I have to give a shout out to a reader for this review. Mona wrote me and requested more posts about building a web site with Site Build It! from Sitesell.com. She’s on the fence about purchasing the product and after a few email exchanges back and forth, I promised I would do a no holds barred Sitesell review.

Let’s get a few quick things out of the way:

• I do use SBI to create web sites, so this is a review by someone who actually uses the product, not just hopes to make affiliate income from it.
• I have also built web sites with other builders, like Frontpage, XSitePro, Nvu, easy builders that come with free or paid hosting plans, and Wordpress.
• Yes, SBI can be unwieldy; there are a lot of tools working together. What software isn’t though? Everything demands a learning curve.
• SBI is not a cult.

Quick backstory: I decided to become an internet marketer three years ago, when I was on bed rest for five months. My first site was built with Frontpage and after struggling with it for six months, I ended up selling it on eBay for $215.

Why? I picked a niche I was interested in (internet dating), learned about keywords, wasted a bunch of money with Google Adwords, wrote articles, promoted my site, did all the things I was told to do, and at the end of the day…I was still broke.

Why? Because I picked a niche I was interested in (internet dating) along with a few zillion other people; yes, I learned about keywords but not long tail keywords and surprisingly, “christian dating” is pretty much saturated; yes, I wrote articles (one), etc. etc.

So I hung up my internet marketing hat and tried eBay. Yuck (though it’s a money maker). Then I signed up to sell Swiss Botanical Skincare! Which I enjoyed for about two weeks. Mostly because I got to have weekly meetings at the local cafe with other fun moms and carry around a notebook. When I noticed that I was spending more time online trying to make my company cookie-cutter site unique with cool graphics and good keyword-loaded content, I thought it may be time to get back into the internet marketing game.

And that, kids, is when I rediscovered Site Build It! I had run across it before but didn’t want to shell out $300/year for anything (though I didn’t hesitate to give that to Google in a two month period - hmmm). This time I really took the time to read what SBI was about.

Truly, it was an “a-ha!” moment for me. Ken Evoy’s philosphy of CTPM (Content + Traffic + Preselling + Monetizing) just made sense. I knew “content was king” because I’d already built a site under the “content, schmontent” idea. Which only got me traffic I paid a bundle to get. So the hope of free traffic was exciting! I could also totally get on board with the Preselling concept, since I hate being a sales person. Making “recommendations,” not selling, worked for me. And monetizing? Heck…that was the whole reason I was on the internet to begin with, right?

I whipped out my credit card and cha-ching! I was the newest SBIer. (Okay, in truth, I spent a few more days doing research and reading reviews, but that was just due diligence.)

Would I buy SBI again if I could go back two years? Absolutely.

True, with Site Build It! I receive a whole suite of tools: web hosting, site builder, keyword research, one-click blogs and rss feeds, autoresponder, and a whole bunch of other gadgets.

But that’s stuff I can get anywhere, right? Of course. What I wouldn’t get anywhere else, though, is the education I’ve received with Sitesell. The knowledge I’ve gained from building my sites is information I can take with me anywhere, whether I’m loading up my XSitePro, starting up a blog, writing and submitting an article or just posting to forums. I know more about making a living on the internet than I ever did before and I have to credit Ken Evoy and Sitesell for that. I’ve also made new friends and business partners, written an ebook with other SBI-ing moms, won a couple graphics contests and learned an incredible amount, just from the private forums alone. All stuff well worth the price of admission.

Is SBI the only way to make money on the web? No. Is it the fastest way? Probably not. (The mascot is a turtle for a reason). Is it the best way? Maybe. That really depends on you. There are people every day making a full-time income with Site Build It! and others who still don’t have two nickels to rub together. Is that SBI’s fault, though? No. You could say the same about people who spent money on John Reese’s products or become Bum Marketers. At the end of the day, people can give you the tools and the knowledge, but it’s up to YOU to make it all come together.

For those that think SBIers are cultish, I have to laugh. It’s not, but you’d have to peek inside to believe that. None of us are ready to drink some special Canadian kool-aid at Mr. Evoy’s behest or bow our heads in prayer at an appointed time to worship Shelley, the Turtle God. SBI isn’t a perfect machine, but it is pretty well-oiled. And unlike a lot of other companies out there, when there are problems with the mechanics, the head honcho DOES pay attention.

Whether you choose to follow Site Build It! or not, the best advice I can give you is this: pick a path. Wholly commit yourself to being an SBIer, Bum Marketer, Rich Jerk, John Reese-er, or whatever before jumping ship and trying something new. Someone out there has theories and philosophies that make sense to you. SBI works for me; it may work for you too.

If you have any questions about SBI, post them to the comments here or send me an email.

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