Discovering Northern California's
You Too Can Build Your Own Website!

Build Your Own Website: Follow YOUR Dream!

You've found this page so chances are, you like the idea of building a
website to share what you know - and what you know is knowledge that the Internet wants!

That special know-how that only you have, about creating the most beautiful flower gardens or making your own greeting cards; how to get fit or lose weight; where to find the best travel deals or fun ideas for children's parties; how to get out of debt or invest in the Stock Market...

SBI! helped me sort out what I know and am passionate about, (exploring Northern California), why the Internet wanted my knowledge (I could offer an insider's view of what to see and do in Northern California), and how I could share my special knowledge and passion for it with the rest of the world.

And, while our website has been a joint venture for Wolf and I, Wolf has a regular outside-the-house, working-for-someone-else type job, and I do a majority of the writing (although he helps with the ideas, the research and the photography).

So this is my story about how SBI! helped me realize my dream and how they can help you realize your dream too!

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Build Your Own Website: Here's How

People ask me so many questions about my website, but mostly it boils down to the traditional questions reporters have to ask in order to get an accurate and complete story:

Who are you? Did you have programming skills that helped you build your own website?

Nope, no programming skills whatsoever. I still don't know how to program, nor do I want to. I just want to write!

What was your goal in learning how to build your own website?

To be perfectly honest, my initial goal was to make money to supplement our retirement income. What I discovered in the process was that I also had a passion that I wanted to share.

When did you start your website, and how long did it take?

I started my website in December of 2007 and it's still very much a work-in-progress. But then, I love it so much it may never be finished!

Where did you learn how to build your own website?

I learned at home, in my pajamas! Okay, just kidding! I know what you mean... but I did learn at home, on-line, at my own pace, from SBI! More about that in a bit.

Why did you choose Northern California as a topic for your website? How did you know what to write about?

When my husband and I returned to Northern California after spending a couple of years in Southern California, we realized how much we had missed the Northern half of the state, and how much we loved it. It was natural for me to want to share the North State with others.

Finally, the two biggest and most universally asked questions:

How did you build your own website? Which also implies the
question, "Can I learn how to build MY own website too?", and...

How long before you started making any money?

How I did it is, of course, with the help of SBI! But let me just say this - if I can do it, anyone can! As for making money - I followed the SBI! Tortoise plan and didn't try to monetize until I felt my site was ready. For me, it was about a year.

But let me not get too far ahead of my story here. The reason I started this page was to share with you, because you've shown an interest, my own personal journey to becoming Webmaster, Publisher, Editor, Videographer, and Travel Wrtier for DiscoveringNorthernCalifornia.com.

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Build Your Own Website: Here's What

What about my life prepared us for creating a website? The truth of the matter is, I really have no idea! I'm an ordinary person, just like you! Honestly, it's true. I never finished college - mostly because I couldn't figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.

I married a wonderful man and - in spite of ourselves - we managed to raise two terrific boys who are now even more terrific men.

Sometimes I worked outside the home - my "career path" taking on a life of its own with no advance planning from me. When I wasn't working outside the home, I embroiled myself in my children's activities, my husband's work life, and our community. Pretty normal life, wouldn't you say? Nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary.

Then, as I've mentioned before, we were beginning to see an end to the current chapter of our lives - working and raising a family - with the beginning of another chapter on the horizon - retirement. We basically knew what we wanted to do in retirement - travel and explore the world around us - but not how we would go about it.

We started asking all the normal questions. Will we be okay when we retire? Will we have enough saved up to be able to do the things we've dreamt of? Should we be thinking about supplementing our retirement income?

The answer to the last question was: "It certainly can't hurt!" But what would we do? Because part of our retirement plans included the freedom to do more traveling, we didn't want to be tied down by working for someone else, or by starting a business which would require our constant presence.

Everyone, everywhere, seemed to be touting the benefits of making money on the World Wide Web, but how to do that? We honestly hadn't a clue!

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Build Your Own Website: SBI! to the Rescue!

That's when we discovered SBI! - or Site Build It! Skeptical at first, we really took a careful look. Then we took a second look and shared the idea with friends and family to see what they thought. Ultimately, we decided that with all SBI! promised, and with their money-back guarantee, we really couldn't go wrong! We'd invest a little time, see how it went, and if it didn't seem to be working out, we'd get a complete refund of our money.

