UPDATE: This review is now outdated. I am leaving it here for informational purposes only. For the most up-to-date information and recommendations, please join my free newsletter.
Edition #67 – 7/17/2006
GoTryThis Black-Hat is another one of those products that I didn’t want to review, and wasn’t going to… but after being totally bombarded by “guru” email promotions for it, I felt I needed to give a balanced review because I know you’re getting some of those emails too.
First of all, don’t be fooled by the title of the product, the hype surrounding it, and the negative tone of the sales letter. It’s all a part of the marketing strategy… a very good marketing strategy.
First of all the title: GoTryThis Black-Hat. For the past year I’ve been thinking about concocting a product with the words “black hat” in the title, because it’s sure to be a best-seller. I think John Reel has proven that hypothesis to be true.
However, don’t be misled into thinking this is a mysterious product full of deep dark secrets and methods. This is a script which combines several techniques that have been used by experienced affiliate marketers for a long time.
Also don’t be fooled by the gurus who are claiming this is ground-breaking information, and that they’ve never seen anything like it. All those gurus are proving is that THEY are NOT experienced affiliate marketers.
I’ve been an affiliate marketer since before I ever started writing Eric’s Tips, and I can tell you that these techniques are nothing new, and I’ve been using most of them for a long time.
John is right about this though… a few of these techniques are not known by the majority of affiliate marketers, and those of us who are using them would prefer that John never created this product.
However, it’s NOT for the reasons he implies. He makes it seem like the elite affiliate marketers are going to be mad about the increased competition. As far as I’m concerned, that’s not really an issue. What I am concerned about is that fact that more affiliate programs will soon be banning some perfectly legitimate techniques due to the increased abuse of them.
As for the sales letter, the headline pretty much sets the tone…
Discover How You Can Get Your Selfish, Greedy, Undeserving Hands On The Most Effective ‘Black-Hat’ Arsenal Of Affiliate Marketing Weapons Anyone Would Ever Dare Release!
If I were to take it at face value, I’d be somewhat put off by it. I really don’t like sales copy that is condescending and degrading to the reader. However, I think it’s clear that he’s using a “shock-value” anti-marketing approach. He’s even got a picture of himself with devil horns, but again I think it’s just a marketing strategy.
While it’s not really my style, it’s a very effective technique (think about the Rich Jerk ebook — ‘I’m better than you’).
The fact of the matter is that this “black hat” resource has very little to do with true back hat techniques (like shadow domains), and it has nothing to do with black hat SEO, which is most commonly associated with the term “black hat”.
Most of the techniques are pretty much standard stuff that you could find in any number of affiliate software programs. The nice thing about GoTryThis is that it ties some of them together better than other programs. The sales letter lists 21 key features of the program… so let’s break them down one by one…
1. Works on your site and brands your links with your own domain name…
Yes this is a good technique, which I explained in an edition awhile back:
Of course you don’t need any special program to set up redirects on your own domain.
2. Helps you get way more click-through’s with more professional looking URL’s.
Same as above point. That’s why I advise avoiding URL shorteners like TinyURL for the purpose of affiliate marketing.
3. Stops affiliate thieves from stealing your commissions
Again tied to point #1… this is a reason for using redirects.
4. Tracks hits to your affiliate links
You do typically need some sort of script if you want to view all of your affiliate click stats from one location. There are dozens of programs (including free ones) for this.
5. Blah blah blah… you’ve seen it all before
OK
6. Lets you publish your links in any folder with any name you like on your site. Other solutions make you put them in a specific folder like “/recommends”.
Most solutions do not require a certain folder, and of course if you set them up manually, that’s not an issue anyway because you can put them anywhere.
7. Take control of your affiliate marketing campaigns with a complete “front-to-back” affiliate tracking solution.
This is a good idea…again there are many solutions out there for this.
8. Organize and maintain all of your affiliate programs in one easy to use interface
Same as point #7
9. Create and track sub campaigns “on-the-fly”without doing any extra work or setup
This is admittedly a nice feature. A lot of affiliate programs (like CJ) have this capability built-in, but its nice to have it be a part of your central tracking system.
10. Compare results of two or more affiliate links
Again most tracking programs offer this, but GoTryThis does have very nice comparison features.
11. View real time tracking campaign statistics
Again this is part of virtually all link tracking systems
12. Make your links “viral”, and double your commission chances.
Nothing new here… it has been proven to be a successful model with programs like Mike Filsaime’s Instant Buzz and Russell Brunson’s Link Brander. However, I don’t typically use those programs because I don’t like to distract my visitors from what they’re supposed to be looking at.
