Ruthless Ranking 1.5 / 5
Site Build it (also known as Site Sell) touts itself as being the answer for people who want to find life changing financial freedom by buying into their system. Is it real? Is Site Build It a scam?
There are quotes from both sides. I will let you be the judge of this one. I will only provide the information I have gathered from several sites. It seems that those who love it, really love it–and those who feel mistreated by the Site Build It team are sincerely upset about their experience.
A promotional quote taken directly from the SBI (Site Build It) website states the following:
SBI! owners do not just “put up Web sites.” They build genuine, profitable, evergrowing businesses. And that, in turn, delivers life-changing freedom (the “It!” in Site Build It!).
You can do the same, build Web sites that work, with SBI!.
On the other hand, Lis Sowerbutts, owner of the Passive Income Online website wrote the following review which she entitled Site Build It Scam. After reading her review, I did notice several things that put up some red flags in my mind:
Lis Sowerbutts website was immediately barraged with a posse that seemed to be part of the Site Build It staff. They wrote huge and unnaturally lengthy replies to her review that seemed to be expertly written by SBI staff. She even received a message from the owner of SBI himself (according to her statement).
I found this to be odd, since if you simply Google “Site Build It” all you get are professionally written, rave reviews. If you Google “Site Build It Complaints” or “Is Site Build It a Scam”–which I highly recommend to anyone who is considering forking over $300 for a website and membership, you do get more than just a few unhappy campers who say all sorts of things from a simple “Don’t do it!” to a statement proclaiming that the SBI forum moderators do not allow any negative or critical statements to remain on the forum. If posted, they will be deleted is what the Site Build It complaints say.
This is a direct, unaltered comment from an ex-SiteBuildit member. This quote was taken from Lis’s review site where she seems to be currently under attack from the “SiteBuilder Mafia.”
Quote is from March of 2009 by X-SBIer and is written as a message to Lis, the review site owner:
“Great Post, How can you tell?
You’ve got Dr. Ken hopping mad! Wah, Wah, who’s gonna pay for my new home in Anguilla? I was an SBI’er for 6 years (one of the first), and ended up owning several SBI sites by taking advantage of the 6 times a year 2 for 1 offers.
I must say the good doctor has an excellent support staff. Excellent at running interference for Mr. Evoy. He also has a “Rapid Response Team” to combat, Delta Force style, any negative blogs or comments on the net. Evoy would often refer to the “Churn rate” of other web hosts without ever revealing SBI’s drop-out rate. SBI’s rate, I’m sure is higher for the simple reason of it’s high cost.
I have watched, many times over the years, Evoy (by proxy) ban SBI’ers with honest and accurate criticisms from the forums and immediately refund their fees (pro rata of course).
You will never find a more servile group of forum moderators.
Like Hitler, he can be hypnotic and persuasive (at first). Courtly and engaging with his “boot-lickers”, he ruthlessly crushes all opposition in the forums. Like all cult leaders, he allows No discussion.
I must say, it was such a relief when I finally transfered my domains, and was through with the constant sales mantras, and yes brainwashing (it was relentless).”
Here is another site called Associate Programs where W Paul Blakely wrote a detailed article complaining of his personal treatment by Site Build It.
Another not so friendly review from Blogger Illustrated full of Site Build It complaints.
Another one from Rip Off Report.
Yet another from Adsense Tracker.
The Work From Home Online Guide states that Site Builder is unlikely to make you any money.
Is Site Build It a scam? You be the judge. All I can say is that I would run like the wind from a program that appears to seek out any shred of bad publicity that they find and then attack it with longwinded explanations. In my book, if a program is on the up and up, they don’t really have to continuously defend themselves or argue with the naysayers.
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Thanks for pointing this out. You forgot to include this url in your post.
http://tinyurl.com/64lfnm
Awww, Magda, you’re so “black hat”–dropping a link to a glowing, gushy review on ProBlogger without telling us what to expect.
Folks, here’s what you can expect from Magda’s link: a glowing, gushy review on ProBlogger, with lots of ProBlogger affiliate links to the SBI program, so that if you decide to drop $300 on SBI, ProBlogger makes $75 and Ken Evoy makes $225.
Magda, thanks for the link to my site in SBI Forums. Traffic has really picked up this morning since you posted. I sincerely appreciate that. Hee hee.
Lorecee
Though I don’t think any site brings money without effort, I like the format of SBI. It makes it very simple to create a site for people who want control over creating their site on their own. I have now created 3 sites. 2 with xsitepro and one with SBI tearsofjoyvideo.com and tojmarketing.com. The SBI ranks higher on the search engines tearsofjoystories.com. All I did was follow their tutorial and create the site, and after about 10 pages I felt like a pro website designer, which allowed me to venture off and redesign our original site (originally done by someone else) and create another one. xsitepro was great too, but not webbased, and with less features than sbi. I created a site for a friend with xsitepro, and so decided to use it for the other two sites where I already had free hosting.
For what SBI gives you for you money, host, mail feature with auto responder and a helpful forum-web based so you can update anywhere, I think it is a very good format for creating your own site.
As far as claims that it will make you rich, well no one can say that about any site. What you are creating the site about and how you promote it makes you rich. But SBI does give you the all the tools to create a site that will complement your business and the claim that anyone can create a website I think is true (if they are willing to follow directions). My experience with them has been positive.
Cathie
Tears of Joy Video
Out of curiosity and for the benefit of our readers, if you are part of Site Build It and want to take all of your content and your website domain name, can you move it somewhere else…to Hostmonster for example?
Does Site Build it give you a dot com domain name of your own?
I can answer your questions – the answers are in post of mine you referenced in the comments but its a very loooong read! You do get a com name included in the price of the $300 and its registered in your name thru a sister company SBI. From the comments of those who have transferred – you can transfer your domain name to a different register and you can take your content – though its not simple to do. You cannot take the template ie the look and feel of the site. So for people who have relied on SBI doing all the technical stuff for them (I selling point of SBI) its particularly difficult to actually recreate their website.
And just to clarify that is $300 PER a website – 2 websites $600 a year thanks
Makes more sense now. Thanks Lis. Yes, I can’t see why anyone would pay 300 per site that they have to create by themselves. All the promotional and keyword, SEO and promotional information is free online and can be easily learned.
Hi, good post. I have been wondering about this issue,so thanks for posting.