how long does SBI take

[BigDan]

It would really help me to find out how long SBI takes to 'do' and to get an idea of what can be expected. I realize everyone's different so this may be hard, but if you could help to whatever degree you can, I'd be grateful.

The reason I'm asking is b/c i am currently doing a program called The Challenge (previously called the 30 day challenge) which teaches Internet Marketing. It's completely free so no complaints there, and looks to be quite high quality. Here's the thing, I've spent a long time on it - and now that the year's ended I've spoken to some people who started in July. Although I haven't spoken to many people I haven't yet heard anyone who's made more than $10 in the past 6 months. Granted 3 of these months included lessons (7 days on 7 off) but after all this time I invested, to find these kinds of returns, it's just disappointing.

Soo first question is, how many hours are required. I dont actually need exact hours of course, just asking for hours instead of days/weeks b/c some will put in 8 hrs a day, some will put in an hour a day. So are we looking at 50 hours, 100, 250? A rough approximation is perfectly fine, as is a range, I just want something to work with.

The second question, what kind of return we'll get, would I imagine have much more variation. But of course everyone knows how much they've made. If you want to keep that private that's fine (you can also PM me if you dont mind my knowing but just dont want it in public!). If you dont mind sharing though it would be quite helpful not just to me but to everyone who reads this.

Best,
Dan

[Savage]

It takes 97 hours.

[mikethedrummer44]

As a rule of thumb, think at least one year of 8+ hour work days to make any real money online.

Internet Marketing isn't something that can be done overnight, or even in a few months. There are a lot of good resources out there, but IM changes so fast that it is inevitable that you will need to do some trial and error to learn anything.

IM is tedious, time consuming, and for the VAST majority of people, a non-profitable endeavor. Of course this doesn't mean that you shouldn't do it, it just means that if you think IM is a quick way to millions, stop thinking that way, and focus your time on something else.

[Curtis2011]

There really is no answer to this question.

[BigDan]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

There really is no answer to this question.

I would have to disagree. There may not be ONE answer to this since everyone is different, but I'm sure the answers will bear some similarity. I haven't done SBI yet but with, say, the Challenge I can answer this quite accurately. I would say I've spent about 20-30 hours so far. I can also say I've made no money so far (not complaining). Point being I'm not looking for an exact figure but of course we know how much time something takes.

[curiouslyrandom]

Originally Posted by Savage

It takes 97 hours.

Does it go any faster if there are vegan banana nut muffins involved?

[BigDan]

Originally Posted by mikethedrummer44

As a rule of thumb, think at least one year of 8+ hour work days to make any real money online.

Internet Marketing isn't something that can be done overnight, or even in a few months. There are a lot of good resources out there, but IM changes so fast that it is inevitable that you will need to do some trial and error to learn anything.

IM is tedious, time consuming, and for the VAST majority of people, a non-profitable endeavor. Of course this doesn't mean that you shouldn't do it, it just means that if you think IM is a quick way to millions, stop thinking that way, and focus your time on something else.

Interesting answer. I never imagined it took so long. Of course by "real" money you could be talking absurd amounts and it being residual, in which case it would indeed be worth it. If it was that much time in order to just make $50K (without improving significantly every year) then I'd definitely know its not worth it, b/c I'd already be making that at my work, which I already know the ins and outs of. But that's OK, the purpose of this topic is to research this area and if it turns out its not for me then that's cool as well.
But I've certainly been lead to believe its something which definitely bears looking into, so I'm going to maintain an open mind for now.

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by BigDan

If it was that much time in order to just make $50K (without improving significantly every year) then I'd definitely know its not worth it, b/c I'd already be making that at my work

I think maybe you have the wrong attitude approaching this.

SBI is not even close to a "get rich quick" scheme. It is more like "build wealth slowly over several years" than anything else.

And almost every single SBI'er's (double apostrophe?!) income is nearly 100% residual. That means that once you build your website and monetize it, the technology handles it for you. So those hundreds of hours spend in the first year of building your website will continue to pay off for many more years, even decades.

(Some SBI'ers have business models that require daily attention, but they are definitely in the minority)


What if it took you 5 years of work to reach $50,000 a year, but after that, you could just stop working almost entirely and still be making $50,000 a year? In the long run, that would be a much better return on investment than working at a regular job where if you stop working, you stop getting paid.

Plus, I will tell you that once you do the initial work, SBI websites tend to grow in traffic over time, which usually results in increased income as well.

[BigDan]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

I think maybe you have the wrong attitude approaching this.