13. Secretly embed an affiliate link in your web pages with one cut-and-paste
This is the one technique that “could” be black hat, and it all depends how you use it. What some black hat marketers do (like adware creators), is drop zillions of affiliate cookies onto your hard drive. That way if you buy ANYTHING on the web, there’s a good chance they’ll earn a commission from it.
However, I’ve been using this technique for perfectly LEGITIMATE reasons for a long time. The main reason I use this technique is so that I can send visitors to any page of a vendor’s site.
For example, let’s say I’m promoting an insurance company. Perhaps their standard affiliate link takes the visitor to their home page, but I want to send them directly to the application form. I can simply embed the cookie on my referring page, or within the redirect itself, and send the visitor to the page of my choice.
There’s nothing black hat about that. I made the referral, so I deserve to get credit, and the vendor is happy because I’m sending them leads/sales.
Lately, I’ve found this technique to be a great way to deal with the ever-increasing amount of marketers who are using the “squeeze page” technique (requiring you to opt-into their list before letting you view the sales page). Due to the proliferation of this method, I am no longer sending my subscribers to squeeze pages, unless I know and trust the marketer.
By embedding a cookie, I can send you right past the squeeze page and directly to the sales page. Maybe you’re thinking…. but, isn’t that wrong? After all, the website owner intended the visitors to go to the squeeze page. Well if an owner doesn’t want me to do it, then I won’t. But you need to consider this… If I don’t do it that way, then I’m not going to do it at all. So 99% of the time they are happy because I’m sending them customers instead of sending them nothing.
(UPDATE NOTE: I never embedded affiliate cookies/links for unethical or sneaky purposes. I did it when I was overtly promoting a product. However, this technique has been abused by unethical marketers, and as a result many affiliate program providers no longer allow the embedding of cookies. For this reason I err on the side of caution and don’t do it anymore.)
14. Secretly embed affiliate links in your LINKS.
This is basically the same thing as #13, but you’re embedding the cookie in the redirect page instead of the referring page. This method has less chance of being considered back hat, because everyone who is cookied is clicking on the link anyway. This is the method that I usually use if it is needed.
I’ll show you what I mean…
I could send you directly to my affiliate link for GoTryThis Black-Hat, which takes you to the squeeze page:
https://members.gotrythis.com/aff.php?aff=828
OR I could send you directly to the sales page, with the affiliate link embedded in the redirect:
The sales letter makes it sound like you need this program to do this, but it’s a very simple code. Here’s the code I used to create the above link:
If you want to be sneaky about it, then you can encrypt the embedded part, but I never do because I’m not trying to be sneaky.
15. Secretly hide rotating affiliate cookies in your web pages
Okay, this one is black hat and you should not do it. If you’re not promoting a particular product on your site, then you should not cookie the visitor for the product. If you do, then you’re basically doing the same thing as people who create spyware/adware. Use of this by customers of GoTryThis Black-Hat will probably cause some affiliate program to tighten up their rules. It is unfortunate, because that will also rule out the ability for legitimate marketers such as myself to use the technique in #14.
16. Secretly hide rotating affiliate cookies in links you publish ANYWHERE!
Same as above.
17. Quickly split-test affiliate programs to discover which one will make you the most money.
Split testing is nothing new, and there’s nothing black hat about it. GoTryThis does have very nice split testing capability.
18. Run GoTryTHIS on all your domains at no extra cost!
Ok
19. Get ALL The Guru’s Affiliate Marketing Secrets
Hmmm…. do you really want to listen to the ALL of the GURU’s?
20. Blue-Print Training Videos and Flow-Charts
He’s got some sample videos posted on the sales page… they are good for learning to use the software.
21. Just Added: Split-test any page with live graphs!
#11 and #17 combined
Conclusion:
I’m giving GoTryThis Black-Hat a one thumb up. It’s a very nice script, and it fills several gaps that I could previously only achieve through a combination of a couple different scripts, or manual work.
The only black hat technique in this system is embedding affiliate links, and the rest of the stuff is pretty much standard techniques combined into a nice package.
It’s easy to use, and the reporting functions are great. The techniques are good, with the exception of the rotating cookie script, which should never be used. This program will save you time, and will add an important dimension to your affiliate marketing business, particularly if you’re not employing basic strategies like link cloaking and split testing.
As I’ve demonstrated, you will NOT be left in the dust if you choose to pass up this offer (in spite of what some gurus are saying), and you can employ many of these techniques without the use of software.
However, I can definitely say that the program IS easily worth the price John is charging for it. If you’re an experienced affiliate marketer, it will save time and likely add valuable reporting to your arsenal. If you’re a non-techie it will put the tools in your hands to be able to do some things that would otherwise be difficult for you to do.
