Sitesell has almost reached 50,000 fans on Facebook

November 29, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 1 Comment
Filed under: Facebook, Sitesell and Site Build It 

We are less than 100 people away from 50,000. It’s been moving quickly this evening. Won’t be long, now.

SiteSell Facebook

Here we go!

JD

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Sitesell and SBI are going to play a big part in my 2012 marketing

November 29, 2011 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Business, Forums, Opinions, Sitesell and Site Build It, Webhosting, Websites, WordPress 

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. During this time, my income was decimated, so I’m basically starting over.

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-powered sites.

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 else’s untested claims.

3. The release of BB2 is coming at just the right time. I’ve spent the last three or four months brainstorming and 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 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) and which I had modified heavily by tweaking the programming and adding my own modules.

The sites I built were very successful until North Carolina passed the nexus tax law in 2009 and Amazon.com cancelled my affiliation. 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*

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. A few months later, I was so sick that I could not work, at all.

So, 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 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 (for awhile). I wanted to know, from the inside, how these various sites worked and performed — and what were their benefits and problems.

I was a 5P affiliate before there was an SBI. Before even Page Build It! So, I had the chance to watch as SBI grew and expanded and expanded and continued to get better and better, year after year. And, I noticed that the price has not increased, even though the product is many times better than it was all those years ago.

(Actually, I think the price did increase for awhile, but I don’t remember the details. I also know that the C2 module used to cost about $100 per year in addition to the SBI subscription. C2 is now included free. I may be wrong, but I seem to remember that SBI cost about $500 per year at one time. Can anyone else verify this, or is it just another hole in my memory?)

Despite inflation and all the new and improved modules, the price for SBI remains at $299 per year. (Or, you can get it for $29.95 per month. You save almost $60 per year if you pay for it annually. Plus, there’s no risk. SBI comes with a 90-day no-risk money-back guarantee. Sign up today and try it for yourself!)

I spend a lot 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. (Known affectionately as SBIers.)

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

Day in and day out, for years.

When I built my first SBI 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. SBI comes with an impressive list of tools and many of them are scheduled for improvements in 2012.

I don’t remember there being an Action Guide, although there probably was. I know, if it even 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, I moved about four miles away 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.)

As I said, I closed most of my websites and I’m changing my focus. For a decade or so, I was wide and shallow — lots of websites with not too much depth to any of them. I spent a lot of time on various forums and commenting on other people’s blogs.

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.

Of course, there’s more to choosing and building an income-producing niche-focused original content website, but some of it can only be learned by doing what you think is best and then adapting and improving the things that don’t work.

And, I want to emphasize this — it takes work! To be successful, you have to plan, organize, and then implement. SBI makes it easier, but it DOES NOT DO THE WORK FOR YOU! If you don’t want to invest your work, time, and creativity into building your online business, stay away from SBI! Go waste your time blogging. Did you know that you can do that for free — sort of?

To be fair, there are some good reasons for having a blog. If there weren’t, this site would not be powered by WordPress. However, I have proven to myself that blogging has been mostly a waste of time — for me. When I get my other two SBI sites situated, I am seriously considering rebuilding this site as an SBI site, instead of a blog. Those plans are on the drawing board, but I have a lot of other things that must be done first.

I did not focus on my own business as much as I should have, but there were other, more important, things I was doing, at the time. Caring for Mom, primarily.

Now, I’m moving to narrow and deep — a few websites that will go as deeply as I can on their topics.

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.

So, 2012 is going to be a big year for me.

BB2 and the new site design features and templates are going to make it much easier to build the sites I’ve envisioned, but was unable to build (due to overextension on other sites and a debilitating illness).

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, but doesn’t produce any real income, so the lack of an integrated blog or forum module in SBI no longer bothers me. In another year or two, John Dilbeck And Friends may be my last blog. I’m considering turning it into an SBI site, too, but don’t have any firm plans, at this time.)

I’ve learned, after a decade of blogging, that I don’t make my money on my blogs. I enjoy writing them, but the money is made on my websites, and that’s what I am going to focus upon next year.

So, in summation (finally!!), this old dog is going to try to learn some new tricks. I’m going to forget about using PHP and PERL and Frontier and Radio Userland to accomplish things and I’ll adapt to the tools that SBI offers. The new reusable blocks that make 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.

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 the World Wide Web has existed. Some of us have proven to ourselves that SBI offers a better way of building the kinds of sites we want to develop.)

(If you need SQL databases, scripting, and other similar features, SBI is not for you. If you are unsure if you can do what you want to do with SBI, you can always ask your questions. Answers are free and there is no obligation.)

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

That’s a bargain.

I know.

You have to look at the big picture. SBI is much more than just a webhost.

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 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.

The best way I know to build a successful online business, no matter how much experience and technical skill you have, or don’t have? Absolutely true.

But, I’m just one of nearly 50,000 fans of Sitesell. If you want other opinions, just ask.

I intend to be here when there are 100,000 Sitesell fans on Facebook.

Perhaps you’ve been wondering if you can be successful at building a business with SBI. What do you know that other people want to know?

That’s part of the beauty of SBI. The Action Guide includes 10 steps (metaphorically known as days, although some may take much longer to complete), and it teaches you all about building a website, identifying your strengths and interests, and helps you choose a niche, before you decide upon a topic and domain name.

Most people put the cart before the horse when building a website, but SBI’s Action Guide teaches you a much better way of approaching building an online business.

If you’ve been on the fence about trying SBI, or if you’re skeptical because you have been burned by online scams and get-rich-quick schemes, I understand your reticence. I’ve been burned by a few of them, too.

I have never had a bad experience with Sitesell. Never. Not once. In over a decade.

I can’t say that for any other company. I won’t say that for any other company, even if they offer to pay me.

You never know what you can accomplish until you get off the fence and start working to build a better future for yourself and your family.

Will you get rich? I am almost positive that YOU WILL NOT GET RICH. Possbily, but the odds are stacked against you, by far.

