Content 2.0 Means Steady Growth Times 2

by Cir & Akrista
(Life-in-spite-of-ms.com)

We are so excited about our site (well, now two sites). We can see the traffic "snowball" growing bigger and bigger everyday. I love looking at our traffic growth over the last year and a half - going from 3 visitors a day to over 100 a day. And we can hardly contain our excitement when we check Google Adsense (one way we earn money) and see more income than yesterday, lol. And with Google Analytics (where we measure our site stats) we can even go back and compare. It's so amazing.


Love at First Site

I have to admit, Content 2.0 was one of the reasons we fell in love with SBI in the first place. We had never heard of a package that gave you the ability to add Web 2.0 capability to your website. Even when we found out that C2 was not included in the main package (it is now), the
fact that it was available if we wanted it was a definite plus for us.

We began Life in Spite of MS with every intention of adding C2 at some point. We realized we could have something similar to Myspace, Facebook, Youtube, and Flickr, on our own little site. How cool is that? We saw the potential that this tool had and thought it was well worth the price. In fact we thought it was way under priced.


The Trial Period

Before C2 was integrated into SBI! at no additional cost there was a free trial package
available to SBIers. We waited till we had enough visitors a day before we started our trial.
We wanted to see if it was a good fit for our site. And if it was, we hoped we wouldn't pass
our 25 free submissions before we had the money to pay for it.

Long story short, it did. So when Cir got his disability check, we bought C2.


A Second Chance

With SBI, we felt we were buying a chance to make our dreams come true and with the addition of C2, we could get there just a little bit faster. As a young couple dealing with a chronic illness, we saw our dreams float right out the window when Cir was diagnosed with MS.

We started searching for a way to make extra income. Mainly because we had also chosen to homeschool our children and so that we would have something in place if Cir lost his income due to disability.


Past Businesses

We did just about every type of business you could do from home, including MLM. We just weren't cut out for that one. We didn't like the fact that we had to constantly recruit other people. Everyone we met was a potential "target" the way we saw it. And we just felt uncomfortable building a business that way.

We had long since given up on finding a legitimate way of making a significant amount of money that would actually get us to the point we weren't living paycheck to paycheck. We'd even lost money on a website that we believed would be the answer.

We spent $1,000 on a website that looked really nice, but that was all it was. A really nice looking "e-commerce website". We knew nothing about building content or how important traffic was. We had a shopping cart. We had beautiful gifts that we knew would sell because we had sold them at flea markets and craft shows.

It didn't work for us because we didn't know how to make it work. Even our free over the phone "coaching" sessions didn't help bring us any closer to our dream. We just wanted a business that we could work from home. One that wouldn't be physically demanding on either of us as we got older. And one that we could grow as big (or as small) as we wanted to.


And Now...

Fast forward to now. When I found out that C2 was going to be part of the SBI! package, it just about floored me. I thought - Oh my goodness! How can they do this? It just showed me how much Dr Ken and the folks at SBI! honestly care about helping us little guys be successful.

Because we had already purchased C2, we knew that renewal time was fast approaching. Not continuing C2 didn't even cross our minds. We'd pay for it like we had done before and cut back on some other "not-so-essential" item for that month.


C2 - a Part of the Package

Whatever it took.... As far we were concerned, Content 2.0 was part of the complete package. We wouldn't even consider continuing to grow our site without it.

Now that C2 is part of SBI 2.0, we have the ultimate tool to continue moving our business to the next level. Traffic is growing by leaps and bounds. We've added a social networking site for our visitors. People are beginning to take notice and provide inbound links.


What's Next?

Where do we go from here? Our goal is to continue to over deliver in the tradition of SBI! I've decided to start from the beginning with C2and read the updated C2 Action Guide again and watch the new C2 video. I am re-evaluating each invitation and re-working them to make each one the best it can be.

One strategy I have used in the past is to look at other successful C2ers ideas and see how they can possibly relate to our website. I do this by reading through the forums and clicking on SBIers websites. This is my favorite way of learning - from other SBI owners. If they can do it, so can I.

One of the recent SBI Express newsletters provided a great idea for using Blog-It, another SBI! tool, to help bring in more C2 submissions. Dr. Ken gave his daughter Nori's site as an example. I used her model and tweaked it for our site.

I also added a page that lists all of the ways visitors can contribute. I'm working on making that page more organized, and easier for visitors to understand and find what they're looking for.


We Can Only Go Forward

At this point, our business can only go forward. With C2, it will get there even faster. We are proud of what we've built so far. And it will only get better.

Our SBI! sites will allow us to eventually build our dream home and pay for vacations. They will give us something to leave our children - if nothing more than the knowledge that they too can build a business from what is in their hearts.

Thank you so much Dr. Ken, Erin and the SiteSell staff. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. (Okay, let me go and get my tissue *sniff, sniff* ... : )

Sincerely,
Akrista

PS. Since I wrote this story, we have added C2 to our second SBI website - sandwiches again.com We have yet to receive any submissions, but we know they will come. Our little tortoise knows the best way to win the race.