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My Business Desires, Goals and Online Business Journey

This page is a long read...

But it's one of the best pages on this website to find practical lessons and tips on not just how to build a successful blog, but how to build a lasting online business, which I believe is your goal.

Follow my story step by step and it may just be the beginning of yours.

If you'll rather only read about how Blogging-the-Beginners Complete Guide will help you achieve your blogging goals, click here.

My name is Karo Itoje. I reside in Lagos state Nigeria.

I have an Ordinary National Diploma (OND) in Accounting. And I am no believer in "Get a nice degree and live happily ever after" because it's far from the truth.

I honestly hate to work for someone full time without my time freedom.

Now I am a full time online info-publisher or what is now called infopreneur ...

Publishing information online about a topic you have knowledge of, passion for or just your hobby through a blog/website in a bide to help people and make money from home.

I am a strong advocate of financial self dependence and work from home.

I have few blogs and this website where I discuss different online home based businesses.

The desire to be my own boss started around 2007 when I was working for a merger salary in a manufacturing company where there was no intellectual challenge and no Job fulfillment.

As a result many of my colleagues started seeking other job opportunities. But I found myself seeking something different - To make my own money, work at my own defined time, not answerable to a boss, help people and be recognized.

So when my colleagues were busy looking for a better job opportunity, writing and sending Job application letters and CVs, I was thinking about "how can I break away from this 8-5pm job and be my own person?"

Meanwhile I had ventured into the network marketing industry, doing it part-time.

I love network marketing because it is one of the few businesses that gives the common man equal opportunity to rise to staggering levels of financial rewards and personal freedom with a small investment (in regards to money and time).

You only have to work really hard in your early months to build an active team that you can work with to build their businesses.

As they are building their businesses, they are building yours. You leverage on their time and effort, but if they don't succeed you won't.

So you all help each other to achieve one goal - Build your business and earn really staggering commissions!

And the best part is that you don't have to keeping working to earn.

God, I love passive incomes! You create or build it once and eventually it runs itself and earn you money day after day, month after month with little to zero further efforts from you.

It's for the same reason I love online businesses. They run for 24 hours whether or not you're online.

You can write an ebook where you spend $0.00 on production expenses but have it make you several thousands of dollars for years to come.

You build a website, add different advertising models to it and it runs itself (after some upfront hard work that is).

It's a little different with blogs since you have to keep updating it to keep seeing increase in visitors.

I am all for any business that can be completely passive because I hate to keep working in other to earn a comfortable living.

How I Started Writing and Publishing

I wouldn't say I love to read, but I am an average reader. And before I started writing and publishing online, I used to make note from anything I read, I just loved to.

At a time I put different notes together to form a book, I can't remember what I called it then. But it never saw the light of day because I didn't have money to publish it. And it was just too much stuff to go into (so I thought).

Like I said before I love network marketing and it was a business I knew I could do well at and create the kind of life I wanted for myself.

So I joined a network marketing company, the first time I did I failed to recruit a single person because the network marketing company had saturated in my country.

Eventually another MLM company launched in Nigeria, with a great product, compensation plan and support, I was determined to succeed with them.

But as usual getting people to sign up to the company wasn't easy.

At a time I ran an advert inviting people to the seminar but got just one recruit.

I knew something was wrong and it definitely wasn't the company. It had to be the recruiting method!

No matter how hard you try, people will never see the benefit (s) of a product or business being recommended to them by a 'nobody' that they know will profit should they buy into it.

They'll think you're trying to make them buy or sign up for your own selfish gain.

With the problem identified I needed a solution. And what is the solution?

To position myself as an expert in the field, sensitize people about the benefits of joining the network marketing industry, open their eyes to the amazing wealth creation potential and how they can work to achieve it.

I contacted a local newspaper editor (Financial Standard newspaper Nigeria) and offered to run a weekly column on network marketing, he agreed.

And in a short time someone who really wanted to make it work with network marketing contacted me for advice and a good network marketing company recommendation.

I told him the possible reasons why he was yet to succeed and recommended he looked into my company.

And to my surprise in a few days he signed up at the executive level making me $200 instant bonus! And of course at the end of the month I earned another commission on the same sale as Sales Volume for the month.