Can you earn a few hundred dollars to supplement your income while you learn new skills, probably, if you follow the Action Guide and do the work. Don’t expect it immediately, it may take a year or two to start earning real money.

Can you quit your job? A few have been able to do that, but I’m sure the majority have not.

Maybe you don’t want to quit your job. Maybe you’re retired and want something interesting to do, and maybe earn a bit in the process.

(I’ll be 60 in 2012 and I’m thinking about my retirement. But, I don’t think there will be much difference. I already work at home, at my own pace, on my own schedule. I enjoy researching and writing, and continuing to build websites really appeals to me — and so does making extra money.)

Maybe you’re a work at home mom or dad and you’d like to supplement your income.

Maybe you’re a student or recently-graduated young person and you’re having trouble finding a job that will help you grow and learn more. Why flip burgers or do something similar when you can learn valuable skills that will help you earn more in the 21st century. Learn how to build effective websites that earn real money. Do it for yourself. Perhaps you can leverage your new skills into a better job. I know several people who have done that after they spent a year or so learning what SBI teaches.

Students, and their parents, invest thousands of dollars in formal schooling, some of which actually helps them in life.

Why not invest another $300 in something that will help you (or your children) learn real-world skills related to business and 21st century communications and marketing.

Did you know that one of the more famous SBI-powered websites, Anguilla Beaches, was built by Nori Evoy (Ken Evoy’s daughter)? Would you believe she was only 14 years old when she started the site? It’s true. Now, she’s a college student who already has a profit-making online business.

Maybe you’d just like to earn enough to make payments on a new (or newer) car or save money for a vacation.

All of these are possible. I personally know people who have done all of these, and some of them didn’t know any more about building websites than you do, when they started.

Get off the fence.

Do something.

Thousands of people took the chance and ordered SBI. The great majority of the ones I know are happy that they did. That’s why they continue to renew their subscription year after year and even purchase several subscriptions so they can build multiple sites.

But, slow down. Start with one. Give it a try.

Take it one step at a time, and learn from the people who have helped thousands of people like you.

What will it cost? $300.

What about all the options, upsells, continuity programs, bundles, and all the back-end products they’re going to try to sell you?

There are none. They provide optional coaching services (by the hour), if you need them to get past something you don’t understand, but they are optional.

There is no hard sell.

$300 per year. That’s it.

Order SBI today.

Do it now. Six months from now, you can comment and tell your story. Is it working for you, or not?

Try it for up to 90 days risk free.

You can’t find a better deal than that. At least, I can’t find a better deal than that, and I’m always looking.

Are you satisfied with what you’ve accomplished in 2011? If you said yes, say it again, proudly. Congratulations!

If you said no, then think seriously about how 2012 is going to be the same, or different.

I can’t speak for you, but for me, 2012 is going to be different.

Sitesell and SBI are going to help me.

I choose to invest time, energy, and money in myself and my future.

Act on your dream!

JD

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Sitesell is about to reach 50,000 fans on Facebook

November 28, 2011 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Facebook, Sitesell and Site Build It 

You won’t believe it, but this is going to be a very short post.

I was planning to talk about this later in the week, because I thought that it would take until December before 50,000 people liked Sitesell’s Facebook page, but now it looks like it will happen today or tomorrow.

I know how much I like Sitesell and I’m obviously not alone.

Looks like it will be party time soon. There will be lots of surprises and prizes when it happens.

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A few thoughts about webhosting and building websites

November 22, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 1 Comment
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Aweber Autoresponders, Blogging, Sitesell and Site Build It, Webhosting, Websites, WordPress 

This morning, I received an email notice that someone had submitted a new site for the Sites Built With SBI list on my Site Build It, a revolution in website design, hosting, and promotion lens on Squidoo.

I usually wait until I’ve received several such notices before I go to either approve or delete the entries. Usually, 80% of the entries are spam for sites that are not built using SBI. I’m not sure why anyone would think I’d approve those sites for the list, but I get regular submissions for sites built using other methods and most of them are built with WordPress.

So, I go look at each site and, if it’s built with SBI, I accept it. Otherwise, I delete it.

Designing and building websites

I’ve been thinking a lot about SBI sites lately, because Sitesell has been building a new site editor called Block Builder 2 (or BB2) and it is set for release in December. They have spent a couple of years and several million dollars developing it and it recently completed alpha testing.

(Unlike other sitebuilders, SBI offers 70 or 80 integrated tools that are part of the process and features of building sites the SBI way. This new BB2 has to integrate with almost all of them, and the central database had to be modified and expanded to work with BB2. So, this was probably a larger, more difficult project than the original creation of SBI about a decade ago. Updating and expanding a system that powers thousands of websites is not the same as building an HTML editor that just builds pages or adds blog posts. It’s a very big job.)

Beta testing starts this week with a couple of hundred volunteers, who will be added in groups over the next couple of weeks.

If you’re interested, here’s a pre-release sneak preview of using the new block builder 2:

Sneak peak of Sitesell’s new block builder 2 for SBI!

I’m one of those volunteers, and I’m looking forward to getting my hands on it, soon. I have plans for a complete make-over and extensive additions to both of my SBI-powered sites, and you can bet that I’ll be talking about it over the next few weeks.

This new editor is going to make building sites and pages much easier than before and I’ll finally get to do some of the things I’ve done on other sites, but much more easily. This includes using Server Side Includes for things like links to particular pages, affiliate programs, Google Adsense ads, and more, using their new Reusable Blocks tool.

Even for an old-timer like me, who can dream in HTML, this is going to be a nice, easy way to build a site. For someone who is not technically-inclined and doesn’t like coding HTML, it’ll be wonderful. Once again, SBI helps people focus on the business of building their business, not endlessly tinkering with all the tech stuff.

Of course, there are lots of site builders out there, so this isn’t what makes SBI special. Sitesell continues to be focused on helping their subscribers create successful, profitable businesses, and not just websites.

So, with the imminent release of BB2, look and feel, and site design has been on my mind a lot over the last couple of months.