NOTE: After seeing all the comments from people who can’t afford GoTryThis Black-Hat, Gina Gaudio-Graves (the JV broker who helped launch the product) reminded me that there is a FREE version of GoTryThis available. I have personally tried it, there is nothing black hat in it, and I highly recommend checking it out.
As a merchant myself, I’d rather you didn’t send me any traffic if you’re going to bypass my squeeze page.
A squeeze page isn’t always just used to grab a name and email address, sometimes they’re used to send the prospect to a targeted sales page. By bypassing the squeeze page you’re screwing up the system.
Plus, if I’m doing split-testing you’re screwing up my stats by sending traffic to the page you want.
I want to make my affiliates happy, and will try to accomodate their idiosyncrasies, but not at the expense of sabotaging parts of my business. Affiliates should think about the “problems” they can cause before just doing their own thing.
Jay
Thanks eric
As always a great and honest review, I think people overuse the term “black hat” and they often don’t really know any true black hatters..
His marketing has been top notch and it looks like his product matches up to it , well mostly..
Paul
Hey Jay-
I totally understand your point, but I can guarantee you’re in the minority. Most vendors would rather get some sales than none…even if it skews their stats a bit. But like I said, if it’s a problem for you then I won’t send you any traffic. I’ve NEVER been accused of sabotaging a part of someone’s business for sending them traffic…
In regards to:
“A squeeze page isn’t always just used to grab a name and email address, sometimes they’re used to send the prospect to a targeted sales page. By bypassing the squeeze page you’re screwing up the system.”
When I say squeeze page, I’m referring to the ones that ARE used to grab a name and email address. Yes I realize there are other reasons for landing pages, and even squeeze pages… like the ability to send a visitor to a sales page based on the info they provided on the squeeze page (and maybe even personalize the sales page with their name).
Those are SMART marketers, and I wouldn’t want to mess with their system anyway.
The problem is that so many marketers are jumping on the squeeze page bandwagon that I can hardly promote anything without watering down my list, and potentially putting them on the list of someone I don’t know and trust. I may have reviewed their product and found it to be high quality, but maybe that same marketer gives crappy advice in their newsletter. I think most of my subscribers would thank me for this, and I’d rather please them than the vendor anyway. Even though the paycheck comes from the vendor, it’s my subscribers that pay the bills…
The other problem comes from all the companies who are NOT smart marketers, particularly a lot of the big corporation types. They’re not sending their traffic to the home page for strategic reasons… they’re sending it there because they don’t know better…
I should also mention that the percentage of my affiliate campaigns where I employ this strategy is pretty small… I’d estimate only about 2%. Most of the time I don’t need to send traffic to a different page. Also, there are a lot of vendors (like eBay and Amazon) that enable you to send traffic to any page AND they give you the tools to do it, so you don’t need to embed cookies.
One last thing I’ll mention is that there are also very practical uses for this strategy from a vendor standpoint as well. Many affiliate management programs do not allow you to send affiliate links to more than one page per product. But what if you want to set up a special landing page for a particular affiliate (like…’Welcome to Eric’s Tips subscribers’)? You could set it up as a totally seperate product in your affiliate manager, but an easier way would be to simply embed the affiliate’s link on their custom page. Or if you have several affiliates sending traffic to a certain “discount” page or whatever, you could have each of them embed their affiliate link within their own redirect, rather than embedding one affiliate’s cookie on the page itself.
Thanks for the Tips Eric.
I am particularly impressed with the snippet of code you share with us in #14 for embedding cookies in our links. I did not know how to do this, and had thought of that aspect of GoTryThis Black Hat as being one of it’s key features.
Peace,
Jambhala
Personally, I never send prospects to the merchants squeeze page. I send them to mine.
I’ve actually lost sales sending people through a sqeeze page, especially during pre-launch of a product. So I don’t care if I mess up somebody’s testing. What I care about is doing any and everything to control the customer and ensure that they BUY. After they buy, they are a customer of yours. Before they buy, they are may prospect.
Bottom line, I don’t make money helping you keep your stats straight, I make money when people buy. The only exception here is when I know the prospect is LINKED to me within the prospecting system. Most merchants don’t use this kind of system.
I love this product, saves time.
Eric,
Tthank you for sharing the code for embedding cookies. I hadn’t seen this before. It may prove very useful.