After that experience I knew what works and what doesn't. There I was chasing people to sign up for months and got no one.

And in few days I signed up someone I had never even met from another state paying about $1000 to join at the executive level. It went to show that nobody wants to be sold.

People want to deal with experts, someone they have come to trust over-time. It's called Attraction marketing.

Moving From Local Newspaper to the Worldwide Web

My Journey to Blogging

I was so excited and shared the news with my elder brother. He congratulated me; but also said that newspapers are short lived, today's news is tomorrow's garbage.

Take your writing online he said, where people worldwide can read it over and over again.

But I knew nothing about using the Internet for business. A friend of mine who is an Internet marketer after seeing my passion for writing and home based business also directed me online.

He set up a blog for me and asked me to start posting, which I did. But like I said I knew nothing about anything online. The blog wasn't even planned. So it wasn't focused on a particular topic, neither was it optimized for the search engines.

I knew nothing about SEO. I just wrote the way I used to write for the local newspaper. I wrote about network marketing and other topics.

I became worried when I wasn't getting more than 20/day visitors after regularly publishing for sometime. I complained about it to my friend who created the blog for me. He then started telling me about SEO.

It was frustrating really, because I put time into writing valuable content and I had the monthly expenses of my Internet connection to put up with.

Getting Adequate Information is the First Secret to Any Business Success

I knew absolutely nothing about blogging before diving into it. So I didn't even know what I was doing. I had no strategy.

When I got tired of complaining I decided to take out sometime and learn what blogging was really about, how it works best and how to succeed with it.

Especially since I had decided that I wanted to build passive incomes online after my Job was terminated unexpectedly in 2009. I had decided never to work for anybody again and work online full time. And I was bent on keeping to that.

There were so many mis-leading information, today you read something and just as you're about implementing it, tomorrow you read something contrary to what you read yesterday, it was confusing.

But my mentor (my friend that created my blog) was always there to straighten things out for me.

I downloaded and read different ebooks.

The only way you know what really works in any endeavor is through experience . Let the theory guide you but it is only after practicing you can tell what actually works.

Remember practice makes perfect.

I created my second blog myself and kept learning. Whatever I learnt, I practiced.

Now I can confidently say that most of what is being written about blogging online is just hype, blogging is more involving than what is generally being made to believe.

Many people are just too eager to make money online that they'll tell you what you want to hear in other to get your money.

They'll promise to give you "blogging secrets" but don't be mis-lead, from my experience I have found that there are proven strategies, not secrets to building a successful blog.

If you want to succeed, just follow the strategies.

The first one I want you to take from here is that you get all the adequate information about any business including blogging that you're interested in, make sure it's what you can do and it meets with your goals.

And then set out a plan to succeed at it.

That way you achieve success sooner, save time, wasted effort and lots of frustration.

Why I Created this Website

If you check the twitter account for this website, you'll see that the profile reads :

And that is exactly what I intend to achieve with this website.

Even while the topic "Blogging" is very competitive I still choose it as a niche because I realized that the reason why more than 95% of those who start a blog fail at blogging is because most content on the topic doesn't properly educate beginners.

Some will even say blogging is easy but that's far from the truth.

Blogging is more tasking (not difficult) than a 9-5pm job especially if you choose to write on a competitive subject; because you have to first build trust to be able to earn from your blog.

And if the niche is already over-populated, you'll have to work twice as hard to become popular enough to make reasonable income from your blog.

I want to contribute my quota through this website to help as many people as possible make an informed decision.

If you choose to blog, then you'll find proven strategies on this website that bring in success anytime to implement on and for your blog.

Why I Built a Website Instead of a Blog

Though I discuss blogging, this site is not a blog rather a website.

By now you already know that I love passive incomes, just like you know I love working at my own time.

There are many things I love about blogging but having to keep up with regular blog updates always kept me on edge.

I want to write when I can without losing visitors because I couldn't make a post for sometime.

I want to write detailed content that will properly guide my audience not highlights because people who read blogs scan posts. And most especially ...

I don't want to write content that offer no value just to have the satisfaction of posting regularly.

Blogs can now be built as web pages just like a website so I could have done that, but the truth is blogs have always been seen as journals, people visit blogs mostly to read the latest posts or news.

