The Site Build It Reviews Controversy

Fit for Life 3 years ago

Thanks for trying to steer people in the right direction. It's hard to find people doing what your doing these days.

John.H

ba-ankh-amen 2 years ago

I read your post and I wish to correct one error about domain property and SBI. When you buy the Site Built It platform you are also buying your own domain. It is registered as yours and you can keep it even after you leave the SBI program. Such is my case.

I'm not going to promote my site here. I only wish to set some matters straight about SBI.

SBI costs $300 a year because, among other features it includes a Brainstorm It program to help users create a website with the best SEO keywords. You could hire Wordtracker for a year for exactly the same price but, as you said, SBI is for beginners who are shy on getting their hands on building a site without expert help.

Some may ask why, if SBI is that good, I'm no longer building my site with them. Very simple, I finished building it after a year. In my opinion, SBI is good for a year of two as you discover what type of information people are really looking for and the best possible keywords to use to be found in the search engines. On those foundations, anyone can built a solid website with free traffic and monetize through Google Adsense. SiteSell and its owner Ken Evoy, acknowledge this strategy for builders who after some time feel confident to continue on their own.

sssikes7 2 years ago

Yes it is for beginners who have no clue and couldn't get their own site up and running. When I first started I had no clue as to building or running a website. When I first saw an ad for site build it is was being endorsed by Steve Pavlina who I have allot of respect for. I now use Dreamweaver or Wordpress. If you are just beginning and would have a hard time with the mechanics of a website, to really learn more about the program and watch a video on site build it you can go to http://www.makingamilliondollars.com/site-build-it

amulets 2 years ago

Thanks for the info. Now I am using Hubpage to promote and earn.

MyWebs 19 months ago

Thanks for the useful SBI review. I have a client who wanted me to check it out to determine if it would help accomplish their goals. I'm happy to of found a hub that covers SBI as I trust what is written here more than some other places. :)

Since this seems to be mainly targeted at newbies, which I'm not, I think my suggestion will be to pass on this one.

dellary 16 months ago

I’ve been with SiteSell for almost a year, and I have to say that most of the criticisms on this site are on target. If you criticize anything about them on the forums, you will be black-balled. And I do mean black-balled, as in they will not even let you buy any of the “coaching” services. The head of their coaching team is named “Debs”. Her emails to me read more like a stereotypical school-marm chastising a wayward student than a serious businesswoman attempting to solve a client’s problems.

My complaint: The documentation (video and Action Guide manual) are unnecessarily chatty to the point that it is difficult to find the information that you actually need. They think nothing of requiring you to read through dozens of anecdotes and “fillers” (such as “Are you ready to start making money like millions of Sitesellers…”) It is therefore easy to make mistakes because their teaching skills are virtually nil. I’m not saying the guide has to be dumbed down. It just has to be judiciously edited so as not to waste the client’s time. Clean prose with clear goal structures and concise examples.

All of Ken McEvoy’s emails to Sitesellers are exactly like this. Your inbox will be filled with pages-long, chatty emails that will contain (somewhere in the middle, when you’re least expecting it) something you actually need to know.

The Siteseller’s forums are filled with people who would die for Sitesell. It really does have an extremely unpleasant “cult” feel to it. Any criticism is treated as heresy. After posting a complaint on the forum, not only did I receive nasty comments, but I also received nasty emails–along with being black-balled from buying any more services.

What rational company would be more interested in punishing a customer for complaining (by refusing to sell them any more of their products) than in solving the customer’s problem (perhaps by selling them more products)?

Finally, if you Google “Sitesell complaints”, what you will get is pages and pages written by Sitesell itself saying that all complaints against them are without merit. They know how to work the internet to make sure people cannot access the information they need (both negative and positive) to make an informed decision about their product.

Nicola93 14 months ago

I've been using SBI! for about a year. It's a decent enough learning tool for beginners but you soon get tired of the clunky look and feel (which made conversion very difficult for me) and the limited nature of the interface.

I've gone on to develop a blog- inspite of Ken Evoy saying this is a bad idea!

