So you want to know more about the chica behind this site, huh?
Cool!
Well, let’s get the formalities out of the way, shall we?
My name is Lisa Irby [extends right hand for virtual handshake] and I am an online entrepreneur.
You can see how I make money online here.
I also teach a course on building a website and earning with affiliate marketing. You can see all my courses here.
There’s nothing better than getting paid to do what you enjoy, and fortunately I’ve found a way to turn online teaching into a full-time income thanks to affiliate marketing, Google AdSense and sales of my own products.
But don’t get it twisted! It’s hard work, and there’s a lot about this biz people don’t talk about enough! I discuss all that here.
I absolutely love sharing what I learn along the way and I want you to benefit from those lessons too.
But before I go any further, make sure you subscribe to my email list so you don’t miss any of my new posts and exclusive tips…
Who’s Lisa?
My personality is best described as complex. 🙂
I am a classic ambivert, which means I have both introverted and extroverted qualities, depending on the people and situation.
I can be extremely social (and admittedly a bit goofy) when I’m around people I am close to, but I also need my space more than the average person.
This T-shirt from Zazzle describes me to a “Tee!” (Get it?) 🙂
I’m also a very self-motivated person who loves gadgets, is moderately tech savvy, loves to laugh, bowl, joke and dabble with music arrangement.
The Beginning
So how did I get started with all this? (You can listen to the story on my first podcast if you wish.)
In January 1998, I was studying Business/HR at Truman State University in the small, college town of Kirksville, Missouri.
I was one of those students who was just focused on graduating and getting that diploma.
I had no idea what I wanted to do in the real world, but I did know that I loved computers and being on the Internet.
Little did I know, I was about to embark on a journey that would lead me to my calling…
Teaching.
I remember spending my evenings in the university library teaching myself HTML when I probably should have been studying for exams.
Before I knew it, I was making money by building one-page websites (yes, one-page) and monetizing them with Amazon books and any other products I could find that had affiliate programs attached.
I racked in about $6,000 in nine months. Not bad for a broke college student, eh?
Going Forward
For the next few years, I continued building mini-sites/doorway pages that promoted various products for affiliate commissions.
Search engine optimization was a breeze compared to what it is today, so I was able to rank for some pretty competitive phrases in a matter of days. Believe it or not, I ranked #1 for “home employment” for a short while.
(Ahhhh, those were the days!)
Of course, that party ended pretty quickly, and I concluded that system was not going to provide me with any kind of stable, long-term income.
My Strategy Changes
By 2002, I had grown tired of my temporary income solutions. If I was ever going to quit my 9 to 5 job, I needed to build something with staying power.
That’s when 2 Create a Website was born and within two years this site matched my 9 to 5 income. By the 4th year, my Internet income was four times my 9 to 5 largely thanks to affiliate marketing and AdSense.
So I packed up my cubicle and began my journey to the land of self employment.
It’s still amazing to me how a very simple site grew into something that has allowed me to work for myself since 2006. So here I am sharing my advice with the world.
How I Can Help You
On this blog you’ll find a selection of articles related to creating, promoting and monetizing blogs and websites.
You can keep up with my advice here by subscribing to my RSS feed or following me on Twitter.
I can also be found chatting it up on YouTube, Facebook, or Google Plus or administering my forum, WebsiteBabble.com.
In other words, I’m pretty much everywhere! 🙂
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Now that you know more about me, feel free to tell me about yourself. Scroll down and leave me a comment. Even if you’re just saying “Hi”, I’d love to hear from you. 🙂
Hi MJ
2createawebsite.com is not hosted with SBI!. I created this site before I discovered the wonders of Site Build It!. 🙂
Lisa, I love this site, and have just realized it’s word press. Was there any preference in using this format rather than using an SBI site with C2.0 for your visitors to leave comments?
Please continue to keep up the marvelous job! Thank you for such engaging information!
Sincerely,
MJ
Mark, if you start promoting your blog and getting links on other sites then the engines will eventually find you. You can submit using those “Add URL” forms but it’s not really necessary. Pinging is simply to notify a service or website that your blog has been updated. For example, if you use technorati they regularly ping your blog for updates.
I am new to blogging. I am starting to write a word-press blog for my site. Do I submit it like an normal URL to a search engine? What is pinging all about?
Lisa,
You have good collection of information and its great to land your blog 🙂
Thanks,
Jag
Hi Lisa
Often read your blogs and get your mail, another brilliant way to do vidoe type stuff on a site is Adobe Captivate, I use it a lot and it’s very very good indeed,
Keep up the good work!
