As an affiliate, and future product publisher, proof (that is unequivocal)  is something in which I place a great amount of emphasis.

• It allows me to recommend a product or service with reduced risk of damaging my own reputation
• I want to be sure my readers will be delivered the product or service promised, thus giving them the potential to achieve any results claimed
• Reputation is important – often proof also acts as a significant guarantee that customers will be treated well (within the boundaries of what the product or service encompasses)
• Reliable data – if I can dig holes in claims made in promotional material, so can my readers
• Real testimonials – you can pay huge fines for astroturfing
• Proof in advance during product launches by providing real substantial results in advance is a powerful concept.
• Proof increases conversions

Lets look at a few good and bad examples

Formula 5 From Stompernet

I was travelling in the UK when this launched first time around at the start of the year, and actually picked up a big heavy box from my UK address by hand rather than having it forwarded.

Stompernet have in recent times made a massive move in providing their army of affiliates with review samples in advance of a launch – not necessarily a “final” version, with all the bonuses and long-term subscription, but certainly enough for an affiliate to review a product with significant authority.

Now Formula Five is being relaunched, they went through a similar launch process, with the added benefit of genuine customer testimonials.

Following the same formula as the initial launch, providing free training that is intended to create “results in advance” – prospects take action based upon the free training, and see the benefit to their business before the product is even on sale. In many ways more effective than free samples or $1 offers for a higher ticket product.

Formula Five MBA In A Box

Case studies where students by increasing perceived value, and enhancing their product offering (additional cost 3%), increased revenue by 35% and profits by a staggering 68% – same number of sales

Increased Profit by 68%

A sales page packed with case studies and genuine testimonials

Formula Five Business Training

And of course some fast mover bonuses and strong guarantee

Be warned – whilst Paul’s teaching is extraordinary, this is business training – just like at school you really will need to take frequent breaks, and possibly “rewind” the video repeatedly until some strategies really sink in.
When Paul suggests you take action when you think something could be implemented in your business, do it, your business (and family) need you to take action based upon Paul’s teaching.

Howie Schwartz – IM Remarkable

I wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of promoting Howie’s IM Remarkable unless I felt the training he was providing before asking prospects to get out their credit card was going to be exceptional.

He had more than 100 people take part in his pre-launch competition, and 1000s of people joining leaving comments on the pre-launch blog and training blog.

It also added a little variety to coverage. Howie’s SEO strategies in many ways are different to what I have experience with, and of the people I know working using those techniques, he is right up near the top of the earnings scale.

The Ugly Proof

AWStats / Webalizer

Stats based upon server logs have immense value, but they need significantly intelligent filters to weed out all the bots.

Here are some old stats from this blog (at least I think they are)

Awstats

Wow, over a million “hits” per month and look at those page views!

It is meaningless rubbish, when some bots hit you 72 times per day

It gets even more ridiculous if you host your RSS feed on your own server, though all it takes if you have a long RSS feed is a small update to mean 10s or even hundreds of media files get accessed… but possibly just the headers to see if they have changed… but that still gets counted.

Earnings Checks

No earnings shot… but just think of these factors that are rarely mentioned on sales letters.

• Traffic cost – Adwords etc
• Outsourcing costs
• Tools / Software / training costs
• JV / Affiliate cut, for many products up to 75%
• Travel (for the JV deals)
• Partners – many products are the combined efforts of a number of marketers

Earnings might still be significant, but with the FTC crawling over every form of word of mouth marketing these days, and various forms of false advertising, both product owners and affiliates have to be especially careful.

The funny thing is, from an accounting perspective paying an affiliate 75% through Clickbank is in many ways “free traffic”, as long as you don’t claim gross income as yours.

Network Effects Tactics & Automation

Lets look at claims often made by people promoting social media and Twitter products

I am not going to single anyone out specifically, but one current promotion does come to mind. This doesn’t mean anyone is being dishonest, or reflect the quality of the product which I haven’t seen, but in many ways the data seems from my slightly more critical eye to be looked at through “rose coloured glasses”.

