SmartAff.org Review
September 9, 2007 Posted by Tyler CruzThe following is a paid review and is completely of my own opinion and is not influenced by being paid. If you’re interested in having me review your site or product, you can purchase a review from me through PayPerPost by clicking on the PayPerPost Direct button located at the top left of my blog.
SmartAff.org is a site created by a semi-retired millionaire named Joe from Kentucky.
Joe is an affiliate marketer who appears to have had great success in the industry with his company JJSmith Marketing and wants to help other affiliate marketers become successful as well.
As you might expect, SmartAff.org is a site which is basically selling affiliate training. Our friend from Kentucky’s goal is to create a community for affiliate marketers in which he shares his tips and tricks that helped to make him a millionaire.
The website itself contains very little information. Instead, the majority of the information is contained in the 15-minute video on the front of the site.
The video is the standard affiliate-marketing promotion video that scatters the web, with screenshot proof of earnings, motivational slogans, etc. While I listened to Joe speak very casually in his southwestern accent, I could sense that he was building up really hard to a sale… I could just sense it. And after sitting through many spelling and grammatical mistakes from the text on the video, it finally came – membership to SmartAff.org will most likely be on a monthly basis and be around $270 a month.
While Joe seems to conduct himself in the traditional e-book, sketchy car salesman manner, he does appear to know what he’s talking about (from the limited information I was presented with).
For example, he made a simple but very intriguing statement in the video that I have never really thought about before. He started by stating how all the traditional advertising metrics really didn’t matter (CPC, CPM, CPA, etc.) except for RPV (Return Per Visitor) which makes sense. And that all that matters is maximizing RPV.
He continued by saying that by maximizing RPV, through any method such as adding CPM ads to the site or whatever is necessary, that as a result he is able to spend more on PPC advertising, invest more, and pay more for ads. He’s able to do this effectively since he’s not just concentrating on a product commission or CPA but instead a larger RPV value. I never really though about it that way before… and in affiliate marketing, if you’re able to spend more for ads than your competition, you have a huge edge.
The video also shows Joe presenting some recent earnings he made in the credit card niche, as well as the amount the spends in AdWords (20K a month on the campaign he showed).
Joe states that he recently hired somebody to run JJSmith Marketing so that he could focus on SmartAff.org instead. It appears that he really wants to build a community but is fishing right now to see if there is enough interest and demand for him to start something up. He early invites all comments and any questions anybody may have, and it sounds like he really wants to get as much feedback as possible.
Kentucky Joe states he will give all profits made from SmartAff.org to charity… which while very noble, leaves me wondering why bother charging a $270 monthly fee in the first place. Why not just make it free, and instead of charity, spread your knowledge of wealth to others for free. The only thing I can think of is that he wants money to put back into the site and to help build and grow it. Otherwise it doesn’t make any sense.
Affiliate System
SmartAff.org has an affiliate system in place and is paying out 60%, with an additional 30% for the second tier.
I must admit that this makes the whole system sound like a pyramid scheme: Users pay $270 a month for a membership on affiliate marketing, and are encouraged to become affiliates of the site themselves, and to promote it. It’s an endless cycle that requires the bottom/new members to keep signing-up more levels.
However, this this is just speculation on my part. I’m sure that SmartAff.org probably gives decent general affiliate marketing advice in the newsletters, and their affiliate system is obviously optional and not forced.
My suggestions to Joe:
1. SmartAff definitely needs a complete revamp. You’re a millionaire so hire a company for $5,000-$10,000 to create you a very sleek, professional, SEO-optimized site.
2. Define what SmartAff is. It took me reading every word on the site and watching the entire 15-minute video to understand what the heck SmartAff.org is all about. Normally a visitor should know within the first 5-7 seconds what the site is about.
You can achieve this by adding a clear and simple introductory paragraph and having a simple and clear tagline or slogan, such as “Training for Affiliate Marketers”.
Your reviews are always very detailed and comprehensive. It think that’s a good way to do it. The suggestion you gave (especially #1) is very good indeed, SEO is vital in I-Marketing these days.
This all so strange. An affiliate scheme set up like a pyramid scheme and yet all the profits are going to charity? I can;t put my finger on it but it just doesn’t seem right.
Is he giving all profits to charity? Or just all profits from the monthly membership to charity? Maybe he will be encouraging new members to sign up to the various affiliate schemes under his affiliate id so he gets a cut of revenue the members generate?
Kentucky Joe? You around? 🙂
The site looks boring to me.
Not only that but if you are going to shell out money for something, I think they should work on a design that looks more trust worthy.