I even began detailing my progress through the days of the action guide.

Then a funny thing happened - summer vacation began. And with four kids home for few months, all of my web endeavors were shelved until the fall. That is why things have been silent here for awhile.

Ironically, the folks at SBI seem to understand my predicament because they are now running the Back to Work SBI Sale, just about the time that I am ready to go back to work.

From now until August 28, 2008 (yes - that is only three days away), the deal is that you can buy one SBI site package for $299 and get another for only $100.

For those not familiar with SBI, this is complete website building package that includes web hosting, domain name registration, and the key part is the awesome web tools.

After all, a successful site relies on traffic. And traffic comes from search engines. To harness this traffic, the right blend of keywords and content is absolutely necessary. If not done correctly, the traffic just won’t come.

SBI holds your hand through the entire process of building your site. Their Brainstorm It tool helps you choose a profitable yet interesting topic. Their block by block page builder helps the novice as well as the experienced webmaster develop a site that gets the click.

Personally, although I have experience building sites, I have found the block by block builder to be a breath of fresh air. It is so easy to use. And the Analyze It tool is a comfort since it reviews my final page for all SEO elements before it goes live.

My SBI site still has a far way to go. After the initial push in the beginning of July, it has sat dormant for the remainder of the summer. But surprisingly it is already indexed by the major search engines and is getting search traffic. Not too shabby. Imagine the results that I will get with a little more effort!

Anyhow, the Site Build It Back to Work Sale ends soon. Click over to SBI to check it out.

If you are an SBI owner already, I would love to hear your opinions and advice on the program.

Day 3 is all about creating a site blueprint. On this day I did what is referred to as lateral brainstorming. I used the Brainstorm It! tool again but this time set it to lateral brainstorm. On day 2 I did a vertical brainstorm that returned keyword results that contained my main keyword term. A lateral brainstorm examines the top 20 Google sites for your site concept and returns keyword results that are related to your site concept but do not contain your keyword term.

At the end of all this brainstorming I had a lot of material. Again I had to weed out the unrelated stuff. But it was harder this time because Site Build It does not provide a concrete outline of how many keywords should remain. At the end of Day 2 I had 300 keywords in my database. There can be a maximum of 1000. At the end of Day 3 I am close that number which seems like too many. Is my site concept too broad? That is a question that I am still grappling with.

I completed a site blueprint. This is a flow chart of your main keyword broken down into seven to 15 sections which will constitute my Tier 2 pages or what is better known as the table of contents for my site. Each of these tier 2 pages are then broken down into 7 to 15 tier 3 pages which is the meat of the site. Taking the time to outline the site in such detail before even starting to build the site is eye opening. The best part - I will never have a day where I won’t know what to write about (a common problem for bloggers). At least for a long time.

Again, my site concept is rather broad - so I have a lot of material. While SBI! does a good job of giving you guidelines to make sure that your idea is not too narrow (not enough material to build a site) there is not much guidance to help you decide if your idea is too wide.

At this point I am at Day 5 and am still revisiting Day 3, which SBI encourages you to do if you are unsure. I plan to plow forward and not wallow in “analysis paralysis” but I will take the rest of the day and into tomorrow to think about the site logically. How would a visitor to this site perceive it?

SBI does put monetization last - and it is examined in more depth on Day 4. But at this point I think it is useful to think a bit like the adsense bot - which I do plan to use on my new site eventually. I want to make sure that the adsense bot will deliver highly targeted ads to my readers. So, if my concept is too wide and covers too many topics then the bot will be confused and adsense won’t do well for me. This line of thinking may help me narrow down my topic.

If you would like to follow along with me as I make my way through the SBI Action Guide here are some links to the SBI! Video Action Guide and the SBI! Action Guide in pdf format. These resources are free.

I will be back tomorrow with SBI! Day 4. Read about SBI! Days 1 and 2 here:
Site Build It Review Day 1
Site Build It Review Day 2

I didn’t get very far.

Apparently a requirement of the CANN Spam Act is that you must display a mailing address on each email that goes out to those that sign up on your list.

To me this was a deal breaker. No - I am not a spammer. Just an honest person who works from home and  values privacy. I spoke with an AWeber rep about this rule and he said that many people get a P.O. box - something that my fledgling business cannot support and does not need at this point. And no, my honest Abe side cannot enter a bogus address with a clear conscience.

