I’ve been building my sites for 11 years now and I’m continually amazed how SBI! managed to provide updated tools, information and guidance at the very time I needed it.Antoinette Sawyer from free-legal-document.com
Tell us about your website, free-legal-document.com. When and why did you start your site?
In 2004 it was clear to me that the Internet would increasingly be used as a resource for a variety of applications and I wanted to be a part of that landscape.
The idea of becoming an infopreneur seemed exciting and doable!
I explored a couple of my passion niches and used SBI!’s brainstorming tool to dig deep into the viability of those niches.
Stamp collecting – much too wide and too much supply (competition).
Paint techniques – too low demand.
However, at that time we needed a Lease Agreement for an apartment we were letting and hubby needed a Bill of Sale to formalize the sale of his vehicle.
These are not the type of legal agreements that one would necessarily want to consult an attorney for and I figured many others would be in the same position.
And indeed, brainstorming that topic showed a very good demand/supply ratio.
And so the idea for the website was born.
For you as a Mom, what are the most important benefits of having an online business?
Being able to set my working hours so I could (physically) be there for our boys! Watching their cricket-, hockey-, water polo games etc. and taking time out with them whenever it suited me.
I think (know) they are impressed with their mom who became quite internet savvy and who could do so much more than send emails and surf the web.
And now that they see the fruits of this labor, it shows them in a very real way how pushing your boundaries ( as I had to do with exploring a new way of doing business) and never giving up learning new skills can pay off in ways beyond your expectations.
Incidentally, I’m also the webmaster for our sons’ preparatory school. That is a labor of love and it gives me immense pleasure to give back to the school that helped me raise two fine young men.
I so wish my mom was still with us to share in the success of my site. She would’ve been proud too
So far, what has been the biggest challenge for you?
The speed at which the internet landscape is changing!
There are increasing demands on webmasters to maintain (or increase) their presence not only on the web, but also in Social Media.
This translates into a never-ending learning curve and not enough hours in the day to get to it all.
I’d much rather be creating more content than publishing tweets that aren’t that useful to my visitors. The challenge here is to establish where to let go and how much time to allocate to social marketing.
Perhaps this is the one area that can be successfully outsourced to a Virtual Assistant (content creation for my website will never be entrusted to an outsider.)
Having said that – I actually enjoy the Facebook comments left at the bottom of my pages. I love seeing that people find the information helpful. Those comments make my day! They also give me ideas for more content and they offer an opportunity to interact with site visitors one-on-one.
Why did you choose SBI! to build your website / online business?
Somehow me thinks SBI! chose me. It crossed my path when I was ready for it so I was lucky never having to explore any other platforms.
But I can categorically say that I do not believe there’s a better set of tools on the web to get you started with a website / online business.
I’ve been building my sites for 11 years now and I’m continually amazed how SBI! managed to provide updated tools, information and guidance at the very time I needed it. At the same price now as in 2004 by the way. I pay that subscription every year with a smile on my face. The value I receive is incomparable to anything else out there.
With the rise of mobile traffic, what steps have you done to give your visitors the best experience on their smartphones and tablets?
Ah, that’s an easy one. I simply used the instructions provided by SBI! and pasted the code provided in the right includes. And voilà. Took me a couple of hours at most.
Has your life changed since you started your site? Can you describe these changes for us?
And how!
The change was not noticeable at first (obviously), because building a successful site does not happen overnight. It was (and still is) very hard work creating quality content.
However, once the site started earning decent money, I could afford to give up the “day job” and focus exclusively on my online business.
And that’s when the fun started!
And that’s a reality. The concept of passive income from an online business is infinitely attainable for regular moms like me working from home.
I still get such a huge sense of satisfaction whenever I publish a new page. And I know that I will earn an income from that page over and over and over. You simply cannot duplicate that in most other jobs.
Now imagine doing this anywhere in the world at any time convenient to you.
Have laptop. Will travel. And we do!
I really get excited about my site, but enough said already.
What one piece of advice would you give a Mom who is just getting started as an online entrepreneur?
Back yourself. You can do this.
Be excited about the possibilities of creating your space and business on the web.
Work hard at it and persevere.
Does that count as one piece of advice?
Are you ready to start your own online business? You can monetize it in many different ways, and combine passive and active income streams. SBI! guides you all the way. You can do this!
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