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Get 2 Weeks Access to ‘Become a Blogger’ for $1 [Exclusive to ProBlogger Readers]

If you’re looking for some more training in building a blog after our 31 Day challenge I’ve got a special offer for you in this post.

Since finishing 31DBBB yesterday I’ve had a number of participants in the project email me to ask what other training that they can do to keep improving their blogs.

The realization that it seems many have had is that when you invest time and energy into your blog it does improve – our 31 day project has led many people to really step up their blogs and continue to see them improve.

become a blogger.pngAs a result of these reader questions I’ve approached Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick from the popular Become a Blogger course to see if they’d be willing to open up their course again to 31DBBB participants (and all ProBlogger readers). I chose Become a Blogger because I think it’s at a level that many 31DBBB participants will find useful.

Get Become a Blogger for $1 for 2 Weeks – Yaro and Gideon didn’t hesitate to agree and then blew me away by offering ProBlogger readers access to their course for just $1 so that people could sample what they offer and see if it’s something that they want to continue with.

The deal is simple – Become a Blogger is normally $77 a month (it goes for 6 months) but if you sign up as a ProBlogger reader you get a trial period of two weeks for $1. If you don’t want to continue just email Yaro and Gideon and canceling your membership.

What is Become a Blogger?

This is a course for those just starting out with blogging or who have started but are struggling to set it up a level. Here are the 8 modules covered in the video training:

  1. Get Your Blog Up And Running Fast And FREE
  2. How To Optimize Your Blog For Maximum Search Engine Performance
  3. How To Create Powerful Content For Your Blog, Consistently and Without Fail
  4. How To Use Images On Your Blog To Make You Stand Out From The Crowd
  5. How To Create A Different Dimension To Your Blog By Adding Audio
  6. How To Breathe Life Into Your Blog Using Online Video
  7. How To Create Multiple Streams of High Quality Traffic To Your Blog
  8. How To Make Money From Your Blog

There are a variety of good bonuses also on the sales page including a forum are and teleconferences to help you step it up.

You can read full details of what is included in the modules and bonuses on the sales page of Become a Blogger. They also have some free videos on that page to give you a feel for what the course is like.

PS – Don’t have a Blog?: if you don’t yet have a blog then this course is relevant for you as it does have a module on setting up blogs from scratch. Others who already have blogs will find modules 2-7 well worth their time.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. Sorry Darren… But I pass. Nothing coming from this guy Yaro can be credible.

    From Darren: Guillermo – I’m totally fine with you passing. Yaro’s course will not be for everyone’s situation – however why the personal attack? Yaro’s helped thousands of people with their blogs and I know many ProBlogger readers would argue with you on this.

  2. Wow, Darren! That’s a great deal. Thanks for getting it set up for your 31 Days readers.

    I’m already a member of Become a Blogger Premium, so I can tell anyone considering it that they will learn a lot from the program.

  3. Hi Darren,
    I recently read Yaros free report and it did provide some geat tips and info, although the problem is you can only be in so many membership sites before you end up with info overload.
    But I may consider your trial promo.
    thanks

    From Darren: Jeremy – yes it can be overload at times. No pressure to go for this one – if you think it fits your needs have a taste and see but if you find something else that suits where you’re at better by all means invest your time and money into that. I think the key is that you’re aware of what your needs and weaknesses are as a blogger and go out of your way to find things that can help you learn and improve in those areas.

  4. Darren,

    You’re kidding. Seriously.

    Yaro Stark is not someone most legit, even just starting out, bloggers trust.

    I don’t know him from cheese but when I have visited his site (previous to this post) whether he is or not, ’cause maybe he’s on the up and up – he comes across as a “get-rich” type who got rich by getting others to pay him to get rich.

    Your whole blogging course was absolutely invaluable.

    In many respects you repeated stuff from your book however the discipline of coming back again and again to your blog, reread things and learn new tricks (or actually put the tricks into practice), well no price tag can really be put on that.

