I had heard about the Internet but knew nothing at all about computers and had no idea how anyone could possibly earn money online.

The whole concept seemed strange and impossible to me.

As I grew older

I was able to find occasional jobs here and there but nothing with a future. I felt a strong desire for more than I had and the need to improve my life, but had no idea how to go about getting what I wanted.

After a great deal of introspection, it seemed that the first step to achieve my goal would be to learn English. I began by listening to songs and reading and writing letters in English. At this time, I started learning a bit about computers and learned how to send my first emails.

I spent the next twelve months studying English and learning more about computers and decided it was time to start an online business. A friend loaned me one of her computers. My mother showed how much faith she had in me by putting up her home for collateral to help me get my first credit card.

Since gold in my country was much cheaper than in other parts of the world, I decided to make my first business a jewelry website. In addition, another friend who owned a jewelry store said I would not have to pay for the jewelry until after I was paid by the customer. I built my first website using Yahoo Site Builders and realized the limitations of these types of programs.

Once my site was online

I spent $500 in less than a week on Google AdWords which maxed out my credit card. I, of course, assumed I would get orders that would more than cover this $500 but I did not make even one sale! And thinking about all the debts I had incurred made me start to worry……..

I spent my days and nights reading and learning how to market my site online. I tried every strategy I could think of: free offers, contests, link exchanges, banner ads, pop-ups, pop-unders, search engines, directories, email signatures and web rings to try to make my first sale.

As a result of all my efforts, I made my first sale two weeks before the bills arrived. But, when I tried to ship the gold out of the country, I found that no one would guarantee the shipment. And so I was out of the gold business in less than three weeks and had only one week before all the bills came pouring in.

My Second Website Design

I had less than a week to come up with a business idea, build a website, get it online and make the money I needed to pay my bills. I had no time to waste and my total bankroll to complete this project was $0.00!

I was able to get some good information from friends online who advised me which programs I needed to learn in order to build a quality website. While studying and learning these programs, I decided to build a website design business. Another friend lent me $50 which I used to buy a domain name and one month of hosting.

Since the deadline to pay my bills was fast approaching, I decided to make the most of my days and nights and forego sleeping until my new site was built. In only two days, I had my website up and running and began my marketing strategy.

I got lucky – made my first sale and built my new website all in one week. Paid all my outstanding bills and took my first step into marketing online – without spending any money!

Marketing Beyond My Dreams

I was still struggling to pay my monthly bills but managed to turn a small profit. At that point, what I needed was a good graphic designer, which was hard to find. I was introduced to a designer that worked for a magazine company and asked him for a sample of his work. After seeing him in action on the computer for only a few minutes, I knew I had found the person I was looking for.

I hired Guillermo at more money than I could afford at the time but in a short period of time, he more than met my expectations as I was getting compliments about the quality of my website designs. He was so good that other design companies contacted us and wanted us to do their graphic designs for them.

I was then able to hire three more designers and a programmer. This was the turning point for my business!

Social Marketing

At this time I was using WebProWorld to both learn and make a living. WebProWorld was new but growing fast. I was able to make a name for myself but spent a lot of time being criticized for my writing style and lack of knowledge about computers and the Internet in general. There were many nights spent alone in dark rooms were I would sit and cry.

Unlike many others in the world I had no other way to make a living, except online. No matter how bad the attacks got I had to stick with it. I slowly got better at writing English but still get criticized for my spelling or misuse of a word. I later found out that most of the people criticizing and making attacks not only did not make their living online but were suppose to be at work, working for someone else.

I was surprised and shocked at the number of so called experts that did not make their living online.

Testing My Website Design

We are always testing and trying to improve our conversion.

I made changes in different areas of the site to see how each change would affect the attitude of prospective clients had toward requesting price quotes. Some of the things I changed were the font, background colors, font colors, scrolling text, flash headers and many others.

Since I had received so much help on forums, I decided to give the same type of help to others by doing a certain number of website reviews each day.Although I was and still am far from being an expert many people online started seeing me as an expert. I still fumble around with my English and I have discovered far more things not to do than to do.

But my business seemed to take on a life of its own and we were unable to keep up with the requests for website designs. Between the combination of forum members interested in seeing my site and the new links from the forums, our visitors increased from approximately 1,000 up to around 5,000 unique visitors per day.

We realized we could not take on all the jobs offered to us and do them all equally well so we decided to place a limit on the number of jobs we could handle and pass the others on. Our reputation was and continues to be our most important asset.

I have learned in hiring and working with new employees that a college education alone is not sufficient to make someone a graphic designer. Technical information can be learned in school but like a good artist, the true skill of design is an inherent gift.

I have become well known on the Internet due to my professional expertise and am being asked on a continuous basis to become a Moderator on different forums. Obviously, I do not have enough time to accept all offers due to the pressure of my own business and constraints on my time.

In addition to having a thriving business, I have made a number of great friends online who are well known and respected.

Our Plans For the Future and Advice to Others

I am pleased to have achieved some of my goals and love our web design business. We continue to grow and have many plans for the future. We have created a well-known and popular forum and spend a great deal of time there.

If you wish to be successful in your own online business, you need to realize that it will take a lot of work, knowledge, networking and a bit of good luck. For those who are willing to make the commitment, the rewards can be great and I wish you the best of luck!

When we take chances we will be criticized by the people who are sitting in the stands watching. But I would rather be criticized than become nothing more than a person sitting in the stands.