I am having a peculiar type of day. I feel very melancholy and a grand sense of loss.

Let me explain…

---

My Hopes Failed Me.

I worked so hard to build Stitched Delights. Not just as a business, but a community. I wanted to create a mental health-forward space. It was for those who loved fiber arts and wished for a community to share.

It was doing okay on Ko-fi, but I felt it was time to transition into its own domain. I started writing about mental health and craft content. I used AI art to try and avoid any real issues of a legal nature. You know, copyrights?

From there it snowballed fast. People were upset when I used AI art in advertisements. It was the feature image. They claimed it was AI spam. AI-written spam (no, I wrote it myself), and AI art spam.

I changed the ad art. I included a logo or a generic context tagline image. This change was to express what the content was about. I wanted to avoid the trolls and just make everyone happy. Well, at least I wanted them to shut up!

I am still uncomfortable using images, royalty-free as they are, because I do not own the rights to them. It is advertising. I do not want to face legal issues by using an image that does not allow commercial use. Even if an image is royalty-free, it can still pose risks.

Shortly after, Stitched Delights stopped receiving traffic. Completely, 100% dead.

---

I am 99.9% sure that WordPress has throttled the ability for content views. The last ad campaign I ran was supposed to include Tumblr. I know I picked that choice, yet it wasn’t picked upon approval. The ad campaign could have been a mistake and the option wasn’t pressed when I submitted (that has happened before). Yet, when I am only using Pexels contributor images and the daily prompts don’t even get noticed?

I am aware some bottlenecking of the algorithm is going on.

---

Don’t get me wrong, please. I am not “rage against the WordPress” right now. I’m actually just sad that I sunk myself unintentionally. I wasn’t spam. I was legitimately trying to contribute quality mental health perspectives. I aimed to share crochet content. I also wanted to share my awesome podcast (that I have since let die, too).

From 2006-2012, AI art was nonexistent. I didn’t have to worry about those types of boundaries. Coming in fresh with outdated experience meant that I saw it as a way to avoid paid imagery. I was also thinking it would help with any personal versus commercial use issues. Royalty-free isn’t always universal.

---

My Life Partner and I Talked.

I told him I was a failure. I said that despite my passion and drive, I couldn’t successfully build a mental health/craft community. It was so dead, it was already six feet under.

He reminded me that I have a brilliant sense of business, and it just wasn’t the right market. He reminded me that I was passionate, but it was not geared toward the right field for immense growth. I was essentially discussing mental health in a hobby forum, where many do not financially contribute. My podcast was also eating up all of my time without conversion.

I explained that it was supposed to be a starting point. I had never let go of my dream to help entrepreneurs live their dreams.

I could sit here and list all of my mistakes, but I don’t need to get depressed right now. I will say that it started wrong, not thoughtfully planned. My original intention was to sell crochet goods. I was in a financial pinch and just needed money. I cannot handle traditional employment due to disabilities, and I wanted to try something.

My pivot into content was, well, to increase profitability on my end. It was also a way to offer more support to the people around me. I saw so many amazing fiber artists struggle. They were depressed, suffered from mental health issues, and had no place to turn.

I was one of them.

I didn’t want to leave the industry, just the idea I implemented.

---

This all rounds out to say: I am a failure, and success doesn’t come without it.

I am shifting to personal discussions and mental health content that relates to me. It is still listed under my business because I am using advertising to help finance keeping it alive. Unless I start making $50k or more per year and can support myself, help in any form is necessary. In turn, I am removing the advertising from this page because of its transition. I am gearing more toward business content and consulting practices.

I’m still going to discuss gratitude and weight management, because transparency into the people behind a business matters. I am a real being with real goals. I advocate for mental health in all I do. I believe in sharing milestones and hopes.

This website isn’t changing content. I simply plan to start posting more on the other site with the tides of my emotions, though. I will use it as a safe space to discuss wellness. I will also share tools and express my passion for it beyond the surface.

You cannot get more personal and alone than throttled traffic, am I right?

---

I feel this is the right time to pose a question for you: Where have you succeeded through failure? Business, no business, it doesn’t matter. You have to fail to learn because you learn through adversity. So, I’d love to hear the stones you stepped on until you reached success. Join me in reflection!