My name is Nadir Burnashev. I work for Kazkommerts Securities, the oldest and well-known investment banking and securities brokerage company in Kazakhstan. Kazkommerts Securities is the largest brokerage in Central Asia actually, and its main shareholder, Kazkommertsbank, is the largest commercial bank in Central Asia (capital over 100MM, assets over 1BN).

In November 2002, Kazkommerts Securities signed the contract with one web design company for developing and maintaining the corporate website. After six months passed and several thousand dollars spent, it became clear that we would not be getting the website completed any time soon. And our staff grew increasingly frustrated by long and unproductive discussions with the people in that company.

We Find SiteSell.com and MYSS!

Someday in May 2003, while browsing the Internet I came across SiteSell.com. At first, I was not impressed. But the more I read, the more I liked it. The site structure was simple, the layout was handy, and the content and the words just nailed down almost 90 percent of my concerns. By the time I finished reading, I was ready to buy MYSS!. But I hesitated. I was afraid I wouldn't have time for another big book. There is a lot of reading on my desk for everyday.

I bought the book. And read it. Three times, believe me or not. First time, I read it for fun. Although it was supposed to be a technical book, it was written so elegantly and beautifully simple that reading it was fun rather than work. Second time, I read it for knowledge. When I finished reading, I realized that building and putting a website was more simple in technical terms, and more challenging in marketing terms.

The people we spoke to about our site over the last months knew very little about Internet marketing. They were mostly "techies". No wonder we could not find a common language. But the important thing I realized was that we could build, maintain and power the site by ourselves with little down. And, what was more important, we would be in control at every stage and could adjust the site quickly to our changing needs. This was not the rocket science!

MYSS! is still on my table. I am reading and re-reading it. Mr. Evoy, that's the Book! In my opinion, they should teach it in the universities to the future marketers and infopreneurs.

SBI! Of Course

You could easily guess that the next product I bought was SBI!. Your SBI! guide was excellent and put us at work. Your SBI! Manager did save us a lot of time and efforts. Our site became operational on July 23. It was not the best site I saw on the web, but it was loading fast, had a lot of useful information in English, and was well optimized. And it was done by two persons with little prior knowledge and experience in the field.

The site worked well and drove the traffic despite the niche itself which wasn't very prolific. After it was indexed by Google, and listed in Yahoo! and DMOZ, it acquired higher ratings than many existing sites on Kazakhstan out there. By the end of August (one month after the launch), its Alexa ratings surpassed the ratings of our local competitors. And by the end of October (three months after the launch), it had higher ratings than the National Bank, and Ministry of Finance of Kazakhstan, or even the state television agency, Khabar.

Of course, all ratings are relative, and Alexa and Google are not exclusive here. But for our site geared towards international English-speaking audience, they measure the traffic accurately, and help establish reciprocal links.

Another big advantage is that SBI! saves not only time, but money, too. When I showed my colleagues the total expenses associated with the development of our English-speaking site, SBI! was nicknamed as an "Internet guerilla tool". Having both MYSS! and SBI! behind our shoulders helped us complete negotiations with the local web design company for making the company's Russian website at more favorable terms. If your package could only support Cyrillic scripts, there would be far less web design and hosting companies in the CIS countries and more good websites!

Mr. Evoy, your ideas and your approach to Internet business work not only in the Anglo-Saxon countries, but across the globe. As you can see from our company's experience, SBI! has no boundaries, as the Internet itself, and it has the potential to win the new markets, as the good and successful product. Your methods are simple yet effective, your business philosophy is sound, your thinking is original, and the logic behind your business strategy is powerful. As a token of our appreciation to you and your colleagues at SiteSell, we will put the link on our website endorsing your products to our clients. The more companies will be using SiteSell products in their business, the more competitive and safer place the Internet will become in the future.

The morale of our story

Even (or particularly) in the large corporations or companies when dealing with websites and Internet, people focus too much on the technical side and far less on the marketing side. I don't know about other countries in the region, but in Kazakhstan, websites are being built by the techies and for the techies and the client's top management.

I was thrown into Internet marketing and web design in late April when they asked me to pick up the almost dead project and revive it. I was (and still am) the company's chief economist and my prime responsibilities are risk management, macroeconomic research, and country promotion for outside investors.

I am a cold and rational business person, but I am excited by the market opportunities SBI! can offer. I say this to others...

Fire your web designer immediately

Buy SBI! instead and give it to the smartest person in your company, and watch for the results to come. Or if the web designer is crying under your door or has a large family to support, give him the book, ask him to learn SBI! and use it to its fullest potential." :)

And a final update: By the end of the fourth month, our site became operational our "amateurish" site (we know the graphics need to look more professional) scored first in the big Google.com for our most important keywords. These are our target niches, and we are #1 on the most popular engine in this part of the world.

Done by two non-English persons with little prior knowledge of HTML, Dream Weaver, etc., during regular work hours mostly as residual activity to the usual workload, at little budget, and no outside gurus (except for you and your SBI! guide-man :) ). If we have done it here in Kazakhstan, everyone else can do it. Just stop fearing and procrastinating, and start doing it, little by little, step by step, stage by stage. AND you will succeed!

Thank you

Thank you for your time and energy to make and develop SBI!. It DOES work and we are out there telling you to keep on!

Let us wish you every success in your future endeavors.

Nadir Burnashev Chief Economist Kazkommerts Securities
Email: nburnashev@kazks.kz
http://www.kazakhstaninvestment.com/

PS. We continue developing our corporate site. The next product purchased was MYWS!, to improve and polish the site content. I also bought another SBI! package, this time for personal use. Thanks to you, building websites seems to become my new hobby.

See December/2005 Update