Site Build It Review

Site Build it – Don’t Buy It

This is not a fake review with a sales pitch for Site Build It – I am simply telling you not to buy it.
Lissie wrote an article entitled Site Build It Scam. If you read her post and I encourage all my readers to do so you will see a prime example of how many online systems work. Develop a canned project, target beginners looking to make money online, set up a sweet affiliate program to entice people to sell your product and then send out your core cheerleaders to attack and bash anyone who so much as criticizes your product. Read her post and see if you would like to be associated with the cheerleaders pimping this product.
In my experience every time I see a swarm of cheerleaders like Site Build It has, you are looking at a program that makes money by selling the program and not by using it. MLM is notorious for using this method. Is Site Build It MLM? I have no idea – doesn’t matter. What matters is that the only reason you get cheerleaders to swarm en masse is to protect their source of money – ie selling “the program” – not “using it” to make money online.
If the program developed successful internet marketers then no one would give a damn if someone like Lissie writes a negative review about the program. They would know it works and are making money using it. If others dissent so what – their loss. You wouldn’t care because it worked for you. On the other hand if your only means of income is selling “the program” to unwitting noobs then you can bet you will be out in full force defending “the Program”. If people start reading negative opinions then your source of income is gone.
I make money doing what I do and could give a rats ass if someone doesn’t agree with me, or like me or bashes me and I would never ask my readers to defend me or my system. In fact I wish you would all stop mentioning me on the noob forums like Digital Point and Warrior. Please.
If you do a search for Site Build It on Google all you see is fake affiliate reviews simply gushing over how wonderful it is. Such bullshit. There isn’t a real review on it which simply tells me that real internet marketers have nothing to do with it (I wouldn’t use it) – just noobs doing the noob affiliate review trick that is as old as the hills. Is that what Site build it teaches?
Thanks to Lissie’s post a number of cheerleaders left their URL’s. It took less than 10 minutes to review their sites and guess what? They don’t know SEO, they don’t make money, they don’t know how to find profitable niches and they don’t know how to monetize. They just have the usual generic sites like all the other millions online, neither good or bad. Nothing worth spending $300 to learn. You can learn far more reading my blogs for free. I could outrank every one of the niches I looked at in a heart beat using a free blogger blog.
I have a favor to ask all my readers who have a site – please write your own review about Site Build It. You will save future beginners from wasting their money. The serp’s are full of affiliate reviews pimping this product and could use a few real reviews so that people have a better idea of what this product is really about.
Cheers,
Griz
113 comments:
Jeremy said…
Excellent idea griz!
I actually almost got suckered into it because the person who has the top spot for “make money with adsense” is an SBI! person and was pushing the product. Then I tried to find scam reviews on it and couldn’t find anything!
Then I started looking around more and luckily found your website, which showed me vics, and court’s, frank carrs, etc etc. and I knew that there is no way one website can make enough income to justify a $300 purchase. You even say that most of your sites don’t make it with adsense so I can’t waste my money experimenting with things that might not work out for $300 a pop.
I’m working on a site right now and could you please find some way to add some link juice to it grizz? It’s http://www.sitebuilditscam.blogspot.com
gracias amigo.
March 20, 2009 12:21 PM
Grizzly said…
Jeremy – put some content on it and let me know when done. I will gladly send a link.
March 20, 2009 12:25 PM
Jeremy said…
Ok Grizz, I’m all done with the content. I wrote one of your famous “rambling posts” haha.
March 20, 2009 12:39 PM
Paul said…
Hey Griz,
You know I think very highly of you, but I must say that I am disappointed by this post of yours.
Cheers.
March 20, 2009 12:53 PM
Anonymous said…
You should read the response from the SBI ceo. There are a lot of lies in that review, starting with the first sentence” you do not own your own domain”
Of course you do. Whois shows you are the owner.
I am not a user of SBI, never used them before, but when you see someone making such false accusation without proper research- like the one above- it definitively hurts their reputation.
March 20, 2009 12:56 PM
Grizzly said…
I didn’t say SBI works or doesn’t work – I said you don’t need it and I don’t like their cheerleader tactics. If the program is good then you don’t need to defend it en masse. It will sell itself and you will find plenty of legit marketers talking about it without the affiliate review horseshit.
March 20, 2009 1:04 PM
Paul said…
You know what’s even funnier? The fact that this post of yours triggers SBI ads. “2009 Site Build It Review. Is ken Evoy’s… bla bla bla .. yada yada yada”. So basically you monetize the site by redirecting your visitors to those reviews.
March 20, 2009 1:10 PM
Grizzly said…
Yup and the smart ones will do a search for more info on the program and now there will be more info available aside from the affiliate reviews – leading to a more informed decision before a beginner shells out $300 for a website. You do realize that there is nothing special about site build it? Everything they offer can be found online for free and beginners should know that.
March 20, 2009 1:16 PM
Pocket Aces said…
Griz, SBI was actually how I first got interested in internet marketing. I paid the $300 and gained access to an OVERWHELMING amount of information on SBI’s private site…so much so that I had “analysis paralysis” for quite a while. The training manual (C-T-P-M) was extremely long, very redundant and honestly full of mostly filler, with very little truly useful information. He just kept pumping the mantra that “Content is King”, and if you would just build a huge site with enough content, eventually Google would know that you’re serious about what you do, and rank you highly in the SERPS accordingly. Surprisingly, there was not a lot of emphasis placed on link building at all–it was kind of a side note compared to the emphasis on building huge sites with great original content. Back then (circa 2007) I ate it up, because I just didn’t know any better. I bailed out in mid 2007 before it was time to renew (for another $300), left IM alone for a good while, and then found your blog in early 2008. Now that I know how ranking in the search engines really works (and have sites that rank well to prove it), I am amazed at how much of a wild goose chase the SBI “system” is. And you’re absolutely right–they place a LARGE amount of emphasis on the 5-Pillar Affiliate Program, and honestly, most people don’t use SBI to build niche sites–they use SBI to build IM sites pushing SBI as their main product. They also encourage ridiculous hyphenated URL’s for whatever reason–stuff like “automobile-dealers-in-the-southeast-region-of-Los-Angeles.com” and so forth. There are a couple of genuine success stories (look up “vacuum cleaners” on Google–there’s an SBI site that’s usually in the top 3), but the majority of sites are, in so many words, dead. They also place a big emphasis on Alexa, which is pretty much worthless.
Just my two cents–well, it turned into about 10 dollars it was so long–LOL!
March 20, 2009 1:21 PM
Grizzly said…
Thanks Aces – that is the type of stuff I was hoping for and I hope Paul can see the value in having opinions on a program from people not trying to sell it. Would any of you prefer it any differently?
March 20, 2009 1:28 PM
Paul said…
Griz, I honestly don’t know about SBI, nor do I care. It’s not the reason I don’t like the post. I don’t like it because I hate these online quarrels – they leave me with a sour taste in my mouth. I hate the herd mentality and yes, you too command a large herd either you realize it or not… how about steering it for something constructive instead?
March 20, 2009 1:32 PM
Grizzly said…
Think about this Paul. I spend the vast majority of my time steering beginners away from wasting their money. This post is no different as many people will not waste money in future on a program they don’t need.
