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Home How to plan your online business

How to plan your online business

“How to make $1000 a month online from scratch” has proven to be one of our most popular article series.  It has recently been updated to support the latest online developments and innovations.

One of my friends is a consulting project manager here in Australia. I hadn’t seen him for a while so asked him what he'd been up to.

He told me how he was contracted as the head project manager for a large train building project. When I asked him how it was going he responded, “Well, it’s a little stressful.”

“Why is that?” I asked.

“Well, for every day the project runs late, it costs the company over $100,000. It’s a 12 month, multi-million dollar project and I’m the one responsible for making it come in on time,” he casually responded.

I was shocked. I was intrigued to find out how he managed to control a massive project like this to make it come in on time. It seemed overwhelming to me, but didn’t seem to faze him much.

I was especially interested in understanding how he managed to run a project like this without feeling out of control and risking running weeks or months over time costing the company millions of dollars. So I asked him.

He went on to explain two nuggets of truth that I’ve held close to me ever since. The first insight he shared with me was this.

“Every huge project will always contain sub-projects. All sub-projects will always contain tasks. So to tackle any huge project just keep breaking it down until you have actionable tasks. Figure out how long each task takes, organize them, then do them.”

In other words, for any project you face, no matter how big it is, just break it down into bite sized manageable tasks. Then do them!

This is powerful stuff that can cure any overwhelming feelings you have for anything you face. Keep that in mind as we move forward in this series. If you've never done anything like this before it can be a daunting position to be in. We'll be breaking everything down piece by piece, so you can relax.

The other gold nugget he shared was a simple proverb that he lives by, and I now try to as well.

It is “Measure twice, cut once.”

Part 4 in our series is all about the measuring twice. We’re going to be planning the sub-projects we need to work on to get our goal of $1000 a month off the ground.

This can be a tricky stage for some people. Some folks simply jump in boots and all and get overwhelmed and confused.

Others get stuck here. They keep looking and researching but never actually do anything to move forward.

Series of Action Steps

I’ve purposefully put together a set of action steps to take to propel you forward in this project. Hopefully, it will help you not get overwhelmed, or stuck in the research rut.

It’s worth noting that before writing this, I spent two days exploring all the options. I had researched them a few years ago, but wanted to make sure that there wasn’t anything new that I was missing out on. So you can trust that this is up to date advice.

True to my friend's insight, I’ve broken this down into 5 sub-projects. They are:

1) Finalize your site idea.
2) Choose a business name (and domain name).
3) Plan your basic site content.
4) Plan your digital product.
5) Set up your website.

I strongly suggest that you do each of these steps in that order. So don’t do step 3 without doing step 1 and 2 first.

There are two reasons for this.

First, it’s going to be easier to do these steps with a clear mind without technology getting in the way. When you throw a technology learning curve into the middle of this, it can easily become a muddle and more complex than it needs to be.

The second reason is that you should be ready to go when you sign up for your publishing platform. This saves you money because once you sign up, you’ve got a path to follow immediately.

It also helps make the learning curve easier. When you read through the publishing platform instructions you’ve got a working set of ideas in your head rather than simply hypotheticals. In other words, you’ve got a clear direction to follow once the rubber meets the road.

Let’s look at each of these sub-projects individually.


Finalize Your Site Idea

By now you should have already gone through the detailed instructions I outlined for choosing your niche. If you haven’t done that, you must complete this. You should be able to feel confident in your decision if you use the methodology I outlined.

Once you’ve decided, don’t look back.


Choose a Domain Name

Choosing a domain name is a really fun part of this planning process. No matter how many names get registered online, I’m still constantly surprised at how many good ones are still left.

Now I want to make it clear at this point, we’re just picking a domain name. We won’t be buying it yet. This comes bundled (free) with our publishing platform so we don’t have to pay for it separately.

There are a few guidelines I try to use when selecting a domain name. I think it’s important to try to strike a balance between professional, memorable and easy to share via word of mouth.

Keeping this in mind, here are a few rules I would recommend trying to keep when selecting your domain name. Remember that your domain name is usually the name of your site as well.