    Seriously, have seen 71% rise in stats.

    Make a group out of us, (have thoughts, will write in the forum properly) and you be there for us or really choose someone serious who has something to teach (not just the basics by medicinemen) and pay that person & we’ll pay more than $1.

    Karenne

    From Darren: Karenne – I’m really sorry but when someone says ‘I don’t know him from cheese’ and yet then says he’s not ‘legit’ I find it very difficult to take your comment seriously.

    As I said previously to another commenter – if you don’t want to do the course because it doesn’t suit your needs or because it doesn’t seem to be your style then that’s all good and well but why the personal attack?

    I think you say some good things in your comments – the ‘get rich quick’ impression that you get is understandable – Yaro is using his story of success fairly heavily in promoting his products – however because he uses it doesn’t mean he’s not legit.

    Yaro has had real success with his sites and makes a very good living from them – as a result people want to know more about how he does it. I’m happy for you to critique Yaro’s ideas but please don’t resort to calling him not legit simply because of his sales page. This offer actually gives you the perfect way to check out whether he is worthwhile or not – for a dollar you can see what he’s made of.

  5. Hi Darren,

    Thanks a lot for arranging this deal! I would surely check it out.

    I am sure this would be a good follow up for the 31DBBB series, as it looks like this would cover a lot of basic topics in depth.

    Thanks again!

    From Darren: BlogSEOExpert, that’s why I chose this course as one to promote here – I thought it’d be a good followup to 31DBBB. Not for everyone but hopefully some find it useful.

  6. I think this is really good offer for people to try Yaro’s course. You have a chance to decide if you should invest $77/month or not. I am sure 2 weeks would be enough to see what the course is about.

  7. I loved the 31DBBB because it taught things beyond just starting a blog and the first steps of blogging. I need to find more tips on how to go from being a blog in the 500,000 rating on Alexa to the 100,000.

    @Guillermo: Don’t know about your experience with Yaro, but I’d say he’s one of the most credible bloggers out there.

    Thanks for the offer Darren.

  8. I almostly started to make money through the bloggs and blogging.but not yet gain.your writing olso helps to my attempts

  9. As much as I like BAB Premium, I do not know about that $77 price tag. I got in at $27 when it was first offered. And although it is a very good course, the price tag of $27 was the selling point for me. The combine price I paid for the course was $162, which I felt was a great price for the course. When Yaro, raised the price to $47 two weeks later after the debut of BAB Premium, I probably would not have signed up. I do feel that $47 is a fair price for the course. I cannot find the post on Yaro’s web site, but I did write a comment about why I purchased BAB Premium for the cheap price, not because the clever copywriting.

    I just focus more on affordability, when it come to purchasing MMO products, because I have been burned in the past by one internet marketer, in which I overpaid for a product that was good but did not warrant the $1,000 price tag.

    For the most part, I feel Yaro is a stand-up guy, so if you are curious about the course, then check out the offer for two weeks and make your decision. I just have a high threshold when it comes to parting with my money. Other folks may be different.

    From Darren : Thanks for your comments Jeff – fair points about the price. It’s certainly not as ‘cheap’ as it was.

  10. wow, this seems like an excellent deal, I would not mind putting my blog on steriods, hehe, I’m signing up, my blog is relatively new but so far I aready have 83 RSS reader, 74 Twitters followers, almost 8000 page views, and a total of 2842 visitors, these numbers are representative of 1 month. So, I’m not sure if this is good or not but if someone can chime in it would be great.

  11. I love the offer. It sounds great for a newbie, but, after you have Spoon-fed us all these months and years over how to blog and be successful, I presume I can give this offer a miss Darren.

    But, thanks a ton for conducting the 31 Day program.

