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The website already contained a page for CoffeeMelodie Studio, and our students found it convenient to book lessons and pre-pay right on our website. I also went to great lengths to open a page for outreach programs, which branched out into a career consulting service page as well as a piano accompaniment apprenticeship award page. I took a look at my (soprano) website and felt very proud of myself: There I was, a soprano who could mix singing and other money making businesses together. Then, it hit me that my studio and outreach program worked because of its nature of being a 'local business' People learned about a new voice studio in town, they asked around and then called us up and we connected. The beautiful webpages are just 'there' and, aside from serving the purpose of easy-pay convenience (which could be done in person, also!), it was not anything beyond a wall-papering decor. But, darn, it did look great!!!!





I turned my attention to my gift shop page. After all, I could sell these 'online', right? I put more effort into making the page look fabulous - and it did. My soprano website host provider has all kinds of funky tools with which I could play. A few day after I finished building the gift shop, I got an email inviting me to upgrade from a free website to a premium e-store. Hmm..I hadn't even turned any profit yet, so I didn't upgrade.





I started doing research on eBay and Amazon and realized that the Internet and books were over-flowing with information, most of which was a mixed bag and not directly applicable to my small gift shop with less than twenty-five items (!!!!!) BUT I DID WANT TO SELL so I decided to jump into eBay.





Piggy bank alert!!! I needed great photos to feature my items, not just the blurry ones that I had for my humble soprano website. I wouldn't want to invest on a brand new camera unless I wanted to make selling a serious business. Ok, I could be serious. As I got into building my eBay selling place, I winced as I came to see that I'd get charged for every tiny little thing. They are a huge company, and they've got to be making money to maintain their greatness. I, like most people selling a few items on eBay, was merely a tiny firefly that was willing to fly into a big beautiful fire - 'brightlight, brightlight' I linked my eBay page to the gift shop on my website. I did get a few browsers, but they didn't make any purchase, and neither did any of them become my music fan. I came out of eBay having sold two items - earning net of about fifty dollars (after Paypal fees - eBay built Paypal, right?) and from my 'experiment' paid eBay around two hundred dollars. And I'm sure that it was because I didn't really know how to sell on eBay.





While I was making an attempt to run a sideline business as well as being a singer, I kept my awareness of the singer's etiquette. It came to my attention that my singing colleagues often frown upon other singers who appear so eager to sell their products - whether the products were their singing packages or actual hard goods of any kind - CDs, for example. Some of the regular gurus in the singing world (of internet forums) have mentioned here and there, every now and then, that it's so tasteless when a singer sells her CD on her website. What would they think of me when they found out that not only I sold my CD, but I also sold other non-singing related items on my singing website - with an occasional online auction - all to raise the $$$ to feed the hungry mouths while I gave it 'one more try' on the career- pursuing front!!!! Not that what I believe is good for me is anyone's business, but I didn't want to make my fellow singers look or feel bad.





I am a singer and nothing will change that; and, I am also a singer who knows what's real. With the supply far exceeding the demand in the singing market, and the 'late coming back-into-the-scene' factor, I have to operate from a higher business point of view. The family has to be fed. I abandoned my high-paying job for the reason of coming back to singing. I have to pull out my lifetime knowledge and experiences in everything I've done, combine them all together and make them work for me.





Time to look for better ways to have it all.





I turned my attention back to my soprano website - the only website I had at the time (ok, I built one for my baritone, too, http://www.ralphschatzki.com - but that serves a purpose of a business card only). I was aware of search engines, adwords, adsense, ads, ads, ads, I felt like a person without any of her senses since everywhere I turned I felt bombarded with so much information, most of which is conflicting and contradictory. One thing most had in common, each led me to give them all my contact info and tried to get my money at the end.





First I checked my ranking, I googled my name every which way I could. Two hundred hits, most of them were left over from having performed and conducted classes in Thailand - including some controversial topic that I didn't start, but paid for (now, don't you all run to look me up, it's not worth it, please stick with this!!!!). Although my website showed up, it wasn't on the top part of the search result. Then I checked my baritone's name - wow, it showed up ten times more than mine, but his website wasn't at the top of the page, either. I figured that I would place as many links between his and my websites to see if and how much the ranking improved. The different was subtle. At this point, the terms meta keywords, meta tags, and meta descriptions came to my attention. I didn't know what they were, but their presence on my radar made me think that I should find out. I gathered what I learned, ran back to my website (and Ralph's), played with the keywords and descriptions. My understanding perhaps wasn't correct and I still didn't get better rankings. This time, I came across many companies that sell software to 'optimize search engines' (huh? ) that came with '3000 free submissions' (wow, that's a lot, do I need that many? What happens after the 'free submission' runs out) to 'popular search engines' (sorry, I recognized only the typical google, yahoo, msn, and I only use google - the rest are just exotic names to me - but I'm sure it's because of my lack of Internet fluency). I decided to pay a company to help put me on top (of the SE - don't think otherwise!) Again, ignorance is not always bliss, eight hundred hits on my name, and a hundred junk emails a day jamming my inbox everyday, literally.