Domain Name Should NOT contain:

Hyphens – Domain names containing hyphens are difficult to share via word of mouth and don’t look as professional. They used to be popular for SEO reasons, but are no longer necessary.

Numbers – This rule can be broken for some domains but as a general rule it’s best not to have numbers in your domain name. They make the domain name difficult to share via word of mouth. People ask, “Is it numeric or alphabetic?”

Anything other than a .com – The dot com domain names are seen as the most professional and are often the default in people's minds. Unless you have a very good reason to have another domain name (like country specific information, or a bona fide organization) I would try to keep to a dot com.

More than 25 characters (before the dot com) – Anything longer than 25 characters becomes problematic for a number of reasons. One in particular is if you ever want to advertise via PPC search engines.

Clever misspellings – Again, they create problems if anyone wants to spread the word about your site to others. They can also detract from your ranking power in the search engines. They may look clever, but will negatively impact your traffic. If someone can’t be told the domain name and write it phonetically, then you have a problem.

Domain Name SHOULD contain:

You main keyword phrase – Having your main keyword phrase in your domain name will help with your search rankings. For me, it’s ideal if someone can read your domain name and at a glance “get” what your site is all about.

Positional statement – In the same way, a positional adjective can help people understand what they are getting before they visit your site. For example words like help, advice, tips, etc.

In line with this, imagine your site is ranking well in the search engines. How appealing is it going to be to the web surfer when he sees your listing in the results?

If one site is called WhiteBallGuy.com and another is called GolfPuttingGuru.com, which one do you think will be more attractive to the web surfer who’s looking for golf putting tips?

Here’s a free and useful site to expand your mind on possible domain alternatives.

https://www.nametumbler.com

In a matter of minutes I found several great, available (at the time of writing) domain names.

GolfPuttingGuru.com
GolfPuttingHero.com
GolfPuttingMadeEasy.com
MakeGolfPuttingEasy.com
BetterGolfPutting.com
GolfPuttingAdvice.com

Also consider using Google's keyword research tool from last week to find out specific keywords that people are using to find the sorts of information you are providing.

Just remember to keep the domain name general enough so you can be flexible with the content you are providing. For example, GolfPuttingGuru.com is better than GolfPuttingAdvice.com because some day you may wish to sell physical golf putters from the site itself. At that point, the domain name would be less relevant to the theme of the site if you called it GolfPuttingAdvice.com.

Plan Your Site Content

It’s worth while at this point planning the framework of your site. If you plan your site structure now, you’ll be less likely to fall into the trap of creating a site around the articles you’ve already written, rather than writing articles that fit within the ideal site structure.

This is a pretty simple process. Just write down all the topics you wish to cover in your site and then move them around so they make the most sense. Sometimes, it might be a case of having some sub-categories within larger, more general topics.

For example you might have sections on putting tips, putter reviews, putting practice machine etc.

If you’re a visual person, it’s sometimes useful to draw a flowchart. You could even use a free flow charting service like the one at gliffy.com


Plan Your Digital Product

While you're in planning mode, you should consider starting to plan your digital product. It’s useful to start this planning now because it will also help shape the content for the articles on the site.

You can save yourself a lot of work by reusing some of the material that will be going into your digital product within your articles. Then the articles become a useful teaser for people to buy the full product itself. You give them a bit, but if they want it all then they need to buy your product.

This will be all explained in a later chapter, so don’t stress about it now.

For now, do some research on the kinds of questions that people are commonly asking on your particular subject. Begin to collate these and frame them into interview questions.

Again, revisit boardreader.com, Google Answers and Yahoo! Answers to see the kinds of questions that people are asking. Also, it doesn’t hurt to try to think back to the sorts of questions you have had in the past about your chosen subject matter.

At the end of this exercise, you should have lots of common questions that will provide the basis for both your digital product and your site content.


Set Up Your Site

Once you’ve completed the first four steps, it’s time for the more difficult task of setting up your website. As I said last week, up until now everything I’ve given you has been using free tools. Eventually, you have to get serious and put your money where your mouth is.

As I mentioned earlier, I researched again to see who the market leaders were. I even signed up to several different paid services to check them out for you as well.