  12. Darren,

    Enjoyed your 31DBBB 2009 series. It also made me create a spreadsheet where i/you/anyone can project (with some % of variation) the income as a blogger from his/her blog. I just wanted to share.

    http://www.goldseo.com/news/input-return-money-project-blogger/

    Thanks

  13. Sammy Crane says: 05/09/2009 at 7:17 am

    Karenne and Guillermo – People who doubt credibility of those they are unwilling to get to know or test for themselves are jokes and themselves lack credibility in my mind. If you don’t want to sign up then that is your choice – but don’t attack another person’s reputation by saying that they’re not credible or legitimate without giving them a go. I think that that is very poor form.

    I have been in ‘become a blogger’ since it launched and have learned so much. It is the best investment I have made into the blog I am starting.

  14. I must say, I loathe the style of the sign up page. It reeks of “get rich quick!!!” and is the sort of thing that would make me run the other way Very Fast if it wasn’t something Darren was recommending.

    Not sure if I’ll sign up yet, there’s no indication anywhere which modules one would have access to in the first 2 weeks but it seems to imply it’s only the first module which is not something I’m interested in, topic-wise.

  15. @ricky I have to agree with the style of the page. It’s like those High Yield Get Rich Quick. You hit it on the head. I have no doubt that the information is great as Darren is sending the a-ok, but I just don’t like that style of page. It just seems fake and spammy. Until it’s different, I am going to have to pass. Which sucks because I’d love the information.

    From Darren: understand the concern. I’m not a fan of the length and style of the page either and it’s a pity that it has put some off. I understand why Yaro’s used it though – the style certainly works, but perhaps more so for people a little less web savvy than my great readers here at ProBlogger.

  16. The deal seems quite worth it. I am pretty impressed with the price so thinking of joining.

  17. Sounds like a good deal, but I think I will try the 31 day course since I havent gotten to that yet.

  18. $77 per month on how to “become a blogger” ? Wow…

    Funny how Sammy is so full of praise for this kind of course, and calls anyone who dares to suggest it might not be worth the monetary investment “jokes”, yet doesn’t even want to leave a link to his/her own blog? Very strange.

  19. I joined BecomeaBlogger before… the videos are of very good quality. But I would say that it is only for beginners.

  20. Hello Darren,
    I think this is really good to make people try Yaro’s course. and its really a good idea.

  21. What a tempting deal here Darren, there are some points here that I’m really interested to know..

  22. Sounds great I like the part on How to Optimize Your Blog for Maximum Search Engine Performance, I’ve been doing a lot of that lately.

    But I’m sorry to say I’m going to pass, I’m just not ready to make a financial investment in blogging yet but do think it’s the natural escalation of the process. I’ve been blogging now for 3 months and while I do believe that some day I will join a program such as this I just haven’t explored all the free resources yet.

    Great site and thanks for the offer.

    I’ve been document my finding of the how to make money scams and your program sound legit I’ll make note of it for when I do decide to go up a level.

  23. I am with Jeff and all the rest here, Yaro and Darren and the most honest blogger/teacher I have done research on to date. I’d trust them with my child (if i had one) They are honest and not out for your money.

    A buck is the same as FREE to me Jeff so I hope to see all my class mates from Darren’s class in Yaro’s class to….let’s all win win win.

    Thanks D for gettin us in on this (yet another ) great deal.

    Much luv for ya.

    Tasha
    http://www.theeangels.com

  24. Hi to all you lovely commenters here.

    This is Yaro.

    I’m not going to defend myself from all the people who left comments accusing me of scamming, because I know that’s not what I do.

    I suggest everyone makes up their own mind. Try the program and see what we do.

    We’ve spent almost six months straight developing over 50 quality videos in the program, and there’s still more to come.

    If you like the course, stay with us, if not, don’t.

    You know the world will be a better place when people judge others based on real experience with them, not just what they choose to perceive on the surface. Share the love people, not the fear.

  25. I’d love to follow up on this $1 offer, but after reading Yaro’s free content (Which is amazing, I should say), I know I’m going to want to continue the membership and I can’t afford that.

