Site Build It Review Info
75Site Build It - Is It Any Good ?
Site Build It Review - Is it Worth It ?
Site Build It - A Scam, A Rip-off or What ? My Opinion (whether you wanted it or not)
[UPDATE : Toban has been banned from Steve Pavlina's forum for his negative posting about SBI - although the thread is still open - see links at the end of this page]
There has been an enormous amount of pixels generated in recent days about Dr Ken Evoy's product Site Build It - which is a software package that allows you to create a Site Build It website of your own from which you can sell stuff or make money online from the various advertising and affiliate programs widely available on the web.
The package costs $300 a year for each site you create and this recurring fee includes support and access to forums and so on. That's a lot of money for a site you can create elsewhere for much cheaper and if you decide to make more than one site then obviously it will cost you more - in fact 4 sites will cost you 4 times as much - i.e. $1200 a year - that's the power of multiplication !
Site Build It Scam Debate
This whole 'debate' started when a woman from New Zealand, Lis Sowerbutts, wrote a post on her blog about Site Build It. The reason she wrote the post in the first place was because of well-known online self-improvement expert Steve Pavlina - in Lis's words " ..... now I am MAD - and Steve Pavlina is the reason I’m mad. I like Steve - his motivational writing is great - but now he has sold out to the other side and is pushing the old Site Build It scam!"
Strong words from one normally so demure ! You can check out the whole smelly enchilada here - Site Build It Scam Review
Lis was also very surprised to find no negative reviews of SBI on the Internet - every review she read was a glowing recommendation from an SBI affiliate (affiliates get $75 for every SBI system they sell).
After Lis posted her review on her blog, the owner of Site Build It - Dr Ken Evoy - was not very pleased and wrote to Lis to tell her so, stating that her review was factually inaccurate and advising her to remove her post or face the consequences. Lis in fact later said she was considering removing her post when suddenly her blog was invaded by Site Build It groupies making multiple and varied unpleasant remarks and telling her how wonderful Site Build It was. If Lis had caved in to the pressure being exerted then she would have deleted her post and there would still be almost no negative or even objective reviews of Site Build It online (I did however manage to track down one negative review from before this whole 'debate' blew up a few days ago - I will mention it below)
Fortunately Lis is a dainty damsel who knew a number of hefty onlne knights in shining armor who came to her assistance and started reviewing Site Build It themselves and their reviews were not very complimentary - here are a selection
Is Site Build It a Scam - a video review
Site Build It is It a Scam- a positive review ! (for a semblance of balance ! - you can google it to find it)
Site Build It Website without the $300
There are lots more, just Google Site Build It Scam or Site Build It Review !
Some people call it a scam, some say it is wonderful, - most people just say it is TOO EXPENSIVE ! and you can do the same stuff by yourself for a fraction of the cost or even totally free.
To create a blog for free go to Blogger.com and follow the instructions. You may not make any money for a while but at least you will be gaining some useful knowledge.
If, after reading the many reviews of Site Build It that now exist, you choose to go the Site Build It route consider these economic facts that will cost you money !
One Site Build It site with support will cost you $300 each year - that means you need to make $300 just to break even, and believe me that is not as easy as anyone makes it out to be. If you buy 2 sites you pay double - $600.
Now here is a weird conundrum - why should you pay double for two sites ? The support is part of the price for the first 'package' - so why are paying for the same support again ? Surely you don't need two lots of support if you have two packages ? It makes no sense. If you have 3 packages do you need three lots of support ? Surely the more packages you use the less support you need, as you gain more experience and become more expert at using it ! So why do you have to keep paying for more support ? It is totally illogical but you can no doubt figure out the answer to that question yourselves.
Similarly, the $300 is not a one-off payment - it is a recurring payment you have to pay every year ! Why ? There is no way you will need as much support in year 2 as you needed in year 1 ! You are gaining experience all the time why do you need the same support each year ?
Another point. What happens if Site Build It goes out of business ? What happens to all your hard work ? You will need to re-learn a whole load of other stuff such as Wordpress (free) which you should have learned in the first place but didin't because you were locked in to Site Build It.
And will you make money with Site Build It ? Who knows ? There are no guarantees and in any case you can do all the same stuff that you can do with Site Build It for free by using blogger or Wordpress or even setting up your own website. You do not need to pay a recurring fee of $300 for each site.
A domain name costs around $10 and cheap hosting can be had starting at $15 a year i.e. $25 instead of $300 and you can have a lot more than one site for that price !