We will take the following as fact

• Huge twitter following
• Significant email list
• Decent earnings per “twitter follower”

However we have to look at correlation, causation and add in a lot of other factors

• Partner with a list
• Created a number of products, including social media / Twitter training
• All products have been promoted by affiliates

Plus 5 tactics

• Autofollow people who follow you
• Proactive following up to your limit daily
• Unfollowing people who don’t reciprocate within set period of time
• Automation
• Lots of tweets

Lets look at how some of those factors might influence Twitter follow size

People with huge responsive lists that promote Twitter to their lists, used autofollow, and have promoted twitter on blogs and landing pages.

Rich Schefren 22793 followers 462 Tweets (only started autofollowing later on)

John Reese 24840 followers 3450 Tweets (recently stopped autofollow and cleaned list)

Andy Jenkins 12388 followers 1433 Tweets (Only started autofollow later)

Mike Filsaime 34055 followers 908 Tweets (recently stopped autofollow and cleaned list)

So being a huge list owner doesn’t get you to 100K+ twitter followers

So how about being a reasonable sized list owner, who is super helpful but doesn’t autofollow?

Lets grab a few Copywriters

Michel Fortin 6735 followers 5059 tweets

Marlon Sanders 4308 followers 3581 Tweets

Brian Clark 27933 followers 5110 Tweets

Ray Edwards 6630 followers 2044 tweets

Brian from memory was an early adopter, and is probably better known among tech and “blogging” bloggers.

None of these guys autofollow

To compare, Darren from Problogger has a very similar audience to Brian, and also has a blog on Twitter tips.

Darren Rowse 72477 followers 13185 tweets (I believe Darren autofollowed for a while)

Someone not afraid to use “tactics” in social media

Reg Saddler 93795 followers 20353 tweets

Reg certainly autofollows, possibly also used other tactics in the past

Robert Scoble 98371 followers 21817 tweets (proponent of autofollow)

I don’t think Robert uses other tactics, but he is know to be an early adopter, and his use of Twitter gained lots of coverage and links, plus his blog is popular.

Other Social Media Mavens (those who don’t grace the Twitter “blogroll”)

Coach Deb 19874 followers 18617 tweets (doesn’t autofollow)

Mari Smith 44456 followers 25273 followers (autofollows afaik)

Alternatively you could just be a bot tweeting links to Delicious popular items and have 50K followers with some smart automation or outsourcing.

The idea that you can just be a cool dude, behave like you are at a party, and gain a huge number of followers just doesn’t correlate – the highest correlation is autofollow combined with other tactics and automation.

Personality, engagement and useful content would however play a factor in monetization – maybe a good idea to use that in your email marketing.

It should be noted that Twitter has been cracking down on autofollow and various gaming tactics involving following/unfollowing. Most of the people employing such tactics in the past have slowed down to gains of just 500 followers per day, and those are not targeted.

I also want to highlight this post from John Reese
5 Reasons Why Twitter Auto-Follow Is Bad Marketing

Thus to achieve the results claimed by “Twitter” marketers:-

• Huge twitter following = automation + tactics
• Significant email list = major problems with correlation
• Decent earnings per “twitter follower” = major problems with correlation

I am not saying that building a relationship with a list or Twitter following isn’t important, and it would certainly help with monetization, but to attribute that with huge twitter followings would be naiive, or atypical – I look on @Garyvee as atypical, and from memory (before he was added to the “blogroll” on Twitter) he wasn’t touting 6 figure Twitter followers.
I don’t know anyone who engages their audience more on Twitter.

The biggest correlation on sales as an affiliate?

1. Released a product heavily promoted by JVs to build a massive list of fresh leads who trust you (even if they didn’t buy)
   
2. Offer the leads who didn’t buy that product, the product as a bonus, or something of equal or greater value in an affiliate promotion. Fresh leads and $5000 worth (real worth) of bonuses sure does have a MASSIVE effect on conversion rate.

It is nothing to do with Twitter follower count…

If I made extraordinary claims as an SEO about a certain ranking factor without evidence that I had carefully isolated as many outside factors as possible, and created a test that could be repeated, I would likely be ripped apart by my audience.