I didn’t defend Lizzie’s post – I am sending people to it and they can read her point of view and the cheerleaders point of view. They can then decide for themselves. What I am trying to do is get an alternative viewpoint ranked on the serp’s so that beginners can find it. At present they have no alternative to the affiliate reviews. I looked and found nothing that could give me any real insight into what this program is about. I find this highly constructive because it will add a side of the discussion concerning this program not currently available. Would a prospective buyer be better off with out seeing Lizzie’s post?
I understand if this is of no interest to you but saving people money is of interest to me and hence – constructive. Shall we agree to disagree and leave it at that?
March 20, 2009 1:43 PM
Anonymous said…
I really researched SiteSell about a year ago. I was so close to buying it — i even got someone assigned to me to promote it and all.
And then I found your blog.
Thank God and Griz. You saved me 300 bucks a year.
PS: — been trying to get into that private forum, do you still take members?
Stroga (emailed you from strogatel at yahoo . com
Cheers
March 20, 2009 1:49 PM
Sunshine said…
I hear ya Griz.
I was a former SBI owner five years ago and think that this product was a pretty good product for the era of time it was created.
Fast forward to WordPress, Squidoo, Blogger, Weebly, the list goes on. This type of website platform is no longer a necessity for anyone who want to set up an online business or have an online presence.
March 20, 2009 1:52 PM
Lorecee said…
Hee hee hee. I knew this was coming.
I want to address Paul’s argument, because part of me thinks flame wars are a waste of time too. But I’m an SBI survivor myself, and I lost a lot more than the $150 of mine they kept when I bailed after six months of spinning my wheels. I lost six months that I could have spent on something that actually works.
This is no f-in joke in my case. I’ve worked on contract for three years, and this summer my contract ends–pow, kablam, done, and no jobs to be had in my line of work in my state (hint: highest unemployment rate in the country). I knew this last August when I signed up for SBI, but all the testimonials said it was a real business system, and quite a few of their sites rank decently for some well searched terms.
So I faithfully followed the “program” for six months (which consisted of 10% useful information and 90% hype talking about how great the system was), but it never felt right. Then one day I decided to read everything in their forum having to do with monetization, and it hit me: they have traffic but don’t have a clue how to make money from it.
I bailed around New Years and had six months to learn SEO and put up enough sites to take the place of my contract. A year is enough. Six months–not so much. You see what I’m sayin’?
And then SBI has the nerve to say that if you quit, you’re not serious about running a business. You bet I’m angry, and if I can keep just one person from ending up where I am right now (and believe me, the stress is no joke), then all the energy I’ve spent telling the truth about them was well spent.
March 20, 2009 1:54 PM
Site Build It No1 Fan said…
Hey Griz,
I just posted at THW blog too and linked to Lis, you and Vic. Let’s kick these wankers where it hurts – in the “truth” LMAO!!!
Terry
March 20, 2009 2:02 PM
Grizzly said…
Stroga,
Thanks Stroga. The private forum is on hold at the moment but I will get to it as soon as I have done some catching up elsewhere. I will let everyone know.
March 20, 2009 2:03 PM
Paul said…
I don’t know about that Griz. It is indeed tempting to be the savior of all beginners. However, the cold truth is this: the percentage of people who fail is 99%, Griz or no Griz.
I have learned that 99% of all the people simply don’t have what it takes to make it in Internet Marketing. Most of them like to indulge themselves in dreaming, without taking any action. As a matter of fact, spending $300/year on Site Build It might just force a person to make his/her business profiatble.
Picture this if you will: a beginner stumbles upon SBI and buys it. That respective person is forced to build a first site because the money is already spent. Building that first site, the respective person wants to drive traffic to it and learns about SEO. Maybe he/she even stumbles upon your blog.
Now picture another scenario: that same person sees this post, concludes that SBI is crap and doesn’t buy it. Then, he browses through 2-3 sites or 2-3 forums and leaves it at that, does nothing, never to return again.
The bottom line is this: it’s all relative, and in the end it all comes down to a person’s will to succeed.
March 20, 2009 2:06 PM
Grizzly said…
Hi Sunshine
You have brought up the issue that didn’t come up by anyone on Liz’s post. It doesn’t matter if SBI is a scam or legit – does anyone really need it and I think the answer is no. It was developed ages ago for beginners who really didn’t have many options for starting out online. These days it is redundant and expensive considering anyone can build their own site cheaply, easily and find tools for free. The info needed to market and monetize your site is also available for free. Why anyone would pay for a canned product these days is beyond me.
March 20, 2009 2:09 PM
Terry Didcott said…
Actually, it just hit me – this is a clone of the equally hyped MPAM that I got involved in when I was a noob – remember that?
I lasted a few months with them before bailing out realising that the ones making money there were the originators because they had all the early affiliate memberships sewn up.
Its like a John Chow thing – get in early, sell it to everyone who is buying then fool everyone else into thinking they’ll make money from it by promoting it themselves. MLM in another guise. Its all horseshit – in fact worse than horseshit, because at least you can make something useful from horseshit – compost for your garden LMAO!!!
March 20, 2009 2:24 PM
$D$ said…
Always interesting posts around here. I am actually disappointed though because I was hoping for an update on something you were working on for some of your readers. Also, a while back you were going to post about some kind of alleged change going on with google…something having to do with social networking or something…
…are those topics dead?
March 20, 2009 2:27 PM
Grizzly said…
Lorecee,
From what I’ve seen SBI uses all the same techniques developed by the MLM crowd. The cheerleaders, the push to sell the program, the language used, the guilt tactics etc. Glad you escaped – a little poorer perhaps but a lot wiser.
March 20, 2009 2:37 PM
Grizzly said…
Paul,
Lol. I suppose I could turn that around – since the failure rate is probably 99% the ones shelling out $300 will fail just as often as the people not spending the money. Whether people fail or not – I sleep well knowing I didn’t cause them to spend any money on something unnecessary.
I do agree with you on one point – the people who make it online will do it in spite of all obstacles and the rest won’t regardless of whether they spend money or not.
March 20, 2009 2:46 PM
Paul said…
“I suppose I could turn that around – since the failure rate is probably 99% the ones shelling out $300 will fail just as often as the people not spending the money.”
My point exactly. Everything is relative and it comes down to will.
March 20, 2009 2:49 PM
Grizzly said…
Terry again – you snuck one in on me. lol.
MPAM, Roadmap to Riches, GDI, and god knows how many others I have forgotten about are all the same. Selling programs for huge gobs of money in order to sell the program to others for huge gobs of money. Send $5 to five people and have 5 people send you $5 bucks… sound familiar?
March 20, 2009 2:51 PM
Shaun Connell said…
SBI is actually a program I’d have my mom use if she was going to start a website. It’s not too technical, and explains what she needs to do step by step.
However, my brother is going to start a website dealing with sports, and I told him not to try SBI because he doesn’t need to.
I think it depends on the person, and how much hand-holding and baby-steps they need. But yeah, the $75 residual affiliate program pretty much obliterates the objective reviews.
March 20, 2009 2:55 PM
Shaun said…
BTW, I tried SBI out about a year ago. I signed up, built a website with crappy articles and determined that it was great for noobs, but it was just damn annoying for me because I already had the tools.
