Anyone use/heard of Site Build It?

[Meenub]

It looks really interesting, especially for newbies. I was just wondering if anyone has used their services.

thanks

Meenu

[angienewton]

I have heard of it but not used it. I chose the XSitePro web design software over it because I wanted to only pay a one time fee not monthly. From what I understand, there is a monthly fee for SBI.

[Engage]

Yes, SBI has been around for some time, and is well known to veterans. I had an account for awhile, but never used it. I coded my own SBI instead, because I'm addicted to programming. :-)

What made SBI a ground breaker is that it's a web host that really does focus on helping you have a successful site. There are extensive marketing manuals, and a large supportive forum community.

At the time that SBI came out, one of it's big selling points was that it had a point and click site builder suitable for non-technical people. This advantage has been destroyed by the widespread development of similar systems, the most famous of which being Wordpress.

Ken Evoy, the owner of SBI, is one of the pioneers of the web publishing field. He is very articulate (unlike most web hosts) but also quite verbose. I used to joke with him that he's the only guy on the Net who can type more than me, and he agreed, he wins that contest. :)

Point being, his manuals can be extremely long winded, and not very in touch with the reality of web reading psychology.

Ken has sold thousands of accounts, which means, like any big host, that clients deal with his employees. Like any host, some of the employees are great, and some of them are confused. Like any big host, it's luck of the draw.

Unlike one host I could mention, but won't, you don't really get to deal much with the person you are giving your money too.

Finally, there's the price. It used to be $300 per year (paid yearly upfront) per domain. I'm not sure what the current pricing is.

You don't really need to buy SBI to learn from Ken, as many of his manuals have been released for free. If you can fight your way through the manuals, you can apply the principles to any site, with any site builder.

Many people used to sell SBI accounts, due to a lifetime commission program (the most complicated program ever created) but the fever has died down in the Wordpress era, which indicates SBI accounts aren't selling like they used to.

Perhaps current SBI users can update this report.

[Meenub]

Thanks for the input guys.
I do like what I'm seeing and reading on Ken's site. I have also been in touch with one of the account reps and he's been very helpful.

I will most likely go with them. As with anything I'll get out of it what I put into it but I think for me it's a good place to start.

Thanks
Meenu

[Satu]

Hi!

I know of Site Build It but I have not tried it. I think they have a new version of Site Build It now.

Ken Evoy's free ebooks can be found here:

http://www.site-buildit.com/free-ebooks.html

[marymac]

Hi Meenu,

I've had my SBI site for about three years now. I think it's a pretty terrific program. Being a little technically challenged I opted to have one of their certified webmasters build it for me. That is an option. Back then though they had them listed on their site and you could select one. I think now you have to get in touch with SBI directly to go that route.

Mary

[Engage]

Meenu and Mary, perhaps we can help each other?

Meenu, before you give SBI hundreds of dollars, please try my service for free, and see if it will meet your needs. If my service does meet your needs, it could save you $300 per year, per site, for years to come. Three sites for three years would equal a $2,700 savings. Worth an hour of your time to find out?

Mary, if you are paying someone to build your site, plus paying for hosting, please consider this same offer. I'd very much like to see if a self described "technically challenged" person like yourself would feel comfortable using my service. Don't move your SBI site, no big decisions, just take an hour see if you could build future sites yourself.

I apologize for being so direct, and for posting a blatant ad in the forum. I'm committing this sin because I need your help.

I'd like to provide members of this forum with something more useful than my big speeches.

I know I can, but I don't know if I can communicate that so you'll understand.

Given the time I'm investing here, it would be very helpful to me to come to an answer on that question.

Ok, sorry, end of spam. Happy to hear from you, or not, either way you'll be helping me. Thanks!

[TrishL]

I actually bought SBI a number of years ago - and recommend it as a learning tool. I justified the cost by looking at it as investing in a formal class on building an online presence.

SBI (and Rosalind Gardner's Super Affiliate Handbook) are really how I got started online.

That said, however - I would NOT use it for a site I plan to build and maintain for years. (First, I found their site builder to be cumbersome and frustrating to use). Also, if I recall correctly, the cost is in the $300 - $400 per year range - and you have to renew that annually. (Correct me if things have changed).

