Is SBI Right For You?

Before discovering Site Build It, I came across several websites claiming that they would build me a free site, and they did. It was great, but being a newbie I didn't know that I would have to register my domain and pay for web hosting each year. The cost was $60. a year and that was for the cheapest host that I could find along with free domain registration.

I still had to learn about Internet marketing and how to promote my site so that I would get some traffic. I got quite a bit of information off the Internet, but ended up spending an additional few hundred dollars on e-books.

Many gurus said that the “money is in the list,” which meant spending another $250. a year for an autoresponder so that I could efficiently send emails to anyone who signed up for my newsletter.

Getting submitted into the directories was like pulling teeth, many of them would not accept mirrored sites, you know, same content, same products. This was all just a waste of my time and I knew it, but I loved being able to stay home and work on the Internet. So I continued looking.

Then lo and behold, I came across Site Build It! Now I will admit that I have this “obsessive analytical thinking behavior” (especially since being scammed a few times) where “I feel that if I don’t check things over several times, something could go wrong and I could fail.” You may know what I mean.

So I learned everything there was to learn about what SBI had to offer. I mean after all, this program seemed to be on the expensive side or was it? After a few days of studying the website and action guide, I took the plunge; the guarantee was unbeatable, so how could I lose. If I did not begin to see some success in my first year, I could at least get
some of my money back.

SBI Guarantee: No time limits. Ask for your money back anytime. SiteSell.com will refund you 100% within the first 30 days of purchase, and on a pro-rata basis after that, for whatever part of the year remains.

I bought the program, did some brainstorming, built a site about what I know and love to talk about. SBI hosts your site and domain name. I didn’t have to know any HTML, (OK, if you want to fancy up your page some with some color and some bold highlights or something then the very basics are good to know) and then just put my content into the block-by block builder. You can upload your own HTML pages; I was just not ready for this step yet.

When you feel that your page is complete, the SBI builder analyzes it to be sure that it is search engine optimized. You click on the “build it” button and it is automatically submitted to the search engines.

When it came to building my site, SBI had a lot to offer, but I still had to get it submitted to search engines in the beginning, and then to directories. Another way of getting good page rank was to exchange links with other quality sites.

Just the thought of this was enough to make me want to give up. It was going to take me hours and be a very tedious process. The good news is Site Build It has a Value Exchange Program that does all the tedious work for you; all you have to do is choose the sites that you would like to link with.

I was able to cancel my autoresponder because SBI offers one along with many other necessary tools. They just wanted me to focus on building high quality content for my website. And other than getting my site submitted into directories they pretty much did the rest!

Beware of Home Based Business Scams!

Each day thousands of folks are seeking to find that one and only home based business. Many more people start a business at home only to become defeated. Why? Because folks often neglect to see that the opportunity just was not attainable in the first place!

Can one avoid this trap? Yes, but you must know how to spot the gems and how to say no to the scams.

Problem #1: Many home based business opportunities, especially the new ones, are not yet proven. The product or service is not yet well established. Opportunities, which are too new, can be risky! Let those who can afford it pave the way, ie. Fortune 500 companies.

Problem #2: Many are just promoting the same old out-of-date dreary plans and programs. The majority of home based business opportunities mention that they are new and cutting edge, but they are not really. They may have that new look, but in reality are only a scam!

Following some research, you will discover very little if anything "new" at all about them. It is wise to become involved in an opportunity that is better than most, is well-founded, and is part of an exciting combination of the three most enthusiastic emerging multi-billion dollar trends.

Problem #3: There are a multitude of home based business opportunities that just make the promoters wealthy. Most people who are caught-up in these plans rarely make much money at all.

Problem #4: Plenty of the sizzling and exciting profit making home based business opportunities are crooked and unlawful. Do not, ever, sign-up with any home based business opportunity that looks appealing and sounds too good to be true.

Always ask what is the product or service behind the opportunity, if this product or service has taken the world by storm as it claims to have, then where is the market for it? And would you be able to make money even without all the hype and buzz?

Problem #5: Countless home based business opportunities are not long lasting. In other words, they are here today and gone tomorrow! They are all a lot of talk with no set foundation to back them up; there is no "actual" service or product. At some point, there will be no more hype and the market will be gone for good!

Do not allow yourself to get drawn into a home based business opportunity supported by complete hype.

The Beauty of Working Online

#1 - Anyone Can Do It!

Anyone can build a business online, people who work full-time, housewives, the unemployed, students, senior citizens, and the disabled. They all form the bulk of those who already are working online.

#2 - Easy Money?

People are attracted to the fact that working online brings easy money. And it does, however, you need to remember that you will begin making money only after a period of time in which you put in some hard work, discipline and dedication. Then and only then does it all become easier.

#3 - Work Full or Part-Time

Working online allows people to work on a part-time basis. For example, for those who have a job outside of the home, it is highly recommended that you keep it until you are making at least an income equal to your current job or better before you so much as consider leaving your day job.