That said, I would totally support SBI for noobs if ONLY THEY GAVE MORE NICHE ADVICE. At the time I used it, the niche-picking advice was pure bull shit, and they were implying that you could built a full time income if you were writing about Kite flying in Arkansas.
March 20, 2009 2:59 PM
Grizzly said…
Shaun,
I’d send my Mom to Blogger and then tell her to read my site.
March 20, 2009 2:59 PM
Grizzly said…
$D$,
Nope not dead – still working on them. Can’t post till I have it all figured out and I still have to get my little “Im In” project off the ground.
March 20, 2009 3:08 PM
Nick said…
Hey Grizz,
Usually one of those peeps that reads in the background and doesn’t comment. I’ll pop up a post over the weekend – needed to update the site anyhow, so gives me good chance to do. Totally wrong what that Ken guy does and the Matt guy calling Vic an idiot made me laugh (in the SBI forum).
Think it might be good to open a thread at TAA if you still have access?
March 20, 2009 3:23 PM
MJ said…
Yup,
SBI is finally getting hit by the “honest marketing movement”. People who aren’t trying to charge you money and are giving you the truth.
Love the initiative Griz. Everyday we complain about this but we never do anything. Now we can get more people involved and help people avoid scams.
Again, the issue is not “Is SBI a scam?” it is “SBI is no longer useful”. Blogger blogs are good enough to start learning and making cash.
PS. Hopefully “I’m in” is going well.
March 20, 2009 3:31 PM
Best Blog in the World for the Mediocre said…
Nah, I get my money back for everything. The last thing I bought without asking for a refund, I think, was around the time of the Vic/Ebay/Bans fiasco. I kept BMD and am glad I did. I kept BANS and wish I hadn’t. And replaced BANS with StoreStacker and was glad I did.
splork
March 20, 2009 3:32 PM
Paul said…
Griz,
Do you remember why I said I didn’t like this post? Well, guess what… I am getting hate messages now for having the audacity to iterate my opinion.
Now tell me… how are people who do this any better than the “cheerleaders”?
And yeah, for people who did it… for God’s sake, get a life… if you still can. Although I doubt that any reasonable human being would get close to you in real life.
Cheers.
March 20, 2009 5:19 PM
Grizzly said…
Paul
Don’t sweat it – comes with having an opinion online. I’m getting them too. All anonymous, ill formed and vitriolic. I have long since come to accept it as part of the online world. It’s easy for people to hide behind a computer and show their real personalities. Just hit delete – I do.
March 20, 2009 5:40 PM
Internet Marketing Online said…
Thanks for the link Griz.
This morning, I had 1 comment by Lis and went away for the afternoon and came back with more comments.
Like I mentioned in my comments, my opinion is still the same and SBI is not for me. If SBIer love the centralization, so be it.
Paul: I’m sorry you had hate email when you are not used to it. That’s stupid when you voice an opinion. I was lucky because I did not have them.
Look, I’m selling MyStarterBlog on my site(I know, I should upgrade it lol ) and did not pay $300 to do that. Then again, I’m more technical aware than most people
splork: You know what? My site still earn me passive money thus not a fiasco for me
March 20, 2009 6:01 PM
Lis Sowerbutts said…
Guys I am speechless and even a little teary! I approved all the comments on my blog to date but I am having the weekend – I am kinda over SBI to be honest and have some dancing to do and some money making sites to build but I feel that we are going to have some good info on page#1 for the next searcher! Thanks one and all and particularly GRizz
March 20, 2009 6:50 PM
Grizzly said…
Hey Lis,
Enjoy the dancing.
Steve McGrath’s post is mentioned in the article – is there another Steve that I missed?
March 20, 2009 6:59 PM
RT Cunningham said…
Lorecee,
If you see this, I have an offer you simply can’t refuse. Really. Just drop me a line at the site linked (on the contact form linked in the footer of the page) and ignore everything there to read if you’re interested. Oh, I’m not selling you anything.
March 20, 2009 7:08 PM
Toolboxhero said…
@ Paul
I like this post and I wish more people would expose the MLM scams out there for making money online. I wasted my money and at least six months of my time “learning” all the “great” information from SBI and HyperVRE only to find out that the sites built from these two scams are worthless even with backlinks. I have made 10 times more money in the last 4 months reading Griz’s free site than I made from 4 YEARS of “learning” from the MLM sites masquerading as real ways to make money online.
The secret I have found is if they grab your email for free stuff, then ask for 29, 47, 97, or 199 dollars for the “secret” way to make millions, get thousands of visitors, or buy a house in Palm Beach on the “squeeze page” it most likely is a scam!
March 20, 2009 10:11 PM
Booboo said…
GDI. I was a victim..recruit of Tim Sebert. Yeah I was a super noob and bought in on his “Sign up under me and I’ll give you 1000 free leads!” BS.
That’s what transformed me into a BITTER noob. So bitter, if I find an adsense ad that I’m actually interested in, I copy the damn URL instead of clicking it lmao
But that was like 2 years ago. At least it only cost $10/month, not $300/year like this SBI scam.
After browsing their forum, thanks Lis(it’s Lis not Liz right? lol) I found that the Doctor is excellent at controlling his people. Even those that don’t make money, and ADMIT IT, actually still suck up to him like he’s Jesus or something. I mean FFS, you aren’t making any money and you “appreciate all he has done”? What a sheep. Here’s the post incase it gets deleted by the SBI clean up guys. (reminds me of studiotraffic and their forum, which I got banned from so many times lol)
http://i43.tinypic.com/14vl376.jpg
The only thing I don’t like about Lis’ post, on site build it scam review, is that it’s taken hours away from my own link building
March 21, 2009 12:08 AM
Max Wolf said…
Make money online beginners, some of whom may have a site and be wanting to build it, will do well to read this thread.
I would also suggest reading Lis Sowerbutts’ Site Build It Scam Review.
March 21, 2009 12:42 AM
CashCrate Scam said…
Damn Grizz – I just checked out “(insert website here) scam” in google and checked the backlinks of the top sites expecting it to a fairly competitive term and what do you know – none of them have even a single backlink that’s worth a damn! None of them know what they’re doing! Amazing! Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
March 21, 2009 8:31 AM
Vijay Agarwal said…
Hi Griz,
Thanx for you great posts about SEO and Adsense.
I am sure you may have heard by now that Google is going to launch “interest-based advertising” and says that we have to update our privacy policy. Can you help me and other blogger to find out what should be added to privacy policy of sites and blog hosted on blogger and elsewhere.
Thanx,
Vijay Agarwal
March 21, 2009 9:10 AM
Max Wolf said…
Hi, Grizz, I’m sure you know how it is: cold, dark winter… falling asleep in the den last night seemed like a good idea.
I’m up now.
Thanks for stopping by.
March 21, 2009 10:01 AM
Do Not Buy Site Build It said…
Hi Griz,
Feeling lucky that I did not drink the SBI swill. I almost bought into it, but Ken’s sales pages and the relentless email spamming by his company sent me screaming the other way. Once SBI got ahold of my email account, I had to just shut the email down.
March 21, 2009 1:39 PM
MITB said…
Sorry to get off topic but I have a quick question regarding “smart pricing”
I noticed I’m getting smart priced…how do I get out of it?
