My SBI Diary...

"How I built my second Site Build It! website
(now known as SelfHelpCollective.com) "

Hello, my name is Steve M Nash and I'm the owner of a popular Site Build It! website called HowIPromoteMyWebsite.com, as well as several 'ordinary' websites like these:

• TextMeFree.com - free sms text messaging guide
• ShopTour.co.uk - UK shopping guide, I guess!
• Photos4.co.uk - Guide to printing your digital photographs

In my humble opinion Site Build It! is a fantastic suite of all-in-one tools that helps pretty much anybody build, promote and profit from their website (no HTML-skills, and no website promotion skills required). And that's why I've decided to not only build a second SBI! website, but to document my progress in this SBI Diary (below).

So, without further ado...

My SBI Diary...

For SBI! Site: SelfHelpCollective.com

My First month of SBI! (Feb 2008)
Rest of 2008
2009 | 2010 | 201X....

Necessary preamble
- Introduction to Site Build It!...

Site Build It! is, as I've already said, an all-in-one service (a collection of site-building and research tools) that pretty much enable anyone to earn an extra income online, whatever their skills and knowledge.. (That's what I believe anyway.)

And the SBI! journey more or less begins with the SBI! Action Guide.

The Action Guide basically steps you through the process of creating a successful website. And you can read the guide or listen to it. Each day of the Action Guide reminds you of what you've learnt and what you're going to learn. It makes the process feel achievable, it really does, and you only end up only doing the things that matter.

This is important, as I want my site to be successful!

How do I measure success? Well, like this...

1. The site makes me money;
2. I enjoy building and updating it;
3. AND site visitors really find the site valuable too.

I won't say any more about the SBI! Action Guide now, but I do make references to it in my diary. (You can find out more here: Action Guide briefly explained, by me .)

Diary Begins...

Feb 4th, 2008

Well today is the day that I start my second SBI! website. I bought SBI on Jan 1st (price US$299) but have been preoccupied with another non-internet related project until now. So, SBI begins with reading the SBI Action Guide, I guess...

ER, well before I do that I think I will create this SBI Diary. And I might also introduce myself in the SBI forum. And then I can begin reading the Action Guide

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Feb 5th, 2008

Feel surprisingly positive about starting this second SBI journey! From watching the videos in the SBI! Action Guide (freely available to non-SBI customers, strangely) I already have a strong sense of feeling that I'm doing the right thing, and that all I have to do is follow a clear, sensible set of instructions. Yes, after one day, I already feel empowered.

I particularly liked these words in the Action Guide:

"Proceed steadily step-by-step. Take your time. Remember, a 'DAY' is just a metaphor in SBI!. You completed Day 1 in mere minutes. Day 2 may take days, even weeks. So don't worry if your head spins at first."

Note: SBI! is a Ten 'Day' process. Obviously, I'm not expecting to get my site up in ten days. I am, in fact, aiming to have a successful site in 6 months, actually. And that's where being patient comes in.

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Feb 6th, 2008

Finished reading the first five days of the SBI! Action Guide. Phew, it's a little bit overwhelming I must admit. But I know that I'll get up to speed with the SBI-way! :-)

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Feb 7th, 2008

Dawdling a bit, today, as I have to think of ideas for my site concept. This meant me looking through old files kept in strange corners of my computer and in MS Outlook as well as wandering around the house asking myself "just what am I really interested in.

Got an idea - got several - and I now need to plug the best of those ideas into the Brainstorm It! research tool. A job for tomorrow, I think... (next week, now, as I'm only working on this second SBI site Mon. to Thurs in the mornings)

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Feb 12th, 2008

In between answering (and looking for answers at the SBII forums) today I must narrow down my site concepts to three. And they include the following, somewhat general ideas so far:

Notes: using other people's information to build the content - e.g. interviews with experts - was a thought, too.

Clearly, these site topics are variable and overly general, but it's definitely a start! They all represent things I am either interested in (and am willing to learn more about) or that , have been interested in (and so already know quite a bit about).

Hmm, but got to reduce this list to three...

Okay, and after some thought, my top three site concepts are:

1. "Self help"
   Far too broad a subject, but I am interested in helping people help themselves
   
   
2. "Mentoring"; e.g. how to find a mentor
   I'm really interested in mentoring and think there is a lack of people being suitably mentored right now.
   
