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Planning to Quit the Day JobAfter a job-related move to a small town turned out to be largely a bust for Stan, we decided that the best way to alleviate the stress would be for him to resign from his engineering job, sell the house to get our equity back out, and move into an RV.In order to do so, we figured I needed to learn how to build some income from the Internet, with the idea that I would then teach Stan how, and supplement this with workamping jobs. I quickly discovered a company that guaranteed I could turn my interests and experience into an income-producing website without any tech skills. With their inexpensive set of tools, I chose Make & Build Dog Stuff as the site theme, and learned how to design it using templates. They also taught me how to write pages and increase visitors to the site WITHOUT spending money on advertising. Ready or Not, Here We Go!Although I had my first pages up by month three, it was of course not yet making any money. Not understanding the process, Stan felt I should change my focus to trading stocks, with which I'd had some success.I slowed down on building the website, and took a trading course instead. Thanks to that course, I found out about the 17-year real estate cycle - once it starts going down, it generally keeps on for about 7 to 9 years before it swings back up again - not something I ever saw mentioned in the media... The real estate prices in our area were heading downhill FAST in 2006. We did NOT want to get stuck there, so found a travel trailer, sold the house at a loss, and hit the road with no health insurance and only some savings income as back up.
ChallengesWe found the RV life is not for the faint hearted - we dealt with:
RewardsThere were many wonderful parts too:
Looking backNow that we're settled again and the degree is in hand, I marvel at the magic of my website journey over the past six years.Before I started, my identity was wrapped up in being a mother, a wife, and a worker. I didn't really have anything that I truly considered mine or any accomplishment society considered noteworthy even though I had worked very hard. That changed with site ownership. After a while, people started considering me an authority - this happens to many of those who own a website. Not only that, but I gained a significant number of skills, including web lingo and html coding, graphics, and marketing and am still learning - SBI wasn't kidding when they equate it to a university education! I've never paid to advertise this website, yet my traffic has doubled every year. Currently, about 1500-1700 new people arrive every day looking for information. It's an awesome concept that this site helps so many people worldwide! The other neat thing is that, just like an offline business, the more traffic, the more income - it has definitely surpassed my original target of USD 300 monthly. Success is ContagiousIt took quite a while before Stan was sold on the website business model (pretty typical for a spouse not familiar with a web business). In our case it was at least two years, since I was moving forward so slowly.Fortunately, he gave up on us trading stocks - we were so lucky to at least break even on that one! - and we were able to earn income in other ways. Despite his lack of encouragement, Stan always provided computer and design support when asked, for which I'm very grateful. It was only when the money started coming in above my monthly target that he became convinced I was on the right track - my stubborn streak came in handy for once! He decided to build a website of his own, which is now becoming a good income producer too after only a year and a half. He didn't have the interruptions I did but insisted on doing everything from scratch so it took him about six months longer to get started putting up pages (he's got a stubborn gene too!). You can view his awesome site (IMHO) on electric vehicles at EVs Roll.com Going forwardSo that's the story of this dog website. What I love about it is that I can continue to grow it for as long as I choose, or find a buyer and start another. Meantime, I have a flexible schedule that allows me to pursue other things such as gardening, playing music, hiking and rockhounding, as well as visiting with our grown daughters at times that suit them best.If you've been affected by the down economy and want to learn more about building income the bootstrap way with a website, here's a video tour of SBI that expresses it much better than I ever could. You also can compare SBI to other webhosting companies - they offer soooo much more than that! P.S. Go to Us and Our Dogs if you want to learn about some of the dogs we've owned or Return from our About Our Website to Home |