TIA
-MITB
March 21, 2009 7:43 PM
Grizzly said…
MITB,
If you have more than one site using Adsense you have to remove Adsense from the poorly performing site or sites. Finding it/them can be tricky but if you just added Adsense to a new site and noticed a drop in CPC across all your sites then the new site is the problem.
If you are not sure you have been smart priced then remove Adsense from all sites – wait a week and then add it back on one site at a time starting with the site you know you have the best targeted traffic to. Wait a few days before adding another site (3-4 days in between) and watch the CPC on the best site. If it doesn’t drop then the new addition is likely fine. Keep adding sites until you see a drop. If a drop occurs then the last site added is the problem.
A word of caution – Adsense has gone through several changes since Feb 14 and is still a bit wonky. Everyone has seen a drop in ctr and cpc this past month due to the recent changes – my stats are down 10 – 15% of what they were but are slowly rising back to normal. If you just noticed problems this past month I would recommend being patient as the new Adsense algorithm is still being ironed out – or so it appears. G isn’t saying much but there are problems.
March 21, 2009 7:58 PM
MITB said…
Thanks Griz for the quick reply, my current situation is that this Adsense account has been used with multiple “revenue sharing” type article sites in the past and basically screwed myself over for not implementing any Adsense channel tracking.
Using your advice, the only way I can excluded these unknown placement of Adsense ads which is probably causing the “smart pricing” is by “allowing” only one site of mines that don’t have any Adsense ads. This will (hopefully) then stop tracking on all other Adsense ads effecting my account. Correct me if I’m wrong.
I’ll leave the setting as so for a week and add one site @ a time like you said.
Thanks again!
-MITB
March 21, 2009 8:46 PM
Massage Technique Therapist said…
Thanks Griz,
I knew quite a while ago that SBI was not the way for me, and then I came across your blog which made me more self assured and justified that I didn’t have to part with $300 bucks to make money online.
Meanwhile, Sensei Griz, what happened to your pagerank? I alson noticed that it happened to mine at about the same time (see my blog: http://massagetechnique.blogspot.com).
I’m very puzzled, confused, and concerned that you haven’t said something about all this up until now.
If you don’t have a response to this then, we your devote followers (i.e, sharing this same problem) are lost for answers. You will be leaving us at the mercy of people like SBI. PLEASE HELP!
March 21, 2009 8:55 PM
Grizzly said…
MITB,
That’s how I do it – it’s a slow tedious process but there is no other way.
March 21, 2009 8:59 PM
Grizzly said…
Massage Therapist,
I covered the Page Rank slap when it happened.
Read;
http://makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com/2009/01/making-money-online-anonymously.html
March 21, 2009 9:05 PM
Grizzly said…
Anon… lol
March 21, 2009 11:52 PM
Wendy said…
I checked out Lissie’s post and it seemed harmless to me. So WHEN is it so wrong to have an opinion? Idiot people who site behind monitors are usually the same ones in “real” life who wouldn’t have the nerve to say what they think face-to-face. Cowards are all they are!
Did you check out her follow-up post? Sounds like she has been put through the ringer by the SBI followers. Good thing she sounds like a tough lady. Others would have crumbled under the pressure.
Update on Site Build It Scam Post
The Computer Lady
March 22, 2009 2:44 AM
Norman Sheppard said…
All I have to say is… WOW.
March 22, 2009 2:50 AM
Abhishek said…
Thanks Grizzly, Although I would never have joined SBI in any case (can’t spend that ) but I would let my friends know.
Also, since I am kinda new (Sorry, I know you must have been asked this Ques. thousands of time) but how do I go about your sites.
I mean should I randomly start reading or is there a specific pattern/order to the posts in which I should read them.
Thanks
Abhishek
March 22, 2009 8:35 AM
Booboo said…
Left something at vic’s site. http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/1871/lolgooglebomb.jpg

And lol, one of my hubpages is being attacked for including site build it as a a scam example.
March 22, 2009 10:19 AM
Trent said…
Griz,
I have been in the shadows reading and learning (lurking) for quite some time and it’s strange that this topic has brought me out.
I see you get praise and compliments all the time but….
I run my own service oriented business and have done so for over 10 years now. Your site has taught me quite a bit about SEO and Link Building and has helped me rank high in the serps for my local service businesses keywords which has really helped since some of my customers are closing their doors.
In my spare time, I have also begun building a network to make money based on the knowledge I have gained from my business experience. Hey, a guys gotta make money while on vacation.
Thanks for all you do Griz!!
Now, about this post and Lis’ post. I have throughly enjoyed this and I really cracked up at Vic’s video. I always pull for the underdog, so way to go Lis!
One thing this post has really opened my eyes to is the power of friends. I am so used to running my own stuff and not depending on others, that I pretty much ignored your advice to join the Niche Support -
http://makemoneyonlinegrizzly.com/niche-support/
but now I may have to re-think that.
This has been a powerful demonstration of Niche Support.
Thanks All and keep up the good work.
Trent (By the way, Trent is my online name..sorta like Grizzly)
March 22, 2009 11:10 AM
Anonymous said…
SBI is like 10 years old, and it worked great 10 years ago. I didn´t even know it´s still active and selling.
March 22, 2009 11:37 AM
Grizzly said…
Everyone,
If you want to see someone very entertaining watch Allen Hane’s Video regarding SBI.
Site Build It Video Review
If I had his charisma I would do Video…
March 22, 2009 12:16 PM
Trent said…
Griz,
Another good video (and drinking a beer..great stuff).
This video calls out SBI as “Bullshit”, so I checked out “Site Build It is Bullshit” on the Big G and my datacenter has this order:
1. Allyn’s – Bloggerillustrated
2. Vic’s – Bloggerunleashed
3. Grizzly’s – Makemoneyforbeginners
Good work,
Trent
March 22, 2009 12:44 PM
Allyn said…
Griz,
thanks a bunch for your comments about my vid and for the links too. I am very honored to call you “friend.”
Just so you know, I am taking notes on this whole thing too because it is fun to see what happens with Make Money Online folks get all up in a tizzy. The traffic to my little known, rarely advertised blog is off the charts. Fun Fun!
Sometimes it is fun to come out of the shadows and hurl some mud! LMAO especially when defending a friend like Lissy.
Yes, Site Build It is Crap!
AL
March 22, 2009 2:00 PM
Anonymous said…
Variations of selling people what they don’t need or could have had it done free are still aplenty.
Reminds me of this guy in warrior forum who duped mom and pop stores in his town to pay him $300 for “SEO services” which he gleefully tells people it’s just rewriting site title, adding keyword tags, and content description or some shizz like that which took him all of 5 minutes to do.
What disgusted me even more were other people congratulating on his brilliant scam to con small time shopkeepers of their hard earned cash and egging him to do a WSO.
mbm
March 22, 2009 8:51 PM
Anonymous said…
Hey Griz!
Great post. I saw someone post one of the SBI success stores called VacuumWizard.
Can anyone say link farming? The guy paid to have a bunch of vacuum blogs created then he linked them all together.
