Yes, Cash System X from Jonny Andrews went live a couple of days ago to a blizzard of affiliate mail-outs and a storm of fake reviews jostling for domination on Google.

I bought into Cash System X (CSX) during its pre-launch period so I’d had a good chance to use the system before it was released to the wider public. Though, to be honest, this pre-launch was marketed almost as heavily as the official opening so there will have been a good few people using the product in advance.

Anyway, I use it and like it – not for its components as such but more because it gives a very definite blueprint of how to set up a start to finish online business selling your own products without any of those irritating gaps found in competing systems.

On that basis I decided I’d use CSX for a first attempt at marketing a major launch. Good plan but it turned out to be a non-starter because I didn’t have a list and this was an early requirement for joining the affiliate program.

That’s the first lesson right there, get a list if you want to swim with the big fish. Otherwise they just aren’t interested.

Nevertheless I decided I’d go through all the typical steps for a product launch just to get some training in and gather a bit of experience. No harm in trying and doing is the best way to learn. And I learned a few key lessons.

Most importantly, when you are a one man band and you can’t call a corporate budget into play (which is what I’m used to in my profession) you soon find you carry about as much weight with Google as a polystyrene doughnut.

I spent a couple of days creating a genuine review (unlike most of the other garbage pushed out by the quick buck merchants) and I did this well in advance because I’d anticipated a delay in getting indexed and also wanted to build a few backlinks to the new site to get off to a decent start.

But I had no idea how long it actually takes Google to index a new site these days. Despite the fact I pumped a few links at the site on a daily basis and waited, and waited, and waited, it wasn’t until a couple of weeks later Google that finally found me.

I had expected to rank well because I’d followed all the standard moves so I was surprised to find my listing buried on page 10 when I made it into the Google index. Google dance, I assumed. But things didn’t improve after a few days which prompted me to start digging around for the possible reasons for such a lowly ranking.

This lead me to a couple of sites that talked about penalties that can be applied to very new sites to keep them low in the rankings whilst Google gets a feel for the value of the content. Okay, that was fine with me. I was sure I had pretty good content so I waited a bit longer to see what would happen.

A few days passed and bang, straight to position #1 with most of the rest of the top page filled with articles I’d posted linking back to the main site. Great and pretty much what I’d expected given the competition was almost non-existent at this stage.

That gave me lesson number 2, don’t bother trying to figure out how Google sees a new site in the early days. It’ll end up driving you mad unless you sit back and wait until everything has settled in, a period that can be 1 or 4 weeks if you are lucky and up to 3 months if you aren’t (according to some). Other commentators dispute the existence of this penalty and Google isn’t confirming or denying anything.

Okay, so now I had my ranking. What next? I wasn’t going to be earning any commission from this so was there anything else I could take away other than the educational experience?

Well I was disqualified from promoting the product because I didn’t have a list. So getting a list would seem to be a priority. And this is where a few issues that affect me personally started cropping up.

I’ve signed up to so many lists now and seen many claims for the value I’ll obtain in return for my email address. Free videos, killer information, insider tips, all that kind of stuff. And usually it turns out to be an almost content free pitch for a paid product that “genuinely” contains the information I was promised when I signed up.

I suppose this is marketing and I’m not surprised by the tactics employed to build lists, it really doesn’t bother me that much at all. That’s because I can simply un-subscribe if I don’t think the value is there and, indeed, I’ve un-subscribed from most of the lists I’ve joined – usually minutes after opting-in and being disappointed with the reward.

The trouble is, I don’t want people to be on my list for five minutes. I want them on it for five months or five years or preferably even longer. What’s the point otherwise? Now I knew people weren’t going to opt-in to my list because I had provided a free review. That was out in the open so there was no incentive to do anything other than read it and move on.

On the other hand, because I wasn’t going to be earning from this whole deal and I didn’t want to invest too much time and energy (and certainly not spend money that would turn this into a loss making venture) I needed to be smart about framing an offer.

In the end it was a simple solution. I’m a CSX user, my review mentioned sub-standard email and article content delivered as part of the package and I’d already had to fix this content when setting up CSX. So I could simply offer my improved files as an incentive for CSX buyers to join my list. These represent real value in the amount of time they save new users. So it’s a fair swap.

