An illustrated guide

I thought it was high time I gave you a better look behind the scenes at what I’m currently doing with Site Build It! (aka SBI!).

I’ll give you a feel for how SBI! works, then I’ll bring you up-to-date with how I’m doing … the big challenge this time being to write and upload new pages in Dreamweaver rather that using the integrated page-builder provided as part of the basic kit.

Mission control

Site Central is what you use to access all of your tools in SBI!

You can access many of the features I’ve been talking about in my earlier blogs via this panel.

SBI! gives you the option of using the integral page builder or uploading your own HTML.

I started with the ‘safety wheels’ on but I’m now using my favourite HTML tool Dreamweaver … more in that later.

Finding the right keywords

SBI! is very stubborn, it won’t let you register your domain name or start to build your website until you’ve done your homework.

If you’re after a ‘quick fix’ or a ‘get-rich-quick’ scheme, you’ll probably have given up before you get to that stage.

SBI! is entirely focused on helping you build a website that works … and speaking as someone who has wasted his time building over 10 websites that didn’t work, I think that’s a pretty sensible approach now.

The main tool of SBI! is is Brainstorm It!, the part of the process where you apply your basic ideas, then put them to the test to work out if a) they’re profitable b) they’re in demand c) they’re going to help you build a popular website d) they’re going to help you monetize your site.

Brainstorm It! not only brings in straightforward keyword options, it also does a bit of lateral thinking on your behalf and offers more obscure possibilities.

For each of the keywords you run through this system you are given data for demand, supply and profitability.

The key is to sift the list – until you have about 300 sound keywords – each offering lots of demand, limited supply and therefore high profitability.

You can sort each word by demand/supply/profitability, write notes next to each keyword with ideas and possible monetization options, click on the ‘Site info’ link to get details of the top 10 websites for each keyword and many more things which I haven’t even got to yet because I haven’t begun to monetize my own SBI! website web-work-at-home.com.

When appraising SBI! for your own potential use, don’t get hung up on what basic web hosting offers at a fraction of the price, take into account the whole package and evaluate the benefit of all the tools that are included in the price.

Building your pages

The process of coming up with a  decent website concept, then sifting, sorting and analysing keywords is quite a tedious one, but once you’re sure you’re onto a winner, you can register your domain name and SBI! makes all sorts of new and useful tools available to you.

Even though I usually build my websites using HTML and Dreamweaver, I stuck with SBI!’s intergrated content management system when building my first 30 pages, just while I was getting used to the process.

Each page is built around one of your high demand/low supply/high profitability keywords.

You build each page in a modular fashion adding text, text links and graphics to build your page.

Once you’ve completed that process, you use the all-important ‘Analyse it!’ tool, which scans your page and reports back on any keywords and metadata errors.

SBI! tells you what you’ve forgotten, if you’ve ‘keyword-stuffed’ your page and it won’t let you through the process until you’ve got it right.

Every page I’ve ever written on the web – prior to discovering SBI! – has been completely ‘finger in the wind’.

I’ve never thought about the main keyword for each page, whether that was a keyword my online audience would be using, and if I even delivered the content they expected when they found my page.

With SBI! that’s all I think about, and three months into the project I can see that I’m getting it right.

Already I’m ranked number 2 for two of my keywords in ‘Live Search’ … I know that because every 3 weeks, SBI! compiles a report for each of my keyworded pages, and it tells exactly how each one is ranking in Google, Yahoo!, Live Search and Ask.com.

You’re not seeing that screen grab though, because that information is top secret

Other tools I’ve used in SBI!

Since I last posted before Christmas, I’ve used SBI!’s ‘Value Exchange’ tool, another valuable part of the integrated package.

When you run websites, one of the tedious jobs that you have to do is finding partners to exchange links with.

These should be editorially appropriate and to quality websites … no link farms or SEO scams.

SBI! gives you a tool which automatically matches you up with other websites producing content for your keywords.

You then decide whether those sites are good linking partners, and SBI! automatically generates an email inviting them to link up with you.