Maybe you could do your next post about link farming, using that site as an example. Maybe we could get them banned from Google as well. Just for the stupidity of having a link farmed site used as an example.
March 23, 2009 12:02 AM
Online Sports Betting said…
Griz,
Maybe a month ago I ran across a couple of posts either here or at one of your other sites mentioning SEO Elite as your program of choice for link building research and campaign management.
So I decided to get myself a copy. I didn’t pay for it; I just took advantage of an email offer from Callen on something he wanted an affiliate commission offer for. I cancelled on the thing anyway; it was outrageously overpriced.
Anyway, I did a SEOElite link analysis on one of my domains, and noticed that a good number of links were missing from the final report. I was pretty aggressive in my settings for the report – 500+ results from all the available engines.
I realize G isn’t going to give even a fraction of links it actually knows about, but I thought Yahoo would. The final listing is missing a considerable number of good links with relevant anchors from pages devoted to my topic. Surely this must happen to you too. So what do you do when you see this happen?
March 23, 2009 9:45 AM
BK said…
above
Let G find its own farms
BK
March 23, 2009 11:00 AM
Fiar | Political Satire said…
Maybe we could get them banned from Google as well. Just for the stupidity of having a link farmed site used as an example.
I don’t think so. This exercise was a clinic in SEO, viral marketing, anchored links from relevant pages. A great learning experience, and it served a purpose of bringing balance to the search results for site build it, site build it scam, site build it review, is site build it a scam, etc.
Why get a site deindexed. That serves no purpose. If you really want to bring a site down, make one (or two, or three) of your own and outrank it. You will have accomplished something, and learned something in the process. You will be enriched by the competition and experimenting.
Don’t be like the assholes on Digital Point that have nothing better to do than to tear others down because they have no sense of accomplishment on their own. Do something that achieves something.
March 23, 2009 1:11 PM
Rodiggedy said…
Wow! Being an SBIer (Yup, I fell for it), I can say I’ve seen things from both ends. What I’ll say is that SBI does preach content, content, content, when they really should be preaching “content,and links, links, links”.
After plugging away for a year and a half on SBI and not having made back my subscription money I followed Vic on building Bans sites. I’ve already made back my SBI subscription cost AND the cost of the buildanichestore software from ONE SINGLE BANS SITE.
Now I have eleven..haha
Anyways, I would advise folks to simply gather all the free info they can get (I’ve gone through and read every single post from Grizz) and am well on my way.
You don’t need SBI.
March 23, 2009 3:22 PM
LarryG said…
Grizz, I don’t know if you are still following this thread, but I figured I’d post this anyway. While this whole exercise has been kind of fun, I think it proves something else. There was no black magic invloved in the response from your readers to the SBI scam, Lissie and several others were vaulted to a top spot virtually overnight due to one thing…backlinks.
For those of you that follow this blog, but don’t believe…here is your proof.
What is amazing to me is that it occured so quickly. I am surprised that their bots picked up on this activity so quickly.
Also, if you haven’t checked it out, Lissie gave you an excellent reference over at the new hubpage she stood up.
Rock on!
March 23, 2009 10:04 PM
stroga said…
Griz,
This is not directly related to SBI discussion, but you are easier to reach on comments than email
anyways, saw this new video released by Google about how their advertising program works:

thought I’d pass it along. Also hoping that you’d be better at understanding what it means to the publisher (if anything) than I am
March 23, 2009 10:27 PM
Ben K said…
Lol, love it Grizz! Haha, controversy seems to follow you like a shadow these days. First today, then the SIB scam. Haha!
Yea, I agree, SIB is bull. I almost go sucked into it months ago. It seemed legit, right? Lot’s of gushing reviews selling SIB like it’s the second coming. I mean, that must mean It’s easy to earn a full time income online…just pay 300 a month, then book a one-way trip to the caymans… Thanks God I found your blog instead!
Keep on stirring it up Grizz!
Ben K.
March 23, 2009 10:52 PM
Terry Didcott said…
Maybe we could get them banned from Google as well. Just for the stupidity of having a link farmed site used as an example.
From an anonymous poster (what else?) That has to rate as the most moronic, ignorant and unbelievably stupid comment I’ve seen on this blog and I’m surprised Griz let it go.
You obviously haven’t understood a single thing that has gone on here and if that’s your way of dealing with sites you don’t like, then you probably never will.
It’s just the kind of thick skinned, holier than thou wankers with that shit attitude that cause untold hassle for legit site owners who have their sites torn down for no good reason except they were maybe competing with someone or to cause bloody minded mischief.
Fiar made a good point that if you want to beat a site into submission, then outrank it with SEO and prove that you know what you are doing.
People who take the coward’s way out by reporting sites to Google ought to be aware that it doesn’t take much to make a mistake and leave a trail. And anyone that gets caught doing it had better not own a site or sites of their own, because you know what is said about people who live in glass houses…
March 24, 2009 8:18 AM
Grizzly said…
Terry,
I had planned on rebutting the comment but Fiar and now you beat me to it. Nothing to add – we are all here to help people – not hurt them. Thanks guys.
March 24, 2009 8:42 AM
Anonymous said…
Hey
what do you think of the last comment here
http://www.freedomideas.com/infolinks-review/#comments
thanks
Lyn
March 24, 2009 10:18 AM
Grizzly said…
Lyn,
I don’t really want to start another flame war over a beginner learning the ropes – the blogger in question has already had his friends out a number of his niches and as a result his methods have been outed as well. Not cool. To his credit he does actually work at this which is more than most. His claims are suspect at best but no different than most who fake it to make it. Just leave him be.
March 24, 2009 10:42 AM
How To Make Money Online said…
Thanks for your post about the BIGGEST Fake Online Business. You saving our times and money. Thanking you.
March 24, 2009 1:08 PM
How To Buy A Dinosaur said…
So you’re using Twitter now, Grizz? Is this part of some complex money-making scheme, or are you just doing it for the hell of it?
- Adam #2
March 24, 2009 1:31 PM
Jonny said…
Hey Griz,
1st time getting involved, great stuff! Tried SbI myself at the beginning of my online journey and wasted a good few months on it before realising how crap it was!
I read on one of your posts for your readers to ask you before trying any of your advertised services, are any of the ‘buying backlink’ services (whylink – linkxl) worth using to get some good backlinks built up?
Cheers
Jonny
March 24, 2009 6:31 PM
Toban said…
I recently wrote an extensive and very critical review of SBI; maybe you could add it into your post! A Negative Review Of Site Build It
March 24, 2009 6:37 PM
Grizzly said…
Hey Jonny,
They all work to one degree or another depending on how you use them and what sites you use them for. The only one I recommend without reservations (meaning you need some prior SEO knowledge) is ConnectContent. The owner and users are all experienced and you can’t screw the system up if you are a beginner and you will get proper advice from the people involved.
March 24, 2009 6:39 PM
Grizzly said…
Adam,
Feedburner is not very good at sending out the RSS feed and a number of people have mentioned that my posts are ancient by the time they find out about them so I thought I would give Twitter a try to keep people in the loop faster. Aside from that I don’t have a clue what use it could be for. Hell I don’t really get it – how come people follow 10,000 others? How the heck could you care or even keep track? Don’t answer – I don’t want to know! lol.
