Site Build It! - My story

When the opportunity of owning this Site Build It! site came about, I jumped at the chance. Why was I so keen? Well here is my story that brought me to this point in my life.

After having my two children in the 1980s my husband and I decided I'd stay home and look after them.

In order to help with the family finances I tried a number of different part-time activities. Although I enjoyed each one in its own way, I never really felt that they were going to make a vast difference to our way of life.

When my daughter was very young I became an Avon representative. At that time we lived in a large village with plenty of potential customers. I sold enough cosmetics each month to earn some extra money and enjoyed getting out and about and meeting new people. Then circumstances forced us to move house and we ended up in a small rural village which already had an Avon lady.

Making money with crafts

I turned my hand to selling fabric paints via home party plans. As I really enjoyed crafts in any form, this was right up my street. The following photo shows the sort of things they were used for.

I did really well, even winning two national competitions for the best salesperson. One of the prizes was an all-expenses-paid weekend in London, taking in a show at the Theatre and shopping at Harrods. Each winner also received a limited edition Harrods teddy bear, who still sits in my bedroom to this day.

With my love of crafts it wasn't long before I started making soft toys and puppets. I sold these at local craft fairs and made quite a name for myself. Sadly, the fur fabric that I was using aggravated my asthma and my toy making had to come to an end.

I tried network marketing (MLM) for a while, but I am not sociable or confident enough for that to really work well for me, although I did love the products.

I then discovered cross stitch embroidery and after following other people's patterns for some time I decided to design my own. I tried selling the finished embroideries at craft fairs but found out that people prefer to stitch them themselves. Therefore, I produced kits and sold those instead.

Enter the computer

At this point I was introduced to the wonderful world of computers, and the Internet.

My husband lent me the money to buy some cross stitch design and website building software and my online adventures began.

My first website was a reasonable success, but mainly because I took out adverts in the stitching Magazines and directed people to my site that way. The adverts themselves brought in a number of mail-order customers, and eventually I also sold to shops worldwide.

In the year 2000 I purchased an e-book called MYSS! Which stands for Make Your Site Sell. Written by a gentleman called Ken Evoy, it explains how to create a website that succeeds in selling your products and it is now available as a free download. I put some of it into practice and the traffic to my site increased a little.

I had obviously signed up for Ken's newsletter, although I don't remember actually reading any issues until the summer of 2006. By this time both children had left school and I had gone back to work, while still running my needlework business in the background. That summer my health had deteriorated and I decided that I had to give up my day job.

Sitting at home, bored and lonely, I decided to read the newsletter that Ken had sent me. He explained that the principles contained in the e-book I had bought previously had now been turned into a system for creating successful websites. On investigating the SBI concept further, I decided to take a chance (there was a money back guarantee) and I spent the last of my wages on an SBI! site.

Starting over with Site Build It!

I already knew my niche was needlework, so I have to admit I skipped a little of the instructions and jumped straight in.

Lucky for me, things worked out fine, and without paying for any magazine adverts, my traffic grew. Before too long I had become so successful, that I had to find a manufacturer for my kits as I was no longer able to make them at home in big enough quantities.

Around the same time I started a second site, all about the gluten-free diet which I had to stick to due to coeliac disease. This time I followed the Action Guide or manual, and before too long I was receiving thousands of visitors a day to each site!

This brings us back to my decision to invest in this Site Build It! site, in early 2010.

Come the summer I will turn 50, and my husband will reach 60 at the beginning of 2011. With retirement looming the theme of this site was appealing. When it was offered for sale I had to have it!

I hope I can do justice to our founder, Bob, and build out the site so that it becomes a mine of information for all of us baby boomers looking to supplement our income in retirement, or to retire early and enjoy a better way of life.