For example, the last page I wrote on my website for the keyword ‘dani johnson’ was based around the concept of a Christian home based business.

I found a linking partner, and now have an exchange with this quality, content related website called christian-home-business-help.com.

‘Value Exchange’ takes a lots of the hassle out of the link exchange process and quickly matches you up with suitable partners … it’s like speed-dating for webmasters!

The unseen side of SBI!

I thought my web skills were pretty advanced before I started working on my SBI! project, but I’ve realised that I only know a little bit about the web.

I am learning so much from SBI! and I’ve already got six A4 folders filled with the guidance notes and tips that are provided for each stage of the process.

I print them out, read them over breakfast and on the bus to work, and put everything I’m learning into practice … it’s been a complete (second) ‘webucation’ for me.

I never thought that would be something I would get from this system, but it’s definitely been an unseen bonus for me.

Uploading my own HTML in SBI!

I was in two minds about doing this as I was getting on so well with SBI!’s integrated page-builder system, but I decided to ‘bite the bullet’ after Christmas.

I’m used to writing pages in Dreamweaver, so that’s what I started to do.

Here’s a page written using the SBI! page-builder: About Site Build It!

Here’s a page built using Dreamweaver:  Beat the credit crunch

Can you tell the difference?

Neither can I!

To use the ‘Upload your own HTML’ feature, you simply browse to your Dreamweaver file.

SBI! then scans your HTML and tells you if you’ve made any errors.

After your images have been uploaded, SBI! does the usual page analysis to check that your keyword use is fine, and that all your tags are correct … then you can publish the page.

The entire process is simple, and it kind of makes me wish I’d started using HTML from the outset as I can produce pages faster this way.

The key point here is that it doesn’t matter if you’re a complete novice or an HTML expert, you can still use all of SBI!’s tools without being too challenged by the technical bits or held back by the page-builder … it really is suitable for everybody.

Where to next?

I’m back to building pages now, content, then more content, then even more content is the mantra of  SBI!, and in March I monetize.

I have already created a couple of SBI! pages on the site, but you won’t find any Google ads or flashing banners on web-work-at-home.com yet.

I’m getting 20-40 unique visitors a day, I’m establishing quality links with other websites, I’m beginning to rank in the search engines already and I already have an Alexa ranking of above 700,000 … check it out for yourself using SBI!’s ‘Alexa traffic test’ tool.

I’ll be honest with you, I’m almost scared to monetize … everything seems to be going so well on my website, the monetization process is the final, big test of the entire process.

So, I’ll continue to plod on, writing new pages, building content and monitoring my progress in each of the four major search engines.

I’ll carry on posting updates on this blog when I have something new to report, but if you have questions about SBI! in the meantime use their handy ‘Ask a Question‘ service and they’ll get straight back to you.

Happy website building!

Did I leave anything out?

I’ve reached the 30 page milestone with Site Build It! which is a key point in the creation of a new site using the system.

This is a mini-update to bring you up to speed with my progress to date.

I’ve uncovered a few new features now as a result of having generated 30 pages of content – you don’t get to use many of these features until you reach that crucial stage.

If you take a look at web-work-at-home.com you’ll notice that I still haven’t monetized … that doesn’t come until later, at the point where I’m getting at least 20 or more visitors a day.

I’m getting more than that on some days, and fewer on others, and I’m only listed in Google, Ask.com and Yahoo! search engines at the moment, Live Search hasn’t picked me up yet, so it doesn’t feel like the right time to be putting adverts on the site.

Let me bring you up-to-date with the latest features that I’m using as part of my SBI! package …

1) RSS feeds

RSS feeds are a key part of getting your website ‘out there’ and I discovered their value when starting this blog.

Prior to this blog, which began life as an experiment and kept on growing, I made static sites with no RSS feeds.

Within a few months, this blog was outperforming all of my static sites, getting much more interest and response and ranking higher with Alexa.

Site Build It! looks like a regular static site, but it works like a blog, informing the search engines every time you create a new page.

It’s incredibly easy to set up within the Site Build It! control panel and requires no technical or specialist knowledge.

