Site Build It Scam Review
Site Build It has been around for a while, the question is – is it a good way to make Passive Income? There are some good parts to it. But that doesn’t make it any less a scam. I’ve thought about reviewing it before but now I am MAD – and Steve Pavlina is the reason I’m mad. I like Steve - his motivational writing is great – but now he has sold out to the other side and is pushing the old Site Build It scam review bandwagon!
UPDATE: If you are late to the riot you may want to check the comments section and also the next post for the update on Site Build It scam review.
Your site all tied up
Your site all tied up
What is Site Build It ?
Its a “one stop shop” for someone who wants a website but doesn’t know where to start. You pay them a heafty fee- PER SITE – around $300 ANNUALLY. And for this sum you get:
- “free” domain name
- “free” hosting
- drag and drop website builder
- newsletter manager
- autoresponder
- search engine ranking help
- traffic reports
- hand holding: forum, tutorial etc.
Now if you Google for “site builder scam” – you will find a lot of “reviews” which are just affiliate pitches? Why because Site Build It pays affiliates around $75 a sale, and that’s an annual fee to remember. You don’t even have to a user of SBI to be an affiliate – how can you sell something you don’t use yourself – that’s what I turned me off affiliate marketing initially. You will find no link here for SBI – if you want to join – type in their url direct and then sign up as an affiliate and pay yourself the commission as a discount!
So Why is Site Build It a Scam?
- you don’t own your domain – the Anguilla-beaches .com site which features prominently in the sales pitch is owned by Ken Evoy – who owns site build it – according to domain tools anyways; UPDATE: yes you do own your site but this is still disingenuous marketing
- you can’t just move your website elsewhere to say cheaper hosting – you are tied up with SBI for life. You have to make $300/year just to break even on the deal! UPDATE: you can with varying degrees of difficulty – its not easy appears to be the consensus
- they spend a lot of time quoting Alexa rank of SBI sites – Alexa ranks just proves that you have a bunch of internet marketers visiting your site – probably because of the link from the sales page – as they are the only people who use the Alexa tool bar. Internet marketers are unlikely to buy your homemade chocolates or rent your condo in Puerto Rico;
- the search engine help according the site build it’s own sales promotion video involves submitting your sites to the search engines - do not ever do this - this just prooves to Google that your site is not worth visiting cause no one is linking to it. Read Court on why you should NOT submit your website to Google
- further more to rank your site they suggest you use pay per click (PPC) advertising – this is as about as risky as say foreign exchange dealing as it not something any new on-line marketer should be doing.
- you don’t need a newsletter or autoresponder unless you are selling crap – sorry I mean affiliate products to visitors. If you site is just for attracting niche buying search traffic – you don’t need these products.
So no SBI is not a traditional scam. They no doubt deliver on what is promised – though you no doubt have to pay extra from the PPC champaign. Yes traditional hosting and free software won’t give you support on how to build your business.
But $300 for support is pretty darn expensive.
What Does It Cost to Build Your Own Site:
- $10 for a .com domain name ;
- around $5/month for cheap hosting BTW that will cover more than one website to;
- Drag and drop software to develop the site WordPress free or MyStarterBlog $7 (lifetime) ;
- keyword research – free use adwords external ;
- traffic analysis Google Analytics or Statcounter – both free
Yes its not all in one place, you have to learn to do some odd stuff along the way – but you are building a business aren’t you? SiteBuildIt is basically a franchise model applied to building websites – without the brand awareness that having “McDonalds” or “Avon” in your business does to customers in the real world. UPDATE: Its more like a cult – its a pretty scary one to, see the comments! Your visitors won’t feel more likely to buy from you just because your site is a “site build it!” site!
Yes they don’t promise that you will get rich in your sleep. Whatever tools you use to develop a website that’s the easy bit – getting the traffic is the work bit.
Bottom line with the Site build it scam you put the hard work in – you get your keywords to rank and you don’t own your website …UPDATE You do own your site but you are tided into the SBI tools and although you can take the actual words from the site and you lose the access to the tools that you use to maintain and develop the site.
If you want a structured membership site which will teach you the basics of making money online check out The KeyWord Academy good information and a fair price
Similar Posts:
- Update on “Site Build It Scam” Post
- Site Build It Scam Review Redux!
- The Keyword Academy Video Course – A Scam?
- Do you need a Website Builder
- Scribe SEO – My Review of Brian Clark’s Scribe Service
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Rhys Mar 21st, 2009 at 10:52 am Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Hi Lis!
Nice irony??
Here (from above) is the first actually honest ‘troll’ response from an SBI’er – even if they didn’t intend to disclose it, it actually admits that SBI does fail its users!!
“People that fail within SBI generally miss something along the way such as the Ghost Story: ie – monetization. You have to select a niche with good monetization potential.”
Sadly you can’t reason with cultists because they are only emoting, but please take a ‘10′ for lifting the lid on this can of worms.
Thanks – Rhys
Rhys’s last blog post..How To Find Long Tailed Keywords
Amazing … all this constantly updated content … keep it going but you’re breaking my email server … LOL
Very interesting Lis!
Jim Hickey’s last blog post..Social Bookmarking Evolution? Is the Folding of Furl into Diigo a Sign of Social Bookmarking Evolution
Lis,
I guess you are getting your 2 minutes of fame with Site Build It!
This is one of the many programs I was involved with for a short time. I never gave them another thought until I read your post and seen how they responded to you in your comments.
They assumed they could come into your house and make threats. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.
This is what has inflamed so many people.
I hope the support you are getting sends them the message. You are definitely not one lowly blogger making a statement. You have a whole team of people behind you too. And we don’t even pay you!
Denise’s last blog post..Make Money Online Free – Not With Site Build It
Hi Lis,
I don’t know if you are giving a tough time here or getting some, but this is as hot as it gets!
My take is a little different, and I am writing this especially for any beginners that might have stumbled in.
Regardless of the claims, or whatever is actually being delivered by SBI or any related service, it appears absolutely unwise to pay $300 for the package that is under discussion here. If the intention is to make money online either from monetizing your content with advertisement, or to sell affiliate products or products of your own, the last thing that you need to do is to sign up for this or any similar service. Does not make financial sense!
All it takes to start off for an appreciable online income is a small collection of free Blogspot blogs carved around well researched niches with the help of free Google Keyword Tool, free article submission on a few sites, and some free Hubpages and Squidoo Lenses. So far, all free! Throw in a $7/month hosting for unlimited domains, and register around 5 top level domains for $10/year each, with the world’s finest content management system like WordPress, and you have an impressive self-publishing gig in place. Own it, grow it, enjoy the pleasure of learning and make way for as much as you wish to expand!
If you are a beginner, or someone who is disillusioned from past experience, let me suggest a place to get all this elaborated nicely. Please allow yourself to really make money online by reading Grizz’s blog.
To the SBI crowd: I noted something interesting. Most of you who came in to defend SBI made your case in long drawn yet articulate posts. Regardless of point of view, when someone writes tediously and makes a case, it speaks of reasonable intelligence (…you are welcome!) Yet, it was said more than once that the technical part of starting a website was perhaps daunting for you, hence this route. Forgive me, but it appears that for some odd reason, there was quite an underestimation of your faculties. I write this in sincerity. Take a deep breath, calm down and look around. There are people out there who are ready to help out free of cost and give us a chance to learn the game. I know all this exchange must have been unpleasant for all concerned, but if this is one good that can come out of this, let it be. Peace and good luck.
Lis, take it easy girl. Its morning at your end. Smell the coffee…a new day!
EssEtch
I see all the SBI cheerleaders came out to try and get rid of your bad review. SBI IS A SCAM PEOPLE!!! All the comments about how good it is are from people who sell the program. That’s why they are mad that someone is giving it a bad review. Don’t listen to these people.
P.S.- I really just think you should take down there comments.
Nick’s last blog post..Moot: 2009′s Most Influential Person?
I take back my comment about removing these nay-sayers comments. Keep them. They will probably bring you more search engine traffic.
Nick’s last blog post..Moot: 2009′s Most Influential Person?
Hi Lissie,
I’m a bit late getting to this post (only found out about it on a certain blogger blog… – haven’t had time to watch Vic’s video yet).
I have spent the last hour reading these comments, to try to get a fair view on SBI and your post.
Ok, I have to say that any newbie reading that first reply by Ken Evoy may have been persuaded by his response that SBI deserved a further look (despite the fact that KE insisted on putting (sic) against your typos so many times it made me feel sick – but, hey, the guy was angry)
But then in came the cult (sorry, they are like Apple Execs?) and they really f****d things up for him, with their well-rehearsed arguments, their assumptions about you, and their threats.
Scary crowd!
Then there are the links to SBI on every SBI’ers site linked in the comments here.
Now, I know these are affiliate links, but are they mandatory?
To be honest, if I had built a great looking site which appeared professional, the last thing I would want to have in my site footer would be a link to show it was made with a ‘beginner’s build it’ tool.
Think I would pass on the vague hope of getting an extra 75 bucks now and again to be honest.
After all, these people have learned how to build a business, right?
Which brings me on to the next point about the comments made on your post, Site Build It Scam Review:
All these people go on and on about traffic, but hardly ever talk about converting that traffic (apart from Matt, lmao!).
WTF? These SBI’ers have learned how to market their products, so that they can convert their surfers (whoops, sorry! readers) to buyers, surely?
Or perhaps not…
Then there is the SBI Directory linked to here. It is so damn stingy.
Sure, it lists SBI sites, but with no backlinks given to that site – they only appear in a ‘domain popup’ and you have to enter the url in your browser to find the site.
Seems like it’s all take and no give there…
Overall, I do agree with Frank’s comment that it could be a useful tool for newbies, no more, no less.
But, to my mind, it is so different to most other website building tools, it is not really training them in how to build a real website at all.
And I know SBI is supposed to be about ‘business’, rather than site building (strange the name says something different…), but if you do not know how to build a website (or at least, how to tweak it after your designer has finished with it), then you really do need to learn.
Anyway, this comment has been a mix up of thoughts, rather than a post comment with a beginning, a middle and an end (and sorry, I can’t post it on one of my blogs right now, the link probably wouldn’t do you much good
)
But those are my, very long two cents.
