My Magical Journey
with Site Build It!

The story began sometime in 1996...

Prologue

As part of my career as a technical writer, in 1996 I started teaching myself HTML (for creating online help), and that naturally led to learning about web design. Then in 1997 I established my own corporation, offering technical writing and electronic publication services (product brochures, technical spec sheets, etc.).

I had a keen interest in the writing craft, from an early age – I read everything I could about the craft: technical writing, journalism, short story writing, novel writing – whatever I could find about any writing style or form.

Towards the end of 1998 I came across this company called SiteSell, and they offered a free e-course on netwriting. Netwriting? I’d never heard of that, so I subscribed to the e-course. I read each issue, purely to expand my knowledge.

Little did I know what effect that free e-course would have on me a few years later.

In the years 1999 and 2000 I rode the wave in my own business, with technical writing projects, and this is where my focus was.

The web as a business medium... naw, not on my radar at all.

As from mid-2001 technical writing projects were becoming scarce, and as result I also offered print-on-demand services, running the business from home.

Also in 2001 I began writing a book on my business experiences. And in the same year I again came across SiteSell.

By 2002 the bulk of my business was printing, and I was becoming more and more frustrated: printing and binding invoice books was not high on my list of exciting things to do.

I needed mental stimulation, and I wanted the magic of pursuing my passions.

Starting in 2003 I began looking into SiteSell in more depth - printing and reading a load of sites, doing the same thing with the free Masters Courses, and other e-books offered by SiteSell.

Again, with my keen interest in the writing craft, I started with Make Your Words Sell!, and that led me to Make Your Site Sell! 2002, which was followed with Make Your Knowledge Sell!. Towards the end of 2003, I was very intrigued and interested in this Site Build It! thing that was spoken about in these books.

I set a meeting with my good lady, and gave her a "presentation" on SBI! I think it was more than 2 hours that we discussed SBI! and a "web business".

I remember having several pages printed from the Case Studies site... actually I think I printed them all.

My wife responded with: "How do you know these are real and true?"

Point taken. Fortunately for me, in my research, prior to my presentation, I had e-mailed a couple of SBI! customers.

And the replies... "It works!"

Another obstacle I had to justify was the $299 - converted to South African Rand, that was R1,953.

Had it covered...

What business could I get for an investment of under R2,000 - and with a worldwide customer base!

My Presentation must have been good...

The decision was made: "Go kick some booty!"

And the magic began...

Act I (2004)

I joined SBI! on 8 Dec 2003.

My journey of excitement, thrills, and fun began... nerves were also slightly on edge.

C > T > P > M... I saw references to this all over the place, therefore I made it my first point of reference to get to grips with this concept.

- - -

Content
Web users search for information, for solutions. They are not looking for you - they don't know you (yet!). They seek what you know. Give it to them. Convert your knowledge into in-demand Content. To succeed online, start where they start - at "the search."

Traffic
Your topical content ranks high at the Search Engines (ex., Google, Yahoo!, MSN), attracting free, targeted (i.e., interested), open-to-you visitors. Basically, these future customers "meet you" at your site. These visitors are known as "Traffic." How well does SBI! drive "T"?

PREsell
Complete strangers develop trust and confidence in you. Why? You "PREsell" by OVERdelivering what they seek... relevant, original, information.

Deliver it in your own voice, in your own way. Go beyond merely instilling confidence... your visitors will like you.

Monetize
Convert warm, willing-to-buy ("PREsold") visitors into income. Called "Monetizing," this is the easy part. But "M" cannot happen if you fail to first execute C > T > P. This is where 99% of small businesses fail.

C > T > P is the motor that drives "M." SBI! delivers the motor, and the Monetization.

- - -

With that under my belt, I spent the rest of December and into January 2004 creating content and my web pages. I made the decision to focus on content only, and had no plans or ideas for monetization.

Do you want to read this, while relaxing with your favorite beverage?  No problem. Grab yourself the PDF copy, print and read it in your own time. And if you read it offline, on your computer, all the relevant links are live in the PDF, so you won't lose any valuable info. 3-Year Story PDF version.

Site Build It! Action Guide

=========== SIDEBAR ===========
Just a quick explanation...
Site Build It! and SBI! are written
as is - with an exclamation mark.
=========== SIDEBAR ===========

The Action Guide covers all the essentials of building a successful web site. You will not find anything else like this, anywhere, for any price - and it's free with my SBI! subscription!

Intro The 10-Day BIG Picture

Day 1 Master the ALL-Important Basics

Day 2 Develop Best Site Concept

Day 3 Brainstorm Profitable Topics

Day 4 Investigate And Plan Monetization Options

Day 5 Refine Site Concept and Register Domain Name

Day 6 Build a Site... That Gets The Click!