While looking into the various blogs talking about Site Build It and whether it was worth the money or not, I came across this one by a guy who actually bought Site Build It and wrote a review about it BEFORE all the recent reviews started appearing on the Internet . His review dates back to February 24 2009
He says on Steve Pavlina's forum that he bought SBI on Steve's recommendation and was very disappointed in it. He also said he found it odd that there weren't any negative reviews of Site Build It on the Internet anywhere, until now that is. $300 is a lot of money for something you can do elsewhere for free, which is why so many people have been writing reviews about SIte Build It to highlight the fact that you don't need to pay $300 a site to have an online presence (obviously if you can then sell SBI to some other newbie then you get $75 back so 4 sales and you break even - but if that's all you're doing then it is pyramid selling - not making money from websites! why not just sell the package for $225 in the first place ? Obviously the answer to that is that by sharing the fees you get yourself an army of salespeople selling your product)
Here is the review by Higher Thought Net who actually bought the system - A Negative Review of Site Build It - notice how he pointedly called it a NEGATIVE review - he was clearly ticked off at finding only positive reviews on the web for something he had paid $300 for in good faith - here is his conclusion about Site Build It.
"Final verdict
If you’re computer or web illiterate, your best bet is to skip SBI and hire someone to make a website for you. If you have the skills (or the potential to learn the skills) to set up Wordpress or another CMS at your own host, then do it. It’s easier than ever to set up a great looking website for under $75 a year In this age of free software and cheap hosting, I foresee a dark future for SBI. (He must have had a crystal ball - remember he wrote this back in February).
My experience with SBI was one big letdown. I transferred my domain out well before my subscription expired. I strongly discourage using Site Build It, no matter how good the affiliates make it sound. SBI is so bad, you couldn’t even pay me to use it!" Way to go that guy !
So there you have it, in my opinion $300 per year per site is an absolute rip-off .
My advice ? If you want to make money online from blogs or websites start with Blogger - it's free and easy to figure out and it's run by Google itself so it ain't going to disappear. If after using Blogger you want to move on to something else then that's fine but you do not need to pay $300 per site per year !
[UPDATE : There is a thread about SBI at Mr Pavlina's forum - where I read "You can get over 1000 visitors a month (I have around 700), still monetization is difficult.You can get coaching to improve your site, that is extra ,3 hours ($180) . Otherwise great support." An extra $180 for 3 hours coaching after you have already paid $300 ! Lol - I'm in the wrong business! ]
Finally if you have a blog that is making money you may want to consider what you will do if you were to have a car accident and be re-united with your maker. What would happen to your blogs or hubpages etc... and the money you are makng online from them - you should give some thought to informing your family how they should carry on your online money making business after you are gone ! see - Dead Men Make Money Online
Online Trading
- Top Ten Best Paying Jobs
The Best and Worst Paying Jobs - Espresso Book Machine
Buy an Espressoe Book Machine and become a publisher - Stock Market 101
- Best Online Stock Trading
Stock market news and tips - Warren Buffett
Learn from the best - Warren Buffett
CommentsLoading...
Yes a good idea re. consulting that definitely seems to be where the money is. Now that you're famous you can charge a lot more. Personally I think Ken Evoy should pay you for all the free publicity he has got.
Excellent review - thanks !
You're welcome - keep your money in your wallet !
Im considering purchasing SBI and This review is all well and good, but SBI looks like a blessing to me. I have been trying for over a year to get my sites making money and I haven't made one sale, nor am I making any money from ads. I get about 1000 unique visitors per month, but NOTHING, nada. I have read tons of books, info online, tried ALL the different keyword tools, etc. I have spend hours and hours on this stuff and it's frustrating. So what do you suggest?
Hi Matt
First - do not splurge $300 on SBI - it will take you an age to earn back and is a total rip-off - as they charge you $300 for every site - even though you will not need the same amout of support etc..
Where have you been trying for over a year ? Can you give me some specific sites ? The low calorie site in your link is only 3 months old, so I assume you have other sites.
With regard to the low calorie site - if I type in 'low calorie diet plan' into Google, your site is on page 10 which is no good for making money - you need to be on page 1. To get to be on page 1 you need backlinks - I see your site does not have many backlinks so you need to get some more and you need to get them pointing to your site using specific keywords. If you get in touch via the 'contact' thing at the top of the page or leave a contact address here we can look into some specifics. Without knowing what you have tried already there is not much point me making suggestions. But it is possible to make money - I don't make an enormous amount but I do make enough to pay the rent and it is increasing and I only use Adsense - I've found everything else to be a waste of time.
