Interviews with Jim's Clients

Three unique web businesses and what makes them tick...

By Jim Daniels
www.make-a-living-online.com

October 08, 2002

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OK, enough already, I'm blushing. Now let's move on to the next business.

It's a fairly new business geared to parents and teachers of young kids, Homeboundbooks.com.

Neels Theron, owner and manager of Homeboundbooks.com has created a unique and clever site that allows teachers and parents to download, print, and create real story/coloring books within minutes.

When I caught up with Neels this week he was happy to participate and help my BizWeb eGazette subscribers. Here's our interview...

Jim: Tell us a little about your website, Neels?

Neels: "The aim was to create a fun, educational product which can be downloaded electronically within minutes, but converted to a real, physical little book which kids can read, color in and even take to bed with them!"

Jim: How did you decide on that unique product?

Neels: "I decided early on that I wasn't going to compete in the Internet marketing information arena - I definitely wanted a different product and something I knew about. I used to work in the printing industry, and did a lot of writing and editing over the years. And as I soon learned the dedication and attention to detail required to get your own Web business going (regularly burning the midnight pixels... er, oil) I knew I would need to work with a product I really love."

"Plus, I wanted an e-product! I had no plans to package and ship products all over the world. BUT I also wanted a REAL product, something people can hold in their hands... Somehow it all came together in my little kiddies books. And that lead to little kiddies e-books that transform into real turn- the-pages books."

Jim: Is your business time consuming?

Neels: "While product development does take time, it is time well spent. And I save precious time using autoresponders to work for me while I focus on other things like marketing tasks. I also automate other important tasks thanks to your frequent references to free (or "cheapskate") tools such as Second Copy which I use every night for back-ups while I'm snoozing away!"

Jim: Is there any one piece of advice you received that has been instrumental in your fast success?

Neels: "One thing that always stuck in my mind was your advice to develop your own product, and one for which there is a sufficiently large market. Well, it's still early days on the marketing side, but I'm getting an encouraging response. Also, your overall focus on low cost marketing and systems - the fact that little guys can do their thing without feeling intimidated by the big (buck) companies (many of whom of course have been cut to size in more recent times!)."

Jim: How do you plan to grow your business going forward Neels?

Neels: "I've just completed the 1st product development phase and now have 31 little kiddies books lined up. I've implemented some of the site changes you suggested, and have already started making sales with your new suggested pricing structure and with the new product structure. Now I can spend more time marketing. I also have taken your advice and steadily grown a targeted opt-in list via a free sample download. I get a free download opt-in rate of about 30% of site visitors, which is growing a great list for me to promote to."

Jim: Can you share with us the tools you use in your business?

Neels: Sure! Here they are...

* Main computer specs: A four year old 200mhz Pentium I PC with 84 meg ram
* Web Design Software: Arachnophilia (free)
* Web development platform: Xitami server and PHP active server pages on my PC (both Xitami and PHP are available for free, and work well on a Windows PC even if the site will eventually be hosted on Unix server)
* Other Software -Day to day email: Pegasus (free; fewer virus loopholes; useful filter sorting features; can check headers only and then decide what to retrieve) - TextPad for newsletter editing - Backups: Second Copy (free version; automates backups to my backup PC) - Uploading to website: WS_FTP LE (free) - For all office admin I use StarOffice 5.2 from Sun Microsystems - it can do all the MS Office Suite can - even read all MS file formats, and it's free!
* Internet connection: (slow dial-up, expensive for marketing purposes - we pay per minute online in South Africa)
* Web hosting: Hetzner (Nurenberg, Germany - they have a local branch in SA so I can pay in SA Rands, but my clients benefit from fast European backbone)
* Email list management: GetResponse (not free but efficient)
* Autoresponders: GetResponse; also PHP
* Order Processing: ClickBank
* CGI Scripts: Ultimate LinkTracker (was free at some stage)

Jim: Thanks for sharing all your information Neels. It looks like you have all your ducks in a row! Best of luck going forward.

Neels: "My pleasure. I'm happy to share this information with your readers. And thanks for all your help too. It's a great feeling knowing my website is making money AND helping parents and teachers have quality fun with their kids. Some kids really love their books so much they sleep with them under their pillow!"

Neels Theron
www.Homeboundbooks.com

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