When it's from the heart ...

Well, my website is off to a great start. (www.organic-baby-and-mom.com). I am still incredibly impressed with Site Build It!. It has already over-delivered as far as I’m concerned. The thing to know about building a website with this program is that it is not a "get rich quick" scheme (in fact, it points out that there isn’t such thing). It is real work, and real time needs to be put into it. Most of the time is spent on writing content. The program helps you find the right niche, get keywords within that niche that are profitable that you can write about, and puts you to work focusing on your passion while it takes care of the "other stuff."

I can’t say how much I am enjoying writing about organic baby products. Since my baby is due in September, this is research I would have done regardless of whether I created the website. But it forces me to do a thorough job of it, probably more thorough than if I’d taken on this project. Not only will my own little boy benefit from it, others will too. It feels SO good to do something entrepreneurial when it’s a labor of love. This is my biggest lesson learned so far from the EJ Experiment .

In the past I tried creating "quickie" websites, based on keywords I found profitable but for which I had no real knowledge. I did a little research, wrote a little content, and put it up. They were sites designed for Adsense. But the most I ever made off them was enough to buy my daily coffee. For one thing, I wasn’t passionate about the topic and for other, I lacked real knowledge on the topic and therefore didn’t attract any returning visitors. They got to my site, clicked on a link, an ad, or "back," and they were gone. I wasn’t proud of these sites because I was doing it just for the money ---- which never really came.

But this time, my efforts are real, and hopefully so will be the rewards. I already feel a huge sense of achievement knowing that my research may help other babies and moms.
I am so happy I have stumbled upon this path.

Disaster Area

This morning I was listening to NPR and doing my usual Sunday chores, and I heard the story about 9 people dying in a Kansas tornado. This is, of course, very tragic for the community. I then heard that President Bush has designated this town and area a "disaster area."

The thought that keeps running through my mind is, "How is it that he can call this a disaster area and not call Iraq a disaster area? " We hear of 9 or more soldiers dying on one particular day several times a month, it seems, and it's as if we are to sort of glaze over when hearing this news, but to come to attention when it happens in our own country. Are our soldiers lives not as valued by the President as those in this small Kansas town? Now, there is a 15-minute detailed story on the radio about the tornado, interviewing neighbors who experienced the tornado and giving details of the storm and wreckage. Do we hear these details from Iraq when there is a disaster?

I really don't know how I can affect this irrational mindset, of IF I can. But I know this country is due for a change. Yesterday, I saw that the price of regular unleaded gas is now $3.34 a gallon. My first reaction, of course, was that of disgust, but then it occurred to me that the only way we are going to become less dependant or non-dependant on oil is for the prices to go up so high that people can't afford it anymore. We all know there are alternative sources of fuel for our cars, but the masses haven't been forced into a change ..... YET.

Change is inevitable, and I believe that a major change is on the horizon for our country and for the world. Of course, the 2008 election is one place for this change to unfold. I won't get into that here. But there are other, more minor changes that are happening every day that encourage change on a greater level. We can all live our lives in ways that encourage a paradigm shift, whatever it means something more 'major' like buying an electric car, or something less intensive such as recycling or choosing organic or locally grown foods. Or signing up to volunteer at a local community center for the betterment of our children. We are all part of the bigger picture.

SBI Update

What a difference a week makes.

About a week ago I signed up with SiteBuildIt!, a webmaster package. It’s kind of interesting how and when I found it. I was doing my daily meditation on the “Million Dollar Experiment” created by Steve Pavlina, but this time I did it out loud. I was sitting in my backyard enjoying the sun (I live in Portland, Oregon … it’s a rare occurrence!) and repeating the mantra to myself, “ … and I intend $1,000,000 to come into my life …” I was also thinking about affiliate programs. When I came inside, I got on the computer and decided to re-educate myself on affiliate options. (I eventually plan on monetizing this blog and am starting to think about ways to do it … besides Google ads, which is an obvious.)

So I Googled “affiliate programs” and stumbled upon a link to a program review by Allan Gardyne. I remembered that back in the very beginning of my self teachings on becoming a webmaster with methods such as affiliate programs and pay-per-click ads, I downloaded an eBook written by Allan and it ended up being one of my favorite and most valuable guides. It got me on the right track and thinking in a webprenurial way.

