I haven’t bought this program, but have gotten lots of emails from my guru emailers telling me to buy it. Should you buy it?
Quick notes…
I checked out the sales letter here (naked link – not an affiliate link).
Based on that sales page, you’ll get software to set up a membership type site on your own server. Like a mini-Facebook. Then they say, you can charge members monthly fees if you want, or place classifieds, etc. and market to the members pretty much at will. The main pitch here is to people who know Facebook has 200 million+ members. But you as a marketer cannot easily advertise to them. Facebook doesn’t allow that. Mean old Facebook. So here – get your own social networking site!
One promoter even says this is the way to “give Facebook the finger” and start your own Facebook
The sellers, experienced and rabid marketers (good guys) say:
“We Raked In $52,937 In 30 Days From Social Networking With A Push-Button Simple Tool That Turns Any Niche Into A Profit-Pulling Six Figure Income.”
Here’s my take (based on the sales letter – I do not have the program).
1. These two guys have been working hard in Internet Marketing and have sold a lot of ‘how-to-make-money-online programs in the past few years. That’s good and bad.
Good – they can give you good tools. Bad – they can get results way faster than someone without their experience. So the fact that they took in $52k in 30 days doesn’t mean that you will. Compare your experience first. Then you’ll have a better sense of how long it might take you to earn these kinds of returns.
2. Facebook is popular in part because people can go and socialize without being bombarded with ads. Interest groups get together online to discuss ideas, issues, and common concerns. They don’t come to be sold. Do you go to Facebook or MySpace to be sold? Or to buy stuff? Would they come to your social network site to do that?
3. Say you have your new social niche site set up. Where will the users come from? Create compelling content about your niche, says the sales letter. This is not a fast process. Great if you love writing, though. If you are into an interest group yourself, like bird cages, this will be great fun. If you don’t have a strongly developed interest you can write about (or make videos about, or audios) you’ll have to find one. That will take time so plan for it.
4. You’ll need to market your niche site to bring traffic. Traffic generation (good traffic, not freebie seekers) is one of the main challenges anyone doing online marketing faces. Not easy. Not fast, not cheap. How does one get hungry buyers to their site? Isn’t that the question every marketer online asks? The site by itself won’t do it…sigh. No matter how great you think it is. Gotta learn traffic generation.
5. If you (or a partner) have an area of interest, love it madly, and want to build an online group around it, this could be the perfect program for you to get. Because you can draw on your existing clients or others in your niche who want a place to below (say – moms starting a second career from home).
True, everyone would like to market to all the hundred million Facebook members. But ask yourself, did Facebook get those members because they were selling stuff to them?
That’s not to say people don’t buy stuff there, but that’s not the first reason people go to Facebook. They go to set up THEIR profiles, and start THEIR friends lists, share THEIR music and books and stories. It’s about THEM, not you. And it’s not about buying stuff there. Even though they might. It’s not what drives them to initially visit the site.
But yes, you can sell to a niche for sure. Once you’re established as a leader in the niche, someone people follow because they’re of like mind. I sell to my readers because they’re of like mind with me about how to do sales. However, new folks don’t buy right away. I have readers who didn’t buy for 2 years after they got on my subscriber list. People who are new to me come to the blog first and learn what I do and teach, and see if there is a match. That takes time. Sometimes years.
My point is that if you set up a niche interest site to benefit others of like mind, and then pitch them too soon on products you want to sell, well many will leave.
Very tricky.
But if you are part of a niche you love madly, and if you see yourself as a leader of a group, even ten people, this could be a wonderful program for you. Because you can bring them together and start your club. You will enjoy the process. Over time, they’ll start to click on ads and buy stuff that helps further their interests, just like we all do.
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Hi Kim,
I was looking through my feed reader and saw quite a few unread posts of yours. Haven’t had a lot of free time lately to read them. 😉
Based on your description (no time to or interest in reading the sales page) I don’t know why you would need to pay for this. I recently sold a blogging course and set up a members only area on ning. Anyone can go to http://www.ning.com and set up their own social network for free. No need to buy anything. You can choose to make it public so others can find it or “by invitation only” if it’s a members area that you charge for.
AND, others can search ning for these social networks. For example, if I’m selling a book of knitting patterns and I set up a knitting social network, whenever someone searches for “knitting” they will find my social network and possibly join. I can then have an add for my knitting pattern book on the site while socially networking with other knitters for free about a subject I must like if I put together a book of knitting patterns.
This, just like anything else, you have to use common sense with. It’s just like you say in your last paragraph. But don’t PAY anyone for this type of software. Use ning for free and leverage their search engine.
Have a great day!!
Roxanne
I started using facebook not long ago, I find it to be more of an entertainment outlet than any kind of business networking scheme (but that is just me I guess). I think the program as it is offered, as explained in your post, is probably too good to be ‘real’. Granted they have experience and everything, but the common Joe that buys into it won’t have the experience, or the know the in’s and out’s of making it work. So, I would tend to think that it is not a great idea for people just getting starting out.
This is a really nice review and you made a lot of good points. And I think a lot of people underestimate ning.com
As with any program you buy or start from scratch the MAJOR issue is how are you going to generate traffic? You can put up a fancy website or blog but nobody will see it unless you’re driving traffic to it and that takes time.
As always there are pieces of the puzzle missing and if you want to drop about $ 1000 on Niche Socializer I would rethink it!
Andrew