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Because
there's so many elements to this membership, I'll break down the core
elements of what you're buying into and I'll tell you if it works or
not, based on experience and usage. First we'll look at the actual
business in a box (which is the core of the package) and then we'll
look at some of the numerous extras that you get once inside...
Lead
generation free report
Ok,
this is like a mini version of the main eBook you are given to sell. It
looks great in terms of the design and layout and the info inside is
pretty useful. I would personally add my own style and extra content,
but I don't think you would need to in most cases.
Professional
squeeze page to capture leads + Professionally designed opt in form
I've
spent weeks on trying to create simple pages that entice people to sign
up to my newsletter in exchange for the free report. It can be really
hit and miss and unless you're a good designer with strong copywriting
skills, this is a welcome relief. The squeeze pages work, because they
are based on tested psychological copywriting and layouts. I sent some
traffic to my first squeeze page and got subscribers coming in right
from the start (we'll cover the traffic stuff in a bit).
11
Alternative squeeze pages to make your site unique
Hmm,
these aren't so great. The main squeeze page looks classy and
professional, but some of these alternatives look and feel a little
more rushed, at least for this month's package. But to be honest, I
haven't tested them all yet, so it would be unwise to say that they
don't or won't work with just the same effect as the original one I was
using.
A
follow up autoresponder sequence
Obviously
there's no point in getting people to subscribe to your newsletter if
you don't have anything to say to them. Whilst I prefer to write my own
emails (and I think you should try to do the same asap) I do think
these are a good base to start from. If you can't write emails to save
your life, this is a real help as they do a great job of preselling
your main eBook...
Main
full eBook inc full sales page & thank you page
I have
to say, in comparison to some of the alternative "niche marketing
memberships" where you get a prewritten eBook to call as your own, this
is one of the best quality I've seen.
Now, I
am not going to get too excited, as I feel that some parts could use a
little more content and work to really make it shine, but I can't
imagine people buying this eBook and saying "hey, that was rubbish and
not worth the money"...because it does a great job of covering the hot
topics in that niche.
Clearly,
some time and research has gone into this part of the package which is
obviously important as this is what is going to make you the biggest
amount of money.
Full set of
website and product graphics
There's
no doubt that the graphics are extremely professional and you can see
from the sales page what sort of quality you'll be getting. The
graphics seem to add that level of professionalism that help to build
trust with your audience and ultimately sell your product. I can't find
a single fault here, apart from some of the squeeze pages designs as I
previously mentioned.
2
Professional videos, (1 for the squeeze page, 1 for the sales page)
Not
amazing in terms of production, but still a cool feature to have on
your sales and squeeze pages to act as a was to entertain people and
also make a good sales point. I am not sure how well these really work
or if they actually make that much of a difference, and you'll have to
test them really. Personally, I decided to leave these off my sales and
squeeze pages and just save them for posting up at Youtube for some
extra traffic from there.
15
websites each with 20 private label articles + optimized for 400
keywords & Professional blog theme
The
starting block of getting free traffic is building a good, content rich
website that is targeted to your niche topic. This can take a long time
for many of us, especially those of us who hate the technical side of
things or get stuck with writing articles around our topics. The
websites provided are surprisingly professional and modern looking.
They
have a really clean look and feel to them and the content is pretty
decent. The content is not exactly award winning or inspiring, but it's
enough to start getting found in the search engines and certainly good
enough to send interested people to, in order to build trust and show
that you are credible in your market.
The
downside here is that if you really want to get this content based
website working for you, you will definitely need to rewrite the
articles and try to make the website look a little more unique.
Whilst
this is relatively easy when you've got a great base like this to work
off, I do feel that this might still be a problem for some people
(particularly those who can't outsource the work either), so that's
something to think about.
Finally,
the blog theme is very slick looking and for me personally, saves a lot
of time scouring through all those free themes online and trying to
integrate it properly on my site.
52 Blog
posts ready to publish
One
thing is for sure, blogging is a great way to get a ton of free traffic
and that's what people will tell you all day long. However, what they
fail to tell you is that in order to get all this free traffic you will
need to post a lot of blog posts in the first place. Traffic doesn't
magnetize to a blog that doesn't have anything to read. That's why I
think this is another great touch in the monthly package.