The main criteria I was looking for was a unified solution that provided all the tools you needed in one place – one that would allow you to get your site up and running easily without technical distractions.

A solution that does a lot of hand holding, taking people through the step by step best processes that represent the best practice. But also one that has a strong supportive community of peers who know what you’re going through and can assist and motivate you towards success.

My two days of research ended up taking me back to my starting point in recommending Niche Profit Classroom (NPC) for your publishing platform.

In my opinion it’s the best and most comprehensive all in one solution available that includes hosting, site building tools, traffic building tools, SEO feedback tools and traffic tracking tools. Beyond this, they handle all the technical updates and site security issues as well. If you’ve ever had a site hacked, you’ll know how important this can be.

However, it could be said that the real value isn’t even in these “features.” What makes them my choice for anyone wanting to earn $1,000 a month online from scratch is the real value contained in their NPC Niche Marketing 2.0 system.

It's been designed to get you into “under the radar” markets, selling products you don't make, through sales letters you don't write, on web sites you don't create.

Sound good?

Bulging with accompanying training, community forums and support, once you’re part of the NPC clan, you have everything you need in one location.

The Niche Marketing 2.0 Training Center

It's a 13-part course stepping you through the Niche Marketing 2.0 system, using multiple videos, downloadable materials and an action plan. It's aimed at helping you get your niche web site launched swiftly and making a profit.

NPC Media Center

It's pretty impressive. It may well be the largest Internet marketing video library on the Internet.
Quality training on every conceivable subject is available in small step-by-step tutorials through a wide range of internet marketing methods and topics. Pick the topic you want to learn about and you'll be taken to the list of videos just on that topic.

MoneyWord Matrix Desktop Edition

The MoneyWord Matrix is a separate software tool developed by Niche Profit Classroom to help you get into the top 10 search engine listings for Google, Yahoo and MSN, without spending hours on boring analysis.

The MoneyWord Matrix SEO method looks at how competitive a given keyword is. So using the matrix, you'll have foreknowledge of which keywords are difficult to rank for and what will be the best bet. This helps you to fly “under the radar” and generate a high level of quality traffic with the right choice of keywords.

Niche Profit Classroom Software tools

In addition to the MoneyWord Matrix, there are additional software tools freely downloadable by all NPC members. As well as being excellent time-savers, you're also holding onto your cash.

These software shortcuts include:

  • MoneyWords Keyword Tool – to find the most lucrative keywords in your market
  • Market Scorecard – to find the markets that are worth pursuing
  • Market Profiler – so you can profile the niches you are investigating
  • Market Checklist – to keep track of your progress with each web site you launch
  • Sales Letter Wizard – create compelling sales letters that convert, in minutes

I wouldn't be doing them justice without mentioning their ongoing Niche Profit Mastermind Webinars and Leaders Forums.

While there's so much more I could go on with, I trust that you get the basic picture.

You don't need to recreate the wheel. Their system can easily be worked in with a day job, family time or other commitments and it suitable whether you have your own product or not (there is training and systems for both ways).

Now I’m not saying that NPC is perfect, however, getting started with them doesn't require a large start up investment and their tailor-made free software tools are great resources.

If you’re already a NPC member, then fantastic. You’re already all set. You’ll be able to apply the principles in following weeks. If the niche you’ve chosen doesn’t stack up against our niche selection criteria from last week then you may wish to even start a new site that does!

If you’re not already an NPC member, I recommend that you become one. I believe it’s going to give you your best shot at success for a very reasonable price.

In saying that, it's one thing for me to recommend you to sign up for it (especially as we’re using an affiliate link), but it’s important that you feel confident in the system yourself. After all, this is the biggest investment you’ll make for the $1000 a month project.

I suggest that you look through the site and make up your own mind. If you’ve made the decision, you’re going have more faith and confidence in the system and will be more willing to work with it instead of wasting time looking around for greener grass.

I hope you’re as convinced as I am that this is the best platform to propel you towards your goal of earning $1000 a month online.

Once you're satisfied, sign up and spend some time going over the training materials. It's worth while just spending some time getting familiar with the system. You don't have to actually build any of the site yet, just get familiar with the system.

