Advice for Newlyweds...
from a Newlywed -
A Little About Me
Hi, my name is Corinna and I'm a newlywed. Okay, well maybe not quite a newlywed anymore... Andrew and I have been married for four years now. I guess in some peoples' books that would make us an old married couple, but hey, at least we've stayed married longer than the average Hollywood couple, right?! :)Andrew and I met in Vancouver, Canada where we're both from... we actually met at our church where he got my number out of me by telling me he had some possible job connections for me (we're both high school teachers). So I gave him my number, he waited the usual three days before calling, and when he called we talked about everything but those job connections! After that phone call (and many more) we started dating, but only for a few months, because I then got a teaching job for a year in England. Yup, that's right, I left my new boyfriend for a good old travel adventure! During that year apart, we talked on the phone every day and travelled back and forth to see each other a couple times. Actually, he told me he loved me for the first time in snowy Austria, overlooking the lights of Vienna... very romantic... smooth move, Andrew!
A while later we got engaged while island-hopping around the Caribbean (also very romantic... this guy knows how to do it!). We got married 10 weeks after that engagement, for no other reason than that... ...we're both teachers, and it was all about timing the wedding with our school holidays. Getting married during Spring Break allowed us to go on a honeymoon (to Cuba)... so that was what all the hurry was about (not that our parents were overly happy with us over such a short engagement!). After we got married we lived in Vancouver for a little over a year, but were getting really tired of all the grey and rain that is Vancouver (you'll know exactly what I mean if you've ever been there!). So we set off to find greener pastures...
But instead of finding a "greener" place, we found ourselves in smoggy Shanghai, China, teaching Chinese kids the Canadian curriculum at a BC Offshore School. It was an amazing experience, one that we wouldn't ever trade, but eventually the cultural differences, pollution, and freezing winters got to us and we knew it was time to move on to a cleaner, sunnier location... This brought us to Queensland, Australia, where we've been living very happily for the past year. The air is pure, the ocean is near, and the sun shines almost every day... sure beats both Vancouver and Shanghai!
Yes, living here is paradise, but...
...then there's my job. Like I said, I'm a teacher, which is fine, but I can't say I love it, that it's my absolute biggest passion in life. While there are great things about it like that I get to make a difference in kids' lives, it still means that I have to go to work five days a week (and teachers work more than full-time hours, you know!)......I started realizing how trapped I felt- having the pressures of teaching a full load, not having much prep-time, having TONS of after-school meetings, coaching, extra events, parent-evenings, etc etc etc! But without doing all this, there is no pay-cheque (and living in Australia is a bit expensive, so that definitely wouldn't work!). All I wanted was a job that would allow me to work at my own pace... a job where the harder I work, the more money I earn (unlike teaching). A job that would let me have a flexible schedule, to be able to enjoy the beautiful beach near my house more than twice a month... So I set myself a goal: "I will find a job that I can do from anywhere (including the beach!), that pays my bills and funds my love for traveling, challenges me, makes me happy, and helps others. It also has to be a job that I can see myself still happily doing 10-15 years from now, and can fit around having kids (if/when we have them)." Sound unrealistic? Yes, of course it does at first, but if other people were doing it, why couldn't I? This totally bothered me for a long time... other people I knew (or knew of) had their own businesses, websites, companies, etc. They all worked as much as they needed to, made good money, and weren't restricted to that lame 9-5 (plus more) schedule. And if they were, they were being well-compensated for it (remember what I said about wanting a job where the harder I work, the more money I make?). This was them, and not me! But if there's one thing I've learned so far in life, it's to NEVER give up. So I looked and looked, and somehow stumbled upon...
...My Solution
It was so simple that I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it a few years ago... why not make a living doing something you love? You totally can! I'll show you how I'm doing it.One of my passions is helping people by giving them advice, but you can do what I'm doing with whatever passion, skill, or area of expertise you might have... whatever makes you happy! And the best part is that you can do this in your spare time! With the age that Andrew and I are at, everyone we know seems to be dating, getting married, or newly married right now. It's funny because most of the conversations we have with our friends turn to relationship topics at some point. Andrew and I often find ourselves giving advice to these friends because obviously we've been in their shoes before. Finally it clicked: why not make a website out of all this advice? This would be combining my passion of advice-giving, with starting a business! But how the heck was I going to start a WEBSITE?? I mean, I could check my email, waste hours in Facebook, do a Google search... but create a website? Programing? HTML? Fancy graphics? No way! Then one day I was doing a little research about all this online, and I happened to come across something called SBI. SBI stands for Site Build It, and it helps you turn any hobby, passion, or skill into an online business. You might not know this, but you can make money online with almost any topic! I quickly found out that with SBI, you don't need any programming or graphics skills, business knowledge, or web-design know-how. SBI has all the tools you need, and they take you through the process step-by-step with online video-guides, e-books, etc. Seriously, with the little I know about all this, sometimes I still can't believe I even have my own website! That's how simple it is. All you need to do is supply the brains and the motivation (SBI calls this "BAM"!) They will help you figure out the perfect topic for you to create a site on. Then they'll help you build it, get more traffic to it, and teach you how to make money with it, regardless of what it's about. Seriously, some people have sites about things like juggling. How simple is that? I would have never thought you could make a website about juggling little plastic balls and make MONEY off it! But you can! Heaps of people have been super-successful with making SBI sites. They're normal, every-day people like you and me, trying to do their own thing so they don't have to go to work anymore Monday-Friday, 9-5! You can check out some of their sites here. And the best part is that these sites are in the top 1% of the most successful sites on the web. That MUST mean that SBI truly works! At first I was a bit skeptical. I was hesitant to pay the yearly subscription few without really knowing how/if it would all work. But then I found out that SBI has a money-back guarantee... you can try it out and see if it works for you, and if not, you can get your money back. That was the clincher for me. I jumped in and gave it a try, and haven't looked back since! I cannot recommend SBI highly enough (and I have looked into other options, believe me!) Sidebar: SBI now has a monthly subscription option, so if you don't want to commit to a full year right away, this might be a good option (although the full-year option works out to be a bit cheaper). In the beginning, making a website like this is a lot of work... I'm not going to lie! There's a lot to learn, and a lot of writing and editing to be done, but the good news is that it doesn't really feel like "work" because the topic of the site is something you love.
Sounds good... but how do I make money?
There are heaps of ways to make money with a website, but one of the main ways is advertising. You've probably seen links throughout this site that say "Ads by Google." Every time someone clicks on these ads, I make money. Another way to make money is by being an affiliate of other companies. For example, if I sell some of Amazon's stuff on my site, I earn a commission. You can also create your own e-goods to sell, write and sell e-books, get paid for leads and referrals, etc. The good thing is that SBI shows you how to do all this, so you don't have to worry about it up front. You can get some more bright ideas from what other SBIers are doing by checking out these case studies.
My Progress So Far...
So am I there yet? To be honest, no, I haven't made quite enough money to quit my job yet... but the encouraging thing is that each month my profits are going up... little by little. SBI is by no means a get-rich-quick kind of thing (it requires that brain and motivation thing- BAM), but I know that if I keep working at it, I will see the day when I can happily quit my full-time job, and start my full-time beaching! YES!!
What About YOU?
I hear so many people saying that they wish they could escape the 9-5 drag and do something that would allow them to travel, accomplish their dreams, work from home, etc. Well, I've told you how you can, so what are you waiting for? Do something about it now. TODAY!! Try SBI!
If you still have more questions about SBI, click here for some friendly help!
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