I think it is better to make sites simpler and faster, rather than confusing with lots of distractions. (You can’t tell that by looking at my blogs, because I add a lot of things to a blog that I would not put on a website.)

Meanwhile, back at the Squidoo ranch…

I noticed that one of the sites on my Squidoo lens (out of over 100) was now powered by WordPress, rather than SBI. It has been over a year since I’ve gone through the whole list to check, so I spent some time this morning going through each of them.

Out of over 100, six were now powered by WordPress, two were standard Linux-hosted websites, and three domains had been allowed to expire or put up for sale. So, a little less than 8% had left SBI over the last year.

I got to thinking that there seems to be a lot less churn with SBI sites over the years, even though a lot of people just can’t seem to wrap their minds around why I consider each SBI-powered site to be a bargain at $300 each per year.

For the last couple of decades, I’ve seen webhosting services come and go and I’ve used a number of them. I’ve watched as websites move from one service to another, and often I can see the change only because their name servers change.

Hosting sites and blogs at HostGator

For professional technogeeks and web designers, I recommend HostGator.

For the last ten years, or so, all of my traditionally-hosted sites and WordPress-powered blogs have been hosted by HostGator, and I’m very happy with the service and features I get there. I have a reseller account, so I can host more sites than I care to, all for about $25 per month. That includes several sites and three blogs. At one point, a couple of years ago, I was hosting many more sites with them, but I’ve closed those sites as I focus more on my main target market.

As I said, I’m very happy with HostGator, but I don’t go out of my way to recommend them, even though I’m an affiliate.

Why?

Over the years, it has been my experience that building websites and managing blogs is a pain in the rear. This is definitely NOT for everyone. If you are not technically inclined and if you don’t like tinkering “under the hood” all the time, then I urge you to avoid traditional webhosting services.

If you don’t love writing, day in and day out, all the time, don’t even think of building websites or blogging. If you don’t love the subject for your site enough to write a book, or even a magazine article about it, you WILL NOT enjoy an online business.

I’ve been doing this a long time, and I know how much work it can be. Especially, when some jerk decides to hack a site and either destroy it or break in and install malware. All of my traditionally-hosted sites have been hacked at least once, and most of them several times, over the years.

(Note: Neither of my SBI sites has ever been hacked, and I’ve never spent even a minute thinking about site security for either of them.)

HostGator is very good about watching for this and notifying me if someone has hacked a site and installed malware. They shut down the domain and then I have to go find and delete the cause of it.

If you’re looking for a good place to host a WordPress blog or you need scripting and databases for your business, I highly recommend HostGator. They are the only traditional hosting service that I’ve used for years with no complaints.

If you want an account with them, I’d be happy if you click my link and purchase your subscription to HostGator.

If you are unhappy about the amount of work it takes to build a site or blog and if it doesn’t open the automatic magical Internet dollar machine to make you rich overnight, don’t complain to me. That is a fantasy.

The reality is this: building websites and blogs and earning a profit takes lots of hard work and time. It’s not as hard as digging ditches, but it’s not nearly as easy as some people want you to believe.

Trust me. I know.

Weebly – Webhosting for real people

These days, I urge people who want a basic website — and who don’t want to have to roll up their sleeves and get under the hood — to use a service like Weebly. I’ve been using them for a little over a year with excellent results. I particularly like their sitebuilder and think most people can use it to build a reasonably good site. If you have the skills and the knowledge, you can build an excellent site using their service.

If you want to put up a brochure-like website for your brick and mortar business and you prefer to do it yourself rather than hire someone to do it for you, Weebly is a good choice. If you want to purchase a domain for your website, it makes sense to purchase through Weebly, because they’ll do the set-up for you. If you prefer to purchase a domain elsewhere, they have instructions on how to set up the DNS, but, unless that’s something you like doing, you’re better off buying the domain through them and letting their propeller-heads do the work.

—–Sidebar—-
Just in case you’re not familiar with the lingo, here’s the deal…

What is a domain?

This blog is on the 21stCenturyAffiliateMarketing.com domain. I have another one at JohnDilbeckAndFriends.com and another one (rarely used) at MurphyNC28906.com.

Those names that end in .com, .org, .info, .biz, .mil, and others are domain names.

So, if you’re a plumber and own We Fix Leaks, you could register WeFixLeaks.com — if someone else hasn’t already done it. [Someone already owns that domain.]

You could also host it on Weebly at wefixleaks.weebly.com, and that’s called a subdomain. The word to the left of Weebly.com — separated by a period — is the name of the subdomain.

In general, that’s not a good idea if the top level domain is already taken. It could lead to things like trademark infringement, legal actions, bad feelings, and other things most of us would prefer to avoid. It’s not exactly illegal to do it, but you’ll sleep better at night if you avoid those kinds of tactics. It’s better to find a top-level domain that nobody has claimed, and that can take some time and creativity.

Weebly hosts thousands of subdomains, and thousands of full domains, for their clients.

I hope that explains it. I’ve been doing this so long that I forget that this is brand-new to some people.
———-

If you want to build a site for something like a family reunion, big picnic, community event, or something similar, and you want a good place to do it for free, Weebly is a good choice.

If you want to combine a website with a simple blog (and don’t want to hassle with WordPress upgrades and plug-ins), Weebly is a good choice.

You can host a couple of sites for free at Weebly, or you can upgrade to their professional level (at about $50 per year) and host up to 10 sites. I’ve had a professional account with them for a little over a year and it has worked very well. No hassles, good price, easy to build and maintain.

You can start for free and test it, and then if you want the features that are available only for the paid professional level account, it’s easy to upgrade.

That’s the route I took. I have a couple of fully functional sites hosted by Weebly and five others in various stages of completion. All for the low annual price. I spend a lot more money on coffee every year than I do on hosting professional sites at Weebly. (grin)

I sometimes use their service to test an idea by building a site on one of Weebly’s subdomains, so I don’t even have to register a new domain to see if I like it, or not.

