Disability Grants and Benefits at Accessible.org

February 4, 2012 by John Dilbeck · 1 Comment
Filed under: Inspirational, Nonprofits, Sitesell and Site Build It, Volunteering, Websites

Over the last decade, or so, I have had the pleasure of meeting many helpful, friendly, successful people on Sitesell’s members-only forum.

One of those people is Don Coggan. He’s the guy behind Accessible.org, and he donates his time and effort to help people with disabilities.

Why does he do this? Because he’d rather donate his time and effort directly, rather than just donating money. You can learn more about Don and why he is helping people with disabilities on his site’s About Us page.

Here’s a short video where Tony, from Sitesell, interviews Don Coggan…

In this case, Don is not building a business with Sitesell’s SBI service. He’s working to help people who need help. He chose SBI, because he wants as many people as possible to find and benefit from his charitable work.

Good work, Don!

I can speak with some experience and insight about this subject.

I nearly died a couple of years ago when I was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. If I had not been approved for disability and Medicaid coverage of my surgeries and chemotherapy, I’m almost positive I would have died.

However, I was caught by the safety net and I’m getting a little stronger every day. I don’t think I’ll ever be the same strong, tall, giant of a man I used to be, but I’m better than I was a year ago and I intend to be better a year from now.

Sometimes, all we need is some help at just the right time in our lives. Many of us recover and again become productive members of society. Some don’t fare as well and they need continuing help and support.

I’m happy to know I live in a world where people like Don Coggan (and many others) are there to help when they’re needed.

You can learn more about Sitesell and SBI on Facebook, YouTube, and Sitesell’s website. (Yes, these are affiliate links in this paragraph.)

Act on your dream!

Tags: accessible.org, charitable work, disability, Don Coggan, help

Sitesell announces new BB2 contest on Twitter

January 14, 2012 by John Dilbeck · 1 Comment
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

Do you know about Zoho CRM?

January 13, 2012 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business, CRM, Marketing, Zoho

For the last few months, I’ve been looking for a good CRM system to help me manage customer contacts, sales processes, and all the other tasks related to gathering prospects and converting some of them into paying clients.

I’ve looked at quite a few systems such as SalesForce and InfusionSoft and could not find one that was really a good fit for a solo entrepreneur and/or microbusiness.

I had just about decided to buy a new relational database app and create my own system (which would have taken months), but did not want the diversion from my current business goals. I have a background in developing these types of systems, but then I’d get tied up in all the maintenance and upgrading and just didn’t want to go there.

Yet, at this stage of my business, I could not find an affordable CRM solution that I could grow into as my business expands.

Then, yesterday, I found Zoho CRM and it looks like it may be what I’ve been looking for.

(That is not an affiliate link, but they do have a nice affiliate program. If Zoho CRM turns out to be a good solution for my business, I’ll join their affilate program. But, not until I know it is a good, reliable solution to my sales management needs.)

They offer a free account for up to three users and their paid plans are very affordable: Professional for $12/user/month; and Enterprise for $25/user/month.

About the only thing that the Enterprise Edition offers that the Professional Edition doesn’t (for my particular needs) is autoresponders, and I already have SBI and Aweber for that.

So, if it proves to be useful for helping me manage my sales process, then it will be easily worth $12/user/month. One new client and it would more than pay for itself for a whole year. That’s the kind of ROI I look for.

I don’t know why it took me so long to find Zoho CRM, but I’m happy that I did.

Now, it’s just a matter of putting it to use and seeing how it works for my business.

It has to be comprehensive enough to help me organize everything and to easily see where each prospect is in my marketing funnel, without being so feature-laden that it becomes too complex to use every day.

I’ll let you know in a month or two how it’s going.

If it works for me, it’s going to be a relief. I’m tired of flying by the seat of my pants, and my main goals for this year are to build systems to organize and manage the sales process for myself and my clients.

Act on your dream!

Tags: marketing funnel, sales management

WordPress or SBI revisited

January 6, 2012 by John Dilbeck · 10 Comments
Filed under: Business, Marketing, Sitesell and Site Build It, WordPress

First, let’s get this point out of the way: Yes, this blog is powered by WordPress.

I enjoy blogging, even though I make little money from it. As I’ve said many times before, I make more money from a couple of websites than I do from all my other sites and blogs. Since I do this to earn a living, it’s the profit that’s important to me.

Yes, it’s easier to write pages on WordPress than using SBI. I throw up ad hoc pages on my blogs all the time about topics in which I’m interested at the moment, with very little pre-planning. I come here to share what I’ve learned and to recommend dependable products and services that produce results month after month.

It’s a fact that I’ve closed most of my WordPress-powered blogs and I rarely post on any of my blogs, any more. I’ve left a wasteland of abandoned blogs in my past. Why were they abandoned? Because they were not profitable.

As I’ve said before and I’ll say again, I am going back to focusing almost all of my attention on two things: local marketing for a select group of small business owners and a very limited amount of consulting. It is going to be very hard to become one of my clients. I’m getting pickier as I get older.

I’ll be using SBI for most of my marketing in 2012 and beyond.

If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool WordPress fan and have no intention of changing your mind, then, the show’s over. There’s nothing to see here. Move along. Don’t waste your time on this blog.

If you’re a marketing wannabee, but you’re not willing to invest money for the tools that do a reliable job of earning profit, I’m not for you, either. If you invest all your time and energy in using only the free tools you can find, I’m going to argue that you don’t have a business, you have a hobby.

That’s my position. Agree or disagree, it’s your choice.

On the other hand, if you are a business owner and you want to grow your business, serve more clients and customers, and earn more, then you may want to take a few minutes and read some of the things I have to say.

No, I’m no “Internet Guru.” In fact, I tend to avoid anyone who refers to himself as a guru.

I’m a guy who’s been in the marketing trenches, off and on, for over three decades and I’ve learned some things that work well and some that don’t.

Am I right all the time? I doubt it, but I’ve made my fair share of mistakes and have learned what to avoid and what to do. That’s part of the learning process. Maybe I can help you avoid some errors along the way.

Okay, now that the preamble to the post is out of the way, let’s turn our attention to the subject at hand: building a business by marketing online.

