I use AdSpyPro. Love the little program. It is inexpensive and allows me to research what is making other people money. Since I’m into the whole laziness thing, being able to copy what other people do to make money seems like a fantastic opportunity.
So what has that got to do with Niches-in-a-Box you ask? AdSpyPro’s dashboard alerted me to the exciting news that Niches-in-a-Box had reopened its doors and is accepting new members. So what’s a curious fella do but click on the link and go have a look at the offering?
First thing I do is scroll down the page and see how much it costs. This is important as I don’t want to read the novels, that are also referred to as sales pages, when the offering costs $1000, oops sorry, $997. In this case the product cost $100, dammit, sorry, $97.
As I’m reading through the sales copy I actually start thinking, hhmmm this might work. Apparently they have a nice little system that takes keywords and articles and builds websites with a blog, squeeze page, autoresponder series, blog posts and affiliate programs to promote. All neat and tidy. And the kicker is for one top level keyword like golf, they’ll work the keywords into 15 more sites that are similar.
And this all started sounding real good until you see what is really happening. You are building junk pages. They are pretty. But junk nonetheless. It’s not like this system is going to be writing good articles for you to keep updated. No, it will be building link pages like the old NPB days from keyword lists they supply.
Look at the relocation example site they gave. Look at the datafeed toward the bottom. Keyword “moving”. Article is about Medicare. Another article on ethics reform? That’s real helpful. OK, move to the side and check out the offerings from the Amazon module. A book on radiation therapy. Another on exercising.
OK, granted these observations are very nit-picky, but the point is I see what kind of site this is. There is no magic here. These kind of sites have been used and abused for the last few years. They are keyword driven garbage sites. Yes, I know you get a landing page, sales letter, thank you page, graphics and a blog theme. This will help fool people into thinking the site is more comprehensive than it is. And yes, you probably will get an Adsense click.
The best part is the autoresponder is built in. With an account. You can scoop emails and then, well, do what? You end up with all these lists but you know nothing about the topics. Sooner or later the dumbasses that signed up for your list will realize you’re a fraud either before or after the little autoresponder series runs out. If I am going to bother doing an autoresponder series it will be because I want to communicate with the people who took the time to sign up. Not just sell them some crap or encourage them to cycle through the site again and click on a Chitika ad.
I actually thought the whole package was pretty cool until I really looked at the sites. I built the same crap with Niche Portal Builder and NicheCreator. Heck, NicheCreator builds the same thing. At least you don’t have to pay a monthly fee for that.
I have no idea if the quality of the writing is worth anything. The sale copy said he spends $10 per article and $15 per page for the PLR ebook. Seems like a lot of money to be spending on information I swear no one is going to do more than glance over anyway.
For half a second I thought I might be interested in this. It is truly a niche-in-a-box. Everything is put together nice and tidy. It will save you time if this is the type of site you want to build. But after really looking at what is going on here I decided I could do much better by simply using blogs or XSP and building sites with PLRPro articles. No reason to spend more money.
I’m kind of torn about these type of sites. They are clearly junk. These folks are sort of selling you the idea that makeup on this pig makes it better to look at. But it’s still crap. But you know, crap makes money. Speed is life. The more stuff you sling out there and the faster you do it, the more chance you have of making money. This pig could fly.
If you truly want to build sites fast and do not care about the property you are promoting then this is just as good as any, really. It will probably fool people into thinking, at least from the start, that the site is worth anything. You won’t be doing any of that authoritative site building with it, but then that shouldn’t be why you are in buying NIAB anyway.
I won’t be buying this product. I already have the capability with NC to do what this program does anyway. If you want to spew up keyword generated sites, well I guess this is as good as any. I just won’t be taking up a spot that could be used for someone who truly believes in this spamming opportunity. Only 350 members gets to play in this box!
