New Year, new challenges!

An illustrated guide

I thought it was high time I gave you a better look behind the scenes at what I’m currently doing with Site Build It! (aka SBI!).

If you haven’t read my previous posts, you should catch up now with post 1, post 2 and post 3 before reading on … it’ll all make much more sense.

I’ll give you a feel for how SBI! works, then I’ll bring you up-to-date with how I’m doing … the big challenge this time being to write and upload new pages in Dreamweaver rather that using the integrated page-builder provided as part of the basic kit.

Mission control

Site Central is what you use to access all of your tools in SBI!

As you’ll see from the screen grab below, you can access many of the features I’ve been talking about in my earlier blogs via this panel.

Site Central screen grab

You’ll also note towards the bottom of the image that SBI! gives you the option of using the integral page builder or uploading your own HTML.

I started with the ’safety wheels’ on but I’m now using my favourite HTML tool Dreamweaver … more in that later.

Finding the right keywords

SBI! is very stubborn, it won’t let you register your domain name or start to build your website until you’ve done your homework.

If you’re after a ‘quick fix’ or a ‘get-rich-quick’ scheme, you’ll probably have given up before you get to that stage.

SBI! is entirely focused on helping you build a website that works … and speaking as someone who has wasted his time building over 10 websites that didn’t work, I think that’s a pretty sensible approach now.

Here’s the tool you use to start generating - then sifting - possible keywords:

Brainstormer screen grab

This is Brainstorm It!, the part of the process where you apply your basic ideas, then put them to the test to work out if a) they’re profitable b) they’re in demand c) they’re going to help you build a popular website d) they’re going to help you monetize your site.

Brainstorm It! not only brings in straightforward keyword options, it also does a bit of lateral thinking on your behalf and offers more obscure possibilities.

By way of example, the screen grab below shows a basic keyword search for a topical term at the moment -  ‘credit crunch’:

Keyword information screen grab

As you can see, for each of the keywords returned for ‘credit crunch’ you are given data for demand, supply and profitability.

The key is to sift the list - until you have about 300 sound keywords - each offering lots of demand, limited supply and therefore high profitability.

You can sort each word by demand/supply/profitability, write notes next to each keyword with ideas and possible monetization options, click on the ‘Site info’ link to get details of the top 10 websites for each keyword and many more things which I haven’t even got to yet because I haven’t begun to monetize my own SBI! website web-work-at-home.com.

When appraising SBI! for your own potential use, don’t get hung up on what basic web hosting offers at a fraction of the price, take into account the whole package and evaluate the benefit of all the tools that are included in the price.

Building your pages

The process of coming up with a  decent website concept, then sifting, sorting and analysing keywords is quite a tedious one, but once you’re sure you’re onto a winner, you can register your domain name and SBI! makes all sorts of new and useful tools available to you.

Even though I usually build my websites using HTML and Dreamweaver, I stuck with SBI!’s intergrated content management system when building my first 30 pages, just while I was getting used to the process.

Each page is built around one of your high demand/low supply/high profitability keywords as you can see from the page-builder screen grab below:

Page builder screen grab

You build each page in a modular fashion adding text, text links and graphics to build your page.

Once you’ve completed that process, you use the all-important ‘Analyse it!’ tool, which scans your page and reports back on any keywords and metadata errors.

The screen grab below shows you what happens when you get it wrong:

Keyword analysis tool

You can’t get away with a trick!

SBI! tells you what you’ve forgotten, if you’ve ‘keyword-stuffed’ your page and it won’t let you through the process until you’ve got it right.

Once you’ve done that, you get a lovely page like this:

Keyword analysis tool

Every page I’ve ever written on the web - prior to discovering SBI! - has been completely ‘finger in the wind’.

I’ve never thought about the main keyword for each page, whether that was a keyword my online audience would be using, and if I even delivered the content they expected when they found my page.

With SBI! that’s all I think about, and three months into the project I can see that I’m getting it right.

Already I’m ranked number 2 for two of my keywords in ‘Live Search’ … I know that because every 3 weeks, SBI! compiles a report for each of my keyworded pages, and it tells exactly how each one is ranking in Google, Yahoo!, Live Search and Ask.com.

You’re not seeing that screen grab though, because that information is top secret

Other tools I’ve used in SBI!

Since I last posted before Christmas, I’ve used SBI!’s ‘Value Exchange’ tool, another valuable part of the integrated package.

When you run websites, one of the tedious jobs that you have to do is finding partners to exchange links with.

These should be editorially appropriate and to quality websites … no link farms or SEO scams.

SBI! gives you a tool which automatically matches you up with other websites producing content for your keywords.

You then decide whether those sites are good linking partners, and SBI! automatically generates an email inviting them to link up with you.

For example, the last page I wrote on my website for the keyword ‘dani johnson’ was based around the concept of a Christian home based business.

I found a linking partner, and now have an exchange with this quality, content related website called christian-home-business-help.com.

‘Value Exchange’ takes a lots of the hassle out of the link exchange process and quickly matches you up with suitable partners … it’s like speed-dating for webmasters!

The unseen side of SBI!

I thought my web skills were pretty advanced before I started working on my SBI! project, but I’ve realised that I only know a little bit about the web.

I am learning so much from SBI! and I’ve already got six A4 folders filled with the guidance notes and tips that are provided for each stage of the process.

I print them out, read them over breakfast and on the bus to work, and put everything I’m learning into practice … it’s been a complete (second) ‘webucation’ for me.

I never thought that would be something I would get from this system, but it’s definitely been an unseen bonus for me.

Uploading my own HTML in SBI!

I was in two minds about doing this as I was getting on so well with SBI!’s integrated page-builder system, but I decided to ‘bite the bullet’ after Christmas.

I’m used to writing pages in Dreamweaver, so that’s what I started to do.

Here’s a page written using the SBI! page-builder: About Site Build It!

Here’s a page built using Dreamweaver:  Beat the credit crunch

Can you tell the difference?

Neither can I!

To use the ‘Upload your own HTML’ feature, you simply browse to your Dreamweaver file.

SBI! then scans your HTML and tells you if you’ve made any errors.

After that you upload the images to the server area as in the screen grab below:

Image uploading tool

After your images have been uploaded, SBI! does the usual page analysis to check that your keyword use is fine, and that all your tags are correct … then you can publish the page.

The entire process is simple, and it kind of makes me wish I’d started using HTML from the outset as I can produce pages faster this way.

The key point here is that it doesn’t matter if you’re a complete novice or an HTML expert, you can still use all of SBI!’s tools without being too challenged by the technical bits or held back by the page-builder … it really is suitable for everybody.

Where to next?

I’m back to building pages now, content, then more content, then even more content is the mantra of  SBI!, and in March I monetize.

I have already created a couple of SBI! pages on the site, but you won’t find any Google ads or flashing banners on web-work-at-home.com yet.

I’m getting 20-40 unique visitors a day, I’m establishing quality links with other websites, I’m beginning to rank in the search engines already and I already have an Alexa ranking of above 700,000 … check it out for yourself using SBI!’s ‘Alexa traffic test’ tool.

I’ll be honest with you, I’m almost scared to monetize … everything seems to be going so well on my website, the monetization process is the final, big test of the entire process.

So, I’ll continue to plod on, writing new pages, building content and monitoring my progress in each of the four major search engines.

I’ll carry on posting updates on this blog when I have something new to report, but if you have questions about SBI! in the meantime use their handy ‘Ask a Question‘ service and they’ll get straight back to you.

Happy website building!