Hey all,I just purchased and haven't even got a chance to go through it yet ,but FYI he gives you the option to try it out for $1.00 for five days and then 2 payments of $33.00 after 5 days if you decide to keep it.that option appears when you go to leave the page.
Hey all,I just purchased and haven't even got a chance to go through it yet ,but FYI he gives you the option to try it out for $1.00 for five days and then 2 payments of $33.00 after 5 days if you decide to keep it.that option appears when you go to leave the page.
All the best,
Jerry
Hi Jerry,
This product sounds promising and I would like to give it a shot. The "try it out" option for $1 seems save, but I don't get the response that you got when leaving the sales page. Could you provide me with the link you used?
It's a very long time since I posted anything on the Warrior Forum. It's been even longer since I have purchased any internet marketing products but...
I am between contracts so I do have a bit of time on my hands and there is something about Andrew Hansen that I quite like. So, I have purchased both the course and the upsell. I've just watched the first couple of videos and haven't found anything new yet but it's still early days.
I will post regular updates here on how things progress.
"Note: This special offer will not be available again if you close this page, and is ONLY valid until March 1st, after which the price of Forever Affiliate doubles."
When you close the page and re-try it - it is available again. Shady marketing.
"Note: This special offer will not be available again if you close this page, and is ONLY valid until March 1st, after which the price of Forever Affiliate doubles."
When you close the page and re-try it - it is available again. Shady marketing.
Like to give him the benefit of the doubt could just be a small coding glitch
"Note: This special offer will not be available again if you close this page, and is ONLY valid until March 1st, after which the price of Forever Affiliate doubles."
When you close the page and re-try it - it is available again. Shady marketing.
It doesn't seem to work for me - I've tried it a few times -
Has anyone else got the $1 trial since this message was put up?
Edit: Managed to get it now after a few more tries!
You don't have to pay with paypal even though you are sent there. There is an option to pay with a credit card on the payment page. It's in small print. It's on the right hand side.
Hope this helps!
Geri Richmond
Yeah it gave the option for credit card or pay pal,the one dollar trial and payment plan stays the same what ever option you choose.I'm not sure how long he's doing that for but for a buck why not.And in my past exp. anything from Andrew kicks butt.Good luck with everything.
Yeah it gave the option for credit card or pay pal,the one trial and payment plan stays the same what ever option you choose.I'm not sure how long he's doing that for but for a buck why not.And in my past exp. anything from Andrew kicks butt.Good luck with everything.
Jerry
I would pay with my credit card through paypal, but I just don't trust paypal right now.
I'm probably going to buy the $67.00 option. Does anyone know if the $497 coaching still available after you have checked out the $67 product? Or is it a "one time offer" type thing?
I can't be sure, but I think the offer disappears for good after you decline it. I bought the program but didn't take the coaching.
Unlike a WSO confirmation email that allows you to navigate back to OTOs, this confirmation does not point to the coaching offer. I've done some looking for you but I can't find that page.
I can't be sure, but I think the offer disappears for good after you decline it. I bought the program but didn't take the coaching.
Unlike a WSO confirmation email that allows you to navigate back to OTOs, this confirmation does not point to the coaching offer. I've done some looking for you but I can't find that page.
That sucks. What I usually do with OTOs is save the url of the OTO page when it first comes up so if it isn't offered again I can go back to the url of the OTO page. But you would think with a $497 price tag he would let you buy it after you have checked out the $67 product. Thanks for letting me know though.
I also wanted to know what other costs are involved to implement his methods. Like how much will it cost to outsource the articles and create the backlinks. The backlinking services that other courses recommend are usually pretty expensive (for me anyways) like $67+/month.
It's a bit early to give a real review-the course just launched today, and I'm only on the second "theory" video.
With that said, I suspect (based on what I've seen so far) it will be similar to Andrew's last course in overall strategy, although some of the technical stuff will be updated. It also looks like he is focused more on a mix of authority and minisites as a long term business philosophy-something I agree with.
He seems to be focusing more and more on building an online business, versus just an income stream.
As much as I'm hesitant to say much until I've gone through the entire course, and taken action on it, I will say that this is not the first time I've purchased Andrew's materials. He is very detail oriented, explains things well without sacrificing depth, and his info is always top notch.
I have no doubt that this purchase will be worth it.
I have done a full video review (I had early access, which is a good job as there are over 50 videos.
- here with no affiliate link: http://vimeo.com/60070190
Here is a full written review:
What is FOREVER AFFILIATE?
Forever Affiliate is a training program, from Andrew Hansen, that will teach you how to build a genuine long term and sustainable online business from affiliate marketing, where you can get to a position where you are earning a genuine PASSIVE Income – i.e. earning while you sleep. But you need to get there first.
Andrew Hansen has been around some time, and his previous training course from a few years ago was UNSTOPPABLE AFFILIATE was highly regarded (in fact one of my top recommendations).
HOWEVER, Forever Affiliate is NOT just a re-hash of old stuff!!! This is ALL Brand new training, developed for all aspiring affiliate marketers NOW. Many courses I review, even new ones, tend to be just re-hashes of old techniques. BUT Forever Affiliate is ALL NEW. And this is important to understand.
You see last year GOOGLE made some major changes to the way its search engine algorithms work. Any existing affiliate marketers out there will be acutely aware of these. These were the so called Google Penguin, Panda and EMD updates – and it had a MAJOR impact on many affiliate marketers – even me! Those old techniques – just don’t work effectively anymore, and over utilise them and you will get GOOGLE slapped.
That is why, for me, FOREVER AFFILIATE is so exciting – it is the first new training that is based on this new post-Panda, Penguin and EMD era.
Upfront I want to establish a few things about Forever Affiliate:
If you think that just buying the product and sitting there doing nothing your problems will be solved – this is not for you
If you think buying this means you will be earning £100 per day by tomorrow, this is not for you.
If you are looking for a “push button” magic bullet solution – this is not for you.
Make no mistake ….
Forever Affiliate DOES require an investment of YOUR time. There are nearly 50 videos here, and you need to go through each one. Each video ranges anywhere 5 to 20 mins long.
BUT THIS IS GOOD. THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED. It is because the training is SO detailed and thorough *(a trademark of Andrew Hansen’s previous courses). And why I like Andrew Hansen’s training. Even for an old hack like me, there is always so much NEW stuff I didn’t know about.
But it is all about QUALITY not QUANTITY – and the content in here is all QUALITY, believe me.
Right, now I have that off my chest …. Let’s get started and go to the members Area….
MEMBERS AREA
Members Area is pretty standard, but I like the simple layout. I have seen some membership areas that are just too confusing. This is very straightforward and perfect for beginners as well as old hacks like me.
Simple MENU navigation across the top, and the main training is split into 3 Key areas of “Phases”.
But here is the THEORY – now it really pays to sit through this, and really understand WHAT it is you are trying to achieve and HOW you are going to achieve it. This helps when you come to the main part of the course.
PHASE 1 – Is all about research, creating the framework for testing whether affiliate offers are worth pursuing, and also How to find great affiliate offers.
There are 15 videos
PHASE 2 – Testing, and setting up your blog, using Wordpress, what plugins you should use, Initial On Page optimisation
About 20 videos
PHASE 3 – off page SEO, SEO for 2013 an onwards, i.e HOW to avoid the nightmare of Google Penguin, Panda . This is not old re-hashed stuff using techniques developed before GOOGLE introduced its Penguin and Panda updates. This is all NEW SEO, and how to succeed and get ranking and traffic in 2013.
About 10 videos
In all the videos Andrew sets up what it is you will be learning, then he shows you how to do it, with “over the shoulder” (i.e. screen capture) view, then sums up the key points at the end in a slide. So all very easy to follow.
PHASE 1
Phase 1: Goes into real depth on two key areas
All about Creating an Analysis Funnel - basically a bench mark, or criteria to dramatically increase the chances of success when promoting a product.
This is what you use to test whether promoting a product is going to be worth your while.
This is what makes Forever Affiliate so effective. Many courses, just tell you how to find keywords that can rank easily, and have little competition - and then leave it at that.
But just because you find a great keyword - that meet is the search and competition criteria - does not mean you will make any money from this.
Forever Affiliate goes into much more detail in its "Analysis Funnel”. After all, if you are going to spend time creating site, or writing articles – you want to know that all that effort will be worth it. Or, if you are going to pay someone to do all that – again, you want to know that you will get a return on your investment.
This is why finding whether it is worth pursuing an idea is CRUCIAL – and what sets Forever Affiliate head and shoulders over anything else I have seen.
But, as they say, there is MORE. So you know how to analysis whether a product or service is worth promoting …. HOW DO YOU FIND what products or services to promote? Again, another area overlooked by so many courses.
Not this. The second part of Phase 1 is called “Putting Stuff Into The Funnel” – it is all about finding those PROFITABLE affiliate offers you can analyse. This section taught me so many techniques and ideas in finding great affiliate offers, (that aren’t just about tired all competitive products from Clickbank). There is NO ONE else teaching how to find great affiliate offers to promote – in this kind of detail.
Believe me if you have been around the block a few times with affiliate marketing, and put in all the effort only for a site to not make sales, or for all the best affiliate offers to be too competitive – I can understand your disillusionment. I know a lot of people struggle trying to find niche markets and affiliate offers to exploit – well, the training deals with this.
But the training in this part is so much more effective and so much more detailed than anything I have ever seen before. Really powerful stuff. You will discover loads of amazing affiliate offers to promote – that so many affiliate marketers do not know about – so low competition. If you take affiliate marketing seriously – this stuff is gold. You won’t be chasing after the same old tired and competitive affiliate offers everyone else is! My eyes have been truly opened to a whole new world of accessing affiliate offers I would never of come across.
I cannot recommend the training in this section enough. And it is worth going through all the training videos first, before going back and watching them again and then apply the techniques. Finding product and niche ideas – that are profitable is absolutely KEY to success as an affiliate marketer. And you get the training in shed loads here….
It is so worth spending time finding lots of products, putting then through the Analysis Funnel to see if they are worth it. When you have a handful – you then have a set of real potential affiliate offers to start building your sites.
Phase 2:
Testing - i.e. setting up your initial sites to see what works
This whole section includes, finding a hosting company, buying domain names, and installing Wordpress - and what the best Wordpress theme to use is - with both a paid (THESIS) and free theme that is recommended.
Andrew Hansen shows you what the essential Wordpress plugins are, how to install them, and where necessary configure them.
One Wordpress plugin - the All In One plugin- has its own video - explaining, in the clearest way I have ever seen, how to set it up. Even for an old hack like me I had an “a-ha!” moment.
Phase 3 also covers, the real importance and setting up of Google analytics - so you can optimise your earnings, and how you go about it.
Next part of this section, Andrew Hansen explains the difference between a mini site - and authority site - and how to lay them out accordingly.
There is a lot of focus on Creating content for 2013 onwards in this course - and it is VERY important. This is ignored by so many courses, or just plain out of date. It is all about providing quality content that is NOT over optimised or too short - which is a big mistake post Panda/Penguin.
But, it doesn’t leave you hanging there - there is a video that goes into great detail on how to actually WRITE an article, the style, tone and flow. Then how to layout and optimise the post for both the readers and the search engines accordingly.
NB: IF YOU CAN’T BE BOTHERED WITH ALL THIS you can get it all done for you !
For $15 you can get the Wordpress site all set up, plugins installed and optimised as explained, and for just $10 you can get “Forever Affiliate” style article written for you.
You just say how many you want, pay the money, and off you go. Simples!
Finally this section starts the traffic generation and link building process. Special focus paid attention what to do RIGHT, and what to AVOID in 2013 onwards. Really important stuff, in the light of GOOGLE’s changes last year. So all about avoiding “red flags” to Google. i.e
Rule 1 - Build links “slowly” and gently and only with NO use of anchor text links in the first 4 to 6 weeks. Initially just 50 of these unique high quality backlinks in the first 4 to 6 weeks. All very Google friendly. And more importantly - dead easy to do.
PHASE 3:
All about building on the now proven success of the mini sites tested in Phase 2. Driving traffic and building on what you now know are money earning sites. These are your “assets”, and it is all about maximising those assets.
Again, all post Google Panda/Penguin/EMD update friendly off page SEO methods.
Conclusion:
This course is very detailed – and there is a lot of it. It took me a few sittings to go through it. But it is all quality, and at a level of detail that means you will find success if you follow the training. What I like is how Andrew sums up each video with the main points at the end.
If you are new to Affiliate marketing - then it may seem overwhelming at first. But I say - stick with it. Go through it ALL once, then go back and start applying what he teaches step by step. Don’t just jump in at the beginning.
The SEO and training is ALL NEW, not re-hashed old techniques that are less effective nowadays. This is all about succeeding in a post Google Panda, Penguin, EMD era – but more than this. It is future proof, and gives you a robust approach to if Google change the goal posts again.
Great for beginners and people new to affiliate marketing, but just as valuable to people who are more experiences, as will find a raft of products to promote you didn’t even know existed. This is so much more than just promoting the same old Clickbank products that EVERYBODY seems to promote. In addition, the techniques to rank, and drive traffic are geared for a post Panda/Penguin world.
If you are looking to build a genuine, long term online business, with a firm base, that will earn you a passive income of thousands a month, then this IS the course. It is not going to happen overnight.
BUT, If you are prepared to put the work in and follow the videos very carefully, stay focused, have the commitment then YOU will succeed. This is why I think this is the most exciting affiliate training I have seen– AND WILL get results, and get you to a place, where YES, you are earning thousands a month, doing nothing.
Surprised nobody else has mentioned this yet in this thread.
The tools he recommends are just recommendations, and in this case he actually talks about the free account. As already mentioned, there are many backlink software analysers, and that doesn't make the course worth any less. It's common sense that you'd need to analyse the competition's backlinks - I do it right now in my current campaigns, don't you?
Originally Posted by bjallen
I bought this two days ago, and as I was going throught the videos, it all seemed like very sound information, and I did learn a thing or two.
When I started implementing the steps in phase 1, my research came to a screeching halt. The tool recommended for competitive backlink research costs $79 per month and upwards.
pretty pricey if you ask me. I did send a ticket to the support desk asking if a cheaper alternative was recommended, so I will reserve judgement and wait for a reply. I know there are other tools out there, but at first glance, none of them seem to do the same job that the recommended tool does. So I spent a few hours going down that rabbit hole, which was disappointing.
I will update when I hear back from the support desk. I would appreciate any suggestions from other warriors for a backlink research tool while I wait. My research is DITW as of now.
Thanks,
BJ
I'm currently using Link-Assistant's SEO Spyglass. There's also a monthly "search engine algo update" fee - think if you get only SEO Spyglass and not the other programs they sell it's about $20-odd per month for it, and in theory you don't actually need the updates to run the software although I wouldn't try it.
There's also a free version which may suit you perfectly since the only limitation if I recall correctly is that you can't save the project.
Without hijacking this thread by writing a review on SEO Spyglass, I can tell you it's pretty good for a standalone desktop application. However, in general Link Assistant's tools seem to struggle under high volume, so if it scrapes thousands of links links I suggest you analyse them IN CHUNKS as the program tends to freeze up if you do too many at a time. Check the PR of all the links, then analyse only the high PR links (that's what works for me). Save often! You may also consider using proxies with this program, and check out their "Human emulation" settings too.
Oh, and it won't tell you over what period links were built, but honestly while that's a "nice to have" metric I don't find that info vital. I just look at the domain's age and strength of the backlinks and draw my own conclusions from that.
It's also considerably slower than using a 3rd party system since it runs all the scrapes and analysis on request directly from the program. This is unfortunately the price you pay for not using a 3rd party analysis system such as MajesticSEO, Ahrefs etc which use already obtained and analysed data in their system to generate their results.
He mentioned using Ahrefs in Phase 1 - you can get a free account there.
Overall though I'm still using SEO Spyglass. The data's pretty good and I'm quite sure it'll manage just fine with the type of competition you'd be analysing relative to what's outlined in the course material.
Has anyone else noticed that the case study site that Andrew uses in the course (Pregnancy Miracle: Will It Work For You? My Comprehensive Investigation.) is nowhere to be seen in the SERPs and according to ahrefs.com and opensiteexplorer, there are next to no backlinks! (Considering this was the site he was ordering the backlinking for in the Videos, doesn't it seem odd?)
Maybe it's been hit by a Google penalty? In which case, what does this say about the FA course?
Pregnancy Miracle was a case study...no more...never a real site that he was using to pursue affiliate business...just a template of what and how to set up and analyze potential affiliate sites.
This is one of the best and most detailed review I have read so far, on this forum.
And I have been here a very, very long time. (Don't mind what is being
shown as my starting date) :-)
But thanks to you, I now have a pretty great idea of what this offer is about,
before I actually buy it. And it sound real good.
And I have dealt with Andrew over the years. He is an honest guy. Nothing
phony about Andrew Hansen.
"Providing personal and business transformational information: Working hard to always give the kind of valuethat will produce the best results for my customers. Because, the successof my business will depend on my customers'satisfaction."
It is a solid course, mainly because it piggybacks on what Michael Campbell was so successfully teaching years ago in his GooBert ebook: create affiliate minisites, get social traffic by joining the conversation, watch it balloon.
It works, but do be warned that half-hearted effort won't cut it. If you are going to join the conversation, then make sure you have a proper avatar prepared, make really informed, personal comments on blog posts, etc. And the best thing you can possibly do is create the best possible content for your site - good enough so that people reblog it, retweet it, like it, etc. It can compound your traffic and get you more profitable than 10 half-assed sites.
I'm hoping to purchase this course next week but have a question to those who have bought and implementing. The course was launched pre hummingbird update, will this effect the effectiveness or results using Andrew's blueprint now?
I'm hoping to purchase this course next week but have a question to those who have bought and implementing. The course was launched pre hummingbird update, will this effect the effectiveness or results using Andrew's blueprint now?
John.
John, I'm still using the techniques taught by Andrew as a foundation for my IM business. FA doesn't teach any shady / blackhat SEO "shortcuts" that can get you into trouble (actually he teaches very, VERY safe link building), and I have yet to be negatively affected by any animal updates which I've implemented FA techniques on. FA teaches you how to build and IM business, not how to game the search engines to make a quick buck. It's not a "here today, gone tomorrow" strategy, and will likely work for a long time to come yet.
OK great, thanks for taking time out to help me out. I think I suffer from the 'OMG google can cut my throat at any time and end me' syndrome, with the black cloud of doubt hanging over that it could happen anytime and smash all the hard work and time to pieces. Do most IM'ers who focus on SEO feel like this do you think?
That was a very helpful review. I am wondering about the affiliate offerings however. You said that it's not Clickbank. Can these affiliate offers be CPA offers. Thanks again.
Yes they can. Any kind of affiliate offer. The main thing with Forever Affiliate is it has a lot of focus on where you can find affiliate offers, and not JUST from the same old ones we old know. there is even a video on finding private affiliate offers. Doing keywaord research is all well and good, but finding potential affiliate offers that are not over subscribed can be difficult. Andrew really shows the way here.
Most people hate writing articles, it takes lots of time to write them, and can be expensive to buy if that is your alternative, Sheihk 352!
Writing or buying original content is not something to look forward to doing!!!!
That is the major weakness to this system!!!!!!
Lord kensal in his review says to purchase an article for $10. However, I find it hard to believe that one 500 word article is enough to fill up 3-7 page wordpress sites as spoken about in the sales letter.
Anyone want to refute this!!!!!!!
I am also leery of the refund guarantee!
This is a membership site requiring username and password. Andrew can easily deny access to the site to anyone that he has to issue a refund to and not require proof that the buyer has not made profits from following the system!
Most people hate writing articles, it takes lots of time to write them, and can be expensive to buy if that is your alternative, Sheihk 352!
Writing or buying original content is not something to look forward to doing!!!!
That is the major weakness to this system!!!!!!
Cadillac,
You have me confused. What's your alternative to providing good content? If you don't want to do it yourself (and I certainly don't) then you need to find a way of outsourcing. It's going to cost money. Why is that a weakness of this system?
I have now watched about 10 of the videos. While I have been on the fringes of internet marketing for years Andrew presents research techniques that are completely new to me. Isn't this the value of the course - not the need to produce content which any web site based marketing proposition is going to require?
And I use iWriter for better quality and a bit more expensive work - around $2 per quality article. Because the writers there are willing to put more effort on your articles since they get paid more.
You've had quality articles from iWriter for $2? I've ordered over 100 $5 articles there and never had one that I could honestly call 'quality'. Some of them were quite good, most were passable for the price, a few were downright terrible, but I wouldn't say any of them were 'quality'. Content like that is okay for building backlinks but not really suitable for Forever Affiliate sites.
You are complaining about how much there is to learn and how much time and effort it takes on your part. It is what you said.
It is what I said? You're not telling the truth, which is probrably why you always fail to QUOTE ME when you attack me. Use the quote button, it'a a conveiniant, handy little button that many people use. Since you're not quoting me, I surmise that you're referring to post #151, located at the top of page 4. That post does not contain a complaint. It contains a question. It's a question from a novice who can't fathom writing 108,000 words, give or take. It's a question from a novice who would like help in trying to figure out if generating that amount of content is humanly possible:
How many people can write 108,000 words about a niche product that they have no expertise in?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd say that writing that many words about something that is unfamiliar (and maybe uninteresting) would be an impossible task for most people.