11 responses so far ↓
John Matenkosky // Aug 1, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Whew! You had me there for a minute, Splorkie… I thought you were gonna tell us that you were getting back into building trash sites… my faith in you is restored…
One more word from me: focus…
Dorian // Aug 2, 2007 at 9:59 am
I agree… these trash site systems are dead. I used the hell out of TE in 2004/2005 and made bank… but it’s just not worth building junk sites anymore.
Part of the reason is, for traffic, you need good backlinks from quality sites to build up your domain trust level. The goal now is to build an authoritative trusted site.
Good luck with those backlinks to a junk site. Or you can join a link network… good luck with that. or cross-link your own sites to hell and back… good luck dodging the ban stick with that.
My point is, with all the time it takes to build up the authority of your site, why waste it on a junk site that can get banned with any stupid complaint?
ScamHunter // Aug 6, 2007 at 8:04 am
I’m also thrilled to hear someone say that they are not enthused about owning a site that they know nothing about and building a list to have an autoresponder send out sales spam after sales spam to that list.
Some people will do anything for a buck, but not me. Maybe that’s why I have so few, ha ha.
IMgiver // Aug 6, 2007 at 6:23 pm
I bought NIAB late last year before I understood more about the whole IM game. I cancelled it after 2 months. The author has made some improvements since then but the sites are essentially the same.
Here is just my personal opinion and experience after launching my first site and why I left.
Site claims original and quality content. What I got were what appeared to be articles that went through a spinner with content that didn’t make much sense and were obviously keyword stuffed.
Got 2000 pages indexed within 2 weeks but all were supplemental so no traffic.
Tech support is spotty. They allow you to use their own autoresponder but I could never get it to work and tech support was terse and insufficient to get it going.
Installation instructions are spread over different readme’s and not very clearly explained step by step especially when it comes to the script control panel.
Claims 98% of the work for a site is done for you. Well after learning about affiliate marketing, 98% is in getting good content. The site doesn’t help with that. You need to come up with an original article to match each keyword in order not to go supplemental. You need to do that with any publishing system.
It does create nice LSI navigation automatically for you but if you know anything about LSI, you can create your own category structure with just a little bit of work.
The other “sites” are just subdomains off the main site.
So after the initial purchase what you are paying $97/mth for is a mediocre autoresponder that expires if you quit, some PLR articles and a medium to low quality ebook to promote with autoresponder series and a squeeze page. It’s up to you to decide whether that is value or not.
Darrell // Aug 7, 2007 at 7:24 am
I’m a member, but I’ve used only one site because of my unease about the whole approach.
You’ve just neatly put into words what I was worried about.
And I won’t be losing much - traffic has been very so-so.
Cancellation button, here I come.
Cheers
Darrell
Best-Health-Products.com // Aug 15, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Thanks — this is a great site, very useful. I am new at this and have not even really started. I have a lot to learn. Your words of wisdom are helpful and seem very honest to a new affiliate wanting to figure out how to do this and do a good job, not just add to all the gall-durn junk sites that just drive me crazy.
I guess I want to find truly useful stuff, build some sites that appeal to others like me who want quality, value, density of usefulness and not time wasting or money-wasting.
Thanks for providing me a new place to learn from that seems very useful to a new affiliate and not full of hype. thanks!
Schoeffel // Aug 21, 2007 at 10:02 am
Hi all,
it’s always good to receive reviews from non members and people not knowing what they’re talking about. Also those who were a member 10 months ago, are not really qualified to talk about NIAB.
As always, reviews are good if you say something constructive. My sites have nothing to do with the description you give as they are not based on links. The data feed you mention is a monetization module dynamically generated by search feed, a bit like Google.
IMgiver, all articles are exclusive and no spinner is ever used to create them. They are all writen by english writer.
Autoresponder is fully working and no issues have been reported so far with its performance.
