Details...

> since it is a "zoo", I wouldn't worry about "common
> critters" the focus would rightly be exotic animals.

I said that wrong...

By "common critters," I mean "common exotic critters," like giraffes (and lions and tigers and bears), as opposed to the "exotic exotic critters" that have top ranking on Google (like pangolin and onager).

> I was thinking of the gift store having rooms for each animal. Kind of a
> gift store like TheBigZoo.

Yessy-doodle, the main Zoo Gift Shop will have that.

> Maybe you could be an affiliate for TheBigZoo? :-)

I tossed that around for months and decided against it because their site is just too similar in content.  I see them as a direct competitor, as opposed to places that just sell zoo-related merchandise.

> What MUST you do? Maintanence? Don't you have like 3 websites and maybe a
> brick and mortar business too? Oh and kids... :-)

All of the above and homeschooling (you forgot to mention that) -- plus rewrite the text on 425 critters, find all new pictures, make multi-page "exhibits" for the critters that warrant it...

I had no *clue* when I bought the site, but I'm having fun and making some money, so I can't complain.

The sad thing is that I bought it for Katie, my 10 y/o, to work on with me, and up til now, all it's done is rob us of time together.

I'm *finally* getting her involved with our first "Ask Katie" page... SO exciting for her!!

> So an example monetize idea for your site would be money from zoo ticket
> sales. It doesn't sound like it would work, but it's an example of where
> you could go other than gift shop.

Yes, it does sound like it would work...

That's in one of the pots I had to put on the back burner -- also discount hotels, airfares, AND safaris.  That will all go in the Zoo Directory and Travel departments if I'm not in an old folks' home by the time I get 'round tuit.

> I have some questions though. It's a beginner question I guess, but how
> did you check which animals got what ranking on google?

I searched for them, for example:

snowshoe hare #2
virginia opossum #1
pangolin #4
onager #2

giraffe -- I set it to show 100 results at a time, then I search for "americazoo" on each page, and on page 10 say, "Oh dammit!"...

HOWEVER...

I have learned to target for less-searched phrases, and that's working for me finally.  I get some hits from "giraffe facts" and "how long is a giraffe's neck" etc.

That isn't good enough for me, but my /giraffe/ directory hasn't even been spidered by Google yet, and I'm glad.  I'll submit it through sitemaps.google.com as soon as it's ready.

Luv,