Andy
Lisa,
i think you are doing a great Job , words cant express the gratitude i am extending to you, U see i have thot about trying various internet money spins ie forex , writing amd their like. They just did not offer the kind of opportuity Ads give . i wish i got on this programe a lot earlier , well at least i found out, which is quite consoling.Thanks to your easy and friendly website.
I must say that adsense sure makes so much money sense! (u will pay me for using that line -lol). U are making a fine man out of me.
regards
tito
Just wanted to say that I’m really excited to be at your website. I’ve been reading these articles for a little while now and I’ve built up the confidence to get into web design. (http://www.indianhindunames.com)
There is a lot of useful information on this site without the clutter you usually get online. On top of that, I’ve seen the majority of the people on the forum are helpful.
I would like to congratulate the author of this wonderful website for being an inspiration and teacher for all those people looking to gain knowledge on web and the related technologies.
Your articles or building the forum and rss feeds have been really useful to me. I am going to do it soon.
Hi Daud,
Making money with AdSense requires you to build traffic. It’s not something you do overnight. Go to http://www.searchenginewatch.com and read about SEO so you can get ranked well in Google, Yahoo, etc. You have to learn how to partner with other sites, comment on blogs, work social networking sites like digg.com, etc. Getting traffic is the only way to make AdSense work and it takes time.
Hello, how we know our adsence gets some money , because i my adsence show earning today is 0.00 , please advice me if u are
free but i know you are busy .
hey lisa thanks for all of the insriation and support. i just turned 13 and i am trying to become an internet entrepenuer and i now have a boog . its called thespot4you.blogspot.com.please take a look at it and give me some tips on what i need to work on. Thanks so much your P.S. your sites are reaL amazing, its easy to see how much hark work you put in to this. thank you
hey lisa, thanks for all of the inspiring tips. i just turned 13 and i am creating a blog called thespot4you.blogspot.com and its almost done but could you check it out and give some feedback on what i need to do to make it better.Thanks!
I have a .mac account, I saw your video on youtube and recommended to use Ad Sense to make a revenue, I’m getting lots of clicks on my .mac site so Im thinking about moving in to .com instead of the one provided by Apple, any thoughts? I don’t want to lose all my content already on my site in .mac account.
Thanks Lisa!
My website is comprised of video interviews with various practitioners. I know enough of about the subject, but I wasn’t sure about what to do with the text.
My competitors have news style websites with articles and print interviews. Some of them have paper magazines as well as a website.
I figured I would also include news articles pertaining to the topic, but I’m now leaning more towards blogging although I’d like a mix of both. Perhaps my interviews will be on video while the articles/blogs come from my head.
The difference with my site is that most of my content will be on video and I’m including more interactive aspects to my site. I’m just a little bit stuck on the print aspect. Maybe I’ll meditate on it again. That’s how I got the idea for this website in the first place!
Lailah,
I create all my information based on my own experiences with web development. That’s why I encourage people to choose topics where they can use their own creativity and come up with unique content.
Getting info from other sites and re-wording it sounds like a lot of work and I worry that you’ll get burned out. What makes this so fun is that I love the topics I choose so building content is not a chore. I don’t have to go to other sites for articles. It’s all in my head. Sure, I get inspired and ideas from other sites but I write my articles from scratch.
Sounds to me like if you have to go look for information on other sites you might want to choose a different topic.
Hi Lisa,
I’m new the web industry and I’ll have a website up this Saturday, if all goes well with the graphic designer. I jumped the gun with my site. The idea came through during meditation, I called a designer the next day, and had the site built. Now I think I’ve done too much for a first website. It’s a video based site with forums, profiles, a directory, and users will be able to share their experiences by uploading their videos as well. My dilemma: I was going to add news articles as well, but I’m thinking maybe blogs would be wiser. If I do add articles, I would gather information through other sites and reword them so as not to plagiarize. To give credit, is a link to the original site sufficient? If I blogged, how would I gather information? Where did you get information for your sites?
Thank you so much!
Hi Lisa,
First, I want to congratulate you for your site and thank you for being an inspiration to others.
I just recently registered my business and I have just signed-up with tripod/lycos web hosting service. I’m still in the introductory period, but will continue to read your blog and website to see if I will be better off with the ones you recommend.
My website is not published yet since I’m still in the research and planning part of it. I do have a clear idea on what I would like to accomplish and will continue to learn from your site. My website is promaxter.com. If you would like your content translated to Spanish, please email me at maxprise@yahoo.com.
Take care,
Marilyn
Hi Aaron,
If you want to remain anonymous why would you create an About Us page? Seems to me you would leave that page out if you don’t want people to know who you are. Although I hope you have a good reason for wanting to remain anonymous. A big part of having success online is building credibility with your audience. That’s a bit more difficult if you plan to be anonymous.
