Review of Paul Evans Course Nicheology.com
This is my review of the 14 day course by Paul Evans called Nicheology.com. I am doing this on a $1 trial basis for 14 days, although at time of writing is available. Membership costs $97 per month if the trial is available and that is the cost at the end of the trial.
I have brought and experienced many Internet marketing courses (although I have not tried all the ones I have brought!) And I am writing this on a day by day basis and therefore will be updating this daily and will write a conclusion when I finished.
I purchased the course for several reasons. The first of is that I like the way Paul runs his business and the charitable work he
is involved in and promotes in Africa. As will probably already know we have a strong with tendency to buy from people that we like. And Paul seems a very nice person.
My initial impression of the site is that very well presented and there are a lot of tools and resources on their. Paul encourages you to have a look around the site and explore and he explains that this is not to overload or overwhelm you but just so that you have an idea of what is on site and where to find things. I think it is good that Paul emphasised that it is not to overwhelm you otherwise it could well do so. Paul encourages you then get on to the training is not in the obvious to find.
In the introduction video Paul tells you that you can complete the whole process in 3 to 4 hours then you are familiar with the system. That means that you can enter a new niche, but website, put all your PLR product and start something.
What I liked about the course to start with is that you get all 14 days of training up front so you can go as quickly as you like. My intention is to complete the course in half that time so that I can prove worth of the course before the $97 is due, and therefore cancel if necessary.
Also in the introduction video Paul goes through and supplies a time measuring software to focused in your 30 minutes a day, which I think is a fantastic idea. The software appears to be aimed at Mac users as PC users have some setting up to do before they
can use it.
Day 1.
The days tuition starts with a 6 minute video that adequately explains what you do and it involves picking one of the PLR products on the website, selecting and buying a domain name, creating the add-on domain within C-panel and pointing the name servers to your hosting account. At this point I realise that this is certainly a course for beginners or Newbies. Whilst Paul explains how to buy a domain from GoDaddy he assumes that you already have a web hosting, C-panel account and all those nothing to explain the importance of keyword selection and would leave you confused as to how to select the appropriate domain name. At this point I would expect any beginner to be completely overwhelmed give up. And even passed on experienced Internet marketeer 30 minutes is tight if you are going to do your keyword research thoroughly, which in itself could take 30 minutes.
Get a beginner Internet marketing was to carry out the steps including the all oughtn’t keyword research, then anticipate that they want to take 3 to 4 hours.
However I am not a newbie or beginner and love a challenge. I have not learned anything from today but I am excited at the prospect of condensing so much into the first day that following 13 days an awful lot of ground is going to be covered and I should therefore learn a huge amount and forward my Internet marketing career accordingly. I am a little intimidated that when I get my limit of experience, then the days “30 minutes of work” may be daunting but as I said at the beginning of this paragraph, I love a challenge.
Day 2
Well today was very easy and should take anyone less than 30mins quite easily. It’s all about personalising the PDF book. At this point I held in mind that Paul in the intro video just to get on with the basics and not to do much faffing! So that’s exactly what I did.
As it was so quick, I took a quick look at day 3 and oh my goodness! The first video is 23mins long and there is a second. It requires the set up of a auto responder, editing and putting up a squeeze page etc. Paul intro in the video says we had it easy day 1 and 2 and now the works begin.
Well I’m still up for the challenge but I am going to allocate 2 or 3 hours!
“Wealth from the get rich quick schemes disappears: Wealth from hard work grows over time”. Proverbs 13:11
Day 3
Phew! Thankfully day 3 was not as bad as I feared. Whilst I thought the 23 minute video the new subjects to was fearing the worse. However I went one step at a time and kept stopping the video, switching screens and carrying out the task. Overall I guess it took me about one and a half hours.
Paul recommends using Komposer a free website editor and gives you a link to it enable you to edit the squeeze page template that he provides. In the second six minute video shows you how to make a presentable looking squeeze page from scratch without using his template. As I am personally on the with Front Page I use this to edit the page rather than starting a program. I realise most people reading this will think that Front Page is a pain in the Butt, but as I already familiar with it I find it easy to use.
Paul’s video then shows you how to set up and use Aweber auto responder. This is something that I have avoided doing for some time, probably to the detriment, but swallowed whole and followed Paul’s instructions. I signed on for an accepted the $1 month trial and I was amazed how easy it was to set up and use and was very pleased with myself that I have finally taken the plunge. Well done Mr Evans.
