Not Recommended, MLM, Reviews

Your Travel Biz Review: Travel MLM Scam or Pyramid Scheme?

Most likely, you’re here because you’ve been told about this nice opportunity to work from home.

And then, you’ve wondered… is Your Travel Biz a scam? I’ll be putting you out of misery as early as now…

Yes, Travel Biz can be considered a scam.

But why is it labelled as such and why do people still choose it over their full-time jobs?

The rest of this Your Travel Biz review is going to answer just that and if this is a legit opportunity to make money from home, along with images, videos, and the legit pros and cons so you can come up with an informed decision.

Your Travel Biz Review

The overview and rankings

Name: Your Travel Biz

Founder: Lloyd Tomer, Scott Tomer, Kim Sorensen

Type: Travel MLM

Products (Including Pricing): 5/100

Success Stories: 1/100

Price To Join MLM: $449.95 + $49.95/monthly

Your Travel Biz Review: Logo

What to look for in a MLM:

  • Low start-up fee & maintenance cost
  • High-quality affordable products
  • You don’t have to carry inventory
  • An affiliate-like system 
  • Generous compensation plan
  • Company is in the early momentum phase

Your Travel Biz Pros

  • None

Your Travel Biz Cons

  • Lawsuits
  • Outdated websites
  • Expensive subscription
  • Your Travel Biz is a pyramid scheme in disguise
  • Only 1 in 1,000 members over $30k a year
  • Downward trend

Summary

Your Travel Biz is an MLM company selling travel tickets and vacation packages. They also have a program where members can be affiliates and earn commissions from sales.

Make Time Online Rating:  10 out of 100 

Recommended: No

What is Your Travel Biz?

Your Travel Biz is a travel Multi-Level-Marketing company that sells travel tickets, excursion discounts and lodging packages for travelers and vacationers.

The company is also known as YTB International, YTB Global Travel and YTB. It was founded back in 2001 by Lloyd Tomer, Scott Tomer, and Kim Sorensen.

As of now, the company is owned by Sam Hathi. It is based in Illinois, but also has branches in Puerto Rico, Canada, Bahamas, and Bermuda.

Here is a 3-minute video about Your Travel Biz...

Bankruptcy and Rebranding

However, it wasn’t all smooth for Your Travel Biz as they faced a number of lawsuits.

Specifically speaking, the company received legal complaints from 2006 to 2009, stating that they were implementing a pyramid scheme business model.

This caused the company to experience a drastic decrease in sales, which eventually led to their bankruptcy in 2013. Jamraval then acquired Your Travel Biz and rebranded it as YTB International.

I did some research on this and discovered that there are actually 2 companies that are operating under the name of Your Travel Biz and acts as the firm’s umbrella department.

These are:

  • YTB Travel Network

  • YTB Marketing

Is Your Travel Biz a pyramid scheme?

Yes, Your Travel Biz is labelled by authorities as a pyramid scheme. Members cannot make money if they were just to sell the products of the company.

Instead, they need to recruit for them to earn something. Well, that’s a clear sign that they are a pyramid scheme.

What is a pyramid scheme?

A pyramid scheme is a company or organization that gives payment to their members whenever they recruit someone into the company. Recruitment is the focus instead of selling actual products.

This is considered illegal in most, if not all countries around the globe because not everyone can earn money in a company that is only paying their members for recruitment.

Here is a  Wikipedia diagram that explains this...

There are members who make money but they do nothing but recruit as many people as they can while selling the idea of a business opportunity.

And if you were to look at the diagram, you can clearly see that it is just impossible for all of the members to make money inside a company which only pays to recruit.

Just watch this 5-minute video so you’ll know how you can spot these pyramid schemes in disguise.

Now, let's learn why...

Success is rare with Your Travel Biz

Know that it is hard to achieve any kind of success in an MLM company such as Your Travel Biz.

In fact, 99.91% of Your Travel Biz members are losing money from the company.

What’s more is that between 72.5% and 99.9% of all MLM representatives from other companies are losing money as well.

92.3 Percent of Members Lose Money in MLMs

The reason to blame for this is the “sales quota” that these companies have.

What this means is that members can only stay active once they can sell a specific number of products or go beyond the minimum amount every month.

Being active also means being able to receive commissions. If you can’t, then you’ll buy the product for yourself. This is why most, if not all MLM members spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars from their own savings before they can recruit a member.

We’re going to tackle Your Travel Biz’ income disclosure later.

Ready to make passive income online?

Hey, I'm Mike.

I created a passive income online within a year. I had no marketing skills or online experience when I started. 

Mike Beatty

How does Your Travel Biz Work?

Travel Biz works by selling travel discounts and vacation tickets.

They also have a business opportunity where regular people can work from their own homes and sell the travel packages to receive commissions.

It’s a win-win situation, right? Well, not entirely. It’s because the company is saving huge cash from their supposed marketing campaign because they just let their members work on it by themselves.

Before confirming if this is really the case, let’s learn more on...

Your Travel Biz products

Your Travel Biz sells different kinds of travel services and vacation packages for travelers and vacationers alike.

These are:

  • Travel Information - In-depth detail about the destination. This includes the places to stay, eat, and explore. Everything you need to know about the travel package is presented here.

  • Cruise Package - Cruise tickets for various cruise ship liners.

  • Hotel Reservations - Hotel tickets for the top and budget hotels around the globe.

You can watch this 4-minute promotional video for an in-depth look into their products...

But it isn’t just Your Travel Biz that’s selling these kinds of products, but hundreds of other MLMs as well!

Here are the most notable travel MLMs:

All of them claim that they are special and different even if they are just selling the same travel discount packages!

Now that you know some of the truths about Your Travel Biz, let’s then learn more about...

Can you make money with Your Travel Biz?

No, you can’t make money from Your Travel Biz.

There might be some, but it’s just the founders!

Sounds appalling, right? Yes, for sure! You can even check out their income disclosure which shows that there’s no one making money aside from the owners...

How to make money with Your Travel Biz

There are 2 ways you can “make money” from Your Travel Biz:

  • Sell travel tickets and vacation packages

  • Recruit sales agents that will sell travel tickets and vacation packages

The company also says that you can only earn commissions from the sales of your recruited “downlines.”

But it’s very clear that this isn’t the case, with the many complaints and lawsuits that Your Travel Biz has received over the years.

How much does it cost to join Your Travel Biz?

If you’d want to become a member, you have to pay a staggering $449.95. This is for the personalized website.

Aside from that, you also have to pay $49.95 monthly to maintain it.

Your Travel Biz monthly cost

You need to maintain 50 PV monthly just to stay as an active member and be qualified to receive commissions.

Here is how much you’re going to spend in 1 year...

  • $449.95

  • $49.95 x $12 = $599

Minimum costs for year 1 = $1,048

Sounds too much? Well, that doesn’t yet include the other costs you’ll incur such as training on how to sell the products, and the food, travel, and gas expenses for promotions and advertising.

Your Travel Biz compensation plan

MLMs have confusing compensation plans, and Your Travel Biz is one of them. Don’t you worry, though, as I’ll simplify it so that you can have an easier time understanding.

Your Travel Biz is offering 2 mains ways for their members to make money:

  • Retail Commission - Earn 40% commission on every sale.
  • Additional Compensation - Earn 50% of the total sales of your recruited members.

Confused? That’s normal! MLMs always use fancy acronyms and complex terms so that it’ll seem there are a lot of ways for members to make money.

When in fact, there are just 2 things to do:

  • Sell products
  • Recruit people

Do you want to get your head around their compensation plan further? Unfortunately, there's no video about it. Maybe they removed all of it.

However, here's another 10-minute promotional video about their business opportunity:

Let's now know...

Is Your Travel Biz a scam?

Yes, Your Travel Biz is a scam. The company might be selling seemingly legit products in the form of discounted tickets and hotel reservations.

But even if that is the case, their members still don’t make any real income because of the expensive fees they incur as a member.

The rest of this Your Travel Biz MLM review is going to reveal more about this...

Just to be fully transparent with you, I am not a distributor myself and I do not endorse it in any way.

I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn how to “Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.

Tired of MLMs? Check out how I make money online here!

What I like about Your Travel Biz

Everytime I write a review, I make sure to look at all the angles so that I won’t be biased.

But after doing my best to see the real deal with Your Travel Biz, I still can’t see any good about this MLM. So yes, there’s no pro for this one...

Key Terms:

  • Pyramid Scheme – recruits members via a promise for payment from ​recruiting others into the ​company rather than providing a product
  • Affiliate Marketing- Connecting a customer to a product they are looking for and receiving a commission for doing so
  • Red Flag - A warning sign

What I don't like about Your Travel Biz

#1 Lawsuits

Your Travel Biz has received numerous lawsuits and complaints saying that they are a pyramid scheme and has a deceptive marketing strategy put in place.

Your Travel Biz Review: Cons

And another one is...

#2 Outdated website

You’ll get a customized personal website once you become a member. However, the company’s main website landing page isn’t updated as the last posts were still from 2015.

This is a sign that the website is just plain useless as it won’t gather any traffic or views in Google, which is supposedly the main reason why you have a website in the first place.

#3 Expensive subscription

You must pay $449.95 to become a Your Travel Biz member. Aside from that, you also have to pay $49.95 monthly for the hosting and maintenance of your website.

That’s just plain expensive, especially that there’s no assurance that you’re going to earn!

#4 Is Your Travel Biz a pyramid scheme in disguise?

If you must reach 50PV a month, which is selling worth $50 of products just to stay active, then that’s a sign that Your Travel Biz is actually a pyramid scheme.

Here's a diagram which clearly explains this PV:

MLM pyramid scheme

This is because the only way to avoid this is by recruiting members and passing the burden of having to reach the quota to them...

#5 Only 1 in 1,000 members over $30k a year

If you were to check the Your Travel Biz income disclosure, you’ll see that 99.9% of members are earning a meager $627 annually.

Meanwhile, the average expense of the total member population is at a sky high $1,307 yearly, which is way more than what they are earning.

Your Travel Biz Review: Cons 2

In simpler words, only 1 in 1,000 members are earning more than $30,000 annually.

#6 Downward trend

I checked Google Trends and confirmed that Your Travel Biz isn’t anymore sought out:

Your Travel Biz Review: Cons 3

This is no surprise, though, as everyone knows its lawsuit-filled history. I also compared their popularity with Farmasi, a well-managed MLM company, and the differences between the two are very clear.

This means that you are going to have a hard time selling their products...

Ready to make passive income online?

I've created a growing passive income online with no previous marketing skills or online experience... 

I've made a special video for you to explain exactly how I did this. 

MTO Income

My opinion - Your Travel Biz

Your Travel Biz is no doubt a scam and pyramid scheme. Not to mention that they have overpriced subscription fees and a truck load of lawsuits and complaints from dissatisfied members.

So, this is what I think about their business opportunity...

You can make some money, but you’ll just spend more money in the long run. It’s just like the company is sucking out money from you…

What’s more is that 99.91% of members are proven to just lose money!

No way does this sound like an ethical business to me. You even have to sell the idea of becoming the boss of your business, and then leaving it up to your recruited members to discover the disappointing reality and facts themselves...

How I make passive income online

MLMs are not scams or illegal. However, I'm not a fan of them because of the restrictions to the expensive products you have to promote.

Once I learnt about affiliate marketing, I realised it's a far superior business model because:

  • You can promote anything you want and truly own the business
  • You never need to sell to friends and family
  • It's completely free to start

In 2018 I had no idea what affiliate marketing was.

But I went from a full time PE teacher to making a passive income online within one year...

Mike PE teacher to Passive Income Online

If you want to discover how I did it then check out this special video I created which explains exactly how. You can also get your free 7-day bootcamp to get started.

Make Time Online Income
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Brendan Hufford Podcast
Podcast, SEO

SEO & Backlinking Tips w/ Brendan Hufford

​​Brendan said this on the podcast...

When you really understand SEO, you can help almost ​anyone's business

​STOP.

Now, re-read that ​statement.

Getting a website found on Google (Search Engine Optimisation) is a skill that every single business uses today. So Brendan Hufford ​joined the podcast to share his vast experience!

We chat about:

  • His best backlinking tips
  • ​Where Brendan will focus his time with a brand new website
  • Some quick wins for anyone to use for more organic traffic
  • The importance of intent (he probably said that word about 50 times... so yes, it's important!)

​SEO and Backlinking Tips

​Brendan Hufford

From 100 Days of SEO

Brendan Hufford

Make Time Online Podcast on iTunes - ​Online Entrepreneur Tips

Listen to the full ​Brendan Hufford podcast episode

Subscribe & Download

Never miss out on a new episode! Subscribe using your favorite app for listening to podcasts.

​Backlink tips ​mentioned on the podcast

​Outreach for backlinks has a place. ​However, if 90% of people hate you​ because you spam their inbox with cold emails, do you want to be that person? Is it really going to help you build quality links?

Link building comes down to 2 main things:

  1. Your relationship with the person
  2. What the "ask" is (make something for your audience that helps them)

Figure out what the person wants, for example...

  • Help their audience
  • Make more money

Find a gap on their website that could help them achieve their wants! Pitch them an idea to ​write a guest post on topics that they could rank for, help their audience and make them more money!!

​Brendan's secret sauce for getting on Pat Flynn's podcast in the past...

  • Take action on tips/ advice from other people
  • Send them a message showing them how it helped you

People love to have success stories as social proof and share those transformation stories. 

​Other tips and tools mentioned

There are 2 buckets for Brendan's new website, Project Money:

  1. It's a business so it needs to drive revenue (build an email list, rank for certain keywords etc.)
  2. Find areas you have something unique to say- write fiery and passionate articles (shareable content)

​SEO tips for a new website (I AM)...

  • ​Intent- figure out what do ​people want when they type in a keyword
  • Asset- blog post, core page on the website
  • Medium- your website (use a fast lightweight theme i.e. StudioPress, Brian Garnder or Carbonate- check out my chat with Matt Giovanisci, who created this theme)

Some other plugins to try:

  • WP Rocket (affiliate link- it improved my speed from 4.4s to 1.58 seconds, check out my review here)
  • Autoptomize
  • Async JavaScript

Choosing questions and keywords people search for in Google:

  • Answer the public
  • Export document
  • Upload into keyword research tool like Ahrefs
  • Google the low competition keywords you find (figure out search intent & figure out the main articles that cover most of these "search clusters")

​Quick wins to get more SEO traffic:

  • Improve the speed (try those plugins above... some don't work well with each other so you will need to test these out- I found WP Rocket did well for me!)
  • ​​Posts you ​want to rank well for- put in 10 internal links (i.e. home page, about page, 5 or 6 other related articles)
  • Google what you are trying to rank for and figure out the intent


Full ​Brendan Hufford Podcast Transcript

Brendan Hufford 0:00
The asset is how are we going to give that to them? Typically? Is it a blog post? Is it like a core page on the website? What does that structure look like? And then the medium is in our case, talking about Google SEO is your actual website. So as long as we’re hitting those three buckets, I have a lightning fast website. I understand what kind of asset I’m creating, and I understand the search intent behind the things I’m trying to the topics I’m talking about. I think you’re really set up for success.

Mike Beatty 0:30
Hey, guys, it’s Mike from Make Time Online. And today, we’re joined by Brendon Hufford, who certainly knows a thing or two about St.

So Brendan, is his full time job at the moment is doing some pretty high client work for SEO search engine optimization, basically getting ranked in Google. He has done low stuff over the years with SEO, including the hundred days of SEO, where he did 100 days of SEO, speaking to different people and putting out content basically, you can find so much on YouTube through Brendan’s work basically all about this, but I just have in the chat with him today, he’s just gonna explain a little bit more about his story and like, what, what he’s actually planning on doing and what he’s got coming up. But it’s just a really good one to listen to, if you have any interest in getting some like basic SEO knowledge, or if you have like a website that’s already starting to get some traction and things. He has some really actionable advice in this chat to explain what you can do. So I do hope you help. I hope you enjoy it, guys. So Brendan, obviously you were just mentioned in there, you’ve got a new website coming out. I want to do a lot of digging into SEO and stuff like that, but I just just wondered if you could share a little bit about what that website is and like how you’re planning on running it?

Brendan Hufford 2:05
Yeah, I mean, the my biggest problem is in maybe you’re the same way maybe not. I, I tend to take on way too many projects at once. And I say yes to everything like that’s, I was a teacher for 10 years and was really dissatisfied with it and tried to climb that ladder and be an assistant principal and all of this stuff and realise it wasn’t for me. And, you know, I was tired of waiting an extra 3540 pounds and having a bad relationship with alcohol and having panic attacks on Sunday night.

Mike Beatty 2:36
But then if you know, but I’m a teacher as well. qualified teacher. This is my first year out of teaching, so

Unknown Speaker 2:41
hopefully I can I can

Unknown Speaker 2:42
feel your pain there.

Brendan Hufford 2:45
Yeah, man, it was brutal. And the way I got out of it was just saying yes to everything. Every project, anybody I can help with sending out a dozen emails a week. Hey, can I help you with SEO? I know this building my own little projects on the side those growing. And I’m actually at the point now where you know, I can look right here I have these like giant sticky notes on my walls that kind of serve as a white board. And I have like a big thing called items out of just like people that I’ve said yes to and still haven’t delivered what I told them, I was going to help them with summer clients, a lot of them are just friends. And I’ve got three or four of them recently that I just crossed out, and was like, I’m not doing this. Yeah, I had a big idea to raise a bunch of money to support different charities during the pandemic and everything. And I started getting people and I’m like, here’s what we’re gonna do, and we’ll set up this and that and I was just like, I can’t do this. I should not do this. Yeah, I should write like, ethically. This is a great thing that would help a lot of people but I just, it’ll be terrible. I’ll ruin relationships. It’ll be done halfway. I’ve done that before. like trying to do charitable stuff. And when you don’t do it all the way, right, like it’s very dangerous people get really mad. Yeah, you screw it up and rightfully so. Yeah. Right. So I’ve learned from that experience and you know, starting this new thing, I’m starting project money is really, for me about two things. Number one, it’s a bit of a manifesto. But number two, it’s I wanted to say all of that at the beginning to say like, when I choose projects now, it’s something I really believe in. Because with SEO, I can plug myself into almost anybody’s business, almost anybody’s project and help them I’m valuable to a lot of people. And that’s great. But it also means a lot of people want help. And I say no to most things. And this is one of the things that you know, I love Pete and I love this idea. And yeah, it’s something that I’m absolutely saying yes to So, really project money is, you know, two things. Number one, me Amanda Festo of like having something to say. So many blogs and whatever you Google things if you if people want to see this, played out Google digital marketing skills and see what comes up. Every single article is 10 Essential Skills 17 essential digital marketing skills, eight digital marketing skills 19 Essential Skills for digital marketers, like it’s a full first page of copycat content. Yeah, they all sound the same. You can’t tell who they are whatever else and Pete you know, is is has been in personal finance long enough that and the topic I’m passionate about, but he’s been in it long enough. He’s like, This all sounds the same to you. No,

Mike Beatty 5:39
yeah. No.

Brendan Hufford 5:41
We were just like, let’s let’s have something to say let’s like put a put a flag in the ground and do things differently.

Mike Beatty 5:46
Yeah, I think I actually heard you on Pete’s podcast before while ago. And you were just just the way that you were talking about different things was really interesting. And I think I think Wish you could have been someone else. But I think you were sort of saying how if you were starting a brand new website, so I don’t know if this is what you’re planning on doing with with this one, you would kind of like get some real, like really good content, and kind of like, just make it amazing and find out. I, us, I think you said have another website Anyway, what would you do? What What

Unknown Speaker 6:22
are you planning on doing with us? Oh, that’s a better question.

Brendan Hufford 6:25
Well, it’s two buckets. Right. It’s things that we know, first of all, it’s a business it needs to drive revenue. Yeah. Right. So we have to have things we’re gonna rank for that are gonna build our email list, get affiliate revenue, whatever. That’s a big part, something people leave out a lot. Second, it’s what are the most helpful, like, how can we be most helpful in the areas where we actually have something unique to say, I don’t know that we have anything unique to say about Roth IRAs. I don’t know. Maybe we do. Maybe he does. But like, let’s find this stuff. We have something unique to say and try and rank for those. That’s kind of bucket two. And then bucket three is like let’s say the thing like let’s go back to our roots like I crushed my first e commerce business and later sold it because I understood blogging and all these other companies like they loved it was a jujitsu Brazilian Jiu Jitsu e commerce company and everybody else loves Jiu Jitsu and I loved blogging, I loved the e commerce side of it, right? And, you know, like, Pete and I just want to go back to our roots of blogging and writing these like fiery passionate, you know, mister money moustache, kind of blogs of like, let’s just say the thing that needs to be said. And that’ll catch fire like people are waiting for that they’re hungry for that. They’re tired of like, here’s my five tips on how to invest your, you know, government subsidy check or whatever. I don’t know. So I’m making up some terrible thing but like, nobody’s pumped about that. Nobody’s retweeting that.

Mike Beatty 7:57
Yeah. But like, let’s just flip every little, you know, let’s watch walk in the room and flip some tables over. Yeah, that’s cool. So it’s just trying to get stuff that actually makes people want to read. It wants to share it, like shareable content, basically, that’s the aim. That’s the idea. And I guess that’s gonna get like backlinks and do all of that sort of work for you. So you don’t need to go out and do the whole outreach yourself.

Brendan Hufford 8:19
Yeah, I think there’s outreach has a place, right. But what I found in my my decade of doing SEO is that link building and things like that really comes down to how good of a relationship you have with that person. And then what the ask is, right, like, if the ask is like, Hey, we’re really good friends. I would love to make something for your audience. What can I make for your audience? Is it a video? Is it a guest post? Is it whatever? That’s a very easy ask versus, hey, I saw you wrote about a topic similar to mine and you link to a competitor Would you like to link to me, I’ll share it on my social media, blah, blah, like that garbage script that I get 20 of per day like I’m over everybody’s over that Yeah. Anybody worth getting? Here’s the thing, too is people are like, No, no, I see a good ROI from that, you know, you send out the script. And 10% of people will link to you. And it’s like, Yeah, but the other 90% hate you. And things like true. That’s, that’s not you know, you’re literally walking up to every person at the bar and asking them to go on a date. And it’s like, you know, you might get a date out of it. And like, if that’s how you win, that’s great. But everybody else there the next time they see you, they’re like, oh, there’s that guy that asks out everybody

in that. It’s very real.

