Day Job Killer made over 5,000 sales on the first day, with marketers scrambling to emulate Chris McNeeney's multi-million dollar success in affiliate marketing. But is Day Job Killer really the definitive guide to marketing millions?
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Day Job Killer certainly seems to be the latest must-have product, and the sales page promises the world - offering to teach you the secret marketing techniques that have been hidden away by the gurus for so many years - techniques that you can use to build a seven-figure per year income in affiliate marketing!
Putting the hype to one side, this is not a cheap investment for an ebook, so we need to ask:
Can Day Job Killer techniques be used by anyone?
Will these techniques become ineffective once 100,000 people start using them?
Are these techniques that we can all employ with a good conscience?
Will the techniques taught in Day Job Killer really recoup the outlay (at the very least)?
I must begin by confessing that I'm not a big fan of Chris McNeeney, the author of Day Job Killer. Even so, I've now spent around $200 on his ebooks, so I obviously attach some value to his work.
I purchased his first volume - Adwords Miracle - when it first came out - early June '06 - and it was by far the most impressive handbook on Adwords techniques that I've ever encountered (you can read my review here). Having said that, it left me with a number of questions, so I emailed Mr McNeeney to get some answers. He never replied.
When I picked up Affiliate Project X, it impressed me less (which is why there is no review), though it prompted me to try contacting him again. Again I received no reply. After three attempts, I gave up.
My guess is that he dislikes us clerical types. It's probably been a long time since he went to confession, and judging by the way he downplays ethical concerns in marketing, I suspect that he feels he has plenty to confess.
So I won't pretend that Mr McNeeney is a friend of mine. Indeed, I suspect I wouldn't get on with him if I did meet him. Even so, Adwords Miracle did get my Adwords campaigns out of the red and into the black, and for that I will always be grateful. Affiliate Project X didn't yield equally tangible results, but I nonetheless found it a stimulating, and it did give me some new techniques to try.
So what about this latest offering?
Sales page: I hate it. It makes the usual outrageous claims and employs all the standard emotionally manipulative techniques designed to make you buy on impulse.
First Impression: It's short, at 67 pages (though that makes it longer than the original release of Project X)
Style: Very readable. McNeeney will never make it as a novelist, but as an ebook Marketing author, he's one of the better ones.
Content: OK. This is where the rubber hits the road...
McNeeney teaches six methods in Day Job Killer (yep, just six). Let's go through them:
1. Direct Linking
The 1st (which takes up about a third of the book) is his adaption of the old 'Google Cash' method, which McNeeney says died but which can now be resuscitated through his methods.
In truth, I'm not sure that the old method was dead, nor that McNeeney's 'Direct Linking' method is all that novel. Indeed, it pretty much describes what I am doing already, but maybe that's just me.
There is a fair bit of overlap in this chapter with McNeeney's previous two tomes, and I felt far too much attention was given to covering the subject of how to choose a good affiliate program. Surely, if you've been in the game for any length of time, you already know how to do this, though I accept that this information would be very helpful for those just starting out.
There are indeed some clever tweaks in this section that I would probably never have thought of, and I appreciate that just as 'the devil is in the details', so too the difference between a successful Adwords campaign and a complete failure is generally also in the details. Even so, I didn't feel that this opening chapter justified the cost of the book for me.
2. The Leveller
The 2nd technique (which takes up another third of the book) is what McNeeney calls, 'The Leveller' - so called because it supposedly puts the affiliate marketer up on the same level as the gurus and the product vendor (if not higher)!
It's a development of the 'leech' technique that was outlined in Affiliate Project X, and basically involves being clever with your ad copy.
Personally, I hate the whole idea of manipulating people with clever sales copy, though I appreciate that many people see this as the very essence of marketing. So maybe it's just my over-sensitive conscience. I won't even promote products I don't firmly believe in.
For those who are less precious about the ad-copy business, this technique is bound to work, and it is quite ingenious. It's just not for me.
3. Campaign Nuking
This has got to be the most ethically dubious technique taught in the book, as it involves sabotaging the Adwords campaigns of your competitors (though in an entirely legal way).
If you're someone who considers affiliate marketing to be a war, this is the Adwords equivalent of finding the perfect sniper hole, and picking off your enemies one by one.
