The money now and in the future is in insights not basic information, this is why private communities and masterminds are thriving. Free information will only get you so far. We are in the business of multiplying capital...TTT is a fabulous investment.
Those saying “all you need is free information”...show me a competitive, profitable online project you built on free info with zero insight or guidance from a peer or mentor in the past 3 years? 99% can’t...if you rely on free info from basic seo blogs you will get smoked in any market worth playing in. I’d love to have you as my competition.
3
Yup! I built my SEO business from 0-$2k/mo with free info from Glen Alsopp and Marketing, Inc. Then I paid for his product and got Ryan Stewart's White Hat course. That took me from $2-4k. Now, I have the money and not the time, so access in this group means a ton.
4
Congrats Nick. How long did it take to procure your initial audience? You mentioned you had an email newsletter and that you partnered with two major players in the SEO realm so would you concede that this was one of the biggest advantages to growing so quickly? Best of luck.
3
Hey Jim - So my audience first started coming together when I had a blog from 2012-2014 called SEONick.net (which I've since sold). My email newsletter was responsible for the first version of TTT and it's whopping 22 customers, but it was a different product. It was far more expensive ($500/mo) and required a 12 month contract -- all built and delivered in Kajabi.
There's no doubt that partnering with Ian and Matt was a huge spin to the growth flywheel, but I would also say the price and format change was the right move in addition to the level of content we had built up prior to launch -- which led to some really happy (and public) customers early on, for example see some of the comments here; https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6381514360992395264/
1
Thanks Nick. I'm going to assume those 22 customers were grandfathered into the next iteration of the product after your pivot? How did you handle that transition, for example I paid $500/mo for 12 months and then see you are providing at a lower price, do I get a lifetime pass?
Was great working with you previously and glad to see you are doing well. Hope our paths cross again. Tell AJ I said hello. :)
1
Hey Jim!
Sort of, so the $500/mo membership was for 1 year, once that completed (in October of 2017) I then prepared for the launch of the new (current) version of TTT in November, and gave all legacy members a 12 month free pass to come in and take a look around.
2
Curious about that too
2
Fantastic interview, and congrats on creating such an awesome community filled with experts, and such valuable content!
1
Hey @NickEubanks awesome interview. With so many free resources out there, how were you able to convince people that it was worth their investment to join your community? I'm inspired by this idea and would love to apply it for other small niche too. I tested out the interest level with the crypto community by asking if any of them were interested in paying $5/mth ($60/yr) but most of them say that other free communities already exist. Did you face this same hurdle? How did you overcome it?
1
I've been a member for about 4 or 5 months now and can personally comment on the high level of knowledge of the entire group. I've gotten answers to questions regarding some of my clients campaigns directly from Nick and the other founders of TTT along with other group members shortly after posting my questions. For a small investment each month you have a direct line of communication with some of the best marketers in the industry. To me that is invaluable and has helped improved my clients campaigns which in turn has made me more money. If you are a consultant or looking to build an agency, there is a specific thread for agency owners and the content is their has helped me scale past 10k per month, which was a big first goal for me.
1
Wondering how this won't follow the inevitable path of most "digital marketing" communities wherein the members trade in gray-hat SEO/marketing/link-building methods as they inevitably approach the "efficient market" paradox.
1
Amazing success! Would love to work with you guys in some ways.
I agree. Potential customers for your platform might not see what is so valuable on your platform until they come across a case suitable for them, I feel.
All the best. :)
1
Way to go Nick. Congratulations! If you're interested in help with your affiliate program feel free to send me an email. I run a SaaS that helps with these affiliate programs (linkmink.com) and I'm happy to help a fellow indie hacker. Thanks for sharing this interview.
1
Seems really cool, and seems like you have found a really nice business model as well. I'm working on building a similar community and have a few questions.
Did you ever consider having the community be free (like IH or HN), and then monetizing with ads or other partnerships? Given your success with the subscription model, I'm sure that selling ads would be a much more painful and less profitable monetization strategy, but did you consider it? Is there a point at which the increased community size you'd get from a free offering would tip the scales in favor of an ad vs subscription model?
