As this whole journey/journal thing is a new project (inspired, by the way, by Gerhi of zaties.com) I've been wondering what I could continue to post about, and hoping that it would be useful to those of you reading it.
I soon found that I was worrying for nothing, because my SBI! journey always provides the answers, on an almost daily basis! So today, I'm going to share with you some of the benefits I've had the pleasure of receiving, and some of the challenges that face us as South Africans going online.
This is still a bit of catch-up of what's happened over the last 10 months of craftbusinesshome.com's online life, but the benefits prove that SBI!s methods work, and the challenges... well, we just have to cope with them, don't we?!
Benefits
The most obvious benefit is that I currently have a real live online business, and its results and successes are growing and improving daily. Often it's the small things which make me smile and realize the power of building a business in Cyberia -- such as the time I was checking my traffic stats and saw traffic coming from a site I didn't recognize, and when I checked them out, I realized they've found my site so informative that they've linked to me without asking for a link back.
I'm also starting to become recognized as an expert in my field, which gives my site credibility, helping my visitors trust me and return to craftbusinesshome.com time and again. For example, I was asked (and accepted) to contribute a monthly article to an online newsletter, and I was recently notified that I'm now a Platinum E-zine Articles Expert.
Then there's the benefit of being part of a global "team" of "colleagues" via the private SBI! Forums. It's simply amazing how the help-and-be-helped philosophy thrives here, unlike anything you'll ever see on the www. But what I'm referring to specifically is the "think-tank" aspect of this community. So many brilliant concepts are born, shared, encouraged, criticised (constructively) and supported, that you have to see it to believe it. Not to mention the absolute wealth of experience that can be gleaned from all the people who've "been there, done that". It's almost impossible to fail with that kind of support structure behind you!
And, of course, the moments every webmaster waits for... when you see your site's PageRank and Alexa Traffic Rank climbing, as well as finding yourself measuring up well in your own niche.
The last benefit I'm going to add for today -- because I'm getting carried away here ;-) -- is that I'm now a proud member of the SiteSell Support Team. There are a lot of companies out there who's own employees have trouble believing in the product or service their employers are selling, and now that I know part of what goes on "inside" SiteSell, I can tell you with absolute certainty that this is one amazing company that does all it can -- and more -- to provide the absolute best products and services (and support!) to its customers. They aren't Number 1 in their field for nothing!
Let's now move on to some of the Challenges facing us as South Africans taking our businesses online...
Truth be told, it's a short and recognizable list <sigh>:
Not to mention Mother Nature -- I'm in Durban, so the recent devastating storm didn't help things, and I'm sure those electrifying highveld summer afternoon storms can take their toll too.
And our strong Rand <cough> can either work for us or against us as global webmasters, much as it does for importers and exporters. But take my word for it, you get used to waiting for the right moment to either pay out, or bank that USD cheque!
So, how do we cope with these interruptions? Simple. Just the same as you do when your phone line or electricity goes down at home or at your offline business... you wait for it to come back! It seldom takes more than a couple of hours, and it's pointless letting it frustrate you, because it's beyond your control.
And anyway, every place in the world has its own set of problems, but we're lucky enough to live in one of the most beautiful countries on earth! These are simply challenges, not obstacles.