Honest Marketing Secrets

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Who I Am and Why I Took the Social Marketing Plunge
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Approximately two years ago, when I started down my marketing studies path, I began searching for someone who shared my own feelings about marketing. Like many others not involved in the daily hustle of the marketing world, I’d always thought marketing was a dirty word and wanted nothing to do with the spammers I thought all marketers were.

I come from a technical, geekish background and have always been more at home on Digg, or Slashdot. In fact, I got started with the whole social news thing on Slashdot back in the very beginning and I maintain a fairly skeptical outlook on marketing in general to this day.

I’m suspicious of anyone showing up in my social circle and immediately hawking something, even if it’s exactly what I need. I can’t tell you how many times I saw the community cut off its nose to spite its face just to get back at a marketing type guy who was not even spamming and gaming the system, but just trying to let folks know about a resource and get paid for it at the same time. It’s not that there was anything wrong with getting paid, but HOW you did it made all the difference and that lesson was frequently all too subtle for most to pick up.

So why the history lesson? I’m happy to say that as a geek who usually wants nothing to do with marketing in a traditional sense, I’m thrilled to say that Jack Humphrey is a breath of fresh air in a world where almost everything is flimflam with a fresh coat of paint and a desperate glad-handing handshake.

I joined the Social Power Linking program the day it launched and have already started to see wonderful results. Jack Humphrey speaks to my geek side as well as my side that wants to do marketing in a different and more transparent, honest way. Social Power Linking has been around for a while, quietly building a loyal following. They don’t have to scream it on the mountaintop and, in fact, I’m glad they don’t; it’s why I’m glad to be a part of it.

If you have wanted to know what’s next in the internet marketing world, if you have wanted to have more traffic for your web site (massive traffic, in fact), if you want to have complete integrity about the way you get your message out to the community and if you want to finally have all your questions answered by a friendly and very helpful group of folks all interested in this social marketing phenomenon, then you owe it to yourself to take advantage of this remarkable program while you can.

Jack says he’s maintaining such a low price purposely because he knows that most people who actually need this information are not part of the very small community of internet marketers and he wants to make it accessible to a much wider audience. I applaud that sentiment and it’s yet another reason I continue to be impressed with Jack and the entire program.

If you are curious about what the Social Power Linking program includes, here’s a taste of the contents:

First off, the whole program is laid out in a series of steps.

STEP 1
An orientation video that explains the program processes and gives a great overview.

STEP 2
Two Comprehensive QuickStart Objective PDFs: The Objectives of a Professional Social Marketing Campaign. Next in step 2 you study the Authority Black Book and Bending the Web in case you haven’t already. They are free, by the way, and you can download them right now and get a feel for why I’m so glad I found this stuff–those links will take you to them. Even if you JUST get the Authority Black Book, you can utterly change the traffic patterns on your site with that alone.

STEP 3
Social Power Linking Intensive Training (SPLIT)
2, 3-hour webinars (6 hours total training) that show and tell all. A great course in itself plus 3 PDF guides to introduce and give extra info including the slides that went with the original presentation.

STEP 4
Includes bonus software which is a copy of Web2Submitter, currently being sold for $47. This includes training and use and is an invaluable time saver as you begin your journey into social power linking and marketing.

STEP 5
A membership in the Buzz group which is certainly worth as much as the Social Power Linking program itself. This alone will produce a ton of traffic.

Additional Training
After the first five steps you then move on to over 14 training videos (and growing), and the Social Power Linking 60-Day Jump Start Plan. This plan and will take everything you’ve learned thus far and help you build a program for your ongoing traffic generation on a long term as well as short term basis. This Jump Start Plan is so packed full of information it will blow your mind. When you see the strategy outlined within, you’ll really understand just how comprehensive and well planned a strategy it is; it all comes together here.

Audio Training
There is also additional audio-based training (MP3s) and they are adding more stuff all the time.

Forum
Lastly, the forum is where you can ask questions of your fellow social marketing mavens and can speak with Jack himself. There are great links to cutting edge videos, PDFs and articles as well as answers to your questions here. Indeed, the word smorgasboard comes to mind and it’s growing fast. Yes, I’m biased, could you tell? You will be too.

Any Negative Points?
If there is a negative point it would only be that the program is SO new (launched on December 17, 2007) that the community is still on the small side, although it’s growing rapidly. Additionally, although there is a lot of initial material, it remains to be seen whether the program sustains it’s initial high level of information quality.

However, like those of us who have already begun the program, you’ll realize that the program’s short time in existence is yet another huge opportunity for you to dive in now before two things happen that are not in your favor:

First, right now you have immediate access to some of the best minds in the Web 2.0, social marketing world and if the program keeps growing at the current rate, that MAY change (although I’m sure Jack will make certain it retains the outstanding level of high quality it has today) but the point is, right now is the best time you can imagine to get in on this and have direct access to Jack and these other experts in the social marketing arena.

Second, the price just may go up. There are programs that purport to offer the same thing as Social Power Linking, but some of them are as much as $1400 and are limited to a relatively small group. If you are on the fence, spend $30 and check it out right now because once you’re in at $30 a month, you’ll be able to stay in at $30, even if it goes up to $100, or more. I’m thrilled I gave it a shot as I am now poised to completely change my entire business in 2008.

Affiliate Program
Finally, if you are interested in having your membership in the program paid for, they also have an affiliate program that pays 50% for each sale for every month that someone you refer remains a member.

Frankly, I still can’t believe Jack is offering Social Power Linking for so little. When I first signed up a little voice was saying, “Wow, that’s gotta be a typo on the price there buddy, don’t get your hopes up!” But nope, it was the real price and I’ve never been so glad to plunk down my $30 a month. It’s still available at that price last time I checked.

I hope lots of self-proclaimed non-marketers as well as business folks wondering where on earth to begin getting their message out will give this a serious look. I did it simply because what Jack is doing is a great a service to all of us who always knew there was a better way to exchange value in our communities. Jack Humphrey’s Social Power Linking proves that there really is a better way, and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

I wish you all the best no matter what you choose and hope you’ll let me know what you think as you travel along your marketing and/or geek path.

Thanks for reading and be well!

-Zack