Disability Grants and Benefits at Accessible.org

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!

JD

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

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

A few thoughts about webhosting and building websites

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

Your Facebook page – what would you do if it suddenly disappeared?

On Wednesday, I wrote about Sitesell’s Facebook page disappearing. *poof*

You might want to read that before reading the rest of this article.

If you don’t want to go read it, here’s a brief synopsis. Sitesell’s Facebook page was doing very well. They had invested months of time, lots of money, and the energy of several employees to build it to where it was. There were over 16,000 people who Liked the page. There was hundreds of pages of content and thousands of interactions. Interest was growing. Activity was increasing. More people were liking it every day.

Then, Facebook shut it down.

*poof*

No warning. No explanation.

*poof*

Gone.

What would you do if your Facebook page was your primary marketing site for your business? (It wasn’t for Sitesell, but it was becoming a very valuable resource.)

What if all your marketing was to send people to your Facebook page? What if all your marketing suddenly sent people to Facebook’s home page, instead. No warning. No explanation.

I bet you’d be reaching for the antacid to put out the fire in your belly. I know I would.

Ken Evoy, the founder of the company, blogged about it. He linked to other businesses that had similarly had their Facebook page shut down. I urge you to read that blog post: Urgent! We Need Your Help!

Now it’s back again and you can see it here: SiteSell.

Still, there’s been no explanation or apology forthcoming from Facebook.

Think about this.

Don’t put all your promotion eggs in Facebook’s basket. Have at least one website you own and control.

Even if you have your own website and/or blog on a domain you own, you’re still at least a little bit at the mercy of the company that hosts your site for you. But, I think, there isn’t nearly as much of a risk as there is at Facebook.

One of my Facebook pages was shut down

I have a website at Murphy Gold that I use for promoting select locally-owned businesses in Murphy, NC.

As part of my marketing, I set up a Facebook page for Murphy Gold.

I let it languish for a few months, while I was undergoing chemotherapy and just didn’t feel like working on it. One day, when I was feeling relatively well, I noticed that I had over 25 likes on the page. That meant that I could apply to Facebook to get a shorter page URL than the one that is automatically assigned when you create a page.

I wrote a note about that on my Dilbeck Marketing page: How to get a better URL for your Facebook pages.

Of course, I wanted Murphy Gold to be in the URL. So, I applied for the URL I wanted and it was denied, because it was already in use. Of course, I went to the URL to see it. In this case, it wasn’t a page, it was a personal profile, and it was inactive, having only a couple of status updates from a year earlier. There was no tie between the person using the URL and themselves, and I’ve claimed common law trademark on the phrase “Murphy Gold” as you’ll see on the bottom of just about every page of my site.

So, I filed a trademark infringement claim and requested the URL be applied to my page, since it rightfully belonged to me.

What happened?

The next day my page was shut down for trademark infringement.

So, I know about the fire in the belly when that happens.

Fortunately, it was not a major problem, but it was still wrong.

So, I appealed with an explanation that I was the one who had filed the claim against the personal profile that was infringing on my intellectual property.

I went on to other things, including my next chemotherapy treatment. A few days later, when checking my email, I received a message that my page was restored with the URL I requested.

No apology.

It was just another case of Facebook being the sole judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to their site and all the work we put into building it for them so they can make hugemongous profits.

Fortunately, it worked out for me. It doesn’t for some.

I know that Facebook is a free site and they can (and will) do what suits them. I knew that going in. But, still, I expect them to follow their own terms and conditions as well as the policies they adopt. What we don’t get is clear lines of good communications.

I could have demanded a full refund for what I paid them, but that wouldn’t have helped. (grin)

I urge caution, if you’re using a Facebook page as a primary source of contact with your customers and prospects. Make sure that you have another site where you can be reached and where you can explain what’s happening, if you encounter a situation like this.

In fact, I urge you to use a website or blog that you own and control as your primary marketing venue. Other sites, like Facebook, Squidoo, Hubpages, and so forth, can be good adjuncts to your site, but should not be your only, or even primary, representation of your business.

Likewise, be careful of building your website on a free service using one of their subdomains.

I’ve cautioned about building a site on a free service and promoting it using their url.

For example, I’ve been testing a new site here: johndilbeck.weebly.com

Soon, I’ll be working on that site on a regular basis, but I won’t be promoting it until I set it up as DilbeckMarketing.com. It’s not a lot of work to do. I already own the domain and I want to replace my old site with this new one. It’s just a matter of setting aside a few hours one day when my head is clear and I’m thinking straight and then doing the work.