Forever Affiliate requires:
5 Minisites with each one containing eight 1000 word posts.
1 Authority site that contains one hundred 1000 word posts.
Total: 108,000 words
It is what I said? You're not telling the truth, which is probrably why you always fail to QUOTE ME when you attack me. Use the quote button, it'a a conveiniant, handy little button that many people use. Since you're not quoting me, I surmise that you're referring to post #151, located at the top of page 4. That post does not contain a complaint. It contains a question. It's a question from a novice who can't fathom writing 108,000 words, give or take. It's a question from a novice who would like help in trying to figure out if generating that amount of content is humanly possible:
How many people can write 108,000 words about a niche product that they have no expertise in?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd say that writing that many words about something that is unfamiliar (and maybe uninteresting) would be an impossible task for most people.
Forever Affiliate requires:
5 Minisites with each one containing eight 1000 word posts.
1 Authority site that contains one hundred 1000 word posts.
Total: 108,000 words
Remember, the quote button is your friend.
Wow! It is clear that you don't read for comprehension. I quoted that very thread in post 239. I left out the more negative parts where you you compared it to Hitler writing a pro Israel essay, and that it wasn't going to happen. And then further complaining about having to pay to outsource it.
Instead, I saw the issue that you were having in dealing with it mentally, and psyching yourself out. I offered advice on how to deal with it. You ask if "help in trying to figure out if generating that amount of content is humanly possible", well help was there, but apparently you would rather start fights.
I was also referring to your rant about how it is going to take "a LOT of your time" and you would have to "miss out on a lot of sleep" and "fore-go lots of activities". Again, I DID quote this in post 240, and I addressed it there.
Now you say:
You're not telling the truth, which is probrably why you always fail to QUOTE ME when you attack me. Use the quote button, it'a a conveiniant, handy little button that many people use.
Yet I have quoted you at least 4 times in previous posts. I quoted you and addressed those quotes. I am not responsible for you not bothering to read them.
I will also point out that you are a hypocrite. RuggeroSB post a well thought out and constructive comment to you. Your response to him was:
Your post is full of assumptions, a large quantity of 'em, among other things, RuggeroSB. I'm not gonna waste my time addressing each one.
And I'll leave it at that.
You did not QUOTE him, or make any attempt clear up what you felt he was assuming. What assumptions? What other things?
The truth is, he was correct. I was giving you the benefit of the doubt in assuming that some of what you had been saying was in the heat of the moment due to frustration. I suggested in one of my previous posts that you go back and reread the things you said and what he said and try to look at them objectively. Apparently you could not be bothered. It's a shame, because what he said was right, and if you want to succeed in this business you are going to have to change your mindset.
Interestingly enough, I just noticed that Brad Callen thanked RuggeroSB on that post. I'm sure that you have heard of him. If not, look him up. He is one of the Elite in Internet Marketing. If he put a "than you" on it, you can be sure it was something worth reading.
You've had quality articles from iWriter for $2? I've ordered over 100 $5 articles there and never had one that I could honestly call 'quality'. Some of them were quite good, most were passable for the price, a few were downright terrible, but I wouldn't say any of them were 'quality'. Content like that is okay for building backlinks but not really suitable for Forever Affiliate sites.
You're exactly right...the quality of articles written by the writers of 'iWriter are hardly what you'd call 'quality' articles at all.
Passable at best, but certainly not of the quality Google would ever rank.
I'm paying between $18 and $25 for 800 words articles. Which is really what you have to be prepared to pay in the hope that Google will come sniffing around your pages
Don't even look at your traffic analytics in the first month, unless you can handle the often dismal numbers!
Be prepared for total and complete fails - they happen, and at first probably more than your successes.
My advice to you is to focus on getting all 5 sites up and forget everything else right now. Then look at the big picture and decide your next move from there.
As someone who has been doing niche marketing for a number of years I can say that this is some great advice from RuggeroSB. Also some valuable contributions from RanD.
I read reviews from other site, we can only access Andrew's team if we paid for the upsell ($497 I believe). Is that true? I wish I have enough money to buy the upsell and outsourcing to Andrew's team.
You can get access to someone to set up a site/install wordpress and all plugins etc for $15 and get an 800 quality content article for $10 through a service on Forever Affiliate. You don't need the upsell for this.
The upsell is basically a 6 week coaching - and a complete "do it all for you service", where they will find products, create sites, do backlink the works.
In addition it is probably one of THE best upsells - because, and I quote: " I'll Coach You Until You Hit Your First $1000/mo
That's right. I've never done something so bold.
Once you're in this private program, you've got access to my ongoing assistance UNTIL you reach your first $1000/mo in affiliate income... however long that takes!
I realize everyone's time frames are different and I've beefed up my resources to be able to support you all the way until you reach that goal."
Andrew is an honest as as credible as they come. Not because I'm a fellow Aussie, but because the guy lives it day in day out, and so he knows his stuff.
I've been doing this over 10 years, and of all the marketers and products I've come across during those years, I can count the credible, honest marketers on one hand, and Andrew is in the top 3 for sure.
There is loads of stuff on where to find products to promote. This is one of the things that makes the course so powerful (and sets it above most courses). In fact the first part "Phase 1" is almost in 2 sections, with one set of videos on keyword research analysis and the 2nd part all about different sources and methods to find affiliate offers. AND NOT just the same old ones everybody else is trying to promote. Gave me a ton of ideas.
Yes! He shows various ways to find a niche, ways most people aren't accustomed to.
Plus, for the record, if anyone takes the proper action from FA and doesn't make money and build a successful business from the teaching, then they might need to re-think how they want to make a living, and I don't mean online either.
I recommend anything Andrew puts out, he is the real deal. I have proof of income over at my blog and also bonuses for this course if anyone is interest. I have used his strategies and can assist anyone get results with his teachings combined with mine.
I can truly vouch for him as a successful student of his.
I recommend anything Andrew puts out, he is the real deal. I have proof of income over at my blog and also bonuses for this course if anyone is interest. I have used his strategies and can assist anyone get results with his teachings combined with mine.
I can truly vouch for him as a successful student of his.
Thanks,
Chris
Hi Chris, could you point me towards the proof of income on your blog?
I'd be interested to see what success you've had with Andrew's methods and strategies.
I decided to buy Forever Affiliate. I'm glad I did. It has taken me two days just to go through Theory and Phase 1. This is done so well and so clearly that I am just watching the videos and understanding and remembering what Andrew is teaching. I hate videos and usually try to take notes or read the transcripts. Not this time. The info is so clear I am remembering it all and it is a lot of info. That's a testament to Andrew being a really good, detailed teacher. Everything is making sense to me now.
There is one section that shows you how to calculate how much a particular product can potentially make you per month. That info all by itself is a gem to me. Maybe more experienced marketers already know how to do that, but in all the learning I have been doing through the years I never knew how to do this.
I have a couple of sites that make me money. Very little but they do make money. After using Andrew's calculations I realized why I make very little money. It's not because I did anything wrong, it's just that those products from day one were never going to make me the kind of money I want to make no matter what I do, and believe me I've spent a lot of time on them. Imagine knowing upfront what you could make? You could eliminate a lot of products because they are not worth your time and effort and really go to work on those that have great $ potential.
Anyway that one video on calculating how much you'll make in a month was well worth the money for this course. But there is much, much more that I've learned as I've gone through the other videos. What I've learned will keep me from spinning my wheels and working my arse off for things that won't ever get me where I want to go.
I'm looking forward to phase 2 and getting my sites up and running. Running the right way from day one, which seems to be the focus of this section.
As I mentioned I have many more videos to watch in the next phases but I just thought I'd let you know what I think so far, for whatever it is worth.
I'm not really a massive fan of video but I'm just finished watching up to the end of phase 2 (I admit I did fast forward through a few of the vids as it was info I already knew). I'm taking a few notes as I go so that I don't have to watch them over again.
I wouldn't say the course is revolutionary as this is the kind of stuff myself and alot of marketers who are successful are already doing, there are alot of 'Forever Affiliate' type sites out there already. I would say however that it's obvious Andrew is teaching from experience, and he teaches alot of tips I haven't seen taught before.
If you're not already making money with niche blogs I think this could be the course that fills in the gaps. It certainly is alot more comprehensive and up to date than strategies such as 'Google Sniper'. I think one of the main reasons people fail in affiliate marketing is because they don't pick the right product, and this is something that is addressed in alot of detail in this course.
One of the most useful videos is the one about how to find private affiliate programs - that tip is gold, I kind of wish Andrew had kept that one to himself though!
I recommend anything Andrew puts out, he is the real deal. I have proof of income over at my blog and also bonuses for this course if anyone is interest. I have used his strategies and can assist anyone get results with his teachings combined with mine.
I can truly vouch for him as a successful student of his.
Thanks,
Chris
But you haven't updated your blog since August 2011.
No one would listen to the recommendation of someone from a deserted blog with no ranking or at least I won't.
He's not trying to sell you anything . He's giving his personal experience. Surely a longstanding client of Andrew's has something relevant to contribute in this thread? Whether you choose to consider his endorsement on merit is your call, but in terms of his blog, which one did you visit? It looks pretty updated to me... http://commissiondiary.com/
Anyway I wouldn't discount people's contributions so cavalierly. Just because I, for example, haven't updated my personal site / blog / Facebook profile in what feels like a decade doesn't mean I don't have anything valuable to contribute in this community. After all, IM / SEO / WebDev is my livelihood nonetheless.
He's not trying to sell you anything . He's giving his personal experience. Surely a longstanding client of Andrew's has something relevant to contribute in this thread? Whether you choose to consider his endorsement on merit is your call, but in terms of his blog, which one did you visit? It looks pretty updated to me... Affiliate Marketing Blog: $100 Day Commission Diary
Anyway I wouldn't discount people's contributions so cavalierly. Just because I, for example, haven't updated my personal site / blog / Facebook profile in what feels like a decade doesn't mean I don't have anything valuable to contribute in this community. After all, IM / SEO / WebDev is my livelihood nonetheless.
Why is he offering bonuses if he's not selling anything?
I was actually looking at the site in his userId - The way I look at this, if someone's offering an SEO service on a website which is either not ranked or lowly ranked, would you still buy his services?!!!
In any case, I have now bought Andrew's stuff with a $1 trial and I'm going through the course, so it's all academecial now
Watching Andrew teaching this stuff is just as enjoyable as watching a good Hollywood movie and hoping that this stuff will eventually help me make some decent money after all -- the only thing that I can see stopping it that I can see so far will be the cost of paying for the content to be written professionally. It would cost on average $100 per site for the content and I want no one to tell me that I can write the content myself - NO I CAN'T - I HATE WRITING MY OWN CONTENT SO MUCH
Why is he offering bonuses if he's not selling anything?
I was actually looking at the site in his userId - The way I look at this, if someone's offering an SEO service on a website which is either not ranked or lowly ranked, would you still buy his services?!!!
In any case, I have now bought Andrew's stuff with a $1 trial and I'm going through the course, so it's all academecial now
Watching Andrew teaching this stuff is just as enjoyable as watching a good Hollywood movie and hoping that this stuff will eventually help me make some decent money after all -- the only thing that I can see stopping it that I can see so far will be the cost of paying for the content to be written professionally. It would cost on average $100 per site for the content and I want no one to tell me that I can write the content myself - NO I CAN'T - I HATE WRITING MY OWN CONTENT SO MUCH
Ok, so he's trying to sell you something on his website (who isn't), and you clearly landed on a different website to the one I did. Any event, his post wasn't "ra-ra click on my link for free bonuses" - that's all I was saying.
But yes, it's academic at this point .
$100 per site? So, 10 pages x $10 each? Well, there are cheaper options. I have a source that's much cheaper than $10 and the quality's good enough (English is good, no spelling /grammer problems, relevant - closer to $5 per article) and to my recollection I'm pretty sure Andrew says a mini-site can start with 5 pages?
I'll b happy to share my article source with you if you want - PM me.
$100 per site? So, 10 pages x $10 each? Well, there are cheaper options. I have a source that's much cheaper than $10 and the quality's good enough (English is good, no spelling /grammer problems, relevant - closer to $5 per article) and to my recollection I'm pretty sure Andrew says a mini-site can start with 5 pages?
I'll b happy to share my article source with you if you want - PM me.
Andrew's recommending 800 word articles which I agree with myself as I have a mini-stie atm with 400 word pages and it's not getting the desired results. (10 page sites should perform better and should keep visitors longer on the site hopefully).
So if your source charges $5 per 800 word artilces then I'd be happy to use your source
Andrew's recommending 800 word articles which I agree with myself as I have a mini-stie atm with 400 word pages and it's not getting the desired results. (10 page sites should perform better and should keep visitors longer on the site hopefully).
So if your source charges $5 per 800 word artilces then I'd be happy to use your source
Heh 5 bucks for a "good" 800 word article? No such luck there so far!
No the guys I'm using charge 750+ words @ $7.95 each. They have bulk discount options on a sliding scale - the more you buy the cheaper they are, but their lowest for 750+ is $7.35 and you have to buy at least 75 articles.
Still not bad though.
They also have a "High Quality" articles option available @ $2.55 per 100 words. I've never tried this option and frankly so far I have never needed to. Their "standard" quality I've found to be perfectly good enough.
I bought the main FA course and when presented with the $497 OTO,
I passed on it and got the second downsell OTO which is the same as
the $497 one except I don't get personal consultation and don't get on
the live training. The second OTO is $297
I still can get support and help with the course but not personally with
Andrew.
I still get the training, but not live, I get the replay videos. For me it was
worth saving $200 and just go for normal support and replay videos.
I bought the main FA course and when presented with the $497 OTO,
I passed on it and got the second downsell OTO which is the same as
the $497 one except I don't get personal consultation and don't get on
the live training. The second OTO is $297
I still can get support and help with the course but not personally with
Andrew.
I still get the training, but not live, I get the replay videos. For me it was
worth saving $200 and just go for normal support and replay videos.
Thanks for the tip, but do you get access to the outsource list and his people he mentions in the first Oto?
Is there anything else you Do Not Get (other than what you said) in OTO 2?
When I bought the initial course didn't get an opportunity for oto 2. It wasn't there.
What does the done for you package entail? I would be interested in several sites if all from the course is applied to a completed site and product to market. Thanks for any info you may have.
Thanks for the tip, but do you get access to the outsource list and his people he mentions in the first Oto?
Is there anything else you Do Not Get (other than what you said) in OTO 2?
When I bought the initial course didn't get an opportunity for oto 2. It wasn't there.
Thx Bill
I big misconception amongst many is that you only get access to the outsourcers if you buy the OTO. Truth is you get access to the outsourcers ANYWAY - you just have to pay them each time you order from them that's all. I didn't buy the OTO's but I did get the standard course, and as some1 who's been dabbling in IM for over 5 years and serious about it for the last 2 I can assure you it's well worth it even without the OTO's.
In fact, if you're like me and have been around awhile already, I think the OTO's are probably "not worth it" for you. I say that in quotes because I have no doubt it would be amazingly worth it for newer IMers
I'm certain the coaching program is valuable but there's a lot of information in the $67 package. The coaching might speed things up - depending on your available time and work habits - but I think the basic product will provide everything you need.
It's really a very complete course. I'm still only on the first few videos and I get more impressed with every one.
Many of these reviews seem to have been posted by big time supporters of Andrew Hansen. All ra ra, he's the greatest without any focus on the real meat of the sandwich.
Has anybody done the course or used known techniques and actually built sites that make more than $10 a month??
If we stump up the cash, do the training, build and promote the sites will we get the promised results.
You must realize there are hundreds of hours involved in all this and so many of these schemes do not produce the desired outcome!!
And if the methods work so well why is he building and selling training courses to sell to a thirsty audience. All who are trying without succeeding. Of the 100 people who buy the full course I bet less than 5% get to an earning stage!
Come on guys get real. Can the BS. We want achievable results not thousands of hours of mind numbing talk!
Many of these reviews seem to have been posted by big time supporters of Andrew Hansen. All ra ra, he's the greatest without any focus on the real meat of the sandwich.
Has anybody done the course or used known techniques and actually built sites that make more than $10 a month??
If we stump up the cash, do the training, build and promote the sites will we get the promised results.
You must realize there are hundreds of hours involved in all this and so many of these schemes do not produce the desired outcome!!
I wouldn't call myself a big time supporter of Andrew (I don't even know the guy), I do know from experience that his methods work though. I read Niche Marketing On Crack back in the day, and more recently Unstoppable Affiliate, and the methods in this are similar - just updated for 2013.
I have a number of sites built using the same methods and I would say $300+ per site per month (average) is a pretty accurate estimate. I have sites that didn't work at all (usually due to choosing the wrong product or keywords), I have some that make a few hundred a month, and some that make $1000+ per month. All are simple product review sites like Andrew teaches. I could post earnings proof but there wouldn't be any point - I can't prove that my earnings are from Andrew's methods specifically. Anyway, what I earn using the methods won't necessarily reflect what someone else will - you might not make as much as me or you might make way more.
I do believe that if you stump up the cash, do the training, and build and promote the sites, you should make money with this method. IMHO as a successful affiliate marketer this course covers all the bases. I'm in the process of starting a new blog at the moment and I'm thinking of doing a Forever Affiliate case study building some new niche blogs from scratch - I'll put the link in my sig when I'm ready in case anyone is interested.
And if the methods work so well why is he building and selling training courses to sell to a thirsty audience. All who are trying without succeeding. Of the 100 people who buy the full course I bet less than 5% get to an earning stage!
Why does anyone sell training course in IM? Because it adds to your bottom line, you build a list of buyers etc. Product creation is one of the best ways to make money because once your product is ready you can continue selling it and make passive income for a long time to come (or until it goes out of date at least).
The reason the success rate is so low with most IM products is because buyers just don't take action - they're buying the dream and aren't willing to put in the time and effort it takes to be successful.
For someone like me who gave up on affiliate marketing a few years ago, but still have sites up that make money even though I'm doing nothing, Forever Affiliate is a good refresher course.
BTW those sites of mine make about $200-300 a month. Pitiful, I know. In the past I was constantly working on them and then just became exhausted and disappointed after penguin and panda and just let them sit there.
In Forever Affiliate there are some new and (I think) correct ways to do this without exhausting yourself. The method Andrew is showing has streamlined the process for me and I feel will make it faster to get the right (hopefully) product/keywords and start building sites quickly.
This course structures the process so if you do one step at a time you won't get distracted or overwhelmed. I've found some things I want to promote and this week will start building the sites and I'll let you know how it goes. It is going to take a few months of work though.
Personally, Forever Affiliate is a good "refresher/updating" course for people who have done some affiliate marketing, know there is money out there to be made, and want to get back in the game. For newbies...I'm not so sure. Very experienced and successful marketers obviously don't need this.
I wouldn't call myself a big time supporter of Andrew (I don't even know the guy), I do know from experience that his methods work though. I read Niche Marketing On Crack back in the day, and more recently Unstoppable Affiliate, and the methods in this are similar - just updated for 2013.
I have a number of sites built using the same methods and I would say $300+ per site per month (average) is a pretty accurate estimate. I have sites that didn't work at all (usually due to choosing the wrong product or keywords), I have some that make a few hundred a month, and some that make $1000+ per month. All are simple product review sites like Andrew teaches. I could post earnings proof but there wouldn't be any point - I can't prove that my earnings are from Andrew's methods specifically. Anyway, what I earn using the methods won't necessarily reflect what someone else will - you might not make as much as me or you might make way more.
I do believe that if you stump up the cash, do the training, and build and promote the sites, you should make money with this method. IMHO as a successful affiliate marketer this course covers all the bases. I'm in the process of starting a new blog at the moment and I'm thinking of doing a Forever Affiliate case study building some new niche blogs from scratch - I'll put the link in my sig when I'm ready in case anyone is interested.
Why does anyone sell training course in IM? Because it adds to your bottom line, you build a list of buyers etc. Product creation is one of the best ways to make money because once your product is ready you can continue selling it and make passive income for a long time to come (or until it goes out of date at least).
The reason the success rate is so low with most IM products is because buyers just don't take action - they're buying the dream and aren't willing to put in the time and effort it takes to be successful.
Congratulations on getting regular income from affiliate sites. With Google's efforts to "kill off" these sites recently its great that you have survived.
Clearly methods you have learned and implemented prior to Penguin etc still work? Is that because they are review sites? and therefore have some "authority"?
Is your traffic organic or paid?
Impressed by your offer to post the url for you new site. I would be keen to see it.
Its not just a matter of doing the work to get the results its about doing the right work. There are millions of businesses and websites built by some very smart, dedicated people that dont work! Tools that clearly tell you if your offer will work before you build it would be extremely valuable.
Like the adword strategy that no longer works. Advertise an offer, send to a landing page and measure the conversion at different levels. When they get to the product explain its a research project and if they answer some questions the product will be built and given to them for free. You could tell in a couple of days whether it was worth putting 200 hours into the project.
