July 25, 2007 – An Introduction to My Website

I have spent a lot of time, but not full time, over the last two years developing 2 websites, http://www.WebCalcSolutions.com and http://www.BizCalcs.com . I am now trying to figure out how to get traffic to those sites… You are welcome to follow me day by day as I post the things I’m doing and any results, good or bad, that I see from those efforts.

I have developed a collection of online calculators and assessments that can be added to any website by setting up an account and adding the links to your own website. The calculators and assessments are interactive, colorful, customizable, and fun. I’ve made it as easy as possible and as feature-rich as I can.

The sites are ready to launch – all I have to do is find some visitors. After 2 years you would think that would be easy. But hold on! It’s been anything but easy.

Here’s what I have:

www.WebCalcSolutions.com – This is the main site which hosts and invites visitors to subscribe to the calculators and assessments. All calculators and assessments can be run from this site, but if the links are copied and pasted they will not function. The calculators and assessments you can find here include:

• financial calculators covering mortgage, loan, auto, debt, credit card groups
• health calculators covering general health, fitness, exercise, nutrition & weight groups
• health assessments covering physical health, mental health, addictions & behaviors, social & relationship groups
• parenting assessments broken up into 5 age groups from preschool age to young adults

www.BizCalcs.com – This site features all the calculators and assessments from www.WebCalcSolutions.com so anyone can use them free. This site has ads (AdSense and affiliate ads) and generates minimal revenue up to this point.

 Some of my marketing plans include:

1. offering at least one calculator or assessment from each group for free for life
2. offering lifetime subscriptions so there is a one-time payment and all updates and new calculators within the subscribers groups will be free to them forever
3. setting up a reseller program where website companies can offer to include calculators or assessments on their clients’ sites and they keep some of the money
4. featuring a calculator or assessment for a month and offering it free or discounted for a year

I decided I could wait until all these things are done or I can get out of my comfort zone and start to try to figure out how to promote these sites. I have never done any marketing, I’m not comfortable with marketing. In fact, I’ve always jokes that I couldn’t even sell water to a thirsty millionaire. I probably would have talked myself out of this great idea of mine if I had known I was going to have to market it and just how hard this would be.

I’ve read a bunch of articles, books and websites on how to get traffic or promote your site. I’ve dabbled with trying to get a few links through email (which all of the material I’ve read suggests), even offered to put calculators on their sites totally free – I never hear back from them. I have had some success getting links set up in directories, but it’s very slow. I’ve emailed all my friends – they don’t need what I offer and I don’t have enough friends.

I’m not ready to give up. I’ve done the research and I’ve made a plan, so here goes nothing… Stay tuned.