What other tools out there do what SBI does?

[AaronA]

I'm not sure what all Site Build It offers - seems like it's some brainstorming stuff with some keyword/SEO stuff. I would guess there are other commercial and freeware alternatives. Any recommendations on substitutes for SBI's suite of tools?

[mikethedrummer44]

The internet. Google. This website.

They can all teach you what SBI teaches you for free.

As far as getting a domain and hosting, there are plenty of websites that allow you to do both of these. Usually, you won't be paying more than $10 a month.

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by mikethedrummer44

The internet. Google. This website.

They can all teach you what SBI teaches you for free.

As far as getting a domain and hosting, there are plenty of websites that allow you to do both of these. Usually, you won't be paying more than $10 a month.

Actually SBI will teach you what SBI teaches you, for free:
SBI! Action Guide

A few things to consider about SBI:
1. They include your domain registration with your package, whether monthly or yearly.

2. They limit image file sizes to 100kb and also limit the amount of sound and video you can host directly from them (although you can still do stuff like embed all the Youtube videos you want), but this is because they offer a genuine "100% unlimited" hosting package. Very few other web hosts offer a deal like this, and if they do it is usually quite expensive.

3. I would say the two most valuable parts of SBI are the education about how to build a website that it gives you, as well as the keyword tool. Most keyword tools that are similar to theirs cost most than $30/month all on their own.

Also, SBI takes you through a whole process of choosing a niche, building your website in a way that gets natural search engine traffic, then monetizing the traffic later on. If you buy "just the tools" from somewhere else, you will have to figure out the whole process for yourself.

/shameless plug for SBI.

[mikethedrummer44]

So what do you pay for? The keyword tool?

[AaronA]

Thanks Mike and Curtis for replying, it's good to get the different perspectives out there.

Originally Posted by mikethedrummer44

So what do you pay for? The keyword tool?

Well, the host your website as well. But I guess that's my problem; for between $300 and $360 a year, they host your one website (Curtis, you'll have to correct me if I'm off on my understanding). Whereas any number of other hosting options give you a lot more server capacity etc. for less. I get that the big thing they're selling is guidance, but I'd like to at least price the alternatives without that.

Like Mike mentioned earlier, there's Google (and I would think more specifically Google Analytics), and other free sources out there. And commercial keyword tools may be more robust than SBI's, for all I know. I do know that many people here have had positive experiences with SBI, but I wonder if a server with more room would allow for more attempts at websites. SBI puts all of your eggs in one basic, it seems; if you were to remain with them for hosting, you would purchase a new subscription (again, correct me if I'm wrong). Using another hosting service, the new site would just be the cost of the domain registration.

Curtis, do you run multiple websites through SBI? What was the most important thing you learned from them using their process?

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by mikethedrummer44

So what do you pay for? The keyword tool?

The keyword tool is probably the single most value-for-your-dollar part of it, after you have gone through the whole process of building a website with SBI and learning everything there is to know about getting traffic and monetizing it.

There are some SBI'ers who do one site with SBI, learn the whole process, then build their next sites with a different host that allows for more freedom. But from what I've heard, most of those people still run their original site with SBI so they can have accses to the keyword tool that they'll continue to use to find good keywords for all of their websites.

That said, SBI offers a lot of things. It is definitely possible to build an entire business off of just one SBI site at $25/month. While not as sophisticated as A-Weber and other niche products, it also offers things like an email management system that allows you to collect emails and mass-market your email list. It also has "Content 2.0" which is a submit feature that allows people to submit user-generated content that you use to build your website.

While all of these tools would be available in some other product to people not using SBI, usually you would either have to learn a lot about programming/ajax/html to implement them yourself, hire someone to do it for you (= big $$$), or pay for a separate product or service that costs more than the total $25/month that SBI costs anyways.

While the quality of SBI's tools is not as high as all of those niche products, they are still "good enough" for 80% of what you need them for, and thus many people use them successfully to do stuff like sell to email lists, etc. Many SBI'ers also use the user-generated content submission system to build their websites continually larger without ever paying someone to write the content.

So basically, SBI is 1) A great education about how to build a website that gets free traffic from search engines, and 2) A buttload of tools for building your website, that have all been "dumbed down" so that the learning curve is significantly lower than similar tools offered by competing comapnies.

1. Education
2. Bunch of tools
3. Bundled together for a single low price, considering the sheer amount of what they offer vs. a normal web host offering "just hosting"

Originally Posted by AaronA

Thanks Mike and Curtis for replying, it's good to get the different perspectives out there.



