The REAL Site Build It Review
Get the facts about Site Build It from one who knows firsthand

Another complaint you’ll hear about Site Build It is that they have too much control over your website and web business.

Here are a couple of the things I’ve read:

• SBI owns your domain, not you. So, if you want to transfer it to a new web host, either you won’t be able to… or it’ll cost you, big time.
• You have no control over your website because you don’t have access to the backend.

So, are they true? Well…. NO.

Does SBI Control Your Domain?

SBI functions as both a web host and your domain registrar when you sign up with them. So, they DO register your domain name for you (through Tucows.com)… at no additional charge. But they don’t own the domain name; you do. I’ll prove it to you. Just follow these steps:

1. Go to this page: http://results.sitesell.com/scsweb.html
2. On that page you’ll see a list of many successful SBI websites. (Or you can also look at my SBI site URLs on the right sidebar here.)
3. Next, go to http://www.betterwhois.com & insert any of the SBI URLs from the Results page or mine here and look at the Administrative Contact listed. It doesn’t say SBI, SiteSell or anything like that, does it? (Unless of course you happen to choose anguilla-beaches.com, which IS owned by the daughter of SBI founder, Ken Evoy.)

So, you can easily prove to yourself that SBI does NOT own your domain; the SBI website owner does. And should an SBI owner decide to transfer their site away from SBI, all they have to do is initiate a domain transfer. It’s as easy to do at SBI as it is anywhere else. I know, because I’ve done it. Just be sure to save your pages before you do so, because you’ll have to upload them all over again to your new web host. And it doesn’t cost anything to leave SBI either; in fact, they’ll probably give you a prorated refund if you ask.

One other thing… if you DO leave SBI, any functionality you were using, such as forms, Content 2.0 or the ezine mailer, will obviously no longer work once you leave SBI.

Do You Control Your Website?

Some people equate not being able to do traditional FTP file uploads or being able to access your backend directly with not having control over your website. Again, this is NOT true. You can’t upload batches of files, and that is something most experienced webmasters like me find a little frustrating. SBI says it helps avoid problems when you can’t directly access your database of files. I’m not sure I buy it. But I also don’t buy that it means I’m not in charge of my own site.

The SBI staff never touch your site or anything in it. You own and control all your content. You add and subtract functionality in complete freedom… as you see fit. Over the past few years, they have given you more and more control, albeit somewhat indirectly to much more functionality than was originally true.

For example, you didn’t used to be able to install a true blog, a forum or a php-based shopping cart script on your SBI site, because you couldn’t upload PHP files or install PHP based scripts. But about a year ago, they rolled out a new module called InfinIt that now makes all that possible by putting those add-ons in a subdomain of your site (which is actually hosted elsewhere, but appears to be a seamless subsection of your site). Here’s an example on one of my sites:

http://mama.motor-scooters-guide.com/

So, my answer once again to the many SBI myths that have to do with your control over your own site is once again… WRONG! SBI is not the enemy; it is simply a tool to build a successful business on the Web.