Hi JHAS,
I think the Action Guide isn't entirely straightforward. The three keywords, for instance, for the initial brainstorm; should they be three separate ideas, or three related (I've seen that questions asked in the SBI forum).
I do like the education I've been getting from the action guide, though. I didn't have any site layout in mind, so their approach is good, and integrates with SEO. Honestly, the information might have been out there, but all the SEO dross can cloud the good stuff. I like having a straightforward approach laid out that had interactive brainstorming tools.
I am thinking of going with a hybrid approach, though. I'm a little gun shy in setting up long term on SBI, for the reasons James laid out, plus the fact that even if it offers a comparable CMS package, you still end up overpaying on the hosting, once you've taken what you can from the education package. So I would do my SEO/brainstorming using SBI's tools, then build using Wordpress and a separate host. But we'll see; I will give their tools a try first. Though I would appreciate if they just offered Wordpress tools, instead of just trying to lock customers in due to proprietary technology.
I will say this about blogging, though; even the probloggers say it can be a grind. I do think the SBI approach of making it a site that is more of an information business more than a blog is the right call. Not to say the blogs can't be a great component, just that you can end up putting a lot of time into them and not monetizing the content (which I'm assuming people want to do).
Aaron
|