Well, the host your website as well. But I guess that's my problem; for between $300 and $360 a year, they host your one website (Curtis, you'll have to correct me if I'm off on my understanding). Whereas any number of other hosting options give you a lot more server capacity etc. for less. I get that the big thing they're selling is guidance, but I'd like to at least price the alternatives without that.

Like Mike mentioned earlier, there's Google (and I would think more specifically Google Analytics), and other free sources out there. And commercial keyword tools may be more robust than SBI's, for all I know. I do know that many people here have had positive experiences with SBI, but I wonder if a server with more room would allow for more attempts at websites. SBI puts all of your eggs in one basic, it seems; if you were to remain with them for hosting, you would purchase a new subscription (again, correct me if I'm wrong). Using another hosting service, the new site would just be the cost of the domain registration.

Curtis, do you run multiple websites through SBI? What was the most important thing you learned from them using their process?

In regards to your questions:

1. Yes, SBI's price is $30/month if you pay monthly, or $25/month paid in one lump sum of $300 at the beginning of your year.

2. Other hosts do usually give you the ability to store single files of any size (ie, audio, video, pictures), but you still have to pay for the total amount of storage space and bandwidth that you are offered. If your website gets thousands of visitors per day and you have several high bandwidth-consuming things on it like audio, video, and high-res pictures, you will definitely be paying more than $25/month for that amount of bandwitdh.

SBI limits the size of your picture files to 100kb each, and I believe limits the total amount of audio/video stored on their servers to 100MB per site (I think), but they also offer a true "unlimited" bandwitdh and CPU usage. This means if your site really takes off and gets thousands or tens of thousands of visitors per day, they will never charge you for higher bandwidth usage, even if your website is costing them more to host than the $25/month that you are paying.

3. Yes you do have to pay "per site" with SBI. You cannot just add another site onto the same hosting package.

To argue against this I would say that most people who are very, very successful with online businesses have focused on one site, or one business model at a time until that website was very successful.

There are many people who think that it is only possible or achievable to make a few dollars per day in profit with a website, so they advocate setting up dozens or even hundreds of sites to make a decent profit. The reality is that if you focus all your energy on building one site, if you chose the right keywords and market, you can achieve far higher levels of income than someone with 100 sites that all make $5/day.

With one very successful site, say a website about "time management" that gets 1000 visitors per day, all you have to do is release a new product that sells decently and you can double your monthly revenue.

For example, when I released my ebook on my acupuncture site, it instantly doubled (literally) my monthly revenue from the whole website. I suspect if I can release a new monetization method onto the site, it may do something similar to my income levels (at least I am hoping!)

4. Yes, I run my two websites linked to in my signature off of SBI. Thankfully the acupuncture one is making an average of about $150 per month, subtract the $25/month for the $300/year subscription fee, and $5/month for e-junkie (ebook delivery and payment system), and it leaves a profit of about $120/month.

My time management site is very new, not even a month old yet, so no profits yet. It is slowly starting to pick up some search engine traffic, which is a good sign.

Overall I would say although using SBI to host them is somewhat restrictive, it serves the purposes I need them for (ie selling ebooks, not hosting videos or music). Also, I don't really want to bother learning how to create a website on a regular web host (although I have done so lackluster-ly in the past), so I am planning on sticking with SBI in the long-term for both of my sites.


5. Most important thing.... There are too many lessons to sum them up shortly! I would say one of the biggest things is to learn the SBI process via the Action Guide, and then do it yourself first. Do NOT outsource anything until you have actually made money with your website and know how to continue to build it to make more money.

The reason for this is because everyone makes the most number of mistakes with their first site. Thankfully for me my first site still managed to become profitable despite everything I screwed up while building it.

I would say that making tons of big mistakes in the beginning is pretty much inevitable, which could probably be said about any area of life if you think about it. If you pay lots of money to outsource work on your first attempt at building a profitable website, your inevitable mistakes will be very expensive lessons that cost time and money. If you do it all yourself, you will still make those mistakes, but they will just cost time and not as much money.

And since most of us have some abundance of time in our lives (or else we wouldn't be on these forums!), the lessons you learn are generally worth the cost of just some time and energy.

[mikethedrummer44]

That's what I like about wordpress.

It offers virtually unlimited customizability for free with all the plug-ins. You can make email lists, manage e-commerce, and do whatever you want with it.

