I’ve had mixed feelings about it and have been lenient putting these principles into practice. You see, I am extremely cheap and don’t feel it necessary to promote 50 Internet marketing products, most of which end up being pure junk. It’s so easy to get distracted when you’re learning IM and if I’m one of the ones pushing a new product, for a while I felt very responsible if you decided to buy said product. It wasn’t until chatting with someone that I came across a revelation – I promote physical products all the time that I haven’t tried out or would not buy myself to a world that is already over saturated with stuff, and it never bothered me. This thought goes hand in hand with the quote I read recently “You are not your market”. While my opinions and experiences are valuable, I’m not selling to myself. So with this in mind, I jumped in on a number of product launches.

I do believe I’m going to make a rule for myself, however, that I will not promote anything unless I see a review copy (even if it’s a draft). During launches, more often than not individuals are bonus shopping, but as time goes on, they really want an honest review of the product. I really hate all the hype involved in launches – canned emails and “fake” review sites that sit more like advertisements. However, this stuff has known to convert so I decided to try some of it myself.

I built a review site on the product Content Lockdown by Jared Croslow. I was able to get a review copy and saw that it was actually a pretty good course. I got my site to rank #1 for “Content Lockdown” and “Content Lockdown Bonus” as well as #3 for “Content Lockdown Review”. I tweaked my site for conversions the way all the “experts” said to and waiting. One sale.

Now granted, one sale for some people would be amazing, but it was far below my expectations. I also learned that this particular launch did not do extremely well, so I chalked it up to bad luck. The thing is, I kept getting traffic – not much, but some. I began to get really frustrated.

At this point I decide to stop being an idiot and going back to “my style”. As I’m sure you can tell, I don’t write like an expert marketer, but instead a real person. She may not be a millionaire, but time and time again I look back to Tiffany Dow and how she markets. I don’t need to focus on the same things she does to understand the value of how she communicates to her readers and customers alike. So I did some more tweaking on my review site.

Rather than try to sell my bonus, I actually wrote in depth about what the course contains, why I like it, and revealed whether or not the upsell is actually worth it’s cost. I was honest, not flashy, and while I am offering a bonus, I made the point of the site to be a real review, not a “bridge” page. (A bridge page is a term Google uses for affiliate websites that are built with the sole purpose of redirecting traffic to a vendor and offer no real content).

The results of my “soft sell” approach? In 2 hours I had one unique visitor and one sale to show for it. 100% conversion rate – you can’t beat that.

I’m going to chalk this whole thing off as a new learning experience – launch jacking is fine and well if you continue to offer value with your sites. I can keep the keys to good conversion in mind when building my site, but I must always remind myself to assess if my site is made up of bridge pages or if it’s truly valuable. These sound like simple statements, but I think taking them in and making them your focus will bring much greater success to all of us.

Technorati Tags: Case Study, Content Lockdown, Conversion, Internet Marketing Info, Internet Marketing Tips, Launch Jacking, Mike Long, Product Reviews

Here is the plain and simple truth – Bring the Fresh works. It absolutely, no doubt works and I earnestly believe every person serious about marketing online needs it (well, maybe not. If everyone had it, then everyone would know “my secret”).

Before getting to all the good (I don’t want to sound like a complete shill here), let me point out some of the bad. One, and this was to be expected, Kelly and Mike are getting a bit slower with their support. Note, I said “slower” – they still respond to everything, provide great advice, and are more than willing to help everyone out the best they can. I had a couple of messages that took a few days to get answered, but still, they WERE answered personally, which can not be said of many (if any) guys in their position. I will also admit, I’m not the pushy type and while I do have their personal Skype and cellphone numbers, I’m holding back on using them unless I have something tremendously important to ask.

Another downfall – the course is most effect if you spend a little money. This may not be a big deal for some, but it is for others. I will admit- I’m one of the cheapest people on the planet. That being said, you can get very good results by using “half” the program to save on costs, and then once you’re making income, you can reinvest in the other things they suggest. I’m still not too keen on one of their suggested tools, I prefer a free method, but overall it’s the diversity in their simple-yet-effective SEO plan that makes it work. As for actual costs, I try to do 2-3 sites at a time. Not including hosting (which I pay $10 a month for with Hostgator), it averages out to be about $20 or so to launch a site effectively. Can that add up? Yes, but when you follow the program, you WILL make it back.

One of my biggest struggles overall was with over complicating things. I think sometimes when you’ve read other courses or have heard so much “junk” on SEO or marketing, it’s hard to get those ideas out of your head. But basically, do what they say and you will have success.

