ForestWander Free Nature Photography Success Story
Hello everyone, I hope that my story will be inspiring to those of you who have given up hope or are discouraged. I want to let you know that perseverance and determination do pay off when you do things right and with the right motive.
I began my website in 2004 (that seems like an eternity in Internet years) using FrontPage 2000. I did not have a lot of experience with other web design tools and knew a little html so this was my tool of choice. Since WordPress has developed and I have learned to use and program a little in PHP it has made updating and growing my site very easy.
My website was inspired from the Gospel song “How Great Thou Art”. There is a line in the song that says “When through the woods and Forest Glades I wander” and that is when ForestWander was born. I have been given a passion for Nature Photography and sharing the slendor of nature with those that enjoy nature.
The main reason for my success in blogging has been the theme “Freely I have received, and Freely I give”. There are not a lot of sites that truly give away anything free nowadays. But I have always allowed my pictures to be used for commercial and personal purposes; all that I ask for is credit in some way such as a link or mention.
For instance our photography of a little country church in West Virginia was chosen for the front CD picture for a popular Gospel Bluegrass release. James King released his CD with out pictures and sure enough we received a credit in the inside cover of the CD. You can see this picture here at the Rounder Records website.
ForestWander Church Picture
This type of motive in turn has given me a huge amount of traffic every month.
We currently receive over 100,000 unique visits each month.
From January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008
Forestwander Traffic Growing
We have also been featured in the Sports section of our local news paper, I simply wrote an email to our local newspaper the Charleston Gazette and soon a writer contacted me and was interested in writing our story. The reason I say “our” is that I cannot take all of the credit for the nature photography.
My 9 year old son has been hiking with me and taking nature pictures, helping me carry gear and set up camp since he was 4 years old! so without a doubt this has given me great inspiration.
ForestWander Nature Photography
Our free nature photography has also been choosen to appear in the Nature Conservancy’s annual calendar and was a candidate for the image of the year in best protected places. Elakala waterfalls at Blackwater Falls State Park in West Virginia is a very scenic and beautiful waterfall. We have made many trips to this area to photograph the same waterfall. I though that this one trip may have been a waste since we were having a drought but it turned out that the low water made a very picturesque scene.
ForestWander Nature Conservancy contest Candidate Photo
All of the best publicity for my website has been free publicity. It seems as though I am reaping what I am sowing. If I sow in giving free nature photography images I have been given free publicity. We are continuing to grow each year and it seems that the more I give the more I get in return. I also use the free “ADD THIS” service and so many people actually give me free links back to my site from their profiles, etc.
We have also been allowed to put free 16×20 photographs in each of the travel rest areas throughout West Virginia and have expanded to give away free post cards. All of these have links to our website and no doubt are being sent all over the country, if not all over the world! This does cost us the cost of the laminated poster and the cost of the post cards, but again I cannot out give the greatest giver.
We have made enough from donations and adsense on our site to recently purchase a new professional camera and 2 new professional lenses. We are now using a 21 Mega Pixel Canon 5d Mark II with a Sigma 150-500mm wildlife lens as well as a 28-105mm Canon lens. This is a $5,000 professional set up. I would never had imagined that we would make enough with our site to do this. But we continue to grow and to improve by now offering these unparalleled free 21 MP images and free HD video on our site.
One of my dreams is for us to make enough to open a free private school at our church in order to offer free private schooling and education to families and children who cannot afford to pay for private schooling and education. I believe that this can happen if our motives are pure and are focused on others needs rather than our own wants.
We want to thank all of our visitors and those who have donated to us, keep coming back and we hope that we will never disappoint you.
I hope you have been encouraged to keep trying, and keep looking up…
Troy & Rusty Lilly
ForestWander Nature Photography
http://www.ForestWander.com
Perhaps at only one other time in history has it been demonstrated that giving, without measure, returns so much more that what you gave. I’m seeing this more and more across the web, giving music, content and images away without concern for whether it will be used commercially or what, and receiving many times back the value. Thank you for sharing, and best wishes for your dreams!
Hey
That is a very touching blog. Its nice to see a family enjoying there passion and spending time together . God Bless
bill
READ IT ……….USE IT………PROSPER
I helped Troy at some point with the transition to his WP site.
He is dedicated to this site as few I have seen.
Good job Troy!
Hi Bob!
Good to hear from you!
The help you gave has really encouraged me.
I was about to give up, but your technical expertise, honesty and integrity made wordpress a reality for my old static website that was getting to hard to manage.
I feel really blessed to have found a friend to help like you did.
Thank you for the comment and God bless you…
A very inspiring story and awesome photography when I checked his site. Sometimes you have to give before you receive, I can sympathize with him. I also freely give on my site in the hopes and preparations of future income.
I do wonder about his Adsense income. With the kind of traffic he is producing it seems as if his income may be low. If I were him, I would consult with some experts in Adsense to see if his income could be increased with more optimization.
Thanks MaxBlogPress for these articles. I really enjoy them.
Beautiful success story and fantastic photos. The spirit of giving and free exchange of information and ideas are some of the best things about the internet. So many use this resource to fulfull their own dreams and the dreams of others. Thanks for the inspiration!
What an inspiring and moving post! Thank you so much for telling your story – it puts such a refreshingly different perspective on blogging, and for me it’s really timely.
I am just starting a blog called “I Spy In My Garden” which will contain articles, videos and photos about all the various things that I’ve seen in my garden in Berkshire, UK. After reading your story, I will now incorporate your idea of giving free access to the photos on my blog (haven’t worked out the logistics yet!).
Thanks again and I hope your blog continues to thrive – you have taken some stunning photos.
Sandra
Very nice pics. i didn’t even know there was a 21 mp picture. Keep up the nice work and the best of luck!
Wow, great passion, great family, great dreams !!
Thanks for sharing this touching post
i build my site 6 months ago and now i am recieving good traffic every day.
new visitor love my blog………www.aliengang.com
great story! and pretty nice adsense placement
I would really like to know the CTR.
so how does this comply with the google – adsense vs. images placement rules??
cheers & good luck all!
I have a site on Free Playscripts for kids. Many of the stories have a forest, river, trees, mountains, huts, wild animals, and so on, an it’s hard for me to find free images to illustrate each playscript. I was looking for an image to illustrate the fable The Donkey and The Wolf, and I just found it at ForestWander…a forest trail where the donkey stepped over a sharp thorn. Thank you, your photos are excellent.
Have a Fairy Day!
http://www.kidsinco.com
The adsense policy states “Consider using a full border around your ads”
I use a full border around the ad, notice the slightly different color around the square ad, this makes the “Ads by google” more apparent to the reader.
There is not simply a line or space between the images and the ads, which is discouraged.
Also, notice that where there are two pictures there are three ads and where there are four pictures there are also three ads.
Google adsense is pretty smart and some how their bot knows how to detect stuff like this.
Your story is very inspiring and has spurred to to continue doing what i believe, giving value to your readers.
I hope one day my site Today’s Motherhood will see the kind of traffic you are having
Thanks alot.
This is a great, successful story of a man and his son who have passion.
It’s very important to be driven by passion. Otherwise posting a regular blog can become mundane and well… quite simply, I believe it may show.
Ovidiu Puscas
Great to have read success story from you, keep moving..
very inspiring story. I am amazed. i wish i could also get in touch with nature, which has many splendor things.
I am inspired by your story. mother nature is very beautiful and the best source of inspirations. i am not only inspired by the pictures, but your and your son’s dedication to grow this site. God bless you.