- WordPress Vs SiteBuildIt for Making Money Online
- Wordpress Vs Joomla as a CMS
WordPress Vs SiteBuildIt - Which is better?
Well, actually the answer may not that be obvious since we’re not comparing apple-to-apple here.
SiteBuildIt by Ken Evoy is the first complete site management software I ever used, and although it has its shortcomings, SBI still survives till today. In fact, after a recent bout of updates SBI has managed to maintain it’s relevancy in today’s marketing world.
WordPress Vs. SiteBuildIt is a comparison that’s been a long time coming. Countless people have asked me about SiteBuildIt, and as someone who started Internet marketing reading one of Ken Evoy’s excellent “Masters” guides, let me give you my take on the topic.
What Is SiteBuildIt and How Does It Work?
SiteBuildIt is an online-based website creating and management tool. Although there has been similar types of sites before and after it, SiteBuildIt managed to not only survive, but thrive in today’s blogs-ruled word of online marketing due to the ingenuity of the product owners and the massive amount of real-life success stories they have to show.
SBI is also much more complete than all it’s rivals, and as a member you get access to:
- Proprietor keyword research tools called the “Brainstorm It” tool that is as good as any other tool you can find on the market
- A web based site-design tool / content management system you can use to build your site
- Access to SBI’s library of “How To” information where you can basically learn everything from building a website to SEO to email marketing
- A very wordy newsletter sent out rather frequently that is too full with good information its easy to miss them all
- Constant motivation to continue with your online business, with all the success stories you can read about
Here’s a screenshot of SBI’s internal keyword research tool, as shown here.
In fact, SBI’s owners recommend that once you’re on board with them, you shut off all other sources of information and just concentrate on the information they provide. This is not a joke – SBI has more top-notch marketing information that you can imagine, and it might take you a year or so just to digest them all.
Related sub-pages of the main SBI website that tackle individual needs for the SiteBuildIt range of products:
- SiteBuildIt for affiliate marketers
- SiteBuildIt for home business owners
- SiteBuildIt for “work at home moms”
- SiteSell for retirees / pensioners
- SiteBuildIt for service sellers
- SiteBuildIt for information marketers
- SiteBuildIt for local businesses
Great For Newbies, But Annoying to Experts
This is one of the reasons why I stopped using SBI. It is great if you’re completely new and you’re willing to follow their system step-by-step to build your first website, get traffic to it, and see your first income stream slowly develop on the Internet.
But after that, SBI just gets in the way of your growth.
Their online-based website builder tool that you loved so much, now seems to sluggish and tedious. Compared to getting a WordPress blog set-up with plugins and a theme, the actual process of building a simple website using SBI is really hard work and takes a much, much longer time.
For me, once I knew how to build a website with DreamWeaver and how to set-up WordPress blogs and get traffic to my sites, I got extremely frustrated with the rigid interface and bulky tools that is SBI.
The problem is they have no shortcut options and you have to go through the same tedious process over and over again just to get simple things done. A lot of text, more text, and even more text and links to click on just to build a page. Too much of a good is bad.
I eventually converted my only SBI site into a WordPress blog and never looked back.
Ken Evoy takes every opportunity to sell SBI to you even if you already believe in it, and that gets to you after a while. You already know it’s good, so why do you need to be told that SBI is “the best” on every single page?
My final verdict: SiteBuildIt is a god-sent for newbies, but extremely frustrating for advanced users.
If you’re so new you don’t even know what an FTP is, join SiteBuildIt and build your first site with them. But once you’ve learned the ropes, you may want to get your own hosting and either create a site yourself using Dreamweaver / Frontpage, or use WordPress as the content management system.
You can always invest in keyword research tools like Keyword Elite which you are free to use for any purpose, and then get an Aweber account to manage your email marketing needs.
If you do not do this you’ll find yourself moving too fast for SBI, and after that it’s just a downward spiral of frustration and de-motivation.
WordPress, on the other hand, can be confusing for the beginners but goes the distance to match almost any need, from building Adsense sites to building automated article directories, for affiliate marketing and even for completed product-based integrated marketing.
I can understand if some die-hard SBI fans want to flame this blog post, but hey I’m not saying SBI is bad – it’s just not for anyone else other than the absolute beginner.
