A Pile Of Blog

[NOTE: I have begun a review series on the NEW, IMPROVED KEYWORD ACADEMY! Click here for Part 1]

Previously I reviewed the site and service of The Keyword Academy. At the time I had just unsubscribed from their service, deciding to use my own tools and, frankly, the knowledge I had gained from their site, while avoiding the ‘information overload’ that can sometimes be a problem in this business, especially when you’re new. (Plus, we were busy selling everything we owned and moving into our car for a 7-month camping trip.) Anyway, I recently noticed that people were still signing up to The Keyword Academy using links from my previous review, so I thought I would check back in with Mark and Court and their Keyword Academy to see what may have changed and to see if I could pick up any ideas to get my increase my online income.

The fact is I love the place in spite of some ridiculous quirks.

The main character is this guy named Mark Butler. The thing you need to understand about Mark is that he actually does care about his customers, and you never have to worry about him acting unethical. If you ask for a refund, he’ll give you a refund. No questions asked. If you stay subscribed for a year, and at the end of the year ask for a full refund of all the money you’ve ever paid…he’ll give you that refund without hesitation. He’s a really great guy in that way.

Now, that said, the way Mark runs TKA is a comedy of errors. I swear half the time he doesn’t know his rear end from a hole in the ground!

Here are a few examples, just from his “sales page” (if you can even call it that):

- There’s a picture of a Courtney Tuttle on it. Court co-founded TKA with Mark back in 2008, but moved on from the program in 2010. Why Mark keeps that picture up is beyond me.

- The sales copy mentions a “keyword formula” and “core videos” - neither of which exist anymore. The Keyword Academy still teaches a very simple method for choosing and organizing keywords, so I have no idea why Mark doesn’t update that page to get rid of the term “formula” and use “simple and sensible approach” instead.

- The sales copy also mentions “two powerful link building tools.” Well, the fact is they retired one of them a long time ago. The good news the one they still offer is worth more than the $33 per month you pay for the entire program (it’s called Postrunner, and I’ll tell you more about it in a minute). If you need better rankings (and we all do), Postrunner is a must-have because it makes it very simple to get back links that will improve your rankings.

- The page also mentions “writing search engine friendly articles in about 15 minutes.” Well, I’m here to tell you it takes longer than 15 minutes to write the kind of article TKA encourages. Mark even says so in the course materials and his webinars. I’ve tried to tell him how bad it makes him look when his sales page is inaccurate like this. I’m sure he’ll get around to fixing it eventually. In the meantime, just trust me that you probably won’t be knocking out an article in 15 minutes, but the kind of content creation taught at TKA will make it easier for you to rank well and earn more money.

So, if this Mark guy is such mess, and if he can’t even keep his own sales page up to date, why on earth should you join The Keyword Academy?

In one word? Value. Even with all the goofiness at The Keyword Academy, there’s still more value packed into that program at $33 per month than any other three internet programs combined.

Here are the three ways I benefit from TKA (and the reasons I may actually keep my subscription running this time):

1. Postrunner

As I mentioned before, Postrunner is a link building resource included in the price of the subscription. Some people compare Postrunner to Build My Rank, Link Building Nuclear Bomb, or Cosmic Proton Link Smasher Pro Elite III. Those tools can help you rank better, but Postrunner is different in some important ways:

a. With Postrunner, you’re submitting unique articles (published one time, on one site - no dupe content here) on Wordpress sites owned by individual members of the community. So it’s really not a “link farm” in the traditional sense. It’s more of a glorified guest posting system where you give website owners good content, and they let you link back to your site from the articles you submit.

b. Because your articles aren’t being crammed onto spammy sites that get dozens of new posts per day, the links you get are likely to stay on the home page of the site longer, and as a result carry more weight.

c. Postrunner site owners are free to decline your article for any reason. You might think that sounds like a bad thing, but the fact is it helps preserve the quality of the entire system. Google wants links to be a measure of content quality. I’m not saying Postrunner is purely “white hat,” but it’s a lot cleaner than your typical link farm where everything gets approved and published on a site no one looks at, reads, or cares about.