Students will only be able to work online on a part-time basis so that they can pursue their studies. Stay at home moms may only be able to work part-time because they have small children to watch over.

However, if you are ready and serious about devoting yourself full-time into the job you can consider a more advanced approach to what the Internet has to offer. You could build a business online with your own website, reaping even bigger profits from working online.

#4 - A Plan of Action

You will be required to have a plan of action concerning the steps that you are going to take when building your online business. You can search for information on the web about online jobs. By doing this you will discover the right tools and information needed for taking appropriate action.

There are a variety of options you could choose from. You might want to become an affiliate, promoting someone else's product or service. You could try paid surveys, or other get paid to programs.

There is a vast amount of information provided on the World Wide Web, so it is advisable to keep updated and clear on all that is happening in Internet marketing to ensure that your income is constantly growing. Then you can begin earning great profits from the internet.

Believe me, it takes time to educate yourself with all the information available on the net. It's everywhere, and many gurus offer some very valuable information, but there is always a catch.

They usually want you to buy a product, which sounds like it will do a world of good to help you along with your business. But then you will need to get another product or tool to make that work and then another and so on.

To say the least, it can make you frustrated and fed up. Once I found SBI, I could become more focused on what I was doing. There was still a lot to learn and I have still had to do a lot of work, writing content and building my site.

But the information and tools available with your SBI package are all you really need. The best part is that it’s all in one place and you won't have to search the Internet to find what your looking for, you can if you want to but it really isn't necessary.

Once you have educated yourself on Internet marketing, built your website and have had success with it, you will then be able to say, "That was easy."

Stay Focused on Your Business

Do Your Best to Avoid Distractions

There is so much to learn about Internet marketing, that it can be quite difficult to stay focused. First you will need to find a niche for your business, and then you will have to research your market and you may want to consider a product to sell or affiliate marketing.

Then you will need to learn how to build a website, learn HTML and search engine optimization. Do some research to find the best web hosts, where to register your domain, business email addresses, auto responders and on and on.

And then just when you think that you have a plan of action along comes yet another invaluable tool or resource. So you read another 180 pages of information and watch 15 more hours of video.

Phew! You take a deep breathe and redo your action plan. You switch on your computer so that you can check your emails. Wow, 75 emails, each discussing the latest and greatest marketing technology.

"How to spy on your competition," "buy the latest private label rights," "listen to the latest teleconference with two self proclaimed gurus" where they are offering to sell you a "how to" e-book which is probably just more rehashed information of what you already learned only a few months ago.

In order to achieve success you will need to stay focused on your business and do your best to avoid distractions at all possible cost. The biggest major distraction is your email inbox. The best thing you can do in this case is to limit the amount of emails you read each day.

Only subscribe to those that provide valuable information such as SiteSell’s ezine, and do not try to sell you something in every email.

Once you have done that you can stay focused on your business and what you really enjoy. Take it one step at a time. First focus on getting set up and then you can expand on building your business with quality content.

Do not totally disregard what is going on in the Internet marketing but do your best to limit some of the unnecessary distractions.

Stay focused on your business and concentrate on achieving your goals and earning some money. Join a mentoring program if you need help in staying focused but do yourself a favor and stop jumping from one thing to another. Be single minded and maintain focus. Once you have your business running on autopilot, you can then look for ways to make improvements.



Do you want to start a business but are not sure where or how to get started? Listen to what Jon Forsyth has to say about SBI, he puts everything into perspective in this short video.

What Is A Niche And Why Do You Need One?

No matter where you go online, you are likely to hear the same thing. “Before you can get started with your online business, you must find a niche.” You will do well to pay heed to this advice, especially if you are new to Internet Marketing.

Each day, thousands of people go online in search of, you guessed it, WEALTH. So many, tend to jump right into those markets that are already so completely saturated with competition and then wonder why it is that they are failing to make any money.

So what is a niche anyway?

You could purchase anyone of the hundreds of e-books telling you all about niche markets and get the longer answer. Or you could find the definition of a niche from the dictionary. But to give you the shorter version, niche simply means individual or distinct.

Seems everyone and their mother wants to start an Internet Marketing business. The big guns are making their money in this niche market, so it must be the way to go, right. Wrong, that’s the problem. So many people have years of experience in this area, that they have totally saturated the market. So, when someone new tries to compete in this broader market, they will likely not have any chance of success.

Susan Ward on About.com, defines Internet Marketing as “the strategies that are used to market a product or service online, marketing strategies that include search engine optimization and search engine submission, copywriting that encourages site visitors to take action, web site design strategies, online promotions, reciprocal linking, and email marketing". Anyone who is new to starting an online business will not know enough about all of the areas above to be able to compete in this fast pace market.