You can learn more about Weebly here: learn more about Weebly

(Yes, that’s an affiliate link. It’s what I do. It’s how I’ve earned my living for over ten years. Many of the links in this article are affiliate links. When you buy through one of them, I earn a small commission. It’s what pays the bills. Thank you! If you buy direct by going to their site instead of through my link, you won’t save any money. You’ll just let the company keep the commission I might have earned by telling you about these resources that can be very useful for you.)

(By the way, I don’t promote just anything — even if they would pay me a commission. For instance, I don’t promote credit cards, insurance companies, multi-level marketing companies, and many, many others that I could. Yes, they pay very good commissions. However, I decided that I will only promote products and services that I would use myself. Or, which I would recommend to my family and best friends, even if I earned nothing from it. I use all of the services I suggest in this article and I’m happy with them. Now, back to the subject at hand…)

Weebly

Weebly provides both free and pro hosting services. I paid for the pro service and it’s only about $50 per year and offers more features than the free version. I’m not positive, but I think you can host up to five websites on a pro account, for the same price.

I recommend Weebly to my friends, family, clients, and you.

If you want a good looking website with lots of features for a low price (or free), and you don’t want to learn all the technogeek stuff you need to know to code a site from scratch (the way I do some of my sites), then you ought to look into Weebly. After all, it won’t cost anything to sign up for a free account and spend some time learning how it works.

That’s the reason I first signed up for Weebly. Sitesell’s next version of SBI is going to have a greatly-enhanced version of their sitebuilder and they’ve said it will be similar to Weebly’s. So, I initially signed up for a free account at Weebly so I’d be prepared when Sitesell rolls out their new version later this year.

In the process of using it, I really liked it, and that’s when I decided to upgrade to the pro version of Weebly. Now, I just need to knuckle down and build my new Dilbeck Marketing site, there.

Here’s another professional website hosted on Weebly: Images By Courtnie Photography

Weebly offers lots of great features and what I think is the best site builder software on the Internet. By that, I mean the best interface for easily creating HTML pages with all the bells and whistles, without having to learn all the code.

Check it out, if you want to build a website. It’s a great place for personal sites in addition to business sites. Want to build a website for your club, family reunion, church group, or something similar? Try Weebly.

HostGator

I’ve tested dozens of ways to build websites, forums, online communities, blogs, and even obscure things such as an article directory of my own.

After building dozens of test sites, I’ve narrowed my choices, considerably.

I still have some blogs at Blogger.com and WordPress.com and a few other free sites, but they are more or less inactive at this point. Now and then I post something. I mainly keep them around to retain control over the URLs that I have heavily promoted in the past.

These days, I host my traditional sites, including websites and self-hosted WordPress powered blogs (including this one) at HostGator. I’ve been doing this for years and it has been very cost effective and reliable.

It takes a lot more technical knowledge to build a site at HostGator than at Weebly, but HostGator offers features that are great for programmers and developers to add additional functionality to a website. I use PHP and PERL programming on some of my sites to do things I can’t on other webhosting services.

On the downside, we open ourselves up to more security risks when we use scripts — both custom and open source — on our websites. Scripts are the main way in which criminals gain control of our sites and use them for their nefarious purposes, such as hosting phishing pages and/or using them to send spam emails without our knowledge. Or, sometimes, they just like to take control and either deface or destroy the site. I’ve had all of those things happen to my traditionally-hosted sites, multiple times, on HostGator and other similar hosting services.

I can’t think of a single open source script I’ve used, including WordPress, that hasn’t been hacked at least once, over the years that I’ve been doing this. And, to be totally honest, it might be going on right now on one of more of my sites without my knowledge.

The last phishing scam that was installed on one of my sites was caught by HostGator security. They disabled and removed the offending scripts and pages and notified me. Then, I spent the next day or so going over the site looking for other problems. That was a totally non-productive, but necessary, use of my time and energy.

I’ll continue using HostGator for most of my current sites (except for a few, like DilbeckMarketing.com, that I’ll be moving to Weebly.

I have a couple of large websites hosted there…

JohnDilbeck.com (which has lots of custom programming I added over the years)

It used to be a much larger site (nearly 2,000 pages) before the NC General Assembly passed the nexus tax law in 2009 and Amazon.com dropped all affiliates in North Carolina. I lost several hundred dollars per month in income as a result of that decision and removed hundreds of pages on the site that were designed for and had links to products that could be purchased on Amazon.com.

GeorgiaDragRacing.com (which will be taken down one of these days due to my brother’s bad health)

I seem to recall something about drag racing in my senior yearbook entry when I went to Campbell High School in Fairburn, GA. (Howdy, class of ’70!) This website proves how much David and I loved drag racing. There are some great photos of the Houston Brothers and their ‘vettes. They owned and operated Houston Brothers Dragstrip in Fairburn for a number of years.

