Remarkablogger

• PDF file ebook
• Audio file of the same ebook
• Video file, which is a screencast of procedures and examples

Affiliate Marketing

The Affiliate Marketing module ebook is 9 pages long, the audio file is about 40 minutes long, and the video is about 25 minutes long. A word about the ebooks: they are very plain. There are no graphics, no screenshots, no examples. I don’t like that, but it does make for a lighter download and certainly the ebooks aren’t padded with fluff that provides no value. There isn’t even a cover page, they’re just title at the top and BAM: content. Many of you will probably appreciate this, but I like a little visual branding.

The Affiliate Marketing ebook explains what Affiliate Marketing is to total beginners who have no idea. If you’re wondering if that’s possible, trust me, it is–if you know what affiliate marketing is you are in a very, very tiny minority of people in the world. One of the best things about this module is how she tells you the smart way how to find affiliate programs to join.

Naomi also does a great job explaining how to match up an affiliate program to a market and what “gotchas” to avoid. The part on how to market affiliate programs and actually get sales is killer (I already know this stuff but even I learned some great tips here).

Coaching & Consulting

The Coaching & Consulting module ebook is 9 pages, the audio file is about 35 minutes long, and the video is about 25 minutes long. This module of Online Business School is important to me, because coaching & consulting are a big chunk of how I make money online. One of the interesting things that’s different in Online Business School compared to her previous ebook SEO School is the utter lack of swearing and dirty words. Naomi’s kinda famous for that on her blog. But Online Business school is pretty much a very clean PG rating. Thankfully, Naomi’s sharp sense of humor still comes out strong, as in this excerpt from the Coaching & Consulting module:

Why does everybody want to be a coach? Because there is crazy big stupid money in coaching. Tell someone you’re making even $150 an hour – which is pretty low level for a coach – and watch their eyes turn into those little comic book dollar signs. They don’t usually realize that as a coach you can’t exactly bill 10 hours a day, but the dollar figure itself is enough to make most people swoon.

Ain’t that the truth. Now, even though each module of Online Business School stands alone, they are complementary. Consulting and affiliate marketing go very well together, for example. I blend them together myself here on Remarkablogger.

Ebooks & Downloads

The Ebooks & Downloads module ebook is 9 pages, the audio is about 40 minutes long, and the video is about 21 minutes long. Ebooks & Downloads combine nicely with affiliate marketing and also coaching & consulting. This is, in fact, what I do on Remarkablogger: I combine all three of these. I can tell you from my own experience it’s a synergistic combination.

But I digress. Having made 5 figures in sales from her own ebook prior to Online Business School, she knows what she’s talking about. Don’t think it’s all sunbeams, rainbows, and sparkly unicorns, either. One aspect of Online Business School I give Naomi credit for is not pulling any punches about the down sides to each of the six income streams. She gives you the good and bad, but she also gives you enough information so you can decide if you want to try making money with a particular method. (If you’re a blogger, you’re already writing and your audience already likes to read, so ebooks are usually a good idea for you.)

On the download side of things, she covers audio and video production. You know, what’s funny is that every time I opened up one of the ebooks for this course, I felt disappointed that it was only 9 pages, but then I would read it and wonder how she got all that great advice crammed in there. There are so many “hidden gems” in Online Business School that I started to feel somewhat irritated with myself that I didn’t know them, already! But this is what I meant when I said above that this sort of thing can make the whole course worth the money, even for a somewhat experienced internet marketer. My own earning power has increased by now having that information.

Niche Sites

The Niche Sites module ebook is 10 pages (OMG, an extra page!), the audio is about 36 minutes long, and the video is about 30 minutes long. Niche sites have become a well-proven way to make money online. Keep in mind that we’re not necessarily talking about blogs.

These are more along the lines of the mythical “passive income” everybody keeps talking about in internet marketing. The previous income streams covered in Online Business School all overlap well with blogging. Niche sites are a different animal altogether. If you’re a blogger (and you probably are, otherwise why the hell are you reading my stuff?), niche sites are probably new to you, so get ready to learn a whole bunch about this method.

Naomi covers what you need to know to begin creating, monetizing, and, more importantly, directing traffic for niche sites. She covers contextual advertising, SEO for niche sites, and domain/site flipping. If you’ve heard of house flipping, then you get the idea of what domain or site flipping is.

The important point about niche sites is that they’re designed to snag search traffic. Because of this, SEO is important. There are two major factors to SEO for any web page: on-page factors and off-page factors. Online Business School covers both kinds, with article marketing being the main method outlined for the most important off-page SEO factor: links to your page from other pages (called backlinks).

By the way, the audio for the Niche Sites module is actually given away completely for free as a way for you to sample the course. You can listen to it at the Online Business School page.

Physical Products

The Physical Products module ebook is 10 pages, the audio is about 37 minutes long, and the video is about 37 minutes long. Again, for bloggers, selling physical products online is something you’re probably not familiar with. What you may be surprised to learn is that you can do this without ever creating, storing, or shipping the products yourself (which is very cool).

Naomi does a great job explaining the basics of how you can start from nothing and set up shop online. Several providers of services related to selling physical products are covered. As with the other online moneymaking methods in Online Business School, she also explains the methods you should use to promote your online store and get traffic to it.