Nice post, lmao!
As I have read this post and all the comments above, I noticed that it can be a classic sample of viral marketing although it can also attract link baiting.
While this post also seem to be subjective, as Liz here says that the content is only her opinion. However, I suppose she should be more resourceful to avoid negative reactions.
But incidentally, it also gave Site Build It users to share their experience and how the site help them. It is also amazing that Ken (the site owner) had his freedom to defend his site.
Anyway, here is another post by Steve McGrath – http://mcgrath.ca/2009/03/19/is-site-build-it-a-scam/ that I suppose both Site Build It users and non-users should read. I believe he had made an analysis on this issue, on a different perspective.
Rich’s last blog post..Resell Ebooks: Marketing Strategies That You Should Avoid
I love SBI. This article is clearly written by someone who simply failed by not following the guide and/or being too impatient. I am an sbier and I did the same thing at first. It was overwhelming with information overload but I wanted to keep moving and missed too many key points that were actually hurting my site. Once I backed off and started doing it the way other successful sbiers have done the tides turned. For one I put links to my monetization on tier 2 pages. Big big no no. Once I took them down my site went into overdrive. Why? Because it is all about content, value, and useful information. Building a business any business takes time and SBI is no exception. Get rich quick? Not with SBI. If you follow the guide you will build a solid foundation and no one beats the tools that are included. As mentioned earlier Colleges and universities such as Penn State and Arizona State would not offer SBI as a College course if it were not the real deal. These people are scholars. Real smart people who are not going to get involved with anything that isn’t top notch. Students pay big money to go to these schools and thanks to SBI they will graduate with not only a degree but a business that they can have for the rest of their lives. Some will even pay off their students loans through the businesses that they build via SBI.
Success has a simple formula: do your best, and people may like it. Sam Ewing
Hey Mate,
Great Thought provoking piece and the comments WOW.
One most certainly gets a balanced view here.
I came across you from Sploks’ article on this very subject matter.
In my humble opinion, going it alone is so much easier these days.
Especially with Cpanel hosting and a Fantastico setup script.
Don’s last blog post..Pyrmont Cafes to Visit: Yots Cafe & Bar
gawd lis,
i just googled “site build it scam review” and “site build it scam” for the first time.
numbers 1 and 5!!!
it looks like the whole net marketing community is lining up behind you. i thought the radioactiveliberty.com post was hilarious.
i’ve learned more about net marketing in your blog, the last few days, then i learned in all those years at sbi.
number 5 at “site build it scam” (not counting ken’s 3 sponsored links or the video link), beats out lisa irby at number 7, who is or was sbi’s affiliate manager.
someone mentioned that “this is like a train wreck”. yep, i keep coming back, too.
anyway, congrats on your results placement. all, inspite of the best efforts of “fearless leader” and his cronies, the spooky ghost lady (natasha) and mini-me erwin (boris).
funny video by vic, btw.
.
OK I am kinda behind in the replying to comments field – and not mention my real life and doing some work! Just blown away and speechless at the support people
Grizz and Vic in the game – hell I could almost feel sorry for SBI Affiliates, but not quite really I’m still pissed about the name calling – and you think my spelling and language is bad check out Vic’s blog!
@Kim – this is so not about 15minutes or even 15 days of fame – you clearly do not get it – any of it – find a new line of work.
@Lin – Ken contributed so spell-checked and Looong comments earlier- your’re another Vic/Grizz follower zombie (been called that to) – welcome nice to meet you
@Anna I am confused about what you are upset about – the fact I didn’t roll over and die because my typos were pointed out – as we say in grown-up land ya-boo-sucks!
@Terry you speak Aussie very well – always a pleasure mate!
@Diane – you found in Google exactly what I found – but I think in the future it may be a little different …
@Sue – Evoy a bit disingenuous – well I’d call him something else but I keep very bad company – if you haven’t already check up on the links to Vic and Grizz – they won’t put you wrong!
You’re the first person to point out the extra costs – $100 for comments for fucks sake – how much do you think I pay to run this blog – well $7.50 for the domain and $25/month for a full reseller account which houses all my 60+ domains. What do I pay for all this sophistciated “user content” feature of WordPress -same I pay for WordPress, email, stats, etc etc ZERO!
@skitzarella – I know this would have freaked out many, and that’s the reason I stuck with it – the point is not SBI’s features or price anymore – its about its disrespect for free speech – check out my latest post
@Simonne agreed
@Paul – taking all of Sunday off too!
@Personal Development for Dummies – I hadn’t realised – I will check out more on Steve Pavlina – but maybe not this week LMAO!
@Jim – pretty extraordinary – and the party has just begun – maybe want to expand your inbox …
@Denise – I’m sorry these guys got some of your cash. Maybe we can all stop the next Denise going down that track! Well you know I have a funny name and forgot to run the spell check – and then my friends show up and they can’t spell either – obviously they thought they didn’t have much of a problem …
@EssEtch – thank you -well written comment – and one with good content to. I agree there is obviously some intelligence lurking with most of the SBI commentators – but its pretty sad when they don’t even know who they are dealing with – and we are talking me here – the really sad thing is that the links on this post’s comments and in the next post: http://lissowerbutts.com/update-on-site-build-it-scam-post/ there’s more than you can possible need there to make money online complete with forums, information and friends- but its all free so I guess its not worth anything – shame really…
@Nick – the comments are the point – read the next post
@Zania – hi nice to see you! I am perturbed about your lack of proper opening and closing paragraphs – but let the comment thru this one time LMAO! You are so right – I agree – what’s with the business/website thing differentiation – most of the SBIers are making money on Adsense – WTF has that got to with building a business its building a website which converts! Lets face even the illiterate seem to be able to make money doing this -think what these folks could do who don’t dangle their participles do if they shut up long enough to hear (metaphorically speaking!)
@James – its late and I am tired – you are fucking deluded – you are clueless – you don’t know what you don’t know – check out the fancy link to the Danzig whatsit psych paper above – that’s what it says – and you have just conclusively proved it your Adsense placement is utterly and totally fucked – in fact its even worse than Matt of the model airplane fame! At least keyword is worth around $1-$2 but you are not triggering it because you have the wrong content and your site layout is a disaster – for more details check out Vic’s video for Matt re triggering the correct words and b) check out Grizz’s blog – link above re site layout.
@Don – hi Aussie mate! Its turned into a real interactive writing – I find user comments so helpful sometimes LOL
X-SBIer welcome to the dark side – cue spooky music LMAO!
Wow, so much stuff ! I’ve never read so much in one go since I was at University ! I often wondered about SBI and fortunately have never owned $300 so never signed up. Yippee well done me. Lucky for me I stumbled on Griz’s free stuff instead and now he invites us to write a post or something about SBI and link to your blog and as I am a member of Griz’s ugly cult I do as I am invited – all hail to the Griz. I shall write a post with some links !
A lot of fun – a storm in a teacup really but the SBIers may see it differently – so I shall an end with one of my favourite quotes.
“There is no such thing as life” VicW
Make Money Online Blogging (Yes We Can !)’s last blog post..Make Money Online from Anti-Social Blogging
Yep we are now laughing at you because you are actually selling SBI! sites.
The only thing I’d like to say is that I’ve never pushed SBI on any of my websites. Yes I own -both- SBI sites and regular cheap-hosted domains. My earnings come from my niche(s), which are not related to internet marketing at all.
Thought you’d want to take a look at this:
http://www.associateprograms.com/articles/782/1/How-to-achieve-10000-visitors-a-day-with-Site-Build-It
I remember seeing SBI a few years ago online and didnt even know its still available. While its not a Scam, it is Grossly over-priced. You can do every thing it does with Free wordpress and free plugins and $5 a month hosting(unlimited websites also).
It just seems Ken has not got up to date with the rest of the internet and the fact that it costs $300 per website is a HUGE
NO NO.
A very lively discussion.
Dr. Ken Evoy posted in the SBI forums that no one defend his position or come to his aid (or SBI’s aid) because the truth is he already made his case and I don’t believe I could ever out do that.
With that being said, since my name was brought up here, I feel a need to respond to those who read this who really are interested in building a business and can look past the name calling, insults, flames and curse words.
Let’s step back for a moment of sanity.
I’ve been building websites since 1999. Before that I sold over 50,000 products on eBay.
To date I have 1 SBI site and 10 non SBI sites. I don’t tell you this to impress you (there are many others with greater talent than I and who earn more income than I) but to impress upon you that I need to point out some inaccurate information here.
I don’t always agree 100% with Ken Evoy. I happen to believe that SBI does have some work to do in the area of Marketing and have said so in the forums. I was not banned. I’m not an employee. Dr. Ken has not spoken to me or asked me to come here today.
Over 16 weeks ago, I began a thread in the forums called “The Challenge Series”. It’s a 52 week course on marketing which covers article marketing, blogs, forums, list building strategies.. etc..etc..
Even though the above is not supported or endorsed by SBI, my postings nor the replies have been banned or edited. Some of my postings have even pointed out to newbies and pros alike that this stuff is new to them and just writing great content doesn’t cut it.
I might have banned Paul Ellis (a.k.a. “The Madwebmaster” for that post)
I did not come here call anyone names, or create videos about someone’s site or blog or to tout my great marketing skills. (I still have alot to learn).
But my momma told me along time ago that when people criticize to not go off the deep end and get defensive and look for some grain of truth and maybe fix it.
I see some talented people in here with great skills. As far as I can see Lis pretty much has posted everyone’s response without prejudice. So let me address what I know and I’ll even admit what I don’t know.
1.) SBI does not own your site or domain. You do. It’s easy to transfer if you don’t want to remain with them. I’ve done 2 sites that way because some of my sites require .php support or other stuff SBI does not have at this time.
2.) I follow great marketers like John Reece, Mike Filsaime, Jimmy Brown, Dave Guindon, Perry Marshal, and the list goes on and on. Each of these so called “gurus” have their own successful niche in the internet world. None of them agree entirely with Dr. Ken Evoy’s site building philosophy but all of them have a great deal of respect for Ken’s integrity and honesty he’s brought to the internet world.
