Since you’re searching for Swagbucks scam, you probably heard about how you can do simple things like search the web, play games, and fill out surveys and earn “Swag Bucks” that can be redeemed for things like coupons, gift certificates, and even cash all for free. Well, you’re right. So what’s the catch here?

The Catch

Well, it really is free to join and you get rewarded for doing things that you already do like searching the web and playing online games. So how does this work? Basically, you use their search toolbar or search engine to do what you normally do; search for information or buy things. The results you get are filled with sponsored links which Swagbucks makes money from and in return, they give you some of the earnings by way of SwagBucks which is their own online currency if you will. So they’re definitely making some good money by having you use their search engine instead of whatever you normally use.

Getting Points

Searching online isn’t the only way to make these bucks. You also earn by using coupons, doing trade-ins such as sending them old books and video games in exchange for Swagbucks, completing offers, watching videos, playing games, doing various tasks, doing a daily poll, and referring your friends to join the program. By the way, the “fun” ways like playing games to get points don’t give you that many points relative to the amount of time you have to put in but I guess if you’re going to play games or watch videos anyway, then it’ll work out for you.

Of course, you shouldn’t be surprised to know that you’ll be encountering a lot of ads. This is how they make money since it’s free to sign up.

Prizes

The prizes include things such as games, clothes, electronics, home appliances, etc. Of the prizes that you can redeem, the $5 Amazon gift card is probably the best value which costs 450 Swagbucks. This is pretty much the only thing I get since I always buy stuff on Amazon anyway. The cool part is that you can use multiple ones on a single Amazon order. Hell, you can save a bunch and do your Christmas shopping without spending any money.

Update: January 2012 – So it turns out you can only redeem a maximum of 5 of the same items per month. What bull crap! Since the $5 Amazon gift card is one of the best deals, the most you can get is $25 worth of those a month.

As you can see, Swagbucks should really only be seen as play money and nothing more. If you want to make real money from home, sign up with one of the best internet business programs around. I joined over 2 years ago and it changed my financial life.

Update: As of December 2011, I’ve redeemed and used $25 $70 worth of Amazon gift cards. Keep in mind that I don’t use any of their ways of getting points except for using their search toolbar and even then, I barely use it.

Every now and then, after doing searches using Google, I’ll click on their search toolbar that I have installed, hit enter (it copies whatever my latest search term in Google is), and see if I earn any swagbucks. On average, when I do get something, I get about 10 swagbucks. My highest so far on one search is 47 points. In other words, if you actually make an effort accumulating points, you’ll do far better than I did.

Conclusion

Okay, so is Swagbucks a scam? No, it’s not. Is it worth it? Well, if you think about it, you’ll have to spend a lot of time to accumulate these bucks so if you compare it to what you can make with a job, then of course not. You could probably make more begging for money out on the streets. If you don’t care about the prizes and don’t already search the net a lot, then it’s a big waste of time.

However, if you surf the net a lot, play games, watch videos, etc., then why not get awarded for it?

So click here to sign up for a FREE account today. You get 30 Swagbucks just for signing up. Once you sign up, install their toolbar (you’ll get even more points) or just set their search page as your homepage and just do what you normally do. That’s pretty much it.

You’re definitely not going to get rich or even make enough for bragging rights but since you’re not putting any extra time or work, unless you intentionally sit at your computer trying to accumulate points, it’s worth trying out.

Let me know your thoughts and experience with this program. I’ve heard of this program for quite some time but just never bothered to check it out until recently since I knew it wasn’t something that could make me serious money but a few people asked me about it so I figured I’d check it out in order to write a review. Plus, I don’t mind scoring a few dozen $5 Amazon gift cards.

Sign Up for FREE

Tired of reading biased reviews from Sitesell affiliates that plague the first page in the search results? If you did a search for Site Build It scam, you’ll see that nearly half of the top 10 sites you see have the words “sitebuildit” in the actual domain. The company would only allow this if it’s a positive review which makes the reviews on those sites biased and untrustworthy. Another two, including the paid ad at the very top, is from Sitesell itself which of course will praise their service. Another one is from the owner of the company so, again, another biased review. So of the 10 results, 8 of them are from people associated with SBI as of the time of this writing.

