how to run a business. I’ve incorporated and become an LLC. Some months I get lots of sales, excited emails from customers, speaking invitations, and great windfalls of all kinds. Other months, I get … less. But isn’t that just like life?

Downsides are that I have ‘Internet Butt’ from being parked in a chair 8-10 hours per day. And I find myself getting up at 5AM to tackle big pile up in office. But still, even after creeping waves of overwhelm, mild attacks of fear, and frequent sense that I don’t know what I’m doing, I STILL feel like I’m on right path.

I’ve learned to build meditation into my day as just about only way I can truly stay grounded while this big, momentous website thing whirls around me. And I’ve learned that I REALLY need to keep kids from answering my business phone. (Would you want to hear “Howmuchjoy.com, may I help you?” from a 10-year old if you were having a technical problem?) I’ve learned that things can change dramatically from one day to next in every regard: site traffic, sales, possibilities, and yes … CEO’s mood.

Most of all, I’ve learned that people actually do want to hear what I have to say. That they actually like what I create. And for that I am eternally grateful. It’s all just evidence of my work’s primary principle: if you’re called to do something, just trust it. The work really will guide you every step of way. To learn more about creating your dreams and living your joy, drop by Suzanne Falter-Barns’ website at howmuchjoy.com. This essay comes from her free ezine, The Joy Letter. Sign up and get our free report, ’25 Guaranteed Time Savers’ at http://www.howmuchjoy.com/joyletter.html To reprint, contact us for permission at info@howmuchjoy.com

They crawl everything, they crawl all my pdf ebooks, they look at a few pages in 'Webmasters Corner', they even look at my 'Bonus Reports', and even descend staircase into my 'Secret Vault'!

When will they go home and stop prying into my little secrets?

I know I encourage them like leaving cheese for a mouse, by putting more pdf files, software and ebooks on my site every day, so I suppose poor bots can't ever keep up!

I found out that like mice like cheese, that 'Googlebot' likes my pdf files, he has been fitted with digital spectacles so he is now able to actually read keyword rich pdf files all way through to end! So he likes pdf files.

So I have obliged him!

I put 85 pdf files up on my server one night just to keep him happily reading! I have put many more up on server since, and will continue to create more pdf files of classic authors for free download, just to keep him calling with his 'friends'.

Isn't this a laugh?

It's like taking in a stray dog, feeding him, housing him, and dog losing ability to wander off again and finding you have got a lodger for life.

My site's ranking has risen considerably both in Yahoo and Google, but for some reason that escapes me for time being, my ranking rose more quickly in Yahoo and they rank it much higher than Google. I may well find reason for this before long and put it in another article.

So if you are a web site owner struggling to get noticed by web bots, don't put it off much longer, put up an rss feed with articles about your products or service and not only will 'Googlebot' call with his 'friends', but actual live people will call too.