(If we were going to keep that site up, I’d add lots of videos of drag racing from YouTube. I think that would make an even more interesting site.)

My three active blogs will continue to be hosted on Hostgator:

John Dilbeck And Friends

21st Century Affiliate Marketing (you’re here right now. Thanks for reading!)

and the smaller, and less active

Murphy, NC 28906 (It’s being replaced by my MurphyConnections.com social networking site.)

All three of those sites are powered by WordPress and some custom programming I’ve added here and there.

I like HostGator and all they provide at a very reasonable cost, but their hosting service takes more technical skill and savvy to use than Weebly.

Sitesell and SBI

Now, if you’re very serious about building an online business and you want the best combination of tools, training, support, and an outstanding members-only forum for helping and being helped, then the only company I suggest is Sitesell.

(By online business, I don’t just mean making money online. See: Make money online vs. Build a business online for more of my thoughts on this subject.)

Yes, Sitesell is the company that had their Facebook page taken down for almost two days and that’s what prompted this long post.

Here’s the link to their blog post about this episode: Urgent! We Need Your Help!

and here’s a link to Sitesell’s Facebook page.

A little history, if you’re new to reading my scribblings…

I would not have been able to build my online marketing empire (grin) had it not been for what I learned from Ken Evoy (founder of SiteSell and the visionary behind SBI).

I found him over ten years ago, when I had quit programming and consulting and returned to blacksmithing — an old family tradition.

I enjoy making things and I was planning to make custom-made arms and armour. I did some of that, but along the way, I took a path less traveled and made a steel rose for Dena, my beautiful daughter.

My friend George Kelischek, a master violin maker in Brasstown, NC once told me, “Anyone can learn to make something, but you can’t build a business until you learn how to sell what you make.”

Truer words were never spoken.

So, since the Internet was starting to get popular, I went searching for information on how to build a website that could help me sell my roses that never wilt.

I already knew how to build websites, and I was already an Amazon affiliate, earning a hundred or so dollars a month, so I already knew a little about the subject.

What made the difference was finding Ken Evoy and buying his book, Make Your Site Sell! That was by far the best $20 (or so) I ever spent. I’ve recouped that investment and much more, many times over, and I’m still earning from work I did years ago. (I love passive residual income. I wish I had a lot more of it!)

The book cost about $17, if I remember correctly, and with the second edition the price was increased, to around $30. That was for three volumes and about 1,500 pages of very good information.

Now, you can get it as a free PDF download of Make Your Site Sell!

That book changed my life. It took a lot of studying and a LOT of work, but before long, I was selling all the roses I could make to people all across the USA and Canada and made some lifelong friends in the process.

I was getting inquiries from Ireland, England, Australia, New Zealand, and other far-off lands.

I was even getting requests for custom-forged daggers, crowns, jewelry, and other items from people as far away as California. A good website that could be found in the search engines really extended my marketing reach.

Then, Mom got sick with cancer. I’ve written about that over the years, so I won’t repeat the story here. I cared for Mom for years following her cancer surgery and then spent a couple of years fighting my own battle. Thankfully, Dena and Stacey cared for me when I needed it.

Here’s something I wrote about Mom, following her death: In memory of Mattie Lee Dilbeck

Here’s something I wrote following Mom’s death (before my cancer fight started) that shows some of my thinking and the state I was in: Site Build It! or WordPress? Which is Best? Why?

It’s safe to say that the last nine years were devoted to caring for Mom and fighting my battle with cancer. What little free time and energy I had, I continued to maintain my sites and company as well as I could. If it had been anything but an online business that mostly ran on automatic (except for the research and writing, of course), I would have had to shut it down. That came very close to happening last March. It looked like I wouldn’t live much longer and I didn’t have the strength to work on it. I came very close to pulling the plug on Dilbeck Marketing and shutting down all my sites.

Even without much input from me, there was enough income to cover the expenses, so I left it running. Good thing. I didn’t have the energy or enough of a clear head to shut it down gracefully. All I would have been able to do was cancel the hosting accounts and stop paying the expenses. That would have left remnants all around the Internet from all the work I’ve done over the last 10 years.

So, I left all the sites up. Now, we’re continuing to kick cancer’s butt and I’m getting stronger every day. There’s a lot already in place, but it feels a lot like I’m starting a new business. I have to clean things up and start running on the treadmill that powers everything. Fortunately for me, the treadmill is actually the keyboard I’m pounding on right now.

Make Your Site Sell! and all the work I put into building these sites and relationships kept me going financially, even when I could not leave home for more than an hour or two to run errands the last few years I was caring for Mom, and the last couple of years while Dena and Stacey were caring for me.

