Why I Decided to Build a Travel Website

I'd like to dedicate this page to Birgit from Outback Australia Travel Guide. Three years ago you changed my life by sharing your experience with me. I would never have built this travel website if I hadn't been inspired by your story.

OK, let's get started. Let me tell you how I came to build a travel website and how I am making money with it.

Taiwanese-Secrets.com was born back in 2008
out of a deep desire to do something new with my life.

If you don't feel like reading my entire story and want to see how to build your own travel website and make money from the internet, you can go straight to this invaluable video.

You need to want something more!

At that time, I had been working as an English teacher in Taiwan for 8 years already and I was looking for a new way to earn a living. I wanted to make more money. I wanted to have extra free time to travel, to study Chinese, to hike, and follow my passions.

Ideas, yes. Money, no.

I had business ideas, but lacked the financial means to bring them to life. I knew I had the will, the brains, and the entrepreneurial spirit needed to start a business and make it a success, but I simply didn't know where or even what to start. By the way, when I say that I lacked the finances to start something, what I really mean is I was c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e-l-y broke and even had credit cards' debt.

How can I turn my vision into reality?

I read tons of books about success, listened to motivational material, and even started doing daily sessions of visualization of myself making money doing what I love the most which is basically travelling and taking pictures. During those moments of imagination when I would see my ideal life in my mind and feel good about it, everything was perfect and I believed that I could earn a living doing these things. But as soon as I came back down to earth, back to reality, back to the time-clock at my school on Monday mornings, I would always have the same question in my mind... HOW? How in the world am I going to make this a reality?

Frustrated... discouraged... downright pissed off!

I'm the kind of guy who was not born with a vast amount of patience. I like when things get done fast. I was born in a rush, I see life as a race, and I'm addicted to efficiency. So the process of finding what I was going to do to change my life was really challenging and even frustrating. I read more books to find inspiration, I went for long walks, I asked, and asked, and asked... I waited for months for answers that never came. Nothing.

Then one day, out of nowhere... (out of Australia actually)

I was searching for information about Australia, and I somehow ended up reading the story of a website's owner - Birgit. She said she was earning thousands of dollars every month with a travel website she had built. All she had to do to make this happen was create good content (interesting stories, helpful information) about Australia, and share it with the world. She made it sound very simple. She got me really curious...

She also said that when she started building her travel website, she knew absolutely nothing about website creation or design. (That sounded like me. I had to find out more about it...)

Another part that related to my situation was that she was from Germany and English was not her native language. (My first language is French.)

Then she shared what (who) had taught her to build a travel website and how to create a real, profitable online business that generates a stable income.

I had no idea that the next click was going to change my entire life...

Finally... A Map!... SBI!

I'll always remember the moment when I landed on the homepage of SBI, an online solution that lets people like you and me start online businesses and work from home.

At first, I thought it smelled like a scheme. I was extremely skeptical and I remember thinking: "No, no, no... You're not gonna get my money!" But deep inside, a voice was telling me to read more about it. And I'm so glad I did.

The more I investigated, the deeper I dug to find a crack or a reason to prove to myself this was bull****, the more I became convinced that SBI was the real deal and the answer to my own "prayers" and the result of my visualization. This was IT - the way to bring my fantasy to life, a practical blueprint to build my own business online.

Simply REAL, and really SIMPLE!

I watched videos made by other people (SBIers) who had built web businesses with Site Build It. I read success stories and downloaded the free eBooks written by Dr. Ken Evoy, the guy who started SBI. Everything made sense. All the information I was getting was fitting in the puzzle I had in my head as to how I could start creating a new source of income doing what I love.

FREE DOWNLOAD: Here's one of my favorite eBooks by Dr. Ken. The information it contains is invaluable, yet it's free, like so many other resources from SBI. Feel free to download it here: It's called Make your Content PREsell!

So what is SBI?

The reason why Site Build It has become one of the most popular website development solution on the net is because it doesn't just do one thing. It's not just a web-host. It's not just a site-builder. And it's not only a course about online marketing or e-commerce. It's all those things and so much more. It's everything you need to start a stable, powerful web-based business and make money online.

Click here to see all the tools that SBI provides me to build my travel website.

Is it working? Am I making money with my travel website?

Yes, it is working. I am starting to make some very decent money with mytravel online business. The dream is finally becoming reality and it kinda feels surreal!

• Taiwanese-Secrets.com gets more than 1000 unique visitors every day!
  
  
• It is now one of the top 3 travel websites about Taiwan!
  
  
• My online travel guide to Taiwan is also ranked in the top 1% of all websites in the world according to Alexa.com. (Alexa is a system that tracks online traffic.)

How do I make money with this travel website?

There are three ways how I earn money from my website:

Google Ads: When people click on the Google ads found on this website, I get a commission. I have talked to many people who have built travel websites and most of them don't seem to be making a lot of money with Google ads. Except for SBIers! Site Build It explains in details how to build web pages that are optimized for Google ads. They teach the process very clearly... and it works for me! Check out this article if you'd like to learn why SBI is the perfect solution to earn money online with Google ads.

E-Books: Another important source of income from this travel website are my eBooks. As I am writing this page, I have already published two eBooks. One is called Teach English in Taiwan: The Official Survival Guide (US$29), and the other is a directory of English schools around Taiwan (US$9). I sell the eBooks right from this website, so I don't have to pay insane commission fees to anyone. Read more about making money online selling E-goods.

Advertising Local Businesses: This monetization model is the one I under-utilize the most. With the traffic I'm getting at this moment, I should be able to earn thousands of dollars every month by offering space on my travel website to restaurants, hotels, and other places related to tourism in Taiwan.

Why am I not using this method more? Because I still work full-time teaching English during the day and I simply don't have the time to solicit prospective advertisers. But things will change soon. I am planning to "retire" from teaching in the summer of 2011 to only "work" on Taiwanese Secrets.

I'm in my element!

After working on my travel website for nearly three years, I now realize that what I was yearning for back in 2008 when I was hoping for a change in my life, was not just money, or more freedom. My dissatisfaction at that time was coming from not doing what I loved, and not knowing what it was that I truly wanted to achieve.

Now I know what I truly love to do and what makes me feel in my element...

It's building this travel website. It's going out on weekends with my girlfriend, visiting places in Taiwan, discovering new aspects of places I've already been to, taking pictures, talking to people, practicing my Chinese, sampling new foods, researching and... SHARING MY DISCOVERIES WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE ALSO INTERESTED ABOUT TAIWAN!

From the mountains of emails I get every week, I know my work is appreciated and the advice I give change the way people travel on Formosa. I get to inform tens of thousands of people each month about this very special place, and to me, all this is extremely rewarding. It gives a deeper sense of purpose to my life.

And knowing that I'll soon be able to quit my day job to only build my travel website day in and day out, gives me a tremendous amount of hope about the future.

I'd like to finish this page by saying a huge thanks to everyone who is behind SBI, to Dr. Ken Evoy, to all the SBIers who have helped me in the forums... and to you for taking the time to read this.

Good luck building your own online empire!

Ugo

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