Wait a minute - I spent money so that my name 'Pradichaya' would show up in more numbers? It's a proper name, a foreign name - duhhhh!!! Unless I was Luciano Pavarotti NOBODY will know me. (Of course, I COULD start a scandal with someone famous, my music would get five million downloads overnight and, if I played it right, I'd jumpstart my singing career - heheheandhahaha). Ok, comedy aside, I asked myself why anyone would care to look into Pradichaya's website, and what reason I could give so folks want to see it. That is followed by a harder question, which is, if and when my website is visited, how I would turn regular browsers into clients - for singing, singing lessons, buying my merchandise, or even donating a few dollars toward my efforts for the music community? And, the next question is, how would I get folks to keep coming back?





Wow, this is so different than running a sales company with a size of less than ten thousand people. With no direct contact with people I felt so out of my element!!!





No, this executive soprano didn't run away screaming, instead, she searched high and low, up-side-down and inside-out.





My first attempt at doing my online business as coffeemelodie dot com didn't take off really well. That was a year ago.





I signed with a very good web hosting company and pre-paid in bulk to get a discount rate and found out that what was promised to be as easy as a drag-and-drop and point-and-click was anything but; plus, it was a little over my head (ok, A LOT over my head). Its marketing department went over-board in advertising, its sales dept was very eager-did the job and disappeared, and its support dept did have a lot to say, yet, nothing that would help me get my website up and running. I grew up in the sales business, witnessed the worst and the best, saw the rise and the downfall of many. I needed to find a company that would take my money, but at least provided me with the basics that I needed to get my internet business going. I always knew what I wanted, but the tools to get to carry out my idea were just way too complicated. I needed to set up my office and in it my store, and often was alarmed by how easy it was for me to get side-tracked into the complexities of setting it up -it cost me my brain, my time, and my money!!!





I have my idea about how to best utilize the Internet aspect of the business. The website concept which I had in mind when I started a year ago was not so different than the one on which I operate now. But the method to get to doing it and deliver my goods to you came so clearly and so easily for me. And, finally, I am able to just concentrate on how to make my offers and services the most desirable for you.





Oh, and the hits on search engines? Although I didn't give it as much attention that I give to other things anymore, it did improve enough to make me feel good. And, no, I didn't have to pay anyone to put my website on the top of the page. What is obviously important is the quality of my goods, and I'm at the place where I can just concentrate on that. What a relief!





Lastly, I did not have to separate my soprano side and my business side, nor sacrifice any of my artistic elements to run the business. I am still music and am operating my business as an artist with fierceful passion for my art, my love - which is everything I do.

When my patience for the 'ultimate web host' searching came toward its end (a dramatic twist to a great outcome had to take place at the end, or I wouldn't be talking about it with you right now!) I noticed a particular recommendation in four different reviews in a row - SBI, or Site Build It. Now, please keep in mind that as a person who's been around the Internet for a while, just like you, I started reading about this provider and took a mental note of anything that sounded over-advertised, too good to be true, show-y and all the things that would make the alarm bell go 'ding-ding- ding' in my head. I searched 'Site Build It' in particular, after havng read many blogs and websites dedicated to this host provider (of course, I knew that they had to be its affiliated members). Next on the list, 'Is Site Build It a Scam?'





You know, I always chuckled that when I tried to get honest reviews of some products, it's usually the opponents - the rival products that took their time, energy, and, even money - to write something bad about them, right before they advertised how much better their own products are. Still, I needed to have all options open, and to be able to weigh pros and cons, so I went ahead to read many reviews of 'Is Site Build It a Scam?'





The first one I read made me raise my eyebrows: I expected to see someone coming out and putting down the product/service in the manner that I usually see with a TV product (one of those direct something or other). Instead, this reviewer came out with many reasons why Site Build It is NOT a scam and how it would be good for YOU (me, in this case). I nodded my head, "Reverse psychology, clever", then moved on. Next came a similar post, this time, HOW Site Build It changed MY LIFE - a testimonial by a stay-at-home mom*

- What the mom said was perfectly fine, and I started to understand that these two reviewers said the same thing about this company; that it had a clear tutorial - step-by-step in both writen and video forms- which taught them (the reviewers) not only how to build a website, but also how to build one that works. We'll see about that! It sounded like they wanted to recruit you (me) to be their affiliate. I frowned, "Is this its advertising tactic? I'm bored. Show me more!" I had a blueprint layout for my website and I needed a provider that provided good tools so I could build just that. It would be a great plus if a web host provider taught me how to make my website more efficient for Internet marketing. But could this SBI deliver what I wanted? I continued on to the next, which was a You Tube video - a bunch of them were there on google search so I picked one. At first I wasn't going to watch because I believed that it would be yet another SBI supporter. Nothing against this company, but I was shopping for the best option for me, remember? I needed to see all sides. But the nature of human curiosity kicked in, and I went to the video page.