And when they don't find a recent post most are quick to leave. And would consider the author not serious.

Google supports this claim in Google Analytics 101, written by Google in April 2008.

For the same reason blogs content are easily outdated.

Most blogs are not theme focused, bloggers always blog about the latest strategies or whatever they hear happening (blog content are news related) and most of their content are not detailed enough.

For all these reasons you can't refer someone who wants a detailed information on a certain topic to a blog and be sure he will get all the answers.

And that is what I wanted to achieve. I wanted a site that would be a Go to site for the niche it covers.

I wanted a theme-based content site where I cover every related topic to that niche in detail to the best of my knowledge.

As for the money making aspect, what I want to achieve is a lasting business where most of my incomes are passive.

Passive for me means after a certain level of hard-work and commitment to see it to success, the business should be able to run itself with very close to zero further effort from me.

Putting everything I have discussed above into consideration, I realized blogging wouldn't help me achieve my goals online hence this website.

Though I still keep a blog, haven't updated it for many months now. When I can spare the time I hope to re-work, re-design it and perhaps work with someone in providing content for it.

I am only considering this because the blog readers are appreciating the content and looking forward to more. I hate disappointing my readers!

Should You Blog or Build a Theme-Based Site?

Depending on what your goals are online, blogging might be perfect for you. If you wish to publish news related content then a blog is right for you.

The truth is a Blog and a Website are simply formats you use to present your content on the web, it doesn't really determine whether or not you will succeed if you know what you're doing.

I know and follow some successful blogs and bloggers, even when their sites are not exactly focused, they are still making good money.

What determines your site success is being equipped with the right information, tools, support and your physical effort and commitment to it.

A blog simply means a website formatted chronologically. The same amount of work is required for using both formats for online business. So even if your topic is not news related you can still succeed with a blog.

So whether or not you should use a blog to publish your content depends on your personal goals. So ask yourself : What are my online business goals?

About the Tool I used for Building this Website and Why I Love It!

I created this site using Site Build It! and I love the tool. Now this is not about marketing, it is about a tool that delivers.

Why I Love Site Build It!

What is Site Build It!

SBI in one sentence is an ALL IN ONE site building tool. But do not mistake it for the many free site builders available online.

ALL IN ONE? Yes, all you need to start an online business, market it and make money from it is all included in SBI including a one year hosting for your site.

I'll just quickly explain the most important tools included in SBI.

The SBI Action Guide : SBI puts together all the information you need to know to build a successful business online into a 10 days (not literal days) process and it all makes sense.

It starts by teaching you how to build a solid foundation for your business and ends with monetization.

At the end of the 10th day you're expected to have built enough traffic to start applying your monetization options.

Like I said before, the first step to success is to be rightly informed. The action guide explains in detail how to build a successful business using a process that works.

You write valuable Content, the content brings in Traffic through the search engines, you Pre-sell your visitors through your content and you Monetize the content and make money - Content-Traffic-Presell-Monetize (CTPM) and it works great!

Actually I never really understood the search engines, optimization, and how to build a lasting business online until I went through the action guide.

And most of what I share on this site are what I have learnt from the action guide and see working for me.

Like I have said, a blog and a website are simply formats, the exact strategies that works for me will work for a blogger.

The action guide contains so much information it is almost overwhelming but you will learn a lot and be many steps ahead of your competitors if you're patient enough to read, understand and take appropriate action.

Nobody is timing you, you will work at your own pace. It took me about 6 weeks to read, research and settle for a domain name before building this site.

See for yourself the details of the Action guide

Just after being properly informed is an effective research into niches that interest you to determine which will be most profitable.

This is an aspect of building a profitable online business you shouldn't mess with, you get it wrong here you're marred.

Picking a profitable topic and profitable related keywords is one of the major determinants of online success.

And to determine profitable niche and keywords you need good research tools. Site Build It! has an in-built research tool called the Brainstorm It!

Brainstorm It! uses the new Site Concept Finder to bring back hundreds of keywords for 3 possible Site Concepts, all at once.

You can then compare all three side-by-side with various filters, pre-set tasks (Lower Profitability, General Competitive and Solid Potential) . And sorts to determine ...