Fair enough. That's the whole point here, to be researching this area. An important area to keep in mind is the attitude to take towards this. Thanks for the feedback.

SBI is not even close to a "get rich quick" scheme. It is more like "build wealth slowly over several years" than anything else.

And almost every single SBI'er's (double apostrophe?!) income is nearly 100% residual. That means that once you build your website and monetize it, the technology handles it for you. So those hundreds of hours spend in the first year of building your website will continue to pay off for many more years, even decades.

Residual income is exactly what I'm looking for. After reading the 4-Hour Workweek I cant help but thinking that's the best way to earn a living rather than working all day. Of course if I found a job I loved I might be happy to work but seeing as I'm an Accountant that's not happening. And I cant understand the idea of doing what you love, I have nothing I love! Uh oh I'm ranting on unrelated topics... (if anyone has advice on this unrelated topic tho, I'd love to hear it).

What if it took you 5 years of work to reach $50,000 a year, but after that, you could just stop working almost entirely and still be making $50,000 a year? In the long run, that would be a much better return on investment than working at a regular job where if you stop working, you stop getting paid.

Hmmmm you see this is a hard one! Of course, if I knew this to be the case it would indeed be worth it. However when one is actually doing this and there is no certainty this would be a hard thing to stay motivated in. Of course, if one starts to make minor profits earlier on and you keep seeing growth, that will definitely keep me motivated. If I made $10K my first year I would consider that very serious income (well not if I gave up my job and spent 8 hours a day doing it, but if I kept my job then yes).

Plus, I will tell you that once you do the initial work, SBI websites tend to grow in traffic over time, which usually results in increased income as well.

Excellent. That's what I'm hoping for, that traffic increases, not stagnates.

Thanks for your answers!


Sooo ummm... how long did it take you to get through the course?!

[mikethedrummer44]

Also, it's worth mentioning that your income has no minimum or maximum with internet marketing.

In other words, you're not guaranteed to make any money, but at the same time, there is no ceiling to the amount of money you could potentially make. Couple that with the fact that duplication of money making websites is fairly simple after you get the system down, and there are tons of chances to make a ton of money online.

Most people see this and think that it's easy money, when it is just as hard as any other 'job.' The difference is, you have no cap on your income, and passive income is definitely possible.

Basically, you need to find out what you want. If you want to have the potential to make a huge amount of money within a few years, internet marketing provides a way to do that. However, know that for those few years, you won't be making a lot of money (well, you might), and you'll be working your ass off. Probably working harder than any job would ever require.

For the record, I wouldn't recommend SBI. There are other free resources that don't limit your options as much as SBI does.

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by BigDan

And I cant understand the idea of doing what you love, I have nothing I love!

Hah... this is kind of the position that I'm in.

Everybody says that in order to make lots of money, you have to do something you love and help other people in the process. Well, I don't really love anything and I hate helping people (lol...) so I am in a tough spot.

I really just enjoy the business aspect of everything.

Originally Posted by BigDan

Of course, if one starts to make minor profits earlier on and you keep seeing growth, that will definitely keep me motivated. If I made $10K my first year I would consider that very serious income (well not if I gave up my job and spent 8 hours a day doing it, but if I kept my job then yes).

That tends to be how it goes. Most SBI'ers start out making a few cents a day when they first implement Adsense ads on their website, which is the most common form of "first-timer" monetization. Eventually as traffic increases and perhaps they add products to their website such as writing an ebook or adding affiliate products, the income turns into few dollars a day, then $10 a day, then $20 a day, and so on. I have never heard of flipping a switch and suddenly the income stream turns on; usually it is very gradual growth over several months and years (although your income may increase suddenly if you release a new product on your website that sells well).

On that note, one SBI'er recently posted her story in the SBI forums saying that this past December was her first $10,000 month with SBI. She said she made her first SBI site 3.5 years ago, and currently owns 7 SBI sites.

She is probably on the much more successful end of the spectrum of SBI'ers, but every so often there is another person talking about similar levels of success and income. And there seems to be a lot of SBI'ers making a few hundred up to a few thousand dollars a month as well. I would say $1000 a month is about the income level where a lot of the "successful SBI'ers" reside, although there is no way of knowing for sure because SiteSell does not track the income levels of SBI'ers.

Originally Posted by BigDan

Sooo ummm... how long did it take you to get through the course?!

