About Me

First, here is a little bit about me...I have been married for 27 years and I am the mother of a 21 year old college senior. My home is now in West Virginia, but I was born and raised in Pennsylvania.

I have been a registered nurse for over 27 years, and for the past twelve years, have been working as a school nurse. School nursing gives me a fascinating and eye-opening look at the education system and a tremendous respect for teachers and anyone associated with education in any way.

Some of my interests are TRAVEL, reading, photography, scrapbooking, crafts and of course... making CHEESECAKES!

As I stated on my For the Beginner page, I actually made my first cheesecake about 27 years ago and have enjoyed making them ever since. I think one of the things that I enjoy the most is that you can produce an amazing dessert and people are usually impressed at the result.

One thing about me that has never been one of my strong points was anything related to computers...and here I am. If I can do it, anyone can!

A friend and I actually started sites through Sitesell at the same time due to a lot of prodding from her husband. For about the past year he has been encouraging us to start a website.

At one time we had thought of working on one together, but we eventually decided to work individually but get together frequently to learn the process and assist each other when we hit road blocks.

So far it has been working out well and we are both extremely excited about what we have been producing. I think we are both grateful to her husband for not letting up on us and having faith in thinking we could both do something like this. One thing he learned about me during this time was that I throw myself wholeheartedly into things when they hold a special interest for me.

Because I've been having such a good time with my first web site, I have recently started a second site which will be about a favorite vacation destination we have. As I develop the site, I'll let you know how to visit it. My friend and I have also started a web site together which is an educational travel site: www.pollythetravelfrog.com.

Who knows...I might talk my own husband into starting a website also! Here is some information on How to Develop a Website if you think this is something that you too would like to try.

Building My Website Step By Step

Following is a table listing my traffic stats so far. It is exciting to see the increase over time and realize that people are actually coming to your web site and viewing the work you have done to that point.

I started to work on developing my concept in the beginning of November. At first I had to rack my brain to come up with an idea I wanted to work with. My friend's husband had an initial suggestion for me based on one of my interests. I plan to build that site at a late date but more on that later.

I followed the step by step action guide and as I started to research ideas, I actually found so many concepts to work with that I now plan to start several over the next few years. I want to have this site fully up and running before I am off and running on my next project.

Slowly I was learning that there was a lot about cheesecakes that I didn't know. Instead of deterring me, it actually got me revved up and interested in finding out what else I could to make the site interesting and worthwhile.

I was close to building my first page and getting very anxious to do so. Because of my desire to have a successful site, I didn't rush the process and followed along in the action guide like I was supposed to.

At this point, my husband was becoming surprised to think about me being so involved with what I was doing. He had always remarked on my lack of computer skills previously. I was definitely moving out of my comfort zone with this endeavor.

The recipes used on my site were either recipes I have had for years, have been given to me by family or friends, have been submitted and acknowledged or have been adapted and revised from recipes I have found various places.

I did have a few moments at the beginning when I would press the wrong button at the wrong time and lose everything I had been working on. This was just a part of the learning process and it didn't take me long to figure out what I had to do. Needless to say, I haven't had that problem since the very first days.

From day one, I started to build traffic to the site and it was and still is exciting to see the daily and monthly numbers grow. Every morning, the first thing I do is check the stats and most days I am pleasantly surprised.

Because I want to build up the content like it was suggested in the action guide, I have not told a lot of people about me and my web site building at this point. I think there will be a lot of surprised people when they become aware of what I am doing.

At this point I know I have a long way to go but it is such an enjoyable experience, that it seems like more fun than work. I still am amazed that I can say that about me and my project.

Traffic to my site was slowly growing and I was at the stage where I was beginning to build links in an attempt to create more interest from others about me and my web site.

I joined several food forums to give out information about me and my site and posted on blogs that were of interest to me. The traffic numbers to my site were gradually climbing and it was still exciting to check my traffic stats every morning.

This month I started my newsletter, Cheesecake Chatter. Please make sure you sign up to receive it and you will have a chance to win a free cheesecake mix at the end of April. The winner will be announced in the next edition.

Below are my stats for April and May as of May 5th. Traffic to my site is building slowly but surely!