You mention Kajabi, email newsletter and FB groups didn't work that well for you but Slack has been great, and that you've built custom integrations. Did you ever consider writing your own platform?
1
We offer a significant amount of exclusive content (over 300 hours of videos for example) and we're providing templates and expert level processes that are currently working. While I'm a fan of the "giveaway all your best content" model, I think there's simply too much value to give this all away for free.
We haven't considered creating our own platform but instead we are currently working to build a more formal LMS into the website to standardize the learning modules and some of the specific step-by-step courses that are already available in slack, for example we have a 7 part course called "Money Site From Scratch" that's an over the should look at building a money-making affiliate site from start to finish.
1
Seems good but still....
Don't understand how it works really?
Why i am paying ? (to just join a slack group?)
What things would be taught there?
4
You pay a monthly membership to join a private members only slack channel.
The slack channel has different channels related to digital marketing. Such as conversion, QA, SEO, Analytics, Link building, Paid etc.
You can post any question related to digital marketing, and someone will answer you. From what I have seen most of the answers are pretty accurate and useful. The questions can be basic, intermediate or advanced. Nick, Matt and Ian are available if you want to send a DM and ask something privately. They are super polite and will put you in the right direction.
You can participate in various discussions, and there are monthly QA sessions via Zoom. You can ask questions, learn and teach others. You will also get direct access to some of the experts in the field, and if you're kind enough, they will even reply you.
Since joining, I’ve learned a lot of new things and made a tonne of connections.
The group is full of smart people with a range of skillsets. Best investment I ever made.
3
Imagine you have access to all of the smartest people in the SEO community to ask questions, network, etc. That's easily worth it.
al the SEO things knowledge are openly distributed over the internet.
Brian Dean, Neil Patel, Stuart Walker, Matt Digity and many more SEO experts who are experts of this shit and on their blog you can almost learn anything without paying a dime.
5
I'm a member of TTT. Yep... there's definitely a lot of info on the web - and therein lies the problem!
My time is valuable. I don't have the desire to sift thru countless regurgitated articles... most of which is generic, and based on supposition & conjecture.
Instead, I need to network with people who are serving & satisfying clients, and not trying to one-up each other while hiding behind avatars (or, trying to upsell me something at every turn).
It's nice to be able to get real world advice from real people who've navigated similar situations. AND of equal importance, it's nice to share my own experiences/feedback among folks who will appreciate it.
5
Matt here (co-founder of TTT). Yes, you're right, there's a LOT of information out there on SEO. There's also a lot of BAD information out there on SEO. There's one aspect to the community that is all about learning the fundamentals, as well as the stuff that doesn't get shared publicly, but then there's the more valuable element: getting answers to your very specific problems.
There are a lot of times when things go wrong or you're stuck for ideas and simply reading an article doesn't help. You need someone to go in, check out the data and give tailored advice. The community does this every day.
Not only that, but a lot of our members work in a team of 1 so they don't get the opportunity to bounce ideas off of people - this is another big value prop of the community.
1
Absolutely agree with Matt, here. I can go read an article about something and it'll take 90 minutes. Or I can drop a thread in TTT and come back 90 minutes later and learn from absolutely pros in the space. It takes 3 minutes of my time in total.
2
BAHAHAHA. Brian Dean and Neil Patel? Maybe follow them if you want to rank for "backlinks" or "online marketing." But what if you want to rank for New York City divorce attorney? There are 50+ niches out there more competitive than online marketing. I'm not there for the knowledge. I'm there for the access. When I have a problem on a client's site or my site, I can chat with an expert. Don't know a ton about local citations? Sure, I can spend 15 hours reading it for free, or I can ask my guy in TTT and it'll take 15 minutes.
2
I'd also add that for any in-house marketer who could potentially rely on some agency or consultant help, the cost of TTT is way more affordable and is like having consultants on the side to answer specific questions. Plus, when I do need a consultant, I have a trusted community to draw from, ex: Joel KIettke.
I can learn about what others are doing, get clarity on subjects that I'm still learning about (from a lot of blogs), and get to know others in the space. Agree with Suganthan - best investment in career growth I've made.
2
You can learn anything on your own, that doesn't invalidate the usefulness of direct access to experts and community.