Whether you sell a product or service, online or offline, I think you’ll agree that marketing is a very important part of the process.

If you don’t have a steady stream of interested prospects, it’s going to be hard to have a steady stream of happy customers who buy from you over and over, and that’s a business. Not one time, here and there, sales. Multiple sales to the same person, over and over, year in and year out.

That’s my goal for 2012. To build a marketing system that does just that: attracts thousands of prospects, tells them how to scratch an itch or avoid a pain, and then recommend products and services and processes that work.

Most of this system, I’ll be building for my clients and myself and I’ll never talk about it here, but I’ll be using the tools that I write about in this blog. If you look in the right column of almost any page on this site, you’ll see the tools I recommend and use all the time to attract prospects and turn them into customers.

(Note: I’m basically starting over after a long illness, so most of the systems I’ll be building are not yet in place, but I’m working on them every day. They will be.)

So, I’ve said all of that to say this:

Do not confuse busy-ness with business. They are not the same.

A business is based on results and that usually means profit. The goal of a business is to increase wealth. I would add this, “while providing the best services and products that are available to your customers.”

I know from experience that I’ve been busy with blogging and it has been a distraction. It has taken my attention away from building a real business and has cost a lot in terms of missed income, because I didn’t keep my eye on my goals.

I was enjoying the process of playing with the technology, rather than focusing on achieving specific business goals.

Blogging — for me, at least — has been a huge shiny object that diverted me from my business for several years. Yes, it was a valuable lesson, but I’m happy that I learned the lesson and have time to rectify the problem.

Harsh words? Maybe.

But, they’re true.

I can look at my own stats and accounting reports and I know that I earn far more money from several websites than I do from all the blogs I’ve built.

I’m thinking, and have no proof, that the main reason is that people come to blogs with a different mindset and different intentions than they do when going to an information rich, niche-focused, hierarchically organized, traditional website.

People bounce into a blog, scan the latest article, and bounce right back out — mostly. That’s why bounce rates tend to be higher on blogs than websites.

At least, that’s what my stats tell me.

I’m not saying that blogs are bad. For some specific niches, they are great. If you serve a niche where the latest news and developments is important and you focus on covering those topics day in and day out, then a blog may be the best approach for you.

If you want to write about a wide range of topics and don’t want to try to organize those topics as you would have to do with a website, then a blog may work, but I’m betting you won’t get very good results from it.

What are you selling?

You have to sell something to have a business. Your income has to exceed your expenses if you’re going to have a real business.

Over a decade ago, I quit computer consulting. I became an artist blacksmith and specialized in making roses that never wilt. I was enjoying that business until Mom became ill. Following her battle with cancer, she could not care for herself, so I brought her home and cared for her for the next several years. Since I could leave her alone for no more than an hour or two at a time, I took up affiliate marketing as a way to earn a living while staying home to care for her.

It worked.

But, the main problem was this: I had no customers nor clients. I had no products to sell. None.

I earned a pretty good living by writing about things that people were interested in and then recommending products via affiliate links. I’m still doing that. I love that business.

The problem, however, is that the people who purchase (or click on the Google Adsense ads) are not my customers — they’re someone else’s customers.

So, my job has been to attract hundreds of thousands of readers and hope that enough of them would purchase so that I’d earn enough to live well.

I did all the work up front and hoped for an income. It’s been great for me, but I know a lot of people who have tried it and have not done nearly as well as they want.

Part of the problem is that it’s a flawed business plan.

We do all the work of promotion and building interest and then pass the customers off to the merchants.

We’re helping the merchants increase their herds, but we’re not building and nurturing a herd of our own.

(If you’re wondering, that’s the term Dan Kennedy uses to help remind us that a good business has a group of satisfied customers and it’s our job to provide what those customers want so that they’ll buy from us over and over. He calls it building a fence around our herd. Then, he advises that we market to our herd over and over, every month, in a way that helps them get what they want.)

That whole process has been perverted, to a degree, in the “internet marketing” business, where people who don’t have a herd of their own, are always selling, selling, selling to anyone who wanders by, and that just does not work.

Someone visits your website or blog, clicks a link, and then they’re gone, possibly never to return. Next!

You may be able to earn a few hundred dollars per month with this approach, but you can’t live on a few hundred dollars per month. At least, I can’t, and I enjoy living a relatively simple life.

So, not only do you not have a herd of your own, you don’t have anything to sell to them. All most bloggers do is try to get visitors to click on affiliate links or click the ads.

Some bloggers offer a lot of quality content; some don’t. Most don’t earn much. Most don’t attract many readers and even fewer buyers.

So, they become enamored with the process and the technology and don’t invest the time, energy, and money to build systems to corral and nurture a herd of their own.

In fact, I know a few bloggers (myself included for a few years) who actively avoid building a herd and nurturing them, even if we know better. It’s a trap that is easy to fall into.

What do you sell? To whom do you sell it?

If you have a traditional business, you have regular customers and clients.

If you own a restaurant, you have regular customers who enjoy your food and they tell their friends. They eat there off and on. If you do a good job of marketing, you can get them to eat more often and to bring their friends along, too. This increases the number of purchases and also increases the amount of the transactions, and that means more income. If your marketing costs less than the increase in revenue, it means that you have higher profits — and that’s the goal. (At least, it’s one of the goals.)

When I was a computer consultant, it was easy to focus on my business. I wanted people to find me, hire me, pay me, and call me back the next time they needed my services. This was before the Internet, so most of my marketing consisted of giving free presentations to groups of potential clients and publishing a newsletter every month.

(I wish I had one of those old newsletters to look at. They were produced with a typewriter and were cut and pasted with real scissors and glue, before cutting and pasting meant clicking a button.)

They weren’t nearly as pretty as the newsletters I’ll create this year, but they were effective.

When I was a blacksmith, the Internet was just starting to flourish, and I used one tiny section of one website and was able to sell all the steel roses I was able to forge.

But, when I closed my blacksmithing business and started caring for Mom, I lost my direction. My main interest was caring for her and my secondary interest was earning enough money to continue caring for her at home. Affiliate marketing served that purpose, well.

