Q. Please tell us a little about your background.

A. I am an early childhood educator and presently work with special needs adults. Originally I was a marine engineer, an industrial millwright, welder jack of all trades, but wanted to do something useful to help others succeed, mainly children.

Q. What made you decide to start a website in the Child Development field?

A. To help children be the best that they can be.

Q. What kind of research went into this niche area before building your website?

A. Not much, I just wanted to see if I could do it. The process has been more of a creative one for me; I am now ready to really market what I have. That is why I have not made much money over the two years I have been online. I finally admitted that "I am not interested in marketing my site", I would rather spend my time creating my products. This is the main reason I have Joint Ventured with a marketer, who is going to revamp and promote my site for me.

Q. How did you design and build your website?

A. I use Frontpage, which is fairly easy to use, but in hindsight, I would advise people to use a professional designer, mainly to optimize your site and set it up. Building the site was easy; it's getting it out there that counts and I would rather have someone else do that for me.


Q. What software do you use to run your business?

A. Frontpage, hot conference room software and Kiosk tools, which are part of my hosting package.


Q. How does your website generate income?

A. Sales from my storybooks mainly, I have just added an affiliate program, which should be a fairly lucrative payment on the high backend products for members.

Q. How do you collect payments for your products or services?

A. Paypal

Q. What promotion methods do you use?

A. Just word of mouth and postings

Q. Which method has proven to give you the best sales results?

A. Word of mouth, up to now.

Q. Which method of traffic generation has proven to be the best for you?

A. Word of mouth.

Q. What is your biggest challenge each month?

A. Getting people to buy

Q. What's the biggest mistake you've made since starting your business?

A. Not investing the time to market what I have to offer.

Q. How has your lifestyle changed since you started your online business?

A. It has not changed really, I just enjoy creating things; it hasn't been about the money, but as I get older I want more time to create things.

Q. How has your SureFireWealth.com membership helped you with your online business?

A. Mainly with contacts to build my list.

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

A. I did things kind of backwards; I created the product and now have to look for the market. It depends on what drives you as well; my drive is to help children succeed, unfortunately they don't have a lot of cash at three or four years old.

The reality is, my products do work, I have seen children make amazing progress using my storybooks that teach, the problem is - "Where is my market and how do I get them to buy what I have?" My solution is to JV with someone who is as "gung ho" about marketing as I am about children's development.

The only other thing I have to say is, "don't be afraid to admit you can't do it all". Having to struggle to do something we don't like to do, can stop us dead in our tracks. This created a dilemma for me, "I want to market my products on the Internet, but don't like Internet marketing".

Have a great day.
Paul in Calgary

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Thanks Paul!