For $30 a month, I would just join a website like The Keyword Academy, which provides you with plenty of tools and information, but allows you to have your own website with a theme that doesn't look like it's from 1995.

[AaronA]

Originally Posted by mikethedrummer44

That's what I like about wordpress.

It offers virtually unlimited customizability for free with all the plug-ins. You can make email lists, manage e-commerce, and do whatever you want with it.

For $30 a month, I would just join a website like The Keyword Academy, which provides you with plenty of tools and information, but allows you to have your own website with a theme that doesn't look like it's from 1995.

I've heard good things about both of them. In fact, it's because I played with Word Press that I didn't think I needed much help (beyond what's available for free) in building a site. Mike, do you have any thoughts (or have you even heard of) on Internet Business Promoter, Keyword Discovery, or Word Tracker?

[mikethedrummer44]

Originally Posted by AaronA

I've heard good things about both of them. In fact, it's because I played with Word Press that I didn't think I needed much help (beyond what's available for free) in building a site. Mike, do you have any thoughts (or have you even heard of) on Internet Business Promoter, Keyword Discovery, or Word Tracker?

The only one of those tools I've used is Word Tracker. And with that, only the free version. However, I can say that by just using the free version of word tracker, I've found keywords that have added consistant streams of traffic to my websites.

I've used that keyword tool as a guide to forming my websites, and it hasn't failed me yet. I don't know too much about the premium version, though.

As far as keyword research goes, I think there are enough options available for free. I think a big part of keyword research is thinking like a human. You have to identify your market, and then think like them. A lot of keyword tools won't tell you phrases that real people search. If you can think like your average consumer, you'll do pretty well.

[Curtis2011]

Side note, I believe SBI actually uses imported data from Word Tracker (Sitesell has a deal with Word Tracker), combined with data from their own web-crawling spider that they apparently built themselves.

I recall Ken (owner of Sitesell) posting about this in the past.

[AaronA]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

Side note, I believe SBI actually uses imported data from Word Tracker (Sitesell has a deal with Word Tracker), combined with data from their own web-crawling spider that they apparently built themselves.

I recall Ken (owner of Sitesell) posting about this in the past.

I came across this regarding Word Tracker and SBI:

How much are additional WordTracker Credits? How can I order more credits?

Wordtracker is a third party service that has long been recommended in the SBI! Resources HQ. They maintain a database of 300+ million searches from major Meta Search Engines such as DogPile. BI! integrates the Wordtracker Data into Brainstorm It! and allows accessing it on a per- query basis.

Each SBI! order includes 25 free Wordtracker queries per year.

Don't hesitate to go beyond that. Since we pay Wordtracker to provide this service, it can't be free. But it is cheap...

o $20 for a Wordtracker Package of 100 queries

o $50 for Wordtracker 500 Query Package (a dime per query).

If you use any of the Wordtracker functions, such as "Get All Demand" or "Wordtracker Vertical Brainstorm," and no Wordtracker credits remain in your account, you will be prompted to purchase more credits before you proceed.

For more detailed information about Wordtracker and its use in Brainstorm It!, please consult the Brainstorm It! Online Help here...

http://help.sitesell.com/help-and-st...ml#WORDTRACKER

http://support.sitesell.com/faq/SBI_....html#12011682

So I guess it comes down to how much the tools is used. Wordtracker runs $59/month or $329/year, which would be around 500 queries a month at the $50 rate.

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by AaronA

I came across this regarding Word Tracker and SBI:


http://support.sitesell.com/faq/SBI_....html#12011682

So I guess it comes down to how much the tools is used. Wordtracker runs $59/month or $329/year, which would be around 500 queries a month at the $50 rate.

Yes definitely. I don't think that most people even need more than the first 25 queries that you receive when you start your first subscription, in order to pick a good niche.

Since I first started with SBI I did indeed purchase another 500 queries for $50, but I have probably only used 30 or 40 of those 500 so far. I can see the rest of them lasting for a very long time, seeing as how you can often find a niche with great supply and demand in only one or two queries. (a lot of my searches have just been out of curiosity as to the numbers of certain keywords)

[Rebecca800]

Ah, the old SBI debate... Aaron, why dont you check out Steve Pavlina's Site Build It Review. Or do a search in these forums, it has been a hot topic for a long while now.

I stand by SBI wholeheartedly as a way for newbies to make a success of online business - rather than try to do it all "for free" but make a ton of rookie mistakes along the way.