Which of the three is the best Site Concept, based on overall profitability, the time you have available, and monetization potential.

Even after all the research if you can't still determine the most profitable niche to start a website on, one of the research tool called Niche Choose It! will help you out.

Read about all Site Build it! tools

To use Site Build It! cost $299 every year. Now that might seem like much to you and it is much. But when you compare what it takes to build a site outside SBI you'll see how cheap the tool is.

If you want to use a blog, you'll host it for one year for between $80 plus to $119.4 .

Then you'll have to buy a research tool, a common research tool now is Market Samurai and it cost $149.

And every now and then you may have to buy other tools to improve your blogging experience.

With SBI all the tools I need are in one place so I don't have to waste time looking for tools that might not justify their cost.

I save time and focus on building content for my site.

When you're having a problem or not seeing success with your blog you're usually on your own (though with the site, you can share them with me).

But since I started using SBI when I have a problem, I just go to the SBI forums and there are amazing SBIers all willing to help me out. And same goes for other SBIers too.

If someone post's a question or problem I can help with, I gladly help out. So it's help and be helped.

We have many people in the forum willingly sharing the exact methods they're using to achieve good results with their sites. This has made the forum an invaluable resource for building a successful online business.

I also have the Tips and Techniques area in SBI made up of tips and guides written by different SBIers from their own personal successes on different areas of building e-business that I find really helpful.

There are some other functions SBI provides that you can't find elsewhere, one of them is Content 2.0 that allow others to build web pages on your site.

See an example of what Content 2.0 does here .

Depending on the topic of your site, your site can almost run on C2 alone.

When you put all these together you'll find out that SBI is more economical and helps you build a lasting online business faster than any other tool.

And you can't but succeed when you have all the guides, tools and many people standing by to help you succeed. What's there not to love?

Moreover, you'll only have to pay for SBI for one year after which your SBI site can pay for itself.

In case you're wondering, I built this site myself and I don't know about designing a website except few HTML.

SBI accommodates both the savvy site designers and those who don't even know what a bold tag is. If you are good at designing, you can design your site and upload it to SBI.

Even if you're not good at designing but wishes to design and upload your own site, there's a step by step video to guide you which I followed recently to achieve the look of this site.

If you don't want to bother with HTML at all, SBI has a block by block site builder, which has even been updated recently to give more power to the HTML dummy to design a really beautiful site through a click by click process.

SBI empowers common people with absolutely no technical skills whatsoever to build successful websites than that built by professionals.

See several case studies of successful SBIers

Why Just Blog or Build a Website When you Can Do Both!

Blogs have a strong place in building an online business.

It has some good benefits that can't be ignored, like the ability to have people subscribe with their emails to your feed and get updates right in their inbox, easily find and read your recent posts among other things.

Knowing this, SBI has a functionality called RSS/Blog It! that automatically integrates a blog into your website that serves the important aspect of blogging without you having to put in any extra work.

Visit this site's blog to see what I mean.

What more can I ask for? When this site is one year old I intend to do a review on it building process and success achieved thus far on this website so look forward to it.

My Advice on Building a Business Online

When some consider the cost of SBI they think why would I investment such amount just to host a site when I can have 30 blogs on a single hosting fee.

First as I have explained SBI is far more than just a web host. Secondly and most importantly it's one thing to set up 30 blogs and an entirely different issue to make money from them.

It takes time to build one excellent authority site and no one has such time to build 30 authority sites otherwise jack of all trade master of none.

Rather than be concerned about how many sites you have, be concerned about how many successful businesses you have online.

Take time to build one till it's making reasonable money and can run itself with little support from you before planning another.

It's better to have one authority site, a site that build traffic that you can convert into income in many ways than to have many making you just few dollars.

Some people have up to 10 blogs each making them a few hundred dollars every month.

Put time and commitment into building one authority site and in the long run the site will earn you more than 10 blogs will earn their owners.

Moreover, splogging other wise known as spam blogs or splogs have recently been shut down by Google.

It's okay to review your online goals and be sure blogging will achieve them for you. And it's okay to consider Site Build It! even as a blogger.

You don't have to stop blogging. It will be your opportunity to try something different and compare your success. See if I am just bragging about this tool.

I am sure you will find out I didn't do SBI justice!

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