14 replies to this topic

[Big K (not the Mart)]

I'm using homestead.com as my website builder (ok, I'm about as newbie as I can get, but I have been learning a lot here!), but I've heard sitebuildit.com is great for SEO stuff for people like me. The only problem is I'm not sure if they're worth the $300. Is anyone familiar enough with this website to give me an informed opinion of it?

My apologies if this is the wrong place to post this question...I saw the advice and thought I'd ask for some.

[Jill]

Yes, if you have a particular passion and want to have a site about it, Site Build It is a great, easy way to do it. They have lots of great information to help you along your path to success!

[Craig Jones]

SiteBuildIt is a good program, especially for newbies. I had it for a year. There is a lot of free stuff included you can get through SiteSell. Much of the free stuff is available without the purchase of SBI. However, before you spend the $300, take a look around at some other good options. As far as building a website, take a look at www.XSitePro.com. I think it's $197 and it has a full one year guarantee. It is what I am using now to build websites. I used Dreamweaver and Net Objects Fusion previously and they are both very good programs but they have a steep learning curve for a newbie. XSitePro (XSP) does a great deal for you and has several SEO tools built in. It really is pretty easy to use. My opinion is that before you spend $300 on SBI, take a look at some of the Internet Marketing posts at this forum and other IM forums. You can learn a great deal on your own by just doing that. Then take a serious look at XSP. You can try it for a year and get your money back if you don't think it's the program for you. But I think you will find it's one of the best programs out there for the Internet Marketeer.

Good luck!

[BizWoman]

Hi Big K, though new here I can offer a view from both sides of the coin as far as using SBI to build a website.

I started my internet marketing "experience" with them. Knew absolutely zero about building a website, etc. I hosted my site with them for 2 years and just recently decided that for various reasons $300 was an unnecessary amount of $$ to pay anymore, even if that adds up to only 82-cents a day!

Back to what I believe are the pros and cons:

PROS: Probably the #1 reason my website is doing so well in search engine rankings. Their tutorials are fantastic. If you follow the steps from the very beginning, and that is from picking your domain name, all the way through to utilizing the "Analyzer" SEO tool every time you build a web page, you will ultimately come out knowing a LOT more about SEO than most website owners. In this category, I give SBI a 100% "thumbs up" for what it taught me from the get-go.

I have friends who are using Yahoo, for instance. Oh Yahoo does offer a great site builder, too. But there aren't all the tutorials like SBI provides. As an example, my friend's websites were not even optimized for the meta tags properly, if at all. (They are now, I have helped them understand basic SEO techniques). So, they couldn't understand why they weren't getting any rankings or traffic to speak of. Back to the SBI tutorials...I will say, yes, SBI was worth the $300 for my first year in business.

There are many other built-in features, but as Craig mentioned, you could find a lot of it for free. However, if you are a complete newbie like I was, again for the $300 a lot is included. And anyway, as a newbie how do you know what features you need??

CONS: #1 problem for me using SBI: I speak from personal experience. If and when you want to move your website, as I have just recently done, to another host/server ... OH MY! (YUP! Double-YUK!!) I cannot tell you the hours and hours and HOURS I spent removing and reformatting my web page's html coding in order to be able to insert it into my newly designed website template.

The java scripts and such SBI uses in their site builder adds so much HTML code into your content that it is not an easy process at all to move your site, especially if you've got 100+ pages of content as I have.

In defense of SBI, I have since learned that "site builders" of probably any sort do wreck havoc on one level or another with HTML coding of your pages. It's just the nature of the beast.

Bottom line, besides the cost issue: I had no clue in the beginning that I couldn't just up and move my SBI site-builder-designed website if and when I wanted to stop using their services. Keep in mind the template you will use, the navigation buttons, etc. are proprietary to SBI and you will have to completely redesign your site to keep it functioning if and when you tire of using them.

As Craig has offered (I've no knowledge of using XSitePro) ... if you get external software to create your site, then you won't go through what I just did. But then again, site builders offered by hosting companies do make life easier for newbie internet marketers.

Enough of my rant (can you tell I am still suffering a bit of shell shock at what this transition entailed?? lol)

I wish you good luck, no matter what avenue you take.

[beks]

Get Post Bizwoman - loved it. I have not bought SBI, but I am planning on it.

I have research there product for the past 2 weeks, reading everything I can on it. I read in one other forum that they had HUGE issues like Bizwoman moving an SBI website. But the overall talk about SBI is very positive. Very little negitive response.