Next week we'll be covering “The Action” where we’ll be moving forward setting up the foundations for your site and your new digital product. Come along next week prepared for some major forward progress!

Apr 5, 2010Jay Stockwell
Choosing a niche for your online businessSplit testing newsletter subject lines
Comments: 22
  1. Ken
    12 years ago

    Hi Jay,
    Thanks for another great article. The section Domain name selection was particularly interesting. Several weeks ago we had quite a discussion on using the hyphen and numbers in the domain name. In general most thought it was better without the hyphen. However there were some pretty good arguments for using them.

    One comment was made about using them only in very short domain names/sub domains. His opinion was that it did not hurt his traffic or positioning in the SE's. He has done multiple testing.
    Ken

    ReplyCancel
  2. Chaplain Paul Slater
    12 years ago

    What a great series. I could see that you eventually would be end up recommending SiteBuildIt!

    How I wish I had read an article like this before choosing the hyphenated phrase change-career-with-purpose.

    You are exactly right about finding a non-hyphenated variable. Fortunately I was able to get careerswithpurpose, which I did after having to explain to people they needed to put the hyphens in between the words of the URL.

    While I am not at the $1000 mark per month with my SBI site, I have gotten close several times.

    I wonder what I could do if I took advantage of all that SBI has available to those of us who plod along.

    Now I also wish I would have been the one to write the web business article series. Great job.
    Onward with purpose,
    Chaplain Paul

    ReplyCancel
  3. Alex Newell
    12 years ago

    Surprising advice. I had an SBI site years ago. The page building is tedious and clumsy..O I can feel a rant coming on about SBI! There are so many ways now of easily creating decent looking pages that there is no excuse for recommending this archaic and clumsy system. And the price! Yikes! It was about $300. You could have an amazing Wordpress blog set up with static pages at no cost at all - or you can pay SBI $300.
    Hmmm!
    alex

    [Alex - What you're talking about is just one part of the process. Site building. Can you recommend a wordpress service that provides the domain name, installation of the templates, SEO plug-in installation, hosting, upgrades and security patching, keyword research tools, not to mention the training, support and community to keep people motivated and giving answers to the most common questions someone starting out is asking?

    I'd love to hear about such an alternative service! Until that, I'll keep recommending SBI! despite it's old school site building tools. - Jay]

    ReplyCancel
  4. eBranchOffice.com
    12 years ago

    Ah yes, the pitch for SBI. I knew it was coming sooner or later.

    [I think that's a bit unfair. This is the first product I've recommended you use that you have to pay for. Do you have any other suggestions for an all in one tool that removes the learning curve for newbies as well as SBI!? - Jay]

    ReplyCancel
  5. Rebecca in Montana
    12 years ago

    Great info here. As an SBI site owner, I can vouch for the initial tools for the newbie as being priceless, but I have moved on to Xsite Pro, as an alternative to Dreamweaver or other builder as Xsite Pro is built specifically for IM VRE and helps with SEOing your site and many other invaluable tools. I can put up 4 sites in the time it takes for me to use the clunky archaic site builder at SBI to put up one...

    So if you are a total newbie go to SBI because their training is unsurpassed. If you are at the level where you are considering some other alternatives, I strongly recommend Xsite Pro, especially with all the new features that their new version has.. it is unsurpassed for rapid VRE site building and worth every penny.

    You can easily include forms, Adsense code, snippets of other affiliate marketing code, site redirects... the whole shebang with just simple mouse clicks... it comes with oodles of templates and graphics too... so check it out.

    I do not want to start a debate about what is better, so that is not my intention, I just have used both and LOVE Xsite Pro as my tool of choice.

    [Hi Rebecca. I totally agree. There is no other solution than SBI that I know of that takes care of the learning curve for newbies so well which is why I recommended it in this case. As I mentioned in the article, SBI is certainly not the ultimate site building tool. In many ways it's outdated and needs to work hard to compete with the new site building tools that are available now.

    However, what it does have is amazing training, a vibrant community and the required hand holding necessary for people to not make silly mistakes that can cause problems later.

