My Recipe for Success

I have really been blessed! I live in a beautiful timber frame home. I work from my home. My office is in the loft and it overlooks a small river that gives us access to the Chesapeake Bay.

I have a wonderful husband, Steve who is my best friend and soul mate—the love of my life. Oh yes, and we have Skipper, our great little miniature schnauzer dog. She joined us just about a year ago.

I'd like to share my favorite recipe--my recipe for success--with you! Even though I am a slow internet learner, I have great website building tools that have allowed me to have a home based business and a retirement income.

My name is Linda. And my life is good.

But Life Wasn't Always so Rosey!

To help out with the bills, I started and ran a home craft business, and I did a couple of craft shows a year and some home parties.

I have only one regret about that business--I only wish that I knew what I know now. If I had only known about SBI (more about that later), my life would have been Sooo... much easier as a stay at home mom!

When my oldest son was getting ready to go to college, and after over 20 years of marriage, life took a turn for the worse. I ended up in a very nasty divorce.

Talking about the divorce is uncomfortable for me and it would be very boring for you, so I'll spare you the details! However, the one detail that is important is that I ended up with NO retirement pension.

After the divorce, I was a single mom and I worked outside my home for a few years. All in all, my credits to social security weren't that impressive.

And, in the end, I will collect a very small amount per month for my social security payment. Wow! What an eye opener!

Our Retirement Plan

We both like to be active and we feel years younger than our ages. We actually like the stimulation of working. So we always just pictured ourselves doing some kind of work until we were really old!

But, if there were an emergency—especially a serious medical emergency—it could be wiped out in a heartbeat. We aren't laughing anymore!

The Problem

But the problem with those businesses was that we always felt that we were chained to the phones and computers.

We love to travel and we like to control our own time. If there is something that we would like to do on Thursday, we like to be able to “time shift”--take Thursday off and work Saturday morning.

We like to take off for New England or Florida for a week at a time—on a whim. We didn't get to do much of either with our former businesses.

And besides, I have to admit that, on occasion, we had started to feel a bit envious of friends who had already retired or were talking about retiring. They were doing the things that we wanted to do.

My Solution

In the meantime, I figured that, if I got another business started, we would start to see some income quickly. This would be a short term solution (in my mind) and would bring in an income until Steve's long term solution kicked in.

So, I took things into my own hands.

I just knew the idea would work. I laid awake at night and planned the bakery. All the things that I would do to make it competitive and successful. Every little detail. I worked hard to make it all happen:

• Satisfied the legal requirements

• Developed recipes

• Got taste-testers to try the new recipes. Compiled the results. Scrapped the “dogs”, so to speak.

• Consulted with veterinarians to make sure the recipes were safe

• Developed and printed labels with the required information

• Chose and purchased packaging for the treats

• Set up a pricing structure—fair for the customer but making a decent profit for us

• Purchased cookie cutters and pans with different shapes

• Developed a master mix so that I could easily make dog treats in different flavors

• Weighed the individual packs of treats and set up a schedule for postage

• Developed dog treats recipes from human gourmet recipes

• Collected buckets and containers to store the mixes and treats

• Started a Yahoo store online to market my dog treats

Oh yes—I really put my heart and soul into the bakery!

I dreamed over catalogs with gourmet type bags and boxes—deciding which designs I would use for my more expensive “gourmet line”.

I had grandiose ideas of renting or buying a building and hiring local people to bake, package and mail the dog treats. In my mind I had even mapped out what I would look for when I was hiring employees and what I would expect from them.

I started to notice which buildings in our area were vacant or had signs that they were for sale or lease. I knew that the time would come when I would have to expand into a larger bakery building than my home kitchen.

Every day I spent long hours working on my Yahoo website store. I baked samples, took photos, wrote descriptions and spent hours on the phone with Yahoo support staff, solving problems and trying to understand what I should or shouldn't be doing when building my website.

At the same time, business was growing.

But...I was ready for anything!

Then one day it happened...
I realized that I was creating a Monster

But, as the bakery grew, I had less and less time to do the things that Steve and I liked to do. Going away for a week was starting to look like a pipe dream!

Instead of what I pictured—a business where we could come and go as we pleased—we were going to be stuck in the bakery forever! Well, sort of...

Even if I hired a bunch of people, including a manager, I would still need to check in from time to time to make sure that things were being done the way I wanted them to be. I am very particular about the way I do business.

Unfortunately I had just created exactly what I wanted to avoid. I was ending up with a business with all the challenges of a production business.

What I really wanted--was total freedom of time and plenty of money coming in so that we could do all the things that we dreamed about! The bakery simply was not going to fit the bill for us!

Steve and I struggled with this concept for days.

We talked about it—over and over! We discussed how to make the bakery work and still get what we wanted.

To no avail. No good ideas came to us. We were completely stuck!

But Then...Bingo! The Light Came on for Us...

We followed the links in the newsletter and read—for hours! The more we read, the more interested we became.

If this system really worked, we could build a website and make money from it—without having to be in the office all the time!