The review I stumbled on last week was for a program called SiteBuildIt!, created by Ken Evoy. After doing several hours of research, I ended up purchasing it. I must mention that $300 is a lot more than I’ve ever paid for any entrepreneurial endeavor, as I’ve always been a firm believer in myself and that I could learn everything I needed to for free and then put it to use. “Zero investment” was my goal. But what led me to eventually purchase SBI was the realization that what they were offering would save me hundreds of hours of my own work, and we all know that in this business, time is money.

SBI includes all of the tools and processes I planned on doing myself or outsourcing to various vendors … keyword research for supply and demand … web hosting … domain name set-up … search engine optimization … search engine and directory submission …. web site design … content-building guides …. Affiliate program guides, and then some. So when I realized I could have all of this done at one place, for one price … $300 sounded pretty good.

So here I am in my second week to tell you I am fully impressed, and even being just in the beginning stages, I would recommend SBI to anyone. Their case studies and success stories back up their reputation.

Before getting signed up with SBI, I was 99% committed to an idea. I had decided I was going to create a Green Gift Registry … a place for brides-and-grooms-to-be to register for environmentally-friendly products. As I’ve mentioned before, I am a supporter of a green lifestyle, and had come close to starting a gift registry site in the past. And combining this with the fact that green living is a huge up-and-coming market made it a perfect fit … I thought.

But after using the research tools that SBI provides, I have changed my direction a bit. Those SBI tools actually do supply and demand searches for any keyword you’re interested in, so that you can find and use keywords that are highly searched for and have a low supply (relatively low amount of websites targeting those keywords.) What I found by searching for “green gift registry” is that pretty much no-one is searching for it. (Not yet anyway, it could be my next site.) Actually, the term “green” isn’t really on people’s tongue’s yet (well, on their typing fingers anyway). What I DID find, after searching for terms like “environmentally friendly” and “earth friendly,” is that the term “organic” seems to be most popular in that niche. But there are many, MANY websites devoted to the term “organic,” which makes it a low-profitability concept term.

So, I decided to narrow my niche. Organic gifts? Still too high of a supply. How about organic baby products? Bam! I had found my niche. Not only is the demand high and supply relatively low, but as I’ve mentioned I’m a mother-to-be (a first timer) and am already on the hunt for green and organic baby products for myself.

So, there it is. I am on the road to creating my website that will focus on organic baby products (and some for mom, too.) Yesterday, I registered my domain name:

www.organic-baby-and-mom.com

In the next weeks, I will be creating pages for my site, all based on the SBI steps. I strongly believe that doing it the SBI way will lead me to my goals, and that without SBI I may have wasted a lot of time.

"The Secret" and Steve Pavlina

I think it’s about time to mention a few extremely valuable sources of recent inspiration that, in fact, led me to starting this blog and to branching off onto this road. By the way, I bit the bullet and purchased Site Build It, which has already surpassed my expectations in the first 3 days of having it. More on this later!

As I’ve said before, I’ve dabbled in starting my own business for some time now, and have been somewhat successful with several endeavors, but nothing that would help me quit my day job. The inspiration seems to come and go. I will be completely 100%-of-my-free-time devoted to something and then either I burn out, or it proves to be unsuccessful compared to my expectations of grandeur so I go back to hide in my proverbial hole (also known as a cubicle during the day and a couch at night). After awhile, I get out of my slump, start doing the things I enjoy again, and eventually find in them inspiration to try yet again to make money doing something I love.

About two years ago, though, I met my soon-to-be husband and we were busy exploring the city and each other and I didn’t devote much time to entrepreneurial endeavours. Well, not until I decided to sell purses on ebay, but that’s another story.

A couple of months ago my husband went to Idaho to visit his dad, and met a friend of his dad’s. She is a massage therapist with an alternative lifestyle and according to my husband, he told her that I "was into some of those hippie things too."

She sent him home with a video for me, and my husband couldn’t tell me or didn’t remember much of what it was about, so we put off watching it for a week or so. We turned it on, and it ended up being "The Secret." I didn’t know until after watching it that it has quite a following … has been featured on Oprah and is making huge waves in self-improvement and positive-thinking communities.