3.) I’ve been slapped many times by the moderators for some of my postings in the forum but never once for expressing my views. It was only when I lost my cool and didn’t act very respectful to some one else. I will fight for freedom of speech if it is civil and respectful of another person.
4.) The site build it package does not have everything but for the investment I can not find more value for the money spent. But that’s not why I stay with SBI. I really don’t need them anymore. I know how to program my own autoresponders, upload my own files, design my own sites and have finally learned how to use list marketing and other strategies to produce income.
In closing let me tell you why I continue to invest $299 per year. It has nothing to do with SBI nor the people who run it. It has everything to do with the spirit of leadership, learning and sharing in the free exchange of ideas in the forums.
Do SBI webmasters know it all? Nope.
Do we all sit around chanting the SBI song? Come by as a visitor to the forums and read my post. I ain’t exactly a very nice person.
Have I ever been banned for speaking my mind? Never. Ever.
Now I come here to see what all the fun is about and I only shake my head in dis-belief of the waste of talent of good people here (SBI and non-SBI) who choose to waste valuable time and effort to trash each other.
I happen to still believe that credibility, honesty, integrity will always overcome. Maybe I’m just being naive and “pollyanna”.
Thank you Lis for allowing me to post but please don’t confuse “Freedom of Speech” with “the right to be inaccurate” when alot of new people may be very confused when all they are looking for is some help in building their lives. I think you are better than that.
Paul
“The Mad Webmaster”
Paul who the fuck brought up your name here???? LMAO!!!!! Dude you have a shit MMO site with no traffic and no site building skills and you are here trying to place yourself as an authority?? LMAO!!!!
Paul
“The Mad Webmaster” LMAO!!!! This is laughable son go to my site see what a real MMO site is and go back to selling ebooks on eBay LMAO!!
Man, this stuff is so funny I just about threw up from laughter. And this is only one so called MMO Guru…imagine if Vic wanted to call them all out. That would be a frakken laugh riot.
I love Justin’s blog, it made me almost jump out of my seat…I was reading his take on the whole site builder crap and I decided to click on his homepage at seozombie to see what was new and all of a sudden a big pissed off bear jumped at my face…frakken scared the shite out of me…ha ha.
Andrew’s last blog post..SEO
@Paul: I was the one who called you out, so I feel obligated to respond. Although I get righteously angry when people come over to my friends’ place and bully them, I also know how to be civil when people are civil with me.
Talk about the law of unintended consequences: it was mainly your postings in the SBI forums that made me cancel my subscription. I compared what you were saying and what the 10-day program tutorials were saying and decided that the tutorials had so many things wrong with them that my money would be better spent elsewhere.
Ken Evoy is lucky to have you on his forums. I’m glad he realizes that. And I have your postings to thank for helping me grow beyond what SBI was offering.
But I do want to ask a question. I read your entire website, For Your Information long before I left SBI. It’s very well written and you have a great work ethic and know what you’re doing. Do you sell your products and services to SBI members privately? I bring this up because this is one of the ways SBIers monetize their sites–by selling services to other members. Nothing wrong with that–in this business, any help is good–but to evaluate your opinion properly, full disclosure would seem to be in order.
Thanks for setting me on the right road
Lorecee
Paul,
You call yourself a webmaster? I wouldn’t use webmaster and link to the website you linked to. Looks like something that was designed with Front Page in the year 2000.
Paul – SBI is a website platform. That’s it. Outdated and overpriced and every one of the SBI sites you folks have listed here show an extreme lack of understanding when it comes to SEO and you all use url’s that point back to your affiliate link.
Scam or not – why all the hype about a website platform? The only thing that makes sense is that you all make money selling the program and not using it. I could care less if people bash Blogger or WordPress – doesn’t effect my income in the least. I get the feeling that if people quit signing up to SBI a lot of you would have no income what so ever. (Paul your link leads to a sales page for SBI) That’s MLM tactics – why did you use a link that immediately paints you as just another noob spamming his sales link? Your site has all the typical beginner sales jargon that infests the web from one end to the other. A completely worthless page of regurgitated copy used a million times before by noobs trying to convince other noobs to pay for a grossly overpriced product. Shame on you.
Do any of you have a real site? A successful site that doesn’t lead back to a sales pitch for SBI?
Does this program teach any of you about the basics of SEO?
Your Keyword is “For Your Information” – is that what you want to be ranked in Google for?
Why are all the SBI sites either smart priced or use horrid ad placement and blocks? Does anyone in your program know anything about Adsense optimization?
When I want my 3 year old to eat her veggies I tell her “Not” to eat her veggies. When your mentor wants you all to swarm Lissie he tells you “not” to swarm Lissie. If he really didn’t want that to happen he might not have mentioned her post at all. Defending himself to the choir – why would he have to make a post about Lis in the first place – defending himself to his own people?
By the time we are done there will be dozens of real reviews dotting the Google landscape for people to read regarding SBI. It only took us a day to get Lis on page 1. The pathetic fake reviews that you affiliates have spammed Google with will be useless and SBI will see a dramatic drop in recruitment. I’m not sure the owner gave this much thought when he sent his dogs out to attack but he is surely having second thoughts now. He could have ignored this post and the world would have continued merrily along.
“I follow great marketers like John Reece, Mike Filsaime, Perry Marshal, and the list goes on and on.”
You admit to following useless affiliate product pimps like those mentioned? Could you be more noob? They haven’t made a dime for others – they suck in noobs and take their money just like SBI. Is that your idea of a great marketer? Not one of them have ever made a dime using the crap they peddle – they make money peddling crap to noobs who then try to peddle the same crap. Is that what you aspire to?
We don’t sell crap to beginners. We don’t like pimps who do and we sure as hell don’t like people who think that it is acceptable to do so.
What exactly are you doing here anyway? Do you think you said something new or did you just want to repeat what has already been said? Do you not get enough attention? Trying to recruit a few noobs? What is the point of your free speech? Would you like several thousand of us to come over to your sites (the whole works of you) and piss in your back yard. Please let me know and I’ll see if we can’t arrange it.
Here are some of those real SBI reviews – enjoy.
oh and…
oops – even more SBI real reviews
Pass on a message to your cult leader and his minions – in future don’t be such dicks. If any of you have a future.
Grizzly’s last blog post..Site Build it – Don’t Buy It
And so the debate goes on.
Methinks some people do protest too much about your review.
After reading some of those threatening comments again, I decided to write a review myself on my old MMO blog (hardly touched for months, but what the hell).
Hopefully the post will be in my signature.
And it should be there quite a while wherever I make a comment, as that blog is hardly ever updated
Zania’s last blog post..Is Site Build It A Scam? | SBI Review
Very nice work, Lis. Present a concept that offends part of your readership, get people to come here and feel welcome in participating in a lively discussion, and get more people seeing ads.
Masters at work. I’m learning a lot from these sites. :>
Liz, great post that has accomplished what many folks already suspected and that is the SBI is a SCAM. With a little reading from knowledgeable people a beginner can do better with WordPress and an $8 domain than they can spending hundreds of dollars on SBI.
Keep up the goods work Lis!
How to Blog for Beginners’s last blog post..How to Build a Blog
The earlier poster was right – this has got to the point where it doesn’t matter what was in the review. It’s obvious from the responses that the SBI community is full of scary, fanatical, bullying zealots. I don’t care how fantastic the product might be, I’m not going anywhere near people who behave like that!
Marisa Wright’s last blog post..Choosing Castanets
Hi Lissie,
What a controversy, huh?
I have a tendency to stay away from controversial topics, but I felt I owed both you and Griz some links, even if this isn’t the type of thing I ordinarily write about. I owe Griz (as we all do) for obvious reasons. And I owe you because I will never forget how kind you were to me when my blog was hacked. Your words of encouragement in the shed were so meaningful at a time when I was truly freaked out. You may have even forgotten what you said, but I never will. So thanks!
Here’s the hub I wrote on SiteBuildIt: http://hubpages.com/_networking/hub/fake-site-build-it-affiliate-reviews
Excellent Information Lissie!
Thank you! You have my support…
Hey Liz,
Your review should have had a lot more research.
I agree with what Chris wrote earlier and i don’t think you should classify SBI as a scam. If you would have said that it’s overpriced I would have agreed right off the bat.I ran across SBI myself when first starting out and the motivational speech alone is worth something. I am a little surprised that Grizz is backing you on this as he has wrote articles himself as to what should be considered a scam. It’s something that just does not deliver what is promised and SBI does. I would go as far to say that for someone that doesn’t have a clue about how internet marketing works, it might even be a good starting point. I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who knows the ropes, because everything can be done much cheaper. If Grizz was to charge $300.00 for all the information he has given us instead of it being free,, would you think it a scam..
At any rate you did have a few things just flat out wrong,, SBI sites do belong to their creaters and all of your content belongs to them ,, If you have uploaded your own pages then you can easily move them ,,for free,, if you used SBI software to build your site ,,you will have to create new templates to add all your content to. So IMO my conclusion is: overpriced yes ,, scam no
oh BTW We grizz followers are somewhat of a cult ourself darlin,,, so don’t be too hard on ‘em..
I guess I’ll catch hell from grizz and vic for this,,
Vic, be sure to show all of your clients your amazingly mature comments here.
@Yourmom LMAO!!! And you are such a fucking noob you actually beleive those sites make 10k LMAO!!! OMG are you people that clueless! DO you people have any idea what so ever to look at a site and know what traffic it as and how to calculate the traffic against the CPC are u people really that stupid? LMAO!!! Like I said I really would not want u people defending me if I was Ken Evoy!
Vic’s last blog post..Yup! People Do Not Appreciate FREE!
I suppose Allan Gardyne of Associate Programs.com is part of “teh SBI-cult brute squad” too?
http://www.associateprograms.com/articles/135/1/Affiliate-marketing-case-study-using-SBI/
http://www.associateprograms.com/articles/138/5/Web-affiliate-programs-experiment-2/
If you want to see some SBI sites that make $10K+ month, check out:
http://www.vacuumwizard.com
http://www.updatexp.com
http://www.cornhole-game.org
For example, vacuumwizard ranks #3 on Google for the term “vacuum cleaners” (#1 and #2 are Dyson’s and Eureka’s homepages).
