Which is the best internet marketing private site?
We review the five best known
internet marketing advice
resources run by top gurus Cory Rudl, Neil Shearing,
Lee Benson & Frank Garon,
Allen Says, and Stephen Mahaney of Planet Ocean..
|
||
|
Private Sites For Webmasters
Which is the best internet marketing private site? We review the five best known internet marketing advice resources run by top gurus Cory Rudl, Neil Shearing, Lee Benson & Frank Garon, Allen Says, and Stephen Mahaney of Planet Ocean.
Every week you seem hear about a new "private website" for internet marketing, which promises to be the answer to all your problems as a webmaster, right?. Since you have to shell out a monthly subscription fee, it pays to know what you're getting into before you part with your money!
On this page, you'll find an overview of the best known of these private sites,
together with my own comments and star ratings for their relative merits. What's A Private Site?Quite simply, a private site is a website which you pay to view. Sites aimed at webmasters and other people with online businesses are designed to provide information which will assist in the development of a website or business. The provider figures that if you want the information badly enough and it's not available elsewhere, you'll pay for it! There's no typical shape to an internet marketing private site - they are as varied as human beings, and like us, are good, bad and indifferent! Read on, and see what I mean....
Cory Rudl - Secrets to Their SuccessIf like me you're getting tired of hearing how the gurus made their money "way back when" (when incidentally, the internet landscape was very different from the way it is now), Secrets To Their Success makes a refreshing change! Each month, Cory carries out 2 new in-depth (15-20 pages) interviews with webmasters/marketers who are "making it" online. "Making it" has a pretty wide definition - everything from the kitchen sink start up that has just cracked the search engines, to the $300,000+ per year business - it's all there. Intriguingly, I've found this to be one of the most useful sites; private or otherwise I've come across in a long while. Gurus when interviewed have either done it all so long ago that it's no longer relevant, or they seem to skirt around unpleasant truths. However, the interviewees on STTS have usually come online in the last year or so, and tend to offer no-holds barred accounts of their successes, failures and strategies which I've found extremely informative. Since the interviews are archived on the site, you get access to a growing supply of business strategies, something you'd pay dearly for offline. While the interviews are the foundation on which this private site is built, Cory also runs a monthly draw for a site review, which is published on the site. If you're a member of the site, just enter your site, and if it's drawn, you get a comprehensive, 10-page review of your site which includes recommendations for change (not to mention the additional publicity provided by appearing on the site). Even if you aren't drawn, you can still benefit from other reviews. Summary: A departure from the norm, I think this site is great value for money as a learning resource. I've used many of the experiences of the webmasters interviewed to inform my own business practice. Since I'm a bit of a nosy gossip who loves reading about other people, the curiosity factor also has me hooked!
A free trial is available at
Secrets To Their
Success
Lee Benson & Frank Garon - Hypnotic BlueprintThese two guys are the men of the moment, having recently launched their own brand of private site for internet marketers and webmasters. Two self-made netrupeneurs, Lee and Frank have both experienced hard times financially, using the internet to haul themselves back - in Lee's case into the millionaire bracket, with Frank not far behind. This is yet another take on the private site concept, with members receiving a monthly 300MB CD-ROM loaded to the gunnels with marketing strategies and webmaster tasks. However, for my money the best part of membership is the option to log onto the site for 60 minutes each week in order to take part in a web conference which allows individual voice and text consultations with either Lee or Frank. Although new, this site is highly innovative and seems to appeal to beginners, intermediate and experienced users alike, partly because there's so much on the CD and partly because such unbridled and direct access to "experts" is rare in internet marketing circles. While other gurus are investing heavily in the teleconference concept, Lee and Frank appear to have realized that the cost of long distance calls is prohibitive for many would-be participants. Their alternative has been to use IP "Voice Over" technology via web browsers at no extra cost to users.