Honestly the initial 10-day Action Guide is kind of a b~tch to get through. It involves a lot of video-watching and reading several articles linked to throughout the videos. In fact at one point it tells you to stop watching and go and read a 120-page ebook. I read about 80 pages of it before stopping because it was repeating itself.

All in all, the first time I started SBI I think I went through all 10 days of the Action Guide in less than a week. It was very educational, but also tedious. The only good news is that once you learn it once and "get" it, you don't really need to go back and re-watch it.

After you get through the Action Guide, there aren't really any more "set in stone" things to do. You build 30 content pages, at which point SBI unlocks the link exchange feature which allows you to contact other link-exchange members to trade links with them. From there, it is just build content, get links, monetize, rinse and repeat.

[mikethedrummer44]

Oh yeah, about 'doing what you love.'

I think that's one of the most mis-leading parts of starting a business.

Why in God's name would you do what YOU love to do, when you're trying to make a business that sells products/services to OTHER people? Doesn't that seem a little silly?

Like I said, internet marketing is tedious. However, it's worth it to me, because the end result of IM is having something I love: freedom. A business is merely a vehicle for me to have real freedom.

If you want a successful business, focus on what OTHER people love.

[nklplnt]

Yeah but ideally you can find something that you love and other people love. This is not an either-or thing here.

You're right though, to make money you need to provide social value, it doesn't matter whether you care about what you're 'selling'.

[James81]

LOL

Nothing like asking a question and getting a lecture, eh?

I got it back in the middle of December and I'm still about halfway through setting up my tier 2 pages. Bear in mind that all of last week I didn't do anything due to the holidays.

So, I've probably got a good solid 2 weeks into it so far and I'm at the end of day 6 in the action guide (10 day action plan that's not really 10 days ).

You'll probably spend a week or so before you even pick a domain name.

So, I'd say a good projection for the 10 day action guide for me will be about a months worth of work just to get the site online the way I want it. (I'm not skipping any steps and trying to follow it as best I can).

[SatvikBeri]

Originally Posted by mikethedrummer44

Oh yeah, about 'doing what you love.'

I think that's one of the most mis-leading parts of starting a business.

Why in God's name would you do what YOU love to do, when you're trying to make a business that sells products/services to OTHER people? Doesn't that seem a little silly?

Like I said, internet marketing is tedious. However, it's worth it to me, because the end result of IM is having something I love: freedom. A business is merely a vehicle for me to have real freedom.

If you want a successful business, focus on what OTHER people love.

"Do what you love, but make damned sure it's profitable"-Steve Pavlina

[MariconesUnited]

Okay I haven't read the whole thread yet so forgive me if this has been brought up already. I have some advice for you Curtis!

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

I really just enjoy the business aspect of everything.

Then why don't you build a website about business?

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by MariconesUnited

Then why don't you build a website about business?

Actually I considered that and got started on one, then realized that I should probably run a successful business before trying to teach people how to run one.

So, maybe in the future I will do so.

[MariconesUnited]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

Actually I considered that and got started on one, then realized that I should probably run a successful business before trying to teach people how to run one.

So, maybe in the future I will do so.

Maybe you should just start with the basics and be upfront about it. Share what you do know! Maybe make a website for beginners at first. Then as time goes on and your business grows and so do your insights and knowledge you can continue sharing all that.

Share your story! People love a good story! Just my 0.02$!

[MariconesUnited]

Originally Posted by mikethedrummer44

For the record, I wouldn't recommend SBI. There are other free resources that don't limit your options as much as SBI does.

Which particular resources?

[mikethedrummer44]

Grizzly Brears

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by MariconesUnited

Maybe you should just start with the basics and be upfront about it. Share what you do know! Maybe make a website for beginners at first. Then as time goes on and your business grows and so do your insights and knowledge you can continue sharing all that.

Share your story! People love a good story! Just my 0.02$!

Personally I've always hated people who got rich by blogging about how they are going to get rich, or something of the sort.

I started making a business-related website but stopped after I realized that I didn't feel authentic while doing it.

Originally Posted by mikethedrummer44

Grizzly Brears

That person has a "review" of Site Build It that says that nobody should buy SBI. The author then goes on to say that he has no idea what SBI actually is, has never tried it, but he dismisses it as a scam simply because so many people say good things about SBI that "it must be a scam or they wouldn't be trying to make you think it's a good product so you would buy it".


Yeah... I'm not going to take advice from that guy. He sounds like another wanna-be internet marketer that hasn't actually been successful himself, and even worse, has no freakin idea what he is talking about.

