I visited your site. If I’m understanding correctly, it’s not that you really have “writer’s block,” but you’re having a difficult time figuring out what kind of content to add to your site. Is that correct?

My father has really gotten into genealogy, so a few of these ideas are things that he would enjoy on a Web site.

You have a large group of family members helping you with this site. What about getting them to write in family stories? What interesting stories does your grandmother remember about her grandmother? What does your aunt remember about her great uncle? These stories are precious and priceless.

My dad was in the tractor business for years and years. He used to do square dancing while driving a tractor. He recently told me stories about it, and it brought back such fond memories to him. He worked for one of the large tractor companies–John Deere or something. Does John Deere “remember” this? This is the kind of nostalgic or historical information that doesn’t need to be forgotten–on a John Deere site OR on a genealogy site.

Do you see what I mean?

You could provide links to researchers who do nothing but research into genealogy. I’m sure that you don’t have time to research every twig in your family tree, but if someone approaches you who wants information, you could send them to a researcher. Then, they could provide you with that information to add to your Web site.

What about pictures of grave stones across the country, taken by your family members? My dad has traveled hundreds of miles to take pictures of grave stones for family members who died in the 1800s.

Let your family members provide the content and pictures, and let your Web site grow from user content.

I hope this helps. Good luck to you. You’re off to an excellent start on your own!

Robin

Good for you! Congratulations!

Here are a couple of tips for you.

If you do anything for 10 straight days, it becomes a habit. Set aside a certain time each day to work on your writing module. Don’t let anything stand in your way. During that hour (or whatever), WRITE. Do it for 10 straight days, no matter what.

Or, you could take the approach that I took when I was writing fiction. I wrote 8 pages a day . . . PERIOD. I worked until I wrote those 8 pages. I wasn’t editing my work, because I don’t believe in editing as you go along. If you do, you won’t ever finish. I was just WRITING.

On some days, I would write 12 pages, and on other days, I would write 10. But I always wrote 8. Then, if I wanted to take off a day, I knew I was ahead of quota so I could take off.

I learned this from an author friend of mine who was very prolific.

Writing 8 pages of nonfiction is probably too much, but set a goal of some sort so that you can see the end in mind.

(Please understand that I’m great at giving advice and not at doing it myself these days! I’m sure that Martin is shaking his head while reading this post!).

GOOD LUCK!

Robin

My gosh. Your Web site is amazing! I’m booking my ticket now, and I know where to find the perfect guide! Of course, the animals don’t appear to be very huggable, but they’re truly magnificent.

Your site is a labor of love, and it shows. What you need to do is introduce it to the world. What have you done in the way of obtaining links for the site? Have you submitted it to the large directories such as Joe Ant, WOW, etc.? Does About.com have an African guide? If so, I bet they’d love to link to your site. You need to get your visibility up.

Besides AdSense, what are you doing to monetize the site?

Have you contacted some of the large travel sites to see if they would link to you? They probably aren’t interested in providing this kind of information about the Kruger National Park, but they would more than likely be interested in linking to your spectacular information.

What a wonderful site!

It’s great to hear from you. Gosh, I’d love to take a trip and visit you and your animals!

Robin

Herein lies a tip for writer’s block.

Get in your car and take a drive and look around you … take note of what you see and the impact it had upon you. Then relate that to your intended web page. This was exactly the basis for what is now a 900 page website all about the wonders of South Africa’s Great Kruger National Park … it represents far more than the Big 5. Take a look http://www.thekruger.com