Mike Beatty 9:33
Yeah, that is so true. I never thought of it like that. But it is so so true, actually, isn’t it like the cold outreach? Just blanket emails and stuff? So what what would you say is like the best way to do it, and you obviously said, like, if you build up a real relationship with someone, then I guess it’s just easy. Isn’t it? Like just a

Brendan Hufford 9:52
one way? Yeah, it’s a long game. It’s hard link. Building for clients is really hard. You have to have a really smart strategy. link building for a personal project is way better because you’re invested long term, you have relationships in the industry, you can build those relationships in the industry, you’re helpful. And to be honest, like one of the most effective ways is I just try to understand what they want. Like most people want one of two things, they want to help their readers they want to help their audience or they want to make more money. Well, what if I can help them with both of those things? What if when I pitched a guest post, I’m like, hey, look, I did a competitive analysis. I know these two other websites are competitors of yours from a search standpoint, they both have articles that are ranking on this topic. It looks like you know, looking at the the value that I see in sem rush and H refs and whatever looks like those articles are worth like two or three grand a month to them. You don’t even have an article on this topic. Turns out I’m an expert on this topic. Can I write something for you can put your own affiliate links in it, whatever you want, but like, Can I can I create that for you? All of a sudden it’s like, oh, this is a real professional that I’m dealing with here. It’s not some smarmy garbage thing. The thing is, you also have to be able to deliver on that, right? Like, if you send them some garbage article, they’re not gonna put it on their site, but like showing that you care about them, and that’s not the first email that I would send to them to start a relationship. But, you know, I was one of the first 50 guests on Pat Flynn’s podcast and it was still super early on the Smart Passive Income podcast and that was because I literally just emailed him and said, You told me to do these five things. I did these five things here’s screenshots of what I did. Here’s the results I got just wanted to let you know and just kind of like backed off and he was like, you want to come on the podcast to talk about that? And I’m like, Yes.

Mike Beatty 11:44
It was not your plan was your was it to try and get on the podcast or anything? You just Oh, send him an email and yeah, just say thank you for what he’s done.

Brendan Hufford 11:53
That’s what of course like that’s all people want the the number of people who will take it. I have people pay me a little lot of money and still not do the thing that they paid me to help them with. Hmm, yeah, the number of people that do it based on free information is even less. So you’re like a diamond in the rough if you’re one of those people that’s like I read your free blogs and like it changed my life. Can I tell you more about that? You know, I’ve reached out to my favourite author Ryan Holliday, I’ve connected with him in that way, Pat Flynn in that way, and just built a network of people that I would consider friends, mentors, whatever. A lot of my mentors I would never call them that I’m not I’ve never asked him to be my mentor. But there are people that I asked him a question they told me what to do. I went and did it came back told him I did it what happened and then just built those relationships and I think like link building you can get we can get really tactical but that’s at the core of it is you have to give a crap about the person. Yeah, um, on a tactical standpoint, you have to have something worth sharing, right? Either some unique data, a unique, a totally unique story of like, Oh my gosh, like I would love for you to talk to my audience about that on a podcast on in a blog, YouTube, whatever. Um, that’s the second part of it is you have to have something worth sharing. Well, I really liked what you said there, which I haven’t really heard people mention before is how you just take something that they’ve actually like it’s real value that they’ve given before, and you take action on it and showed in the results. I mean, that is from like, from my own point of view, that would just be a mate. If someone came to me and just said, Look, I listened to your podcast last week with Brendan, and I did this and look what happened, you know, or like, two months later, three months, whatever, you know,

Mike Beatty 13:40
that is like real. That what a better way to make a connection with someone and I just, I’ve never heard it put like that, but now you say it’s kind of like,

Unknown Speaker 13:49
yeah, I think

Mike Beatty 13:50
I think I have kind of done that in the past but just not realising what I’ve done. If you know, I mean,

Brendan Hufford 13:56
yeah, I mean, it’s it also then like makes you Want to promote those people? Right? Like your best case studies like, you know, it’s gonna make next time, whoever like Pat’s on a podcast, maybe he’ll mention me. And that’s not the goal. But like that is how it works. You know, like I have people that are in my SEO community who are crushing it. And I have like top of mind for people for stories I can tell you of like, here’s, here’s what they did, how they did it, here’s how the money they made, like I have those burned into my brain, because it’s great social proof. But it’s also like, I want to share that stuff. You know, you want to share those transformation stories. I think we’re living in a time where like, we’re more connected than ever, and in some ways, but we’re also more alone than ever, especially during a pandemic. That’s the reality of it. But I don’t think that’s really that different than how alone we were before. we’re lacking that depth in relationships. And I think what people really want whether you’re selling a product or a service or whatever, is they want transformation. Right you want to be I was here, and I want to get here. And are you the bridge to get me there? And if it’s like, if you see that bridge, that’s great. If you see that bridge with like 50 people that are waiting for you on the other side because they’ve already crossed it. You’re like that’s a safe, sturdy, reliable bridge. I can walk across it to things like that matter. But yeah, it really is. It really is about relationships. It really is about having something worth sharing your crappy blog posts that you know is skyscraper whatever. Like it’s to. The other problem with things like the skyscraper technique is they’re like build a taller building make it like 5% better. Nobody respect like, I don’t know if you’ve seen a skyline of a big city in a while, but nobody’s super impressed by the building. That’s one storey taller than the other buildings. Yeah, it has to be like twice as tall. Yeah, and that’s the that’s the big thing that people make a mistake on with content is it has to be twice as good as everything else out there.

Mike Beatty 15:55
Yeah, and it’s always gonna get beaten. I think that’s the thing that is you’ll get if it’s a if it’s something that people are already doing, then. That’s that’s always been my issue about that about like the skyscraper skyscraper technique. I do like the idea in the fact that you’re actually writing content and you’re actually putting real things out there rather than just getting a backlink. You know, just trying to like, like you say, just the cold outreach email and stuff I way prefer. If it had to be like one of the two, I’d rather someone like actually put out content, like either skyscraper or stats or something like that something that’s actually like real content to try and get links and things like that. But I guess there’s there’s a whole other side to it, SEO other than just like link backlinks and things like that. So I wondered if you could just kind of let us know, with a brand new website. Now, what are some of the things that you would do just to kind of like make sure it’s set up in the right way?

Brendan Hufford 16:50
Yeah, I mean, it’s funny SEO is mostly links, like let’s be honest, Google hasn’t figured out a better you know, as much as link building and whatever else like It is still like one of the most democratic ways for Google to figure out

Mike Beatty 17:04
things. is still the case.

Brendan Hufford 17:07
That it’s the most democratic way or that it is still the most. The biggest like, wait for them.

Mike Beatty 17:13
Just not probably right now, I guess. Well, I guess I know what your odds is gonna be. But do you think that’s always going to be the case?

Brendan Hufford 17:22
Oh, no. Oh, no. I mean, I think we’ll figure it out. And marketers ruin everything, right? Like, we’ll figure if they change, we’ll figure out what the lever to pull is. But no, I don’t I don’t think it’ll always be the case. I’m just not smart enough to think about what is next. I’m more concerned as far as like the future of SEO, understanding a couple of things that like, while Google will still dominate their other search engines, we need to pay attention to Amazon, Pinterest, YouTube, those are all search engines. Understanding SEO for those platforms is really important to me. podcast platforms, especially as you know, Spotify. is making big plays into podcasting. What does their algorithm look like? Right, like, What does their search on their platform look like? How do I get my podcasts to show up top? And they’re like things like that are interesting. As far as like, yeah, I think links are the biggest right now. But going forward, it’s just so hard because content is so subjective. Like how helpful is this? In the most recent update? One of the things that I was reading about is it actually actually D ranked and D prioritised. People were building website structures where they had like along the top, like, different chapters, they kind of linked up there content hub along the top, but it pushed the content further down the page. Google’s like we don’t we don’t think that’s best for people. You know, if I get to your website, and everything above the fold is like an opt in form a title and image and then some other places to go. And I have to scroll just to see any content. That’s not a great experience. And I’m like, I would agree with that. Right. So they’re there. They’re starting to make those plays about like what’s actually best for people? To answer your question around like, what if I starting a brand new website? The easiest thing on a brand new website is just make sure it’s lightning fast. Like it has to be as instantaneous as possible is super lightweight. If you’re using WordPress, which is what I learned on and what I use now, I know there’s a bunch of other CMS is that people like and that’s totally fine. There’s not a totally agnostic in that department of like, whatever is fast, I don’t care whatever works for you. Yeah, with a lot of people honestly. If you want to do a Wix or Squarespace and that is the thing that’s holding you back from starting, by all means, go Go ahead, do your Squarespace. Do your Wix I don’t think it’s the best solution long term. Having tried to help clients with SEO on those platforms, it’s usually pretty rough. But yeah, so my recommendation is usually WordPress find like, super fast, lightweight theme to use something really minimal. You don’t need a lot like let the content Be the thing. It doesn’t have to be this beautiful design or whatever else. And I think that’s usually the core, I have a this framework of how I think about SEO, that I think is unique to me. It’s called the I am framework. And it’s just intent, asset and medium. So the intent is like, what is the actual search intent behind? what people are googling, like you’re typing these words, but what do you really want? Yeah, the asset is, how are we going to give that to them? Typically, is it a blog post? Is it like a core page on the website? What does that structure look like? And then the medium is, in our case, talking about Google SEO is your actual website. So as long as we’re hitting those three buckets, I have a lightning fast website. I understand what kind of asset I’m creating and I understand the search intent behind the things I’m trying to the topics I’m talking about. I think you’re really set up for success.

Mike Beatty 21:00
So if well, first of all, can you give like an example of a really lightning fast theme? I know that’ll be something. I’ll be like, asking if I was listening to this a lot. But what Which one? That’s it. That’s what people kind of want to know.

Brendan Hufford 21:13
Yeah, um, so I think there’s a couple of them. I think. I forget. I know. I haven’t tried it yet. But I will shout out. Matt GVC at money lab. He’s got away.

Mike Beatty 21:27
I didn’t Well, he would have actually been last week’s podcast. I spoke to him last week or something. And he said about his theme. And I was like, Yeah, that sounds really cool. I will.

Brendan Hufford 21:37
Matt has a lot of He’s really good. And he’s done it a lot. Like what I love about Matt is he’s not his thing carbonate. Like he’s not one of those jerks. That’s like, I the only money I’ve made is teaching people how to make money. Most of his money comes from you know, he and i a lot of our early conversations was about like, you know, vice and Vox these like my Media, these digital first media companies, barstool sports. That’s what he was building out. He had a website about coffee, one about swimming pools and hot tubs, one about home brewing beer, and all these other things. And that’s what he’s building. I’m building similar things, right? I have a website about things I’m passionate about. Coffee, same one about camping. What about with we were just talking about a personal finance, like, I’m building my own portfolio of these things. Um, so I think that that’s a good place to start. Matt’s theme is pretty cool. I’m also a big fan of a lot of the StudioPress themes. I also think I use those on the Genesis platform for almost all my websites. They do good enough. Yeah, I’ve gotten compliments from designers and I’m like, Great because that’s just I didn’t make this but yeah, them or even Brian Gardner who is okay, the I want to say the creator of StudioPress. But when they sold that to WP Engine, he now has a bunch of themes that are Also very minimalist and very fast. So that’s usually where I would start.

Mike Beatty 23:04
So is that would Brian’s be WP rocket and things like that as well like the plugins?

Brendan Hufford 23:12
No, I don’t think he’s a rocket. Okay, because

Mike Beatty 23:16
I think that’s what that’s something that Matt recommended as well like if you’re looking to, you know, just like the lazy load or something like that he recommended.

Brendan Hufford 23:24
Yeah. So there’s also Yeah, there’s also plugins you can use. I’m a big fan of async JavaScript, it just loads JavaScript asynchronously. So it doesn’t load the whole page. It only loads the JavaScript when it actually hits that part of the page. And then there’s another plugin by the same team. I forget what it’s called. But yeah, WP rocket is very similar kind of thing. Whether it’s lazy loading images or different scripts and that sort of thing. Having your site set up, I mean, you can get into the weeds on a lot of this but most of it is just going to be like how big Is the page and how many requests are we making to load to this page? The less requests the better.

Mike Beatty 24:06
Yeah. I actually went through this with Matt last week and I looked at he looked at my website and the speed and everything like that. I think I was loaded about five seconds. For someone like that hasn’t really done anything on speed. It was like that’s not bad. To be fair, like it could have been much worse. But he’s always said like, try and aim to get it at two seconds. I haven’t actually tried WP rocket yet, but that’s definitely he said that and also, just like,

Brendan Hufford 24:37
optimise that’s good. There’s a couple. Yeah, they don’t all play nice with each other. So you kind of have to pick like, yeah, that’s what I was gonna do. But like, feel free. You’re not gonna break it, trying to make it faster, more not running anything that complicated on most of our websites that like, if two plugins are doing the same thing. They’re not it’s not like well, if I break this and that breaks and the forms don’t work, then your risk of that is pretty low. Yeah, you can always just go in and turn one off.

Mike Beatty 25:04
Yes. Okay. Isn’t it like just to try one? Turn it off? Get rid of it, try another one. So I remember when I first started, I was like, I don’t want to do that. What if it all just crashes? And like, you know, breaks, but now I’m a lot more like, yeah, I’ll try this. And I’ll try to,

Brendan Hufford 25:19
yeah, for sure, I would start there. And then think after that, like, really, the name of the game is keeping as much of your content as close to the homepage as possible. your homepage tends to be your most authoritative page, that’s where most of your links will be. So if you think about, like, you know, the authority passes from the homepage, and then everything the homepage links to it sends it there. And then those send more of that authority to different pages. So the closer you can put your content to the homepage, like on some of my websites I have, if you scroll to the bottom of the homepage, there’s 10 or 15 articles linked on the homepage, and those are ones that I want to rank really high in search. So I keep them on the homepage. So they have that authority. I think that’s the biggest thing is just don’t bury anything on your website don’t make anything like not super easy to get to.

Mike Beatty 26:05
Yeah. And do you go down like the whole silos route of? I don’t really understand what that is to be totally honest. I hear this all the time being thrown around. But yeah, I’ve never really like dug into doing that whole thing by this is my understanding, I don’t know if it’s right, is that you just have different almost like, sections that you want to talk to. And then like, everything just webs off from there sort of thing. So like, if you were doing personal finance website, you’d have probably saving money making money. Investing maybe would be potentially three silos or something and then everything like spider webs off there.

Brendan Hufford 26:44
Yeah, you can silo it like that. You I’m a big fan of called content clusters or content hubs, where it’s like, Alright, let’s have the like, let’s make sure the search intent for all of these different things are, can I just kind of walk you through like how I would do it? Yeah, definitely. So If I had a topic, I would and I didn’t have access to, well, maybe let’s say you do have access to a fancy tool. The first thing I do is I go I take that topic I drop it in, answer the public, do an export of what it comes up with. Because answer the public takes all of the autocompletes from Google, YouTube and Cora and a couple other places, pulls it all together. And then now I have all of the questions around my topic, right? What are people searching for? I then literally just drop that into h refs. And h refs will tell me instantly, search volume and all these different things and I can start to prioritise Now don’t get me wrong. Keyword Difficulty and search volume are not like that’s not a content strategy. What I’m looking for There is everything around that. And then also looking at what is the separate search intent so actually go there’s something silly that people don’t do when they’re doing SEO, they don’t actually Google The thing they’re trying to rank for, to see like, what does this even look like? And what I noticed is that sometimes people write five articles. But if you google all those topics, it’s the same articles ranking for every single one, which means that Google knows that it’s those while people are typing different things. And the tools tell you they’re different volumes in different difficulties. It’s really the same articles for all of that. Yeah. And you don’t need to write five separate articles, you just need to write one. That’s amazing. So I then go Google all of those things and start putting together a content cluster of like, Alright, what’s the Main article that’s going to cover most of these? Great, we’ll create that, what are the longer tail articles around it? And then just making sure like, you know, you don’t need to turn it into Wikipedia where every other word is a link to another page. Wikipedia is worse. But well, I mean, it’s also great, right? They pass that equity really well through their whole website. It just keeps on that, doesn’t it? Yeah, it doesn’t. It also shows how everything’s really related to each other which helps everything rank Better. It’s one of the reasons that Wikipedia ranks really well. I think the biggest thing for me from there is Yeah, just making sure everything’s interlinked internal linking is, you know, if we started out by talking about External links from other websites, yeah, people forget that links from your own website count. So continuing to link to stuff, a lot of people don’t go back into their old content and link to the new stuff that they’ve made since then. really effective tactic to increasing rank. So yeah, I think that’s the biggest thing is just having a smart content strategy that’s tied to business, but also close to the homepage and building out those content clusters. Yeah,

Mike Beatty 29:36
that makes sense. Have you got like any just little quick wins, if someone’s already got a website established, and, you know, they might have their ranking for some stuff, but they just want to like, do a little tweak. Is there anything that you could do to just help a piece of content rank a little bit better?

Brendan Hufford 29:54
Totally. So the first thing I would do is we talked about making the website Super fast like installed instal it if you’re on WordPress instal async JavaScript instal optimizer, WP rocket or whatever, super easy take less than 45 seconds to do. So that’s a super easy win. Next, take the article, the keyword you want it to rank for the Google doesn’t really look at keywords as much as topics right the best content ranks for 2000 keywords more, but the tools can’t track that much longtail stuff. So, go through the rest of the pages on your website, and give yourself 10 internal links, go to 10 other articles that you have, make sure there’s a link to it on the homepage, make sure there’s a link to it on your about page, go into five or six other articles and link to that article. Like get that internal linking locked in. And then from there, there’s I mean, that’s the easiest wins, like you’ll see things pick up from that. I guarantee you unless your website is 100% brand new. There’s only You know nothing else links to you on the internet etc it’s an uphill battle it takes time but that’s such a good practice to like to be in just because going forward that’s the the easiest win. And I’m going to tell you that works all the way from like our personal blogs all the way to clients that I work with like Allstate. The tactics aren’t don’t change that much is incredible.

Mike Beatty 31:23
It’s just you kind of think when you learn this stuff, you think oh, this is only gonna work in like my little tiny website that I’m building but his interest is amazing how many times I’ve heard that kind of thing you know, from someone that is obviously working with huge websites. It’s actually all very similar by the sounds of it. I’m sure there’s way more tactics and little things that you can do. But it does sound like the core fundamentals is really the same love writing great content, getting backlinks, you know, just just making stuff that stands out really I think is is going to be something huge moving forward.

Brendan Hufford 32:01
Yeah, the last one I could give people is just Google, the thing you’re trying to rank for. Look at the Auto suggests, look at what the actual intent is behind your search. You’re like, yeah, people want to like, for example, we talked about digital marketing skills. You’re like, Alright, cool. People want to, like, get a list of digital marketing skills. That’s the intent. I disagree. If you Google Let me see if what comes up right now I can tell you what’s come up like historically. digital marketing skills. here’s here’s the top four digital marketing skills for resume, digital marketing skills, 2020 digital marketing skills to learn. The intent behind digital marketing skills is that people want to know what they need to put on their resume, what’s relevant in 2020? And what how and what to learn. So this is not somebody who’s hiring, looking for the digital marketing skills they need to assess. Yeah, right. This is an actual now all of a sudden, if you have that, that article that says these three digits No marketing skills changed my life and career. All of a sudden, you’ve mastered that search intent. And people are like, Oh my god, that there’s three digital marketing skills that could change my life and career. That’s what I actually want. All the sudden, it’s like, get out, you know, you’ve kind of like start to, it’s like inception. Right? Like, yeah, you know, they’re like, just get out of my head. That’s crazy. This is exactly what I needed. They’re gonna opt in for your thing. They’re gonna click to another blog post. And there’ll be fans because you understood what they were really looking for.

Mike Beatty 33:30
Yeah, that’s incredible. To me, that sounded like they were all completely different things, but it’s amazing how you managed to make that link. I guess it’s just experience and like, you know, doing it all the time.

Brendan Hufford 33:41
Sure. And I think it’s I look like I’m, I hate it when digital marketers use digital marketing as their only example. But I think that’s true. For everything is like what do people actually want? A lot of times when people are googling their problems, they don’t want a solution. We think that well there they want it, you know, they’re googling back pain. Let me give them all the back pain solutions. At that level they don’t they just want you to empathise with them. They want to, they want to understand when they get to your website and read an article about back pain, like, yeah, I want you to give me the solutions. But I also want to know your story. I also want to know like, how you got to this point, I want to be empathised with deeply. So all right, that person, same kind of chronic back pain, same like I can’t sit for too long. I can’t stand it makes it hard to work, all of this sort of thing. Like Alright, cool. This is somebody I’ll listen to. And that’s what you really want is that connection that trends. Can we circle back that transformation?

Mike Beatty 34:32
Awesome. I mean, I could literally just keep talking to phases because I know there’s so much I could love. I know you’re a busy guy. So I do really appreciate it. Brendon, if if anyone’s listening to this and they want to reach out what’s the best way for them to contact you?

Brendan Hufford 34:45
Yeah, I mean, I’ll pretend it’s because I’m good at SEO that you can google Brendan Hufford spell it any way you want. You’ll probably find me. It’s not because I’m good at SEO. I have a very unique name. But you can google Brendon Hufford, that’ll bring up all the things that’ll be On Twitter, my personal website, it’ll bring up the hundred days of SEO project really depends on where you like consuming stuff, right? If you’re a video person, check out just look me up on YouTube. I’ve got a tonne of SEO videos on YouTube education, something I take super seriously. If you like podcasts because you’re listening to this podcast, like, check me out, like, look me up on podcasts, I’d be entrepreneurs and coffee podcasts, 100 days of SEO podcast. And if you like blogs, like I said, Just Google me you’ll find my personal blog and the hundred days of SEO blog. Awesome.