One of the best seventeen minutes I ever spent watching a non-operatic video! When I first saw the length I almost left; then I thought, if it was 17-minutes long, maybe it wasn't another one of those empty advertisements (you know, a one-two minutes ad), and it might actually tell me more about this SBI thing. This particular video was from one of the affiliates. I was impressed right away because she owns a sales personality (not a salesperson trying to push her product - I write more on sales personality on my Tools for Artists section). Having had years of experiences in a sales-marketing company, from growing up with it to running the whole company**, it became my instinct to spot a good sale from a bad sale, a good product from bad products, and, a good honest salesperson (and sales personality) from a bunch of vultures.

As I listened to this woman talk, it perked my interest that SBI promised to give me more than just a website. (And, this was the first time that I heard that it would cost me $299 a year - so it's 30 dollars a month. I own two free websites which serve as our Internet business cards, I threw a lot more money than this away when I signed a contract to a large, reputable company, because I didn't know enough to design and build a website from scratch, plus, I already spent so much on a search engine optimization service, and not to mention a $300 website building software tool that I bought a while back in hopes of building a website that would best serve me. And, how could I forget the money that I spent on eBay when I put my Thai merchandise on 'test drive'!!! I know there's more, but it's done - expensive lesson learned, so I hope) With the way the woman put it, if I shopped here I wouldn't have to seek other stores to buy tools separately (SEO software, html editor, graphic software, and other gadgets that one needs to get the traffic and to make the website look good.) I raised my eyebrow again, this time with great interest, that this service has a section call 'Brainstorm It' to help me find my niche and work for the best possible meta keywords and meta descriptions.





WHAT-WHAT-WHAT!!!!! YES-YES-YES!!! As I said, I knew what I wanted to do so I didn't care much about the niche finder whatchamacallthingy, but I was so intriqued that, maybe, just maybe, I would actually learn what meta keywords - descriptions meant, and how to find them and apply them for my own marketing benefits. And, for the first time in the Internet marketing business, I would get the value of what I would pay for.





This moment of exhiliration and joy deserved a whoohoo, so I shouted out "WHOOHOO" in a ringy resonating high voice, loud enough for my husband the baritone to run out from his office to check if I was alright.





And you hope that this was the end of my story? What, and miss the most important stuff? No, not yet. Although it was very exciting, and I felt that Site Build It might be the right choice for me, I didn't jump into it right away. Because of my experience of repeated Internet disappointment, and a lot less dollars in my poor skinny piggy bank, I did more research "just to be sure."





At this point, I was 70% for Site Build It, but I needed something to convince me all the way to a hundred percent. Yet, I didn't get to its official website; instead, I wanted to see if I could learn more information from other affiliations.





It was amazing that they all had the same product to sell, but the importance of how they chose to deliver their goods, which would be vital to the outcome they hoped for, was not foreseen in most of their cases. I didn't gather any real information from other guys and was disappointed that the ones I saw just gave their sales pitch which, to me, didn't sell the product. Instead, it spoke loudly about becoming an affiliate. The woman in the video talked about how SBI had nothing to do with a 'get-rich-quick' so-called plan, that it only provided you with a lot of good tools, tutorials and great support from other SBIers (that's what they call themselves) and SBI's own team; but, ultimately, it would be you who would have to work with the tools to build a website that had the best content of useful information for your niche. Because I didn't learn from anyone else after the video lady, I went to Site Build It's official website and started reading and watching their videos. The more I read, the more I had to read. It offered so much information - how unusual for a typical pre-sell pitch - but it made me happy. I even learned a few tips on Internet marketing. It took me, though the clicks, deeper and deeper into its bottomless pit of website building knowledge (I'm sure it stops somewhere, but it kept giving me more info so that I felt like it would never end!) At one point I turned to my husband and said to him that SBI is a multi-level-marketing, or MLM plan, a marketing method that could either be put to good or bad use - depending upon whether such marketing company using the system is good or evil. (How I know? Because I used MLM as a commission payment system for the people in my company. My people were happy, it worked for all of us, and, I prided myself for being a good company) MLM or not, if the product was good, and they kept their promises about teaching you the ropes, then I would be all for it. I wasn't interested in becoming an affiliate, not unless and until I have proven to myself that SBI indeed provides a good product that works for me. (In the good old-fashioned world of home party plans, we used the terms 'dealer' or 'representative.' Things change with time, and, I hope, that we improve as we change things!) At this point, I wanted to try it out to see if it would suit my situation. The SBI service pack also comes with a 30 day money back policy, so I had to come to my conclusion before the return guarantee ran out.





