Hey Max,

The "how long" question is always a difficult one and I hate to put a timeframe on it because people tend to use it as a benchmark as you said.

Me personally, I experienced success rather quickly with my site but I had created others so that helped. I made my investment back within the first couple of months.

Of course there are others who were newbies and found success. Elad of coolest-parties.com is a great example. He started earning $2,000 per month after only 6 months and that is way faster than I started earning.

It really depends on your dedication to your site. If you really follow the action guide, take time using the brainstorming tool to find a "profitable" topic and really work on updating your site then your success path is largely determined by you.

People always ask me "Why pay $299 when you can get a $10 host?" Well my first answer is always that wonderful brainstorming tool. As I said in the sticky above... it's worth the price of the product alone if you ask me. And I think choosing the right niche is what really helped me get traffic so fast. I may have chosen a "less profitable" niche had I not had access to those powerful tools.

Taking your time with the brainstorming process is THE most important part of creating a site whether you use Site Build It! or not. But SBI makes the brainstorming process much more organized and thorough.