David
I’m still new to the affiliate quest. But having read an awful lot before doing anything, I do think consolidating tools for non-techies helps, but at the expense of “hyping” it as the newest thing since sliced bread really sours the lot. Especially for those not in the-know. Thx Eric for an honest tip return here. Too many “deals” coming down the pike these days are “hurry up, hurry up, hurry up” that one feels like we can’t actually take the time to build something up w/o feeling like we’ll miss out on the newest(?) thing coming out. Cheers!
Eric – Great review. Thank you for taking the time do write such a detailed one. 😉
The issue I was interested in at this time is #4.
4) Tracks hits to your affiliate links
You do typically need some sort of script if you want to view all of your affiliate click stats from one location. There are dozens of programs (including free ones) for this.
***
Could you direct me to some of the options for doing this. I have been looking but I think I must not be wording my searches correctly!
As always, thanks for such good information!
Tink
Eric,
Fantastic review… You took the words right out of my mouth!
If I may, I’d like to share a completely FREE resource that’s
100 times more effective than the so called “black hat” stuff
being peddled as the “NEW” thing.
Please allow me to share “Affiliate Saver” with your subscribers.
It’s simple, does all the work for you, and builds MULTIPLE
“targeted” optin lists. It’s what every-single affiliate marketer
needs. All you have to do is create your campaigns, then…
copy and paste the HTML code into your webpage that you
have reserved with a specified domain name and PRESTO!
“SET- IT and FORGET IT!”
Anyways, if you, or anyone is interested you’ll have to wait
until my new product http://www.internetentreprenuer.com
Is launched on Sept 12th.
Meanwhile you can see in REAL time as the site is being
constructed. Hope you can all be a part of it.
Sincerely,
Anthony Tomei
You’re the only one to do a detailed review so far Eric, so a big up on that.
Perhaps slightly sour grapes in some of it, but pretty fair. I agree there’s nothing much very new in GoTryThis – Covert Affiliate was helping with embedding cheaply and simply some while back for example – but it’s John’s overall execution and really excellent real tme reporting in this one prog that makes the big difference. Basically, if you wanted to do this, this is how you’d want it done.
And as for ‘gurus’ hyping new products, that particular epidemic is now completely out of control. I’m now unsubscribing more than I subscribe.
hey tink
try clickaudit for a free click stat tool
Anthony- thanks for the preview… hmm, maybe you could set me up as an affiliate so I can drop a cookie on everyone before your launch, LOL 😉
Chris- well said: “if you wanted to do this, this is how you’d want it done.”
Tink- as keltic mentioned, http://www.clickaudit.com is a good free tracker. Some programs that have come highly recommended to me (particularly for PPC tracking) are:
Ad Watcher
AdTrackz
Also GoTryThis has a white hat version that is a fraction of the price of the black hat version. It would be a good option if you’re mainly interested in tracking.
Very refreshing post Eric. Nice to get some “straight talk” for a change along with some suggestions and analysis that actually impart clarity and a sane perspective.
I look forward to more
“Very refreshing post Eric. Nice to get some “straight talk†for a change along with some suggestions and analysis that actually impart clarity and a sane perspective.
I look forward to more ”
That says it all for me
Henry Hilley DD
http://BringYourBuddy.ws
Hey Eric,
Thanks for the great review. I have been bombarded by so many “guru” endorsements over the past 2 days, but you are the first one who stepped-up and really evaluated it. I appreciate your candid review. In fact I have based my decision on your review entirely.
Since I have always felt a day late and a dollar short in the affiliate marketing game, what would you recommend as a great blueprint for a newbie who wants to aggressively get into affiliate marketing? Thanks again for your honesty.
Tim Berry, MD
Eric,
I must add my thanks to the list! Your reviews are always balanced and free of hype and its great knowing that there are Internet Marketing Experts (ok, gurus) out there who care more for his peers than making a fast buck!
Keep the reviews coming!
Gordon
Hey Tim- It sort of depends on what you mean by ‘newbie’ and ‘aggressively’. Most newbies can’t handle too much new info at once, so it’s better to start simple… which means you can’t be too aggressive until you learn the ropes. Affiliate marketing is also a very broad field, and there are many aspects that you could focus on. I did create a ‘newbie tutorial’ for affiliate marketing with PPC and clickbank, which you can get for free at: http://www.writingcash.com/members/signup.php
On the other hand, if you’re really looking to be aggressive, I wouldn’t hesitate to invest in GoTryThis Black-Hat because it’s going to save you time and put some tools in your hands that most affiliate marketers don’t discover until after they’ve been marketing for awhile and start looking for ways to be more effective.
If you want a great course that covers how to build your own affiliate team (an a lot more), I recommend Anik Singal’s Affiliate Manager Course. I have it, and it’s very thorough.
