..THE JOURNEY

In early 2021, after working for the Government in the census bureau, we were basically unemployed. We looked at each other and said, "what now?" We decided that we wanted to work from home. After looking at numerous ventures and offers, we decided to investigate affiliate marketing.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is made of folks like us, companies, organizations etc. that advertise and or market other company’s products and usually get paid a commission. There are thousands of affiliate marketing opportunities. Some with high dollar entry fees, with the potential of being a millionaire and some with no up-front costs, but lots of hooks. And then there are companies with moderate start up fees. We chose a company called Wealthy Affiliate, that offered moderate startup costs, 2 web sites and tons & tons of training. We have never looked back or been sorry we joined Wealthy Affiliates. After a short time, we purchased our own domain name (less than $20.00) and started Kitchen Tips. Kitchen Tips was not our original idea of where to go or what we thought we wanted.

Kitchen Tips

When we began our training, early on questions were; what are your hobbies, what do you enjoy doing, etc.? Of course, our initial thoughts were hunting and fishing. They explained that hunting and fishing were huge topics, and we would be competing with many folks in that arena. The #1 statement that hit us hard and stuck with us was “It is better to be a Big Fish in a small pond than be a Minnow in the ocean”. Thus, the origination of Kitchen Tips. For those who haven’t read the webpage yet, Patty is a student of the culinary arts community. She has a degree in culinary arts, has taught culinary arts at the college level, had a high-end catering business as well as being a chef, and lives the profession every day. I often say she will refer to 3 cookbooks to boil water. Patty is an ultimate professional in the culinary arts field and a great chef.

..THANK YOU !!! ADJUTANT PAT SMITH

For those who may not recognize the name Pat Smith, let me give you a snapshot. Pat is the recently retired Colorado Department Adjutant having served for the last 30+ years. Pat had 2 American Legion goals:

1) Pat wanted to be at The American Legion 100th National Convention.  Accomplished!!

2) Pat wanted to reach 50 years continuous service before retirement. Accomplished!!

I met Pat some 30+ years ago at the beginning of my American Legion leadership rolls. He mentored, taught and chewed my 6 through the last 33 years. Pat & I put our heads together in 2003 and formed Post 123, the virtual post, to accommodate returning Vietnam Veternans's who preferred not to belong to a post but wanted to be part of The American Legion.

Have a great retirement Sir Pat!!!!

..WHY THE WINTER RANGE?

The new website is a result of several factors, The first being that our email limit within our old package limited us to 100 emails per 24-hour period. Kitchen Tips alone was taking several days to get out. Secondly, I have been the Post Commander of a virtual American Legion Post. My main duty is to write a monthly newsletter. Last month it took 7-8 days to get out my newsletter, so I decided to buy a new package and I can now send out 500 emails per hour. The package came with a Domain Name, 2TWR.com, several websites as well as sub-domains.

For now, we'll share the homepage with Kitchen Tips and the American Legion. Oh, by the way, We didn't misspell ranch. Winter range is where the ranchers often move their cows during the winter. The elk & deer often move to lower elevation to avoid the deep snow and cold.

..EDUCATION

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

Over the past 25 years Patty & I have come to educate ourselves and evaluate the decisions we make. When we began Kitchen Tips, we had many decisions to make regarding what the Company would do and how we would do it. We always try to look at both sides of a situation and consider a couple "what if's" before making a decision.

We always throw in a "Be careful what you wish for"

..POLITICS and THE WINTER RANGE

No better time than the present to address this subject head on. Some 30 years ago as I was progressing through the leadership chairs of the American Legion, I was instructed there are two subjects you avoid talking about "politics and religion." We can put religion aside as that is not often a subject in The Winter Range or Kitchen Tips. Politics is a whole different subject these days and times, as it rears its ugly head more than it should.

When we started Kitchen Tips, Covid was just rearing its head. Our recommendations of shopping less, buying more online and avoiding contact with others as much as possible seemed to be the right advice and Kitchen Tips flourished.

Add in gas prices, overall inflation and recession. While it is easy to lay blame and point fingers remember that 1/2 of us voted for the administration.