Check your PM's Tina.

Kathy

Hi Akiko,

Thanks for your kind words about my sites. I love them, too, but I know I'm biased.

It definitely pays off to learn to build your own website. The site Holly will set up for you would only be the basic design and layout with a few pages, I believe. You still have to do all the real work yourself. There's no way one person could build full fledged sites for everyone, and especially not for free.

You don't necessarily have to learn all the coding and whatnot. That's why I went with SBI. I wanted to be able to build the site myself, but as simply as possible. As I have gone along, I have 'picked up' bits and pieces of the coding that has made it even better, but it wasn't a necessity in the beginning.

Kathy already mentioned that it is $299 per year per site. So, ultimately it will cost me $900 per year to maintain my sites with SBI. I didn't pay that full amount for the first year because I bought 2 of them in one of the specials like they are running now. I bought one and got a second one for $100 more. That gives you a savings on the first year.

Also, as Kathy mentioned, they will pay for themselves. I made enough with my first site in the first year to more than pay for all three sites for the second year, so the second year income was pretty much all profit. Of course, in December it will be time to renew my first site for another year, and so forth.

My chocolate site makes enough in one month to pay for the cost of it for a year, so it is definitely value for money in my opinion.

Davin mentioned that you can do it yourself with the Wordpress site. Some people can. I probably could NOW that I've learned the ins and outs, but with everything that is included in an SBI package, I just haven't had the incentive to give it a try.

By the way, if you have a yummy chocolate recipe you'd like to add to my site, please do. I enjoy the input and various ideas from all over. That goes for everyone else, too. The more the merrier.

Blessings,
Angie

This is a question for Kathy, Angie and Davin, (and anyone else who might have any good advise),
First of all, thank you a million times for your help. I was so excited to go ahead and try SBI and then my boyfriend kind of rained on my parade and brought me back to reality. He told me not to spend that kind of money (because I really don't have it) until I talked to one of his friends that is a website guru/tech. type guy. So I called him up (reluctantly because my heart was set on signing up with SBI and creating a fabulous website). He made a really cute blog (site) for his girlfriend (Cupzz.com) with Wordpress (free) and suggested I use GoDaddy.com for Hosting and Domain name. He said that he was confident that I could make a blogsite with Wordpress (meaning it's not that hard-although it doesn't sound as easy as SBI) and that GoDaddy has fantastic tech support. The Hosting is about $6.95/mo. and the Domain name is about $9/year. That's under $100.
Well, if I'm going to do that, I might as well go with Holly's offer. Right?
Here are my questions:
1) If I go with Holly's offer, can I still somehow learn how to build a website by continuing to develop the one Holly makes for me?
2) Can my website look as cute and pleasing to the eyes as Angie and Kathy's that were made with SBI? They really do make your mouth water-both of them (the food ones-not the insurance, retirement or parasite ones )
3) What do you think of GoDaddy vs. BlueHost?
4) What's the difference between a website and a blog (site)? Can't a website have a blog on it and can't a blog site have affiliate links and other info. that a website would have?

Thanks in advance.

Akiko

Hey Akiko, first yes. There are a lot of tutorials available with video etc available for Wordpress. The reason I like Wordpress and blogging essentially, is that the search engines really like blogs.

The reasons are numerous, but, mostly because blogs are updated so frequently. The life of a blogger is somewhat different than building static websites. Of course, you can add new content to other sites you create daily to. But, for a blogger, he/she really attempts to build a following of readers through their {hopefully interesting content}. But that said, blogging is a different deal to. To be a successful blogger you need to constantly work at it, just like any other online business model. I just fell in love with it basically. It sort of took over what I was doing with my static websites. I also like the interactivity between your readers, and yourself that comes with blogging. It can build somewhat of a community in time, of regular readers.

The thing that is great about SBI though, is they teach you a lot of things. Like link building, driving traffic, choosing niches etc. etc.
It's more than just a site builder and hosting company. It's almost like constant training from my understanding, which never hurts anybody, and can be very beneficial, especially with starting out.

Holly could install a very nice website, with a nice theme design. But, when it comes right down to it, you are responsible for your content, whether through Holly or SBI.

Ok, with GoDaddy. Sure registering a domain with them is fine. But, seriously I've been warned by many marketers to never host through them. I've been told time and again, how they sometimes will not release profitable domain names back to the recipients if they ever want to switch hosting companies. The biggest marketers have had trouble with them that way.

Bluehost, is a good hosting company. There are a lot of good hosting companies. I don't use Bluehost, but I know Holly puts the sites she creates there because they have proven to be reliable.

Anyhow, that said. You have some thinking to do. There are perks to either way. Like I said, there are many videos to learn how to use Wordpress found online, sometimes free.

Then again.....you don't have ongoing support and training like SBI does.

I know that makes it tough, but, that's about the best answer I have for you.

Take Care
Davin

Well,
Bluehost has wonderful technical support and if you choose the free site from Holly, I believe she still sets it up with wordpress. With Holly's free site I believe the domain name is still included with the 1 years subscription. So if your choice is between GoDaddy and the free site from Holly, I'd take the free site.

The great thing about SBI! is that they will do a lot of the SEO for you and building a website with SBI! is a whole lot easier than building one from scratch with wordpress. I've done both and the technical stuff really blew my mind. If you enjoy that part of it, then the free site might be the way to go for you.

If you really want to use SBI!, there is a special running until friday where you can buy one site for $299 and get a second one for $100 more. You can do whatever you want with the second site which includes selling it. There may even be someone on this forum who would be interested in purchasing it from you. You could split the cost and that way it would only cost you $200.

Here's another option for you. First, sign up for the SBI! affiliate program by clicking here. For every SBI! site you sell you will recieve a $75 commission and a yearly commission every year when they renew. You can do this whether you purchase an SBI! site or not. If you do choose to purchase an SBI! site, when you make your first sale, you will get a $75 commission for that sale as well as a $75 rebate on your own SBI! site. That will make the total cost for your site and all of the great tools that SBI! has just $150! Sell two more sites and your site is FREE! The affiliate program is free to sign up so you really have nothig to lose by signing up.

You can sell SBI! sites whether you purchase one or not it's just a lot easier when you know just how great SBI! is.

Now, as far as the difference between a blog and a website, I guess the best way to define a blog is that it is bascially an online journal where a website delivers information and is not necessarily updated regularly. You can put a blog on any website. One of the features of SBI! is instant blogging. As you put content on your website, it automatically updates your blog. You can put affilaite links on either one.

Hope that helps,
Kathy

Hi Kathy and Davin,
Thanks for your quick reply.

Because of my current financial situation I think I am going to go with Holly's offer. I just e-mailed her to ask her what my total cost would be because all I see is $6.95/mo. for BlueHost. I didn't see anything about paying for one year up front or 2 or 3 up front but I thought I saw something like that somewhere when I was looking for "reviews". I have been looking around so much I don't even remember anymore. I need to know if there are any other (hidden) costs.
Anyway, once my financial situation gets better and I decide to try SBI, I will be sure to get it through you, Kathy, because you have been so kind and helpful.
I'm so excited!!!!! I can't wait to start. For now, off to bed. It's past 2am. Good thing I'm still on summer break!!!

Thanks again for your great advise.

Akiko