If you’re reading this, then you’re likely looking to see if this program is worth the money and want an honest review. Well, you’ve finally found one that will tell you why you don’t want to buy SBI. Since this program/hosting company is about creating income, you are right to want to research and find out more about it. There are so many scams on the internet that it’s ridiculous. Let’s get started.

Is Site Build It a Scam?

A scam, by definition, means that all customers get ripped off. It also means that deceitful tactics are used in order to lure customers in. So according to that, Site Build It is not a scam. It’s basically a hosting company that gives you different tools in order to help you create a website, drive traffic to it, and make money. The main purpose of even signing up for something like this is to simply make money.

Now anything that involves making money will produce “praisers” and “haters”. The praisers are the ones who swear by the program and recommend it to all of their friends. The haters are the ones who bash the program calling it a scam and try to steer people away from it. It’s often hard to tell which side you should listen to since everyone has their own unique experiences but in the case of SBI, here are a few things you will want to consider.

What Site Build It Teaches

SBI teaches you to create a website about something you have a passion for. Although this sounds like a solid plan, if the only thing you are passion about is something that few others even care about, chances are, you’re not going to make money.

They teach you to create quality content and keep writing more and more content and you will make money. Although quality content is really important, just writing content won’t get you anywhere on the internet, at least not anytime soon. You will need to build links and although they teach this as well, it’s not emphasized enough. In fact, it’s downplayed enough where many SBI owners who have had their site for years still don’t know how important links are. They do offer a link exchange program but if you know anything about links, one way links are way better than reciprocal links.

Their Website Builder

One of the things that turn a lot of people off from wanting to build a profitable website is the thought of having to “program” and design a website. With SBI, you don’t really need to know much. They provide you with a website building template that makes creating pages somewhat easy. They also provide a forum for you to ask any questions you want. Just don’t complain too much or they’re pounce on you. You also get a mailing program to send out ezines to your list of subscribers.

The bad thing about their site builder is that it’s years behind other platforms like WordPress. If you look at just 10 SBI sites, you’ll notice that they all have pretty much the same structure. The SBI sites that look completely different are the ones built by people who know coding or people who hired someone to design their site for them. Honestly, if you know how to design your own sites, don’t bother with SBI. With WordPress, anyone with no experience can make a site that looks 100 times more attractive than a typical SBI site in under 10 minutes.

Price of Site Build It Website

Now the cost of SBI is the main cause of why there are so many sites with the heading SBI scam or Site Build It scam that offer real reviews. The cost for one website with this company is $299 a year. For that amount of money, you can get one hosting account and run about 22 websites. Of course, you won’t have the support or the tools that SBI offers but unless you’re a total beginner, you probably don’t need the tools anyway.

Is the $299/year Worth It?

The fact is that in order to make money online with websites, you need to be able to pick the right niches and build links. That’s it. The main goal is to get your webpages to rank #1 in the search engines in order to drive traffic to your site and make you money. So no, Site Build It is not a scam like some people are calling it.

Is it overpriced? Well, that depends. If the thought of searching around the internet and tinkering with WordPress themes is enough for you to not even want to get started, then $25/month or $299 a year is worth it if that will at least get you to get started in this business. However, there are plenty of forums and videos that can help you set up WordPress sites so unless you’re just extremely lazy, there’s not a huge advantage with going with SBI because learning how to use their site builder will take just as much time as learning how to upload and tweak WordPress themes. You also have way more flexibility with WordPress as well.

Are SBI’s Tools Worth the Price?

Anyone can start a website for less than $20 (hosting and domain), but unless you know what you are doing, you’re not going to get very far. One of SBI’s selling points is that they provide you with tools you wouldn’t get from a $10/month hosting company.

They have tools that will help you brainstorm for site ideas, find niches and low competition keywords, built in traffic analyzer, email marketing software and so on. They also have a long action guide that takes you through their system of building and making money with a website. Do you really need these things? In my opinion, no. I bet most Site Built It owners rarely use those tools after they find the niche they want to build their site in.

