About Me! - Revealing Who is behind Practical Home Theater Guide

More About Me

I live in Malta, a small island in the center of the Mediterranean characterized by superb sunny weather, expansive beaches, a thriving nightlife, and over 7000 years of intriguing history.

I am blessed by a wonderful wife and two lovely daughters, Michaela fourteen years, and Roberta five.

By profession, I am a professional engineer with specialization in digital switching and telecoms fraud management systems. I have spent more than 23 years in the telecoms industry - working with one of the leading local telecom service providers - occupying various posts including that of head of department. I was involved in numerous projects ranging from digital switching upgrades to fraud management and revenue assurance system design and implementation.

You may say that’s as far from home theater as it can possibly be. Yet, despite my deep involvement in the telecom world, I have to say that I ended up working in the telecom sector more by chance than by choice. Since my early days at university, I developed a keen interest in multi-channel audio systems; this eventually shifted towards home theater design. It was this interest in the world of audio and video systems that eventually led to the birth of this website way back in November 2003 - which up to June this year, I managed in my free time.

However since 2003, a lot has changed in my life, and what started as just as few pages of online content have eventually been transformed into hundreds of pages of sought-after home theater information covering all aspects of home theater - averaging some half-a-million page views a month from close to 250,000 unique monthly visitors.

To-day, my website is ranked by Alexa among the top 0.1% most popular websites out of more than 150 million indexed sites! Surely, not bad for a website run part-time up to a year ago by one who has never built a website before.

Yet, what is really important is that despite the present bad economy, this website has finally made it possible for me to leave my relatively good paying 9-to-5 job at the telecoms industry, in order to become my own boss. I am now working full-time on my site - working from home while enjoying more time with my family, yes... more time with God (I am Christian and enjoy spending time with my Creator), and still have more time for myself to enjoy my various interests - photography, woodworking, green energy project designs, electronics... apart from home theater! In this respect, I have to say that now I have started living my life truly to the full.

So... how did Practical Home Theater Guide came into existence and how did I built this site?

Towards the end of 2001, my interest in home theater started to turn out to be too expensive to support for my lifestyle. As I have stated earlier on, I have a fantastic family to look after. And well, home theater is not my only expensive interest!

I started looking for a solution to supplement my full-time salary with that extra income to finance my next equipment purchase, or the occasional holiday with my family.

I needed a solution that would work for me. Something to fit into my already busy schedule, and I wanted something I could control myself while working from home. That way, I would be available for my family when they needed me.

I also wanted something that would not feel like a burden after a full day's work... I wanted something that would make it easy to jump out of bed at three in the morning if need be!

I spent more than a year just thinking what I can do. I knew what I wanted, but at the time I didn’t know how to eventually transform my dream into something feasible.

At that time, I did not know how real this would eventually turn out to be. I cannot remember how many times I woke up very early to work on what eventually turned out to be the solution for me: my home theater website. But when you do something you enjoy, it does not feel like work!

An Idea, a Challenge, a Solution!

I have to admit that at first, it did not sound easy. It took me more than just a few months till I managed to think of something doable. Looking back, I cannot understand why it took me so long when it did turn out to be so simply - build an income by doing what I enjoy most in my free time - home theater!

My first thought was to move on into consultancy - but the local home theater market is too small. While researching online for ideas, I came across numerous sites on home theater. Some were of an exceptional standard. Others were not so good - with information that was not always complete of fully correct. It was this inconsistency in online information that eventually triggered the idea to build a website about home theater.

I was not after an ordinary website to share with family and friends but one that would reach a wider audience – an authority site that would deliver free content while still making it possible for me to earn income through adverts and sales commissions.

What I am doing now is something that you can do as well - irrespective of the area of interest, passion, skill, or expertise. Maybe you have never thought about it but in reality, any topic can turn out to be a good source of income with a good website.

You may say... Me build a website? Yes, and a good one too!

This is exactly the solution that did prove to be a major turning point in my life. The idea came in early 2003. At the time, I did not have the slightest idea of what it takes to build a website, yet I still managed to achieve my dream. You see, with the necessary effort and the right tools, anyone can succeed.

In my case, the tool I use to help me build and manage this site is Site Build It! (SBI!). SBI! is a tool designed to help one transform an interest into a feasible online business solution. More information on SBI! as well as why I chose SBI! can be found in my About SBI! page. I took the plunge with SBI! in September 2003. Since then, SBI! did prove to be an important partner in my online business experience.

Initially, I did not opt for SBI! even though I came across SBI! before starting my first home theater website. Despite that SBI is not expensive – it costs less than a dollar a day and is totally risk-free thanks to a full refund guarantee - I was reluctant to invest money on this website project as I was not sure if the whole concept would ever work. Instead, I went for one of the many free web hosting services, found the first application to write my web pages, and started posting the first articles.