2) Ezines

Elsewhere on this blog, I’ve called these newsletters, but they’re a key marketing technique for websites.

Once a website user signs up to your Ezine or newsletter, it enables you to reach out to them and communicate, even though they might have forgotten about your site already.

You can pull them back in, reminding them of what they’re missing or what’s new.

Previously in my posts I’d suggested using phpList for newsletters as it’s an excellent tool, if a little complex to get to grips with.

Well, Site Build It! integrates all the features of phpList – including subscribe/unsubscribe management and ‘Thanks for registering’ and account authentication functions.

It’s an excellent resource, easily set up and you can see how it works in the left hand navigation on the ‘About this site’ page on web-work-at-home.com.

3) Link Exchange

This is one of the most tedious parts of marketing your new website.

To get higher ranking in the search engines you need to get good quality, content related links to and from other websites.

Normally this is a process of surfing the web, finding good sites, emailing and keeping your fingers crossed.

As part of its integrated features Site Build It! manages the entire link exchanging process.

It finds SBI! sites and external websites (which have paid to register), matches them by your keywords and lists them automatically in your control panel along with contact details, site info and URL and the matching keyword.

You then go through each site and see which ones you want to link exchange with – I got an initial crop of 82 returned from 30 pages of keywords.

You sort them into a ‘Yes’, a ‘No’ or a ‘Maybe’.

All the sites in the ‘Yes’ pile get sent an automatically generated email inviting them to link exchange.

The ‘No’ and the ‘Maybe’ piles get tucked away for later.

I’ve had an immediate response to three of my five requests and I sorted out those requests and the reciprocal links over one weekend.

Another thing about the Link Exchange tool … it allows you to monitor links into your site, showing whether they’re good or incorrectly coded … it also means somebody can’t get away with exchanging a link then removing it later.

Another small, but useful feature is the information about Link Directories which you’re given in SBI! … a simple thing, but I wouldn’t have known where half of these resources are if I hadn’t been told.

4) Keyword performance

Site Build It! gives me constant feedback about the performance of each of my keyword-based pages, showing me how I’m ranking for each in the four major search engines as well as giving me data about the alternative keywords web surfers used to arrive at my pages.

It”s early days yet and I’m not well enough established in the search engines to be getting a lot of valuable data so far, but this is going to become a vital resource as my site establishes itself over the next few months.

5) Broken links

I hadn’t even realised this was a feature of SBI!, but the other day I got an auto-generated email telling me I had broken links on my website.

The search engines hate these – they’re ‘dead ends’ and indicate a poorly maintained site.

I had a few, but courtesy of this email, they were rectified in minutes.

What now?

I’m currently on a ’30 page break’, which doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped working.

I’ve submitted my website to the ‘Review a site’ section of the SBI! forums.

I’m continuing to make Link Exchange contacts and submitting to the relevant Link Directories, including Dmoz – the big player!

I’m proof-reading my pages, creating search engine friendly links between pages and making sure my navigation is sensible.

I’m generating ideas for my first Ezine, which I’ll publish when I have enough subscribers.

In the New Year, I’ll begin content creation once again and wait for my site to become properly established in the search engines.

What’s the big deal about SBI?

I’ve been asking a couple of my ‘teccie’ friends to give Site Build It! the ‘once over’ because I keep raving about it, and want it independently verified that I’m not barking up the wrong tree.

One colleague, when hearing of the price, dismissed it straight away saying ‘There’s the disadvantage, look at that price tag!’ (it costs about £175 … depends on the dollar conversion from $299)

The key thing about SBI! is that you have to get over comparing it with simple hosting costs which could amount to less than £20 each year … I’ve made a page about this on web-work-at-home.com

Anybody can have a website, not everybody can have a website that does any business.

Site Build It! is rich with useful features, and I haven’t even used all of them yet – there’s still much more to come.

If you’d like to find out more about SBI! you can use their useful ‘Ask a Question‘ page.

Back in the New Year with more updates.

What about you? What do you think?