Site Build It! is a web hosting offering that features a graphical way of building web sites.
At least, that’s what I thought when I first came across SBI. I ran across an ad for it, looked through the sales pages, bookmarked one, and moved on.
Months later, I came across a very nice set of niche keywords…good traffic, low competition, etc, and decided to create a site for the keywords. I wanted this niche site to be more than just a neglected niche site, because the keyword potential for it is quite good. I wanted to create some real content and value for visitors.
SBI makes a lot of claims about what they can do for you, so I thought I’d combine efforts and use it for the new niche site, and get a series of review posts out of the deal.
I’ve created a new category for all the SBI related posts, because as I get more and more into it, I realize that SBI doesn’t fit neatly into any of my existing categories. Or rather, it functions in multiple categories at the same time.
Calling Site Build It! a web host is misleading. SBI is a process for creating profitable online web sites. SBI provides all the tools you need to do this, including keyword research, autoresponders, ad tracking, etc.
You can click here to see a nice summary listing of SBI’s features. Scroll down to where it says “Click here to compare SBI! to Yahoo! and 1&1.com”, and click the link to show the table.
Initially, the price of SBI put me off. It works out to about $25 a month. Since I’m currently paying $5 a month for web hosting, and don’t really need a graphical website creator, it seemed like I would be wasting $20 a month. That’s one of the reasons it took me a few months to come back to SBI.
I did finally come back, and take a closer look at the features in the comparison chart. Here’s what I currently pay now for various services:
o) Hosting, $5 a month
o) Ad tracking/autoresponders, $18 a month
o) Nichebot keyword research, $10 a month
o) Domain name, $0.75 a month
For a grand total of $33.75 a month. SBI’s $25 a month with those features included suddenly started looking better.
You can’t pay for SBI month by month, but must pay year by year. This is fairly normal, to get the best web hosting prices you’ve always had to pay on a yearly basis, or more. At SBI, the yearly interval ensures that you’re committed to spending the time to build your business, which is where SBI really shines.
Once I signed up, I received an email that contains some links to training videos. I was tempted to skip them, since I’ve created websites before, but figured I’d go through the whole process to be able to review it.
And that’s just what SBI is, a process.
What you get in the training videos and related material is a step by step process that walks you through identifying a profitable niche, designing the site, creating the site, promoting the site, and finding ways to monetize the site.
So far I’ve only gone through the process of identifying a profitable niche. The SBI keyword tools pull data from the professional Wordtracker database, and combine that information with data SBI’s own web spider calculates.
I already had a keyword picked out, but for the fun of it I did the keyword research. Turns out there was a much higher traffic keyword than the one I’d picked out that had a similar lack of websites supplying useful information (Supply is one of the factors that SBI calculates for you).
So my original site idea will still work, but I’ll end up targeting higher traffic keywords.
The next step in the process is to design the structure of the site by determining which keyword the home page will target, which keywords the second tier pages will target, and which keywords the third tier pages will target.
Once I’ve gone through that process, I’ll post again to let you know how it went.
Oh, and note that SBI has not asked me to choose a domain name yet…most web hosts start their services after you’ve done your research and picked a niche. SBI starts from the very beginning, and guides you to a good domain name after you’ve picked the niche and designed the structure of the site.
So far, I’ve been blown away by SBI. I’ve been creating websites for years at traditional web hosts, where you get a CPanel interface and not much else. By comparison, SBI, where you get training material that walks you through the process of creating an online business, is very nice.
SBI does target themselves to non-techies, and the training material is well suited to that level. Their goal is to allow any small business owner to put their business online, or any individual to create a profitable niche site, regardless of their previous online experience.
Click here to read more about Site Build It! or watch some videos about it.