Publisher: Why we need to prepare, where to start

How I ended up creating a website about family survival planning... self-portrait Even though I have been a city dweller my entire life, I was brought up by parents who knew and taught us the value of self reliance, frugal living, and how to have a do-it-yourself outlook. My Father could fix anything, build anything, and just make things work. My growing up years were spent on a ½ acre plot of land where my parents built our house and planted apple, pear, cherry, peach and plum trees, a large raspberry patch, and a garden with a variety of vegetables. We had a large freezer which my Mother filled with home-baked bread, fruits, vegetables, and beef, bought at 1/2 of the animal when we could afford it. Under the laundry room, via a trap door, was our cellar filled with home-canned fruit and bottles of various jams and jellies. Most of our clothing was homemade, sewn on an old treadle sewing machine. We were poor by my parent’s standards, but I never noticed. We always had plenty to eat, clothes to wear, a variety of toys (the homemade stilts were a blast!), and lots of love. Because of this upbringing, frugal living is deeply engrained in me. My husband is of the same mind. His dowry to our marriage was buckets of wheat and cans of food, which gave us a pretty good start on our food storage program. We are well matched on many subjects, such as personal choice, free enterprise and self-employment, limited government intrusion, frugal living, saving money, living within our income, recycling, and getting and staying out of debt. We have come a long way towards getting out of debt, paying off more than $40,000 in 6 years. We are both fully committed to saving as much money as possible. Having a "rainy day fund" has saved us from going into debt several times because of layoffs or medical procedures. Having been born and raised in Utah and lived here most of my life, you might guess (and that would be a correct guess) that I have been strongly influenced by the Mormon practice of having two years of food storage and emergency supplies. It is a pleasure to live among a people whose industriousness permeates all aspects of life, which is why the state symbol is a beehive. People in Utah have a strong can-do, self-reliant, do-it-yourself attitude. After a couple of years living in Dallas, TX and another seven in Colorado Springs, CO, we returned "home" to Utah to be near the grandchildren. You notice I said "grandchildren", which means I'm no spring chicken anymore—I wanted to retire from the working-outside-the-home-world. Finding a job . . . or not . . . I have always wanted to be my own "boss" but it takes time and self-sustaining savings (or someone to support you) while building a business. Well, this time I do have someone to support me—my husband. He acquired a good job that allowed me to stay home and build my Internet business—this website and another also. Over the years I have scoured many resources looking for an opportunity to have my own business—something where I didn't have to have a brick-and-morter store; something I could do from home (no stuffing envelopes for me—no way!!). You know, something that was not a scam or a get-rich-quick-I'll-take-your-money-too-bad-about-you scheme. Most of my searching was done on the Internet, and you know what's prevalent on the Internet—lots of scams. Problem solved . . . But then I stumbled upon SBI. SBI stands for Site Build It! and they teach you how to turn any hobby, passion or skill into a viable online business. You probably don't even realize that almost any topic can make money with a website. I had been maintaining a couple of websites for some realtors while living in Colorado Springs, so I wasn't a complete novice at website building. But having been burned a few times with other you-can-build-a-website-and-get-rich pitches, I was skeptical—so I read every single page on the SBI website, including reviews, testimonials, and results. Although I had a little knowledge of html using Dreamweaver, you need no programming skills or web design knowledge, no business and no product to sell. Just bring your brain and motivation (BAM). SBI has all the tools you need, and they take you by the hand and teach you step-by-step how to use everything. They help you find the perfect topic for your site, teach you how to build it, how to get traffic to it, and then they even teach you how to make money with it, no matter what the topic! Have a look at the Video Tour to get an idea of how it works (or the Quick Tour if you're on dial up). And have a look at this: hundreds of successful SBI websites, built by normal people like you and me. All these sites are in the top 1% of the most successful sites on the web. You can also see that there is a huge variety of topics that people have turned into profitable websites with SBI. I started this website in February 2008, and now it is making money. And all the time I'm just writing about a subject I love and I am hopefully helping people. How much better can it get? Yes, it's a lot of work, but for me, doing something I love never feels like work. And it's something I can do on my own schedule - few hours or all day. It truly is work you can do in pajamas - and most days I do. How do I make money? At the moment mostly with advertising. You probably saw the links throughout the site that say "Ads by Google". Every time someone is interested and clicks on one, I make money. I also have incorporated affiliate advertising recently. (This is such a popular question that I wrote another page with more details about my income and answers to other common questions.) There are numerous other ways to make money with a website: create your own egoods to sell, sell other people's products for a commission, get paid for leads and referrals and more. SBI shows you how to do all that. You can get some more ideas from what other SBIers are doing. Just have a look at the case studies. This website is my online business, created, hopefully to inspire others to prepare for any disaster or crisis—physically, emotionally and materially for whatever life throws at us—because it will—and it does, usually with no warnings. And so here I am, writing about a subject near and dear to me. I'm learning right along with all of you and increasing my food storage as I write and research important information to share with you. I try to live by these words, most of them attributed to Rev. William John Henry Boetcker, a Presbyterian minister and notable public speaker, which he penned in 1916. ~ You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. ~ You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. ~ You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. ~ You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. ~ You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. ~ You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence. ~ You cannot help people permanently by doing for them what they could, and should, do for themselves. Thank you for visiting my site. I hope these pages inspire you to prepare for the worst and enjoy the fruits of your planning and preparations — even if the "world crashes down around you" sort of speak. Please visit often as I add new information that I hope will be helpful to all. Joan Crain P.S. People often say they wish they could quit the 9-5 rat-race — and they/you can. Seriously! Try SBI! If I can do this, so can you! Or get more information.