Site Build It has been extremely useful for me and my annual renewal is a no-brainer. I just do it.
I use the tools in SBI to help me make all my other sites better, and I still don't use all the tools SBI offers.
Yes, the interface can be clumsy, but the results are very good. There is a lot that goes on under the surface with an SBI site that helps you get more traffic.
I have many websites, blogs, and forums. I have one SBI site.
When I'm composing a page for one of my sites, I frequently create the page first using SBI to analyze it, before uploading it to the site I want to use it on.
Most of my large sites are built using the static site tools in Radio Userland and the entire sites are stored in its database.
Some sites are built using Mambo (cumbersome), PHP-Nuke (too prone to hacking), and other tools.
I use what I have learned from Make Your Site Sell!, Site Build It!, Ken Evoy's newsletters, and the SBI members-only forum to make more money with all my sites.
I can hand-code HTML with the best and I have no problem with PHP and SQL, so most of my sites are hosted on Linux/Cpanel servers. I have reseller accounts with several webhosting companies.
Yet, I keep coming back to Site Build It to learn how to build better sites.
I don't agree with everything Ken says, but I have found that I make more money when I follow most of his advice.
I've also found that I spend more money and get less results when I follow the advice of other "gurus" out there.
When I want to build a site using tools that SBI doesn't support, I still use SBI to brainstorm and plan the new site, and then I build it using the tools that work best for me.
I use SBI's tools for tracking advertising and traffic patterns.
I can hardly be considered a newbie, and I love SBI and what it offers me for about $25 per month (based on an annual payment of about $300).
Since I earn more than that from affiliate sales of SBI and Ken's ebooks, my SBI site is essentially free.
It won't do everything, but what it does, it does extremely well.
Nowhere else (that I know of) can you find step-by-step instructions, tools, and help to identify a niche, design a site, build and host it, and then promote the site and the products and services you want to sell.
Without a doubt, people do better with SBI sites than with other hosting options - until they develop a high degree of skill at building sites.
I have several ideas for sites I will develop this year, a couple will be built on SBI, others on different platforms.
I highly recommend Ken Evoy and the products he develops and markets at Sitesell.
The following are affiliate links.
Learn more about Site Build It!:
http://sbi.linktodetails.com
Make Your Site Sell!:
http://myss.linktodetails.com
I still refer to MYSS on a regular basis. The salient points are still valuable, even though a lot of things have changed online over the last four years. It's still the best $30 I ever invested in learning how to make a living online.
And, all of this works just fine on my overworked Macintosh.
All the best.
Act on your dream!
JD