Rural Writer Tells All

Well, maybe not quite all. But way back in April I promised to tell more about Ellie, and then more recently to tell about what I’ve been studying and working on lately. Some of it ties together, so here we go, Rural Writer tells all.

What I’ve been studying: The main course I’m taking is on List Building and Internet Marketing. The Farmer can’t work forever, and since I’m handicapped by Regional Pain Syndrome and Fibromyalgia, I can’t work off the farm. I’ve toyed with many different ideas, but this seems to be the best fit.

For the first few weeks we had up to 4 teleseminars a week, lasting a couple hours each. These were guest teachers, Internet Gurus sharing some of their wisdom on how they make money. We also had a weekly Q&A session with our two instructors, and we have online videos to watch and scads of stuff to do to implement what we’re learning. This is an INTENSIVE course.

Now most of the people taking this course are flat out Internet Marketers. By that I mean they are learning about internet marketing, and they are going to sell internet marketing. Most, but not all! A few of us are learning how to build a list (you need someone to sell to) and how to market on the internet to different niches, such as art shows, home decorating, horse training, fitness, health food and more.

My first niche is health food. One of the building blocks is a blog, and mine is “Health Food Made Easy.” I don’t believe it’s one way, all or nothing, but that you can make small changes to your diet to include more health food… one bite at a time. I’d love to have some new visitors and would really love some comments to liven it up. Getting started takes time, and I’d be thrilled for any support!

While I’m learning internet marketing for my own “career”, I’ve got a second use for it as well. I want to apply some of what I learn to help raise money for Ellie’s surgery.

More about Ellie: She's my 3-year-old granddaughter. Ellie was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy when she was a year old. She was born in Texas, but they moved to Canada to be closer to my wonderful DIL’s extended family, so they could have more help with Ellie. Also, Canada has a so-called “free” health care system.

Most of the time that health care system is a good thing, and really helps with Ellie’s many medical and therapy expenses. The problem is the surgery she needs, a Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy, is best done at the St. Louis Children’s Hospital. They do a less invasive type of surgery, have done more of them than anyone else in the world, and have a better rate of success.

Naturally, Canadian free health care doesn’t apply in the US. They’ve got to raise the money for Ellie’s surgery. A minimum of $40,000 worth of money. It needs to be done next spring for various reasons – Ellie’s age, and making it during better weather so it’s easier on her parents to drive an hour every day to take her to physical therapy after the surgery.

My “building block blog” for fundraising is Helping Ellie Walk. It’s just getting off the ground, and I have even more work to do with it than Health Food Made Easy.

What is NOT easy is condensing all this information into one blog entry. What is NOT easy is trying to take classes and go through all the instructional materials, put what I learn into practice, keep up with the farm chores and household chores, and once in a while get some sleep.

But I’ll try to do better at keeping updates posted here now and then, however brief they may be. In the meantime, you can always check out my other two blogs to see what’s happening with Ellie and one of my business ventures!

And that’s my Reader’s Digest Condensed Version about Ellie and what I've been doing!