Here's what we learned:

• SBI's Money-back Guarantee promised if we weren't perfectly satisfied that this was for us, we'd get our money back, no questions asked.
• SBI! promised they would take care of the technical aspects of their build your own website program. Since we knew nothing about programming or HTML - nor did we want to spend the time or energy learning them - that was a biggy for us!
• Then there was the Action Guide that comes in both written and video formats. It's a step-by-step guide that shepherds you through the build your own website maze - all we had to do was follow it! Really!
  
  Even the most successful of SBI! owners say all they did was follow the Action Guide. They didn't get sidetracked, they didn't have to figure out which path to take or guess at what they should do next.
• SBI! comes with unlimited support! Besides the Action Guide, there are the Forums - SBI!'s venue where the most friendly, help-and-be-helped set of e-business people in the world come together to share their experiences and help each other solve problems!
  
  They also offer Support HQ with Help & Strategies, Tips 'n Techniques HQ, free How To e-books, Monetization HQ, Support HQ, and SiteSell Services for those of you who would rather pay an expert to help you build your own website.
  
  In addition, SBI!'s support and development team works hard
  to keep us on the cutting edge of web-based businesses by constantly monitoring (and often initializing) the latest Internet developments and making sure they're included as part of the SBI! package.
• The final factor that pushed me into going ahead and giving SBI! a go? Building my own website would give me the freedom to set my own hours, spend as much or as little time at it as I felt able, and to be my own boss. I work at home and - if we're traveling - I can take my work along or leave it behind; my choice.

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How Does SBI! Help Build Your Own Website?

Choosing what to write about was our first assignment, and it turned out to be my first stumbling block. The Action Guide advised, "Spend some time brainstorming subjects that you feel passionate about." If I was going to do the writing, I had to feel the passion.

No surprise to anyone who knows me, but that turned out to be a long list for me! There are so many things I'm passionate about! The hard part was narrowing it down and choosing only one.

But SBI! provides a little tool called Niche Choose It!, their final decision-making aide. It uses a complex decision-matrix theory that made choosing the best niche for me, personally - simple and flawless.

Combined with Niche Choose It! using Brainstorm It! to discover what keywords to use and how to use them showed me the best path for my particular idea, revealed some surprises, and helped me make the right choices.

The next hurdle for me was not only how I should write my pages, but how to lay them out in an attractive manner. Tadaaa - along came the Block-by-Block Builder to train me how to write a page that was both "Search Engine effective and human friendly." Like learning to ride a bike with the training wheels on!

The Block-by-Block Builder was perfect for me as a beginner, but even many advanced web-builders and programmers start out with this tool. It's an excellent way to quickly get started!

Speaking of which, SBI! isn't only for beginners! Since it's compatible with popular HTML editors (such as Dreamweaver) and image tools (like Photoshop, Flash, etc.), it's easy to use advanced page-building techniques if you have the skills. This allows for maximum creative flexibility for all skill levels.

SBI! helped me with so many things I hadn't even known existed, like announcing my site to the Search Engines, understanding Traffic Stats and Click Analysis, the concept of PREselling (which Site Build It! invented), and automatic site-blogging.

And new tools are being added all the time so I can feel secure that I'll always have the most up-to-date site-building and marketing tools.

If you're concerned about your writing ability, don't be! The founder of Site Build It!, Dr. Ken Evoy, offers a series of free, downloadable e-books that have helped hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs and small businesses get started on the Internet.

They're quite literally the dynamic duo of "Web-writing!" Once sold at SiteSell.com, they're now free for you to download at these links: Make Your Content PREsell! and Make Your Words Sell!

So, if you've ever wanted to build your own website, give SBI! a try - because you'll not only be building a website, you'll be building a web business at the same time!

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
Professional Ice Hockey Player and Coach, Wayne Gretzky

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Do you have questions about SBI!?
Talk to a real SBI! owner!

I'd like to close by saying Thank You for spending time with us on
our website - we love every minute of sharing Northern California with you! And maybe we'll see you soon in the SBI! Forums!

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And thanks for coming!