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Stompernet
($799/month) ($1 One Month Trial) This link
goes to the sellers description and order page. It opens in
a new window
Product
Overview:
StomperNet
is a membership site with a very limited membership cap of
1000 people. Most of the time it is sold out, but occasionally
as people drop off it is re-opened.
Most
of the material centers around Search Engine Optimization,
particularly what we normall call organic search methods (Or
natural search) which means designing your site in such a
way that it rises to the top of search engine's listings for
many search words, without using pay per click methods or
black-hat methods such as site cloaking.
What
sets Brad Falons and Andy Jenkens material apart from most
courses is a very scientific approach. There is a lot of information
on the science of selling, from studies of the way the eye
moves around a Web site to the psychology of how to lay out
material to make it more memorable.
Essentially
what you get is access to a ton of information including
- An
Online library of Audio and Video feeds (400 hours worth
- growing at about 10 hours per week)
- DVDs
(they boast that they've sent 43 DVDs to each of their members).
- Teleconferences
- Several
live seminar events
- Access
to the private forum.
The
amount of material is staggering and may in fact be a bit
too much for the newcomer to handle. It would take a small
army of employees to implement all the recommendations they
make.
I've
got to admit that it's rare to see this type of material,
and it can be an eye opener to any marketer.
Historically
StomperNet was preceeded by a stand-alone product called Stomping
the Search Engines, which sold for $299.95 for 10 CDs (and
some very nice bonus material.)
Besides
Andy and Brad, there are 8 very impressive "faculty"
members, namely:
- Andy
Edmonds; Testing, Analytics, Customer Usability
and Customer Experience. My favorite, frankly and the one
with all the great scientific studies about eye tracking
and such.
- Dave
Taylor; Blogging and social networking expert.
This is one of the hottest topics today and not to be missed
in your business.
- Jerry
West; Branding, Copywriting and SEO expert.
- Leslie
Rohde; An incredible SEO expert with insights into
the inner workings of the Google (and other) algorithms.
- Dan
Thies; Expert on Pay Per click advertising.
- Sherman
Hu; Expert on blogging, and particularly the Wordpress
system.
- Don
Crowther; Brand marketing.
- Ed
Dale; Email marketing and info product creation.
Besides
that group there are about 30 paid expert moderators in the
forum.
Positive:
The type of material is unique and in great abundance. Every
time you see one of the short videos you immediately are motivated
to get to you site and make changes to capitalize on it.
The
examples are all based on real-life Websites (ones that are
making huge profits) that are NOT Internet marketing products.
They are truly niche products like wedding favors and scrapbooking
supplies.
The
special collection of super experts on the various topics
(see list of faculty above) is exceedingly impressive. To
have access to these guys in one private membership group
is like being friends with all the US senators.
The
amound of material they have is HUGE. In fact almost unheard
of.
The
owners Brad Fallon and Andy Jenkens are the real deal. They
practice what they preach and are making very good money on
their own niche sites.
Their
main premise is sound, that you should approach yor sales
site based on science and testing. No get-rich quick gimmicks
here. They teach solid techniques.
Negative:
Obviously the first huge red flag is the price. Eight
hundred dollars a month is clearly way out of reach of most
beginners.
Second,
while the amount of material is impressive, it may be too
much - way too much. It's easy to get lost in the array of
material and not know where to start. As I mentioned earlier,
you would need an army of employees to make all the changes
you'll want to make each time your listen to another video
or read another article.
The
organization of the site is a bit messy - disorganized. This
is partly due to the growth curve. When StompeNet was first
launched it was a small two-man operation. It grew very fast
leaving little time to get all the ducks in a row. That has
been getting better, but you notice the messy wake of the
growing pains a little too much.
StomperNet
is clearly NOT for
beginners. It is not a step-by-step starting guide to build
you from garage to guru (ooh, that was a clever phrase).
One
part of the ad campaign that scared me off was the promotion
of the RichJerk (Kelly Felix). During the pre-launch he made
a claim that he now had a financially controlling interest
in StomperNet. I quickly shot off an email to them asking
about this. The most troubling part was that I never received
a reply! Either they didn't want to answer it, or their suport
system was sadly lacking. There was no other alternative.
If it was not true this would have been a serious enough matter
to have prompted a major lawsuit.
The
lawsuit never happened and I still have no answer about the
matter. The evidence at this point points to the probability
of some truth to the claim. This to me is the most troubling
thing of all - for I have no love for RichJerk.
The
Bottom line
Ok,
so the bottom line is this. Way too expensive for the beginner.
However, if you have a going business now, and you're bringing
in from say $3000 - 4000 per month already, then this is for
you. Go for it. If you're already that savvy in marketing
then you will likely be able to use this mateial to triple
your income. It is indeed powerfule.
If
you want to get a nice sample, the I wholeheartedly recommend
the $1 trial (if you can get in!). You don't get everything
the paying members get, but the education you will get will
be tremendous. After that you can judge for yourself. A dollar
can't hurt you.
Stompernet
($700/month) ($1 one-month trial) This link
goes to the sellers description and order page. It opens in
a new window |