(I don’t know about you, but I have a lot more ideas for things to do than I have time and energy to get them all done. In the past, I’d rush to register a domain, build a site, and see how it worked. I’ve done way too much of that, and now I stay much more focused on my core mission. Still, now and then, mostly for fun, I like to try out an idea and see what I think about it. Some people watch TV, movies, or sports. I build websites.)

I have a couple of old sites that are currently hosted by HostGator that I’m slowly adapting and moving to Weebly, and I’ll be changing the DNS to point their domains to the new sites sometime this winter.

SBI – The place to go if you’re interested in long-term online business success

If you want to build an income-producing online business, my top recommendation is still Sitesell’s SBI, and that’s where I’ll be putting at least 80% of my efforts next year.

My two SBI sites have been sadly neglected over the last couple of years (along with all my other sites), but now that I’m recovering from the cancer that tried to kill me last year, I’ll be getting back up to full speed, soon.

So, that’s my round-about way of saying this…

As I looked at all of the sites on my lens that were built with SBI, I realized that there is a remarkably low rate of churn with SBI sites. Most sites that are built using SBI stay there, year after year.

I know from talking to friends and colleagues that people have real businesses based around their SBI sites. They earn good money every year, and there is very little temptation to leave. Some have added WordPress blogs to their sites, but this is an additional part of the site, not a replacement.

It’s kind of tricky to add a WordPress blog to an SBI site, because SBI doesn’t allow the use of databases and scripts. So, SBI added a feature called Infin It! a few years ago. This makes it easier to add an e-commerce store, blog, forum, or other feature that won’t run on SBI, and combine it with your main site using subdomains.

You need both MySQL and PHP in order to host a WordPress blog, so the way it is added to an SBI-powered site is this: You have to host the blog on another service, such as BlueHost or HostGator and then attach it to the main domain by adjusting the DNS entries so that the blog is a subdomain of the main site.

It’s a little complicated, but the directions on how to do it are well-written and quite a few people have done it. When it’s set up (a one-time thing), the store, forum, or blog is treated as a part of your domain, rather than as a stand-alone site on a different domain.

Personally, I prefer to keep my blogs separate from my sites, but that’s just my own take on how to do it. People who prefer to do it the other way can make that choice for themselves. I know several webmasters who have chosen to go the Infin It! approach.

Not as easy to spot an SBI site as it used to be

I noticed, today, that it is getting harder to tell a site that was built with SBI from sites built using other services. One reason is that people are uploading their own HTML using a variety of templates. This Upload Your Own HTML (UYOH) feature was added a few years ago, for people who wanted designs that could not be built with the original (and now ten years old) block builder.

So, a few years ago, I could tell at a glance if a site was powered by SBI or something else. Now, it’s not so easy. A couple of times this morning I had to look at the source code to see if the site was built with WordPress or SBI, and twice I had to go to BetterWhoIs.com to see where the domain was registered and what the domain name servers pointed to.

(I also noticed that some people do not have a good eye for design — not that I can brag about my own good taste. I know I’m not a visually-oriented designer. While some people don’t like the original SBI templates, they had the advantage of being simple and did not distract from the main purpose of each page — also known as its Most Wanted Response. This morning, I noticed that several of the sites were full of junk that just made it more complicated and less clear about what the owner was trying to do with the site. There were way too many distractions. Sure, that’s their choice, if they want to go that way, but I think they’re making a mistake.)

With the introduction of BB2, next month, it’s going to be even harder to recognize that sites are built and powered by SBI. There will be a lot of new templates, and BB2 offers many new features that allow for massive customization of a site and of individual pages. The new templates are all CSS enabled, and that allows for further, easy customization.

I won’t talk much about BB2 until I get my hands on it and see for sure how it works. Then, I’ll be talking about it. When it is fully-released next month, I’ll probably talk about it a lot, as I test what it can do.

I still believe in simple websites, but I think my sites will be a bit less simple than they currently are, although I hope I never make them as crowded as I do my blogs. And I know I won’t be junking them up with a lot of unnecessary doodads and thingamajigs.

If I go that route, please feel free to smack my little hand and get me back on track. (grin)

Now, back to working with Aweber the rest of the day

So, with that said, it’s time to turn my attention to building a new template for sending newsletters using Aweber. I have to complete that template within the next day or two, because the first issue will be published the second week of January, and that’s fast approaching.

The new editor of the newsletter is patient with me right now, but if I don’t get this done this week, I don’t think she’ll be as patient. I can hear her foot tapping as her impatience grows — and she lives several miles from me. (grin)

Happy Thanksgiving!

If I don’t write anything else here before Thursday, I want to wish all my friends a very Happy Thanksgiving!

I’m looking forward to setting my work aside for a day and spending time with my family. There is a poor unfortunate turkey who is going to be a big part of the day, too.

Act on your dream!

JD

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Sitesell $50,000 challenge ends tonight at midnight

November 8, 2011 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business, Sitesell and Site Build It 

As I’ve said previously, I’ve spent years looking for a system that would help me build an online business.

I’ve tried lots of different things.

Now, I’ve proven to myself that Sitesell’s SBI offers the best mix of tools, support, proven success, and best price.

I’ve stopped looking at other solutions and my future work will be done on the SBI foundation.

The Sitesell $50,000 challenge ends tonight at midnight and there have been no entries from any other system that could challenge SBI. There is still almost five hours before the deadline, but I don’t expect a challenger to come forth.

SBI continues to make improvements in all the tools they offer and another big improvement should be released before the year is over. Their new blockbuilder sitebuilding tool is ten years old and some describe it as clunky. Compared to Weebly and WordPress, and others, that’s true. But, it has helped thousands of non-technical people build successful online businesses for about a decade.

Sitesell just finished the alpha testing of the new Block Builder 2 (BB2) module, which will introduce a giant leap forward in designing sites and building pages in SBI. Beta testing should start within the week and the release roll-out should happen in December.

