A blunt and honest review of Stompernet’s The Net Effect Journal (not Magazine)

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Having so many projects on my plate, it’s not too often that I do reviews anymore.It has to be earth shattering good stuff for me to stand up, take notice, take the time to completely review it and then write about it.

And most importantly, it has to be very closely related to keyword research and hit directly on point.

And of course — I need it (the product or service) in my hand to review it fully to give my candid opinion.

I don’t just go on blind faith.

So does Stomping the Search Engines 2 and the new print publication (The Net Effect) live up to earth shattering since I create a video about it? Let’s find out.

Back about 45 days ago, I was aware (teased) about the fact that a project was in production that would be an update to the original SEO course called Stomping the Search Engines released by Andy Jenkins and Brad Fallon.

This is the sequel.

I was excited — because I was definitely let down when they (Andy and Brad) discontinued and pulled the SEO course off the market back in 2005/06.

So as you can imagine, when I heard about the 2nd follow-up to the course, I was actually like — “It’s about time guys!”

The original audio-print course was literally the ONLY SEO course NicheBOT ever recommended or promoted (and still is the only one to date).

You may not be aware of this, but Stomping the Search Engines laid the foundation for the creation of 61 millionaires and counting now.

With that in mind, I’m sure you can imagine the first edition of the course was really powerful and, I believe, it was high value information that sold for something like $297.

The NEW course I am reviewing right now (Stomping the Search Engines 2) has like 8 different modules with over 35 videos with Powerpoint presentations by each faculty member and it is valued at $497 (I believe there will be a ground breaking initial offer on this).

Now – Stomping the Search Engines eventually led Brad and Andy to launch Stompernet in October 2006, which is a high end ($800+) premium monthly membership that now boasts a faculty of the sharpest minds in multiple online disciplines.Since 2006, the rough edges have been buffed out. And…

With the impressive faculty members that Stompernet has collected, a membership there is well worth it if you truly intend to use it. Otherwise, it’s quite a load on the credit cards and not recommended. It’s like anything, you have to make a wise decision based on what your business can financially handle.

Some swear by it. And some just don’t have the wherewithal to get in that steep.

I’m certain there are many who wanted to gain access to the information that is shared inside the Stompernet walls, but just couldn’t afford it.

Sure — I’m always curious to find out what people are doing that make serious bank and are able to do some seriously wicked stuff to the search engines. Aren’t you?

So the other day — I got my review copy of what I thought was “Stomping the Search Engines 2″ — but the package ended up including this glossy and well laid out journal.

I stress — this is NOT a magazine — especially when there is a Monthly Action Plan that is posted on the last page.

Shortly after this, I will be doing a review for Stomping the Search Engines 2…

…but right now, I will do a mini-review of the new journal publication that will be released soon.

So what’s inside this journal?

(This is a press copy so there is no cover yet – find out what it looks like when you get your first issue at http://www.keepstomping.com)

There are five different departments laid out in the Table of Contents:

1. Research
2. Traffic and Marketing
3. Customer Relationship Marketing
4. Technology & Business
5. Featured Articles

These are pretty well rounded categories and has the critical elements for someone wanting to improve their online concern. These five departments hold a total of 16 different articles laid out in no fluff style.

So let’s take a review of the first three articles and take a look at this first issue as a whole:

1. Article: It’s Your EYES that BUY! Web Design that Subconsciously Controls Your Visitor’s Actions by Andy Edmonds

Summary/Impressions: This article points out something to be really conscious about… how web design can affect your visitor, and how small little changes can improve your visitor’s experience. There’s a free tool that’s given in the article which is a vision simulator that uses technology from Adobe so you can see what your page looks like and have it analyzed. Andy goes on to explain how we our vision works as humans and then moves onto explain how that understanding can effect the bottom line in your business. He gives 4 different ways to streamline a web page to help the visitor scan it more easily. Two very vivid examples illustrate and demonstrate an effect called pop-out and how chunking things can ease your visitor’s eyes. I truly believe this stuff can make a big difference because I have viewed a number of different people’s websites that have poor layout that’s hard to follow a path. Give your visitor an easy path to walk down and they will walk down it. This was not my favorite article, but it brought forth a number of things to contemplate with the way I look at site design. (3 out of 4 Stars)

2. The “Keyword Heist” Technique - How to Finally Crack Open the Vault of Profitable Keywords (The ones your competition don’t know about) by Dan Thies