That is a high price to pay when you can get a hosting account for around $100/year and use Wordpress to build unlimited sites within it.

I bought the developers version of the Thesis theme, so now have a premium theme I can use on all sites - so each new site costs me the domain registration fee + about $25 for a custom header.

I am very happy with what I learned from SBI, but am glad the site I learned on turned out to be a 'throw away' site versus one of my main business efforts, simply because of the ongoing costs to maintain it.

[Engage]

I bought the developers version of the Thesis theme, so now have a premium theme I can use on all sites - so each new site costs me the domain registration fee + about $25 for a custom header.

Perhaps you can educate me on Thesis.

I'm using a 1344 X 840 monitor resolution on a 20 inch monitor, which my web stats show to be pretty typical.

All Thesis sites I've seen require horizontal scrolling to see the entire page. Typically, in my use, the entire right sidebar is off screen, and so is ignored.

This could be something unique to my situation, but I can't put my finger on what that might be. Perhaps I'm missing something obvious? Suggestions?

[TrishL]

I'm not a certified "techie" by any stretch - so am not sure if I can answer this for you.

I just checked on my own system (adjusting the resolution from its normal 1680 x 1050 down to the lowest my system will allow (Windows XP) - 1280 x 960 - and opened each of my sites and was able to see the entire thing.

(I ran this test in both IE and FireFox).

I normally configure my sites to be 900 across (without the built-in padding Thesis has between columns which bumps them up a bit) and now use a 2 column design as standard.

Are you using Mac or Windows - (as I have seen that issue once on an older Mac)?

finally - what browser are you using and which version?

Among the sites I used in this very informal test are:

webcopyresults.com
financialplr.com
plrconnection.com

plus several others.

[Engage]

I just checked on my own system (adjusting the resolution from its normal 1680 x 1050 down to the lowest my system will allow (Windows XP) - 1280 x 960 - and opened each of my sites and was able to see the entire thing.

Ok, thanks Trish, that's useful data.


I normally configure my sites to be 900

Ok, this is helpful too. I know I can see 900 pixels wide, as that's about how wide I make my own sites. So, it seems my browser doesn't understand something about the way Thesis sets the width.


Are you using Mac or Windows - (as I have seen that issue once on an older Mac)? finally - what browser are you using and which version?

Sorry, I should have reported this at the top.

Mac, Firefox 2.

Ok, this makes sense. I'm still not sure what the problem is exactly, but it does seem logical that this affects a minority of users.

Thanks for your research Trish, appreciate it. I probably won't die from horizontal scrolling, so no big deal.

[TrishL]

Actually - this was a good exercise for me, too. I don't want visitors to have to do horizontal scrolling on my sites, so was concerned about it. The only time I personally encountered this was on an older Mac - but have no idea why.

Back to the original question re: SBI. I woke up and realized I forgot to mention one important thing. At the time I purchased SBI - I had not yet found Lynn and this awesome forum.

You can definitely pick up the value-added info you would get from buying SBI by spending time reading Lynn's posts about selecting a niche, keyword research, SEO and writing quality content. Plus, you have the support of all the other Elite members at your disposal. :)

Personally, I would save the $$ and invest the time learning from the wealth of information already at your disposal.

Just my 0.02! Good luck!!

[Engage]

The only time I personally encountered this was on an older Mac - but have no idea why.

I don't understand it either. My best guess would be that Thesis uses some feature available in Firefox 3, which is not available in Firefox 2. It's probably not a Mac issue.

I apologize for sending you, and the thread, on what is probably a wild goose chase.


You can definitely pick up the value-added info you would get from buying SBI by spending time reading Lynn's posts about selecting a niche,


And if you should wish to read Ken Evoy's version of the same teachings, I believe his manuals were made free a few years ago.

[WAHumor]

If only there were a homing beacon or flashing neon signs pointing to people like Lynn!

Unfortunately, that's how the junk gets in front of your face instead and ruins the chances of so many.

What was this thread about again? Oh yeah, SBI!


