Sue Anderson loves the natural world, and her passion for photography has helped her record the beauty of Sisters, Oregon. Sue made her living as a freelance photographer for over twenty years, but she says that she was starting to burn out. “Freelance photography is wonderful," she admitted, "but it can be very stressful. For instance, when photographing weddings, you've got to get it right the first time; there’s no going back.”

“I finally got to the point where I wanted a change in my life,” Sue continues.  Both Sue and her husband, Jim, were looking for a new source of income. “We wanted a business that would kind of express our passions,” she says. We’ve always wanted a little nature store and rather than do a brick-and-mortar store, we thought we’d perhaps try something online.”

Sue received an invitation to come to a StoresOnline presentation. After the presentation and the free lunch, she signed up for the all-day workshop. “There were a lot of good examples of live websites there,” she says, “and I thought, ‘this is not just one of these hype things, you know, that gets you all excited and takes a lot of your money. This is legitimate.”  After calling and consulting with Jim, Sue bought three websites. While Sue didn’t know what product she would sell, she knew it would have something to do with nature. “I’m also a lepidopterist, which is somebody who studies butterflies,” Sue says. “Every time I introduce a butterfly product to somebody, I’m also perhaps introducing them to the world of butterflies as well, which is what I like to do.”

Sue belongs to the North American Butterfly Association, a non-profit organization for people who are interested in watching butterflies and attracting them to their yards. NABA’s president had approached her about starting a fund-raising website, so when she was introduced to StoresOnline, everything came together. “I thought, ‘This is perfect. This is just perfect for us.’”

Sue populated her site with products from her daily life. “I have my favorite butterfly mug,” she says, “and so I looked on the bottom of the mug and found out who manufactured it, went to the internet and found the supplier, and picked that up.” When Sue goes out shopping, she often writes down the manufacturers’ addresses for new butterfly products. Sue’s association with NABA created nearly instant traffic for her new site. “Since we have a link from the North American Butterfly Association to our store, we pick up a lot of customers from that alone,” Sue says.

Following the success of her first site, Sue has just launched another store, www.motherearthclothing.com, which features clothing made from environmentally friendly materials.  She is also in the process of programming her third website license.

With this new source of income, Sue finally has time for photography as a passion, rather than as a business. “I love to photograph butterflies up close, you know, full frame,” Sue says. “Now I can go do that just for fun without the stress of having to earn a living with my pictures."

Visit Sue’s websites at www.butterflybuzz.com .

 

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