In the short time she has been building her site with SBI!, she has started bringing in a second income most of us envy.
Tell us about your website, CJ.
www.yummycrockpotrecipes.com
What kind of education and work experience did you have before building your website?
I have a degree in Interpreting (and worked as an) interpreter for the Deaf (and) building web sites.
What was your motivation for starting an online business?
I liked that I completely controlled my work environment, and I would succeed or fail under my own steam.
How did you come up with your idea for a website?
It stems from being a WAHM. Work is work wherever you do it. Even without a business being at home with kids is work, work, work. I have never been big on cooking… but I like my family to have good home cooked meals. I’m very passionate about the crockpot. In my mind there are very few pieces of machinery that can cook a home cooked meal with such a hands off approach. Since I am an average WAHM I just knew I would not be the only one who felt that way.
I also knew that besides WAHMs there were moms who worked outside the home who could use some help, and people who just plain don’t like to cook. That’s where my site came from out of a need I had and solved… then taking what I have learned to show others. Hence my motto “Home cooked food the easy way!”
How many hours per week do you work on your site?A couple nights a week for 2 hours and one day on weekends 4 to 8 hours. Then during children’s naps, I squeeze in some time if I can.
How do you make money from your site?
Clickbank, Linkshare, Google AdSense, and Café Press.
What is your average monthly income?
$600+.
How long was it before you found success? And please define what “success” means to you.
About 6 months! Well my success is measured in my own mind by my goals. Each goal has a set amount of money I plan to make. I hit my short term goal at 6 months and my medium goal at 7 months. SBI! Is so much better than when I built web sites before (pre-SBI!) my goals will have to become much higher now!
What convinced you to purchase SBI!?Not having to know html, not having to worry about how to optimize for search engines, not having to make sure my site is submitted to the search engines, and knowing I was going to get to do more of the creative writing/work and less tech stuff.
How does your significant other support you in your ventures?He is very encouraging. He watches the children and lets me work on the site. (That is a big help!) He knows that it won’t pay off right away but thinks it’s a good business for me!
Do you have advice to offer other WAHMs on eliciting support from their significant others?I would have to say telling them about the great joy you will have doing something you love and making money (slowly for a while then building) would surely help them to see that this is a great alternative to other businesses.
If you could go back, what would you do differently with your website(s)?I just can’t think of anything. SBI! really set me up to win at this business!
CJ, how do you “do it all”?
Very carefully. I plan as much as I can and think ahead as much as possible.
Do you have more pearls of wisdom to share with other mothers?
As a mom at home, I know what a great joy it can be or how some days you feel like you’re running a zoo! I also know we ladies can just lose ourselves in our families. It’s our nature to give and give! One of the benefits of SBI! is getting to talk about something you love on your site. It’s such a nice side benefit to have a little more that helps make me a well-rounded person!