The silliest thing about their over-hyped tools is that if you want to buy a second SBI site, you’ll still have to pay $299 a year. Why? You have the tools from the first site, why make you pay the same price for a second? They want to make money off of newbies, that’s why. They also have these specials where you can buy one SBI site and get the second for free of for half off which is just a marketing ploy to get you to buy more than one site so that when the year is up, you’ll have to fork up $600 to renew both sites.

FREE Alternatives

To look for keyword and niche ideas, you can use Google Adwords Keyword Tool, it’s free. To analyze your traffic, you can use Google Analytics or Statcounter, also free and both give you way more insight into your traffic. For email marketing, you could use Mail Chimp, also free for up to 2,000 subscribers (most SBIers will never get this many).

Another Big Issue with SBI – Transfers

Say you buy a Site Built It site and you outgrow them. You don’t need their tools or any of their support and want to transfer your site to another hosting company. Guess what? They don’t make it easy. They have no problem unlocking your site but their interface is terrible.

For most other hosting companies, all you need to do is get the database file that has all of your site’s info and content and make the transfer. Easy. With SBI though, you basically have to go in and copy the content from every single page of your site. This makes it tedious and prevents people from switching in fear that they might mess up and ruin their site or not do all of this fast enough and lose money.

A Much Better Alternative to Site Build It

A much cheaper choice as well as much more highly advanced in terms of producing results is to sign up for The Keyword Academy for FREE. You can read my Keyword Academy review about this program for more details. This is the community that I’m a part of. It was the best decision I have ever made.

Putting up a website is easy, anyone can do that. Making residual income off of your websites however, is something only a small percentage of people are able to do. If you feel that SBI is right for you, then go for it. I wouldn’t recommend buying a second SBI site though. It’s a huge waste of money. If you think you have the ability to learn how to create a website with WordPress, then signing up for the Keyword Academy is a much better choice. It’s free for the first month. So stop searching for the term Site Build It scam since most site rankings are affiliates giving biased reviews anyway and start creating websites today in order to build residual income and free yourself from needing a job.

This is my 7 minute articles review. One of the things that you are going to have to spend a lot of time on when it comes to creating niche sites and marketing them, is writing articles. Sure, if you had the money, you can just outsource this process but if you’re just starting out, then you will want to do them on your own for a while. This is where most people who want to make money online will find the most difficult.

Anyone can write a 400 word article about topics they really like but most of the time, the topics we like to write about won’t make us much money. The key to making money online is to find niches that are profitable, and then to write about them. It’s tough to have to write about things you have no interest in but if you are going to make money, then you are going to have to learn how.

The process of writing articles is pretty easy but actually writing it can sometimes by a pain in the neck. It may take you a long time just to bust out one single article. This will really kill your motivation if we’re talking about volume here. The best way to earn money in this internet game is to throw a ton of sites out there on all types of niches and see which ones will make you money. Then go focus on those niches. If it takes you forever just to write one article, then this process is going to take a while.

So this 7 minute articles product by Jason Fladlien claims to help you to write articles 60% faster than you are writing them currently. Let me just cut to the chase since I don’t want to make this post too long. If you read some of my other posts, then you will know that creating hubpages is a great way for anyone to start out making money online because you can leverage the power of that site and be able to rank a lot quicker than you can with your own site. The key to that is simply to do a lot of them.

Before I got the 7 Minute Articles program, it would take me about 45 minutes to complete a hub including research. Now, I can complete a hub in about 22 minutes including research. I always keep time each and every time I write articles just to keep track of how much work I actually do. The 22 minutes starts from the time I click on the “start a new hub” button until the time I click “publish”. My average article on hubpages is about 650 words.

This has enabled me to write about 10 articles each and every day. I only work about 4 hours a day total. So is the 7 Minute Articles a scam or a good investment?

Well, I still can’t write articles in 7 minutes but that’s because to do so, you will have to use a speech recognition software. I type everything so it take me a bit longer to write 400 words. If you are writing 400 word articles in over 25 minutes including research, I highly recommend that you get this program. If you write in under 20 minutes with research, then you don’t need it. What you can do to improve your time even more is just to write more articles. You can get the program at the following link.

