Yesterday, well known Internet marketer John Reese launched his much anticipated Traffic Secrets 2.0 internet marketing course.

I was impressed with the original Traffic Secrets course (bought a few years ago) and have since respected John Reese for both the way he thinks and the way he run his business. Although I have not seen the new version, I have every reason to believe that it will be a high quality course.

But who else would like to see a genuine, objective review of this (and other courses put out by Internet marketers) to help inform their buying decision?

No, not a “review” by an affiliate or a friend… an objective review by someone who is (a) qualified to comment, and (b) doesn’t have anything to lose or gain by giving us their honest opinion.

Do high profile Internet marketers actually make their products available to respected, independent people to review? My guess is no - mainly because they probably have little to gain, and possibly a great deal to lose, by providing their products for review.

Perhaps Internet marketers are smarter than those in the software and entertainment industries where product reviews are prevalent. Perhaps they know that there’s more to gain by turning reviewers into affiliates and affiliates into reviewers. And perhaps would-be reviewers also like the idea of providing a review that ends with an affiliate link.

But I still see the potential for this to change. Product reviews - both by experts and peers - are being used by an estimated 83 percent of online consumers. And with the growing popularity of Internet marketing product review forums such as the Warrior Forum’s Internet Marketing Product Reviews & Ratings sub-forum, we may see more info-product consumers demanding objective guidance before they hand over their hard earned cash for something.

If this happens, expect to see more product launches involving a pre-release to non-affiliate, independent, reviewers, as occurs in the publishing, music and movie industries.

In the meantime, I WAS impressed by the audio review of Traffic Secrets 2 given by Andy Jenkins, co-founder of StomperNet. StomperNet IS an affiliate for Traffic Secrets but the review was very thorough and convincing. You can listen to it here: http://www.stompernet.net/TSReview/ (and no, this is NOT an affiliate link!)

Source: Anna Johnson, “83 Percent of Consumers Use Online Product Reviews”, Kikabink News, July 10, 2008

Here’s a timely reminder for us all… Don’t automatically believe what an Internet marketer says - whether it’s in a sales letter, an article, a video, an audio, a post in a discussion forum, or anywhere.

It is EXTREMELY easy for someone to, for example, put up a sales letter selling a course on “how I made $1 million in less than a year”, provide a compelling sales letter to engender trust, and convince people that they have the keys to the magic kingdom.

And guess what? The course might even be quite good. It might be full of helpful advice. And the sales letter might be quite inspiring and motivational.

But here’s the problem - the course was ripped off from somewhere or someone else… the sales letter was written by a copywriting pro… and the person behind it all NEVER made $1 million in less than a year.

In other words, it is VERY easy to lie, given the anonymity of the Internet and the difficulty to verify claims. (I would love to see the day when an Internet marketer says “I made $20 million last year” and included an independent auditor’s statement i.e. from one of the major accounting firms that verified the truth of that statement!)

I am not pointing the finger at anyone in particular, here. I wouldn’t know who to point it to. I am not even saying that you should instantly dismiss someone’s claim of making a certain amount of money, or that you shouldn’t use TRUE earnings statements in your sales letters.

I am just saying that given how easy it is to concoct a story… make up a bogus claim of huge earnings… hire a copywriter to write top-notch copy… and plagiarize someone else’s content for an ebook, course or whatever… you need to know that not everyone may be telling the truth.

There ARE people who have incredible, motivational and TRUE stories of building successful businesses and substantial wealth in short amounts of time. There are Internet marketers who have achieved this. But please don’t blindly believe what someone says just because it sounds good.

Sometimes people don’t tell the truth…

No Internet marketer – well, no Internet marketer with at least a passing interest in search engine marketing – should be without:

1. The Firefox web browser - whether Firefox 2.0 or 3.0 (the latest version); or

2. The free SEO tools and software available from Aaron Wall’s Seobook.com website. These are available as plugins for Firefox.

I’ll cover some of these tools in future issues of Kikabink News. For now, though, let me explain why Aaron’s RankChecker tool is a must-have.

To put it simply, if you want to know how your website ranks for one or more keywords… RankChecker will tell you. You basically type in your domain name, type in however many keywords you wish to check, click “Start” and RankChecker will tell you where you rank (if at all) in Google (US and international), Yahoo Search, and Microsoft Live. You can also export the results in CSV format (i.e. to save in your spreadsheet program).

Click here to download or learn more about RankChecker (yes, it works with Firefox 3.0).

If you haven’t already, click here to download Firefox 3.0 (I’ve heard a couple people say it’s buggy but it seems fine to me… and it certainly leaves its main competitor in the dust).

Occasionally, I see discussions on various Internet marketing forums about whether or not the Internet marketing niche – the market for “how-to” Internet marketing information – is saturated.

In my view the answer is two-fold: yes, the Internet market is saturated with rubbishy, “me-too” products… and no, there is plenty of room for products and services that provide value to the target market.

So if someone plans to enter this niche with yet another low-value ebook, or course, or some other information product that delivers nothing more than regurgitated, out-of-date, or just plain wrong information… they’ll have plenty of competition!

If, on the other hand, they plan to deliver a product or service that is better and unique… there will likely be a market for that solution. The only real issue is how to cost-effectively reach the target market. That’s where traffic generation and conversion strategies and tactics are the keys to success.

Of course, Internet marketers with a low-value product but a few super-affiliates to promote for them - or some other highly effective means of generating traffic, building a list and converting it and so on - can probably still make some good money from their crappy products. But, as in most markets, the “survival of the fittest” rule prevails: over time, the crap sinks to the bottom and the cream rises to the top. After all, there are only so many refunds and complaints a super affiliate will take before they realize that promoting so-and-so’s product just isn’t worth it.

Of course, what exactly is rubbish… and what is better and unique? As you might imagine, it all depends on the target market. What is better and unique to someone just learning about how to build an Internet business is entirely different to what is better and unique to an accomplished Internet marketer.

So even though you may loathe those long-running infomercials promoting the products of certain high-profile Internet marketers and believe that what they’re selling is pure schlock… those products really are delivering value to their target markets. If they weren’t, these guys wouldn’t be running those expensive infomercials year after year.

Likewise, a certain ebook released by a high profile Internet marketer a couple of years ago yielded significant sales… even though it was riddled with spelling and grammatical mistakes. The guy behind it has only grown his business ever since. Which indicates, once again, that, to the target market, the product delivered value.

Yet, even though the quality of a given product or service may be in the eyes of the beholder… there is an objective indicator as well. It’s called: SALES!

And although it’s possible to have a fantastic product or service and still find it difficult to reach your market (in which case your sales may not reflect the quality of your product)… we are talking about the Internet marketing niche here. If you can’t market your own product or service online… is your product or service on how to market online really that good?