Mike Beatty 35:31
Thanks so much, Brendon. Really appreciate it.

Brendan Hufford 35:34
Yeah, of course, and thanks for having me.

Mike Beatty 35:39
So as you can tell, he really knows his stuff. And it is incredible. Just some of the things that he managed to give away within like 30 minutes of I’m gonna chat with him Really? Yep. You know, he is obviously super busy. So I felt really bad like taking too much of his time because he has some serious stuff that he wants to be doing. So it’s amazing that he is Could he could actually even do that just for a little while. And I just want to summarise some of the main things that I took from the chat. And hopefully that can also help you as well. So number one was kind of what Brendan was saying about with a new website, the two main buckets that he was kind of talking about. Yeah, the random revenue generating articles, but then also unique articles and you know, like making real amazing content that people want to share and shareable content and things like that, you know, getting back to his basics blogging, he said, that’s what stuff difference really there is, you know, if it’s like a personal finance website, you revenue generating content are going to be like reviews of different apps and credit cards and all that sort of stuff. Because, you know, that’s where you’re gonna get loads of affiliates, and things like that. Whereas unique is

Unknown Speaker 36:54
unique

Mike Beatty 36:54
stuff that is not already being written about and just put in a new angle on certain things because obviously everything has been covered before, but not in your style or with your point of view. So if you can actually do that, and something that actually makes people be like, wow, yeah, I see that’s really interesting or that’s really cool, then that’s the sort of stuff that gets shared and it just brings backlinks naturally talk quite a lot of backlinks around after that point as well. But number two is actually all to do with backlinks and outreach and things like that.

Unknown Speaker 37:28
He

Mike Beatty 37:29
spoke a lot about actually finding people and giving to them first. So something that he said, and I’ve not really heard people I’ve heard people saying the same sort of thing before. And I always try and do this. I never, personally I never just blank, cold outreach someone and say, Hey, you want to come on the podcast or something like that. In fact, actually, Brendan, the reason he’s on the podcast is because, you know, Pete McPherson who had a chat to and Pete said about him and he knows there’s loads of stuff about SEO and he gave me like her Intro basically to Brendan. So it wasn’t just me saying, hey, you have no idea who I am. But you want it when it got more focus. And so that’s just a really good way to, rather than just going to someone and being like, hey, I’ve got some idea or something that’s going to really help me find ways that you can help them. If they produce content. Look at it, figure it out, do what they’re saying, and show them the results. say, Look, I’ve tried this. And I thought that was a great way to actually just make connections wherever it is to get backlinks or whatever, it doesn’t matter. You’re actually making real connections with real people. And if you can show transformations, people love transformations, you know, the whole losing weight and things like that. Going from a skinny guy to a muscle. That is what people really want to see going from broke to 50 million whatever, you know, that’s what’s tough. Number three, is speed. Something that Matt spoke about as well on last week’s podcast. The speed of your website is something that you can control. It is something you can control whether you want to admit that or not. You can just google google house and previous speed. And that’s something that you can do straight away. But he gave some actual advice. You know, a lightweight theme. Even said, Matt, Matt. Jeff machine is theme carbonate, I think it is called. He also said StudioPress. WP Engine, and then just some plugins that he said that I’ve not heard of before async JavaScript, which just sounds like it’s a like a lazy load for JavaScript. And I’ve heard JavaScript, JavaScript and pictures. Images are like two massive thing that can really slow your website down. I’ve never even heard of getting like async JavaScript or I think it’s like a lazy load. But that’s that’s basically what he said. And then auto auto optimise or optimizer with optimizer. I think he said, I’m not entirely sure what that is, but I’ll find out I’ll leave a link And then also just the number four then is internal links. So we spoke about External links, internal links are really, really important. And he was saying how they’re a real quick win as well, you know, if you’ve just got, you’ve got an article you really want to improve, get 10 internal links to it, find relevant internal links, but so also, your homepage is like a huge, huge page to actually link from because you’re basically showing Google Hey, look, this is important. It’s on my homepage. So if you have something that’s really important, make sure it’s on the home page. And that’s just a quick win. And a way for you to get more links to your article, which at the end of the day is what Google is kind of looking forward to. I think there might be backlinks, but it may also be internal links. It’s just getting into good habits. And number five, I really liked what he said about ways for even if it’s just generic, next time you Google something, as you’re reading the article, just think is this Just some robot. Obviously, it’s not a robot, but is it just robotic? Is it just factual? Or is there someone’s voice is there someone’s actual story in whatever it is because, like, the example he gave was, if someone types in back pain, they don’t just want, they don’t always just want a solution for back pain, they actually want to feel em pathologized with, they actually want someone to feel like they are listening to them and hearing them. So if you can share your story, something that is real honest, and actually empathising with someone if you can do that, that is gonna be huge. But if you compare that to the other kind of articles that you that may be in that same topic. It’s just gonna be if it’s skyscraper stuff and stuff like that. If you can put your own individual spin and your story on something and say, hey, look, I understand what you’re going through. I also think the same thing. I’ve done research into it and this is what I found out. That is That’s always more effective that’s building a real relationship with someone rather than just writing generic words. Anyway, I’m gonna stop rambling now. Hope enjoyed that one, guys. Take care. Thanks for listening in to this episode of Make time online. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don’t miss any future episodes. And please take a moment to write a review for our podcast in the App Store. keep changing for the better guys. Take care

Podcast Summary

​I learnt tons from this chat!

Here's my main takeaways:

  1. ​Create revenue generating content & unique, sharable content
  2. Build real relationships and ​help other people to build backlinks (backlinks still really matter, no matter what anyone says... sure people claim they never ​use backlink strategies and get found in Google. But they will have  accumulated backlinks whether they know it or not!)
  3. ​Improve your site speed to improve SEO
  4. Internal links to help give a post some good juice
  5. ​Tell your story and use your own voice

If you want to ​connect with Brendan, just type in Brendan Hufford anywhere online and you'll find him!

What ​was your main takeaway? Drop a comment below...

P.S. Still want more?

I 100% recommend checking out this "dream team" link building strategy explained in detail by Brendan. If there is one thing I could recommend you to ever read about SEO, it is this. 

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What is a pyramid scheme?

​A company that promises payment to members for recruiting more ​people into the company rather than selling a product or service. 


 Wikipedia 

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Success is rare with PRODUCT

between 72.5% and 99.9% of all MLM representatives lose money. 

92.3 Percent of Members Lose Money in MLMs

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Ready to make passive income online?

Hey, I'm Mike.

I created a passive income online within a year. I had no marketing skills or online experience when I started. 

Mike Beatty

How does PRODUCT Work?

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PRODUCT products

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PRODUCT flagship product

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Can you make money with PRODUCT?

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How to make money with PRODUCT

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How much does it cost to join PRODUCT?

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PRODUCT monthly cost

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The minimum expenses you would need to allow for are:


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PRODUCT compensation plan

There are 


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Or you can find the full compensation plan here. 

Is PRODUCT a scam?

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Just to be fully transparent with you, I am not a distributor myself and I do not endorse it in any way.

I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn how to “Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.

Tired of MLMs? Check out how I make money online here!

What I like about PRODUCT

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Key Terms:

  • Pyramid Scheme – recruits members via a promise for payment from ​recruiting others into the ​company rather than providing a product
  • Affiliate Marketing- Connecting a customer to a product they are looking for and receiving a commission for doing so
  • Red Flag - A warning sign

#1

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#2 Positive product reviews

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#3

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What I don't like about PRODUCT

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#1 Expensive products

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#2 Hidden monthly expenses

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#3 Is PRODUCT a pyramid scheme in disguise?

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MLM pyramid scheme

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#4

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#5 Downward trend

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Ready to make passive income online?

I've created a growing passive income online with no previous marketing skills or online experience... 

I've made a special video for you to explain exactly how I did this. 

MTO Income

My opinion - PRODUCT

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How I make passive income online

MLMs are not scams or illegal. However, I'm not a fan of them because of the restrictions to the expensive products you have to promote.

Once I learnt about affiliate marketing, I realised it's a far superior business model because:

  • You can promote anything you want and truly own the business
  • You never need to sell to friends and family
  • It's completely free to start

In 2018 I had no idea what affiliate marketing was.

But I went from a full time PE teacher to making a passive income online within one year...

Mike PE teacher to Passive Income Online

If you want to discover how I did it then check out this special video I created which explains exactly how. You can also get your free 7-day bootcamp to get started.

Make Time Online Income
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Matt Giovanisci Podcast
Podcast, SEO

SEO Tips & Website Speed Hacks w/ Matt “500k Visitors/ Month” Giovanisci

So you spend hours writing an epic blog post. You really pour your heart and soul into each word. 

Then you sit back and wait for that sweet sweet Google traffic to roll in...

But all you see on Google Analytics is this...

Tumble Weed

Well, Matt Giovanisci from Money Lab doesn't worry about that happening any more. His main website generates an average of 500,000 visitors a month!

He joins the podcast today to chat about...

  • How important your website loading speed is for ranking on Google (and how to improve your website speed today)
  • The exact strategy he would use if he was to start again
  • Quick wins that you can do to improve your SEO today
  • The secret to building backlinks

SEO Tips & Website Speed Hacks

w/ Matt Giovanisci

From Money Lab

Matt Giovanisci

Make Time Online Podcast on iTunes - Online Entrepreneur Tips

Listen to the full Matt Giovanisci podcast episode

Subscribe & Download

Never miss out on a new episode! Subscribe using your favorite app for listening to podcasts.

Tips and Tools mentioned in the podcast

How Matt manages his business income and expenses...

  • Profit First book by Mike Michalowicz (affiliate link- as I really want that $0.29 commission- sorry for the British sarcasm- defo get it though!)

SEO has 2 sections to focus on:

  • Website speed = 25% 
  • Content = 75%

Here is the very professional pie chart I made on the chat to make this more clear...

SEO Importance

Improve your speed

How to make your website lightning fast...

  • The theme is important- Matt built Carbonate (a super lightweight theme). I use Generate Press on my health and fitness site and Thrive Themes on this site (find my Thrive review here)
  • WP Rocket plugin (affiliate link- $49 for one site- check out my WP Rocket review here to see how I used this plugin after the chat and my page load time went from 4.4 seconds to 1.58 seconds)
  • Cloudflare CDN (free- this basically stores your website in different locations around the world)
  • Use GTmetrix.com to test your speed on desktop for free (I also used webpagetest.org to test my mobile test speed)

Make great content

How Matt makes great content...

  • Ahrefs keyword research tool ($99 a month- not a affiliate link as I still don't use them even though I know I should!... Listen to Matt around 39 minutes to see why- I still use Jaaxy)
  • Find low difficulty high searched terms
  • Write the best article you can on that keyword (keep doing that forever)
  • Matt did this for 2 years- 1 article a week and got to 100k pageviews a month
  • Make content that helps human beings... NOT robots (don't stuff keywords)
  • Use personality... even on boring topics. Use analogies, stories and personal experience

If you're like me you're probably wondering... how can I write the best articles on that keyword? That's what I normally try to do.

Well Matt lays it out for you...

Quick SEO win

  • Use Google Search Console 
  • Pull up Search Query by number of impressions (see below screenshot)
  • Find keywords that are getting lots of impressions but not many clicks
Google Search Console
  • It's probably ranking around 8-10 in SERPs (Search Engine Results Page)
  • "Master craft" that article
  • Open the top 10-20 ranking articles and find what are the common questions/ subheadings they use
  • Boil it down to the main sub headings and make your article answer those points really well
  • Matt GUARANTEES this will boost your traffic (he even said if it doesn't he'll send you his SEO course for free... just email him... no, not really, but I've done this for 2 articles and they are now ranking in the top 3 positions #justsaying)

Here are the stats for the click through rate of articles ranking on page 1... 

Google CTR on page 1

Do you notice that I just linked to this Backlinko article? Yeah that's a stats post... see why creating stats posts or skyscraper content can help get backlinks? Read on to see what I mean...

If you have tons of content

  • Do an audit
  • ​Go to ​​​moneylab.co/content-audit
  • Delete poorly performing posts
  • It may be relevant in other articles so you can use it in better performing posts (sometimes you just need to delete it though)
  • If you have content that doesn't add value then it can harm the way Google views your site and content in general

Backlinks

  • Don't ask random people- it won't be good long term (but it may help a new website get more authority in the short term)
  • Create content that can naturally be linked back to (skyscraper & stat posts i.e. make content better and bigger than other people)
  • Personally I'm of the opinion that you should spend your time creating awesome content and ideally some link worthy posts. That way you will get backlinks organically over time (if you're a big agency with a team then by all means focus on backlink strategies).

Advice if Matt could go back in time

  • Get better at writing
  • Do more videos sooner (he's naturally good at this)

Matt Giovanisci Podcast Transcript

Matt Giovanisci 0:00 I have another website called brew cabin. And that site is all about home brewing. And that's I still own again, zero promotion, no social media. We have an email list, but it's pretty much on an autoresponder so like not really a thing. And we don't publish every week, we have about 50 articles on the site, and it continues to grow. I have not published or promoted a single thing.

Mike Beatty 0:27 How is it growing? Are people backlinking because it's good content or something?

Matt Giovanisci 0:32 Yeah, that and because like everyone else is slow and we're just much faster.

Mike Beatty 1:32 So Matt, I actually signed up to your email list about two weeks ago and bought profit first straightaway. Got the audit orderable straightaway, and I was like, yeah, this guy. I like this guy straightaway. So yes, that is such a good book. It's such

Matt Giovanisci 2:28 a good book. It's an accounting book. And the guy's like, not an he's not an A, I don't think he's an accountant. He's like, I didn't think he was an accountant Anyway, now, but it's it's kind of funny. I mean, it's kind of I wouldn't say it's Yes. It's easy to read for accounting books.

Mike Beatty 2:42 Yeah, I mean, I mean, I've read a lot of books and stuff, but that one, you very quickly realise. Yeah, like the author. And I very quickly realise. He knows his stuff. You know, he's not just, he's not just chatting stuff, whereas I actually had it. I haven't read his other books. By imagine the other books, I imagine the other books are just chatting and stuff, just the way that he's all mentioned that. Yeah, profit first is awesome. What do you think just like explain what it is cuz I know how much you use it in your business.

Matt Giovanisci 3:11 Yeah, it's so funny because it's like he took, he took something that was tried and true in the personal finance space, which is where I come from as well. And he just applied it to business. I, you know, when you read the book, and they kind of explain it, it's basically I would call it a framework for how you organise your accounting with your business. And so the idea is simply you should the business should profit, right right away. So the business and it's very similar to the personal finance adage of pay yourself first, right? So the idea that like the business always profits, even from the first you know, revenue check, and whatever is left over. So you you pick a percentage, and in this case, like the percentage that I use is 10. percent. So my business profits 10%. Every single time we get, you know, we get paid every year we get paid, you know, obviously like different checks come in from different areas. And so at the end of the month, I kind of tally everything up, I take 10% of the revenue that we earn for the month, and I set it aside into a an account a literal like bank account a savings account under my business, that's strictly for profit. And then, what you're what it what it allows you to do is it forces you to kind of look at Well, now you have to operate your business on 90%. And, you know, the other percentage, the other larger percentage, there's taxes. So in his, I think in the one he has a couple of different frameworks depending on the size of your business, the one I use is pretty much the lowest one. It's 15% goes to taxes. 10% goes to profit. And then or I'm sorry, 20% goes to taxes if 10% goes to profit, and then Again, your leftover with 70% you pay you have to pay the salary of the operating officer, the person who owns the company. Yep. Me case, because the idea of doing all of this is that a business is supposed to make the owner money. And so that's like, that's why someone starts a business is so that they can, you know, not only pay their employees that obviously but to pay themselves they've why start a business if you're not planning on making money from it, you're just gonna like, you know, live in a cardboard box for the rest of your life trying to start a business that makes no sense. And so, um, so you so you have that cost, right, that's a percentage. And then you're left with this like, depending on which framework you choose, which which allocation percentages you choose, you're left over with like, maybe 35%, or even 30% that you're sort of forced to run your business on. It's the it's all other operating expenses. This includes all the overhead This includes employees and so on. So, that is kind of the point at the point is like, what are you left over with? And how do you budget your business to fit that instead of going like, Well, you know, we need this and we need that and you kind of overspend and you're willing to sacrifice maybe your own pay, you know, you're willing to, like float the company with credit card debt, you're willing to, you know, take a cut from your employees to pay for overhead. It's like, you know, it basically forces you to operate as lean as possible and to keep an eye on your operating expenses so that you're well within your allocation percentages based on your revenue. Yeah.

Mike Beatty 6:36 Actually, I spoke to Jeff and Ben from dollar sprout, and they said how they use the they basically, only, they're only ever try and spend 50%. So as they're growing, they're only ever try and spend 50% because I imagine that this is actually a little bit different, like for like a business that you are who's obviously like established and you've got this income or wherever you can come Have do all those numbers and things like that. But if you're, let's say you're in the startup phase, and you're growing, I'm guessing it's a little bit different. It's not like you're going to be like, what? I guess it's still you do want to do the profit. First thing, you definitely want

Matt Giovanisci 7:12 to do it, it's actually the best time to do it. Right. Right. Like your business profits from day one. Yeah, insane. Because it's like, oh, and then what you do is that the one thing I forgot to mention, is kind of the crux of it, your profit account that you're collecting 10% on every month, so even if you're in the startup phase, and let's say and, you know, I think you should follow this because the allocations are just based on percentages. So it doesn't matter what your revenue is, if you make $10 a month, okay, you know, $1 goes into the profit account. Okay. Yeah, it's something it's, it's it's still money. And so, what you do is, you know, what he talks about the book is that every quarter, you take half of the profit of half of what is in the profit account, and you pay that to the owner, you pay that to yourself in this case, and and so, basically like you have this like, ever grow up Prophet account that you're only ever taking 50% on. And that is like a distribution that is a that is a bonus, like you ran the business, you did? Well, you know, you didn't sacrifice employees, you didn't sacrifice, you know, you kept the books lean. And you know, you are rewarded for that as a business owner as the person who is in charge of doing that. And it may sound like yes, this is all going to the top. But no, it's really just like, pure allocations, it's it's an obviously, as you get bigger, those allocations change, you know, you may not be putting 10% away in profit, you may only be putting 5% away in profit, and you may not be paying yourself 50% you may only be paying yourself 30%. And so it's it depends on where you are and how much revenue you're making and what it takes to run your business. Obviously, mine's online, so my overhead is very low, but somebody with a brick and mortar location might have completely different operating expenses and have would have to ship those hundred percent. But ya know, I just really liked the simplicity of it. And

Mike Beatty 8:55 I did I think I heard a podcast that you did recently and you were talking about how He almost uses too many bank accounts and I really liked your way you just use three I think you said yeah, he makes it. Yeah. I was like, my eyes were like glazing over that because

Matt Giovanisci 9:10 this is yeah. Yeah he talks about it's kind of early in the book too and if I if I you know and i and i understand his reasoning for you know, telling somebody why they should have all these bank accounts is really you know, to protect you from yourself you know, and not everyone is as disciplined with money as maybe say somebody like me who was the complete opposite I was very undisciplined, very terrible live paycheck to paycheck until I started a business in 2012. And I was like, Okay, I need to really change the my, you know, how I do things. And I read a bunch of like personal finance books got into personal finance as like a you know, a media and started just really learning and now I'm more now I could be more disciplined. Yeah, well Whereas like, I yeah, I only need three bank accounts, I need my my income account that the one where all the revenue comes into it's a basic checking account for my business. That's where I do my operating costs from. That's how I pay myself. That's how I pay employees and things, team members. And then I have an account for my taxes where I keep where I allocate money towards there. And I have an account for profit, both of those are savings accounts attached to the same bank so that they are instant transfers. And I do it every month, I just transfer it over. And I just do it's kind of really simple. Keep it simple. Yeah, it's like, Yeah, but again, you know, I do have very easy access to those accounts, if I in end up in dire straits, for whatever reason, and so, I think that that's, you know, he said he recommends setting up to tax account and to profit accounts so that you can do an easy move, but then you want to like move it to an account. That's much harder to get access to like an outreach Bank, maybe that you actually have to drive into, you know, you don't have a you can't just like, you know, withdrawal or you know, so he just he's just basically advocating to make it complicated on yourself so that you avoid taking money out.

Mike Beatty 11:12 Yeah. And it just makes so much business sense or just common sense, I guess. But it's a really nice way.

Matt Giovanisci 11:20 It's really like personal finance brought the business Yeah, it's really what

Mike Beatty 11:24 exactly what anyway, I want to dive into SEO because I know you know, lows of goal, you know, you know your stuff, basically. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 11:32 That's right. Yeah.

Mike Beatty 11:35 What is it like 500,000 pageviews or something? I saw that one light your custom is been more in less than?

Matt Giovanisci 11:43 Yeah, now it's been, you know, obviously, we're heading I've run a pool business called swim University. And so as we head into the summer months, you know, we're talking about a million visitors a month. Wow. You know, and then in the wintertime, we're talking about 300,000 visitors a month. So On average, it works out to be about 500,000 unique visitors a month

Mike Beatty 12:03 epic. Right? So yeah, the question is, then if you had a blank slate, let's say you were doing streaming University again, you know, just a complete blank slate. What would you do to make sure you set up your website? Well, for SEO?

Unknown Speaker 12:18 Yeah. So

Matt Giovanisci 12:21 it's kind of an unfair question. Because

I learned that, you know, over the last, I guess, 20 years, I've been building websites personally, like, I'm the one that I'm the developer. And it's where I started, I started with website design and then you know, kind of moved into content with so so so many diversity and all my other sites are built off of a theme that I created, which is like, you know, talking about being simple. It is a stripped down theme. It is for WordPress specifically, and I would use that because it's already set up for SEO. It's already SEO is in every possible It's lightning fast. Can anyone

Mike Beatty 13:02 do Can anyone use that thing? Or is it Yeah, it's bought. Yep. Cool.