After watching it, I felt that spark again. If you haven’t watch it, DO IT. Here is an excerpt from Metamorphosis - The Tools for Transformation Magazine that sums it up better than I can:

"Never before has the Law of Attraction been explained so thoroughly, concisely, and beautifully as in 'The Secret.' The Law of Attraction states that like attracts like; your thoughts and feelings attract corresponding experiences. Sounds simple but the implications are beyond imagination."

It was after watching "The Secret" that I realized I am not tapping into even a portion of the energy of the universe that I could be. (I tried to rewrite that last sentence several times because yes, I realize it sounds hokey.) But the many experts featured in this video are hard to blow off. And, at the very least, you are not going to hurt anything or waste any time by setting forth positive intentions and thoughts.

After seeing "The Secret," I wanted more. I did a search online and ended up at a blog by Steve Pavlina. This guy is so cool. He’s part infoprenuer, part self-help guru, part financial advisor and part normal, everyday cool guy. But this particular normal, humble guy has one of the top ranking blogs online and pulls in quite a heap of cash from it as I can tell (he is vague about his earnings, but I sense it’s quite a lot.) One of Steve Pavlina’s most popular entries is a post called "The Million Dollar Experiment." (Check it out.) Now I’m warning you, it’s full of fodder for the skeptics. I definitely have a critical skeptic in me, but when I see what I consider to be a good idea, the skeptic glasses quickly come off, as it did for this. After all, like I said earlier, it couldn’t hurt anything to try it. The gist of "The Million Dollar Experiment" is to set forth an
intention (very similar to the concept behind "The Secret.") The intention is:

"In an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way, in its own perfect time, for the highest good of all, I intend $1,000,000 to come into my life and into the lives of everyone who holds this intention."

Steve’s instructions are to focus on this intention for 60 seconds a day. When he started this, it was exactly what he calls in, an experiment. He asked others to post their names and dollar amounts that came to them via this intention. Last I checked, he was doing pretty well. It’s am amazing concept, the power of thought. And I believe it it wholeheartedly, and fully intend for a million bucks to come into my life.

As proof of the power of thought and meditation, in June-July, 1993 a group of 4,000 people gathered for two months to meditate on peace in Washington D.C. The result was calculated as a 48% reduction in crime. This is as reported by the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy. (click here for the full scientific study.)

These facts are hard to dispute. I encourage you to join me in acknowledging and accessing the power of your positive thoughts. After all. it couldn't hurt anything.

Site Build It

When I started The EJ Experiment about a month ago, I figured it would take, I don't know, maybe a 6 months for my "next big adventure" to surface. If you haven’t been following up to this point, the idea has been to create a written collection of a lot of half-baked theories and ideas floating around in my mind, coupled with some lessons learned from past entrepreneurial experiences, in hopes that putting it all in writing and holding myself accountable for these ideas would help shed light on what my next big adventure should be.

Well, over the weekend it became clear to me. And I haven’t even begun to get a lot of the "background" stuff out here onto this blog. But it’s amazing how these things manifest when you set forth an intention.

I won’t go into too much detail here about what my plan is, because I honestly think I have tapped into a niche that is quite unique. I am happy to share all of the nitty-gritty details of past endeavors with the idea that someone with more imagination on that particular subject may be able to take my idea and run with it. And I will share this too, once it is in place. But I don’t want to be overly generous … sharing too much intellectual property at this point could backfire. But I will tell you a few things so that you can follow along with me as the journey unfolds. Of course, I’ll reveal more as I go along.

• As mentioned in a previous blog entry, my website will be targeted on GREEN practices and products. I am a firm believer in taking responsibility for our environment, and thankfully others are starting to take notice.
  
  
• My intent of my website is that it will transform as it grows, but the initial concept is going to be a green gift guide.
  