Ok, as for results… I’ve been doing a bit of launch jacking, which can apply to both digital products and physical ones.
Site #1 – Ranking #4 for primary keyword and Top 10 for numerous other keywords with ONE POST
Site #2 – Ranking #11 for primary keyword out of over 1,000,000 competing sites with 2 POSTS
Site #3 – Ranking #1, #2, #3, and #4 for primary keyword
Site #4 – Ranking #2 and #3 for primary keyword, #15 for misspelled primary keyword
Site #5 – Ranking #3, #5, and #7 for variations of a product name
Site #6 – Ranking #11 for primary keyword

I don’t believe there’s a single site out there that I followed the complete BTF protocol on for cost-saving reasons, yet I’m still ranking well. I can not recommend this course enough. If you have any other comments, questions, or concerns about the course, feel free to shoot me a message!

Check out Bring the Fresh for yourself!

Technorati Tags: Bring the Fresh, Bring the Fresh Case Study, Bring the Fresh Results, Bring the Fresh Review, BTF, Kelly Felix, Mike Long

I have been, for the past year, on the never ending quest of finding the “perfect” wordpress theme. I can read enough CSS, PHP, and HTML to tweak some layouts, but I am far from an expert and when it comes to how I site looks, I have to rely heavily on the presets of any given theme. I’ve been toying around with a few premium themes, and I’m really in love with StudioPress.

StudioPress is based off of the Genesis Framework, which is basically a simple, streamlined theme with multiple widgets and options. On top of the Genesis Framework, you have your choice of Child Themes, which determine the overall style of your blog. The key thing about StudioPress is their flexibility – there are numerous options as to how to layout your site and changes be made in a matter of minutes. However, I’ve discovered a second added bonus to StudioPress.

I have been working on a niche site of mine, Airbrush Makeup Reviews, and was initially using a simple, free theme. For whatever reason, I could not get the site ranked very high (it stayed put around the mid 30s). I switched over to StudioPress after a recommendation of a friend and almost overnight jumped to 11, which is where I am sitting as of the time I write this post. How could a simple theme make such a difference with a site’s SEO? Well StudioPress’s Genesis Framework has built in SEO options for both the homepage and each individual page/post. When switching themes, I turned off my SEO Plugin and used the Genesis options. The framework of the site is also so clean, it makes any content a lot more Google friendly.

As for the options of the themes and how to set up a site, I will admit, it takes some time getting used to. There are a number of different widgets, each with a host of settings, and choosing what you want at first can be daunting. However, after playing around with functions on one site for a couple of hours, I can now set up a new site any way I want in about 5 – 10 minutes. I also love the option that as I grow my site, the same them can easily transform from a simple blog to an impressive looking magazine-style authority site.

Price wise, StudioPress is very reasonable compared to many of the other companies out there. Once you purchase the Genesis framework, each additional Child theme is greatly discounted, or you can do what I’m planning to and picking up the Pro Pack with all the child themes included.

And I almost forgot to mention support! There’s a ton of it, with a dedicated forum of experts ready to help you out. As a random note: I find the forums a bit intimidating, particularly if you don’t know code very well. Read other posts and search for your topic before asking a question, and make sure to check out the awesome tutorials provided. You can also email me any questions you may have and I’ll try to help, but I would leave actually asking a question on the forum to be a last ditch effort.

You can check out StudioPress themes (as well as all the demos of their child themes) here.

Technorati Tags: Genesis Framework, Genesis Theme, Premium WordPress Themes, Studio Press, StudioPress, WordPress Themes

Content Lockdown is a CPA marketing plan for both beginner and intermediate marketers. It’s unique in that it approaches CPA offers in a different manner than most, and then markets those offers using SEO (which is relatively untapped as most major CPA players stick to PPC). The course itself is detailed and well laid out and features many great concepts that will carry over to affiliate marketing and other methods of online promotion.

Some of the highlights include an in depth look on demographics, studying what makes your customer want to listen to you and then act on your recommendation. Things like why most marketers fail are also discussed, putting you in the right mindset for success right off the bat. Also, the SEO plan used is highly effective. It is very similar to the strategy I use on my own sites, and while simple, it is very effective. There is also a huge section dedicated to outsourcing. I love this as it provides the logical next step to your business, as outsourcing and scaling the number of your sites is what brings true success in many cases. I’ve seen $2,000 courses dedicate specifically to outsourcing that are not this thorough.

Price wise, this course is set apart for more of a serious-beginner to those already making some money as an intermediate marketer. It’s a worthwhile investment, but a bit more expensive than the courses I usually promote.

How is it compared to Bring the Fresh (which I still think is the best internet marketing course out there)? Content Lockdown is more of a “system” – a specific strategy to follow, aka more hand holding. Bring the Fresh causes you to think more with principles that apply to more situations – I view it as a SEO course/Business Building Course rather than a direct “Do this. Market this. Build it this way.” kind of program. I still believe at some point in time anyone serious about marketing should purchase Bring the Fresh, but Content Lockdown may be a better alternative to get you started if you need more step-by-step guidelines.