So, during the time I cared for her and then fought my own battle with cancer, it means that I’ve spent almost exactly a decade of selling to random people who were attracted to my various websites.

Since I had no clear target markets and no clear business goals, I drifted and experimented with the technology. I was fascinated and I enjoyed it and I learned a lot.

But, now, for the first time in a decade, I’m able to work full-time at what I enjoy doing and I have a couple of products of my own that I can sell.

That makes it much easier to define the target market and to create ways to communicate with those people. As time goes by, I’ll attract them into my pasture, feed and nourish them, and tell them, over and over, how I can help them get what they want.

Since I have some highly-developed skills in this area and enough experience to know what to do and what not to do, I can sell my services in several ways. Each of those will have its own herd and I will nurture and care for them month after month after month, until I can do it no longer.

That makes it much, much easier to focus.

It’s also why it has become so obvious to me that I need to decrease my blogging activities and focus on other means of marketing and attracting clients and customers.

Yes, I still enjoy blogging, or I would not take the time to write this post.

I don’t know if you enjoy reading it. That’s for you to decide.

Affiliate marketing will always be a part of my business, but it has moved into second place this year. It will move into third place in 2013.

Even so, I intend to earn more from affiliate marketing in the coming years than I ever did in the past, because I’ve stopped promoting anything that doesn’t work very well. I’ve narrowed my focus on tools I use and I’m promoting only the best of breed in each category.

I’ve taken that philosophy and adapted it to one of my service businesses, and I’ll only work with one person in each category — and that person will be the best I can find. Life is too short to waste it on working with people who aren’t focused on doing the best they can.

Why build a website instead of a blog?

This brings us back to the original topic: WordPress and SBI, revisited.

Here’s an interesting page you may want to read:

I think the conclusions that are drawn are valid — but it is a limited data set.

I suspect, but have no proof, that the majority of self-hosted WordPress blogs attract many more readers than the average number reported by WordPress blogs that are hosted by WordPress.com.

I have a blog there that I rarely write to, and I doubt it gets any visitors.

I post a lot more frequently to this blog and put a lot more work into each post.

So, I believe that the actual average number of viewers for WordPress-powered blogs is higher than shown, but there’s no way to know for sure.

The numbers for SBI sites, however, are valid and true. SBI keeps these stats for all sites hosted on their system, so we can be sure that they are accurate.

And, as with any “average” number of anything, there will be sites with far fewer visitors and a few sites with many, many more.

I believe one of the key differences is that SBI has a process that includes an education and set of steps that we follow to make our sites as good as they can be — if we take the time to follow those steps properly.

I admit that I have not done a good job of that, so I’m basically starting over with both my sites and will systematically rebuild them using the plan I created over the last few months.

Even though I’ve mostly ignored my two SBI sites for the last couple of years, they still outperform my blogs — including this one.

Now, will that be true for you? Honestly, I don’t know, but I think the odds are in your favor.

I also want to quibble with one point on that page. It says, “The more traffic you receive, the more income you earn, whether you’re selling ads or aardvarks.”

All things being equal, that may be true. It probably is.

However, I don’t think things are equal between blogs and websites. I think people have a different mindset when they visit a blog and bounce back out than when they visit a website and read several pages before leaving.

I think that gives a well-organized website that is full of high-quality information a real edge over most blogs.

I’m not positive about it, but I think it’s true

Building an online business is not for everyone. It requires a number of skills, and two that are very important are being able to research a topic and then write what you know about it. I don’t mean paraphrasing someone else’s work, I mean truly original writing. That takes work and talent.

Not everyone can or will do that.

It’s a little easier if you have your own business with your own products and services and you want to promote them online. A well-planned and organized website will outperform a blog.

While I can’t conclusively prove that statement, I think it is accurate.

Do you have to use SBI to build such a website?

Of course not.

There are many ways to build a website and there is a lot of information scattered all over the Web on how to do it. Without any doubt, that is true.

But, none of those includes all you need to know to build your online business in the way that SBI does, all in one place.

Will SBI work well for every site? No. SBI does not offer things like PHP scripting and database access. If you need those features, or even if you just want them, SBI is not for you.

However, for the majority of people who don’t want or need such things, SBI puts the technology in the background and lets you focus more of your attention on attracting and nurturing your herd.

No matter what system you use, however, if you’re new to building websites, there is a LOT to learn. But, with SBI, you don’t have to figure it all out, all you have to do is follow the time-proven method to identify, research, and build your site. That makes it a lot easier.

Especially if you’re a busy business owner who isn’t interested in learning a lot of technobabble.

You want to tend your herd and have them buy from you again and again. That’s the goal. SBI makes it easier. Not easy, but definitely easier.

What kinds of businesses are people building with SBI? Find your business.

If you’re not sure if SBI is right for you, you can ask your questions for free. No obligation.

When you’re ready to start, SBI offers a 90-day full-money-back guarantee, if you decide it isn’t what you need.

Why am I so insistent?

Is it because I earn a commission if you subscribe to SBI through one of my links?

Yes, that’s partly true.

However, I’m also an affiliate for HostGator, 1&1, and others, and you don’t see me promoting them. I’m also an affiliate for several domain registrars and I’ve stopped promoting them.

I like, use, and recommend Weebly to some people for building some kinds of websites, but not if your primary method of attracting prospects is via your website. For that purpose, I recommend SBI.

Weebly does make it easy, however, if you want to build a website and blog that provides some information about your existing business and you promote it mainly by links from other places, rather than relying on attracting lots of visitors through the search engines. You can do it and it works well for some people, but it is not my top recommendation.

By the same token, I could join the affiliate programs to recommend premium WordPress blog themes and even promote WordPress consultants and specialists.

You don’t see me doing that, either. (Although I’m sure I could earn a lot of money, if I did.)

Why?

Because, for most business owners, and people who want to own their own business, SBI is the right choice.

Act on your dream!

Tags: business, Marketing, SBI, WordPress

Dilbeck Marketing – back to business in 2012

December 21, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 10 Comments
Filed under: Advertising and Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Business, John Dilbeck, Marketing, Opinions

Lots of fun things to do, today.

I’m finally free to update some of the websites related to my marketing business.

