Site Build It – No Naysayers Allowed
Posted by Amateur Blogs
I just spent the last hour (or so) reading comments made in response to a post titled Site Build It Scam Review written by Lissie who authors the Passive Income Online site. It only took a few minutes to read Lissie’s post; the rest of the time was spent reading through the comments and watching an absolutely hilarious video post from Vic called SBI Noobs Are Funny.
Because I almost purchased Site Build It about two years ago I spent some time reflecting on what might have been. I can’t remember how I found out about Site Build It but what appealed to me at the time were a couple of videos about the product by current users. Let me explain several things:
a. I’d only had an online presence for a few months at the time;
b. I knew nothing about affiliate marketing;
c. I’d not yet found Griz, Vic, and Court.
In other words, I was a big time noob. So you probably wonder what made me decide against Site Build It. It’s simple. It didn’t “feel” right. Even though I didn’t know squat about SEO at the time (okay, I still have a lot to learn) I knew there was something a bit off about this product. Why? Because I couldn’t find any unbiased reviews of the product. I probably read through most of the posts on the first few pages in Google about the product. What stood out was that all of the reviews were positive. All of them. Even the posts whose titles appeared to criticize the product like “Site Build It – Is It a Scam?” and “10 Reasons Why I Hate Site Build It” turned out to be articles pimping the product.
Here’s something to ponder: do you order products from Amazon.com? If so, do you sometimes read the reviews before making your purchases? Yes? Okay, how many product reviews have you read at Amazon where EVERY reviewer gave the product 5 stars? I don’t mean products that only have 1 or 2 reviews, I’m talking about products with 40 or 50 reviews. I order lots of books from Amazon and always skim through the reviews before making a purchase. If I came upon a book with 40 or so reviews and all of the reviewers had given the book 5 stars I’d think:
a. the reviews were submitted by friends and family members of the author;
b. the reviews were submitted by the author him/herself;
c. all of the above.
In other words, I’d discount the validity of those reviews because they’re so slanted and I’d assume that the people submitting those reviews had a personal stake in making sure others purchased the book. It just wouldn’t “feel” right. That’s what turned me off about Site Build It.
And if someone left a “2 star” rating and the other reviewers left long diatribes about why the person was wrong to criticize the book it would only solidify my suspicion that the reviewers were in some way associated with that book.
This is what is I see happening with Site Build It and why I wrote this post. I can’t believe the hyena-like comments from SBI’ers who disagree with Lissie. You mean the woman can’t post her opinion about a product on her own site? And I then read comments by ex-SBI’ers who say that people are jumped on in the SBI forum if they even hint at criticizing the product. Sounds like people with a personal stake in making sure the product sells doesn’t it?
I now know how to set up sites using Wordpress, Blogger, HubPages and Squidoo – I don’t need to shell out $300 each year for a website building product, regardless of how much it might automate the process.
My advice to people who are considering purchasing SBI is to start with a free Blogger account and then start reading through Griz’s posts at his How to Make Money Online site. He’ll teach you about creating keyword optimized posts, getting backlinks, and increasing your traffic. And if you leave a comment at his site espousing the supremacy of WordPress over the free Blogger product neither he nor his readers will attack you.
How To Blog Tip #019: RTFM
Posted by How To BlogOkay, here’s a blogging tip for you. Have you ever visited a forum and found an inquiry whose answer can easily be found by doing a simple Google search? I see a lot of questions like this at places like Askville and Yahoo Answers. For example, someone might ask:
“What’s the name of the 14th Stephanie Plum book?”
Instead of lambasting the person for asking such a ridiculous question (and running the risk of being banned from a forum or ostracized by another forum member), simply use this cool tool:
http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=name+of+14th+Stephanie+Plum+book
Click the link above and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Isn’t that great? Simply add the query to the end of the URL (?q=name+of+14th+Stephanie+Plum+book). You could even use something like tinyurl to mask the URL you’re sending them to. Enjoy.
