How many times have you read a discussion on “website or blog” topic? It is a never ending topic but I think it is going in the wrong direction for the most people.
The majority of posts I’ve read lean towards a blog, because
… you don’t need to know any HTML or CSS to create it and it will only take you 5 minutes to put a great looking blog up…
I completely disagree with that.
Putting up a blog in 5 minutes will not result in a great looking professional money making blog. Not knowing any HTML and CSS will result in you always having to hire someone to make your blog look the way you want.
On the other hand, you don’t really need to know any HTML or CSS to put up a website either. So that argument goes down the drain. As an example, here is a preview of a new, soon to launch Block Builder 2 by Site Build It!
It looks way more easier than WordPress, especially that you can actually see what will it look like as you do it.
Blog is not a business
I have repeated this so many times to my friends and people who hire me to coach them though the process of building a successful e-biz. A blog is not a business. It should not be your ultimate goal.
Blog is just a way to communicate your message to your potential customers, but you should not make it your only business.
On the other hand, I would say that you can build a successful online venue by building a website. And this isn’t just a question of static site vs. a blog.
Website or blog – SBI vs. WordPress
Let me compare two things I have been using for years (a self-hosted WordPress blog and Site Build It!), that I can tell you a lot about and make a reasonable comparison, why you should build a site and not a blog:
Design
I had to buy a theme for my blog to look decent. Templates are included in SBI!
Last year they published several dozens of gorgeous CSS templates. They are also about to publish the new Block Builder 2 that will let you completely design and create your site with absolutely no coding on your part!
I spent hours and hours learning CSS and PHP to get my blog to do some things.
Some of SBI templates
Search Engine Optimization
Not all themes you buy for WordPress are optimized for search engines. You may need to add a SEO plugin to optimize your blog. Some cost money.
SEO – included in the price of SBI. You get access to some amazing lessons about SEO and you get one amazing tool that does the hard work for you.
Analyze It! is a tool that analyses your page for SEO and tells you if you did something wrong. Something like SEO pressor ($47) except it is included in SBI price.
Another post I read the other day, said something like:
…code in blogs is cleaner so it is better for rankings…
I have to call bulls**t on this one.
You can’t control the code in your blog because everything is adding code and you have no clue what is it, WordPress itself, themes, plugins, etc. On the other hand, with static sites, YOU control the code. You put it there and you know what it does.
Keyword research
While at SEO, I don’t want to forget the keyword research tool! Let’s assume you use the most popular tool among bloggers – Market Samurai (which is, by the way so buggy that I pretty much bought it and hardly ever used it). That is about $149 if I am not mistaking. Or $97 if you buy it before your trial expires.
Well, SBI! has integrated keyword research tools.
But Market Samurai isn’t only a keyword research tool! It is so much more…
So are SBI’s tools. You don’t get just keyword research tools, there are monetization research tools, competition tools, SEO analysis tools, etc.
Costs
One of the major arguments why people say it is better to have a blog is the cost.
Buy hosting and domain, install WordPress and you are ready to go.
Yes, you are. You are ready to blog, not build a successful online business. I have poured so much money in this blog, I could have built several SBI sites with it. And I still don’t have all I want on it.
If you ask me why don’t I just move it to SBI, I will tell you – I thought about it and still am.
But the main reason I am still keeping it here is that it is a great example for me to learn from and be able to write these comparisons. And I didn’t want to build a business with WordPress anyway, I already have that over at SBI 
So let me show you what you get with SBI and then how much will it cost you to have the same with WordPress.
The price of SBI is $299 a year (or $29.99 a month) and this is what you get with it.
Let me go with WordPress now:
- cheapest domain – $12 a year
- cheapest hosting – $60 a year
- decent theme (Thesis) – $87
- Market Samurai – $149
- …oooops, that is more than $299 already
So I guess we can’t build a list because we are already over budget. Did I say SBI includes an email marketing package in the price?
Site down time / Security
I have had my blog (yes, this one you are reading now) broken so many times it isn’t even funny. There is always something not working with another thing, theme clashing with plugins, plugins clashing with each other, .htaccess file getting hacked, etc.
I have yet to experience such a problem with SBI! after more than 2 years of using it all the time. Not just SBI, but any static site… there are no things that don’t work together that will break it.
Support
This is one of my main pet peeves with blogs. I screamed for help so many times regarding this issue.
Here is what happened to me recently.
