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How did we grow this web site?Actually, the first question is, why did we grow this web-site? You've seen part of the answer on our home page; we wanted to communicate, educate and inform people about great natural food. And where else can I publish my poetry? But there is more to the story. Bear with me a bit whilst I give some background to explain why (and eventually how) we came to build new-terra-natural-food.com You may be aware there is another world out there, the somewhat mysterious world of e-commerce. If 'location, location, location' is the slogan for real estate, then 'information, information, information' is the secret to e-commerce. What I mean by that is: when people are surfing the net, what are they looking for? Information! So if a lot of people are looking for something, that thing probably has value (that's the 'commerce' part). To put it another way, when I work as a management consultant (in the 'off-season' from farming), people pay me for the information I can give them. One of the problems with that model is, I can only work for so many people at one time; there is a limit on how many people I can provide information to, one-on-one. In the wonderful world of e-commerce, on the other hand, I can be an 'info-preneur'. If I can package the things I know so that others can benefit from it, some of them may want to pay me for it! And the market is not limited to the little local area I serve as a CSA market gardener, or as a consultant. The potential market is the whole wide world (or www, as I call it). So our ulterior motive (not very ulterior now that I've told you; keep it to yourself) in building this site was to create another possible revenue stream for our small farm. Hence the fact we wrote a book about how we created a successful, award-winning small farm in our spare time, using common objects found around the home (or something like that) See Bootstrap Market Gardening elsewhere on this site. That's the 'why'. So now, the 'how'. Believe it or not, despite my vast knowledge on many topics (Suzie says my knowledge is only half-vast), a year or so ago I knew next to nothing about e-commerce, or how search engines worked, or keyword searches, or how to build a web site that 'worked'. Fortunately I stumbled across a company that helped me figure out a lot of that stuff; in fact they took care of just about all of it for me. They gave me an extremely helpful and practical Action Guide providing a proven, step-by-step, 10-day process to building a working e-commerce site. And they provided all the tools to make it happen, wrapped up in one package. They even showed me the many ways my site can generate revenue, with lots of examples from their other successful customers. You can check out some of the same case studies that I did when looking for a web site hosting company. When you check them out, just notice how passionate these folks are about their, umm, passions. They are equally passionate about SBI! as a partner their success.
Of course, being a methodical kind of guy (I have actually written a book about performance measurement, in that off-season other life I mentioned before), I also wanted proof that SBI! could actually do what they claim. They backed up their claims to my complete satisfaction; you can check out SBI!'s proof of success like I did.
You've read the book, now see the movie! Well, actually this is SBI! TV, a great (and short - 3 minute) video introduction to SBI! By the way SBI provides this tool (and lots of others) to help us tech-challenged types maintain a cool site. Just click on the thumbnail below to open SBI! TV in a new window.
We've just added these great (and FREE) business-building e-books to our site. If you would like several megs of valuable information about building a web site that actually works, you can learn how to:
Of course, you don't have to be an info-preneur (and low-ku artist) to want a good working web-site. But if you are, check out what SBI! can do for you at this SBI! Info Publishers link. Speaking of real estate, SBI! also has some great information for real estate agents about building a web site to support their businesses. And if you are looking to build a business from home, check out
SBI's WAHM page
So that's how we came to build this site. It breaks down like this ; my job is is write some good, informative web-pages full of interesting stuff that people will want to read. SBI!'s job is to take care of all the technical stuff, and provide guidance along the way. They give away an incredible amount of valuable information that you just won't find anywhere else (or at least I couldn't.) If you want a site that works, I suggest you give them a try. And right now (until Valentine's Day) they are having a special 'buy SBI! and get a second site for only $100. This is a chance to get SBI! for yourself and give a great Valentine's gift at the same time. Check out the banner below. regards Scott Kelland
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