As a marketer, assume every claim you make will be put under the microscope by your customers and peers – ideally they should find more proof that supports you, not less.

If spending $97 on an ebook is a major financial commitment, don’t read any further

Ok, for the rest of you lets get on with the review…

• There is no hype in the sales letter
• There is no hype in the ebook
• There is no hype in this review

Another Web 2.0 Social Media Ebook?

After you read the sales letter that is probably the impression you will have, and in fact you will still have that impression shortly after you start reading the ebook.

Here are some interesting facts for you

Pages 56 (+bonus guide on video, crib sheets and tables)

In fact those few references that were included were mainly in facts and figures like usage data.

So What is this Ebook Talking About?

Traffic Secrets

Whilst many people don’t appreciate the value of ebooks, claiming that the information is out there if you look for it, or join and participate in various forums, that isn’t strictly true.
We live in an age of information overload. Quite often different ideas and new ideas take a long time to rise to the surface, or never make it, not because the ideas are not valuable, or supported by hard evidence.

I often see “specialists” in SMO (Social Media Optimization) and SMM (Social Media Marketing) claim that their methods and expensive services can work in virtually any market place.
I am not going to dispute those claims, but that very statement tends to drown out other methods that could be equally effective for traffic generation that might be equally, or potentially more suitable for certain markets.

Traffic Strategy

The fundamental value from this ebook is that it challenges you to examine your social media marketing strategy, and optimize it for best effect.
This is nothing to do with writing better headlines, or coercing top users at Digg, Reddit or Netscape to add you as a friend and to plug your content.

Whilst Laura’s intention was to target the ebook to beginners in social media marketing, in many ways consultants in social media marketing should read it because it will place a new perspective on information and strategies you think you already know.

Professional Writing

Laura has written a lot of ebooks as a ghost writer, and this isn’t her first outing in publishing an ebook in her own name. This ebook oozes quality production with footnotes on almost every page and links to resources that back up the data and strategies she proposes.

The professional tone may also be one of its shortcomings – The Stampede Secret isn’t a light refreshing read, or suitable for people who prefer information in short 400 word chunks.

To get the most benefit you really will have to read through the ebook a couple of times taking notes – in some ways it reminds me of some of the more serious marketing reports you might receive from Marketing Sherpa.

Recommended Audience

Ideal

You are already making money, and probably think you know everything there is about SMM. You might even skim read the ebook once and think there is nothing new, but if you take the time to sit down and read it slowly a couple of times, you will pick up a new perspective.

• Marketing consultants
• Blogging consultants
• Business owners in niche markets
• Owners of Virtual Real Estate in Niche markets including blogging networks
• VCs and Angel Investors
• Researchers
• Journalists

Possible

Beginners who have tried SMM for their niche websites and blogs with little success, and who have money to invest to accelerate their learning process.

Don’t Buy It

This isn’t an ebook showing you the secret route to success and instant wealth. This isn’t something you should spend your last meal ticket on for that one chance of financial independence.

If the price of the ebook is more than you would spend on a night out, think again.

It will probably take you 3 hours to read this ebook unless you have been studying various fast reading techniques – if 3 hours of your time is worth less than $97, this ebook probably isn’t ideal.

You Can Find This Information Elsewhere

I honestly haven’t gone searching for all this information elsewhere, but I am sure somewhere among the millions of pages of content that are created on the internet every day, you would find at least 90% of this information. The value is in the way it is collated and presented.

Just as an example some of what is discussed in the ebook you could find on my blog, and potentially in more depth, especially in regards to things like tagging. Laura even quoted from one of my articles and linked through, highlighting that people should read the article, and the valuable discussion afterwards.

Unique Information

Analysis of one of Laura’s niche sites in a very competitive market (Acne Treatment) with real proof of traffic numbers from Quantcast – not just screenshots.
This isn’t a high traffic site, it is very much a simple niche website, running on WordPress that anyone could create and generate some income – I wouldn’t expect Laura to expose her most profitable sites.

Discussion of traffic strategy – some social media consultants charge $5000 per day to help you formulate a social media marketing action plan. Most of the consultants concentrate on the search engine optimization benefits, and not how to participate in social networks to find real customers.