I tried SBI once and didn't particularly like it, although I thought it good otherwise. I personally feel XSitePro is a better and more flexible choice for creating sites.


There's so much more right now you can do with so much less, like the HostGator/Wordpress combo. Like Trish said, there's lots of help waiting and ready in
the Elite section (http://wahumor.com/sswtelite.php) here!



Dan

[DeniseTaylor]

Hi

What a great community!

I came across this thread and wanted to poke my head in here to clarify a few things about Site Build It!, please.

First of all, keep in mind that SBI is not about being a site builder. It is a self-paced course on how to create a successful online business. The materials are voluminous and the resources, extensive. It is designed to assist any person at any skill level to create a site that gets free, ever-growing traffic which leads to an ever-growing business.

The site builder is not intended to be the "be all and end all" in creating that successful business. In fact, the site builder was merely intended as training wheels to teach people how to construct pages properly. It is there to teach people highly effective optimization techniques. People are expected to move on to a stand-alone page builder and upload their own.

However, Ken Evoy discovered that many SBIers don't want to move away from the site builder. So a new and improved Site Builder is being developed, although I do not have details on what it will do.

The fee for SBI is $299 per year, but there is now an option to pay monthly. Sometimes people balk at the fee because, not comparing apples to apples, they think it's expensive. They compare it to regular, run-of-the-mill hosting, which is inaccurate. But Site Build It goes way beyond hosting and includes a comprehensive set of tools worth much more than the fee with features that aren't found anywhere else.

For example: besides the new Brainstormer which goes way beyond Wordtracker (and Wordtracker alone is more than the entire SBI fee), there is a form builder with autoresponders that is included (auto responder software costs around $18 a month, if purchased elsewhere). You get an ezine or newsletter maker with mail-out software (which is around $19 a month at Aweber, for example.) You also get Content 2.0, which can make your site explode in terms of size and traffic, and is not available anywhere else. Besides this, there are many more tools included, but I'll stop there because this is not an ad. I'm only trying to illustrate that Site Build It is much more than a site builder and web hosting and to illustrate that it is in fact, cheap. Because you also get training materials that have been described as getting a degree in online business. (A instructor-led version is taught at Universities around the world, by the way.)

So compare apples to apples in your decision making.

But to get to the bottom line: Site Build It is intended to help you build a site that gets lots and lots of free traffic (you don't buy Adwords on top of the yearly fee, by the way). In fact, SBI is known for its proof of building traffic. (I don't want to break any rules, but you can see the proof on http:// results [dot] sitesell [dot] com).

I know from my own personal experience that once you hit the SBI snowball, that free traffic continues to roll on its own. I myself have an SBI business that generates more than my father's pension each and every month and I don't work on it much anymore. That income is funneled right into my retirement savings.

Thanks for letting me clear these matters up. Good luck in your future projects!

[Engage]

First of all, keep in mind that SBI is not about being a site builder. It is a self-paced course on how to create a successful online business.

Yes, agreed. Ken Evoy is a pioneer because he was one of the first hosts to have this vision.


The materials are voluminous and the resources, extensive.

Which can be seen as an asset, or a liability, depending on one's teaching philosophy.

Personally, I feel information overload is much more of a problem for webmasters than a lack of information, and that Ken's writing style (like my own) suffers from a problem with conciseness.

A six page manual in the hands of someone who actually reads it and acts on it is much more valuable than a 600 page manual that overwhelms the student, and leads them to leave the manual on the shelf, which is where I'd guess most SBI manuals reside.

Please recall, this is the web. Not academia. Web users are impatient click happy skim readers, and a quality teaching system has to face this reality and deal with it.

The problem is usually not what we know, but what we do with what we know.

Thus, for example, the SBI forum is an under appreciated resource, because the group interaction encourages members to actually use what they've learned.


It is designed to assist any person at any skill level to create a site that gets free, ever-growing traffic which leads to an ever-growing business.

Agreed again. Ken Evoy is smart, in that he actually sees the benefit to him in his users succeeding, an insight which seems to totally escape most web hosts.


The fee for SBI is $299 per year, but there is now an option to pay monthly. Sometimes people balk at the fee because, not comparing apples to apples, they think it's expensive.

