I now refer to myself as a WAHM (a work at home mum!)and no longer a SAHM (stay at home mum) because this website is more than just a passion and a hobby to me. It is in fact my business which I am able to build while still being an at home mum to my toddler Jamie.

I really love working on it and I feel blessed and fortunate to have found Site Build It (SBI - my web teachers and host).

As soon as Jamie goes to bed, I am on my computer, creating my site and learning so much and enjoying every minute.

After my son turned one I found myself in a situation where I was loving being his full time caregiver but I realised that I had turned all of my focus on him and not thought about myself for a while. I really missed learning, working, earning money and doing some of my creative hobbies. I didn't miss any of them enough to want to trade being a full time mother for them, but I became really keen to try to incorporate some of them into my life with my son Jamie.

It proved harder than you might think to find the right thing. Onto hobbies, I thought I would scrapbook his baby book, however it became costly and no sooner had I set it all up on the kitchen table then he would wake up and try and 'help' me...argh!

Several courses I wanted to take didn't fit in with Jamie's hours and it was just too difficult to co-ordinate others to look after him. I didn't come up with any ways of earning an income while putting him first! I remember the frustrations now as I write this and all the dead ends I went up looking for the right answer for me.

It was only by chance one day that I stumbled upon a website created using Site Build It (SBI) and there it was, the answer I had been looking for. It seemed that here was the chance for me to: learn something new, create something I loved and earn an income as well, all from home! In fact all I needed was my computer!

SBI! is actually a "process" with a massive set of tools that leads to a successful online business. It's pretty amazing when you see them all in one place. Check them out here!

Ok, so now you may be thinking like I was at this point, yes it sounds great, but really, I know nothing about creating a website and I don't use the internet for anything other than checking my e-mails. There is no way I could create my own website. However let me assure you, that I really didn't know anything before I started and as you can see I HAVE created my own website.

SBI taught me how, and I am a teacher, so I know 'how' to teach, and I believe this is one of the best parts of SBI....the way SBI teaches is suited to different learning styles. The teaching is done via an Action Guide which presents a step-by-step process, presented in both written and video formats. All you have to do is follow it. Really! I have to say that all I did was follow the guide to the letter. It really is an excellent on-line course!

The other key learning tool that SBI has is an excellent forum. You can go into the SBI forums to get the answer to any question you have at any step of the way. It is an excellent on-line community. Through these forums I have been able to meet up with other SBI site owners both on-line and face to face which has been another added bonus of having an SBI website for me. It is really motivating to brainstorm and receive feedback from other SBI'ers. You get the chance to help other people as well as being helped yourself.

There is also unlimited customer support which I have to say I am totally impressed with. Each time I have contacted customer support I have had a response within a few hours. Impressive!

I know it is a hard concept to imagine that you can actually make a profitable business out of something you are 'passionate' about, but it is the process that SBI teaches you that makes this possible. Content Traffic PREsell Monetize is the process that the Action Guide teaches you step by step. C T P M sets you up with a solid, profitable business foundation.

A common mistake many non-SBI sites make is they start without profits being "built into" the process from DAY 1, or they focus on their profits to the exclusion of the content on their site! SBI helped me to not make these common errors!

Some people may have a great idea for a website already (I know I did!) but actually choosing your best site concept is not always as obvious as you might think. My first idea was to set up a website about the place I was living but I found that when I used two of the excellent SBI tools 'Brainstorm It!' and 'Niche Choose It!' my first idea didn't show up as being the best path at all.

Using these tools I hit upon Baby-Books-Guide which is using my skills, knowledge, passion and providing some answers to the many search terms people are currently searching for.

When it's time to create your site's Look & Feel, SBI! provides fully customizable, easy-to-use templates. You can choose and create a professional-looking presentation, even if you have no design skills. And if you're a designer, you can create and upload your own. This page shows a range of styles.

I started out with one of these templates, but after a year I felt I was ready to change my look and the look you currently see is a 3 column template which was designed by A.J a fellow SBIer and a very experienced web master.

Many of the aspects about creating a website were new to me. Obviously one of the key factors to your sites success is generating a lot of traffic something I knew nothing about. Through the Action Guide and the forums I have however learnt traffic building strategies which are really helping my site to generate traffic.

Each month my traffic is increasing. At first it was only a slow increase, but now I am very happy to report after a year on the web and after having implemented the many traffic strategies I have, my site in enjoying some 'good' traffic! All of this is reported to me via reports I receive by SBI. Search Engine spider/listing/ranking reports help me see how my pages are being handled by the Search Engines.

As well as enjoying reading my stats I really enjoy looking at the many successful SBI sites on the SBI results page. This was a great place for me to see the variety of SBI sites there are.

PREselling is a concept "invented" by SiteSell, part of the C T P M process. The concept is simple. As a small business I did not have a brand name that was known and trusted. So I was encouraged to build that before I monetized. This might seem obvious, however few people do it, or they don't do it right, online.

I have to say that I really am someone who likes to 'try before I buy!'. You know those clothing sales which don't let you try on the clothes....well.....I just can't go to them. So I was more than impressed that SBI! offered me a no-risk, 30-day money back guarantee. I felt like I was making a risk-free decision as frankly if it wasn't for me I could get my money back in 30 days. As you can see I didn't do that....but I liked having the option there!

The SBI mantra is 'slow and steady wins the race'! SBI is definitely not a 'get rich quick' scheme. There are so many success stories with SBI but they will all tell you that they had to build their website and business up slowly over time. I see my site as a long term investment.

I would recommend you read the SBI case studies. They are the best SBI reviews you can read. It is where fellow SBIers tell their stories and share their successes. I find these stories inspiring and motivating to read.

I hope you have enjoyed learning about SBI. I can honestly say I have really enjoyed sharing my story about SBI and explaining in detail what SBI is. Now I have a place I can direct people to when they ask me to explain what SBI is and how I started my site - phew!

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions you would like to know about SBI, as you can tell I love to talk about SBI.
Carmen
Editor: baby-books-guide.com

PS. You can learn more about me and the idea behind my site .

If you are a SAHM and would also like to be a WAHM please read this excellent article:

SBI is ideal for stay at home mums (SAHM) who want to work from home.

I found out that many WAHM's started off creating a website for similar reasons to me. It was really encouraging to read about other mum's who started off earning a secondary income for the family but as their website businesses grew they ended up becoming the primary income earner!

FREE E-book for WAHM's

It is my pleasure to be able to offer you something for FREE....I mean, who doesn't like FREE gifts right? I know I do, so I am including this free E-book that has been written especially for WAHMS by WAHMS.

This Course is a complete roadmap for achieving online success as it takes you through the critical steps of building a real business on the Net. It is chock-full of information, case studies and even a "Getting Organized to Work at Home" chapter. I highly recommend it, if you are thinking of creating your own website with SBI.