It has taken a long time to get to this point and Sitesell has invested millions of dollars in the development of this new version of the blockbuilder module. One reason for the cost and time is that it has to be fully integrated with the other 70 or 80 tools modules that make up the SBI system. (I don’t know how many there are, currently, because Sitesell keeps adding new modules and updating existing ones — all without raising the price!)

I’ve applied as a beta tester and hope I’ll be approved, so I can start testing it. I’m really looking forward to this.

When BB2 is released, it should remove the “clunky” label from anyone’s perception of using the block builder to build effective pages. I’ve seen a video of it and I’ve talked to some alpha testers and I think this will be a game changer. One of the urban myths about SBI that has some truth, about building pages with SBI, will no longer be valid — and it really hasn’t been true for the last several years, since SBI introduced the Upload Your Own HTML (UYOH) module that let people design sites with the design software of their choosing and upload pages using those designs. BB2 will work similarly to Weebly and WordPress for designing the sites and building the pages.

I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

In the meantime, if you know of a better system that can prove success better than SBI and costs the same or less, you still have over four hours to submit it and try to win the challenge. Be sure to read the official rules in the first comment of the challenge thread on Facebook.

By the way, a few weeks ago, we celebrated 40,000 fans for Sitesell’s Facebook Page, and now there are over 46,000. We’ll be reaching and celebrating the 50,000 fans milestone before much longer.

Will there be a challenger?

I don’t think so. As far as I have been able to determine, there is no other system that offers what SBI does for the same or less price and also offers proof of the success that people have achieved with it.

Act on your dream!

JD

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John Dilbeck selected as Sitesell Featured Fan on Facebook

October 16, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 10 Comments
Filed under: Facebook, John Dilbeck, Sitesell and Site Build It 

I am deeply honored because I was selected as the most recent Featured Fan on Sitesell’s Facebook Page.

Photo showing John Dilbeck as Sitesell Featured Fan

John Dilbeck is the most recent Sitesell Featured Fan

As I told in the story when I was selected, Ken Evoy and Sitesell have played very important roles in my life over the last decade. I am deeply touched that they selected me as one of their featured fans.

Thank you very much to the Sitesell team. I intend to continue using SBI in my marketing business for a long time.

Act on your dream!

JD

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Sitesell $50,000 Challenge – no challengers yet

October 16, 2011 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business, Sitesell and Site Build It 

It’s been about a week since Ken Evoy issued the Sitesell $50,000 Challenge and nobody has come forward to try to win the cash. There are about three weeks to go.

Now is the time for all the people who say they have a better and/or cheaper system than SBI that still has the same level of documented success to go state their case.

For years, as thousands of people built successful sites using the SBI system, there has been a constant stream of detractors and people who claim they have a better, more successful system that will help thousands of people succeed better than SBI does.

Where are they, now?

Will there be a challenger?

Go here for full details about the Sitesell $50,000 Challenge.

Act on your dream!

JD

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Sitesell issues a fifty thousand dollar challenge!

October 9, 2011 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business, Sitesell and Site Build It, Success and Failure 

Have you heard the old line, “Put your money where your mouth is?”

Ken Evoy is doing just that. He has issued a challenge. He posted the challenge on Sitesell’s Facebook page (click the $50,000 challenge in the menu on the left of that page to go right to the challenge). Briefly, here it is…

Ken Evoy issues fifty thousand dollar challenge

If you can find documented proof that another product, or collection of information and tools (see tools.sitesell.com), delivers everything that SBI! does (or more), at the price of SBI! (or less) AND that product documents success to the depth that SBI! does (see proof.sitesell.com), we will pay you $50,000.

Here’s a direct link to the Sitesell $50,000 Challenge. Be sure to read the entire status post and the first comment, which contains the official rules of this contest.

I’ve been hearing people say for years that SBI is overpriced and that there are better and cheaper ways to do just as well. Well, here’s your opportunity to show Ken your better solution. If you win this challenge, you can not only earn bragging rights, but you can get cold hard cash (well, probably a company check) for your effort.

I would try it myself, but I just spent the last five years searching diligently for a system or group of tools and information that was better than Sitesell’s SBI. I failed in that quest, and now I am 100% comfortable in saying that SBI is the best system out there for an individual or small team — especially if they have limited technical skills — to build an online business. I have no doubt at all.

Won’t I feel foolish if someone wins this challenge?

Yes, I will, for a few minutes, and then I’ll go test it for myself. I honestly don’t think there will be a winner in this challenge — except for Sitesell and all of us who enjoy using SBI.

After my five year search, and testing other products that looked like they might be good enough, I’ve closed almost all of my test sites and I’m going back to working on my SBI sites.

I would love to win that $50,000, but I have nothing to submit to the challenge.

So, I’ll just get back to work and EARN it.

Do not post your entries and contenders here. Go to the Sitesell $50,000 Challenge and post your entry as a comment in that thread. Read the rules.

Don’t dawdle. This challenge is for one month. It expires at midnight on November 8, 2011 (Eastern Time).

Who will win? Sitesell’s SBI — or a challenger?


(Oh, I forgot to mention that their Facebook page now has over 40,000 people who like it, and more are joining every day.)

Act on your dream!

JD

PS. Knowing the folks at Sitesell as well as I do (I’ve been a happy customer and affiliate for over ten years), I’m willing to bet — if there is a winner to this challenge — that we’ll see SBI extended to be even better than the winner, and that they won’t raise the price on SBI. I already know of some big improvements that will be introduced to SBI over the next few months and I can’t wait to start using them.

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Sitesell 5 Pillar Program changes how cookies operate

September 30, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 2 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Sitesell and Site Build It, Webhosting 

I’ve been thinking about this for almost two weeks, before I decided to write about it — and I’m still not exactly sure what I’m going to say here.

In the private 5 Pillar Forums, Ken Evoy, Founder of Sitesell, announced on September 18, 2011: 5 Pillar Program Switches To First-Exposure Cookie.