Interesting SiteBuildIt Videos to Watch
This video explains how SiteBuildIt works, and how to turn your skill or passion into a website.
This is a rather amusing video, titled “The Origin of The Webmaster”
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Gobala, I am impressed with SBI’s internal keyword research tool if everything stated in the snapshot is true
Yeah the screenshot is accurate. SBI has one of the earliest and most advanced keyword research tools.
I don’t totally disagree with you but Sitebuildit has made some nice changes, such as allowing you to upload html files and more. I also have basically always written my content with my html editor and copied and pasted to a text block. Works fine.
I like that you write an article and it automatically adds to your blog.
Here’s what I have found. I have over 30 sites online – 1 old one with Sitebuildit and 2 newer ones. The old one was at least paying for itself so I renewed it and somehow traffic began to increase and is now my most visited site and nice adsense pulls.
My other 2 are new and I give them a year to at least make the renewal worthwhile.
Wordpress also has it’s limitations so I advise people to use defferent mediums for their sites and test – see what works best for them.
Yes – Ken goes overboard touting his product.
Gobala, I wholeheartedly agree with you. SBI! is an invaluable tool for newbies to intermediate users, and yes the “sitebuilding” aspects when compared to WordPress will seem tiresome and on the sluggish side. That said though, SiteBuildIt! does indeed have some incredibly good things going for it, like the “BrainStormIt!” SBI!’s brainstorming tool, which I feel is a main cog in the SiteBuildIt! package. Yes, it is a great place to start, WordPress really has come of age as a CMS, with power and flexibilty that is very difficult to beat, and The WordPress Adsense System out of the box is the ideal package for WordPress newbies to learn the ropes… WordPress Rocks!!
I too used SBI for a year but hated the clunky way it works.
If you want to spend a lot of time learning to do things painfully slowly through SBI’s unhelpful and over-complicated interface, while constantly being told how great SBI is, be my guest. Personally, if I never hear from SBI boss Ken Evoy again it will be too soon.
Thakfully I have migrated to doing all my sites via mostly WordPress or sometimes XSite Pro, both of which are much easier, quicker and more versatile – and don’t shove themselves down your throat all the time!
The “internal” keyword research facility is actually provided by Wordtracker, there is a limit to the number of searches one can make, beyond which you need to pay extra in order to run it. But the truth is this, I doubt anyone would ever exhaust the limit. Like you I started my online journey with SBI. It equips one with good fundamentals which are essential.
Hi Gobala,
Like many other “SBI Reviews” you obviously “targeted” the newbie webmaster. But i must strongly disapprove with you that SBI is not for the more advance people also….
Obviously, you haven’t been “inside” SBI for a long time ! But i see you are still an affiliate… I highly suggest you take a look around the 5P Club again…
Infinit It! and Content 2.0, just to name those 2, have been “pimped” and advance users ARE the ones taking those features to places SBI had never been in the past ! With HUGE success…
It’s not your fault though, you would have to come around the Private Forum, which in itself is worth the SBI price tag, to hear the stories…
Please don’t take these few words as criticism, because i’m only writing this because i think that you are selling yourself short by “reviewing” SBI to only newbies. Many experienced webmasters have come aboard lately and have had much, much success !
Regards, Pete
I only wished the BrainstormIt tool could be use as a PC-based application instead of a web-based application. It’s definitely superior than most keyword research tools, but it’s also a lot more difficult to use. Large keyword data results in the entire process taking too long (and timing out) especially with slower internet connection.
No doubt the tools and resources are great, but it’s just too slow and too cluttered for me. I think the next great leap for SBI would to make the entire site AJAX-based, which would mean the text and buttons can be expanded only when you need them.
That makes sure extra help is always there, but not visible or getting in your way when you don’t need it.
And quite honestly we don’t need to be reminded that SBI is great every single day.
Aah!! The debate continues. Pete is correct… Why, hey we have to start somewhere, right? The whole point is this. If it works, and it ain’t broke… Why try and fix it! As an end user of both SBI! and WordPress, I can honestly say I have my hands full. So we need to be realistic about what it is we want to achieve. SiteSell takes care of the back end, and is therefore a set and go for it set up. If you are looking for a permanent web presence then one most definitely needs a website. Both WordPress and SBI! have their great points and with that said, I must admit that I will be using both platforms to service my needs. They are just tools after all – but what it is that they represent is what’s important here. And that is getting our job done.