So can a new person have a chance at becoming successful? Yes.

But you must think smaller – think niche!

You could possibly come up with any one of the following niches just from the definition above:

Copywriting
Linking
Marketing
Email Marketing
Web Site Design
Search Engine Optimization

Even if you are already extremely experienced or lucky in any one of the above niches, there is still a lot of competition out there in these broader niches. You may decide to do this anyway in the end, but spend some time exploring smaller niches within the more broad areas. This may lead you to finding a niche that you are better suited to anyway.

In order to be successful in any business, it all comes down to supplying a product or service that the public has a demand for and the market has room for. Discover the right niche and you will discover that you are on the right path.

Exchanging Links With Other Sites

When exchanging links with other sites all that is required of you is to reach an agreement with another webmaster to trade links. Ok, so it's not all that simple, it takes time and persistence because some webmasters will not agree to link back to you. But it is possible and it's a free means of getting traffic to your site.

As long as you link to the right sites, ones that are related to yours. You can attain a good ranking with the search engines.

Find high-value, similarly themed sites, and then exchange links to TRULY increase your link popularity, in a way that the engines love. Use "The World's ONLY True-Blue, Real Link Exchanger that WORKS!"

Not only will you be joining an incredible traffic-building program for free, but you can also download a free book that teaches the most effective ways to build long-term traffic to your sites. "Make Your Links Work!"

Top Ten Things to Look for in a Web Host

How do you choose the right web host for you? It will of course depend on the size of your site. Is it a small mini site, a blog or will you require more bandwidth for photo galleries and audio-visual media?

Lets take a look at some of the essential features every good web host should have.

1. A Price That is Reasonable

For a dependable, full-featured web host you shouldn't be required to pay any more than $10 - $15 a mon. Unless, of course, your website has special requirements. You may even be able to pay a year in advance so that you can save some money.

2. A cPanel Interface

A 'cPanel' is a control panel that permits you to completely manage your domain. Including setting up email, file management, installation of scripts, database administration and FTP and more.

3. Reliability 100% of the Time

Guaranteed 100% or at least 99.9% uptime. In other words, you can depend on your site being live all of the time and you will have access to it, your cPanel and your email. The web host will need a back up server in order to be able to guarantee this reliability, so check with them before you commit.

4. Customer Support That is Easily Accessed

You will want to have access to web-based and telephone support, including both live chat and an email-based support ticket system. It is helpful when the support is reliable, intelligent, friendly and available 24-7. The web host should also offer training in help files that you can access online or download.

5. Multiple Domain Hosting

You may not need this feature if you only have one website, but for some this may be important. Some hosts may even offer an unlimited number of domains for a low monthly fee.

6. Large Amounts of Bandwidth and Storage Space Allowed

Your site will likely grow both in size and in the traffic that it attracts. A good web host should allow that growth without penalizing you. It may eventually be necessary to upgrade, but hopefully you will not have to switch your hosts.

7. Number of POP3 Email Accounts Allowed

You will want an unlimited number of emails accounts for your website. This way you will have the flexibility to include addresses for different purposes of your site such as, webmaster@yourdomain.com or support@yourdomain.com, etc.

8. Access to Statistics and Logs

Once your site gets going you will want to start evaluating it's performance. Being able to access your statistics will help in this analysis.

9. Ability to Use Online File Management or FTP

FTP is short for File Transfer Protocol. This tool is used to upload large amounts of files quickly. You may not always have a use for this feature but it will at least be available to you.

10. Backups

All web hosting companies should have some type of backup plan in place for security measure. For example, data bases, files, server settings etc. The cost for this feature is often included in the price; however, it may be extra depending on the web host.

So, there you have it - the top features you should expect to find with any great quality web hosting company. You can find free web hosting online, but keep in mind, " You'll only get what you pay for." If the web host provides quality, reliability and a full set of features, you may be more willing to pay.

Myth – All SBI! Sites Look the Same

Yes, the “basic” simple-to-use, templates provided by SBI! are similar in look and feel, however, they are actually recommended by site-design experts (Dr. Jakob Neilson of useit.com and others) who stress both simplicity and a left-hand navbar.

Just because these designs are simple does not imply that they will keep someone from achieving top search engine and 1% Alexia rankings and ultimately success.

When you are a newbie, you will feel more comfortable using these templates and when you are ready or if you already have the skills, you are free to use Dreamweaver and Photoshop, CSS or any other design methods or tools that you choose.

Anything you can design with regular Web hosting, you can do with SBI!

Take the time to check out some of these websites. They are all SBI! websites, however, you can see that some are using the SBI! templates and others are not. Can you tell which is which?

It also seems that these sites are ranking well at Alexia and Google. Looks good doesn’t it, but I had to check it out for myself. Here is a free “search tool” that will do just that for you. Click on the “popularity” category and the follow the instructions from there to get Alexia and Google page rank.