solardave

Is anyone using SBI to build their sites. I'd like to get opinions. I'm thinking about using them and would love to hear about your experience.
Pros and cons. If you don't feel comfortable saying it here you can PM me if you'd like.

Thanks
SD

tbarnby

I used them a few years ago and was terribly disappointed. Their interface was very limiting, their information and educational materials were totally re-hashed, tired, and poor. There was not an original idea written anywhere! You couldn't install ANY php scripts or do any custom script development at all. Maybe they've changed over the years, but I doubt it.

In my opinion, you're much beter off using a wordpress blog with a premium theme, some decent graphics and a good hosting service.

You'll learn more "here" in an hour than all of the SSI educational products put together. SBI is good at one thing: marketing their own products and services.

Other opinions may vary.

Tim

Spot the Ball

Cant comment on SBI, never used it.

Im using wordpress for the first time and have to say its great, been playing around with it for 2 weeks to learn the tricks and will probably take me a few more yet to get reasonably competant using it.

Ive used Joomla in the past and found this to be good but also found it to be a buggaarrr to install, WP is easier.

Its also worth learning the basics of HTML and CSS, you can get thousands of free templates to mess around with and if all I wanted to build was adsense sites then a free HTML template would be my first choice, if I wanted to add Amazon then Wp is definately my choice.

Probably not what you wanted to hear but, just my experience with different platforms.

I would prefer static HTML for adsense simply because I feel you have far more control over the SEO of the pages.

In any case its definately well worth teaching yourself basic HTML and CSS, this will also help with any of the platforms for doing some tweaking which will crop up.

solardave

Tim and Spot,
This is exactly what I wanted to hear. I tried wordpress a while back but didn't understand it.I'll try it again since I've begun to understand a little more. What I want is to learn to do this myself. What I don't want is to waste money (that I don't have right now) on crappy products. I really appreciate what you said and I value the opinions here. I've been on WF a little while and I wouldn't go anywhere else for advice at this point.Thanks a lot for your input.

gavins

Tried it a couple of times over the years and had some success with it but now you can't beat a wordpress blog and a good theme.
Product was good 3-5 years ago but times have changed

noodle24

Hey SD,
I use SBI for almost all of my sites. Here are a couple that I have with them, direct-laptops-guide.com and ryanwhiteside.com

I can say first-hand that they are the real deal. My laptop site gets around 700 visitors a day, and my personal development site gets over 200 visitors a day. SBI is like anything in online business, the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it. If you put forth no effort, you certainly won't get anything out of SBI (or anything else).

However, if you put in a little bit of time and energy each day, in your free time, you can certainly get amazing results.

What I like most about it is it saves you a ton of time. Unlike Wordpress where you have to do updates, look for new plugins, etc., SBI already has everything you need.

As an example, canonical tags made quite a stir recently in the SEO world. Well, all of my SBI sites automatically had canonical tags added to them. I just happen to be a person that follows up with all of the new SEO stuff, but even if I didn't, it was taken care of for me. Saving me hours of time!

Another thing that really separates SBI is their new Content 2.0. In short, it's kind of like a much better form of blog commenting. Instead of commenting, users create new pages for you. I've had over 100 pages of content written for me by users using their Content 2.0 module. This has really helped with my long tail search traffic.

I would definitely recommend giving them a try. I can attest that they definitely follow through on their 30 day guarantee. They also have a new monthly payment option, in case you can't fork over the annual fee.

With everything that you get, and the amount of time that you save, the extra cost is WAY more than worth it.

brainworker

If you are an absolutely newbie to building website then go for SBI. You also need plenty of patience to read Ken's 1000's of pages of PDF documents!

Yes, I bought it few years ago and had to ask for a refund...then it was almost impossible to customize the site for my taste...don't know how it works now. There are lots of stuffs inside and you'll definitely overwhelmed. Infact I'm still subscribed to Ken's mile long Newsletter

ColinD

Hello SD

I've been with SBI! for 5+ years (sites are eazigoal.com and eazihomebiz.net), and although it wasn't easy, I can confidently say it has been rewarding.