For the last several months, I’ve been pulling out my hair and chewing my fingernails trying to decide exactly what kinds of consulting services I’ll be offering. I settled that issue pretty quickly.

The hard part was deciding how I wanted to proceed and what I was going to charge for my time and effort.

Deciding what I WILL DO was much easier than deciding what I WILL NOT DO.

As I get older, I’m getting pickier about the people, products, and services I promote.

In the affiliate marketing side of my business, I’m dropping several companies this week, because I only promote the very best I can find in a particular category.

When it comes to business services, quality and dependability trumps price — every time. Some of the services I’ll be promoting cost more than their competitors, but they are worth it. Some, surprisingly, actually cost less.

In each case, I made my decisions based on quality and dependability, rather than price.

And, I did NOT make my decisions based on how much they are willing to pay me to promote them. I’m dropping several businesses that pay rather high commissions, but I don’t want to earn those commissions by recommending something that isn’t the best in its category.

Yes, it’s possible that I may make a bad decision now and then, but I’ve spent years and thousands of dollars using and testing these products and services. I know — first hand — if they deliver what they promise.

In a couple of cases, there really are two or three businesses that all deliver outstanding quality and return on investment. In one case, it has been very difficult to decide between them. I’m confident, however, that I made good choices for myself, my clients, and people like my clients.

If I won’t recommend something to my brother, daughter, best friend, or most-valued client, I won’t recommend it to you. If I won’t use it myself, I won’t recommend it, either.

That decision may cost me thousands of dollars, but if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.

I only promote businesses, and their owners, whose products and services I use and with which I am very satisfied — and that applies equally to affiliate marketing and also to promoting local brick and mortar businesses in Murphy, NC.

I’ll be stepping up my efforts to a higher notch in just a couple of weeks and I’ve been wrestling with several decisions for a long time.

When I started MurphyGold.com a couple of years ago, I planned to offer my marketing services to only one business in each category. Then, I’ve had inquiries from competitors of the folks I’m already promoting, and it’s been hard to turn them down.

And, in several cases, there are multiple business owners in a particular category who all qualify as top-notch and deserve to be promoted, so it’s been hard to make a decision about how I’ll handle this. In one category, off the top of my head, there are at least four business owners who I’d be proud to recommend to my readers. That is what has made it such a difficult decision.

If I were selling advertising, it would be simple. I’d let all of them buy ads, but that’s not what I’m building with Murphy Gold.

After wrestling with myself about this for months, I’ve come full circle back to my original thoughts. I’ll promote only one business in each category. That way, I can offer ideas for marketing and advertising without having to deal with helping people directly compete against each other.

I feel better about that. It was an ethical, as well as a business, dilemma. I do my best to be open, honest, and ethical and I felt it was wrong to promote two businesses offering the same kinds of services, because I would have inside knowledge of their goals and plans. My gut has known all along that it would open a can of worms, but my head has been arguing that I could deal with it and not do anything unethical or unfair.

I’ve learned — over many years — to pay attention to my gut feelings and finally my big ol’ brain came to the same conclusion.

Looking back on it, I knew all along that it would not be the right thing to do, and, as a result, I haven’t proceeded with inviting new businesses.

Now, that I have locked this “one business per category” policy in place (and have thrown away the key), it frees up a lot of energy to get to work.

Then, this week, I resolved my conflicts about pricing. That’s always a hard thing to set. There are many models and ways of calculating prices, but I tossed them all aside and went with my gut. It has been a good counselor over the years.

Now, I know what I’ll be doing, what I’ll be charging, and a few of the people I’ll accept as new clients. What a relief. Now, I can jump into doing the work — and that’s the part I love.

Normally, in the last two weeks of December, I fire the bottom 10% of my clients. I don’t work with people who are hard to deal with, who don’t do what they say they’ll do, who don’t pay on time, or who are just difficult to deal with.

If I don’t enjoy working with someone, there isn’t enough money on this quaint little planet to convince me to work with them. Life’s too short to deal with difficult people.

The only people I’ll work with are honest, reliable, helpful, friendly, cooperative, happy to see their customers, and very good at what they do.

I’m kind of a strange bird. In a world where most people will work with anyone who has some money and a pulse, I turn away more prospects than I accept.

I’ve been told I don’t have a firm grasp on reality and that I don’t understand business. That may be true.

However, I’d rather work with a few outstanding clients I truly love working with than have hundreds or thousands of clients I don’t like.

Some things transcend money.

This year, I’m happy to say that I don’t have any clients who need firing. I think that’s a first. I love working with great people.

I’ll be sending out invoices for next year, and we’ll see if any of my clients decide to fire me. It’s possible.

It’s gonna be an outstanding 2012! I’m going to have a lot of fun with my business.

Act on your dream!

Tags: 2012, Dilbeck Marketing

Kashoo online accounting

December 13, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 3 Comments
Filed under: Business

Accounting. I know how to do it and I’ve done it for years, but I still don’t enjoy it.

Over the last two years, I got behind in my accounting and forgot to file my taxes in 2009. So, for a variety of reasons, I had to find a new accounting system that would run on my Mac. I had been using Quickbooks Pro for a long time, but decided not to update to the latest version when I bought my new computers last year. The version I’d been using for so long would not run on Macs with Intel processors.

I bought three different accounting programs and didn’t like any of them. They just didn’t offer what I needed.

So, I searched for a system that would do all I needed without being more complicated than necessary.

I found what I was looking for with Kashoo accounting:

Here’s their Facebook page: Kashoo online accounting

It’s a cloud-based system and costs only about $11.00 per month. They handle all the updates to their system and I don’t have to deal with it.

One reason I wanted an online cloud-based accounting system is because I have multiple computers and want to be able to do a quick update to my accounting using whichever computer I’m on at the moment.

All I have to do is keep up to date with my business transactions. They handle installing upgrades and other similar technical tasks.

Catching up with two years of accounting was a major task, earlier in the year. When you get behind with the paperwork and you’re too sick to think clearly, it’s very difficult to keep up with what needs to be done.

Thanks to the help of a friend who came over and helped me organize everything, I was able to catch up, file two years of taxes, and get it back under control.