To purchase Content Lockdown and learn of my awesome Content Lockdown Bonus, visit my review site at http://contentlockdown.net.

Technorati Tags: Bring the Fresh, BTF, Content Lockdown, Content Lockdown Bonus, Content Lockdown Review, CPA Marketing, Jared Croslow, Product Launches

In 2011, Is It Worth Your Money.com will be strictly a product review site. My new rule is not to review anything I haven’t tried (ala the Tiffany Dow method), though I may mention a product that is receiving good reviews to get your opinion on it. As I don’t buy too many internet marketing courses anymore (after Bring the Fresh, there isn’t too much need for anything else), I will spend some time reviewing everything I use for my online business. This includes services like MailChimp and Aweber, Hostgator, Go Daddy, Theme Forest, etc.

If you want to learn business building tips and my thoughts on internet marketing and home based businesses in general, I will be resurrecting an old domain of mine, Home Based Income.org, to talk about such things. I will also maintain a personal blog at Ami McCain.com, which focuses more on my life and my opinions and less business orientated.

Keep up with three blogs will be quite a challenge, and I’m still unsure of what the financial ramifications of these sites will be (if anything). I’m polishing up the rest of my business goals for 2011, but those will be posted over on Home Based Income.

In the meantime, are there any specific products of services you would like me to review? What have you been wanting to invest in but are not sure you want to spend the money?

Technorati Tags: 2011, Ami McCain, Home Based Income, Internet Markting Product Reviews

Craig Kaye, the creator of Info Product Killer, was a bit of an underground name when is course first game out. He was known to offer great support, always responded to my emails personally, and didn’t overuse his list (I only remember him promoting two products in a 7 month period). That was before. I read somewhere that he may have been mentored by a particular guru, and that would make sense because his whole business model changed. For one, he “re-launched” Info Product Killer as IPK 2010. Ok, and update is nice, but now there’s all this hype and a LOT of false scarcity was created. I’m sorry – don’t say the price is going to change in X amount of time to get people to buy now, but never actually make the change. There was talk that the course would become a membership site, which is pretty ridiculous because it’s a COURSE – the monthly extras he’s spoken about adding would not make the course a valuable monthly investment. However, what’s worse is that he’s spamming his list like mad. If I purchase a product, I like to stay on the list in case there are product updates. However, multiple times a day I was getting emails over some out-dated info product, and usually with cut-and-paste pre-launch hype emails (which are a huge pet peeve of me). Needless to say I unsubscribed.

As for the course, it’s solid and a great intro to marketing and it does work. That being said, it has some major flaws. The premise of Info Product Killer is to build a number of small sites targeting particular physical products. These sites are built to be stand-alone sites, as in not with WordPress. You can use WordPress if you like, but there is a template given in IPK that is supposed to increase your conversion and your SEO, and I have noticed that the principles of IPK when applied to WordPress don’t really work.

My major complaints?

• The sites take forever to build. You can either use and HTML template or his dinosaur of a program, Network Blazer. I tried Network Blazer – it was ridiculous, makes your site look like it was built in the 90s, and is super inflexible. I understand HTML pretty well and use Dreamweaver (a mega-expensive web editor by Adobe that has a steep learning curve), but it still literally took me 8 days to build my one site. I updated it from Christmas to birthday a few months ago, and simply changing out dates, photos, and links still took 7 hours. I’m sorry, but if you want me to produce a number of these sites to be profitable, they need to take less than a week to build.
• The SEO principles of IPK only seem to work when you use the exact formula and layout presented in IPK. Changing anything in the layout or not preforming the exact linking strategy keeps your sites lost in the maze of Google.

What I like about it?

• Well, simply, it works. You have to follow the formula to the T, but when you do, you’ll have success.

• It doesn’t really require a huge backlinking campaign. Backlinks help, but are not required if your competition is weak enough. This does save a little time.
• It targets physical products. This is a huge thing for me. While info products offer higher commissions, unless your read the eBook or try the product yourself, you really have no idea what you are promoting. I personally believe that physical products as a whole can offer better conversion rates because in many cases, these things are going to be bought no matter what and your visitor is simply looking to be directed to where they can make their purchase.

Final verdict? The course works and the course is good, but I have a better option available. If you visit the Warrior Forum at all, you may have heard of Dan Block. He created a WSO offer not too long ago about promoting Amazon products and the thing ROCKED. He’s transitioning it into a full-blown, kick butt internet marketing course called Profitzon Plus. Profitzon Plus will be released in early November, but I managed to get a review copy of in order to give you an real, honest review. Profitzon Plus as well as Bring the Fresh are now tied as the BEST internet marketing courses ever (well, at least in my opinion). I got to skim through Profitzon Plus and it’s phenomenal. I’m going to do a full review and case study, but you can go ahead and bookmark my Profitzon Plus Bonus site, which it will be live in a few days. If you are new to internet marketing or are really struggling to find success, Profitzon Plus is the best newbie course I’ve found to date (even more so that Bring the Fresh). I can’t wait to review it for you – stay tuned!!!!