The end result - I pulled the plug on an awesome blog resource because of a ridiculous rule that is designed to protect… I really am not sure what. Obviously, if you are a spammer, you will not put a real address in this field anyway. So, those of us who are not spammers must complete this section honestly and give up our privacy. Thousands of strangers could potentially have our home address. Do you see my point.

I won’t get into the details of how this blog resource works but basically you create a 125×125 card (think of it as a business card or calling card) and drop it onto the entrecard widgets on other people’s sites. You get entrecard points for every card you drop and I think for cards that are dropped onto your widget (?). You can use these points to buy the ability to display your card on someone else’s widget for a 24 hour period. The amount of points this advertising costs depends on how many cards are queued up waiting to be displayed.

Some people think the whole process is a waste of time. After all, many people just go a-card-dropping without staying to read your content. I do it. This drives up your page impressions and if you are using adsense it will decrease your click through rate.

On the other hand I like Entrecard because I have discovered some new sites who are (surprise, surprise!) interested in networking and are very open to blogroll link exchanges. The increased traffic has not hurt my overall click through rate yet.

I started out with the intention of just having an Entrecard. I figured I would just drop it whenever I naturally came across a site that displayed the Entrecard widget. But what I discovered was the “you drop, I follow” movement. Sounds kind of creepy, doesn’t it? Actually, it is rather addicting. When someone drops a card on you, you drop one back as a sign of reciprocation and appreciation.

After doing this for a week or so, I am finding this to be a bit of a time commitment. I have it down to a science though. Once a day I go to my drops inbox for the previous day. I click “open in a new tab” on each drop from the previous day and return all my drops. Very tedious. I wish there was a way to just select all the previous days Entrecard drops and then click open in new tab and all of the sites would open up. Maybe there is and I just don’t know how to do it yet.

Any time saving insights when it comes to Entrecard would be helpful!

Update: for you eagle eyed visitors, I don’t have the Entrecard widget on this site but rather display it on my parenting advice site. You can now have more than one Entrecard but one is all that I can handle at this point in time.

Day 2 involves brainstorming. The ultimate result is a single Site Concept that will be the basis of your Site Build It! business. Nerve wracking stuff.

Days 2 and 3 of the Site Build It! process are probably the most important ones. The Action Guide states this out right and tells you that these two days could take days, weeks, or even longer.

Brainstorming for a site idea is nothing new to experienced internet marketers. But finding an idea that you are passionate about, that you can create a whole site about, and that has the potential for monetization is no easy chore. At this point the Site Build It! process is not that different from what you could do on your own.

You write down everything and anything that comes to mind that you are interested in. Then you evaluate your extensive list for demand using free keyword tools. After all, if no one is searching for it, then it is unlikely you will get any traffic.

The Action Guide recommends that you narrow it down to three ideas. And then things heat up. You see, Site Build It! has this awesome Brainstorm It! tool included in the package. This tool draws on data from the full price Wordtracker keyword tool, and other sources. You plug your site concept into this and you get numbers and data for demand, supply, and profitablilty. Wow!

You could probably do this type of analysis on your own, for free. In fact, the Affiliate Masters Course, tells you exactly how to do it. But the time saved is huge!

One caveat is that there are only 25 of this type of search included with the SBI! package. You can buy additional searches relatively inexpensively - the best deal is to buy a set of 500 searches for something like twenty bucks. But honestly, you probably won’t need more than the 25 that are included, at least initially.

Anyhow, you use Brainstorm It! with each potential site concept to come up with a list of related keywords. You spend a lot of time here pruning your list so only the highly related ones remain. And you evaluate your site concepts based on the data you get. Is your choice too broad, too narrow? It is here that you will have the data to help you make that decision.

Then SBI! has a Niche Choose It! tool that will help you decide amongst your three site concepts. At any time during this process on Day 2 you can scrap a potential site concept and start over. This is the time to explore, evaluate, analyze, over and over again. In actuality, you can go all the way to day 5 (when you register your domain) and still backtrack and change your mind. This is why days 2 and 3 will take a lot of time. You want to be sure of your site concept before you register your domain.

So, I finished day 2 in one day. But really, I spent a lot of hours on it. I already had some ideas going into the brainstorming session. And now I have a site concept. I am a bit nervous about my choice, because I know I have a lot of competition in this niche. But rather than tackle it on my own, I am happy to have SBI! to support me along the way.

So onward to day 3 of the SBI! Action Guide.