But, a lot of people who read MYSS! did not have the technical skills to follow the advice in that book, so Ken Evoy took it up a notch and created Site Build It, now referred to as SBI! ver 2.

Now, back to the present…

Henceforth, I’ll be putting about 80% of my efforts into building two sites I own that are powered by SBI: Act on your dream! and Murphy Gold.

I believe that almost anyone can make their life better by choosing their most important dream (not sleeping dream, but something you want to achieve), and then making it real. I think you can be well along the way to realizing your dream, once you’ve made that decision, in as little as a year from now.

For the last year, my dream has been to kick cancer’s butt and get back to work. (check)

Now, my dream is to do what I can to inspire others to live their dreams (using the first site) and to promote some of the very best business owners in Murphy, NC (the second site).

I’ll be spending about 15% of my work time on Act On Your Dream!, 65% on MurphyGold.com and MurphyConnections.com, and the remaining 20% of my time on running the business, accounting, maintaining all my other sites and blogs, occasionally updating my profiles and interactions on sites such as LinkedIn, MerchantCircle, and Squidoo, posting updates and teasers on Twitter, and playing — with a little work — on Facebook.

The plan is in place and the goals are set. Now, it’s time to start working on each of them and drawing a big heavy black line through each item when it is completed.

Ken Evoy and SBi have given me the knowledge, tools, and guidance I need to live my dream, just as they have done for thousands of others around the world, including a few who are reading this right now. They continue to evolve their product, let us know about new techniques that have been proven to help us build our business, and provide ongoing support and encouragement through their newsletters and forum.

Right now, I’m sitting on the front porch in the mountains while I’m working on my blog. That’s the life I love.

If I had to focus on just one thing, and that may very well happen one day in the future, I’d focus on promoting the people of Murphy, NC on MurphyGold.com and MurphyConnections.com.

And what’s going to make that possible? Yeppers! That’s right, Sitesell and SBI. (And Ning, for hosting Murphy Connections.)

Oh, yeah, LinkToDetails.com is a domain powered by SBI that makes it possible to have my own link shortening service like tinyurl.com, or bit.ly, or the others — but it is one I own and control, so I’m not subject to any whims or changes of direction on their part. Don’t bother going to look at it, I use it only for redirecting links, mostly affiliate links, to the businesses I promote.

The primary work I do is done on my own domains. The ones I own and control and over which I set my own policies. (I may be vulnerable to my own capricious or birdbrained decisions — like almost shutting all of them down last year — but not to anyone else’s.)

Facebook can be like that. They can be capricious and they can make mistakes. Sometimes, but not always, those mistakes are resolved properly. Unfortunately, they can be very difficult to communicate with and many of their communications are less than forthcoming and can be difficult to decipher.

In the case of Sitesell’s page and all the great community interaction there, it was a good outcome — but terrible communications.

Today, I took most of the thoughts I wrote on a thread on my Facebook profile and reworked them into this blog post on 21st Century Affiliate Marketing. I want them on a site I control. I want them where I can find them in the future. I want them on a site where YOU can find them.

Do you own a business?

Where and how are you promoting it? If Facebook or another free site is your primary marketing venue for your business, I think you’re making a big mistake.

It works great as an adjunct to your main site(s), but not as a primary contact point.

Facebook is great when used as another entry point to your marketing funnel, as long as you’re bringing more people to your main site(s).

If you want to learn more, but not spend any money on it, download and read Make Your Site Sell!

That book is excellent, even though a lot of things have changed over the few years since it was last updated. Still, there is some outstanding advice about researching, understanding your clients/customers, talking to them, and promoting the services and products you offer. That information and those techniques will never go out of date.

If you want to learn more about how to build a real online business and get all the tools, support, training, and a great community forum all for the ridiculously low price of only $300 per year (or $30 per month), the primary business I will recommend is the one I use myself, Sitesell.

They offer the best tools, best service, and best communications (even from the founder and department heads) of any company on this quaint little planet that I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.

As with anything else, it takes a combination of work, time, money, tools, strategies, and help to build a successful business. Don’t you owe it to yourself to use the best tools to help you do the work?

Please, don’t put all your eggs in the Facebook basket.

That’s a huge risk to take if you are serious about building a real business.

What do you think?

Act on your dream!

JD

Weebly adds collaborative website editing

Have you ever wanted to have two or more people help you build your website, maintain the information on it, monitor comments, or assign different people to edit specific pages?

Now, as of today, you can do that on Weebly. This is a feature that was greatly desired by some people who choose to build their websites on Weebly. Now it’s available.

You can build a free site, or pay a reasonable fee to get more features.

