Q. Please tell us a little about your background.
I'm an environmental consultant with a background in computers.

Q. What made you decide to start a website in the field?
I've always had an interest in good health and fitness earning a 3rd degree black belt in two martial art styles. One of the things you learn in martial arts is the concept of balance - the fact that too much of anything is not good. The same applies to diets, exercise, all facets of good health. My site helps people see the danger in fad diets and exercise routines and gets them back on a balanced routine.

Q. What kind of research went into this niche area before building your website?
I did quite a bit of keyword research but found that this approach actually limited and confused me. I found that if I wrote from the heart about something I was passionate about, the keywords are naturally there.

Q. How did you design and build your website?
At first, my site was based on the PostNuke content management system (CMS). PostNuke is a free PHP-based CMS that's pretty comprehensive. However, one of the dangers is that you end up spending all your time playing around with the software and very little time actually working on your business.

Q. What software do you use to run your business?
Currently, my site is still on PostNuke although I'm in the process of converting it over to pure HTML using XSitePro. I use PayPal for the actual financial transactions.

Q. How does your website generate income?
I offer free information and articles about balanced health and fitness. This leads the reader to my ebooks. My site generates income through the sale of my ebooks as well as through Google Adsense ads that are placed within the site.

Q. How do you collect payments for your products or services?
I use PayPal to generate the "Buy Now" buttons as well as to handle all the financial transactions. Couldn't be easier.

Q. What promotion methods do you use?
My promotion efforts have included Google Pay-per-Click, SEO, newsletters, and writing articles. By far, my best method is to combine good SEO with writing and submitting articles to the various article directories.

Q. Which method has proven to give you the best sales results?
Giving away extracts of my ebooks and asking for referrals.

Q. Which method of traffic generation has proven to be the best for you?
Writing articles and submitting them to the article directories provides the best incoming links and traffic.

Q. What is your biggest challenge each month?
My biggest challenge each month is forcing myself to actually produce content for the site. I get too caught up in the "fun stuff" of playing with colors and graphics and so on.

Q. What's the biggest mistake you've made since starting your business?
Not starting sooner. This is like swimming - you simply have to jump in and start splashing around. You ARE going to make mistakes but that's how you learn. Don't try to avoid mistakes but don't wallow in them either. Learn the lesson and then keep moving forward.

Q. How has your lifestyle changed since you started your online business?
My lifestyle hasn't really changed at all.

Q. How has your SureFireWealth.com membership helped you with your online business?
I've been able to use quite a few of the info products and templates on SureFireWealth to jump-start some of my projects. It's always valuable to see what others have done and then build on that.

Q. What would you say to someone looking to start a website in the same niche as you?
Get started!

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Thanks!

Jeremy Gislason
Webmaster
SureFireWealth.com