Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2003 11:32 pm Post subject: Re: Website - To build or not to build myself?
Kathy wrote:
Hi,
Obviously I have heard all about SBI and Mini Sites etc, but was wondering just how easy/difficult it is to build a website yourself?
A guy I was talking to said it was real easy but if that's the case, why are there these companies around that do it for you?!
If you have built your own website, how did you find it? With hindsight, do you think it would have been better/easier with SBI for example?
Kind regards,
Kathy
Kathy, it isn't just that it's easy ... there is a learning curve to everything. I have been building sites online for over 7 years now and only started using SBI this year. The first thing I have to say is I wish SBI had been around years ago!
My learning curves included html, css, SEO, linking ... content writing, keywords etc etc etc etc ... well you get the idea.
I love SBI simply because it does so much of that for you. I focus on content content content, follow the guidelines in the SBI Action Guide, analyze with the SBI tools for SEO which only takes seconds. Revise, preview, and submit.
I can crank out more pages per day now than I ever could in the past. I am in the process of converting my best sites over to SBI, using my own html design (because I want to be different, not because the templates aren't great, because they are).
Once they are converted, I won't have near the work to do I had before, or expenses ... hosting, add-ins like double optin email, autoresponders, tracking scripts for links, referrals, SEO, you name it.
I was easily spending well over $300 US a year on each site to do it right, and spending hours tracking, analyzing, linking, etc.
Just my 2 cents, but I wouldn't go back for anything!
Debs
PS If you decide to buy SBI, use Allan's referral to show support for him and the excellent forum he provides. And, yes, I am an SBI affiliate too but this is his board and I greatly appreciate the resources he provides. _________________ Learn how to turn keyphrases into quality, well-targeted articles your visitors and SE's will love with Gary Antosh's new ebook "Web Content Made Easy!"
edburdo and Debs have things exactly right. The technical aspects of building a web site are not difficult to handle but they do distract you from you real goal of building a revenue stream. SBI allows you to jump straight to the money making side of things like keyword/topic research and search engine optimization.
I aways recommend SBI to people who are new to both Internet Marketing AND the technical side of web design. There is a lot to do even when you have SBI.
But if you're a hard worker (or have someone to help you) and not easily discouraged then you can certainly build a successful site yourself it will just take more time.
It was more regarding the html side of things I was wondering about, the actual basics of setting up a website. Guess that part is as difficult as you make it!
Keep hearing all these good reports about SBI, especially for the newbie.
Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2003 10:40 am Post subject: SBI! - the downside...
Hello Kathy.
As far as I am concerned, it's a matter of personality type...
If you are the sort of person who doesn't like taking orders, SBI! may be not for you!
Doing things my own way is the major attraction of self employment for me, and with SBI! you definitely have to do it "Ken's way" - and jump through more than a few hoops along the way.
Yes, I know the method works very well - at least for certain types of sites - but I sometimes come away feeling that I am one of Ken's employees on profit-related pay!
If you prefer following instructions (and don't ask too many difficult questions) you will probably get good results.
Also, remember you are not allowed to install anything server-side yourself, due to the database building model. This means no CGI or PHP. Once again, whether this is an advantage or disadvantage, depends on you. (In my case it's the latter.)
On a side note, regarding HTML, I think it definitely worthwhile learning the basics. I have always hand-coded everything myself, and the HTML publishing tools often do things the hard way. I suggest the ability to at least make minor code changes yourself, very important, particularly if you have SEO aspirations.
At the end of the day, I agree with the other posts about site creation being easy. Quality traffic generation usually isn't. This is where SBI! stands out from the crowd...
Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2003 1:32 pm Post subject: Re: SBI! - the downside...
Charlie wrote:
If you are the sort of person who doesn't like taking orders, SBI! may be not for you!
Doing things my own way is the major attraction of self employment for me, and with SBI! you definitely have to do it "Ken's way" - and jump through more than a few hoops along the way.
Yes, I know the method works very well - at least for certain types of sites - but I sometimes come away feeling that I am one of Ken's employees on profit-related pay!
If you prefer following instructions (and don't ask too many difficult questions) you will probably get good results.
Also, remember you are not allowed to install anything server-side yourself, due to the database building model. This means no CGI or PHP. Once again, whether this is an advantage or disadvantage, depends on you. (In my case it's the latter.)
