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

In his comments I outlined the planning I have for this blog, and I thought it best to include it here.

With my current primary blog, this was actually my core focus

Rather than try to remain a remote island, I am focusing on community

Stage 1 Get rid of “nofollow” – I want people to comment and trackback. Smart blog design can offset total pagerank leakage and spam filters and a clear comments policy are proving to be very effective.

Stage 2 I put my highest priority on subscribers, not monetisation

Stage 3 was reciprocity. I encourage my readers to add me to their Technorati favorites, and I always reciprocate and read their blogs. My favorites feed can get a little owerwhelming, so I also subscribe to my readers blogs individually if they prove interesting.

Stage 4 I get involved in the communities of my readers

Stage 5 Clear branding for my site, and for when I post comments elsewhere, or in various social networks.

Stage 6 Increasing my involvement in various social networking services, such as Mybloglog. I visit and subscribe to lots of blogs that way.

So far the results are very promising. I have gained traffic, and I have also experienced an increase in page views per visitor and subscribers.
It will be interesting monitoring the long-term effects and whether things will snowball.

It is however important to note that this isn’t the complete process.

Sidebar Real Estate

If you hadn’t noticed, many blogs are very successful businesses, and screeen real estate is at a premium.

Social networks thrive on critical mass. Once you reach a certain critical mass, your efforts become self-propelled as you are already out in the lead.

Once a story gets to the front page of Digg, it is going to gain an infinate more traffic than before it reached a certain critical mass.

The same happens with blogging social networks such as MyBlogLog.

When it was first picked up by the highest traffic blogs, it was prominently displayed on all their sidebars. Once these blogs achieved what they judged to be critical mass, the “community” was promptly removed. The service had been tested for long enough, might well be very useful, but took up valuable space on the sidebar.

In addition I am sure these professional media blogs track their results. If they are not gaining more traffic from promoting the community service, than the community service is leaking to other sites, the service isn’t going to remain on their sidebar for long. In fact just enough time to achieve critical mass.

Currently it only takes around 120 members of your MyBlogLog community to reach their top 100. In actual fact the numbers are very similar to how many are needed for various positions on the Technorati Top 100 List based on number of favorites.

In some ways this is very similar to email marketing. When you start growing your mailing list, you have very little leverage, and join lots of cross promotions such as 12 Days of Christmas to boost the size of your mailing list. It is also a good way to earn a little change to pay for Christmas presents and gives great value to your readers.

However, once you have a large established email list, it is most likely you won’t join in such cross-promotions, because the idea of sharing your 200,000 readers with someone without a decent return on your bank balance is not very attractive. Now many would look on this as being selfish, there are limits to how many times you can email someone.
Large email lists just like popular blogs attract more partnership offers, and whilst you can support good products for a limited period of time, limits on both resources and virtual real estate or email space place real limits.

Large popular blogs and email lists naturally become more insular, but their effect on traffic when they do “share the love” can be quite dramatic.

In my overall plan for this blog, there are many more than the 6 stages already listed. Screen real estate isn’t such a premium because the only monetisation I plan is in the content so I have more room for social activities.

I honestly have no idea how I am going to handle critical mass for some of the social services, but today I did sign up for a paid subscription to Mybloglog. Some of the tracking features are very useful.

Also if you see a bug in one of the services you use, don’t forget to report them. I noticed one with MyBlogLog today, and they fixed it very quickly.