Having said that you will always hear conflicting opinions on SBI because it's not for everyone. The question is, is it right for you? (and unfortunately no-one can tell you the answer, you have to research it and figure it out.)

I think Steve conveys it very well in this write up - check it out. Also listen to Curtis, he is a fountain of knowledge on SBI.

I owe my entire living to SBI nowadays. So yeah - WORTH IT!

[AaronA]

Originally Posted by Rebecca800

Ah, the old SBI debate... Aaron, why dont you check out Steve Pavlina's Site Build It Review. Or do a search in these forums, it has been a hot topic for a long while now.

I stand by SBI wholeheartedly as a way for newbies to make a success of online business - rather than try to do it all "for free" but make a ton of rookie mistakes along the way.

Having said that you will always hear conflicting opinions on SBI because it's not for everyone. The question is, is it right for you? (and unfortunately no-one can tell you the answer, you have to research it and figure it out.)

I think Steve conveys it very well in this write up - check it out. Also listen to Curtis, he is a fountain of knowledge on SBI.

I owe my entire living to SBI nowadays. So yeah - WORTH IT!

Hi Rebecca,

I can certainly appreciate that SBI got the entrepreneurial ball rolling for you and many other people. For that, the process and service they sell obviously has benefit. Like you said, I am researching further to figure out if it's right for me.

I had read Steve's review, and it and the other discussions really didn't get at the quantitative stuff that this thread helped me get to, thanks to Curtis and Mike. For instance, Mike mentioned Keyword Academy, which looks like a good alternative to pair with a hosting package, and Curtis brought up Wordtracker access via SBI. I definitely wasn't trying to down the service at all, just trying to come up with a price comparison. There were a lot of other threads that talked about intangibles that led me to question what alternative approaches there might be. To be honest, if they integrated Wordpress, they'd probably already have me as a customer. I do agree with Curtis that building a good site is better than countless little sites of middling value, at least in my early estimation.

Aaron

[Daffy Duck]

I wrote a review about SBI a while back: Daffy's Site Build It (SBI) 60 Day Review

Might find it helpful. It'd be nice if they let you host more than one domain per account. That's probably their biggest downfall, in my opinion.

[sam260689]

I can't see why anyone would go with anything but SBI. Yeah it seems expensive at $299 per year, but if you're planning to start a successful online business, then it'll eventually earn you enough that you pay tax, and you'll then be able to put the $299 on your tax return as a business expense

[mikethedrummer44]

Originally Posted by AaronA

Hi Rebecca,

I can certainly appreciate that SBI got the entrepreneurial ball rolling for you and many other people. For that, the process and service they sell obviously has benefit. Like you said, I am researching further to figure out if it's right for me.

I had read Steve's review, and it and the other discussions really didn't get at the quantitative stuff that this thread helped me get to, thanks to Curtis and Mike. For instance, Mike mentioned Keyword Academy, which looks like a good alternative to pair with a hosting package, and Curtis brought up Wordtracker access via SBI. I definitely wasn't trying to down the service at all, just trying to come up with a price comparison. There were a lot of other threads that talked about intangibles that led me to question what alternative approaches there might be. To be honest, if they integrated Wordpress, they'd probably already have me as a customer. I do agree with Curtis that building a good site is better than countless little sites of middling value, at least in my early estimation.

Aaron

I have to say I haven't personally used TKA, so I don't know much about the 'inner workings.' I do know it's recommended by a handful of real internet marketers, not just gurus trying to make a quick buck off of an affiliate referral.

I believe they also have a $1 for 30 days trial period or something like that.

[AaronA]

Originally Posted by Daffy Duck

I wrote a review about SBI a while back: Daffy's Site Build It (SBI) 60 Day Review

Might find it helpful. It'd be nice if they let you host more than one domain per account. That's probably their biggest downfall, in my opinion.

Thanks, that was a helpful review, and, to be quite honest, I think you used their product perfectly. I don't think the lack of domains is their biggest downfall per se, as I don't believe they want to compete in the server marketplace. They're essentially a training company that offers hosting services. They want people to focus on one site, so that's what they support. It's cost prohibitive to build multiple sites through them, if that's the approach you're going for. I'm not saying that to knock the system, but the value in using them is their educational resources; once you go through the system, buying a second site through them at the same cost doesn't get you the best value for your dollar. Better to use the tools that are available through your ongoing initial subscription and use hosting services elsewhere. My question would be do they allow do-overs if your initial site isn't doing well? I would think that you should be at least be able to do that, just for the cost of a new domain name.

