A No-BS Product Review of Anik Singal and Jeremy Palmer’s PPC Classroom September 26, 2007
Posted by Andrew Wee in : affiliate marketing , trackbackA major grouse I have with “shopping comparison sites” is that there’s often no “comparison” involved. They’re usually just a bunch of scraped data from affiliate datafeeds. There’s no “opinion” or comparison of the pros and cons of the product. Just a pile of digital trash on the information highway in my opinion.
It’s frequently the same case with Internet Marketing product “reviews” too…You know those ads that go:
“Is Product XYZ A Scam? Check here to find the facts!”
OR
“Don’t Buy Product XYZ Till You Read This Review”
OR my favorite
“An Honest Review of Product XYZ” (yeah right…)
If you head over to the page, you usually see a regurgitation of the marketing material, or just a listing of the product’s specifications, the price and maybe some bogus “bonus”…whoopee…
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In my past vocation as a tech journalist, I used to evaluate product and service offerings from the likes of Microsoft, Iomega, Diamond Multimedia, Creative Technology among others. The product reviews were subsequently syndicated on the newswires and online tech portals, so I’ll use the same methodology here as well.
What’s good and bad about PPC Classroom?
First off, the product is pretty comprehensive.
From the product graphic, it looks like:
- 4 manuals
- 7 discs (probably a combination of CDs or DVDs)
- At least 8 handouts
- Super Affiliate Jeremy Palmer’s “top secret” software tool for tracking ad campaigns across various pay-per-click search engines (a necessity once you are spending large amounts on PPC on a daily basis).
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Regarding the course structure, it’s geared towards newer affiliate marketers with topics on:
- An introduction to PPC and affiliate marketing
- Keyword matching
- Understanding PPC stats
- Finding niches and identifying hot demand
- Evaluating your competition and building your USP (unique selling proposition)
And the bread and butter of the PPC-affiliate marketing trade, affiliate marketing monetization strategies including:
- Direct linking
- Arbitrage/direct merchange linking
- Landing pages
- Opt-in (a hybrid PPC->email marketing approach)
- and evaluating the different categories of offers.
Intermediate level affiliate marketers will likely benefit from more advanced topics like:
- Complementary keyword strategies
- The keyword buying cycle
- Long end of the tail
- How to find emerging/undiscovered products
- Geo-targeting/time-based campaigning/day parting
- Keyword trigger/content trigger/hybrid strategies
- And a dissection of landing pages
Jeremy also chips in with his advanced tips and techniques, and emphasizes topics like ROI and bidding and positioning strategies.
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Although there’s lots of material to go through, it’s laid out in an easy-to-understand manner.
Is PPC Classroom a complete product?
Not likely. If anything, things change so quickly in the Internet Marketing arena that no single product will be able to contain “everything”.
Which is why Anik and Jeremy have set up a series of webinars and have a forum in the works.
If it’s anything like Anik’s previous Affiliate Classroom program, you can expect to have a flood of content and continuing updates.
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What I liked about the course content is that they’ve got a crack technical writing team to put the written materials together.
The concepts are explained in an easy-to-understand and sequential manner and are a stark contrast to the barely comprehensible manner in which most “make money online” books are written.
If you’re looking for a few quick and dirty tips to make a few quick bucks from your typical $47 or $97 ebook, PPC Classroom will not be your cup of tea. In fact, you’d probably find that there’s way too much reading involved…
If instead, you’re looking for a great resource to start building an online business, PPC Classroom is certainly worth a second look.
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I’m not directly promoting PPC Classroom.
If you’re interested, you might like to check out this bonus package that my buddy, Super Affiliate Amit Mehta has put together.
Popularity: 16%
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Andrew,
The training program for Google Adwords Certification effectively costs $1000, because that’s what you’re required to spend (within 3 months) to take the test. The thing is, you get value for those $1000.
You say that PPC Classroom is a great resource to start building on online business, and I believe you.
My question is — which is the better alternative: Adwords + Certification or PPC Classroom?
Thanks!
John
John,
It depends on your goal.
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The Google AdWords professional certification involves paying a nominal fee (it’s about $50 in Singapore) and taking a series of tests.
The “major” element is the AdWords ad spend.
The certification is useful is you’re selling paid search consulting services, and the knowledge you’ll pick up in the process will give you a better understanding of how the PPC bidding, pricing and mechanism is structured.