Hi Lisa
I’ve been bouncing back and forth to your web-site 2 create
a we… for quite some time. I have really enjoyed your information. I appreaciate it ! THANK YOU ! I have a question. I want to start a sevice site and I want to remain anonymous. How can I do that ? How would I create my “About Us” Page ??
great site love it great videos best reguards on your future in the net bisness
Hello Lisa,
I am a black man 58 years old I am the proud father of four daughters & three sons. One of my daughters sent me this link with the utube video. she was very impressed with you but I can assure you, not as much as her father was. anyway I am very new with trying to post ads etc… I know you have to be very busy, but I would give my right arm (and i’m right handed) to have the opportunity to ask you a couple of questions. On the video you seem so down to earth, could you email me a # that I could reach you at, or call me, Emerson Jordan [number removed for privacy], your parents must be very proud of you. thanks, God bless & I pray that you call me or email me a number where I can reach you.
The only comment that had any merit was the one by GARY
(3/23/08 @6.25pm). The others may be good for you from a business point of view (i.e., morons attract morons), but fail to carry much weight for those with brains. Sorry if this sounds elitist which is not my intention. Although your just trying to make a living, you seem at least to be providing useful information in the process and that is commendable. Your writing is good except for an occasional grammatical error and I’m hoping that you’ll even be able to help a computer illiterate like me.
Yes, it’s only $299 for one site. And trust me, with all the tools, help and software you get, you’ll understand why it’s per site.
Hi lisa
i wanted to ask you about site build it
how many websites can i make with site build it??
do i have to purchase it 10 times for 10 different domain names i currently own and want to use. Basicly i want to sign up for the service but i have 10 diffrent domain names in which i want to use to make 10 diffrent sites.
thanks
Brent
Hi Lisa,
I am brazilian.I visited your site first time.
You are a excellent contributor to the internet
Almir
Hi Lisa,
I wanna be like you when I grow up! Well, actually I am grown, married, with children. I just wanted to let you know that I admire your sites and I will become a regular reader from now on.
I have been blogging for business for about 3 months and about three weeks ago started looking into ways to make money from my blog. I hope that I am heading in the right direction! My husband works two jobs and I would love to tell him, ” Honey! Guess what? I work from home and you can quit your night job!” That is not only my dream but it is also my goal. I am on this computer until 2 am daily, trying to get legit advice and counsel. I think that I have found the right place. Be Blessed!*****TOYA****
It is so rare to find honest content about making money online that I thought dropping you a line for encouragement. Good job!
I had already done most of what you described. I just got so busy with work and the kids that I left it on the side but now I decided to work at it once again… cheers and have a geat day!
Fab from Switzerland
Wow, Gary. What a great compliment. Thank you. I am truly humbled. 🙂
Lisa,
I’ve been online for over ten years myself, and I have to tell you that you have put together one of the best sites for teaching people to make money online that I have seen. You provide a wealth of truly useful information for those new to online business as well as those of us that have been in the business for years.
It’s great to see someone work so hard to provide honest advice that’s both helpful and inspirational.
Thanks Jordy,
I don’t have any courses but I do have a traffic section that talks about various ways I build traffic to my site.
http://www.2createawebsite.com/traffic
Hi lisa, just wanted to say thanks for the awesome website. I just started making a few dollars online this year, actually I just started building websites a year ago. Do you have a course that you designed that could help me with internet marketing?
Giver is the one who receives.It is amazing how you have revealed all your experience in “Free HTML Tutorials”.Therefore, this Sri Lankan admirer wish you “Long life, Good health, Prosperity and Success in all your endeavors to succeed”.
After reading an article about how a blog can help a website, I Googled the term “add a blog to your website” and found your site.
I especially enjoyed, and found useful, the idea to place a blog on a subdomain. I wouldn’t have thought of that idea had I not read your article addressing that issue.
As a new webmaster (started researching in Dec 2007 and launched my website Jan 2008), I have a long road ahead.
So many of the things I was reluctant to do (which I finally succumbed to), you addressed. I didn’t want to learn Dreamweaver. I eventually learned it. I didn’t want to learn Photoshop. I eventually viewed a couple of CBT’s and know enough to be dangerous. I didn’t want to add a blog to my site. I eventually did that yesterday.
I plan to visit your site often.
You are a excellent contributor to this arena. Also, you are very cute.
Take care, and keep up the marvelous work.