(I can do just about anything with a computer, but I am completely inept when it comes to dealing with paper, filing, and receipts. My friend helped me find and organize all the paper and, after that, getting it into the computer was relatively painless.)

Now, it’s easy, even though I don’t particularly like it.

(Plus, it helps that I’m feeling much better and I’m thinking much more clearly.)

If you’re looking for an accounting system, I recommend Kashoo. They’re a small Canadian firm and the system works on any computer with a modern web browser. I use my Mac and Safari with no problems. I’ve also tested it with Firefox, with no problems.

They’re not paying me to recommend them and I earn nothing if you subscribe to their service. I’m a satisfied customer and I know that it’s hard to find a good, easy-to-use accounting system for micro businesses, especially if you use Macs.

Kashoo does not offer all the features that Quickbooks Pro or Quickbooks Online offers, but I didn’t need those extra features.

If you need more than what Kashoo provides, here’s a comparison chart for different versions of QuickBooks Online.

You know what they say, “The job’s not over until the paperwork is completed.”

Kashoo makes it easy. Well, easier.

Act on your dream!

Tags: accounting, Kashoo, online services

Rebuilding my business with SBI in 2012!

December 10, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 2 Comments
Filed under: Business, Marketing, Opinions, Sitesell and Site Build It

Several important currents are coming together to make 2012 a much more productive year for me. Sitesell is going to play a very big part.

1. I am recovering from a very serious illness and I finally feel like working on my sites again. It has been a difficult period (almost three years), but I’m ready to go. (I’m getting tired of talking about being sick. I’m looking forward to it becoming a distant memory.)

(If you’re interested, I wrote about my battle with cancer on my other blog. It’s a good thing I wrote it down, because I have no memory of writing those posts. Fortunately, my memory is improving, this year.)

2. I have closed over 50 websites that I built over the last decade (non-SBI). I started about half of them before SBI was introduced and the other half to test ideas and to see if I could put together a system that was better than SBI (for my own use, only, not to sell to others). I tested many different ways of building websites and blogs, and some of them were successful, but all of them had problems. Problems that I’ve never experienced on either of my SBI sites.

As an example, I spent a whole day last week fighting a security issue on one of my non-SBI sites. It took several hours with that company’s support staff, a supervisor, an administrator, and their security team to find one PHP malware file hiding on the site. I have no idea how it got there. Additionally, I spent several hours reprogramming the webserver on that site, so that it would block a group of people from around the world who were using my server for their purposes (to the tune of over 20 GB of bandwidth per month, and nearly 200,000 page views). I devised an elegant solution to block them, and still let everyone else see the site.

At one time in my life, I would have enjoyed that. I used to enjoy devising fast, elegant solutions to tech problems. Now, it’s just a hassle. A major hassle. This is one of the reasons that I fully support Sitesell for not allowing scripts (other than javascript) on our sites. Every non-SBI site I’ve ever built has been hacked more than once. Neither of my SBI sites have been.

Why did I build so many websites? I am a firm believer in testing to see how well something works. I don’t believe what people say, until I test it for myself. That’s probably a character defect and it has caused me a lot of unnecessary work, but I’ve reached my conclusions based on my own experience, not from someone’s claims.

3. The release of BB2 is coming at just the right time. I’ve spent the last three or four months brainstorming, planning, and thinking. I’m going to rebuild both of my sites and I’m going to take the time to do it the right way.

When I built my first SBI-powered site in April 2004, it was basically to learn how SBI worked so I would be better as a 5P affiliate. At the time, I was building a couple of large (1,500+ page) sites using a database created by Dave Winer (one of the inventors of RSS and an early blogger, as well as a very talented programmer and application developer). His product was called Frontier and later became Radio Userland and Manila, before he moved on to other things a few years ago. Over a period of several years, I modified that system heavily by tweaking the programming and adding my own modules. (Even with all my work and thousands of hours invested, it did not do all that I can do with SBI.)

It did, however, offer an easy way to build templated sites from a database. I could modify the template and rebuild the entire site, any time I wanted to, with ease. It made it easy to manage large sites. It made it easy to manage sub-sections of a site.

I’m looking forward to seeing how well I can do similar things using BB2. Reusable blocks open up a new way of approaching a block-built SBI site.

At their peak, each of my largest sites was getting about a million page views per year and earning enough income for me to be able to stay at home and be my mother’s sole caretaker for the last years of her life.

4. My income from affiliate marketing took a nose-dive in 2009. It has not recovered, yet.

The sites I built were very successful until the North Carolina legislature passed the nexus tax law in 2009 and Amazon.com cancelled my affiliation, and all the other affiliates in the state. Several other large merchants also dropped me at the same time. I had been an Amazon.com affiliate for 13 years and all of my sites were heavily monetized through their affiliate program. *poof* *gone*

For the last 2 years, my income has been decimated, so I’m basically starting over. I’ve managed to hang on and not close my business, but it was touch and go last year. Last spring, I showed my daughter how to close the business, if necessary, and gave her my power of attorney to do so.

This happened just as I was getting so sick that I had a very difficult time thinking straight and trying to make the necessary changes. I was able to update one large site by deleting several hundred pages and removing most of the Amazon affiliate links, and I removed most of the Amazon links on my smaller sites. I never got around to updating the other large site, so it’s been sending thousands of people to Amazon.com to purchase products we recommended, for more than two years — and we’re earning nothing from it. (Even after two years of total neglect, that site still gets more than 50,000 visitors and about 300,000 page views per year.)

Do I feel bitter about this and resent Amazon.com? I did, at first. Now, I recognize that our state legislature made a decision, Amazon.com responded to that decision, and I (and many others) took the hit. That’s business. There are always ups and downs and obstacles in our path to success.

For most of 2009 and 2010, I was so sick that I could not work, at all. I wrote a few blog posts and played on Facebook, but most of the time I slept. Fortunately, the surgeries were successful and chemotherapy did its job. I’m getting stronger every month and I’m back up to about half-speed.

5. After nearly 15 years of building websites and earning a living with my marketing business, I’m turning my attention from all the other ways I know of building websites and blogs and focusing on SBI.