The linking strategy presented in IPK is UGLY, and I’m sure it doesn’t convert well. I can’t go into major depth, but there are a lot of internal and external links on all your pages, as well as using your bold tags and your header (<h1>, <h2>, etc) tags. If you don’t have a VERY prominent call to action, your site will never convert because it’s just too loud to look at. It often also requires your visitor to click on more than one link to get to the desired page/location, which seriously reduces your conversion rate.

Technorati Tags: Bring the Fresh, Craig Kaye, Info Product Killer, Info Product Killer review, IPK, IPK 2010, Profitzon Plus, Profitzon Plus Bonus

I tend to promote physical products more than digital and I love seasonal niches. With this in mind, I’ve launched 20 Halloween-related sites and intend to take 10 others live this month. One of the best features of Bring the Fresh is that you can have relatively small sites ranking quickly, a process that allows me to launch more sites in less time. As of this morning, here are my results:

Out of 20 sites, I have 15 in the top 20 of Google with 8 rankings on page 1. While everyone seems to focus on Google rankings, let’s not forget that Yahoo still receives millions of searches daily. This is great, as Yahoo is where my rankings are really shining. All 20 sites can be found in the top 20 results, with 16 on page 1 including 6 number one results.

The income from these sites is still lower than I’d like, but with them centering around a seasonal niche, I don’t expect to see results for another month or so. However, I’ve already started making sales, and as I finish adding content and start link building, my rankings will only climb allowing for more sales to be possible. I’m estimating about 20-30% of my main sales in September and the other  70-80% coming in October. A previous site of mine launched late in the Christmas season last year made about $200 in December. Using that as a marker, my goal is $5,000 by the end of October for these mini sites.

In the world of internet marketing, $5,000 for a two month period is not all that impressive. However, I’m only still examining these concepts, and once these techniques are proven to convert, they can be applied to other markets. I know I’m “missing the boat” in some aspects to not be targeting more digital products. A low commission from Clickbank can be as little as $14 while product launch items can easily top $100s in commissions per sale. The average commission from one sale on my Halloween sites is $5-7. Why do I target such low commission items? Volume of sales easily make up for the low commission cost. I also find it a lot easier to produce content when I know and like the product I’m promoting, and I enjoy writing about costumes, toys, gifts, etc. Once I implement my outsourcing platform, I’ll be able to target niches with offers that produce higher commissions.

Technorati Tags: Bring the Fresh, Bring the Fresh Case Study, Bring the Fresh Results, Bring the Fresh Review, BTF, Info Product Killer, Info Product Killer review, IPK

I believe a lot it tools. Once you for sure know what you’re doing, you don’t need any more ebooks or info product courses until you want to target a new area of IM. I have Bring the Fresh – I know without a doubt what I’m doing and if I ever have any more questions, the forum there is great. However, I have also learned from BTF that tools can really make and impact on your success or lack there of. Never invest in a tool unless it saves you time! There are many aspects to building websites, blogging, etc and a good tool or two can save you tons of time, and even offer you options you may not have otherwise. But stop getting caught up in the “Shiny New Object syndrome”. You want to make money, not loose all your money, right?

In Bring the Fresh, there is a specific list of tools they use and I’ve tried almost all of them. However, I’m not totally crazy about every single one (though it may be too soon to tell). So, I’m interested in alternatives. That’s where Rank Builder comes in.

The only reason I paid any attention to Rank Builder was Alex Goad’s name is attached to it. I don’t get regular mailers from him, so I can’t qualify him as a great or scummy marketer per sey, but I’ve experienced one of his courses. A couple years back, he created Google Conquest, which was also worked on the by the know somewhat infamous Brian Johnson. Plain and simple, the course was very good. It was great for beginners and I accredit it to really teaching me about wordpress and marketing in general. I personally found some of the SEO tatics lacking and it’s missing some business knowledge (hence my BTF love), but it was not a scam course.

Rank Builder is going to be along the lines of an EVO II, as it will easily and naturally create social bookmarking links, RSS submissions, and more. I currently have a handful of backlink building methods, but I need/want to diversify a bit. I’m building a review site over at Rank Builder Bonus which will detail the product a bit more as I learn more about it, but it’s something I’m seriously considering to invest in myself, which is why it felt appropriate to mention here. Note: I have no idea of the cost yet. That scares me a bit. I know comparable tools have gone for $200-$300 dollars, but it’s also possible this could be an affordable monthly fee. We’ll just have to wait and see.

What do you use for backlinking? Do you create links manually, or do you use anything automated? Do you ever do any article marketing, and if so, do you submit them automatically to blogs or manually to directories? Let’s share ideas!