You must be a Sitesell affiliate to gain access to those forums.

So, how is this different, and why is it important?

The announcement about the change is rather lengthy, as are the reasons for making the change.

I’m going to summarize parts of that announcement here, but — for the full story, including background information — you’ll need to read what Ken wrote and then all the questions and answers that followed.

To give just a little background, the 5 Pillar Program was founded when Sitesell had one product: Make Your Site Sell!

(You can go to that site and read about it, and download it for free, if you’re interested. I keep a copy of this book on the desktop of my work computer and still refer to it on a regular basis.)

That was when I joined Sitesell’s affiliate program — in the late 1990s. I bought, studied, and implemented what I learned, and then I told more people about it. Even now, nine years after the last revision, I still use and recommend that book.

Here’s some of what Ken said about that…

Before SBI! existed, 5 Pillar Affiliates were all “Internet Marketers” (“IMers”). They reached people who were looking for information about SEO, or affiliate marketing, and so forth.

They promoted “Make Your Site SELL!” to them, followed by each book in a a growing range of Make Your __________ Sell!” books. Those were the pre-SBI! days.

Today, half of all SBI! owners become 5 Pillar Affiliates. They speak of SBI! with first-hand experience and with passion. Their sales cycle is different.

They are “regular” people who reach more “regular” people, folks who are specifically looking for information about Anguilla or turtle-breeding (or whatever). IMers’ audience seeks info about starting a business online or SEO or social marketing strategies, etc.

This shift in sales cycle dynamics happened slowly over time. As SBI! grew, more SBIers reached more “regular” surfers who were NOT seeking information on SEO, for example.

I’m in both categories. One of my SBI sites has nothing to do with Internet Marketing and the other has a few sections where I talk about it (or will, when I get all the pages written). On those sites, I have the “Powered by SBI” footer on most pages, and that’s an affiliate link.

I also actively promote SBI on other sites, including here. (I bet you’ve already noticed that!)

Before September 18, 2011, the 5 Pillar program used a last-visit cookie. When it was mostly IMers promoting the system, it pretty much averaged out. I might have lost a few commissions that should have been mine, and I may have received commissions that should have gone to someone else.

I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with Sitesell’s management and tracking. It’s just a natural way that affiliate commissions work with any program that uses exclusively first-visit or exclusively last-visit cookies to track commissions.

Sitesell has always had a hybrid system. It basically worked like this…

If you click on a link on Site A, Sitesell sets a cookie on your computer that shows affiliate A as the referrer. That’s a pretty standard first-visit cookie, but it’s also a last visit cookie.

If you then go awhile and click on affiliate links on other sites, each click will generate a new cookie that links to that affiliate (the last one you clicked on).

So, if you spent three months reading about SBI on this blog, but finally decided to purchase after clicking a link on the other site, the owner of that other site would get the commission.

Fair or not?

I think that’s fair. The last visited site that got the click earned the commission.

At the point of sale, things changed. As soon as you purchased Make Your Site Sell!, or, later, SBI, Sitesell wrote a permanent cookie on your computer. If you happened to purchase from one of my links, then you were permanently cookied to me and I would receive residual commissions when you purchased other products or renewed an SBI subscription.

To summarize, the affiliate whose site was last visited (and whose link was clicked) before you purchased earned the commission and was awarded the permanent cookie and a new lifetime customer.

Pretty cool, huh?

Over the years, however, as the number of SBI subscribers grew, the majority of them were not Internet marketers. They were regular people building websites about topics in which regular people are interested — people who may never have considered building an online business.

As time went by, some of these people (who are also affiliates) would spend time telling interested people about SBI and would set a cookie at the time, but, later, when the sale was made, would not receive a commission.

Why not?

Because, more often than not, the last click before purchase would be on an Internet marketer’s site.

Did the IMer deserve the commission? One view is that they did, because they closed the sale. Another view is that they didn’t, because the other person introduced the new subscriber to SBI and may have spent some time discussing it with the new subscriber, who just happened to make the final purchase decision after clicking on the IMer’s site. The “regular” SBI subscriber who did the introductory work did not receive a commission for their effort, and many of them felt it was unfair.

Sitesell could have changed to a first-visit cookie, but that would also be unfair in a different way. IMers could do lots of promotion and set cookies on lots of prospects’ computers, and even if someone else closed the sale months or years later, the original person would get the commission.

That’s not fair either.

(I’m not going to go into the discussion about a lot of the factors that apply due to the rather long sales cycle for SBI conversions. That’s covered in the announcement I linked to at the top of the post.)

So, this month, Sitesell went to a hybrid system that is more complicated, but may prove to be more fair for all affiliates.

That’s one of the things I really like about Sitesell. The people in charge really care about their customers and their affiliates and those who fit into both categories. So, they decided to correct this emerging and ever-more-unfair path to conversion of prospects to customers…

A while back, we realized that the current cookie arrangement, “last exposure gets the commission,” was not fair to SBIers who were 5P affiliates.

When we first chose “last-exposure” instead of “first,” it really did not make much of a difference since all affiliates were IMers. They generated their own traffic, “competed” for that last-exposure. There’s no perfect system, but it all worked out fairly in the end…

Sometimes, you might get the last-exposure just before a purchase. Sometimes, you might lose it to someone else.

In the long run, it all evened out.

But, now that the 5P Program has two different groups, it no longer evens out…

Net marketing professionals reach people who are much closer to purchasing a business-building solution. They are often just a click away from purchasing.

SBIer-affiliates reach folks who do not even know (yet) that they want to start an online business. Some of those seeds start to germinate, of course. Months later, sometimes, years later, they purchase.

First, though, those prospective SBIers search for information related to IM. And that is when they encounter an IMer, one of tens of thousands of 5P affiliate who focus their efforts on some aspect of IM.

As a result, many of these about-to-become-SBIers (originally exposed to SBI! by “regular” SBIers) have their cookies “overwritten” by IM affiliates.

The median time for conversion of “first-time exposure” people is 9 months. They would not otherwise have been interested in building an SBI! business.

