Do you feel like you could never build your own website
or online business?
Well you can! Learn from my mistakes and you can do it quicker and less costly than I did.
Quick, cheap and easy!
I know, I know. Whenever you hear that, you think, "Yeah, right!".
Well, in this case, it's not only quick (you can be up and running with a website in a couple days), cheap compared to the other choices (more on that later), and easy (If you're reading this, you can build your own website and online business), but I've done it and am thoroughly impressed. And I'm not easily impressed, and I'm not cheap. ; )
Here's my story:
I don't believe in the get rich quick schemes, or doing things the easy or cheap way as you'll see. And to be honest, I've put a lot of time into it and am not making much money. But it is slowly building up.
My website hasn't been up a year yet, and I'm not using any forms of promotion that I have to pay for. So I am happy with the progress. It took me about a month to get it up and running. The only reason it took me so long is I kept changing my mind on how I wanted it to look.
There is a lot of free information here for you to read. You just as well start now. You'll know if and when you're ready to get SBI! Manager or use some other site building software and start your own website.
As you get more advanced, or if you already know about website building, SBI! Manager works for you too, because you can upload your own html pages with any formatting you want! It's just nice to have it all in one neat and tidy package.
Brief history: (skip my story and get to the point)
In 2000 I owned a drapery workroom that was very successful. I'd been working in the industry for years and owned my own business before, and this particular business I started in 1997, having just moved to Georgia.
That year (2000), I had to have C-spine (neck) surgery to have three vertebrae fused, and was told by my doctor to look for a new career. Oh sure. Just when I've got my business going well and profitable, I have to quit? I whined about it and kept working until sometime in 2002.
It was to the point I couldn't do my work anymore. And that's when I had to come up with something else. But what?
I decided that since I liked working with graphics on my computer and I'm an internet junky, I'd become a graphic and website designer. I spent well over $1500 on software, over $3000 for classes and books (here's proof - that's my first website at the bottom of the page), and it took me over a year working at it more than full time.
I bought and learned Frontpage, Golive 6, Photoshop 7, Illustrator 10, InDesign 2 and way more. I also used a free download of Dreamweaver, but decided I liked Golive.
Oh! And lets not forget Adobe Framemaker, Adobe Pagemaker, and Adobe Acrobat!
So I got to be pretty good at it and felt comfortable doing what I was doing.
However I'm not a programmer, I'm a designer. (Although I did take programming in college years ago, it wasn't "web" programming). So I spent several weeks searching around the internet looking for scripts that I could use on my websites for subscription forms, email forms, and other interactive items.
Then I spent more time trying to figure out how to integrate them into my website. I had some success, but more frustration than anything! So I considered taking another route.
How about an online business?
But what and how? I wasn't interested in figuring out how to program code for e-commerce so people could shop on my site, or try to figure out how to integrate the e-commerce packages that are being sold out there.
I even purchased a domain and hosting that provided the free shopping cart, and it took forever to figure out how to use it. In fact, I never did get the shopping cart up and running! AND I wanted to do my own thing, not one of those canned all in one packages where you fill in the blanks and your store looks like everyone else's who host with that company.
How could I use my knowledge of decorating online?
So back to the internet and more research. I discovered ebooks, and thought I could write an ebook and sell it from my site. Then I priced ebook software that was reasonably secure, and how it worked, and decided I wasn't really up to all that either!
Then I wasn't too sure how to go about writing an ebook, so I spent even more time looking for information on that! Not to mention the library of books I now have.
However in my search for ebook and writing information, I found the motherlode!
Tons of free Information on how to get my knowledge out of my head onto paper, how to write an ebook about that knowledge, what an affiliate program is, AND how to build a website!
Again, I started the reading process. Things were starting to click. I researched my topic of choice, and started going through some of the step by step processes outlined in the free ebooks, before I realized I was doing it all over again!
Why do it the hard way? That's when I decided to buy and download SBI! Manager and save myself a bunch of grief and a huge amount of time.
The Point:
If you've researched any of this like I did, you know what I'm talking about. It is not easy! It is not cheap! And most of all it is not quick!
Even if you're just curious and thinking about it, read these free ebooks and take the free courses. They will help you decide if it's something you could or want to do or not.
I could have saved over $4000 and one heck of a lot of time if I'd have found this before. But oh, no! Not me! Do it the hard way. Well, not any more!
The site I built, is Decorating Kid Rooms. I offer my decorating tips and hints to people who visit my site in search of ideas for decorating their kids' bedrooms. SBI! Manager also helps me to build and send out a monthly newsletter, without learning a single bit of programming.
Take a quick look at the Complete SBI! Manager Reference Guide. There is a lot of free information that will help you to start making some decisions.