Very good review Eric! I had the feeling it was being hyped up, and really didn’t know what to believe and what not to. Thanks for clarifying everything.
Thanks Eric for your review. I have been bombarded too with GTT affiliates promoting the product. I went through the “temptation” feelings that most people who are new to affiliate marketing get when they read the words “secret techniques that the top affiliate marketers dont want you to know”. But the price is a bit daunting for me right now as I’ve made some substantial purchases in recent weeks , so I read and read the sales page (not that I understood half of what was written there, nor the implications thereof), then came to the conclusion that by the time I’m ready to promote affiliate programs, other “gurus” will have come out with their own scripts for the “secret” techniques in GTT, if these techniques are that good. Besides, when I do start affiliate marketing I reckon that there will be enough to cope with in learning the basic stuff, before worrying about all the bells and whistles.
Both I and my bank account thank you for your posting.
Love and peace
Veronica
Hi Eric
Thank you for the fantastic review and letting us understand better. I was bombarded with many emails about this product everyday and it does gives me the urge to buy it immediately. As always, I waited for your review before jumping into the bandwagon.
Really appreciate what you have done for all of us. Cheers!
Edward Han
Re: Jay- Hi! Yeah, I agree with you. I have my squeeze pages and I mainly use them for 2 things. 1st, so I can follow-up with the traffic my affiliates send to my sites so when they sign-up, the affiliate is credited. 2nd, but of course, list building should be a continuous process (Joel Christopher at http://www.TheMasterTape.com)… By the way, I’m also your affiliate and love audio-video too…
But I also agree with Eric that he rather sends me sales before the list. Besides, after the customer buys, he’ll be on my list so no problem. It would also prove that the subscriber is a paying subscriber, not just looking for some freebies. (Ya know!) I’d rather have my affiliates do their tactics to close the sale so if Eric will send his clients to my main sales page at TheOnlineBusinessProfessional.com or MobileEbooks.net, I see no problem with that. 🙂
Re: Chris- that’s great! Actually better. I highly suggest to affiliates that they send their customers to THEIR opt-in page before sending them to MY sales page. Why? Because Chris has built more relationships to his clients and when he follows-up the sale to be closed (rather than I do), there are more chances for the sale!
On the other hand, if the affiliates won’t follow-up the sale and just publish their affiliate links all around the net without tracking nor follow-ups, they better send them to my squeeze page so I can do the follow-up for them… 🙂
As always, nice review Eric! That’s why I didn’t grab the GTT script (yet?)… I’m waiting for what you have to say… Hey, wazzup? Is it a boy or a girl? Congratulations! 😉
Ian
http://www.ianDelCarmen.net
http://www.TheOnlineBusinessProfessional.com
Thanks for the support guys.
Ian- That’s a good point about the vendor following up with opt-ins, which is a good reason to send visitors to a squeeze page. I still do that sometimes IF I trust the marketer. And thanks buddy… the baby isn’t here yet, I’ll announce the details it when it arrives 😉
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Gotrythis Black-Hat was more than I could afford, even though I got there early enough to get the lowest price. I felt that I had maybe missed one of the few real golden opportunities for a newbie to hit a home run, I even went back and read the site again when the price had gone up. Now I feel so relieved to know that it wasn’t the holy grail.
Thanks for setting my mind at rest, it’s not easy to know what to buy and what not to buy, though I did buy motivated marketing as soon as it opened up, and when my site is ready I’m going to put it to good use.
Ed
I just want to thank you for another terrific review, as usually, cutting through all the hype. I really appreciate your candor. My respect for you increases with every new report.
Hey Eric,
Thanks for the great reviews and I think you hit all the major points.
I love the codes too.
BTW, if I get GoTryThis, will I need these and why or how would you use them?
1) Covert Links
2) Affiliate Cloner
3) Affiliate Link Cloaker
Thanks and keep them reviews comin’,
Allan
Eric:
It’s amazing what people call ‘black hat’ these days. I’d bet half these clowns would wet their pants if they met a real black hat in person. 😀
Allan, good question. In my opinion if you get GoTryThis then you do not need any of those others. That’s not a diss to those other programs, because as you probably know I recommended them earlier this year. But it goes to show that GoTryThis does have some good features. In fact, I think even the GoTryThis white hat version will do most of what those others do.
Floyd- I’m by no means a relativist, but its sort of a subjective term… even I have a hard time knowing what to call ‘black hat’
E
It is nice to see that I’m not the only one who pondered long and hard over GTT. I finally decided I couldn’t afford it, but I felt like I was missing out on something – something big. Now I feel better. Thank you Eric.