Whereas it used to “all even out,” it no longer does since folks interested in Net marketing do not head in the opposite direction (ex., towards SBI! sites about Anguilla — SBI! sites that MIGHT be on the pathway go onto a no-overwrite list).

They considered several alternatives, including splitting the commission between first visit and last visit cookies, but that would have been a nightmare to track, because of the resulting permanent cookies and lifetime customer status that is assigned at the time of purchase.

The solution is rather complex, but is essentially this…

The first time someone clicks on an affiliate link, they receive a cookie, but, instead of being a temporary cookie that will be overwritten by any subsequent clicks on other affiliate links, it results in a fixed cookie, and that cookie will not be overwritten for nine months — approximately the time it takes for most sales conversions from first exposure to the sale.

So, this gives all affiliates a more equal opportunity to get a commission, if the sale occurs within this nine month window.

After nine months, the cookie changes from fixed to temporary and will be overwritten by any other affiliate’s cookie, until the sale is made, like the original system.

There are some other conditions in the new arrangement…

If a visitor with a FIXED cookie clicks on a link of the same affiliate some time later, the FIXED date is extended to 9 months from the date of the NEW exposure.

For example, suppose Affiliate A is a “first exposure.” 90 days later, suppose that the prospective customer clicks on another link BY THE SAME AFFILIATE. The date of expiration of that cookie is now 9 months FROM THAT MOST RECENT EXPOSURE.

However, as usual, once the 9 month period has expired, the next RR URL link that the person clicks will overwrite the previous cookie to the NEW affiliate’s cookie.

You can see that this is a more fair arrangement for the “regular” SBI owner who is an affiliate, since it increases the likelihood that he/she will receive a commission.

It should also be remembered that this also helps the IMer who actively promotes SBI, because their first visit cookie can be extended indefinitely, if subsequent clicks happen during the nine month term of the fixed cookie, or the new nine month term, if it is extended.

After the fixed cookie expires, then the commission is “up for grabs” by whomever generates the final link that results in a sale.

I think this is a rather elegant solution to a problem and I like the fact that Sitesell’s management analyzed the situation and came up with a solution that may very well be more fair to all affiliates.

Most companies would not go to the bother. Most use either a first or a last visit cookie and most have very short time spans for being credited with a sale.

If you are a 5 Pillar Program affiliate, you should read the thread and follow through Ken’s longer and more detailed explanation.

If you would like to become an affiliate, then you can apply for the 5 Pillar Program.

As I’ve stated many times, I am a very satisfied Sitesell customer and affiliate. I use the products and I’m happy to recommend the service and the people behind the service. They are one of the best groups of people with whom I have had the pleasure to be associated.

This is a rather long and complicated post. The main point I wanted to get across is that changes have been made in an attempt to correct what had become an unfair system. I think it will make a difference.

If you are an SBI affiliate, what do you have to do differently?

Nothing. The affiliate management team and programmers did all the work. Your links will continue to work as they always have, except that you may receive more sales commissions.

It’s too early to know for sure how it will work. I’m optimistic.

I’m going to leave the last word to Ken Evoy, the man who founded the company and conceived of SBI. It has changed the lives of thousands of customers — including me.

Act on your dream!

JD


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Are comments highly overrated?

September 11, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 29 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Business, NovaMind, Sitesell and Site Build It, Success and Failure, WordPress 

I have been debating this topic with myself for several years and I decided now is the time to bring it out into the open and ask the question, here.

(Yes, I recognize the irony in asking you to comment about whether comments are overrated.)

I have built multiple websites, blogs, forums, and social communities over the years. With the exception of the websites, I have tried to start discussions that would lead to more understanding and different viewpoints about topics in which I am particularly interested.

I have been a miserable failure in that endeavor.

It seems that the people who want to discuss the issues don’t want to buy anything, and the people who click and buy what I promote don’t want to talk about it. They just want to buy it and get on with their own activities.

Yes, a few kind and learned souls have added comments to the discussions that have added to the topics, but most commenters, I am now sure, are more interested in getting a backlink than they are in the discussion.

I’m testing my theory

So, as of today, as a test, I have turned off both CommentLuv and the dofollow plug-in. I’ll see for myself over the course of the next few months whether the readers and commenters on this site will slow and/or disappear, or whether there are real, live people who are interested in the topics about which I write.

I have updated item number 4 on my Comments Policy to reflect this change.

As far as I know, there is no way to set CommentLuv to leave the old links on the comments, so that means all of the CommentLuv comments are now gone.

That one part of the test may very well doom this blog to oblivion…

…if I am correct in assuming that people comment more for the backlinks than they do for wanting to take part in the discussion.

This is one more test in an ongoing series of marketing tests I have run over the last decade.

I enjoy the social aspect of blogging and commenting

I enjoy talking to real people who comment and add to the discussion at hand. I enjoy thinking about differing viewpoints. Some of them make me re-think my own understanding of a topic and some actually change my mind.

I really dislike having to moderate my comments.

I hate dealing with all the spam, and it is getting increasingly difficult to discern whether it is a real person commenting, or a hired wordslinger, or a well-programmed robot.

Will the readership of this blog drop?

Will disabling CommentLuv and going back to the no-follow default for WordPress blogs make a difference in the number of people who respond to my diatribes?

I’m betting it will.

I’m betting that the number of readers and the number of commenters will drop. Perhaps it will drop precipitously.

How will the test affect profits from this blog?

I’m also betting that it won’t make a bit of difference to the profit I can track back to this blog. It has never earned nearly as much as my tier-structured websites.

Now that I am adding Facebook comments to those sites, I’ll see if comments are as important as I once thought they were.

Blog or build websites?

Ken Evoy, founder of Sitesell, Inc., has been saying for years that building well-structured, niche-oriented websites will produce more profits than blogging, and I have been having an internal argument with myself about that topic since he first wrote about it.

I like blogging. It’s easy. It’s inexpensive. It’s fun.