Matt Giovanisci 13:06 Yep. It's it's called carbonate and you can buy it at bicarbonate calm. Cool. Yeah. So So bicarbonate obviously is a chemical but it's bu y carbonate genius is a it's a pool by carbonate is what they use to increase alkalinity in a pool. Oh, that was a little clever wordplay for the for the domain name, but yeah, it's a $79. Once you buy it, you own it, but it's really stripped down. Like there's no cost. You can customise things and I teach you how to do that. But it's all with code. And you have to go into the code, you have to change things, but I tell you exactly what to change and it's commented so you can't really mess it up. But, and that's what all my sites are built on are all built on this like really simple. You know, lightweight no JavaScript. Super fast. How important is that? I think it's probably, I mean, if there's two Yeah, I mean, like there's two things, there's having a really lightweight, really user friendly, like to the to the actual visitor, having a site that's fast and easy to read is a probably I would say 25% important, you know, and 100% pie, and the other 75% is like content is basically, you know, making sure that you do the right and this is kind of the second point is, that's what I would start with. And then the next thing I would do is basically go and do a bunch of keyword research. I use a tool called hrs because I think it's the best and I you know, I've been using it for numbers multiple years now and and I would go and do a bunch of research and go after you know, low difficulty high, searched terms, find those terms and then run Like, pretty much the best article you could possibly write on that. And I would do that consistently, forever. And, you know, there's a there's a, I have a story of a website that I built called roasty coffee that I eventually sold. But for the first two years, the idea was, and this site is completely different, but it's a coffee website. And what I did there was we published a new article every single Monday for two years straight. And I did zero keyword research. I would only I just literally just had a bunch of questions in my mind because I do like coffee have been brewing it since I was six. And I want it

Mike Beatty 15:39 since you were six?

Matt Giovanisci 15:41 Yeah.

Mike Beatty 15:43 You had to be the wild as a kid.

Matt Giovanisci 15:46 No, that was no coffee doesn't have that. I mean, I drink it every day, but it doesn't have that effect on me for some reason. I mean, maybe it did. I could ask my parents. Paula was worse for me, but that's true. didn't stop my growth. I'm six two, so I don't know all the Yeah, but my It's kind of like I think it's an Italian thing. You know, like I grew up my It was like accepted in my house.

Mike Beatty 16:05 Real coffee not that instant crap?

Matt Giovanisci 16:08 Oh, that was an instant but it wasn't far from real. Definitely like Folgers French roast. But we so So, again, we published an article every single week, based on just questions like I had a question of what's the difference? Like what's the true difference between those white filters and those brown filters? Like why would you choose one over the other? And the only keyword research we would do is look at, okay, are people calling them white filters and brown filters? are they calling them something else? And it turns out, they're calling them bleached and unbleached because that's what they actually are. And so okay, we would just like kind of, optimise for the term, but not go after. It's like the first article I ever wrote was about French you know how to use the French press, which is like a very difficult keyword to go after because it has high difficulty, but also high search volume. Probably not the first thing we should have created. But in two years, we went with zero promotion. This is no social media channels that we were promoting on. We had an email list, but I wouldn't even say it was that good. We ended up getting to 100,000 visitors a month by the end of two years. Wow, you know, unique visitors by doing basically just content and not based on keyword research. So, and honestly, like the writing, it was subpar, I would say like it was decent, but it wasn't like gonna blow anybody's mind. You know, it's like, oh, this is just a I think that site looked very good. And it was very quick. And it was well written. So it wasn't like you know, shitpost But yeah, it was just basically the consistency of it and going after that now I did I ended up selling that site. I needed the money and at the time because I was in debt and and I've used a whole article on money lab about it, but You know, the person who's running it still running it today, and it still looks the same way. So it's, I mean, clearly it's doing well. And the and, you know, I'm not saying that that is the right way to do it. You know, that's just one way that's my way of doing it. Because it is so handy. I didn't do anything like I, I built the site. And then I had a keynote with a bunch of questions. And then I just hired a one man, you know, team to, to write and publish articles. And I had a graphic designer, it was, and we just did it consistently every Monday.

Mike Beatty 18:31 How much how much Clinton were writing per month, roughly. Before or articles per month? one a week?

Matt Giovanisci 18:39 Yeah. No, per month. So by the end, yeah, by the end of two years, you had about 100 joules per article. Wow. So Exactly. On the money. Yeah. So, um, and, you know, my graphic designer, we just do the graphic for it. And my writer would do the writing and then you know, it would all be published and they would just go out every Monday.

Mike Beatty 18:59 So you You would do nothing. Nothing. Wow. That's incredible. All right, I've got loads of questions from what you just said. But okay. First one is, well, I want to dig into the speed a bit more. Okay? Because what what do you use to like, just track your speed? And you got, I've just gone on to Google Now. So I want to do this for my website right now. And I want

Matt Giovanisci 19:24 to I want to gt metrics metrics as an x at the end.

Mike Beatty 19:28 So it's, that's number two. Yeah, yep. on Google. Yep, that's

the that's what I use for exclusive. So let's type in what's Uh, what's a good speed? Because I've got to be honest, I don't do this

Matt Giovanisci 19:42 on anything under two seconds is good,

Mike Beatty 19:44 okay. And just do my

Matt Giovanisci 19:46 age or should I use another file, do a blot, do it do your most popular post, okay, do or do your most popular page if it is your homepage fine, but usually it's like a post or something.

Mike Beatty 19:57 But we change that then So under two seconds is good.

Matt Giovanisci 20:03 under two seconds is pretty good. Yeah,

Mike Beatty 20:04 I mean, what's really bad? I'm scared now.

Matt Giovanisci 20:10 Anything over? I don't know. I mean really bad. I've seen I've seen sites that load in like 25 seconds. I was like, oh, how does all that mean it big sites like look at I mean, if you type I mean, I can probably type one and now, I mean, like a big site like box comm For example, I think the last time I checked them or even like CNN, they're like, their homepage, just just I think it was like 16 seconds followed. Right? Because because they have, you know, they had so manymjust have so many ads and yeah, third party shit that's being loaded. So it's just not. And again, this is part of like, why I end up, you know, focusing so much on pace because I do think it's a competitive advantage to these bigger companies who like just, you know, they have So much they have to do and they have a lot of obligations. And, you know, they have a lot more data but and maybe speed is not important to them because they're maybe this is a new site, and it doesn't really matter. And they have, you know, they're publishing on like, Facebook, Instant Articles, and they're publishing on amp, you know, so we're using amp to publish. So I, you know, they're already creating stripped down versions of their content. And it's like, well, why wouldn't you just have Why would you just do that from the beginning when the reason is because they make their money on ads and ads are? Yeah, so I just did the homepage for Vox and it loaded in 19 seconds. Well, that's mad.

Mike Beatty 21:37 Yeah. It's 5.8. Okay. Yeah, isn't it?

Matt Giovanisci 21:44 It's not great. Okay, so I What, what score did you get? What's their PageSpeed score? Is it D

Mike Beatty 21:51 93%.

Matt Giovanisci 21:54 Oh, it says

Mike Beatty 21:56 fully loaded, fully loaded time is 5.8. Should I be looking at something else?

Matt Giovanisci 22:00 Now that's the right one. How many requests do you have?

Mike Beatty 22:03 34

Matt Giovanisci 22:05 that's not too bad. I mean, so you you could easily speed that up. Right? Easily speed that so I use live I use Thrive Themes. I've got a Thrive Leads popped in on that page and I've heard that can be a bit slow. can be slow, I think. I think you would probably benefit a lot from lazy loading images.

Mike Beatty 22:25 Of course, like is it BJ? BJ? lazy load or?

Matt Giovanisci 22:27 Yeah, yeah, I would use the WP like, look at WP rocket. Oh, yeah. If you do that, I guarantee you and CloudFlare to use CloudFlare at all. No. So that's a CDN

Mike Beatty 22:39 thing, isn't it?

Matt Giovanisci 22:40 Yeah.

Yeah, so I would it's free. So WP rocket cost money, but it's like, I don't know, like 30 bucks a year or something and it's plug in, and then CloudFlare. So I think if you added CloudFlare to your to your website and you added WP rocket. It could help It would definitely help. It could probably bring you down closer to like three seconds. Awesome.

Mike Beatty 23:03 So like getting it down to three, two seconds, you want to under two basically trying to Yeah, I mean, I just

Matt Giovanisci 23:09 Yeah, because here's the thing that I've

it's a competitive advantage. You know, Google has said the PageSpeed is important, obviously, like, if you went and looked at some of the top ranking pages, like they're not super fast, but you know, a lot of people are on mobile devices. And I run a website where 75% of my visitors are coming through on a mobile device. And if you can make the assumption that they're probably not on Wi Fi, you know, or maybe only half or maybe only, you know, and I have an older audience for my stuff. And so my goal is to try to get my content to load almost instantly on a edge or 3g network. And if I can do that, then my site becomes that much more fun. valuable and plus it stops people from Pogo sticking so if somebody, you know is in Google and they type in, you know how to get rid of pool algae or whatever they say, and and they click on a site, because they want their problem solved and it takes four or five seconds to load and they can't see anything like that, like people are impatient, they get tired, they hit the back button, they go back, they, they select another thing, and mine is going to be instant. And so it's like, oh, okay, I'm immediately started reading. And this is great. It's exactly what I'm looking for. So that to me, it is it is a competitive, competitive advantage because a lot of these bigger companies are not going to invest the time in trying to cut their PageSpeed. But you've seen companies like Walmart and Amazon these big, obviously huge ecommerce stores who have only like, who've done tests where they've sped up their website by like half of a friggin millisecond or some ridiculously low amount. They saw a 1% increase in sales, you know, from that one variable tested. And that's like, clearly it matters if those companies are willing to like, I mean, they have huge infrastructure, and it's not easy to make those sites fast. Yeah, you know, they have to, I mean, I mean, they run the whole gamut. So like, they have to, they have to upgrade servers, they have to do like really just intense shit where we don't have to, we can, we can use stuff like CloudFlare and caching stuff. And, you know, we're obviously on WordPress, and, you know, you can even upgrade to a better hosting company, which is like a huge gain. One of the things that I did was, you know, move to something like WP engine, which is already pretty damn fast, you know, and so, I believe that that's probably the major reason that like, my coffee site was able to see so much traffic without really any promotion. And I ended up uh, so I have another website called brew cabin, and that site is all about homebrewing. And that's I still own again, zero promotions. No social media, we have an email list, but it's pretty much on an autoresponder. So like not really a thing. And we don't publish every week, we have about 50 articles on the site, and it continues to grow. I have not published or promoted a single thing. I see.

Because, one, we are equalising kin because it's good content or something.

Yeah, that and because like everyone else is slow, and we're just much faster and we and we targeted very specific keywords. And yeah, I think it just and I mean, nowadays, it's growing because of the more people are getting in the homebrewing you know, during these COVID days, but it even before that every month, it would go up, you know, maybe only about by like maybe 1000 people or 5000 people but again, it's been a year and I've created zero new content I've updated I've only just like kept plugins updated and it continues to see more and more traffic. Every month and make more and more money. I'm not we're not we're not breaking the bank here. Because it's not something I focus my time on. But it is certainly an excellent case study for like, you know, you create good content you have. It's not even really about consistency. Clearly. I mean, I don't think every I don't think every industry is the same. This is very anecdotal. But I don't know, it seems to be working, obviously, like, there are more competitive industries that you could build a website in, where you will have a problem like staying top dog, right. This is not one of those industries, and neither is the pool industry, I guess, in my case, so either I picked really good industries, or both. I mean, I have a background and all those things, right. I, I, you know, I've been in the pool industry, literally in the pool industry since I was 13. And I've been home brewing since I was 21. So just stuff I've been doing for so long. Yeah. 30 Now,

Mike Beatty 28:02 I think Google is starting to recognise that as well, don't they? Like, if you have legit knowledge, and I don't know how to do it, I don't know if they actually do know if that the author is, has background in it or what but,

Matt Giovanisci 28:16 you know, um, so I talked to Morty from rank Ranger, and he, he has put it the best. And I think he's sort of speculating, but he has some insight. And he wrote an article and I, I'd have to go find it. I think it was from August of 2018. But basically, it was talking about how Google can now profile an entire website, almost acting as if a human being like you and I worked for Google. And our job was to just, you know, Google would give us a website and we would be like, is this good or not? And we'd be like, Yeah, it's pretty good. I like the site, like, Okay, and then it's like, cool, like, we're gonna like, give that a thumbs up. But they're doing that with with Ai, they're doing that with machine learning. Wow. And so they're able to profile and kind of look at a site holistically and not just per page and how many fucking keywords you can stop. But, you know, it's more about is this site reputable and not just, you know, you look at a site's like, you know, and it's really tough in the health industry in the finance industry where you're like, you know, anybody can write an article about, you know, Lyme disease, right? It's like, Well, are you qualified to talk about Lyme disease? You know, are you a doctor and it's really not about I don't know if it's about the adding credibility, but it's an how you present the content. So it's like, if you are not a doctor, you need to make it clear that you are not a doctor and and you can't make like substantiated health claims based on zero research. And if you do, do the research, like, cite your sources cite where you're getting this from. And I think a lot of people don't do that because they want to seem like authority figures, especially on bigger sites where they don't have full control over everything that's published, they kind of just let people publish it, you know, free reign. We don't do that. It's it's we are, we have a lot like every site that I own has a core philosophy to the to like what we educate about. And we cite, we cite our sources, if we like we did a big article on some University about COVID. And how, and it's right at the top of every page right now, because people are worried. Can you still swim in a pool? I can you can catch it from you know, all this stuff. Well, no, we're not going to write an article about that. Until and this happened. The CDC released an entire thing about swimming pools and hot tubs because people were worried and so all sudden, now we have a reputable source telling us good information. And then we backed and then we backed it up with what we know from you know, obviously like 20 Five years of pool care, and we were like, okay, here's what the CDC recommends. And then here's how to do it. You know, it's like here's the pret, like we just gave practical tips on, on implementing what the CDC recommends because they were obviously very vague about it. Like, just make sure your pool is sanitised. Okay, what is a sanitizer? How? You know, how much sanitizer Do you really need? And, you know, we have guidelines for that based on our philosophy that we've kind of developed over, you know, 25 years.

Mike Beatty 31:27 Yep, I guess he's just kind of showing Google look. We're legit. And also, here's the sources and you're just trying to help Google there's that whole eat thing, I guess, isn't it like expertise, authority and trust and stuff like that? Just

Matt Giovanisci 31:41 Google, you can you can do it without bragging right? You can there's a way to do it without going like, Oh, my doctor, like, okay, you know, like, you don't have to hire a doctor. You just don't. I don't know. It's really it's kind of like it to me. And when it comes to content, and Something I really can't teach. In like SEO, I have an SEO course and I talk about it. But there's this like, there's a matter of taste, right? You have to kind of know like, one you have to be like moral and to get to know like what you're doing is like a good thing for the for the you know planet and people that are reading it. And it also has to be like entertaining even though it's even though it's about algae. Like you can make it fun to read just like this, just like Mike did with profit first. Like he took an accounting concept which inherently is very boring, and makes it easy to read by telling stories. And by like just being like using fun language that's like more human language like not robotic, not very, like legal ease, no doctor speak, just very like down to earth. And I think if you can build a lot of trust that way, and Google sort of is smart enough to recognise that you don't really need to, like hack the system anymore. Yeah, not gonna be like good.

Mike Beatty 33:00 I think there's just it's just becoming really, really smart. Like, the more I learn about it, and the more I'd speak to people about this sort of stuff, there's just saying a very, very similar thing. You know that whole, get an order green light. Well, what's your take on getting the green lights on Yoast plugins and things like that? And you know, making sure you put it in the first sentence and the key word

Matt Giovanisci 33:19 in it up? Yeah, I was like, Yoast is a great tool for a lot of things. But like, no, we're not going to make everything turn green because we don't actually believe in that sort of scrutiny. There is an I this is so common in the SEO industry. And it's such a hard because it's like everyone wants a definitive answer, right? Everyone wants, how many words is my blog post need to be? It needs to be exactly 1500 words. It's like no, it can be doesn't know it needs to answer the question. That's the more vague answer that no one likes to hear. Because it's like, well, what does that mean? Well, if you can't figure that out for yourself, you're blocked. All kinds of things in life and so Maybe you shouldn't be on the internet creating content if you can't answer that question. So I think, you know, it's like I, I think it's it is nuanced, and it is just having that like developing taste. And I think you can develop it over time, go out there and read what is good, what do you like, you know, maybe you're the person who does like long form content, and that's really, you know, very difficult to read. Maybe you're into that, like, I know, people that are into that. They read like, you know, medicine journals, but that stuff is entertaining, and it's like, okay, and you're going to attract those people. And that's fine. I am not that way. I, I, I need things like dumbed down for me to use, I need analogies to understand concepts. And so that's kind of what we do. And I think it's it. We've gained a lot of trust. Because one, our site is fast. And what that tells Google is not only like will our stuff actually get served up on on, you know, 3g work, but that we actually care about making the site like we care about the site. Like we were doing it for the user. Yes, it has a you know, search engine implications. But really, how annoying is it to click a website and it takes more than two seconds to load it just, it's, you don't think it's annoying? It's a little bit annoying and so on. How long are you willing to wait

Mike Beatty 35:22 on that whole point? I have spoke to some people who have said a little bit of that just to sort of counter that argument, I guess is as long as it's not too long. It doesn't really make much difference because particularly again, I'm I'm sort of thinking more someone that's in like a startup phase or someone who's growing their website. I hear you know, people that are like literally getting no traffic asking me, oh, how do I optimise my website, XYZ or whatever? And they're like, you haven't even got any content out there or and stuff like that? And is how do you get prioritised? That How do you decide what is the most efficient thing, obviously, like you said, if you can do it from day one, then that probably really helps.

Matt Giovanisci 36:04 Yeah. And in the way you do it is just by uncomplicated the entire website building process. Like the more you should use more plugins you add, the slower it's going to base the bottom line. And so like, you know, what I usually tell people is, you know, yes, I have a theme fine. You can spend the money if you want to, but really, you need to pick the simplest theme like pick like the freest, simplest, like just this word, white, white background, black words, you know, like, there's nothing else you really need. And make sure that you and then the real, like, the real way to rank is, you have to write good words, and you have to make sure that you're writing something that's good that people are actually looking for if not looking for it. It's like did you even really make it and that's money lab. Money lab is is a website that has really good content, but does it gets zero search engine love because I am not titling my articles to be search engine friendly. And so it's like the only way that that content gets out in the world is through social media and other sharing things. Not that I have share bars on my website, people just kind of like word of mouth it. And that's the way I prefer it. I mean, I didn't, I didn't, I mean, I could absolutely make an SEO play and get search engine traffic. But I think most of my search engine traffic comes from people like googling My name or googling money lab, because they heard about it somewhere and they forget the website, you know what it was? And so, or, you know, they typed in a word that I don't even I don't even know why I rank for it. Like, I shouldn't rank for it. But you know, I've just done so much content over the years that like, I think I rank for like, fuck email or some like weird, weird shit. So it's like, oh, yeah, because I had an article that like mentioned those two words together as a bit. But yeah, so it is. I think I mean, you know, The research is, it's like, it's like, it's sort of like an insurance plan that you will rank for something. And then writing words is really just, it's really where like most of the work needs to go. It's going to be a forever job. So, you know, a website can evolve over time. You may work on it once a year, but you should be working on your words every single day.

Mike Beatty 38:22 Yeah. And so, that kind of leads on to like, how important is something like h refs, or like a keyword research tool of some sort? In your opinion? Okay,

Matt Giovanisci 38:33 I will say this. And I've been doing this for 15 years, for the first seven years, maybe eight years, maybe 10 years. And I'll say 10 years, I didn't use any SEO tool at all. Okay, I was kind of just, you know, using Google and typing in things and like, you know, kind of making like random guesses. And had I started using a tool like a dress in the beginning. It would not have taken me 15 years to get where I am, it would take me two, or one. So I think my biggest failure, and my biggest lesson was, research is kind of important. And I know it's an expensive tool, but it is worth its weight in gold. If you're if you're planning on making SEO like your your, like primary traffic play for your business, then you kind of you kind of have to have it. And there are other free tools out there. I mean, I don't I think you have to you have to use something like a traps personally. Yeah, and I wish I had I wish I had you know, it's like, it's a regret, for sure.

Mike Beatty 39:42 Cool. Yeah, that's good to know. Because, again, that's something I've had like different people have different opinions on and things like that, you know, some people just like, kind of like you say, you just type it into Google and see what comes up and then that's a key word that you can rank for. And I guess if there's not much competition, then yeah,

Unknown Speaker 39:59 but can work I think is the whole

Mike Beatty 40:03 is more, I guess it's gonna take more elbow grease and stuff isn't it's gonna take a lot more, you're gonna have to throw

Matt Giovanisci 40:09 a lot more stuff at the wall to see what actually sticks. You're gonna have to write that much better. You're gonna have to like, kind of be Yeah, I think so. And your website, too. I think another thing that I think is important, and I really didn't touch on is design. And I know a lot of people kind of say like, oh, who cares about design, and even not even five minutes ago that I mentioned, just get a theme with a white background and black words. That is important. But I do think the trust factor comes from how well your site is designed. And I don't mean over design. I mean, how simple like if you look at any of my websites, and you go on then you're like, this website looks like it's very looks professional, even though it's cartoony as like my logo is bubble letters. But I mean, again, like that, it's it's kind of hard to explain because it is a taste thing, but it's just like it's kind of like perfect The simple Yeah, and yet somehow that screams frost because I certainly see it in other websites.