I think I will unsubscribe from all the other lists I’m on and rely on your posts only. It would save me money and time.
Thanks Again,
Dennis
Hey Eric,
MUCHO thanks for your review of Black Hat. I’m a newbie also, and like some of the other folks I decided not to purchase it last night when it came down the pike to my inbox, partly because I really couldn’t afford it at the moment, and partly because I didn’t like the tone or the hype. I was worried that maybe I’d be missing out on being on the cutting edge though, so I was VERY happy to read your review. I don’t know about you, but I’d love to see a lot less hype and greed and a lot more honesty and integrity in internet marketing. Thanks again for stepping up to the plate and telling it like it is. .
All the best,
Jon
http://www.webincometutor.com
I must agree with the previous comments – John Reel’s campaign seemed really convincing.
I got an early release copy of GoTryThis Blackhat, and I agree it’s not all that black hat or new or secret. But as someone who has only dabbled in affiliate marketing before, and as someone who tends to abandon solutions that are too technical after a week or two, this software is perfect for me. It’s very easy, from install to implementation, and I’m finding it fun to use. I certainly don’t regret my purchase.
I must not be on the right lists, though. I got only one promotional email about it this weekend before I saw your email linking to this review. I had no idea it was being marketed quite so extensively.
> Bottom line, I don’t make money helping you keep your stats straight, I make money when people buy.
and
> So I don’t care if I mess up somebody’s testing.
That’s really short-sighted thinking. If a person is doing split-testing it’s to increase conversions. And if you’re an affiliate you have a vested interest in that site converting as well as possible. To screw up stats to make a sale now might mean that you make fewer sales later.
And that would suck, wouldn’t it?
Jay
Thanks Eric,
Great Review! I also felt as if I was missing something that I may never have the chance to get again. Since I am new to Affiliate Mktg. I was really stuck and kept going back and reading the website over and over.
Thank You so very much for setting things straight. You are one of a kind for doing that. For real, how many affiliates are going to go through each and every step and explain them enough for us newbies to know that we could make it just fine with or without. I think that is really great. It is hard to find someone who has their subscribers best interest at heart. Peace dude!!
Excellent Review! A lot of marketers already know most of this stuff, but it’s great to see someone exposing the `truth`. Many people will be willing to pay out for a simple system they can use – especially if they haven’t come across these techniques before.
But as you say the marketing for this new site has been interesting to watch and you know it will be a success. A LOT of marketing is re-clothing and re-packaging (there’s little that’s truly new). Good content and happy customers will always work. No need for `Black Hat`.
Bypassing the Squeeze Page.
First of my compliments on an honest review of a product. This is a refreshing change from all the “Reviews” on the net which are really just a sales pitch for a given product.
Bypassing the squeeze page really isn’t a problem because if the prospect buys I get their info anyway. I realilize that if they don’t buy I’m out a subscriber to market to down the road, but I’ll trade that in for a hot targeted prospect.
Hi Eric:
I am the JV Broker responsible for the GoTryThis launch. I wanted to thank you and all of your readers for the fantastic comments! John and I sincerely appreciate your fresh, honest review of the product. For John, this has been a labor of love for over a year. I have been working with him on the marketing campaign since February preparing for the release of GoTryThis and have been fortunate enough to have been using the product since then.
The one thing that I feel badly about is reading some of the comments from some of the newer marketers who were feeling a little like they were going to fail miserably at affiliate marketing because they couldn’t find the funds to purchase the black hat version. I wanted to remind all of your readers that there is in fact a FREE versoin of GoTryThis available Yes, you do lose some of the features with the free version. But, my advice is to use the FREE version first to earn the income that you would need to get the black hat version.
The features available in the free version are still awesome and, in my opinion, still far surpass many of the other tools that are out there (even some that are paid). Besides that, it sure beats having to set up your redirects and other things manually!
Again, thanks for the great review and all of the kind comments!
Gina Gaudio-Graves
JV Broker/Affiliate Manager
GoTryThis.com
http://www.AbundanceGroup.com
As an affiliate marketer, I am the one spending time and money to find prospects for potential product sales. I am not pleased that so many vendors feel they should squeeze my prospect’s data before they have purchased. I will continue to improve my methods to keep prospects in my control. After the prospect has purchased, then the vendor can collect the information they need. But, all too often vendors forget that affiliates are to be paid for their work. How many OTOs or additional products are sold by vendors where the affiliate does not get paid?
So if vendors won’t accept bypassing their squeeze page or other designs to capture my propsect’s data before I get paid, then for me it is an easy decision related to that vendor; NEXT!
