When I first started in this business I came across “Site Build It”. I spent $300 and gave the program a whirl. It was crap and I asked for my money back. I took that money and bought real hosting, built a crummy little HTML site after reading a ton of books on Dreamweaver and watched the site hit #1 for a search term in Yahoo and Google for a coveted search term, without realizing that was what I was doing. That was the start of my realization that Internet Marketing was mostly a scam.
I didn’t learn my lesson obviously. I still chased far too much garbage during my time in this business. I never thought to come back to my first little site for inspiration.
I just took a trip on the Wayback Machine and saw that initial site built on SBI on Jun 26, 2003. On Aug 3, 2003 there is a new design that I did myself. For the last 6 years (holy crap) that site has been on the first page of Google and Yahoo for my coveted keyword.
SBI had nothing to do with my success for that site. I proved that I could do it with Dreamweaver. The site looked pretty bad but it persevered anyway. It morphed into a WordPress blog and then finally I settled on XSP. It is my most consistent performer.
Forget SBI. There are far better and cheaper tools for building a website. Still believe the hype? Then have a read of Lissie’s Site Build It Scam Review and/or Steve’s Is Site Build It a Scam? articles.
If you prefer to waste your money on this site builder then by all means click here.
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Lol, Love the link – please let me know if that works!
Glad to hear that I was not the only sucker on the planet!
Sounds like you have blown almost as much money on junk sold on the Internet as I have.
I had totally forgotten about SBI until Lis wrote the post and the name Ken Envoy came up.
Wish I had all the thousands I have spent for this stuff back. I would be sitting pretty today.
Burn and Learn!
Thanks for the link!
It’s only my opinion not a review because it does not fit with my way of doing business.
To fair and you mentioned it, it’s been 6 years so they should had added more things since. I’m glad you are #1 since then for that site.
A service or product most always have both side and you have given it.
Griz, my 13 readers suggested I give it a shot.
Denise, you’re only a sucker if you don’t learn anything from your purchases… or get your money back
You’re welcome Steve.
Hi man,
I never found SBI, but I did get into MPAM when I was a noob two and a half years ago. Same shit different smell. I lasted about 4 months before I realised I didn’t need them and was never going to make money using their plan. Hell, when I think of all the hours wasted playing with traffic exchanges…
Man, the things we do when we don’t know what we’re doing lmao!!
Thanks Splork – I always enjoy your reviews – I just didn’t realise I’d picked a real hot topic for mine LOL
Hey Splork – I’m one of your 13 readers, enjoy your writing, and also follow Court, Grizz and Vic. I’ve tried and am still trying all sorts of stuff to make a decent online income and have paid probably a few thousand dollars over the years for ebooks, courses, software, subscriptions (Bans, Niche Inspector, XsitePro, My Affiliate Store, Nichebot, Infogoround, Themezoom etc etc etc). I guess I battle to keep focus and get distracted too easily.
Funny thing is that the only website that consistently makes some money (not a lot, about $1k a month) is the one I built through SBI. None of the income is from SBI affiliate sales and nowhere on my site do I promote the program, or any other website-building tools for that matter. Income is from AdSense, other affiliate sales and a few sales of my own products.
Compared to what I’ve spent (and continue to spend) on other IM products, the $25 a month for SBI is peanuts and, for me, good value. If I wanted to, I could easily transfer my domain and get cheap hosting for $6 or $7 a month, but it’s not worth the hassle to save a few bucks a month.
I often get emails from people looking to buy SBI, asking my opinion. I honestly don’t believe it’s a scam and tell people as much, but add the proviso: “how you use the program and whether you make any money from your website is of course entirely up to you – I can’t help you on that”. I also tell people SBI has limitations – no FTP, no php and not ideal for an image-heavy website.
Nevertheless, for someone just starting out who wants to set up an online business and has no clue where to start, SBI does take you by the hand and guide you into following a step-by-step process, from keyword research, monetization, creating a website blueprint etc. That process obviously doesn’t suit everyone, as you soon found, but for others it does work.
For old hands it’s easy saying you can use WordPress or Joomla to build sites and get tons of stuff free if you look around, but – and I’d really love to see some figures – how much does the average noob spend buying guides and get-rich-quick schemes, sold by the smartest copywriters around, before they get to the point where they vaguely know what they’re doing? I’d guess it’s a lot more than $300 over the course of a year, but I could be totally wrong.
I know that Ken Evoy has some over-zealous fans – the “cult” thing that Lis talks about – and I’m not one of those, but thought I’d just add an opinion from someone who has had a measure of success with SBI and who also tries a lot of other stuff trying to build an online income.
Well I’m glad I kept my hand in my pocket ! Thanks for the review.
Hi Splork,
When I read your post I felt what the world needed was a site build it review site – so I threw one together !
Hi Splork
Good one for admitting you were bitten by the Site Build It Scam.
Yea I bought it because I read a lot of Allan Gardyne back when I first started. He was pimping that as a good deal in ’03 and her was someone I trusted.
And another thing ! Why $300 each time ? Surely you pay for all the ‘support’ you need the first time round ! ? Do you get 3 times more support if you buy 3 ? Very odd.
Hi All
I’ve just come back to this blog after admittedly a long time away – I’ve just waded through some of the SBI comments and the blog posts and I can only say this……..
It’s so very depressing!
Ex SBI user as well. Paid $400 because fell for the Buy 1 get 1 cheap offer. Total waste of money. I registered a domain name only to realize it was a niche that wasn’t going to be profitable….
And then was told I couldn’t get a refund (because my refund window expired) and have to pay another $50 just to have the domain name changed to another one…
So I just said sc**w it and never went back. IMHO SBI still works, but only for the 2005-2007 era. It is outdated and the keyword research is so slow (you have to do everything on their server).
I do believe some old timers are still doing well on it though.
haha, I had SBI and agree with you!
I moved over to XSitePro, it’s loads cheaper and does the job 10 times better!
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