How a newbie built a profitable website.

I've been building a website about salmon recipes and thought it might be fun to document my journey in a blog.

The Early Days B.C. (before computers!)

First, a quick background check to fill you in:-

When I became pregnant with twins my husband and I realised that we didn't want the boys to go into daycare and that we were lucky enough to be able to afford for me to stay at home and become a full time mum. (also, having checked out the cost of daycare/full time nanny against my salary we came to the conclusion that it just wasn't cost effective).

Well, the boys are now 8 years old and at school from 8.30 until 5.00pm. Obviously this has left me with a great deal of time on my hands and let's be honest there's only so much housework and shopping 1 person can do. (OK, maybe only the housework!). I've always loved browsing around on the Internet and had been looking for inspiration and ideas on what I could do.

One day I came across a site called Site Build It . I've no idea how I found it but what it said really opened my eyes and mind. Basically what it was saying was that if I had a passion for something, be it horses, music or cooking (my particular interests) then I could use that passion to make money. The more I read the more I realised that I really could build a website with a lot of help from SBI. And that was the beginning of a wonderful journey. The trip was/is incredible, not only have I learnt something new (how to build a website) and continue to learn, but I've done it without having to learn any scary HTML language, I've saved money because I haven't been shopping (well not as much as before),I'm earning money while I sit here in my own home, doing things in my own time and best of all I love it (and my husband loves it because I'm a much nicer person - or so he says!)

For me this is the start of a whole new chapter in my life and one that I can see will grow and grow.

What Subject Did I Choose?

Strangely enough (as the title suggests) - Salmon Recipes. I chose this for various reasons.

Firstly, I've always loved to cook, particularly fish. I grew up on Guernsey in the Channel Islands (the little dots on the map in the middle of the sea between France and England) where my parents ran one of the first a la Carte restaurants on the island. I remember quite clearly standing on a chair in the restaurant kitchen, "helping" my poor, long suffering mother and generally getting under her feet. The restaurant was directly opposite the fresh food market and she used to send me over aged 5, to get the live crab from the stalls, wrapped only in newspaper, still moving in a feeble attempt to break free. Those were the days of the "Galloping Gourmet" - Graham Kerr (remember him?), my mum thought he was wonderful and she spent many an afternoon off recreating his dishes. One in particular springs to mind, that of Crayfish Thermidor, a truly spectacular dish. It tooks what seemed like hours to prepare and I can still remember the wonderful taste. I was very lucky to be living such an existance, I'll bet there weren't many 5 year olds eating crayfish, scallops, salmon and the like along with beautiful freshly dug Guernsey new potatoes simply served with the rich, deep yellow Guernsey butter, a little sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. My mouth waters just with the memory of all these things.

Secondly, Salmon and other oily fish is big news just now, Omega 3 is being recognised as the essential fatty acid, not only important for the development of the brain in babies & children, but also helpful in treating depression, ADD, Rhumatism and many other ailments.

Thirdly, I want my children to know about good food, where to source it and how to cook it.

And finally, according to the research that I was able to do using SBI there was some good profit to be made on the subject. Yes, I do have to be a little hard headed about it, afterall, this is supposed to be replacing my old salary!