Wendy- thank you for your 1st hand review of the product from a newbie’s perspective.
Jim and Brian- thanks for chiming in on the squeeze page issue.
Gina- it’s good to hear from you and great job on the launch! Thank you for reminding us about the free version. I have personally tried the free version, and I highly recommend it. In fact, I will add that as a note to the bottom of the review itself in case anyone doesn’t read all the comments!
Erics,
Good day!
I am new affiliate for online internet marketting. I wish my offer as a starter will be granted me.Though, I am Nigerian,presently in Lagos.
Please do welcome me as member of your affiliates to partake in these internet marketting. I am ever ready to follow on with every of your steps.
I am waiting in anticipation on hearing from you soonest.
Have a great day!
Ever-success,
Marcs Prosper.
Hey Eric
Interesting review.
Please do me a favor and email a list of all these products that do everything GoTryTHIS does. I can’t find them, and I’ve looked hard.
Also, I think that people don’t quite understand several of the features yet, including the people using the product. I was really sick for the last month and even delayed the launch, expecting to get better. Lost my voice for two weeks! Thus, I haven’t been able to create the training videos that will explain in more detail what these features do, and more importantly, the strategies for using them.
So, please don’t over-simplify what you are seeing. There is a lot of hidden power in GoTryTHIS once you know what it can do and how to use it. We had a team of programmers working on it for a year.
Also… we are well into version 2. We’ve already invested over $7K into development of the technology for one single feature. We are also actively asking for ideas for feature improvements, new features etc from our users, so that we can add them in.
This will be a free upgrade of course! 🙂
Thank you for the review. Great to read the comments and get feedback. Love feedback.
Oh, right, and we have a white-hat version that does most of the things in the black-hat version, and it’s only $47 if people are intersted. It will go on sale as soon as GoTryTHIS Black-Hat is sold out. So check back in a day or two. The free version is exactly the same as the white-hat but has some limitations on it. Still fully functional though.
Gina: Why didn’t you tell me about this blog post?! 🙂
Thanks,
John.
http://www.GoTryTHIS.com
Hey Guys,
Tim Erway here. Eric, thanks for the thorough review.
Gotrythis.com is an awesome piece of software. We have used the white hat version for our own product launch. It allowed us to combine some killer tracking features and solved the problem of lost affiliate sales. For our launch, we have had ZERO non-affiliaite referred sales come through because of it. This alone is a huge “perk” for affiliates.
Regarding the Black Hat version, I actually consulted with John a bit for some of the features. I can say this, there is nothing like it on the market. The “on the fly” link tracking, the ability to split-test affiliate partners after the squeeze page, and to embed cookies in both links and on the actual pages themselves are huge benefits.
The “black hat” spin was a successful one. His letter is converting at 20% (after the sqeeze page) which is almost unheard of. The marketing strategy was to “hook” the reader into the letter, and that obviously worked 😉 Can’t argue with metrics!
The letter was written in good humor (it was actually quite fun to write) and anyone who takes offense is way to serious about life 😉 Bottom line: the end user will get an excellent value for their investment.
Cheers,
Tim
One last addition. John is the most thorough, brilliant programmers I have ever met. He has super ninja coding skills and he “gets” the fact that software means nothing if it can’t be used by the customer. The interface is very simple and his training tutorials are top notch. That’s all 🙂 Tim
Thank god some one has shed some honest light. I am a John Reese customer and honestly I didn’t like being reffered to as greedy or selfish because I am not this type of person. I, like you guys, are an honest, good person and the headline made me instantly dubious. I saw the hype.
I don’t dispute it might be an excellent product but if this guy is such a good marketer then why doesn’t he build confidence up of his potential customers rather than put them down.
I am tired of being told that just because you are on an average income, live in an average house and not making a million dollars a year that there is something wrong with your life and you are an ignorant idiot if you do not buy X,Y,Z product.
I’m not speciifically refering to Black hat, it just feels as if it is in the same vain as this message. I think its wrong when “gurus” position themselves above you, not in front of you holding their hand out offering help. Instead they tell you you will fail in your life and never reach your goals if you don’t do what they want.
I’m an intelligent and smart person just like everyone else in here. And there is nothing wrong with me, my mind, my goals or my income just because I choose not to buy this product.
And I am certainly not selfish.
John Reel – Nice to hear from you. In regards to your question about what other programs do the same thing… as I mentioned, it would take a combination of other tools to do what your program does. For example, you could use a standard link tracker like AdWatcher to do the basic stuff, Affiliate Cloner for link cloaking and embeding an affiliate link within a link, and Link Brander for viral links. But that’s three programs, and even when combined they are still missing some key features of your program.