I’ve used it both ways and like it. It’s one of the few website builders I recommend.

Dena Howard uses Weebly to build and maintain her website and blog for Images By Courtnie Photography in Murphy, NC.

I’ve started a site that will eventually become DilbeckMarketing.com at johndilbeck.weebly.com.

Unlike using WordPress on your own domain, there is a full tech staff that handles things like security updates and maintaining and improving the code used to power the sites. That means that you don’t have to be a technical whiz to create a website that can optionally have a blog, too.

If you’re not using Weebly already, and you’re looking for a good way to build a website, visit their site and get started today.

Act on your dream!

JD

What is your time worth?

And, even more directly, what is my time worth?

That’s the question I’m asking myself this morning.

This evening, a little over 100 miles from here, my high school classmates are having our 40th high school reunion and I would love to go and see them. We’ve become reacquainted this year on Facebook and we’re sharing tidbits about our families and what’s happening with all of us.

That makes this year different.

In the past, I didn’t mind missing the reunions because I’d lost touch with everyone, even my best friends from high school. This year, it’s different. I’m reading their stories and they’re reading mine. We’ve reconnected — as people and not just names and memories.

40 years is a long time, and yet, in many ways, it seems to have flown by. In other ways, it feels like it’s been an eternity since I saw any of them.

Since I had to make the decision, this morning, that I couldn’t make it to this reunion, due to being weak and tired from this week’s chemotherapy, I got to thinking about other things I’ve done with my time.

I look back on the last 40 years and I like that I concentrated on computers and mastered them enough to build a decent career as a consultant, teacher, programmer, and administrator. It made it possible for me to move here to Murphy, NC, and I love living here in the mountains and out of the rat race. I invested over a decade in the big cities of Atlanta and Phoenix and was then able to bring myself and my business here.

I like that I have good friends who care about me as much as I care about them. That, too, takes time.

For the rest of this post, I’m going to concentrate on the last decade or so.

As you may already know, the last decade has been full of challenges for my family. For over seven years, I was the sole, full-time caretaker for my elderly mother as she battled cancer and the after-effects of the surgery. I cared for her as long as I could but she had to go into a nursing home for the last few months of her life. At least, I helped her live at home for a few more years.

This year, I’m fighting my own battle with cancer and the tide seems to have turned. I intend to win this war and get healthy and stronger. A year from now, I intend to be much better than I am today.

During all this time, my online marketing business allowed me the time to stay home and care for her, and now for myself.

(In my own case, however, I’ve had to file for disability to pay for all the medical bills and my living expenses until I can really resume working. These days, I’m able to do a bit here and there, but nowhere nearly as much as I used to do. Up until this summer, my online marketing business provided 100% of my income for most of the last decade. As soon as possible, it will once again provide the income for me to live my life as I like it.)

Just out of curiosity, I went to Alexa’s Way Back Machine and looked at the first few days of JohnDilbeck.com as it looked on October 18, 2000 — just over one more week from its 10th anniversary. (Actually, I registered the domain a few months earlier, on my birthday. In many ways, it looks much the same now as it did back then: JohnDilbeck.com)

Even in my earliest attempts, I was using affiliate marketing to earn a living. This site brought in thousands of dollars over the years.

Even my very first domain, Need-Sleep.com, was a money maker, primarily because I was one of the earliest Amazon.com affiliates. That look into the Way Back Machine shows my first money-making site as it looked about 13 years ago.

(I miss my HyperDimensional Book Nook.)

All my sites that depended upon the Amazon.com affiliate program for income took a dive when Amazon terminated all their associates in North Carolina following our legislature’s misguided attempt to bring in more taxes with their new nexus laws. Unlike some people, however, I relied on Amazon.com as only one stream in my income river, so although substantial, losing Amazon and other big retailers did not put me out of business. However, that, coupled with the massive downturn in the economy, really did put a crimp on my income. It’s a good thing I have no debts and my overhead is very low. Even with the lowered income, I was able to weather the storm and I’m starting to see my income rise, again, even though it’s only a fraction of what it once was.

Both sites were rather crude and certainly did not contain any eye candy to keep anyone entertained. Yet, both of them made money for me.

I only wish I had been smart enough to sell the Need-Sleep.com domain to someone rather than just letting the domain registration lapse.

I just looked and the domain is available. I almost registered it for old time’s sake, but decided not to. I’ve registered way too many domains over the years and most of them have been failures. Besides, now that I’m no longer a computer consultant working all around the clock, I no longer need sleep. (grin)

I won’t bother you with them, but I’ve looked at some of those old domains this morning and recognize all the hard work that I put into them and all the time that was wasted over the years.