If you’re a paid search consultant, I believe the string of certifications from Google and Yahoo are useful for establishing credibility.
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If you’re an affiliate marketer, PPC Classroom or other high quality affiliate training will give you hands-on operational knowledge on monetizing your paid search.
As far as I’m aware, none of the certifications would go into link masking, geo-tracking/geo-targeting from a business/profit-oriented perspective. (merely a tech/operational one…).
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Maybe one of the other super affiliates or affiliate networks (Geordie? Amit?) might elaborate on this.
Hi John,
That’s a great question. I myself don’t have Adwords certification, even though I’ve spend up to $10k/day on Adwords. Adwords Certification will teach you the basic. A course like PPC Classroom will teach how to actually make real money with Adwords.
The question about the Adwords certification training is definitely valid. Google’s stated goal for the Adwords cert program is to train search marketing professionals in ALL aspects of the Adwords program. Those aspects include more than just PPC- they include Audio ads, video ads, Google CPA, Print ads, and Mobile Ads.
Now, knowing that the Google course will be comprised of ALL of these elements, what’s better: to spend your time and money on a course that teaches just the search PPC portion, or all the Print, Audio, Mobile ad etc., features?
Add to that strategies for actually making money with the system, vs. just the mechanics, and it’s no contest. I haven’t looked at the PPC Classroom stuff, but I’ve met Anik and he’s authentically established as an authority in successful PPC as is Jeremy, so I’m sure it’s good value.
Hi Andrew
Thanks for the PPC classroom review.
Also, you have an interesting discussion here on the PPC classroom and Google Adwords Certification.
Keep those posts coming..
Amit & Andrew,
I purchased the PPC CLASSROOM course before seeing amit’s bonus…Is this bonus avail. for sale? Thanks
Hi Chris,
It is. I’ll keep in touch with you on this.
Andrew,
I was interested in the PPC classroom review because it seems to work for real but dismissive of Adwords certification as it is poor in my own opinion at the present time.
Hi sue,
It’s hard to imagine that the leader in organic and paid search would have poor certification.
I’ve heard that you pick up useful knowledge as you’re getting certified, but like the others have said, you don’t get profit making techniques during the certification process
John,
I got certified in google adwords a months ago.. I thought It was a good introduction … I had to study about a week fortunately I had some previous experience meaning I had already spent the prerequisite
Im more of a beginning affiliate as when I took the test I had one successful PPC campaign at that point
I am seriously considering PPC classroom myself presently ..
My google adwords cert has not done much except look nice on my website but that said it was good to take the test because it made me study hard.. If I hadnt had to take a test then I might have not have focused as much and I did learn some things ..
Anyways … There is a LOT of good and FREE information in the google adwords learning center. But I see this information as a necessary prerequisite these days if you are serious about ppc.
That is you will have to learn the ins and outs of adwords if you want to make money with PPC whether its through the google adwords learning center, perry marshall or some other resource.
As Amit said a google adwords cert doesnt teach you how to make money online.
My max daily spend about $100 a day
not $10000
hope that helps
good luck
Fields
Thanks for weighing in Amit, Andrew and Geordie. I still think I am going to go proceed with the Adwords Certification, despite the shortcomings you point out when you compare it to the accumulated monetization knowledge packed into PPC Classroom. I will definitely consider PPC Classroom once I have completed the certification (still have 1.5 months to go).
My goal is to focus on Adwords expertise because I really enjoy it and I am getting a bit overwhelmed with all the online marketing specialties. I was getting 10% CTR on 9 cents a click for my Bible website before I started reading anything about it. The thing is, I haven’t made a *single* penny off that traffic (though I’ve collected a lot of emails), and I think that’s where something like PPC classroom can help. That’s OK. I have a job and I have time to build up my expertise.
One thing — you guys who have “made the leap” may not worry about establishing credibility as a freelancer/consultant. But those of us still in the workaday routine are still very much concerned with building credibility - — not just as freelancers, but as employees. If I get Adwords Certification before my next review, that strengthens my prospects for a raise… Mind you, I want nothing more than to support myself through my own online projects — I love it — but I also want to hedge my bets, which is why I’ll go for the certification.
Thanks again all,
John
Hi Andrew, I also purchased PPC Classroom prior to seeing Amit’s bonuses. Let me know if you have a special bonus deal for me too?
Regards, Jared
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