    I think if you've gone through that learning curve already you can move to more advanced tools like XSitePro. If you haven't (which is the target group in this series) then SBI is the best way I know to go. It means that the technology isn't getting in the way of the content publishing and traffic generation. - Jay]

    ReplyCancel
  6. Ex-SBIer
    12 years ago

    Ha Ha
    It's so funny that the here comes the SBI pitch is anticipated. I do realize that this post is NOT about SBI.
    But being an ex-SBI person, I cannot understand why anyone should be using that old clunky system that is not compatible with anything. The excuse that the process for newbie is great is just nonsense. The whole internet marketing or affiliate marketing process has been explained in many great post here! you do not need SBI to tell you that great content is important! You do not need SBI to tell you that product creation is important or capturing emails is important. You will spend just as much time learning how to register a domain, switch to another host, learn cpanel as learning how to start learning SBI. But most of the technical stuff can be done pretty easily these days. I switched over to frontpage and dreamweaver, and it is so much easier than uploading your pages with SBI. Think the only reason why people still recommend SBI is that residual payout of their affiliate program. (if every platform had an affiliate program, everyone would be recommending wordpress, or joomla etc)
    Ex-SBI

    [Ouch! In this series of articles Jay recommends several very useful free tools. We recommend the tools which we believe best suit the situation. Allan.]

    ReplyCancel
  7. Prince
    12 years ago

    Hi Jay
    I think I'll try site built it because considering the cost of subscribing to yearly WordTracker service, the monthly domain host price and other extra SEO tools, SBI is cheap. I love to use tools and I have subscribed to a lot of them, and I use them but like you mentioned earlier, it's better to have them as one package!

    ReplyCancel
  8. Webadjust.com
    12 years ago

    We have tried both SBI and Wordpress. Wordpress remains a winner, especially if you are new and just don't have the cash for SBI. You then have something left over to buy the necessary tools such as keyword research programs or the affiliate money-maker we use. But SBI has its following and has helped many folks to succeed. It all depends on your needs and budget when you start out.

    ReplyCancel
  9. WEBnoob
    12 years ago

    Noobie here
    What can I read/download/find that can teach me how to register a domain and learn cpanel? What is this talk about SHTTP, dreamweaver, etc? I think I do not want to use a pre-fab webpage for my idea. I want to completely create mine on my own.
    Any links of value?

    [Whew! Too many questions to answer here. Our affiliate forum would be a good place to ask these questions. Allan.]

    ReplyCancel
  10. Arthur Wesley
    12 years ago

    This is another nice addition to the guide.
    I have several working domains and one SBI site free to use. I will be looking forward to using SBI to complete your program. As for those for or against SBI -- chill out, please. This is not the place for childish behavior. I appreciate that Jay through Allan is presenting another solid model to assist those new and experienced. I am here to learn, period. Thank you.

    ReplyCancel
  11. Ken Evoy
    12 years ago

    Hi Jay,

    What a superb series of articles. If folks follow your advice, they'll end up building a business, not a site. And they'll find the $1,000 per month, a realistic, anti-GetRichQuick goal, is not merely attainable... It's the beginning of greater things.

    It's a shame that folks don't realize how advanced Site Build It! really is. It's much, much more than a sitebuilder, as explained at...

    http://makemy.sitesell.com/tools

    The "old-fashioned" sitebuilder itself? We openly call it a "training wheels sitebuilder." That's exactly what "training wheels" are... clunky.

    But it corrects the bad old habits of many who thought they knew what they were doing and trains newbies in how to build a page, block by block, from title to body copy, etc. that will be correctly formatted for the engines AND appeals to your human visitors.

    (And you know what? Your visitors don't know you used "training wheels." ;-) )

    After that, usually within 10 pages... we actively encourage them to use any other sitebuilder they want. Surprisingly, the majority stick with the training wheels builder and just keep creating great content. After all...

    The major time commitment to writing great content is not the builder. It's the brain and the keyboard. In any event, SBI! is compatible with just about every other HTML editor out there. So we do encourage folks to graduate to the sitebuilder of their choice. Many use client-side editors like Dreamweaver or free server-side builders like KompoZer.