I don't know Andrew Hansen personally, it just seems to me that if he was a caring, conscientious, smart, warm-hearted guy as some people claim him to be, then he would offer a support forum for those who have questions about any gaps or stumbling blocks a user might be presented with. It's not a stretch to assume, and ya just gotta believe, that there are going to be people who, while watching one of his training videos, will inevitably have a question about a methodology that needs to be answered. Especially noobs.
And if it's not a question about something ambiguous in a training video that needs to be answered, then maybe it's a good, plausible question about something else related to IM. You'll often hear Andrew Hansen talk about all the free time he has. Oh, that I believe, especially when you consider that he has the option to outsource a great bulk of work that goes into being a successful marketer. Plain and simple: in my opinion, he needs to get off his vacation-traveling, jet-setting butt and construct a discussion forum!
Mr. Hansen, where's your empathy? You do realize that after we watch one of your training videos we might have a question that needs to be answered, or a strategy that we'd like to discuss. I'm not a certified optician, but due to your great success I suggest that you just might have a touch of tunnel vision because I'm here to tell you that not all of us are experts at IM. In fact, many of us are either noobs just starting out, veterans struggling to be successful or virtual losers when it comes to Internet marketing...
I don't know Andrew Hansen personally, it just seems to me that if he was a caring, conscientious, smart, warm-hearted guy as some people claim him to be, then he would offer a support forum for those who have questions about any gaps or stumbling blocks a user might be presented with. It's not a stretch to assume, and ya just gotta believe, that there are going to be people who, while watching one of his training videos, will inevitably have a question about a methodology that needs to be answered. Especially noobs.
And if it's not a question about something ambiguous in a training video that needs to be answered, then maybe it's a good, plausible question about something else related to IM. You'll often hear Andrew Hansen talk about all the free time he has. Oh, that I believe, especially when you consider that he has the option to outsource a great bulk of work that goes into being a successful marketer. Plain and simple: in my opinion, he needs to get off his vacation-traveling, jet-setting butt and construct a discussion forum!
Mr. Hansen, where's your empathy? You do realize that after we watch one of your training videos we might have a question that needs to be answered, or a strategy that we'd like to discuss. I'm not a certified optician, but due to your great success I suggest that you just might have a touch of tunnel vision because I'm here to tell you that not all of us are experts at IM. In fact, many of us are either noobs just starting out, veterans struggling to be successful or virtual losers when it comes to Internet marketing...
I feel your pain. I'd bet that most warrior forum members have been in similar places while learning.
I'd like to note that I received and email from Andrew yesterday answering a question that someone had sent him, and clarifying some points about the lessons in FA.
It can be hard to answer super specific questions on an individual level because each project will be a little different. Various niches will be different, and in the hands of two marketers the same niche will get different results. Not huge differences-the basic process still applies-but tiny things.
The best thing to do is get started-ready, fire, aim. Get it going, then make corrections as needed. Once you have a basic process-whether from FA or another good course-this forum can be a great place to hammer out the details, and get second(or third) opinions.
Just purchased Forever Affiliate. The information looks great, but one problem, all of the videos are flash based. There are no download links for the videos to review them offline from Firefox on a Mac. Somewhat disappointing. I see there is a transcript of each video available but maybe someone can tell me where the download links for the videos because it is easier to view the videos off line if possible.
Well said wingman, but what would be the story if they were all negative? You have to accept that there is some decent content in this thread that does carry weight.
As well, the people Andrew associates with in the sales letter, and the person who put me onto this offer are as solid as the rock of Gibralta - there is no bull shit here I can tell you.
Like anybody Andrew has a business to run, and if he can sell a system that has made him money that people will buy, then good luck to him. He has been around for a while and in this business your reputation is key. I don't see any negative comments about poor performance in this thread?
But it's your decision - perhaps "read between the lines" mate.
I bought this two days ago, and as I was going throught the videos, it all seemed like very sound information, and I did learn a thing or two.
When I started implementing the steps in phase 1, my research came to a screeching halt. The tool recommended for competitive backlink research costs $79 per month and upwards.
pretty pricey if you ask me. I did send a ticket to the support desk asking if a cheaper alternative was recommended, so I will reserve judgement and wait for a reply. I know there are other tools out there, but at first glance, none of them seem to do the same job that the recommended tool does. So I spent a few hours going down that rabbit hole, which was disappointing.
I will update when I hear back from the support desk. I would appreciate any suggestions from other warriors for a backlink research tool while I wait. My research is DITW as of now.
I bought this two days ago, and as I was going throught the videos, it all seemed like very sound information, and I did learn a thing or two.
When I started implementing the steps in phase 1, my research came to a screeching halt. The tool recommended for competitive backlink research costs $79 per month and upwards.
pretty pricey if you ask me. I did send a ticket to the support desk asking if a cheaper alternative was recommended, so I will reserve judgement and wait for a reply. I know there are other tools out there, but at first glance, none of them seem to do the same job that the recommended tool does. So I spent a few hours going down that rabbit hole, which was disappointing.
I will update when I hear back from the support desk. I would appreciate any suggestions from other warriors for a backlink research tool while I wait. My research is DITW as of now.
Thanks,
BJ
Surprised nobody else has mentioned this yet in this thread.
I bought this two days ago, and as I was going throught the videos, it all seemed like very sound information, and I did learn a thing or two.
When I started implementing the steps in phase 1, my research came to a screeching halt. The tool recommended for competitive backlink research costs $79 per month and upwards.
pretty pricey if you ask me. I did send a ticket to the support desk asking if a cheaper alternative was recommended, so I will reserve judgement and wait for a reply. I know there are other tools out there, but at first glance, none of them seem to do the same job that the recommended tool does. So I spent a few hours going down that rabbit hole, which was disappointing.
I will update when I hear back from the support desk. I would appreciate any suggestions from other warriors for a backlink research tool while I wait. My research is DITW as of now.
RuggeroSB, thanks for your recommendation. I will certainly give SEO spyglass a look. I did get a response from the help desk at FA, but it was basically, "There's a lot of backlink analyzer tools out there. Here is a link you might find helpful." Not a specific recommendation.
RuggeroSB, thanks for your recommendation. I will certainly give SEO spyglass a look. I did get a response from the help desk at FA, but it was basically, "There's a lot of backlink analyzer tools out there. Here is a link you might find helpful." Not a specific recommendation.
Thanks again! BJ
My pleasure bjallen! Ya I'd have guessed you would've gotten a canned response like that. Andrew did point out that the support desk isn't going to be much help in the "advice" department. They're likely there more to ensure the smooth running of the logistics of the course, payments etc. Hence the OTO includes his email address
If you want to check out competitor's link network, another option is Market Samurai. I've use Link-Assist tools, just couldn't get on with them.
I have MS too. Honestly don't like their "AC" Rank which they assign to the backlinks. I much prefer to see Google PR since that's pretty much the defacto standard these days for determining link juice, esp. since we're dealing with Google for the most part.
Plus, while I agree that Link Assistant's software isn't even close perfect, and frankly sometimes downright annoying when it misbehaves, MS has its moments too, and their user interface is also pretty counterinuitive imo.
Jumbo Article 801-900 words $29. Ouch. Better be an amazing article for that price. Ok ya they need to make a living, but generally accepted market prices are also a consideration.
I think it might be wise for us to put less weight on Page Rank these days.
This from Google Webmaster Central's FAQ:
Q: My site's PageRank has gone up / gone down / not changed in months!
A: Don't worry. In fact, don't bother thinking about it. We only update the PageRank displayed in Google Toolbar a few times a year; this is our respectful hint for you to worry less about PageRank, which is just one of over 200 signals that can affect how your site is crawled, indexed and ranked. PageRank is an easy metric to focus on, but just because it's easy doesn't mean it's useful for you as a site owner. If you're looking for metrics, we'd encourage you to check out Analytics, think about conversion rates, ROI (return on investment), relevancy, or other metrics that actually correlate to meaningful gains for your website or business.
I think it might be wise for us to put less weight on Page Rank these days.
This from Google Webmaster Central's FAQ:
Q: My site's PageRank has gone up / gone down / not changed in months!
A: Don't worry. In fact, don't bother thinking about it. We only update the PageRank displayed in Google Toolbar a few times a year; this is our respectful hint for you to worry less about PageRank, which is just one of over 200 signals that can affect how your site is crawled, indexed and ranked. PageRank is an easy metric to focus on, but just because it's easy doesn't mean it's useful for you as a site owner. If you're looking for metrics, we'd encourage you to check out Analytics, think about conversion rates, ROI (return on investment), relevancy, or other metrics that actually correlate to meaningful gains for your website or business.
More misinformation. While I agree it's not the only signal, it's still an incredibly important factor in valuing the weight of links. I know this from my own personal testing. Believe me 10 000 links from pages with no PR carry almost no weight when compared to just a handful of links originating from high PR sites. I've done both, and now do a blend of the two. Try it - you'll see.
And don't believe everything Google "volunteers" . Besides, in this case they're not talking about how PR affects a link's weight in terms of Off-page SEO. They're simply telling webmasters to "ignore" the PR. Rightly so since PR outside of Off-Page SEO projects doesn't mean a whole lot.
They also say (broadly) that "link building is bad", and you should focus on just building an awesome website with amazing, unique content and the rest will happen on it's own. Ya right!
Incidentally, Andrew mentions in this course that the only true "assets" you have in this industry is the data you've acquired from your own testing, NOT what others say or do, least of all Google. In my experience, he's dead right.
Through out the course I have used a few techniques to find profitable affiliate offers and I have only came up with one and he says 5 would be good to start out with. I have been looking in the health niche to find some potential affiliate offers, but most of them don't meet the first criteria on the analysis funnel he has shared with us in his training.
Today for me was dissapointing I looked for so many brand name keywords mostly in the health niche and I have only came across a few niches with product names that meet the first criteria bur the competition was hard to beat. I could have done maybe a few mistakes but im considering going ahead and start that first affiliate offer and hold off on finding the other 4.
Today for me was dissapointing I looked for so many brand name keywords mostly in the health niche and I have only came across a few niches with product names that meet the first criteria bur the competition was hard to beat. I could have done maybe a few mistakes but im considering going ahead and start that first affiliate offer and hold off on finding the other 4.
I've not bought the course but checking out the feedback as Andrews a credible marketer so can't relate to the exact methods he uses but..
for examples purpose.. if you're in health FOOD niche looking for exact product and can't find one are you trying... health food BARS or protein bars with exact product names?
Go wide I guess is what I"m thinking and trying to say. I see you've been around here so I'm sure you're trying that but thought I'd check.
Today for me was dissapointing I looked for so many brand name keywords mostly in the health niche and I have only came across a few niches with product names that meet the first criteria bur the competition was hard to beat. I could have done maybe a few mistakes but im considering going ahead and start that first affiliate offer and hold off on finding the other 4.
Other 4? I'm not trying to bust your balls, not at all ZS, but Andrew Hansen says you're supposed to be able to find not 5 but 10 weird, odd niches "quickly and easily."
About that one niche that you did find, is it a freaking all-out weirdo as Andrew Hansen says it should be? Because that's the goal, the whole enchilada.
Here's a an excerpt transcribed from a webinar AH gave a week or two ago. He makes some pretty amazing, mind-blowing claims about how a person should be able, with his training, to 1) find 10 weird, niche markets QUICKLY and EASILY and 2) convert with only 5 or 10 visitors per day. Here's the jist of his premise, as transcribed from the webinar during a presentation he gave:
"One site, 6 pages, very, very little tiny indeed (the website). It's a very simple plain looking site. This particular site profits $1195 a month. The full potential for this site is closer to the $3000 mark. But this is a very plain site, a very simple site that monetizes affiliate links and uses all free traffic. This is the kind of web property, you build up a few of these, this can support, for the most part, any type of lifestyle you'd want to lead without you, having to, fill up the whole thing(?) The way that I set up these sites is a 3 step system, it's very simple stuff:
"The first step to setting up a site like this is WEIRD LITTLE MARKETS. We're gonna talk about that in a moment.
"The second step is DROP DEAD EASY SITES.
"So...weird little markets and in those markets I build really simple little sites. But simple sites that really cater to the people that they're designed for.
"The third part of that process is to get free, high conversion traffic to that site. So...that's search engine traffic for me in this model.
"So the first step, WEIRD LITTLE MARKETS, I try to find the small, small, small pockets of people, all over the Internet, that spend serious money on every day WEIRD little passions. Targeting these small groups of people means we don't have to compete against big companies with big teams and big resources. And that's what I'm always looking for: these small pockets of people that have a real deep interest and passion in one very specific thing, a thing I can usually help sell them on.
"They're passionate about a thing, or a group of things, that they don't yet have. Those markets mean easy conversions and big money from small traffic. That's very, very important to understand. When you operate in one of these small markets you don't need a huge amount of traffic to make great money. That's very, very important to understand. When you operate in one of these small markets you don't need a huge amount of traffic to make GREAT money. We're gonna talk about that as well...the way that you can make affiliate sales with as little as 5 or 10 visitors to your site, maybe per day for example.
"The thing about these markets is that they're not found in common places. Forget Clickbank, CJ, Amazon, etc. These offers are not found in the most common places. And that is one of the reasons that these markets have little or lower competition because other affiliates can't get their hands on them as easily.
"That's one of the reasons why I like OfferVault as a tool and I've used it for so long now and I continue to recommend it to other people because it brings you affiliate offers from other places outside of those ones from different networks, little networks, obscure networks that you might not know about otherwise.
"And if you find one of these little passions they can make you a lot of money. What's crazy about these markets is that they're so very powerful but you need techniques for finding them most of the time. You can't just go to one of these sites like CB or Amazon or ShareSale and expect to uncover them. There are techniques that you use to find them, to come across them. Developing these techniques has been, because I realize for every one that you can find there's a potential income stream for years to come. So it's extremely lucrative. So I worked on developing these techniques for finding these offers.
"You gotta make sure you find a weird, little market that is outside the scope of normal affiliates. The system that I'm talking about here is one that I have refined over 7 years now. This is the 2013 version, this is the one that I'm doing right now. This is the best of the best. What I did with this information, the system we've been talking about today, I've made this system into an entire video course where I basically recorded myself going through this entire process from start to finish, from beginning to end.
"This course includes my 10 best techniques for finding those WEIRD LITTLE NICHE MARKETS. Just one of those techniques, if you used it, could QUICKLY find you 10 markets like the ones we talked about today, 10 markets worth a $1000 a month each, very quickly and easily.
"The technique I showed you today is not one of the 10 techniques. There's ten better ones even than that for finding those ten WEIRD LITTLE NICHE MARKETS. Just one of those techniques, if you actually used it, could quickly find you 10 markets like the ones we talked about today, but even if they were lower end, 10 markets that were worth a $1000 a month each. Very, very quickly and easily."
The webinar is about his Forever Affiliate course. It was made in February 2013. It can be found by >going to OfferVaults home page >scroll down to the bottom left hand side >click on the Andrew Hansen link. There was a lot more stuff that he talked about that I did not publish to this post. Of course when it comes to "quickly and easily" or "speed and efficiency" depending on the person, your mileage may vary? And I ended that last sentence with a question mark because I have no way of knowing if Mr. Hansen's 10 techniques for finding 10 weird niches quickly and easily is something that a person, or guinea pig, can achieve. Or in other words, one might speculate that what AH said in the webinar just might qualify for the the It-sounds-too-good-to-be-true category.
Of course when it comes to "quickly and easily" or "speed and efficiency" depending on the person, your mileage may vary?
I think it does depend on the person and the experience they already have. I found my 5 products within about 2 hours after watching the videos (and I did so relatively quickly and easily).
I'm not new to affiliate marketing though, and I do realise it is difficult for newbies when starting out. I already had experience with niche research, and although I did follow Andrew's videos I think it does take practice. I'm a member of about 20 affiliate networks and because I'm already familiar with many of them, I already know many of the products.
One thing I can guarantee, and that is the more research you do, the quicker you will get at it. Even if you are finding it tricky now, eventually it will become second nature. Niche research can be quick and easy, but probably as more experienced marketers we forget that at one time it wasn't.
I think it does depend on the person and the experience they already have. I found my 5 products within about 2 hours after watching the videos (and I did so relatively quickly and easily).
I'm not new to affiliate marketing though, and I do realise it is difficult for newbies when starting out. I already had experience with niche research, and although I did follow Andrew's videos I think it does take practice. I'm a member of about 20 affiliate networks and because I'm already familiar with many of them, I already know many of the products.
One thing I can guarantee, and that is the more research you do, the quicker you will get at it. Even if you are finding it tricky now, eventually it will become second nature. Niche research can be quick and easy, but probably as more experienced marketers we forget that at one time it wasn't.
I am a newbie when its comes to affiliate marketing, I guess if you want to say, I am still a newbie. I love Andrew Hansen's course, I am probably not looking hard enough probably to find the other niche affiliate offers. I will still keep looking.
I think it does depend on the person and the experience they already have. I found my 5 products within about 2 hours after watching the videos (and I did so relatively quickly and easily).
I'm not new to affiliate marketing though, and I do realise it is difficult for newbies when starting out. I already had experience with niche research, and although I did follow Andrew's videos I think it does take practice. I'm a member of about 20 affiliate networks and because I'm already familiar with many of them, I already know many of the products.
One thing I can guarantee, and that is the more research you do, the quicker you will get at it. Even if you are finding it tricky now, eventually it will become second nature. Niche research can be quick and easy, but probably as more experienced marketers we forget that at one time it wasn't.
Okay, I'll admit it, I'm a potato head in that I've never done any type of niche research before. I have a non-monetized, WordPress, "local San Diego, neighborhood blog" hosted on HostGator (my first blog ever), but I'm new to affiliate marketing.
I find the idea of trying to find a product to sell, a product that I'm supposed to write about with enthusiasm and optimism page after page, a bit overwhelming. I wonder, once I get down to it, just where all of those enthusiastic, optimistic, descriptive 800 word posts will come from (I don't think it wise for a noob like me to outsource anything, including content, just yet, as I need to learn the ropes first by doing everything myself).
One thing in my favor is that I have a lot of time available in my life, on a daily basis, to dedicate towards IM. Which means when I get out of bed in the morning at around 4 AM, as soon as my bare feet hits the cold floor, I'll be able to get right to work (I can't take credit for being so ambitious, the prescription drugs my fine psychiatrist prescribes to me makes it easier for me to be focused and dedicated to something like IM). So maybe, if I'm lucky, I can expect, as you stated in your post, to get better at procuring niches as time goes by.
I'm getting kinda close to purchasing Mr. Hansen's course. I sincerely hope his way of teaching the 10 different methods (10!?) he claims to have for finding a WEIRD niche is taught in a way that a baked potato like me, and other baked potatoes out there, can fully grasp. Since I'm bit of a weirdo myself, maybe I'll luck out and absorb and ultimately comprehend his teachings like an unusually large, fat sponge when I go through the portion of his course that requires a successful marketer to find not 1 but 5 or 10 WEIRD niches to target web surfers with.
And hey, please note, the last paragraph in your post was, to me, very inspiring for a pessimistic, manic depressive, natural skeptic like myself. Thank you for those words of wisdom! And, also, it's nice to see that someone like you has a high level, expert-like, Top Gun ace fighter pilot type precision in finding a niche to zero in on. I hope you eventually kick ass and, in due time, have a lot of success by reaping a good profit or two when you launch your sites on the World Wide Web. Thanks for sharing
Well, the techniques are explained in detail, are easy to follow and make perfect sense. The fact that they take work and time to master in my opinion is a given.
I see this as good news frankly. It means that many will quit before giving it the due diligence it deserves, leaving those who persevere with less "competition"
RuggeroSB - You have a great point. The task of finding these niches seems daunting when one after the other they don't fit the analysis funnel but if we keep plugging away we will be ahead of the game when others have quit.
Your post gave me a little push today. Thank you!!!!!
RuggeroSB - You have a great point. The task of finding these niches seems daunting when one after the other they don't fit the analysis funnel but if we keep plugging away we will be ahead of the game when others have quit.
Your post gave me a little push today. Thank you!!!!!
Guys, seriously - think out of the box a bit here. There are so many ways you can do this! You CAN do it yourself if you wanted to. Ok so you suck at writing content; they don't have to be pieces or artwork!
Think like "The Big Boys" do. Look at Richard Branson: do you think he knows a damn thing about cola or aeroplanes?
What I've done is built a TEAM around me. We're all very good at and/or passionate about a certain element of the work. I HATE building links or even writing content. However I'm a very good project manager / coordinator and have the infrastructure to easily build sites. I also am happy to install them - it takes me no more than about 5 minutes because I literally just clone them now.
Others in my team ENJOY writing articles. Another one is excellent at spinning (not garbage spinning - actually spinning articles so each version is perfectly readable and you wouldn't know it was a spun version you're reading). Another LOVES building links and running off-page SEO campaigns. Actually he's into SEO in general.
