Let's take a quick break from the technical articles and get a little personal here.
If you've seen any of my Youtube videos, you'll know my quick intro:
"Hey there, John here from IncomeMesh.com..."
But it wasn't always this way. How did I come to be the owner of Income Mesh? Let me tell you the backstory in this post...
More...
The beginnings of the journey...
Back in 2013, life in the Whitford household was very different.
I had just taken a great new corporate position in my old hometown. My wife was able to do a work-from-home job as well. Life was steady and stable.
Just a couple of months after starting our new lives in a new town, we got some life-changing news...
I was going to be a dad!?
Our first baby girl was on her way, and joined our family on June 11, 2014.
Transition #1: mom leaves corporate
After her maternity leave, my wife tried to go back to her day job...
After a week, we both decided it was time for her to quit and be a mom full time - we knew we could always make more money later, but we would never get this family time back.
Little did we know that idea would show its head later on...?
So I supported the family with my corporate career as my wife transitioned into #momlife.
Transition #2: mom starts a blog...
After about a month or two of being a full time mom, my wife started to miss the adult world, and looked for a way to stay connected and productive while raising our little girl.
We knew going back to corporate would never happen, so we researched ways that she could have fun working from home.
After several attempted hobbies, she found blogging, and never looked back.
She attempted a few small blogs until she found her passion: bringing her engineering background to the blogging world and helping moms start blogs the right way.
Transition #3: the changing of the guard...
For month's, Suzi's blog was a fun hobby, but wasn't really bringing income to the family.
But we saw the potential, and she worked on it every day while the baby napped.
A few years (and another baby girl) later, and Suzi had grown her blog to a full time income that exceeded my own! And I was pulling in a respectable six-figures at the time...
We were amazed, blessed, and excited for the future.
I began helping Suzi grow by writing a bit of content on her blog, learning Facebook ads and the beginnings of conversion rate optimization.
I also fell in love with it, but I simply couldn't find the time to dedicate to my own project while working 50-60 hours a week, and raising two girls (with baby boy on the way!)
So I would dabble here and there on different projects, learning and absorbing everything I could about landing page builders, email marketing, and WordPress Themes.
We eventually found the opportunity that built the resolve we needed to take the next transition step...
Transition #4: It's time to move again
After 5 years in my hometown, we were getting antsy.
We now had 3 kids, and we knew that if we didn't take control of our lives, they would pass in the blink of an eye.
When we found a little townhome being built in one of our favorite little towns, we knew it was a sign.
So I decided that it was time to leave corporate for good, and I was in the planning phases of what online business I would transition into.
I planned on starting a blog from scratch, just like Suzi had, but all of a sudden we got a nice little email in our inbox...
Drazen decided to sell Income Mesh and move on!
I honestly don't know how or when we first came across his site, but I liked it because Drazen and I shared the same passion for writing meaty posts that would break down the best online tools for digital marketing.
So after a few emails and skype calls, we struck a deal and I bought the blog!
Why I bought Income Mesh
So why did I decide to bail on the idea of starting from scratch and purchase an existing blog instead? Here are a few reasons:
Forces me to commit
I tend to get a bit of shiny-object syndrome, and a challenge with starting from scratch is that there just isn't enough to a brand new blog to really force you to commit to it. To avoid that temptation and commit to a blog, it made sense to pick up where someone else left off.
You can't fake domain age
One of the factors that helps your blog posts rank on Google is how old and established your domain is. There's just no shortcut to make your website age faster. So even though Income Mesh wasn't getting much traffic (it hadn't been updated in a couple of years), I knew that all it took was a fresh coat of paint and a ton of valuable content, and it would pick back up in Google's eyes.
Domain rank
Similar to the above point, when I was researching the website, I saw that Income mesh had an even higher domain rank than my wife's site which she had worked on every day for 4 years!
That was a promising sign, and I knew that I would be able to take what Drazen had started and continue to grow it.
Similar interests
Over time, I became the research and development department for Suzi - I loved finding the latest tools and looking for ways to implement them for her site's growth.
So I knew that Income Mesh would be right in line with my passions, and it just made sense.
Becoming Income Mesh
Buying an established blog is a completely different experience than starting one from scratch.
Poring through years of content and deciding what should stay and what should go...
Looking over dozens of plugins and themes to see what still makes sense to keep.
It's an exciting journey to continue to carry the torch that Drazen lit - and I'm excited to bring you guys on the journey!
Leave a comment and let me know what type of content would help you the most - tactical how-to articles, review posts, or strategic posts about digital marketing?