On a side note, regarding HTML, I think it definitely worthwhile learning the basics. I have always hand-coded everything myself, and the HTML publishing tools often do things the hard way. I suggest the ability to at least make minor code changes yourself, very important, particularly if you have SEO aspirations.
At the end of the day, I agree with the other posts about site creation being easy. Quality traffic generation usually isn't. This is where SBI! stands out from the crowd...
...IF you are prepared to sell your soul!
One of the wonderful additions made to SBI is the ability to do your own html pages, so selling your soul is no longer a requirement *wink*
I recommend the SBI building block approach for beginners because you can get a site up quickly with very little learning curve.
Once your site is finished, or near so, you can take the time to learn html (you will learn some basics as you go along anyway) then you can really cut loose and build from scratch and upload to SBI. This is what I am doing now.
As far as php and cgi, I agree, as well as ssi, those are things you won't be able to do even if you build your site from scratch. But I have found workarounds to those limitations. Javascript is an excellent tool to provide interactivity to your site and not that hard to learn or find scripts to do what you want.
As I said before, a learning curve exists no matter which way you go. I just thought reducing the learning curve when you start out is important to get fast results.
Most internet businesses fail because the learning curve is so steep when you combine the need to learn html, SEO, marketing, and the myriad other things to be successful. With SBI you focus on the content, and marketing your site, which is what will produce the income in the end.
Hope I clarified my earlier posts.
Debs _________________ Learn how to turn keyphrases into quality, well-targeted articles your visitors and SE's will love with Gary Antosh's new ebook "Web Content Made Easy!"
I guess I am hesitant to go with SBI because I really want to do things my own way. I am not brilliant at being told what to do
I am determined enough not to be put off by the steep learning curve. I guess, at the end of the day, I am not restricted at all if I do it myself.
Just one little query (yep, call me dense!) what is php, cgi and ssi? Please don't worry explaining if it is far too in depth - sure I will come across it in my travels!!
let me jump on on this, please take it for what it's worth.
I've built a site without SBI and it's taken a long time. Basically because I had to map out the focus of my site what to and what not to include etc. This will take time regardless of what approach you choose! SBI will assist on this, be helping you to determine what keywords people are looking for that have little supply (few results on a search engine). From this you should be able to write your pages.
I will say I'm considering moving my site to SBI right now, but haven't made that decision.
SBI does give you a starting point by being able to research keywords to determine what topics in demand. This at least gives you an idea to see if your idea is marketable or not. To a certain degree.
With regards to html, dreamweaver, Frontpage, scripts ect. That is all up to you. Do you want to learn how that stuff works, or do you want to build a profitable site? Where's your focus? I started out with a little bit of both, but now I don't care I want to get my site done so I can market it!!
If I had to do it all over again, I'm not sure if I'd use SBI or not because the people on this discussion board have always been able to answer my questions.
Let me suggest 2 things:
Read the topics on the board, some have said that SBI uses Ovature and Alta Vista to determine the demand and supply of keywords. You can do that for free, and it will take hours compared to minutes by using SBI. Also, SBI will determine the profitability of those keywords.
Second, if you haven't arleady, signup for Ken's affiliate master email course. It's free and can be found on Alan's site (.http://www.associateprograms.com/search/index.shtml about 1/2 way down the page.
I hope I didn't confuse you anymore than you already may be!!!
Just somethings to think about that's all
Scott _________________ Want to learn how to fish?
It's easy, just start with the Fishing Basics
Getting started has never been so easy!
Just one little query (yep, call me dense!) what is php, cgi and ssi? Please don't worry explaining if it is far too in depth - sure I will come across it in my travels!!
Kathy:
PHP is a coding language which lends itself well to dynamic websites. It can be used with html. This forum is written in php. All pages end in .php instead of .htm or .html
SSI is server side includes ... a neat way to include same content into all pages without having to update each page. You just edit the SSI file, and it updates on all of the pages. The reason is that the SSI data is "put into" the page from the server, after the visitor "calls" for the page, but before the visitor "sees" the page. Javascript can also be used instead of SSI. With SSI, most hosts require the page name end in .shtml or .shtm in order to work properly.