Could these guys have done it without SBI and saved $200/yr? Maybe.
When you’re making $100k/$200k per year with affiliate programs with a single domain, do you really care about saving $200/yr on hosting?
Lisa, a great review and lots of interesting points to read. Seems the world is divided into 2 parts; either you use SBI or you dont.
I have never used SBI by the way.
Bihar’s last blog post..anil left a comment for ‘Shweta’
Yourmom I guess again you just do not get it cuz you just do not know. PR does not drive traffic anchors do but then again you would know that if you knew as for your analogy of traffic and income here once again your stupidity shows. Online traffic does not make you money targeted traffic makes you money!
Twitter estimated page views a month over 60 million page rank 8.
Twitter has lost up to today $79 million dollars and just secured another $35 million in funding to try to make it profitable.
Now what numbers are bigger you dumb fuck mine or yours LMAO!!!!
Real internet marketers make money from quality targeted traffic we do not give a fuck about the high numbers we look at the stats to determine what actual keywords that you can monetize makes it worth it.
Again noob, Twitter has more traffic than most sites online but yet they just can not make money from the traffic because it is unmonetizable traffic.
But I guess I am expecting to much from a noob to understand. LMAO!!!
Yourmom please tell me you have an original though and not the typical cookie cutter sales copy you have been fed at SBI?
I actually give conferences on this subject so please again tell me you have something real for me LMAO!!
BTW: I will probably be giving a conference on organic traffic and the needs and requirements to be able to make that into money in this years Blogging Expo (That is if me and the fimily do not go to Spain
). You are welcome to come and learn something LMAO!!!
Vic’s last blog post..Yup! People Do Not Appreciate FREE!
Hey – this is an automatic, self-supporting comment-fest now! Paul makes silly statements – people who know what they are talking about (Griz and Vic) answer them – all I do is hit approve! I’m not commenting on anyone’s sites money making ability cause I ain’t an expert but I’d suggest that if Vic or Grizz tells you what’s wrong – you should bloody well listen.
@Andrew for your laughing pleasure, if you like video – I really think Allyn has a talent in video blogging Site Build It Video Review and is easily found by googling “site build it bullshit” no quotes!
@Marisa – you got it in one – that was the point I started approving every comment (well there were a couple which were really, really offensive which I deleted)
@Carla – you are most welcome and thank you.
@Grizz – well at least your spelling is better than Vic’s! This is the bit that bemuses me to – why so passionate about a platform? And you got it one re Ken – I think he was genuinely angry – after all he’s fairly good at controlling the news up until a few days ago – that’s why he posted in the his forum- and the rest – as they say – is history
@Clint – you’ve missed most of the points here – I agree Site Build it not a scam – I said above in the comments and in my following post. Griz explained why he is supporting me here Make Money with friends
@Micha – Vic has real charisma because he’s legit – he’ll call you a fucking idiot to your face, if you are, but never behind your back and always in love – I’ve never been big into following anyone or anything but for Vic and Grizz I’d do practically anything – not because they asked me to – but because they didn’t. I doubt that you will understand that
@Yourmum – see Vic’s comment – don’t jump into what you don’t understand
@Vic – you really must work on your spelling, overuse of capitalisation is a bit of a problem to, it can make people think you are shouting at them LMAO
Hey, I think you guys should see who ranks for “I wonder if ants scratch there ass”
Now THAT guy is a real IM’er! LOL
And, for the record, the goal of internet marketing is NOT to “make money by doing nothing.”
If that is your goal, you should go and win the lottery.
If Site Build It goes belly up, then you guys who “don’t know any HTML” will be sh*t outta luck!
Learn, work, study, build sites, add content, get links, lather, rinse, repeat over and over.
@Allyn – but it should be their not there
And please don’t censor your language on my blog 
You SBI people don’t get it. This is Google bombing, pure and simple.
The veracity of the content of the original post is/was irrelevant.
The whole idea was to promote page(s) in the SERPS and it worked pretty well.
There’s a nice little SEO lesson in amongst all this hot air.
@Vic and Lis–
Updatexp.com is a pagerank 6. What’s the pagerank of your sites, Vic? What’s the PR of this site?
Microsoft.com links to updatexp.com:
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=6899DAEE-B1F0-48F3-AC27-62BD619C23A4
According to Microsoft (this is on Microsoft’s site, not Ken Evoy’s”:
“He runs a popular website at http://www.updatexp.com (which attracts over 400,000 UNIQUE visitors a month) and is currently building a website dedicated to explaining Windows Vista at http://www.instantvista.com.”
Do you attract 400,000 uniques per month for a technology site (e.g. very monetizable)? Is your traffic verified by Microsoft?
I guess Microsoft is a f**** noob too to believe that a site can’t make $10k/month with 400,000 uniques to a technology site….that’s less than 3 cents per visitor.
Please – feel FREE to visit my Site-Build-It site and see what I’ve done since November 22 2008. I have hit the 250+ unique visitors per day mark three times this month and I’ve made about $1000 since January 15, 2009. Not too bad considering I’ve never done anything remotely related to html prior to last November.
You guys can snicker all you want – I’m laughing all the way to the PayPal bank transfer.
J. Anne Huss
Sorry for slow delivery and lack of focus I am on Codeine for the pain
Below is a detailed explanation, my recommendation watch the video as it was made with the true intent to teach and not debate
http://www.viddler.com/explore/bloggerunleashe/videos/47/
Vic’s last blog post..Yup! People Do Not Appreciate FREE!
Thank you Vic – if someone actually listens to this might actually learn how to make money online. For the knockers Vic has an MBA and has run large real-world businesses. He’s one of the smartest people I know, this video also explains the bad language. Listen and learn. And this one isn’t R-rated either.
For those of you who can’t quite see the software he is using its called Market Samurai – I reviewed it here Market Samurai
@yourmum -what’s PR got to do with anything – mine is 3 if you had the appropriate toolbar you could see that yourself. Type make money online into google: this site usually sits on position 2 http://makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com/ its PR0.
Given the percentage of searchers that use Microsoft search engines compared to Google – yes I think they are noobs in search rankings! Software is the core strength not the internet.
@Paul – this is NOT google bombing – that’s an inappropriate practice which Google wised up to a long time ago. If you are interested in the technical side check out Justin who explains the technical side of SEO and the Site Build It controversy.
@Anne – You have what looks like a great niche, you’ve worked hard and you are making some money – do yourself a favour and read some of the links here – you’d do a whole lot better if you learnt how to build backlinks!
Lis,
I like what you have to say and your outlook on things make sense. I am a therapist and looking to build a website. What direction do you think a computer novice building a business should go in building a website.
Thanks a lot,
Tom
tfkearns3@aol.com
Your own domain i.e. tomtherapist.com with separate hosting and running WordPress – without a doubt the easiest way to get a website up and running with a minimum of knowledge – Check out my other site Legitimate Online Businesses which is all about this topic.
Backlinks huh – my site is not even 4 months live. I’m pretty sure I could not touch it ever again and still make money, get backlinks, and build traffic. I could care less about backlinks to be honest – I got this site to help me get traffic to sell books and that is exactly what it did… $1000 worth to be exact, in two months.
I can’t even count how many of my pages are ranked top 30 in google, LOTS! And I’ve secured top positions in several pretty good keywords based only on what SBI told me to do. I’ve written like 2 articles, started up a few blogs, post on twitter (almost 1500 followers now!), and I visit my chicken forum to blab about my birds and have a link in my signature. I dare anyone else on the internet to do less work and reap more benefits. This success was not dumb luck – it was SBI!
And for the record, I am an affiliate but I don’t hawk the wares on my site, that wasn’t why I joined. Feel free to click the teeny tiny link at the bottom of each page and buy SBI under my affiliate name though – I won’t complain…
J. Anne
To be fair to Anne she hadn’t seen Vic’s comment’s above re twitter when she wrote her comment above …
Correction on video forgot MS is not like KE so the search count is per day just do the math base it on CTR of about.20% or less just cuz the ad competition and understand that he will be getting 3 cent clicks because of pricing model.
BTW: MS Market Samurai KE: Keyword Elite
If you nee a keyword research tool get Market Samuray cheaper and getting better by the day
Vic’s last blog post..Yup! People Do Not Appreciate FREE!
@Lis – So when Microsoft states on their site that updatexp.com gets 400,000 monthlies, you’re saying Microsoft is lying?
Are you saying that PR is not important at all (strange, considering how obsessed SEOers are over pagerank), or that 6 vs. 3 isn’t a huge difference?
Do you dispute that a tech site can make at least 3 cents per visitor with affiliate programs, adsense and your own products?
@Vic – Microsoft claims updatexp.com gets 400,000 monthlies. They are *obviously* noobs, so please enlighten us on how you determined that updatexp.com gets only minor traffic, the approximate traffic it gets, and the CPC or value per visitor a site in that niche would make.
@Yourmom – I am saying that PR is not all important as far as ranking in the search engines and therefore making money from organic traffic. No I don’t think Microsoft is lying – the relevant question is how much money is the site making.
Vic can answer for himself but CPC is easily accessed by using the Google keywords tool – google it. BTW has it occurred to you yet that a site about updating an obsolete OS is probably dying – the past figures are fairly irrelevant to future performance in this particular I case
Grizz LMAO!!! I know man at this stage I actually feel bad for them it is really sad if you think about it.
Vic’s last blog post..Yup! People Do Not Appreciate FREE!
@Vic – Your stuff is actually pretty good (I checked out your site), but you’re dead wrong on updatexp.com and vacuumwizard.com.
Vacuumwizard.com ranks #2 for both “vacuum cleaners” and “vacuum cleaner”
According to Google’s keyword tool, “vacuum cleaners” gets 550,000 average searches per month at a CPC of $2.73.
vacuum cleaner $2.39 823,000
Those are better numbers than “make money online”, which Lis bragged about a site ranking #2 above as being ‘pro’.
@Vic and Lis:
Hopefully this isn’t a double post….