Because it is expensive. A good value for certain people, but expensive.


For example: besides the new Brainstormer which goes way beyond Wordtracker (and Wordtracker alone is more than the entire SBI fee),

Google Keyword Tool is easier to use, and free.


(auto responder software costs around $18 a month, if purchased elsewhere).

Autoresponder software is free elsewhere.


You get an ezine or newsletter maker with mail-out software (which is around $19 a month at Aweber, for example.)

Also free elsewhere.

Sorry, apologies, I know competing with free services can suck, but I didn't invent the dominant business model of the net, and can't do anything about it.


Besides this, there are many more tools included, but I'll stop there because this is not an ad.

At least my blatant ad was honestly disclaimed. :)


I'm only trying to illustrate that Site Build It is much more than a site builder and web hosting

Agreed.


and to illustrate that it is in fact, cheap.

Don't agree.


Because you also get training materials that have been described as getting a degree in online business.

Or, users could simply remember these two words.

Content. Links.

And then focus on DOING those two things.

Knowing is not the problem for the vast majority of webmasters, doing is the problem.

Tools and tutorials are no longer the need in the webmaster world, because both are widely available for free all over the Net. There are too much of both already.

This can be annoying for people (like me) that want to make a living providing tools and tutorials, but it's also true. Those of us who provide these things are living in the past, still stuck in the 90's.

We are providing these services not because they are still needed, but because it's all we know how to do.

The future is that the game is won or lost inside our own minds.

The future pioneers on the level of Ken Evoy will be those that break through the usual cliche group consensus drivel, and find new ways to liberate the full human energies hiding within all of us.

It's not what we know, who we know, or what we have.

It's who we are.

[Engage]

If anyone ever accuses you of being an idiot, let me know, and I will straighten them out for you!

Ha, ha! Do you have wholesale rates? 24/7 service? House calls? I feel like I'm not doing my job as a writer if somebody isn't calling me an idiot, and they're quite often right, so I can probably keep you busy. :)


And I like the fact that you clearly describe what is on your mind, openly and honestly!

Thanks! Let me say openly and honestly that your last post above is surely the best post on the whole forum!! :)

[DeniseTaylor]

Good Morning!

At least it's morning where I'm from. :)

Engage, my post was in response to Meenub's question:


I was just wondering if anyone has used their services.

I have used it, and because I now have gone through the course, worked through the process, and successfully applied what I learned, I have first-hand knowledge of why/how Site Build It works.

-----------------

You yourself said:


I had an account for awhile, but never used it.

;)

-----------------

Re this:


A six page manual in the hands of someone who actually reads it and acts on it is much more valuable than a 600 page manual that overwhelms the student, and leads them to leave the manual on the shelf, which is where I'd guess most SBI manuals reside.

Site Build It! is not intended for slapping up a site overnight. As I said earlier, it is a self-paced course in building a long-term, sustainable business that lasts for years and grows on its own after the snowballs starts. It is a step-by-step process that gets reproducible results time and time again. If that were an easy task, everyone would be doing it. Or a dinky, two-page FAQ would suffice.

But a short, quick, slap-it-up manual doesn't work for creating long-term, sustainable businesses because the Internet is a very competitive place and getting more competitive all the time. Real-life situations are too numerous and frankly, there is a lot to learn.

The point is, the materials and tools SBI gives you are numerous. That's because you get your money's worth and then some. SBI over-delivers to give you everything to really take your business to the top of the search engines with proof of results. It provides support in a positive environment in which to apply what you learn so you can persist and succeed.

But SBI is not for everybody. It is about building a real business, not a five page brochure. It is hard work that takes time. But again, note the difference: we're talking about building a business - an ever-growing business.

And what you learn in SBI can be applied over and over and over. You're actually learning a new life-skill.

Have a great day everyone! :)

[Engage]

Hi Denise,


...because the Internet is a very competitive place and getting more competitive all the time.

Great point, agreed. The history of SBI can be quite instructive regarding the net "getting more competitive all the time."

At the time SBI was released it did a great job of meeting the challenge of that era.

At that time creating websites did require technical skills, and this was a barrier to entry for many people. SBI was a ground breaker in addressing this problem.