  
• I have decided to bite the bullet and purchase a website building program, and after a lot of research I am confidently going with Ken Evoy’s Site Build It. It’s a $300 investment – more than I’ve ever spent on an online business venture – but I feel very good about it. Up until this point I have tried to do everything on my own – from design to traffic building to pay-for-click advertising to stat-tracking. I have learned an invaluable amount of information and would never say it was a mistake. In fact, it is what helped me filter through the different website building programs to know what I was looking for and what was necessary vs. ‘bonuses’ and ‘add-ons’ that sound great on paper but end up being useless and time consuming. Site Build It seems to have everything I am looking for and then some. In fact it seems like a bargain at $300. One of my roadblocks up until this point was figuring out how to get from point A (aka concept) to point B (aka up-and-running business). And it looks like I might be able to do it within about 4 weeks with this program. I will certainly let you know how it goes.
  

Green Business

When I launch my next business, I intend for it to be green. I have always been a big believer in sustainable living. And now, the masses are catching on. Maybe it was Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" or the facts leaking out about the shortage of oil that could become the absence of oil within the next 35 years. Or maybe people are starting to see bald spots in forests when they go for a drive in the mountains, and then realize that the truck blowing by them at 80 mph is carrying the trees that used to live in those bald spots ... so that they can build their dream homes. Or maybe we're just finally starting to wise up.

Whatever the reasons, the fact that people are catching on to green living and sustainable products means that the market for green businesses and green products is huge. This is the time to jump on the green train, and to make some greenbacks by supporting habits and products that don't harm our environment.

Since using recycled products and taking on earth-friendly practices is already a passion of mine, I intend to carry this into my next big venture. Go green!

Content Writing

Of the entrepreneurial endeavors I’ve undertaken, one of the most successful and best uses of my time was to be a content writer hired by someone else for their website. If you’re looking for extra income, but not necessarily to make a quick million, writing content can be a very good way to bring in some extra cash. And once you build a reputation you can extend your client base.

I answered an ad in my local newspaper. This worked out great because the guy who I ended up working for was local and we could meet at his office. That was an extra bonus. There are lots of places online to find content writing gigs, from Craigslist.org to Freelance.com

The ad I answered was content writing for a wedding clip art website. They wanted to put a wedding guide on their site to attract traffic and needed some content. With my background in writing and editing, it was a sure fit, but if you have some writing samples (even from your blog) to collect and send this could just as easily get you the job.

I learned a lot about keywords and search engine optimization during this gig. The owner used Google Adwords and Google Adsense, which is where I got my first lesson in these tools which now I consider to be the most valuable money-makers online (more about that in a future post). In order to use Adwords and Adsense most effectively, having quality content is on the top of your priority list.

Writing quality content for the web is an art. And if you know a few of the basics you are much more likely to get hired. Here are a few tips:

• Keep in mind the purpose of your content: to attract traffic. How do you attract traffic? By keywords. Search engine spiders “crawl” websites looking for repeated phrases, or keywords. Your client will likely tell you what keywords they want you to write on. You as the writer want to enrich your copy by using these keywords just enough times to get the search engine spiders’ attention, but not so much that you lose your audience. This takes some practice, but a good content writer knows this and does it well. It also is important to use keywords in your title, even when a catchier or more clever title is tempting.

• When interviewing for a content writing gig, ask your potential client what tone he or she is looking for. Do they want it to be conversational or straight up facts? Humorous or not? Who is the audience they hope to attract? By asking these questions your potential client will feel you are a professional, and you’ll avoid having to do too much re-writing.

• Name your price, not the other way around. There are people out there willing to write content for practically pennies. This is a huge mistake. Good content is extremely valuable. When I was writing content about 5 years ago, I charged $50 for a 500-word article (average sized). I would not recommend working for any less than that. If you do, you’re being taken advantage of.

• Know where to go for research. I did most of my content writing at the local library where I had access to magazines, books and everything under the sun. I also looked at a lot of competitors sites online and when I found good ideas, did further research on a topic or explained the concept in my own words. It’s ok to borrow, but NEVER copy. As tempting as it is, especially when you’re looking at some merchant’s website in a small town in Germany that you’re SURE no one will ever find, you still run just as much a chance of getting caught as if you stole from a more frequented site.

Keeping these things in mind helped me bring in some solid extra income. I think it would be a great gig for a stay-at-home mom, and it’s possible I will return to content writing in the near future. Please feel free to email me at eorsejohn@gmail.com if you have any other questions. I’d be happy to help.