Actually it turned out a lot better than that and I’ve ended up talking directly to a fair few people who read my review and took advantage of the freebies I was offering. I tell you, it was a real pleasure talking to folks like myself who weren’t out to sell me but were in the same boat trying to make a start. Very refreshing and alone worth the effort put into this project.

Lesson three isn’t really a lesson but more of a reinforcer. I never wanted to hard sell and I know that puts me at a disadvantage but I’m going long term and trying to build better relationships even if it’s at a slower pace. That’s the way I like it and that’s what makes me comfortable with the whole arrangement.

Lesson four is all about timing. I now realise I should have initially put up a keyword rich holding page in the days leading up to launch. Putting up the whole review just allowed lazy copy and paste merchants to pitch up and steal my content, sometimes word for word. Imitation is the best form of flattery, so it is said. But not if people are using your own content against you in a rankings war. And not when your two days of effort is their 30 second mouse manoeuvre.

It did have a humorous side though. Because I’d written an honest review half of the material was no use to these content pirates and the poor souls had to actually re-spin or (gasp) write their own content so they could produce hyped-up copy.

I started out chasing four main keywords and I ended up ranked 1, 2, 3 and 58 (who knows what happened there) with the top ranking being my secondary rather than primary keyword. And I was beaten out in the three top cases by people who had at least partially “borrowed” my content and played the timing game better. All’s fair in love and Internet marketing so I’m not going to gripe.

Not too shabby a result then, although I still feel the competition was quite light for this product with most of the selling most likely taking place on the list circuit. But great experience playing the game without the backup of a major SEO firm and I’ll run a much more organised and stronger campaign next time.

So I’m left feeling confident there’s some mileage in this method of marketing. It’s small time compared to the guys with the big lists but there’s still a piece of the pie on offer. If you are interested in giving it a go yourself then check out jvnotifypro.com where you can get a list of upcoming product launches and links to JV offers.

And to recap your check list:

1. Get your domain registered and a holding page up early,
2. Don’t put your main review content up until a couple of days before launch,
3. Only promote products you genuinely can recommend, that way you can give an honest review,
4. Provide real value (rather than a ton of PLR junk) to your subscribers.

Now that the party has ended I need to find a way to put the review page to good use. You can find it at CashSystemXReview.net

Anyway, here’s what I have been up to.

I finally got my basic mini-site online at BlackDiamondsRings.net.

Why diamonds, why black diamonds? Well, I subscribe to a cheat sheet about under-exploited marketplaces and black diamonds rings (notice the plural) was top of the first list.

It has taken a while to build the site mainly because I wanted to learn what was going on under the hood in WordPress. I like knowing how things work because it gives me ideas how to apply leverage further down the line.

The theory is, it takes a while to get started but the pay-back comes when you can repeat a working process quickly, time and again without the R&D.

Anyway, the new site has an Amazon store attached right now but I’ve signed up with a major UK affiliate program that has several great suppliers in the niche so I’ll be tricking the site out with high yielding offers in the coming weeks.

Will this site get a lot of traffic? No. Will I make a ton of money from it? Nope, probably not. But I might make a little every now and again so when I’ve cloned another 50 of these sites in equally narrow niches I stand to make a reasonable amount per month though probably not job killing income.

I’ll need traffic as always so another project I’ve been working on is my non-affiliate promotion of Cash System X by Jonny Andrews. Yep, I’ve put in a ton of time building a review campaign that isn’t going to make me a dime!

But, you see, before doing this I knew nothing about JV’s (joint ventures) and how you go about getting hooked up with what can be a serious money making model. One of the first things I discovered was no list, no admittance. I did try to sign up as an affiliate because I’m happy to recommend the product for certain types of people. But no list, no joy so I decided to go ahead and play things through which meant getting a review site up there, tracking traffic, testing and tweaking, building rankings, etc. All great practise.

One of my discoveries is that no matter how hard you work it might take Google a while to come calling and even then, unless you’ve been very careful not to raise a bunch of red flags, your pages can start out in a sort of probationary mode where your ranking is chopped way back until you build a bit of credibility. I’m not used to this at all because I’d normally throw an indecent amount of cash at an SEO firm and the results would happen by magic. Very interesting having to do this myself.