    (And you can even add a WordPress or TypePad or Blogger, etc., blog to your site if you want to. Of course, we use technology to convert SBI! sites into blogs with feeds etc., so that spiders accelerate distribution and humans can subscribe to your site. We call it site-blogging and it works superbly with no extra effort by the SBIer.)

    You see, we're not in the SITE-building business. There's no need to re-invent wheels that exist. Our block-by-block builder trains newbies (and "oldies" who had bad information elsewhere) to build solid pages. After that, they can use any tool they like to keep building. It's the process and all the other tools (worth 10x more than the $299) and the steady push ahead to BUSINESS that sets SBI! apart.

    Anyone can put a site up nowadays. And that's part of the problem. So many sites... how does YOURS build traffic, and become a real business? THAT is where the process, the tools, and the SBI! forums leave everything else behind.

    Blogging is, for most, the NEW "fast-cheap-quick" way to put a site up... and fail. We've used the phrase "instant gratification" and "delayed mortification" for nearly ten years now. The old-fashioned Web hosts still pitch "cheap-quick-easy." And blogging (ex., WordPress with hosting) is just the new variant.

    Most people simply can't master WordPress and succeed. They build a site, but they don't build a serious BUSINESS. Yes, there are some exceptions. Blogging is great for some types of small businesses and we've covered that at...

    http://makemy.sitesell.com/blogorbuild

    This page caused quite a stir among some blogs, but it was surprising to see how many blog-followers took many of the points there under serious consideration.

    Anyway, I didn't mean to make this such a long piece. But rather than being clunky or behind the times, SBI! has always led the way, so many "firsts" (including the whole concept of niche-content sites in articles that became the first edition of "The Affiliate Masters Course" and the concept of PREselling and automatic Sitemaps XML file builders and pinging) that folks just seem to forget.

    Another first.... Content 2.0 gives SBIers a platform that is well beyond blogging. It's true Web 2.0 where your visitors create real content. SBIers rave about it. Their traffic is soaring with ORIGINAL content created by their visitors/fans...

    http://makemy.sitesell.com/c2

    And now, with Infin It!, if full-blogging is right for you (or anything else for that matter, such as Ning, stores, membership sites, etc., etc.), you can plug anything you'd like into your SBI! site. But the time to do that is NOT at the beginning. It's when you're well advanced, with a solid foundation of hundreds of targeted of visitors per day and growing.

    SBI! hosts many power users, by the way, not just newbies. They've always understood the efficiencies of all tools in one place and the BUSINESS-building priorities. Now, they're happier than ever with Infin It!. The key point, though...

    So many people, as Jay points out, focus on all the wrong things. But we focus on helping SBIers put up profitable Web businesses. Period.

    And we use the most current, cutting edge technologies to do it. SBIers don't need to see them or even understand them, though. And that's the point. You SHOULD only have to focus on building your business, instead of fighting technology and SEO and all the "noise" from all the gurus out there.

    All the best,
    Ken

    P.S. I used Allan's affiliate links above, just FYI. I've known Allan for 10 years now. And few people know that Allan would not recommend SBI! at first, despite the fact that it was first positioned as the ideal product for affiliates., and despite the fact that he had been responsible for the sale of thousands and thousands (my guess would be over 10,000) copies of Make Your Site SELL! (my first book and the beginning of SiteSell), which means he'd earn instant commissions from those lifetime customers.

    Why didn't he promote SBI!?

    Because he had not tried it yet.

    When he did try it, by putting a total newbie on SBI!, and when that newbie experienced success with both sites, Allan was convinced.

    So I think it's unfairly cynical to cut Jay down here. Everyone understands that, as online business people, we create great content (like Jay's) in order to monetize it.

    The ethical markteers recommend products they truly believe in.

    ReplyCancel
  12. Jeff
    12 years ago

    I think many people are missing the main point of Jay's series
    of articles. If you are an SBI affiliate, you can see a post made in the SBI forums today by a woman who has used that "clunky little
    sitebuilder" (and all the other tools), followed SBI's Action
    Guide, and not only changed her life, but enabled her husband
    to quit his day job and help take care of the family through
    a very traumatic episode in their lives...

    http://forums.sitesell.com/viewtopic.php?p=461884#...