My first SBI site was something I built because it was a subject that is important to me, not because I thought it was something that would make a lot of money. I liked how SBI made it easy to build and manage the site and how it did so much for me behind the scenes. I made some mistakes with that site, and some of those mistakes are evident in my choice of keywords. I did not choose very well. I’ll be testing the bottom-up approach to building that site over the next couple of years.

I was heavily focused on other ways of building money-making sites, at the time. I’ve built social communities, forums, websites, blogs, and even an article directory. I wanted to know, from the inside, how these various sites worked and performed — and I wanted to discover their benefits and problems. I think I spent more time modifying and writing PHP code over the last few years than doing any other activity.

I was a Sitesell 5P affiliate before there was an SBI. So, I had the chance to watch as SBI grew and expanded. It continued to improve and offer more features, year after year. And, the price has not increased, even though the product is many times better than it was all those years ago.

Despite inflation and all the new and improved modules, the price for SBI remains at $299 per year.

I spend more than that for coffee. (…and Reece’s Pieces…)

I’ve also observed, for about 13 or 14 years, the high levels of intelligence, honesty, ethics, integrity, innovation, and good-judgement that are possessed by the people who make up the Sitesell team. I’ve observed how the company has adapted to a changing world, not by following every fad, but by evaluating each new innovation from a business standpoint and then deciding whether or not it would have a long-term beneficial or detrimental effect on all of Sitesell’s subscribers.

I have observed how deeply focused the Sitesell team is on helping us succeed. They don’t just say it. They do it. Much of it for free.

The private, members-only Sitesell Forums are dedicated to helping and being helped, and I have observed more times than I can count or remember how SBIers help each other. Individuals on the Sitesell team offer their help, too, above and beyond their official duties.

This has been true, day in and day out, for years.

When I built my first SBI-powered site, in early 2004, things were very different from what they are, now. (I also have to admit that I thought I was something of an expert in building websites and I didn’t pay as close attention to the advice I got as I should have.)

The brainstormer was impressive and was a FileMaker runtime database that actually ran on our own computers, before being rebuilt to run entirely on Sitesell’s servers. That was a big change. It’s even better now, and the improvements that are planned for next year will be important improvements, also.

I don’t remember there being an Action Guide, although there probably was. I know, if it existed, it was nothing like what’s available now.

Until last year, I lived where there was no high speed Internet and I had a very, very slow dial-up connection. Last year, while I was too sick to work, I moved about four miles away to live with my daughter and her family, and jumped into the 21st century, complete with high-speed broadband. For the first time, I was introduced to video on the Internet and it changed my whole approach to using the ‘net. I discovered the video Action Guide and watched all of them, but remember almost none of it. My illness left me with some real memory problems, but that’s getting better, too.

I’ll be re-reading the Action Guide and re-watching the videos as I work though my site redesigns and expansion, next year. I’ll also use the action steps gleaned from a (recent members-only research) report to help guide me to making my sites as good as I can. It’s going to take a lot of work and a lot of time. It feels almost overwhelming when I look at the big picture, but I’ll take the tortoise path. One keyword, one page, one topic at a time — over a period of months and years. Each individual task is relatively simple.

I am more of a technogeek propellerhead than I am a businessman. I’ve been self-employed as a computer consultant, analyst, programmer, and SysAdmin since the late 1970s. I also taught people how to use and program computers at a couple of colleges along the way.

Over the last ten years, I mostly built websites for the fun of it. I did it for the achievement of overcoming the technical hurdles and creating sites that worked as I wanted. In most cases, the goal was not to earn more money, it was to revel in the joy of learning and doing.

As I said, I closed most of my websites and blogs and I’m changing my focus. Now, I’m more focused on business. I’ve gotten the joy of testing and tweaking out of my system and now I intend to earn a good living from the income produced by my sites.

6. I am moving from being wide and shallow to being narrow and deep.

For a decade or so, I was wide and shallow — lots of websites with not too much depth to any of them, except for a couple. I spent a lot of time on various forums and commenting on other people’s blogs. Although I enjoyed those activities, and they gave me something to do when I wasn’t able to focus on work, I was not building a business in the process. That was not an investment in my business.

It is important not to confuse busy-ness with business.

I actually believed the nonsense about having 100 sites producing $1 a day being a good way to earn $100 per day. Now, I know that this is ridiculous. That’s a whole lot of work to earn very little money. Now, I know that it’s much, much better to focus on a few sites and build them so that they attract thousands of readers and earn much more money.

7. Success is a process.

Of course, as all SBIers know, it takes a lot of thought and work to build an income-producing, niche-focused, original-content website. The Action Guide is a tremendous help, but important parts of building a successful online business can only be learned by doing what you think is best, and then adapting and improving the things that don’t work as well as expected.

I did not focus on my own business as much as I should have, but I will in 2012.

The planning is mostly done. The mind maps are created, the site blueprints are completed, copious notes have been written, and now I’m waiting on BB2 before I completely revamp my two SBI sites.

Even though I made some mistakes when I chose the niche for the first site, I’m going to work through the Action Guide and do my best to correct some of those mistakes and then proceed forward with a patched foundation.

My second SBI-powered site will be much easier to build and monetize.

8. I’m going to quit focusing on what SBI doesn’t do, and focus more on all that it offers.

This time, I’m going to stop fighting the things I didn’t like about SBI (the main one being no integrated blog module with commenting) and start fully using all the tools that ARE available.

It turns out that blogging is fun for me (busyness), but doesn’t produce any real income (business), so the lack of an integrated blog or forum module in SBI no longer bothers me. I’ve learned, after a decade of blogging, that I don’t make my money on my blogs or forums. I enjoy writing them, and sometimes enjoy the conversations in the comments, but the money is made on my websites, and that’s what I am going to focus upon next year.

I should also mention that it has seemed to me that it was easier to write a blog post using WordPress, Radio Userland, or Blogger than it was to write a comparable page using SBI.

There are a couple of reasons for this.

A. WordPress comes with an almost-WYSIWYG editor for writing the posts. It’s easier to write an ad hoc blog post. That’s more of a perception than a reality, however.

