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 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

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 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!

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:-)

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