This turned out to be my biggest mistake… a total waste of time. I did not make any money; instead, within a few months I spent more than an SBI! subscription in search engine submission services, domain registration, and paid web hosting to get rid of annoying adverts common with the so-called ‘free’ web hosting services. Not to mention the effort I had to invest in integrating the different services from the different sources to suit my needs.

Anyone can upload a few pages and call those a website, but…

When it comes to build a website as part of an online business solution, a whole new game comes into play. You need to know how to research and identify profitable topics that make sense writing about.

And you do not just write. You need to write to please the search engines to get your share of the most valuable source on the internet - free traffic. Equally important, you need to write to please your target audience. Besides, getting the traffic is not enough; you need to know how to monetize on that flow of eager visitors looking for information, products, services, etc.

Eventually, it was through SBI! I discovered all this and more - a foolproof process designed to help ordinary but enthusiastic individuals move on in simple steps towards achieving online business success.

SBI! – A key partner in my online business success!

I turned to SBI! in September 2003. Getting the feel of SBI! was easy. I scrapped my first home theater site and in November 2003, the first webpage of www.practical-home-theater-guide.com went online. I began running this website on a part-time basis. Initially, progress was slow due to lack of time. But this is one of the benefits of running your own online business – you can work at your own pace and still continue to build on your previous efforts.

Nevertheless, within the first year, I made more than enough income to cover my site expenses a couple of times.

Since then, the results have by far exceeded all my expectations. Today, I have more than 500 web pages of information covering all aspects of home theater. A significant number of these pages rank within the very top positions despite the fierce competition in the area of home theater. Traffic figures during the last months averaged 500,000 page-views a month.

Income from the site soared to several thousand US dollars a month. And all this became possible from a site which up to just a few months ago, was being run part-time! During the last eighteen months, despite the difficult economic times, my earnings from the site have by far exceeded those from my full-time engineering job.

And all I am doing is writing about something I love - in my available time. This is proving to be an extremely motivating and enjoyable experience. It is also equally fulfilling - knowing that I am genuinely helping others realize their home theater dream - both through my articles as well as through free personal advice I give to the many who keep posting their queries via the site feedback form.

Of course, once you start a website, do not expect that it would immediately yield the desired return. In the beginning especially, there is a lot of work. It will be a time when you would hardly see any returns for your efforts. But those initial months form the basis of your future returns. And the returns will eventually come and come in abundance.

In the meantime, all you will be doing is writing about something you love in your own free time – so it never feels like work but… starting a website gives you the potential to change your life!

I hear you say... but how do you make money with a website?

Many keep asking me how I make money with my website. Most of my income comes through advertising via Google Adsense and commissions on sales via affiliate product links.

I mentioned affiliate links. Obviously, I only select products I feel comfortable about but I never try to push a product to make more commissions on sales. I sincerely feel that a major part of my online success relies on the fact that I try to remain honest in my expressed views. I know I owe this to my site visitors; they are the ones driving my online success. Without them, my partnership links would not render any money!

But there are numerous ways to make money with a website; in this respect, SBI proved to be a great source of ideas – apart from the tools within SBI that help me identify where the money is.

In the process, I realized that a website has a far reaching implication in an online business activity. In my case, it is giving me the possibility to reach a bigger, faraway market in a most comfortable and efficient way - while working from the comfort of my home!

Most FAQs

Since I first published my story of how - thanks to SBI! - I managed to build a website that helped me transform a passion into an income stream, I ended receiving many e-mails asking for more information. Typical questions vary from how hard it is to start an online business, to how much time I spent, and how much money I earn from this website activity. I therefore thought to collate the answers to your most common questions here.

In the meantime, here is a short video introduction to SBI which may be of interest to you; this may be follow by a detailed SBI tour should you prefer:

A Final Thought...

Many tell me how much they wish they could do something similar... doing what they love most for a living while working from home at their pace and in their free time. Unfortunately, many stay short of taking the next step to make their dream come true.

With the right tools, this is not difficult, but you have to stop dreaming. In my case, SBI! is the tool that is making it possible for me to realize my dream and change my life.

I believe everyone has a skill, passion, or expertise others are interested in. So why not help others by sharing your interest while doing it in a most profitable way? It is not difficult. If I may advise... why not try SBI? SBI is working not only for me but for the thousands of others who have already done so; stats show that the majority of SBI sites rank within the top 1% of all sites on the Internet.

I just hope that my account would encourage you to move on with your dream. Surely, you need to invest the necessary effort and commitment to succeed, but... if I have succeeded, so you can!