My Dilemma

[nanciesweb]

My husband had been cleaning out foreclosed homes with our neighbor for extra cash. When I mentioned the FHWW and a few of my ideas, he bemoaned that all the houses he cleaned up had some sort of home business going (read, we aren't going to spend ANY money on a home business).

We are on a really tight budget right now and have pretty much limited our spending to necessities only, so I understand his apprehension with the idea.

So I decided to try at least get started with no money. I open up a shop (http://mometek.secure2cart.com/index.html) on shopster.com (http://www.shopster.com) (mentioned in the new FHWW). It's still being designed between changing diapers, making meals, and housework. The templates are limited, so I designed a few flash files with a color scheme to match the template. I used my blogger account to start a new blog and used a little code to get rid of the blue bar, then used an Iframe to put it in the "blog page".

Eventually, I'll replace one a few products on the page (they're all from other sources on the "network") with my own.

Now I know there are a few things missing: Lack of featured products (the page is blank) and lack of blog posts (just started). The problem is that once I finish the design, what can I do to get this off the ground? I may be able to spend a little on advertising, but financially, my options right now are seriously limited. And what can I do to make the site more attractive to prospective customers?

If you made it this far, thanks for taking the time. I know I'm rambling, but I am kind of stuck on what to do next.

[Monkiii]

NOTE: This post contains no apostrophes as my keyboard is acting wierd. Please forgive me. :)


Firstly congratulations for starting even when all the stars are not aligned. Many have used this as an excuse and I admire that youve just gone and started with what you can. A couple of questions designed to be helpful more than anything:

What precisely are you asking help with doing? I suggest when you can answer that, you ll be half way towards the answers you need.


Are you looking for help with getting extra traffic?
With helping convert visitors into sales?
With defining what unique niche youre catering to?
What your unique benefit to this niche is?
Are you asking for help with the design of the template?

Lack of money is a relatively small problem compared with lack of clarity.

Personally Id start with the blog first in this case. Build a loyal readership and theyre more likely to buy from you (a friend) than some random other place. The store looks generic, but passable. The main thing is that to make sales you need either a unique product, good marketing (eg sales letter, mailing list) and / or credibility or a trusted relationship. Blogging could give you the last two if done well and shared. As with the store remember to keep sharing some value that is unique to your niche. Try to start by building a readership and mailing list before asking them to buy a product if youŕe not going to use a sales letter. You can build mailing lists of up to 500 for free with templates and other stuff with the rather excellent mailchimp.com .

Mostly, you need to figure out what unique benefit you can provide your niche, and what youre trying to do now.

Hope there was something there that helped. All the best!

[nanciesweb]

NOTE: This post contains no apostrophes as my keyboard is acting wierd. Please forgive me. :)
I'm a recovering Grammar Nazi. I'm okay with that now. ;)


What precisely are you asking help with doing? I suggest when you can answer that, you ll be half way towards the answers you need.


Are you looking for help with getting extra traffic?
With helping convert visitors into sales?
With defining what unique niche youre catering to?
What your unique benefit to this niche is?
Are you asking for help with the design of the template?





1. yes
2. yes
3&4 This is a tough one. I'm a stay-at-home mom of five kids. That's quite a "large pond" to work in. I also have a lot of knowlege of computers and electronics, also a "large pond". I wanted to review gadgets that would help moms like me, but this would would require me to aquire gadgets to review. The few gadgets I do have and can review, the networks on shopster don't carry it. So, I plan on reviewing them and linking them to Amazon. Unfortunately, I'm going to end up running out of material quickly. So I need to either figure out how to get more material, OR go with something else.
5. Not right now. Because I have a free account, the templates are very limited and I cannot use any of my own templates, so I'm kind of stuck with what I have now. I was hoping to make enough to pay for the account ($20.00/month), which would allow me to come up with my own template.


As for blogging: Here's my personal blog: http://nancieswebfamilylife.blogspot.com/. I have been blogging there for quite some time, but I don't have many readers. Maybe I should just focus on that one? How could I draw more readers (traffic)?