Enjoy!
Gobala,
I use both SiteSell and Wordpress. For me, it’s not either/or but both.
I’ve been building my own web sites for 17 years. I know html, dreamweaver, wordpress, and lots more (too much, actually). It’s absolutely true that beginners and intermediates find Site Build It! easier than Advanced designers. As a long-time designer, I had to sit on my hands many times to do the study and research that’s so important. I went through the process and am now on my way to building a web site that I KNOW will make money (my other sites do, also).
Incidentally, it’s easy to copy and paste full html coding into the blocks, reducing the tedium considerably. I still design in Dreamweaver and copy into the system SBI!
Good on you.
I have just started and looking for a solution to build my website. With little more than basic web development knowledge, I spent time assessing which tools, SBI and Wordpress to built the site on.
Usability seems to be the issue and how robust is the keyword research tool that comes together with package. Apparently, there is no ‘1 shoe’ that fits all.
So whichever does the walking ‘job’ for you, and you go run with it seems to be the best bet.
cheers!
newbie
Hi Gobala:
I now a little SBI. I think is a very complete Website speciallized in what you write. Much helpful content to customers and affiliates. Yet, I suppose you are right because we know how versatile is the blogging stuff, if we compare with the complicated way to design a Website, specially WP, I think.
Thank you,
Jesus M.
Interesting write-ups and some good comments too. I considered signing up with SiteBuildIt several times buy\t was always put off before I ‘pulled the trigger’ by kens monotonous preaching.
I thought the program was dying, actually, until recently I saw a huge push on Steve Pavlina’s blog and now here .. Evoy must have sent out some special ’spifs’ to long-time affiliates and asked for a bailout.
I ran across two SiteBuildIt suites recently due to people commenting in my blog. The default ones are so easy to spot from a mile away, ugly and very early ‘FrontPageish’ … I am sure there are some good looking ones out there but not with default templates.
Building a website/blog is one thing, joining a religious cult is another, thus comparing WordPress with SiteBuildit is, indeed a very apples to oranges exercise … they have nothing in common at all except being online applications at the exact opposite ends of the Internet spectrum.
SBI is a sore subject with this pilgrim.
I bought it around 2001. Price $500.00
30 seconds into the download, hard drive was wiped clean. All that remained was the operating system and that old DOS prompt I enjoyed before the days of Microsoft.
Since they advertised and unlimited time frame for set-up, I did not request a refund – although I did make it clear that they killed my machine. They denied that, of course.
I took me quite a while to replace all that I had lost. None of it was backed up, but, eventually, in 2002, I was ready to start again.
The good folk at Mr Evoy’s shop told me, not in these words, exactly, to get lost. I had waited too long to use the SBI system. I asked again for a refund, and was refused.
They blew me out of the water, cost me a small fortune to replace my goodies. supplied not one line of code for my money, and refused to process a requested refund.
They claimed that they were not responsible for the bug that ate my data, but, it, nevertheless entered my machine part way through their download, and never re-surfaced after that.
My Evoy and I are both Canadians. I live about 200 miles or so from his offices. He will never know how close I came to visiting his offices with a fire axe, but, I take this route instead, and relate this tale whenever and wherever we cross trails.
I sincerely hope your experience with this fine old Canadian firm is better than mine, should you choose to give him a try.
Jim
Hello yes , how to make your photographs appear alongside your comments ?
I seriously doubt that SBI caused your computer failure.
Hi Gobala:
I cannot prove or disprove that the the cause of my loss of data was delivered by the SBI download. It is difficult to dismiss the remarkable coincedence, however.
The thing that I won’t let go, is the company policy that permitted them to keep my money and supply absolutely nothing, in exchange. I was even refused permission to set up the site from the date I had replaced my operating system, word processor, stock of ebooks, etc, etc. That was an expensive and time comsuming recovery.
If they had processed a refund, this post, those that went before it, and those that will follow, would never have seen the light of day.
I am nearly 73 years old, and retired. I live on a fixed income now, as I did then. I don’t give up $500 lightly, and if I am able to assist one other newbie to avoid a similiar situation, then it is a task well executed.