Technorati Tags: Alex Goad, Backlinks, Google Conquest, internet marketing tools, Launch Jacking, Rank Builder, Rank Builder Bonus

Lisa Parmley (yes, the same one mentioned below), just wrote a free report on her blog about why most people fail at making money online. It’s without one of the best reports I’ve found in a while – she simply and easily clarifies the internet marketing community and provides information that literally took me 10 months to learn. Plus, it’s free.

No hype. Just read and think. I’ll be discussing it a bit more over at my personal blog, Ami McCain.com

Technorati Tags: Ami McCain.com, free report, Lisa Parmley

I’ve been following Andrew Hansen for awhile. He doesn’t mail that much and provides good content when he does. I will admit, I was disappointed with his Plug and Play Niche cash system, but I still trust what he says and he has some great viral guides that provide a lot of content.

Today he mailed regarding a new post on his blog. He has just recently visited an internet marketing conference in NYC and was pretty shocked by what he read. You can read about his experiences here. Unfortunately, I’m not all that surprised by all the scummy people out there, and IM has more than there fair share. With the lifestyle perks that IM offers (primarily finances and freedom), immorality is going to run high. However, I’m not going to go on a rant on everything that’s wrong. Instead, I want to share my own list of people worth listening too and how I intend to be different from the guys mentioned in Andrew’s post.

Top on my list of people I listen too is Tiffany Dow. I don’t prescribe to all of her marketing methods. For one, she’s big on Squidoo. I’m not as much of a fan, though I do see some value in it. She has had a very positive experience with Info Product Killer, as I have as well. However, she loves the Network Blazer system recommended with it – I can’t stand it! It’s incredibly dated and inflexible, and a bit costly if you ask me. However, Tiffany’s not a huge wordpress person, which I am, so NB is a quick and easy way to get up sites on her own domains and frees her a bit from web 2.0. If that is what works for her, go for it, but I personally would recommend staying away from it at all costs.

What I love about Tiffany is that she is not only forth right with her projects and earnings, she will only recommend products she’s personally tried. It sounds a little crazy, but that is so rare it’s not even funny. She genuinely wants to help others and is great about email. Her list and her RSS feed are permanently on my subscribe list.

Lisa Parmley knows her stuff. She is a bit of an underground SEO guru and her free content is outstanding. I’m not crazy about her as a marketer, as she once chided me a bit for sending her an email asking a simple question and while I understand she’s put a ton of value into her InlineSEO course, it’s not cheap and she’s looking to double to price or more – I’m not to keen on courses that cost a ton, no matter what the perceived value is. However, subscribe to her list and while she doesn’t update it all the time, her blog is great too. She’s been putting out some great free reports lately called the Truth Files – a honest retelling of what it takes to gain truly passive income.

Aidan Booth, Josh Spaulding, Pat Flynn, Travis Sago, and the phenomenal ViperChill make up the rest of my RSS feed. Why do I like any of these people? They provide content. I’m not a huge fan of forums, but I loving checking in on a blog or two. They may promote a product or two, but they’re slime-ally promoting every launch that comes their way.

Which makes me question myself a bit. I’ve tried two product launches and they’ve both been busts. This first one I was a slimeball – I did solely for the commission’s sake. Turns out this marketer was known for crappy, under-producing courses and I was very glad not a single person paid the $997 price tag, as I would have felt guilty afterwords. The second one was half hearted and half forgotten – I ran a quick PPC campaign (and I HATE PPC) and got a few hits, but no sales. The course sold out and I haven’t heard any complaints (truthfully, I wanted it myself), but it was still way over priced.

Bring the Fresh, which you know by now I love, teaches a lot about “launch jacking”. I can’t lie – internet marketing is an extremely profitable niche and there is good money to be made with launches. However… I’m very iffy about what I want to promote this was, if anything.

That being said, on September 7th (about a week and a half away), Alex Goad is launching Rank Builder, which I decided to promote. Why am I promoting something I haven’t personally tried? Check in tomorrow and I’ll explain why.

Technorati Tags: Aidan Booth, Andrew Hansen, Bring the Fresh, Josh Spaulding, Lisa Parmley, Pat Flynn, Product Launches, Rank Builder, Tiffany Dow, Travis Sago, Viper Chill

You don’t need any previous experience, technical knowledge, have English as your first language, or spend tons of money overhead and countless hours behind a computer screen to be successful. With the internet, you can create your own business from your home, no matter where in the world that home is. What you DO need, however, is the proper training. You could waste thousands of dollars on services or advertising and spend months and months with no results unless you understand the basics and have a system in place. Finding the honest, truthful, and effective training can become a bit of a maze, however.

I wanted to build a site to cut through some of the hype. It took me months to get started because this first product I purchased was filled with false information and unrealistic goals. If I didn’t see the finish line way off in the distance, it would have been very easy to give up. I want to save more individuals the time and money I wasted because everyone has the right to have a successful life.

