Finding a balance between 2 sites and the rest of my life!

byFree2Paint

564 followers

11 years ago

I created my own first website back in 2001 with Dreamweaver when web design was complicated coding and I haven't changed it since. It's an old dinosaur that's representing my business and has been for 13 years. For a long time, I have been referring my clientele to check out my portfolio on Facebook instead because it was up to date. It's so easy to just upload a picture of recent artwork than to edit the size of an image and code it into my site.

Being an artist, I've had many opportunities to barter and have tried trading with web designers to help me out. This has failed so many times that I decided to take the web designing into my own hands again. I was trying to figure out how I could market my business better from home. That's how I found WA. This community has guided me in a step by step process to get the job done!

My first site I set up with WA has been successful enough that I'm keeping too busy to work on my 2nd site. I originally started my first site with an intention to learn about affiliate marketing and play around with web designing on Wordpress!

When someone asks me what type of artist I am, I could go down a long list of skills that I possess and sometimes people take me less seriously. It's like they expect me to have one niche only! I have a very professional and commercial side of my work and I also have a more fun, personal side to my artwork. Sometimes I get to paint whatever I want and sometimes I paint whatever you want. This made it difficult to design my website based on one niche. I decided to build 2 separate websites to cater to the correct audience.

This has been quite a challenge. I'm still learning how to build my first one and my 2nd site is very neglected. Ever since I started using WA in July 2013, my business has exploded in many ways. I'm not sure if it's solely because of online marketing but it certainly has made an impact enough where I have to find time to keep my sites updated. It feels great when people say they found my blog or found me on Google. I've noticed these clients are talking about my 2nd site that I have hardly managed and they are also my best customers.

I find myself working on my first site more because it is focused on my favorite niche and more personal artwork that I do daily. It is easier to keep fresh and write articles for my most passionate work. I've noticed people are following my blog and inquiring when I'll make my next post. However the money is rolling in on my other commercial site as it has supported me for 16 years and I'm trying to find a balance in my week to attract more high end sales. After all I'm doing this to make money from home!

I've had to create a daily schedule to keep me focused and prioritize my goals. It has kept me on the right track and seems to help get things done. Each day of the week and I have allotted time to build my sites separately. I have put together a binder to separate my lists of things I do each day from web building to affiliate links and article writing. It makes it so easy to look at my notes from WA and keep moving forward. I make sure I can get as much done as possible before the twins come home from school starving for food. Working online can have many distractions so I try to save the social networking for after dinner.

Hopefully my new system will continue to work and I'll have 2 sites making me money from home sooner than later! Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions or would like to share a similar experience.