Mike Beatty 41:07 Yeah, I think there's something definitely like the whole white background and black text is just a must, isn't it really but also just the cleanness of a website, you sometimes just see things were, you know so much in the sidebar or like, just when there's loads of ads, you know, like, if you could look on any recipe ever. I hate it. Yeah, I just never go on and eat it too. I would never order every website.

Matt Giovanisci 41:31 Yeah, so like, whenever when Amazon slashed all our Commission's, which is where I primarily make most of my money from, everyone kind of reached out to me and said, like, now's the time to start putting ads on your site. And I kept saying to them, what is what When did we go when is this 2001 I'm not when I'm not a new site. I understand that there's still money to be made there. You know, but there's still money in podcast ads too, but you don't see me running the like, create, you know, Create a bunch of podcast ads like I don't, I don't think that is such a web 1.0 way of making money. And I think there's so many better and more like user friendly ways to make money instead of going, like, instead of just like interrupting someone's experience with your site and, and, and trying to, in serving them irrelevant ads or even if they're somewhat relevant, like there's probably crappy design, they're probably JavaScript loaded. So they're just creating a bad user experience. Like it was, like, I know you've been on a website where you were reading something and the page just like jumped, you're like, what the hell just happened? Something loaded later and or an ad change and you're like, damn it, it's a bad user experience. And it makes you I don't read news sites, because they're so terrible to read. Yeah, it's like I just and or if I do read one, I do it on my phones. I can stick it in reader mode with with Safari. So it's like, I don't want to see anything else. I don't want to see the front In images, it's like give me the I just want to read the news when I want. So, yeah, I think it's a, it's definitely a way to make money, not my preferred method for the user experience user experience. And that's what Google wants. Google wants a good user experience for their people, because that's how they make money. And so I'm kind of helping them provide that,

Mike Beatty 43:20 right. So if you if someone's listening to this, and like, got a website up, and they're thinking, Oh, crap, I've got all these things kind of going on. I need to improve a PageSpeed and things like that. What is like a quick win sort of thing? What is something that they can do other than PageSpeed related? Is there anything else that they that someone can do to improve like, just get some more traffic from Google? What are like some little things that people can do?

Matt Giovanisci 43:49 If they want to get more traffic from Google, okay, here's a quick win. It's a quick tip.Okay.

Good. So if you don't already have Search Console, Google Search Console hooked up. to your site, hook it up, it takes two seconds, and let it collect that up. But if you already have it set up, go in there and look at search queries and pull up the search query by the amount of impressions and the position and what you'll find is you probably are getting a lot you're probably getting a lot of impressions on us on a page that you rank number seven for, right or number eight for and so you want to find keywords that are like on the precipice of of getting a lot of traffic and those finding those right and going, Okay, look, I reg, um, this this page is getting a lot of impressions, but it's not getting a lot of clicks. And the reason it's getting impressions is because I am number eight. So a lot of people are searching that term. They're scrolling down to the bottom at least and then they get they're seeing your post but they're not clicking it. Okay, but if you were in the top 123 positions, which, you know, it's already getting a lot of traffic because there's a lot of impressions on your low ranking page, then all you need to do is go in and like beef up that content. And so find that find those like, about to rank for like, if it did rank, you know, it would perform well and go in and like, Master like master craft that post, like, in the way that I would do that specifically, a very quick way to do that is Google that word, you know, Google that, that keyword, term or phrase, and just open up all 10 tabs, like every single thing in the top 10 or the top 20 open them up in all new tabs and scan the page and just see like the look for eight you know the headlines and sub headlines and look for the questions that they're answering. You know, look for like what they're talking about. Compile that all into a outline and what your goal is. is trying to do is take basically take the top 20 results and distil it down into an like a really, really well written really good story of answering a question exactly the way somebody wouldn't want an answered and using sub headlines to do that because sub headlines are crazy important like h tos h threes. So that's what I would do and see what happens I guarantee you Why not? No, there's no guarantees, but I will I will bet I'm willing to bet that if you pinpoint that which requires no as all free shit all free tools you could take that from say a number eight ranked number eight at least ranked number five and you'll get more traffic just by going up a couple of points. You know if you can get it to number three great to even better one obviously, kick ass but

Mike Beatty 46:51 what internal linking does that have it impacts on that sort of thing?

Matt Giovanisci 46:56 Yeah, but that's I yes. Yeah. I don't know, it's more strategic and just, you know? Yes, it definitely does. And and there's a couple of like frameworks, you could you know, when you think about content, you could you could think about content and a hub and spoke model, right? Where you have like a master, you know, best you know, how to use the French press is like your master posts, but then you have all these, like, you know, secondary and tertiary posts of like, you know, the best coffee to use for French press and all these little things and you kind of like, all link back, they could they kind of all linked to each other, right? You have this like master post that links out to all of them, and then all those like, you know, secondary, or tertiary posts, all linked to that one. Right. And so you create this like hub and spoke model. There is some benefit to that, because, one, you know, you're basically passing along the good. I think they call it link juice back in the day. I think I'm right, yeah. Where the idea is like, you have a page that ranks really well, so you want to link to a page that doesn't rank really well. So that That page can kind of like lift it up, right? There is some benefit to that. But I do kind of believe and I think you, I wouldn't look at it as, again, you're not doing this for the robots, you really should do this for the humans, right? Because the robots are basically becoming human at this point. So if you can create a post, and it makes a lot of sense to internal link to something else on your site, because it would be legitimately helpful for the person reading the current post, then absolutely do that. There's so much benefit to doing that. Just from a user perspective. Like Imagine you're reading a post, you're like, that was awesome. Like, I want to keep going, like I want, you know, you know, the effect of like Wikipedia, where you go down the Wikipedia hole, right? clicking links, like yes, you should absolutely do that. I don't know if I would necessarily focus on it as a SEO tactic. You know, meaning like, go through all your shit and fix it. You absolutely could. And I, you know, I know I have friends who've done it and it has worked for them. Another quick one you could do. And this is something that I've written about on money lab is do a content audit. If you're somebody with a large site, and you're not just getting started, you probably have a lot of bloated content. And it just needs to be deleted. And I've done it. I've done it on all my sites except for money lab, because money lab, every single thing I write is perfect. So that's a joke. But everything else I've purged and I've consolidate it and I've done this whole thing. There's a whole spreadsheet you can download and stuff. It's all there. But I've I've heard that so many people have told me how much that has worked after I've done it and even before I've done it because I have heard it and I was like I'm convinced I did it. Holy shit. I like 25% traffic bomb from doing like from deleting things, not adding anything. Why? Because it gets rid of

Mike Beatty 49:53 Okay, junk. Basically, you're showing Google our stuffs good.

Matt Giovanisci 49:58 Yep, yep, you're good. Kinda like best foot forward, you're also taking things and this just happens over time you know as you as you start writing posts, you're like wow, I have like seven posts on really one topic and so you take those posts you delete six of them and you combine the best of all of those posts into the bigger post and all of a sudden that post ranks for that plus all the other keywords you were trying to go after. Yeah, you know, so it becomes like this like massive thing which is why I'm not really like a hub and spoke kind of person I'm more of like a every single post should be like the fucking answer like them, like every answer to everything. And you do that over time, you know, not to me. A post is never finished, you know? Yes, it could be published. But every I mean, the way that I look at some University, the way I look at through Cabot and all my other sites, I look at them like textbooks, where every year we update the text. You know, every year we we we have a new edition of the website where like things have been added. To an updated and improved upon, instead of looking at our site as a magazine that will forever create issues that will just live in your fucking trash can. It's just like it's not, you know, and it becomes like this limit if you collect it every if I click that every homebrew magazine ever like I wouldn't have a house it would buy houses the fastest and I'd be a hoarder. And so but if I had like a textbook that I updated every year like a college student, it's like, Yeah, this one textbook kind of answers all the questions when it comes to whatever. Yeah, that's the way I look at it. And yeah, and that's to say, like, you know, there's new chapters that are added because new things happen. So it grows. It's a growing textbook, but it's like it's kind of also contained,

Mike Beatty 51:42 wet. Now, where can people get that? You said that you can, like take it from money lab? Is it like a freebie just like,

Matt Giovanisci 51:50 is it? I think it's a whole post on money lab that I wrote. I think it's probably called money lab.co slash content dash audit. It's probably that

Mike Beatty 52:00 Makes sense? I'll find out. I'll find it. I'll link back to show notes though or

Matt Giovanisci 52:03 Yeah, it's Yeah, it's exactly what it is, though just called the content audit experiment. I did this on roasty in 2017. And, uh, yeah, there's a I think there's a video on how I did it. There's like spreadsheets on how I did it. Like just how to keep track of everything. I did like a total like, overhaul. So I think we went from like, having I mentioned that we had 104 articles, and we ended up

like combining it down to like, 70.

Mike Beatty 52:33 Wow. Yeah. It must be so much work.

Matt Giovanisci 52:38 It's a lot. Yeah,

I mean, kinda yes and no, right? Because like mostly your delete and we still do this, like at some University. Every year we do an audit. Wow. It's like, Hey, we have this post that like, isn't really ranking. But But actually, the content and it belongs in this post that is ranking really well or like could be ranking really well if we we beef it up. And so what we'll do is we'll delete the post will will forward the old URL into the, into the new URL, because, you know, maybe it did get some traffic. And so we want to send people to the new thing, which is still relevant. And we're just kind of like consolidating and keeping, you know, assuming diversity kind of has like a 200 article. It kind of lives in like these 200 articles. And sometimes they come and go, sometimes, and they get bigger, or they get smaller sometimes, because we will even go and delete, like, sections or paragraphs or sentences because it's like, you know, why don't we add the sentence the sentences to it's a fluff sentence, it adds nothing adds no value to the, to the reader. And so we'll even do that. So we're always looking at our content and improving it, which always keeps our content fresh in Google's eyes without adding new stuff all the time, but like creating a brand new blog post, but you know, hey, you know, all of a sudden people are searching for, you know, index pools is a big thing right now because of COVID. Like people are buying pools. And we've never done any content on buying a pool because we're more for pool owners. But now there's a lot of people who want to become pool owners. And so what we're doing is saying, oh, wow, there's new thing that appeared because we look at the trends. We look at Google. And you know, there's a think think what Google is the name of the website. And then there's like Google Trends, obviously. And so we're, we have our finger on the pulse of what people want. And we're obviously we get a tonne of emails and stuff. So we keep track of all that. And oh, okay, now we actually aren't we have to create a new blog post because a new thing emerged, you know, maybe a new technology emerges in the pool industry, like one year, all of a sudden variable speed pumps became a thing. It was like a new technology and it's like, wow, okay, we need to kind of look at this seriously and like write a blog post. And what's great about some University is that kind of an authority. So when we write about the thing that we're in the space for, we rank pretty quick.

Mike Beatty 55:00 So it's great. It's really cool as this really cool way of looking at it. Honestly, I could just keep picking your brain and asking you like, I'm very aware like I've kept it for quite a while already. Just a couple of really quick things I want to get. Okay, first. First is backlinks. I think I saw that on your course you just sort of said, You've probably tried like guest posts in email outreach, skyscraper, social media, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm sure so many people listen to this guy. And you have tried that. Yeah, I've tried that. I've tried that. And what I what are your thoughts? What is the answer? What are

Matt Giovanisci 55:39 you lumped in scribe skyscraper, which I do like is a strategy Yeah. I don't,

Mike Beatty 55:45 backlink stats in skyscraper like just always makes sense to me. Have you ever like you know, just getting writing stat posts and things because people love stats, and they're going to link back to stats because it's useful for loads of stuff.

Matt Giovanisci 55:58 I'm good with that. It's creating content. But I'm not okay with is asking for people for backlinks and I'm not okay with it doesn't matter. Google doesn't need it. Yeah, they don't need any. It's I mean, there's anything we learned they're fuckin AI. So why do they need votes? They don't need votes anymore they are they are though. Yeah, I mean, I, you know, I will say that if you are like if you want to go and rank fast and big, you know, maybe that backlink strategy would work and it would work well. To me. It's not a long term plan. It's obviously not something I want to align myself with as a person. Like, I don't want to be the company that's like man, some University keeps emailing me asked me for a backlink like I hate this company. Like I don't want to be that guy who's spamming people for backlinks. I'm not sure. So I write good content. I get backlinks, all natural, and I'm cool with that.

Mike Beatty 56:47 With that. And last main thing is, I want to I want to go back in time, I'm really like, we haven't spoken a lot about your backstory, but so you've been doing this first. 16 years did you say about a year since 2000? Or 2006? Somewhere in that area?

So what were you doing like just before that

Matt Giovanisci 57:08 working in a pool store?

Mike Beatty 57:09 Oh, cool. So right, let's go back. Let's go back to that. Did you enjoy that? Yeah, I love it. Awesome, right? Well, that's probably not the best but anyway, let's go back to around that time. So you still like running the actual business and everything knowing everything that you know now if you could go back to like, before you actually started this, the actual websites from university and anything like that, what would just be like a couple of pieces of advice you'd give yourself if you could go back sir around that time.

Matt Giovanisci 57:40 get better at writing

done and and get better at writing in like, do videos right away. Awesome, man talk about video at all, but like, yeah, it's just, uh, I think I'm good at like, it was I was always good at video as a kid like I was into it, you know, in my home movies and stuff. So I never really used it as a superpower and way later in life. So yeah, I would I would say, like get better at writing because I failed. And I didn't go to college. I failed because of English, like English classes. I failed every English class really, except for creative writing. And

yeah, I need to get better at writing. And so I wish I did that earlier.

Mike Beatty 58:17 Cool. Great advice. But yeah, no, thank you so much, Matt. I really appreciate the time. And I've learned heaps even if no one else has, so go.

Matt Giovanisci 58:27 Really appreciate it. Yeah, thanks, man.

Mike Beatty 58:33 So you can just tell Matt has so much wisdom and SEO knowledge and just general online business wisdom in general, so I genuinely could just chat to him for ages and keep learning new things. So I just want to summarise my five key takeaways from the chat and hopefully that will help summarise it for you as well. Number one is that he said a website if you think of it as a pie chart, think of it as 75% content And then 25% speed, basically speed is really important for a website. And he says if he can get it under two seconds, then that's awesome. But you know, anything you want as quick as possible, basically, because that just gives you a bit of a competitive advantage. And he did give some tips in there. Obviously, you've got things like that your theme and your hosting that can have a big impact from day one. Or you know, you can even change to a another hosting or whatever, at any stage. But two things that he said for my website, which I'm guessing could be quite helpful other people's website as well is to use a lazy load plugin, and he recommended WP rocket is about $30 a year I think he said I'm not sure I haven't looked but I'm gonna look into that hundred percent

Unknown Speaker 59:47 and get it straight away.

Mike Beatty 59:52 Hey, it's Mike from the present day now speaking, and I have done the speed tests and I have used Wi Fi rocket. And by the way, just get it. It's ridiculously simple and just improve your speed by a whole week. Just to give you an idea, I think my PageSpeed overall went from 4.4 seconds to 1.58 seconds loading speed. It's insane. It's crazy. And just you know, the plugin costs $49 to get initially for one website, if you want to find out exactly what I did more information about this, go to the show notes that make time online.com forward slash 60 back to the Old Bay. And then also CloudFlare when I've heard of the CDN, to NAS, I'm not techie at all I don't really know what it is, but I've heard this from numerous people now and I need to do it, it's free. So get that and that and I'm going to see what happens to my PageSpeed and I'll let you know. Number two is to focus on writing, finding low competition and high search terms. And obviously, like Matt said, he did it for about 10 years by himself just using Google and finding things. But once he started using h refs, and again, I've heard about h refs a lot from people. It sounds like out of all the keyword research tools, h refs is probably like the most accurate one because every single even href, I'm guessing, I'm not sure I haven't really used it to be totally honest. But all of them are never 100% accurate, because they're sort of going on past results and things. So there might be like this new trend coming in, and it has no idea about the traffic they're about to get. You know, that's just an overly simplified example, but it sounds like href is one of the best ones. And Matt has found it really, really helped for his business, and it's helped for him. It's, you know, some guy getting like half a million page views every single month, then I'm guessing it can probably help other people kind of starting out. It is a hefty price tag. If you don't know anything about it. I think it's around 100 dollars a month. So it may even be one of those things that you could potentially use for one month, I think even like a $7. I don't know if it's seven day trial or something like that. It's something that you could definitely sort of use. Try it out, get as much keyword research as possible. But you're obviously going to have to go into it with an idea of what you are going to research and things like that. And again, you know, that's where Matt's course was probably going to help because I don't know what you would need to do when you're inside the number three is, here's a really quick win. I liked this one a lot. And I've had this sort of thing before, but go to Google Search Console, search queries, find the number of impressions or sort by impressions, and then find articles that are like position 789 10, that sort of area. So things that are already getting lots of impressions, but not many clicks. And that's normally because you're at the bottom of page one. Typically may not always be the case, but find any other Like that, because if you can get those that are not getting any clicks, but they're getting loads of impressions, that's a sign that you can go and really try and beef up that article, as Matt said, you know, try and make it way better really answer the question and try and get ranked in the top three positions. That's the ideal because that can make a huge difference in traffic. I've got the numbers in front of me but just like as an example, I think it's something like page number one in Google get some like 30% of the clicks the number two is that 10 and a, you know, seven sick and it is a real big drop off right at the start sort of thing. The first three get some of that night. I've got the percentages way wrong there, but it's something like the first three get 80% of the clicks, you know, the whole 8020 principle. Basically, that's the aim there to get a quick win. Number four, is go to money lab.co forward slash content. audit. And that is going to give you max content audit that he does once a year. And it involves deleting posts, putting other posts into other posts is getting rid of your Deadwood, basically. And kind of as he said in the in there is that you can it shows Google that your website is good if you don't have loads of posts that are just not being ranked. If every single one of your posts was ranked in the top three of Google Google's like wow, this but this website is amazing sort of thing. And

Unknown Speaker 1:04:33 they're gonna

Mike Beatty 1:04:34 rate it better for other posts that you do in the future. So that's a really good idea to do a content audit, especially we've got loads and loads of articles 100% I need to do this. I know I need to do this. So I'm going to go there. And that's going to explain it for you. And then number five is to always write for humans don't get out of this idea of keyword stuffing and Get an order green lights for Yoast and things like this. I've heard this numerous times as well. I think it's, it's not a bad light if you're a complete beginner and you don't have any idea how to do any keyword research and how to write for SEO and things like that is not a bad way to just get like a bit of a template and an idea. But once you've kind of got the process if you've written more than 30 articles using Yoast, you will know exactly what Yoast is asking you to do. So just naturally try and kind of incorporate it in. But you don't even need to worry about keyword stuffing or anything like that anymore. Google is smart enough to realise and recognise what your article is about. So write for humans, stop writing for robots. I'm just rambling now, but there was so many useful takeaways. You can get all those links. So I even met the link I just mentioned, just go to make time. online.com forward slash 60. That's make time online.com forward slash six, zero, and I'll give links and everything to what matters has talked about in the podcast and hopefully that will help. Take care guys. Thanks for listening in to this episode of Make time online. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don't miss any future episodes. And please take a moment to write a review for our podcast in the App Store. keep changing for the better guys. Take care

What are your main takeaways? What can you implement today? Any other questions? Drop a comment below...

P.S. Mine was 100% the WP Rocket plugin. It took some time to tweak the settings but I was amazed at the speed improvements! Check out my WP Rocket review here to see how I used it & if it's right for you. 

Read More
WP Rocket Plugin Review
Recommended, Blogging for Beginners, SEO

WP Rocket Plugin Review 2020: 62% Faster Website

​You probably know that speed is crucial to get more traffic and sales.

​​In fact, research suggests that...

  • ​40% of customers abondon a website that takes over 3 seconds to load
  • ​​Every 1 second improvement ​in page load time increases conversions by ​7%

Summary:

WP Rocket is one of the best WordPress plugins in terms of ​website speed improvement, ease of use, support, updates and extra features. The only ​downside is ​that it comes at a cost of $49 for one website for a year. This auto renews each year with a 30% discount, but for the features and speed improvements ​you get, it’s ​hard to beat.

I was getting fed up with trying different things to try and speed up my website and didn't want to hire an expensive web developer.

So I figured I'd try it out a plugin recommended by guest on ​my podcast and was so impressed (eventually) that I thought I'd write a WP Rocket plugin review...

​WP Rocket Plugin Review 2020

The overview and rankings

Name:​​​​ ​​​​WP Rocket

Type: WordPress Caching Plugin

Price: $49 for one website, $99 for 3 websites, $249 for unlimited websites

Best for: Anyone with a website

WP Rocket Logo

​WP Rocket Pros

  • It makes your site faster
  • Ease of use
  • Support
  • 14 day ​guarantee
  • Amazing features

​WP Rocket Cons

  • ​It's not free
  • ​Takes more than 5 mins

​Make Time Online Rating: 95 out of 100 

Recommended: ​Yes

​WP Rocket made this site 62% faster

​The only way you can tell if something is worth it is to test it yourself​.

So I did!

​After having numerous recommendations to try WP Rocket, I figured... ​why not? Here was my website speed on GTmetrix before WP Rocket...

Site Speed Before WP Rocket

​And here is the speed after...

Site Speed with WP Rocket

Just look at the change in total page size and requests!

But I didn't just test one page on my site. I tested mobile and desktop speed for the same 10 pages on my site.

You can find out the exact results in the 8 minute video below...

Note how I tested site speed on mobile using Web Page Test AND on desktop using GTmetrix.

Plus, in case you're wondering, here is what I use on my website...

​Important information about this website:

  • Host- Wealthy Affiliate (see my WA review here)
  • Theme- Thrive Themes (see my Thrive review here)
  • Plugin replaced - BJ Lazy Load (I had tried and removed W3 Cache and WP Supere Cache as Wealthy Affiliate has their own site speed caching feature and neither improved speed. I also tested a ton of free lazy load plugins)
  • Other plugins used: Smush (image optimizer), GA Dashboard, WP SEO Schema, Yoast SEO

​You may be thinking... so what?! It improved your website speed but will it do the same for mine?