We have a web designer designer, and even a couple of guys that are web developers on the team, and develop all sorts of custom apps or even modifications to existing plugins / themes we need (or just want to have to gain an edge over the competition ). I'm a web developer too, but they're just better than me!
If I've ever learned anything in my life so far, it's give and share as much as you can and you'll receive it back 10 fold, or more. I've never understood this philosophy when reading all the biographies of successful people. I get it now, because it's working for me! If time is the biggest asset you can invest right now, then leverage it! When the money comes, reinvest and buy your time back, FOR EVERYONE!
This community is FULL of people that are skilled in various things. Already one person has suggested a "mastermind" group.
If you don't have the money, or suck at something, then find someone who loves what you suck at and work something out. There are so many people right now that are DESPERATE for the opportunity which you have in your hands right now.
I'm not saying go and find 10 people now. Maybe just 1 or 2 to start with. Humble beginnings: Microsoft started in a Garage!
Inglorious.....you have a very unique and engaging way of writing your posts right here..if you find something and keep writing as yourself I can see you doing very well....weird niche or not!
Inglorious.....you have a very unique and engaging way of writing your posts right here..if you find something and keep writing as yourself I can see you doing very well....weird niche or not!
+1. I may not be manic or depressed, but I found myself relating very easily to you. You're also very colourful in your descriptions, which makes what you wrote almost humorous to read, even though the subject matter is quite serious.
I agree lovebostons. I have probably put 40-50 products in the funnel he mentions and been unable to find anything that fits the criteria yet. Not used every method he mentions yet but most. Been looking mainly in health niche. I think embarrassing niches may be the way to go. This maybe what he means by weird?! Not a nice niche to be in but they are only mini sites.
I can relate to finding weird niche with his criteria and I have only found one product in particular that does meet his criteria. But you can't give up now on his teachings. He recommend that you find 5 good affiliate offers with keywords to start out with then go to phase 2 with those 5 affiliate offers/keywords together. Then start testing with them. If I can't find the other 4 weird niche offers. I will test with one and see if I can get the ball rolling. I think the reason why we can't find the weird niches is because we are probably not looking hard enough for those weird niches.
This has turned into an active little thread. Thanks everyone for your contributions. So I took the advice here and picked up SEO Spyglass to do my backlink research to help me find my markets. I have what is probably a newb question - keep in mind I am a newb when it comes to affiliate marketing. I have only worked in local and offline stuff, which is way less competitive.
When I go to look at the backlinks of my competition, do I look at the backlinks to just the page that is ranking - or do I look at the backlinks coming in to the whole site? I have some competing sites that have just a handful of backlinks to the ranking page - but thousands of backlinks to other pages on their site. Can I beat competition like this?
This has turned into an active little thread. Thanks everyone for your contributions. So I took the advice here and picked up SEO Spyglass to do my backlink research to help me find my markets. I have what is probably a newb question - keep in mind I am a newb when it comes to affiliate marketing. I have only worked in local and offline stuff, which is way less competitive.
When I go to look at the backlinks of my competition, do I look at the backlinks to just the page that is ranking - or do I look at the backlinks coming in to the whole site? I have some competing sites that have just a handful of backlinks to the ranking page - but thousands of backlinks to other pages on their site. Can I beat competition like this?
Thanks,
BJ
Hi BJ,
You're only concerned with amount of backlinks for the actual page that is ranking not the site.
In all actuality a "website" does not rank. It's a websites "pages" that rank for specific keywords and phrases.
Sometimes the websites home page, domain name, may rank for specific keywords but it is not the website that ranks in google it's webpages.
OK. So I bought the OTO for the coaching materials, and I thought I would get some help with finding niches there. So I went to the outsourcing area and paid for their outsourcers to find 5 niches for me - just to help me get a jump start. After I sent them $60 via Paypal and didn't hear back for several days, I tried to send their support an email - bam - invalid email address. LOL.
So I submitted a ticket to Andrew's help desk to see what the problem is. Hope they get this sorted out. I would really like to get their help with my niches.
In the meantime, I will continue trying on my own. I think I might have found 2-3 niches now that may work. I probably can't get the #1 spot in any of them, but the 2-4 spots look pretty good. Hardly any backlinks. We will see.
OK. So I bought the OTO for the coaching materials, and I thought I would get some help with finding niches there. So I went to the outsourcing area and paid for their outsourcers to find 5 niches for me - just to help me get a jump start. After I sent them $60 via Paypal and didn't hear back for several days, I tried to send their support an email - bam - invalid email address. LOL.
So I submitted a ticket to Andrew's help desk to see what the problem is. Hope they get this sorted out. I would really like to get their help with my niches.
In the meantime, I will continue trying on my own. I think I might have found 2-3 niches now that may work. I probably can't get the #1 spot in any of them, but the 2-4 spots look pretty good. Hardly any backlinks. We will see.
I'm sure they'll get it sorted but please keep me, us, posted.
I sold off my affiliate/adsense sites long ago however I'm looking for a solid course that I can feel good about recommending and helping people I know who are looking for a good opportunity online regarding affiliate marketing.
BJ did you get the $297 OTO or $497?
I've been sitting on the OTO page in my browser for days deciding if I'm going to pull the trigger. Is there a way to get back to that offer inside the members area if I close the page? Guess I could do what I've done before is just save the full html page on my PC. Only risk then is if the offer gets full and he kills the actual paypal order button.
I've been sitting on the OTO page in my browser for days deciding if I'm going to pull the trigger. Is there a way to get back to that offer inside the members area if I close the page? Guess I could do what I've done before is just save the full html page on my PC. Only risk then is if the offer gets full and he kills the actual paypal order button.
I review Forever Affiliate on my blog, and I just manage to go through the "Theory" and "Phase 1" part.
Based on what I've read, I like what Andrew taught. As a seasoned affiliate marketer, there's things that I already know, but I still manage to pick up quite a number of nuggets, particularly in the niche research part. I think this part can really help newbies to think outside the box in niche finding.
I bought Forever Affiliate as I want to learn new techniques to rank a site. I may do a case study on my blog to implement FA strategy.
Originally Posted by bjallen
OK. So I bought the OTO for the coaching materials, and I thought I would get some help with finding niches there. So I went to the outsourcing area and paid for their outsourcers to find 5 niches for me - just to help me get a jump start. After I sent them $60 via Paypal and didn't hear back for several days, I tried to send their support an email - bam - invalid email address. LOL.
Hey I can understand it's a little difficult for newbie like you to find five new niche as instructed. Did you read the part where Andrew taught you how to find products "about to pop"? If the product is new, you usually don't face a lot of competition in search engine. Heck, sometimes you don't even need to analyze the backlinks at all! I highly recommend you start promoting products like these. Pay attention to TV, magazine and radio for launch of new product. To give you an idea, Sony recently announced that they are going to launch PS4 this coming "holiday season". I am pretty sure the launch will spark buying frenzy later. If you build the a PS4 site now and build link slowly, profit is virtually guaranteed later.
Still no response from the person i paid to find niches for me. I am so disappointed. But i will wait and hope.
I feel bad about your predicament. I've always felt as if I am a little like a consumer advocate, which is why I feel bad about your situation. The rude way that you're being treated and the bad service that this merchant, Forever Affiliate, is treating you is wrong and unacceptable. Unfortunately in the online world there is not a whole lot a consumer can do about it, you almost have no choice but to accept it, which is a way of doing business that some online merchants knowingly exploit. The name of the game for them is to make money first while they are far less concerned about providing good customer service to a paying customer who puts food on the merchants table. Maybe it's too soon to say you're getting the shaft or you're getting screwed(?) I know it's frustrating and disheartening for you, the consumer and student, but hopefully Forever Affiliate will get around to delivering the niches, good quality niches, that you paid them for. Please let us know the outcome by giving us occasional updates on your situation.
Hey everyone, just want to know what benefits I have getting this course Can someone please let me know if its something I should go for.
Thanks
The benefits are probably outlined better on the sales page than anyone could do here.
Nobody can tell you if it's something you should go for because we don't know you, we don't know what experience you have, what you want to achieve or what your business goals are.
The product is good, but niche marketing isn't for everyone - we can't tell you what to spend your money on. You just need to read the sales page and decide for yourself. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's true.
Finally heard back from the niche provider today. Not sure what happened there, but hopefully I will be provided with some great niches within the next 7 days. My plan is build sites for those niches plus a couple that I found on my own and see how they do. I will check back in on this thread and update those who have asked on my progress.
How many people can write 108,000 words about a niche product that they have no expertise in? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd say that writing that many words about something that is unfamiliar (and maybe uninteresting) would be an impossible task for most people. Seems to me that would be like asking Adolph Hitler to write a pro-Israel essay that's 108,000 words long. Ain't gonna happen...
I'm a student at all of this. If you're gonna come back and say "Look knucklehead, you don't write 108,000 words of content, you outsource it!!"
Well then I'd say, "Okay, I get it. Forever Affiliate is a course where, in order to succeed, you MUST outsource the content. Well then I'd like to know about how much will it cost to outsource 108,000 words of high quality content? Fifty dollars? A hundred dollars? One thousand dollars?"
If I'm wrong about any of this then set me straight, straight with details, of course.
Forever Affiliate requires:
5 Minisites with each one containing eight 1000 word posts.
1 Authority site that contains one hundred 1000 word posts.
Total: 108,000 words
How many people can write 108,000 words about a niche product that they have no expertise in? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd say that writing that many words about something that is unfamiliar (and maybe uninteresting) would be an impossible task for most people. Seems to me that would be like asking Adolph Hitler to write a pro-Israel essay that's 108,000 words long. Ain't gonna happen...
I'm a student at all of this. If you're gonna come back and say "Look knucklehead, you don't write 108,000 words of content, you outsource it!!"
Well then I'd say, "Okay, I get it. Forever Affiliate is a course where, in order to succeed, you MUST outsource the content. Well then I'd like to know about how much will it cost to outsource 108,000 words of high quality content? Fifty dollars? A hundred dollars? One thousand dollars?"
If I'm wrong about any of this then set me straight, straight with details, of course.
Forever Affiliate requires:
5 Minisites with each one containing eight 1000 word posts.
1 Authority site that contains one hundred 1000 word posts.
Total: 108,000 words
Here's some of my ideas for writing contents on specific product:
The company background
How does the product solve a problem
How to best use the product (tutorial, step-by-step guide)
Comparison with other competing products
Advantages and disadvantages
If I'm wrong about any of this then set me straight, straight with details, of course.
Forever Affiliate requires:
5 Minisites with each one containing eight 1000 word posts.
1 Authority site that contains one hundred 1000 word posts.
Total: 108,000 words
I don't think 108,000 words was ever mentioned anywhere (or maybe I missed it?)
Andrew mentioned each minisite should have 5-15 articles in the testing phase, and starting out with the minimum (5) makes the most sense when you're paying for content. You can always add more once the site is improving in rank and starting to make some money.
Each article should be approximately 800 words so that's 5 x 800 words. If you can find a relatively good writer for $1 per 100 words that's $40 per site for content. So for 5 sites that's $200. It's not easy to find good writers who'll write an 800 word article for $8, but they are out there - you just need to put in a bit of effort in looking.
You don't HAVE to do an authority site at all. I would wait until you've at least made some money with minisites and have some experience. If you were to do an authority site you wouldn't just get 100 articles written and have them all added immediately - you could add 100 articles over the course of a year or more.
All the numbers given to you are recommendations that should get you the best results - there is no specific 'rule' about how many articles, how many words in length they need to be etc. You don't even need to build 5 sites to start with if you don't want to. Do what you can afford to do.
I don't think 108,000 words was ever mentioned anywhere (or maybe I missed it?)
You don't HAVE to do an authority site at all.
All the numbers given to you are recommendations that should get you the best results - there is no specific 'rule' about how many articles, how many words in length they need to be etc.
No authority site? Wow, I'm a little surprised by that. Here's a quote from Andrew Hansen explaining some of the rules when following Forever Affiliate:
"...it's an advantage to have an authority site for that reason. So, the strategy that we use with regards to authority sites is this: Your goal is that you will maintain one very white hat authority site per niche - the perfect scenario is one overall. That's Forever Affiliate strategy...or if you're really expanding things out you can maybe have a couple, but that's really it. You have to remember that these authority sites take up a lot of your time and energy because you're always publishing new content and the effort is very spread out over all the content, over all the keywords, over all the products that you target."
Location of quote: Theory / Part 2 / Authority Sites, Mini-Sites, Piggybacks / 8m 14s mark
As you can see from the quote having an authority site is vital, and one of the core building blocks, for anyone following the principals of Forever Affiliate. Andrew Hansen is the teacher, so one might say that they're his rules.
So you think that a person can bypass what AH is telling us by building mini-sites and not creating an authority site? Are you really advocating omitting an authority site from what AH calls "your arsenal" and if so are you basing that on positive, proven experience? (Note: I just re-read your post, you do appear to be successful at IM, and thus credible). Just wondering cause I, like many others, are new to all of this (I've never made any money via IM).
BTW, I'll note that in the video AH stated the exact number of words a post should contain. He states that you must use a minumum of 800 words per post but, interestingly, he goes on to state that he has noticed a considerable advantage when using 1000 word posts - which is why I chose to use 1000 words when I did the math.
He ruled that the desired word count should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 to 1200 words per post, I believe, which is another reason why I chose to use 1000 words when I did the math, I figured that I'd split the difference. A lot of his rules (i.e. the high word count) are due to Panda and Penguin.
I've got a few minisites on the net, with no "authority" (by AH's definition) sites in that niche, and have been quite successful nonetheless.
I haven't completed Phase 2 of the course yet, so I don't yet understand his structure and plan for authority sites and thus can't comment too much. But what I will say from my experience is that I would not invest in an authority site at all until I know the market is profitable, nor do I see any reason to until I know as much. There's just far too much investment to potentially lose otherwise.
But what I will say from my experience is that I would not invest in an authority site at all until I know the market is profitable, nor do I see any reason to until I know as much. There's just far too much investment to potentially lose otherwise.
Interesting you should say that. AH points to several disadvantages as it pertains to an authority site. He said you risk losing all your content and links if you're penalized, not to mention the time that went into building the authority site. And when he said "time" he referred to an authority site that has, in his words, "100 pages of content."
So you think that a person can bypass what AH is telling us by building mini-sites and not creating an authority site? Are you really advocating omitting an authority site from what AH calls "your arsenal" and if so are you basing that on positive, proven experience?
Yeah I kind of skimmed a few of the videos (I was heavy on the fast forward button - not a big fan of video) so I might have missed a few sentences here and there. I must go back and watch the authority site video.
I wasn't saying to bypass it altogether - I think it's important to be making some money with your minisites first though. I was making a full time income with niche sites long before I ever built an authority site, and even now my minisites are making significantly more money than my bigger sites. I have a $1000 a month site that I built in just a couple of days, and one of my 'authority' sites makes about the same but took months of work - I know which process I'd prefer to replicate!
Sure it's good to have one or more in your arsenal, but after the updates last year I lost my biggest authority site that I had put alot of time and effort into (and it was 100% white hat, best quality content etc.) I don't think I'd ever again put that much effort into a site that is entirely at Google's mercy. I'm now more focused on building a list on my bigger sites and developing new minisites when I have the time.
With regard to article length, again you're probably right - if Andrew recommends 1000 then go for it. I know what works for me and I usually have a variety of article lengths - anything from 400 words up to 2000 (my product reviews are usually about 800-1000 words). If I have alot to say, I'll say it. If I have something to say but it'll only take a few lines I do that too. I think it looks more natural than having every article the exact same length. I'm trying a few sites using the exact Forever Affiliate method though and I'm going to start them with 5 x 800 word articles - I'm pretty sure that length will work too.
Anyway, don't listen to me. Stick with the program because it's easier to follow what AH is saying rather than getting side tracked. I've already worked out what works and what doesn't for me - you will too when you get started on it.
Has anyone tried Andrew's simplo site recommendation? I'm finding it very, very lacking. But I'd like to use it to try out Andrew's theories because it is free. Does anyone know how to get the banner even working in simplo?
I don't want to buy Thesis until I'm sure it is to my benefit.
That simplo theme is a pain in the U know what!!!!!
I just saw the video with the Simplo site. It really does look pretty basic. I haven't used it, but from what I saw in the video, it didn't have much in the way of options.
One free theme that I like is Weaver II. While they do have a Pro (paid) version, the free version is better than some premium themes. There are a lot of setting that you can tweak. Plus, it has a bunch (well over 20) of sub-themes built into it, and you can change the whole look of your site with a few clicks. You can get it at their site here or just browse for it on the wordpress site like any other theme.
The free version does not allow you to save your settings. So if you replace it with another theme, and later decide to go back to it, you will need to redo all the settings. However, there is a plugin available on their site which will allow you to save and restore the setting on the free version.
It seems as if affiliate marketing is on the downswing. I know that Andrew Hansen disagrees with that statement and, in fact, indicates the opposite. But when you look at even very good-looking authority sites - what they sell and how they sell - very little of what they say or offer seems to match up to what you can find on Amazon.
What I mean is you often see statements such as, free trial offer, free shipping and handling, no safer place to buy, money-back guarantee, cheapest price to be found, etc, and yet rarely do any of those statements, at least from what I have seen, beat Amazon! Amazon can boast all of that and is far more authoritative than any affiliate/merchant site out there.
I know there are still many affiliate sites making money from presenting/reviewing products and saying things like those statements above, but it seems that a simple search on Amazon will often provide a consumer with a better buying alternative.
Amazon is the first place I go if I want to review/price check a product, and I know other people who do the same. So it seems that affiliates these days who are looking to make FA style affiliate sites are hoping that people will just fall into the trap of buying from a place that makes them money, "the official website," rather than the often better place to buy, Amazon!
I know that there are many experts here, so if I am not seeing this too clearly, maybe someone can help me to better understand the situation.
You seem to have an incorrect view of what affiliate marketing is. You seem to be confusing sales and marketing. Most of the terms you mentioned have nothing to do with marketing. They have to do with shopping and stores.
An online store may use those terms, or someone representing a specific store, but only to convert the sale. None of that, other than maybe Free Trial offer, has anything to do with why the visitor is on your site. They are there for other reasons. Those terms would be no part of my SEO. If people are on my site, it wasn't from terms like that.
"Free trial" is the exception, but Amazon doesn't offer free trials, so they are a non-factor.
You also seem to have a pretty inflated view of the reality of Amazon. Amazon has a large amount of items, but that is still only a fraction of what is out there to sell. Walmart has a large variety of items for sale and good prices, why aren't all other stores out of business? Because Walmart only has a tiny fraction of what is out there.
Most sales pages on Amazon are pure garbage. They have very little information. I have seen some listings that don't say a single word about the product, just a picture and the price. A grade school student to create a better page. They are a non-factor for ranking in the search engines....And people still use the search engines to find what they are looking for.
Just because you go directly to Amazon to shop, most people don't. I know a lot of people that have never been on Amazon (which always surprises me).
Amazon is also not the cheapest place to shop. You can often find better prices elsewhere. People shop there for convenience, not great deals.
Many of the items for sale on Amazon are closeouts that manufacturers want to get rid of, while the newer, better versions are only available elsewhere. They also tend to only carry one brand of certain items, while dozens of other brands may be as good or better.
More importantly, people don't just go and buy things. Typically they want more information, something they are not going to get from Amazon. They hear about something and they go and type it into a search engine to find out more. They want to know what brand, and models are available, and which ones are better, and why. With Amazon, all you could really find out is what are the best ones that Amazon has to sell. With certain things it is far more complicate, like some weight loss supplement. How does it work, why does it work, will it work for me, are they safe, etc...
Even more importantly than that, people may not even know they want something until you present it to them. They nay not even know that it exists. That is your job...to let them know that it is there, and why they might want/need it. That is marketing, the sales come after.
I hope that made sense. I really need to get some sleep.
@Ron2011 - perhaps if everyone felt and did the same way as you do, Google would basically be out of business and Amazon would be today's Google, probably even more powerful in fact!
If Amazon ranked for every single product-related keyword in all the major search engines, then I'd almost agree with you. But we all know they don't, far from it in fact, and I saw almost because you could still target information-based keywords and generate income from those (very doable).
Luckily, as RanD pointed out, there's a LOT other sites can offer that Amazon can't, or doesn't. Plus, Amazon is great for the US, but essentially useless for most of the rest of the world - ask me who does not live in the US. I NEVER shop on Amazon, EVER.
Affiliate marketing is far from dead. I know this because I make money from it to this day.
It's also a fantastic way to test a market. If I find a hot market that I'm selling like crazy via affiliate marketing on, I renegotiate my commission with the merchant, or I source the product directly and resell it myself (I become the merchant). You can literally increase your profit margin by 400% or more this way, and you've NEVER had to risk a penny since you can simply use the income from the affiliate marketing campaign to fund the transition.
@Ron2011 - perhaps if everyone felt and did the same way as you do, Google would basically be out of business and Amazon would be today's Google, probably even more powerful in fact!
Please read my response for RanD above.
I think Google is seriously looking at Amazon. I realize that Amazon does not rank for every keyword, but that does not mean it is something to ignore. Amazon does rank at the top of Google's first page for a large number of product keywords. Since you never "ever" shop on Amazon, it seems likely that you don't know a lot about what is sold there. You might want to check it out.