If I had avoided all the shiny red balls that kept bouncing across my marketing pathway, and had concentrated on building websites with depth and authority, I would have earned more for my efforts.

As a consultant, I knew the value of being paid for my work and I charged accordingly. I don’t know why I forgot those hard-won lessons when I turned to Internet marketing.

I also know the value in paying for expert help when I need it, so why did I spend thousands of hours (and quite a bit of money) learning and relearning how to build “free” websites over the years? Looking back on it from my new perspective, I just don’t understand it.

Still, some of my websites did well enough that I earned a decent living, where I wanted to live, doing what I wanted to do, so that I could invest waste time learning all the new scripts, building forums, article directories, blogs, playing on traffic exchanges, learning I don’t do well with MLM, and learning another half-dozen programming languages.

What do I have to show for all that? A few dollars here and there. It’s true that I know more about all this stuff than I did, but it’s worthless knowledge, because I’ll never be able to recoup the value of the time I wasted in the process.

I’ve told you before — and some of you may be sick of hearing it — that I’m moving away from blogging (which I’ve been doing for over 10 years) and back to building hierarchically organized static websites. Over the years, even though I put more of my effort into blogging than I did into building content focused websites, very little of my income has come from my blogging efforts.

I got other things out of it, however. There was the social interaction, meeting new friends, and sharing new discoveries, but there was very little money added to my income streams.

I don’t have the exact numbers, but I’m sure my income from my best websites (which I sorely neglected over the years) outperformed my blogs by at least a ratio of 50 to 1, and maybe a bit more.

I was just looking at the first available page of my first blog (on the Way Back Machine), John Dilbeck’s Ramblings, and noticed that even the name shows my lack of focus. John Dilbeck’s Ramblings is no way to inspire confidence and help readers focus on what I’m writing about.

So, over the next ten years, I plan to focus most of my attention on two sites, Act On Your Dream! and my primary site at Murphy Gold.

Not so coincidentally, they are both powered by SBI.

I knew that SBI was a great way to build a site, but something in me, probably a personality defect, drove me to try all these other things and see if I was able to do better with them than I could by using SBI and following the Action Guide.

The only really good result from all my testing is that I have proven to myself that I’ve been spinning my wheels for many years and now it’s going to be much easier to follow what I learn from all the folks at Sitesell.

If I were starting over a couple of years ago, I would have slapped up a new WordPress blog and started rambling. Now, I’ve relearned what I learned a decade ago and I won’t make that mistake.

Ken Evoy makes the point so well on the WordPress or SBI page.

While I was playing and testing on WordPress, and making a hundred dollars here and there, my SBI sites were generating the income that gave me the free time to waste. (Two of my other sites were built based on the principles of Ken Evoy’s Make Your Site Sell! ebook, and they also generated income. They were built before SBI was available, or they would have been powered by SBI, too.)

I’ve given a lot of things the benefit of the doubt, and that includes blogging, building forums, creating article directories, and much more, and it just has not been worth the effort. If I were getting paid by the hour for all the work I’ve done on them, I would have made less than minimum wage.

What does that say about building a business? I could have earned more money with less work by slinging burgers at the local greasy spoon. Sigh.

Fortunately, a handful of websites pulled their load and earned much more than the others. That’s the direction I’m moving in, once again, following a very long detour.

So, what’s your time — and your creative talent — worth? Are you satisfied earning a few hundred dollars per month from your online business, or do you think you’re worth more?

If someone offered me $200 to be their consultant for a month, I’d turn them down, without even having to think about it. So, why would I settle for that as income from blogging all month?

Sometimes I just don’t understand myself. At least, I can learn from my mistakes.

What about you?

What is your time worth?

Act on your dream!

JD

One down, many to go

It’s been a busy week around here.

In addition to working to bring a new site online (that won’t have any affiliate ads and very few Adsense ads), I’ve been busy rebuilding one of my oldest websites, JohnDilbeck.com.

That’s the site where I really started to learn affiliate marketing and online marketing, in general. It’s where I sold my steel roses and started making real money with Amazon.com.

Sadly, however, it had suffered years of neglect and looked like an abandoned flower garden that once was beautiful, but eventually became clogged with weeds and overgrown bushes.

I’ve been intending to rebuild JohnDilbeck.com for some time, but — at over 1,500 pages — the task was daunting and I never seemed to find the time to tackle it.

Over the years, I’ve tested lots of things on that site, and some of the pages looked horrible, when I looked at them with fresh eyes.

Mitch and I talked about that on a previous post where we were talking about Site Build It and I mentioned JohnDilbeck.com as an example of a site that more than earned its way. He mistakenly thought it was powered by SBI, but it isn’t. It’s just a standard Linux-hosted static website. Most pages are plain HTML, but a few are PHP so I can do some things that could not be done on a standard HTML page.

