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ruffiWffiEmffi for DollarsHow one woman transformed folksy cleaning tips into an empire.

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ERE IS HO.w MARLA CILLEY, BETTERknown byher nom de guerre, Flylady, runsher business. Every morning she rolis outofbed and starts nagging. She sends a firste-mail to her rl,oo,oOO subscribers at about

7 A.M., reminding them to get up and get

dressed. Throughout the day she'll send about ten more e-mailsfrom her Brevard, N.C., home, nagging them to polish theirsinks or plan a healthy dinner. She'll also pen an essay or two

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on topics ranging from the evils ofperfectionism to the impor-tance of selflove. Her office administrator will send a few moree-mails, giving subscribers tidying tips. By the time Cilley's laste-mail-"Please go to bed!"-goes out at 1O p.na., her flock has

received about 15 messages. Last year sales hit $a million.It may seem odd that Cilley, 51, should spin such gold from

nagging, something most of us do our best to avoid. Yet hercustomers-almost exclusively female middle-aged homemak-ers, who call themselves FiyBabies-cannot get enough. They

ILLUSTRATION BY EDWARD SCHNURR

1og on to flylady.net and purchase thousands ofdollars'worthof Flylady-branded products-kitchen timers, license plateholders, ostrich-feather dusters, books, calendars, mouse pads,

T-shirts, tote bags, sink stoppers, water bottles, and lapel pins.They convene at occasional Fly{ests around the country, whereCilley gives personal encouragement. And every day they sendher about 5,OOO grateful messages-so manythat Cilleyhas hadto hire a team ofsix offsite readers to help respond to the del-uge. "You are the mother I never had,"

caring, understanding, avail-ablewith abighug and akick

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devoted subscriber, volunteered to help in 2ooo. Today sheand her husband, Tom, work at Cilleyh distribution center as

two of Flylady's Z+ paid employees.Cilley attracts new subscribers by writing a self-syndicated

columnthat appears weeklyin 225 newspapers and doing aliveweekly call-in sateilite radio showwith Leanne EIy, a nutrition-ist and cookbook author, on worldtalkradio.com, where TheFly Show is rated No. 1 among more than 7O weekly shows,

drawing about 14O,OOO listeners. Elyonerecente-mailreaa, toviig, Cilley'S fanS Canngt get engggh hayalso.lalncledasuccessfullnternet

of her. "You are the rnotherI never had," wrote one.

enterprise (savingdinner.com), with nosmall thanks to Cilley, who promotes itto her subscribers.

Now Flylady is looking to expandinthebuttwhen needed.

Cilley is not the only en-trepreneur to command a cultlike following among

legions ofhousewives. Jeanne Bice, "head quack"at quackerfactory.com, a QVC clothing company, presides overher website's chat groups in the Quack a Smile Club, buildingsuch customer loyalty that she can easilypack a Princess Cruisesship (princess.com) for her annual Quackers Caribbean cruise.Stacy DeBroff, creator of MomCentral.com, parlayed her par-enting-advice site into a career as abestselling author, market-ing consultant, corporate spokesperson, and frequent guest ontheTodaE show. Her books, website, newsletter, national mediatours, and appearances reach millions ofwomen, many ofwhombond over MomChat on DeBroffs site.

Yet Cilley says she didn't set out to become a guru. The Fly-Lady juggernaut began innocently enough, after Cilley mar-ried her third husband in 1996 and found that neither ofthemknew how to keep a tidy home. When the mess became unman-ageable, Cilley turned to the Internet, finding clutter-bustingpointers on a website called Sidetracked Home Executives(shesintouch.com). Before long Cilley started posting her owntips on the site's message board, eventually building a grass-roots following with her no-nonsense, country-girl wisdom,along with her unbridled joy over her newly uncluttered life.She began individually mentoring other slobs in the group, andin 1999, Flyl-ady's listserve was hatched, with just ten womenas subscribers.

Even neat freaks can benefit from viral growth. The originalsubscribers recommended the list to friends, and before longCil1ey's following was large enough to win her write-ups inWoman's Day andLadies'HomeJournal. "We never set outtohave a business," Cilley says. "We set out to help people. Andthebusiness grewbecause of their needs."

One ofthose needs, apparently, is to find out how great thelatest Flyl-ady products are. Anytime one of her FlyBabiese-mails a gushing testimonial praising one of her offerings ("Ifirst bought the Flylady calendar last year, and I LOVE it!"),Cilley forwards it to her entire mailing list. The testimonialstypically result in a sudden sales surge of several hundred ofthe mentioned item.

Cilley's growing enterprise presented new demands-namely,how to keep up with the crush of fan mail. Kelly Burns, a

NO FLIES ON HER: Cilley in her spotless kitchen

her self-help empire. Her followers, she points out, face biggerissues than clutter. Already having penned bestsellers on con-trolling household and "body clutter" (weight and emotionalissues), she is at work on a third book, Flyl,ady's take on spiri-tuality. And now, with a full-time product-development officer(Jack Sgroi, whom she hired awayfrom MiddleRiverAircraftSystems), she is anticipating subscribers'needs with a spateof new products, including more efficient mops and roadsideemergencykits.

As Cilley constantly tells her loyal FlyBabies about gettingtheir houses in order, "If I can do it, you can do it." But when itcomesto creatingabusiness outofnagging, sheflies alone. tr

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