Anyway, like I said, I think you used SBI perfectly. They're a training company; they offer a complete package, but like you said, they lag in other areas. But you made great use of the overall education and the tools, then moved on. You knew your way around the block, and only needed 2 months on SBI. Those who don't have your skills likely need more time, and would stick around longer. Looking at the other services that they offer, Sitesell goes pretty far into consulting and advising services, so for people who aren't or don't want to be as technically savvy, business savvy, or any other kind of savvy, Sitesell offers expertise. I just wish they offered Wordpress too

Oh well, I'm still sitting on the fence, which isn't good, because it means I'm not taking action in any direction. I'm leaning towards getting a monthly subscription through SBI just to see what they've got and to get the ball rolling, and get a server plan somewhere else as well. Seems like it would be a fairly low cost experiment, relatively speaking.

[AaronA]

Originally Posted by sam260689

I can't see why anyone would go with anything but SBI. Yeah it seems expensive at $299 per year, but if you're planning to start a successful online business, then it'll eventually earn you enough that you pay tax, and you'll then be able to put the $299 on your tax return as a business expense

Well, if you were looking just at hosting services, they're probably almost 3 times more expensive than anyone else. So I'd say even with the write-off, they'd be a bad choice due to the alternatives. But that $299 pays for the educational process they offer, which is a lot harder to quantify. A focused, successful website at $299 is far more valuable than a hundred unfocused, unsuccessful sites.

Would you mind posting your site Sam? I'd be interested to see what use put together with their process.

[Daffy Duck]

Originally Posted by AaronA

I don't think the lack of domains is their biggest downfall per se, as I don't believe they want to compete in the server marketplace. They're essentially a training company that offers hosting services. They want people to focus on one site, so that's what they support.

Very solid point. I agree. I've changed my mind, so now I don't know what SBI's biggest downfall is.

I like the way their educational materials are structured (though it can seem a bit overwhelming at first), and the users in their forum are first-class people. However, most of what SBI teaches in its educational portion can be learned from a $20 book: Amazon.com: Web Marketing All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies

Better to use the tools that are available through your ongoing initial subscription and use hosting services elsewhere.

Absolutely. I believe many SBIers do this.

[James81]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

Actually SBI will teach you what SBI teaches you, for free:
SBI! Action Guide

Hmm, well the major selling point for my own consideration was the education part. So, knowing I can get that for free without taking on a hosting plan that is limited with a bunch of ugly templates, I'll consider this a huge win.

Get the education for free, use the more powerful, more functional, and more custimizable wordpress for free. Then use google analytics for keyword generation for free too. Yay!

All the selling points of SBI, for free, with much more power and design behind it without all the crap that comes with SBI.

[Daffy Duck]

If anyone is looking for an expert guide that walks you through the process of success (like SBI), but uses the Wordpress platform and has an AMAZING community (like SBI), then I recommend: A-List Blogging Bootcamps by Leo Babauta and Mary Jaksch

$20/month. Many of you know of Leo from ZenHabits. I've watched people in his program grow from a blog of zero to thousands of subscribers very quickly.

[Razilee]

Originally Posted by AaronA

To be honest, if they integrated Wordpress, they'd probably already have me as a customer.

Aaron, you can integrate a Wordpress blog in your SBI site.

Originally Posted by AaronA

My question would be do they allow do-overs if your initial site isn't doing well? I would think that you should be at least be able to do that, just for the cost of a new domain name.

You can either get a 100% money back refund, or pay the cost to change your domain name and redo your pages in your original subscription.

Originally Posted by James81

Get the education for free, use the more powerful, more functional, and more custimizable wordpress for free. Then use google analytics for keyword generation for free too. Yay!

All the selling points of SBI, for free, with much more power and design behind it without all the crap that comes with SBI.

FYI - you can upload your own html if you know how to do html so your SBI site is completely customizable. I don't know how to do html, so I don't do that myself.

I've been very happy using SBI thus far

[Daffy Duck]

Originally Posted by Razilee

Aaron, you can integrate a Wordpress blog in your SBI site.

I think Aaron is referring to a self-hosted Wordpress site, which requires PHP and MySQL, which SBI does not offer at this time.