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It's not for me. I have no intention of nuking anyone, and I hope no one nukes me. Having said that, I appreciate that the Internet business is a business, and that I can't expect other marketers in my niche to sit back and enjoy my success when they could be taking over my market.
Even so, the best thing for me about this chapter is that now I'll probably recognize what is going on if my Adwords campaign suddenly dies, and I'll know how to respond.
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4. The Undercutter
This is the most ingenious technique in the book by a long shot, in my opinion, and it really left me shaking my head. It involves moving from being the affiliate of a product to becoming the vendor and undercutting the competition in a way that is both legal and ethical.
Not only is this a brilliant technique in its own right, but it got my imagination going on a whole new level. My dad used to tell me that the reason he pushed me to learn Latin at school was not so that I could speak a dead language, but because in studying it, I'd learn to use my brain in a new way. Learning this technique had a similar effect on me. It is powerful in its own right, but, more significantly, it can get your brain thinking in entirely new directions.
5. Media Manslaughter
This and the following method involve taking your advertising offline - something most online marketers have never even thought of doing!
There's lots of straightforward good sense in this section, though McNeeney spends an excessive amount of time space on bargaining techniques you can use to keep your advertising costs down. Even so, I thought this was an excellent chapter, chiefly because so few people have addressed the subject of how to do offline advertising for an online business.
6. The Cheapskate Undertaker
This method involves the use of press releases and free publicity to promote your business. This sort of thing is the marketing currency of guys like Joe Vitale, who takes this approach much further than Day Job Killer does. McNeeney's technique is solid enough, but nothing revolutionary.
OK. That's it - all 69 pages of it.
So let's return to our original questions and see if we've got answers:
Can Day Job Killer techniques be used by anyone?
Well ... some can and some can't. Anyone could get started with 'Direct Linking', and all the info on choosing affiliate programs will make it an easy one for newbies to get involved in. The 'Undercutter' method, on the other hand, should, in my opinion, be left to those of us who've had a few years of experience online. And the offline methods suit best those with deep pockets..
Will the Day Job Killer techniques be less effective if 100,000 people start using them?
Definately!, Once we have an army of people online 'undercutting' each other on popular products, things will get more difficult for all of us.
Even so, there's no turning back from these techniques. They are out there now and available to everyone, so even if you don't plan to use any or all of these techniques, you'll need to know what they're all about if you're going to have a future in online marketing.
Further, it will probably take some time before the numbers of people using these techniques starts creating a problem. My advice would be to get in early.
Are these techniques that we can all employ with a good conscience?
No, but they differ. As I said above, there are some techniques (like 'Nuking' your competitors) that I wouldn't consider for a second, but most of the others are entirely white-hat, and even the 'Nuking' method is good to know, in case I find myself on the wrong end of it.
Will the techniques taught in Day Job Killer really recoup the outlay (at the very least)?
If you use them, I'd say definitely 'yes''. On a straightforward cost basis, the book is a good investment. Even so, there is an even more important reason why all online marketers do need to read Day Job Killer - namely, what we stand to lose if we're not familiar with these techniques.
With the enormous sales and all the hype surrounding this book's release, we're likely to see every man and his dog employing these techniques over the next few months, and if you're competing in the online market-place, you do need to know what you're up against.
Let me make one final observation about Day Job Killer before I let you go. I see it as very much a companion volume to McNeeney's earlier works, especially Affiliate Project X. He refers back to Affiliate Project X repeatedly, and while you could certainly get away with just reading the later volume, Day Job Killer does seem to assume that you read his earlier work.
Having said that, don't make the mistake of purchasing Affiliate Project X now and leaving Day Job Killer until after you've completed the first volume, for two reasons:
Day Job Killer will get hiked up in price, possibly a few times, over the next few months.
McNeendy includes an up sell to Affiliate Project X when you purchase Day Job Killer.
The discount isn't huge (about 30% off, if I remember) but I'd suggest that if you haven't purchased volume one of McNeeney's affiliate omnibus, you consider doing that at the same time.
This of course makes the purchase of Day Job Killer even more expensive, so you probably need to think about how serious you are with your online marketing before committing to a purchase. Are you serious about competing in the online market-place? If so, I think you have little choice but to become familiar with where things are moving, and McNeeney is currently at the helm of the affiliate marketing ship.
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'Day Job Killer' - Father Dave's Review