Summary: Hypnotic Blueprint is a brilliant way to enter the business of online marketing. Lots of accessible information with regular access to two extremely personable individuals who've already been there. I really can't help wishing Hypnotic Blueprint had been around when I was first starting out and drowning in my own confusion! Neil Shearing - Private SiteNeil Shearing generally runs a tight ship, and his management of his Private Site is no exception to his normal practice. This site has a full range of features, including archives of Neil's articles, special offers and webmaster tools. However, I think the true value of Neil's private site comes from the rather more unique interactive resources he makes available, which include;
I'm generally a big fan of Neil Shearing's work. He's thorough, honest, occasionally innovative, and I also have to admit to rooting for him, because like me, he's British (yeah, I know, but we Limeys have gotta stick together!) This time out though, I have to confess that my enthusiasm for Neil's private site is muted. True, it meets the needs of the average newbie, and admirably so, but the truth is that the meat and potatoes of the site - the articles, special offers, webmaster tools are available elsewhere on the internet - if you look hard enough...
That said, if you have the money available, go for it. It's especially
worth looking out for the special ad testing reports that Neil
occasionally publishes - doing so is likely to save you money on fruitless ad
campaigns!
Jimmy D. Brown - The Profits VaultIn the words of its creator, Jimmy D. Brown, The Profits Vault is; "a comprehensive library of web marketing / eCommerce knowledge"On my first take of the site, the range of material was so vast that I caught myself thinking; "if there's this much, it must be a pile of junk he's collected together". Wrong. Jimmy D. Brown has been around on the internet a lonnnng time, and from what I can gather, is very well respected by his peers. I'm sitting up and taking notice of him as well - as much for his professionalism as for the actual content on Profits Vault. So, what do you get? Just about all you need to know to have a functioning online business - again, in Jimmy's own words - on a "true "shoestring" budget". Resources include;
The list goes on and on. As I said, it's overwhelming. Fortunately, Jimmy has seen this, and has included an add-on; Online Success Blueprint. This is a step-by step tutorial which organizes as the resources on the site into a set of "do this after that" set of instructions that shows you not only exactly WHAT to do, but the ORDER to do it in! If all that isn't enough, you can send your questions to Jimmy via an online form for a personal response. Summary: I'm a tough cookie to please. There are resources on this site that I could very cheerfully live without; I don't need or want tools to submit to 225,000 directories or FFA and other "junk" sites. If you leave out that stuff, you're still left with an amazing array of resources that cover virtually everything a webmaster needs to know in order to turn a website into an income producing business; all the little things that I only found out through painful trial and error - usually after I had messed up big-time! The only area that Profits Vault doesn't cover is search engine optimization - there's a yawning great silence on this subject. Still as a marketing expert, I guess Jimmy has wisely decided to concentrate on what he knows best - and he knows it; believe me.
Planet Ocean - Search Engine News/The UnFair Advantage Book In Winning The Search Engine WarsIf you look closely, you'll find that most private internet marketing sites have a catch-all brief for their focus, and inevitably, devote more space to marketing than to search engine optimization. While appealing to your target audience is crucial, even the most canny of marketing ploys will be completely ineffectual if you aren't attracting search engine traffic! It was for this reason that I wanted this review to include a private site that dealt exclusively with search engine optimization. Although not advertised as a private site, in effect this is what SearchEngineNews.com is. You pay your subscription fee, receive an ebook, which is updated every month, and are given online access to the monthly newsletter, which contains the latest news concerning strategies and changes within the search engine world. This is a service which has been used by some of the best-known names in the business over the last six years. The reports provided in the book and the monthly newsletters are certainly comprehensive enough to be described as the definitive external work on search engine matters, at least when it comes to periodic publications like this one. Attention to strategies described on the site will certainly give you a far greater understanding of how to optimize your website for best placement. Before you rush in, a word of caution. SearchEngineNews.com represents an analysis of ALL available search engine optimization strategies. Just because they're available, it doesn't mean they're the most effective, or will get past the search engines' security features. Several search optimization experts have been caught out by Google for playing too close to the wire by using 1x1 pixel images, cloaking and JavaScript re-directs, all of which are mentioned here. To be fair, all "dodgy" strategies are highlighted as such. Just be sure you pay heed to the warnings! Summary: Diligent use of 6-month subscription to SearchEngineNews will equip all but the most dense of webmasters with the skills to begin getting decent results in the search engines and directories. If you're one of those unfortunate few for whom it doesn't work, you can always use their "The Dog Ate It" guarantee to get a refund of your subscription!
Home |About Us |Contact Us| Privacy Policy
|