Hi Lisa,
I’m just getting started & I am so glad I found your site and Blog. I’ve been on it for hours.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Proverbs 11:25
Hi Lisa. I’m an SBI owner (still working on getting my first site up). I also have a Bath/Body care site, but have learned that I went about it all wrong. Like you I found SBI through an MLM (which I’m debating on sticking with – good product, extensive financial commitment). I admit I’m scared as everything. I have no idea what I’m doing, but I believe I can make this work and want to. I have that “faith of a mustard seed” and your site is inspiring me to take the plunge. I’m going to do as you said – take the journey and enjoy it (or at least try). Be blessed and prosperous in all you do and you will be granted favor for blessing others as you continue to do – Matthew 25:14-29 & Philippians 4:13.
You are very generous with your feedback, Lisa. You even went out of your way to send me an email should I miss your response to my question here in your blog. Thank you so much. I’ll remake my blog as soon as I get time away from work.
After reading your story about Site Build It and after I’ve watched SBI’s video I think I will let Site Build It do my website as soon as I get a credit card. I am one of the stubborn folks who didn’t believe I should have a credit card. Now, that’s history. I’m opening a credit card account. More success to you, Lisa…France
Hi Francia,
Checked your site and part of the issue may be your placement and design of the ads. First of all your ads look like ads and that’s part of the issue. You want them to blend in with your text and layout so they look like additional info.
Try using the same background as you do with your blog and make the links the same color as your blog links. Check my site http://www.flat-stomach-exercises.com This site has a click thru ratio of about 5-7% on most days.
I think if you work on blending more that will help.
Hi Lisa,
I came across your website (2 create a website)only last Friday evening.Reading your website and now your blog makes me feel you’re talking to me right here in my office. Your website content gives a lot of information. And you inspire me a lot! I am a newbie in the area of blogging for an income so I don’t expect so much yet. I have one question to ask you: I became a member of Google AdSense only last week and my Google record reports that I have more than 200 impressions and zero income. Could I learn from you what this really means? I am reading every entry in your blog to educate myself in blogging as an income-generating activity. I hope you will have time to reply to my question. Thank you so much for all the energy you put into your blog.
watched your video and read a lot off you site. really great thanks! if you find a mintue would you take a look at my site and tell me what you think?
I’m sure your busy, but it sure would help me to get a professional opinion.
Thanks,
TJ
lol…funny and thanks…I say you should mainly because I know me and you don’t know me yet…so take my word for it…anyway I took a look around website babble a little yesterday…today I will look at a lot more..thanks for the qquick response!
Hey Lisa, just wanted to thank you for your VERY informative and VERY USER FRIENDLY website. I may be started a website soon, and it’s very appreciated. So often people have knowledge but aren’t able to communicate it well but you really are good at it. Thanks a lot; you’ve earned permanent bookmark status!…E
LOL, Ryan. I’ll have to think about that first question and as for your 2nd, I just don’t have the time to do one-on-one mentoring but you can learn a lot from the friendly folks over at http://www.websitebabble.com (my forum). Feel free to ask questions anytime.
Hey Lisa…I used stumbled across your page and I love…I got 2 questions for you…#1 Will you marry me? jk but #2 is I need a mentor…can you either mentor me or put me in the contact of someone that will and can…thanks in advance
Hey Lisa, stumbled upon your site by accident and I am glad I did. First, its a pleasure to see a face that looks like me, providing technical information, I don’t see many, what a joy . Second, I TOO have totally given up on traditional employment and I am struggling to make a full time living online, what’s your secret? I have another website taylormadebooks.biz (please check it out)that I am looking for FREE ways to promote specially the My Baby Book, any suggestions. Third, I just started a blog “Fake It Until You Make It” using technology to propel your small business to the next level, this year to provide women owned small business with tips on using technology. I see so many women making mistakes or working harder not smarter because they are afraid of technology. Again, please check it out and let me know what you think. I would love to keep in touch so please drop me a line or two. Thanks!
Hello Tonya,
I couldn’t help not answering your question? You say you were looking for some free ways to promote online?
Have you consider article leveraging?
Lisa, Wow. I gotta say you are on top of your game and far beyond my knowledge but you have a great thing goin’! Thanks for all your info as I will keep in touch.
Sandy
Lisa, I like your passion for what you do. I like you even more for not listening to the so-called expert…
Continue to do what works for you!
Johnny
Hey Lisa,
I’m kind of throwing myself full force at adsense on my website. You are really trustworthy and have a good informations source here, thanks!
mike
Hi Lisa…I stumbled across your website today and after hearing you talk about Site Build it…I cancelled my homestead account…I look forward to visiting your site again and hopefully talking to you more.
Kelly
Hi Lisa,
I really like your site. Very inspiring. Thanks for all the tips.