“The RoseBouquet”

I still have my peace, and in fact, am enjoying my revised schedule so that I now take time for things I’d set aside for many months. Yesterday I took a look at listing a site on directories, and worked on my ‘about me’ page for the aloe vera site. Got that finished but ran into a hitch with the links.

I also reclaimed some time right after lunch for renovating my huge Ruthe-SecretRoses.com site. Goodness, I started to overhaul it year before last and am just about done now with the resources section. However, I realize that I’ve learned several new things since I began that project (there’s over 600 pages), so I should really begin again as soon I’m done this work-through. Besides that, I’m learning tricks from my SBI site that I’d like to apply to this one.

One of the men I work with on the ministry site, http://manna-publications.org.uk wanted to learn how to update a certain page on their site himself, so last week Thursday evening he phoned me as he got out of bed in the morning, and as I was about to shut down the computer to go to bed, (due to a seven time-zones difference). I spent two hours tutoring him on how to do certain things for himself. For someone who told me two years ago that he was technically challenged and couldn’t handle anything as complicated as ftp, he did very well, and was quite pleased with himself. He phoned again on Saturday afternoon, and I finished off with a 40 minute lesson on some HTML codes. Of course, he took notes the whole time, but when he was done and reviewed what he knew he was quite a happy camper.

There is one page of French on that site, and as I’ve never had a lesson in that language, I’m quite happy to let him fuss over the accent marks and which way they should slant.

A special blessing on you if you are a mother! May this Sunday be especially wonderful for you.

I’ve shared stories about my Mom several years to commemorate Mother’s Day, so this time, I’ll pick a very unusual profile of a grandmother from my novel. Maybe you’ll want to read the book! Woohoo!

Thanks to a reminder from Robin, (South Africa) last week, I was able to upload all ten of my aloe-vera-and-handy-herbs.com pages much faster the next day. There’s still more tweaking to do. Then another 20 pages, and I can monetize it and turn this into a profitable little web business. I can hardly wait.

Day after tomorrow is May 1. I had hoped to have some students lined up for my Azaleas Virtual Assistants (AVA) course to start then. If I suddenly get some I can still throw myself into gear to work there, but over the last week or two I’ve been wondering what to do if I don’t get the students. On Sunday afternoon I took time for a prayer retreat to consider my options.

I began to see that not tutoring students over the summer months is not such a bad option. I still think the course plan is a very good idea, and that God is not asking me to cancel it. Rather, that it WILL surely come to pass yet. But it might not hurt to focus the next few months to working here from home mostly, so I can give my current clients more focused time, and also develop and promote my own sites. If I can get a deal with the WTM Board for a holding rent on the office space, I won’t have to get rid of all that I’ve set up there, but can have it ready for whenever the Lord will bring me the right students.

In fact, I really would rather that HE chooses and sends me the students best suited for this course and who could become trustworthy employees in the future. I’ve come away from that afternoon, feeling quite at peace about holding the office in readiness, and settling in here at home to be more productive again. Dividing my time to get that office ready has put me behind in some other things. My own sites have been neglected, and I have done only the most necessary things to keep promises to others.

On top of that, I have nearly all my estimates for the RRAP plan reno work in. I still need two quotes to be turned into me, and for two others to come quote on the eavestroughing jobs. If I can wrap that up in the next week or so, and get all of the quotes in to the inspector, the work may begin in May yet. It would be wise for me to be around here when those workmen come and need to get into the house.

I tell you, being at peace with either of two options is a whole lot more comfortable than dithering and worrying about what might or might not happen.

Today I think I’ll give you a behind the scenes look at working with my SiteBuildIt! (SBI) site. It’s true that I have many irons in the fire, to use an old cliche, and I only mention one or two each week here, but this one has been more on my mind, and especially yesterday, so if you’d like to see what it’s like to build one of these creme de’ la creme sites, here’s a peek at aloe-vera-and-handy-herbs.com

A quick background; SiteBuildIt! is a proprietary software designed by Ken Evoy of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. You subscribe for a year at a time, and don’t have to know any html to use it. My personal frustration has been that I do know html and almost have to unlearn it to use this system. SBI has many wonderful features, such as great help with brainstorming for the most suitable, profitable topic for your site, and then automated submissions to the search engines, so that you are guaranteed excellent traffic without having to pay heavy duty for it. There is a video training course, to guide you through every step. Most people who try this plan and stick with it become enthusiastic devotees. (Listen to them rave in their ILOVEmySBI videos!