At that time SEO was a mystery to many or most people. SBI was a ground breaker in addressing this problem.

That era has passed.

Thanks to SBI and it's very many competitors, easy site building tools are now widely available, for free or very inexpensive.

Thanks to a vast army of SEO experts, an SEO education is now widely available, for free or very inexpensive.

If we want to be prepared to succeed on a net that is ever more competitive, it serves us well to track the history web development over last 15 years, and project that pattern forward in to the future.

This history and success of SBI teaches us the following.

We are rapidly entering an era when everyone on earth will be able to easily create a professional looking website using effective SEO principles.

In this coming era, there will be no competitive advantage to fancy tools and tactics, because everyone on earth will have them.

As the web matures, what we will have to compete with is the quality of our mind.

The vast majority of topics that we webmasters spend all our time thinking and talking about, are the wrong topics.

Here's proof. Our readers, the people who have the money we want, could care less about the tools and tactics we webmasters are obsessed with.

To the degree we remain focused on tools, tactics and ourselves, we are out of touch with our readers, and the future of our business.

Yes, there is a lot to learn. Our topic! That's what our readers care about.

Yes, the net is becoming ever more competitive. To succeed, we should look forward, not backward.

In the coming era....

Tools aren't important. Everybody has them.

Tactics aren't important. Everybody has them.

You are important.

You are the only thing you can bring to the coming competition that nobody else can duplicate.

If you know your topic like a real expert...

If you produce plenty of quality content...

If you get links to this content...

If you spend more time thinking about your readers than you do yourself...

If you have integrity and an engaging personality...

If you escape "lone wolf" mentality, and learn how to work within teams...

If you stick with it...

You are gonna do great.

You.

Focus on that.

[Steve Gilbert]

I also have a site originally developed through SBI that reularly delivers healthy traffic numbers through a combination of the SEO and the content developed as an integral component of the SBI process. However in order to develop additional sites with SBI, additional memberships will need to be purchased for each of those sites. To be fair, there are often discounts and specials for thos multiple subscriptions.

So when the time came for annual renewal, I moved my SBI site to my own hosting and began to build new sites with Xsite Pro which I continue to occasionally use for building static sites. Most of the site-building I do now is with wordpress for speed, SEO, myriad simple plugin tools, and simple editing and content building. And not failing to mention the potential for interaction with your readers via comments.

I'd offer that SBI is good training, albeit somewhat ponderous in terms of the long-winded manuals, and if it's affordable for you, then you won't go wrong because you will learn a great deal and it is a pretty complete all-in-one package.

[Meenub]

Thanks for the honest answers everyone.

Denise, thanks for all the info. Can you tell me a little more about your experience. How is your site doing that you built using SBI? What was your experience level prior to building that site?
Do you work for SBI?

Thanks again

Meenu

[DeniseTaylor]

Hi Meenu

I found out about SBI in 2006. I wanted to learn to build websites and was researching the information. As I learned, I became more and more fascinated by the whole thing.

I had a previous background in Marketing (offline) and what stood out as superior about SBI compared to other products was that SBI talked about results. I knew first hand that anyone can create something that looks good (like a brochure), but unless it actually generated sales or created leads, it wasn't worth the paper it was printed on.

SBI offered proof of success and it had a guarantee (nobody else did any of these things). I was interested in getting results, so leaned toward SBI.

Sitesell's site offered so much information in terms of results and effectiveness, that I figured there had to be some truth in it. Otherwise, they wouldn't be putting it out there. :-)

But it was the guarantee that got me. I figured if all the material on Sitesell's sales pages *was* bunk, I could get my money back, no questions asked. So I decided to give it a try.


It took me awhile to come up with a subject for my site, but I finally just picked something so I wasn't wasting any more time. Knowing what I know now, it wasn't the best topic for monetization, but I reasoned back then that it would be my learning site. (Please do not ask me to reveal my URL here because I am here in an official capacity and wish to maintain my privacy.) Suffice it to say, now I know that my topic attracts a lot of children who have no money. :-)

Technically, all I knew about the Net when I started was how to surf and how to use email.