There were a number of models but one stood out to us—

We could write about a subject that we really enjoyed, and make money from ads and affiliates who would fill orders for items on their websites. We would make a small commission on each sale—and all we would have to do is share our knowledge.

That was right up my alley! I love to share what I've learned with others. And I hate to sell.

A Difficult Decision

It would really be difficult for me to just throw away all that time and effort.

And, to top it off, the bakery was getting busy. Money was coming in. And I was spending more and more time baking, filling orders and working on the website. I was a success.

Now I'm not in the least bit lazy—but the website alone was 6 months of my life! I would have to really think about this one. I just wasn't sold yet.

And then I would think, “We could get a boat again.” And, if we wanted to, we could go cruising on the Bay for a week or two at a time. With wireless internet service, we could take the laptop with us on the boat and work for an hour or two a day—or not!

We could go on vacations. If we did this right, we could be anywhere that we wanted to be, and, at some point, after the website was established, we could work as little or as much as we wanted to. We could satisfy our wanderlust AND still make a living.

Let's face it. We just weren't willing to give up on the idea that we could make good money but still have the freedom that we wanted.

SBI or Site Build It , the website system that Robert Ringer introduced to us, was starting to look pretty tempting.

The Solution that Worked for Us

Starting this Best-Dog-Treat-Recipes website has actually changed the direction of our lives. We can now see that there is a way for us to live the life that we choose—work doing what we love--when we want-—and still have the security of a sizable and steady income.

It took us years to find the best solution to our retirement dilemma, but the important part is that our prayers were answered!

So, why am I telling you this?

I decided to add this section because a lot of you have been curious about why I would offer so many recipes and so much information—for free!

After we decided to scrap my Yahoo website and the pet bakery, I thought it would be a terrible waste if I didn't share what I had learned with others who were also interested in cooking for their dogs.

By using Site Build It, I am able to share my collection of recipes with you—and still make some money for our “retirement fund”.

I am doing what I love—and making money too. So can you.

That's why I'm telling you about this. So that you can achieve your dreams too!

You Can Have a Website Too

You too can make a living doing what you love! I'll show you how in just a minute.

My Website Experience

Website #1 This was a We Buy Houses website that was designed and controlled by the owner. Everyone who subscribed had the same design, but with minor changes that we made.

In other words, we were allowed to make changes , but in order to do so you had to email Support with the exact changes that you wanted to make. We followed the same process to exchange links with another site.

All in all, it was a tedious process. We had minimal traffic with this site.

Website #2 This was my Yahoo site. Since I did not know any HTML, and didn't understand very much at all about websites, I spent many hours on the phone with Yahoo support. Some of it was simply education. Some of it was correcting problems that developed.

After more than 6 months of very hard work, on my very best day ever, I had 143 page views. I never even got a page rank—it remained “0” to the very end. And I didn't know enough to even check to see what my Alexa rank was. Oh, well.

Website #3 This is my SBI website, the one that you are visiting. After a little over 4 months, I have a Google page rank of “2” and, unbelievably, my Alexa rank is in the top 1% of all websites—and there are over 100 million websites online.

Every month now I have more visitors and page views than I had for the entire 6 months (combined) at my Yahoo site. It just keeps getting better.

I haven't become smarter, except for one thing--now I use SBI.

When you are reading a book, do you look at the last page of a book to see what the ending will be?

Well, if you are really curious to see what SBI is about, here is a sneak peak... Check it out here.

How Do I Make Money?

Well, it's really very simple. I concentrated for several months on putting content or information on my site so that I could build traffic.

The search engines love content—but they really don't give you any credit for selling something. You need to have good information to make the search engines find you.

Once you get your traffic count high enough, you can start to make money. How do you do this? In my case, I will use Google ads, affiliates and ebooks that I plan to write.

Affiliates are merchants who will give me a small commission for sending buyers to them.

How Much Money Can You Make?

I'm not the best example yet, because my website is still too new. My traffic is growing at a steady pace, and I am very optimistic. In fact, my website is now in the top 1% of all websites online!

What I do know is that if you have lots of traffic, you can make money. Big money. A number of SBIers talk about leaving their day jobs and just doing websites.

One SBIer, Elad, started making over $2000 per month in just 6 months. Others talk about leaving executive positions and making money equal to their former salaries.

How do I know that these people are real? Many of them are actively helping others by answering questions on the forums. I see their posts and hear about their ongoing activities. In time, they become your website friends.

Can You Get Rich Quickly?

Your traffic—and your income—will grow steadily and slowly. But they will continue to grow—and grow—and grow!

Most people using SBI end up having websites in the top 1% of all websites on the web! But it doesn't happen overnight. Remember that you are building a Real Business.

The proof of the SBIers success, by the way, is what convinced Steve that we should try SBI. When we went to the SBI site, we saw tons of sites that were in the top 1% of all websites . It's pretty impressive.

The bottom line is that you can get rich using SBI--it just doesn't happen quickly

Is this really as easy as it sounds?

It is definitely not a get-rich-quick-scheme. And nothing happens automatically. Success will come, but it takes time and effort to make it happen.

I was amazed to learn that one of the SBIers is a 17 year old girl who started a website when she was only 14. She is now in college and is paying for her college education herself (a parents' dream)!

