Has anyone used 'The Challenge' to get started in IM?

I have. I followed "The Challenge" of 2009 and 2010. It was called "The 30 Days Challenge" back then (The name was changed last year).

To me, it was quite worth the time. Ed Dale and his team assume every one participating is a complete newbie who has no idea what a niche is and take them every step of the way.

I didn't make any money during the months of The Challenge, but I learned how to. That's what The Challenge is all about. Teaching you how to make your first dollar online and grow a business. Not some overnight secret that'll make you rich in 30 days or whatever.

I won't lie. Going through The Challenge was hard and frustrating. Especially when I saw people posting on The Challenge's forum that they are ranked number #1 in Google already for their target keyword and my site wasn't even indexed yet. It made me want to give up. But I didn't.

Anyway, in January this year, I started to get serious about IM and apply what I learned in the Challenge. As you right now, my site is making more money than what I was getting in my part time job.

As a college student, I am very grateful for what The Challenge helped me achieved so far. I hope it brings you the same satisfaction.

Cheers for your response Dash,
I found it very useful and it's nice to hear from someone who's done it. I'm definitely going to do it, I'm not expecting to make money while I do it, but I hope, like you, to learn how to make money by internet marketing, obviously the sooner the better! But I'm a realist and know that to make money online is going to take work and patience. But I'm willing to learn and be as patient as I need to! I'm looking forward to getting started!
Thanks again for your reply.
Ryan

I did it some years ago, when it was The Thirty-Day Challenge. For someone with little or no knowledge of IM, it's a great start. Whenever anyone asks me "how do I do this?," I send them to The Challenge.

I now just kind of follow what they're doing to see if there's something new. They've introduced some great products (Market Samurai, for instance), and some stinkers (TrafficBug, IMO). I'm not going to knock the folks that put it on because they put out a huge effort and it costs nothing to anyone who wants to join, but they are there to sell something. I advise people to absolutely take advantage of any free trials offered through TC, but to bang the hell out of it during the trial and then think long and hard about whether or not paying for it is necessary.

I remember this when it started Ed Dale is an awesome dude! Some top notch information for FREE as well I have paid for information that is not as good as that!

I started out looking for IM information and ran across The Challenge (formerly the Thirty Day Challenge) on YouTube.

After going through an incredible amount of garbage, it was refreshing to find a place that presented good information. And it is presented in a beginner friendly way.

But the information presented is not only for beginners ... a number of veterans return each year.

The new season starts on August 1st, and I'll be there.

As an aside, I disagree that TrafficBug is a stinker. Some people thought it was for link building instead of a way to get your site indexed. It works for its intended purpose.

Marvin

There is also "The Challenge" from Market Samurai. If it's about keyword research then maybe this is what you are looking for.