Site Build It

[jgant]

My first foray into building an online business was with SBI. I was a member for 1 year. It's expensive compared to using WordPress and getting hosting. However, they do offer a tremendous amount of training.

If you're new to internet marketing, it's not a bad program. I haven't tried Lynn's Elite Membership so I can't compare the two. I suspect, however, after reading ClickNewz that Elite Membership is very informative and likely better than SBI (I'm speculating having only used SBI).

Kai Druhal above is correct in that SBI is not big on blogs. Their blogging option is terrible (practically unusable). I also don't recall much mention about building a list either (I was an SBI member 3 years ago).

In sum, I believe you can find better training elsewhere for the money. But, if you opt for SBI, and you go through much of the training, you will learn a lot.

[bovic]

Hi All:

My last post was back in March right after I joined Site Build It (SBI). I mentioned I would update my progress with SBI so here I am.

There is something diffeent about SBI. It is very much all emcompassing. And it is their way or failure. For those reasons, people seem to either love it or hate it. You either jump into their action steps with both feet, or you fight the system and lose.
I have chosen to jump in with both feet, and I'm very happy with my decision.

The main focus of their training is building one mega authority website. For that reason, your choice of niche is very important. And Kai Druhal is correct when he stated their biggest push is with google adsense. He was also correct when stating that SBI is not big into blogging websites. They do have a way of doing it, but it is not with the same ease of Word Press. I have found their list building tools to be very good. So maybe they have cleaned that up since Kai last looked at them.

The help you receive from other members is unbelievable. If you ask a question or present a problem, it is amazing the responses you get. These are from people who have websites six and seven years old with a page rank of 5 or 6 and a alexa ranking under 100,000. They do not just answer your question, they show you how it is done on their website.

My website is in a tough niche, but it is climbing the ladder. I just added ads to the site and it is starting to make money.

I know I'll probably catch some heat for this post, but I would recommend SBI to anyone who is willing to put a lot of effort into a website and is willing to follow SBI's action steps.

Bovic

[WorkitSmart]

Alright, I'm jumping in since I have both WP sites and SBI. I'll try and hit on a few points mentioned in this thread.

1) There's no trouble with ownership if you decide to move from SBI to another platform. It's just a big hassle cuz SBI has weird format and so it's not seamless to do.. but I've done it & SBI was perfectly nice about it.

2) They used to be anti-blog but have now incorporated it into their system.

3) They were also known for their outdated themes, but that is changing also with the big reveal Jan. 2012.

4) Yes, they are typically big Adsense users but Ken (the owner) is talking more about alternative monetizing.

5) Which brings me to this: They are typically behind the curve with what's 'happening'.. like the blogging.. plus social media; they literally just figured that out last year.

6) Biggest benefit to going with SBI as a newbie: They literally hold your hand throughout and have THE best training in the industry. Yeah, I know you can get it elsewhere but not as detailed, all in one spot, and with such a tight community.

7) About SBI being for small to medium biz; they have multiple pp making five and six figure incomes.

In closing..
I like to keep one site with them just to stay in the loop with training. Like the Google Panda? They were all over that puppy with in-depth training on what to do. The owner is very involved. Ken is kinda like a dad, not always hip and up on the latest trend, but very solid and wise with good advice.

dee
p.s. forgot to add - they have an incredible keyword research tool that is practically worth the cost alone.

[bovic]

Dee, thank you for jumping in and making some great points. Everything you said I agree with completely.

And I really like your small house site.

Bovic

[WorkitSmart]

And I really like your small house site.

Bovic

Why thank you, Bovic! That's my 'passion' site where I'm actually following what's near and dear to me instead of the moneyyy.

I read thru this thread and noticed you are using SBI. I do have one itsy, bitsy piece of advice:

Do not get overloaded with all the SBI training.. you can absolutely lose your mind. I remember telling my hubby in frustration, 'if you printed out all the training, the pages could circle the world a thousand times!'.. I was about to pull my hair out, and months went by without really doing anything but reading.

SO!.. If you find yourself getting overwhelmed and paralyzed into inaction, go for the condensed versions. SBI has a long version and a shorter one for almost all their training manuals.

Dee

[DebraLloyd]

Hi Bovic,
It's great that you have updated this post as you have gone along and there is some very good and valid advice here from others too.

I believe a big reason WP is so widely used is because there is so much free training available, but the downside to that is there is also a lot of miss-information out there on it too. Staying ahead of or at least at the forefront of technology can be what sets you apart from your competitors and helps keep your site up in the SERP's, so that has huge benefits all around. WP also has an advantage in that there are no monthly costs or percentages to be paid as with SBI, Volusion and Yahoo Stores etc. With WP you also have more control over your site and traffic history than with some of these solutions.

I sold a website for a client last year that had been on the SBI platform for a long time - I think almost 10 years if I am remembering correctly. The site did get hit hard by the Panda update but then so did many others too. The owner loved the SBI training just as noted by others and yourself here too. The new owner switched the site over to WordPress as that is what he is used to and likes. He has others sites he bought (also through me) and has migrated over to WP with great success.

I think the most important thing to learn from this thread is, that whatever platform you choose to use you need to be committed to doing the work. Any site can be migrated if and when you decide another platform can serve your site's needs better. There is a cost to that and the danger that you will lose page rank and link juice in the process, so if you can learn and start your business on a platform that others can easily adopt and operate on should you ever decide to sell you will have an easier time selling your website as a business down the road.

I see so many websites brought to me to be sold as a business that have been started and operated on a 'wing it' approach and it severely limits the asking price you can get for a business. On the other hand an online business that has been properly developed, is well organised with automated processes and lowest possible operating costs that business can command serious money for it's owner when the time comes to sell.

Here's to your continued success.
Cheers
Deb

[expatana]

Hi,
I'm a new member -- and a very old subscriber -- and glad to be here finally. I was with SBI for a little over a year. I have little to say because I didn't really do much with it at that time. I did a lot of reading (probably too much) and got overwhelmed when it was time for keyword research. I just didn't understand enough technically to get into it as much as I could have. My favorite niche is incredibly competitive and they really discouraged that, trying to encourage me to find something with better numbers. Well ... I just couldn't find anything that satisfied in that area. I was in the forums quite a few times trying to get help in that area. While they tried to be helpful, I think I really needed assistance that was more technical in nature.

I intended to continue with them a bit longer to give it a better chance, but I ran into financial disaster and had to leave them. I was also with Wealthy Affiliate for a very short time. Now, I'm seriously thinking of becoming an Elite Member here because 1) I feel Lynn has proven to be the real deal, 2) it's affordable, and 3) notwithstanding humble present circumstances, I'm absolutely determined to finally make an online business support me by the end of 2012.

Good luck, everyone!