How to Build a Great Website!

Hi, Mo here. I'm the owner of this website.

I love sports; especially SEC sports; especially SEC football. And, obviously I love building this website. It's fun, challenging and interesting. Every day brings a surprise as the site evolves in unexpected ways.

Ultimately, this hobby with sensible money management will allow me to "retire" from the day job.

Actually, I don't want to retire at all. I do want to have the time to do a bunch of different things.

And, after all, what could be better than earning a living writing about sports -- when I want to!! Can't wait for that day!

It's not about the money. It's about the time that money can buy that will allow me to do the things I really want to do with my life. Which happily includes continuing to grow this site...spending more time with family, friends, causes -- like Tennessee Football!! :)

Already, I feel like this little website has had an impact in the sports world.

Here are links to some articles I've written about the BCS/College Football Playoff Controversy SEC vs Big Ten Football Debate Belichick Spygate Controversy Firing of Phil Fulmer Big Sports Stories. Each of these articles has been highly ranked in search engines (like Google); read by thousands of people; and, linked to by other websites. I've even been told about a student citing this website as a source for a speech he gave about Alabama Football History -- in a college speech class.

Me with the Smokey mascot I eventually (rather unhappily) settled on.

And, I've been interviewed various times about sports and building websites. Just type "Mo Johnson SEC Sports" into google and you'll see that 28 of the first 30 entries are related to me. Pretty cool!!

In the process of building this site, I've met lots of great people. In fact, I partnered with one of them to buy SEC Talk (another great SEC sports website).

And, that site makes money too.

I also have several other sites, and more in planning. Some are sports related sites; some are about other things that I'm interested in. Each continually grows bigger and better in size, traffic and income.

To me, that says a lot. Probably 99% of websites that are owned and operated by one person (or one family) do not make money. Especially sports websites. It's tough to make money with a sports website -- unless you know what you are doing.

I know because I've been there. Here's the abbreviated version of my story.

In August 2006, I came up with a bright idea to make money selling sports products on the internet. I had spent some time (too much time) searching for a Tennessee Volunteer Smokey mascot (stuffed animal hound dog). I searched physical stores and on-line and couldn't find exactly what I wanted.

So, I thought to myself:

Sometimes good ideas come out of the blue and for whatever reason I grabbed this one by the neck and wouldn't let it die.

I had heard all sorts of stories of people making money through the internet. I wondered if it was true. Were the stories legit or well...not legit?

I became obsessed with the idea. I checked books and magazines out of the library and read them on the way to work. I stayed up till all hours of the night researching all about how to build a website; sell stuff on Ebay; succeed at dropshipping; write a blog; sell stuff on the internet; build a "Yahoo" store, etc, etc.

And, eventually, I tried it all. None of it worked.

But, I wouldn't let it go.

Late one night (I guess it was actually very early one morning), as I was trying to figure out how to create a "simple" on-line store "solution," I stumbled across Site Build It (SBI).

As I understood it, SBI offered a "complete web solution" for only $299 a year. SBI claimed they would teach me everything I needed to know to build a successful (i.e. profitable) web site. Not only that, but they would provide me with all the tools I needed to build the site. And, give technical support and assistance as I learned and built the site.

At the time it was important to me that SBI has a no-risk, 30-day money back guarantee. And, even after that you can get a pro-rated refund for the rest of the first year.

NOTE:
[Brand New Feature: SBI now allows you to sign up for $29.99 a month, rather than paying the $299 in advance for the entire year. And, you can get that $29.99 back if you aren't satisfied.]

The problem was that as I read more and more about SBI, I didn't really like what they said about all the work involved. Seriously. I had been looking for a way to make quick, and relatively easy, money on the web. [Wouldn't we all love that!]

The SBI philosophy was (and still is) that you create a high value website (with lots of interesting and/or useful content) that visitors enjoy. Only after you've done that, will you make money.

Actually that's just common sense. Which is why it really works. After all,

1. The key to making money on the web is getting good traffic to your website.
2. The key to that is getting high rankings in the search engines when people type in relevant search terms.
3. The key to that is having a high quality website that search engines will rank highly.
   

So, you've got to give (or create) something of value before you will get something of value (traffic/money).

There are easier and cheaper (at least initially) ways to build a website than using SBI. However, making money with a website requires more than just having a collection of Web pages. SBI includes all the tools you will need as well as the guidance and process to help you build a long-term, profitable e-business.

That's why, in the long run, using a cheaper alternative will cost you more -- because it probably will never make money.

Truthfully, given what you get with SBI -- it is an amazing value. The longer I'm around website stuff and experience working with various companies, the more I see what a great value SBI really is.

Anyway, I'll get to the point. Fortunately, I decided to give SBI a shot (before I'd wasted too much time running down other rabbit holes). Even more fortunately, I stuck with it even when I didn't get much traffic (or any money) for the first few months. In fact, it took nearly a year before this site was profitable (meaning that I was earning more than I was paying).

However, during the second year (Oct 2007 - Oct 2008) traffic to the site really exploded. Now, (as of November 2009) this website averages over 3,000 unique visitors and nearly 10,000 page views -- a day! That's over 3 million page views a year!

Here's the current traffic ranking of this website according to Alexa.com. You can see this site is well within the top 1% of all websites on the internet.

Alexa Certified Site Stats for www.secsportsfan.com

You say: "that's nice, but what does it have to do with me?"