How To Blog Tip #048: Create Multipe SERP Listings
Posted by How To BlogAs you may know I’ve been experiencing an increase in visitor traffic at my book review site due to my recent posts about an HBO TV show. That show’s season’s finale aired last week with a cliffhanger that has fans of the series buzzing.
After writing a review of the last episode, which helped send over 5,000 unique visitors to the site in less than 24 hours and put me on page 1 in the serps about said cliffhanger, I suddenly remembered something that Griz (a Make Money Online master) said in one of his posts. He said:
” . . . . you shouldn’t just settle for 1 of the top 10 positions on the page 1 listings. This is really the key to how I make money with affiliate products and generating leads – I usually occupy several spots on the page 1 serp listings. This dramatically increases your traffic and an increase in traffic means an increase in sales.”
I then reread his November 10th post titled “How to Make Money” in which he talks about post titles and their effect on search traffic.
Here’s how someone like me (a part time blogger) put both of those teachings into practice.
Four days ago I occupied the #3 spot in the serps for inquiries about the HBO cliffhanger. Based on Griz’s aforementioned posts I took the following action before leaving town for the Thanksgiving holiday:
- I checked my site’s stats and identified the keyword phrase (about the cliffhanger) that sent the most people to my site.
- Using that exact keyword phrase as the title, I wrote a second article about the cliffhanger. I ended the article by posing a question which asked fans what they thought about the cliffhanger.
- I went back to the first post about the season finale and added a link to my second post, using the post’s title as the anchor text.
- I then searched Yahoo! Answers and looked for unanswered questions about the cliffhanger. I found 2 questions which fit the bill. I posted an answer to each question and included a link back to my second article. Folks, you gotta check out Yahoo! Answers. No, it won’t let you include anchored text and Yes, the links are nofollow, but Yahoo has so much authority that questions posted at the site (and by extension, answers) sometimes rank fairly high in the serps.
- Lastly, I added an affiliate link to the 2nd article.
I just got back into town and good Googly Oogly! Here’s what appears on page 1 of the serps when you type in that keyword phrase:
#1: My site. In particular, a link to the second article I wrote which uses the popular keyword phrase as the title.
#2: My site, linking to the first article I wrote about the cliffhanger.
#3: The first question I answered about the cliffhanger at Yahoo! Answers. Remember, it includes a link back to my site. See what I mean about Yahoo authority?
#4: The second question I answered at Yahoo! Answers. My answer was selected “Best Answer” and therefore shows up directly beneath the question . . . with a link back to my site.
#5: A page at HBO.com.
#6: A PR6 site that includes an excerpt from my second article. And a link back to my site.
#7: YouTube
#8: A Sun-Times article about the season finale (PR6 site)
#9: An Entertainment Weekly article about the season finale (PR8 site)
#10: A Salon.com article about the season finale (PR8 site)
As you can see, 5 of the 10 listings on page 1 either directly link to my site or take you to a page with a link to my site.
So what does this mean?
It means that I’m seeing a steady flow of traffic to the site from people looking for information on the cliffhanger. More traffic translates into more people at the site reading my 2nd article about the cliffhanger. The one with the affiliate link. And yes, to close the loop and tie this back to Griz’s quote, since I wrote the 2nd article I’ve sold a little over $1,500 in affiliate products. Although I only get a small percentage of those sales (avg. 6%) it’s the most I’ve ever made since I began blogging a little over a year ago. My point in writing this article is to tell you that if you’re interested in building a blog that makes money, Griz’s site provides the blueprints. He’s a combination general contractor, architect, and engineer in the MMO niche and he uses a design-build approach that everyone can follow.
This year both presidential candidates ran on platforms based on “change.” If you want more than the empty rhetoric the so-called A-list bloggers stump about and really want to know how to make money online you need to check out Griz’s site. His teachings will put you on a true road to recovery. If he was running for office his platform would be “It’s The Links Dummy.”
My name is Chanya and I approve this message.