March 24, 2009 7:26 PM
$D$ said…
Griz,
I noticed that RT updated the Connect Content to make it more user friendly. I haven’t logged in in a while but only because I’m not sure if the niches that are close to my niche are close enough, if that makes sense. They’re kind of a “loose fit” I think.
Just wish the network was bigger. Have you ever thought of importing the niche page into CC?
March 24, 2009 9:27 PM
Janetra said…
Hi
Made a hub at http://hubpages.com/hub/Site-Build-it—a-Lesson-in-SEO with anchor text ‘Site Build It Review’ for Lis’s post. Can we get her on page 1 with Griz and Vic?
Jonny I recently signed up for ConnectContent and it really is great. Very easy to use and I now have lots of relevant in text links to my sites. I can recommend it.
March 24, 2009 9:32 PM
Lorecee said…
I’ve been using ConnectContent for two months. I thought I was working some pretty obscure niches but I’ve had relevant responses to everything, and fast too. I make a habit of giving a little more than I get over there, and it’s worked out great for me.
March 24, 2009 10:56 PM
Stephen said…
Geez, Grizz,
Guess I’m a bit late to the SBI review party, eh?
Anyway, just shot you a brief email tonight ( look for “Lissie & Site build it review” in the header) to let you know that I got around to throwing something up on a site of mine that I just revived. Link is in my comment ID.
Cheers
March 25, 2009 1:34 AM
Joe said…
I read somewhere saying that the only reason you can earn a lot from Google Adsense is because you are one of Google’s employees lol. Sometimes people just can’t accept facts so they create stupid stories to either ease their minds or to cheat others.
March 25, 2009 5:54 AM
Kim said…
Hey Griz,
This is totally off topic but I didn’t want to send you an email because you’d probably never get around to it. Some people have mentioned wanting a tracking spreadsheet to manage their network of blogs. I’ve got something that I find pretty effective, and I’d be happy to share it. I’ll send you an email with Tracking Spreadsheet from Kim in the subject line. If you think it’s useful for your readers, I can give them the download link.
March 25, 2009 9:40 AM
Jonny said…
Thanks Griz and thanks Janetra, have got myself on Connect Content, for $12 per month its a no brainer!
March 25, 2009 8:59 PM
stroga said…
Kim:
can you send me a link? I’ve been looking for a system…
strogatel at yahoo dot com
thanks
March 25, 2009 9:31 PM
Carla said…
Hi Griz,
Just wanted to sneak in before your traffic got too heavy for the day and let you know that you have my hub linked twice above. The first link is an old title. I modified the title and content after the fact because I felt they needed to be a little more unbiased.
This has been a great exercise in seeing how rising tides lift all boats. People have been linking to the hub and I’m in turn giving them links, so everyone wins. Thanks, Teacher.
March 26, 2009 6:58 AM
Grey Brother said…
Hi Griz
I realize you’re busy posting comments all over the Internet and all, but Toban (or should that be To Ban ?) has just been banned, he left a comment on my SBI Review blog telling me he’s been banned from Steve Pavlina’s site for criticizing SBI. Lol. All very weird. I’m beginng to wonder just who this mysterious To Ban is?
March 26, 2009 5:19 PM
Yogesh Bailwal said…
Hi Griz,
I have been working online for quiet some time now and reached here accidentally while I was looking for something on ‘ghosts’.
I too was interested in SBI because it offers so many tools but $300 kept me apart, but I’ve never thought that it was a scam, for the tools it offers, yes, it is true for those who are not able to make any money out the program.
Well, I’ve spent a lot of time here, because every word you write is clear and simple, without forcing anyone to do anything.
Hope, to be a frequent visitor, to read more posts and latest updates from you.
I’m also following you on twitter.
March 27, 2009 8:37 AM
MI5 said…
Hey Griz,
I am one of those noobs you have saved forking out $300…..for which Im eternally grateful.
I have read a lot around your site/linked sites, and found a WEALTH of information…..to the extent where its becoming overwhelming.
Do you have a ‘crib’ sheet with simple points on how to get a site running and profitable, with the basic SEO techniques and the whole shabang in one place?
If you dont, this would be an excellent addition for noobs who can use it as a springboard to get up and running before they sink their teeth into the meat of your site/s. This would certainly further your cause.
Maybe an SBI alternative – Griz style, is the call of the day, as Im sure all you wunnerful guys and gals have disuaded a lot of noobs from SBI…..who are now in no mans land trying desperately not to get shot by the other marketing baddies, or who are just plainly put off by any MMO stuff !
BTW, Griz, have you reviewed any of the schemes like 30daychallenge, etc?
It would be great to hear what you think.
How about setting up something similar where you put up a challenge and guide a group through the process?
@Lorecee
Your review and comments certainly affected my decision not to buy SBI…so a BIG thank you to you!
@ALL
Anyone with enough time to guide me through setting up a profitable site? This would make a great refernece for sure.
MI5
March 28, 2009 6:20 AM
MI5 said…
Hey Griz,
I am one of those noobs you have saved forking out $300…..for which Im eternally grateful.
I have read a lot around your site/linked sites, and found a WEALTH of information…..to the extent where its becoming overwhelming.
Do you have a ‘crib’ sheet with simple points on how to get a site running and profitable, with the basic SEO techniques and the whole shabang in one place?
If you dont, this would be an excellent addition for noobs who can use it as a springboard to get up and running before they sink their teeth into the meat of your site/s. This would certainly further your cause.
Maybe an SBI alternative – Griz style, is the call of the day, as Im sure all you wunnerful guys and gals have disuaded a lot of noobs from SBI…..who are now in no mans land trying desperately not to get shot by the other marketing baddies, or who are just plainly put off by any MMO stuff !
BTW, Griz, have you reviewed any of the schemes like 30daychallenge, etc?
It would be great to hear what you think.
How about setting up something similar where you put up a challenge and guide a group through the process?
@Lorecee
Your review and comments certainly affected my decision not to buy SBI…so a BIG thank you to you!
@ALL
Anyone with enough time to guide me through setting up a profitable site? This would make a great refernece for sure.
MI5
March 28, 2009 6:20 AM
Stephen said…
@ MI5 -
“Anyone with enough time to guide me through setting up a profitable site? This would make a great refernece for sure.”
If you are looking for some guidance you have acouple of options; you could try the tutorials that Grizz set up here somewhere in the past or more conveniently, you could go and check out Grizz’s new Today . com blog about making money with adsense : makemoneywithadsense . today . com/ (that is if you haven’t done sio already)
Good Luck!
March 28, 2009 4:36 PM
Rhys said…
Hi Griz
Took a while to figure out how to work in a link to Lis’s post, but finally found a rational connection with How to Get Listed Twice in the Top Ten
Cheers – Rhys
April 03, 2009 6:36 AM
Kris said…
Hi Griz,
I own a Home Decor small business and was looking at building a site. I was close to buying SBI since I have little experience. What do you recomend?
April 05, 2009 6:29 PM
Blogercise said…
I totally agree to the extent that I put my money where my mouth is and also set up a free simple guide to building a site from scratch.
As an industry professional (I am employed by one of the larger UK .com sites) I get frustrated by the many schemes that are being sold that offer no more information than that which is freely available through excellent resources such as this site or my own.