I noticed that the blog just broke and something was wrong. I tried and tested everything, tried fixing it for 6 hours!!! Nothing worked.
Among other things: worked on fixing/removing plugins, reinstalled the theme, reinstalled the database and a bunch of other things. I mean, you can only imagine what I’ve done in 6 hours.
Of course WP itself doesn’t have support so you can’t count on them. I believe the theme was the issue but their Forum people said it wasn’t (the theme doesn’t have support either). My host tried helping me as much as they could but there are some things they just can’t fix (WordPress problems for example).
So after 6 hours of going crazy, I just gave up. I started doing something else and guess what. About an hour later, everything started working again. Like nothing happened!!! Except that my theme settings were all messed up and I had to spend more time on fixing all this.
Bottom line, as much as I love my blog – WordPress blogs are ticking bombs!
SiteSell has amazing support and you will always get your answer in matter of hours. And if you are not satisfied, you can contact the owner himself!
Site Build It! wins
So when I think about it, none of the arguments I read in these “anti-website pro-blog posts” hold water.
- Blog code is not cleaner.
- Blogs are not better optimized for search engines.
- Blogs are not easier to build.
- Blogs are not easier to design.
- Blogs are not cheaper.
- Blogs are not safer.
The more I use WordPress, the more I believe Site Build It! is the way to go.
Gifting time
I think I gave you some reasonable facts about “website or blog” argument. Blogs are not easier to build than static sites. Actually, statics sites are really easy to build with SBI.
But not just build them – make money with them as well. Because you will get a great foundation from the training and lessons you will receive over at SiteSell.
So what gifts I have here for you?
First, in case you would like to try SBI, they are running a Christmas special. This happens once a year, this time of year and it means you can
Buy one SBI and Get one FREE
That is two sites for the price of one. For someone that wants to work hard in 2012. it means they can build two profitable businesses next year.
If you want to work half-hard you can split the package with a friend and pay only $150 each.
Update: the special price offer is over for now.
More gifting: in case you decide to give it a go, since I only recommend products I strongly believe in, I am willing to give you an hour of my time to set your new site up, or help you with anything you may need after the SBI purchase. Of course, you get this if you buy SBI through my link here.
This is a great offer, two SBIs for the price of one and an experienced SBIer to help you with it 
I would love to hear your opinion on “website or blog” discussion and answer any question you may have about Site Build It!
Brankica you are coming off as someone who is just trying to sell SBI. Your site is built with WordPress after all. How believable does that make you. Plus you are doing things here that you could never do with SBI…
Things like all those Social Media buttons and this comment section. For me that’s why WordPress is better… it’s just more powerful. And I’ve got 2 SBI sites and 20 WordPress sites.
Rick
I have SBI sites, which you obviously didn’t read in the post, I guess you just did a search for a post about SBI to leave a comment on for link building purposes. Yes, you can add social media buttons to SBI sites, the same ones I have on this blog, I did it on mine and all it takes is a little piece of code. As far as comments go, I have Livefyre on one of my SBI sites and Facebook comment on another. So your argument here really doesn’t hold water.
Please, next time read the post and comment rules (that require you to read the post before you leave a comment) and then leave a comment. This just makes you look bitter.
Heya Pit
Interesting post – usually these kind of posts degenerate into arguments where one side says: WordPress is the best, and the other side says: Nooo, SBI is the best.
Now here’s some stuff that I believe to be true that you’ll probably agree with:
1. Ken Evoy (head of SBI) is not only an intelligent guy, but he’s also a genuine guy. And he genuinely wants to help people.
2. There are people who succeed with SBI and there are people who fail with SBI – just as there are people who succeed with WordPress, and people who fail with WordPress.
3. SBI provide a ton of training with their Website Builder product – and some of that training is really good.
And SBI is one way that a total newbie could take to get an offline business off the ground. SBI provide the training the tools and the training to make it relatively easy for someone who can’t code to get off the ground.
Now for the ‘buts.’
1. I haven’t tried BLock Builder 2.0 – but I ended up having to upload my own HTML layouts on my website and learn how to do some basic CSS coding because the process of uploading to SBI was clunky and the resulting pages looked very amateurish. (Again, I’m sure there are some folk who’ve learned how to create good looking websites with SBI – but there is a learning curve on how to do this).
2. The tracking/analytics in SBI is terrible. Yes you can load Google Analytics – but there’s a whole new sub-level of coding/manipulation required to install it. (Or there was the last time I looked). Once you get beyond a certain level you need to be actively tracking, testing and tweaking. It’s difficult to do that effectively with SBI.
