B12 Website Builder – Is B12io Worth It?

I was talking to a friend who is ready for her own website.  She said she was thinking of hiring this company she was looking into — B12io  As a matter of fact, she is ready to pull the trigger.

She needs a website for her business – and she wants it to look good.

I told her about this Internet marketing training program I have been doing for a little over a month and I have already built this website.

She could build a website too!  I know she could.

The thing is, most of my friends know I have been building websites for years and I think it's easy to build a website.  I have a couple of dozen sites and I think nothing of putting up another one in an area where I have some expertise and can put good info out that helps people.

She said she would send me the link to the design company she was thinking of going with.

I said I would send her the link to the training program I was using – the one I used to put this website up in less than 5 days and it's a little over a month old as I write this.

We exchanged links and I took a look at the company she was considering.

B12

• Website Builder
• $29/mo for B12
• There is one basic layout with 6 palette changes – not much else
• $75/hour for design changes
• Custom packages with no price on the website.  I found references to $199 a month and $169 a month if paid yearly in a post from July, 2016 on Venture Beat

I could not find anything on their website saying that there was an initial set-up fee – but I thought my friend told me $79 for the initial set up when we were on the phone… and $29 a month after that.

So, I dug a little deeper and I saw this on their pricing page (pic on right)

I asked my friend if she knew anybody who was using the program already – and they could tell her whether they had to pay for the design expert help at $75 an hour – and how many hours it took per month.

No answer from my friend.

I am assuming that's a no.

I looked up reviews of B12io and found this page with only 9 reviews and 8 of them are 5/5 stars even with the some pretty serious “Cons” in their actual review.  With years of experience on the Internet – I know some companies offer incentives for 5 star reviews and when I see major complaints in the review but 5 stars in the rating, alarm bells go off.

A little strange that they are 5 star reviews even though the customers were not happy with not being able to make changes or add content more easily.

Here is another review:

“…virtually no ability to customize the website further.”

You can change the text and that's about it. (without paying $75 an hour.)

Here is someone who actually says how much he had to pay in design fees before he could use his website from B12.  He thinks it's a great job for the price of $2000 which includes one year of hosting at $29 for a total of $348 for the hosting– so he paid $1652 in design fees.

That's 22 hours at $75 an hour.

Here is their current pricing details (4/12/2018)

 B12 Free /  B12 Premium for $29 a month / B12io Custom probably about $2000 a year.

I tried the free site builder (I used a fake name to set it up) and it has a website built with dummy content in just a few minutes.

There are 6 choices for “style” – but there is not much difference in the styles! It's a palette change.

You can upload a logo, a cover image, choose a color palette and choose your font – and then they ask to pair you up with a designer. You get one free hour of design help – although when you click on “Learn More” it brings you to this page which states that you get 2 free hours of design help.

Here is my free site: (Julie Topender)  — B12 Free Site

• You get a 4 page website – and you can edit the text.
• I tested the email form on my free B12 site and that works.

It was easy to set up the framework – but it would take time to edit the content – the text of the site – to make it so it is a real site.  And then you can't easily add content so how are you ever going to get found on the Internet?

Conclusions: Search engines like content.  They like fresh content, not just a stagnant website.  If you are going to have a business card with a website – B12 may work for you if you like the style the website builder comes with or you are willing to pay for the custom website.

If you want organic traffic – and you want customers to FIND YOU on the internet – the B12 website builder is not going to help you. Search engines like relevant content added regularly.

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My Recommendation:

 

Wealthy Affiliate is free to start – if you like it –

The Premium plan costs $29.92 a month if you pay yearly

• host up to 50 sites
• training showing you how to get traffic and customers to your website
• keyword tools, active community, HELP if you need it – FOR FREE  (not $75 an hour)
• Try the website builder where you can build a site in 30 seconds – FOR FREE
• Start with the Certification – Getting Started – Affiliate Marketing Training – FOR FREE
• AND after you figure out if you like it —-

THEN, you decide if you are going to upgrade to a paid version.

No credit card required.  Nothing to cancel.