The videos show you how to upload everything using filezilla, which I note a lot of people recommend. I personally have installed and am familiar CoreFTP so I used that instead.
I am very pleased with what I have learnt and achieved in today’s session. If I was a complete beginner and was not familiar with web page editing software and FTP upload software then I guess would have taken me three or four hours to complete tasks
Not a chance look at tomorrow’s video very much looking forward it
Day 4
Today’s video is just short of 12 minutes long and goes through finding products to promote on Clickbank and then shortening the URLs look better and stopping people in the know stealing your affiliate sales!
I already had a bank account and so I was familiar with my way round however I have not previously used the advanced search and that was useful to learn. Unfortunately the product I have chosen has very little complimentary products on bank and so searching took quite some time. In the end I managed to find a few products and I also looked at Amazon and got a couple of products from there.
I have not previously used a URL shortening/customising system and it was useful to find out about it and reasonably easy to use. As well as shortening BudURL does some tracking. I have installed on our server Tracking 202 which does a similar thing, although URL are not as neat, but does great tracking. But for this trial I am going with BudURL.
Because of the difficulty of finding products today’s lesson probably took me about an hour and if someone didn’t have a bank account and wanted to spend time learning it could take longer depending on how easy it was to find appropriate products. On watching Paul go through on the niche that he is using as an example then I will select a more popular category on Clickbank as there would appear to be greater potential than the niche/PLR product I have selected.
Whilst it is tempting to go back and start again at this point I want to see the process through and make an informed decision at the end. I am mindful that in Paul sales pitch he says that all the PLR products/niche is on his side have been researched, hence their inclusion. I have picked a niche that is of interest to me and therefore it would be great if I can make it work.
Day 5
On the face of it today’s task fairly straight. It is a short video of about 11 mins but it is still longer than it needs to be! Paul lets you watch while he writes and corrects and corrects 2 of the letters in the auto responder series. Whilst he is trying hard to impart the Psychology of selling (which he does quite well in the extension to the video) we do not need to see him typing and then correcting it. Towards the ends Paul says you do not need to see me type all 5, and I thought thank goodness for that!
So today’s task is to write 5 emails in the responder series. Not as easy as it sounds and it took quite some time. I would guess about 1.5 hours and I guess I could have done it better and should have spent 3 hours over it. Paul’s claim that if you are up to speed with the system you can do it all in 3 to 4 hours is looking unlikely.
If you want to know more about the Psychology of selling then you MUST read “Influence The Power of Persuasion” as I said it’s a must! It will explain how you can get people to buy your stuff, which of course you need to know and some of the techniques and experiments conducted and the results will blow your mind. It will also explain why you buy so much you don’t need, how to recognise the tactics and what to do about them. Go buy now, if you want to be successful its needs to be studied read yearly so that you know it inside out.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials)
Days 6 & 7
There is a short video for days 6 and 7 which cover the editing of the PLR book and then producing a PDF from the finished product. As well as the short video for today there was a link to a whole section of additional videos giving you advice on how you can create a much better product. (10 videos in total which includes adding audio, video squeeze page except) I looked at some of the videos but did not have time to watch them all.(For some reason the videos did not open and run in my Google chrome browser so I tried Opera that seem to load up some Camtasia files and everything worked well)
By way of explanation and going to tell you that in the shower this morning I was having doubts about the PLR product that I have chosen and I was thinking of starting the whole process again. However after much deliberation I decided that it was better to continue to the end with the product I have selected and that market so that I learned the process.
Underneath the video as well as a link to the additional videos there is a link to make online PDF Creator in case you don’t have one. I personally use cutePDF on my computer and Nitro PDF on my work is. CutePDF is a free software which is great for private use and will suit most people although it is very limited. Nitro PDF which is a paid for program has many advanced features such as password protection, optimisation, being able to edit PDF’s, conversion to Word documents etc
So for me day 6 and 7 has been very quick, which was just what I wanted so that I can get on track with completing the 14 day before my 14 day one dollar trial expires!