I have two products I recommend above all else and either one would be a great way to start your business (you only need one). They are Info Product Killer and Bring the Fresh. Below you can see my Bring the Fresh review and I’ll soon be updating this site with my Info Product Killer review. This is not “product launch hype” – these are systems I have bought, used, and have found success with myself.

Once you have solid training behind you, you will want to invest in one or two tools to assist you with your business. I won’t go into recommendations here as both programs use different tools and I don’t want you to think you have to spend a ton of money up front.

So really, that’s all there is to it. Follow Info Product Killer or Bring the Fresh word-by-word and there is no way you can not succeed. As Kelly Felix says, ignore most of what you hear. Every time a new product is launched, you’ll hear a lot of comments, so called “honest” reviews, and offers of thousands of dollars worth of bonuses. Don’t waste your time! Product launches primarily exists to make affiliates and product owners some quick cash – very rarely are individuals promoting something they actually believe in, or have even tried, let alone trying to recommend something of true value. Don’t fall for the hype like I did!

Technorati Tags: Bring the Fresh, Bring the Fresh Review, BTF, Info Product Killer, Info Product Killer review, Internet Marketing Info, Internet Marketing Tips, IPK, IPK 2010, Kelly Felix, Product Launches

At this point, I still have not gone through the the Bring the Fresh core videos, however I watched a number of them today. Even though you can do just fine with the hotsheet guide, the videos give a number of golden nuggets of information. Mike Long’s “One Article to Rule Them All” video series is FANTASTIC! Seriously, it in itself could practically stand alone as a course. I’ve heard so much about article marketing but no one really teaches HOW to do it, only the why. Copywriting is so important and Mike literally allows you to look over his shoulder as he researches, writes, and spins a great article in a non-IM niche. I know I will watch this video over again.

I’m finally getting to some of the conversation videos, which seem packed with good insight as well. If you’re looking for lightening fast results, the Fast Start guide will get you there, but if you’re looking to build a business instead of a hobby, make sure you watch all the videos. I’m growing more and more impressed with this course by the day and really give it my highest recommendation over any product I’ve ever tried.

In my Bring the Fresh case studies, I’ve been watching my rankings do a little bit of a Google dance. I’m not too concerned, they said to expect this. I launched another new site focusing on a two-word keyword word phrase with over 40,000 searches. I’m number 9 in Google and number 1 on Yahoo with only two small posts. That being said, I’m not getting the rankings I really want so I decided to investigate why.

While the Hot Sheets teach you onpage SEO techniques, there is a method for off-page SEO as well. For that, I’ve been using Steve Clayton and Tim Godfrey’s SEO Blueprint. Here’s what sold me on that suite:

• Three separate ways to get links, which make my linking pattern look more natural
• All blogs and article posts went to sites with homepages of a PR3-5
• All blogs went to sites that were retired after 300 posts, making the links look less like spam and more valuable.

Since purchasing the suite (which contains Blog Blueprint, Article Blueprint, and Link Blueprint) about 3 weeks ago, I’ve sent out 2 major articles an 4 blog posts. All have been accepted, the blog posts each posting once to individual blogs and the articles to over 400 directories. Well, sort of.

Problem 1 – For various reasons, the articles are now only posting to the private network run by Steve and Tim. I was under the impression that these would go to actual directories, and niche related directories. If that was, it is no more.

Problem 2 – Because both the article and blog networks are private, they do not give you a list of the URLs where you content is posted. While I can understand their reasoning and I do believe that my content is getting published, I have no proof of this. This has become a problem because Google (and Yahoo and Bing) is NOT finding any of these links. Bring the Fresh teaches a method on how to get backlinks indexed, but you need to know the URL of each link to do so. I should have close to 800 submissions right now, and only 1 backlink has been indexed! I believe this is the sole reason why my sites are not doing as well as I’d like – Google believes only one backlink to one site exists.

Problem 3 – The quality of these links were the most prominent selling point of the SEO Blueprint suite. However, I examined the one backlink that did pick up. The domain had a home page with a PR of 2. In a separate directory on that domain (no where linked to the homepage) were a number of article submissions. I didn’t count how many there were, but most of them were poor quality articles and a variety of topics no where near related to the engine parts niche that the blog was on (not to mention my article was on a Halloween costume).

Conclusion - While I don’t know if my concerns are new because of the new system recently unvailed, I do not believe I received what I paid for so not only to I NOT recommend SEO Blueprint, I’m asking for a refund.

I may have been a little bit harsh with my verdict as I’ve not compared their software to any others, however I know of two others in the same price bracket that at least give you your link URLs so you can assist when them getting indexed. They are Unique Article Wizard and SEO LinkVine. I tried SEO LinkVine briefly, but because I did not have access to the Bring the Fresh methodologies at the time, I really wasn’t using it at it’s peak performance. I think I may go with Unique Article Wizard, as I have read recommendations on that product before.