It should be remembered that SBI! is about building an online business, and when considering building a business, even offline, it takes time. When I compare my SBI! business to the offline corporation I ran for 5 years, the process and tools that I have available with SBI!, is no match to the hit and miss of doing business offline.

Yes, it will take you time to work through the Action Guide - but if you regard the AG as your business training manual, then it makes sense. Following this guide, step-by-step it will lead you to starting and building a successful site (online business).

On the minus side (if it can be regarded as such) there is a lot to learn in SBI!, but the beauty of the process is that it doesn't all need to be implemented at once - actually, there are modules (features) of SBI! that I still don't use. That doesn't mean these features are superfluous, but for my circumstances, I don't need them. Building any real business takes time, and there is a lot of learning (often times by trial and error).

As for the site building (and customizing) part of SBI!, you have available a wide series of templates to choose from, and these can also be customized to suit your requirements. Very there will be 100+ new 3-column templates made available, which further increases the scope of the style and design of the sites.

It should also be remembered that if you have a successful site then you don't need SBI!, but if want to build a real online business - one that has equity - then yes, I can recommend SBI!.

I could go on for a lot longer, but I hope that helps.

Colin

mootz

I tried it for a few years and the information is overwhelming. You get to a new section and there are so many other links to additional info. I would start reading this and there would be more options then you forget what you where initially studying. SBI has a list of people that you can hire that use there process. I paid them about $4000 and never got that much traffic. This year I didn't pay the renewal fee(which is about $300) and the site disappeared. I guess I could have moved it, but didn't.

Black Hat Cat

Just say no to SBI.

neodarth

I've used SBI years ago with great results. But I've recently changed it for a word press blog. Guess html sites to promote business as an affiliate are fading to death. There's no competition against the power of the web 2.0. And there are better and more powerful tools for keyword research and competition stats.
SBI needs to be re-invented to recover his glorious days.

kferneau

I've seen these debates spring up over time and they always amaze me because the answer is so obvious:

THE ANSWER: If you have yet to build a successful business online, just give it a hard, honest try. Forget the biases of others and ignore much of the out-of-date misinformation. There is just too much social proof of SBI!'s track record NOT to try it. Here is what I suggest:

At $29.99 per month, give it an INTENSE, determined try for one month. Use the forums, which are incredible, if you have questions. After a month, if you can't see the value and if you can't envision your efforts turning into a successful e-business, just cancel. If you really feel they didn't overdeliver, you can even refund on that month's subscription (you can refund, anyway, actually!).

You can stop reading here, because that's all I really wanted to say. However, then I started writing down a few more thoughts. I'll put them in the P.S. in case anyone is interested.

I hope this simple solution is helpful.

Best Regards,

Kathy

P.S. About this debate, I've wanted to post for a long time about the debates themselves. The SBI! vs. Wordpress debate always arouses such emotion, as does the "SBI! yes or no?" debate.

There are always two very polarized camps. I know you can't have a debate without a difference of opinion (!), but the degree of polarization is usually very striking.

This one is a nice civil debate, with helpful posts except for the one that says, "Just say no to SBI." There is useful information to assess, but at the end of the day, the reader will still emerge unsure. He may go to WP. If he succeeds, he re-evaluates SBI! all over again.

While this one is civil, I've seen hateful threads about SBI!, almost always by the same group that teaches you how to splog by taking other people's content. I won't address those types of debates because 1) THE ANSWER above is still the same (ignore it and try) and 2) there is just too much REAL social proof about SBI!'s track record of success 3) the guarantee limits your risk to one month and 4) the lies are just too many to answer.

Whatever the debate, if you have reached the point where you are asking about SBI!, I can only say that you may not emerge convinced one way or the other. There is a thread right now in the SBI forums about why SBIers did not originally purchase. The most common answers were…

1) length of time -- some took 6 years. Some folks had been burned by Get Rich Quick. Some found negative information.

2) price -- since they added the monthly rate, that's just not an issue, if you remember all that SBI! provides (tools.sitesell.com).

3) "too good to be true"

4) techie reasons

5) couldn't see how SBI! was relevant to them

6) a variety of "big picture impressions" such as "couldn't see the value" and "thought I could do it on my own." Some were confused by the focus on business. But SiteSell wants folks to understand you're not here to fool around, put up a site and then try this and try that. You need a systematic approach to building a business online.