Physical products do better from pay-per-click advertising than other kinds of online sales. When people are in “buying mode”, they’re searching for something very specific, so your PPC ad can attract them to your online store. You get the world’s best little crash course in PPC advertising as a part of this module. This is good, because PPC is one those scary topics a lot of people seem to be in the dark about. Not only does she provide valuable advice on what to do in PPC, she also tells you what not to do.

She also covers methods for promoting your online store without spending money on PPC advertising. She covers auxilliary methods many online store operators don’t think of. And of course, the point of traffic is to convert it (in other words, people buy). After all, if you spend all this effort trying to get people to the store, they need to be able to easily make a purchase. There’s a lot that goes into that, but Naomi explains it easily and in plain English anyone can understand.

Service Business

The Service Business module ebook is 10 pages, the audio is about 37 minutes long, and the video is about 26 minutes long. There is something funny about this module for me: I get mentioned in it. I had no idea until a couple days ago. (I hadn’t gone through everything thoroughly until I began to prepare for this long-ass review). This totally made me laugh:

Quite simply, there’s just too much competition when you try to be a generalist. (Of course there are a few exceptions to this rule. Michael Martine from Remarkablogger is a bit of a generalist, although he’s specialized more of late. But he’s been blogging since the dawn of time and he’s famous. I hate to be the one to tell you, but you’re not Michael Martine. Unless of course, you are. In which case, hey Michael!)

Hi back, Naomi. There’s a lot of overlap between a service business and coaching & consulting, but because sooooo many people get into coaching & consulting, that got its own module. Of course, there are other services besides coaching & consulting.

One of the best things about this module is the topic of how to market your service business by thinking about things from your clients point of view. She’s got some great advice for using a blog specifically to market a service business. She says is that search traffic is not a big factor in getting clients.

Not that I disagree with that entirely, but I know how to get leads through search for my service business, and I tell you how in my course, SEO-Nomicon, which is a bonus that comes with Online Business School.

Also covered are what to put on your services page of your website or blog and how to set your prices without freaking out. But the absolute best thing about this module is the “random thoughts” part at the end. Naomi comes from a family of graphic designers and copywriters, so she’s been immersed in this kind of service business for a long time. One of these nuggets of wisdom is “the most important thing” and yes, it really is the most important thing.

The Videos

Each module comes with a QuickTime video. Even though I would prefer pictures and some screenshots in the ebooks, the videos do show you some things that are difficult to convey through writing. The videos are all screencasts (recordings of a computer screen) in which James Dunford (Naomi’s husband) shows you things and walks you through some step-by-step procedures.

The videos are well-done. James has all his browser tabs with his examples all prepared in advance, so he can bring them up quickly without interrupting his own presentation (although in the Service Business video, Naomi brings him a cup of coffee and he mentions it, which I thought was great–a very human touch).

The Bonuses

Including bonuses to sweeten the deal has become a common online marketing practice… and one that has been much abused. A lot of self-styled internet marketers pile on the bonuses that are just worthless, regurgitated information products. That is absolutely not the case for Online Business School. This review is already clocking in at over 2,000 words, so I’ll hold off on going over the bonuses in detail. Online Business School would be worth the $197 asking price even if there were no bonuses, and many of these bonuses can be purchased in their own right at their creators’ websites… and they’re worth the money, too. A good rule of thumb is: never include a bonus that isn’t worth paying for in the first place. These bonuses are truly valuable.

• Emergency Money Plan by Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz.com.
• SEO-Nomicon by yours truly.
• Stress is for Suckers by Tim Brownson of ADaringAdventure.com.
• Write for the Web by James Chartrand and Harrison McLeod of MenWithPens.ca.
• The Inspiration Kick and The Epiphany Kick by Havi Brooks at FluentSelf.com.
• Niche Control Silos by Josh Hohman of InternetMarketingReportCard.com.
• 50 Things Your Customers Wish You Knew by Sonia Simone of RemarkableCommunication.com.

The Final Verdict

Overall, Online Business School has 54 pages of ebooks, over four hours of audio, and over four hours of video. It covers a lot of overlapping territory. There’s a great deal of synergy between the different methods for making money online, and you really get a sense of that from the course.

However, you’re also paying for information on methods that you may not ever use. For example, I have no immediate plans to start building niche sites. My complaints about the course are the lack of helpful pictures and formatting in the ebooks, which is not a deal-breaker to me.

It doesn’t affect the quality of the information, but I find it altogether odd that there is no branding on this thing whatsoever: no covers, images, logos, or anything. We all know SEO School for its ninja imagery, but there is no imagery here (yeah I know, that’s hardly a complaint, is it?).

This course is clearly aimed at beginners, but even if you’re not a beginner, you’ll get plenty of value to justify the $197 price tag. When the price goes up to $397 (which will probably be soon), it will still be worth the money (the bonuses alone sold as a package could easily fetch $397). It doesn’t take much to learn and implement strategies and tactics that will easily save you or make you way more than $397. However, if you’re considering whether or not Online Business School is right for you, and you decide that it is, it would be smart to grab it at $197 before the price increases.