There are good points at first look (but with lots of faulty thinking) so let me address each of them:

a) Your SBI site will look like crap. I agree that most SBI templates don’t look very exciting BUT in most cases, you only need to redesign the header (which cost me $50 for http://www.tennismindgame.com) and your site will suddenly look very nice.

You can also have a template created (which cost me $100 for http://www.vacuumwizard.com) and simply upload HTML. This is exactly what you would do without SBI, right? Except that you’d have a template and no knowledge, no Action Guide, no forums and no tools. Not a smart idea…

b) Tricking people into clicking sponsor links. Sure, you can trick people but I don’t see how ONLY SBI templates can achieve that? I am sure you can design a fancy template and trick people into clicking ads…

Also, Google has very strict policies now and you simply cannot disguise their ads as you could in the past. How about tricking people to enter into a business agreement with you based on your fancy template design?

Imagine how many people have fallen for this trick online? A fancy template, intriguing sales letter and then a scam. Do you really believe that fancy templates have anything to do with the quality of your business?

b) “…but it doesn’t work for a real business that has an image to maintain.” Your business will create the image through the quality of your service and through word of mouth and NOT through some fancy template. That sounds more like tricking people into believing your business is really good without really knowing some facts about it.

Here’s one really not fancy template of quite a successful company: http://www.google.com

There are “so 1992″ pages written that still sit on top of Google for many keywords.

Btw, I have over 40,000 friends who use SBI and are obviously happy with it since they keep renewing the subscription and of course, SBI keeps growing at the same time.

Please don’t fall into the trap of judging SBI by its templates. The real value of Site Build It is in teaching you how to build a successful online business. Once you know that, you don’t need SBI for a simple affiliate site.

Of course, knowing what to do, having a structured, organized system, simple tools to help you get started (instead of going through a learning curve for HTML, Wordpress, plugins, trackbacks, SEO, link building, newsletter modules, form modules, RSS, social bookmarks, etc.) is invaluable to people with jobs and families.

Most of those who criticize SBI are computer geeks who are quite savvy with computers and internet and have spent hundreds of hours accumulating knowledge (and of course wasting hundreds of hours on incorrect information spread by thousands of guru-wannabees) and skills.

But let me ask you this (and all your knowledgeable friends who are making hundreds of dollars per day, right?): why are you reading my blog and reading about SBI if it sucks and you already know how to build a successful online business?

If you know how to do well, why don’t you share your knowledge with other people and stop wasting time criticizing other systems.

I don’t go around criticizing the “mini sites” systems, or Infoproduct system or Wordpress affiliate sites systems or …

What good can come out it?

SBI works for me, it’s a fantastic product which is constantly improved, it is totally flexible and can use any type of template if one wants, and it has all the tools and knowledge in one place.

I can now focus my energy on building quality content and not worry about missing any new important info, because Sitesell team monitors hundreds of RSS feeds and authority people (like Matt Cutts, …) and it filters out the crap from the key info and then lets all SBI users know what is important in 2009. (and 2010, 2011, …)

That’s why I love SBI and hate people who criticize it without at least using the product for 6 months or 1 year.

If you have some important FACTS to share about Site Build It, please do, but if anyone has an OPINION about SBI and has NOT used it, I (and my visitors) am NOT interested in hearing it.

btw I’ve never used SBI/sitesell crap but I have 4 friends who got suckered in and forked over hundreds each only to abandon it for wordpress (and one of them went with joomla, if I remember correctly).

sitesell would have been so-so back in 1992 but check your calendar, we’re in 2009.

Just a logical correction of the CMS you mentioned: Google has no idea what CMS one uses: SBI, Wordpress or Joomla whether that’s HTML, php or something else.

Googlebot only sees content and Google ranks it according to the on-page and off-page (quantity and quality of incoming links) optimization.

The dashes-between-the-words-in-the-domain also have nothing to do with rankings or traffic. Some people definitely overdoit but that’s not what the SBI Action Guide suggests.

Some people also promote SBI because of the affiliate sales but to tell you the truth, it’s VERY hard to make a sale. I definitely didn’t spend hundreds of hours writing this blog to make 2 sales per month ($150).

I want to share my journey and help people find something useful to start their online business. I know SBI that’s why I recommend it.

If I earn something through my effort, that’s cool too. But to make some decent money selling SBI is very very hard. There are just a few people making nice bucks with it (the super affiliates), the rest of us make a sale here and there.

I’d earn 10 times more if I invested the effort in promoting SBI into a nice content site and slapped some Adsense on it.

And you have been using Site Build It how long?

word to the wise

To all those who think SBI is actually useful, you have no idea, how much more traffic you would have if you used a half-decent CMS like Joomla, Drupal or WordPress.

On the other hand, umm… no SBI doesn’t suck. Please use it and fork over your money to Kenny boy… more traffic for the rest of us.

I recently took the plunge and bought SBI. I am very impressed with the action guide and all the tools built in. I’m alittle afraid because of the costs, but I am hoping to recover them in a few short months.

So far I’ve just been busy building content, and love all the support from the forum.

I am glad that lots of people have had success with SBI. But like anything it takes work, it’s not a get rich over night. But like Tomaz I hope to retire from my day job.

I’ve been creating web sites for 10 years and I still use the blockbuilder tool SBI offers because I don’t want to mess around with coding anymore (at least not a lot of it). I’m more concerned with creating value that people want to view, buy, investigate, research, etc.

Lots of folks put down SBI, but I think they’ve got their priorities backwards. The web site you create should serve a purpose. And that purpose for me, at least, is to build valuable businesses that provide me the ability to spend more time doing what I like (family, fun, etc.).

My experience with the SBI community has been fantastic, too. There are a lot of very helpful people in the forums.

Take the plunge (I’m an affiliate, too, but join using Tomaz’s referral — he did all the work) — now is as good a time as any. 2 for $399 is quite the deal.