Jim
Hi Gobala!
When I saw the title of this post, I silently screamed Hallelujah! I’ve been deliberating about just this question for my next site.
I guess I should have been ready for a WP leaning review, after all, this is EasyWordPress.com
. And taking that into consideration, SBI came out relatively good:-)
I apologize for not making this a full blown point by point, but I’d like to add this:
I think that the best way to go is to have one SBI site, to benefit from the “buy for one use for many” features, like BrainstormIt, Forums (to post, of course; to view is free if you are an affiliate), special discounts for SBI owners, and others. Also, if you are an affiliate, being an owner makes you much more credible (think Presell).
Then, once you get the hand of things as described here and in a few comments, use the cheaper platform of your choice (WP, of course:-)
There are other features of SBI that are per site, like automatic search engine submission, SBI blog and newsletter (less robust than WP and Aweber, but good for some things), that are probably worthwhile, I haven’t used them enough to testify.
I also tend to disagree with the criticism of the standard L&F options. SBI’s mantra is focus on content, their 80% good enough templates are just that. My website http://www.sbiisrael.com/ uses a template that I chose in 15 minutes and I am actually very very happy with it.
My 10 cents:-)
Hey Gobala
I started out creating my own sites then discovered SBI. Ken’s proof was compelling so I went in and brought 3 sites worth.
Two of the sites were driven by my passion so the Brainstormit numbers didn’t matter to me.
The third one I built was in a niche where all the keywords had huge numbers. Imagine a site (for a newbie) where *all* the keywords were two to four word phrases that averaged over 175,000 searches a month.
So in I went. Did all the research and created a 40 page site with an average of 1200 words content per page.
Then when I launched it, only a month later, all of the Brainstormit figures shrunk down to less than 2,000 searches a month.
Suddenly 95% of the market disappeared.
I was devastated.
All that work. For 5% of the market I was told *was* there.
I lost my faith in Brainstormit and Keyword numbers generally after that for a couple of years plus.
And I haven’t used the Sitebuildit platform since.
But I still use …
*** all the preselling techniques I learnt
*** the keyword density writing style
*** the meta tag techniques I learnt
*** the keyword research stuff I learnt
*** the monetization techniques I learnt
*** many SBI ways of thinking
And I still recommend SBI to people building their first web site, especially if they are doing a day job as well.
When I discovered Wordpress it was like SBI on wheels.
Despite the disappointment I am grateful to SBI for the lessons and skills learnt.
Now I’m learning more and more what Wordpress can do.
Rock on!
This is why I hate blogs.
It gives every idiot who wouldn’t know a website from blog a chance to spout off and show how really stupid he/she is.
I have 7 websites and a blog. Two of my sites are SBI the rest are not.
In my 12 years in doing this stuff, I’ve never seen a site that crash because of SBI’s stuff.
Even though I don’t need SBI and can do just fine without them, it’s just a bit funny how someone would recommend getting your own auto-responders for about $20 per month, get your own hosting company, than maybe buy a couple of plugins, and don’t forget the domain name, bla… bla
all of a sudden you’re looking at $400 per year. huh?
Yes Site Build It is for newbies, but the philosophy of building good content for your site visitors will long survive the rise and fall of blogging, Content 2.0, or any other tool that comes and goes to making millions in your underwear.
Is SBI clunky to veterns? Sometimes, but the income from my two SBI sites far exceeds the income from my other 5 and as far as this great thing called blogging… I’ve made about $8.
If anyone would like to debate this with me I’d be more than happy, but be forewarned… I walk my talk. Do you?
Paul
I had to weigh in on this debate after reading about it in the SBI ezine. I have been an SBI user since the first month it was on the market. And I now own 5 SBI sites & have helped a number of other people build their sites too. When I bought SBI the first time, I was not a newbie at web design and web building, but I hadn’t ever built a website that’d succeeded. Even with SBI, it took me a couple of tries, because when I started, they didn’t have all the tools and education they now offer. But once I learned their system and followed it, I succeeded… big time.
I take issue with the idea that SBI is only for newbies. I am definitely NOT a newbie. I’ve built at least a dozen other sites without SBI and I’ve also built a number of Wordpress sites, none of them particularly successful, even though I tried to use the same SBI principles.
