The people who launched this product had huge traffic and so could link with others with huge traffic (yes I do mean Yaro and Darren – more power to their arms).

This meant they could generate lots of interest and lots of students very quickly.

For the rest of us in the blogosphere . . .? So it could mean lots of work to design the site and then (at least initially) gain few students.

One of the big problems I see is interactivity. Forums are part of the design and important. But when they get popular there are heaps of posts and so people become less inclined to read and interact. They are trying to deal with the problem at the moment by tweaking the forum structures. It seems more of a problem with the approach – success = lots of participation and commenting which leads to less participation and commenting.

It would be possible to prevent this by restricting the number of students, but then this would have financial implications which we wouldn’t like.

It is remarkably good on marketing.

You’re honest revew makes me think of joining blogmastermind where I suppose have none of the bad comments on teaching sells

Thanks for this post, I’m interested. As a guitar teacher that has been teaching guitar for 30 years and a teacher of information technology, I’m no doubt interested.

Tony Hogan

You might see Andy Wibbels there though – I think he’s decided to be active and really loves Brian’s work.

I joined a week ago and agree with your assessment. I hope the content gets more specific… the “teasing” about what’s to come in the next 12 weeks is starting to frustrate me. With a guarantee that expires within just 30 days, I fear Brian and Tony will lose members too impatient (or skeptical) to wait.

But I agree with you that anything developed by Brian will be top-quality and I plan to stick with it. I’ve learned a lot… not just from the training materials, but as has alread been mentioned, but using the course itself as a model.

Re: Affiliate program, here’s what Brian said on his blog: “I don’t really believe in general affiliate programs. Hand-picked joint ventures, yes. Actual members promoting the program? Sure. But unless I can take the time to personally walk you through what it’s all about, or unless you have personally experienced the training and can whole-heartedly recommend it, I don’t think it’s appropriate to have a bunch of people trying to sell something they know nothing about.”

I agree with that (unique!) approach.

Yaro, so far I have not seen any forum participation by the top bloggers who became members and are pitching the course (except for a couple of posts in the “introductions” section). One of the reasons I joined was because of Darren and others and the general idea that charter members would work together to make this course great. The idea of learning from the likes of Darren and Andy and Maki and YOU, in addition to Brian and others, was a huge selling point to me. But so far, nada from them.

I hope you will be a participating member. I’ve alread learned so much from you through your blog, the idea of learning even more from you on the topic of creating a teaching/membership site makes me drool.

It is the review that taught me a lot about presentation.
Thank you

This is far beyond university style learning. It’s engaging, relevant, interactive and cutting edge.

It’s about taking knowledge, raising its perceived value, and selling it.

Consequently I asked for my payment to be returned under the guarantee and this was dealt with the next day, with no further sell tactics. I really appreciated that.

Although the programme did not work for me on a number of levels, I liked the forum aspect, and I am sure that given the right product to promote, this method will be effective.

I totally agree with the case study side of things though I guess the ‘Learning Sells’ program is in itself a good example of exactly what they are preaching. Perhaps they can dissect it and use it as an example.

Affiliate Program – I’m sure I saw Brian post a comment somewhere saying there would not be any affiliate programs so it’s much to my surprise to see that you have one in place with him. Not that I mind more just a kind of observation.

I’m still on the fence at present and I’ll probably have a dig around more in the content before I make my mind up to test their refund policy.

One of the discussions was about subscription sites being an alternative to affiliate programs (as these may be coming to be seen as a kind of spam).

Instead emphasising joint ventures with hand picked individuals.

This may explain their attitude to an affiliate program. Or, they may just be very busy with the launch and still getting around to it.

I do want to comment though on Brian’s apparent policy on affiliates. He’s given a number of top bloggers advance info on the course, which is, of course, great marketing, but apparently there are no affiliate links for the common man. I wrote Brian directly on this as well … no answer to date … doesn’t seem to me … a way to generate that sort of ground swell viral interest. It rather makes the program look to those of us on the outside looking in as a sort of “insider’s club” deal, which would seem counter to most marketing efforts. Interesting approach.

I have to say I tend to agree with you. All the build-up & hype, and the ‘free report’ painted an excellent picture – and there really does seem to be some substance to the approach they’re promoting – but I have also been disappointed by the content so far.
In fact, I have already cancelled my subscription – so I will only get the 1st 3 months worth.
I have to agree with Evan Hadkins (above) – this ‘oh by the way, did we forget to tell you? You will be changed a US$97/3mth subscription unless you specifically cancel’ does NOT give me any warm fuzzies… It should be the other way round! (i.e. Your membership won’t continue unless you specifically choose to renew.)
Anyway, hopefully the content will improve…

If top bloggers sign up for this course, and start implementing it’s ideas, do you think it will lead to less high-quality free content being posted to the most popular blogs? … ie, the writers will hold back their “best” stuff for the paid course.

Todd

I’ve signed up to do this course – basically because Darren Rowse recommended it and it was affordable to a povo like me.

So far the content is a bit light on. However they assure us that this is because the topic so far is only introductory and the details will be filled in later.

They are brave people: most of the people posting to the fora are either experienced teachers, experienced on line or both. They are getting lots of feedback, all positive but by no means uncritical.

So far, the advice offered in the various fora are what makes the course worthwhile. Well worth the price of admission (at this low price). If the content stays at this level I don’t think the course will be much good.

The course has a very strong slant to making money and marketing. I think they are more marketing people than teachers. In one of their audio’s they say that teachers are salespeople! This shows pretty much where their heads are at. (I started a discussion thread protesting at this: and got all the marketing types saying ‘teaching really does sell etc’. Which just misses the point). Because the course is about making money from teaching their needs to be stuff about this, but it’s more that way than I would like.

If the course delivers on its promise (and there is no reason so far to doubt that it will) then it will be sensational value (at this price).

So that’s my take on the course so far.

If someone has the spare $97US (about $110AUS) it looks to be well worth taking a chance with.

NOTE the $97 is a three month subscription – and it will continue to be deducted if you don’t cancel. This was not highlighted in the advertising!