The reason I say all this is to tell you that you can do it too. What I've done is not magic. It is easily reproducible. I was not particularly lucky. In fact, I made a number of mistakes along the way. So you may well do better than me!

Truthfully, if you follow the right roadmap, and stick with it, I think you are almost guaranteed to succeed in time. But, you do need to know what to do and have the right tools to do it. That's where SBI comes in.

Site Build It is the key for the "average" person who wants to use a website to do something extraordinary.

Why has SBI been the key for me?

First, SBI guided me into finding a topic that I love to write about (SEC Sports) and showed me how I could do that and earn money from it. Building a site about a topic you love is key because otherwise you won't find the time to "work" on the website. If it is "work," you will find every possible excuse not to do it.

But, if it is really fun -- you will find the time. Just like you now find the time to do other things you enjoy. Now, it's more fun for me to work on my website, and interact with the community the site has built, than to watch TV. So, that's what I do. I might have a game on in the background; but at the same time I'm writing new content for the site. Essentially, SBI has helped me to convert my leisure time into productive time.

And, here's the key -- it is still leisure time because I enjoy doing it.

Everyone knows something about something they love that they could share with others. That knowledge is truly useful, valuable and worth money if harnessed correctly. Here's a link to more about how SBI can turn your passion into profit.

Second, SBI takes care of all the technical stuff to allow your website to be a success. This is absolutely crucial since, at least at first, you will likely have to do this on a part-time basis, as time allows. So, the stuff SBI does for you, allows you to focus on what only you can do -- add great content (articles, audio, pictures, video). If you can type; you can build a website. Really.

I can't go into detail about everything SBI provides, but here's how another SBI owner put it:

With SBI, you get more than just a "site builder." You don't need to worry about looking for separate hosting; paying for a separate keyword research tool; figuring out how to handle uploading new comments and submissions from visitors; discovering how to integrate autoresponders; a newsletter, etc., etc. See the full list of SBI features here.

SBI's Action Guide presents a step-by-step process, presented in both written and video formats. All you have to do is follow it. Really! The most successful SBI! owners say "all they did was follow the Guide." They don't get sidetracked (wasting time) or have to guess at what to do next. SBI's guided approach helps you reach your goals.

The more I do this stuff, the more I realize that my time is really now my only limitation. With sufficient time I can accomplish absolutely anything on the web. This is why I now extensively use outsourcing to help leverage my time (I'm working on a book on this topic....) But, I also have saved tons of time by not having to worry about reading all the latest blogs and twits about this or that going on in the world of internet marketing. SBI keeps track of all that for me and summarizes it each week in a newsletter that narrows down what I really need to know and how I can efficiently use it to grow my business. This is very, very important. Otherwise, I'd literally spend all my time floundering around, just trying to figure out which way to go. So, it's nice to have someone (SBI) on your side that you can trust and who's only interest is really in seeing us succeed.

Third, the SBI community is amazing. SBI comes with unlimited customer support. SBI owners often call it the best they've ever experienced. And the SBI Forums complete the picture. They are the most friendly, help-and-be-helped set of e-business forums in the world. That is where hundreds of other website owners, all part of the SBI family, post questions, get answers, and generally help one another succeed. You will be amazed at how friendly and helpful SBI owners are. It's fantastic. I could not have done what I've done without the SBI community behind me.

[By the way, if you want, use the contact form below to contact me. I can give you a password so you can browse the forums (without obligation) and see for yourself.]

I personally enjoy few things more than helping like-minded website owners achieve success. It's really fun and rewarding. So, if you sign up for SBI, I'll be more than happy to help you out any way I can.

The bottom line is that with SBI you can build a website that you can use to achieve independence.

By "independence," I don't just mean financial independence and the time that gives you. It's more than just that.

Building my business has broadened my horizons into new areas and interests that I wouldn't have developed had I not opened this door.

You don't know where it will lead -- until you start.

Looking back now I see that the day I started building this site was really the day I set out on a great adventure that I hope to continue the rest of my life.

I know all of this sounds corny and unbelievable. We have all learned to be cynical -- for good reason.

All I can say is; for me, this is what has happened.

If you work hard and are patient; in my experience, you will be successful. The magic is really within you. The web offers the best opportunity "regular people" have ever had to achieve extraordinary things.

Finally, here's a video from someone else who used SBI and his sports passion (tennis) to build a successful website.

Lot's of people who start sports websites opt for blogs. They are relatively fast and easy to put up. But, it's probably a bad idea for you. To find out why I say that, click this graphic:

If you've read this far, congratulations! And, I'm sure you have some questions. You can ask questions directly of SBI by clicking SBI Questions.

Or, ask me any questions by using this form (ask me about SBI's special deals too). Finally, if you sign up for SBI through clicking a link on this site -- you can JOIN MO'S TEAM absolutely free. All that means is that I'll help you out as best I can; answer your questions; give you advice as you go along. Absolutely free. I'd enjoy it. Just use the contact form below to let me know after you sign up. Talk to you soon!

I suppose maybe the best proof of all that I believe in Solo Build It is that not only do I renew this site each year, but I now have built additional sites (with more on the way) and despite all the cheaper options out there I still have chosen Solo Build It for each of the sites. Those sites include:

1. The Best Sports Blog
2. Best All Time Sports
3. Prince William County Virginia
4. Land of Snow
   

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