Affiliate Sales Programs

Social Power Linking is a new resource developed by Jack Humphrey. Jack has long been an authority on link building (I bought his original Power Linking book some time ago) but in recent times has been focusing his attention on social marketing and “Web 2.0? sites to build links and traffic. And whether he likes the term or not, he has no doubt become a “guru” on social marketing.

I discovered Social Power Linking through Jack’s free “Authority Black Book“. Well actually, that’s not exactly right. The book referred me to a product which had been removed from sale. That was disappointing because after reading the Black Book I REALLY wanted to buy Jack’s new product. Right now I’m having a lot of success with social marketing and I want to learn as much as I can about it, and Jack is probably the most qualified person on the planet to teach me. 

As it turns out, the product was withdrawn because Jack was developing it into a membership site. Now, I’ve seen membership sites in Internet Marketing and SEO which charge anything up to $800 per month. So when I found out that Jack was only charging around $30 a month I jumped at the chance.

Note: I can’t guarantee the price will stay at that level, but the fee is locked in once you join.

Heck, you can easily pay $30 a month for a single link from a medium PageRank site. SPL shows you how to get hundreds of links from high-PR, high-authority sites for free. But it’s not just about links for SEO. It’s about generating TRAFFIC.

OK, so what do you get for your thirty bucks? Being a membership site there will be new stuff added as the site grows, but here’s a summary of what’s in there right now:

• Introduction Video 
• Quick-start Guide (pdf)
• Objectives (pdf)
• Authority Black Book and Bending the Web (these can be downloaded separately without joining SPL but are included for convenience. They are excellent guides)
• Social Power Linking Intensive Training (these are recorded webinars that you view with free software. They are split into two files and run for several hours each)
• Supporting files for the webinars (guides, slides from the webinar etc)
• A FREE copy of Web2Submitter ($47 value – not sure if I’m supposed to mention that, but there you are)
• Buzz Group (probably THE most valuable resource in SPL)
• 60 Day Marketing Plan (more on this below)
• Training Videos (covers a number of Web 2.0 tools, sites and resources)
• Exclusive Reports (using Digg, StumbleUpon, Squidoo, HubPages, Propeller and more - pdf files)
• Quickburst Topic Reports (pdf files)
• Training Audios (mp3)
• Jack’s original Power Linking e-book

The 60 Day Marketing Plan is heavy duty stuff. Trust me, your head will be spinning after reading this. But, this isn’t just a guide. It’s an actual blueprint for building massive traffic. In fact, it’s the same plan which Jack’s staff use for clients who pay up to $50,000 a year for his services. You’ll see that as you read the plan – it’s an internal set of instructions for his staff. This is powerful stuff. Mind you, there is a LOT of work involved with implementing this plan (which is why Jack has staff to do it), but even if you just use a fraction of this stuff it will be effective. This is no GRQ (get rich quick) plan or a “lazyman’s” guide. It requires real commitment. After all, you’re running a “real” business, aren’t you?

The Buzz Group helps you overcome one of the main difficulties with social marketing – submitting your own content. Many Web 2.0 sites frown upon submitting your own content. Doing so can quickly get you banned. I know, I’ve been banned from Digg and on another site my rating is so low I can’t do anything. Jack’s been through all that. He had the same experience with Propeller (Netscape). The training course covers how to avoid getting banned while still promoting your own content, but the Buzz Group provides a way to get your content submitted and voted on without having to submit it yourself.

Summary Review

Right now I’m hungry for any information and resources I can get on Web 2.0 and social marketing. Social Power Linking more than satisfies that hunger. If fact, the only criticism I can make is there is so much information to digest you have to set aside large blocks of time to get through it all. And then more time to apply these strategies. But apply them you must, because by golly they work!

Social Power Linking Affiliate Program

Concerned about the $30 per month membership fee? As I said at the top of this review, it’s peanuts compared to other membership sites. However, here’s how you can make your membership effectively free. Just make two referrals and your fee is covered. The affiliate program is only available to members but pays 50% commission. There are plenty of tools provided for affiliates such as banners, email messages etc. My advice? Become a member and use the techniques in Social Power Linking. Then write a review in your blog, just like this one, and give your first-hand experiences with SPL.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: SPL has been replaced by a new service called Blog Success. All of the tools and resources from SPL are included along with a whole bunch of new resources. Check out this case study for more details. Blog Success have also released this free tool - well worth downloading.

Technorati Tags: Blog Success, Social Power Linking, Jack Humphrey, Social Marketing, Web 2.0

Since I posted my previous comments on Google Snatch I’ve been reading some of the reviews going around the Web. Most (not all) are positive, but then they are usually written by an affiliate. So, am I being too harsh on Google Snatch when I say it is overpriced, poorly-written waffle?

As I mentioned before I contacted the affiliate who had promoted it to me, and as the author of Affiliate Rockstar Status, which I DO recommend, he is a very successful affiliate marketer himself. His view was that “people like you” forget that you were a newbie once, and that Google Snatch was “solid” advice for beginners. Furthermore, GN was a lead-in to a higher priced item (probably a membership site, he didn’t say). Hmmm, don’t think I’ll be buying into that one.

Is it good advice for beginners? Partly. The advice on keyword research and site structure is solid, albeit poorly presented, but newbies can get this information for free from just about any SEO forum. Heck, you can even get it from my own free SEO guide. When I fork out $97 for something that is NOT promoted as a newbie’s guide to SEO, I expect something a bit different. Some new ideas and concepts. Just have a look at the sales page. Does that sound like a beginner’s guide to SEO to you? BTW, the book is as long-winded and waffly as the sales page – lots of words, little content.

Note this from the sales page:

“And not to forget the world’s most ‘hocus pocus’ technique … SEO! Do you know what SEO means?

Search engine optimization (SEO) just means your website being accessible to the search engines to improve the chances that they will serve your website when your potential customers type in a specific search term.”

Does that sound to you like this book is NOT about SEO? So, writing an article with a link to your site and submitting it to hundreds of directories, after having re-written it each time, is not about SEO? Or doing keyword research? Or optimising your titles? Or writing to webmasters for link exchanges? These are the “cutting edge” techniques referred to in the sales letter. Give me a break.

Yes, these techniques do “work”. Good advice for beginners? I think not. If you want to spend hours every day rewriting someone else’s article and then rewiting it again, over and over, as you submit it to hundreds of article directories, then go ahead. Those inbound links, which apparently have nothing to do with SEO, will push your sites higher in the SERPs (search engine result pages).

Personally, I’d fall asleep after the third re-write. There are far more interesting and involving ways to promote your sites and achieve the same results. Check out Jack Humphries’ Authority Black Book for some great Web 2.0 techniques, totally free. I guarantee you won’t fall asleep reading the guide OR putting the techniques into practice. Instead of spending hours re-writing some fluff article, spend hours interacting, learning and sharing, while building links and direct traffic at the same time.

My opinion on Google Snatch hasn’t changed. Save your money.

Technorati Tags: Google Snatch Review