Well, ​like I already said, you will only know if you ​try it out.

So let's ​dig into what it actually does...

What is ​WP Rocket?

​WP Rocket is actually way more than just a WordPress caching plugin.

That's because it stands out compared to alternative free caching plugins in 3 main ways:

  1. The easy to use interface
  2. Adding tons of smaller performance ​improvements that makes your website load faster
  3. Great support
WP Rocket Plugin Review 2020

​Here is the bottom line about WP Rocket...

​It will make your website load faster.

They even have a 14 day money back guarantee. So if you do not see any improvements you can cancel your membership and get your money back! #riskfree

(I actually almost did this after 2 days as I'll explain later...)

​Why is website speed important?

​I had personally been sitting on a website that loaded in under 5 seconds on most pages. I was pretty happy with that considering I hadn't spent a penny on any web developers or plugins. 

​But then I was doing some research into why site speed matters.

​Here are the two things that made me realise I needed to take this more seriously...

1. ​Google ​rewards fast websites

​Google announced in 2010 that your website speed is now a ranking factor in their algorithm.

Even if that didn't matter just look at what happens to the bounce rate of a website when the load time gets worse...

website page load speed bounce-rate

​The simple fact is that if you have a website that loads quicker it means your audience is far more likely to actually wait around to read the content that you've spent ages ​creating!

And this will inevitably have an...

​2. ​​​Impact on the bottom line

​Hosting Tribunal ​​suggest that a 1 second load time delay can mean:

  • 11% less page views
  • 7% conversion rate drop
  • $2.5 million revenue dropped if your site makes $100k a day
Web page load speeds expectations-min

​We are living in a fast paced world where speed can make all the difference. So wouldn't it be wise to spend your efforts ​on something you actually have control over?

​Here's the breakdown of how WP Rocket can help improve your site speed...

​15 WP Rocket features

​There are so many features and benefits to using WP Rocket. Before I break down what these are you need to actually install the plugin.

​To start you just need to do 3 things...

  1. Go to WP Rocket, purchase the plugin & download it
  2. ​Upload it to WordPress plugins
  3. Activate it and go to WordPress settings --> WP Rocket

​That should only take 5 minutes.

​However, the next part requires some tweaking. So here are the main features that can really help to speed up your website.

Each screenshot shows the settings that helped my website the most. You will likely need to try and test the different settings for your own website though.

Check out the video above and you can see how ticking some boxes actually made my website slower... so you can't just tick everything and hope it helps. 

​Disclaimer- I genuinley know hardly any techie things so all of this is from research when I installed WP Rocket. I've tried to keep this in simple English rather than weird techie terms, to explain what each fearture does.

​1. Enable caching

​Browser caching speeds up your site for returning visitors who visit many pages.

How?

Simply put, WP Rocket stores the files needed on your server. So they do not need to load every time ​someone visits your site.

All you need to do is tick a box...

WP Rocket Plugin Review - Caching plugin

​For example...

​Your website logo doesn't need to be downloaded every time someone visits a different page. ​It can just be downloaded once in a while to save your audience:

  • ​Time
  • ​Bandwith

There are tons of other files that will be the same around your website.

​Therefore, caching is a great way to speed up your page load time.

​I found the mobile caching made the biggest difference. I almost asked for a refund until I realised the difference this made!

​2. Google fonts optimization

​Under the "file optimization" tab there are more checkboxes for you to try out. 

One of the main features here is ​optimizing Google fonts...

WP Rocket Plugin Review - File Optimization

​Google fonts are really popular (and something this website uses), but they can be a massive drain on your site's speed.

WP Rocket "combines" the Google fonts, which means there are fewer HTTP requests (aka your pages load faster).

​Note- "Minify HTML" did not make any difference to my websites speed, so I left it unchecked.

3. ​Minify CSS files

​The file optimization tab also has options to minify and combine CSS files like this...

WP Rocket Plugin Review - Minify CSS

​​This helps to reduce unneccessary code like whitespace, which causes your website to take longer to load.​​​

​It's important to note that these changes can ​sometimes​​​​ cause changes to the way your site looks to visitors, which WP Rocket warns you about...

Activate Combine CSS WP Rocket-min

​So be sure to check what your site looks like after making these changes. 

You can easily uncheck the box if it does cause issues.

Note- "​Optimize CSS delivery" ​made my website slower, so I ​unchecked that box. 

​4. Minify ​JavaScript files

What is JavaScript?

JavaScript (JS) is computer language to make anything dynamic on your website i.e. pop ups or anything that moves/ refreshes

​JS is used a lot on websites today and unfortunately it can make your page load slowly.

​​But WP Rocket also has options to minify JavaScript...

WP Rocket Plugin Review - JavaScript

This basically removes unneccessary features from the code on your site, like whitespace and comments to help the developer.

​For example, your JavaScript will change something like this...

Optimize JavaScript WP Rocket

It doesn't impact what the user sees but can improve page load speeds!

All you need to do is tick a box...

That's my kind of speed improvement 😉

5. Defer JavaScript files

​Normally ​browsers load the JavaScript files before they show your website.

However, if you check the "load JavaScript deferred" box your site will load the HTML file before the JavaScript.

This can mean:

  • Visitors see your page instantly
  • Your site loads quicker

It's ​recommended to check the "safe mode for jQuery" box that appears underneath when you check the "Load JavaScript deferred" box...

WP Rocket Plugin Review - defer JavaScript

​However, I found that this feature drastically reduced my page speed (from below 2 seconds to over 9 seconds!)

I have no idea why to be totally honest!

But this is why ​it's a good idea to tick one feature then test your site speed again... instead of ticking everything and hoping it works.

​6. Lazy loading

​The media tab is where you can implement "lazy loading" on your site. 

It's one of the main additional features that makes WP Rocket stand out compared to free caching plugins like W3 Cache.

This helps ​your website to load faster by only loading certain "below the fold" content as the user scrolls down...

WP Rocket Plugin Review

​Another stand out feature compared to other free Lazy Load plugins (like BJ Lazy Load) is...

  • Replace your YouTube iframe with preview image

This means WordPress will ​only load the YouTube embed when the user clicks on the preview image! This can make a hige difference to load times if you embed any YouTube videos.

(By the way, embedding YouTube videos is a great way to keep people on your page for longer... another big factor in Google's algorithm for ranking websites)

​7. WebP compatibility, emojis & embeds

​Emojis and WordPress embeds can add a lot of unneccessary bulk to your site. 

Disabling them can help to speed up your page load times...

WP Rocket Emoji Embed WebP compatibility

​If you use WebP images on your site then WP Rocket can serve these to compatible browsers. 

​This is also why they recommend using Imagify, their image optimization plugin. It automatically does this for you.

​8. Preload cache, DNS & fonts

​The preload tab holds one of WP Rockets most powerful features --- cache preloading. 

With most cahing plugins a page is only loaded into the "cache" when a person visits the website.

Everyone after that gets the "cahced version"...

​Aka the page loads quicker for people AFTER someone visits it.

WP Rocket makes sure all users get this speedier cached version straight away...

WP Rocket Preload

​When you activate WP Rocket for the first time, the plugin generates a cached version of your content right away.

So you can make your website load time fast for everyone!

​9. ​Advanced settings

​Sometimes you may not want to cache certain pages.

For example...

​Some contact form plugins are affected when they are cached. 

The advanced settings can allow you to have more control...

WP Rocket Advanced Features

Some examples of things you can do are...

  • Specify specific URLs to never cache
  • Exclude certain cookies or user agents from being cached
  • ​Select URLs to purge (remove uneeded data) whenever you update any post or page
  • Force caching for specific query strings (​URLS with a query i.e.  example.com/page/?country=italy --- these can be useful ​if you track certain platforms people have come from)

​Check your main pages after ​you find the best settings to speed up your website. If any pages (such as your contact page) do not work properly try exluding them ​here to see if that fixes it.

​10. Cleanup database

​You will often have a load of excess stuff on your site such as:

  • Post revisions
  • Drafts
  • Spam comments
WP Rocket Database

​This can all add unneccessary code to your website and cause it to slow down.

Make sure you back up your website and use this tab to clean your site. 

You can even set an automatic clean up every so often too.

​11. Integrate CDN

A CDN sends your content to ​be stored in a server physically closer to where the user is geographically located.

For example...

If my hosting server is located in Canada but I get a load of visitors from India, it will take a little bit longer to reach them. However a CDN will store my content in different locations (including India) and send the content from the nearest physical location.

​It means it doesn't need to travel as far to reach them...

​Hence, it can speed up the page load time!

​WP Rocket lets you create separate rules for:

  • All files
  • Images
  • CSS and JavaScript
  • Just CSS
  • Just JavaScript
WP Rocket CDN-min
WP Rocket Add Ons-min

​WP Rocket ​is not a CDN themselves, but it allows you to connect to others. Although it looks like there will be a "RocketCDN" soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

Cloudflare is free and one of the most popular CDNs out there. In the add on section it makes it very easy to integrate!

​12. Control heartbeat

There is a WordPress "Heartbeat" always running in the background ​of your website.

It ​can help with some important things like autosaving your work in the WordPress Editor.

But it can slow your site down.

The Heartbeat tab lets you either:

  • Reduce the frequency of the Heartbeat API
  • Completely disable the Heartbeat API
WP Rocket Plugin Review - Heartbeat

​This can help to reduce server performance issues. 

BUT... it can cause issues on your site so be sure to test which options work best for you​ (you may not know until you use your website as normal for a while).

​13. ​Add-ons: Google Analytics & FB Pixels optimization

​The JavaScript that Google Analytics and a Facbook Pixel uses can slow down your ​page load times.

However, switch on these add ons and your website will host the tracking script locally. 

WP Rocket Plugin Review - GA & FB Pixels

​This can help improve your page load times. 

It may not be a huge improvement but you only know by testing before and after trying these out.

​1​4. Image optimization

​WP Rocket also created Imagify. 

​They make it simple for you to install the plugin to optimize your images...

WP Rocket Image Optimization

​I personally always resize and use a compressor before uploading any image to my site. 

I also did not see an improvement in speed compared to Smush (my existing plugin) so I didn't bother switching this over to Imagify. ​I will try this with a new website in the future to see if that impacts the overall speed.

​1​5. ​​​Tutorials

​Even with this detailed WP Rocket plugin review, you may still be a bit confused when you first ​install WP Rocket.  

Lucky for you, they have short, easy to follow videos that walk you through exactly how to use WP Rocket...

WP Rocket Tutorials

​And if you still have any issues...

​Bonus- ​Support

​There is a great support team on hand to answer any questions...

WP Rocket Support

​I messaged them ​after I found my mobile speed had reduced after trying (what felt like tons of) different options. 

Not only did they respond straight away and solve that issue (I retried "mobile caching" for a huge improvement), but they actually found a pretty serious HTML issue on my site.

I sorted this out with Thrive Themes support, but I wouldn't have been aware of this without the support from WP Rocket.

The team also reached out again to check if the issue was resolved.

They truly have already gone above and beyond with their support.

​WP Rocket pricing

​There are 3 options to purchase the WP Rocket plugin:

  • $49 for one website
  • $99 for 3 websites
  • $249 for unlimited websites
WP Rocket Pricing

​However, it's important to be aware that this only gives you 1 year of support and updates...

​WP Rocket annual renewal ​pricing

​The FAQ section helps to answer this...

After 1 year, WP Rocket will continue to run without any problems.
However, you will not be able to use the support or update the plugin.
Licenses can be renewed at a discounted 30% rate: 
  • Single renewal is $34.30
  • ​Plus renewal is $69.30
  • The Infinite renewal is $174.30

​Simply put, you don't have to pay for it again after a year (you need to opt out of this in the settings).

But if you want the support and updates, then you will pay an ongoing 70% annual fee.

(​Updates are normally pretty important for plugins, so you should really be prepared to pay the 70% ongoing annual fee).

My opinion - ​WP Rocket

​To be totally honest, I put off getting this plugin for a long time. 

I had free ​alternatives and my website loaded in under 5 seconds, which isn't terrible.

But now I've seen the results, I have no idea why I didn't try this sooner.

Saying that there are some ​things that I do and don't like about the plugin...

​What I don't like

​There are two things that I didn't like about WP Rocket...

  • It takes some time to test
  • It's not free

Was it hard to test?

No.

Did I need to do techie things?

Nope.

Did it only take 5 minutes to make it work?

Hell no!

It took me more like a whole day of testing ​(but I did try out some other free plugins and ​thoroughly tested my site speed before and after the plugin. You won't need to do as much as I did!)

Also, the saying "you get what you pay for" springs to mind with this one!

​What I like

​You can see more of the pros ​at the top and throughout this WP Rocket plugin review.

But here are the big three for me...

  • It speeds up your website
  • That will impact how many people see your website, which impacts the bottom line
  • There's a 14 day money back guarantee, so you can try it out risk free

If you're still reading this then you probably know this is a business expense that can end up making you more money in the long run.

And just in case you're still on the fence...

​Affiliate bonus

I have an affiliate link below, which means I will get a small commission when you buy WP Rocket through the link at no extra cost to you.

And to sweeten the deal I will send you:

  • My keyword research template & video on how to use it

​This is the exact template I have used to help ​grow my organic traffic by 1,282% in 6 months...

Make Time Online SEO Traffic

All you need to do is:

  1. Buy WP Rocket through the button below
  2. Send mike@maketimeonline.com your receipt

I will send you the template ​as soon as I check my emails.

Happy website speeding up!

Read More
Pete McPherson Podcast
Podcast

How to Start a Podcast Today… and Make Money w/ Pete McPherson

Have you ever considered starting a podcast?

Well if you're like me you're probably worried about 3 things before starting:

  1. It takes too much time
  2. What's the ROI & can it help me make money?
  3. I don't have any special podcast skills

Today Pete McPherson from Do You Even Blog explains exactly why people don't need to worry about these 3 things.

How Pete Made Money From His Podcast... in Month One

PETE MCPHERSON

From Do You Even Blog

Pete McPherson from Do You Even Blog

Make Time Online Podcast on iTunes - Live life on your own terms

We chat about:

  • How Pete made money from his podcast in his first month 
  • Why you don't need any special skills or tools to start
  • The main mistake people make when starting a podcast

Listen to the full Pete McPherson podcast episode

Subscribe & Download

Never miss out on a new episode! Subscribe using your favorite app for listening to podcasts.

Tools and tips mentioned in the podcast

Podcasting mind blowing stats:

Benefits Pete's had from a podcast:

  • Connections!
  • Thousands of dollars from freelance work he's nailed from relationships
  • No issue getting backlinks
  • Building trust and authority
  • Making sponsorship money... even in his first month!

The three broad steps to starting:

  1. Think about who your audience is... and how  you can serve them
  2. Create podcast content
  3. Launch!

We also chatted about tons of tools and resources people can use (most of  them are free). You can grab this list at the bottom of this page. 

Podcast Summary

Pete really does do honest marketing. 

He's totally upfront that the reason he came on the podcast was to help promote his new podcasting course... Podcourse!

I've personally been through the whole course and I just wish this existed before I started my podcast. Not only would it have saved hours of time figuring this all out for myself but I would have actually saved money... yeah, I spent money on things I didn't need!

Pete only shares what he personally uses and always provides free alternatives for people to use on any budget. You can get a podcast up a running like a pro without spending a penny more (after purchasing Podcourse of course!)

See my full Podcourse review here (and inside look).

Jump straight to the sales page (get 25% off if you use this link and code "MAKETIME" before 18th June 2020).

So there's only one question left...

What's stopping you from starting a podcast? If you're considering starting one or if you have started, let us know in the comments below.

P.S. If you want to just get a list of the tools that I use and that were mentioned on the podcast then you can grab it below...

Get all the tools you need to produce a podcast

Grab your "Start a Podcast" cheatsheet, absolutely FREE.  

I will send you all of the tools that I personally use and recommend. 

If the tool I use is not free then I also show you a free alternative.

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Is Surge365 a Scam: Featured Image
Not Recommended, MLM, Reviews

Is Surge365 a Scam? Don’t Join Until You Read This

You’re here because someone might have told you about this opportunity to work at your home and make some good money out of it.

But you might have thought if… is Surge 365 a scam?

Before we answer that question, we’re going to show you a number of legit facts about the company to help you decide.

We’ll also help you decide if this is a legit opportunity to make money from home and leave your day job.

This MLM review, complete with solid facts, pros, and cons, is going to help you with just that so you’ll arrive at the right decision.

Surge365 Review

The overview and rankings

Name: Surge365

Founder: Scott Tomer, Lloyd Tomer, Chris Cokley

Type: Travel MLM

Products (Including Pricing): 2/100

Success Stories: 3/100

Price To Join MLM: $299 to $499 subscription + $99/monthly

Is Surge365 a Scam: Logo

What to look for in a MLM:

  • Low start-up fee & maintenance cost
  • High-quality affordable products
  • You don’t have to carry inventory
  • An affiliate-like system 
  • Generous compensation plan
  • Company is in the early momentum phase

Surge365 Pros

  • None

Surge365 Cons

  • Expensive subscription
  • Hidden monthly expenses
  • Pyramid scheme in disguise?
  • Owners faced lawsuits

  • Only 1 in 1583 members earn over $27k a year

  • No real product or service

Summary

Surge 365 is a travel MLM company that sells travel flights and travel packages. They also have all the red flags of a pyramid scheme and scam.

Make Time Online Rating: 1 out of 100 

Recommended: No

What is Surge365?

Surge365 is a travel Multi-Level-Marketing company founded by Lloyd Tomer, Scott Tomer, and Chris Cokley in 2014.

They provide discounts and incentives to members who can recruit people to join the system.

Lloyd "Coach" Tomer, the co-founder of Surge365, also launched YTB International in 2001, another multi-level marketing company.

Between 2006 and 2008, YTB was the subject of litigation and investigations based on allegations that it was operating as a Pyramid scheme in Rhode Island, Illinois, and California. In 2008, California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a lawsuit against the firm, which was resolved out of court.

Unfortunately, Surge365 has several legality-related difficulties. One such example is the company's creator, Scott Tormer, who is also the founder of YTB International.

In 2008, California Attorney General Jerry Brown sued the company for operating as a pyramid scam. Tomer must modify his business strategy to avoid being dubbed a pyramid scheme, as the dispute was resolved outside of court.

Tomer founded Surge365 around the same year YTB filed for bankruptcy in 2013.

Legal Issues

Unfortunately, Surge365 has a number of issues surrounding their legality. One such example is their founder, Scott Tormer, who happens to be a founder of another MLM called YTB International.

The company was sued by Jerry Brown, a California Attorney General, for running a pyramid scheme company in 2008. The issue was settled out of court and Tomer has to change his business model to avoid being labeled as a pyramid scheme.

YTB then went bankrupt in 2013, which was also the time when Tomer started another company which he called Surge365.

Here's a 2-minute video to help you know more about Surge365...

Now that you know more about them...

Is Surge365 a pyramid scheme?

Yes, Surge365 is a pyramid scheme. Their members can't make money if they won't recruit.

The only way for them to make some bucks is by letting other people join. That alone is enough evidence that this MLM is a downright pyramid scheme.

What is a pyramid scheme?

A company which is promising members monetary payment for recruiting people into the company instead of selling actual products or services.

A lot of countries have already labelled these companies as illegal as their members have no way of making money other than by means of recruiting.

See the Wikipedia diagram below to have a better understanding...

The members who are making money inside a company like this are those who recruit as many people as they can. They also work more than 8 hours a day just to continue recruiting.

But if you were to base on the diagram above, you can see that it is impossible for all members to make money from a company like this because you are going to eventually run out of members to recruit.

Here is a 5-minute video I prepared to help you spot these pyramid schemes in disguise.

Success is rare with Surge365

You won’t achieve any kind of success in Surge365.

Although it’s possible for you to have some success in other MLMs, that’s just not the case with this company.

Based on their income disclosure,  97.45% of Surge365 members lose money.

And those 3% are most likely the founders and the people on top of the corporate hierarchy.

92.3 Percent of Members Lose Money in MLMs

Aside from that,  72.5% and 99.9% of all MLM members from other companies lose money.

This happens because of the “sales quota” that this MLM has. This means that members must sell a certain number of products or services for them to stay “active” and be eligible to earn commissions.

If you can't reach the quota, then you just need to buy them yourself just to stay active. This is why many, if not all MLM members lose hundreds and even thousands of dollars from their own pockets before they can manage to recruit one single person.

We are going to discuss the Surge365 income disclosure later in this review.

Ready to make passive income online?

Hey, I'm Mike.

I created a passive income online within a year. I had no marketing skills or online experience when I started. 

Mike Beatty

How does Surge365 Work?

The company connects clients to another flight booking and ticketing service.

Aside from that, they also offer everyday people to become members and gain an opportunity to work from home by recruiting more members into the company, who in turn, will also sell the “services” to other people.

Surge365 saves a ton of money in marketing costs because instead of promoting their services, they just let their members do all the hard work.

The Surge365 Compensation Plan offers four opportunities for profit:

  • Recruitment Commissions

  • Recurring Commissions

  • National Marketing Director Matching Bonuses

Surge365, like many MLMs, employs grand names and sophisticated language to mislead clients into believing there are multiple ways to make money within the organization when there is only one way to make money in Surge365, and that is by recruiting others.

You need to be at least 18 years old. In possession of a valid Social Security Number, FEIN, or whatever Tax ID Type is applicable for your location, register as a Small Business Associate (SBA) in Surge365. There is support for all main credit card brands, so feel free to use your Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express.

Because Surge365 pays commission to SBAs and provides a Form 1099 (or region-specific form) to SBAs who receive at least $600 in a calendar year, all information must be valid.

Before we see if that really is what’s happening, let's dig deeper into their...

Surge365 products

If you are really interested in trying out your luck in this “red-flagged” MLM, then we suggest you know their offerings so you’ll know what kind of “trouble” you’re getting yourself into. 