But I keep coming back to SBI, because it works. And I DO use their blockbuilder, but I add in my own HTML formatting as needed. You can even upload an external stylesheet for use with the blockbuilder!
And, since I started using SBI in Firefox, there has been an unbelievably HUGE difference in speed and functionality. There’s really no reason why an experienced webmaster would not use SBI, especially knowing that you CAN upload your own HTML and totally bypass the SBI templates and blockbuilder.
As others have said too, the array of tools, support, and community that SBI offers are unparalleled. Yes, the help is too wordy at times and Ken Evoy tends to overwhelm with the sheer mass of information he offers in every ezine, in every help screen and in the Action Guide. But there has been constant improvement along those lines. And the video guide they offer is unmatched.
I don’t know where Dave got the idea that SBI was dying; there are thousands of completely satisfied, thriving SBI webmasters. SBI has never been stronger and is almost always on the cutting edge. Just check their super helpful forum community or the I Love SBI video site if you don’t believe me. SBIers passion is strong.
Having said all that, I DO love Wordpress too. As I said, I’ve built a number of blogs as well as full-fledged sites in Wordpress. And they are also making constant improvements. Release 2.5 is phenomenal, as are all the wonderful free plugins. But WP doesn’t offer everything SBI does. And it’s not going to serve every purpose either. Like Jeanie, I use Wordpress WITH SBI. All 5 of my SBI sites now have Wordpress blogs, thanks to InfinIt. It’s a perfect marriage, in my opinion.
I’m not sure I buy into everything Ken says about blogging vs. building. I don’t see it as an either or situation. But he’s entitled to his opinion, and his opinions have certainly played out as spot on many times over the years.
Is SBI perfect? Of course not. Is Wordpress? Nope! In the end, I think it comes down to personal preference. But if you want an education in building a successful web business, it’s SBI all the way.
Kathi
I have a wordpress site that I’m very happy with except for traffic.
BusinessWebStep
Keyword research isn’t the big selling point – as this excellent thread points out there are many ways of doing that.
What about traffic generation and all of the build in SEO method’s SBI claims?
And what services are in the SBI site? Do they include for the $30 bucks an email triggered autoresponder like aweber? What about shopping cart, payment options, etc? I pay a lot for those services and like the idea of having them under one roof. The problems is SBI is bigger on hype than providing information. I’m not willing to try it just to learn its capabilities.
Thanks for any advice you can give. Russ
PS: is it possible to migrate a WP site to SBI? Cheers…
I also have a wordpress blog and am very happy with its performance
After using wordpress with direction from Gobala, my earning increase month by month. Thank you Gobala
Thank god an honest review of SiteBuildIt. There are so many positive reviews, complete with affiliate link, that I was getting sick. But sounds like you have got to the crux of it. Thanks for putting integrity before the chance for a couple of affiliate commissions!
I’m on Wordpress and was considering SiteBuildIt for the traffice building features. However it seems to just reuse the ones you can find for free on the net, so why not just use them directly. One such “research tool” simply put your query into Google – that’s it! I can do that myself.
Glad I’ve saved $299 not buying SBI. Especially as my current site is 3000 visits / month in < 2 months which is what their sales rep was boasting you could get in a year. Based on that it’d take 2-3 years to get ROI just on the purchase price let alone the time you put in.
As a technical person I think your creative options are greater with regular hosting. You need to be able to create code (or hire someone to do it) to create something unique that will bait the links. Content alone is good but I believe some features add to a site something that differentiates it. The high PR sites often have a “TOOL”.
Good luck to the SBIers but its not for me!
i hear you Mc – as it said after a while those online site builder type of services really gets to your nerves, expecially when you learned how to do the same thing faster and more efficiently. Still a good idea for complete newbies though.
I too have had some big time fluctuations in keywords, to the point I no longer trust what I’m getting from their results. It may not be SBI’s fault, though, in that regard since they use wordtracker as a big part of their formula.
Still, it’s frustrating to find such inconsistency for words that, in all likelihood, should not be so cyclical in their popularity.
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo
nice share…hope you can keep sharing as one of the successfull malaysian IM