    Compared to results like that ($4,000 per month from her site), the quibbling here about SBI seems so minor. I think you tend to forget that there are many more "average, non-techie" people who just can't use
    WordPress or regular hosting to build a profitable **business**.

    ReplyCancel
  13. Wordpress Master
    12 years ago

    Wordpress is FREE, wordpress is AMAZING, Wordpress has some very powerful FREE SEO Tools. SBI requires you to use their hosting. You decide to not use it and everything you have created is gone. No moving. SBI has some good tools for people to use to make sure they do the right things. But you can not build unbelievably good looking sites with SBI and you can with wordpress. Both are good tools. But wordpress gives you flexibility. Too bad Wordpress doesn't pay giant commissions to affiliates. If they did the SBI folks would jump ship with their recommendations.

    [Just a little clarification... SBI is compatible with any site-building tool so you can build a beautiful site with it if you want to. Or you can use the training wheels templates. It's your choice. Allan.]

    ReplyCancel
  14. Tammy
    12 years ago

    I just found this step by step info tonight.

    I only wanted to say thanks for the great content given freely to people like myself who
    have searched long and hard for something like this.
    I appreciate it more than you know.

    As I remember, training wheels prevented lots
    of scars, blood and tears.

    With Gratitude,
    Tammy

    ReplyCancel
  15. Perry
    12 years ago

    Please correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I'm aware, Xsite Pro does NOT enable one to have the increasingly fundamental feature of user generated content added automatically to one's site, like SBI! offers?

    ReplyCancel
  16. Kevin Cardinale
    12 years ago

    I feel totally stabbed in the back. I'm new to this, entirely new. Out of work, recently, thanks Bush. I have some money, but not a lot. $300 for me is a kick in the nuts. I could have handled financially an article guiding me through step by step [which he's being doing so far magnificently] for domain registration, hosting costs, programs to generate traffic, site templates.

    It's just a kick in the teeth to read this line by line, make all these notes and then the louisville slugger to the teeth.

    AND...

    HE DOESN'T OFFER AN ALTERNATIVE FOR ANYONE NOT WILLING TO PAY $300. So disingenuous.

    My Feel:
    Guess i'll go find a job. This is a pipe dream and a setup for a scam somewhere, somehow. I can just feel it. I just know if i continue, someone is going to try their darndest to try and swindle me. I'm smart, but there's always someone smarter. There's always someone out there lying awake at night dreaming up myriad of ways to swindle people. I read about it in this business every day. I just turns my stomach.

    [There are many much more expensive products and services we could have recommended. We recommend ones we believe in and use ourselves. Paying less than $1 a day for a service that gives you a fantastic education is an excellent investment in your future. If you explore this site further, you'll find that we do discuss free ways earn money online. For example, see my following post on our affiliate forum:

    How to make money on the Internet when you're flat broke
    https://www.associateprograms.com/discus/sutra3050....
    (Scroll down to find my post)
    Allan.]

    ReplyCancel
  17. matt
    12 years ago

    I watched the XSite Pro2 promotional video recently and I think it does allow you to have user generated content!

    ReplyCancel
  18. matt
    12 years ago

    Hi

    Can you show me a beautiful Sbi site then?

    One with clean crisp high res images, video and little flash animation in banners, seperate landing pages and lead generation forms etc?

    I'm not having a go, I want to use Sitebuildit but the designs of nearly all their sites seem to be very basic and even the couple that look OK seem to be inflexable.

    Where are the add on blogs that look like real blogs?

    Why are all the articles at the bottom of the first page on most sites?

    Where are the vidoes (decent ones with clean edges, not clunky thumbnail sized videos)?

    Can you syndicate your SBi site video to Youtube and tubemogul?

    Where are the audios on sites?

    Where are the landing pages?

    Where are the optin boxes in the top right hand corner of the page?

    I want to use SBi but it just looks very restrictive!

    I'm not a part time affiliate who wants $500 a month. That's not going to help me. I'm a small business man (PS.Small Business, not small man) who wants to grow a proper business online that may or may not use affiliate marketing?

