What I loved about the ebook was the structure and writing style. Jonathan has a way of laying out the words that makes it easy to breeze through in a single sitting without skimming. It's one of the few ebooks that I actually read word for word -- I even skim the very short ebooks.
Now that it's been out a while, you can probably figure out the entire $7 secrets method from doing simple searches online. If you don't want to go through all of that, let me break it down for you:
- Find a niche
- Create an info-product. Keep it short (which is an idea I love).
- Sell it for $7 or a relatively small price-point.
- Recruit affililiates by giving them 100% commissions.
- Make back-end profits from affiliate links in the info product, upsells, and future marketing from the list you build.
- Rinse and repeat.
This method, in theory, doesn't seem difficult, however it's also easy for a marketer to forget that she actually needs to write a report, market it, and get affiliates to help promote it. (Jonathan realized this and released the Write That Report ebook). If you're not shy about writing short reports (i.e. under 40 pages, double-spaced), and have no problem communicating with other webmasters within your niche, then you can certainly turn this into a lucrative venture.
One thing I cannot stand, however, is all the $7 reports/products that don't even live up to the price point as a result of this. Of course, I can't fault Jonathan -- each marketer is responsible for herself. That said, if you do get the $7 Secrets ebook and decide to work on a $7 product, please, please, please make sure that it's well-written, edited, and actually worth the $7 people are shelling out. (I know, that was a wild tangent. LOL)
My first short report (released under a pen name) has done especially well - more so than I expected - however, it took about a month for me to actually write the report. This was due more to my lack of time and focus, coupled with my desire to make it an awesome report so that my affiliates would be proud to promote it and my customers would be glad they bought it, than anything else.
In my opinion, the ebook can definitely spark some creative ideas. Plus, the bonus scripts he includes for the affiliate program and order management definitely makes the $7 Secrets ebook worth the price tag.
~ Teli
P.S. If you want to get more bang for your buck, get the Write That Report ebook because it comes with a free copy of $7 secrets as an unadvertised bonus.
UPDATE: As promised, I've started my $7 Secrets case study. It will outline what I did from start to finish with my first $7 report; though I won't reveal the niche, I'll be sharing my results as we go along.