Now, I clearly understand that people dreaming of puttin a site online and receiving tons of traffic without doing anything will be disappointed like you. Being in supplemental results is the case when you simply don’t do anything to build any kind of traffic. And it’s a shame, but don’t blame me for this
If you can’t drive traffic, I can’t do it for you. Normally, it’s the only thing you have to do.
Also, if you really don’t know how to drive traffic, we have around 70 exclusive videos in the training center, ie around 15 hours of training, to help you make the most of your NIAB.
The best review you could make is by joining and not imagining things. At least it will not fool a lot of people
JP Schoeffel
Splork // Aug 21, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Well, your rebuttal still doesn’t give me a reason to join/buy.
I never said the sites were based on links. I said they were based on keywords.
I doubt anybody is fooled by what I write. I’m transparent in my hypocrisy. I never pretend to buy something and pimp the affiliate program. I said I wasn’t joining and gave reasons based on your sales copy. When I review without buying, all I’m doing is suggesting people think before getting sucked into slick professional salescopy. I’ve been sucked into far too many. I’m more than happy to let the 7 people who read Lost Ball know why I will or won’t buy something. If I buy I’ll also say why I like it or why it sucks. It’s a two-tiered review system. Pre and post-buy.
Thanks for stopping by and offering up your side to your product.
Percy // Jan 28, 2008 at 2:25 am
This is the kind of review I want. I have always been reading positive reviews of the products I intend to buy. It is refreshing to hear negative comments every now and then.
I am happy about the reaction of JP. At least in this website, I can see both sides at the same time. His comment lends balance to the review. I hope other positive comments will pour in to balance what has been given.
I have just bought the script, and haven’t used it yet. My failure was to read reviews first before buying it.
Anyway, I hope I will not be disappointed with my purchase.
Trevor White // Apr 7, 2008 at 4:09 am
Shoot! When I first saw the offer for NIAB., I got out my card right away, but then I spent 2 hours reading the complete sales page and the links to other parts of the package ex: traffic generation, video training etc., and was thoroughly impressed.
I would love to buy this package if I had the time to implement the video information. I just don,t have the time. It would take about a month to view and use it all.
You guys seem like your experienced, and that’s great, but for a person like myself, this program, if not for making money, the video training seems well worth the ninety seven price tag.
I’m wondering if Affiliate X Factor or Profit Lance would be a better way to get good, solid knowledge for the money.
Thanks for your opinions, Trevor
submit@trevorup.com
Mike // Jul 14, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Well thanks to you guys, you just saved me probably 3 months of $147 (my cut off point) and 3 months of hard fruitless labour.
Well I reached the order page and I was about to hit the buy button and came to my senses. “I must find other opinions!”
So I found this page by googling “scam JP Schoeffel”. I do this now for every offer I am tempted by if I come to my senses!
Anyway… I was very tempted, it all looks good. And after reading all the posts here I was still in two minds.
So I looked at the previous months niche topics and thought there can only be a maximum 350 of these other sites on a google search.
Niche of the month : May Loans
Niche of the month : June Mortgage
etc etc
Now if you google any unique part of the site example the “book title” or any other text. I did try other text selections just to double check.
I was surprised to see very few sites. On the June niche I found around 6 sites.
Now I know we should not base our future success on the efforts of them that have tried before. They could all be bozos or complete noobs! But it is looking pretty bleak. Even the sites that show have very low alexa ratings.
So there is something very “not right”.
This is not a scam by the way. It appears to me a great idea, well put together with good intentions. Helping folks make money. And JP Schoeffel has done a lot of spade work. A lot of effort has gone there. I think it’s just a great idea that just is not producing.
If JP Schoeffel is only selling 350 packages a month at $147 a pop
That’s $51,450 monthly “potential” income
That’s well over 1/2 million a year
That’s pretty good for JP Schoeffel if it works out.
But it just does not seem to be bringing home the bacon, so for that reason and the resons on this page I’m out.
Thanks for this post.
Regards
Mike
Leave a Comment