B. I put a lot more thought, research, and planning into writing a page on one of my SBI sites, because I knew more people would see it. That may be partly self-fulfilling prophesy, and it may be partly due to all the things that SBI does behind the scenes to make it easier for people to find a page.

When I first started using WordPress, it pretty much required knowledge of PHP in order to get anything done. Now, it’s much easier, but still takes more technical knowledge.

SBI templates offered fewer options with the basic block builder, but, a few years ago, they introduced the ability to upload pages built using any site design software. However, those of us who preferred using the block builder tool had fewer options. The introduction of block builder 2 (BB2) this month will make a huge difference in how we design and build our sites. It’ll still be easy for beginners, but will offer more options as SBIers learn more.

In reality, however, I believe this is mostly perception. What we gain in ease of use in modifying a blog, we lose in spending additional time researching plug-ins and dealing with other technical details.

Ease or difficulty aside, however, I have proof that my blogs did not earn as much and took much more time than my SBI sites — even though I largely neglected my SBI sites for over two years.

I’ve also quit focusing on wanting comments and conversations on my website pages. That’s been a sticking point for me for a long time. When I started focusing on the lack of this feature, I really believed that all the commenting and discussions I was having on multiple blogs (my own and others) was helping my business. Earlier this year, I stopped most of that, and neither my income nor the number of visitors to my sites dropped.

It turns out that commenting is not that important, after all. It is a fun social activity that I enjoy, but it does not produce more income. Maybe I should qualify that by saying that it didn’t produce more income for me. Your mileage may vary.

Now that I have Facebook commenting on my SBI sites, it has become a non-issue.

Once again, I was confusing busyness with business. They are not the same.

Also, by focusing on the lack of a feature I wanted, it dimished the usefulness of all the features that SBI provides. I learned that lesson a long time ago. I’m surprised that I had to re-learn it.

So, this old dog is going to learn some new tricks.

I’m going to forget about using PHP and PERL to accomplish things and I’ll adapt to the tools that SBI offers. The new reusable blocks feature of BB2, that makes server side includes available to people who use the block builder editor, will make it possible for me to do some things I’ve long wanted to do.

My first SBI site may never be a real moneymaker. It’s always paid its way and made a profit, however. My second SBI site is the one around which I’m rebuilding my marketing business.

9. It has taken me a long time, but I have finally proven to myself that SBI is the right choice for me. Not just another choice in my bag of tricks and tools — the best choice.

I feel comfortable in stating that I’ve tried most of the alternatives and they are all lacking — especially in performance.

If you hear that SBI is only for beginners who don’t know how to do the technical stuff, part of that is true. It is perfect for beginners, but it is also perfect for us old propellerheads who have been slinging computer code for decades and building websites for almost as long as there have been websites.

(I was building websites before the introduction of Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. Before javascript. Before Google. Before websites could show graphics. When I still had to compile source code to build tools. When websites were listed in printed books. When I had to write CGI code in Perl or C to do any kind of animation or process forms. When I had to write my own program for building autoresponders. Before most people had even heard of the World Wide Web. I may not be great at it, but I’ve been doing it for quite some time.)

I admit that I am not a great business-person. I don’t have the knack for making big profits. I’m trying to learn how to do it. I think it’s probably a skill like any other, and even those of us who don’t have a natural talent can learn how to do better.

Ken Evoy has been a great mentor and I have learned a great deal from him. I haven’t implemented all that I learned as well as I could have and I’m going to remedy at least some of that.

He has also been a great inspiration. I admire his dedication, work ethic, intelligence, and ability to cut through the fog and keep things real. I look forward to learning more from him and putting that knowledge to work.

Unfortunately, it seems that I have learned how to write incredibly long posts from him, too. (grin)

10. SBI is a bargain.

Some of us have proven to ourselves that SBI offers a better way of building the kinds of sites we want to develop. Many of you have done much better with this than I have, but I intend to do better next year.

I won’t waste thousands of (more) hours on trying to prove to myself that SBI is the real deal. I’ve already done that. Yes, I learned a lot. Yes, I tested and proved to myself what works and what doesn’t. Yes, I learned all about the high cost of “free” websites.

And the price? $300 per year, per site?

That’s a bargain.

I know.

You have to look at the big picture. Sitesell is much more than a webhosting company.

SBI is not magic. It is not a magical Internet money machine on steroids.

SBI is an online business success toolkit, complete with detailed instructions that you can adapt to the niche of your choice. It comes complete with a set of tools that are unmatched in one service — anywhere. (Remember that there were no challengers in the recent $50,000 Sitesell challenge!) SBI offers a forum with a friendly, helpful atmosphere where fellow subscribers enjoy helping each other succeed.

Only for beginners? Not true.

Too expensive. Not true.

I still spend several hundred dollars every month for webhosting, email mailing services, domain names, and other expenses related to my online marketing business. Only $60 of that is for my two SBI sites. By comparison, they are a bargain. (In fact, I’m saving enough every year (by not renewing a lot of non-producing domain names) to pay the inexpensive cost of both SBI sites.

Later in 2012, I am seriously considering building two more websites powered by SBI. Both are profitable sites, currently, but I know I can create more revenue by taking the content off of those sites and building new sites using the tools that SBI provides. All I need is more time and energy.

I have a dream and I’ll act on achieving it in 2012 and beyond.

Act on your dream!

Tags: Blogging, Ken Evoy, online business, SBI, Sitesell, success, Websites

Strider Software introduces TypeStyler version 11

December 10, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 1 Comment
Filed under: CafePress, Macintosh, Zazzle

Yesterday, Strider Software introduced version 11 of their outstanding text editing software.

I’ve been using TypeStyler for years and love it. Mostly, I use it to create new designs for products I sell in my Cafepress shop and my Zazzle shop.

I start by creating the design in TypeStyler and export it to a jpg file. Then, I open that jpg with Pixelmator for fine-tuning, sizing, and adding the copyright notice.

(Here’s more information about Pixelmator: Pixelmator – Pixelmator Team)

I’m using TypeStyler version 10 and I’m very happy with it. I wasn’t aware that version 11 was about to be introduced, but it’s available now in the Mac App Store, with a holiday introductory price of only $59.99, which is about $40 less than the normal, full price.

