So I couldn’t allow myself to have given this a somewhat lackluster effort, but an effort, for two years and then say, hey, I don’t want these site build it scam tools! It’s a joke! Site Build It! is a Scam! No, that wouldn’t be true, and I will not put forth a review of this nature without first…reviewing the darn thing. So $900 bucks and a few steps later here I am.
This is work, plain and simple. Head down…
I’m all in!
I decided to stick with the complete set of tools provided by Site Build It! as I began building my first SBI! site.
Despite doing web design and marketing for a living I wanted to check out all the tools from a novice or non-html expert point of view.
So far I find the tools to be excellent, or let’s just say that if I imagine being a Site Build It! user who came to the application without any html expertise the set up is great. The help pages are excellent and the stuff about Title tags, meta keywords and description will really give a beginner the edge over other beginners. Follow the instructions and you are set. Don’t be afraid to click buttons, and keep on clicking!
As for the content or writing dilemma the same applies here. In the end you always wind up staring at a blank editor or page of some sort forced to write. Just speak, don’t worry about “copy”, just be you and speak.
You cannot create a web site that works without writing, and writing, and did I mention writing? Yeah, you could hire it done but that is likely not as efficient or cost effective a way of getting the expertise our of your head and onto pages on the internet.
Site Build It! is about work, and lot’s of it. If you don’t want to work, then go back to your job, or stay at your job and forget about an entrepreneurial online business that will set you free.
On the other hand…jump in and start building your dream!
Kind of funny how tough registering my domain was.
You’d think with as many funky domains out there, that do just fine, one wouldn’t freak out so much. But I did.
Hesitation, Anticipation, Obfuscation.
This is also telling about decision making. Reminds me of the Nike slogan Just Do It that is so wonderfully motivational and critical at the same time depending on the context. Or Frank Zappa’s Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar.
Well I took the plunge and finally registered a domain. The one I wanted was taken, but I think the one I chose is even better. I think it’s perfect really but I was very surprised how I hesitated.
Which brings me to clutch time.
As powerful as Site Build It! is, and it just gets better and better - (lose the freaking resizing windows!!! drives us tabbed browsers crazy!!) in the end it’s the human being who makes the decision. No software, no one else can tell you what to do. You have to decide.
I make a living doing internet marketing - web development, email marketing. I have a good amount of domain names but certainly don’t mess with hundreds and the not so ethical practice of making automated mini-portal gateway pages with them.
I’m a stickler for total control, nameservers, dns, ftp, backend hosting server access, code access and on. So embracing Site Build It! was a real challenge at first.
I couldn’t stand the idea of not having these controls. I was so let down by my initial purchase I almost refunded!
But I didn’t. And I’m still working. And now I’ll finally build the site.
So I continue to be impressed with the scope of the tools, the tools, did I say the tools?, that make everything so much simpler, or at least congregated in one place. I still build my own blogs and site using all those technical skills, or shall we say need to know based technical skills, but I’m really seeing the power of an all in one, set and forget, online business builder.
Yeah. Been a while. And I can tell you why. I’m floundering. Work gets in the way of the work that will free me, and you.
You are not the only one floundering, so take heart. Building business is a lot of work. Ever wonder why we aren’t all a Nike, Exxon, Starbucks or REI? Drive. Ambition. Values. Bloomberg is after all but one man.
That isn’t to say that valuing a simple life with lots of time on our hands is not as good as massive Western Society success. But to get even that, here in the States, or pretty much anywhere, we have to play the economic game enough to reach that point. Our globe is facing a host of challenges not the least of which is sustaining sound economies. Maybe the internet and World Wide Web can help to level that playing field for me and you as well, or actually is.
So come and flounder along with me…
The diary will continue, good news for all of you out there waiting with baited breath. I did renew Site Build It. Reason being, how can I throw away last year’s investment and work?
Onwards then.
So will I renew? I think so. I have found that despite the fact that I haven’t made it past chapter three, the suite of tools and the online collection of all of your assets, notes, keywords, and etc. makes SBI a useful and very reasonably priced subscription based business building tool.
