The Home Business Neophyte's  Recent Journal Entry…

Since I'll be keeping a journal of my adventures as a new home business owner, I thought you might be interested in knowing a little about my background…

I'm not new to internet marketing, but I am new to running a home business myself.  I've never gone out and done this on my own - not with the intention to make money anyway. See, a few years ago, I decided to set up a hobby site. It wasn't a particularly lucrative niche, but at the time, I wasn't looking at that.  I just wanted to set up a quality web site about a topic I was passionate about. Making money online wasn't a major priority at that point.

The result was a success.  That hobby site now receives over 1000 visitors a day from Search Engines, and even makes me passive income, equivalent to a small part-time job (not bad for a hobby site). It runs with minimal input from me, and basically makes a nice little side income for me, day in, day out.

My first real learning experience with online marketing was via Ken Evoy's book, called 'Make Your Site Sell' (now free). It's also known as 'MYSS!2002'. Back then, I had to pay for it. And it was well worth every penny because that's what got me started with internet marketing really. It gave me a very solid understanding of what makes a site generate income. 

But as I understand it, it's now free.  It's pretty dated, I must admit, but the theory behind setting up a web site that makes money, is just as viable today as it was back then.

If you want to grab a free copy of the 'Make Your Site Sell' ebook, head on over to this page…

So anyway, I digress…

Once I had devoured the 'Make Your Site Sell' ebook, I started to realize I was on to something: Maybe it was really possible to make home business income just by working from home using the internet. 

In his ebook, I had noticed that Ken Evoy kept mentioning his own teaching system and suite of tools for the newbie entrepreneur.  So I looked into it, and after looking at other competing products out there, I decided to go for it.

The teaching system and suite of tools I'm referring to is called 'Site Build It!' and that's what I used to build that first hobby site. It taught me the ropes, at a pace I was happy with. In fact, I really loved the fact that I could pick up where I left off, whenever I wanted, night or day. I could work for as long as I wanted, wherever I wanted. I could work from home just as easily as I could take my laptop downtown, sit in a cafe, and work there.

The luxury of lifestyle and flexibility, that the internet can bring to a home business, was suddenly dawning on me.

If I picked the right niche, learned more about Search Engine Optimization, relationship marketing, and all the other vital skills you need to run a successful home business online …

… well maybe I had a shot at turning my one hobby site into a suite of profitable web sites that earned my home business income.

Real income.

And lots of it.

After all, I had seen it with my own eyes:

I had used a system that taught me to build a site that makes money, and it did… despite the fact that:

1. I hadn't chosen my niche based on profitability, so there were tonnes of more profitable opportunities out there I could take advantage of and,
2. making money for that hobby site, wasn't really my main priority, so imagine what I could do if I did make it my priority!

Let's face it - the odds were against me. At the time of building my hobby site, I hadn't made the right choice of niche in terms of profitability, nor did I have the burning desite to make money. Yet that system had shown me, and given me the tools to make money out of probably one of the poorest choices of niche, with little motivation to make money.

The opportunity became clear. If I actively went out to research a profitable niche this time around, and actually planned for a home business that generated income… the odds were that I'd make far, far, far more money than I had been making, almost by chance, with my hobby site.

This takes me to where I am today.  The realization of what I could potentially achieve has been brought to light because of just how well my hobby site is doing.  I've now left that hobby site on the backburner now.

Time to focus on my profitable home business venture…

Until next time…

The Home Business Neophyte