Do you have a website for or blog your farm?

Post it here! I'd like to be able to glance at these quickly as I'm considering doing one of my own. We reserved a domain name today.

Not yet, but once I have chickens for sale, I will. I have my domain name and facebook page reserved already.

I don't think ag blogging works well for farms - quick updates via twitter or facebook would be a better way to engage an audience. Farm people don't have time to sit down and read someone else's blog posts. Ag twitter, on the other hand, is booming.

One of our local hutterite colonies tweets. It's fantastic - little sneak peaks inside colony life, photos of their greenhouse operation, etc.

authenticfarm wrote:I don't think ag blogging works well for farms - quick updates via twitter or facebook would be a better way to engage an audience. Farm people don't have time to sit down and read someone else's blog posts. Ag twitter, on the other hand, is booming.

You can garner a significant audience for urban-lifers, especially stay-at-home parents who need something to do after carting their children to the 7000 sports they're involved in. They dream of some flowery world with a chicken or two, fresh eggs they probably would never pay for, and pretty pictures of horses and goats. Blogs with large audiences over 50 attract advertisers, which subsequently attracts more bloggers, attracts larger advertisers = money money money.

However, as you said, it will NOT attract other farm people (in general), unless they are those specifically interested in a decent read on a relate-able topic they make time for. I read 2 farm blogs regularly, that's it. They were authors I started following and you can watch her advancement money-wise by scrolling through her blog. It is absolutely uncanny.

I try to avoid urban people. Ain't nobody got time for that!

For my business, I have a blog. I also have a website, facebook and twitter. I track my website and also ask people where they found me. Facebook is by far and away the #1 way I get new clients ... and it's FREE. I quit advertising in traditional media a couple of years ago because it was generating ZERO leads, yet costs big bucks.

Same with the bridal show I run. We track every single advertising dollar. We also blog/tweet/facebook. Our facebook ads and facebook updates bring in 90% of our brides, yearly. It also gives the best bang for our buck. Nothing else comes close.

Everybody and their brother thinks they're going to make big money off of blogging by selling ads. I tried it for awhile. I think I made $0.06. Most ads are pay-per-click. Think about it - how often do YOU click on an ad from a blog? I never do. The audience you attract will likely be just a mirror of yourself, so if YOU don't click ads, why would other people like you do it?

The truth is, most people just aren't interesting enough to be able to blog daily and build an audience, get advertisers, etc. I've come across hundreds, maybe thousands of blogs. Know how many I read regularly? One. And that's only because she posts on facebook and it reminds me to go read her blog. I don't click the ads once I'm there.

If you'd gotten in 10, 15 years ago to blogging and started building then - before everyone on the planet had a personal blog - you'd MAYBE be in a good position now (see: Dooce, Pioneer Woman). But I'm not convinced that there's enough of a return for your time at this point in history.

I have a website. I set it up under one of the free sites. I keep meaning to start a fb page but I have not yet...no time...

authenticfarm wrote:If you'd gotten in 10, 15 years ago to blogging and started building then - before everyone on the planet had a personal blog - you'd MAYBE be in a good position now (see: Dooce, Pioneer Woman). But I'm not convinced that there's enough of a return for your time at this point in history.

I understand what you're saying. I think part of her success is her books, but regardless, she generates a whack ton on paid advertisers who want to be on her blog. I blog because it does me good to keep the juices flowing, but who wouldn't love passive income from the flowing of creative juices!

Thanks Fuzz! I'll check it out this evening. It's hard to go check every single user's signature or profile to find their sites, so posting here makes it easy to click!

We have a website and a facebook page. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and the site has a link to our facebook.

Authenticfarm - just saw some photos shared by relatives out in Alberta, you photographed my cousin's wedding this weekend!!! Small world. No - I wasn't there. lol

BriarwoodPoultry wrote:Authenticfarm - just saw some photos shared by relatives out in Alberta, you photographed my cousin's wedding this weekend!!! Small world. No - I wasn't there. lol

Ha! Awesome! Which is your cousin - Andrew or Brianna?

OK disclaimer first

* I develop web applications and websites part time*

While I don't currently have a website I am setting one up within the next few weeks - I can not design at all! I just develop 'dem sites.  

With this site I am trying to make it as unique as a I can.

A website today has to stand out. It can't be a cookie cutter site. Think about it you rember the sites that make you go "WOW" more than the ones where you think "Have i seen this before?".

Organic links - You can't have enough. Search engines find you by crawling other sites and going to there links. Organic links are links that are not from ad's. So if you were to put a link to WCPS on your website that would be an organic link.  

Keywords - You should use these. Don't be afraid, but don't be to redundant.

