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Affiliate ProjectX Ratings |
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Effective Methods |
9.5 |
/ |
10 |
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Ethical Methods |
7.5 |
/ |
10 |
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Value for the Price |
10 |
/ |
10 |
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Current & Real-World |
9 |
/ |
10 |
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Overall Rating |
90% |
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Visit the Affiliate Project X Website
Review
I purchased a copy of this e-book back in February 2007, with high expectations
of what it could offer, given all the hype I had been reading concerning it. In
most respects, I wasn’t disappointed.
The first thing I noticed when I opened the e-book was that the author’s name
was nowhere to be found. This is one of the few e-books I’ve ever read that
didn’t have the author’s last name anywhere in the cover or body, which
immediately raised the question for me, “Why didn’t the author include his full
name? Is he hiding something, or what?” The author’s name is Chris McNeeney, by
the way. He is the same person who wrote another very popular e-book, AdWords
Miracle. His main focus is affiliate marketing with the ClickBank Marketplace, a
popular Affiliate Program Network dealing with information products such as
e-books and software. The second thing I noticed was that there was very little
preamble – the author gets right into the “meat and potatoes”, as he puts it, of
his money-making techniques. The majority of the book describes six methods that
the author claims he himself has used to generate significant income online. It
should be mentioned that the version of Affiliate Project X that I have reviewed
here is “The Launch Copy v1.2”.
The first method is “the art of the pre-sell”. A pre-sell is a writing technique
that is intended to “warm up” the visitor to the product that is being promoted,
before the visitor actually reaches the product’s sales page. My impressions,
when reading the author’s approach to this fundamental method, were that his
techniques are very original, real-world, and easy to duplicate. His frequent
use of specific examples helps the reader to gain a firm and immediate grasp of
the concepts presented.
The second method the author focuses on is what he refers to as “the affiliate
diary.” Essentially, this method covers various techniques by which to quickly
build an opt-in email subscriber list. Again, the techniques he teaches are
liberally supplemented with examples and real-world case scenarios. At first I
found the method a little hard to follow, as his approach is somewhat different
than conventional list-building methods. However, at the end of this section I
found that I had learned some very interesting and thought-provocative
strategies that I wouldn’t have come up with on my own. Although the information
contained in this section is far from exhaustive, what techniques he does
discuss are very well thought-out and results-oriented.
Method number three is called “the workhorse method”. Here the author discusses
good old-fashioned link building via writing and submitting keyword-rich
articles. His information on how to conduct proper research prior to writing the
article is excellent.
The fourth and fifth methods involve techniques for monitoring other successful
affiliate marketers in order to find out what they are promoting and how, and
then emulating their marketing strategies. This method is sometimes referred to
as “spying on the competition”. He demonstrates how to do this using a software
program that I have also reviewed in this site, called
Keyword Elite. The method
is described in detail, and essentially takes you step-by-step through using
Keyword Elite’s spy tool to identify potentially profitable campaigns, and then
how to use Google AdWords to move in on the action of these successful affiliate
marketers and earn commissions without needing to do a lot of testing and
research. My only reservations with this section are that the author doesn’t
really provide a useful means by which to identify who the top “affiliate
marketing gurus” are. Also, in order for this method to be utilized, you would
need to be prepared to purchase a copy of Keyword Elite.
One of the biggest challenges an affiliate marketer experiences is deciding
which products are likely to be hot (and therefore worth promoting) and which
products are not worth the time and effort. The sixth method, deemed “the
opportunist” method, addresses that challenge. In my opinion, this chapter of
the book is the most valuable. It identifies how to scour the ClickBank
Marketplace and find which products stand the best chance of success. Again
using easy-to-follow real-world samples, he demonstrates how to locate and
analyze statistics in order to predict which products are going to be hot and
which are on the way down. He also describes tools that can be used in
conjunction with statistical analysis in order to get the jump on the
competition. The idea is to identify what products are starting to take off
before they become so popular that a large number of other affiliate markers
start promoting them. This helps to keep ahead of the pack, earning commissions
on a hot product without having to deal with a lot of competition.
The remainder of the book is a collection of tips to help increase affiliate
success. Although the author calls these “advanced methods”, they really are
essential methods that nearly all successful internet marketers use. He
discusses link cloaking (which is different than site cloaking, a black-hat SEO
technique), sales tracking, and less-used but still profitable promotional
services.
There is another chapter that the author has kept separate from the manual,
termed “Project X – The Missing Chapter”. Here the author describes how to use
bonuses and rebates to increase sales. The technique, as far as I am aware, is
in violation of ClickBank’s Terms of Service. Although the method has been used
profitably by other marketers, I do not feel that the author is doing himself
any credit by condoning a risky and unethical marketing technique.
Summary
Affiliate Project X is not intended to be a complete manual on affiliate
marketing. Rather, it is a collection of specific cutting-edge strategies for
making money online using affiliate marketing, with specific emphasis on
utilizing the ClickBank Marketplace. The author describes the manual as “a
collection of competitive advantages that could be used on their own, or as part
of a wider strategy. A tool-kit for super-affiliates in 2006.” I would consider
this description to be apt. The methods are well-described, and I went away from
the book feeling that I had learned some viable strategies for increasing my
earnings as an affiliate marketer.
Intended Audience:
Intermediate affiliate marketers, or beginners who are serious about making
money via affiliate marketing.
Pros:
- Lots of examples
- Real-world methods, generally sound information
- Step-by-step, easy to follow, no fluff or filler
- Very informative and thought-provocative
Cons:
- One of the methods taught necessitates the purchase of a keyword research tool, Keyword Elite
- The author endorses and describes a marketing method that may be in violation of
ClickBank’s Terms of Service, and that therefore may be considered unethical
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|
Affiliate ProjectX Ratings |
|
Effective Methods |
9.5 |
/ |
10 |
|
Ethical Methods |
7.5 |
/ |
10 |
|
Value for the Price |
10 |
/ |
10 |
|
Current & Real-World |
9 |
/ |
10 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Overall Rating |
90% |
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