Hi Robert,
(Mom's health deteriorated to the point that she had to be hospitalized last month and is now in a nursing home. I've been her sole caretaker for over six years. The guy at the door was from the local home health care service and picked up her hospital bed. Sigh.)
(That bummed me out so much that I didn't feel like continuing our conversation until this morning.)
I agree with you about the ebooks and other training. They are very good and they can, indeed, be used to create websites, lenses, blogs, etc., using any hosting service one prefers.
That's how I started. I used what I learned in "Make Your Site Sell" to rebuild JohnDilbeck.com and GeorgiaDragRacing.com. It was a big job at the time and JohnDilbeck.com needs to be rebuilt again, because of my change in focus.
Once I did what Ken suggested, I started making money, and both of those sites have been profitable for the last few years.
The same thing worked for other sites I've built.
(I've never really finished my SBI site, because I've been experimenting with what works - and what doesn't - on several dozen other sites, and now I know much more about what I want to do over the next few years. My experimentation phase is over and I'm entering my real marketing phase.)
(Even so, my SBI site, which is only partially finished, continues to be profitable. Even with only a small part of what I have planned for the site completed, it still gets about 7,000 visits per month and about 13,000 page views, and that's for a niche that isn't popular and is hard to define. I have no doubt that I can substantially increase those numbers over the coming year.)
Speaking of the free ebooks from Ken, you can even see the same Action Guide that SBI subscribers use, and follow the steps to build a site anywhere, but obviously it won't include all the tools that are included with SBI.
So, on many of these points, I agree with you.
However...
"If you take everything in those ( and others ) books and apply it using whatever hosting /autoresponder/etc. plan you have, it works just the same. "
I don't agree with that statement.
You can do equivalent things by putting all the pieces together, but it doesn't work the same.
With SBI, all those other pieces are handled, maintained, updated, and improved by the Sitesell techs and staff. I don't ever have to think about them. I just use them.
On all my other sites, I have to spend time working on all the tech stuff, and that takes me away from my actual marketing business. Even though I know how to do it, and have a lot of experience with it, it's still time that could be spent more profitably by marketing.
The more I build my other sites, the more I recognize how much time I've wasted over the last five or more years.
I don't mind wasting money - I can always get more money.
But, wasting time is totally different. Once it's gone, it's gone.
I plan to do a lot less time wasting over the next five years as compared to the last five.
I hate to say it this way, but I believe it's true...
If you haven't used SBI, you can't appreciate how the entire package works.
Now, is it the solution for everyone? Obviously not.
Does it cost more? Absolutely, but not as much as it seems when you compare the costs on a daily or monthly basis.
Does it live up to the promises? That's for each of us to decide.
I was a computer consultant for a couple of decades and I helped dozens of companies, ranging from sole proprietorships up to top-50 corporations, to analyze their needs, acquire technology and software, implement the solution, and train the users.
I know lots of business owners who want websites that produce results, and $299 per year is less than they may spend on one business dinner. They have the money, but they don't have the time.
Unless they have a requirement for a technology that doesn't really fit with SBI, I will recommend SBI to them.
On the other hand, I know lots of people who are strapped for cash, tied up in a job they dislike, and/or are looking for a way out of the rat race.
That's the group that has very little money to invest in their business. Some of them have lots of time, others have very little.
I believe that's the group of newbies you have talked about. You don't want to see anyone taking their hard-earned money. Right?
SBI costs $0.82 per day. Give up one coke or coffee or hamburger and it's paid for that day. That's not expensive.
HostGator costs $10 per month, or $25 per month if you have a reseller account, as I do. That comes out to $0.33 or $0.82 per day, respectively.
The difference in cost is only 50 cents per day, and I don't see that as an amount that bilks newbies.
I'd happily pay $1.00 per day just to have access to the Sitesell forums. Seriously. What I learn there is worth much more to me than that.
You can see for yourself, if you want. Become a 5 Pillar affiliate and you'll have access to the forum. You can participate in the affiliate boards, and read the others.
There really is a difference between building a site with regular hosting and building one with SBI.
Others disagree with me. That's okay.
If everyone saw things the way I do, I'd start thinking I was wrong.
Act on your dream!
JD