April 07, 2009 9:50 AM
Scott Pelletier said…
Griz , I have been folowing every tip on your blogs and for the keyword heavy duty truck I can not get listed at all I have been at it for two months now. Can you please help? I have been creating backlinks with a couple of blogs but for some reason am not getting anywere.
April 14, 2009 12:52 PM
Ray said…
I’m weighing in two months late here, I realize, but I can give you a firsthand, and slightly different, perspective on the fraud that is Site Build It! and Steve Pavlina — a philosophical perspective. I just finished a one year stint with that crew.
I dig your blog, by the way. It’s my first time here.
June 07, 2009 4:40 PM
Thomas said…
Unfortunately, I paid for SBI before you wrote this. All I found online were affiliate reviews and being a total n00b, I got had. Bunch of assholes. Ripped me off. I thought I was going to be able to make a real website.
July 03, 2009 10:33 AM
Alex Newell said…
I only just found your blog but I wish I’d seen an honest review of SBI before I wasted $300 on it.
I had to threaten them with legal action to stop the automatic renewal kicking in.
Their cheerleaders, as you call them, create so much noise it is difficult for newcomers to hear anything else.
Keep up the good work!

Alex
July 07, 2009 4:07 PM
Lina said…
Hi there,
I don’t know what made me look up SBI on google. I wish I had done it 6 months ago. Perhaps I would have found you back then and saved myself a lot of grief and a lot of money. (more than the $400 I spent on 1 site plus a bonus site) Alas, I am a victim of SBI hype. Thanks for enlightening those of us who are stupid enough or desperate enough to learn how to make money online. I am going to try and save myself any further anguish and pull myself out.
July 21, 2009 4:18 PM
Anonymous said…
I know there are thousands of comments already, but I just want to throw in my 2 cents.
It was difficult, but I just wanted to find some negative reviews ANYWHERE about SiteBuildIt. At first I just typed in “SiteBuildIt scam” into Google. It would have been okay if nothing relevant came up, but plenty of negative reviews came up. BUT THEY WERE ALL TRICKS…EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM WAS ACTUALLY A POSITIVE REVIEW!!!
That sent the red flags up. So, I go to YouTube and type in “SiteBuildIt scam.” Again, every video claiming that SBI was a scam or pleading with me not to buy it, ultimately tried to tell me how wonderful it was.
At this point, it’s no longer about whether or not I’m going to buy SBI. No, it has become a personal obsession to find a single, honest negative review.
I finally found Lissie’s post. Then the comments. Then, finally, actual negative reviews by people who are either in (so far as i can tell) a position to judge the product without using it OR dissatisfied previous users.
At this point, I lean heavily towards not buying it. First of all, I have skills in HTML, CSS, JAVASCRIPT, XML and classic ASP. I’ve looked at PHP, and it will just require a new vocabulary.
What I don’t have are SEO skills, and that is what I thought SBI brought to the table. And, perhaps it does. But, it seems better to learn that the same way I learned all the scripting languages.
But the false negative reviews are what really push me away from the product. That and a poster here speaking of having to shut down an email address due to almost signing up with SBI. Spamming me with email when I’m trying to make a decision about your product is a no-no in my book.
Anyways, I’m glad you allow anonymous comments. Cheers.
–Will
September 17, 2009 12:40 AM
Anonymous said…
I don’t have a lot to say. Most of it has been said but thank you so much for your honest review on site build it. I was looking for an honest review Lissie’s post that lead me to yours. Your blog will help save people a lot of money. Keep doing you.
October 13, 2009 8:31 PM
Joe Trent said…
Sorry I’m late to the party here. My 4 year old SBI site only makes a $100 per month. Glad I found your blog so I can start getting de-programmed from the SBI cult.
I’ve started a blog to share my pathetic SBI experience with others so hopefully they don’t have to get screwed out of 4 years of their life like me. http://my-sbi-experience.blogspot.com/
January 22, 2010 3:59 AM
lynx said…
I was tricked into buying SBI,then I have two choices ,thinking I don’t need to do anything else rather than fold my hands and watch traffics and money roll in,but it was a LIE.The product is actually selling because of its affiliates potential not the working potentials.
February 12, 2010 10:59 AM
amit said…
i was also interested in buying SBI because it was providing all the solutions.cost was so high so i have not brought it
March 24, 2010 1:19 PM
David said…
Hi Grizzly,
Here’s a nice new post for you. I signed up with SBI about two months ago but coulbdn’t find the time to dedicate to watching their very long and laboured (I’m English, that’s how we spell it!) videos, I have a real world job, so it all kind of went on the back burner. THEN I got notification that my monthly subcriptoin had left my account so I decided I had better get up to speed with the system. They continually talk about “the road” but as far as I can tell they just keep putting up road blocks. “Brainstorm It” is a nightmare because it just keeps throwing figures at you that I personally cannot make or tail of, and after spending hours entering seed words and trying to analyse the results they then tell you not to get bogged down by the figures and to use your intuition, well, if I’d done that in the first place I would have had a fully operational website by now.
I logged into the forum to look for some advice and this when I really started to have doubts about staying on the SBI road. I checked some of the posters sites and was shocked. These people had obviously paid the same money as me but I could not see how they can possibly be making any money. Some of these sites were just simple hobby sites but some were the result of what I shall nickname “Niche Research Overkill”. The owners had drilled down so far into ther chosen idea that the result was a completely random and bizarre niche. Maybe it’s me, am I not fully understanding the concept of what a niche really is and what a website is for?
One of your previous posters mentioned the hyphenated domain names many of the site owners chose, well I can confirm that this practice is rife. I heard some years ago that hyphenated domain names should be avoided so I wonder why there are so many on SBI, my suspicion is that it is simply to retain the .com at the end.
I am what everyone in internet marketing calls a newb (noob) but I learn masses everyday, I have 5 sites online of various types all put up in the traditional way and all bearing advertising. I did not need to sign up with any affiliate scheme to do it and of course it will take time before they make any money. I have a feeling that I will not be renewing my SBI. In the time it takes me to read SBI tutorials and watch the videos I could have put another couple of sites up.
This is just my experience and opinion so I hope you will all use your own judgement.
March 27, 2010 6:54 AM
Anonymous said…
hehe David. …. well if you can’t figure out Brainstorm it , then try market samari or other cool keyword products – but you’re just going to have to learn to analyze stats for keywords in this business (unless you want to fly blind) … so best for you to just keep your day job.
September 18, 2010 4:34 PM
Traffic Ticket Guru said…
Hi Griz, as a newcomer to your blog which was highly recommended by a friend of yours, I’d first like to say I really appreciate all the great info you post. Here is my SBI story and it’s not so bad and I don’t so much dislike SBI but I do agree you don’t need it to make money. I had up to four sites at one point because I bought during their annual xmas 2 4 1 sale. Seemed like a good deal at the time, that was back at xmas of I think 2007.
I didn’t buy the first two sites necessarily to make online income. I originally wanted a web site for my offline property maint business and didn’t want to rely on a web master to make changes for me. So I bought the site and got about learning from their videos which were ok and if there was anything that I liked about the learning process was that I learned a good deal of HTML coding, although not from them as they do not assist you, you have to go to the forum for that. Mind you I always had quick responses from other members.