So I’ll say it again, the program IS well worth the price you are asking for it, and it provides a nice arsenal of tools in a package that you can’t find anywhere else.
The reason I was a bit harsh on the sales letter and overt about the marketing strategy is simply because I want my subscribers to learn how to judge a product apart from the hype, and for them to learn from the things you’re doing successfuly to promote the product. I want them to BE like us, not just buy stuff from us.
But my overall rating is not based on the sales copy, as I can’t blame you for using an effective technique. The main reason for my ‘one thumb up’ is because the on-page cookie rotator just trashes the affiliate marketing business.
In the past I have given some very strong “must have” recommendations for various products, but lately I’ve come to the conclusion that I will probably never again tell my subscribers that they NEED to buy something in order to be successful–no matter how good the product is. While I’ll be continuing to promote many programs, I expect that the official “two thumbs up” rating from Eric will be few and far between.
I’ve been a successful affiliate marketer without using ANY software programs to help me, because it has more to do with MARKETING than about software tools. On the other hand, its been essentially proven that software programs such as yours can improve the effectiveness of a business. Therefore I will continue to recommend helpful programs.
It’s becoming an interesting paradigm… I have a lot of friends in this business, and I know for a fact that they are making a LOT more money off of their blatant promotions than I make from writing a “thorough review”. It’s tough because the thorough reviews take me a ton more time, and I make way less money than if I had just done a quick promo. Amazingly those guru friends who ONLY do blatant promos just keep making money off of them, and their subscribers never seem to stop buying. I really can’t complain though, because I’ve been blessed with good business, and a lot of supportive people who actually ready my stuff, which is amazing to me 😉
I agree with Tim Erway- your programming is very good quality (in fact I forgot to mention how much I liked the ease of the installer)… and I’d be more than happy to check out anything you come out with in the future.
Hi again Eric.
Thanks!
Wait till you see the next thing I’m coming out with, other than http://www.SetupBot.com of course. I’m betting you’ll love it so much you’ll will yourself to grow an extra thumb. Now that I have some more resources to play with, I doubled the size of my programming team today. Now six programmers are working full-time on GoTryTHIS stuff, and then working on version 2 of it with new cool features, 90% of which is going into this new product… and that makes up a fraction of the new product. If there was a must-have product out there, I’m putting everything I’ve got into making this new product it.
Get in touch with me when you get a chance Eric. Let’s chat.
Amy, I figured when I put devil horns on my picture, people would get that we’re having fun with it and not take it too seriously. Tounge in cheak and all that. I’m not a guru Amy, and have no desire to be. Most gurus are paying full price to get GoTryTHIS. Hee hee! 😉
I think you’ll find, as others who bought GoTryTHIS have, that I’m down-to-earth, responsive, honest and passionate about giving you a great product and great support.
So, I appologize for any offence caused.
John.
Hi, I’m from Lagos, Nigeria.
You did a wonderful job there, Eric.
Funny I never got any promo on the ‘black hat’ stuff, but there has been a lot of promos from so called ‘gurus’ that have made feel I was missing something that I desperately needed in order to breakthrough in internet biz generally.
It is refreshing to know that the gurus/products are not always the messiahs they claim to be and that there is still a place for those who decide not to buy every ‘hot’ one that comes along.
I definitely will stick to your list. Keep the reviews coming and thanks a million for taking out time to do this.
It’s great to be reading replies from Gina, John, Tim and Eric. I do feel that at the offered price of $47, Whitehat GoTryThis is very affordable as a tracker. And I absolutely recommend those to would like to buy a tracker or metrics software for their own servers to get Whitehat GoTryThis when it is made available.
Hello All:
CG – I will let all of you know as soon as the White Hat version is available. Right now, Black Hat GTT is at it’s highest price yet ($247) for the last 500 copies. We only have a few hundred copies left, so the white hat version will be available VERY quickly!
Thanks for all of your support everyone!
Gina Gaudio-Graves
JV Broker for GTT
Eric and John- I think you both come across as being class acts.
Eric- thanks for the review.
John- thanks for the great software.
Hi.
Thanks for the thorough review, and thanks John for stepping in for added clarity.
Where is this free version everyone is talking about 🙂
I am also trying to hold back from making more purchases until I am ready to launch my own product (very soon..), but this is an awesome tool to recommend to my clients – If I get a few clients to purchase, then I can allow myself the luxury of buying it myself. How does one become an affiliate of GTT (not green web host).
Thanks!
Andrea
http://www.chooseadirection.com