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by James81

Hmm, well the major selling point for my own consideration was the education part. So, knowing I can get that for free without taking on a hosting plan that is limited with a bunch of ugly templates, I'll consider this a huge win.

Get the education for free, use the more powerful, more functional, and more custimizable wordpress for free. Then use google analytics for keyword generation for free too. Yay!

All the selling points of SBI, for free, with much more power and design behind it without all the crap that comes with SBI.

I think you are doing something backwards...

Google Analytics can't tell you what keywords you should build a website around. It merely tells you what keywords people have been using to arrive at your website. This is a BIG difference.


Also, one of the biggest factors in SBI vs. Wordpress is that Wordpress was never designed to build a business, just a blog. Now, you can use a blog to make money, but that was not it's original intention, especially not in Wordpress.

There are many aspects of Wordpress that are sub-optimal for building an online business, and in reality very few people succeed at making any money at all from their blogs.

You will notice if you read the Wordpress home page, that it talks all about building a blog, but says nothing about building a business. That is because Wordpress was never originally intended to build a business.

Meanwhile, SBI was designed from the very beginning to focus on building a theme-based content site that gets free traffic from search engines, then monetizes that traffic. The entire process is laid out and is a proven business model.

Meanwhile, most Wordpress users focus on all the wrong things for building a business:

1. They usually write about what they want to talk about, not about what other people want to read about.

2. They always make the assumption that a better-looking website is a better-performing website, which is so fallacious it's almost unbelievable. I have seen an SBI site that used a "hideous" SBI template that still makes tens of thousands of dollars a month in profit for its owner. There is a difference between an "ugly" design and a "dysfunctional" or "bad" design. SBI tends to have ugly, but very functional designs that are easy to navigate and that suit the needs of the visitors. Ironically, Wordpress tends to have very pretty designs that are horribly dysfunctional. For instance, nobody wants to use navigation that sorts by date of publishment, or by "category", but this is how the majority of Wordpress users organize their sites.

Well that is all that is on the top of my head right now, but I am sure that I will rant more about Wordpress later.

Originally Posted by Daffy Duck

I think Aaron is referring to a self-hosted Wordpress site, which requires PHP and MySQL, which SBI does not offer at this time.

Actually I think you can implement something like that. I have never used it or learned how to, but SBI has a functionality called Infin-It! that allows you to add a subdomain (subdomain.domain.com) to your domain name and host some funky stuff on it.

Not sure though.

[James81]

Curtis, just looking at your own websites, I could create websites that look and function exactly like the sites in your sig.

So, its not like the sbi platform does anything that you can't easily do with wordpress. Which is why it kinda boggles my mind that you are so anti-wordpress. Especially when all the big name content driven sites are using wordpress, such as the one we are on right now.

So the big selling points of sbi have little to do with the platform. And they offer the action guide for free. So that really just seems to me to leave the keyword and brainstorming tools as the only real selling points. And there are other, cheaper options for that-such as the link Daffy posted.

I see the value in sbi for total internet noobs. I do and I think it would be a wonderful tool for those who have little website knowledge.

But to try and pit it against wordpress? That's very laughable.

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by James81

But to try and pit it against wordpress? That's very laughable.

Actually... SBI recently released an entirely new sales page that is based on comparing SBI to Wordpress and showing where SBI strengths outmatch Wordpress weaknesses, and from what I've heard it converts just as well as their other sales material.


That, plus the personal observation of mine that most people who have Wordpress blogs start out talking about their big dreams, and a 1-2 months later end up posting something like "So my website is getting no traffic" or "I thought my SEO plugin would get me x,000's visitors per month but I'm only getting 200" etc etc.

With SBI, as long as you follow the Action Guide, most people 2 months in are saying "So my traffic has been increasing every week/month since I started..." etc, and it tends to continue like that for the life of their website.


Edit: You know what, we are probably going to have to agree to disagree. Both platforms have their strengths and weaknesses.

[Daffy Duck]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

With SBI, as long as you follow the Action Guide...

Exactly. The reason SBI is more successful "out of the box" is because it comes with a strategy and a supportive community that is focused on the idea of making money online.

Wordpress doesn't come with that. Wordpress is just a piece of software. Buying Microsoft Word won't automatically teach us how to write well. If Wordpress came with its own Action Guide, the story would be different. But that's not the purpose of Wordpress.

If SBI was exactly the same but used Wordpress instead of their custom site-builder, I bet SBI would be just as successful, if not more so.

But ultimately it doesn't really make sense to compare them, IMO.