Well, as an affiliate, I’d been reading about these since the beginning, and finally was able to subscribe in November. My efforts to start this Azaleas business really cut back on my time to spend at it. It seemed to be relegated to Saturday evenings, when I was so exhausted I fell asleep. But early in April I resolved to rearrange my schedule to give three mornings a week to my SBI site so I could get further ahead faster. I have now got 10 web pages done. I did my research and built them offline the way I’m used to, but now I need to build them in the SBI software to get them online. That’s where I ran into a challenge yesterday.

My old method is to just drag and drop my completed pages by ftp to the site, and presto, they are ready for the world. In SBI I need to copy and paste the parts into blocks, every element into its own block. Never mind any html coding. (Well, I did sneak in some). Then you have to click the “Analyse It” button. Another window/tab opens, and you get this page of instructions telling you where you don’t have your keyword showing up enough. You need it in your title, description and keywords (meta tags) and in your heading, and a certain percentage of times in the main text of the web page. In my case, I needed it to appear 13 more times. So I went back to fix those spots, or so I thought.

Hit Analyse It again, and this time I’m doing better in the earlier blocks, but I need it to show up in my links and another 7 times in my body. Okay, I go back and edit it some more.

I went back and forth like this on two pages for about two hours. I have never been so fussy with my keywords before! But I’m sure beginning to see that if this system is so fussy, then when it encourages me to hit “Build It” that page will really make all the search engines happy. The traffic should stampede in to this site!

Right now I’m not even sure I will get all the 8 other pages “built” over Thursday and Friday. It depends on how fast I catch on and deal with this matter of keywords. I do believe it will pick up pace as I learn the ins and outs of this system. I do intend to keep adding more and more pages, but I was focusing on a core set to describe aloe vera, and how to care for it, and the benefits.

Once I have 30 pages up or am getting 50 visitors a day I can start adding various methods of monetizing the site. That means things like putting in AdSense codes, and other affiliate ads. I’m looking forward to that - it’s when this site will become an income stream!

Of course, resourceful me, I’m ready to adapt these principles to my other sites. Things should improve all around.

Incidentally, if you want a d-i-y SBI site, go here, SiteBuildIt! If you’d rather pay a bit more and have one of the SiteSell webmasters do all the work for you, (still less than most other webmasters charge) you should check out Services - SiteSell

Those eye appointments have cut into my SBI time, but I have been working at that site, and have created more pages. I just haven’t uploaded them yet. I keep discovering another and another I should add.

I also had an idea for a special group of college and career young adults to reach with an invitation to my course. I want to work on that this afternoon if at all possible.

Incidentally, did you know that this issue of the RoseBouquet starts the 8th year (vol) of my publication of an ezine? I began a JournalDigest at Easter 2000 to go with a site I worked on daily then, called by this long title, “The Journal of a a Woman Starting a Business on a Shoestring too Short to Wrap around a Finger.” When I was able to publish my novel through Booklocker, and won a free domain site in a contest, I shifted my focus to the new site based on the themes of my novel, Ruthe’s Secret Roses. I decided my ezine needed a transformation to more of an inspirational nature. I morphed it over at Easter 2001. (Of course, Easter fell in April that year).

Over the winter months, I confess, I have not spent as much time exercising out in the sunshine as I should for my osteoporosis, but now with the warmer temperatures I’ve started digging in my garden. Not having access to Dad’s rotortiller any more, I now do it the old-fashioned way. In the last couple of days I’ve made a good start.

Notice that I still have a lot of kitchen compost from the winter months to turn over. Oh, and do you see the bits of green coming up among the dried fall leaves? That’s my green onions and chives coming up! Hurrah!

Last Wednesday it looked like my major mission supporter had failed me, but Thursday morning they sent a check for both March and April. Praise God! (I think friends were praying for me!)

Then Thursday evening I drove out to the country home of new friends, Art and Rosella Willock. He is the new director of Expanding Youth Ministries International, and I’ve taken their website on as a paying client. (http://eymi.net) I’ve got their old site transferred to my hosting service, and now need to develop it. We needed to talk about some things, which would work best if I could show Art on his computer.

He is a fast talker and a prolific writer too, so we’ve hit it off quite well. He’s already given me one old computer and a couple of printers for my business, but Thursday night he also gave me an older laptop that he has not used much, except for two trips. It comes complete with a fancy carrying case with all kinds of extra pockets. In return I will help him get his articles published online and paying him some income. Since we’re both very busy we’ll fit this in gradually over a long term.

Before I left he had me drive up to their on-farm gas tank and he filled up my car with gasoline! Isn’t that terrific?

Very few of my friends really understand what I’m going through with starting up a business, but this couple were sympathetic and prayed with me. I tell you, I came away greatly encouraged.

So now the laptop saga. I took it to the office on Friday and tried to install my favourite operating system over the old Windows 98. (Remember, I’m a Linux fan). It didn’t work. I got a message saying that the cpu was too old for that kernel. I tried another and another, and each time got this message. Hmm….! Well, I took it home planning to try some other systems on the weekend.