    Sure I can get 2 weeks, but those 2 weeks proably contains information which they’ve given out for free, and the best stuff comes afterwards.

    Thanks for the offer! But I’m going to have to miss this one out.

    Daniel Woodyer
    http://www.amazingmoneymarketing.com

  26. I loved Yaro comment up there

    “You know the world will be a better place when people judge others based on real experience with them, not just what they choose to perceive on the surface. Share the love people, not the fear.”

    I couldn’t agree more.

    Thanks Yaro

  27. Interesting comments.I was going to join up one of Yaro’s blogging programs but then watched his Membership site Mastermind offer and in it he extolled the virtues of a membership site as the only way to make real money online…
    And in his promo he said he hadn’t really made real money until he started his membership site…
    well I would well believe that but in his promo for Blogging Mastermind he says that he was coining it from Blogging and you can too yada yada yada.
    He can’t have it both ways ie tailoring his message to suit whatever product he is flogging now.
    I posted a comment on his website but of course he did not publish it.

  28. Hi Everyone!

    Thanks for all the feedback so far. Yaro and I appreciate it lots to hear from all of you.

    There seems to be a couple of people who doubt our sincerity though, and even though I know their claims are not true, it still kinda hurts, especially when those people have not actually tried out our course yet or got in touch with me with any questions.

    We now have over 1,000 very happy members inside the course and I still get daily emails and comments from people saying how much they love the Become A Blogger course.

    The course has now been running for almost it’s complete 6 months, and the *vast* majority of people loved it so much that they decided to stay on for the whole course.

    If you have specific questions about the course, or you would like me to clear up any issue, you can email me and I will *personally* respond to you. Just use the following address:

    gideon[at]becomeablogger.com (replace [at] with @)

    Thanks again for all your feedback. We listen to our audience and take immediate action whenever it makes sense to do so. We can’t run a successful business without your valuable input :)

    Talk soon!

    Gideon Shalwick
    Co-Founder of Become A Blogger

  29. *keyboard faceplant*

    God I can’t wait until his course starts so all the blogs I like can get back to normal.

  30. Hi Darren,
    I learnt a lot about blogging during the 31 days, although I missed several days. I will catch up them through following the posts.

    Darren, I’m a tech-challenged guy and my efforts to get a professional blog has been a mirage so far, despite my sincere efforts. I want to know if anyone can design a blog and website at a very reasonable price.

    I would like to join this program 2 weeks for $1
    I’m not sure if I can continue to do so, as I want to invest in my blog design.

    Thanks for the generous help, in advance!
    Solomon

  31. Kevin says: 05/11/2009 at 3:35 pm

    People, don’t waste your time and money!
    Write good content and you will succeed! But trust me it will take 5 years, plus!
    Good luck
    John

    From Darren: so is it Kevin or is it John? :-) No need to be anonymous Kevin/John, I appreciate your advice – the whole ‘it will take 5 years, plus’ advice is actually pretty good. I’ve found that my own blogs tend to hit their first tipping point an year or two into their life and then keep growing from there.

  32. 5 years plus, I don’t think so. I’ve been doing it for three months and I’m seeing traffic for all the keywords I hit.

    But then again I’m a web developer and may be ahead of some people as far as the learning curve. Still 5 years seams way too long, maybe if you’re not doing it every day but a lot of blogging sites recommend blogging every day that’s what I try to do and it seams to work.

    6 moths to a year that’s my guess but that’s only because of the learning curve. Once you have a better idea of what you’re doing it will come naturally.

    The key is in good keyword research before writing anything. Find keywords you can get search results for and then write your posts. Just remember to write for people not just search engines this was my first mess when blogging. I wrote for search engines not people. Visitors would read what they needed and move on, I’ve since resolved this using analytics and doing keyword analysis. Now my click thought rate has gone up.

