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Overview:
Ken
Evoy is a Canadian Physician turned marketer. His marketing
career started when he invented and sold 23 games and toys
for millions of dollars. Later he went on to sell a penny
stock software package. He limited sales to 1000 copies so
as not to dilute the effectiveness of the system, and he sold
out the entire inventory in a very short time.
Later
Evoy turned to teaching others his marketing techniques.
Eventually
he developed the Site Build It web building and hosting package
so that it could automatically monitor the items that get
traffic for his clients, and do all the behind the scenes
work of search engine optimization.
Positive:
There are some techniques to
Kens effectiveness:
-
Ethical
standards
-
Insists
on top quality products
-
Overdelivers
-
Price
of some products is a tiny fraction of competitors
-
Incredible
support (4-6 hours by day)
-
Focus
on the important issues (Web site content)
-
Scientific
method in traffic optimization
-
Generous,
well designed affiliate program
-
Proven
no-questions-asked money-back guarantee
Put
that all together and it's not hard to see why he's Number
One.
There
is no doubt that by sheer popularity, Ken Evoy is the king!
He does not just tell you on his site that he gets more traffic
than the others, he proves it, and my research yields the
same conclusion. Evoy knows what he is doing.
I
have personally read most of his products and scoured the
Web searching for criticisms by other customers. Good luck,
it's almost impossible to find a single criticism.
When
Ken says something like "10 days only" he means
it. When he says "I'm only going to sell 1000 of these"
he means it.
I
found one reviewer who had purchased his SiteBuildIt package
and decided she didn't have time, so she returned it. She
got her money back instantly, without a hitch.
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Negative:
Ebooks and Acrobat
Ken Evoy's ebooks all start out with an entire chapter on
how to navigate them in your Acrobat reader, but the information
is only for older versions. I found that none of the settings
in my Acrobat reader were in the same places he described
them, and the navigation instructions were entirely different.
Ken - update or leave out that section!
Ebooks
Overly Wordy
Although later in his materials there is plenty of meat, it
took too long to get there. Granted in the 1500 pages of materials
in the Make Your Site Sell package there was gold to be mined,
but I was still reading about how much I was going to learn,
and how to read the book, clear up on page 68. After that
it started to get much meatier. Not too bad I guess, since
pages 69 - 1500+ have more meat.
With
the Site Build It package you have to be careful about reading
into the description. Certain things you assume simply aren't
what you expect when you get there. Please read more under
the Site Build It review page for details.
You
also have to do some behind-the scenes interpretation about
the numbers. Yes, his traffic numbers are way above the pack,
but consider that his Site Build It flagship product is a
web hosting package, and every change made to any client site
is done through the sitesell domain. Over 50% of his traffic
is accounted for by members maintaining their sites or by
membership forum activity.
Traffic
reports
While it is true that Evoy gets more traffic to his site than
any other guru, by far, there is a trick you should be aware
of. His main product, Site Build It is a web hosting package,
and every maintenance change to any sites hosted on it must
be made through the sitesell.com domain. Over 50% of his traffic
is made up of people maintaining their sites, visiting the
members forum, and other membership activities.
Even
with that taken out, his traffic is still impressive, but
it's worthy to note that the actual number of visitors is
not a good apples-to-apples match with other guru sites.
All
in all, though, my hat is off to Ken Evoy. Pickaguru.com is
a Site Build It site, so I'm a client myself. I can't make
much of a better recommendation that that!
(top)
Affiliate
Program
Affiliate
program
I can't do justice to the affiliate
program here. The best way to learn about this program is
to go to the affiliate page - see link above.
The
program is called the 5P program, and is about the best paying
affiliate program I've seen. Most products pay 25% - 30%.
The referral link system is simple, and once a customer buys
from your link they will become a lifetime customer. You continue
to receive profit from all future purchases, forever.
Since
the SBI package is a hosting package, there is an annual renewal,
and the affiliate continues to get paid for those renewals.
