Starting a home business is something
that many people talk about
but few actually do.
A long time ago I became interested in starting a home business which could supplement my house plan earnings when the economy was not doing well (such as right now). Construction is prone to many up and down periods and I had hoped to find some type of low maintenance home-based endeavor which could fill in and supply our needs during those times.
Since 1993, I have tried my hand at a number of work-at-home programs. Starting a home business sounds so easy when you read the advertising copy (whether in print or online). One such program is offered by Specialty Merchandise Corporation (SMC). Their ads are found in the back of magazines and seen on late night TV. They provide you with a variety of gift items at low wholesale cost. Then you can sell them at retail prices using personalized mail order catalogs or in person at swap meets. The only problem was that it didn't work (not for me at least). I found that I could not sell most of the items for more than I paid for them. It became even more difficult during a slow economic period.
After SMC, I tried becoming an independent representative for a start-up phone company (it was called Business Network Communications). If I could convince small business owners to switch their phone service to this company, I would receive a commission. Plus, I would receive a residual commission for every year that they stayed with the program. It sounded easy enough. I mailed out letters to several businesses and contacted some by phone and some in person (which is not an easy thing for me to do as I am not the salesman type). The result was predictable. Not one commission sale. I should have realized that it wouldn't work for me initially, but I had to learn the hard way (it seems that most of us do).
Later on, I researched a couple of real estate programs which seemed great at first glance (both discovered through late night television ads). But once I got into it, I realized that they basically taught you how to buy old fixer-up properties. You would then repair them and rent them out (no headaches there .... right?). And presto, you would have a residual income. It was far more complicated to actually do than I was prepared for - or had time for. In addition, with today's current economic situation, there is no guarantee it would even work. There are currently dozens of foreclosed homes in the area of southern California where I live which sit empty and abandoned right now. If starting a home business creates more stress for me, then I don't want any part of it.
There were two or three other programs which promised an income from home which I tried to make work. One involved operating a pre-made website which sold medical supplies to people. My responsibility was to simply advertise the site on the web. I would then receive a commission of everything that sold. There was just one catch. It cost me more to advertise the site on Google and on Yahoo than the income I received from it. After a year, I resigned from that program. I was pretty discouraged at that point and was very wary of any other work-from-home offers.
Ironically, it was at that point when I pretty much gave up looking for ways to have an income from home that a unique idea was presented to me by my wife Karen. She loves to search the web for travel sites and dream about visiting far off places. While looking at a site about the Oregon coast, she read the biography of the person who built the site. He talked about how he had struggled with trying to build an online business until he discovered a company called
Site Build It (also known as SBI)
. SBI allowed him to build a site around something he loved using a simple block by block method. He didn't need to have any special computer knowledge. Even more importantly, his site had quickly become one of the most trafficked websites on the internet because of the SBI method. And he was earning a growing (and passive) income from his site simply by placing site-related ads on some pages (such as Google ads). I was intrigued, but also very skeptical after having gone through the experience of running that medical site. I was also wondering if I could build a website on my own which people would actually visit. I was not much more than an internet novice myself (the medical site was already built for me - I only placed advertisements for it).
SBI is a website building software company (although they go far beyond that simple tag). The program they have developed allows anyone to turn a hobby or passion or small business into a successful and profitable website. Karen and I read lots of testimonials from internet novices who were turning their idle time at home into a fun and growing home-based business. And the subjects they were creating sites about were endless (camping, cooking, kite flying, medical conditions, sports teams .... you name it).
You can read many testimonials and hear their stories here.
I can vouch for the fact that anyone can learn to build a very successful website. I knew nothing about how sites were actually built - or how they got traffic until I built my own using SBI's block by block method. In addition, SBI gives you access to literally a wealth of helpful building tools (one of these is the best keyword researcher available anywhere) to help you build a site which gets lots of traffic - free search engine traffic (not traffic that you have to pay for like I did with that medical site).
Here is a video from a stay-at-home mom which says it best:
I am not saying that there is no work to be done. Not at all. But the technical hurdles about building a website are removed from you - which allows you to concentrate on what is most important - writing about what you love to do and choosing how your site will look. If done the SBI way, your site will succeed - and it will make some money too.
The first site I built using SBI was for our home design business. After seeing my business site have success, I built a second website using SBI featuring my favorite hobby - photography. My two sites together currently average about 700 visitors per day (traffic is pretty evenly split between the two sites). And my sites are producing income for me too. Not enough to live on (not yet anyway). But definitely supplemental income. And I look forward to the day when my sites will bring in 2,000 or 3,000 visitors each day instead of 700. Some SBI sites have 15,000 visitors or more each day.
If you want to see how the basics of the SBI website building software works, you can view their
Action Guide
. This is the exact same guide that I used to build both of my sites. I was reluctant to purchase SBI after having failed with so many work-from-home programs in the past. But I am extremely glad that I did not give up and gave SBI a chance. They do offer a 30-day money back guarantee (for ANY reason) if you purchase their program and later decide it is not right for you. That was very important to me when I first took the plunge. But I am positive that if you follow the Action Guide step by step, you can design your own website too and experience the joy of building a unique creation. One that can become a source of pride and income for you.
I wish you the best in your "starting a home business" endeavor!
Steve Minkler
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