Vacuumwizard.com ranks #2 for “vacuum cleaner” and “vacuum cleaners”
Those terms, according to google’s keyword tool, get a combined average monthly search of more than 1.3 million, at an average CPC of $2.50 or so.
Vacuumwizard is on the first page of google for “dyson vacuum cleaner” which gets 110,000 average monthly searches with a CPC of $2.80.
Those are better numbers than “make money online”. Maybe his monetization is terrible and he makes no money….in that case, I suggest you buy his site from him quick and rebuild it to make it monetizable.
I’m not sure which particular keywords updatexp.com uses, so I can’t do a similar analysis there.
@Yourmum – congrats you are actually thinking and investigating. My response to the you re the site which is #2 for Make Money Online – was purely in relation to PR. You are completely on the right track regarding finding real products to build sites around, make money online certainly will not make most people any money online.
You are however a little confused on the monetization – the CPC you quote are what the advertiser pays – the publisher will get around 30% of that – if they are not smart priced. Vacuumwizard doesn’t use Adsense – they are using eBay affiliate – which is a good way to monetise a product niche. The trouble with the term “vacuum cleaner” is that its too broad – what is the person thinking who types in that phrase – do they want a new one, do they want to know the history of vacuum cleaners, do they want to know what type of vacuum cleaner to buy for their kid’s asthma? So although there is lots of traffic – very little of it is buyers. Getting paid is not about the traffic its about getting buyers to your site!
If I wanted the niche – I’d have no need to buy the site- I’d just outrank him with my site.
Hi Lorecee,
Thank you for your kind words.
No, I don’t do any private work for SBI owners. As I tried to say in my post above, I don’t claim to be a guru, I’ve just learned some other skills that I’ve added to my 14 years of sales experience before I even went on the web.
I don’t claim to know it all and still have a lot to learn. For example, different niches require different selling strategies. Just because Adsense may work for one niche does not make it great or bad for another. I believe that blogging is one vehicle to earn income and I also believe list marketing is another. I’m not interested in touting hits to my pages as much as I am interested in marketing to my list.
Am I looking to convince people to buy SBI, heck no. That’s a personal decision based on your level of skill or lack thereof. But I’m curious as to why no one has responded to my post in this respect.
1.) Someone is giving misleading or inaccurate information.
2.) Could I go to SBI forums as a visitor and see if Paul is lying.
3.) If he hasn’t been banned from the forums and hasn’t been singing the praises of SBI as a “noob or brainless follower”, then where lies the truth?
I don’t think that’s very complicated. I believe a noob could even do this without much thinking.
But I do not want to lower the bar here. I want to raise it. So please feel free to teach me. I’m open minded and want to learn from those of you who know what you are doing. Will it cost me time or money? I’m ready and willing. It doesn’t even have to be free.
Are any of you willing to teach me? We can do it right here in the open with no restrictions or bans. Right? I’m game. Ok with you, Lis?
Paul
“The Mad Webmaster”
@Paul – why don’t you read the comment’s above – to be honest you really appear to be doing the classic “fake it until you make it”- you want people to sign up to your autoresponder so you can bombard them with material for which you will get a healthy commission. But you don’t know what you are doing from an SEO point of view: you site’s title is “The Mad Webmaster – e-Courses” – how many Google searches does that get a month?
Its people like you that nearly made me drop Internet Marketing, its people like you who give IM a very bad name. No I am not saying that every product you are flogging is crap – I have no idea I’m not wasting my time looking them up. But I know the sort of shite your mentors flog so I can guessing that your “carefully selected affiliate products” are similar.
The bottom line is that people don’t need to buy this stuff. Its all free online thanks to Grizz and Vic -then buy some hosting, domains and maybe some services later on. You claim to have 6 other websites – thats a total of 7 sites right?
@Lis — I know what CPC is, and that publishers don’t get all of that money (though Google doesn’t reveal the exact amount, so your 30% figure is speculation).
I’m saying that if you’re in a real niche (not crappy MMO) where advertisers are spending $3 million a month on adsense (not to mention affiliate spend, ebay, chitika, etc.) , there is gold in them thar hills. The site ranks for other, more specific buying terms, like the example of “dyson vacuum cleaners”. I’m sure people aren’t typing in terms like that for the heck of it–they are thinking of buying a dyson vacuum.
He claims to make $15k /mth with vacuumwizard.com. Maybe he’s lying…but the numbers are what they are regarding the niche and his site’s rankings within the niche.
I have yet to see numbers from Vic or you on your sites that you claim are proof of your superior internet marketing skills that qualify you to say that each and every of the 100,000 site build it sites are complete crap that don’t make back their $300/yr.
@yourmom – Yes I am agreeing with you! ANY niche is better than MMO But being on position 10 won’t help the clicks are in position one and tail off to around zero on position 4. You can see my approximate numbers – elsewhere on this site. I never said each and every SBI site was crap, others have, and I must admit they seem poorly optimized. If someone is making $15k a year good luck to them – but think their success has little to do with what they learnt in the SBI method – Paul (The Mad Webmaster) pretty much said that above!
BTW you won’t see a specific site of mine mentioned here – I have no intention of revealing my niches – and go read Vic’s blog if you want to know why that is
@Allyn — Yeah, because your sarcastic and profane example is the same as a keyword where advertisers spend $3 million per month (not to mention the spend on the longtail keywords in that niche). Please, add something constructive, preferably with data, to the discussion.
@Lis “wink wink, nudge nudge”
@yourmom sorry that I butted in here on YOUR blog and added nothing of value to the Site Build It scam discussion. I will back outta the Site Build Scam Review discussion now!
Hey Lis, Looks like you started a war! BTW I took part in Grizzly’s call to action, wanted to help out!
Hey Vic
I almost forgot you big guy. You’re slipping a little (and I almost was willing to follow you) you sly devil you.
You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say that internet marketers don’t care about traffic near as much as they do about… wait a minute let me be accurate, I don’t want to pull a Vic
Quote:
Real internet marketers make money from quality targeted traffic we do not give a fuck about the high numbers we look at the stats to determine what actual keywords that you can monetize makes it worth it.
and then call people idiot or stupid or insult their sites for low traffic or page rank.
Come on big guy you’re letting me down here. In fact, I would swear you were a noob by that last statement. As least keep your stories straight dude.
That’s 2 mistakes you’ve made… one more and you’re out.
Try again. The truth is that sales and marketing will always be and has always been about building relationships with people (human beings big guy)… I know this is new for you so listen up and you might be a little more successful. I’ll put it on a line all for you.
People do business with people the know, like and respect.
Knowing the noob your are, you might have to look those words up in the dictionary with a limited vocabulary of words like: fuck, suck, dick, shit… and real intelligent stuff like that.
Hey Vic. I want to have a beer with you man. I really am getting to like you and you are really pretty funny.
Please… (and I mean this), please do a video on my site. I need the link juice because you said my site sucked and I’m hoping to get lots of hits to my pages. In fact, when I went to the store to buy some groceries the other day the cashier said, “I don’t want money. I want the hits to your site to increase before I sell this stuff to you.”
Now can you imagine if I lowered myself to post a message like the one above? That would be just… well mad.
Paul
“The Mad Webmaster”
Your Mom
Vacuum cleaners… lol.
An oil filter keyword. A term searched by people who don’t know how to define what they are looking for. Once the serp page opens they realize that what is on the page isn’t what they are looking for and type a new query like “how to fix my hoover” and then “who fixes hoover vacuum cleaners in timbuctoo”.
People don’t buy vacuum cleaners online. They don’t click ads either. The site you mention is a splog, poorly optimized for Adsense and the CPC you quoted would net a content ad 5 – 10 cents a click.
People type “cars” into Google all the time and then stop and think about what they are really looking for and then narrow down the search.
How do I know Vacuum cleaners is useless keyword? Look at the competing pages. Only 8 million. Lol. I could outrank that site in a month. There is no competition because there is no money in it – if there were IMers would be all over it and the competition would be in the hundreds of millions.
The site you mentioned is ranked number 1 in my DC based on 130 backlinks with so-so anchors. Anybody with a hint of SEO skills could outrank it in short order.
The “make money online” keyword has 244 million competing pages and there is a reason for that. Which keyword do you think is easier to rank for? Vacuum Cleaners or Make Money online.
The MMO keyword also has hundreds of related terms that people search for including “Money” with 3,000,000 searches a month.
Vacuum cleaner only has 300,000 useful searches (targeted us visitors) and 4500 (targeted Canadian visitors) per month – the figure you used is worldwide and the advertisers will only be charged pennies for clicks from any other destination outside N. America.
Of the 300,000 searches 75% will never get past the Adsense ads on the serp page – they will click those or re-define their query.
The remaining 25% will click through to the top site – see it and back out. Less than 1% will ever click through to ebay (and not buy) just curious and 1% of that 1% may make it below the fold and maybe click a 5 cent adsense ad. That site would be lucky to make a few hundred bucks a month and I am being generous.
You have been spoon fed the notion that all traffic is equal. It isn’t and you haven’t been taught how to do real research regarding keywords.
The term “how to make” gets 20 million searches a month. Another useless term to rank for – the searcher quickly realizes that they haven’t defined the search and narrows it down on the next search.
The worst part of you trying to impress us is that it is obvious to those of us who dominate niches that have competition that SBI doesn’t teach any of you about real SEO or monetization principles. Those sites you use are cookie cutter, poorly optimized and show no understanding of how to funnel traffic to the money click. The content is thin and verge on splogs. You have yet to produce a site that ranks well in a competitive niche and based on what you think is research I don’t think you know what a real competitive niche is. Why is that?
Search numbers are estimates that are rarely accurate – I know as I hold the number 1 spot in dozens of competitive niches.
You think PR has any relevance? Huh? To what? Let the fact that my PR0 site ranks number 2 for a term that has 244 million other pages competing with me sink in. Do you know who I outrank for that term? All your high PR gurus like Steve Pavlina and Darren Rowse and John Chow and every other blogger that sells crap to noob readers. The kind of crap that you must have read in order to think that PR matters.
You show no knowledge of “targeted search traffic” or “anchored backlinks” – why is that?
