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The Challenge Training - Still Valid?

by Julia B
7 replies
I'm not really interested in making niche IM sites, but I recently followed 'The Challenge' training programme to see if I could learn a few IM tactics that would help me grow and monetise my fitness website. I enjoyed the course and learned some useful stuff, but since the recent Google changes it seems like some of what they teach might be becoming obsolete.

For example, are programmes like Ping Kerching still worth bothering with? They also talked a lot about commenting on forums and blogs to get backlinks, is that still worthwhile?

Have they indeed even ever been worth it? Some of these tactics seem very time consuming just to get the odd link.

If you know the Challenge programme I'd be really interested to hear which aspects you think still work and which are no longer valid.
#challenge #training #valid
  • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
    If this is Ed Dales challenge it updates and changes each year, I'll certainly have a look this year to see what he's up to with all the changes.

    I agree with it being obsolete to a degree now but it's not all about that.

    Incidentally, this years will be done with the changes in mind, so well worth a look when the new one comes out later this year.
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  • Profile picture of the author Julia B
    Thanks Richard that's interesting to know. Yes I did mean the Ed Dale one (sorry for not specifying). I've only just completed it so it was the current one. It was absolutely still worth doing despite some bits being a bit out-dated.
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    • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
      Originally Posted by Julia B View Post

      Thanks Richard that's interesting to know. Yes I did mean the Ed Dale one (sorry for not specifying). I've only just completed it so it was the current one. It was absolutely still worth doing despite some bits being a bit out-dated.
      Yes, with the changes this year it will be a bit off now but still an excellent grounding in IM.

      I know this years will have all these changes in mind.
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  • Profile picture of the author Patrick Batty
    Hi Julia..
    I went through it about 18 months back, and I still think a lot of it would be valid today.

    I cant take the time to go back to figure out what is still working and what is not.. but in general I think it's worthwhile training, especially for those people that are relatively new to IM.
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    • Profile picture of the author keyon
      I've been through a couple of the challenges, and while I think a lot of this stuff applies today, I think people were (are) misunderstanding the main intent of the process. The Challenge was mostly about getting just enough traffic to evaluate the market demand for a particular product. That means the traffic didn't have to be sustainable traffic, which was fine for some of the Google tricks they were using back then. Once you found a promising niche, that was end of the challenge. You would then have to figure out how to build a sustainable business model yourself--which included spending a fair amount of cash on advertising, outsourcing, etc. This is the part that the 'challengers' sometimes didn't get.
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      • Profile picture of the author Julia B
        Originally Posted by keyon View Post

        I've been through a couple of the challenges, and while I think a lot of this stuff applies today, I think people were (are) misunderstanding the main intent of the process. The Challenge was mostly about getting just enough traffic to evaluate the market demand for a particular product. That means the traffic didn't have to be sustainable traffic, which was fine for some of the Google tricks they were using back then. Once you found a promising niche, that was end of the challenge. You would then have to figure out how to build a sustainable business model yourself--which included spending a fair amount of cash on advertising, outsourcing, etc. This is the part that the 'challengers' sometimes didn't get.
        Interesting point. I'm sure you're right, I only really got my head around that myself towards the end of the programme. Personally, I would have preferred if they'd been clearer about that. But that is only a small criticism of what was an excellent programme, especially considering it came FOC.
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  • Profile picture of the author svsets10
    I followed the challenge for my first site, if anything the challenge shows you how to do some general things for free. I would've spent a lot more time figuring things out on my own. For this reason alone I think it is valuable
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