In Paul’s video he explains that today is a short lesson and you can possibly combine it with day 9 and that they are indeed complementary. And indeed it did not take long to carry out the task that Paul has set for today. However I found out that I had made an error in an earlier days training where Paul had tried to put in the URL of the offer page and it worked. At that point he did not stress the significance of that point and as he prefixed his instructions with a try and see if this works I did not realise the significance. Anyhow no biggie but it took me about 10 minutes to go back into Aweber and just identify where that URL was. A little frustrating but it will no doubt help me to learn my way around a Aweber so no bad thing.A small comment on the video is that it appears to stop a couple of times although the seconds tick away nothing happens more is said which just made me a little bit curious as to what was happening but in the end. As I have indicated earlier I am truly using this as an exercise now that I think I’m in the wrong niche so I did not spend much time editing just the bare minimum. The training is good at moving you forward.
PS. A note on Clickbank requirements of the pitch page is that a contact e-mail address should be provided. If you already have an approved Clickbank account then this is not an issue but if you are going through the approval process you will need to add this.
Day 9
Well I think I may have been having a thickness problems today all may be the video was not as clear as some of the others. The day is about getting your click bank link and a thank you page. I was first thwarted by the fact that I was working on my laptop from home which does not have Microsoft FrontPage all call FTP on. I did think of downloading Kompositor and trying that got noticed that it was based on NVU, which I have used previously and did not like. So I installed FrontPage and core FTP, set up core FTP for the two hosting companies are used, which again was not straightforward as I got one of the IP addresses wrong! Anyway after about an hour and was good to go.
The video assumes that you already have a product approved in click bank, although Paul does explain that there are instructions on click bank site telling you how to get your first product approved and there are also some videos that follow this one to help and he uses the option of an additional course from him for another $49.95. This is in no way pushy.
The problem is that to get your first product approved by click bank you need download page and that is Day 10. Paul does mention this but not very helpfully. I would have thought it preferable to show you how to do a download page and then you can go straight into click bank and request approval. So I practice about with this under my own steam and made something that hopefully meets ClickBanks requirements although I can always edit it tomorrow in that lesson. I have previously tried to get a product approved in click bank and failed. So effectively I am starting with my first product which you need to get approved by click bank before you can proceed with selling the item. So I went through all the processes including doing the test etc but then after submitting you get a message saying that it takes 3 to 5 days for approval and of course this takes us right to the end of the course.
So not my best day and I think not Paul’s best video. My day was not helped by the fact that my download page was a PDF which for some reason Safari could not find it so I get renaming and pratting about to trying it to work, only to find that it worked great in Windows Explorer and Google chrome so there appeared to be some issue with Adobe/Safari and not my work! (See additional videos to assist in registering your first product for approval with click bank is based on another product and using a different editing software etc which then becomes a little confusing)
Still no sign of where the traffic is going to come from!
Day 10
By the way day 9 probably took me about an hour and a half to complete. Day 10, 20 minute video today which includes making a thank you page and a download page and setting up Aweber for the customer list. Quite straightforward today or so I thought, I had already done a thank you page which needed some alteration and their download page but what much work. Aweber again was refreshing easy to use.
I have one problem after I had created the form in Aweber, I copied the JavaScript into Microsoft FrontPage and all they gave me was the script previous and not the form. I copied it several times, or below did it and tried that in each type at the same. I then decided that maybe I had previously copied the full HTML script so I tried that and again looked at it in my browser as well as FrontPage but all I saw was the script and not the form. Frustrating to say the least!
I then had a lightbulb moment and wondered if Safari was bringing in additional would and so I copied the JavaScript into notepad and then into FrontPage and low and behold it worked first time. This is the second day that using Safari has caused me a certain amount of grief. I like the look and feel of Safari (I’m a PC user) but maybe it is not suitable for Internet marketing type stuff.
So today should have taken me about an hour, although I guess because the problem with Safari was properly nearer two hours. But the video was clear and easy to follow. I have had to alter the pages that for click bank to approve, and I think my original setup i.e. without an opt in step, may have been more except the ball to click bank as it was easier to get the download. We will have to wait and see what click bank think of it.
Day 11.
Interesting and easy day today. Paul goes on to develop the download page to use it as an up and sell and then send you on to another download paid to actually download. He also shows you how to take the auto responder series you have developed for prospects and use that for customers.
I am reluctant to alter my download page from an actual download page until such time as I have approval from ClickBank. This may be not necessary but having previously had a product knocked back on Clickbank I do not want to take any risks at this point.
With regard to developing the auto responder list for customers, as I am now having second thoughts on this niche I will leave doing anything with this until such time as I have a customer although it is a great tactic to use in my next niche.