And frustrating, as you will know if you saw my previous rant against all things Google. As night follows day, as soon as I put that post out Google indexed the review site.

And here it is, the review site at Cash System X Review.

This page took about two days to put together and I pretty much copied Brian Johnson’s model to the letter. The big gun affiliates won’t be sweeping in for a couple more days but as an initial attempt the results have been okay and I’ve had double indented rankings on three of my primary key phrases dancing from position #1 to #5, but the competition is still mostly junior league for now.

A couple of days ago I had 8 of the top 20 positions on Google for my broad primary key phrase proving that Brian Johnson’s techniques are still good, especially for micro niches. It’ll be interesting to see where we are on the 2nd when, for a day or maybe two, the market will be transformed into a shark school.

But great experience and I feel confident about going down the JV route for real. Plus, the next time around, it will be that much easier.

What else?

I’m about 50% through production of my own product. I’ll keep that under my hat until later but I think it’s going to be useful for a lot of people. No, it’s not a course or a PLR rehash. This is a tech product and I know my way around technology so I’m pretty confident I can produce something decent and of value.

Anyone signed up to my newsletter will be getting this product for free when it beta launches, by the way. So hint, hint.

Then there’s Video Boss. I’ve been doing my lessons like a good boy. But boy oh boy, it’s tough going. Again though, I want video to play a major part in all my future marketing so this is the right course at the right time and I’m still buzzed about being part of it.

My Cash System X web sites are all up and running though I have to do a ton of promotion on them. Here’s how this will work. I’ll leave the sites and auto-responder campaigns just sitting there, silently doing their work. Once I start building backlinks and writing articles I’ll just keep doing that every single day, day after day until the momentum builds.

Eventually these things will get ranked for a few keywords and phrases and that means I’ll make sales. Inevitably. Might not be a lot of sales or even regular sales, but there will be some.

If you read the review you’ll see I’m not blown away with certain aspects of CashSystemX (just getting my keywords in there) but as an overall model I can copy and paste to get sales funnels up and running quickly it’s great! Go and read the review where I explain the gory details and if you sign-up make sure you grab the free auto-responder and article bundle I’m sending out on launch day.

Yeah – I have my first few subscribers to my first list! Try, try and try again and build everything one brick at a time. That’s the real secret and there’s not a “guru” out there who’s going to do this for you (which is another secret I’ve finally twigged).

Working for the man goes on, of course. I have been super busy launching a brand new commercial site. I actually enjoy work a lot more now because I’m mixing things up to such a great degree.

There’s other stuff too, but the main thing is I’m making progress and I’m enjoying it. Life’s good and I hope it’s good for all of you too.

The day job intruded, I sort of lost momentum, then I went round a few loops thinking about changing the approach, making it bigger, better, bolder. Basically losing the plot.

I’m better now.

My content is just about done, my theme is ready, my product is ambitious but in place. Soon all will be revealed. Just as soon as I finish working on a tech project that will allow me to better integrate my product into the site (which is a WordPress blog, of course).

Yes, crazy. But I really did try to present my product using the conventional and recommended methods, plug in an affiliate link and send the customer elsewhere.

The trouble is, given what I’m trying to sell, if I was a customer of my own site I’d feel cheated or at least short-changed if I didn’t get at least some added value in return for being routed into a non-direct method of buying what I want.

I’m not sure if I’m right or wrong about this. Maybe Google users love taking extra steps to get to where they want to go. I just know I don’t, so this mini-application I’m developing will provide a much better overall customer experience, I hope.

It’ll be ready in about ahem-splutter days, and I’m sticking to that deadline without fail!

Actually I’m going to kill two birds with one stone here and use the application to get my site out there which will then act as a demonstrator for the application which will become my first product. So the theory goes, but I think I’m on to something.

I’m also behind schedule and not earning any money.

So I signed up for Cash System X today, a product that gives you 6 ready made web sites selling 6 ready made products. It wasn’t cheap and it’s completely lazy of me and yet again I’ve spent money on my drive to setup a business without spending huge amounts of money.

I know. I’ll review it once I get the sites up and running. Which should be tomorrow because it really is just a matter of copy paste and go.