You quoted CPC estimates and didn’t know that those are just estimates and that they only apply to “sponsored ads” on Google’s own serp’s. Content ads get 25% or less on your site and then only for targeted converting clicks coming from N.American visitors. (in most cases as the advertisers are targeting those visitors) All other visitors will produce pennies. The CPC you quoted will translate into pennies on the content ads on that site. Btw – I have several sites in that niche and know the real CPC and CTR for targeted visitors to specific related keywords (I didn’t bother with a generic term like Vacuum cleaners lol) and there is no money in it.
And you spend $300 a year for a canned splog, learn the basic SEO BS found in garbage ebooks and are trying to tell the rest of us that it is worth it. Maybe you should read my blog and find out how to take a free blogspot blog and make 6-7 k a month with it – or make 30k a month with several of them. Oh and for free.
Stop trying to impress us – you only show your lack of knowledge and give people like Vic and I fodder – and trust me on this – we are going easy on you.
Grizzly’s last blog post..Site Build it – Don’t Buy It
By the looks of the SERPs, it seems that SEO is alive and well, despite Ken Evoy declaring it dead last fall. Ken is aware of the tsunami that just rolled up on his beach; the rest of them still have no clue.
Paul, you have to admit that the link to fyi-promo that appears in each and every one of your 16,000 forum postings over at SBI is some pretty effective advertising for members there to hop on over and buy your stuff. That’s what I meant by selling products and services to SBI members and getting them on your list. Are you saying you’ve never sold anything to an SBI customer in your life? I know you know; if you’re not running tracking metrics you shouldn’t be in this business.
Most people in our community take a pretty dim view of flogging affiliate MMO products to people on your list like the current business model in the Warrior Forum and on Digital Point (and even that is miles ahead of what SBI is teaching). I’m not as critical of IM products as some here, but that doesn’t matter. We support each other even when we disagree on things. It’s called being professional, and we’re a business community. We don’t give cyber hugs or indulge in a lot of feelgood. We help each other make money.
The trouble with business-in-a-box (tks Allyn) packages like SBI is that they don’t pass knowledge. They only teach you how to follow instructions. Then when the business model changes (which happens fast on the internet), you’re left high and dry like all the mom and pop stores that lost out to Walmart.
The information is out there for free on Griz and Vic’s sites, if you want to learn, but we don’t teach. We’re too busy making money to teach, and honestly, there’s a lot more money in what we do than there is in selling how-to crap to noobs, or building 300 pages of content and slapping some Adsense on it because you don’t know how else to monetize your site.
I’ll shut up now; I have sites to build. Lissie, you tired yet?!
I just had to come see what all the fuss was about. Lissie, you hang tough and do not let them bully you into removing this blog post. They can’t sue you for slander or libel either one. If they do then they will have to reveal their records to prove you wrong. I just don’t think they can do that.
SirDent’s last blog post..Jesus in the House
@Lis
If you really believe what you stated about VacuumWizard.com, you must be blind…
“Vacuum Wizard doesn’t use Adsense”
- Then why, pray tell, is there a block of Adsense distinctly labeled “Ads by Google” on the homepage?
“They use eBay affiliate”
- He’s using mainly Chitika ads. And for the record, he’s one of their Premium Publishers, meaning he has a private account manager (Ryan Travis) to help him optimize placement, performance, and thereby, his income.
I’m sure you’ll brush that off, calling Chitika small potatoes and ignoring the fact that they use his site as one of their case studies.
eBay affilate sales are a small part of his income mix, but not one of the major models.
He also has other sites, including TennisMindGame.com, a blog at TennisThoughts.com and FreedomIdeas.com, where he shares his income and strategies he’s used to get there.
For the record, he’s making more than $10k a MONTH (not a year) from his sites combined, not $10k/month from VacuumWizard.com alone.
Looks like you might want to take a page from his book as per your own words on your “Who is Lis” page, you’re not making an income to speak of from your online efforts.
And how would you expect to develop a site that outranks his? That’s the best laugh I’ve had all day.
According to SpyFu, he ranks highly in Google for over 1659 keywords. If that’s not targeted traffic, what is?
@Grizz – hiya – nice short comment that one – I’ve learned something – I thought all the same things
Didn’t bother doing the research!
@Loreecee – not really – but I looking forward to North America going to bed so I can get some work done!
@SirDent – don’t worry this page is staying up! Yes I learnt the word “discovery” in the context of libel suits thanks to this discussion – very illuminating!
@YouMustbe – actually I was and you are right on both counts – it never occurred to me that a “successful” site would be idiot enough to chikta – but live and learn. The adsense block was below the fold on my small screen. Mixing monetization methods doesn’t work either – I don’t believe his income figures- see Grizz’s comment for a full explanation
@Mad Webmaster – read Grizz’s comment – it applies to you to.
Hey Lis,
For starters, you should go back and apologize for anyone incorrect information and fix it. Just because a product is bad doesn’t mean you should be sloppy in a review.
Great site! I disagree on Pavlina for starters. What is so great about his site? He was just lucky in his timing. A load of fluff about self improvement. Puh-leaze.
Maybe I should sign up for SBI, pay 300$ a site, hire some ghostwriters on the cheap and I will be RICH!
Boy in a few months I will be getting 1,000 targeted visitors a day and will be making the big money. All I have to do is rinse and repeat.
Of course if I had such great secrets, I would just hire teams of writers and become a billionaire, but I am sure the venerable Ken Envoy has such a kind heart that he just wants to share the wealth.
Most of these adsense success stories are lies, plain and simple. Anyone experienced in creating niche sites knows this. Listen to the real internet marketers like Griz and Vic, who actually make 15K+ a month.
Even if you know what you are doing, it still takes a long time to become successful at building sites. I would say 99% of people fail to make over $1000 a month.
I thought I knew a lot 6 months ago, but it seems like my knowledge has grown exponentially since then. I am sure it will grow even further a year down the road.
It is like giving someone a plumbing business in a box or an ebay business in a box. Both concepts are absurd to anyone who has actually owned multiple businesses.
Maybe there needs to be a coordinated effort to outrank anguilla beaches.
You know, coincidentally anguilla beaches would be a whooping 1 click a day if I was using PPC according to google.
Anguilla travel gets around 40 clicks a day PPC for a 1-3 placing, but Ken Envoy is nowhere on the top 10 for this term.
Anguilla hotel they can’t even rank above the fold, I think they are in fifth place, which should only be a trickle for that keyword, despite what is probably a very good page.
The “It” in Site Build It is Bulls#@t.
Even with a lot of long tails, it is clear that there are a bunch of people telling tall tales.
Here is the business model. Build a blog about product reviews. (could be about anything). Get the name of the item in the domain. Update it regularly by reviewing different items in your niche.
Register a bunch of domains and host them on different class C IP’s. Post to these blogs regularly (make them reviews on the same topic) and get backlinks to them. Link them back to your main site.
Profit.
You don’t need a clown like Envoy to tell you this. This info is on the internet for free.
“He also has other sites, including TennisMindGame.com, a blog at TennisThoughts.com and FreedomIdeas.com, where he shares his income and strategies he’s used to get there.”
Hahahaha… no please… hahahaha… stop please… hahahaha
Two sports sites using poorly anchored url’s that no one searches for (and there is no money in sports niches) and wait for it… A Home Based Business blog Oh My – just how many pages back in the serp’s is it behind me… hahahahaha
Chitika, Adsense below the fold and he makes 10K a month? hahahahaha… please stop… hahahaha
Grizzly’s last blog post..Site Build it – Don’t Buy It
@Anders – I did see the next post. I have no evidence that yourmom is actually the owner of the vacuum site.
@Grizz – don’t hurt yourself!
That’s alot of information generously given, Vic.
# Tonia S Mar 22nd, 2009 at 1:11 am
Thought you’d want to take a look at this:
http://www.associateprograms.com/articles/782/1/How-to-achieve-10000-visitors-a-day-with-Site-Build-It/
And yet, not one single solitary word about “how to achieve 10000 visotors a day.”
Hmm. Go figure.
Personal Development for Dummies™’s last blog post..Site Build It Vs. Steve Pavlina: Which Is the Scarier Cult?
Lissie,
I hope you’re enjoying this wall of comments as much as I am.
Over 30k words in this post before this comment, for a second I thought your broke SeoQuake when I was checking!
I think SEO is pointless to pull out at this time because the naysayers will continue to ignore the facts. Ken Evoy claimed SEO was dead back in 2005, four years ago. If master says it is dead, then it is dead, lol.
http://www.seobook.com/archives/001244.shtml
Brian G’s last blog post..Site Build It Reviews: Power To The People
Thank you Vic.
I’m sure you’ll brush that off, calling Chitika small potatoes and ignoring the fact that they use his site as one of their case studies.
Uh. I only use Chitika on the sites that won’t make me any money anyway. Hmm. Is there a reason for that?
Personal Development for Dummies™’s last blog post..Site Build It Vs. Steve Pavlina: Which Is the Scarier Cult?
Taking away what income people make will not make anyone feel good about themselves. Challenging them to improve their knowledge and resources is another issue and a little bashing and flaming won’t hurt anyone in the long run.
Dr Ken crossed the line by knowingly sending out the wolves on Lis. He knows he made a mistake. His income will suffer but he may well learn from this and develop a better product. He isn’t a scammer – just a businessman that has not kept up with the times. He has the opportunity to do so now. I believe he has the right to make a living with his product and we have the right to question it’s value. That’s how a free marketplace works.
It is in none of our interests (both sides) of this debate to seek to impair anyone’s ability to make a living online. Reporting people to Google is vindictive and you won’t improve your self esteem by harming someone else. No one wants to see their efforts evaporate so don’t do it to others. Compete with them fairly – don’t resort to less honorable methods.
It’s been fun but as Vic said – this is about offering help to those who want it. We don’t need to harm those that don’t. Let’s leave it at that.
Grizzly’s last blog post..Site Build it – Don’t Buy It
RE: “BTW – if you had commented using your keywords as your name and pointed to your website url you would have gained an anchored backlink….”