The interesting thing about all 6?

THE ANSWER solves them all. It may not be for you, but what can you lose? You WILL learn a ton if a newbie and, if you are savvy and can be patient, you will appreciate the power of SBI! if you can overcome your biases and give it a real try.

Sometimes, tech-types complain about "no php" and then they complain about the L&F. That tells me they did not give it a real try because you can use your own favorite HTML editor, Photoshop, flash, etc., just like with any other site. For raw newbies, the "BlockBuilder" is tedious the first time around, but does it ever train you in how to build an effective page for both your visitors and the engines.

I could go on forever and vent my spleen. And I think THAT is why SBIer answers are often so long. They feel so obliged to correct all the misinformation. Although I have fallen into my own trap HERE, I won't again. I will just refer others to this thread when I see debates in other forums.

Hopefully, other SBIers will see this and they'll save themselves an hour and just link to this answer: THE ANSWER.

Regarding this excellent debate, SPECIFICALLY:

On the one side, there are the people who don't like SBI!. The best reason NOT to like it is that you failed at it, which is what we see here. The problem is that SiteSell has sold tens of thousands of units. They do NOT promise that you will absolutely succeed, only that they have the best success track record. So some folks are bound to fail:

Some fail due to their own mistakes. Ken is very upfront about that, even posting the 5 big reasons why new SBIers fail, corroborated by one of the most highly successful SBIers who independently posted the 5 things you must do right to succeed.

Honestly, if you follow the Action Guide carefully, I don't see how you can fail.

Some may simply not have the right niche for what they want to do. The Action Guide, in this case, should tell you that SBI! is not right for you. That is a great thing to learn. You move on.

If you follow the Action Guide, you may discover that like Nathan, you can develop your own way to get traffic. Nathan uses JVs to sell his product. SiteSell covers JVs, but they require some real sales skills. And it's not clear that this can turn into a long-term business model, but Nathan very likely has that figured out. He has a skill that I don't have.

If you can sell JV's and if you have the right concept for an e-book that sells, it seems to be a reasonable way to go. But it's a hard thing to do, a "little fish" talking a "big fish" into selling his product. You COULD do that with SBI!, if you are an incredible sales person, use your time to secure JV's to build traffic instead of a content site. Good old-fashioned deal-making and sales power.

So yes, you may find it's not for you. It may be a stepping-stone to something greater, like Nathan. Like I said, if you truly follow the Action Guide to a T, I don't see how you can fail. But I know that some people do. Again, though, THE ANSWER solves this. Take a month. Give it an intense try. Refund if you're not happy. Maybe it's just me, but if someone had told me this way back when, I would have been so happy to have started sooner. And if it turned out to be not right for me, I move on.

Like I said earlier, there really is not much point to debating the reasons here because I won't change anyone's mind whose mind is already set. For example, take the techie reason that "I can't install php" If your goal is to build a long-term e-business, I doubt if there is any correlation between php and e-business success. I think WP is as limiting in just as many ways, but again, I don't buy the "limiting" argument. You can do as much with SBI! as any hosting solution.

OK, one last point. SBI! is "old-fashioned." Just about every concept in SBI! started at SiteSell. So many products that are out now are low-quality, more expensive rehashes of SBI! info. And SBI! itself constantly (and I mean WEEKLY) updates one or more of its Action Guide, its HQs and/or its tools (including adding new ones).

Take an example. I've researched back as far as I can. Search for "preselling" at Google. Every article derives from SiteSell's concept. SiteSell was first to automate Google Sitemaps. They even automated Yahoo!'s own version of sitemaps until Yahoo! caved and went with the open format. You can even set the priority of your pages within your Sitemap should Google drop a page you consider important, for example, at the click of a button.

What about Web 2.0? Content 2.0 is way more powerful than blogging. I'm trying not to send you to the relevant URLs in SiteSell, but all the information you need is there and, as far as my experience has found, is true.

Most of the information in this thread is not malicious, some of it is useful, but much of it is not up-to-date. You can either take the time to scour the SBI! site, or be misinformed, or accept that something is happening at SBI! and just try THE ANSWER to be sure for yourself, one way or another.