    Go http://www.scamresearchcenter.com/post/Whats-Jeffs-Scam-Niche-Marketing.aspx if you’re curious about how to find and work on niche websites

    from Darren: I think the length of time differs a lot for different people – however as I mentioned above in one of the comments – for me it was at least 12 months before I saw my blogs hit a tipping point that took them from a few hundred visitors a day into something more significant and able to produce me an income that I could come close to living off. In fact it was probably closer to 2 years on my first blog and on my more recent ones about 18 months. I suspect it depends a lot on the topic, how much competitions there is, a little bit of luck, what experience you have previously, what your profile is like before you start etc.

  33. Is this program still on? Please advise. Thanks

  34. Hi, quite interesting thing. Mabye i’m giving it a try.

  35. Sounds like a GREAT DEAL Darren! I may check this out to help with my Freebies site at ezfs.us

  36. Darren, I gotta say, when people want to get into blogging and ask me about it, Problogger is the first place I send them to.

    So it is with great disappointment that I see this post show up here, the place where I am sending friends for good, useful, high quality info.

    Which brings me to my question…

    How did this work exactly? Did Yaro pay you (and shoemoney, and john chow, etc. etc.) up front to “mention” this nonsense of his on your blog, or did he come to you with a special affiliate offer? It’s the same end result, really. You get paid to help Yaro get paid. I get it, but I’m just curious.

    Why the curiosity?

    Because I actually sat through all 5 pages of Yaro’s own bio when this guy was first brought to my attention a while back, and he appears to have failed (or just not succeeded significantly) at every single thing he’s ever done online.

    Except one, of course.

    Going around acting like an internet guru and getting people to buy (literally and figuratively) into his crap. Based on what I’m seeing, this appears to be the only thing he’s successfully done online. Congrats on that, by the way. And Yaro, if I’m mistaken here, please correct me.

    So Darren, how does something like this end up on the blog I’m recommending to friends as a trusted source of quality info?

    Just curious.

    From Darren: cmp – first, thanks for sending people to ProBlogger, I am thankful for and honored by that.

    Secondly – why the disappointment? I’ve linked here to a resource that I genuinely think could help people who have just finished a month long process of improving their blogs. I think this would be a good follow on learning experience. It’s relevant to my topic, of a good quality, developed by someone I respect, has been well reviewed by many of my readers….. not sure what else to say. In my mind it’s not ‘nonsense’ at all.

    In terms of the ‘deal’ here. As you’ll know if you’ve read this blog for a while, this is a blog about making money from blogging. I talk about and use affiliate programs on my blog. Become a Blogger has an affiliate program associated with it which I participate in.

    In terms of Yaro’s success – I beg to differ with your assessment. He’s built successful membership sites but also a successful blog. While his blog may not be as successful as A-list blogs – I’d argue that he’s built up a big enough readership that has enabled him to then launch his membership sites. The blog came first and then the membership sites.

    Yaro talks in his videos about how the membership sites were the key to his success and the reason he really started making money – I agree with this BUT would argue that without his blog he’d not have had the success he did. I for one would never have heard about him unless he’d had his blog and I’m sure the same could be said for many others.

    You see the real power of what I see that Yaro’s done is use his blog to launch his next thing. Many bloggers launch blogs simply to be the income earner themselves…. but I think their real potential is in how you leverage them to launch other things.

    Yaro is one of the few bloggers that I know that has done this brilliantly. He’s taken a blog that has had some success and launched other things that have had even more.

    Hope that that makes sense?

  37. @Karenne Sylvester ^5.

  38. I want to address this one to Terry…

    When I was making the promo video for Membership Site Mastermind I did have concerns that I would express the message the way you have interpreted it – as if I never made real money from blogging and it was membership sites that made the big difference.

    That’s definitely true, but you can’t look at this in simple terms.

    My membership site could not have existed if it wasn’t for my blog. There’s a strong dependency there and while the membership site might *make* the money, the blog creates the conditions for it to do so. It’s symbiotic.