LMAO, good one Lis, I guess Site Build It doesn’t teach how to get backlinks!!!
Well, you sure did touch some nerves, it’s too bad so many have spent a ridiculous and insane $300 bucks per year to do something they could have done for almost nothing, and yet, these types of overpriced gimmicks will always hook the desperate newbies, and of course they have to defend their investment, or else, they would feel like fools.
I think what these hyper commenters are missing is the entire point, (or maybe it is the point that is infuriating them so much), which is the simple fact they you can build a successful online biz without paying the insane $300 bucks a year, sorry if that hurts ;-(
By the way Lis, great link bait post, see SiteBuildIt’s what a real marketer can do, oh and my cousin is a lawyer, I will give him your number for that lawsuit issue
JR @ Internet Marketing’s last blog post..Google Adsense Privacy Policy Update Deadline
Please guys like Grizz said the last thing we need is a fellow marketeer lose income because of this. The intention here was to give support to Lis from the onslaught of the pack from Kenny Boy not to have some one lose a site.
The video I made I only referred to technical aspects of the income or the serious lack off.
Now for future reference for the SBI group do not ever show your sites on an MMO blog let me repeat that do not ever show your niche sites in an MMO blog you should have a flagship blog that is what you use to post on MMO blogs. If you do not know what a flagship blog is please Google it
what happened to vic !!!!!!!
I’m trying to read his blog and it won’t let me get into it.
Tim – Vic is having to move bloggerunleashed to new servers because the load is too much – it make take a day or 2 before the site settles down – you should be able to view the video though its a direct link to viddler
I use SBI…..you know the best thing about finding this post though the SBI forums – i found out who Grizz and Vic are (i was reading his yesterday before it went offline)
I have to say they have AWESOME BLOGS with very good advice.
thanks very much
Tim – that is just so awesome mate (that’s Australian BTW) – I am really, really pleased if we have introduced you to some good reading material. Vic’s blog – bloggerunleashed – is being redirected to a different server array – the huge number of visitors that the site gets has been overloading hostgator’s largest option so they had to build him something bigger! He should be back up in a few hours – just keep checking the link – the video of Vic’s is accessible direct via the viddler link – well worth 30minutes of your time.
Thought I would come back for another laugh at what some comments are stating here.
Prolly the first time I’ve seen griz rant, and take action. It’s very amusing lmao
@Lis — If Vic’s blog is using hostgator’s biggest option, then he’s spending FAR more than $300/yr on hosting. SBI charges $300/yr regarding of traffic levels. Even if you think updatexp.com can’t monetize 400,000 monthlies, the fact is the site gets that traffic level (as verified by Microsoft, which I guess is a noob), for $300/yr hosting. You would crash a $6/mth godaddy or hostgator shared account with that traffic.
Why don’t you and Vic post some pics of your adsense checks like shoemoney? Or is he a noob too?
@Yourmom listen to Vic’s video -read Grizz’s response to you and fucking learn.
You want proof! It’s not Adsense but here it goes with my auction sites:
http://mcgrath.ca/2008/06/03/bans-result-for-may/
If you took the time to watch Vic’s video, you will understand that Vic show ads to search engines to maintain a higher CTR. He and others are using a free script for that. You can us a WP plugin too. In MSB, I added a new feature to allow you to show ads or not on a post by post basis.
If you want to learn what a better CTR can do, read this post:
http://mcgrath.ca/2009/03/17/happy-st-patricks-day-to-internet-marketers-and-all/
Steve McGrath’s last blog post..Site Built It Review/Opinion followup
Class is in Session SBIers pay attention.
Do you actually have to pay $300 for each site? That makes it hard to have very many- That’s like putting all of your eggs in one basket.
@your mom …come on lets just learn from these guys. Everyone knows updatexp or whatever it is, makes a fortune. Of course everyone knows that!!!!!!! Just leave it and read vic and grizzlies blogs.
@Yourmum, How many sites can you host on SBI for $300 a year? Umm only 1. How many sites can you Host on Hostgator? an unlimited amount.
@Christy -each and every one $300 – though I think they do a promotion every now and then you get a deep discount. This is the bit that is really annoying- it doesn’t matter how many sites you have – you aren’t taking up any more bandwidth – as most don’t get traffic -the domain name costs $10 max a year. Oh and you pay extra for the comments feature too apparently LMAO
@thanks tim
@yourmom -listen to tim
@Diane – I don’t think we are talking logic here … but thanks for trying!
I see, spread lies about well-known people and companies and ride on the back of the response. You must be so proud! (Ooh look at all the content people are creating with their comments about the drivel I sucked out of my thumb!)
Parasites live well this way.
Luckily most of your readers won’t check the “facts” you mention which are all wrong. (you don’t get your domain name(false), you don’t own your site (false) etc.)
And, then when the attacked person comes back with a logical response to each of your points you don’t even take the time to respond in like manner.
I feel sorry for all the poor souls who believe you. Luckily most won’t because they can check the “facts” you write for themselves.
I guess the web allows such nonsense opinions to exist.
Luckily it also allows people to respond.
I don’t believe a word this writer says because it’s clear that research and fact-checking aren’t strong points.
Opinions are fine though in this case even the opinion seems to be based on misunderstanding.
Tip: You can not ride off the back of other people’s success for your whole career. It’s sad to see.
FACT: $299 for SBI! is a bargain for what you get. If your main issue is the price then you obviously don’t make much money because $299 is nothing for what you get with SBI!.
You obviously don’t get it and then write about it to get attention. Sad.
So, as John Lennon asked Paul McCartney…
“How do you sleep at night?”
Keep milking it!
Lis,
Steve Pavlina sold out a long time ago check out The Dirty Little Secret Behind The Law of Attraction which I wrote about a year ago. I had no problem with his predilection for spouting nonsense, it was the relentless hypocrisy and blatant scamming of the naive and unwary that turned my stomach.
KuleKat
#
skitzarella Mar 23rd, 2009 at 10:02 pm
“Class is in Session SBIers pay attention.”
That was antagonistic and mean spirited. I take it back.. It would me more accurate to say that there is a lot to be learned from all of this.
@Lis et al : You can’t host “unlimited” sites on hostgator for $300/yr if you are getting 400,000 monthly uniques on a single domain (e.g. updatexp.com). You can host 100 BANS .info domains that get 3 visitors per day on $6/mth shared hosting–but get a site with 10,000 + dailies, and you’re going to spend at least $25/mth ($300/yr) on hosting alone per domain.
@Tim–my text-based sarcasm detector is broken, so I can’t tell if you’re serious or not….
I don’t know precisely how much updatexp.com makes (as I’m not the owner, and the owner hasn’t posted copies of his 1040 AFAIK), but I know that it’s owned by a Microsoft MVP, and Microsoft says his site get 400,000 monthly uniques (*Microsoft* says this about traffic levels, not the owner or Ken Evoy or sitesell). He sells his consulting services (in addition to more passive income methods like ebooks and videos), and I would think that a technical consultant with 400,000 monthlies and verifiable “approval” by Microsoft can make a few bucks. perhaps that’s totally wrong.
The link to Microsoft’s statement about updatexp’s traffic levels is found in one of my earlier posts. They also link to his new vista site.
I’m not asking people not to learn from Lis or whomever–they just should admit that not EVERY one of the 100,000 SBI hosted sites is crap that doesn’t earn it’s $300 back annually.
@Whomever: I watched Vic’s video. If I did the same analysis on my own site, I’d “conclude” that it makes maybe $5/mth – probably less. But then I look at my affiliate commissions, Adsense reports, and 1099s, and I see that I made $8,000 and change last year. So, there is some flaw in his analysis. Maybe he’s not taking into account non-search engine traffic, or longtail traffic or whatever. I’m no guru, I can’t tell. I just know that my little niche site will make about $700-800 this month without me having added any content–basically passive income. You can call BS on me all you want, but I (and the IRS, unfortunately) know what I made in 2008.
I’m not trying out “out-guru” you or Vic or anyone else. I don’t run a MMO blog and don’t claim to be the expert. I’m just saying that your statement that SBIers don’t make back their $300 is untrue. Maybe they can do it for less using shared hosting and a wordpress blog. Maybe you guys are trying to save the “noobs” from spending too much on SBI hosting when other hosting is cheaper. A great public service and all. Then I see affiliate links on all your sites. So, high-minded altruism or not, you’ve got a financial stake in one solution vs another.
I’m not pimping my site or affiliates in these comments–I’ve got no skin in this game. Just trying to clear up the facts.
@Marius – didn’t you read Ken’s post in the “private” forum on sitesell.com – he wanted you guys to stop providing me with free content – he’s caught on at least.
@skitzarella – don’t lose sleep over it
@yourmom – no I don’t think Tim was being sarcastic …
Grizz, Vic,
“When the student is ready the teacher will come.”
Fortunately that happened in my case, and I so appreciate my awesome mentors.
In this case, the teachers may have arrived a bit early to the party, before the students were ready.
At least you tried. And you’ve sent the good karma of your good didactic intentions vibrating out through the universe.
Wishing everyone the best and tons of SBI (Super Bedazzled Income).
Interesting, will follow this post.
“The Dunning-Kruger effect is an example of cognitive bias in which “people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it”[1]. They therefore suffer an illusory superiority, rating their own ability as above average.”
Some more free content for you.
Won’t help you much though I realize.
Huge Fail.
Your false reporting is the only scam in this case.
Hang on just a minute Vic and Grizz. You came to Lis defense and that’s noble of you but I just started to play and you want to end the game now?
No…I love freedom of speech too you noob.
See if I wanted to lower myself to the standards set here I might say something like this:
Hey Vic, you idiot, I’m trying to duplicate your videos or “vlogs” as you call them and tell me, do the annoying children noises in the background add some kind of “professional value” to the videos you create you putz. Have the decency to shut the kids up when your sharing your wisdom with us. You might think it makes you look more human but can’t you afford a babysitter with all the money you earn dummy.
Or what for example I said something like this to come down in the mud with you:
“The fact that you ran 3 corporations in the ground and declared bankruptcy back in 2004 makes you an expert in business… you stupid noob.”