CGI is a programming language that can be used to create databases from which you can draw entire webpages, track email subscribers, track links, create a shopping cart, and a thousand other things. It can add a lot of personalization and interactivity to a website. Also known as perl scripts ... the scripts commonly end in .cgi or .pl However, I use Javascript instead for the things I want to offer on my SBI site.
These are very simplistic answers, so forgive me if they stray from their "true" definitions. Hope this answers your questions.
Debs _________________ Learn how to turn keyphrases into quality, well-targeted articles your visitors and SE's will love with Gary Antosh's new ebook "Web Content Made Easy!"
An hour ago I was swayed towards building my own website, rather than with SBI. Now, well, I am not so sure! (I used to be indecisive you know )
I think the php, ssi, has just gone whoosh way over my head (but thanks anyway Debs)
Also, your comment Scott - Do you want to learn how that stuff works, or do you want to build a profitable site? Where's your focus? - got me thinking. The main aim of all this has got to be to build an informative/profitable site. Will I have time to learn all about html, php, ssi (OMG!) and build a profitable site? I think not. My focus has got to be to build an informative/profitable site as easily as I can and with as much help as I can find - hell, I can always learn html etc etc as I go along.
Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 5815 Location: by the beach, Australia
Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2003 1:22 am Post subject:
Kathy wrote:
My focus has got to be to build an informative/profitable site as easily as I can and with as much help as I can find - hell, I can always learn html etc etc as I go along.
Exactly. Now your focus is on what matters most.
I built my first affiliate site in 1996 using raw, hand-coded HTML, and I wasted months and months fiddling with it, reading articles, visiting other web sites, copying bits of HTML coding and fiddling with it to see what would happen. At times I ended up with pages that looked OK in Internet Explorer but not in Netscape, or vice versa. I didn't really have a clue what I was doing in those days.
And then I started trying to optimize it for search engines - so I did things back to front. You need to be thinking about search engines right from the first day.
In total contrast, it's been fascinating watching my assistant Rupert as he's worked his way through the Site Build It! Action Guide, researching profitable keywords, and then concentrating on writing useful, helpful, interesting articles.
Almost all his focus has been on the important stuff, the things that get good results, the things that earn revenue.
He didn't believe he'd be able, as a complete newbie, to achieve No.1 and No.2 rankings in Google, but he did it, and he still has those fantastic rankings today, thanks to doing things the Site Build It! way.
Start by building a simple site that works - one that ranks well and earns revenue. Perhaps one day you'll want to go on and learn about cgi and php and Javascript. On the other hand, you might just decide you'd rather carry on building simple, profitable web sites
My focus has got to be to build an informative/profitable site as easily as I can and with as much help as I can find - hell, I can always learn html etc etc as I go along.
Exactly. Now your focus is on what matters most.
I built my first affiliate site in 1996 using raw, hand-coded HTML, and I wasted months and months fiddling with it, reading articles, visiting other web sites, copying bits of HTML coding and fiddling with it to see what would happen. At times I ended up with pages that looked OK in Internet Explorer but not in Netscape, or vice versa. I didn't really have a clue what I was doing in those days.
And then I started trying to optimize it for search engines - so I did things back to front. You need to be thinking about search engines right from the first day.
Start by building a simple site that works - one that ranks well and earns revenue. Perhaps one day you'll want to go on and learn about cgi and php and Javascript. On the other hand, you might just decide you'd rather carry on building simple, profitable web sites
Hope that helps.
Kathy, Allan hit the nail on the head ... it's exactly what I was trying to say but didn't say very well. I did what Allan did, but I think I'm a slower learner lol I've been doing free websites for local clubs and online card sites since 1997, that's how I learned html, etc. I went the route Allan did, but never achieved what he has ... so be sure and listen to him, he knows from which he speaks!
I got my first SBI site this year, and it's doing well, improving every month, and I am excited! Can't wait to do my next SBI site now ... and that's saying something from someone who got burned out several years ago trying to learn too much too fast.
I wish you the best of luck whichever way you go.
Debs _________________ Learn how to turn keyphrases into quality, well-targeted articles your visitors and SE's will love with Gary Antosh's new ebook "Web Content Made Easy!"
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Your host: Allan Gardyne. Earning a good living from affiliate
programs since 1998.
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Private Messages
Log in
