|
Work From Home Doing What You Love! (click here for more info)
With SBI! I built my own website You Can Too!I can't believe I'm writing about this on my own website - a website I built myself! I’d wanted a website for a long time, years in fact, but did not think I had the time, skill or money to build my own.So when a friend offered to create a website for me I was thrilled! He did a really good job too. But, there were some drawbacks. I wasn’t sure of the content. Was I giving too much information or too little? More to the point, was I giving away information that I should be selling - as ‘information products’, such as e-books, or on-line learning courses? How could I attract ‘traffic’ (i.e. customers) to my site? I was confused and as a result did not get very far with my site. Yes I wrote masses of pages and the website was built. But I was never quite ‘ready’ to put it up there ‘live’ online. ‘One day’, I told myself, it would be ready. Just a bit more tweaking then I’ll be ready....
My (Home!) Office
So, as I looked (again) at my web pages I decided (yet again) to change some of the copy I’d written. And AGAIN(!)I asked my ‘website designer’ to amend the web pages for me. I felt reluctant about asking. He was a busy man and he was doing me a favour. I really didn’t like the fact that I could not make changes to the website myself. I couldn’t even correct small typos and I felt frustrated. What I really wanted was some kind of course or package that would show me the ropes – but nothing too expensive. I wanted something relatively quick and easy. I wanted a simple easy-to-understand course, created by someone who knew what they were talking about. Time went by. My web-designer got busy and I ‘temporarily’ shelved my website. It never did get online. It was quite a while later, surfing the Net, that I saw a website I really liked. Within the website was a short paragraph and all it said was “You can have a website like this. I built this myself and you can too” or words to that effect. I thought the website was great, so, interested, I clicked on the link. Whooosh! What a lot of information about Site Build It and SiteSell appeared before my eyes. I watched some of the short videos made by owners of SBI websites. Each had built their websites by following the SBI course guide. Some apparently had built their site within only a few months. What was more exciting to me was that a lot of these people were making regular incomes from their sites. Many it seemed were running their websites instead of running for the train to work a 9-5 job. They’d ditched the daily commute and were working from the comfort of their own home.They were using the Site Build It ‘formula’ to create successful websites. The SBI ‘formula’ is Content-Target-PREsell-Monetize (CTPM). To learn more about CTPM click here.
How wonderful! New possibilities formed in my mind. I could think of several themes I was passionate about and could build a website around - including the one I’d already had built! But SBI promised the support and know-how I needed. They would hold my hand throughout the whole process and lead me through the steps necessary to build, not just ‘a website’ but a successful income-generating website! That last part really thrilled me. For the next month or so I investigated SBI thoroughly. I looked at the websites of many ‘SBI-ers’ and read reams of information found on their website. I had questions galore but every one was answered to more than my satisfaction. SBI seemed like the answer to my prayers. The Universe had delivered! The more I read, the more excited I became. It all sounded so foolproof, so feasible and what’s more so reasonably priced. Not only that but the company seemed full of integrity. I felt I could trust them. The price included all sorts of stuff. Not just the ‘how to’ aspect of building your site but also all the vital ‘add ons’ that comprise any professional, income-earning website. There was also access to special tools for web research, 'tracking', 'key words' and other ‘web-savvy’ tools. It seemed that everything I might need would be provided. I weighed up what buying the various tools and features would cost me separately and the SBI package seemed an absolute bargain. I also liked the idea of online support through the SBI forums. Any SBI website owner can contribute to the forums. It’s a great place for either asking questions or answering them. Now that I’m part of SBI myself I really value the forums. Everyone is so helpful and friendly. You’re able to communicate with people who’ve been through the SBI process themselves and who therefore know how to get over any hurdles. If you don’t get the help you need through the forums (unlikely) you can get help via the tech support team. So far I’ve only had to use the tech support twice. They answer speedily (though the forums are faster - often immediate) and they stick with you until YOU are happy that your question or problem has been resolved. I really liked that. According to SBI, all you need to successfully follow the SBI process is ‘brain and motivation’. That’s true. In terms of ‘brain’, you definitely need to be able to focus and be able to follow instructions. The ‘motivation’ keeps you going if you hit a stumbling block. You need to really want to build your website and to keep the vision of your end goal in mind. You don’t have to build a website business, you can just build a ‘hobby’ site. But if you build an SBI site it has the potential to bring you in an income – so why not utilise and reap the rewards of that income potential from your hobby site?