    In terms of raw income just from blogging, I’ve made at least $2000 a month from banner sponsorship for a good 2-3 years and my affiliate income has steadily increased from about $500 a month up to $20,000 a month now.

    That being said, my blog couldn’t do these numbers without my email list. The list grows because of the blog AND because of the membership site launches I do.

    This whole process is very much interconnected.

    One thing I can say, if I was *just* blogging and only using the techniques I teach in Blog Mastermind, I’d be doing at least $10,000 a month combining ad sales and affiliate sales, so what I present in the sales pages for both programs is true, I have no intention of misleading people.

    The real secret of course is the combination of strategies I use, and if you combine Become A Blogger Premium and Blog Mastermind and then move on to Membership Site Mastermind you pretty much have the entire formula for my half a million in revenue over the passed 12 months.

    Or, just read through the last four years of blog entries I’ve done and extrapolate the concepts there.

    Yaro

  39. Yeah I think 5 years is a bit long. In fact, if it takes you that long you are doing something wrong.

    I’ve just started a new blog with a friend, using the same model that Yaro and I teach, and it’s only been a month, and we get between 100 and 200 views on our site already, with around 20 to 30 optins to our newsletter per day.

    At this rate we will have around 5,000 subscribers within 6 months without doing any other promotion for our blog.

    And then, add to that the potential new subscribers that gets added with a launch of a new product… it could only be good.

    Now, keep in mind that no one (including myself) have even promoted the site to their email lists yet. So it’s definitely doable if you set things up right and follow the lessons we teach.

    To see proof of our results, you can visit http://www.freemagiclive.com and also our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/freemagiclive .

    All the best!

    Gideon Shalwick
    Co-Founder of Become A Blogger

  40. Thanks for the reply, Darren. And I do hear what you are saying. I just have some issues. Maybe it’s just me, but it’s hard for me to see a point for you to recommend something that you have ALREADY done, and done better.

    Problogger is the only resource about blogging any of your readers will ever need in their entire blogging lives. Sending them to this Yaro guy for the same info you’ve already covered (and covered better, and are more qualified to cover, etc. etc. etc.) just seems silly and completely pointless for your readers.

    Now if you combine this with the fact that you are making money by doing this, and it makes it look, to me at least, that’s it’s just you trying to make a buck. And I guess I can’t really fault you for that, it’s what you (and I) do. We make money online. I just don’t like seeing it done in the way I’m seeing it here. And I equally don’t like getting emails from a couple of the people I’ve sent your way asking me if they should indeed spend their money on this crap (my opinion, I know).

    I mean, do you honestly think there is one reader of your blog that actually needs to be sent to Yaro to learn how to install wordpress? Or register a domain name? Or learn what “RSS” means? Or any of the other basic info you yourself have already covered and made available for free on this very blog?

    And yeah, my preexisting dislike of Yaro and the seemingly infinite number of people like him is definitely playing a role here too. But this probably isn’t the place to fully explain that.

    From Darren: cmp – thanks for your compliment – I appreciate your vote of confidence in ProBlogger.

    However I don’t have a problem with recommending someone else even though I’ve covered a lot of the same ground here on ProBlogger. A couple of the main reasons being:

    1. Yaro’s course is up to date and organized logically – Yep we’ve covered a lot of the same stuff here at ProBlogger but here at ProBlogger I have written 5000 or so posts over years. As a result it can be hard to find the best and most relevant stuff. Also some of the content from 3-4 years ago is dated.

    Yaro’s courses are presented more in an order that builds upon one another, it’s condensed and it’s all up to date.

    2. Yaro brings a different perspective, set of experiences and voice – this blog is largely about my experience of blogging and as a result is just one person’s view on the topic. Yaro comes from a different perspective and as someone with more experience in internet marketing brings a unique perspective. I actually think that somewhere between what he teaches and what I teach there’s some pretty good perspectives and a well balanced approach.