I tried some more on Saturday evening. Even FreeBSD balked. So I tried the Debian netinstall disk. That needed some info from me, but then it was off and running, only it goes online to fetch files so I had to disconnect my desktop and let the line go to the laptop. When I got a message that it was going to take another 5 - 6 hours, I went to bed.

Sunday morning I discovered that it was 95% done, and then stalled at the bootloader. I gave it some answers, but when it was done, I couldn’t get into the system. In the evening I did more online research and learned that there are some wonderful systems out there for the older computer. (Linux comes in over 400 flavours!) So I picked a few and started downloading. Fortunately I have high-speed here at home as well as at the office, so this is not a problem, but most of these systems take hours to download, then I have to burn them to a CD as iso images. One for each system. This generally takes only minutes.

I now have three or four options which I hope to start trying out today yet. With patience and perseverance I expect to get a good office laptop out of this. In its case it is too heavy to carry like a purse when walking, but I’ll drive it over. It should mean that I can work at either location with ease.

Yesterday I took the morning off for a prayer retreat, and reviewed all aspects of my business plan with the Lord, with an open mind. In the end I saw that it really is a good idea. It will succeed. I was reminded how last year the finding a new home in the city looked like such a huge problem, and the delays were frustrating, but by holding on from March 19 to June 1, I was a home-owner. By the end of July I had finished cleaning up Dad’s house. Now, in a few weeks I expect to have all my quotes in and sent to the RRAP inspector. Then this house will see some major repairs - at government expense!

Although I could willingly step back and just work at home and squeeze more and more clients and websites into my life here, I realize that in the long run, I still do need to teach others what I know, and that God will bring it to pass. He seems to like me living on the edge of fresh challenges. Always learning and growing. To prove I believe He will bring in the right students, I’m going to do all I can from my end.

I’ve rearranged my schedule a bit to get a better grip on the most important stuff, (like I’m clearing three mornings a week to work on the SBI site. That will pay the office rent soon!) but I am confident that the Lord will provide those first four students or interns. Once they are caught up in the course I have planned, their word of mouth is going to get others lining up for when the next course starts.

Life is good when you know you are on the right track. But there’s always a faith factor, isn’t there?

I’ve got the web pages up and a press release out to describe my courses. I’m still looking for more places to post it, but am quickly reaching the point where all I can do is place it all in the Lord’s hands, and see what He will bring to pass.

My first student of earlier, wants more private tutoring sessions. Another new friend has indicated interest for a short one-week course. So I think this is going to come together. However, I am asking for God’s help in bringing together the four trainees/interns that I need for May 1st if this plan is to work as planned. I don’t think I can keep the office if I don’t have committed students by then.

Mind you, I enjoy working alone at home and could return to my old schedule and push hard for success on my own sites…. Especially my SBI site. It holds such promise, if only I can put in some serious hours on it.

It it will be interesting to see what God brings to pass in this new month, April.

At a meeting on Friday evening I meet two poets, and got to thinking of my own poetry. It’s a great way to express what’s going on in our hearts, isn’t it? Do you write poetry? Did you know you could publish it on a website of your own?

I’ve got some pages up on my business site now describing the courses; http://BouquetofEnterprises.biz/Az/ But I’m still polishing up my press releases and advertising places.

My SBI site is also getting some extra time this week as I’d promised myself. Although I wish it was more. I need to work in some time on a translation job I accepted a few weeks ago.

Birthdays. My brother Ernie is older today, as is a dear friend and former roomie in my London, Ontario days, Elvera.

MyPowerMall had it’s first birthday just last week on the 19th, and guess what, Ginny, the Founder and CEO gave away gifts to all the members. Three or four a day for three days straight! I don’t know if you can still get the free airline tickets if you signed up now, but you could try, as you can access the newsletters in the archives. Mind you, they are offered frequently as prizes for other things too. You really do yourself a big favour when you sign up.

And I’ve got this dream for how I could help all my downline to grow and get a good downline fast too, - only I haven’t got time to work at it yet. This sort of chaffs at me, but what can I do? I feel honour-bound to keep promises made, so I need to deal with those first.

My first student of the week-long course had his 5th lesson yesterday (the earlier week he had to be away on the Friday). This one was about how to set up a website. Although I warned that it usually takes weeks or months to get a site up and running well, I told him I could take him through a fast do-it-yourself process so that by the end of our 3 hour session he would have a one page website up. Even if it was nothing but one large ad for his business. Well, we did it! I’ll probably be mentoring him for a while as he learns how to add more to it and build it into a true site, but we covered three basic steps;

1. We went to GoDaddy, and he registered a domain name to go with his business name, Moen-Advertising-Specialties.com
2. I set up a hosting account for him on my reseller package. It was live in a matter of moments.
3. We spent most of our time, on learning the most basic HTML tags as I built him a web page based on the info he had brought to go on it.
Then I uploaded it for him, and showed him some of the things he has and can now do in his cPanel where he can manage his site.