You can read more about Typestyler, and can purchase at the holiday price by going to the Mac App Store, here: TypeStyler – Strider Software, Inc.

TypeStyler is a Mac-only product and is useful for developing lots of different designs for various uses, including labels, posters, boxes, cans, and so forth. It can do much more than what I use it for. If you are a graphic designer and don’t know about TypeStyler, I urge you to look at it.

Here’s a quick video introduction to using the app…

There are other introductory videos on YouTube on the TypeStyler channel.

I’ve been in contact with Karen Stillman at Strider Software, and she said she’d send me an update about how long the holiday pricing will be in effect. I’ll comment on this post as soon as I know more.

There are other tools that can do some of what TypeStyler does, but I don’t know of anything that is as easy to use — even for a non-artist, like me — than TypeStyler. I’ve tried doing similar things with Photoshop, Pixelmator, Adobe Illustrator, and others and all of them are harder than TypeStyler for creating the designs I enjoy. In fact, I wasn’t able to create the designs I wanted, when using the other apps.

You can export designs to several vector and bitmapped graphics formats from TypeStyler, for further enhancements, if you want. Version 11 offers new grunge effects, social sharing of designs, and more.

Here’s another quick video showing how easy it is to drop graphics into text and shaped blocks with TypeStyler…

Learn more about TypeStyler, here: TypeStyler – Strider Software, Inc.

Act on your dream!

Tags: graphics design, Mac App Store, Mac applications, Pixelmator, Strider Software, Typestyler

What is happening with Sitesell and SBI in December?

December 10, 2011 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business, Sitesell and Site Build It

December has turned into a very busy month for Sitesell.

Sitesell reached 50,000 fans on their Facebook page

Their Facebook page now has over 50,000 fans and they are celebrating with a Best of Breed photo competition.

“Best of Breed” photo competition

Go to their Facebook page and click the Contests tab in the left column.

As soon as I saw what the contest was about, I immediately entered Apple’s iPad as the best of breed product for tablet computers. I knew what I wanted to say and where I could find a good photo (on Apple’s site), so my entry was completed in just two minutes following the announcement of the contest.

I was surprised, later that day, to learn that I had won a free three-month extension to one of my SBI subscriptions for being the first entrant in the contest. Several more three-month extensions have been given to other entrants.

The contest is open for entering until tomorrow, and voting starts on Monday. Before entering, be sure to read the Official Rules for the contest.

Ten prizes will be awarded in this contest (in addition to the fun surPRIZES that are being awarded):

First Prize: 2 Years SBI! + US$500 + 1 hour of exclusive coaching with Ken Evoy, SiteSell’s Founder and Chairman of the Board

Second Prize: 1 Year SBI! + US$250

Third Prize: 6 months SBI! + US$150

Fourth to Tenth Prize: 3 months SBI!

I would love to win that First Prize. The two free years of SBI! is a great prize and the $500 cash would be nice, too, but — for me — a full hour of one-on-one coaching with Ken Evoy would be the grand prize.

I would be honored if you would visit the contest on Monday, 12/12/2011, and vote for my entry, the Apple iPad, as best of breed in its category.

In just two days, you can vote for me and my entry! (two days) (2) (grin)

Or, if you are so inclined, you can enter the competition and compete with me for the prizes.

Live demonstration of the new Block Builder 2

For over two years, the designers, programmers, and database experts at Sitesell have been working to transition SBI! to a new platform that will help us be even more competitive for the next ten years. All of the modules (about 70 or 80) are being upgraded to work with the new architecture. It’s a massive project and already over $3 million has been invested in getting it completed.

On Monday, December 12, 2011, there will be a live video sneak preview of the new BB2. This will replace the original (sometimes called clunky) block builder that is used to build pages on sites powered by SBI! and will introduce a new state-of-the-art page builder. It also has a number of new site design features and probably a few surprises I don’t yet know about.

The presentation starts at 6:00 pm (Eastern Time) and there will be a link to it on Sitesell’s Facebook page.

You can learn more about this event here: BlockBuilder 2 Live Video Broadcast

I’ll definitely be there.

The public Beta test of BB2 is imminent and Sitesell is hoping that BB2 will be introduced for all SBIers to use on their sites before Christmas.

This has been a massive project and I can’t wait to get my hands on this new tool.

I have big plans for my marketing business and SBI! in 2012.

Christmas Two-For-One SBI! sale

Ken Evoy announced yesterday that the holiday special Buy-One-Get-One-Free! offer is now live and will go until midnight on December 25th.

During this sale period, you can buy two SBI! subscriptions for the price of one.

Keep both for yourself, if you want. (You can start the second site up to 9 months after purchase and it’s renewal date starts from when you start working with it.)

That means you can start one now, and wait until next summer or fall to start the second one.

When the annual renewal date arrives, each site will renew at the $299 price, so the second site is completely free for a full year.

Or, if you prefer, you and a friend can go together and start two sites (and split the cost, so that each of you can get started at half-price). If the two of you work well, you can help each other as you both learn the SBI! proven method of building an online business.

Or, buy one for yourself and give the other as a gift.

There are a number of ways you can choose to proceed.

If I didn’t already have so many tasks on my to-do list for the first few months next year, I’d take advantage of this sale, because I have two more SBI! sites on my drawing board and I hope to start both of them next year.

That’s a lot of things happening at Sitesell this month!

Over 50,000 fans; Best of Breed photo contest; live video preview of BB2; introduction of BB2 (hopefully — fingers crossed!); special holiday sale!

I won’t give you a lot of breathless hype. SBI! is the real deal. They won’t stop selling subscriptions to SBI! if you miss a fake deadline (although you won’t be able to take advantage of the 2-for-1 sale if you miss its deadline).

SBI! was a great deal a few years ago. It’s a great deal now. It’ll be a great deal a few years in the future.

Don’t miss the SBI! 2 for 1 sale!

Act on your dream!

P.S. Of course, you don’t have to take advantage of the special offer. If you want only one SBI! site, you can still buy one. Choose either the monthly or annual payment plan and get started!

Tags: contests, Facebook, holidays, Ken Evoy, sales, SBI, Sitesell, Special Offers, upgrades