This forum has been a godsend - I was committed to signing up to SBI! this morning and read here that they'd probably do a 2 for 1 shortly. Still signing up, and better for SBI because the 2nd year I'll be paying for two, but worth waiting for nonetheless!

My question is this: are there any "approved" or certified SBI contractors out there? I'm right into the brainstorming and I have tons of experience in having sites built, selling ads, and selling sites - but darn near zero in HTML.

My deep preference would be to get a custom site built and load it into SBI's quirky format. You've said that this is well-documented, but, well...

Let's just say my track record of following technical instructions leaves a lot to be desired! I'd massively rather pay someone else to do this.

Looking forward to using the SBI tools to tweak the site, and lots of ideas for content - but I know myself well enough to know that I'll just never get around to changing around some of the tech stuff.

I'm very impressed with SBI's ability to get SEO traffic - but I know within two weeks I'll want to go outside of their frankly outdated typical look and feel.

Also VERY worried about the inability to add PHP, ajax, or anything invented in the last ten years... but I can live with that if the SEM money is right! :-)

Hi and welcome Kevin,

SBI! has a coaching program for people who want assistance. I don't know anyone who has ever used it but it is available...

http://coaching.sitesell.com/

The only thing is I don't believe this program helps you with doing your own custom design. I believe it's primarily to help you use the tools (brainstorming, etc.).

I personally think it's worth learning enough of HTML and CSS to make the transition on your own. That way you'll have the freedom to do what you want when you want. Sure, it may mean a few hours of head-scratching and confusion lol but well worth it in the end.

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Thanks for the reply.

I know that SBI is more of a business program than a software package, but with pretty much every other popular CMS (Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, etc) there are legions of consultants and contractors who can do the legwork for you, at increasingly reasonable rates.

I'm surprised that a cottage industry hasn't popped up in this around SBI. With 100,000 customers (which has to be something like $30M in sales if they're all paying $300/year, not to mention multiple domains), you'd think there'd be a network of people offering to do services around the edges.

I'm also surprised that SBI doesn't support any dynamic programming at all, but I'm guessing that it screws up their SEO magic.

Actually that link you provided is stellar.

Most software firms start out offering their own services, which is what it looks like SBI does, which is great - didn't even know about that.

It does, however, generally lead to a somewhat stilted offering - witness the nearly-identical designs that they showcase:

http://coaching.sitesell.com/lnf-thumbnails-help.html

Perhaps as I get deeper into it I can find someone on the forums that can help tweak here and there.

What I'm thinking of doing is just getting an external design, getting someone else to code it into HTML off of that, and then upload it to SBI.

But I just know I'll want to add/change something on day two!

Thanks again for your help and your forum. There's darn little help out there on SBI outside of their proprietary forums (which I haven't yet seen!).

Yeah I know. I actually talked to one of the SiteSell Sales guys a few months ago when they launched this and he told me that the reason they don't focus so much on design is they really want people to understand that it's not about the design. If you want to make money, it's critical that you learn how to build a heavily trafficked site that reaches out to a specific audience. So many of the new customers are so focused on changing their design that they lose sight of what's really important in the beginning. Again, I think the coaching program is more for using the SBI! tools, not the design aspect.

I always tell the story that I used to have that simple 2-column design for 2 1/2 years and my site was making very good money even with that "outdated" design. I didn't change my design until my site was getting thousands of visits per day and making money.

But I can understand both sides. As a customer, if you're paying a certain amount of money you want your site to look the way you want. And with SBI! you can do what you want with your design, but there's a bit of a learning curve involved and it's different than the average host.

And as you said, you can always go to a site like www.freecsstemplates.org and download a free design then upload it to SBI!. Of course you still have to take the time to follow the integration guidelines so the template works with SBI!'s technology. But the steps are laid out pretty well.

__________________
Don't put the cart before the horse.
Plan your website, then create it.

Your Free Guide to Starting a Website
http://www.ThePerfectSiteGuide.com



My Latest Blog Post:
Stop Wasting Time on Worthless Techniques