Summary/Impressions: In fast paced motion, Dan points out the loser mentality that doesn’t get most people anywhere. And then he describes the exact frame of mind to do what he says which is “[w]hen I go into a market, chances are pretty good that I will eat half of your lunch without even noticing it.” He explains that this is due to people just simply getting too busy and ignoring the entire landscape of keywords that they can promote (i.e., the ones on their list from keyword 10 – 200). He says we get busy once we get a ranking or two for some high volume keywords. This is so true — and even with me. In step-by-step fashion, Dan then walks you through how to (1) Map out Keywords (2) Identify Major Players (3) Identify Niche Players and (4) Farm the Green Fields and the essential essence of what you need to do to clear the field. Excellent article and should give anyone having trouble with doing keyword research, building a keyword list and then executing on it no excuse! (4 out of 4 stars)

3. 26 Things to Test – How Well Do You Know Your Customers, Competition and the Market by David Bullock

Summary/Impressions: Just when you think that David will start talking about multiple variables to test on your page and why, he plunges us into the details of how to get a better understanding on what’s going on between the ears of your customers and summing up your competition.

See, David points out that it’s not enough to know who your customers is, what they want and what they need – you need to know what else they are being exposed to out there on the internet (other’s offers – for example). This truly brings to light exactly what is included as one of the 10 Commandments to Successfully Keyword research and that is I have members thoroughly and extensively research competitors. The only way to outwit and outsmart your competition is by assessing them and making appropriate adjustments that make you different and outstanding. David gives you 7 questions to ask yourself about what your competition is doing.

David then shares two free competitive analysis tools, one of which was completely new to me. He then gives a step-by-step process of basic competitive research for your market and those list of 26 things to test appear at the very bottom of the second page of the article. I gained a number of new insights from this article. (3 out of 4 stars)

For the sake of brevity — this will cover the mini-review and I will go ahead and list the remaining articles found in 1st issue of the journal which includes a brief insight about the article:

4. Wanna Be Broke? Then Maybe You Shouldn’t Sell Cheap – A Breakdown of Selling Business-to-Business vs. Selling Business-to-Consumer by David Bullock

5. Ranking on Page One – Links that “Tell the Truth” about Your Content… Win Every Time! by Leslie Rhoade

6. SHOTGUN! – Enjoy Galactic-Size Content Distribution Without Ever Leaving Your Home by Sherman Hu

7. Twittering your Way to Free Traffic – The 140 Character Click Magnet by Paul Colligan.

8. The Ultimate Article Marketing – Simple (Very Simple!) Video Articles that Get You All the Links You Need (And the Traffic, too!) by Mike Stewart

9. Anatomy of a Search Engine Rankings – How the Search Engine Decide Which Pages Get Ranked at the Top! by Dan Crowther

10. Mad Skillz: We Haz Them – The Vision Mindset vs. The Process Mindset by Andy Jenkins

11. Email Blastoff – Design Your Email to Make Your Customers “Open,” “Click” and “Buy” by Audrey Kerwood

12. The Social Media Survival Guide – Savvy = Success. A Twitter Case Study by Dave Taylor

13. How to Interview an Outsourced SEO by Jerry West (excellent article — great set of questions)

14. Speed Matters by Brad Fallon

15. Armor-Piercing Email – Massive Email Marketing Results with Tiny Little Lists by Tom Ham and Colin Theriot.

So in the end — the blunt and straight to the point question is do I think this is worth it?

Yeah — I do believe it is.

Is this for people at the expert level? Probably not — but even I gleaned a good number of tips (make that 9 tips).

I would highly recommend this for the beginner and the low level intermediate.

What about other publications?

As you may have noticed recently, there are a number of marketers that have come out with their own physical magazine or newsletter. None of them have ever been acted upon because I never felt any of them have the kind of staff or faculty that boasts the most extensive thought leaders in the industry of building an online presence — quite like Stompernet can do.

What I like about the journal is that it’s well rounded with items on various topics which I believe are very important and things that I practice myself (like Tweeting, email marketing, SEO, #1 rankings, etc.)

It is my understanding that the articles coming in the following issues will build on each issue from the time before. So, in other words, there will continuity between each issue.

What magazine do you know that actually gives you a monthly action plan, huh?

There is also a promise by Andy Jenkins to keep the journal to approximately 2 to 3 pages of advertising — so out of 45 pages — that’s high volume content!

With the high end pricing that Stompernet poses — they could easily charge a hefty sum for this (like $97+) — but I believe they want to price this just right so just about anybody can gain access to the wide array of minds in the faculty and all the quality information that goes on behind their doors.

I definitely believe that this first issue is worth taking a look at it and taking it one month at a time.

Stay tuned for my review of Stomping the Search Engines 2 that’ll be coming up to see whether it’s something you want to check out as well.

I just hope that this information will help you in making a well informed decision when the time comes.

All the best,

Jim Morris, Founder

NicheBOT.com – “Finds exactly what people search for.”