Thanks for your time, again. This is helping me to narrow down my ideas.

[Monkiii]

OK. Good start.

Rather than answering each of my examples, try answering the main question:

What is the one single specific thing you are asking for help with?
Whats the single critical most important step to get right next?

RE Your blog. Its fine as a personal blog. If youre going to use a blog as a list / credibility building exercise though it needs to focus on providing value (useful information) to your readers on your specific niche. Its mainly annecdotes about your family. Nothing wrong with having a blog like that. Id think about having another blog though that only focuses on providing useful information to your target niche (Moms interested in finding ways of making home life easier?) By all means, still use personal annecdotes. Just make sure that everything you write on your niche blog is designed to provide useful information / inspiration to your readers. Keep ads to only things relevant to them (probably not ¨making money is easy!¨ banners) and ask them to subscribe. You can use feedburner with your blogger rss feed to allow people to subscribe by email for free, or mailchimp as in my previous post. Feedburner is very cool, and allows unlimited subscribers but a bit complicated. Mailchimp is probably easier but costs money above 500.

[tyroneshum]

In addition to Monkii's response about setting up a mail autoresponder or something to capture subscribers, you could also try a cheaper alternative, such as Profollow (http://www.profollow.com). (About $200 US a year)

Later on you can upgrade to Aweber if you wish, as it's the full service.

I've been using Profollow and it's an excellent service to manage subscribers and also setup automatic follow ups and responders.

Also I agree with Monkii, you will need to separate your personal blog from your business blog and focus on a niche to drive traffic to your business and to convert into sales.

Thanks.

Tyrone Shum

[nanciesweb]

Eureka!

I really appreciate your patience, something about rambling on like an idiot on a public forum seems to get the brain juices flowing (Is it an ADHD thing?)

I can't spend ANY money on anything (yet, my husband is warming to the idea) so I did some more research and found some self publishing companies. I can use these to publish a guide for stay at home moms (SAHMs) filled with answers to tech questions I keep getting from mothers around here, mostly about the internet. One particular site is called "Lulu Publishing (http://www.lulu.com/)". The other is "CreateSpace (https://www.createspace.com/)" (I think of of those were mentioned in FHWW).

It's still kind of in the draft stages. I still have to work with what I got. My business blog is separate from my personal blog and I will keep it that way.

I should have a product to sell in a little while.

Thanks again. :D

[officer_dibble]

I agree with the others. Very well done for not procastinating - even in the face of scepticism from the other half (I get this a lot too).

If you keep going with the existing blog as well as a more business orientated one - you can occasionally cross link them.

I have a friend who had a eco-mum blog (started out because she was bored on maternity leave) - and it was amazing how quickly she got discovered by companies wanting to send her product samples for her to review. Ultimately she decided she had too much on her hands to keep it up - which was a shame as it as a small step from reviewing products to making money through affiliate links.

Picking a niche (and sticking to it) as you are starting to do will really help build your audience. Use google keywords tool to research the phrases which people type in to find the kind of info you will be offering and consider working them into headlines, copy - perhaps even the name of the blog/business.

[vmgbpo]

I have to echo the others – congratulations for taking action!

You mentioned rambling on a public forum gets the juices flowing – in that same spirit I would recommend finding 2 or three forums (don’t get too spread
out) where your potential readers/customers hang out. Lurk for awhile to get familiar with the community and then jump in. This will help drive traffic to your blog. Just be sure to check the rules and regs regarding promoting your blog.

Good luck!

[BlindSquirrel]

My wife is also a SAHM (I love that acronym) of 5 kids. Your blog looked like just the type of thing she'd really dig. I think the blog is the best way for you to start, especially on a zero dollar budget. Poor yourself into it and I bet you will see your traffic explode as the SAHM's recommend your blog to each other. Advice from a fellow SAHM is respected so much more than any other person's - at least by my wife. I think you have a great niche there.

PS - My wife would appreciate a product that has ANYTHING related to running a house effeciently. Maybe your product doesn't need to be a gadget, but your own experiences or advice. (ebook, or DVD)