I’m not a "problogger". I don’t do the whole "how to make money online by blogging" thing. My focus is business blogging in order to attract clients to my blog consulting services. But I know that many of you who read my blog are taking the monetized blog route, rather than the business marketing route. You find that my posts are helpful for monetized blogging, too, even though I’m not writing specifically for you. I want you to know that I appreciate that. To show my appreciation, I want to go a little bit off-trail to tell you about an opportunity just for you, the problogger.
Before I tell you what it is, I have to tell you a little story.
Do you know what is one of the best books I have ever read on blogging? You might be surprised to know that it is Yaro Starak’s Blog Profits Blueprint. If you’ve already read it (there’s no charge) then you know how seriously good it is. When I first read it, I had already been blogging for a while, but not for money or a business. His take on "Pillar Articles" was the first of its kind I ever read. Since then, I’ve read versions of the idea from other great bloggers, and they all give their own names to the concept.
But since Yaro’s ideas were the first ones I read, they have really "imprinted" on my mind. The other versions of the same idea seem like copies to me. Long story short, I learned a lot from Yaro’s book. The knowledge I’ve put into practice from it has made me a better blogger and has contributed to my success. I have since shifted my focus to consulting and to running a business, but when I first decided to get serious about my blog a little over one year ago, Blog Profits Blueprint helped me plan my launch.
I learned not just from the information in the book, but by Yaro’s example in how he used it and marketed it. Here’s what I mean:
- The book was free, and yet it was high quality. That drove home for me how the bar has been raised. I saw how free content marketing really works. It inspired my to make my free ebook offering as high-quality as I could make it (which was a very successful strategy).
- The book was in exchange for my email address. This method has built Yaro an impressive mailing list. I learned from this and used my free ebook as a way to increase RSS subscribers for Remarkablogger. It worked better than I had hoped, and my subscriber count is now nearing 2,500.
I wanted to relate my own personal experience so you can understand why I feel that Yaro is the real deal. He’s definitely one of the good guys. Not too long ago, he launched a training program called Blog Mastermind, and it has been very successful. Hundreds of bloggers have been through the program and have had their blogs boosted by it. One graduate of Blog Mastermind just had his blog valued at 5 million dollars. I don’t want to seem all hyper and add a bunch of exclamation points, but damn, that’s pretty insane for a blog.
Yaro could only help so many people at once effectively, so Blog Mastermind had to close its doors after filling up. It would’ve been easy to let greed get the best of them and trade poor service and high student-to-teacher ratios for more money, but Yaro didn’t do that. Yaro thinks for the long haul. So do I, and that’s one thing I like about him.
Well, a bunch of people have now graduated from Blog Mastermind, and Yaro has reopened it. But Yaro has taken this opportunity to do more than just reopen the doors. He’s improving Blog Mastermind, and not just with token tweaks here and there. Check out what’s going to be in the program:
- A step-by-step coaching course delivered in weekly lessons in text and audio format
- Private members-only forum community and access to regular live training calls with Yaro (you can ask him anything you want about your blog)
- Video case studies of blogs and a ten-part series of audios from Yaro covering the core aspects about what it takes to earn big dollars from a blog
- Access to the social traffic club, a special community of members who help each other drive traffic to their blogs from social media sites
- 5 unique interviews with professional bloggers like Darren Rowse, Brian Clark and Andy Wibbels
- Plus loads more.
You can take a behind the scenes tour and hear Yaro talk about his coaching program if you watch the short video.
So, again, to all of you who aren’t really my intended audience, but who read anyway, I want to say thank you by giving you something that is just for you. Yaro is a laid-back and easy-to-understand guy. He’s a make-money-blogging success story in real life. If anyone can teach you how to do it, I know he can. I’ve been teaching for years. I know a good teacher when I see one, and Yaro is a good teacher.
If you want to learn more and get the new version of Blog Profits Blueprint at no charge, check out this video on conversion blogging (something I’ve been stressing lately, maybe Yaro has been reading my blog!)
P.S. - The reason why Blog Mastermind closed before was because all the spaces were filled, so don’t wait. Remember a few days ago I told you Teaching Sells was going to close? Well, it did, so if you missed that, you are too late. Don’t miss this one, too! Check it out now.















14 Comments
Michael,
You’ve NAILED it!
I too was so impressed with Yaro Starak that I joined his program Tuesday as soon as he reopened it.
What an excellent person he is. You are in that same class of a real honest, no in-your-face BS type of guy and I draw from your wisdom constantly. That’s not sucking up, just the truth.
I have already started to follow his Class #1 instructions and though I have several Blogs and now feel much more comfortable with WordPress, I have my two best and oldest Blogs on Blogger.
I just purchased new domains of the same name without the dot blogger, and I’m going to migrate my old sites over to the new WP pretties.
I am soundly convinced that I will be gaining a great amount of knowledge from Yaro and would add to your comments to encourage all of your readers to join Blog Mastermind if they can.
Now if I only had a name like Yaro Starak… Damn what a GREAT name!
Thanks as always Michael.
Rich
Hi Michael - thanks for the great write-up and kind words.
I like the no-hype approach using content to sell. I have trouble doing any kind of hard sell - it feels painful.
And Rich, your name is great too, especially if you teach anything to do with money
Yaro
Nice post! I have also read blue profits blueprint it is one of the best free e-books out there.I recommend it to anyone that is a beginner. Yaro has a great class at blog mastermind but if you’re not willing to pay that kind of money then this e-book is perfect for you.
