Anyone use/heard of Site Build It?

[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 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.