Fast forward - I worked very hard on my site. I did hit a period of time where I got very frustrated because it didn't seem like it was working. This may be the point other people quit. I took a break and got back up after a couple weeks. Funny, but it was about two months later when the flood gates opened and my site started taking off.

In August 2007, I had about 1000 visitors a day when Sitesell released Content 2.0. It is a module that lets others write pages for your site and interact with each other. I implemented it on my site and a year later, my traffic had grown to 2000 visits a day and my site had expanded to about 2000 pages.

Somewhere in between, my husband got ill and I was forced to quit working on the site. Then one thing after another started happening which prohibited me from working on it. So up until recently, that site has been growing on its own with just my visitors submitting pages. I edit and approve them.

Today, I'm up to 3000 visits a day+, have over 3100 pages on my site, with about 300 sitting in queue that have to be read and approved. The income I earn from the site rivals my father's pension, which took him 30 years to acquire. It took me 3 years.

What you have to realize is I don't pay for traffic, I don't do much work and I receive checks every month.

It's hard to believe, but the income keeps steadily growing, as does the traffic. That's the snowball that is discussed in the Action Guide.

Problem is, many people quit before they reach the snowball phase and give up, and which is why you find the reviews you've seen here.

I didn't listen to SEOers and naysayers. I listened to Ken Evoy. I worked very hard. When it seemed I wouldn't find ways to monetize, I still didn't quit, yet now I have checks flowing in every month.

I made every mistake under the sun, some of which are still there on my site. I have made mistakes that should have devastated my business, but after a short time, "pop!" my site rises back up and keeps floating at the top of the search engines. I should have gone out and gotten back links like Engage advises, but I didn't. Instead, people started linking to me on their own. I should have picked a better topic, but I didn't. I still make money. I should have done a million things better, but I didn't and I still have a very nice little business.

All I can say I did right is- I worked hard and didn't quit.

As far as the fee - I consider that I only paid the fee once. My site has always generated enough income to pay for itself and *then some.* My business began to be be profitable in about eight months.


Yes, I work for Sitesell part time now.

Whether SBI is right for you is for each person to decided for themselves. It isn't for everybody. Not everyone is going to like it. I have found that every word and every promise is true. But there is a guarantee in case it's not a good fit for you.


I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

[Engage]

Meenu,

Here's the key sentence in Denise's story.


All I can say I did right is- I worked hard and didn't quit.

This is where the battle will be won or lost.

In your head.

Denise did a good job of sharing how psychologically challenging publishing on the net can be, because you do the work first, and get the money later.

If you observe the webmaster world from your objective vantage point of not yet being totally immersed in our culture, you will see....

Just about everybody on every webmaster forum will nod in agreement with the idea that the battle is won or lost in our heads.

But we don't really mean it. We don't.

You can see this for yourself just by taking note of what we actually spend our time talking about.

Webmaster culture has been conditioned by vendors and commissioned sales people to obsess about tools and tactics, tools and tactics, tools and tactics, because those are the things that can be sold for a profit.

You still have a chance to escape this mindset, before you are sucked head long in to it, like the rest of us.


All I can say I did right is- I worked hard and didn't quit.

Thus, the right question might be...

What environment will best support your ability to work hard and not quit?

The thing is, you are what matters. And you are the expert on you, not us.

We know more than you about tools and tactics, but that doesn't really help much, because that's not what's going to determine your success.

As example, imagine this...

Suppose I really wanted to be a famous book author. And so I started asking everybody to show me the best place is to buy a typewriter and typing paper. Wrong question, right?

You're clearly intelligent. Take it for granted that whatever tool you choose, you'll make it work. Make a confident assumption that however you go about it, you will learn the necessary basic tactics, because you surely will.

If you're going to spend money, and if you think you might need help working hard and not quitting, spend your money on that.

[Meenub]

Denise,
thankyou for the info, it is truely helpfu.

Engage,

"You're clearly intelligent. Take it for granted that whatever tool you choose, you'll make it work. Make a confident assumption that however you go about it, you will learn the necessary basic tactics, because you surely will."


that is so profound,
I thank you for that.

Meenu