    Lastly – yes I do make a buck from promoting Yaro’s courses. I don’t have a problem with that and don’t hide the fact by cloaking links or pretending that I’m not anywhere. However I don’t have a problem with that as I feel I’m recommending something:

    1. relevant
    2. of a high quality
    3. something that is useful for my readers
    4. something that I’ve had a lot of positive feedback on

    In the end if it meets those criteria I don’t have a problem with recommending it.

    By no means will it meet everyone’s needs and I don’t hype it up to say that it does. Incidentially I particularly like the offer above because it has a trial period at very low cost. It also has a money back offer if people sign up and are not satisfied. I’ve seen Yaro honor this a couple of times.

    In the end if you don’t like it – don’t buy it. If you’re not sure – give it a go for a couple of weeks and see if it is ‘crap’ (your word) or not. At least then you’ll be better informed to critique Yaro.

    Lastly – is there anyone who neds to learn how to install WP or other basic information. Abosolutely. I get questions on those basic things every day. The information is available online for free but some people like a little hand holding and the personal support of others – and are willing to pay for that.

  41. It sounds like a good package for anyone who needs help getting a presence on the web and web 2.0 is certainly the way to go as more people look for other forms of communication on your website.

  42. I’m curious CMP – why do you have a pre-existing dislike of me? What did I do to create this condition in you?

    Yaro

  43. CMP – To answer your question about my passed “successes and failures” there’s certainly been many on both sides of the fence.

    I’ve made about $180,000 selling websites, some I built from scratch, some I bought, improved and sold later. The niches of these sites were things like small business, mini-bikes and rap music.

    I made about $100,000 from a proofreading business that I set up to be near-passive income using systems.

    And of course my newbie training done as a 20 year old and onwards was running a site devoted to the card game magic the gathering, which made some nice spare change money, but was worth a lot more to me in experience gained.

    I also had a failed English tutoring service and several websites I built and never really followed through with. As all good entrepreneurs know, you have to fail to succeed.

    It’s been a roller coaster mate, but if it wasn’t for these stories my blog wouldn’t have the influence it does because I’d have nothing to write about.

    I think I know where you’re coming from, but correct me if I’m wrong…

    You love that Darren provides such great content and gives it all away for free. You think he should be supported for that, but not by selling affiliate products that sell similar information.

    You consider my information inferior to his, and I charge money for some of it, which probably annoys you.

    There are points there to be argued of course, and when push comes to shove I know I can’t please all of the people all of the time, nor can Darren or any blogger.

    We all have haters – it’s a sign of success – and if you’re one of mine I guess I should thank you, it demonstrates I have recognition in your life, even if it’s not the kind of recognition I’d like to have.

    Yaro

  44. Hi Yaro. It’s hard to exactly pinpoint what it is that I dislike about you, but I will do my very best.

    You’re a guy who takes pictures of himself next to his car and uses it to sell a product that is, for all intents and purposes, HoW To GeT RiCh OnLiNe!!!! You do a lot of stuff like this that really just reeks of everything that is scummy about the whole “make money online” niche.

    You appear to have lacked any real world experience with actually being significantly successful online UNTIL you decided to start a blog about how to become significantly successful online. To me, this is a fat guy selling a weight loss product who then uses the money made to go get weight loss surgery.

    You appear to me to have learned what you currently know through resources such as Problogger. So, to sell a product containing virtually identical info makes it look like you are just taking free information (which was written by someone more qualified than you) and selling it in your own reproduced way. You’ll then make money off this, use it to further build your brand as an internet guru/expert/whatever, which will then allow this cycle of stuff that annoys me (and others, I’m sure) to continue over and over again.

    You say stuff like this: “As all good entrepreneurs know, you have to fail to succeed.”

    I’m an entrepreneur. I never had to fail to succeed. I know it happens, but to say it HAS to happen when I myself am first hand proof that it doesn’t… you’re just stating nonsense as fact, and it’s pretty hard to not dislike that.

    I can keep going, if you’d like.