Why not try WP first? If you're a pro, go ahead. If you build a successful business (assuming you have not already done so), terrific!

But if you are NOT super-savvy, SBI! gives you a framework, a learning experience that you just won't get anywhere else. If it's not for you for any reason, including if it's just too much work to build your own business, then cancel and refund. Next, try WP. As you do, you'll see that it's easier to get a site ("blog" in this case) up. But compare with all that you've seen at SBI!... the process, all the tools, the focused forums. You have to make the longer-term decision about which format is likely to serve you best for long-term online biz-building.

OK, enough. Sorry about the length. I really did not want to be one of those SBIers with the long answers, but once I got started, well, sorry about that. I just hope it's helpful. It would be great if other SBIers posted to this thread and showed people how successful THE ANSWER is.

NicheHunter

I used SBI! for a year. Mainly because I wanted to learn. I didnt really want a business from them at the time. So I just made this site to learn some stuff.

Exotic Cats and Hybrids is your place for learning all about exotic cats of all kinds

This is going to be a life time commitment on this website. Maybe someday I will monetize with other than adsense.

SBI is a great learning place for a new person. They have a fabulous keyword tool but your only allowed 25 keyword searches. After that, you have to buy more. Their programs make your sitemaps for you and update them when you add new pages or links. They have a lot of positives.

The 2 biggest issue I had with their site was the pages are very wordy with a lot of useless content and you are not allowed to use your own FTP program to upload your site. Everything has to be done through their website.

The $299.00 a year is not bad with all you get, but the learning curve is pretty sharp with their site.

There are a lot of pro's and con's, but if you can live with the con's then it would be a great place to learn.

Gary

warfore

It's a good place to get started (I used it for a year) and learn about websites and being online but if you have any curiosity at all about making and modifying your sites you will outgrow SBI. I was just annoyed by them shielding you from many things on creating your own websites. I was also annoyed by the almost "cult" like devotion of some members and their deference to Ken. I had to let them go and graduate to a better understanding of being a webmaster. Hope this helps.

RoyChan

Agreed with Tony. I have been a SBIer for some years and outgrown it.

If you know what you are doing, SBI has its limitation - i.e. speed. If you are trying to build a website/ web business, check out this page of mine, I hope it gives you some other thoughts:

Build A Website

Hope it helps.

Cheers
Roy

David McGimpsey

Yeah, I noticed that when I was there too.

Gavan

I build a SBI site back in 2003. While I think it is a pretty good service for newbies, if you know how to build your own site, do your own keyword research etc. it is not really worth the money.

Lorenzo Wardell

I use SBI one all my websites it great & saves me alot of time and money

MatthewChiapetta

I would have to agree with most of the posters here. When you first take your steps in learning how to approach internet marketing, there are a few fundamentals that need to be learned. SBI is one of those fundamentals. Regardless of whether you make the site using their interace or you use wordpress or some other instant site idea, the foundation you learn from SBI is tremendous! I actually never built the site through them had the year long subscription but the the two people i recommended it to are doing wonderful, and in fact love the tutorials, and are making a nice slow but steady pace online.

unfortunately not all people are alike, i liked the foundation i learned from them, and applied it elsewhere. There is without a doubt importance in UNDERSTANDING the C-T-P-M process, that is the only reason i would absolutely recommend SBI.

All in all if you haven't gotten the message by now... its all about learning not about necessarily using their site build service, although i do know very successful marketers who have used SBI and they do get nice free organic traffic... so its up to you.

jodamy

I'm a big fan of SBI, the knowledge and access that you get is huge. The Brainstormit software that is included seems so powerful to me.

The Artful Surfer

I used SBI when I was first getting into IM. I learned all the basics there, but I moved on. I did not end up making much money when I was with them, however I have to give it credit for giving me the base that I built off of. Now I'm full time IM and supporting myself off of it.

anwar001

I think SBI is about building a long term business and not about quick and short lived results. This might seem frustrating to a lot of people, but shrewd businessmen will definitely see lot more value in this.

pearsonbrown

Site Build It, SBI! from Sitesell.com