Have you read Grizzly's site and Courtney Tuttle's site ? Get in touch or leave a further message here.
Ive been tempted to invest in sbi for a while now, and they have just introduced a monthly payment plan.
The main thing that has been holding me back from buying was the price.
But after reading yours and several other negative reviews of sbi, I am no longer sure.
But would there software and tools alone be worth paying the $29.99 a month, brainstorm it, content 2.0, analyze it, automatic page submission, these are all great weapons to have in your arsenal.
I'm currently paying $40 a month for various seo tools and softwares.
Hi JK thanks for dropping by.
Not knowing your specific situation it's hard for me to give specific advice. For some people $30 is nothing and so hardly worth worrying about, in which case if you can get all the information you need from SBI for $30 and then cancel then it might be worth the effort.
For other people $30 is a king's ransom and may be just more money unnecessarily flushed down the drain in an attempt to make money online.
Also, I don't know exactly where you're at or what it is you are trying to do. If you are a beginner to making money online from blogs or niche websites and Adsense ads. then all the information you need is available free of charge - here is a humorous post on how to do it - http://www.netmonetization.com/2009/01/make-money- - if you want all the free information that you could possibly handle then take a look here - http://makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com/2007/02/ - and read through the archives
Basically it's all about setting up a blog/site, waiting a while and putting up a few posts, then getting lots of backlinks until you rise up through Google and get to the top of page one (not impossible but not easy either). You can do all this without spending any money by using a free blogger blog (both the links above are on free blogger blogs). It will probably take longer though,if you want to do it faster then you will probably need to spend some money.
The other place to go for lots of information is the Keyword Academy - join the Premium membership for one month - it costs $1 via Paypal after which you can cancel (that's what I did) there's a ton of information and videos and a forum. - http://thekeywordacademy.com/ - so try that and they will probably be able to give you more info on Site Build It too.
One final point, I have never understood why SBI charges the same price for the second site as for the first site, as clearly on the second site you will need less support than for the first site. But maybe they have changed that too? I would guess that with all the negative publicity they got after trying to silence Liz Sowerbutts that they have been forced to change their charging strategy.
Good luck and let me know if you have any more questions.
There are excellent FREE tools for building effective, professional websites. Checkout Joomla.org - I highly recommend Joomla for nearly all websites from personal sites, small business sites, corporate, non-profit organizations and even government websites.
There are plenty of free add-ons for Joomla so that you hardly ever need a custom module written. Plus Joomla is simple to maintain and update.
The trick to monetizing a website is all in marketing - something we cover a bit in our online videos. The number one thing though is aesthetics. If it isn't a great looking site, people won't hang around long enough for your marketing to have any effect.
The one thing to be especially aware of is having control over your domain name and website source files. Always file your own domain name (GoDaddy.com is highly recommended) and never get a website where you don't have complete control over data and files and ability to move to other hosting.
- Hank Castello, CompuSolver.com & Web-Professor.com
Hi Hank - thanks for the info. - personally for the moment I like free blogs - you can buy a domain name and have a blog with blogger using that domain name which is what I do - I may change my tactics later but for people starting out on the making money online route it is important to understand that it can all be done for very little cost - eithe rtotally free or just $10 a year for a domain name.
Great article! I've heard so many thngs about Site Build It and this cleared up everything for me. Excellent!
Hi - thanks for the comment and the compliments - Site Build It has apparently changed its terms so I should really do an update but basically the information holds true - you can do it by yourself for free or with very little expense there's no need to pay Site Build It
Your Clickbank hub is really useful too with figures that make sense ! - http://hubpages.com/hub/Promoting-Clickbank-And-Ge
I'm lucky can found this site, that give some information about SBI, I just sign up for SBI, because wonderfull package which promoting for build site that can get somemoney....I, but now I got helped from U, ....thank's....Can I ask You to look my blog?, what that need to change to earn money from affiliate....please..I waiting your advice....
Thank's...m
Sincerely...
Well first iwanukazev it's a mess - second I hope I didn't pick up any thing nasty having a quick look at it - third the name is all wrong - fourth it was illegible so I left straight away - apart from that it looks like you know what you are doing, if what you are doing is trying to scare people to death
Lissie Level 1 Commenter 3 years ago
"dainty damsel" - been called a lot of things -most of them in the last few days - but "dainty damsel" is a new one - will put that on the white board! Thanks very much for your support - and yes I do kinda notice how Ken Evoy is still huffing and puffing re defamation there has been absolutely not debate aound is pricing structure.
Must admit I am thinking about giong into consulting myself -good money there I think!