A Fabulous Way to Work at Home

If you enjoy surfing around on the computer and have a few hours a week available while the kids are in school, sleeping, or even playing nicely or doing homework nearby... then you will love having your own business building a profitable website based on your unique interests. The general idea is to create an information-based website that offers real, valuable content to your readers—something like an in-depth electronic magazine filled with your knowledge that you can share with others.

The income comes in both from traditional sources, like advertising (including Google ads), as well as from strategies such as partnerships with other websites, joining relevant affiliate programs, possibly selling products, etc.

The purpose of everything you do is to provide your readers with resources that interest them and that offer what they are looking for. They will find you through search engines, links from other websites, and your own publicity efforts through Google AdWords and other methods. Along the way, you get to explore and write about something you are passionate about, and make money doing it.

There are lots of ways to make a website, and when you start to look into it you can easily get overwhelmed by the options—and the cost. What I recommend is a program called SiteBuildIt (SBI), which is what I use to create and maintain this Natural Jewish Parenting site and store. I have been very happy with how my site has grown in traffic and income—and that income is essential to my continuing to publish NJP!! Producing a magazine is a high-cost business, and this website is now doing its part to offset those costs.

People who diligently apply the SBI system to creating a website can bring in a very respectable supplementary income and yes, some even quit their jobs to do their websites instead (you can read some case studies here. There's really nothing to lose in trying, because the company is run with great integrity and they do actually refund your money if you discover that it's not working for you for whatever reason.

Creating a content-based website is lots of fun and very easy to learn how to do. But it's a real business, not a get-rich-quick scheme, and it takes real effort and a good amount of mental elbow grease to succeed. You do actually have to work! But the work is honest, pleasant, and rewarding, and it's all about whatever you are most passionate about. (And if you're not sure what you're passionate about or which one of your interests would make the best website, the program will guide you through discovering that, too.)

Of course SBI can also be used to help you build a website for your existing home business, or to sell products you make, or to replace a current website that is not getting traffic or bringing in income.

The SBI program is paid for by annual subscription, and works out to less than $30 per month. This includes everything: your domain name, excellent web hosting, fast and responsive customer support and online forums, point-and-click page building using customizable templates or your own designs, unlimited pages and unlimited e-mail accounts, e-mail forwarding, e-mail list and newsletter management, blogging, automatic submission to search engines, a powerful keyword and site theme brainstorming tool, optimization for search engine placement, statistics and reports, a step-by-step business guide, and more. They actually keep adding features and benefits, and you never have to pay any additional fees. (The only exception is that if you choose to have a store and want to use the software that goes along nicely with SBI, there is a one-time cost for that.)

The annual subscription is really an amazing deal. And since you won't need to hire a web designer, you will be able to put together your site pretty much on a shoestring. I do everything myself and you can too. You do not need to know any HTML or anything fancy in order to build your pages. I personally like to keep everything simple, but if you do happen to have more programming knowledge, the potential is unlimited.

To get a taste of what SBI is all about and get a sense of how this kind of business works, you can take a look at the Action Guide, which is the SBI how-to manual. They also have a video manual with demonstrations of how to do each step in creating your website.

If you want to learn more about SBI and see if you can picture yourself creating a home business this way, check out their page for work-at-home moms (and dads, too). Then if you have questions about anything you have read, you can ask SBI directly and get fast, honest answers. I have always had good experiences with the people who work for SBI and have found them to be both helpful and ethical.

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