Corey Rudl’s “The Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet”

Targeted at: Any person wishing to market or sell a product or service on the internet. It promises to give a complete overview of what's involved to truly succeed online.

Price and format: $197 - Two 3” binders and 2 CD Roms shipped to you

Background on the Product: In Corey Rudl's rather large "Insider Secrets" course, he promises to reveal many of the tactics, techniques and secrets he has used to build his online company which is currently pulling in $6.6 million per year.

Part of the allure of the product is based on the fact that Corey does in fact use the techniques outlined and no one can argue that he isn't wildly successful online.

Some hesitation in ordering this course may have to do with the price tag ($197) and the question as to whether it lives up to its claims. It was not an investment I made easily at the time and now I'll share with you whether it was worth it for me or not.

About the Author: For those of you who may be unfamiliar with internet marketing, Corey Rudl is one of more famous names in the field.

He has been and continued to be EXTREMELY successful online. As stated earlier, his company pulled in $6.6 million in sales (in 2002) between their various products and services. His online career started in the mid 1990's with one of the top selling ebooks about buying cars called Car Secrets Revealed.

He also came out with some high end software such as Mailloop (email automation software) and Ebook Pro (ebook compiler with security features allowing you to disable your ebooks remotely). He has recently expanded to the successful subscription site Secrets of Their Success.

Background on my purchase of it
This course was one of my first internet marketing purchases and helped serve as a solid foundation for understanding some essentials about online marketing.

Now that I have been exposed to many dozens of other products, services and experiences, I was curious to see how well its content stands up upon reviewing it again.

I remember receiving the Course and thinking “There’s a lot here”. It consists of two large 3 ring binders and 2 CD Roms. By sheer volume and weight alone, it gave for a great “out of the box experience”.

Score one for Corey ;-)

This was the most I had spent for any marketing product up to that point, so there was definitely some “buyer’s doubt” and insecurity prior to ordering. The question is whether it was good or hype?

Onto the review...

The "Good"
Corey starts the course off by giving you some background on how he got started. He's has a very good writing style and it is very easy reading his material. Your attention is captured as he gives you specific facts and figures as you go through the course.

Corey also includes many real (and believable) testimonials as to the changes his course has made in the lives of ordinary people.

The testimonials go beyond the run of the mill "This is great!" testimonials and can be verified as legitimate. It serves as some good inspiration at the beginning of the course.

He has a straight forward way of getting you excited about the money that can be made. This is generally done without a lot of hype.

<The Insider's Course walks you through, step by step everything you need to get started. There is a LOT of material here. You can see the table of contents to the right. Just keep in mind that even that doesn't do it justice because each topic is thoroughly covered with detailed explanations.

Some things I really liked were his example of various correspondence he has used successfully. For example, there are some well worded examples of how he has approached other sites to become affiliates, join him in a joint venture, request a link from them etc.

He also shows you some of his "back end" emails which have made him a lot of money. Powerful, profitable points are made here, so pay attention in this section.

It is useful to reference these examples of actual emails he uses to see a style of writing which is persuasive but not pushy. Great for inspiration!

Corey goes to great lengths to show you how this information can be applied to ANY web site. It does not matter what type product, service or information you are providing online. Tips are here on how to generate the traffic and then how to effectively handle it once it gets to your site.

It was interesting reading how he discovered some of the mistakes that he was making in marketing his sites initially.

You learn how he was able to uncover what his visitors were REALLY after and then make the changes to his site that would increase his sales over 300% in a couple of days. Excellent advice.

The "Bad"
I initially was turned off a bit by Corey's somewhat frequent plugs back to his own product. I totally understand the up selling for additional profits, but I remember it striking me as being a little much at times.

On the other hand, I ended up buying a couple of his products, so I guess it works :-P I guess it is tough to criticize Corey for not practicing what he preaches!

Looking back, I guess its not so much a bad thing as just a little obvious at times.

All in all, there isn't a lot not to like about the course.

The "Controversial"
In the version of the course I have, Corey makes mention to a piece of software that could potentially be used for spamming purposes. (Spamming being sending unsolicited email to people). It suggests a gray area (at the very least) of a portion of internet marketing that you want to avoid at all costs.

I believe that this has since been removed but I am not 100% sure about that. If it hasn't been removed, hopefully it will be.

Corey constantly updates the material in the manual so if anyone has a very recent version, please let me know if he still makes mention of the program.

Guarantee: Corey Rudl’s course comes with a 100% guarantee. I am completely confident that he stands by his word and any returns would be handled very promptly. You of course would risk the shipping cost of sending it back but I would be very surprised if he received many returns.

My Personal Experience
There are plenty of products out there by people who haven't proven themselves by their results. Corey is NOT one of those people. I know first hand that he practices exactly what he preaches. As an affiliate of his products now, I can attest to the attention to detail and support that he provides.

His was the first affiliate program where they actually called me after I made a couple of sales. If you've been marketing online, you know that doesn't happen too often. I admit it seemed a little odd initially but it became obvious that they were there to help me succeed. If I succeeded, they succeeded. They are there to provide the tools, tips and advice to see that happen. I grew to appreciate this level of support.

I've have learned a tremendous amount both through Corey Rudl's course and in dealings with his company in general. At the risk of sounding like a hokey commercial, by applying his advice and techniques, my sales DID dramatically improve. At the time of receiving his course I was averaging $400 a month in sales. A year later it was over $6,000 a month. (Working only part time at it).

Now granted, I had learned other things from other sources along the way so I can't say Corey's course is 100% responsible but I can vouch for the fact that it has been a very strong influence.

He is a firm believer in a few key concepts. Getting affiliates and automating your profits among those concepts. These have served him well and are now serving me well also!

One thing I can directly attribute to him is the concept of multiple streams of income. He explains straight out how to go about creating small streams of $1,000 a month here, $1,500 a month there and have them automatically be making money for you month after month.

This is exactly what I put into place. I can tell you first hand... Its a beautiful thing!

Final Evaluation: Is the Insider's Secrets course worth it?

Yes, I sincerely believe it is.

You can get a lot of bits and pieces of his material from other sources but he gives a very solid resource all in one course. It is an excellent resource to get a very solid foundation very quickly instead of wasting time getting bits and pieces of these tactics from other sources.

Without a doubt, I learned a lot from his course and am still glad to this day I have it. No regrets what so ever. I would buy it again if I had to.

Just rereading this course for this review made me look back on the ton of notes I wrote at the time. I also picked up a few things that I must have skimmed over when I was just starting out with it. Now with more experience under my belt, some of the more detailed points take on even more meaning.

If you already own the course and haven't read it in a while, I recommend going back through it. If you haven't bought it yet and want a SOLID foundation given to you by someone who "practices what he preaches" then you can't go wrong. My initial investment has paid for itself many, many times over.

Do yourself a favor and REALLY pay attention to his followups and the support he gives you. If you can even come close to using the same tactics to yourself, you will do quite well.

Recommendation: Glad I bought it

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