Have you tried either? What do you think? And did you encounter the same problems I had with SEO Blueprint?

Technorati Tags: Article Blueprint, Article Marketing, Blog Blueprint, Bring the Fresh, Bring the Fresh Case Study, Bring the Fresh Review, Mike Long, SEO Blueprint, SEO LinkVine, Steve Clayton, Tim Godfrey, Unique Article Wizard

All this being said, you’re probably wondering what kind of results I’m having. I have Fresh-ened two sites and am building 3 others. For the two I’ve freshened up.

Site #1 – Significant improvement. I did not really do my due diligence it keyword research here and while my competition numbers are low, it’s a pretty competitive keyword. However, my little site did go from ranking 242 to 99, so there is a significant improvement. Interestingly enough, a related keyword that receives nearly 20,000 more searches (but also has 450,000 more competition) is ranking even better. I don’t track anything over 300, which is where I was for the first couple weeks of the site. I’m now 83. These are not the what I would consider great rankings, but they are steadily improving in a very competitive niche. On the plus side, three secondary keywords (all keywords targeted by posts that had campaigns in Link Juicer) – #2. All three of them. That just pretty much rocks.

Site #2 – Slow but steady improvement. I have had this site since February, but literally did not receive a single visitor. It is going to be an authority site, but my domain is not keyword related at all. I started working on this site…. maybe 5 or 6 days ago. I’m number 11. Traffic is still a little slow, but I expect that to increase as I’m starting a couple of new campaigns on it.

New Site #1 – I’m ranking anywhere from 7-12 on my keyword with 18,100 searches. And this is only with three posts – I have a LOT more content that I need to add. Bring the Fresh basically teaches you how to rank with as little content as possible, but for this particular niche, I think the more physical products I can offer the better my conversion numbers will be.

New Site #2 – I am so excited about this site – I consider it my best success yet. I bought a domain on Tuesday (3.5 days ago) – a .net for my primary keyword. This keyword is for a new physical product that already receives 22,000 a month and that will surely grow as it looks like it will be quite popular this Christmas. I consider a .net domain itself quite a find, but it being a physical product makes my competition a lot of online retailer’s sites. Though it’s competition numbers are quite high (over a million), I decided to follow the Bring the Fresh steps exactly as written, not adding any of my previous knowledge or techniques to the process. Less than 24 hours, I was ranked 19 with one post. This morning (Friday), I was up to 11. I’m at the very beginning of my Bring the Fresh SEO campaign with this site, so it’s results are still in process, but I’m quite excited.

So….. It’s clear to me from my Bring the Fresh case study that my SEO is improving. The interesting thing is that I’ve yet to follow all the Bring the Fresh guidelines with no deviations. I’m out of my domains budget this month, but next month I’m going to try targeting a Clickbank product rather than a physical product from Amazon or Commission Junction and will follow every step to the T. I don’t know how or why it works (it’s pretty darn simple, if you ask me), but it works. I earnestly and honestly recommend this training – and if you have a little extra cash to get the exact tools and memberships the recommend, I can’t see how you could possibly fail.

Technorati Tags: Bring the Fresh, Bring the Fresh Case Study, Bring the Fresh Results, Bring the Fresh Review, Kelly Felix, Mike Long

As I mentioned previously, I have hosting with Hostgator and get my domains through Go Daddy. What else do I use?

Google Keywords Tool and Market Samurai for Keyword Research

There is no perfect keyword tool out there and I’ve heard from a lot of people who switch between Market Samurai, Traffic Travis, Micro Niche Finder, etc. I’ve tried a few programs (I have NOT tried MNF yet), but I seem to always come back to Google’s Keyword Tool and Market Samurai. Why do I like these two:

Google Keyword Tool
Pluses: FREE!, Adsense cost data, good variety of related keywords in addition to the phrase you entered
Minuses: No competition data, no commercial intent data

Market Samurai
Pluses: Fantastic video tutorials teaching you what each function can do, competition and commercial intent data, in title competition data, trends graph, picks up some keywords Google misses, 30 Day trial
Minuses: Cost ($97-ish if you buy within the trial, $147 after), misses some phrases Google finds, not so great for micro niche keywords – better with macro niche keywords, difficult to navigate at first (particularly if you don’t watch the tutorials)

Right now, I have an extended trial of Market Samurai due to a promotion being held, so I’m using it for free . My hope is to make enough affiliate earnings before my trial runs out to purchase the software in a couple of months.

SEO Blueprint, The Link Juicer, and Angela’s Links

These are three membership programs that I’m using right now. I’m on a 30 trial of The Link Juicer currently, so as of right now that hasn’t cost me anything. Angela’s Backlink Packets cost only $5 a month, so that comfortably fit my budget. I did splurge with SEO Blueprint, however.

