Review of SiteSell Site Build It - Part II
In yesterday's post, I looked at some of the features of SiteSell/Site Build It (SBI). Today let's look at some downsides to that service.
There are a couple of things that bother me about SBI. The main thing is that they don't allow PHP scripting to run. The biggest problem with this is that you can't install a blog on the site. In order to get a WordPress blog to work on the site, for example, it must be hosted somewhere else (for yet another hosting fee). Then it must be pointed to your SiteSell website. This is a many-step process that requires some comfort with technical things like CNAMES and sub domains.
I might be a bit biased on this subject, but I feel that a blog is an integral component to nearly any site that needs to be marketed online. Not allowing direct installation of a blogging package like WordPress is a big downside in my opinion. I suspect it may cause a lot of SBI owners to avoid even trying to start a blog because of the technical hurdles. There is the option of keeping the blog offsite, but that may be less than desirable from a business strategy standpoint.
The second thing is that phone support is not included with a SBI package. Email support is available and included with the plan however. Personally, I have found the email technical support to be barely satisfactory. I generally get a response within a few hours if it's during the day; the next morning if my request is late in the day. However, they are sometimes unable to resolve things to satisfactory completion and there is the usual 'hurry up and wait' that goes with long multi-threaded email exchanges.
Phone Technical support is supposedly offered on a pay-per-incident basis. This pay-per-incident is not terribly expensive ($19.95 per incident) but it is an additional cost you will have to factor in if you want phone support. Having said that, even that 'service' not always available. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't -- often it just says "not taking calls". I tried it once and it just took me to a screen where I had to email them. A whole business day went by and I never heard anything back so I went ahead and used the email support!
It appears that SBI has not made much of a commitment to technical support; especially in the area of telephone support. This is offset somewhat by their enormous library of technical material, but even that has its limits. Often knowledge bases are so vast that it's hard to find the answer you're looking for and you just need to talk to someone.
So bottom line, if you want to a have a blog on your home based business website and/or you need phone technical support, SiteSell / Site Build It! probably won't ideal be for you. If you can overlook those issues, it does have some great qualities as I mentioned yesterday. Feel free to add your comments about this service.