   
3. "Problem solving"
   Already created a problem-solving website but it's not that successful, alas! :-(
   
   ~~~
   
   
4. "Beer Gardens"; e.g. where to find them, and how good they are
   
   Now this might be a fun project for the summer. Hmmm.
   
   
5. "Internet Dating Guide"; e.g. how to go about internet dating so that you have fun and do end up meeting someone special in a given period of time.
   I know a lot about Internet dating, but I also know that I'm happy if I never have to do it again - not good on the passion score.
   
   
6. "Writing Guide" e.g. how to write your first novel
   
   Books on this subject exist and I'm not sure how much you can convince someone to write their novel: at some point they just have to write it, and that comes from within.

I think topics like "The Simpsons", "Learning Spanish", "Walking" are either done already or my passion is more about doing than writing about doing.

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Feb 14th, 2008

My head is spinning somewhat today. I have an idea for my second SBI! site (that I have yet to explore using the marketing research tools of Brainstorm It!) based around self-help. There is loads of freely available content for it and ways for me to personalise this content myself and get site visitors to do so too. How? By using a fairly new to SBI feature known as Content 2.0.

So what's Content 2.0 when it's at home, then? Simplistically speaking - and I have to keep it simple as trying to understand the potential of Content 2.0 is what is getting my head spinning - it's like creating your own MySpace, Yahoo! Answers or YouTube or Digg on your site and based on the theme of your site.

It's a fabulous addition to Site Build It! and is totally wasted on my first Site Build It! website., right now. (D'oh!)

Blimey! Lots of work to do. Anyway, I am excited... :-)

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Feb 15th, 2008

More thinking about my site concept. I've come up with one idea that I like - I like it a lot, but the numbers say "No" (market research - keyword research - done by Brainstorm It!). So I'm going to mull it over for a while. Also going to ask the other SBI owners in the SBI forum to see what they think. (And I'll answer some questions I find there too, to 'give back', as it were. Tis the only way...)

Hmm.

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Feb 18th, 2008

Doing further checking into the self-help related idea I've had. As part of that process discovered the potential of a great keyword research tool called Search It!. It's almost too much - putting all of the web's main keyword research facilities into a small neat pull-down form - but it has actually given me a great idea of the name of my site, and more hope that I may well be onto something. :-)

(Of course this optimism may all go tomorrow - 'creating' seems to be like that. Lol.)

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Feb 19th, 2008

I'm getting nearer to thinking what my second SBI! website is going to be about. And I'm going to progress to Day 3 of the Action Guide to see if the idea really is a good one, or not.

I will probably need to do some more keyword research, but I feel like I am dawdling a bit now, and I'm definitely getting distracted (I visit the helpful SBI forums but sometime read about solutions to problems I'm not yet experiencing - eek!)

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More SBI! Diary Entries...

Read more of my SBI Diary:  Feb 2008 (1st Month) | Rest of 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 201X

About Me & Site Build It!

Let me just say that at time of writing I already own a Site Build It! website (it's called HowIPromoteMyWebsite.com .)

However, I built this SBI website several years ago when Site Build It! was, dare I say it, inferior (keyword research has improved, Content 2.0 now exists, and the Action Guide is in PDF and video form now and reflects these (and other) HUGE improvements).

Also, I already make a full-time living online from several websites (including HowIPromoteMyWebsite.com). What this means is:

• I am not a novice website builder, but I do have preconceived ideas about site building that may not fit into SBI's site building philosophy. (I am also impatient and this is one of the main reasons why I've never got round to building a second SBI! site. I've preferred to do it my way -- with varying degrees of success, alas.)
  
  
• I am not new to Site Build It!, but the product/service has changed dramatically (not overstating things, here) since I registered my first SBI site in 2001
  
  
• I am able to spend 4 mornings a week, for the next 6 months (Jan to August 2008), building my second SBI! website.

Still, I firmly believe that SBI! is suitable to all - and time can be found, for even the busiest Mom, Dad, student or full-time working person, if it's important enough!

Many who succeed with SBI! are absolute beginners, and sometimes it is easier to start your first website with such a blank slate. I approach creating my 2nd SBI! site as a semi-experienced web designer, though, burdened (a little) with "too much knowledge" - I just thought it important that you understand my web-building background (I am no novice, even though SBI! was orginally designed with the beginner in mind...)

I hope to use this SBI Diary to help show that experienced web professionals can succeed with SBI! just as much as beginners can, via my trials, tribulations and (more importantly) my successes detailed in this diary!

Learn more about me here...

or

Read my full review of SBI! here...

NOTE: (1)
My own Site Build It! example site is SelfHelpCollective.com - a now-established and popular guru-free self-help site! And you can see how I came to build my own SBI! (starting in Feb 2008) in my Site Build It! Diary (see below).

or

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