Well over 600 pages of the site were built specifically to bring in Amazon.com commissions. Now that Amazon has terminated my association because I live in North Carolina, I didn’t want to be sending anyone their way at my expense with no hope of generating any revenue from it.

That was the incentive to tackle the project.

Fortunately, I build my large static sites using a programmable database, and each major section has a template through which I process each page. That means that it’s probably easier than it sounds at first. Still it was a big task.

Part of the task was made easier when I would look at a major section and decide that it just wasn’t worth updating everything. As a result, instead of rebuilding hundreds of pages, I deleted them.

This will probably play havoc with my rankings in the search engines, but it will probably be easier on anyone who happens to visit the site.

I had Amazon.com ads on just about every page on the site, and now I think there are none, or only a few. There may still be pages where I recommended a specific book using a text link.

Eventually, I want to get back to that site and try to build it back to its former place of importance in my marketing efforts.

At least, now, it’s prettier and maybe easier to use.

I’m prejudiced, because I love that site. I don’t think I can really see it with fresh eyes after editing it for about 10 years.

I lost a lot of good information in the process, and killed what was one of my longest-running blogs. I did save lots of information in the database, so some of the information I didn’t have time to update now may make its way back onto the site in the future.

We’ll see.

So, that’s one site (mostly) cleaned up, and many more to go.

Sigh.

Act on your dream!

JD

Why do blogs have a higher failure rate than restaurants?

I just read an interesting story in the New York Times…

Blogs Falling in an Empty Forest

This is another article that shows how easy it is to start a blog, but how hard it is to continue it over time. Things change. We lose interest. We become too busy with other things.

In many cases, we become disillusioned by the lack of success we had originally imagined.

Although the same can be true for a traditional website, the difference lies in the amount of traffic that continues when we are busy doing something else.

I have static websites that continue to bring in thousands of readers every month, even when I do nothing to them for extended periods.

The same just is not true for my blogs.

If I go any length of time without posting something new to a blog, regular readers notice and new readers may perceive it as just another abandoned blog.

I know I feel that way when I visit a blog that hasn’t been updated recently. Do you?

But, and I think this is important, I just don’t feel that way when I go to a traditional website. While on one of them, I’m looking for information, not necessarily the latest thing written.

As you know, I’ve been debating the issue of blogging or building traditional multi-tier websites for some time…

Site Build It! or WordPress? Which is Best? Why?

I think both have promise and I can argue both in favor and against both of them.

It is much more difficult to design and build a multi-tier website that presents information in a way that is easy to navigate and update. I know, because I’ve been spending much of my time every day for the last few weeks designing a new website.

On the other hand, I can throw up a blog in a couple of hours. All I need is an inspiration, a topic, and a little free time. I know this, because I’ve started several dozen blogs, but now I’m maintaining only three of them on a semi-regular basis, and updating a few others sporadically.

When looking at the traffic stats for all my sites, I see a definite correlation between frequency of posting on a blog that just does not exist on my traditional websites. Just as in academia, with blogs you have to think publish or perish.

Easy to start – easy to abandon

The longer I do all of this, the more I realize that blogs are easy to start. There’s very little barrier to entry. Start one free on Blogger in ten minutes. Host one on your own domain using WordPress in a couple of hours (plus whatever time it takes the domain to propagate, if it’s newly registered). Cost, little to nothing.

On the other hand, when I start a new website, it’s not so easy to start. There’s planning time that nobody but me sees. I may spend months working on the design, researching keywords, researching the competition, deciding on how much information is needed to make the site viable, and designing a three- or four-tier site structure. All of this is done before I do anything else.

I may register the domain in advance, just to make sure it will be available when I want it, or I may decide upon the domain name after I know what’s going to be on the site.

How much does it cost to host one of these websites?

If I go with traditional hosting on a Linux server, my cost is nothing. I’m already paying that cost for my other sites and have both the bandwidth and storage available to host several more domains.

If I go with Site Build It!, the up-front cost will be $300 and that pays for the first year of hosting. More and more, I’m finding that I’m not interested in building a site that isn’t powered by SBI, but I’m going to leave that for another discussion.

Getting back to the main point…

With the new site I’ll be introducing in a few more weeks, I’ve already put months into getting ready for it. I paid $10 to reserve the domain name, and I’ll be paying another $300 to host it. That’s a pretty large barrier to entry from my point of view.

It’s also one thing that will keep me motivated to continue developing the site. After all that time, work, and money, I’m not going to stop working on it until it is profitable and I’m getting income on a regular basis from it.

