Review: The Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet

I'm not one for hype, not nearly to the degree that Corey Rudl, author of Insider Secrets, seems to be. For a while I put some links and banners on my site to earn some money from his affiliate program, but then took them down. I didn't really know what Corey Rudl is about, I told myself, so my integrity requires that I don't promote an expensive program unless I can endorse it.

Then a few weeks ago one of Rudl's staff asked me to consider the materials more carefully. I did, prepared to be turned off by an overhyped, overpriced kit. I had just read an expensive Web marketing book containing ho-hum, dated information, and was expecting more of the same. I was happily surprised -- but not immediately. 

Hype Served with Plenty of Meat

In the first couple of chapters, Rudl seems to go out of his way to brag about his own four successful companies, how his revenue is in excess of $5 million annually, and how he has time to go to the beach since he has everything automated. It sounded like an infomercial. But as I've thought about it, he is using this to build credibility so the reader will accept what he has to say later on.

Rudl makes sure you know that he is running several online businesses -- Car Secrets, Prestige Auto, Money Savers Group, and New Age Publishing, in addition to the Internet Marketing Center -- and that he makes good money from them. It's important to realize, however, that primarily Rudl sells information products he produces himself, allowing him a high profit on each sale. He also promotes various software products he has found useful, and earns money from referral fees. Your business, product, or service will, no doubt, be substantially different. While Rudl's approach to Internet marketing works best for single-product type Web businesses, rather than online stores that sell a wide range of products in a niche, it's clear to me that the principles he teaches can be adapted to a great many businesses. 

E-Mail Marketing

Overall, I think Rudl has the most to offer in the area of e-mail marketing. Yes, he uses websites and offers some website advice, but for him the main goal of a website is to capture the visitor's e-mail address in order to use it for follow-up marketing later on. Thus, reports and articles are often made available only via e-mail autoresponder so the requester's e-mail address is captured.

The course offers excellent information on writing copy. Rudl follows the rubrics of direct marketing: high energy words, long engaging copy, etc., but he shows how to apply these to the Internet. He recommends testing everything, looking for a continual improvement in response until the copy or offer is perfect. I found his advice on pricing products and most-attractive pricepoints to be fascinating.

I was impressed by the wealth of examples that come with Insider Secrets. In a section on customer service, for example, he includes an entire set of letters sent out to customers with various kinds of inquiries and situations. Where else can you buy that kind of Internet-specific guidance?

Bulk E-Mail

I struggle, however, with Rudl's approach to bulk e-mail. He certainly doesn't espouse "permission marketing," which is my comfort zone. But he strongly cautions against sending untargeted spam. Here's his distinction: "Bulk e-mail," he explains, "is sending e-mail to a group of people and spam is sending mass quantity of e-mail to people whom you have no relationship with whatsoever." He does, however, recommend sending e-mail to customers, leads, autoresponder follow ups, newsletter lists, and opt-in lists, all of which, he says is "100% ethical and not controversial at all." Nor does he see a problem with e-mail addresses garnered from carefully targeted (automated) searches of websites that might have an interest in a niche product. Moreover, I don't see anything in Insider Secrets about privacy policies. That's apparently not an issue Rudl is concerned about.

He doesn't recommend spamming, of course -- warns against it, in fact. But then goes on to explain lucidly each of the secrets spammers use. "It is so you know what to look for if your competitors are [using bad or risqué techniques]," he says. "... to know what techniques will make you money, what techniques to avoid ... and more importantly so you become an Internet expert at all the different promotional techniques that are out there so that you can make your own decision on what to do."

That aside, he offers a tremendous amount of detailed information about how to get a higher response rate sending bulk e-mail. He also explains how to use a PC-based software product his company distributes -- Mailloop (http://marketingtips.com/mailloop/t.x/15267/) -- that can automate many of the e-mail marketing functions of a business.

He offers tested insights into a wide variety of Internet marketing techniques: banner advertising, newsletters, free articles, classified ads, newsgroups, press releases, competitive intelligence, search engines, "backend" and upsell products, joint ventures, associate programs, and tracking sales from ads. For years I've been in a constant learning mode, and I learned much reading Insider Secrets.

The course does have weaknesses. An index would have made finding details much easier [It turns out there IS an index after all. You can find the course index online], and some parts (such as e-mail marketing) are much fuller than others. I also take exception to his recommendation that you should automate the whole sales process on your website before your business goes live. My recommendation would be that small businesses plan ahead of time how they will automate, but not invest in some of the more expensive elements until their site has proven its ability to produce sales at an acceptable level to justify the investment. 

As I read Insider Secrets, I asked myself again and again, is this information really worth the $197 Rudl charges? And I concluded that indeed it is worth the sales price. The quantity and quality of information he offers are exceptional, and justify the price to me. You don't compare this information to the cost of a book, you compare it to seminar prices. Put into practice with the right products or services, his tips and methods will produce Internet success. He's made his case as far as I'm concerned.

You can purchase a copy of The Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet through this link: http://marketingtips.com/t.cgi/15267/  Why don't you at least try the link and read how Cory Rudl sells his own program. And, yes, in spite of my disagreements with some of his approaches, I decided I can encourage readers to purchase his product with my integrity fully intact.