"...Amazon is great for the US, but essentially useless for most of the rest of the world."
"Affiliate marketing is far from dead. I know this because I make money from it to this day."
I am basically thinking about the U.S. market. Well, I am here, so it is easiest for me. And who said affiliate marketing is dead? That certainly was not me. I like your idea about increasing profit margin by 400% or more though.
"You seem to have an incorrect view of what affiliate marketing is. You seem to be confusing sales and marketing. Most of the terms you mentioned have nothing to do with marketing." They have to do with shopping and stores."
I figured I would hit some nerves with that post. Please believe that I do know the difference between sales and marketing and that my post was really not about that. Just so you know, anything that drives a sale is marketing. You can look the word up in the dictionary to clear up any doubts you might have about that.
It may be difficult for an affiliate marketer to look at my post objectively because of the negative ideas I presented about affiliate marketing. It is not easy to look at negative statements about something you are passionate about, but that does not mean that those statements should not be objectively looked at. I hope you can understand that.
"You also seem to have a pretty distorted view of the reality of Amazon."
That is a rather aggressive way of stating your opinion, and I really do not see how it adds to this discussion. There are some sticky posts regarding the way people are supposed to behave on this forum, and it probably would not hurt you and a number people here to read those posts. That said, here is the URL to an article you should read: Forget Apple, Forget Facebook: Here's The One Company That Actually Terrifies Google Execs - Yahoo! Finance
It may be that Amazon is bigger and more influential than you realize.
"Amazon has a large amount of items, but that is still only a fraction of what is out there to sell. Walmart has a large variety of items for sale and good prices, why aren't all other stores out of business? Because Walmart only has a tiny fraction of what is out there."
While Walmart is huge, it is nothing compared to Amazon in the online world. Again, read the article above to see why I am saying that. As for Walmart, it did not make it big due to its online presence. Walmart's great success is due to its founder, Sam Walton, and his genius in retail store logistics, such as drop shipments of products. In fact, Walmart did run a lot of businesses out of business in the past, and the reason you don't hear about them is because they no longer exist.
"Most sales pages on Amazon are pure garbage. They have very little information. I have seen some listings that don't say a single word about the product, just a picture and the price. A grade school student to create a better page. They are a non-factor for ranking in the search engines....And people still use the search engines to find what they are looking for."
This is only your opinion. Can you backup what you are saying with some factual evidence? I have seen product listings on Amazon with more than 1,000 reviews covering a significant number of product attributes. While I will agree that some listings may have little or no reviews, I don't think that this is a good excuse to ignore Amazon's current trend and how it is affecting the affiliate marketing landscape.
"Just because you go directly to Amazon to shop, most people don't. I know a lot of people that have never been on Amazon (which always surprises me)."
Again, read the above article.
"Amazon is also not the cheapest place to shop. You can often find better prices elsewhere. People shop there for convenience, not great deals."
That may be true at times, but Amazon is quite often competitive with great customer service and a well-trusted name. It has been my experience that trust goes a long way and that great deals are a great selling point.
"Many of the items for sale on Amazon are closeouts that manufacturers want to get rid of, while the newer, better versions are only available elsewhere. They also tend to only carry one brand of certain items, while dozens of other brands may be as good or better."
That is simply not true. There are tons of new products on Amazon that are not closeouts manufacturers are looking to just get rid of. Where did you ever hear that?
"More importantly, people don't just go and buy things. Typically they want more information, something they are not going to get from Amazon. They hear about something and they go and type it into a search engine to find out more. They want to know what brand, and models are available, and which ones are better, and why. With Amazon, all you could really find out is what are the best ones that Amazon has to sell. With certain things it is far more complicate, like some weight loss supplement. How does it work, why does it work, will it work for me, are they safe, etc..."
You make some good points here except that I think there is more to find on Amazon than you realize.
"Even more importantly than that, people may not even know they want something until you present it to them. They nay not even know that it exists. That is your job...to let them know that it is there, and why they might want/need it. That is marketing, the sales come after."
I think that this is the best thing you have said, and I agree with you here 100%.
I hope everyone can understand that my post above, in spite of my contrarian approach to Andrew Hansen's rosy picture, is only intended to spur a discussion about the state of affiliate marketing. The ideas I presented are not totally solidified for me, which is why I am posting here. I am hoping that we can all engage in a friendly discussion where we can better understand affiliate marketing and how it is changing rather than engaging in ad hominem remarks.
It did not get on my nerves. You misjudged the tone of my post.
Please believe that I do know the difference between sales and marketing and that my post was really not about that. Just so you know, anything that drives a sale is marketing.
You are the one that brought up those phrases, so I had to assume that you felt that they were important. And that was more than half of your post, so it must have been an important point for you. They are not marketing terms, as far as Affiliate marketing is concerned. They are conversion terms.
My point was that none of those terms led visitors to the site. People are not searching for those terms, we are not optimizing for those terms. If people are on our site to see those terms then they got there for other reasons, so it doesn't matter if Amazon can use those terms more effectively
It may be difficult for an affiliate marketer to look at my post objectively because of the negative ideas I presented about affiliate marketing. It is not easy to look at negative statements about something you are passionate about, but that does not mean that those statements should not be objectively looked at. I hope you can understand that.
It is not difficult to look at it objectively. And I am not all that passionate about it. If it didn't work, i would move on to something that did. However, if you are NOT an affiliate marketer, how can you speak objectively about it? You are just speculating based on your own subjective views.
”You also seem to have a pretty distorted view of the reality of Amazon.”
That is a rather aggressive way of stating your opinion, and I really do not see how it adds to this discussion. There are some sticky posts regarding the way people are supposed to behave on this forum, and it probably would not hurt you and a number people here to read those posts.
There is nothing, at all, "aggressive" about what I said. I tend to be blunt, I will give you that. ,but with text you have no context, so you read it with your own inferences, not my intent. What I said was not meant to be offensive, in any way. Still, I changed the word "distorted" to "Inflated" about 6-8 hours prior to you posting this. You must have been working on your post for a while. Inflated seemed like the more appropriate term. My meaning being that Amazon is not as omnipotent as you seem to think it is.
<sigh> I know all about Amazon. I have had a prime account there for a decade. Seriously, if Google were really scared of them, they would drop them down or out of the search results, and start steering people toward other stores. And, again, Amazon only carries a small fraction of the products that are available in the real world. Even for the people that do go directly to Amazon to buy things, where do they go when Amazon doesn't have what they are looking for? There is still plenty of room for affiliates. Not to mention, affiliates also work with digital products and services. “ ”Most sales pages on Amazon are pure garbage. They have very little information. I have seen some listings that don't say a single word about the product, just a picture and the price. A grade school student to create a better page. They are a non-factor for ranking in the search engines....And people still use the search engines to find what they are looking for.”
This is only your opinion. Can you backup what you are saying with some factual evidence? I have seen product listings on Amazon with more than 1,000 reviews covering a significant number of product attributes. While I will agree that some listings may have little or no reviews,
I don't have to back it up, when anyone can go to Amazon and see for themselves. Yes, some of the big ticket items from big companies may have a long, well written description about all the features, but most products only have a few bullet points with maybe dimensions or some other thin details. Things that a good Internet Marketer can easily out perform. To be clear, reviews are NOT sales pages. I said sale pages, you are talking about reviews. Not the same thing.
"Many of the items for sale on Amazon are closeouts that manufacturers want to get rid of, while the newer, better versions are only available elsewhere. They also tend to only carry one brand of certain items, while dozens of other brands may be as good or better."
That is simply not true. There are tons of new products on Amazon that are not closeouts manufacturers are looking to just get rid of. Where did you ever hear that?
I said "many", not "all", or even "most" and that is based on my own shopping experience. Unlike you, apparently, I research products before I buy them, to find out what the best brands and models are, then I go shopping. Quite often the best are not available on Amazon, but they have an older or inferior version.
You make some good points here except that I think there is more to find on Amazon than you realize.
<sigh...again>No there isn't. I am intimately familiar with what is on Amazon. I have been shopping there for a long, long time. I realize that there is a lot to like about Amazon. I buy from there 2-3 times a week. I am just a little more realistic about their strengths and weaknesses. You told me to be objective, but you seem to have an irrational attachment to Amazon, and are unable to see their shortcomings.
I hope everyone can understand that my post above, in spite of my contrarian approach to Andrew Hansen’s rosy picture, is only intended to spur a discussion about the state of affiliate marketing. The ideas I presented are not totally solidified for me, which is why I am posting here. I am hoping that we can all engage in a friendly discussion where we can better understand affiliate marketing and how it is changing....
But this is not the place for that kind of discussion. You have hijacked a thread in the product review forum. If you want to have a debate about the viability of affiliate marketing, take it to the main forums.
I find it very good, lots of videos and very in depth. I have read through this thread and certain people are complaining about the amount of posts and content that needs to be created.
I would say, instead of ranting about the lack of a forum, the amount of posts needed etc just get down and start working on your sites as before you know it the days and weeks will have passed and you will have nothing to show for your efforts.
Also, I would like to see the discussions return to the topic of the thread.
So with that in mind. How is everyone getting on ? Have any of the early buyers of this course got any sales yet ? I am in the process of niche selection myself:confused:
I can't say I've completed a website from scratch using the FA system yet, but I can say that I've adapted some of my existing websites to get them inline with his "best practices" and saw immediate results. Results such as dramatic ranking improvements for reasonably competitive keywords, and better conversions. So, so far I'm thrilled. I'm even getting requests to advertise on my sites now!
I have every intention of completing at least 5 sites following the FA system so I'll keep you informed as I go.
I find it very good, lots of videos and very in depth. I have read through this thread and certain people are complaining about the amount of posts and content that needs to be created.
I would say, instead of ranting about the lack of a forum, the amount of posts needed etc just get down and start working on your sites as before you know it the days and weeks will have passed and you will have nothing to show for your efforts.
Also, I would like to see the discussions return to the topic of the thread.
So with that in mind. How is everyone getting on ? Have any of the early buyers of this course got any sales yet ? I am in the process of niche selection myself:confused:
I bought his FA course too, I have not completed a website following that course yet though. However, his course does offer a lot of good information, and I have learned a lot from it.
It did not get on my nerves. You misjudged the tone of my post.
Sorry if I misjudged your blunt tone. I really don't mean to judge anyone here. However, statements such as "You are the one..." or "<sigh> I know all about Amazon." or "I don't have to back it up..." don't make you look too objective!
In any case, I think you are right about me putting my post in the wrong forum. My apologies to everyone here for making that mistake.
Sorry if I misjudged your blunt tone. I really don't mean to judge anyone here. However, statements such as "You are the one..." or "<sigh> I know all about Amazon." or "I don't have to back it up..." don't make you look too objective!
In any case, I think you are right about me putting my post in the wrong forum. My apologies to everyone here for making that mistake.
Saying "You are the one..." makes me look like I am not objective? You WERE the one who brought up those phrases. How is not objective to point that out? What kind of sense does that make?
I said "I know all about Amazon" after you condescendingly said ""It may be that Amazon is bigger and more influential than you realize". Let's not get all self-righteous.
And I said "I don't have to back it up...when anyone can go to Amazon and see for themselves". Way to quote me out of context.
To be clear, I acknowledged that there was a lot to like about Amazon, while you are ignoring their shortcomings. You are the one not being objective.
Fact: There are millions, if not billions of products that Amazon does not carry.
Fact: Amazon does not stock all brands of the items they do carry.
Fact: Many, if not most of their sales pages are thin and poorly written (Amazon does not write them).
Fact: Amazon cannot compete with Affiliates for products they don't carry
Fact: Good affiliates can easily out rank the poorly written sales pages on Amazon
Fact: Most affiliates cannot outrank the well written sales pages on Amazon
Fact: Many products will often require research that is not available on Amazon, before making a purchase.
Fact: Some people do go directly to Amazon when they want to buy certain items.
Fact: Far more people still do searches
Fact: Amazon does carry a lot of stuff
Fact: Amazon does provide excellent shipping and service (in the US anyway).
Fact: Amazon is losing money in doing so
Fact: The article you linked was speculation based on data. They have no idea what Google is afraid of. They also fail to speculate on what would happen if that were really true.
I'd say that that is pretty objective.
Now, I want to be clear about why I had a problem with what you said. You presented speculation as if it were fact, to which I played devil's advocate, and presented counter arguments.
You said:
It seems as if affiliate marketing is on the downswing.
But there is no proof that that is happening. Affiliates have to find niches that work, just like they have always had to.
But when you look at even very good-looking authority sites – what they sell and how they sell – very little of what they say or offer seems to match up to what you can find on Amazon.
WebMD is an authority site. Authority sites do best by selling when they aren't trying to sell. They build trust and good will with their visitors...and just happen to have offers somewhere nearby.
you often see statements such as...free shipping and handling, no safer place to buy, money-back guarantee, cheapest price to be found, etc, and yet rarely do any of those statements, at least from what I have seen, beat Amazon! Amazon can boast all of that and is far more authoritative than any affiliate/merchant site out there.
Again, Those are not affiliate terms, and certainly not for an authority site. That is trying to market the store rather than the product. That is for the merchant to do. What you seem to be referring to seems more like mini-sites designed specifically for selling something, not an authority site.
So it seems that affiliates these days who are looking to make FA style affiliate sites are hoping that people will just fall into the trap of buying from a place that makes them money, “the official website,” rather than the often better place to buy, Amazon!
While you were doing a lot of finger pointing at me, that seems to be a pretty derogatory comment. Suggesting that affiliate marketers are just "setting traps" for unwitting consumers.
Before for you get all bent out of shape, that was a mostly tongue-in-cheek comment. :p
But the reality is that most good marketers are either working with Amazon, or they are dealing with things that are out of the scope of Amazon. You also seem to view affiliate websites as sales pages that are competing against Amazon's sales pages, which isn't the case. Not for good ones anyway, and certainly not for authority sites.
I don't see your response to RanD as relevant to mine. We've said quite different things, and while I might be engaged in a debate with you, I'm not ruffling any feathers, as it were. In terms of my first statement, I was trying to make a point of realisation, not attack you in any way. The internet, and ecommerce is exponentially bigger than the concept that Amazon is the "be all" of product marketing and everything will simply never be able to compete. That's just plainly and totally not true.
Originally Posted by Ron2011
It seems as if affiliate marketing is on the downswing.
Ok, I misread - I thought you said "dead". While I agree that affiliate marketing has gotten harder, I see it as an opportunity. In order to be a profitable affiliate marketer these days, you have to maintain a certain ethic and do what everyone else is expected to do: build a useful site. This is an opportunity because most can't, won't or simply don't want to since the guys after the quick buck are going to find it harder and harder to do this. That leaves a gap in the market for people like me, which I'll happily fill.
You're thinking about the U.S. market only - why? It seems your perspective on this is pretty narrow, which would explain your argument. If you widened your horizons you'll see that you're ignoring billions of dollars, you'd also realise that Amazon can never be all there is, and affiliate marketing, although it may change and morph, will never stop being being a viable market.
Don't worry: I don't BUY from Amazon, but I never said I don't use them, or that I don't see their impact in the SERPs. They're around, but once again, they're not as dominant as you make them out to be. They're big. They're powerful. They're effective. That's all true, and what's also true is that they're only a small percentage of the ecommerce world as a whole. That's all I'm trying to get at.
I might add that Amazon has an affiliate program themselves - did you know that? Why would they do this if affiliate marketing was no longer, or at least becoming no longer viable? Or perhaps they too recognise the value of leveraging other websites to acquire more sales from markets they would otherwise have no interest in developing...
I don't see your response to RanD as relevant to mine. We've said quite different things, and while I might be engaged in a debate with you, I'm not ruffling any feathers, as it were. In terms of my first statement, I was trying to make a point of realisation, not attack you in any way. The internet, and ecommerce is exponentially bigger than the concept that Amazon is the "be all" of product marketing and everything will simply never be able to compete. That's just plainly and totally not true.
I actually appreciate the points you make. In addition, I was really only trying to look at a trend with Amazon rather than indicate that it is a "be all" (not my quote ) on the Internet. Anyway, it looks as if I made a big mistake posting my observation here. That said, I will let it go.
@Inglourious Basterd
I'm still watching phase 1 of FA so I haven't seen the videos that mention content yet. But at the bottom of the phase 2 page he has links to outsource the content and for the second one (Writer "R") the price is $96.95 for 10 800 word articles. Writer "D" is not taking orders right now because of such the high volume of orders they have been getting. So for one minisite it sounds like it will cost about $100 for the content. Plus, I'm sure we will have to invest some money for backlinks too. But I don't know if you need to create all 5 of the minisites at once. And for the authority site I wouldn't think you would create/outsource all that content at once either. Plus, you also have to take into account how much each minisite will earn you. In the first few videos I have watched so far it sounds like it isn't unreasonable to make $500-$1,000 per month from one minisite, and that should be passive income for at least 6 months I would hope.
But I understand what you are saying, I don't have a huge budget either, I can maybe afford $500 max until I see some profit. If it costs more than $500 to start seeing some revenue I think I might try PPC instead. Or it might be better to just try ranking some youtube videos for the keywords instead of creating an entire site to get some revenue coming in first.
It seems we need to spend lots of time and money to create these sites. Even then I'm not convinced it's going to be easy to make money - ranking number 1 in any niche is not as easy as Andrew has been suggesting -- you just need to look at his example site to know how hard it must be to rank on page 1 of Google never mind getting to number 1 -- !!!
Don't we mugs think if it was that easy to make $1000-$2000 per month Andrew would have gone ahead to make some backlinks for his "pregnancyhelper" site - if it was that easy why will he not create 10 or 20 or even 100 of these mini sites for himself and earn a six figure sum per month which would continue earning him for the rest of his life?! Surely, that would be a far better business model than what he's doing now! At least IMO.
Having said that, if anyone, honestly, can come back after having used this method and managed to earn a living from it, "no one" would love it more than myself....... I persoanlly, do not have the budget to create 5 or 6 sites just for the sake of finding out which one can be profitable. For those who can, I wish them lots of luck.
It seems we need to spend lots of time and money to create these sites.
This is true, unless you want to write content and build links yourself (which most people do themselves initially anyway). When I first started affiliate marketing I couldn't afford to pay for content or links so I did it the hard way. And it WAS hard, but I learned alot from my experience. You learn so much more from doing it yourself than you ever could from outsourcing.
Even then I'm not convinced it's going to be easy to make money - ranking number 1 in any niche is not as easy as Andrew has been suggesting
Speaking from experience it's never easy to rank no.1, but as long as you rank on page 1 of Google (top 5 preferably) you can make a decent living. It all comes down to finding the right product - one that gets enough searches but isn't crazy competitive. I know Andrew spoke about Clickbank but I'd recommend staying away from CB until you're actually making some money. It is very difficult to rank for Clickbank products as there are alot of experienced marketers already out there spending alot of money on getting and maintaining their rank.
Don't we mugs think if it was that easy to make $1000-$2000 per month Andrew would have gone ahead to make some backlinks for his "pregnancyhelper" site - if it was that easy why will he not create 10 or 20 or even 100 of these mini sites for himself and earn a six figure sum per month which would continue earning him for the rest of his life?! Surely, that would be a far better business model than what he's doing now! At least IMO.
Yeah I think it would have been beneficial if he had actually shown a site that he got ranked or done some kind of walkthrough. It would have given buyers a bit more confidence that it can be done. Maybe he did something like that in the OTO?
I can see why people sell their techniques to Internet Marketers rather than scaling up to a large degree. There's ALOT of work involved in maintaining 100 minisites. It seems to be alot easier to make money in the IM niche than any other. That's not to say it doesn't work, but I don't begrudge anyone trying to make as much money as possible.
Having said that, if anyone, honestly, can come back after having used this method and managed to earn a living from it, "no one" would love it more than myself....... I persoanlly, do not have the budget to create 5 or 6 sites just for the sake of finding out which one can be profitable.
There are already quite a few people on the forum making money from niche sites - myself included. You do need a budget starting out though (I estimate about $500 per site) if you want to outsource. It's best to try a few yourself, find that it works (or not), and then start investing and scaling up.
On the home page of AF , right under the intro video there is a link ,new video addressing the funnel phase and keyword research.
Dang, you're right
Thanks for the heads up !!
(I'd really like to give you a thanks but I don't see any buttons that will allow me to do that - since I have only 22 posts I guess that button is not yet available to rookies like me)
Hi, yes you can send me a PM. I guess if min 3-5 people are interested, I will create a facebook-group and send out the invitations. So, you and I, we are 2 now... (if anybody has a better idea where we can connect together otherwise than facebook, then tell us...)
BTW, I've found some niches, but before starting the first sites I am searching one more time, maybe I will find some niches with a bit less competition.
And one more question: What is with sbwire.com as cometition-site? Is it beatable in rankings?
Nahaa
I'm interested in a master mind group and/or a partner in a FA project.