You can view the whole of the SBI Guide here, free Although the modules are divided into 10 ‘days’, it’s made clear from the start that an ‘SBI day’ is not a 24 hour day. I have to tell you that yes, an SBI day can be a day, but it may also take you several months to complete. So I’m not sure why they call the modules ‘days’ as it can be a bit misleading. I think they ought to change it to ‘sessions’ or something similar. Anyway, that’s probably my only criticism. Obviously, how long it takes to progress also depends on you. How much time can you spend? A couple of hours a day? Weekends? 5 days a week? Perhaps you have a full-time job or other commitments. But what’s great is that you can work at your own speed, when it suits you, and you can spend as little or as much time as you want. Obviously, the more time you spend, the quicker your site is up and running – and, earning for you! Personally, I like to take it slowly but surely.. I guess you could say I like to ‘go with the flow’. So, I might work 4 days a week on my site, or I might work 7. I might work for a couple of hours one day and then the next from early morning until late in the evening. Actually, I’ve reached the point now where working on my site is almost addictive! So it’s rare a day goes by without working on it. I’m now at the stage where I can alternate between the ‘creative’ writing of the web pages and the ‘practical’ building of the pages. Some days I’m more prolific on the writing side and others I’ll be keen to crack on with the practical building side. With the SBI process, you do need to go at your own pace. If you go too quickly you get overwhelmed. But I’d advise that you don’t leave too long a gap between sessions. Otherwise, you may find, if you skip more than a few days and do something other than your SBI website, then you forget what was covered in the last session. (I did) Then you have to go back and repeat what you’ve already done, revising it. This can be frustrating and time-consuming. Having said that, there is no harm in repeating ‘days’ though. In fact you may find it very useful particularly at the beginning. I repeated the first few ‘days’ several times over and I may well do so again when I build my next site.Some people get their SBI site up and running in a couple of months. Personally, I believe that anyone who does this is amazing! It took me about 3 months to get through the research stage and get my Home Page up. But once you get to the Home Page creation stage you’re up and flying! After that you feel you know what you’re doing and the site gets built fairly steadily. So long as you find it easy to write material about 'your passion' (the theme of your website) it’s quick and easy to build your web pages. Editing pages, and correcting typos is also easy and fast. I no longer have to ask for favours from friends or pay a web designer to edit or add to my web pages. It’s all in my hands and personally I LOVE that aspect! The first 5 days of the SBI Guide are, if you like, the ‘theory and research’ sessions. These 'days' are vital if you want to ‘get it right’. The next 4 'days' are about building the site. The final 'day' focuses on ‘monetising’ – i.e. making an income from your website. In your enthusiasm to build your site, the temptation is to try to rush ahead but this I found to my cost is a BIG mistake. You really can’t go wrong with building an SBI site if you just take it step by step as presented in the video and written Guide. I think it’s best to take it as slowly and steadily as you need to, and definitely not to move ahead before fully understanding everything you’ve read or watched so far. Again, this is all speaking from my own experience. It’s a bit like following a recipe or assembling a flat pack item of furniture. You can’t skip a step or you end up with a sunken cake or a broken pile of wood... As I’ve said, with the SBI process you have both a written guide and a video action guide. You can choose a male or a female voice for the video guide. The woman sounds like a very nice human being, the man sounds like a mad robot! His voice is I think computer or electronically generated and it irritated me so much I can’t tell you... So I always choose the female voice. Click here to view the Guide (and, if you wish, hear the mad robot!) I like to watch the instructional video first – sometimes a couple of times, and then read (and sometimes re-read) the written guide and then follow through step by step on that. The written guide is more detailed I find, but the ‘video’ often illustrates for me more clearly – visually, the process being covered. As you progress you start to think ‘actually this is quite easy’. But at first it can seem a little overwhelming. Feeling overwhelmed simply means you’re trying to move ahead too fast. I’ve experienced a couple of times when I got really stuck. I made the mistake of trying to figure it all out for myself when I should have gone immediately to the forums. I didn’t want to look an idiot! Instead I wasted time and got frustrated. When I finally did go to the forums they quickly resolved my problem and got me back on track. For example, I use an Apple Mac and sometimes what works for a PC doesn’t work for a Mac - aargh! Thankfully though, I discovered early on that there is an SBI forum devoted to Macs. It seems that many SBI-ers like me, use Macs, not just PCs. As with anything, once you’ve learnt it you think it’s simple! But I would not say it was a piece of cake. It’s like learning anything new. Like starting a new job. On your first day you’re constantly asking questions and feel like a fish out of water. But within a few days it’s becoming more familiar and you’re picking things up, gradually gaining knowledge about how everything works. After a month, you feel right at home. Personally, I felt a bit overwhelmed at first – particularly when I was doing day 2 and 3. One mistake I made was clicking on and reading each and EVERY link contained in the Guide. I was worried about missing something vital. But I found I got bogged down in too much detail. So then I found it easier to just follow the main body of text in the Guide. I could always find out more info on a particular topic later. That seemed to work much better for me. Building a website with SBI is easier than building one ‘from scratch’, say using HTML. This is because SBI automate a lot of the website building processes. You don’t need to learn HTML. Phew! It is useful if you know how to type, as you’ll be doing a lot of writing. But you don’t need to learn the ‘technical’ stuff. What you do need to learn (e.g how to attract visitors to your site) is clearly outlined and made as easy as possible, by SBI. Overall I’m excited and impressed with SBI. I wanted to give an honest account of my SBI experience so far and I think I’ve done that. But I haven’t finished yet... I’m still working on my website and I’m only on ‘day 6’ of the SBI Guide. Several more ‘days’ to go yet! If you’ve read this far (gosh, well done) you may want some more information about SBI from ‘the horse’s mouth’, so here are some links for you. Good Luck! Happy website building! Work from Home
|