Older is better - Search Engines favor older domain names - The older domains will place higher than new domains.

Sitemap - If you were going to a new continent how could you find way? Same thing with the spiders they need a site map so they know where to go!

forget about analytics - Yah we all think it's cool to know where people view your site from - Chances are you don't need to worry about them for the next two years.

Make it responsive! - Today websites need to be responsive - It's a must mobile viewership is jumping each year!

You probably don't need a blog - Likely you don't need a blog if you have social media that's great just inject some feeds from twitter and facebook

Thanks Callducks. I really admire, on blogs (not sure if it would be useful on an actual page) the keyword brick to the side that has the most used keywords bigger and bolder than the others. I have yet to figure out how to make one or the coding to place one, but I'll get there!

Organic links, great idea.

Sweetened wrote:Thanks Callducks.  I really admire, on blogs (not sure if it would be useful on an actual page) the keyword brick to the side that has the most used keywords bigger and bolder than the others.  I have yet to figure out how to make one or the coding to place one, but I'll get there!

Organic links, great idea.

Those are just your tags or categories, they are usually built in to your blog (for wordpress blogs, anyway).

I have a website  - I paid someone to design and set it up, but I took all the photos and wrote all the text.  it is amazing how much business I get from the website.  Also how much junk mail and phishing.  No, I don't want to send "my product" to Dubai!  

But it is time I redesigned, re photographed and updated my website.  Anyone know an awesome experienced designer? The designer I used has moved on.

I'm on Twitter but think I want to alter my approach to have it support my website more.  There is a shepherd in the fells of Cumbria, England, who takes interesting candid photos on his smart phone and posts them to his twitter site with minimal text - not sure it does much for his business in the micro sense but does a lot I think to support the idea of shepherding on the fells and local food - and it is lovely to follow, just to feel someone else is out there getting wet and muddy and dealing with animals all day. I think the shepherd has something like 17,000 followers worldwide.  How cool is that?

@herdyshepherd1 - check it out!

Oh and I'm always reading blogs but there are none I follow with regularity ... I keep looking but so far....

And I edit my list of people I follow on Twitter weekly - some people say too much, some people never make a peep. I do like getting articles that I might not otherwise see recommended to me on Twitter.

Authenticfarm - Andrew is my cousin (sorry to hijack the thread!)

BriarwoodPoultry wrote:Authenticfarm - Andrew is my cousin (sorry to hijack the thread!)

He is an awesome dude. Super nice!

authenticfarm wrote:Those are just your tags or categories, they are usually built in to your blog (for wordpress blogs, anyway).

OH. Hmm.. Well I like it, it looks neat.


Twitter is something I've never quite gotten the hang of and I don't use it, watch it anything. Hashtagsomestupidphrase hashtag at symbol hate not understanding ???

The concept is somewhat understandable, but I find it distracting and I just can't push past it. I'll run a facebook eventually, but as a conspiracy theorist, I try to stay as far away from FB as possible.

heda gobbler wrote:There is a shepherd in the fells of Cumbria, England, who takes interesting candid photos on his smart phone and posts them to his twitter site with minimal text -

@herdyshepherd1 - check it out!

I glanced at this. I like this idea, this is something I would be happy to do.

I'm still trying to work out how Twitter can help my business- but @herdyshepherd1 seems to be the most fun as far as I'm concerned.

A good tweet (140 characters or less) is a real art. There's a lot of unintelligible garbage on Twitter - most of it I just skim. Sometimes close friends are fun to follow if they have a certain sense of humour about life. And I really like photos.

My Husband is a learning website designer  . He has designed some pretty nice websites for our friends and their businesses, I never thought about asking him to design one for me. If he does, I'll let you all know, although I think it would be pretty boring, I am a pretty boring person in reality   Maybe I should get him to make one for me, now I am pondering about pondering the pondering of a webiste to tell tales on -- oops, I guess that would be more of a blog than website, goes to show what I do not know, smiling....have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

CynthiaM you are NOT a boring person and I think it would be wonderful to have your husband design a website/blog for you! It would be interesting to see what he made for you - I think you would be pleasantly surprised!

We desperately need websites. Not sure how to go about it, not sure who to hire, Not sure if we should have separate ones or not. We need one for my Art, for my Husbands bakery and the farm. I have been procrastinating for a year now. I have been asking people here who they use so am just trying to make a decision. I think we will have to interview a few to find the right fit.

I do design websites professionally, just don't have time to take on new clients right now. But if anyone is still looking in the winter - when the photographic side of things slows down - give me a holler.

Do you have a website Authentic? Thought I'd seen it somewhere but now can't find it....

Heda, click on the 'world' under Authentic's avatar.

My design website is [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] - it is sorely in need of updating, though!