3. The Autoresponder. Having the autoresponder seems like a great thing – if memory serves it’s unlimited. However the autoresponder’s effectiveness is limited – because you can only have one list per website. So you can’t do some of the things that Aweber of others can do – like segment your list. Being able to segment your list into buyers of certain products allows you to exclude certain segments from particular mailings, or upsell other segments. With SBI you can’t do that….and again, the further on you get with your business the more you need this feature to really maximize your incomes.
4. The SBI training is good….but limited. Their training is sufficient to get you going…but leaves a lot to be desired IMO. The last time I looked – and admittedly that was 18 months ago – it was outdated. And their training is very much one size fits all – and you’ll need to go beyond that training to really progress. When you get to this point you’ve outgrown SBI.
My honest opinion – having used SBI and WordPress – is that the price comparison is irrelevant and disingeneous. What’s relevant is which platform will give you the best result – if you aspire to anything beyond a simple site monetized with affiliate ads or google adwords then my opinion is that WordPress is the better option.
(Plus the other big thing to take into account is that whilst SBI does have free education – most of it is very basic, and a dedicated site owner will grow out of it pretty quickly and will need advanced training. And that advanced training will require things that are difficult to implement with SBI).
That’s my honest opinion – but I’d love to debate this with ya…
Paul
Hey Paul, I was gonna tweet you this post today to get your comment, cause I remember recently when we spoke, you said you had a few things you didn’t like.
I agree with all 3 points from the beginning, of course
I don’t think any of these two is the best per se, because it will depend on your goals, but I guess the more times I break my blog, the more I like SBI. And I think SBI is better for majority of goals
I will tell you what I like the best about SBI in 2011. Before Panda I haven’t pretty much touched my site for about 9 months. But with each Panda it grew! In traffic and income. On the other hand, if I don’t update this blog for 10 days my traffic goes down a bunch. I think that is my favorite difference
For the buts, lol:
1. I’ve uploaded my own HTML template as well, and didn’t use their “block builder” for long, but there are some awesome sites using BB and they look amazing.
However, I watched the live preview of BB2 yesterday and boy, that blew my mind. You literally see how a page looks as you add elements. It looked better than the visual part of the WP, cause even though I see the visual part of WP and can tweak the code in HTML tab, I still never know exactly how will it look until I hit “preview”.
So yeah, you are right, but the new BB2 kinda eliminates what we didn’t like about the first BB.
2. I am not sure about tracking problems, I didn’t have any.
I added Google Analytics to my template at the very beginning and it’s been working great, haven’t had to do anything extra. Since I started using Clicky, I added that one too, so I am using both tracking tools and they are working.
3. I agree with this up to a point. I would never need more than SBI autoresponder provides for my pet site for example. So it is more than enough for certain niches. I don’t sell to my list there, I only keep them updated and send them some interesting reminders from time to time. As I said, this really depends on the niche.
4. Ouch, I definitely don’t agree with this one. The only training I see as the one that doesn’t change are the tutorials on how to use different options in the dashboard.
But as far as everything else goes, there are so many new articles and not to mention the stuff that happens in the Forums.
OK, bring it on, I always have the best conversation with you, so I am sure we will have a party here all day!!
Ha ha
This is just a placeholder so you know I will be back.
I gotta put the kids to bed and stuff…when they are asleep I will be back for some more civilized debate!
Paul
Haha, I would never expect anything else from you!
Brankica, I remember when you first got started on your blog and I knew back then that SBI was really your passion. I knew that if you had to make a choice, you would drop WordPress in a hot minute
Congratulations on your success with SBI and I can tell that you’re going to convert a lot of people over to your way of thinking I’m sure. Cheers!
Lol, I wish I could get everyone to try it out
You know, I would drop WP cause of all the billions of times my blog was down and I didn’t know why, and that is just to start.
I have to go now and write a business plan for a SBI site for podcasters so I can persuade you to try it out
As long as your site is flexible, dynamic and allows for you to update information easily and efficiently then the system is whatever works for each person or business. I have seen great sites with SBI, Joomla, ZenDesk…etc
I agree, Justin. I just may be poking this WP too much, cause I think you were a victim of one of my screams for help once, lol. That happens to me all the time. Oh, one of the worst things was that SEO smart links (I think that is the name) broke twice here and removed the content of my most popular post. Just like that. Nothing else, just that one post. So I had to remove it…
I found that SEO Ultimate with Deeplink module was hurting performance on my blog badly, had to disable it. Any plugin that auto finds/turns words into links can have serious overhead performance issues and if you have blog performance issues those should be the first thing you disable and retest.