SEO Blueprint is composed of Article Blueprint, Blog Blueprint, and Link Blueprint. I’ve yet to use Link Blueprint (I think Angela’s will take it’s place), but I am extremely impressed with Article Blueprint. Their sales letter best explains what each web-based program does, but let me offer a simplified summary of the three. Blog Blueprint creates short blog posts on high PR blogs offering contextual links with your anchor text. Article Blueprint uses a unique spinning method to submit a number of article submissions to quality, on topic directories. Link Blueprint, as I understand it, allows you to trade for one-way backlinks on blogs of various PR. The cost for all three is $67 a month, which will be a great deal if I get the kind of results I want. I can’t offer a full review of SEO Blueprint yet as I’ve only started to use it, but I will within the next week or two as I see how well it’s results play out.

The Link Juicer is another monthly link building membership ($47). It creates blog posts and social bookmarks for any URL, spreading the links out on a number of different accounts at various times. Very quickly, I managed 160+ backlinks to two posts on one of my sites. The site itself is not doing well yet, but those two posts are ranking well for each of their secondary keywords. I’m still not sure what I think of the tool. Your text needs to be spun, and while there is a spinner attached to it in Beta version, it’s a pretty lousy spinner and doesn’t work very well. I have The Best Spinner, but it’s a Windows based program and as I do the majority of work on my mac, so I have not had a chance to use it in conjunction with The Link Juicer. I’m going to try a couple more days without using it (I really want to see how well I can do with as few tools as possible), but I may eventually cave.

Angela’s Backlink Packets are just what the title alludes to. Each month, Angela offers a PDF of 30 high PR blogs in which you can leave links. The service is only $5 a month and she offers excellent graphics and instructions on how and where to leave these links. It’s a great tool, but it’s a pain in the butt to implement. From my initial sign up, reading of instructions, and implementation of 4 links, it took me about 2.5 hours. Yikes! I am considering outsourcing this link building, but I hate spending anymore money before I actually make some of that money back. We’ll see.

So that’s my bag of weapons. Now to implement the Bring the Fresh strategies. I can’t wait to update you on the results.

Technorati Tags: Bring the Fresh, Bring the Fresh Review, BTF, internet marketing tools, keyword research, link building, SEO Blueprint

Tiffany Dow, a marketer I highly respect, first mentioned Bring the Fresh when she responded to a blog post by Kelly Felix (better known as The Rich Jerk). She is still in the process of giving it a throughout review, but based on her thoughts and reviews of others, I’ve decided to check the course out for myself.

My first impressions – if I can do what they claim I’ll be able to do for the cost they’re offering, this may be the best course ever. The course itself is headed up by Kelly and his business partner Mike Long. Inside the Bring the Fresh members area, there is a fast start guide which contains their detailed step-by-step SEO plan, recommended products, and a slew of videos. I read the guide right away and had mixed thoughts. Their primary SEO tactics involve a lot of paid products, though they do give a couple of options for low cost methods. I’ve just started going through the videos and I’m impressed by what I see, but I’m still a bit confused as to how I can truly make SEO work on a budget. And hence a challenged with birthed in my mind.

I am going to follow their SEO principles on a handful of sites without necessarily using the products they recommend. I may switch over to those products once I have steady finances coming in, but I want to see if these methods will truly work for those of us on a budget.

What are the initials? Well, the basic membership to the course is $97. I will admit, I had to save to be able to get this, but I really think it’ll be worth it in the end. They do have an upsale for their Full Disclosure membership, which is $499. Typically, I would never consider that, but they’re offering 6 monthly payments of $67, which would possibly fit in my budget. While incredibly tempting, I decided to pass and will consider upgrading a later date – I really want to do this as quickly as possible.

Basics that are needed include one or more domain names and hosting. I’ve had my hosting with Hostgator for the past 6 months or so (after switching from the horrific MattieBlaze) and because my plan includes unlimited domains, I have no additional costs here. My plan with Hostgator costs me $9.95 a month.

I will admit, I’m a domain junkie. I have about 60 of them and would have had more if I could have afforded it. Earlier this year, I splurged on a discount domain buying club with Go Daddy, so a .com is $7.49 and a .net is $5.99 each. I’ll get those same rates on my renewals, and since I only buy one year at a time to save cash, that is a really good deal for me. Why do I choose Go Daddy? I must enter a small disclaimer that their advertising and marketing campaigns disgust me, but their customer service can not be touched.

I have three sites I’m going to be applying my Bring the Fresh techniques to (well, four if you include this site as well). One was already built that I “Fresh-ened” up. The second had a couple of posts on it, but needed more content. The third will be a domain name that I just purchased today. I’m excited to see if all this will work on a non-millionaire’s budget !!

Technorati Tags: Bring the Fresh, Bring the Fresh Review, BTF, Kelly Felix, Mike Long