That would be pretty irresponsible of me wouldn’t it. Or is it freedom of speech?
Well I’m not going to lower myself to make such comments if true. There comes a responsibility to your right to free speech.
But I’m still waiting for my video site review. I only got to sell 3 products from the last posting. I thought you had more traffic than that dumb ass.
Wow! Please come play with me. I like the smell of mud in the morning.
Paul
“The Mad Webmaster”
P.S. Vic.. if you increase your Zoloft medication to about another 100 mg per day and get a little more therapy sessions under your belt, you might get this nervous breakdown thing under control you noob. You know I’m kidding right?
I think what many people are trying to say about SBI is that it seems really over priced.
Then there is a lot of speculation that the information provided in the SBI training materials is a little out-dated or useless in terms of their SEO relevancy (this is speculation because nobody is going to spend the $300 to check out this fact).
And then there are some who are just a little angry at people being jerks.
It is really important in these types of conversations to put your caps on to really listen to what others are saying and what the purpose behind their comments are. Nobody is deneying that some people make money using SBI!. What I think (and many other appear to think to) is that maybe the $300 could have been better spent elsewhere. That seems like a reasonable opinion to have.
For example, could a regular ol’ blogger blog that was built at the same time as the one vacuum cleaner blog rank well for the phrase “vacuum cleaner” ? Probably.
Steward’s last blog post..SBI! (Site Build It!) Is A Waste of Money!
Lissie – nicely played. Not only did you expose this cult of noobs for what they are, you got some serious traffic out of this and got to #1.
$300 for hosting one site??? Jesus Christ!!! You can get a Hostgator RESELLER ACCOUNT FOR $300 and host …
wait for it…
AS MANY SITES AS YOU FUCKING WANT YOU SBI NOOBS!!!
Thai’s last blog post..Site Build It? Forget It!!
@Thai and have enough bandwidth to comfortably handle a massive increase of traffic over a few days LMAO!
@yourmom ====You can’t host “unlimited” sites on hostgator for $300/yr if you are getting 400,000 monthly uniques on a single domain (e.g. updatexp.com). You can host 100 BANS .info domains that get 3 visitors per day on $6/mth shared hosting–but get a site with 10,000 + dailies, and you’re going to spend at least $25/mth ($300/yr) on hosting alone per domain.====
With than many uniques per day I know enough about converting targeted traffic to $$$$ that I could easily spring for another hosting account. Can the SBI’s like Matt say the same?
Thai’s last blog post..Site Build It? Forget It!!
Lis,
I don’t know what motivated you to do this, but it is lively isn’t it?
I am not a user of SBI, but my niece is.
I have a business in London and my niece asked if she could use a desk in the office to start her ‘new business’. She’s 20 years old and had problems with drug abuse, so I was more than willing to try and help her out.
She has been using SBI for two years and her income at the moment is just a couple of hundred dollars a month; I have been ‘involed’ with her business from the start.
Each time I go past her desk, she shouts “Uncle Harry can you help me with this please?” and on more than one occasion I have been drawn into her problems for hours on end.
After reading your blog, which was brought to my attention by my niece, I thought I’d throw in my tuppence worth. So here goes!
Firstly SBI is not, in my opinion a scam. I think it is an excellent set of tools for building a business. However, I don’t think it guarantees (and no guarantees for success are made) success for anybody and those who are successful would probably successful with or without SBI, in my opinion
I think Ken Evoy is a good guy and he is extremely clever, intelligent and is a force to be reckoned with. I do however, question why he plasters his personal success trophies all over the internet. He obviously has his reasons, but it doesn’t make an a lot of sense to me.
Furthermore, I can see how it might antagonise some of his subscribers, after all, aren’t they all striving for that ‘perfect lifestyle’ in the Carribean?
The sad things is that while all of his followers aspire to have a more improved lifestyle, none of them, with the exception of just a few, could even dream of achieving what he has, such is his is titanic ability. So why does he wallow in all of his exhibits and flagrantly publish them on the internet? Only he knows, I guess!
As far as the Anguilla-Beaches.com site is concerned, it is his daughter’s site as far as I can make out. I think (and it is only my opinion) the only thing he is guilty of perhaps, is actually doing 90% of the work himself and then using the site as a pre-sell (he is the master after all) to all comers. What better testimony than that of a 14 year old and if she can do it, so can you. That’s what convinced my niece. It’s a little like the mom who asks her young daughter if she’d like to help make some cookies in the kitchen. The reality of course, is that mom does most of the work, but always announces to those sharing in the spoils “these were hand made by *****”. It’s what parents do to help their children develop.
The one thing I find a little ‘spooky’ is the way in which his ‘disciples’ behave in a similar sycophantic manner. Some of these obsequious individuals couldn’t resist the opportunity to demonstrate their undying support of the principal of their Klan, here in your blog…You know who you are!
I have witnessed SBIers being brought into line in the forums and it is true, that if you step out of line, or say anything that could offend the ‘Führer’ you are swiftly removed. Whilst Ken ‘lives in’ or ‘floats on’ the Carribean, his clique of moderators ‘take care of the business’. This happy band of trainees have had plenty of ‘hands on’ tuition from ‘the leader’.
In the short time I have had an arms-length involvement with this ‘programme’ I have to be fair and say that there are a number of people who seem quite lovely…these would include Marc Liron and Debs and both have contributed to my niece’s progress to date.
I hope this helps.
Harry
Thanks Harry for your thoughtful comment.
I see it is still going on here. Harry does seem to have a good point made in his comment, but still the venomous attacks by some were uncalled for. The gang mentality is very disturbing. Why can’t they just refute what you wrote and let it go at that?
SirDent’s last blog post..Jesus in the House
EXACTLY SirDent – we were all agreed several pages of comments back that SBI is not a SCAM but does seem to have rather alarming tendencies towards the cultish side of things. If they had left it at that this would have died days ago, I would have floated down the SERPS and that would have been that.
Harry asked what initially motivated me: I wanted some ranking for my blog for some search terms that beginners search for, but when I searched SBI reviews all I got was the same stuff, same affiliate copy, over and over. That never looks good for any company. No company has a perfect record, and no unhappy ex-customers, certainly not in anything to do with make money online and certainly not a company that has been in business for over 10 years.
When I was descended upon I realised how scary that would have been for your average blogger, and that was why there were no negative reviews – no I can’t prove its happened before, just around 99.9% certain
People who are truely good at what they do certainly do not need to triumph their “children’s” success all over the web, and truly don’t understand that side of the whole Ken Evoy persona.
And isn’t just a little sad that the hundreds of people in that “private” forum still think its “private” – that’s really, really low, a real abuse of trust.
Harry I wish your niece every bit of luck in her endevours – hard work is definitely required but you can make money online, probably even with SBI, just remember always keep learning, stuff changes on the Internet real quick!
@Lis – ==People who are truely good at what they do certainly do not need to triumph their “children’s” success all over the web, and truly don’t understand that side of the whole Ken Evoy persona.==
That sounds like every MMO blogger in the world, with their adsense check and bank account scans and income claims.
Every paid service or product has a free alternative. Hell, Amazon and Barnes & Noble are “scammers” because you can get the same book at the library free.
BANS is a scam because you can get free WordPress plugins that (legally) scrape Ebay listings too.
Keyword Elite is a scam because there are free alternatives (though you have to mix and match a few to get most of the results).
Aweber is a scam because there are a tons of free autoresponder scripts.
All of the affiliate products you pimp in the upper right hand of your blog have free and/or lower cost alternatives. Does that make you an accomplice to a scam?
It seems like the main difference between a “great time-saving product” and a “scam” is whether the author of the article is getting a commission from said product.
Most MMO bloggers with their fake Adsense checks are bullshit too. You have met the handful that aren’t here and you don’t even realise it!
I don’t recommend BANS here, or provide an affiliate link. when I bought Keyword Elite it was the only product that had the functionality to automate days of manual work. I now think Market Samurai is better, but both still work well depending on your needs.
I don’t use Aweber or any autoresponder – I don’t build lists to spam people with my junk. I don’t sell any autoresponder on this blog
Well one of the products I “pimp” costs $12/month -pretty expensive I guess… The other products save me a lot of time, but if you don’t have the money don’t buy them.
But all of those products are either software or services which provides me with something useful for my business. None of them tell me HOW to run my business, because I am in business for myself that independence is a lot of WHY I am in business.
Dog gone it!
Just when it was getting to be some fun everyone wants to tone down. Even the guy with the lisp. (at least have someone do a video that we can understand you idiot)
I wanted to exercise more free speech.
I guess this will be my last post as I head back to my cult and drink some more kool-aid and die in peace with my nazi friends.
I do want to say something to Lis though and I say it with all sincerity. (I know words like sincerity and integrity are hard words for some in here)
Lis, you have posted all my comments and have honored your word to do so. That gives me hope. Not that you’ll join SBI… you’ve made your case and that’s probably a good choice. You don’t need SBI to be successful. It gives me hope that you’ll post accurate information and exercise all the free speech you want.
As for the rest of you noobs, you are absolutely right. SBI is not for you. You’ll continue to follow such great inspirational people like Vic and Griz who really have your best interest at heart. I can feel the love every time they open their mouths.
Coming Soon: My video site review of their work. You’ll love it I promise, and it will be a little more professional. (no kids in the background… so rubbing your nose like a cocaine addict) So stay tuned sports fans and drop by my piece of garbage site real soon.. ya hear.
God I love the smell of mud in the morning! It makes me feel like a man.. like Vic.
Paul
“The Mad Webmaster”
@Lis – ==I don’t use Aweber or any autoresponder – I don’t build lists to spam people with my junk. ==
That might be part of why you’re not making as much money as you could. The money is in the list if you have *good* stuff to sell. Every major e-tailer from Amazon.com to Tigerdirect.com (a major computer & electronics retailer) to Walmart and Costco uses email lists to their customers to generate business. Obama’s Presidential campaign used email marketing to solicit donations.
Email lists are not just for the MMO floggers and scammers.
An opt-in list is not “spamming” by definition, and most reputable autoresponders use opt-ins.
“Pimp” was probably too strong a term. You are promoting those products for a commission.