I finally made an investment on SBI on December 14 of last year. By then I was exhausted from doing research on web providers, yet, I was very excited and couldn't wait to 'get the show on the road.'!!!!

I got my welcome email with instructions as soon as Paypal sent me a note that I had paid SBI. At a glance, I saw right away my assigned user name and password, along with step-by-step instructions of what-to-do, including links to the 10-day Action Guide. This is a great guide, and it became my textbook soon afterward! I could choose to read or watch the videos. I chose both options. First, I went to print all 197 pages: this way I could have a hard copy within reach. I know it's a lot, but I printed double-column with the 'fast economical' -or was it 'first draft' function. You may want to print on both sides, but I preferred one-side knowing that I'd make a lot of notes as I read. At the first chance I had, I went to a store to bind the pages together. Then, I got on the laptop to the watch the videos - there are ten, one for each 'day' (A minor detail: you have a choice between a fast-talking male which makes each video shorter - of course, your brain would have to take it in at a faster speed- or a female voice who calmly takes you through each section of the videos. I chose the female.) With my textbook in my lap, I started Day 1. There, my journey began

I recommend strongly that you use the Firefox browser, because as you go through the guide it will ask you to pause the video (or to stop reading) to go take care of certain things according to where you are in the Action Guide. This requires a few tabs to be opened. You also will need to visit several areas of Site Build It when the Action Guide shows you around.

This goes both ways, I gave SBI my piggy bank money and received a product which has a value beyond my $299. I put a lot of thought on Day-2 of the Action Guide which results in the new development of the best approach for my original idea - something that I wouldn't have thought of on my own; or, dare I say, if I were using other website providers. And, by the way, Action Guild Day-2 alone took me more than 70 days, from Christmas 2008 into March 2009. I got discouraged a couple of times along the way. SBI even has a big section to help you out when you feel like giving up, from not being able to find the right niche to feeling overwhelmed from all the information that you have to follow through. I didn't use them, but knowing that this help is there made me put myself back on track. I also appreciate the Tips and Techniques section and the SBIers in the help forum. When I wanted to look for a 'how to' do something technical - html or css help (I may be good for a lot of things, but I'm not a techy!) I never have to look outside SBI. When in doubt, 'Find It' and it shall be found! I only had to contact the support team once, on something really embarrassingly silly due to the fact that I am 'green.' I got a very nice response that what I asked for was not possible, then detailed choices of 'perhaps these are what I meant originally?' Of course, what I needed but didn't know how to ask was one of the choices (blush)

Now that my La CoffeeMelodie Suite is up and running, I have come to understand that Site Build It is not a web host provider. It is a guidance counselor who guides you through your own options while teaching you how do your best at what you do (pick an option of your expertise), then it gives you tools to support what you do. It gives you an option to maximize your potential (that you may not be aware that is within you until you get to this point) - which, if you wish - will bring you supplementary income without going out of the area of your comfort zone. By that, I mean that it teaches you how you can turn your expertise, your interest, your hobby into a business, and make an income out of that - and, that is its product, its service; but, SBI service is NOT making a business of making you sell for SBI (you can if you want to, you will have to seek to do that on your own account, SBI will never pester you to do it)

If you need to get a website up quickly then SBI is not for you. My recommendation would be to go for a free service, don't even spend 3-4 dollars a month - certainly not more - just to have a website. Performers, coaches, conductors, people who only need an on-line presence/identification card, you won't find that Site Build It is right for you. Both my husband and I use free websites, for example, as our singers' on-line ID cards.

Because SBI is a high content-based website, when it comes to forum, video gallery, picture gallery, and social network websites, it's best that you don't use SBI. Its focus is very strong on the information that your website provides to your viewers, although you can go to a third-party and integrate your forum and what-not in your SBI website. I still have to get mine done for the For Art, For Love - La CoffeeMelodie Suite's section for Musicians and Music Lovers!

The point is, you have all of these within you. Wouldn't it be wonderful that you can bring out - one passion, an interest, a hobby, or, even a daily routine that you do and do so well - and turn that into a business on-line that draws people's attention and which will then link to selling relating merchandise, ads and affiliation?





A sweet ideal that becomes real - To love what you do, Do what you love





The bottom line is I found for myself a way to turn the knowledge in my area of expertise into an income-making profession, and I would like to pass the word along. When I was twelve and begged my parents to let me sell Tupperware because the product was so good that I felt compelled to let everyone know. Now, as a grown woman, I found that Site Build It is a truly good product - one which has helped me find the connection with my full potential. My relationship with our children has strengthened tremendously, for La CoffeeMelodie Suite is, indeed, the Coffee's family business.





Please find out more about Site Build It,
it's really worth your time!

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