Handyman Do It Yourself Interview Name of your website?Handyman Do It Yourself Your name? William Seith Your Location (city, etc) Virginia Beach Please give us a short summary of your website? Handyman-do-it-yourself has step by step guides complete with graphics for everything from home improvement & handyman advice to holiday recipes and we're going every week.~~ What inspired you to launch your own website? About 4 years ago I was remodeling my kitchen, taking on work I had never done before. Naturally I was searching the Internet constantly for advice or step by step instructions. Much of what I found was lacking in detail or unavailable so I was inspired to create my own. When did you launch your first website, and what was it? Handyman-do-it-yourself is my first attempt at creating a website, however, I seem to have been bitten by this information bug and I've got ideas for more sites once I've completed this one. How did you decide on a name for your website? The name for my site was really geared towards what key-words that describe my sites theme. I'm sure I could have come up with some catchy names but if it's not being searched... it probably won't be found. What makes your website different from other, similar offerings? I like to think that I put more into my step by step instructions & pictures and it's a living website... growing every week. I have a goal to add 3 new pages a week so keep coming back. Chances are if you can't find what you need it will be there the next time you check. What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?) I want to have a site that has a minimum of 1000 pages of DIY help. I plan to brand the site with my local handyman service, expand within my area and then franchise that brand within the next 5-7 years. How does your investment of time and money balance against your success? Wow... I have to say that I enjoy doing what I do so I really don't think about the time invested. It's almost like a hobby that I enjoy like people enjoy fishing or other leisure activities. My point being that if you love what you do... it's not work and your success if guaranteed. If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site? Well, I'd probably have much more time to actually sit down and write my pages. Since I'm new building my first website, I have to make time to create good content that people are searching for while actually making a living. An unlimited budget could pay my bills while I build the website into an income generating machine. If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand? Absolutely! That sounds like a good problem and since my site is information based, my monetization model is such that I don't have to pack and ship anything. I won't monetize until my site hits a specific number of unique visitors a day. After that, I have a down-loadable ebook, links to companies like Amazon or google AdWords. What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with? So far it's hasn't been that costly. I chose to use Sitesell which has made creating the site simple. It's been a lot of work and I'm not done yet but if you don't have a lot of money but a good idea. The Sitesell system is incredible. What has been your biggest challenge? Finding the time to sit down and create good quality pages. I don't want to write some simple explanation to a complicated fix like I've seen other popular sites I've seen. I strive to make sure I go the extra mile when creating a step by step DIY page that people can actually use. What method has been most successful for promoting your website? I have to say that the best thing I can do is to keep creating quality pages. The more content the better. A handyman can do many things and when I created my holiday recipes pages I had no idea that they would be my top pages that come up in a search. Go figure! How has running your website differed from your expectations? So far I have to admit I thought that if you build it they will come just doesn't cut it... unless you keep on building it. I wish the visitors would come faster but the snowball is finally starting to roll and by this time next year I'm sure I'll have more to say on this. 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 been running the site for 6 months now. I'm not as far along as I'd like to be but I'm not going to stop until I hit my goal. I've got the time and I feel that if I have 1000 pages of quality content... I can't loose even though I'm in such a competitive theme. What is your website address? Handyman Do It Yourself | 
