Complications and Frustration

Well with just a bit more work, Poetic Acceptance for grieving parents will be ready for its official launch. I'm really proud of how far I've come in the last week, when it's been so long that I've promised myself that I'd build it. I'm still completely clueless to forum code, and that worries me - I think the forum is going to be the most beneficial thing the site can offer bereaved parents. I want most of all to provide a place where they can get an immediate sense of connection, a compassionate word without spending another minute in that place of 'alone' that I know all too well. They need to hear, in relationship to themselves directly, that someone else understands completely where they are and what they're feeling.

For now, I suppose I'll open an EZBoard or something to fill the void until I can find a way to host the forum on my own server.

[[[Update! My wonderfully techy-fied husband figured it all out for me and I now have the forum semi-setup on my server!!! Yay!! Thanks honey!]]]

And of course, since there have been no visitors, the only stories and memorials are my own. I need content from other bereaved parents, but that will come, I hope, with time and exposure. I've begun already submitting the URL to various search engines so that people who need it can find it - it can be a slow agonizing process to get listed with the reputable and popular search engines so I've paid careful attention to the technical side of things like word usage and relevance of search terms and meta tags. It's somehow a damn shame that I know I have to think of such silly things like what keywords to include in a particular area in order to appeal to Google and MSN spiders, but it's just the way it is.

And the store area has me completely baffled. I know there are places that sell memorial items online, but I can't seem to find any that fit my needs - and in order to sign up for any of them, I've apparently got to get either a bank account or a credit card to qualify. I never thought about having to do those things in order to accomplish what I want with this site, but I'll open an account, most likely next week, just to be able to do that. I'll need to anyway - because I want to donate any and all profits I might make to charities that help parents pay for the funeral expenses. I'll need an account to keep up with my red column and my black column for that reason alone, even without taking the store itself into consideration.

So many complications I hadn't thought of! I guess I'm feeling a bit frustrated that I can't just launch it and start helping people. Patience never was my strong point.