Compare Joel Comm to SBIEvery now and then I receive an email or some other marketing ploy directing me to a site that offers website building tools. If the offer comes from a good source, or I'm especially intrigued, I'll check it out. Lately, there has been a lot of talk about adsense templates and VRE - virtual real estate. I've been intrigued enough to check it out. The latest one I received was from Joel Comm - an acknowledged guru in the Adsense world, who is now offering a package built around Adsense templates. I took a good long look at the package he had to offer, and I decided to compare Joel Comm's Adsense template package to SBI - which is what I already use. This is what I found....
(SBI is what I use to create content, traffic and effectively monetize) |
| Feature | Joel Comm's offer | my SBI feature | My Observations |
| Ready to use templates | Yes - 150 of his choices | Yes soon to be 170 templates - ready to use | 160 templates have been voted into being by users. Each has 2 color variations. |
| Need to know HTML | No - use his template | No - I use SBI building blocks and add HTML if I want, or use only HTML - my choice on each and every page. | SBI also gives me basic HTML code if I want it, as well as a transition template so that I can either adapt their templates or build the whole thing from scratch if I want. When I'm ready it's there, no extra cost |
| Adsense "ready" | Templates provided that you adapt with your own google code, then install into your site. | Install Google code as is - no need to put it in two places. | Don't really get the advantage of Joel Comm's method. You need to get your code from Google anyway. |
| Adsense 'secrets' of placement | His code automatically places in key spot | I control where the adsense code goes, and how it looks. | SBI offers LOTS of free advice on Adsense, not just placement. |
| Keyword niches | He provides 150 of his choices | I choose the topic, then use SBI tools to identify profitability on multiple angles - no limits | I prefer to have the choice of a topic I really know and care about |
| RSS | Yes | Yes - entire site is blogged, plus SBI automatically submits, no extra work. | Having a blog is only the first step. Getting it submitted properly is key. Every keyword focused new page is automatically blogged, and I add my own bloglet whenever I want |
| Google sitemaps | Included if you use specific type of template | Included, plus instructions on how to submit it to Google the first time only. After that, it's automated. | Yahoo sitemap creation and submission is also included. Automatic updates and re-submissions to both. |
| "Secrets" of clickbank and other affiliates | Highly hyped e-books on specific topics | Detailed how-to on affiliate-marketing, as well as hundreds of how to articles and advice from other owners | I used to buy into e-books of marketing secrets a while ago, but stopped once I realized that I had everything I needed - current, real, tested information at my fingertips whenever I want it. No need to download and print all sorts of e-books. Let alone trying to keep track of it all. I much prefer a central online location of advice. |
| Abililty to change several pages at once | Separate tools for different types of changes | I can change the look and feel of my entire site, including colour, images and even footers - immediately, any time I want, as often as I want. For my uploaded pages I can also use SBI includes to add or change any item on the page at will. | I prefer to only have to use one tool - the SBI site central gives me access to everything at any time. Only one thing to learn and no worries of integration - so that I can concentrate on building my business. |
| Video tutorials | Yes, for the technique of using some of the technical tools | Yes - videos on how to use specific tools, as well as build a website business. | Additional video tutorials are being added constantly at no extra charge - nothing to download. |
| Proof offered | His cheque. Testimonials. | Hundreds of successful SBI sites, independently verified traffic results. | I also get lots of encouragement from other SBI owners in the forums that graciously assist in hundreds of ways - free. |
| Constant message | Buy now, buy now! Get rich quick! | Take it slow, build a solid business, not just a website. Tortoise it. | The tortoise is the official mascot of SBI. The forum primary guideline is "help and be helped" Pay it forward. |
| Domain included | No | Yes | Isn't this the whole point? You can't do much with the tools if you don't have a website. |
| Web hosting included | No | Yes | No extra hidden charges |
| Domain based email | No | Yes, As many email addresses as you want. | How are you going to communicate with visitors? |
| Form creation | No | Yes. As many as you want. | Also includes auto ability to add thank you, auto respond email and multiple notification |
| Monitor click throughs? | No - how do you measure success? | Yes, Detailed reports by page and by click | |
| Traffic monitoring | No. Just to tools to build, no place to actually use and monitor results. | Yes. | Key traffic details available daily. Data is pre-analyzed and sorted for you. No work in setting up. |
| Price | It depends on when you buy! He starts off saying it's $ 1,997, but then it's less, depending on how fast you give him money. But, it's only for tools - not a website, not web hosting. | $ 299. Includes tools AND actual website, plus much, much more. I didn't need to buy anything else to be operational. It's all there. | I saved a ton of time and money. |
There are lots of other ways to compare SBI of course, but these are the key features that Joel Comm was flogging for his products. To tell the truth, he really is a great marketer. His copy writing skills are excellent in the super-hyped up ad that I got in Alan Gardyne's newsletter.
The idea of having Adsense templates initially sounds quite appealing - maybe it would save me work I thought. But, this temptation didn't stand up to my closer scrutiny. Why spend extra money for what I can already do? The extra time, work and money in buying templates just isn't justified in my view.
The other thing that twigged for me is the biggest claim of all - content is king. I think he's right - content IS king. But, when I looked closely, I noticed that his actual products have much less to do with building content and much more to do with the frills you add to the content - selling icing rather than the cake if you will.
I had already learned the key points of the importance of content from SBI long ago. And, more importantly, I now have the tools to help me actually build real, meaningful content for visitors. I also have all the advice and tools I needed to build traffic and then monetize it too. So yes, I guess you could say that I get to have my cake, and eat it too!
Ok, so to give you a slice of my cake, I'll give you the single most important thing you need to know about how to monetize website content. Go down to the bottom of that page, and you'll find an e-book called Make your Content Pre-Sell. It's a free download, so enjoy at your leisure.
NEW! Just one more example of how the SBI product keeps on improving - for free! Now you can also
watch a video
to see how it all comes together. Learning how to incorporate video into a website is one of the latest FREE updates to the SBI suite of tools. See for yourself just how cool this is.
Be prepared though.
You may never look at website building the same way again.
Enjoy!
p.s. if you have any questions at all about how this works or if it could be useful in your situation, just ask here.
p.s.s. If you want to investigate the price and features offered by SBI more closely just check out this
order page.
