Name of your website?My Favorite Self-Help Stuff
Your name?
Elisabeth Kuhn
Your Location (city, etc)
Richmond
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Features a very eclectic mix of resources for body, mind, spirit, and prosperity. Focus is on self-empowerment. Includes information on ways to increase prosperity including how to build blogs, websites, and how to create information products. So from hair care tips to how to conduct teleseminars, it covers a lot of ground. But it's all stuff that interests me, and it all contributes to personal growth, self-actualization, and self-empowerment.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I have been interested in (and collecting) self-help resources on all these things for years and wanted to share that information with others who might find it useful. I've been often called a walking resource library, so why not make it official... I'm also hoping that I'd be able to create a community of kindred spirits.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
This, http://www.myfavoriteselfhelpstuff.com really is my first "real" website that went anywhere. I started it in September, with my first official entry on September 3, 2007.
There is one earlier website, but that one is still under construction. However, I have finally learned enough about HTML and website construction that I'll be able to update it properly, and will do so shortly. that website, in case you want to know, is http://www.elisabethkuhn.com
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I thought about what I wanted to write about (my favorite self-help stuff) and checked if the name was available. It was!
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
It's very eclectic. The ultimate anti-niche blog.
The emphasis in on self-empowerment, with The Secret and Abraham-Hicks providing some of the grounding philosophy. Beyond that, I share information I find useful for myself or for people I know and care about.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
My goal is to turn it into a website that has a real presence on the web and yes, keep it and continue hosting it. My big role model is Steve Pavlina! Future plans? Add some of my own information products, books, audios, teleseminars, and so on.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
What can I say. It's soooo worth it! I'm excited every time a new person subscribes to my list and especially every time someone writes to tell me they enjoy my blog or my emails.
The biggest investment of time/money was learning how to do all this in the first place, but the actual writing is great fun.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would probably advertise it more widely to draw many more readers at a much faster pace. I would also add a membership section for premium members, where I supply a range of premium resources. I would buy myself some free time and add many more articles and other resources.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
I'm pretty sure I would. I can always recruit helpers.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Not too much yet. The learning curve was a bit of a pain, but I have good mentors who have helped me with it. The main challenge is reaching more readers and subscribers, and I'm still working on that one.
What has been your biggest challenge?
See above: get more subscribers while working within my budgetary constraints.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Mostly writing articles for ezine directories. Oh, and search engine results. A lot of people seem to find me through Google.
It's fascinating which keywords show up in my data. It seems I'll have to write more pieces on chocolate covered creampuff recipes ;-) (Hey, they're mood enhancing and thereby qualify as stress reduction devices).
I've also been surprised to discover that one of my articles, on how to stop your hair from falling out, has been wildly successful and has had more readers at ezinearticles.com than ALL nine of my other articles taken together. And that's within about five days of its appearance. Right now it's well on its way to double that. I'll have to follow up with more articles on how to prevent bad hair days I guess.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
I wasn't sure what to expect. It's been a completely new adventure for me and I'm really thrilled with the results and very appreciative of my readers.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
I've run it since September, that is almost four months now, and I can't imagine no longer enjoying it. So I plan to keep it running indefinitely. It may change a bit over time, but that's growth.
Advice I've been getting from others (that I have ignored)
I've been told that my topic/subject is WAY too broad. I should focus on a very narrow niche, they say. But that would bore me.
And sometimes I do worry when I flip back and forth between a posting on feeling happy and one about how to create information marketing products more easily, but to me they all fit together: self-empowerment, prosperity, and means towards that prosperity goal.
I have the feeling that at least some of my readers think so too (I hope anyway). At least, I seem to get quite a few repeat visits, and I do get new subscribers regularly and increasingly, so I'm going to keep it as is.
However, I will also start a sister blog (or blogs) soon, where I will take some of the topics (internet how-to and internet marketing especially) and expand on those more on a separate blog. But there will always be back-and-forth references so all my readers will be able to stay informed if they want to.
What is your website address?
My Favorite Self-Help Stuff
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