    Is SBi just a work from home affiliate based outfit for hobby sites and work from home mums?

    If I used SBI, I'd need to use it just as an information site with links to 2 other 1 page sites ( A decent landing page/site for newsletter subscriptions and a proper lead generation page/site with all fields including address and phone number.

    And I'm in the UK targetting a UK market and have been told I need a site on a UK server. SBi doesn't do that does it?

    Best regards

    Frustrated!

    PS. SBI obviously has a great backend system but why let the site design tools get so outdated?

    [SBI has a "trainer wheels", block-building system and also the option to build pages using Dreamweaver or whatever site-building tool you want. Many choose to use the templates but you don't have to. If you want your site hosted in the UK, SBI is not appropriate for you. SBI is used by many hobbyists but also by full-time online businesses. You can ask questions and talk to a successful SBI user here:
    https://www.associateprograms.com/sbi-question
    Allan.]

    ReplyCancel
  19. matt
    12 years ago

    Is that $4000 in sales of product or affiliate commission?

    If it's sales, were those for her own products of acting as an affiliate?

    ie was that $4000 take home money in her pocket?

    [The post mentions "profits" of "a few thousand a month". The site is earning revenue from affiliate links and AdSense. Allan.]

    ReplyCancel
  20. Michael
    12 years ago

    WOW! Thanks so much Allan and to Ken for clearing up my confusion from reading through the comments.

    Ken, you taking the time to stop by in person over here and clear up some of this stuff just shows you and your Biz SBI are on a whole nother level for helping folks looking into starting up a future in online marketing. I mean really, regardless of weather or not it looks like the big wheel from company a is comming to the rescue of company b's long time friend to hep preserve a products reputation, very few times EVER have I seen any company owner stop by another site, take the time to drop so much clarification and information.

    If this is the kind of support and help I (completely new to this) can expect from SBI to teach me how to build my business, then I simply don't care about weather or not system A is archaic clunky, or wht have you. It's simply not relevant to me. I don't need to be or do not want to be worried about the technology part of this right now. That will come later after I learn to get the gears turning and producing grease between thier squeeky surfaces! Then I can move on if thats what suits me.

    Thing is I've tried building a site from knowing nothing with wordpress, and Cpannel the pro way, hell I even own Dreamweaver, talk about a learning curve for someone new to the tech aspect of this wowsers!!! And Guess what my results have been over the ast 2 years? 1 site that got sort of finished because I was up to me neck learning how to get what I wanted, yeah I got caught up in the tech aspect all these years and simply forgot about what I needed out of the endevour.

    If the training wheels are going to take posibly longer or shorter than the "Pro" way to create a business due to me having to input alot of information to the system so it knows what i'm wanting to do the so be it, because me trying to learn the steep curves of the "Pro" programs and systems have netted me NOTHING, wasted time and productivity that could have been spent learning to build my business period.

    Thanks so much Ken for stopping by and clearing up some concern I was having after reading through some of the comments. I look forward to seeing you and your stuff on the other side later.

    Thanks so much to the guys here for another killer article serries, and thanks Ken for all this, it show's your class and willingness to help us newcommers.

    Cheers,

    Michael. Ph.D

    ReplyCancel
  21. Ron Chapman Jr.
    12 years ago

    Can't wait for the rest of the articles. Wish I could had read this a while ago so that I could have avoided some early mistakes. Oh well, never too late to learn and change. Thanks for the great information.
    http://positivereturns.info

    ReplyCancel
  22. Anders
    12 years ago

    A question on domains, from a SEO perspective do different subdomains help you to get a better ranking, i.e.

    keyword1.domain.com (or domain.com/keyword1)
    keyword2.domain.com (or domain.com/keyword2)

    I am thinking of very niche but related subjects that may not justify sites on their own. Any comments appreciated, thanks.

    ReplyCancel

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Jay Stockwell

Jay Stockwell is an Online Marketing Expert with over a decade of experience helping both start-up and multi-national companies get "stacks on deck".

11 years ago 22 Comments Business IdeasBusiness Ideas21
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