I also paid Site Sell Services to generate key words when I started with SBI! The keywords were very poor and unfortunately I only realised after 9 months of writing content. The support team were not helpful when I pointed this out.

All in all - if you need to learn the basics of SEO the guides are useful - but you can get this for free, it's not rocket science. SBI! has a dated feel about it and a sense of being closed off from everything other than their world.

Ex SBIer 5 months ago

I found this post and I thought an update would be useful to anyone searching for information about SBI now as they're running their 2 for 1 holiday special 2011.

Be aware that one SBI hosting account costs $300 a year, and you must pay $300 for each domain hosted. Compared to other hosting the cost is tremendous.

If you purchase the Holiday 2 for 1 you will get two hosted domains for $300 for 1 year. The next year you will owe $600 to renew. Or go monthly at $30 a month per hosted domain totaling $720 for the two domains.

Also be aware when you join SBI you are subscribing to Ken Evoys philosophy of building a web based business.

This means several things in terms of your business. SiteSell, the parent company of SBI uses word of mouth advertising. Not only do they recruit SBI owners as affiliates, they also will use sites with good Alexa rankings on their marketing pages. This can be done with or without asking or alerting the site owner.

Although Ken Evoy and his team present this as an opportunity for sbiers to "pay it forward" and even present it as some kind of honor, in reality it exposes your business to internet copycats. This can wreck havoc on your search engine rankings and earning power.

Many, many, many sbier owners have voiced this concern in the SBI forums to no avail.

Also, be aware that if you participate in the SBI forums you are forced to reveal your site Url. This also exposes you to internet copycats especially if you discuss traffic stats or income in any way. Many people join SBI specifically to lurk the forums for the 90 day free trial period for site ideas that they then build elsewhere for much less money.

All of the SBI tools are included in the price, however, as of this writing their Keyword tool, the Brainstormer, has been giving consistently unreliable results. This is huge since you base your keyword choices on those numbers. This has been mentioned in the SBI forums and the problem has yet to be resolved.

The SBI forums are very strictly moderated by Ken Evoy himself and a team of well trained mods. Although most in the forums are extremely helpful there is an uncomfortable cult-like tone around Ken Evoy that he seems to encourage.

He is extremely long-winded about everything which makes the whole process more difficult than it has to be.

He also implements a policy of "firing" sbiers whom he feels post negatively in the forums. This can be something as simple as asking a question about policy.

Feeling that he can "fire" paying customers is an indication that this is NOT conventional hosting.

Ken Evoy also openly scolds, bullies, and ridicules forum participants when they post things that bother his hyper sensitive ego. He is intolerant of any criticism of SBI.

6 years ago the SBI Action Guide was the best training a complete newbie could find, but unfortunately SBI has not innovated quickly enough to stay relevant on the internet in 2012.

There is no WordPress install. You would host separately and then use a subdomain if you want to add a WP blog to your website.

No FTP capability.

No mobile capability.

There is a new sitebuilder coming soon but the reputed ugly SBI templates haven't changed.

Unfortunately, I would not recommend SBI to anyone now looking for a way to start an online business.

Aurther 4 months ago

I appreciate all your comments, just a reminder that sbi is for beginners. Also remember that just about any internet marketing program can be heavily criticized for one thing or another even the one you are using. It's all healthy!

Wayne 2 months ago

I have been with SBI (site build it!) since June 2009, and have never looked back. Like anything else in life, you get out of life what you put into it. There is no free lunch. I have been earning with my site since May 2010. Last year was the first year I was in the black, actually earning on my site aftter my $299.00 yearly fee was paid.

Site Sell It is coming out with BB2 (block builder 2), which release date is immenent. There is no holy grail out there re. building a website with all the features, e-tools, and forum support that SBI offers.

Can you build a website on your own, sure, but the costs of HTML etc, plus all the added costs would be into the thousands of dollars where Site Build It is less than $25.00 bucks a month. Remember there is no free lunch people!

Best-

www.personal-goal-setting.com