I would still prefer a few months to get a site up and running, but by trimming out a lot of extras, and with me working programs I’m used to, I found it is possible to do it in three hours flat. He came away a very happy man, and bragged to some friends when leaving the building, “I’ve got a website!” Of course, now he’ll have to order another batch of business cards.

An epiphany came to me last week when I realized that I was going about the marketing of my courses all wrong. Marnie Perhson of IdeaMarketers.com pointed out the value of press releases and articles to promote a business. Duh! I knew that! But in setting aside work on my own sites to get this new business off the ground I’d forgotten to go that route for free marketing. Now my goal for the rest of this week is to get up some decent webpages, maybe even a new site, just to promote what my training courses offer. Then I must get some press releases and articles out.

I am ready to set my business as unique in many respects. It shall honour the Lord.

If I don’t have any students next week I will spend the week cramming some time on my SBI site. Usually I only dare designate Saturday evenings for it, but by then I am so sleepy I can’t get much accomplished. Since that site is suppose to be a good steady stream I need to move it forward.

As with any other business, you can spend a lot of time planning and preparing and setting up the office, but eventually you need to do some publicity and advertising to get your clients or students to come in. That’s where I am right now.

Last week with my one student went quite well. He was fortunate in that I could focus on his specific questions and trouble-shooting problems. I owe him one more session because he was committed to leaving Friday for a conference in Alberta. Maybe we’ll fit that in this week yet.

Next week may not be the best for a full five-day course because that week ends in Good Friday, a holiday. However, I’m doing my best to catch up on emails and unfinished projects and to do some serious advertising. Except that on my current budget, this has to be mostly free stuff, like taking flyers door to door, and putting up posters in public places.

I’m also praying for students as that seems to help most when I have any financial needs. I’m confident that the same God who can prompt gifts when in need, can also prompt people to sign up for my computer basics courses.

Meantime, I’m hoping more of those contractors I’ve called will show up to do their measuring and preparations for quotations. What better time than this week and next?

There’s these translation jobs to do too. They are time-consuming puzzles, as often the photocopies or scans are not very clear. At my rates it is hardly worth the effort.

I’ve been seriously thinking of adding some lines to my web pages on that, to say that I’m giving that up. — So-o, just now I went online to do a quick search and see if I’m still one of only three offering this. Hey! I’m listed at the top, but there are about six other sites with people offering to translate this obsolete handwritten script! So I’ve paused here in mid-paragraph to change that page on my genealogy site, and listed the six other places potential clients can check. Whew! That’s good.

My classes in Computer Basics are off to a slow start, but there may be wisdom in that.

I had promised one friend some lessons more than a year ago. A lot of stuff happened in between, but I finally got to it this last Saturday.

Another friend took my offer of the one week of afternoon classes for this week. As of yesterday, Lynn was the only student. (Another friend has crazy shift hours, but said he’d try to come when he can). It works out to Lynn’s favour though, because he has a page long list of things he wants to learn, and problems to be solved with his own computer and printers. I am now able to focus on his specific problems. So instead of paying some techie to come to his house at a rate of $60 - 120/hr, he’s paying for a week long series of lessons and trouble-shooting for just $75, my starting up special price.

At the same time I get to see how long it takes me to explain or teach certain topics. I can get a better feel for how much to cram into one 3 hour session. If I had four students this week that could be overwhelming.

However, this means I have next to no time to spend on promotion and recruiting students, so I really need to pray that more students will come next week.

I must say that I’m enjoying teaching. It makes me feel fulfilled and unique.

By the way, I did get some kind comments about Snowflake’s photo story last week;

Janice: Snowflake is a delightfull kitty. Reminds me of the days of having my own kitties… i truly enjoyed the pictures & what you had to say about her <-smile.

Connie: We keep dreaming of the day when we can go back to Florida AND get ourselves a pair of kitties. It’s so great that you have one though. They make such great companions, and you’ll be amazed how attached you’ll get to her too. She sure sounds like a real gem. May you both be totally blessed!

Shirley told me in person that loved the photo story and thinks my Snowflake is beautiful!

When I can work it in, I’ll have to show you some of the mischief she gets into.

I have received two translation jobs in the past week and must work in time for those among everything else. Last I checked there were only three of us on the net offering to translate German from the hand-written Gothic script to English. With how busy I am and how much effort that takes - I’m wondering if I should close that offer. Hmm?