Day 7 Build Free Traffic

Day 8 Build Relationships

Day 9 Know Your Visitors

Day 10 Monetize & Monetize It!

=========== SIDEBAR ===========
These "days" are not 24-hour days,
but simply a division of the guide.
A "day" could be a week, or a month -
whatever is comfortable for you.
=========== SIDEBAR ===========

In parallel with creating content, I studied the Action Guide. This was a mistake on my part - I should have studied the Action Guide completely, and then started creating content.

Towards the latter part of 2004 I also started getting links into my site, as this was another important part of a successful site.

Shortly after my site going live on 19 January 2004, I set myself measurable objectives. This gave me something to aim at, and to check my progress against. You can see these, and the results, later in this article.

I was pleasantly surprised to find my site in the Top 1% within 9 months of starting.

Lesson Learned Creating your own original and unique content projects to your visitors that you are the expert. It also gives the "been there, done that" feeling. In addition, at time of writing this, duplicate content on the web is a real threat to the success of any web site - and it's only going to get worse.

It was really exciting to see my traffic steadily grow from month to month.

2004 Income and Expenses

Cost of SBI!	$299 (R1953)
Dial up	$160 (R1044)
Internet usage	$248 (R1614)
Income	$65 (R390)

What! You made a loss your first year!?

Good point.

Quick business 101, if I may...

Keep in mind that monetization was not on my priority list in my first year - all I was interested in was creating content (this can be compared to buying stock for an offline shop). I regard the $299 as the capital investment in my business, and the dial-up, Internet usage as operating costs to get the business established.

The positive thing in my first year was that the traffic to my site was steadily growing, and that was a clear indication to me that SBI! and the CTPM process was working.

Things certainly did pick up in my second year...

ACT II (2005)

At the start of Act II my product was finished, and for sale; my site was established and had a number of incoming links, so it was a matter of...

Show me the money.

Amazingly, even though I didn't do anything consciously to monetize, except having a product for sale, writing some articles for affiliate programs, and adding Google AdSense code, the SBI! magic kicked in...

How SBI! works I have no idea - that it does work, I've personally experienced! And you can see that for yourself in this article.

Early in my second year, I felt my search engine ranking could improve. Re-reading parts of MYSS! 2002 and the Action Guide, I re-structured my site, and the proof is in the pudding...

The screen shots below show the difference in my site's traffic between May and June, and this occurred after I re-structured my site.

As result of the re-structure, and the changes I saw with increased traffic I wrote my first snap-shot guide (which, after a suggestion from a fellow SBIer became 2 guides): A Snap-Shot Guide to Building Your Theme Tiered Site and A Snap-Shot Guide to Keyword Ratio.

Lesson Learned The structure of the site, and the theme keyword is critical to the success at the search engines. The tiered structure of the site should be planned thoroughly before starting to build the site.

I was now satisfied with my site's performance, especially considering that I was actually doing very little work on it.

The SBI! Forums became a big attraction for me, and I began spending more and more time there.

2-Year Business Review

I use a simple process in almost everything I do, especially in business. It's what I call the A.P.A.R.T process.

Awareness - Plan - Action - Review - Tremendous success.

Towards the end of my second year, I thus reviewed where I was, and where I could go.

Some time in the middle of November 2005, I sat down with my wife, and discussed where eaziGOAL was, and what the road forward was...

I wanted to grow.

I made notes after our chat, and in December I turned to my fellow SBIers at the SBI! Forums.

Having spent a lot of time at the Forums, I knew it was the coolest place to hang out, but...

I was totally blown away by the response I received!

Especially getting detailed suggestions from Ken Evoy, the president of SiteSell - taking time from his busy schedule. The feedback I received when I asked for a review, firmly established for me, what a unique business community I was part of.

And I was reminded of the lonesome, hit-and-miss route I had followed being in my own offline business.

My fellow SBIers offered advice and suggestions on site design, formatting of ads, ideas for content - actually almost every aspect of the site was covered.

And then...

Ken Evoy offered suggestions, and said I could continue with the eaziGOAL site, or start a new one, and he was giving me a free year to do it.

I sat staring at my computer screen, and read those words. I called my wife to read it - she looked at me and smiled.

I had goosebumps.

Ken also suggested, "I likely would not have advised this as a theme."

Objectives I Set in 2004, and the Results

	Objective	Actual 19-01-2005
Total web site pages	200	214
Google position	Page 3	Page 6/7
Alexa ranking	500,000	225,494
Visitors	1,000 pm	1,059 pm (Dec 2004)
Subscribers	100	53
Total free downloads	240	121
Sales *	6	1 *

* The eaziGOAL product was only available from October 2004

2005 Income and Expenses

Cost of SBI!	$299 (R1789)
Dial up	$174 (R1044)
Internet usage	$246 (R1471)
Income	$784.21 (R5193.46)

Well...

