Anyone who pays any attention whatsoever to marketing trends and technology, is probably aware of the explosion in cell phone use worldwide.
I’m in the USA and while we like to think of ourselves as so technologically advanced, there are certain areas where we are way WAY behind the curve, and mobile phone technology is one of the biggest.
The rest of the world has adopted the mobile phone years before we did. Some countries have put mobile phones in the hands of just about every single member of the population, even down to the lowliest beggar on the street!
What this means to marketers of course, is a massive audience. And wherever there’s an audience and a means to reach them, there’s going to be marketing, advertising, and sales. That’s the tricky part for marketers though – how to sell to these people. Mobile phone use is such a different behavior than a normal computer, the environment of the user, the amount of their attention you can command, limitations of mobile browser technologies… all these things conspire against marketers who only know the “traditional” way of selling stuff online.
Enter the gurus to teach us everything we need to know about making gazillions of dollars in the new Gold Rush.
I’ve seen mobile courses that make ridiculous promises and in my opinion are basically using the “mobile” buzzword to get you hooked, but then delivering something else. I think most of us would call that “bait & switch”. I mean, if someone tells me they’re going to teach me to make money with mobile, but proceeds to show me how to list build off mobile and make money via emailing that list, then it’s not really making money from mobile, is it? It’s email marketing!
This is where Gauher Chaudhry’s MobiBlueprint course intends to deliver the goods. It’s all about making money directly from mobile marketing.
Gauher has been working on monetizing mobile traffic for a few years now, and in fact I remember speaking with him about some of his earliest experiments when there was barely any mobile traffic even to be had. The Android platform barely existed, even the iPhone was somewhat of an unknown quantity.
But in his typical fashion, Gauher charged ahead anyway, even though there were a trillion obstacles in the way. He spent plenty of money without seeing a return, just to test and experiment, in order to find out what worked, and what didn’t.
And this is what, in my opinion anyway, differentiates Gauher from so many other course makers. Everything he teaches, is exactly what he actually does in his personal business every day. Despite having authored and sold several Internet Marketing training products, it’s still not his core business. His true business has always been driving leads via CPA offers using whatever traffic sources were available to him (organic, PPC, PPV, banners, mobile…) He’s one of those guys who is in the trenches day in & day out. I’ve spent time with him in his home and watched him sit with Excel for an hour doing his stats.
OK but this is supposed to be a MobiBlueprint review right? Well the fact is I do have access to the course, and have given it a quick skim… but I’ve been so busy working on my Admob automation tool (not to mention the dozen other projects I have going right now… argh!) that I haven’t had time to really sit down, go through all the videos, make notes, and implement. I will say though that the content looks thorough… here’s the table of contents:
- Fundamentals & Opportunities of Mobile Marketing
- How to mobilize your business (Email/Web)
- Mobile Commerce
- SMS/Text Messaging
- Mobile Affiliate Marketing (PPC/CPA/Lead Gen)
- Building & Selling Apps
- Monetizing Mobile Content
- Selling Mobile Marketing to Brick and Mortar
Each module is around an hour in length it appears, with a PDF transcript as well as an MP3 download, AND a copy of the slides used in the presentation! In my experience, this is unusual and puts the MobiBlueprint course way ahead of the pack. Rather than going to lengths to restrict you from learning in the way that suits you best, Gauher and his partner Kim are going to great lengths to make SURE you can learn your preferred way! They even provide links to tools for watching the FLV files if you should choose to download the course videos to your own computer. Very nice!
There are also helpful links at the bottom of many of the modules, to additional tools or resources, and the whole thing is in a blog-like format where people can comment, so I’m looking forward to seeing what sorts of things people have to add to each module this way.
All in all this looks like a very good course, and I know that Gauher is an excellent teacher and I have no shortage of faith in his ability to deliver what he promises.
HOWEVER!!!
Despite how great I think the content looks and despite how much I trust and respect Gauher, the fact still remains that this is another “shiny object” in an already way-too-shiny industry. Should you jump on the mobile bandwagon? Maybe… but maybe not.
Before you buy this or any course, tool, or other IM related product or service, I encourage you to ask yourself how this directly fits into your current direction, and current business.
If you can’t come up with immediate ways that this is a definite fit for you, don’t buy it.
If you’re firmly on your way down one particular path, the last thing you need is someone to come along and convince you to get on a different path and start all over. Focus is a huge problem for internet marketers in particular it seems, and while I’ll be the first one to say that I believe mobile is going to be a massive part of the future of online marketing, I don’t want to see people buy this course just because it’s the latest shiny object and they can’t resist, even though they won’t actually end up using or implementing the material and techniques.
OK… now that my rant is over… 😉 It’s time to present to you another shiny object! LOL
Seriously, if you are in fact going to get into mobile marketing, you won’t be alone. There’s going to be plenty of other competition entering the same markets at the same time as you. You need a competitive edge… something they won’t likely have, that gives you a big advantage.
For me, that advantage is usually in the form of some sort of automation or systematization. As soon as I saw Admob, I knew it needed to be automated. Facebook Ads has been automated. PlentyofFish has been automated. Google, Yahoo, Bing, and the rest of the PPC world has been automated. Mobile needs automation too… and so I set to work building it.
You may have already watched my teaser video on admob automation, in which case you have an idea of what I’m doing already (though It’s still improving it as I write this). I haven’t yet decided how widely I’m going to make this available, or what sorts of limitations I’ll place on it. But I will tell you this…
Those who buy MobiBlueprint through my affiliate link, will be guaranteed a chance to get access to it when I’m ready to release it. The rest of the world may not ever get to lay eyes on it.
To sum up… *IF* mobile marketing is something that makes sense for you and your business, then I highly encourage you to check out MobiBlueprint and give yourself the competitive advantage of automation that I’m going to be providing.
Enjoy!
Jonathan