I built my site lordofthegrass.com (no longer exists as I dumped it for a cheaper go daddy site with a .ca and am in the process of selling the business because as much as I love riding around on a mower making 75 bucks an hour, it takes up a lot of my time.) It was a decent site to learn on but I eventually realized I didn’t need to spend that much. I was never into selling the SBI product and didn’t really get into adsense etc until a short time ago.
To make a long story short I am back down to 2 sites. One for my wife’s offline but now online business http://www.designed-to-sell-homestaging.com/ and the other for my online traffic ticket site http://www.trafficticketguru.com/
I am in the process of converting my wife’s site to a smaller web site with a linking blog and for now am just keeping guru with them as the site does make enough profit that it doesn’t warrant me transferring the content domain name yet. So I just chalk up the 300 beans to a business deduction.
So my point being, it was ok for the time that I bought it but now there are just so many low cost options out there that it’s just not worth it. The skills I’ve learned about seo etc didn’t come from them, I found their learning curve too shallow and started seeking out the legits to learn faster and now use my skills to help small and med sized business to properly develop a web presence and wean them off conventional advertising.
I am now concentrating more on adsense and affiliate stuff and learning quickly. It’s amazing all the wrong things I was doing.
So SBI….don’t hate it….just don’t really need it.
Larry Stefanuik
www.trafficticketguru.com
September 27, 2010 1:09 AM
Anonymous said…
I’ve just come across this discussion and as a past SBI purchaser I have to agree with David.
I had an idea for a website and came across SBI and got drawn in by all the hype. I had already done weeks of research on the internet to see what the competition was for my website idea and it was looking like I had a good chance of getting traffic and ultimately making some money from it.
Until that is I ‘Brainstormed it’! What a total time consuming load of rubbish.
You can tell an SBI site a mile off. Most (but not all) have dreadful copy. This is because the analyse it function wants you to insert the chosen keyword for that page far too often.
SBI also tells you to keep building content, content, content and then you see websites with endless copy and unnecessary pages waffling on and often irrelevant to their chosen niche just to build up the content.
All SBI sites look the same, even when the three column lay out came in, and they all have the pages listed at the bottom which you don’t generally see on other websites but you do on all SBI sites.
And as for traffic? Well the examples that they give that are successful if you notice, do one hell of a lot off line too! Some are off the wall subjects anyway with very little competition so they are bound to get a captive audience.
SBI also for some reason recommends that your Domain name matches your keywords as this helps when people are searching for your subject. This is rubbish as the search engines will search on the pages more than the domain name. I have friends with very successful websites who’s domain names don’t relate to what the website is about.
I ended up with a hyphenated domain name which was quite long to explain what my site was about because that was what was advised only to find out afterwards that another site had been set up without the hyphens and was doing very well without them!!
I worked very hard on my site for a whole year doing everything they advised. I built lot’s of content, some of it really unnecessary just because they said you should. I had loads of relevant links and reciprocal links, Affiliate links, Google Adsense etc etc, but my traffic was rubbish. The only page I got to the top of Google for was for a long string keyword and that’s because the competition was low anyway!
There is far more to SEO than SBI make out. They make it all sound so easy and straight forward but there is so many more ways of getting traffic to a website that they just don’t go into but they should. Just following their advise alone will not get you to the top
I didn’t renew my annual subscription and built my site through WordPress in less than a month working on it in my spare time.I wasted a whole year waiting for results with SBI and after 3 months with WordPress I was steaming along.
As David said this is only my experience and opinion but I gave it a good trial and I think a fair trial with nothing in return.
September 27, 2010 8:14 AM
Anonymous said…
I was a total Noob. But I had an idea based on a field of work I had been involved with and already knew there was a buck in selling employment adds on a website to do with this, it was just that I hadn’t a clue about hatching the whole thing out into a website.
Sure enough, I get online and start searching under “building your own website”, and nanoseconds later I hit some SBI WANKER affiliate gushing-forth about how freaking great SBI is – went to the SBI site – I read all the beginner articles – and this IS definitely what gets the beginners suckered into SBI …it’s kinda creepy – SBI is like a predatory cult — your lost, haven’t a clue, wandering around and all these gee-ed-up-clowns are hanging around on the sidewalk shmoozing you into the ashram – they bombard you with what you are looking for (or what you think you’re looking for) – before you know it you’ve paid an overpriced $300 – and swallowed their schlock about “over delivering” – the only thing that gets over-delivered to you by SBI is their yearly cost – joke’s on you when you find out later how cheap it is to do what you’re trying to do with SBI in Joomla or WordPress – but hey…..suckers get swept away with Ken Evoy’s daughter’s website “Anguilia Beaches” –its like an SBI fairytale they burp-up every second paragraph in their fluff-up info articles…..
“Oh please, tell me the Anguilia Beaches story again….I just lovvvvve it sooo much” – “And they all lived happily ever after in their beachside castle”………well Ken Evoy and his family did…ditto for the rest of the SBI cheerleaders and noob suckers…..
Seriously folks — SBI is the internet version of Amway…anyone ever get ‘Amwayed”?? …ever had someone you know say to you “Hey I’ve got a business proposition I’d like to discuss with you” those Amway clowns were the equivalent of the Site-Build-It affiliate clowns….except SBI pays $75 commision per sale and that’s an annual recurring commission!! —
Here’s the thing — SBI can NOT do any of the functions I stupidly assumed it could – it’s old and antiquated – like the vitamins that Herbal-Life sells…..and not too dissimilar to their MLM system I might add ….Now I find that I will have to go and get another domain and get another host (for around $8 a month with more service and facilities and size than SBI’s triple the cost at $25) just to do shit that Joomla or WordPress can do pants-down!!! You SUCK SBI..
BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE – I now find out that – I DON’T OWN MY DOMAIN NAME!!! – SBI OWNS IT — All that sweat and research and deliberation over my domain name – and those pricks OWN IT…..imagine how jerked-off you’re gonna be if you get to a point where you’ve had enough of SBI’s useless functionality and then decide you’re moving house…you’ve got a cool domain name and good business and then you find you cant – cause did I mention it already??? SBI OWNS YOUR DOMAIN AND MAKES YOU PISS AROUND THE PERTUNIA PATCH TO GET IT FROM THEM….
I think this is the biggest “Bastard practice” they have……..
I want my domain – ahhh wait — it’s not mine!!!….bastards!!!!!
Oh well, over to Go-Daddy and thinking up another domain….
One last thing about SBI – their SBI-Forum or as it should be called the place for SBI seasoned cheerleaders to rip-off niche market ideas from newbies – it’s more incestuous than European royalty!!!
Don’t touch SBI with a barge pole people – avoid SBI groupies like you would those Hari-Krishna dickheads that gave out flowers at the airports all those years ago!
October 07, 2010 12:07 AM
Gina said…
Site Build it was ages ago. That’s when I first started trying to make money online. It had a bunch of videos that were kind of like a episode. I got bored because I couldn’t get to the step by step part.
A lot of the newer stuff out today is really good. Lots more people making use of Camtasia and showing you how to do the stuff right there and having good explanations. They may not be sophisticated, but they work.