Not to mention that the "SBI is a scam" review that he links to in his own "review" happens to have several flat-out lies about SBI that are the complete opposite of the truth (ie, "SBI tells you to spend money on PPC ads to get ranked higher" which is ludicrous and a complete fabrication).

[James81]

I gotta admit, a lot of my preconceptions about SBI have flown out the window now that I'm knee deep into using it to build a website.

Whew! I am realizing that I have a lot more work ahead of me than I thought with this, but I can tell you that I feel very confident that as I near the completion of the site, that it's going to own all sorts of bad-assery.

There are lots of things about keywords that I simply wasn't doing with my other websites and the amount of research that went into choosing my niche actually helped me unearth a pretty nice little focus for me that I'm wildly inspired to explore. I'm in the middle of writing my first real article for the site (after getting the site structure into place and building a homepage and "Tier 2" pages), and it's great. Even though I know that I prolly have another 80 articles to write before I consider it finished, and knowing just how many words that is going to be is, well, WOW. LOL (I'm shooting for wordcounts in the 2000-4000 word range for each article, so you can do the math)

[BigDan]

how do you know enough to write an article much less multiple ones? that's one of my concerns w/ both SBI and The Challenge, I believe we're supposed to write articles and I'm quite stuck on that right now. I chose the niche women working out, which I know nothing about (in the program I'm doing you dont need to know much about it) and I'm quite stuck.

[James81]

Originally Posted by BigDan

how do you know enough to write an article much less multiple ones? that's one of my concerns w/ both SBI and The Challenge, I believe we're supposed to write articles and I'm quite stuck on that right now. I chose the niche women working out, which I know nothing about (in the program I'm doing you dont need to know much about it) and I'm quite stuck.

Well, you shoulda chose a niche that you had some knowledge about.

I chose a niche that I've been studying and reading about for years now, so a lot of the knowledge is already in place. The other "key ingredient" is that if I don't currently possess the knowledge, I'm still inspired to do research on it because the niche is something I'm pretty inspired by.

So, for me, the article process is one part sharing what I already know, and one part researching what I don't know, and learning MORE about the niche as I go along.

I think if you choose a niche that really interests you, you'll naturally just want to research it out and write about it. That's the way I went about it.

[BigDan]

this is kinda like the whole 'choose a job you love' thing. i cant really think of any 'passions' i have per se. well self-development is something i suppose all of us are who're on this forum but its not like i have this whole great life that i have any business advising anyone what to do. i do like certain tv shows a lot as well (esp survivor!) but dont see what could be done w/ that.

[James81]

Originally Posted by BigDan

this is kinda like the whole 'choose a job you love' thing. i cant really think of any 'passions' i have per se. well self-development is something i suppose all of us are who're on this forum but its not like i have this whole great life that i have any business advising anyone what to do. i do like certain tv shows a lot as well (esp survivor!) but dont see what could be done w/ that.

If you don't have a host of interests, then you're simply not alive.

Since I know that you are alive, I know that my statement "you're not alive" just isn't true. So that means you have a whole host of potential ideas that you could build a website around.

And that's exactly what you'll do in the very beginning with SBI. That's actually the most powerful part of it...brainstorming a niche that is based on your interests that you could expand into an income generating website.

Sounds to me like SBI would be right up your alley, actually, since you are struggling with what to choose. The brainstormer part of SBI is well worth the money in and of itself.

[neilward2]

I'd consider myself a pretty intelligent guy, I've read hundreds of books relating to being successful in life and business in general as well as doing business online, I've also been to a few seminars. With that in mind, look at my SBI site which is the work of around 25 hours per week for 16 months.

25x4x16 = 1,600 hours.

You also haver to bear in mind that I spent a lot of that time writing an eBook and creating an Online Dating course. SBI takes a huge initial investment for the first year. I spent the best part of the first year just getting used to all the tools, reading stuff, following the action guide, reading through the forums and making loads of mistakes and then correcting them. If you already know about business online, you can cut all that out straight away and just concentrate on building content.

But like Curtis said, it is a get rich slow scheme. I was recently offered $20K for my site which I declined. So you can do a lot in just a short period of time but it takes a lot of work.

I personally want to retire as soon as possible so SBI is a good option for me in the long run. It may not possibly be a good option for you though.

[mikethedrummer44]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

That person has a "review" of Site Build It that says that nobody should buy SBI. The author then goes on to say that he has no idea what SBI actually is, has never tried it, but he dismisses it as a scam simply because so many people say good things about SBI that "it must be a scam or they wouldn't be trying to make you think it's a good product so you would buy it".