The thing with Surge365 is that they don’t have any real products or services, apart from the fact that they only provide an opportunity for their members to earn commissions from simply recruiting people.

What Surge365 does is they simply direct customers to another site called Pro Travel Network which sells the actual flight tickets and booking services.

Furthermore, the MLM also allows their members access to their exclusive travel portal system. And that’s the only thing they actually provide! There’s no product or service offered here, aside from simply “recruiting.”

Nonetheless, they have some sort of “products” they offer to make it seem like they’re one legit company:

  • Your Personal Travel Agency Portal - The system which keeps track of all the customers you have recruited.
  • Vortex Technology - Get paid every time someone buys a flight or cruise ticket or book a hotel from you.
  • Share the Surge Business Tools - A business tool package that allows members to mentor their recruited members into the program. This also allows them to gain access to commissions and bonuses.
Is Surge365 a Scam: Product

Aside from that, it’s also important to be aware that there are hundreds of other MLM companies that are offering the same products.

Some of the most notable ones are:

All of them claim that they have a special offering even if they are just selling the same kind of service...

Let's then move on to knowing...

Can you make money with Surge365?

Yes, you can, to be specific, just a very small amount.

You’ll also be losing your earned money from the monthly fees that this pyramid scheme company requires you to pay on a regular basis.

You can refer to their income disclosure to see that hardly anyone is making good money from Surge365.

How to make money with Surge365

Surge365 offers you 2 ways to “make money.”

These are through:

  • Recruitment commissions

  • Recruitment bonuses

As you can see, both ways are through recruiting, which again shows that the company is a pyramid scheme.

Before dealing with the compensation plan, let us know...

How much does it cost to join Surge365?

You have 2 options if you want to be a Surge365 member.

You either choose the travel income package worth $299 or the travel owner package worth $499.

The company calls the fees you pay for the packages as “license fees.”

Surge365 monthly cost

Aside from the joining fee, you also need to pay a monthly fee of $99. This equates to a monthly sales requirement of 99 PV.

The costs for 1 year are…

  • $299 - $499
  • $99 x $12 = $1,188

Minimum costs for year 1 = $1,487 - $1,687

And that’s before you add all the additional costs like travel, food, stay, and marketing expenses that you have to deal with once you’re one of their recruiters.

Surge365 compensation plan

Most MLM companies, if not all, create compensation plans that are very confusing. And Surge365 is no different. But you don’t have to worry because I’ll do my best to keep it simple and straightforward...

There are 4 ways you can make money from Surge365:

  • Recruitment Commissions - Earn $30 for every recruited member. You can also earn $50 for every recruit once your 3 recruited members stay with the company over the next 30 days. Aside from that, you’ll earn another $50 for recruiting and maintaining 7 members.
  • Residual Commissions - You receive $20 every time your recruited member recruits someone.
  • Matching Bonus - Earn a 100% matching bonus for every recruited member. What they mean by matching bonus isn’t clearly stated, but I believe that this has to do with the number of recruited members and the amount of bonuses they’ve earned.\
  • National Marketing Director Bonuses - A member who reaches the rank of National Marketing Director Level 3 earns an $8,000 bonus. Reach the National Marketing Director Level 5 rank and you’ll get a bonus of $1,000,000.
Is Surge365 a Scam: Compensation

Yes, I know… you’re still confused.

Surge365, just like any other MLM, use weird names and fancy terms so that people will think that there are lots of ways for them to make money inside the company.

When in fact, there’s just 1 thing you need to do in Surge365. And that is to…

  • Recruit people

If you’d like to know more about their compensation plan, you can check out this 5-minute video below...

You can also view the full Surge365 full compensation plan here.

Is Surge365 a scam?

Yes, Surge365 is clearly a scam.

The company doesn't sell any kind of product or service apart from the fact that they just recruit members who are tasked to also recruit!

Their company goals are also mere deceptions, saying that customers can earn a lot of money by becoming a member and selling “travel” services in the form of tickets and hotel bookings.

When the reality is, they’re just directing their customers to another ticketing service that sells the actual flight tickets and hotel reservations.

The next section of this review will show to you the real pros and cons of this company for you to come up with an informed decision whether you’re willing to risk everything up for the said “earnings” you can make from this company...

Just to be fully transparent with you, I am not a distributor myself and I do not endorse it in any way.

I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn how to “Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.

Tired of MLMs? Check out how I make money online here!

What I like about Surge365

Enter your text here...

Key Terms:

  • Pyramid Scheme – recruits members via a promise for payment from recruiting others into the company rather than providing a product
  • Affiliate Marketing- Connecting a customer to a product they are looking for and receiving a commission for doing so
  • Red Flag - A warning sign

#1 None

I normally have some good things to say about MLM companies even if they’re obviously not worth the try.

But in Surge365’s case, I really can’t find any! Perhaps this is because the MLM is clearly a scam...

So, why the hate?

What I don't like about Surge365

#1 Expensive subscription

Aside from being an outright scam, Surge365 also has a very expensive subscription price.

Did you know that you have to pay a massive $299 to $499 for joining the MLM, depending on the package you choose?

You even have to pay another $99 monthly fee just to stay active and receive some kind of commission.

Spending $1,487 to $1,687 annually just for membership doesn’t make any sense to me...

#2 Hidden monthly expenses

What’s more is that you must reach 99PV or sell $99 worth of Surge365 products every single month just to stay as their active member.

If not, then you have to buy them yourself.

Is Surge365 a Scam: Cons

The fact that many MLM members don’t know is that they are the biggest customer base of their clients. Members just keep buying their stuff because they hope that they’re going to “be their own boss” soon.

#3 Is Surge365 a pyramid scheme in disguise?

The only way you can make money from Surge365 is if you recruit people.

Yes, you might be told that you can sell travel tickets, but that’s just a cover up on the focus of the company, which really is recruitment.

MLM pyramid scheme

 There’s no real product or service offered, and you must keep paying $99 every month just to stay active.

Yes, you can make some money by recruiting, but someday soon, you’ll end up running out of members to recruit.

#4 Owners faced lawsuits

Surge365’s owners have a lot of bad track records.

Take for example what happened to one of their founders, Scott Tormer, who was charged with running a pyramid scheme on his previous company called YTB.

Is Surge365 a Scam: Cons 3

It already went bankrupt in 2013.

This means that there’s a good chance the same thing is going to happen to Surge365, especially that this clearly is a pyramid scheme when looking in all angles…

#5 Only 1 in 1583 members earn over $27k a year

If you’ll check out Surge365’s income disclosure, you’ll see that 97.35% of their members earn lower than $1,070 annually.

Is Surge365 a Scam: Cons 3

Meanwhile, 97.7% of the total member population earns just $1,070 in a year.

All while maintaining an average expense of $6,511 annually.

That means 1 in every 1,583 members earn more than $27,000 a year, which isn’t a good figure...

#6 No real product or service

I’ve mentioned this a couple of times already, but I would love to repeat it just to reiterate the fact that there is no real product or service offered in Surge365.

They just direct their “customers” to another travel agency called Pro Travel Network which sells the actual flight tickets and hotel bookings.

Ready to make passive income online?

I've created a growing passive income online with no previous marketing skills or online experience... 

I've made a special video for you to explain exactly how I did this. 

MTO Income

My opinion - Surge365

Surge365 is a scam, no matter which angle you look at. I don’t normally label an MLM as such, but in Surge365’s case?

They sure deserve it.

And here's what I think about the company...

There’s no offered product and service and the only way to earn is through recruitment.

You can even earn more bonuses the longer your recruited members will stay in the company! That’s just silly to comprehend if you were to compare it to an actual business.

For sure, you don’t want to be a part of this kind of company...

How I make passive income online

MLMs are not scams or illegal. However, I'm not a fan of them because of the restrictions to the expensive products you have to promote.

Once I learnt about affiliate marketing, I realised it's a far superior business model because:

  • You can promote anything you want and truly own the business
  • You never need to sell to friends and family
  • It's completely free to start

In 2018 I had no idea what affiliate marketing was.

But I went from a full time PE teacher to making a passive income online within one year...

Mike PE teacher to Passive Income Online

If you want to discover how I did it then check out this special video I created which explains exactly how. You can also get your free 7-day bootcamp to get started.

Make Time Online Income
Read More
Send Out Cards Review: Featured Image
Not Recommended, MLM, Reviews

Send Out Cards Review: Can You Make Money With Send Out Cards?

Most likely you’re here because someone introduced you to this work from home opportunity and you’ve wondered… Is Send Out Cards a scam? To get you out of misery…

no, Send Out Cards is not a scam.

However, is this a legit opportunity to make money from home and consider it as a replacement to your full-time job?

This Send Out Cards review is going to answer that question along with the legit pros and cons for you to come up with an informed decision.

Send Out Cards Review

The overview and rankings

Name: Send Out Cards

Founder: Kody Bateman

Type: Kody Bateman

Products: 20/100

Success Stories: 5/100

Price To Join MLM: $17 to $97 + $93 monthly

Send Out Cards Review: Logo

What to look for in a MLM:

  • Low start-up fee & maintenance cost
  • High-quality affordable products
  • You don’t have to carry inventory
  • An affiliate-like system 
  • Generous compensation plan
  • Company is in the early momentum phase

Send Out Cards Pros

  • Positive product reviews
  • Good training and support

Send Out Cards Cons

  • Hidden monthly expenses
  • Pyramid scheme in disguise?
  • Only 1 in 370 members over $30k a year
  • Downward trend

Summary

Send Out Cards is an MLM company that sells greeting cards and other customized gifts.

They also have a work from home opportunity where members can sell their products and earn commissions.

Make Time Online Rating: 25 out of 100 

Recommended: No

What is Send Out Cards?

Send Out Cards is a Multi-Level-Marketing company that sells greeting cards and personalized gifts.

It was founded in 2003 by Kody Batemen, an entrepreneur who wanted to create a unique multi-level marketing company.

Aside from being a full-service gifting service, they also have an affiliate program where people can join as a member to sell their products, and in return, earn commission from their sales.

Here's a 3-minute video overview of Send Out Cards...

Now that you have an idea of that they are...

Is Send Out Cards a pyramid scheme?

No, Send Out Cards is not a pyramid scheme.

It's possible for their MLM members to make money by selling their power / energy products and services without recruiting anyone.

However, a better question for MLM companies like this would be… Is Send Out Cards a pyramid scheme in disguise?

What is a pyramid scheme?

A company that is promising its members payment whenever they recruit people into the company instead of selling the actual products or services.

Many countries ban these because it is impossible for all members to earn inside a company which is only paying people to recruit.

Check out this diagram from  Wikipedia to learn why...

The members who make the most money inside companies like these merely recruit people to experience the “business opportunity.”

But if you were to analyze the diagram above, you’ll see that it’s just impossible for all of the members to earn money inside a system such as this as you will just be running out of people to recruit.

Know more on how you can spot “pyramid schemes in disguise” in this 5-minute video...

Let's then learn why...

Success is rare with Send Out Cards

You are going to have a hard time gaining success in any MLM company.

In fact, 90.70% of Send Out Cards members are losing money. And did you know that between 72.5% and 99.9% of MLM members are losing money?

92.3 Percent of Members Lose Money in MLMs

This is happening because of the “sales quota” that these companies have. This means that members can only be “active” and receive commissions if they are able to sell a specific number  of products monthly.

If they can’t, then they have to buy the products themselves. This leads to many members losing thousands of dollars before recruiting one person.

We’ll be digging more into the Send Out Cards income disclosure after we’ve discussed...

Ready to make passive income online?

Hey, I'm Mike.

I created a passive income online within a year. I had no marketing skills or online experience when I started. 

Mike Beatty

How does Send Out Cards Work?

Send Out Cards is a company that sells greeting cards and customized gift products.

They also offer regular people an opportunity to work from their own homes and sell their products to receive commissions. Theoretically speaking, it seems to be a win-win situation.

But what many people don’t know is that this is a wise move for Send Out Cards because they can save millions of dollars on marketing campaigns because they just let their members do all the promotions and advertising!

Before confirming if that is really the case, let’s know...

Send Out Cards products

It is important to know the products the company is selling before you decide to join. This way, you can somehow increase your chances of achieving success because you know what you’re dealing with.

Send Out Cards’s products are gift cards and personalized items that are ideal to be used as gifts.

Send Out Cards Review: Products

They also have different card templates you can choose from, as well as the kind of card that’s fit for the celebration or event.

Send Out Cards Review: Products 2

The thing is, most, if not all MLMs say that they are special and that they have an exclusive feature which makes them stand out.

When in reality, they all just offer the same opportunity such as:

Can you make money with Send Out Cards?

Yes, you can make money from the company. But it is going to be a hard and gruelling process.

There are a few who make good cash, but they work like full-time sales managers and sell the products to everyone they know.

Not only do they jeopardize their relationship with their family and friends, but they also exhaust their energy to critical levels, that it becomes a health hazard for them!

And for what? For payment that’s just slightly higher than minimum wage?

Well, their income disclosure shows that hardly anyone makes money from Send Out Cards.

How to make money with Send Out Cards

There are 2 main ways you can make money from Send Out Cards:

  • Sell their gift cards and personalized products.
  • Recruit members to your downline and earn commissions from them.

But take note that you can only earn bonuses from your downline’s sales, and not by simply recruiting them.

This is another smart move for Send Out Cards and many other MLMs as this saves them the trouble of being shut down by the FTC.

How much does it cost to join Send Out Cards?

You can join Send Out Cards by choosing from the 3 different package options:

  • Enhanced ($17) - Pay $17 monthly. In return, you get a 15% discount on gifts, access to all card types, and multiple touch campaigns.
  • Card a Day ($37) - Pay $37 monthly. In return, you get all the inclusions in the Enhanced package, but a higher 20% discount on gift items.
  • Unlimited ($97) - Pay $97 monthly. In return, you get all the inclusions in the Card a Day package, but a higher 30% discount on all gift items.

Send Out Cards monthly cost

One of the things that caught me off guard with Send Out Cards is that there is actually a monthly sales requirement.

If you can’t achieve this requirement, then you just can’t receive commissions. The monthly sales quota to stay as an active basic member is 93 PCV, which means selling a minimum of $93 monthly.

The total costs you’re going to incur in 1 year is…

  • $17 - $97 x 12 = $204 - $1,164
  • $93 x $12 = $1,116

Minimum cost expense for 1 year = $1,320 - $2,280

That’s not yet final, though, because you’re still going to add up all the other expenses just like travel, gas, food, and training. It sure is an expensive endeavor...

Send Out Cards compensation plan

One of the most striking similarities MLM companies have is their confusing compensation plans.

You don’t have to worry about that, though, because I’ll do my best to explain it in a simple, straightforward and easy to understand way...

There are 4 ways you can earn money from Send Out Cards:

  • Downline Infinity Commission - Earn 5% to 25% bonus from your downline’s sales weekly, depending on your rank.
  • Customer Commissions - Earn 5% to 20% in sales commissions from every product that you sell.

Send Out Cards Review: Compensation

  • Customer Acquisition Bonus - Earn a $335 commission for every member that you’ve recruited into the company.

Send Out Cards Review: Compensation 2

No need to worry if you are still confused. Send Out Cards, along with many other MLMs are using fancy acronyms and complex terms and names to make it sound like there’s a treasure trove of ways to earn money.

When in reality, there are just 2 simple things to do:

  • Sell their products
  • Recruit members

I suggest you check out their 7-minute video about their compensation plan for you to gain a better understanding.

Or you might want to see the full compensation plan by yourself.

Is Send Out Cards a scam?

Send Out Cards is not a scam. The company is selling real items and they also stick to their word of paying their members exactly as they say.

Unfortunately, a number of members have been disappointed after discovering they were losing more money instead of earning. This is the reason why there might be some news saying that the company is a scam.

The next section of this in-depth Send Out Cards review is going to help you see the facts about this company so that you can come up with the right decision...

Just to be fully transparent with you, I am not a distributor myself and I do not endorse it in any way.

I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn how to “Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.

Tired of MLMs? Check out how I make money online here!

What I like about Send Out Cards

#1 Positive product reviews

One of the best things that I like about Send Out Cards is that I found a number of positive reviews about their products.

Their system of sending actual physical cards is also on point, along with the electronic versions. Here are some of the reviews I found…

With this, you can easily see that they surely did well with their offerings.

#2 Good training and support

Another nice thing about Send Out Cards is their training and support materials.

There are a number of tutorial videos on their site as well as on YouTube. They are also easy to understand and talk in a straightforward way.

Send Out Cards Review: Pros

 So that’s another thumbs up! But...

What I don't like about Send Out Cards

#1 Hidden monthly expenses

Reaching 93 PCV means that you must sell $93 worth of their products every single month. If you can’t do that, then you need to buy it yourself.

Send Out Cards Review: Cons

What many members don’t know is that the biggest customer base of MLMs are themselves, the customers.

This is because they just keep buying their stuff in the hope that they are going to be rich soon!

#2 Is Send Out Cards a pyramid scheme in disguise?

Spending $93 a month just to stay active is surely a hassle. But you can avoid that… How? Well, by recruiting members and passing the buck to them!

Here's how that looks:

MLM pyramid scheme

 Yes, it doesn’t sound ethical, but that’s just how things go for all MLMs...

#3 Only 1 in 370 members over $30k a year

Look at the Send Out Cards income disclosure and you’ll notice that 85.2% of their members are earning less than $600 every year.

Send Out Cards Review: Cons 2

Meanwhile, 90.8% of their population is earning a meager $1,000 annually all while having an average expense of $989 throughout the year.

In English, that means 1 in 370 members earn more than $30k a year.

#4 Downward trend

The last and final deal breaker for me is this statistic in Google Trends…

Send Out Cards Review: Cons 3

This shows that there are fewer people searching for Send Out Cards in Google, which means that the company isn’t anymore needed and in demand.

You’re going to have a hard time selling their products if that’s the case...

Ready to make passive income online?

I've created a growing passive income online with no previous marketing skills or online experience... 

I've made a special video for you to explain exactly how I did this. 

MTO Income

My opinion - Send Out Cards

The gift card products and customized items sold by Send Out Cards are no doubt interesting compared to offerings of many MLMs.

But what can I say about the business opportunity here?...

The real and only way you can make money is if you recruit tons of members and encourage them to sell to as many people as possible to stay active. Most of these people are just going to lose money.

Is that a business you want to be a part of?

Surely not...

How I make passive income online

MLMs are not scams or illegal. However, I'm not a fan of them because of the restrictions to the expensive products you have to promote.

Once I learnt about affiliate marketing, I realised it's a far superior business model because:

  • You can promote anything you want and truly own the business
  • You never need to sell to friends and family
  • It's completely free to start

In 2018 I had no idea what affiliate marketing was.

But I went from a full time PE teacher to making a passive income online within one year...

Mike PE teacher to Passive Income Online

If you want to discover how I did it then check out this special video I created which explains exactly how. You can also get your free 7-day bootcamp to get started.

Make Time Online Income
Read More
Podcourse review
Recommended, Podcast

Podcourse Review: The Best Podcast Course by Pete McPherson? [2020]

You're probably interested in starting a podcast but you have no idea where to start. So you're doing some research to find out what the best podcast courses are. 

How do I know?

I've been in that position before! 

I started a podcast with no idea how to record, edit or even put my podcast out there. So I frantically looked for the information. Unfortunately, all I could find were...

  • crazy expensive courses 
  • a miss-mash of YouTube videos that focused only on recording/ editing the podcast
  • courses that weren't designed for online business owners

You probably know that podcasting can be a legit way to make money from home. But how can a normal person like me or you get started?

This honest Pocourse review, will expose the pros and cons of the course as well as giving you an inside look into it. That way you can decide if this is the right course for you.

Podcourse Review

The overview and rankings

Name: Podcourse

Founder: Pete McPherson

Type: Podcasting course

Price: $247 or $135 x 2

Best for: Anyone wanting to grow a podcast or considering starting one

Podcourse Review

Podcourse Pros

  • No additional costs needed
  • Unique topics covered
  • Step by step and workbook
  • Up to date podcasting tools
  • Facebook group

Podcourse Cons

  • It's new
  • Not for pro podcasters

Summary: Podcourse is a step-by-step course that UNcomplicates the process of starting and growing a successful podcast.

Make Time Online Rating: 92 out of 100 

Recommended: Yes

You can read the review or watch me walk you through this review in the video below...

My podcasting story

At the end of 2018 friends and family kept asking what I was doing as I had started a "blog" and was learning more about online businesses. I was "just a PE teacher" so what was I playing around at?

They really didn't understand it... and at the time, I didn't really either!

So I figured I could kill two birds with one stone by asking some online business owners more about what I was meant to be doing and share this with the people who were asking...

The Make Time Online podcast was born back in January 2019.

But let's face it... I really had no idea what I was doing.

I fumbled my way around some free YouTube videos to get the podcast up and running. I saw some podcast courses that existed but I didn't really want to spend over $700 for a course on something that I didn't really know could help me to make money.

Eventually I figured the basics out and made my own system. I even had some 7 figure bloggers on the podcast and my income from my online business started to increase (you can learn more about that here).

Mike Beatty Podcast
Make Time Online Income

But there was still so much that I knew I had to learn about podcasting. 

I didn't even really know that it was possible for normal people to make money directly from sponsors on a podcast (spoiler- it is, you can read more about how I did here)

Anyhoo, that's enough about me...

What is Podcourse about?

Podcourse is a course that makes it REALLY STINKING EASY and QUICK to produce a solid podcast that’ll grow your online presence. 

I seriously wish this existed sooner as it would have saved me so much time and money (I genuinely would have saved money, I'll explain why later) and I could have started growing my podcast much sooner. 

If you have any doubts about starting a podcast such as...

  • Why would anyone want to listen to "me"?
  • It’s time-consuming
  • It’s overwhelming
  • I don’t really see the ROI
  • I can’t afford fancy sound equipment

Then you 100% need to watch this 12-minute video by Pete (it's jokes), which explains more about what you'll get from Podcourse...

Starting to sound good, right?...