7 minute articles

This is my Keyword Academy Scam or Not review on whether or not it’s a scam and if it’s not, is it even worth it. I can give this review because I gave it a test drive since there has been a lot of hype about it so I’m sure many people will come across their sales pitch. If you’re reading this review, then you’re most likely someone who is wanting to learn how to make money online. As I’ve said in a bunch of my other posts, when it comes to this whole making money thing, there are so many scams out there that it sickens me. Unfortunately, we live in a world where people will do whatever it takes to make money like exaggerate, lie, and scam good honest people who just want to make a better life for themselves and their family.

Keyword Academy Scam? – The Analysis:

So what’s this Keyword Academy deal about? Basically, it’s a video training/ebook course that will teach you how to produce residual income online. So far, nothing special. Many people do the exact same thing. So how much are they charging to try this out? Nothing. That’s right, it’s free for the first month. Now, I’ve seen these types of deals before and almost always, you get what you pay for… a bunch of scattered information which is good to know but it’s not structured in a way that will help you make any money. So even with free deal they have, so far, still nothing special.

On top of that, a lot of these low cost deals are really just a way to suck you in, give you the “basic” version of their program that is basically useless. The only way you can actually benefit from these programs is if you upgrade to their way more expensive packages that include everything.

So how does the Keyword Academy score in this department? You actually get the full blown training course. Nothing is held back. When I first came across this, I thought this was too good to be true and there had to be a catch to it all. Well, there is. Not much surprise there. So at the end of your first month, after you learned all of what they have to teach, you can pay a monthly fee of just $33 to stay with the program. Yes, you will actually have already learned everything you will need to know to run a successful internet business. If that’s the case, what is the monthly fee for? Ongoing support and expanding tools.

Their whole marketing strategy is to give you access to the whole program for free and hope that you will find it to be valuable enough to pay the monthly fees to stay with them. In order to pull something like this off and not lose your shirt, you need to make sure that what you’re offering is way beyond what your customers will expect. A lot of companies will do something similar to this and give you some access but almost never the full thing, otherwise you can just learn everything and cancel.

So since I’ve had access to their training course which consists of almost a dozen videos and now an ebook that makes it easier for them to update that take you step by step through building residual income streams with websites, a forum, monthly webinar, and a bunch of other tools, what is my opinion?

Keyword Academy Update – Almost a Year Later (March 2010)

Keyword Academy Review Bottom Line:

The Good:

• Their training course is beyond my expectations. They are some of the best in the industry. Even though they are just individuals, they can go head to head with big corporations. They know their stuff.

• They make most of their money doing the stuff they teach unlike many “gurus” out there who make most of their money selling people programs/ebooks/info on how to make money.

• Their support is incredible. Their ongoing efforts to continually add more value to their members is just ridiculous. And yes, you actually get access to EVERYTHING during your first month trial so you really can learn all that you need within that first month and leave. However, once you see the value they provide, you’re probably going to want to stay.

• They don’t exaggerate. They straight up tell you that this will take work and you will not see any results for some time. Not many people who sell these things will ever say that to you. It’s all about trying to make it sound easy so more people will sign up, but these guys don’t do that. They’re straight forward about what it takes. That’s a huge plus for me.

• Monthly Webinars: They teach you up-to-date advance techniques to further increase your income. Most places will charge extra for something like this but the Keyword Academy does includes it in their membership. This alone is worth at least $50 a month. I’ve increased my income several times just by learning from these webinars.

• Constant Enhancements: They are always adding more support and tools to the program at no extra cost. This certainly makes it hard to ever want to cancel your membership but this is what delivering more than what is expected is all about. They aren’t creating loyal customers, they are creating raving fans.

The Bad:

• They started this program at the end of December 2008 so it’s still relatively new. There’s bound to be some kinks to work out. So far, I’ve only seen minor ones. They get better as time goes by though so this isn’t a concern really.

• The time frame they talk about (6 months) seems to only apply to people who have more than a few hours a day realistically. Unless this is the only thing you do, I’d add another 6 months making it 1 full year to get the results they are talking about if you have a full-time job. This way, you’re less likely to give up if you’re not getting what you expected at the 6 month mark. 1 year or even 3 years to build a full-time income in residual income is nothing compared to having to work until you’re 65.

