The only person stopping you, from where you are now and where you want to be, is you - Story of One Page Love

Hello ! Who are you and what are you working on?

Howzit! I'm good thanks - working on One Page Love, Email Love and Yo!

What motivated you to get started with? How did you come up with the idea?

Back in 2008, I really struggled to find great reference to Single Page websites. This was to convince my clients they didn't need a 6-page website... after they'd hand me a half-page Word Doc of content :P

Can you tell us the story of your business from idea to where you are now?

So I started collecting any references I could find via a WordPress website. At first I'd literally list anything but as the niche (of Single Page website design) became more popular, there was a natural need for curation. The more I worked on OPL (One Page Love), trying to add more value - the more traffic climbed. 8 or so years later - of experimenting with monetization - I grew OPL revenue to surpass my Cape Town expenses. So I quit freelance and now work on OPL full time:)

What has been your biggest failure or struggle?

As a solo founder/maker, probably overthinking things.

And what has been your biggest achievement or success?

Quitting freelance to work on my own projects full time. Every day I ask myself, how can I make One Page Love, Email Love and Yo! better? I hope this never changes.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

Just put yourself in their shoes and try add as much value as possible. No pop-ups or horrible looking ads. Build the website you'd want to browse... I'd want a website review mentioning the noteworthy features, great search tags, Retina-optimized screenshot. Make the user experience great and they will come back.

Describe the process of launching the business.

Launching OPL was simply creating a custom WordPress theme and start collecting links and screenshots. Now it's a bigger beast with custom fields and suggestive search etc.

Did you use Betalist or PH or other Startup Launching Platform for Launching ? How was that experience ?

Not in 2008. For OPL v3 I announced on PH... reception great. About 700 votes.

What’s your business model, and how have you grown , your revenue?

Yikes! There are many layers of different income but affiliate income is the main one. I've blogged in detail here on all the OPL income streams: https://onepagelove.com/monetization

What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced and obstacles you’ve overcome? What are your goals for the future?

Overthinking. Doubt. Dips in traffic. Imposer Syndrome.

Re: goals - I'm launching a sister-site called Email Love! :)

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

I'm honestly doing great (in a very healthy headspace) and the future looks bright with Email Love launching this year.

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

You 100% need to be doing something your are quite passionate about. There is a ton of competition and dips in this journey - and working on a topic/product you care about will get you through these dips.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

1. WordPress for the OPL website.
2. Sublime Text for code.
3. Photoshop for design.
4. iA Writer for curating ideas.
5. Trello for planning.

Who’s your most inspirational CEO or founder?

Right now I'm super inspired by https://www.instagram.com/draplin/ but as a founder I really like the approach by https://twitter.com/ajlkn toward building products. I actually interviewed him here if you are interested:

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

1. Book: Anything you want by Derek Sivers
2. Movie: Donnie Darko
3. YouTube: Hot Ones

What’s your advice for fellow aspiring entrepreneur who are just starting out?

The only person stopping you, from where you are now and where you want to be, is you. Step aside, it’s time to get going. Identify where your motivation lies. Steer there and you are on your way.