Yeah... I'm not going to take advice from that guy. He sounds like another wanna-be internet marketer that hasn't actually been successful himself, and even worse, has no freakin idea what he is talking about.

Not to mention that the "SBI is a scam" review that he links to in his own "review" happens to have several flat-out lies about SBI that are the complete opposite of the truth (ie, "SBI tells you to spend money on PPC ads to get ranked higher" which is ludicrous and a complete fabrication).

Well, simply put, you're wrong.

His SBI review was written to demonstrate how to rank reviews. He thinks it's trash, but he wanted to show people how there were a bunch of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ affiliate reviews when you searched 'SBI review,' and how to take the top spot by posting a review that was negative. Him and a few other legitimate internet marketers all wrote negative reviews of SBI, and until they took the pages down, they owned the top four spots of 'SBI review.' I'm sure he doesn't need to actually try SBI, because he already knows how to make money online, and he tells people his methods for free. It's just like writing a negative review for all the thousands of nonsense products people try and sell to help people make money online. You don't need to actually use it to know that it's unnecessary.

His 'make money for beginners' BLOGGER blog used to be ranked number one for the keyword 'Make Money Online.'

He has since removed all the backlinks to that website, and he explains why in an article on that grizzly brears website. I witnessed both his blogger blog and SBI reviews be in the top spots, so it's not like I just heard from someone that he used to be #1.

Grizzly is an A-list blogger without being an A-list blogger. He was always the 'white knight' of internet marketing, and I am extremely surprised if you haven't heard of him before. He's well known for making more money in a month than most people make in a few years. Not because he's told people this, but because people have researched him, and found websites he owns in ultra-popular niches.

The information he shares is basically the same thing as what SBI shares--without the $300 price tag. He's definitely the best source of internet marketing information online, and I will continue to recommend that website to anyone who wants to make money online.

Get over the SBI thing and actually read the information. The leads generation one would be a great place to start. It won't take you long to learn that he knows exactly what he's talking about.

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by mikethedrummer44

Well, simply put, you're wrong.

His SBI review was written to demonstrate how to rank reviews. He thinks it's trash, but he wanted to show people how there were a bunch of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ affiliate reviews when you searched 'SBI review,' and how to take the top spot by posting a review that was negative. Him and a few other legitimate internet marketers all wrote negative reviews of SBI, and until they took the pages down, they owned the top four spots of 'SBI review.' I'm sure he doesn't need to actually try SBI, because he already knows how to make money online, and he tells people his methods for free. It's just like writing a negative review for all the thousands of nonsense products people try and sell to help people make money online. You don't need to actually use it to know that it's unnecessary.

His 'make money for beginners' BLOGGER blog used to be ranked number one for the keyword 'Make Money Online.'

He has since removed all the backlinks to that website, and he explains why in an article on that grizzly brears website. I witnessed both his blogger blog and SBI reviews be in the top spots, so it's not like I just heard from someone that he used to be #1.

Grizzly is an A-list blogger without being an A-list blogger. He was always the 'white knight' of internet marketing, and I am extremely surprised if you haven't heard of him before. He's well known for making more money in a month than most people make in a few years. Not because he's told people this, but because people have researched him, and found websites he owns in ultra-popular niches.

The information he shares is basically the same thing as what SBI shares--without the $300 price tag. He's definitely the best source of internet marketing information online, and I will continue to recommend that website to anyone who wants to make money online.

Get over the SBI thing and actually read the information. The leads generation one would be a great place to start. It won't take you long to learn that he knows exactly what he's talking about.

I skimmed through a bunch of the articles on that blog and the only thing that I found novel or interesting was how he contacted local dealerships and got them to pay for leads to their websites. That seems like a valuable tip.

As for the rest of it, a lot of his information is all incredibly basic stuff like "what is a backlink" and "use unique content" which tons of bloggers and other websites teach all over the internet.

In short, I found nothing revolutionary.

[mikethedrummer44]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

I skimmed through a bunch of the articles on that blog and the only thing that I found novel or interesting was how he contacted local dealerships and got them to pay for leads to their websites. That seems like a valuable tip.

As for the rest of it, a lot of his information is all incredibly basic stuff like "what is a backlink" and "use unique content" which tons of bloggers and other websites teach all over the internet.

In short, I found nothing revolutionary.

Well it was revolutionary when he started talking about it years ago. You know, everyone jumped on board.