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Sitesell announces new BB2 contest on Twitter

January 14, 2012 by John Dilbeck
Filed under: Sitesell and Site Build It

More than two years in the making, at the cost of several million dollars, SiteSell has been completely rebuilding the SBI system. It is transitioning from individual servers to a sophisticated clustered environment that will make it possible to add new features, and to improve existing features, in the coming years.

These changes will bring the underlying technology of SBI into the 21st Century and will pave the way for the next ten years of growth for Sitesell.

It’s being called “The End of Clunky.”

Now, I don’t really agree with this description of being “clunky.” I don’t think SBI has ever been clunky, but some people feel that way.

Basically, I think, the argument is that the Block Builder is clunky.

While I agree that building a new page using BB is not as easy as writing a blog post or sending an email, I believe that the original Block Builder has been a wonderful success and has helped thousands of people with no knowledge of HTML to build successful, profitable websites using SBI.

Others disagree and just don’t like it.

So, the propellerheads at Sitesell have been working very long hours for a long time to make all these changes and improvements.

I think the underlying architecture is the most important part of the story, but I think the new Block Builder 2 will be the most visible change.

Coming in January 2012: Block Builder 2

Some of the new things that will be introduced are:

Block Builder 2
Site Designer
Image Library

and many more features that will be added over the next few months

So, to celebrate all of this, Sitesell will be having a contest on Twitter, next week, from Monday, January 16, 2012 to Friday, January 20, 2012.

If you don’t follow their Twitter account, here it is: @SiteSell

(Following their Twitter account is one of the requirements of the contest.)

Now for the contest

The details and rules are on the Sitesell BB2 Twitter Contest page.

There will be five prizes awarded.

1st prize is one year of SBI! plus $500 cash.
2nd through 5th prizes are one year of SBI!.

(One year of SBI! is worth $299 USD.)

If you are not an SBI subscriber, and you are one of the five winners, you can get a free year to build your online business.

If you are already an SBI subscriber, and you win, you can extend one of your subscriptions for a full year at no cost.

It will be a fun, easy contest and it lasts only five days.

Good luck!

Tags: BB2, Block Builder 2, contests, SBI, Sitesell, Twitter

Comments

2 Comments on Sitesell announces new BB2 contest on Twitter

Dennis Mellersh on Sat, 14th Jan 2012 1:44 pm

Hi John:

The word “clunky” used to describe the SBI blockbuilder process conjures up an image of “clumsy.”

A better descrption might be time-consuming.

However, if someone had to do by themselves everything that the blockbuilder does automtically, it would take even more time, and for most of us, who are not html experts, building pages would not be possible.

Moereover there are many features with the SBI page-building process, such as checking for keyword density, that are very helpful.

Keep up the good work on 21st Century, John Your work is always helpful and objective.

Take care,

Dennis

John Dilbeck on Sun, 18th Mar 2012 3:17 pm

Hi Dennis,

You’re probably right. However, Sitesell has done interviews with people who signed up for SBI and then refunded in a few weeks. It’s my understanding, and I could very well be wrong, that one of the cited reasons was because the editor was “clunky” and I think that means as compared to editors like WordPress, Weebly, and others.

BB2 was not released in January, but it went into pre-production this week. I’ve been doing a lot of beta testing of BB2 for the last few weeks and I can’t wait to use it on my sites. Nobody will be able to call it “clunky” or “clumsy” or “cumbersome.”

I think it’s important to remember however, that tens of thousands of SBI subscribers have created profitable websites using the old block builder editor.

I agree that it’s not as easy to use as other systems, but BB2 is going to be a game changer. It’s not at all clunky.

Kelly has been creating new sneak peek videos of BB2 and has been loading them on the Sitesell channel on YouTube.

It took me about two days to become accustomed to editing with BB2 and it will take a little time to really plan for how I’m going to use all the features (especially reusable blocks, which are essentially the same as server side includes, but are easier to use).

Also, in the interest of full disclosure, Sitesell made some design decisions with which I disagree, but I’ve found easy work-arounds for the small handful that I really don’t like. (Fortunately, they are very minor. Things like adding a caption to a photo and similar things.)

Honestly, though, having talked to a number of people who bought over the years and refunded, many of them blamed it on the editor, but following more discussion, it turns out that they did not want to do the work, or they did not have a good idea around which to build a business. I’m sure that’s not true of everyone who refunded, but for a small sample that I know, it was the case.

My first SBI site was a terrible choice, too, but I killed it and went with something I believe in and that made a difference.

I try not to mislead anyone. There is a lot of work in building any kind of business and it always takes longer than we hope before it becomes profitable.

But, for me, it’s a lot easier and more enjoyable than many of the jobs I’ve had in the past.