  45. So it’ll be $77 after the trail period I assume?

  46. Message to Yaro…
    Thank you for addressing my comments here on Darren’s blog.
    But you could have done it on your own blog…where I made pretty much the same point.

    Instead you canned my comments.
    Thats cool.
    Editorial control and all that.
    But you would have gained more respect in the eyes of many if you allowed all reasonable comments on your blog, not just the ones which tell you how great ‘Become a Blogger’,’Become a Blogger Premium’, ‘Blogger Mastermind’, ‘Membership site Mastermind’ is.
    Message to Gideon…
    Thanks for responding to my email.
    Terry

  47. Hey Terry,

    If your comments were “canned” at my blog it was my spam filter that picked them up. I LOVE responding to criticism on my blog because it’s my best way to show my integrity, so I rarely delete things like that unless they are comments that are just slander without any real critical thought behind it.

    There are a lot comments on my blog right now as I type this that I’m itching to respond to due to the recent launch.

    I haven’t had a chance yet because my priority has been to support my new customers, but it will happen. If your comment is in there, I’ll reply there too.

  48. CMP –

    I know exactly what you mean about the “making money only by teaching how to make money”. There’s definitely an element of that in my blog given the nature of the topic.

    I like to think that I’ve only been able to teach this subject because I made money in other fields before teaching it, but if that’s the box you want to put me in, fair enough.

    Most people who attempt to make money teaching how to make money never do. The ones who do actually know something from practical experience. I fit into that mold.

    I can see you’ve decided to selectively view parts of my work and lump me as this person with characteristics you don’t like.

    I’ve avoided enough flame wars to know when someone doesn’t like you their field of perception is too closed off to what the other person is saying to change. They’ve made their choice, they see the evidence how they want to see it, and case closed.

    Unfortunately that’s why there is so much hate and fear in the world. I don’t want to contribute more to it so I’ll accept that you feel this way about it and leave it be.

    Good luck with your projects!

    Yaro

  49. Yaro,

    So basically you are agreeing with me on the “make money by teaching people how to make money” point, and you’ve decided to ignore the rest of what I said with the old “I see that whatever I say won’t matter, so I won’t bother saying anything” approach.

    In my experience that tends to translate loosely into “uh, you got me on that one” most of the time. Always fun.

    And you can’t really tell me that my view of you is selective when you specifically ask me to tell you what it is that I dislike about you. If you asked me to list my “likes” as well, maybe my previous comment would have come off a bit less selective looking. But when you ask solely for the dislikes, you are only going to get dislikes.

    And I don’t think I am doing anything here that is even remotely flame war-ish. I think I am bringing up valid points (which you asked for in the first place) and I’m doing it in a pretty civil manner.

    My field of perception, as you call it, is wide open here, and all of my opinions can be changed.

    Feel free to change them.

  50. Hey CMP

    I recently went to a meet up with Melbourne bloggers. Yaro came up quite a bit in the conversation. While some of us disliked the sales tactics, we all agreed that his information was quality and that he was someone worth knowing. This was quite surprising considering the diffeerence in blogger demographics.

    There are many reasons why I trust him and like him:

    – He was successful in other aspects of internet marketing prior to starting his blog. This shows that he knows how to run a business, not just a site.

    – He covers many topics not talked about on problogger. I love this as there are so many aspects of online business that apply to bloggers, but don’t really fit in here.

    – His paid content is AWESOME. I was blown away with the content in Blog Mastermind. I had to stop after 4 months due to budget issues, but I would love to get the final lessons. Despite the price tag, its chock full of quality.

    I understand how you can hate tactics, but that doesn’t mean you should dislike the person.

    I’ve read/experienced a lot of paid products and programs. In most cases, just making that first connection leads to extra income, referrals and leads.

    Yaro – keep it up :) I may not buy anything from you for a short while, but thats because of personal circumstances. I would definitely be in your other product, membership site mastermind, if I could. xxx

    – Jade

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