Nori only adds a page every week or two now—but she keeps making more and more money all the time! You only have to work hard in the beginning.

Do not underestimate the amount of time, the amount of hard work or the amount of commitment necessary! (Rome wasn't built in a day.) A business takes time to build.

I don't want to be deceptive. To get your website up and running, you will need to dig in and do some work.

But, remember that—time, work and commitment are all it takes. You don't have to be a great writer. You don't have to be an internet guhru. You don't have to know anything about building or maintaining websites. Nada.

Is SBI Just for Beginners?

I did get a book on HTML and I know how to do simple things like start a new paragraph or make something bold or in italics. Otherwise, I am as green as they come.

In fact--I'm having trouble explaining this, because I really don't know all the appropriate techie words to use.

The second way is for the techies. I have not even explored this possibility, as it is way over my head. But you can choose to download (upload?) your own HTML from your own software. Hope I said that right.

The point is that there are experienced SBIers who use the system and they report saving untold hours because of the SBI tools.

What if You Need Help?

When you contact Support, the person who helps you stays with you until the issue is resolved.

How Much Does it Cost?

It comes out to about $25 a month.

I think SBI is a bargain, because it costs less than I was paying for my Yahoo site and much less than we were paying for the We Buy Houses site ($100/month + set-up fees).

Additionally, with the Yahoo site, everything was ala carte. Anything that you wanted to do beyond the basic site, cost extra.

Website Optimization The other tidbit that I should mention is that when I had the pet bakery, Steve and I went to a seminar by an internet website optimization company that has a good reputation (Steve checked it out before we went.)

They proposed a startup package to help us get our Yahoo website optimized for the search engines--that would cost over $8000. That was just for the first 6 months. There were ongoing fees to keep the website rankings high. And they weren't cheap either!

And—they weren't writing any copy. I was still going to be writing all the pages for the site. Their job was simply to optimize it for the search engines. We thought about this proposal for about 5 seconds—and then ran the other way.

I know enough to know that SBI is a Bargain!

How much time do I spend working on my site?

In fact, Steve and I are planning to take a week's vacations in 2 weeks. This time I will do it without feeling guilty about leaving my business :-)

Many people on the forums work on their websites part time. Some work only on weekends and others a day or two a week.

You can spend as much or as little time on your website as you would like—it just takes longer to get results if you take longer to build it.

Think you can't write?

SBI teaches you how to do everything. Ken Evoy, the CEO, has written a great book, Make Your Content Pre-Sell that will help you. The book is part of the SBI information that you will use when you build your website.

But...SBI has now made it free for non-SBIers and you can download you free copy here.

Why I Recommend SBI

In fact, I have trouble figuring out how to use the features on my cell phone. The detailed directions for SBI will guide you through the process easily.

If I can build a successful website using SBI—so can you! Trust me on this one!

You can choose the kind of site that you want to have—and you can sell products, services or just make money by advertising. The important part is that you can make money anyway that you choose. The SBI system works for a number of different models. Why not check it out?

You can See a Video Tour here. SBI has a great support system of SBI owners who exchange information in the forums. They are from all over the world, and the nice part is that they share freely with each other.

You see, we don't feel competitive with each other. Everyone achieves website success if they read the guide and put the time in to build their site. And Ken Evoy, the CEO, participates regularly in the forums. I always feel that there is help nearby if I get stuck.

SBI is a complete system. By that I mean that, everything that you need to build your website is included in the price. They have such great tools, that all I have to do is write about dogs and recipes. SBI takes care of everything else.

Tools that I Use

• One tool, Brainstormer, helps you determine which words are more in demand, which have the most competition, and which will be the most profitable.

  I understand the value of this because I spent untold hours doing this for my Yahoo site—and I never quite seemed to get it right! This tool has been worth its weight in gold for me!

• The Analyzer tool checks each page and tells me what I need to do to optimize the page better for the search engines.

  Because I'm doing this right, my pages are starting to rank well with the search engines. With my Yahoo site, I don't think the engines ever found my site!

• After a page is written, SBI automatically submits it to the search engines—instead of my having to do that. That feature has been a great time saver.

Starting Your Own Bakery?

If I were 20 years younger, I would probably have made the decision to continue with the bakery, using SBI to build my website.

Keep in mind that we are all at different stages in life. And we have different interests and needs. If a pet bakery business will meet your needs, then by all means, go for it. I guarantee that you will have a lot of fun with it--I certainly did.

And it was really hard for me to let go of the bakery.

But, if you are going to start a pet bakery, I have one more suggestion for you. Don't make the same mistake that I made.

Consider using SBI for your website service. Your bakery will be far more successful online, and your website will get traffic a lot sooner. Following the SBI guidelines will give your website an advantage that will help it to grow steadily as the years go by.

Give it a Go--What do you have to lose?

If you are looking for a way to make money from home or want to have an extra income, why not give SBI a try?

Trust me, I wouldn't recommend it to you if I didn't use and love it myself. If you just follow the directions, you are almost guaranteed website success.

And, you don't even have to take a risk.

What do you have to lose?

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