Without any long hours, being stressed out, or busting my back, the money was coming in.

The magic in SBI! was working.

With Ken Evoy's exceptional offer made to me, and his valuable advice, I now had to decide whether I continue with the eaziGOAL site, or start a new one...

ACT III (2006)

There was absolutely no doubt as to whether I would remain with Site Build It! or not.

Passion won at the end of the day and I continued with eaziGOAL.

After the in-depth feedback I received at the Forums, the beginning of 2006 was spent on maintenance of my site, as well as the re-design of pages. This was also a year of brainstorming, research, and spending a lot of time at the Forums.

I spent January to April re-working my site as per the suggestions from my fellow SBIers.

In 2006 I added very little content to my site, and yet my traffic remained constant, and my income grew.

Financials for 3 Years

Expenses	2004	2005	2006
SBI! subscription	$299 (R1953)	$299 (R1789)	$0
Dial up	$160 (R1044)	$174 (R1044)	$147 (R1044)
Internet usage	$248 (R1614)	$246 (R1471)	$253 (R1802)
Income	$65 (R390)	$784.21 (R5193.46)	$1233.85 (R8519.80)
% Growth	N/A	1231%	64%

Although the actual numbers are not big, the percentage growth is impressive. It's not common for a small business to show an annual growth of 60%!

This is what makes me positive, and gives me the confidence that things can only get better.

I have a number of things planned for 2007, and judging by the figures for the first quarter of 2007, it's going to be a good year.

Enjoying the Ride...

If there is one thing I can say with absolute confidence, it's this: I have totally enjoyed myself with my SBI! site the past 3 years!. And I've made money.

I visited the SBI! Forums on a daily basis and made notes of often asked questions...

That led to another enjoyable activity I have: technical writing. By the end of 2006 I had created a total of 10 snap-shot guides, another 3 very short 1 or 2-page documents, and a SBI! glossary, and I compiled a special document, The Wisdom of Ken Evoy, which is a collection of a number of his Forum posts.

Even with very little activity on my site, my traffic remained constant, and the money was still coming in - I was experiencing, first hand, the snowball effect Ken so often talks about.

As Bob Dylan said, "A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do."

I was enjoying myself.

The honest truth is that I was not running my site as a business – my focus was on helping someone when they asked, and enjoying myself.

Actually, I was a lazy bum.

Epilogue

So, after the curtain comes down on this magical production, where am I?

Someone once asked me whether I was satisfied with what I’m achieving, and now after 3 years with Site Build It!, I've had to ask myself that question, and my answer...

Considering what I’ve done, and how much effort I put into my site (or rather how little effort), especially my third year, I can honestly say I am satisfied with what I’ve achieved, and with the performance of my site.

The choice of your topic is of the utmost importance in relation to your expectations of your site's success, especially financial.

This is something that simply cannot be rushed - unless you are running your site as a hobby, purely for fun and enjoyment.

This is an extremely valuable piece of advice from the Action Guide (Big Picture section):

"Keyword brainstorming covers these important beginning DAYS in your SBI! business. In fact, the C > T > P > M process should actually be called...

B > C > T > P > M"

Lesson Learned The importance of brainstorming cannot be underestimated. I highly recommend reading all the Brainstormer online help (even if it takes you a few weeks), and secondly PLEASE TAKE YOUR TIME in choosing your theme/topic and creating your blueprint.

To prove the magic of SBI!, below is a screen shot of the traffic to my non-SBI! personal site.

I've visited the Case Studies so often (and still do regularly for a boost), I almost dream about them. And every time I read these case studies, I'm reminded how important the choice of a theme/topic is.

Lessons Learned

The theme/topic is very important in relation to your expectations.

Jumping in and using the tools in SBI! is not a good idea.

Content + T(ime) = Snowball Effect.

Original and unique content is important, and becoming more so.

What I've received from my SBI! journey so far...

• Sold my first book (Invest In Yourself).
• Developed (with my programmer friend) two software programs, and sold copies of the one (the other was free give-away).
• Sold (and selling) my second book (How to Set and Reach Every Goal).
• Designed and built a web site with just under 300 pages.
• Helped and assisted several people from all over the world.
• Wrote and compiled 10 guides for fellow SBIers.

Now I ask you: What could be better?

Do you want to enjoy your own magical journey? Watch this video - you have nothing to lose... but what could you gain?

Here are fellow South Africans' success stories

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