So, I will have to say that Site Build It is encouraging but I cannot attest to the success like these Site Build It users.
And one really remarkable thing about Site Build It and Site Sell in general is the proof. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and serious Site Build It users are out to lunch, figuratively speaking.
I’ll give myself one more quarter to take this seriously enough to have a built site by then. If not, back to building my own sites without the powerful Site Build It tools.
Thanks and I hope you join the ride,
Mark
Today I reflect on nearing my subscription renewal and how, though I promised myself that I wouldn’t, I managed to yet again let life, work, business, play and other things stop me from having a web site up and running before my Site Build It subscription ran out.
This is about discipline and lacking discipline. One of the things that Ken Evoy talks about when defending the $300 per year subscription is commitment, if you pay, you are more likely to be committed. You do get 30 days to try and then back out if you don’t like it, but ultimately plunking down three hundred dollars should serve to weed out the tire kickers, or the cheap tire kickers.
In my case, well, I just don’t seem to value $300 that much, even though I know that this can set me free of all the things that are keeping me from building the site, so to speak. I know that we are our own worst enemies, and that in the end we do what we truly desire and I really love hanging out not working, and this is work. A lot of work.
Not hard work, make no mistake, but work no matter how you slice it. So, I will renew my subscription and I will commit again to completing this site in a month or so. One trick is to actually set a schedule, or substitute SBI for time you would be watching TV or reading or whatever.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
I suppose if you really want to get right down to it, the vast majority of us are worker ants, little people (not meaning that in a bad way of course, just normal) perfectly content to just work, live and go on that way.
Then the idea of more freedom, or more time, or more control starts to bore into the minds of some of us. This is the beginning of the entrepreneurial spirit that is typically not present in large numbers, depending on the culture of course, and dependent on capitalism or other exploitative systems, again, not meant in a bad way.
Site Build It! promises all of that.
The Site Build It! scam is simply this, a lot of work is required to build ANY business and Site Build It! is no different. That is of course not a scam, so there is no Site Build It! scam.
I have found so far, that the Site Build It! servers are slow, that the Site Build It! interface is somewhat gimmicky, and that Site Build It! overall delivers as promised, in terms of tools, giving you the tools to get there, to get to a nice niche web site with potential for traffic if you really work hard.
The question is this: Do you want to work for yourself? Can you make the time? Can you display the discipline?
So far I have been unable to extricate myself from the usual fallbacks for income although I am self-employed as of yet.
Saturday, December 08, 2007
I suppose that life can get in the way of business. This is why so many of us end up being what society demands we be, in a rut. A few of us excel beyond that and take our individual spirits beyond the norm, in a daily grind or not.
So I have a web business and a contractor business. Focused on web right now. Making a decent living, but not Off Every Day as I truly desire. And by Off Every Day, I don’t mean off as in turned off, or not working necessarily, but to say that I do not HAVE to work, a residual income flow continues with or without my presence. True Entrepreneurial living.
So what day am I really on? I would have to say Day 2 yet.
I have a biased toward doing the my preferred theme site, so despite lower keyword numbers I am tending toward doing this one. It’ll be fun, and profitable.
So to start I am doing the Vertical Brainstorm again, on both permutations of my preferred theme and gonna go from there……..again.
Brainstorm It! asked to upgrade to version 2.0, so of course I obliged.
Lest I forget, today, in 1980, John Lennon died. Very painful for me, and the world. Celebrate his life.
Since I hit 995 words, I dumped the other two themes to make room for, hopefully, more words for my preferred theme.
And now, for a rant on the outdated code Site Build It! Uses. I hope they are upgrading to a current codes compliant smoking engine, LAMP would do. This thing is a bit of a dog.
Back to Site Build It!
Left off back in September on honing the themes. I have latched onto Yosemite as the overall theme, and Yosemite National Park as the sub-theme so to speak. Brainstormed them separately in Brainstorm It!