The first time it happened, it took me some time to figure it out, but the next time I checked that one first and it was it. Had no clue they are such liability
Hey Brankica,
I definitely have some issues with WordPress, as well.
When I came over from Joomla, I expected to be blown away and never have any problems with anything ever again, blah blah blah. Well, they hype didn’t really hold water.
It’s still a stellar CMS, but there’s a lot of code tweaking and customization that I had to do that would have cost me big time if I wasn’t so handy with it myself. Not what I was expecting when I would constantly hear how easy and user-friendly it was.
I watched the WordPress 3.3 video and I’ll stick with it for my main site, but for my next couple of sites I’m going back to Joomla. I don’t care for the theme/framework structure used on WP. I always found the Joomla templates much easier to work with and customize. I could always put whatever I wanted wherever I wanted without any muss or fuss.
A great looking, high-performing, SEO optimized site can be built with any of these tools, I guess. But how *easy* is it right from jump street?
I still haven’t tried SBI. You’ve talked about it so much, and I have a lot of trust for you so if I ever get a decent niche-site idea that lends itself to it I would try it out.
I agree with you, I did most of my stuff on my own because I never thought paying hundreds of dollars for a non-business site (which I kinda think of for this one) would be too much.
The main reason I gave it a go was to test it and see how it works. And since it happened after trying SBI, I was disappointed too.
We have a friend, you and I, but won’t say her name (yet) that built a WP blog and decided to try SBI. I helped her with SBI so she would not have to learn code or some small things you may want to use on it cause she is a techophobe. Ever since, she keeps saying “I did this and this on my blog and it was so hard, it is no where close to the simple SBI way”, which is so funny to me (in a good way) cause she built her SBI site all on her own. A lady that is “scared” of touching her blog not to mess something up. So that tells you how much better it is for those that are just afraid to mess with things.
I agree on the SEO part too, as long as you know what you are doing which a lot of people don’t. I’ve seen a lot of messy WP blogs lately, doing the SEO audits and all those people thought their blogs were perfectly SEO friendly!
Hey Pitt,
Like you, I will run miles away from anybody that says that codes in blogs are cleaner. I do not have any experience with WP blogs but I have often taken a peek at the codes and the amount of bogus codes I see before I get to the header scares the hell out of me. I am not surprised that it breaks that often. I have also looked at SBI codes and those are as clean as static sites created from scratch. That’s pretty cool considering that they are created with those drag and drop blocks shown in the video.
I have mostly heard good things about SBI training, support and keyword research tool and any day I want to create a site around a very competitive keyword that I want to bring in the cash on,
I will definitely go with them especially now that I can come with my own template. You know that’s the one thing I didn’t like about SBI don’t ya?
People often compare SBI! to WordPress simply based on cost and plugins. But just because you can put up a site in 10 minutes and install 15 plugins doesn’t make your site successful.
It’s all about TRAFFIC.
What I like about SBI! is they teach you how to write so you convert your visitors into customers. Of course there are some limitations (I’d love to see them allow PHP) but overall, there is nothing out there like SBI! when it comes to teaching people how to build a long-term business trust and credibility.
And the fact they are launching the new Block Builder is just the icing on the cake.
Thank YOU, Lisa, for showing me SBI!!!
You changed my life, girl, but you already know it!!!!
I agree about the 15 minute installation, most people don’t realize that putting the site up doesn’t mean much without traffic.
Oh, PHP
I wanted to add custom social buttons from this blog to my SBI site weeks ago and most of the code here is PHP. And I realized PHP won’t work so I was kinda sad.
Until I realized I can add them with NO PHP, hahah. So at least SBI taught me how to think with my own head and work around what you can’t do and figure out what you can.
So now I Have the same buttons on my site as well, yay.
Did I say thank you for changing my life?
I didn’t care much about the template when I started cause I didn’t even know what HTML was
Even then you could find templates and buy them if you wanted to do it and could not make one yourself but I was just too scared and didn’t do it.
But once SBI gave some free templates (actually a pile of nice ones), I decided to do it and it turned out great. That is actually how I learned so much CSS and HTML, by editing the template to match what I wanted it to look like and uploading the whole site on my own.