Okay, so apparently in order to create this group you have to friend me on Facebook. I think the easiest way to do this is to go to my profile -http://facebook.com/maryannelewis and friend me and send me a private message saying you would like to be part of the mastermind group. Or do the same by clicking on my Facebook icon on my signature. This is for people who are currently using Forever Affiliate. Maybe we can help each other. I'm guessing this will primarily be for relative newbies but those of you who are experienced are welcome, too. As soon as we have a few members in the group I will post again.
Okay, so apparently in order to create this group you have to friend me on Facebook. I think the easiest way to do this is to go to my profile -http://facebook.com/maryannelewis and friend me and send me a private message saying you would like to be part of the mastermind group. Or do the same by clicking on my Facebook icon on my signature. This is for people who are currently using Forever Affiliate. Maybe we can help each other. I'm guessing this will primarily be for relative newbies but those of you who are experienced are welcome, too. As soon as we have a few members in the group I will post again.
Okay, I have created the mastermind group. So far we have four people. Remember, if you want to join you have to friend me on Facebook(see the icon below my signature) and don't forget to send me a private message on Facebook -- (I get a lot of friend requests and don't automatically accept everyone.) Hopefully this will work and again, we'll be able to help each other.
I have a general question for the thread -- what are you supposed to put on pages two to six of the mini-websites on Forever Affiliate? Once the main keyword is covered in the main post, are you supposed to focus on lesser keywords for the secondary posts? Or semi-related keywords, like, general niche-related terms as opposed to the product name? This wasn't too clear to me.
On the other pages you write articles that use the other keywords you have found. Andrew also says that you can write "non-product name" articles and he gives wording to put at the bottom of the article that leads people to go to your product that you are featuring. So if you are writing about pregnancy miracle you can do a page on "tips to get pregnant", that article does not have to mention pregnancy miracle...until you get to the end when you can write something like: Many people have had great results getting pregnant fast with Pregnancy Miracle.
Click here for the official Pregnancy Miracle Website
I don't know if anyone has gone to the "tools" section of Forever Affiliate. There you will find Andrew's recommendation for WP Pipeline. This is a product to help you manage all your wordpress sites in one place.
I did a little research and was not happy with some of the reviews on this. Then I went to clickbank to find the product. It took a while but I found it. Not much info so I clicked on to become an affiliate thinking I could find out more on the backend....no more information was there....but they asked for my email so I gave it.
Three days later I get an email from one of the guys who created this thing...giving me a heads up for the "pre-launch" of WP Pipeline. The pre- launch???? WTF
The product has been out since at least 11/12 and they are still sending old pre-launch emails?
On the bright side they did say I will get half off the Premium version when they get the product out....????
If this WP Pipeline is one of Andrew's recommendations and the people who run it don't even know they've launched and made money from it and are still sending the pre-launch emails...well then how good could this product be? How can their product keep track of our sites if they can't even keep track of their email program? To me this is a very sloppy recommendation from Andrew. I could also say something about the other people in the "tools" section who he recommends....but I'll be nice for now.
I for one am suspicious of some of the other recommendations, like offervault....has anyone noticed that there is a lot of impossible cr*p on there? You could waste your entire life trying to find a "weird niche." Ever look at the "trending searches" box? It never changes....you will become bored to suicide waiting for the trends to change.
Maybe I'm just having a grumpy Tuesday but I really hate to be sold on stuff that is so old it has mold on it.
To me this is a very sloppy recommendation from Andrew. I could also say something about the other people in the "tools" section who he recommends....but I'll be nice for now.
I for one am suspicious of some of the other recommendations, like offervault....has anyone noticed that there is a lot of impossible cr*p on there? You could waste your entire life trying to find a "weird niche." Ever look at the "trending searches" box? It never changes....you will become bored to suicide waiting for the trends to change.
I took one look at the tools and resources section, realised they were all affiliate links, and left. To me that section is nothing more than a few bonus sales for the author and nothing really useful. I know people like Matt Carter, potpiegirl and Ryan Moran are probably reputable marketers (can't say I've heard anything bad about them anyway), but trying to sell other systems to customers who have just bought FA isn't helpful at all. People suffer from information overload enough already without confusing them some more.
Offervault IS full of cr*p for the most part. It's mostly CPA stuff which is often free trials and other questionably marketed products (that usually have bad reviews). When it first became popular a few years ago I used to come across a good product to promote occasionally, but I don't believe that it's particularly useful to FA customers today. I scan through it once a month to see if there's anything new, but I wouldn't rely on it as a great source for quality products. Probably worth a quick look for product ideas but don't spend too much time on it.
I took one look at the tools and resources section, realised they were all affiliate links, and left. To me that section is nothing more than a few bonus sales for the author and nothing really useful. I know people like Matt Carter, potpiegirl and Ryan Moran are probably reputable marketers (can't say I've heard anything bad about them anyway), but trying to sell other systems to customers who have just bought FA isn't helpful at all. People suffer from information overload enough already without confusing them some more.
Offervault IS full of cr*p for the most part. It's mostly CPA stuff which is often free trials and other questionably marketed products (that usually have bad reviews). When it first became popular a few years ago I used to come across a good product to promote occasionally, but I don't believe that it's particularly useful to FA customers today. I scan through it once a month to see if there's anything new, but I wouldn't rely on it as a great source for quality products. Probably worth a quick look for product ideas but don't spend too much time on it.
Personally I don't care much about the affiliate links (I'm a capitalist). IF they're good recommendations and are worth something to me I'll buy through the link. Fair's fair, especially if I didn't know about it previously. I don't understand why people take offence to being recommended a product and then offered it via an affiliate link, even if it is on the back of another product. Nobody's forcing you to buy it, nobody's forcing you to click on the link and nobody said you need it to complete the FA course.
If I were in Andrew's shoes I would've done the exact same thing frankly. Ok, if the product is questionable, then it can only mean 1 of 2 things:
He has used it / does use it and therefore recommended it based on his own experience, or
He doesn't use anything of the sort and just looked for a clickbank product to list.
If option 2 is what happened, then personally I wonder whether or not he's willing to take such a gamble with his reputation, which right now is pretty solid.
Anyway, thanks for the review on Offervault though! I'm happy to not waste time where I'm spinning my wheels, so I'll check it out but won't dwell on it.
Personally I don't care much about the affiliate links (I'm a capitalist). IF they're good recommendations and are worth something to me I'll buy through the link. Fair's fair, especially if I didn't know about it previously. I don't understand why people take offence to being recommended a product and then offered it via an affiliate link, even if it is on the back of another product. Nobody's forcing you to buy it, nobody's forcing you to click on the link and nobody said you need it to complete the FA course.
I probably worded myself wrongly. I don't have anything against using affiliate links (and if I was the product creator I would use them too) - I just felt that recommending 3 other programs was just capitalizing on newbies who have 'shiny object syndrome' and can't focus on one thing. Andrew already promoted those to his list which I think was probably enough.
When I see tools and resources I expect them to be related to the course, which to be fair, there were a few. I read a bit about WP Pipeline and thought the reviews seemed quite good.
I probably worded myself wrongly. I don't have anything against using affiliate links (and if I was the product creator I would use them too) - I just felt that recommending 3 other programs was just capitalizing on newbies who have 'shiny object syndrome' and can't focus on one thing. Andrew already promoted those to his list which I think was probably enough.
My man, you did not word your disdain, skepticism, and criticism wrongly, not in my opinion.
I think it was very appropriate for you to raise an eyebrow, shake your head in disgust, roll your eyes and maybe pound your fist on the table in anger (when you came to Hansen's "Resource" section - the section that I'd like to inform everyone reading this is nothing but an up-sell).
Of course I don't know what your physical reaction was when you first laid eyes on his "Resource" section. Because I've never seen you from the neck up, or any other part of your body, for that matter.
My reaction was the same as yours when I came to Hansen's "Resource" section.
I think I may have said, "This is disgusting" or "What a parasite this Hansen guy is" or I may have said "Now I don't know if I can trust Hansen. Well, at least there's a money-back guarantee. And if his support team (which so far has done an absolute lousy job in getting back to me about a certain issue) doesn't issue me a refund, I know from experience that my credit card's dispute department located in Northern California will back me up and make sure that I get a refund that's due me."
I admire and give a thumbs up to your disdain (as far as his pathetic "Resource" section is concerned). I'm basing my admiration and raised thumb on two things: one opinion is concrete, hard, tangible evidence in the form of several YouTube videos. And the other, I admit, is not as concrete and is thus more of a personal opinion:
Concrete: Several weeks ago I happened to stumble across a few YouTube videos where Hansen makes a point, and gives a little lecture, about avoiding the "next new shiny object" (shinyobject=othermakemoneycourses). He goes on and on and on about how an aspiring IM'er should put the blinders on and focus solely on one course while avoiding all the others! He points out that an aspiring IM'er would jeopardize their chances of being successful if you were to utilize, or juggle, more than one IM course at a time. In those two or three videos you will hear him say that focusing on more than one IM course would be perilous and a sure recipe for setting yourself up for failure. Maybe Hansen should call his Forever Affiliate "Resource" section the "Failure is an Option" section. For this, and based on those YouTube videos, he is an utter, money-grubbing hypocrite.
Personal Opinion: If you purchase Forever Affiliate, be prepared to spend A LOT of time watching videos. Because there are a lot of videos to watch. And then you have to comprehend them. Which means that some people (not including rocket scientists or Stephen Hawking) will have to watch them more than once (especially newbs). I know I've already stated it once but it bears repeating: you will need to spend a lot of time watching videos and reviewing videos in order to fully wrap your brain around some of his concepts before you're able to put them into action. And then Hansen has the audacity to create a "Resource" section in order to sell you more how-to videos that will do nothing more than a) take up even more of your precious time and b) put more money in Hansen's pocket. For that, he is a parasite, and I don't care if Winston Churchill rises up from the dead and posts to the Warrior forum that Hansen is a "reputable guy," I really don't. Look, if you're a working man or woman with a 9 to 5 job get ready to drink lots of coffee and miss out on a lot of sleep and fore-go lots of activities in your life because there's a lot of content in his videos, a lot of concepts that you must learn and become good at. And then, at some point, you have to start implementing those concepts which will take up A LOT more of your time.
Which brings me to my last point: I don't like it when an affluent, wealthy person tries to take advantage of the average working person who is, in some cases, trying and searching hard to rise up from the dirty, rotten hole in life they're struggling to get out of.
Then again maybe Hansen has a different clock then the one the average working person has. Maybe Hansen's clock is a special clock that provides him with 48 hours in the day as opposed to the standard 24 hour clock. If you have a surreal clock like Hansen's and you don't have a bed in your house, apartment or old van because you're a genetic wonder who doesn't need to sleep like a normal human then by all means go to his "Resources" section and buy the ChickPotPieChicks Learn How to Be a Successful Internet Marketer course.
And then stay up, wide awake, bug-eyed, 24/7/365, like some type of robot, absorbing, studying, referencing and then implementing all the "Resources" Hansen would love you to buy as he, with a sly, hypocritical smile, cashes in on his affiliate checks on the way to the bank.
Wow! Geez dude looking at your posts overall and your last one in this thread it seems like you'd already decided at least about the feasability of the course material in practical terms a while ago, and probably about Andrew Hansen too.
Clearly it's not your cup of tea; why don't you just get a refund?
Ya the "resources" section reads like a sales letter. Actually a series of them I'll give you that. And maybe i's a bit unfair and/or hypocritical to call it "resources", although he seems to motivate each "resource's" application as a possible extension of the FA course.
Like you said, he warns against the "shiny object syndrome", but does that mean he shouldn't offer complementary courses? I personally don't think so. Maybe he shouldn't call them resources, but frankly, personally as a NON-NEWBIE I just might supplement this course with one of his recommendations.
Let's not forget that this is a product, and he's in the business of selling products and affiliate offers. He's not your friend (he's never claimed to be), and we're not in a communism or a monastery. We live in a very diverse world where personal perspectives and issues of morality differ widely. So, where you may think it's "disgusting", someone else may be saying, "Hey this is just what I was looking for - awesome! Thanks Andrew!" As a product deveolper myself the truth is you just can't please everyone. Period.
Oh, and if you don't want to put the time in to watch the videos and apply the course material, then with respect that's your problem. Anyone who'se serious will find an hour or 2 to spare each day, and with the videos averaging 10-15 minutes each, it shouldn't take you more than a week or 2 to get through them all. If you really don't even have an hour or 2 spare each day due to pre-existing commitments, then how do you expect to generate a second income on the side? Seems a little unrealistic.
Maybe you thought this course was the solution to "get rich quick with little or no effort"? I don't recall him saying this anywhere...
I mean no disrespect, honestly. All I'm just saying is if all you're doing is trying to find reasons to justify why it's not going to work for you, then don't bother! Just ask for your money back and you've lost nothing.
I will ask you once again -- why don't you join our Facebook group. If you join we will have 15 people. I'm tired. I have been up all night working on this stuff and not much progress yet. So I'm with you in a way, but I want to stick to it.
Inglourious,
I have skimmed the whole thread. Your name appears probably more than anyone else. Your posts are long, incredibly well written and insightful. Yet I don't know where you stand. So, without me making any assumptions - what is you considered opinion on FA?
Inglourious,
I have skimmed the whole thread. Your name appears probably more than anyone else. Your posts are long, incredibly well written and insightful. Yet I don't know where you stand. So, without me making any assumptions - what is you considered opinion on FA?
Keith
The old rating scale, is what you're referring to. The rating scale that goes from 0-10. I remember when I was in high school I had a friend who would rate girls as they walked to class. I was embarrassed by that, inside I'd yell OUCH to myself when he chopped a girl down by blurting out a low number. Embarrassed because he'd raise his voice when he rated the girl, sometimes the girl would hear him.
Thanks for asking, I'm humbled by your request. But the fact of the matter is, at this point in time, at this stage of the game, I am not qualified to assign a ranking to FA. In other words, I'm not qualified to give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down or an overall grade, it would not be fair to do that.
But if I see something wrong, or some sort of flaw that needs to be highlighted, or something that's especially good and deserving of praise, I'll point those things out. Because I'm fair and honest (and pro-consumer, too)... it's the only way I know how to be.
I'll note that it appears as if some people in this thread think that I have gone ahead and assigned a ZERO rating to FA. Those type of errors in judgement are easy to make, especially when you're using this form of communication. Again, I'm humbled by your request, thanks for asking.
How many people can write 108,000 words about a niche product that they have no expertise in? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd say that writing that many words about something that is unfamiliar (and maybe uninteresting) would be an impossible task for most people.
When you look at it from that negative perspective, you are psyching yourself out, and setting yourself up for failure.
As the the saying goes "A journey of a thousand begins with a single step". Focus on writing the first few pages and take it from there, one page at a time. You are not writing 1000 pages in a day, a week, or even a month. We are talking good, quality content drip-fed over a lengthy period of time.
You seem to be getting overly focused on the numbers that he gave you. You need to keep those in the back of your mind, but keep your immediate focus on the smaller pieces. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Hop do you build a website? one page at a time.
It is very, very important to keep in mind that Google ranks web pages NOT web sites. Every page, especially early on, should be designed to rank on its own for specific keywords. Each new page you add should bring its own traffic and, hopefully, sales. You aren't waiting around to get to 1000 pages before something happens. Something should be happening all along, and increasing with every new page you add.
While Google only ranks pages, the benefit of larger sites is that the internal linking between pages increases the SEO of all the linked pages, plus visitors should be staying on your site longer to read more article. Something that Google pays close attention to.
As for having "expertise", that is something you have to develop. How can you build an authority site with no expertise? You research, you learn, and you write. After you have written a few articles, you will know more about the subject, and will likely have a better idea on what other articles to write, which will lead to more learning and expertise...and more ideas on what to write about. Needless to say, by the time you get to 1000 pages, you will be more of an expert than 99% of the rest of the world.
Keep in mind that some people can do this with anything, and they would tell you to just pick the best potential niches/keywords. Many people, however, need to like/enjoy what they are writing about. You may just need to stick with niches that you care about, at least at first.
If you really, really can't or don't want to write content, you can outsource it. Many IMers make this sound easy, but quality will be spotty until you find the right person to work with you consistently, and it is going to cost you money up front. That is something you will have to accept if you don't want to do the work yourself. Honestly, I think that most people, in time, will find that writing their own articles is not nearly as difficult as they originally thought.
Personal Opinion: If you purchase Forever Affiliate, be prepared to spend A LOT of time watching videos. Because there are a lot of videos to watch. And then you have to comprehend them. Which means that some people (not including rocket scientists or Stephen Hawking) will have to watch them more than once (especially newbs). I know I've already stated it once but it bears repeating: you will need to spend a lot of time watching videos and reviewing videos in order to fully wrap your brain around some of his concepts before you're able to put them into action. ... Look, if you're a working man or woman with a 9 to 5 job get ready to drink lots of coffee and miss out on a lot of sleep and fore-go lots of activities in your life because there's a lot of content in his videos, a lot of concepts that you must learn and become good at. And then, at some point, you have to start implementing those concepts which will take up A LOT more of your time.
Forgive me for saying, but RuggeroSB's comments were correct. You are complaining about how much there is to learn and how much time and effort it takes on your part. That was not an "assumption" on his part. It is what you said. He did his best to be polite about what he was saying, yet you responded with a snide remark. I think in the heat of the moment you took his comments as an insult, but if you look at your previous posts, and his comment, objectively, you will better see what he was saying.
The truth is that, despite what so many sales letters tell you, you DO need to put time and effort in to this business. If you want to skimp on either of those, you will have to put money into it, as well. There is a learning curve, and your initial training will take time. That is to be expected. Seeing it as a problem is going to negatively affect your success. You are starting a new business, learning a new trade. You need to approach it as such.
It's funny. With most products people complain about not having enough training, it doesn't usually happen the other way around. I'm not sure what caused your animosity toward Andrew, but it seems to be consuming you. It's seems like you are wasting time finding faults with his program rather than just absorbing what it has to teach. It has become a distraction for you. If it fails to teach you what you need to know, by all means, bring it up. Let the rest go. You will feel better.
I know that those comments were in the heat of condemning the affiliate links on the resource page, but you can see how they can be taken. Besides, you do realize that you are doing affiliate marketing yourself? And you know that Andrew is an affiliate marketer. That is the business. You are wanting people to click on your affiliate links, how can you fault him for the same? There is nothing forcing you to buy those products. He was not being a hypocrite. If you had listened to his advice about avoiding shiny objects, you shouldn't have been on his resource thread. You should have been spending all your time learning the material presented in his course...away from the shinies.
No matter what product you buy, there are always going to be other tools that are beneficial. All of them are optional. They basically save you time and/or effort over doing certain things manually, but you can succeed without them. If you don't think you need them, don't buy them. Keep in mind that not everyone is at a beginner level. Others may have an immediate use for some of those products. Obey the shiny object rule first. Don't even put yourself in a position to be tempted.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with using affiliate links for products you recommend and use. Yes, some people go too far. Just ignore them.
Sorry, I'm not picking on you, IB. This was all one really long post that I broke up into separate posts for readability. You posted a lot, so there was more of yours to comment on. Don't read too much into it.
Originally Posted by Inglourious Basterd
I don't know Andrew Hansen personally, it just seems to me that if he was a caring, conscientious, smart, warm-hearted guy as some people claim him to be, then he would offer a support forum for those who have questions about any gaps or stumbling blocks a user might be presented with. It's not a stretch to assume, and ya just gotta believe, that there are going to be people who, while watching one of his training videos, will inevitably have a question about a methodology that needs to be answered. Especially noobs....
Forums are a lot of work to moderate and maintain, which takes away from the time you have to spend on your business. People put them up if they are hoping to form a community. It would be too much work to put one up just to answer a question now and then. I would assume/hope that he has a support system (helpdesk/email) in place to ask questions, and maybe provide a FAQ section as common questions come up.
Sorry, I'm not picking on you, IB. This was all one really long post that I broke up into separate posts for readability. You posted a lot, so there was more of yours to comment on. Don't read too much into it.
I'm not convinced. At this point there are 240 other posts that you can comment on. What's your interest in me?
Originally Posted by RanD
Forums are a lot of work to moderate and maintain, which takes away from the time you have to spend on your business. People put them up if they are hoping to form a community. It would be too much work to put one up just to answer a question now and then. I would assume/hope that he has a support system (helpdesk/email) in place to ask questions, and maybe provide a FAQ section as common questions come up.
I don't buy your reasons for the omission of a discussion forum. I don't buy them because several successful Internet Marketers offer a discussion forum. Lisa Irby has not one but two or three discussion forums she tends to. Michael, the 100KAdsense guy, has a discussion forum. Mark Ling of AffilioBlueprint has a discussion forum. If they can do it, Hansen can do it.
I'll note that in one FA video Hansen ends the video by stating something synonymous with "Well, if you didn't grasp this concept, don't worry, it'll come to you in due time, or JUST GO TO OUR DISCUSSION FORUM for help." Yes, he actually said "Just go to our discussion forum for help." Why would he say that? As we all know, there is no discussion forum.
Despite your nice-guy facade and proclivity for smattering your posts with Smilies, you got a hard on for me. Are you Andrew Hansen? Don't answer that, because even if you say NO there would be no way to verify your answer.