@Rich and Franklin - your comments say more than I ever could on my own about how Yaro can help anyone to succeed at blogging. Thanks for offering your comments and experiences with the book and the program.
@Yaro - I know what you mean about no hype and no b.s. It rubs me the wrong way. I find that a little humor helps, too (see my “seo ninja lolcat” in the previous post). Good luck with Blog Mastermind and thanks for stopping by to say hello.
I have to agree that Yaro’s ebook is really good. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that it is the best one out there, but definitely worth a read. What I like about Yaro is that he teaches what he has learn from Rich Schrefren about building systems. It is so vitally important and I have to agree that it is one of the biggest problems for smaller business owners (and bloggers) today.
If you haven’t read Rich’s Manifesto and his Doctrine, they too are worth the time and effort.
Mikael
I too thought Yaro had some interesting ideas, so I signed up for his newsletter. What started as interest turned into annoyance as he mailbombed my inbox 3 and 4 times a day… I couldn’t unsubscribe fast enough.
Maybe he’s got the greatest ideas in the universe, but no way will I waste that much time on that much email. He (and so many others like him who have good ideas) need to learn to write clearly and and succinctly - there was a lot of unneeded filler in those newsletters. NO ONE, and I mean no one, has that much interesting or unique stuff to say.
One well-written email PER WEEK is more professional and places higher value on the communication. Would you rather try to read flyers that are scattered all over the street, or would you rather spend time on a thoughtfully put together newsletter delivered to your inbox? I vote for the latter!
“More” isn’t necessarily “better.”
Hi Alice - For the sake of defending myself I have to ask - are you perhaps confusing my newsletter with someone else’s?
I have a new edition set to go out once every 7 days. If I send any one-time broadcasts in addition to that you might get an extra 1-2 emails from me a WEEK.
If you have ever received 3-4 messages a DAY from me, you must have purchased my products and joined up my affiliate program and somehow made it on to all my email lists using a different email account for each one. That’s the only way you could get that many messages from me in one day.
Which is why I believe you are thinking of someone else, or you are over exaggerating.
Yaro
Hi Yaro,
Do you live in Brisbane and have big red hair? Then I don’t have you mixed up with anyone else. And I didn’t buy any of your products, just signed up for the newsletter.
It really was too much mail. Definitely at least 2 per day. I’ll see if any are still in my delete folder and maybe that will explain it, but whenever I see a newsletter sender’s name in the From line more than once in a day’s mail, that Sender is going to be history!
Maybe a missed some earth-shaking content, but I just don’t have time to wade thru all that email. My apologies if I’ve offended you. Maybe your email was cranking out multiple copies of the same thing??
Lol, close Alice - big curly hair, not red
I do have a friend with big RED hair who teaches about blogging and he’s from Brisbane too, but I know he doesn’t mail out to his list very often.
Perhaps you just happened to jump on board my newsletter at the exact time I was in the middle of opening my coaching program and releasing a lot of free content (videos and an interview with a million dollar blogger).
That past week I sent out slightly more messages than usual because I was opening the doors to my program and I had lots of goodies to give out.
No matter, if you don’t like the content, then by all means, you should unsubscribe. I just want to have my comments here to make sure other people don’t think I’m sending spam messages or anything.
My emails are content focused, and yes I admit I can waffle sometimes in my newsletters, but the content is there for those who want it.
Yaro
THAT’S IT!! The email was all “here’s your video” and here’s this and here’s that. Quite honestly I don’t think I every MADE it to the content, the sheer volume of mail was too much.
Is there a way to subscribe without getting the all the offers? I get so much mail, that if it doesn’t grab my attention in a nano-second it will be deleted. I don’t care about free stuff, last chance offers etc., so all email with this kind of content goes straight into the trash and then I unsub.
Obviously I didn’t know you were doing this special deal. But may I suggest that I’f I’m annoyed, there are others who are too. Can’t your promotional emails be done in a more organized way, like once a week?
Maybe it works for some folks, but it was too much Yaro in my Inbox!
Haha, there’s no such thing as too much Yaro!
Lol, seriously though - the videos and Interview I gave out last week were amazing content - and I’m not just saying that.
If you don’t believe me - click the links in the post above by Michael (in particular the Conversion Blogging link).
Since the peak opening campaign is over Alice you won’t get as many messages like that from me now, however I do urge you to at least scan my messages rather than go straight to the delete key.
Yes, I know some people unsubscribe from lists because they get too much mail, but if that’s the case they probably don’t have interest in what I teach or are too time poor to consume it.
It’s a problem that hits everyone online today - we have such short attention spans…
The fact that you read this comment to the end is pretty amazing in itself
I can vouch that when you are not receptive to the message, it can seem like you’re getting too much mail from someone, when in fact, the autoresponder delivery schedule is perfectly sane.
The phenomenon I experience is that I subscribe to many internet marketer’s email lists, and when they all start promoting the same products I can hardly tell them apart any more (except for Frank Kern–there’s NEVER any mistaking him, which is a lesson itself).
I can say that in my experience being on Yaro’s list that he does not spam and he never sends anything I didn’t sign up for.
Hi Michael, very nice article, thanks a lot
I use a certain autoresponder that allows only 5000 subscribers max. Maybe I need to switch to a more higher end one?
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