What I
have decided to do, is post a new blog post every week for a year (you
can also get software to have this done automatically for you for free
too!). That way, I have a continually updating and fresh blog that will
bring in tons of traffic on autopilot over time. Don't be fooled
though, having content is not the only factor in getting traffic, so
don't get too excited.
10
Solo ads for instant promotion
Ok,
it's been a few days since I joined up and so far I've got a website
with content, a blog with continual content added each week for the
next year, a squeeze page that attracts newsletter subscribers with
automatic responses being sent out to them to promote my eBook...it's
already an autopilot machine, but traffic is still a problem. The 10
solo ads were the first thing to use to get traffic, but I haven't used
them yet so I can't comment on how effective they are. But there's more
traffic tools...
8
professionally designed flash banners
These
are VERY slick and I know that having these made for you from a
professional designer on eLance.com or similar freelance sites would
cosy way more than the entire cost of this membership site. That's
really not me trying to be hypey either...just go check out some of the
prices for flash banner designs on freelancing and web design sites,
you'll see for yourself.
Personally,
I didn't use these on any of my content pages, but instead ran them
through Google Adwords on the content network, so that they would show
up on other people's sites. Couple of them got some pretty decent
amount of clicks, so I can imagine that putting these on your content
pages will drive even more people to your opt in form for the free
report (and that's where they start to be sold so that's your
priority!).
Premade
list of free traffic sources (actual URLS of forums etc) to target
If
you're not prepared to spend money on advertising (and I don't blame
you, it can cost a fortune), then this is a cool resource. Basically,
this is a list of all the forums and websites related specifically to
your niche that you can go and join for free or register at and start
driving traffic back to your site.
The
only thing I think is missing with this is a little more advice on how
to actually entice the people back to your site, but still a great
resource to go find and hang out with the people who will be interested
in buying your stuff!
6
additional content components to keep visitors on your 15 websites for
longer and allow you to be found more easily in the search engines
This
is an area which is often overlooked: How to keep people on your
website once they actually get there! So many people focus on getting
the traffic to their websites, but it all seems like a waste of time if
they are just going to leave immediately. The best way to keep people
on your site is to provide entertaining and engaging content, which
these 6 components do.
Basically,
you get feeds from blogs, feeds from really popular videos, a selection
of audio podcasts, an eBay shop script which displays relevant listings
that your visitors will be interested in buying, a press release feed
and a day in history feature too.
Some
of this stuff is ok, but not exactly great. Some of it might end up
distracting your visitors away from ultimately what you're trying to do
(get them to buy your stuff!). So, use at your own discretion. I
personally felt this could be made better, and you might find that you
prefer to add your own cool stuff to your site yourself (just make sure
it's relevant and looks neat).
Specially
designed site structure and coding so that people don't leave your page
when clicking outbound links
I
found that the sites were designed in a way that means every time a
visitor clicks a link on your page, it opens up a new window. This is
pretty cool and something that I imagine many web designers/marketers
forget to take advantage of.
The
benefit is that people can click your "Money Links" and not be taken
away from your main sites. In other words, you can send them to useful
sites and even affiliate links and eBay listings etc, but because your
page is still left open underneath, there's an ever better chance that
they will continue to read your content and take action after they have
been to another site.
Not
exactly a groundbreaking technology or idea, but a nice little touch
for keeping more people on your site, without you having to fiddle
around with coding it yourself (if you even know how to!)
Preselected
affiliate programs that you can promote
Another
nice little touch here is the premade list of affiliate programs that
will fit in perfectly with your site. The list seems pretty well
researched and all of the ideas for things you can sell act as great
learning tool for people to see how to pick and monetize a website or
newsletter.
You
can basically use these product to promote to your list, or directly on
your content pages. would say that it still requires careful planning
and a little bit of practice to get this right when selling affiliate
products, and you'll still need to take the time to go and sign up to
the affiliate programs or affiliate networks that they are on, but this
is still a cool little time saver when trying to think up ideas of what
else you can sell inside your business in a box.
Full
training area
After
a week, I've now got a business machine that is well oiled and running.
It's not perfect and it needs to be looked after a little bit to make
sure everything runs smoothly, but at this point (and speaking from
experience), I know that if I had tried to get this far on my own
without paying for help or additional guides, I would have spent more
than 2 months getting this far, and to be honest there is no way I
could have created everything that I have got inside my new "niche in a
box". Heck, the eBook alone would have taken a month to research and
write.