From what I understand is you have to do EXACTLY what the guide tells you. It takes time and patience - labour of LOVE.

[Conspicuous]

From what I understand is you have to do EXACTLY what the guide tells you. It takes time and patience - labour of LOVE.

If you have to follow a step by step guide to publish your site you might consider an inexpensive web host that comes with one-click installs of systems like Wordpress or Joomla or Drupal. Costs a lot less, your content will be a lot easier to transer, and you'll probably learn a lot more in the process.

[Jill]

You don't have to follow the guide exactly as it says to. It's just that they've put together a tried and true process that they know works and if you pay attention to that process and work hard at it as they describe, you may have the most success with the program.

[rolf]

Great post BizWoman.

Even though I can program my own sites I took a good look at SBI a couple of years ago for a specific project I was helping with. In the end we decided to build the site manually because of other non-related factors, but I was fairly convinced that they were one of the better companies doing this sort of thing.

It's interesting to see a genuine real life user experience that confirms the conclusions we came to.

Also, good luck with your site Big K :-)

[glengara]

For non US sites the hosting location can be a problem....

[beks]

I just started with SBI. I have nothing but great things to say. If you follow the guide and use the forums you will be successful in my opinion. I have very little knowledge about websites etc etc. To me it is like a university degree with the amount new information I am learning. Even if the site fails, I still come out better marketing then I did going into it. I would recommend this to anyone.

[wguttrid]

For non US sites the hosting location can be a problem....

Sorry for bumping and old thread, but curious what is met by this? As I am researching the best way for me to get a store online and this SBI sounds like a very promising way for a begineer like myself to get started. I will be located in Canada but selling to both Canadian and US market and curious if hosting out of the US with SBI will be an issue?

[Jill]

wguttrid, you'll want to see our pinnned post in the international and multilingual forum regarding where you host your site.

[BizWoman]

Hi wguttrid:

FWIW, SBI is based in Canada...you ought to be fine if you decide to use them. There are many SBIer's who reside in countries other than the US and Canada and seem to be pleased with being hosted by them.

And boy am I remiss in saying TY to the other posters who liked my info on using SBI. Glad I could shed some light on the subject.

[wguttrid]

Does SBI include a shopping cart? And are you still able to use a 3rd paryt shopping cart?

[BizWoman]

Hi again wguttrid:

I still have access to the list of SBI's features, and just found this shopping cart info for you (moderators: this is NOT an affiliate link) http:/ /buildit.sitesell.com/main/store.html [Remove the space when pasting.]

That page will give you a little information, however you have to pay extra for the feature. I do not remember how much extra that is, but I'll guess at least another $100+ per year.

However, this statement they make is not true, in my estimation: "The same applies to stores that host at portals like Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon etc. They are totally dependent on the small amounts of traffic (compared to an SBI! site) that the portal delivers."

Come on! Anybody's site is dependent upon the site owner's abilities to SEO and/or market that site! My SBI site was TOTALLY dependent upon MY efforts ... give me a break! "Yahoo ... has a small amount of traffic"??? What am I missing, oh wizards at SBI?? Geez ....

As far as a adding a stand-alone ANTHING...this is where SBI is limited. I do not believe they can **easily if at all** integrate other scripts, programs, (or 3rd party shopping carts) etc. like that, and AAMOF, about a year ago I was thinking about adding a very simple program for email capture that required one little stinkin' .php file to be uploaded into my root folder (SBI does allow uploading of html files--you do not have to use their site builder tool), and they said it wasn't *easily* possible.

Fact: They told me I'd have to host the .php file on another server, link to it, etc. It wasn't worth the hassle for me to bother with at the time.

So ... to be honest, I think Yahoo (or similar) might be more up your alley. Yahoo's site-builder templates are waaay better than SBI's, and obviously Yahoo is totally geared to the on-line store feature.

I would tread cautiously and double-check with SBI about the 3rd party cart issue BEFORE you plunk down your money.

From my experience, they respond quickly to all issues and questions, and are honest and ethical, but why hassle after the fact trying to get a refund

And again ... if you CAN integrate whatever else you want...think carefully about the issue of the incredbile hassle of moving your site off of the SBI servers. I shudder to think about what you'd be up against if you did have a 3rd party cart involved. Yuck.

Hope this helps.

Edited by Randy, 17 December 2007 - 11:02 AM.