How to Write an Ebook – whilst this isn’t one of the lessons taught, the production quality and style is something to learn from.

I am going to finish off with a few select quotes from the ebook that don’t give too much away, but at the same time highlight how much different the overall perspective of the information is.

If anything is going to hold you back in being a fore-runner in the new web, the need to measure and record every click or movement to and on your site would be the culprit. The internet is changing at such a rapid rate that controlling and metering every change you make has the potential to stall your success.

Uptight control and playing it safe is seldom the stance of a pioneer. It is the pioneer who wins in profits, fame and visitor traffic – not the followers and whiners. I am not guaranteeing success by any means, nor am I advising you to risk your life savings on some promising new start up, but I am saying that the occasional ‘play your cards or go home’ attitude is one of the keys to success.

Web 2.0 is a very creative, innovative and fluid environment. Most Web 2.0 sites cannot be put in a box and measured in any consistent and reliable fashion – they are simply too young. There is a level of intuition at launch, an element of change and growth throughout the life of the web property, and yet another level of intuition used for assessment when determining a reasonable sale value.

Conclusion

No hype, no bonus, though if I do see enough interest and sales I might write up a supplement to the ebook going into some of the topics in more depth, especially on the benefits of tagging.
I would probably make that available free to all Laura’s customers.
I may even go into some of the topics that Laura has missed – Web 2.0 grows at an alarming rate, and there is a limit to how fast you can research strategies enough to be able to offer conclusive proof.

Disclaimers are unheard of in most ebooks, but Laura takes this to a new professional level, this is just part of it.

Information within this report may be speculation and are therefore within the meaning of the securities litigation reform act of 1995 and contain verbiage such as ‘expected’, ‘anticipated’, ‘estimated’, projected’, ‘believed’ or variations of those.

I have actually been chucking a few emails backwards and forwards to Laura over the last couple of days, and I thought I would include one small excerpt.

You know you really rock! You don’t even ‘know’ me and you’ve given me so
much of your time. It’s a dying art in our world.

I am not going to include my exact reply, because it mentioned names of people that if internet marketers were actively using LinkedIn, would certainly appear between myself and Laura as shared contacts, and over the last 2 years I have certainly dropped by her blog a number of times.

This comment also shows the benefit of “paying it forward” and the value of providing information for free to eventually reach your goals.

There are quite a few expert marketers who normally charge their clients a great deal of money who I correspond with on a regular basis, simply because they have gained value from what I have offered for free.

One of the bonuses that Laura provides is some very specific email support – she states that she will answer 2 emails from her customers, and highlights the importance formulating those questions to receive maximum benefit. She is not going to exclude pleas for help, and win / win relationships can develop to extend the level of help provided.

I have always been happy to answer emails regarding the products I review both before someone makes a buying decision and afterwards, or you can just ask here in the comments.

I gained a great deal of value from Stampede Secrets. I might not realise that value immediately because I already employ many of the strategies and techniques discussed, and it is hard to quantify the effect any changes might have on my income.
Reading the ebook has certainly helped me highlight the action I should be taking to revitalise some of the niche websites I have had for a long time and hardly ever modify, because each is bringing in a small trickle of income.
Laura has helped me realise that it is possible to employ a few extra traffic strategies for these niche websites that could turn the flow of traffic into a gushing fountain.

Disclaimer:- I am one of the few people who received a free review copy of this ebook, possibly because I offered to take a look before publishing, that Laura reads my blog, and because she quoted me in the ebook. To be honest I might not have purchased the ebook just based upon the sales page. That is the value of affiliate marketing in pre-selling, or explaining the benefits of a product in an ethical manner

One thing I haven’t yet written about is the effect of social networking and images of readers in social proof. By seeing the name of someone you recognise in the sidebar, it shows that obviously your blog is a worthwhile read, and so you sign up.

Dane Morgan has written a great post today emphasising what I have previously stated, but also building on it by expressing the suggestion that you will see benefits from increasing the number of avatars displayed in your widget box. Whilst you may provide more exits, you will also be providing more social proof.