I'm not convinced. At this point there are 240 other posts that you can comment on. What's your interest in me?
I don't buy your reasons for the omission of a discussion forum. I don't buy them because several successful Internet Marketers offer a discussion forum. Lisa Irby has not one but two or three discussion forums she tends to. Michael, the 100KAdsense guy, has a discussion forum. Mark Ling of AffilioBlueprint has a discussion forum. If they can do it, Hansen can do it.
I'll note that in one FA video Hansen ends the video by stating something synonymous with "Well, if you didn't grasp this concept, don't worry, it'll come to you in due time, or JUST GO TO OUR DISCUSSION FORUM for help." Yes, he actually said "Just go to our discussion forum for help." Why would he say that? As we all know, there is no discussion forum.
Despite your nice-guy facade and proclivity for smattering your posts with Smilies, you got a hard on for me. Are you Andrew Hansen? Don't answer that, because even if you say NO there would be no way to verify your answer.
Yeah, well, the other 240 posts were not going off on ridiculous rants about anything and everything.
Your very first post was the rant about him not having a forum to ask questions. You could have simply stated that it would be nice if he had one, and then ask whatever questions that you had, but clearly you just like to complain.
By the way, you don't have to "buy my reason" for him not having a forum. Forums being a lot of work is not just my opinion, any marketer would agree. The fact that some marketers have them does not change that fact. Most do not. However, I have no idea what his thoughts are on having a forum. If he did, in fact, mention that he was going to have a forum, it may have been something that he thought about doing and then decided against, or maybe he will in the future if he feels that it is worth the time. Who knows?
I honestly wasn't trying to pick on you, it was just that your posts were the ones I felt were important to address. As I read through the posts I opened the quotes in separate tabs as I went. It wasn't until I went to put them together that I realized that most of them were by you. It really doesn't matter if you are "convinced", or not. I was not trying to placate you. I was actually amused when I realized that most were from the same person.
My smilies were legit (at the time), as I was giving you the benefit of the doubt. I was not targeting you specifically, but your comments and attitude drew me to those posts. Based on your responses, I am guessing that you are used to that. You have a tendency to focus on the negative in everything and point your fingers at everyone else, and any time the focus is on you, you deflect the attention elsewhere ignoring what was actually said.
You have a tendency to focus on the negative in everything and point your fingers at everyone else,
That allegation is false. Show us the quotes, quote me, where I'm allegedly "pointing my finger at everyone else." The words "everyone else" comprises multiple people.
Quote three or four instances where I allegedly engage in "finger pointing." Prove it, is what I'm saying. If you can, then I owe you an apology. If you can't, then you're a liar. A liar, and perhaps a shill working on behalf of Hansen in order to sell more units. Fair enough? A seasoned Internet Marketer like you should be familiar with the quote button.
That allegation is false. Show us the quotes, quote me, where I'm allegedly "pointing my finger at everyone else." The words "everyone else" comprises multiple people.
Quote three or four instances where I allegedly engage in "finger pointing." Prove it, is what I'm saying. If you can, then I owe you an apology. If you can't, then you're a liar. A liar, and perhaps a shill working on behalf of Hansen in order to sell more units. Fair enough? A seasoned Internet Marketer like you should be familiar with the quote button.
My allegation is false? Just like RiggerSB's comments were full of assumptions...and more?
Which allegation? I made a couple. The fact that you focus on the negative is clear, in the extreme.
As for finger pointing:
You point it at Andrew, you point it at RuggeroSB, and you point it at me. That's 3, I'm not going to bother wasting space to validate that. Its out there if you want to look.
Meanwhile, you accuse me of being Andrew Hansen, or someone working for him. How pathetic is that. That is the most obvious form of deflection there is. Trying to blanketly dismiss my comments, by making an outlandish accusation like that, is just sad. You call me a liar when all the truth of what I am saying is out in your posts. Yet you can make these crazy claims based on nothing other than your desire to focus the attention away from you? Do you realize how transparent that is? You make things up with no basis in reality, and you call other people liars. Wow!
If I had been working for Hansen, you would think that I would have actually praised the product, wouldn't you? And I did say that "If it fails to teach you what you need to know, by all means, bring it up", though it is clear that you didn't really read my posts. None of what I said had anything to do with his product. It was all based on Internet Marketing, in general. You are going to have to work. You are going to have to create content. You are going to have to put in time. And you are going to have to put in money if you don't want to do the work yourself. That would apply to any program you were following, not just Andrews.
Initially I thought you were just a little frustrated and needed some help changing your perspective. But I see it goes way beyond that. You are bitter, and full of negativity. You commented on posts without even reading them or attempting to understand them. If you do the same with the training course, I can't see you getting much out of it.
You complain about having to write 1000 word articles for your site, yet you write nearly that, just to complain about his resource page. Do you see the irony in that? Your priorities are skewed, and you lack proper focus. If you do not change your approach, you are going to fail. Let the BS go, and get your focus over to where it should be.
There is really nothing more to say. We have derailed this thread enough. It's time to let it get on track.
Okay, I have created the mastermind group. So far we have four people. Remember, if you want to join you have to friend me on Facebook(see the icon below my signature) and don't forget to send me a private message on Facebook -- (I get a lot of friend requests and don't automatically accept everyone.) Hopefully this will work and again, we'll be able to help each other.
I clicked on the facebook icon under your name and I am getting the message
"This Content Is Currently Unavailable"
"The page you requested cannot be displayed right now. It may be temporarily unavailable, the link you clicked on may have expired, or you may not have permission to view this page."
By the way if you are a member of the forever affiliate he added a new video today in phase two.
Hmm...when I heard you say that there was a new video that was released yesterday on March 9th I wanted to jump up and say HEY THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP.
So I went to Forever Affiliate to go get it. But I was a little surprised in that I did not find a new video. I found the same videos, no more, no less.
And that would be the same videos that were released when I first bought the course back in late February. Here's a complete list of all the videos in Phase 2 that came with the course when I purchased it back in late February, with the title of each video as named by Andrew:
CATEGORY: FA TESTING AND THEORY
1) Testing Validation Theory
CATEGORY: POWER SITE SETUP
1) New Domains for Minisites and Authority Sites
2) Hosting Account Setup
3) Quick Wordpress Blog Installation
4A) Installing Your Wordpress Theme - Thesis
4B) Installing Your Wordpress Theme - Free Alternative
5) The 6 Plugins That Matter for Affiliates
6) Your Initial On Page Optimization
7) Your Google Analytics Setup
8) Quick Sidebar Banner Setup
9) Set Up Affiliate
CATEGORY: POST 2012 CONTENT CREATION
1) Content Strategy - Minisite and Authority Site
2) Forever Affiliate Authority Sites
3) Link Cloaking and Tracking Strategy
4) How to Create Affiliate Content in 2013
5) Optimizing Content on Your Site - Part 1
6) Laying Out and Optimizing Content on Your Site - Part 2
7) Creating Non Product Name Content
CATEGORY: PROMOTING DURING TESTING AND VALIDATION
1) New Site Promotion Theory
2) How to Dominate Search Rankings with Blog Commenting
3) Making Your Blogs List
4) Hardcore Directory Submissions
CATEGORY: MONITORING YOUR STATS DURING TESTING
1) What to Look for in Google Analytics
So that's the complete list of all the Phase 2 videos that were available to me on Feburary 28th, yesterday on March 9th and today on March 10th. You can help us out by telling us the name of the new video that was released yesterday. That way everyone can check to be sure that they too received the new video.
That should be easy to do with the list I made. If it's a brand new Phase 2 video then it should not and will not be on the list I made above - because as stated earlier I purchased the course in late February and you informed us that the new video was released yesterday on March 9th. Now that I think about it, I remember I purchased the course on February 28th.
On a slightly similar subject, there is a video that is due to be released in the future and that would be a Phase 3 video in the EXPANSION category. You'll find that Andrew titled it:
"COMING SOON: Saving Money by Creating Your Own Tiered Linking Structure"
That video is currently not available. Regarding that video, Andrew wrote and I quote "This is an example of how you can save by creating your own tiered linking structure including web 2.0 links, bookmarks, directory submissions, and more."
There are a lot of videos that come with the Forever Affiliate course. I hope this info helps.
Don't get me wrong I have been enjoying the tremendous knowledge , and trust me I have taken in allot! Not having any knowledge and trying to figure it out to get a simple site up is not as easy as he says. I have been working since this relentlessly giving up my entire weekends as well as weekdays trying to accomplish this , and again I at complete ground zero.
Well if you're trying to get a site up using Thesis 2.0 then you're bound to have a hard time. Thesis 2.0 has a very bad reputation. It's geared more towards those who have a lot of experience coding web sites.
Hey don't take my word for it, just Google it and you'll find a ton of people on the Internet who complain that the developer dropped the ball in that it is very complex and hard for the average person to try and work with.
You'll need to keep a big bottle of aspirin within arms reach if you use Thesis 2.0. Time and time again it has been reported that the learning curve is extremely high and thus responsible for causing a lot of headaches.
Lisa Irby, a highly respected, credible, successful blogger wrote a blog post where she said that Thesis 2.0 is a major disappointment because it's too complicated for most people, including herself, to try and use. What's interesting to note is that Lisa Irby knows how to code a little bit and even for a person of her caliber, she admits she was overwhelmed by Thesis 2.0. Bottom line: she said she'll stick with Genesis.
Well if you're trying to get a site up using Thesis 2.0 then you're bound to have a hard time. Thesis 2.0 has a very bad reputation. It's geared more towards those who have a lot of experience coding web sites.
Hey don't take my word for it, just Google it and you'll find a ton of people on the Internet who complain that the developer dropped the ball in that it is very complex and hard for the average person to try and work with.
You'll need to keep a big bottle of aspirin within arms reach if you use Thesis 2.0. Time and time again it has been reported that the learning curve is extremely high and thus responsible for causing a lot of headaches.
Lisa Irby, a highly respected, credible, successful blogger wrote a blog post where she said that Thesis 2.0 is a major disappointment because it's too complicated for most people, including herself, to try and use. What's interesting to note is that Lisa Irby knows how to code a little bit and even for a person of her caliber, she admits she was overwhelmed by Thesis 2.0. Bottom line: she said she'll stick with Genesis.
Thesis might be complicated if you're trying to change alot of things but the basic changes recommended in FA are pretty straightforward if you follow the videos.
I have zero coding experience and I use Thesis for alot of my blogs. Sure, they all look the same because I don't know how to make them any different, but as long as they make money I can live with that.
Can I ask how many backlinks your money making mini sites have roughly?
I suppose average is about 300-500 backlinks but really it depends.
I have one site ranked no.4 on page 1 of Google with just 1 backlink (site is about 5 months old) but I have other sites that have 1000+ . The sites with thousands of backlinks are older though (a few years old) and some are in quite competitive niches.
I think the sites that are closest to the FA method (in terms of competition etc) usually seem to rank with just a few hundred which isn't too difficult to achieve. None of these are Clickbank products though - in my experience, with the amount of affiliate competition for CB products you'd probably need more.
I suppose average is about 300-500 backlinks but really it depends.
I have one site ranked no.4 on page 1 of Google with just 1 backlink (site is about 5 months old) but I have other sites that have 1000+ . The sites with thousands of backlinks are older though (a few years old) and some are in quite competitive niches.
I think the sites that are closest to the FA method (in terms of competition etc) usually seem to rank with just a few hundred which isn't too difficult to achieve. None of these are Clickbank products though - in my experience, with the amount of affiliate competition for CB products you'd probably need more.
Thanks for the info - just wondering if the backlinks were made manually by yourself or other sites linked to you or you had them done by Fiverr?
Thanks to everyone for their very useful input on this thread
trying to get my head around Affiliate Marketing and get started
Phil
Phil:
One of the best pieces of advice that I ever received on the subject of affiliate marketing was this: "Don't think like an affiliate marketer. Think like an entrepreneur. Affiliate marketers look for money makers and they jump from one offer to another. Entrepreneurs build businesses. Pick a market and then go deep into that market. In other words, select a market and then 'serve' people in that market. Build a list as you are serving your chosen market and then sell products to them as an affiliate."
It is so much easier to sell products to people you have a relationship with. In addition, the moment you start list building is the moment you have a real business. With a list you now have an asset that you can market to over and over again.
I hope this helps you get your head around "affiliate marketing."
Thanks for the info - just wondering if the backlinks were made manually by yourself or other sites linked to you or you had them done by Fiverr?
I use thehoth.com (one of Andrew's recommended services) and a few of the services here on WF. I wouldn't touch Fiverr for backlinks - I know a few people who have had bad experiences there. For the price you'd probably only get the kind of spammy backlinks that FA recommends avoiding.
I use thehoth.com (one of Andrew's recommended services) and a few of the services here on WF. I wouldn't touch Fiverr for backlinks - I know a few people who have had bad experiences there. For the price you'd probably only get the kind of spammy backlinks that FA recommends avoiding.
You're absolutey right about Fiverr. I've had the same experience myself - I would have been very surprised if you said otherwise - in my expeirence most SEO stuff they do is blackhat and I won't touch them again after my last experience with them.
I wanted to reply to this thread as someone who has been around IM for almost five years but has yet to make any money.
I purchased FA a couple of weeks and have found it easy to understand. I bought it when it was $67, did not purchase the upsell, and have had most of my questions answered through support, and I have had many.
I purchased it mainly to learn about the changes that Google that has made in the last year, and if what Andrew says is true, in some ways it seems like it's easier to rank than it used to be, as long as you know how to write. (I used to be a journalist, so it's kind of ironic for me.
Regarding the niche investigation -- I didn't find any offers INSTANTLY -- had to do a little work. But I'm about halfway through building my first site, and I found the niche on one of the sites Andrew recommends in the course, and using his formula, it should make $800 a month if I can rank. I am not expecting to make that much, but would be happy to start small. The point is -- finding keywords and niches using Andrew's method seems a lot simpler to me than the one advocated by, e.g., Google Sniper, which I also purchased a couple of years ago.
I also wanted to let people know that I too had trouble with the free Simplo theme. Since I didn't want to purchase Thesis either, I am using a free theme called Evanescence, which can be installed right from the wordpress site. It is frill free and seemed to be appropriate from what I had read about Thesis and downloaded from Simplo.
Also, for those of us having trouble trouble uploading the banner to the sidebar -- you can use a widget simply called "Image Widget." I had to struggle with it a bit -- but I did manage to upload the image of the banner using good ol' Wordpress technology right to the sidebar, and install the link of course.
I read this entire thread, and it seems to me that a lot of people are struggling with the specifics in a way that isn't quite necessary. As someone else said, you kind of find your own way of doing things. And some of the choices you make will be wrong. ( Maybe Evanescense isn't very well SEO optimized, for example). But some of it will be right, or at least okay.
Once you build a site and rank for a keyword, you will feel more confident. Just don't make the mistake I did the first time around and forget to click "exact" match on the keyword tool.
Personally, I think this course is very thorough. And I wanted to mention the transcripts of every video being very helpful. I've never seen that before in a course and it's great for those of us who learned how to learn by reading, not watching videos. You need to watch the videos at least once, but you can refer back to the transcripts after watching it for a refresher. And there's a lot here to refresh.
I wrote a note to Andrew and suggested he put a little more in writing -- that would be my only criticism of the course. It's a lot to learn -- especially for someone who has no experience in IM at all -- learning Wordpress is a bit of a challenge on its own, lest we forget. And it would help to have a few more templates.
Other than that, I am satisfied with the explanations he provides. Once I get this content written and get the site up, I will hopefully build a couple more and report back.
I have market samurai but with this process, I just used the google keyword tool. One word -- don't use ahrefs until you find a keyword with the right amount of traffic and "low" competition. Then us the ahrefs on a few of the ranking sites -- like one from the top of the page of results, one from the middle, and one from the bottom. That's what I did, and it seems to have worked. Don't burn yourself out on this, it's easy to do. Just keep a steady pace and you will get it. That's what I tell myself when I am frustrated.
I'm really enjoying this thread - there's such a comradery forming; a sort of imprompu "support group"! Great, isn't it?
Here are some hard truths:
1. Affiliate Marketing, albeit a potential extremely low-cost business model (especially when compared to conventional business models), is not "free". I say that in parenthesis because you COULD do it 100% free, but in my experience, don't expect to replace your income using purely free techniques. That's really not easy, and really it's not "free" because you'll have to invest every second of time you can afford into it. The cheaper you go, the harder it gets and the more time you need to put in. Start off small if you must, but then also lower your expectations proportionally, and be prepared to reinvest once you're actually earning something if you want to make a decent living from this.
2. Most affiliate marketers WILL FAIL. There's a huge divide between successful marketers and unsuccessful ones. Why? Mostly from failure to act due to "analysis paralysis", procrastination, looking for the next Pot of Gold at the end of the next rainbow, or some other fear.
I maintain that if you've bought Andrew's course, and you have a membership here at Warriorfoum, you have an excellent advantage over the many who are lost on wrong paths with no guidance and antiquated information that no longer works.
What's the definition of insanity? Do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result! Someone here says they're struggling to find a market and is about to throw in the towel. My advice to you is, DON'T. You may be spining your wheels and not even seeing it! Try and shake it up a bit - look at some other suggestions that Andrew made, or get someone to look at what you're doing and give feedback. Someone else here said it was no problem finding a niche for them. It took work, but she found one. You've received offers of help to even pass on your questions via Andrew's Mentorship program - how awesome is that?! So, know that THEY DO EXIST, it's not "fake information" and you have access to help. Throw in the towel now and become part of the statistics! Sorry if that sounds blunt - call it "tough love" if you like.
Together with the failure to act I think the next big issue which causes a lot of failures with "newbies" is the feeling of isolation. You're all alone in this new world and don't really know what the heck you're doing, right? So I say 2 things to you:
1. The easiest way to learn how to swim is to jump into the deep end. It's terrifying, I know, but honestly how "risky" is it really? The cost of a domain for 10 bucks and hosting for $8 which you'll be using for multiple sites? Don't over-analyse, even when using Andrew's "funnel" technique. Even Andrew says the numbers are INDICATORS ONLY, a lot of "gut feel" comes into play here actually - mre than you may be prepared to accept at first maybe. The truth is, after a while, you look at the numbers and do the analysis and they "speak to you". He's giving you a guide, but nothing's actually etched in stone. Remember he used an example of finding a supposed 200 searcher per month keyword and discovered it was giving him closer to 200 visits per day? I can honestly say that the same goes for the competition. Work on looking at the big picture, not just that 1 specific number which doesn't fit a certain criteria.
Spread your risk over 4 or 5 niches even if you think they don't fit perfectly within the GUIDELINE LIMITS Andrew gives us and follow through with them to completion. Be ready for some of them to fail, or even most of them at first, but I'll eat my shorts if you see absolutely nothing from them! As you rinse and repeat the process, you will get better at finding profitable niches.
2. As I've already said, you're not alone! Pull some people together and work in teams. Just feeling like you're not alone and working with others makes a HUGE difference! So what if you have to split your profits at first? Trust me, KNOWING YOU CAN DO IT IS WORTH SO MUCH MORE! And nothing stops you from going it on your own if you decide to later.
Just make sure that whoever you team up with are like-minded and are actually taking action and participating in the team. You don't need procrastinators or freeloaders on your team. Give it a few weeks on a trial basis and cut them loose if it's not working. BUY YOUR OWN DOMAINS and let them buy their own domains, but split the work and have an agreement to split the profits across everything you do together. Especially at first until trust is established. Have an agreement on an exit strategy if it goes south. Whatever works for you both - just cover yourself that's all.
Inglorious are you interested in this "mastermind" group? If so, let us know, and the same goes to anyone else struggling along with FA.
Cheers!
MAL
I also purchased the $67 level and was thinking about getting the $297 level if it's still available.
I would love to join the master mind group and/or partner up with someone on a project. I'm not totally new but have not been making money online yet.
I am a health care educator I can see the benefits from being accountable.
Just PM me or email me ebmkhillside at yahoo.com
Subject: master mind group
Inglorious are you interested in this "mastermind" group? If so, let us know, and the same goes to anyone else struggling along with FA.
Cheers!
MAL
Yes, I'm interested in joining a support group. An invitation such as yours... I can't help but think that your invitation is a very thoughtful gesture, and boy I really appreciate thoughtful people, no matter what their gender is. Especially people, like you, who appear to have good intentions. Your invitation makes me want to say: THANK YOU very much for inviting me in. I'd like to ask, what steps should I take for gaining entry?
All you have to do is click the Facebook icon below my name and friend me on Facebook. But THEN you have to send me a message on Facebook, too, letting me know you want to join the group. And I will add you, presto. That's all there is to it. We have 25 members now and are active group. There are members of varying skill levels so that is helpful.
MAL
Originally Posted by Inglourious Basterd
Yes, I'm interested in joining a support group. An invitation such as yours... I can't help but think that your invitation is a very thoughtful gesture, and boy I really appreciate thoughtful people, no matter what their gender is. Especially people, like you, who appear to have good intentions. Your invitation makes me want to say: THANK YOU very much for inviting me in. I'd like to ask, what steps should I take for gaining entry?