However, for me, it does not produce profits.

Blogs are, however, good for when I want to express my opinions about something that has just happened or a new development, whether or not it qualifies as news. That’s what blogs excel at doing. Their reverse-chronological structure is ideal for late-breaking news and/or developments, so I’ll most likely continue to use this blog for that purpose — regardless of the outcome of this test.

I get an idea, do some quick research, and write a new post to the blog. Depending upon the topic and how much I want to say about it, this can take from a few minutes to two or three hours of work.

It’s different when building a money-making website.

I plan those sites carefully. (Sometimes it doesn’t look like it, however.)

I do weeks or months of keyword research. Then, I research my competitors for the keywords I intend to write about. Then, I research ways I can monetize the pages I write.

I’ve been planning for several months on how I’m going to revamp my Act On Your Dream! site, and it will take me a few more weeks to finish the plans and start writing the pages. I know going into this project that it will be profitable. Perhaps quite profitable.

I know how the site will be structured, how the various topics fit with the central theme, and how I will monetize each page, before I write it.

I have brainstormed and organized sections and topics for the site (using NovaMind mind mapping software) and I’ve almost completed building a site blueprint that I’ll finish before rebuilding the site.

I have prepared reader profiles and will write each page to appeal to that particular person. (As well as I can.)

Each page will have one most wanted response (MWR) and I’ll offer two or three secondary actions that I’ll encourage. For most pages, the most wanted response is for someone to click a link and go buy what I’m recommending. Failing that, I want the reader to subscribe to my newsletter (which I’ll resume writing). Finally, if they don’t do either of those, I hope they’ll click on an Adsense ad or look at another page on the site.

The pages will be simple so that readers aren’t confused by a plethora a links as they are on this blog. People said I needed a three-column blog theme with links to lots of things and RSS feeds from my other sites, so I tested it. It has not increased my profits.

I will be changing Act On Your Dream! to a three column format, but it will not look like this blog. I’ll test the three columns. If it increases my income, I’ll continue to use it. If it does not increase my profits, I’ll go back to a simple two column format.

Readers tend to look at more pages and stay on that type of site longer than they do on a blog. Bounce rates are lower, time on page is higher, the number of pages viewed per visit is higher, and profits are higher — all without commenting.

I like the social aspects of commenting.

This was especially true over the last three years when I was sick and mostly unable to work. The online discussions got me through some days when I felt horrible, had no energy, or was in quite a lot of pain.

Now that I’m better, it’s time to get back to work and earn my keep, again. It’s time to do my best and move off of disability and food stamps and back to being a productive tax-paying member of society.

I am grateful for the assistance I got when I was unable to care for myself, but it’s time to move forward.

I just don’t think that blogs will do that for me. I’ve tested them for years and that’s the conclusion I have come to, reluctantly.

Please sir, can we have a blog module on SBI?

I even asked Ken Evoy on the private members-only forum for SBI subscribers, if he would ever add a blogging-with-comments module to SBI, and he said that would not happen. Blogging just doesn’t fit into the structure of an SBI-style tier-structured website.

So, I tried for months to think of a way to trick the system, and never found one that would work. I was pretty hard-headed and stubborn about this.

SBI gets Face-It!

So, now, I can have my cake and eat it, too, and it isn’t nearly the treat I expected.

SBI now has a module that helps us promote our pages on social networking sites. Click a button and it’s active. It’s called Socialize-It! (Note that all the modules end with an exclamation point and that sometimes makes for awkward sentences.)

Actually, Socialize-It! has been around for awhile, but it’s changing and merging with Face-It!

Sitesell recently introduced Face-It! version 1, which makes it easy for us to add Facebook Like buttons to our pages, and we can optionally add Facebook comments to the pages, too.

I thought that would be great. Less spam, because someone has to be a Facebook member to comment and there is less anonymity, as well, and now people could discuss the topics I wrote about.

Each page can have lots of comments, and that will percolate through the Facebook system and bring more readers. The jury is still out on this, but I don’t expect it to bring a deluge of new readers. I’m open to the possibility.

You know what?

Now that I have comments on my SBI sites, it’s really a let-down. I’m disappointed. It seems to me that comments are highly overrated and just add work. I don’t see any change in income and there have been only a few comments, so far.

I think the main reason for this is that the readers of my tier-structured websites are not commenting because they are not bloggers who mainly want backlinks to their blogs.

So, now, we’ll see what happens when I de-emphasize comments on this blog.

By de-emphasizing comments on the blog and offering comments on the website, will there really be any change in profits and my workload?

Has Ken been right all along?

Have I wasted years of efforts in building blogs, forums, and communities? Would all that effort have been better directed to building more and better niche-oriented websites using SBI.

I’ve almost come to the conclusion that he was right, all along. At least, for me and the things in which I’m interested.

I freely admit that Ken Evoy is a much better businessman than I am. He is a millionaire several times over (before founding Sitesell and creating SBI) and he builds real businesses that employ people around the world. SBI has tens of thousands of customers, also around the world.

Not only does he have more experience, but I believe he has a better, more refined thought process about building a business.

I’ve been happy — and remain happy — with my little microbusiness that makes it possible for me to work at home in my home office, or out on the front porch, in these beautiful mountains of western North Carolina. I’m living where I want to live, doing what I want to do, and I’m not interested in building a multi-million dollar business.

I would enjoy, however, earning more than I have the last couple of years!

So, what will I do after the test is over?

That remains to be seen.

I’m going to let this test run until the end of the year.

Disabling the CommentLuv plug-in may have doomed this blog, already. If that proves to be true, then I’ll repurpose most of the content that I’ve written here and move what is appropriate to my income-producing websites.

I am already starting to plan for a website that will replace this blog, if it becomes necessary. Yes, it will be powered by SBI. Yes, it will take more work. Yes, I’ll happily pay another $300 per year to build and host it using the SBI system.

What do you think?

I welcome your opinions, thoughts, and observations.

Act on your dream!

JD

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