You should look into Site Build It! if:

• You want to develop a web presence for business or personal reasons or

• You have tried your hand at making money online and have not yet succeeded.

The second point above is key. So many people get started online thinking that they can make a quick and easy buck. Only to find out later that it is not as easy as it seems.

The draw to starting a blog or website is low startup cost. And it’s true. You can absolutely start a free blog.

But turning that free blog into a profitable enterprise takes time and knowledge. And we all know that time is money. This is when most people give up. Finding the time to learn about internet marketing is impossible for many people that are lives that are already busy and overtaxed.

This is where Site Build It! can help.

The Summer Sale Independence Day Sale is going on now. It’s a good time to get in on the action.

I had been wavering over my decision for a few months - and this sale was just the incentive I needed. I am blogging about my experience with SBI! and SiteSell right here at Blog Resources - so follow along if you need more info to determine whether SBI! is right for you.

I am determined to follow the plan exactly as outlined so the first thing I did was read the email in it’s entirity.

Then onto the first step - orientation. The beginning of the Site Build It! program is divided into a 10 day action guide. You can either read this action guide or watch a series of corresponding videos - depending on how you better absorb information. The videos come in two flavors - Mediterranean - ish male narrator or female narrator. I preferred having the less animated female voice as my guide.

But since I also prefer the written word, I printed out the action guide as well. You will need plenty of paper and ink on hand to accomplish this feat but I am not taking any shortcuts on this path to success. However, I did use the fast draft option on my printer to conserve ink.

The orientation describes the mechanics of how to use the guide. Basic stuff, but an important place to start.

Then onto the 10 Day Big Picture video. This gave me a idea of what the first 10 “days” will entail. They are called “days” but in reality, a day can be as long as you need it to be. In addition, it is here that you can download and print a helpful checklist that will help you keep track of your progress. Done. Check.

And the introduction ends with the recommendation that you watch or read through the first five days of the action guide, to get a feel for the plan. Then go through each day one by one.

So, this morning I cleared off my schedule and awoke super early to view the SBI videos for the first five days of the action guide. It was suggested to set aside 2 hours for this process but it took me close to three.

My plan for the rest of the day is to read through the day 1 information and re-watch the video action guide for the same. There is a lot of work to be accomplished on day 2 (it will likely take more than one day). I am hoping to use the wee a.m. hours tomorrow or the next day to get started.

If you are curious - read more about Site Build It!. Regardless of whether or not you are a Site Build It! owner, there are tons of free blog resources to be found. Take advantage of this free information and the free eBooks - it truly is very helpful.

In preparation, I have cleared off my desk and organized all my niche blogging materials. In addition, I started a new notebook just for SBI work - so I can find my notes when I need them.

I continue to start niche blogs - but at the point that I am at - it is still a lot of work with little reward. I am confident my hard work will pay off, it is just a matter of time.

So, that is an update for where I am at with my business blog direction.

I don’t have a topic in mind but I plan to follow the program to a “t” and see where it gets me. I will blog it all the way through so you can make your own decisions about the Site Build It! program.

I know you hard core do-it-yourselfers out there are laughing your arses off at me. But I tell you, time is one thing I don’t have. I am hoping that SBI’s promise of guiding me through the process so I can better focus my time on content will hold up. SBI is supposed to work great with Google AdSense and also with Affiliate Programs, which is how I am hoping to monetize my future sites.

So, to start at the beginning, the first thing I did was go to the SBI Order Page, check the box for the summer sale and submit my payment info. One thing I was surprised about was that the payment is in Canadian dollars and is converted to US dollars. Also a eCheck will take a few days to clear and SBI will wait until payment clears before you can get started (which is my situation). This actually works well for me because I have a few days to get all the other stuff off my desk so I can focus 100% of my available time on SBI.

Also, just so you know that I haven’t completely lost my senses, the SBI program comes with a 30 day money back guarantee. If after 30 days I am not happy with the program then I get all my money back (not sure how this works with the sale though). And then for the first year, if I decide to call it quits, I get a prorated share of the cost back. I think this is what tipped the bucket for me.

I have been wasting time sitting on the fence. Why not just get started and if the program isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be then I’ll just call in my guarantee. I do have high hopes though.

If you are also seriously considering SBI then you should read the Affiliate Masters Course, which is a free eBook. Tons of good information there for free. That is the one thing that has impressed me so far - the excellent quality of the free reading materials. If that’s all you walk away with then you have still learned a lot.