With a new blog, I find that I’m more of the opinion of easy come, easy go. When I abandon a blog, it’s no great loss.

But, there really is a loss. I’ll lose the time I put into building it, and in the long run that’s more valuable than any money I may have invested or not. I can recover money or earn more. I can never get back the time I lost.

When I first started debating this with myself, I was clearly in favor of blogging with WordPress over building a multi-tier website. I just seemed to make more sense.

Now, however, as I spend more time doing both and look back on the results of what I’ve gotten from each, I’m leaning much farther away from blogging and towards a content-rich, structured website.

I almost hate to admit it, because I disagreed with him when he originally wrote it, but I am more and more coming to agree with Ken Evoy and what he wrote about this subject: Blog or Build?

Finally, I’m going to disagree with some of my good friends, including Mitch Mitchell and Aussie Sire. I respect their opinions and truly enjoy interacting with them on our blogs.

What do I disagree with?

I’m finding that the number of comments or the length of the discussion on a blog post has almost no correlation with income.

Yet, it takes time to monitor the comments and respond to them, so there is a cost involved without a commensurate income to offset the effort.

That doesn’t mean that I’ll discontinue comments or discussions here. I won’t. But, I’m realizing that I’m doing it more for the enjoyment, debate, and socializing, rather than for generating income.

I earn far more from my traditional sites, and after their original design and building, I spend much less time maintaining them.

The choice is becoming more clear all the time.

I’m not trying to change your mind, I’m just passing along what I’m learning on this topic.

What do you think?

Act on your dream!

JD

Keyword research tools – Shopping.com Consumer Demand Index

Do you want to promote popular products?

How can you find current lists of popular keyword searches for hot products already organized by category?

Is this an impossible dream?

Not at all.

See Shopping.com’s Consumer Demand Index for a list of all their categories. Click the category name to see a list of relatively current keywords and search phrases.

If you then click one of the search phrases, you’ll go to a page that lists the products related to that term on Shopping.com.

Yes, Shopping.com is a competitor if you are promoting popular products through your affiliate links, but look at it another way. They’ve done a lot of your keyword research for you, and they’re making it available, for free.

In addition, they group everything by category.

These pages should help you in your brainstorming and keyword research.

I wouldn’t depend on this as my only source for keywords, but it’s a nice tool if you promote the products they list or similar products.

On the other hand, if you’re shopping instead of marketing, is this a helpful page?

Who does it help most? Shoppers or marketers? Customers or competitors?

What do you think? Helpful or not?

Act on your dream!

JD

Site Build It! $100 Harvest Special

I was so busy the last couple of weeks that I didn’t even have time to promote the Site Build It! Halloween special, which ended yesterday at midnight.

I know you may be interested in building a successful online business using SBI, and I’m sorry I didn’t let you know about the special offer.

But, even if you missed the Halloween special, Sitesell is offering the $100 Harvest Special from now until midnight on November 9, 2008.

Yep, that’s right. For a little more than a week, you have the opportunity to purchase one SBI site for about $300 and you can get a second Site Build It! subscription for only $100 more.

Buy both for yourself, go in with a friend and each of you can get a subscription for $200 each, or buy one and give the other to a friend, relative, or colleague.

I’m not going to even address all the misconceptions about SBI this morning. I’ve had those conversations until I’m blue in the face.

Site Build It! may not be for everyone – I don’t use it for quite a few of my sites – but I know it is the absolute best way for someone to identify a niche for your online business, brainstorm topics, design the structure of your site, build it, host it, and promote it. SBI offers a variety of tools that cannot be found elsewhere – especially with the level of integration between the tools that SBI offers.

Then, you also get the step-by-step Action Guide, unlimited support, and a members-only forum that is extremely helpful and supportive.

Site Build It offers more than just a place to put up a website. There are many thousands of places and ways you can do that. SBI offers what I have come to think of as a success cooperative where people like Ken Evoy, founder of Sitesell, really believes in your capacity for success and helps you achieve it.

Don’t listen to the naysayers and the uninformed. Site Build It! offers a comprehensive set of tools, procedures, tutorials, and support that you won’t find anywhere else.

I am a very satisfied Site Build It! customer and I invite you to visit my Act On Your Dream! site, hosted by SBI. I’m working on a plan right now where I’ll be greatly expanding that site over the coming year.

Whether you take advantage of the $100 Harvest Special, or not, do yourself a favor and learn about what you can do with Site Build It!

Why just put up a website when you can build a successful online business?

Act on your dream!

JD

PS. You don’t have to take advantage of this special offer to buy two SBI sites. You can always choose to purchase just one SBI subscription, even when the specials are offered. If you don’t need two sites, there’s no reason to buy more than one.

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