2. The Keyword Academy Forums

No doubt about it, forums can be a huge time sink. And TKA’s forum does have its fair share of noise and nonsense. BUT, they have this cool, new feature called the Must Read Threads. It’s a page on the forum where you see the most popular (or important) threads from the last week (as voted by the members).

I’m not saying some earth-shattering gem of a forum post comes along every day at TKA. It doesn’t. In fact, you may only see one or two really meaty “Must Reads” per month. And you might think “I’m not interested in a forum where really good stuff is only posted once or twice per month.” But consider this - I just read a forum thread by Allyn Hane (yes, the Blogger Illustrated guy) about recovering from Panda updates. His insights and details about how to do this was very helpful. And, it’s freakin’ Allyn Hane!

So, the forum is valuable for the occasional really high quality case-study or instructional thread, but you’ll also find these great characters. Grizzly Brears has been known to pop in now and then, and even Courtney Tuttle dropped back in and started contributing. (hey, is he in or out? LOL) Plus there are a lot of members making anywhere from $1000 - $25000 per MONTH who all answer questions or post advice. You won’t find ANY other site on the internet with this level of help, even high-dollar sites run by supposed gurus.

And when you get there, look me up and say hi. I’ll help you find your way around and even point you to some best-of forum posts and helpful pages to get you started as soon as possible.

3. Weekly Webinars

Mark holds a webinar every week - for members only. One week the webinar is an open Q&A, and the following week he prepares specific material about how to move forward with your online business.

Mark records every webinar and makes them available for download in both audio and video format the day after the live session. This is helpful for me because I rarely make the live sessions and I like to watch them while I’m doing something else, like shaving.

What do the webinars add to the value of the program? It depends a lot on your personality. If you’re like me, nobody in your family or circle of friends has the first clue about how to make money online. Most of the people around me aren’t exactly enthusiastic about the idea. They’re convinced the whole thing is a scam.

So for me the benefit of the webinars is that I get to listen to a real live person talking about my goals and the approach I’m taking to make money online. Sometimes I struggle with motivation, and Mark is really good about putting on his cheerleader uniform (not literally - yikes) and helping me remember my goals, remember why I want so badly to succeed with this business, and removing all the excuses I make up in my head about why I’m not doing more to get where I want to go.

And you know what? Mark is a little goofy, and a little over the top sometimes - but it’s good for me to have a weekly check-in where I hear a live person’s voice cheering me on.

Would I pay $33 per month for the webinars alone? Maybe not. I am, after all, a cheapskate-in-training, with my wife as my coach. But as a bonus on top of the value of Postrunner and the forums, I really enjoy them.

Summing up…

Although The Keyword Academy is truly one of the quirkiest internet marketing communities online, it’s a huge value for internet marketers at all levels:

1. Postrunner helps you get a lot of good links to your sites for no additional fee beyond the $33 per month you pay for The Keyword Academy.

2. The forums offer occasional (but substantial) pearls of wisdom from other members who are much further down the track than most of us.

3. Weekly webinars offer additional insight, motivation, and opportunity to have your questions answered directly by Mark (or successful members he interviews).

Sorry to go all infomercial on you here, but it’s true that:

- Link building tools similar to Postrunner usually cost between $60 and $150 per month.

- Private forums typically cost between $10 and $50 per month.

- I know of a paid webinar-type program that costs $25 per month.

So when you think about The Keyword Academy offering all three main features for $33 per month, total, you can see that there’s real value built in.

But hey, don’t take my word for it. TKA offers a full 30-day, no restrictions at all free trial so you can get in there and check things out. If it’s not for you, nothing lost at all.

So now you have two choices…

If you’ve read enough, then go ahead and click here to start your FREE 30-DAY TRIAL!

If you’re still undecided, then just click here to read some more details from Court and Mark themselves.