  • Over 500 million active blogs (avg time people read these = 5-10 mins)
  • Over 30 million YouTube channels (avg time people watch them = 2-5 mins)
  • Only 1 million podcasts (avg time people listen to podcasts = 30 mins)

So you are probably starting to wonder...

Who is Pete McPherson?

Pete is one of the most honest and transparent online marketers that exists today. He's created his "dream job" (it's really an online business) through his podcast Do You Even Blog. 

Pete was an accountant "by trade" who tried over 50 blogs/ side hustle ideas over the years (they pretty much all failed). But through his trying (and failing) he learnt a ton about online business.

It wasn't until he lost his job in 2017 that he committed to taking an online business seriously and went all in.

The Do You Even Blog podcast launched in mid 2017 and he actually had a sponsor pay him before it even started... with no audience or email list (yes he'll even explain how he did this in Podcourse).

Pete McPherson from Do You Even Blog

Fast forward to today (mid 2020) and he runs a 6-figure online business including his main membership program "Online Impact" helping small online entrepreneurs boost their revenue and make an impact!

He lives and breathes this stuff and shares all of his lessons, which really started from his podcast. 

How does Podcourse Work?

Podcourse walks you through how to launch, edit and scale a podcast. The course includes lifetime access to all of the following:

  • The 91 HD video lessons
  • The 60-page Podcourse workbook and accompanying templates and checklists
  • The private Podcourse community 

Inside Podcourse

The videos are broken down into 13 step by step modules...

Onboarding and Module 1 - Welcome
  • Breaking down the onboarding process into SHORT, SIMPLE STEPS 
Module 2 - Stuff you need (and stuff you don’t)
  • A walk through exactly what hardware (mics, etc) and software (programs on your laptop) you need to get started.
Module 3 - Designing your show
  • This is the step most newbie podcasters skip (I was one of them!) and it’s a vital one! Here you'll nail down the show format, intro, schedule, and write out a show “hook.”
Module 4 - Finding your voice
  • You’ll learn practical tips for sounding good in a podcast format, and you’ll be sounding like a PRO in no time. 
Module 5 - Becoming a world-class host
  • This module gives you the leg up on how to be a comfortable, confident interviewer and host.
Module 6 - Guest Management
  • This module will save you headaches you didn’t even know you had coming! Pitching and scheduling guests can actually be tricky, so it’s a good thing you have this module 😉

Module 7 - Recording & Creating your show

  • Now on to the main course, recording and creating content that people will actually want to listen to!

Module 8 - Creating show notes

  • This module walks you through the different types of podcast show notes you can create, as well as practical tips for making this process consume way less time.

Module 9 - Launching your show

  • Step-by-step guides to getting your show distributed on all the podcast players, apps, and directories, as well as how to market your launch!... I had actually missed off some of these

Module 10 - Monetization

  • Huge value bombs! This module covers all the ways to make money from a podcast and specifically goes deeper on podcast sponsorships and listener-supported options (like Patreon)

Module 11 - Easy Efficient Editing

  • You’ll learn the “must-haves” of editing audio, and it breaks things down into simple concepts and chunks that’ll make things easy.

Module 12 - Tool Walkthroughs

  • Tutorials on ALL the different tools you might use for recording, interviewing, editing, and post-processing! Super up to date and useful for any podcaster.

Module 13 - BONUS: Growing your show

  • So you’ve launched, now what? This module includes everything Pete learned about how to GROW your podcast audience, including SEO, guest podcasting, YouTube, audiograms, and more.

Check out the video I made below, which gives you a real inside look...

Podcourse cost to join

It costs $247 to join Podcourse or $135 over 2 months ($270 overall). 

This gives you unlimited lifetime access to the whole course, workbook and private Facebook group.

However, if you're like me you're probably wondering what are the... 

Podcourse monthly ongoing costs

There are literally ZERO ongoing monthly costs that you will "need" to successfully run your podcast.

What none?

You're smart enough to realise that many courses only teach you how to do something. They often recommend additional tools and resources you need to pay for.

You know things like:

  • Mics
  • Headphones
  • Hosting
  • Editing software
  • Recording software
  • Transcription software

The reason that I have given Podcourse such a high rating is not only because it is it super affordable compared to alternatives and provides so much value. But it also shows you how to do this like a pro without spending anything on a monthly basis. 

Pete genuinely shows you how to do all of that without spending another penny!

He doesn't recommend things that pays him the most commission, he recommends the BEST and MOST AFFORDABLE up to date tools. 

In fact, he saved me $108 a year by showing me an awesome new FREE unlimited hosting provider... if I had taken Podcourse before starting not only could I have learnt so much & saved a ton of time, but I actually would have saved money!

Who is Podcourse for?

There are two main groups of people that Podcourse is for...

1. People that want to make more money on the internet ?

  • Want to sell more digital products?
  • Get more affiliate marketing clicks and revenues?
  • Maybe even get more (or better paying) freelance gigs/clients?

2. People that want to be an influencer (or at least grow their online influence!)

  • Want love letters from your audience?
  • Want other influencers and media to see your content (and share of course)?
  • Do you want to feel that your platform/business is IMPORTANT?

Podcasting really is still in its infancy compared to other platforms and Podcourse can fast track your results.

Podcourse pros

Here are just some of the things that I personally really liked about Podcourse...

#1 No additional expenses

The biggest pro for me is that you can tell that Pete is 100% genuine in all his recommendations. I have tried many different types of tools out there and I have consistently gone back to the free ones I used initially. 

Pete recommends these, shows you how to use them and this will get your podcast sounding like a pro, without spending another penny.

It would be easy for him to tell you that you need an expensive hosting provider or tool to boost his affiliate commissions (like many people do) but Pete is not that guy!

(Side note- you prob will need to buy a mic if you haven't got one, but that is literally the only additional cost you need). 

#2 Unique topics covered

Can you find the best podcasting tools to use for podcasting in some free cheatsheet?

Yep.

Can you get tips on how to record and edit audio on YouTube?

Yep.

Can you Google ways to make money from a podcast?

Hell yeah!

But can you find tips on how to be your own person, find your own podcasting voice, and look after your guests?

Not really.

Pete has some seriously unique content that I haven't seen other podcasting "gurus" talk about. It is solely focused on helping you get an amazing podcast up and running without costing you a fortune or spending all your time on it.

#3 Step by step & workbook

You can print this workbook out and tick off the tasks and fill in the sections as you go. 

Podcourse review- Workbook

It makes it totally manageable and easy to work through at your own pace. 

#4 Up to date tools & info

Many podcasting gurus have recommended the same thing for years. 

However, there are constantly new ones coming out that are better and more affordable. The hosting that Pete recommends didn't even exist when I started my podcast but he has his finger on the pulse to let you know about them!

#5 Facebook group & support

Starting anything new can be daunting. 

You will 100% reach a stage where you will be tempted to throw in the towel, that's completely normal. 

But the Private Facebook group is for podcasters going through a very similar thing.

Podcourse Private Facebook Group-min

This support from Pete and other experienced podcasters will be so helpful at that stage.

Podcourse cons

There's really a couple of things I could think about that isn't ideal about Podcourse...

#1 It's new

New is great in the sense that you are getting the most current and up to date advice, tools and training. But here's the bad thing about new stuff:

  • There are not dozens of success stories to share (yet)
  • And there aren't hundreds of people inside the Facebook group for support

Equally the other way to look at it is:

  • You get to be one of the best success stories (...great for promotion of your podcast)
  • You get more attention and build a better community than a watered down one with thousands of people

#2 Not for pro podcasters

Podcourse is not made for people who are super experienced podcasters. 

Remember the focus is to UNcomplicate the process of starting and growing a successful podcast.

Saying that, I found loads of little nuggets of wisdom that helped me (but I'm defo no pro podcaster!) So if you have a podcast that is super successful already there's probably not much in Podcourse that you will learn. 

My opinion - Podcourse

You probably know you can find out everything you need online for free, just like most things in life. But it's so easy to take some bad advice or spend more money on tools you don't need.

Believe me, I've done that! 

I've used some tools that were totally unnecessary, slowed my process down and cost more because I didn't want to spend a ton of money on a course. 

Well, I wish Podcourse existed before I started as it is the exact thing I was looking for...

  • Affordable
  • Transparent
  • Time saver

Even as someone with a podcast I learnt so many actionable tips that I can implement today such as...

  • How to find a sponsor
  • Ways to grow the reach
  • Using better systems

Alternatives and my recommendation

There are tons of other podcast courses out there such as:

  • Power Up Podcasting - Pat Flynn $799
  • Podcasters Paradise - John Lee Dumas $97 a month
  • Engineering School - Chris Curran $2,675 (way more techie focussed)

And there are free courses that exist such as Future Learn's "The Power of Podcasting for Storytelling" (more brief with 6 hours worth of work).

However nothing competes with the price tag and focus of starting and growing a successful podcast as Podcourse. 

It's important to be aware that it is only open at certain times of the year. I would recommend that you watch the Podcourse webinar for free below and see when the next opening dates are. 

And if you just want to know the tools that I use to create my podcast then you can grab your free podcast cheatsheet below...

Get all the tools you need to produce a podcast

Grab your "Start a Podcast" cheatsheet, absolutely FREE.  

I will send you all of the tools that I personally use and recommend. 

If the tool I use is not free then I also show you a free alternative.

Start a Podcast Cheatsheet
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Thirty One Gifts MLM Review: Featured Image
Not Recommended, MLM, Reviews

Thirty One Gifts MLM Review: Apparel MLM Scam or Easy Money Opportunity?

Chances are that you’re here because someone told you about this way for you to make money from home and you’ve thought to yourself…

Is Thirty One Gifts a scam?

To put you out of misery, I’m going to say as early as now… no, Thirty One Gifts is not a scam.

But is this a nice or legit opportunity to make money from home and start thinking about ditching your full-time job?

This Thirty One Gifts MLM review is going to answer that question along with many videos, images, and solid evidence for you to come up with an informed decision.

Thirty One Gifts Review

The overview and rankings

Name: Thirty One Gifts

Founder: Cindy Monroe

Type: Women's Apparel and Accessories MLM

Products (Including Pricing): 60/100

Success Stories: 10/100

Price To Join MLM: $99 to $179 starting kit + $67 monthly

Thirty One Gifts MLM Review: Logo

What to look for in a MLM:

  • Low start-up fee & maintenance cost
  • High-quality affordable products
  • You don’t have to carry inventory
  • An affiliate-like system 
  • Generous compensation plan
  • Company is in the early momentum phase

Thirty One Gifts Pros

  • Nice startup kit
  • Provides useful training
  • Positive member reviews

Thirty One Gifts Cons

  • Hidden monthly expenses
  • Pyramid scheme in disguise?
  • Only 1 in 83 members earn over $10k a year
  • Downward trend

Summary

Thirty One Gifts is an MLM company which sells lady bags, purses, and clothing items mainly for women.

Make Time Online Rating: 40 out of 100 

Recommended: No

What is Thirty One Gifts?

Thirty One Gifts is a Multi-Level-Marketing company that is in the direct sales retail sector.

They sell personalized gifts which come in the form of bags, clothes, purses, and many more.

Cindy Monroe started the company back in 2003 after getting inspiration from the party planning events that she attended. It’s based in Columbus, Ohio and targets mainly female consumers.

The name of the company, Thirty One Gifts comes from Proverbs 31 which talks about the kindness and generosity of household women.

The company is ranked third next to Tupperware and Mary Kay as well, so that’s a great sign this one’s a legit MLM.

Check out this 1-minute video showing what Thirty One Gifts is all about...

Who is Cindy Monroe?

Cindy Monroe is the founder and current CEO of Thirty One Gifts.

She has around 1,000 employees and more than 70,000 sales consultants around the country.

Is Thirty One Gifts a pyramid scheme?

Nope, Thirty One Gifts isn’t a pyramid scheme.

The members of this MLM can still make money by selling their personalized gift products without recruiting members.

But a better question for companies like this is… Is Thirty One Gifts a pyramid scheme in disguise?

What is a pyramid scheme?

A company promising members monetary payment for recruiting members instead of selling real products and services.

Numerous countries have banned companies like these as not everyone is able to make money from a company that only pays members for recruitment.

See the Wikipedia diagram below to have a better understanding of this...

The members that are making the most money are those who recruit people to join to experience the alleged “business opportunity.”

But if you were to base from the diagram, you can clearly see that not everyone can make money from a system like this as you’ll eventually be running out of people you can recruit.

Check out this 5-minute video so you’ll know how you can spot these “pyramid schemes in disguise.”

Success is rare with Thirty One Gifts

It is hard to achieve success in any MLM company just like Thirty One Gifts.

Did you know that between 72.5% and 99.9% of all MLM members are losing money?

92.3 Percent of Members Lose Money in MLMs

In fact, 90.19% of Thirty One Gifts members lose money!

This is because of the “sales quota” that these MLMs have which means that members must sell a certain number of products monthly to stay active and receive commissions.

If they can’t sell that number of products, then they need to buy them themselves. This is why most members lose hundreds and even thousands of dollars from their own pocket just to try and recruit a single person.

We’ll be digging into the Thirty One Gifts income disclosure later in this in-depth Thirty One Gifts review.

Ready to make passive income online?

Hey, I'm Mike.

I created a passive income online within a year. I had no marketing skills or online experience when I started. 

Mike Beatty

How does Thirty One Gifts Work?

Thirty One Gifts is an MLM company selling women’s clothes, apparels, and accessories.

They also have an affiliate program which offers the average joe an opportunity to work from home by selling their products and getting commissions.

It sounds like a win-win situation...

But the fact is that MLM companies such as Thirty One Gifts save millions of dollars on marketing costs because they just let the members do all the promotional hard work by themselves.

Before we conclude that this is really the case, let’s know more about...

Thirty One Gifts products

Before going deeper, it’s important that you know their products especially if you’re really interested in trying your luck in this MLM.

Knowing about their products is important for you to somehow increase the chances of success.

Here are Thirty One Gift’s best-sellers:

  • All Packed Duffle Charcoal Crosshatch ($80) - A crosshatch bag that’s ideal for everyday use, be it in the gym, camping, or shopping. Its elegant and minimalist accent along its charcoal finish add up to its appeal.
  • City Chic Bag Chestnut Distressed Pebble ($68) - A shoulder bag featuring a zipper pocket, zip-top closure, and two flat pockets. It’s lightweight and ideal for all-day carrying. There’s also a secret pocket for your phone.
  • All About the Benjamins ($48) - A full-sized wallet featuring 12 credit card slots, zip closure, and an internal zip pocket. It’s stylish, practical, and lightweight.

Thirty One Gifts MLM Review: Product

It’s smart to be aware that there are numerous other brands out there that are offering a similar range of items.

There are even hundreds of MLM companies offering similar fashion items such as:

All of them claim they’ve got a special reason or exclusively rare feature that makes them different. When the reality is, they’re all offering the same opportunity.

If that’s the case, then what makes them special?

Thirty One Gifts flagship product

Around Town Tote Terrazzo Pebble ($78) - A large-sized tote bag that features a minimalist and classy design. It’s ideal for shopping, trekking, or any casual use. It’s a carryall kind of bag.

Thirty One Gifts MLM Review: Product 2

Here's a 1-minute video about their product lineup:

Sure sounds appealing, but...

Can you make money with Thirty One Gifts?

Sad to say that it’s hard to make money from Thirty One Gifts.

There might be a few people who earn slightly higher than minimum wage, but they work very hard much like how sales manager do.

They even treat it as a full-time job! And for what? For payment that’s just slightly higher than minimum wage if you're really good?

There’s even no guarantee you can make money based on what their income disclosure shows.

How to make money with Thirty One Gifts

There are 2 ways that you can earn some money from Thirty One Gifts:

  • Sell their products to earn bonuses and commissions

  • Recruit members into the MLM and include them in your downline

Note that you can only earn bonuses from the sales of your downlines and not just because you’ve recruited them.

I can say that this is a smart way for MLMs to avoid being called a pyramid scheme because they earn indirectly from their recruited members. This is similar to what Stella and Dot do too. . This is similar to what Stella and Dot do too. .

Before diving into their compensation plan, let’s first know...

How much does it cost to join Thirty One Gifts?

You have to pay a registration fee of $99 for you to become a member and distributor.

However, you can also choose the $179 deluxe kit option if you want to have a business starter kit worth $600.

Thirty One Gifts monthly cost

For you to stay active and remain as a distributor, you need to sell a minimum of 67 PV monthly or 200 PV every three months.

This is equivalent to $67 monthly or $200 quarterly.

The cost of becoming a member for 1 year are:

  • $99 - $179

  • $67 x 12 = $804

Minimum costs for year 1 = $903 - $983

And that’s before you add up all the other miscellaneous costs such as gas, travel, food, and training allowance expenses...

Thirty One Gifts compensation plan

MLM companies just love to make their compensation plans complicated and confusing.

Well, Thirty One Gifts is no different… But I’ll be doing my best to keep this simple and straightforward…

There are 4 ways that Thirty One Gifts will pay you as one of their members:

  • Retail Commissions - Earn 25% to 34% commission from each of your sales, depending on your rank.
  • Recruitment Commissions - Earn 2% to 9% of the total sales of your downline team for the month, depending on your rank.
  • Developing Director Bonus - Earn $1,000 to $7,500 when you get promoted to the Director rank, depending on your Director level.
  • Party Hosting - Earn $25 and 50% discount on every $200 worth of products sold in hosted parties.
Thirty One Gifts MLM Review: Compensation

No worries if you’re still confused because that’s completely normal for MLMs.

MLM companies such as Thirty One Gifts just love to use weird names and complicated acronyms to make it seem there are many ways to earn money.

When the reality is, there are only 2 ways…

  • Sell their products
  • Recruit members

Anyways, here’s an 8-minute video about their compensation plan.

Or you can check out the full Thirty One Gifts compensation plan here.

Is Thirty One Gifts a scam?

Thirty One Gifts isn’t a scam because they sell real and legit products and pay members exactly as they say.

The thing is, many members are disappointed to know that they’re not earning good money.

Many of them even lose money because of the sales quota. This is why there are a number of reports saying that they are a scam...

The next part of this review will help you make an informed decision if it’s worth your time or if it’s a bit sketchy...

Just to be fully transparent with you, I am not a distributor myself and I do not endorse it in any way.

I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn how to “Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.

Tired of MLMs? Check out how I make money online here!

What I like about Thirty One Gifts

Key Terms:

  • Pyramid Scheme – recruits members via a promise for payment from recruiting others into the company rather than providing a product
  • Affiliate Marketing- Connecting a customer to a product they are looking for and receiving a commission for doing so
  • Red Flag - A warning sign

#1 Nice startup kit

One of the best things I find about Thirty One Gifts is that they’ve got an appealing startup kit.

It’s not very expensive if you’re going to choose the basic $99 kit which gives you $400 worth of products to begin with. That’s a huge win if you were to compare it to some other MLMs and if you just want the products...

#2 Provides useful training

Another nice thing I find about Thirty One Gifts is that they provide training to their distributors along with a dedicated personalized website.

These feature professional training videos are on how you can increase your sales.

#3 Positive member reviews

I did some digging into other review sites and forums to see what other people were saying about the company. Here's an example from Glassdoor...

Thirty One Gifts MLM Review: Pros

But when thre are pros, then there surely are cons as well...

What I don't like about Thirty One Gifts

#1 Hidden monthly expenses

Being a member means that you must reach 67 PV monthly for you to stay as an active member.

This to me makes no sense because why do you need to maintain a sales quota when what you’ve signed up for is to become a distributor to sell their products?

Thirty One Gifts MLM Review: Cons

67 PV means that you must sell $67 worth of products every month to stay active and earn commissions.

If you can’t do this, then you must buy them yourself.

What MLMs don’t say is that their biggest customer base is their members who just keep buying their stuff in the hope that they can be their own boss soon.

#2 Is Thirty One Gifts a pyramid scheme in disguise?

You can avoid spending $67 every single month just to stay active by recruiting people and passing the buck to them.

Here's what's actually happening...

MLM pyramid scheme

You then motivate them to sell $67 worth of products every month so that they can earn… Something sounds fishy there, right?

#3 Only 1 in 83 members earn over $10k a year

The Thirty One Gifts income disclosure clearly states that 83.% of members have an incomes of less than $999 annually.

Thirty One Gifts MLM Review: Cons 2

Meanwhile, 83.9% of the total members are only earning $1,999 every year while 93% of the members spend around $1,387 annually...

What that means in simpler words is that only 1 in 83 members earn over $10k a year!

#4 Downward trend

The final deal breaker for me is what I found in Google Trends.

Thirty One Gifts MLM Review: Cons 3

There are fewer people searching for Thirty One Gifts, which means that they’re not anymore that popular and sought out.

This also means that you are going to have a harder time selling their products to people...

Ready to make passive income online?

I've created a growing passive income online with no previous marketing skills or online experience... 

I've made a special video for you to explain exactly how I did this. 

MTO Income

My opinion - Thirty One Gifts

Thirty One Gifts offers interesting apparels and women’s accessories all while offering averagely interesting incentives to MLMs.

But what would I say if you were to ask me about the business opportunity here?...

The only real way you can make money is by recruitment.

Recruit as many people as you can and encourage them to sell, sell, and sell to everyone they know just to stay active and for them to not lose money.

The fact is, most, if not all of these people are going to lose money.

That doesn’t sound like an ethical business model to me...

How I make passive income online

MLMs are not scams or illegal. However, I'm not a fan of them because of the restrictions to the expensive products you have to promote.

Once I learnt about affiliate marketing, I realised it's a far superior business model because:

  • You can promote anything you want and truly own the business
  • You never need to sell to friends and family
  • It's completely free to start

In 2018 I had no idea what affiliate marketing was.

But I went from a full time PE teacher to making a passive income online within one year...

Mike PE teacher to Passive Income Online

If you want to discover how I did it then check out this special video I created which explains exactly how. You can also get your free 7-day bootcamp to get started.

Make Time Online Income
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