One point of note is that Paul uses a testimonial from the affiliate site and incorporate it in his own. As I am sure you are aware there are rules set out by the FTC in using testimonials which website owners would need to be aware of before copying Paul’s actions blindly.
Day 12.
Interesting day. I have received an e-mail from ClickBank advising that in order for my product to be approved I need to add an e-mail address on the “pitch page”. I am a look back to Day eight when this was covered and Paul makes no mention of this and indeed he does not include an e-mail address on his sales page. This works in Paul’s example as he is already approved by click bank but it will not work for anyone else. I will add a note to day 8 for anyone reading this and going through the process and needing to get approval for the first product.
A short video of today testing the whole process from going on the site in the first instance, through to signing up, getting sent to the sales page, buying, getting the product and the upsell and checking that everything was recorded correctly in Aweber. Seems easy enough!
One thought I had whilst watching the video and Paul appears to avoid answering is what it can’t details do you enter as obviously you don’t want to be paying for the privilege of testing. As it happened, because my product is not yet approved by a web I have to use a test credit card anyway. (It may be that you can use a test we can’t when you have an approved Aweber account as well but I have not and therefore cannot be sure.
I had also forgotten how to get the test credit card details and for anyone reading who has also forgotten, you log into your bank account, go to account settings, my site and scroll down to the bottom where there is a message that for a test credit card click on the edit button and then following the instructions.
I tried this using a different e-mail address to my testing when setting up the account and everything went swimmingly until I entered my e-mail address into the download page when Aweber sent me an error message saying I was already a member. A little bit of investigation revealed that on the download page I had imported the e-mail account that I originally used to testing and not the one I’d started this process with. So operator error!
It’s frustrating for somebody knew that the process not to have been advised to include the e-mail address on the pitch page and not to have explained how you test the process without inserting your own credit although that could be me as being a bit thick.
Day 13
I forgot to mention yesterday, that for anyone getting approval for the first time with ClickBank there is a one-off charge of $49.95 that they refer to as a activation charge. Just something to be aware of.
In today’s video Paul goes through ways of promoting your site to get back links and ranking. As Paul explains this course and his site is not focused on this topic but has covered it briefly to give you an overview and pointed you in the direction of somebody else’s course if you wanted to go down the Google ad words route.
For the nine minutes but Paul spends explaining this he does a fairly good job and I found the references to go articles.com and social marker.com particularly useful.
The video shows its age slightly in that you are now able to search Google for blogs etc by clicking in the left-hand column rather than having to type the word blog or forum etc into the search box.
Only one day left.
Day 14.
A short video today with no actual work involved. Paul tells you….. well actually I’ll leave you to see the video. So I have got to the end of the programme and tomorrow I will write my on the course I am where I am going from here.
My Conclusion.
The 14 days training is well thought out and goes through most things very well with only a couple of minor errors. There are however in my mind 2 omissions. The 1st is that the importance of keyword research is not discussed and therefore what domain name to go for and the 2nd, which is a related omission, is that getting traffic to the site by organic means and SEO is covered only very superficially.
Paul makes assumptions about the knowledge of the participate but does not set out at the beginning what skills you need before starting. And that would improve the user experience.
- Can it be done in 30mins per day for 14 days, I think that is tight for all but the experienced, and they would not need the course.
- Do you have a ready to go website and system at the end ready to make money that you can then rinse and repeat. Yes, but you then need to know how to get some traffic.
- Is it suitable for newbie’s? No
It is a good course for someone with a reasonable amount of knowledge the following and it would be an improvement if Paul set these out as prerequisites, then the 14 days is a reality;
• Knowledge of keyword research,
• has Hosting account,
• has brought domains,
• familiar with Komposer or similar HTML editing program and a FTP program.
• knows how to get traffic to the site,
• knows his/her way around Clickbank would be an advantage although not essential.
The course for me has pulled together a logical sequence of using PLR or something similar and using a auto responder. I enjoyed it and got a lot out of it.
Am I going to continue my membership. No sorry Paul not now. Now I better know the system, I will try another Niche, drive some traffic and see what money flows in. When the money is flowing I will come back and join as there are vast resources on the site I would like to try but did not have the time, and I am a member of a couple of other premium sites and cannot get round their material either.
So thanks for the course Paul. I will be back, hopefully soon as soon as the system proves itself financially!
