Is Site Build It A Scam?

Lis wrote an interesting post called: Site Build It Scam Review.

Thanks for mentioning MyStarterBlog.

I wanted to leave a comment but found that a post would be better since it's content on my blog and expected to write a lot. ;)



Anyway, Lis found, mostly the same SBI users, commenting and I give Lis credit on approving those comments. They corrected/answered Lis and that's okay. Some comment were so long that I guest some of them were writing their comments at the same time thus duplicating the same answers.  It's a longer read than I expected.

I can also understand using the word "scam" from her point of view when there are many other cheaper alternative elsewhere. But for someone who start in this business, it could be a good way to have everything centralized in one place. That's is you have the first $300 to invest.

But since they show them what they need to do, why should they pay $300 for the the second site?  A user could have a site with 300 products while another have 100 sites with 3 products each.   The second user would be using the tools a little more but pay $300/year!!! Is it fair for her/him?

For example, if SBI would let them use the tools on unlimited sites with a small extra fee, this would be a better deal for users.   Otherwise, just buy software(with free lifetime updates like BMD, FBF, Keyword Elite, SEO Elite... ) and create unlimited sites at a lower hosting cost. Creating the site is not the problem. It's the getting traffic part that's time consuming and dull.

For some with only 1 site  and earning that money back, $300 could be enough for them to keep using SBI and not to have to deal with the technical side of their site. Then again, they remain at their "mercy". That's the real downside. I know that from personal experience with a site I bough from another person(not SBI). I know a lot more now by being more independent.

Last year, I bought around $700-1000 in SEO software. Then again, I have more than 100 domains. If I had used SBI, my cost even with their 2 for 1  or spring sale would be much higher ($10 000-15 000).  At $300, you must be sure that you chosen the right products or it will be a costing lessons for a newbie.

In the next weeks, I plan to be in a "build sites mode" thus increasing and diversifiyng my revenue streams.  I will pay $1 for .info so if I failed, then it's less than 1 hour +$1 I waisted. I will learned months later if I picked the right keywords. If I'm wrong, at least it's not $300 per site being waisted.

But with all those comments, Lis was not answered on the cost of getting you domain out of SBI if someone would want to stop using SBI.

Also, some mentioned that they own their sites. Okay, but following on Lis questions, what if someone used a graphic belonging to SBI. Can they take it with them? Are the images exclusive to SBI or royalty free?

Those that answered are those, I'm sure die hard users, who made or about to make their $300/year back and I'm glad for them. But those few commenter's anti-SBI were accused of not following the steps.

This bring me to ask what is the success rate using a centralize model like SBI after 1 year? I specified 1 year to be fair because you have to put in the time in any model.

Also, what's the average profit margin of those who made more than $300? It's important because if you put 100 hours(part time) but only made a $200/year profit then, it's not a good ROI. Most would not work for $2/hour, at least in develop countries(cost of living).

Some mentioned getting targeted traffic. Okay, but what's their converting targeted traffic reate? If you have 500 targeted visitors/day but no one buys/clicks then it's crap traffic. The only traffic that counts is the traffic that earn you money. It's a business not a blog for the social bragging rights of visitor or RSS readers.

One comment made me laugh about typos on her blog. This showed me the lack of understanding of getting traffic from typos. Heck, I make a lot of typos since English is not my first language. I do try but I'm sure that if I read at my older post I would ask myself what I was thinking at that time. I'm not saying that you should make types on purpose.

So, is Site Build It a scam?

From reading the answers from comments, I don't think so. For me, it's over price and even more on the second site. It's my opinion.

Also, Lis was slammed for making too many mistakes in her review of Site Build It Scam.  But how many potential clients would read the same thing on SBI and passed on it because they were thinking the same thing as her? That's the most important point here that SBIers missed.