Is that the only thing you didn’t like? Wow
*Is that the only thing you didn’t like?
O yes, as a complete newbie, I already had my site design in my head and when I did not see it in the sample SBI websites, I decided to learn HTML and CSS so that I could tweak the SBI templates when I do get it.
At some point of doing that, I needed a domain and hosting to take the site live to see some HTML and CSS in action. So by the time I was done, I decided to stay with what I had.
I also read a lot of free valuable information on SBI website about writing for people and keyword research etc. I applied all these to my website and today that site is the top ranking website in my niche. I can only imagine the amount of even more valuable information available to SBI insiders.
Yes, they have a pile of free ebooks. Let me know if there is a topic that interests you, I will see if they have a free book on it and send it to you! Yup, their “hidden” content is even better
Hi,
I want to say only that thing this is very great to use no doubt in that we need to spend some money for purchase this but it will be prove good for our work.
Hi Brankica
When I saw the topic just had to stop working on my site and come comment
As you will recall … when you shared about static sites some time ago I wrote a negative type comment.
Shared about my own experience with static sites and all the $$$s it had cost me with NO results!!! Yes there a plenty of scams waiting for unsuspecting newbies like I was! BTW You were very gracious with your reply.
A few months later I was back with a different attitude. I re-read your post and decided to do my own research. After signing up with SBI you were so much help when I had questions. And so were the SBI support staff
As for the forums; I have never had a question that I haven’t found an answer for.
With my lavender blog; I am now applying all the things I have learnt with SBI and am so happy I came back and saw for myself why you wanted to share your own experience of SBI. As for WP … you are so right! Only yesterday I was checking my blog and noticed on several of my posts the layout had moved around!!! Had to redo it even though I hadn’t touched it at all. On SBI, this does NOT happen.
And thanks for teaching me html and everything else I needed to know to get me going with my business. I am one happy SBIer. To those wondering about it … go take a look. That costs nothing, other than your time. I’m sure glad I did
Patricia Perth Australi
I didn’t want to say anything about you, cause I am waiting for you to launch
but if there is anyone that can talk about both, it is you, after trying everything you can find online.
LOL I sure can
And launch is just around the corner. Will do a post to let everyone know as soon as it is ready.
Patricia Perth Australia
Great Article! I have been a memeber since 2008. Thank you SBI for helping me build an online business.
I appreciated the honest feedback about SBI.
I am an SBI user and have to say that for a new webmaster who is just interested in writing content and building traffic, it is ideal.
I know that there are some people who do not like it, but it is my opinion that these people are professional bloggers who do not like the fact that a newbie like myself can compete with them.
Therefore, if you are a pro blogger, then WordPress is probably fine for you. But for the brand new webmaster…there is NOTHING that compares to SBI!
My opinion on SBI is that there are some pro’s and con’s with the program. I was first introduced to SBI back in 2005 or 2006. I think that the program is great for those who are wanting to learn about online business. All of the information is in one spot and Ken Evoy does a great job with providing solid information.
What I don’t like about the program is the look and feel of the websites that are produced with their block builder software. For me, WP is much easier to use and it has many great looking templates available.
SBI has a solid forum that provides pretty good information on how to do things. Because I am more visual, I prefer to watch videos and listen to audis over reading when given a choice. SBI is a lot of reading.
Again, for good information in one spot about how to build an online business, SBI does a great . This is how I was able to understand the basics on how the online business concept works.
Yeah, they don’t have it all on video
more reading, but I do love their video series you watch when you start.
As far as visual, I agree to a point, but they launched the new BB2 and now you can pretty much make anything there, you can really create some amazing looking sites, and then again, you can always just make your own design.
The thing I don’t like is actually PHP and the fact that you can run so many plugin on WP and you can’t over there. But I do understand it from the usability and security point of view, can you imagine the mess a total beginner would make on their servers installing all the plugins and widget to make a big shiny site, haha.
Thanks so much for the comment and great insight in what you like and dislike about SBI!
Thanks for all these informative and friendly comments! How well does SBI deliver “responsive design” for mobile devices?
That is a great question! They weren’t really god with it, it was just a “standard site” (as most themes in WP still), but I know the new CSS designs are fluid and if I remember well, some people figured out how to make the mobile versions of their sites.
As far as I know, it isn’t automatic, I think that was your question
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