Most people tend to stay with it. I am a current user of Site
Build It, and pickaguru.com is hosted on it.
There
is a second tier affiliate level as well, but it stops there.
It is not an MLM plan. Almost all of Evoy's advertising is
through affiliates, so he made a very tasty program. Few affiliate
programs can touch it.
It's
different from most of the other guru programs in it's excellent
tracking system and ability to identify (and pay for) later
sales. Also, Evoy purposely tries to channel as many sales
through affiliates as he can, by not advertising his products
directly.
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Site
Popups
The summary said there are no site pop-ups, but some pages
do open up in a new window. Also there is the occasional pop-under.
I don't like them. I know they work - but I still don't like
them. They are mainly used for newsletter offers. Fortunately
he doesn't use very many of them. (top)
Valuable
Free Content
Masters
Courses
While the main site is strictly a sales
site, there are free gems to be had. Specifically the Master's
courses. THe link above will take you to the page that lists
the Master's courses. They can also be found on the main sitesell
page, which will open up along with it.
On
the main, home page you'll find them listed at the bottom
of the page in a box on the left.
(top)
Newsletter
Site-Sell
Ezine
Yes, there are two newsletters available.
One available to the general population, called Site-Sell.
The other is for affiliates only, and is called Sales from
the Edge.
It's
not immediately obvious how to sign up for the Site-Sell ezine.
He doesn't put it out there in front of you on the front page.
See the link above. Once there, click on the Site-Sell ezine
link for the actual sign-up form.
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Money-Back
Guarantee
This is one of the areas where Evoy
shines (seems like I say that about nearly everything from
him). He is committed to this subject like few others. A customer,
the owner of a site called internetbasedmoms.com tells the
story of how she purchased SBI while she was pregnant, then
decided she didn't have time. She sent it back, and poof -
instant money back, hassle free. She later bought it again
when she had more time.
Ken
himself talk about his money-back philosophy in his ebook,
Make Your Site Sell. He instructs us to follow his example
and do everything in your power to turn the disappointed buyer
into a raving fan. Give them their money back immediately,
with no hassles, and offer them a free gift. At times he has
even offered free copies of next editions or some other product.
He asks for feedback, then makes it a personal initiative
to get back and tell the customer what he is going to do to
fix the problem and make it a more excellent product. The
he DOES fix it.
By
the way - his guarantees do not expire!
He
is dedicated to quality and it shows. Here is a quote from
his guarantee promise:
-
- - - - Begin Quote - - - - -
"I will always honor this guarantee. Our internal company
motto is "no unhappy customers."
Regardless
of that, SiteSell.com has grown to the point where it would
be foolhardy not to honor our Guarantee.
We
have sold tens of thousands of copies of our SiteSell publications.
Our refund request rate is literally under one-tenth of one
percent. But we always immediately obey these requests.
Now
for the teeth...
We
are members in good standing of the BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU
("BBB"), an internationally respected, non-profit
consumer protection organization. Now let's say I refused
someone (I wouldn't, but let's "just say"). That
person would report us to the BBB.
Check
on our track record by calling them at 514-286-9281. Ask them
about our company (SiteSell.com -- quote them company number
7048) -- you'll see that our record is spotless."
- - - - - End Quote - - - - -
(top)
Support
Evoy has a 4-6 hour policy by day of
responding to support email. I tested this before ever buying
any product. He tells the truth. During evening hours it may
be up to 12 hours. His staff (of 20 people) only works days.
He
also has an immediate support phone line, but charges a fee
by pay-per-use. I have not tested that system so I can't tell
you the cost.
I've
written a number of times. Once I found a bad link in one
of his ebooks to a feedback form. Within a couple of hours
they had the link fixed and of course they got back to me
and followed my support ticket until I was satisfied. In the
meantime, they offered to review my feedback manually if I
emailed it to them, which I did. Then they let me know I would
receive the next edition of the book free.
Every
instance of my "bugging" them has been treated as
though they were delighted to hear from me. I like it!
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