Just to let you guys know the mastermind group is a private group, so no one from the outside can access it. Also, if you want to join, be sure to send me a private message on Facebook by clicking on the facebook icon below my name. I am getting a lot of private messages on Warrior Forum and they only allow you so many before they start making it impossible to respond without deleting some, which takes some time. Thanks in advance!
It's a good thing I found this thread today. I bought FA as well but could not buy the coaching. and a mastermind group would go a long way to help each one of us. well done warriors!.
Well, I couldn't watch the videos in Firefox. But he does recommend using Google Chrome, which I did. I guess he might say that you have to have a computer to build websites; can't do it on an IPad, etc. But I'm just playing the devil's advocate and am an oldster who enjoys the ease of the computer.
Come join us in our Facebook group if you like; we are up to 25 members and welcome people of all skill levels. If you want to join, friend me and message me on Facebook.
When I clicked on it, it came right up. Maybe try another browser. In any case, my facebook address is http://facebook.com/maryannelewis if you want to find me that way.
When I clicked on it, it came right up. Maybe try another browser. In any case, my facebook address is http://facebook.com/maryannelewis if you want to find me that way.
Hey, I have added you as friend and send you a message about joining the Forever Affiliate Group, but you have not responded to any of them, is there not room for any more people? or am I just being inpatient.
There have been some comments about his example site, and it not ranking in the SERPS. First I will point out that most marketers do not put much effort into example sites, for several reasons. One being that students will often copy the example rather than finding their own keywords and niche (a terrible idea, but people do do it). The other is that some people will try to sabotage the example site, and he would have to work extra hard to keep it ranking, wasting time that would likely be better spent elsewhere. That, and letting it set for a few months and building backlinks slowly over time is much better than spamming it early on with a lot of backlinks.
That said, his web site DOES rank in the serps. I didn't do any in depth research. I just looked at the first page and typed in a couple of things that it might rank for. It is on the first page of Google for "Does pregnancy miracle work" and "will pregnancy miracle work". Those appear to be ranking with almost no effort to backlink the site. He was number 2 (youtube was at #1), for "will pregnancy miracle work for you". I doubt that last one will be worth anything, but the other two are likely to get him traffic, especially once he starts building backlinks. But that shows you the power of long-tailed keywords. There may be others that he researched that are working well. The more popular phrases can take longer to get, but with good research you can start getting traffic relatively quickly with good long-tailed keywords/phrases.
Just an apology to those of you who just got added to the Facebook group. Unfortunately, I don't always go through my "other" messages, so if you don't want to shell out a dollar to make sure I get your message right away you may have to wait to get enrolled. I think I managed to enter everybody. Remember if you want to join you have to send me a friend request AND a message in Facebook. Now we are 30+.
In any case, I am interested in hearing from anyone who has actually gotten a site up-- how are you progressing? I was disappointed to see I only got three visitors to my first site today, but maybe that is par for the course during the first month. The good news is, for a while, I was on the second page of Google, so my site is showing up, but it is jumping around in what someone in the group termed "the google dance." Doesn't seem like I'm getting too many backlinks (although the ones I did get are good), despite posting on blogs every day, as Andrew suggests.
Also, what I got out of the course -- I learned something about the Google changes of the last 12 months and how to (maybe) get around them. We'll see. But I do think there is value to the course.
In any case, I am interested in hearing from anyone who has actually gotten a site up-- how are you progressing? I was disappointed to see I only got three visitors to my first site today, but maybe that is par for the course during the first month. The good news is, for a while, I was on the second page of Google, so my site is showing up, but it is jumping around in what someone in the group termed "the google dance." Doesn't seem like I'm getting too many backlinks (although the ones I did get are good), despite posting on blogs every day, as Andrew suggests.
Yes, the Google dance is normal, don't let it worry you. Eventually it will settle down. Getting any visitors at all at this point is a good sign. Congrats.
It's funny, back in the day it used to take us months just to get the site indexed, and then longer to rank. It is amazing how fast you can do it now.
Yes, I was surprised I showed up on the second page after only a couple of days. Now I am on like, page 5, which is okay, too, I guess. This backlinking thing is tricky; some of the people in the group aren't ranking and it's difficult to tell why. I told them maybe they didn't choose a keyword/niche with low enough competition. I presume that's the main reason. Or maybe not writing long enough articles!
Yes, I was surprised I showed up on the second page after only a couple of days. Now I am on like, page 5, which is okay, too, I guess. This backlinking thing is tricky; some of the people in the group aren't ranking and it's difficult to tell why. I told them maybe they didn't choose a keyword/niche with low enough competition. I presume that's the main reason. Or maybe not writing long enough articles!
Don't focus too much on it right now. Google is still dancing. You will likely move around a bit more. You may sit at page 5 for a bit and then suddenly jump up to the first or second page. The spiders crawl the page and get an idea of what it is about and give it an initial ranking based on the superficial information. Over time it does more detailed analysis and interconnects everything in their database, and compares it to everything else that is already out there. It takes some time, but if you have done everything right, your ranking will increase quite a bit at the end of it.
As I mentioned before, Google ranks pages, not sites, and some pages on your site may jump up sooner than others. The important thing is not to panic and do something foolish. Many new people will panic and start throwing tons of backlinks at their new site hoping to force it to the top, but that would have the opposite affect, because it would look unnatural to Google.
I assume that he mentions that in the course, but it doesn't hurt to reinforce it a bit.
I just picked the course up myself, as someone recommended it and said that it had solid content even for experienced marketers. I'm going to set up some sites using only his methods and see how they do.
It sounds like you are off to a good start. Keep it up.
I was disappointed to see I only got three visitors to my first site today
I was a little taken aback when I read that as I didn't know you had launched a site, I don't think you mentioned it until now. That's great, good job. In my book you're definitely on a roll. I wish you the best of luck.
I want to apologize to everyone for my part in derailing this thread. I recently purchased the course and am presently going through the training. I will do my best to keep all my future posts focused on that.
I want to apologize to everyone for my part in derailing this thread. I recently purchased the course and am presently going through the training. I will do my best to keep all my future posts focused on that.
You failed to provide three or four examples where I allegedly engaged in "finger pointing" at other posters in this thread. Which makes you a liar. I knew you wouldn't be able to provide examples, because you were not telling the truth. You owe me a personal apology.
Relevant to FA, the tips you gave in post #239 were good tips that will help people generate content. Those same tips will not help an aspiring Internet Marketer write and produce an ungodly amount of content (108,000 words, potentially) that are about a bland pet-rock-like item that they have never had, or ever will have, an interest in.
Most people can't write 108,000 words about their dog, cat, or favorite ice cream let alone a weird, off the wall, bland, niche product they have ZERO interest in. You're a successful Internet marketing expert who appears to know a lot about Internet marketing. Provide us with a couple of links to websites that have 75-100,000 words of content, content that represents a weird, niche product. A weird, niche product that might be the intellectual counterpart of a doorknob.
You failed to provide three or four examples where I allegedly engaged in "finger pointing" at other posters in this thread. Which makes you a liar. I knew you wouldn't be able to provide examples, because you were not telling the truth. You owe me a personal apology.
I listed 3 people, but I am not going to waste my time looking for the quotes. They are already obvious from previous posts. Figure it out for yourself. Better yet, just grow up. This is a place for serious business people. If you want to play childish games, there are plenty of other forums where you will feel right at home.
Relevant to FA, the tips you gave in post #239 were good tips that will help people generate content. Those same tips will not help an aspiring Internet Marketer write and produce an ungodly amount of content (108,000 words, potentially) that are about a bland pet-rock-like item that they have never had, or ever will have, an interest in.
Most people can't write 108,000 words about their dog, cat, or favorite ice cream let alone a weird, off the wall, bland, niche product they have ZERO interest in. You're a successful Internet marketing expert who appears to know a lot about Internet marketing. Provide us with a couple of links to websites that have 75-100,000 words of content, content that represents a weird, niche product. A weird, niche product that might have the intellectual property of a doorknob.
I am really beginning to suspect that you are just trolling now, but I will bite, just this once, allowing for the possibility that you are just really confused.
You would NOT build an authority site around your favorite ice cream or a pet rock. If your research warranted it, you would build a mini-site around those topics. Thus, you would only need around 5-10 pages, not 1000.
I already mentioned, in that post, that if you have "ZERO interest" in the topic, you should avoid it and only build sites about things you do like. Some people can write about anything, but YOU are in control about what niche you get into and what you write about.
You also would not just blog about your cat or dog. Your site would not rank for anything. However, you could have a site on dog training where you discuss different dog training methods, tip, concepts, how training differs between dogs and puppies, and how it differs between the various breeds, etc...You could then interject articles about your own dog, and your experiences, your dogs quirks and personality, and challenges that you have had training them, etc...That injects personality and good will with other dog owners that read your articles, and would give you many articles to add to your site.
Once you actually start researching and writing on a topic, you will always come up with additional ideas to write about, as I mentioned in my other post. That post also mentioned focusing on small chunks, rather than focusing on the ultimate goal. I'm not sure how you feel that that only applies to experienced marketers. Seriously, focus on 1-2 posts at a time, and eventually you will get to your goal. As I pointed out, nothing magical happens at 1000 posts. Each post/page is its own entity, and will contribute on it's own, bringing its own traffic, while boosting the value of other pages on the site.
You can do your own search for web sites with high numbers of pages. Just look at the sites at the top of any search results. They are the ones you have to beat. You may not even need 1000 pages if it is a low competition niche.
WebMD has over 7.5 million pages, if that helps.
One of more help might be dog-obedience-training-review.com, since I mentioned dog training. They have several thousand pages.
DO not make the mistake of using them as a reference for how to build content. They have been around a long time and have built up a lot of good will with Google. They have some thin pages, but they are well established and can get away with it. New sites do not have that luxury.
That said, most of your site will be smaller mini-sites. You may only need 5-10-20 pages, depending on the niche/product. You are only going to have a couple of authority sites, max, and you will be building up those pages over a long period of time. You are making it into a far bigger issue than it is. The authority site are a marathon, not a sprint. You will be spending years on them. You only need to add a few pages a week, while you are simultaneously working on other stuff, like mini-sites.
To be clear, that is not something unique to this program. That is what you need to do to rank well, these days. Crappy, thin sites no longer cut it. Pretty much any marketer will tell you that you need tons of quality content to do well.
I recently purchased FA, and am in the process of putting products through the funnel.
One question I have is - are you guys using any alternatives to ahrefs? have you bought a subscription?
Yes, you can create a free account, but the daily amount of activity you get with that free account does not get you very far - at all. In fact, it seems using a free account for this program would be nearly impossible.
Let me know what you all have chosen to do when it comes to evaluating the competitions back links and seo efforts.
The subscription fee for ahrefs seems extremely high. Just what you can for free.
Blacklinkwatch is powered by ahrefs and is free. I don't think there is even a subscription option there, but there are tons of sales banners on the page, and there will be a popup when you click the URL field. Just click "Close this thing" and enter the URL and run it.
By the way, I think the restrictions on the number of searches are just cookie based.
That said, there is something to be said for the paid tools. I use Market Samurai, and a few other tools. They can be very helpful. From what I have seen of SEO spyglass, it looks amazing. Market Samurai has multiple functions, but Spyglass is dedicated to a specific task and it seems to do it very well. Just keep in mind that they are just tools that make the process a little easier. if money is an issue, stick with the free stuff until you can afford something else.
After reading the linked thread about the monthly fee for upgrading the algorithm, I decided to look into it. When you purchase SEO Spyglass, you get 6 months of free upgrades, and the monthly fee starts after that. However, if you just get the Pro version, rather than the enterprise edition or the full software suite, the algorithm updates are only $6.95/month, less if you pay for multiple months in advance.
I would like some insight from some of you "old-timers" -- RanD and Ruggero and whoever else has been doing this for a while. What did you discover that was particularly new and useful? Is it ethical to discuss something like that in a thread like this?
I've had only a little experience in the last few years, but if I had to summarize Andrew's course in one sentence it would be something like "Everything you do, do ethically," which of course, is pretty much in opposition to what a lot of IM'ers were doing. Is this really enough?
I built my first site earlier this month and am working on my second, and for the first time on Friday, I had no traffic to my site. I guess this happens from time to time. But I am interested in generating as much traffic as possible and of course, conversions. I realize I will have to wait until making it onto the first page of Google until I see any real results, but I just thought I would ask since there has been so much discussion.
I've had only a little experience in the last few years, but if I had to summarize Andrew's course in one sentence it would be something like "Everything you do, do ethically," which of course, is pretty much in opposition to what a lot of IM'ers were doing. Is this really enough?
MAL
You seem to be getting a little down, so I wanted to add some things.
I know that a few weeks seems like a lot, but it isn't. The things that Google does takes time. Google has different spiders that have different functions. One takes a cursory glance at your site and indexes it, and you get an initial ranking based on what it finds based mostly on your on-site optimization. Some time later another spider comes through to do a more detailed analysis. They are only collecting the data, they do not interpret it. All the information get added to the database and all the various algorithms are run to determine where your site should rank compared to every other site on the Internet. Needless to say, that takes time.
In addition, the backlinks you create do not get indexed right away. The linking site also has to wait to get spidered and indexed and ranked, then an algorithm decides the value of that page and how much juice to give the page on your site that it is linked to. Because different sites are spidered at different frequencies and times, your backlinks will trickle in from your efforts over time.
The important thing to remember is that it is a continual process. You will continue to add backlinks gradually over time and, hopefully, the pages that are linking to you will gain in ranking over time too, thus giving more love to your pages. In addition, by creating good quality, unique content, your content may get syndicated and/or linked to by other high quality authority site, all on their own, with no effort by you, just because they thought it was good and added value to their sites. If enough do that your site could explode. Hence the focus on quality content.
A few months ago I was doing niche research and stumbled upon a few related long-tailed phrases around a certain item. I had no interest in it, and I knew that it wouldn't make me much money, but they had decent search volume, and seemed like they would be fairly easy to rank. So I built a mini-site with 4 content pages (including the home page), and the standard contact, about, and privacy pages. I did on-page optimization and typical indexing and rss feed submissions. I built no backlinks, and i did not bookmark the articles or submit them anywhere.
I checked the SERPs for the first 3-4 weeks, but my pages seemed to have settled in 2-3 pages back, and I stopped checking. I just went to the site now and then to update plugins and delete spam. Two days ago I went to do some quick maintenance on it and saw pending comments, and went to delete the spam. To my surprise there were a bunch of real comments from actual visitors, which I approved and responded to (always respond). I then went to check the SERPs for the first time in a couple of months.
I had targeted the home page for the long-tailed phrase of "What is "item name"" Since it was a popularly searched question and since it also contains the item name, that usually takes care of itself. Doing it that way I kill two birds with one stone. I was ranked #1 for my targeted phrase, and #2 under Wikipedia for the item name by itself . One of my other pages was at #5 for its targeted phrase and the third is at #12 for its targeted keyword. The 4th page did not target anything. It was just a question that I thought some people may have, and just provided it to improve the visitor's experience.
Unfortunately, I did not have analytics running on the site, because I wasn't going to spend much effort on it and I don't like to clutter up my dashboard, so I can't tell you exactly when the jump happened. I think the important thing to take away from it is that it did happen. In the last two days though, I have had nearly 70 unique visitors, so that would be over 1000/month if it is consitent. Imagine what it would be like if I had actually run it through all of Andrews process and put effort into it.
I'm giving this example because it was based on only a fraction of what Andrew has you doing, and it did well, despite my lack of attention. You can do this. Do not get frustrated. It may take a little time, and you may have to tweak your methods along the way, but just keep plugging along.
Sorry for the extremely long post. I tend to do that, don't I?
It's funny that RanD mentions this personal experience, because I was just over at one of my partner's (also my closest friend) place today just chilling over a BBQ and, as always seems to happen. we got to discussing our active projects.
I reflected on the exact same experience as RanD - we have are some sites which, albeit "thin" in therms of content and even in terms of our SEO efforts, just do well all on their own with little help from us. Perhaps the content is good enough to rank the way they do, or the handful of links we built were enough to put them over the edge... The truth is I (we) don't really know, but it happens, and it happens quite often. Conversely the opposite also happens, where you struggle to get a site to rank.
And, once again, in this is the secret to success: VOLUME AND DIVERSITY. Keep your work as high quality as you can manage and focus on building at first. Build, build, build. Build sites, and build high quality links (if you're doing it manually). Don't even look at your traffic analytics in the first month, unless you can handle the often dismal numbers!
My partners and I know that we can only really start measuring every project we set out to do in its 2nd-3rd month, on average. You need to keep moving forward and not looking over your shoulder all the time .
So no, keeping it "ethical" is not enough, because ethically building a website and ethically finding a great product to promote (ethically) with ethically-built links (is there such a thing really?) is not going to make you rich. HOWEVER, keeping a certain quality standard throughout your work and repeating your process over and over again is destined for success.
Be prepared for total and complete fails - they happen, and at first probably more than your successes. BE GRATEFUL that you fail at first because you learn from them every time, and you can only get better from the experience. Likewise, if you persevere, be prepared for raging, unbelievable successes that you would never have imagined you were capable of.
Like Nahaa said, she's got her 5 sites up and they're starting to see traffic. Great! If those 5 are showing enough traffic to analyse or a big enough market to expand on, then you're all set. If not, I'd recommend you build a few more site.
You're just not there yet, Mary. My advice to you is to focus on getting all 5 sites up and forget everything else right now. Then look at the big picture and decide your next move from there.
My question is what's the long-term viability of this model? Will these 5 page mini-sites continue to rank well for the next 3 to 5 years? If this model has a very short lifespan, like 6 to 12 months, is it really worth it to invest a lot of time and effort into this? Are we focusing on a model that will be dead within a year or two? How can we be certain that this is even worth it?
My question is what's the long-term viability of this model? Will these 5 page mini-sites continue to rank well for the next 3 to 5 years? If this model has a very short lifespan, like 6 to 12 months, is it really worth it to invest a lot of time and effort into this? Are we focusing on a model that will be dead within a year or two? How can we be certain that this is even worth it?
The program is not just about mini-sites, it is also about authority sites. He even says that mini-sites are a short term investment, while authority sites are your long-term investments. That is not to say that a mini site will not be viable for years. It depends on the niche.
Originally Posted by maryannelewis
I would like some insight from some of you "old-timers" -- RanD and Ruggero and whoever else has been doing this for a while. What did you discover that was particularly new and useful? Is it ethical to discuss something like that in a thread like this?
I've had only a little experience in the last few years, but if I had to summarize Andrew's course in one sentence it would be something like "Everything you do, do ethically," which of course, is pretty much in opposition to what a lot of IM'ers were doing. Is this really enough?
I built my first site earlier this month and am working on my second, and for the first time on Friday, I had no traffic to my site. I guess this happens from time to time. But I am interested in generating as much traffic as possible and of course, conversions. I realize I will have to wait until making it onto the first page of Google until I see any real results, but I just thought I would ask since there has been so much discussion.
MAL
It's typically frowned upon to talk about anything that is unique to the product/training, but the general concepts are fair game.
Is being ethical really enough? No. You also have to put in the work.
The key to long term success is to think of your visitors first. Provide them with what they are looking for. Put yourself in their place and ask yourself if what you are providing on your site would be valuable to you if you were looking for that information/product. By putting your visitors first, you will benefit yourself in the long run.
The core concepts of Andrews course are solid, and what you need to be doing. The people that were affected the least by Panda and Penguin, were the ones that were good quality and more natural SEO methods. That is why Andrew is stressing that.
While this method is designed to build up slowly, the key is that you are constantly building.
It's hard to say what is going on with your site without knowing the details (don't post them here). I know that I keep saying it, but it is still fairly early, and Google does things in its own time. Make sure to go through you analytics. and check everything. That will be your new best friend.
Btw the way, it might be that the initial traffic spike that you saw came from your backlinking rather than through search. That is fairly normal to see. Look at the traffic sources in analytics and see where your traffic was coming from.
Congratulations to Nahaa for getting five sites up relatively quickly. I am posting here and in the Facebook group in order to solicit insight from those of you have more experience than me. There are a greater number of experienced people in this forum than the Facebook group, which is the reason I post here. Thanks to those of you who responded. It all boils down to hard work, of course. I do think some need a little more convincing than others. Some of us are writing our own articles, which takes a little longer.
Keith
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Sincerely,
Zack Sprague
Just trying to wade through the Internet Marketing hype, find the good stuff and keep it simple - with the Internet Marketing Bootcamp
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Just trying to wade through the Internet Marketing hype, find the good stuff and keep it simple - with the Internet Marketing Bootcamp
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Just trying to wade through the Internet Marketing hype, find the good stuff and keep it simple - with the Internet Marketing Bootcamp
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Making $15k/Month with Amazon Affiliate Sites. Follow along or start your own escape: http://cubiclehoudini.com
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Zack Sprague
SEO Services Sussex
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Zack Sprague
Roses are planted where thorns grow,
And on the barren heath
Sing the honey bees.
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