• Additional costs. You will have to spend money to buy domains and a hosting service. This isn’t really a bad point though. I mean, how else are you going to build a website? Oh yeah, use Blogger, it’s free. (Blogger sucks, avoid it like a plague) But there are advantages to getting our own domain like being able to sell your website if you choose to do so. Plus, who knows, Blogger may one day decide to shut everything down like what Yahoo is doing with Geocities right now or they can just decide to shut down your blog for stupid reasons like they did with mine. They also recommend some programs and services to help you speed up the process like hiring other people to do some work for you. It’s not necessary in the beginning but as you start making money, you’ll probably want to save time by doing some outsourcing.

• Although the free month marketing strategy is a good one to get customers, because it’s so cheap, it will also attract a lot of short-term minded people. This should be seen as a business.

That last point in the bad points of this Keyword Academy Review is bound to cause people to quit way too soon and end up calling this program a scam. I bet there will be a lot of these people who will sign up for this program. These type of people will jump from opportunity to opportunity trying to “get rich quick” but never will until they realize there’s no such thing as getting rich quick. On top of that, since it’s only a dollar, they won’t feel that bad for quitting and losing that money.

Final Thoughts

Look, anything worthwhile will take time, work, patience, and determination. If that doesn’t resonate with you, please don’t join, you’ll not only waste your time, you’ll also lower your belief in yourself and self-esteem even more. I suggest you work on your mindset first. Which reminds me…

Going back to the whole support thing, if you want to get good at anything, you need a coach. You need someone who has already gone down the path you are going down to save you time by preventing you from making the same mistakes they’ve made. Look at all of the top athletes in the world, they all have coaches. Even top business executives have people they consult with on a daily basis.

You can learn this all on your own but going through the trial and error will just take more time. Aside all of the tools they have, they will help you with your mindset as well and trust me, 90% of this is mental.

You will no doubt feel discouraged sooner or later. This is when you will need support the most. Challenges will always show up every time you’re pursuing a goal without fail. Surrounding yourself with the right people with the right mindset will mean the difference between your life being the same a year from today and your life being forever changed for the better. If you can, I’d suggest doing this with a group of friends where you can all help and support each other. You will have a forum with helpful people as well as having the trainers help you if you’re doing this alone but having that support group of friends will be invaluable.

In terms of the monthly fee, it’s up to you whether or not you want to stay as a member after the first month but I’ll say this: You will have a huge advantage over your competitors with the tools that you will have access to. Having a map is great and all but would you rather walk to your destination or drive a car?

Everything is done through Paypal so you can cancel anytime without even having to email or call anyone. You can use your credit card too but it’s easier if you use Paypal. The videos can be watched on the site once you get your username and login password as well as the updated ebook. There are also a ton of webinars that you can download to your computer and keep.

For whatever reason, if you decide that you want to cancel after the 1st month or anytime thereafter, follow these instructions.

To cancel your subscription:

1. Log into your Paypal account and go to the “My Account” and “Overview” section if it doesn’t automatically take you there by default.

2. Click on the “history” button right under the “Request Money” tab. (Actually click it, don’t just hover over it)

3. Next, hover your mouse over “More Filters”. You’ll see a list of items. Hover your mouse over the word “Subscriptions and Agreements” which will bring up another list. Click on “Subscriptions”.

4. From there, you should see your subscription list. If you don’t see the one for The Keyword Academy (it should say Court and Mark, LLC), then change the beginning date back to when you subscribed.

5. Click on “Details” for the subscription. Scroll down to the bottom and you will see the “Cancel Subscription” button. Click on it and confirm and you’re all set.

That’s it. No hassle. Now that you know exactly how to cancel your subscription, you don’t have anything to worry about.

Alternative Method:

Just in case Paypal makes changes to where the buttons are located, another way is to first log into your paypal account and then go to the following address:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_manage-paylist

That should bring up all of your subscriptions. Just click on the one from TKA (Court and Mark, LLC) and click “cancel subscription” at the bottom.

So there you have it. That’s my Keyword Academy Scam Review. Even with a couple of those bad points, I still HIGHLY recommend this program. This could change your life forever. This is the best deal I have ever found guys. Your risk is NOTHING. Just do it. Feel free to leave me any questions you may have in the comments section.

Keyword Academy Course Sign Up (yes, this is an affiliate link)

To your internet business success…

KS