Whilst
I have not made any money from the eBook yet (still building my
newsletter subscribers), I am starting to see a few affiliate
commissions coming through, including eBay. Whilst it's not life
changing just yet, one thing is for sure...the traffic coming to my
site is steadily rising and that ultimately means that more income is
on its' way.
But
what I appreciate after all of this, is that you're only half way
through getting the real value from this membership, with the training
portion being absolutely top notch.
There's
so much covered, and for someone like me who is not a big reader, I was
pleased to see that videos are included much of the time. I haven't
managed to get through all of the training and to be honest, some of it
is too basic for me...but there's plenty of golden nuggets that really
give you a few of those "aha" moments and can really help.
Ok,
that's about it for the main content...
There's
clearly a lot packed into this membership and without trying to sell
cheesy and like a typical affiliate trying to make a fast buck (which I
am not), this has to be one of the most comprehensive and value packed
memberships I have ever seen, certainly for the price. But even after
you've devoured all of the main goodies, there's a slew of additional
bonuses that really do raise the bar on giving value, such as...
Custom
installation service (warning, does cost extra)
If
you're really struggling to get your site live and still can't grasp
things after using their in-depth training, this is always an option.
Automatic
Installer (auto install software to get your websites online
automatically)
I used
this and it works really smoothly. Great for saving time and avoiding
those human errors!
Unlimited
Platinum Access to Ethiclinks.com
A cool
site that allows you to exchange links automatically with other
websites. Great for increasing your search engine rankings (links to
your site are what counts folks). I haven't had chance to use this free
bonus yet, but will soon.
Professional
Autoresponder Account
Great
if you can't afford one of the more common autoresponder services. I
personally use Aweber and they are great, but it's up to you. My
personal opinion is that it might be better to use a dedicated
autoresponder service that is dedicated to that specific job and that
job only.
Niches-In-A-Box
Members Only Forum
Forums
are cool for getting ideas and it seems that the folks are pretty
active in this forum, with quite an impressive amount of members.
Usually forums in paid membership sites are pretty low activity and
pointless, but this one seems to hold some promise. I never really use
forums that much, but they can be useful for really specific problems
and for getting fresh new ideas.
However,
what I loved about this forum is that this is where you can get
private, personal and one on one access with the owners...now THAT is
worth a lot more than the price of admission for sure.
Creative
Niche builder (builds those complicated PHP based websites for you!)
This
is a unique website builder that creates cool templates with a few
clicks of the mouse. Whilst not too flexible, it's still a great option
for banging out new designs without the fiddle and headaches that
usually come along with web page creation and it is a great deal
cheaper than buying Dreamweaver or Xsite Pro!
ShowClicks!
Real Time Adsense Tracking Script
A neat
piece of tracking software so that you can monitor your Adsense clicks.
I personally wasn't bothered about this, mainly because I am not using
Adsense.
Access to
TurboVideoTraining Videos (a Q&A style training club)
Pretty
self explanatory and another cool looking resource for getting your
questions answered and getting answers to some of the more frequent
questions.
Free
Upgraded lifetime access to VisualRanks.com
At
first, I didn't know what this was but soon found out that Visual Ranks
is a paid service that allows you to see how many links are pointing to
your site. This is a really useful service for improving your SEO
efforts as the more backlinks you have pointing to your site, the
higher you'll rank.
Use
this with Ethiclinks.com and you'll grow your rankings over time with
ease. I like the fact that everything is so hands free most of the
time, and along with this free access, you can really keep track of
what's going on with your site in the search engines, so that you know
what to work on and what is actually working well for you.
Access
to the VisitorSense Videos (Website traffic training)
These
are a set of videos which are pretty good, but not exactly mind blowing
or revolutionary. These would be more suited to people who are fairly
new to Adsense, but I'd say they are worth a look if Adsense is your
thing. For me, I am no longer interested in Adsense, but that doesn't
mean it can't make you a killing...and people really DO still make a
killing from Adsense.
Access
to The Template Club (get professional website templates created for
you!)
Pretty
cool membership thrown in for free, where you can grab something like
200 minisite templates ready to roll. I don't think I will ever get
around to taking advantage of this, but it's a nice addition to the
overall package, particularly if you can't design a webpage to save
your life.
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