If you want to move quickly, don't limit yourself to one method of acquiring a new skill. And of course different paths work better for different people.
The money now and in the future is in insights not basic information, this is why private communities and masterminds are thriving. Free information will only get you so far. We are in the business of multiplying capital...TTT is a fabulous investment.
Those saying “all you need is free information”...show me a competitive, profitable online project you built on free info with zero insight or guidance from a peer or mentor in the past 3 years? 99% can’t...if you rely on free info from basic seo blogs you will get smoked in any market worth playing in. I’d love to have you as my competition.
Yup! I built my SEO business from 0-$2k/mo with free info from Glen Alsopp and Marketing, Inc. Then I paid for his product and got Ryan Stewart's White Hat course. That took me from $2-4k. Now, I have the money and not the time, so access in this group means a ton.
Congrats Nick. How long did it take to procure your initial audience? You mentioned you had an email newsletter and that you partnered with two major players in the SEO realm so would you concede that this was one of the biggest advantages to growing so quickly? Best of luck.
Hey Jim - So my audience first started coming together when I had a blog from 2012-2014 called SEONick.net (which I've since sold). My email newsletter was responsible for the first version of TTT and it's whopping 22 customers, but it was a different product. It was far more expensive ($500/mo) and required a 12 month contract -- all built and delivered in Kajabi.
There's no doubt that partnering with Ian and Matt was a huge spin to the growth flywheel, but I would also say the price and format change was the right move in addition to the level of content we had built up prior to launch -- which led to some really happy (and public) customers early on, for example see some of the comments here; https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6381514360992395264/
Thanks Nick. I'm going to assume those 22 customers were grandfathered into the next iteration of the product after your pivot? How did you handle that transition, for example I paid $500/mo for 12 months and then see you are providing at a lower price, do I get a lifetime pass?
Was great working with you previously and glad to see you are doing well. Hope our paths cross again. Tell AJ I said hello. :)
Hey Jim!
Sort of, so the $500/mo membership was for 1 year, once that completed (in October of 2017) I then prepared for the launch of the new (current) version of TTT in November, and gave all legacy members a 12 month free pass to come in and take a look around.
Curious about that too
Fantastic interview, and congrats on creating such an awesome community filled with experts, and such valuable content!
Hey @NickEubanks awesome interview. With so many free resources out there, how were you able to convince people that it was worth their investment to join your community? I'm inspired by this idea and would love to apply it for other small niche too. I tested out the interest level with the crypto community by asking if any of them were interested in paying $5/mth ($60/yr) but most of them say that other free communities already exist. Did you face this same hurdle? How did you overcome it?
I've been a member for about 4 or 5 months now and can personally comment on the high level of knowledge of the entire group. I've gotten answers to questions regarding some of my clients campaigns directly from Nick and the other founders of TTT along with other group members shortly after posting my questions. For a small investment each month you have a direct line of communication with some of the best marketers in the industry. To me that is invaluable and has helped improved my clients campaigns which in turn has made me more money. If you are a consultant or looking to build an agency, there is a specific thread for agency owners and the content is their has helped me scale past 10k per month, which was a big first goal for me.
Wondering how this won't follow the inevitable path of most "digital marketing" communities wherein the members trade in gray-hat SEO/marketing/link-building methods as they inevitably approach the "efficient market" paradox.
Amazing success! Would love to work with you guys in some ways.
This is brilliant! Just wondering how it is different from https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/ ?
The difference for me is that I've read threads there that are absolutely flat wrong. This community is people that are in-house SEOs or have a big client base and are doing the actual work every day, not just repeating what Google says. Example: This thread (https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/3496/do-subdomains-help-hurt-seo) says that in Google, blog.brendanhufford.com and brendanhufford.com/blog are the exact same thing using nonsense quotes. It's 100% incorrect.
I agree. Potential customers for your platform might not see what is so valuable on your platform until they come across a case suitable for them, I feel.
All the best. :)
Way to go Nick. Congratulations! If you're interested in help with your affiliate program feel free to send me an email. I run a SaaS that helps with these affiliate programs (linkmink.com) and I'm happy to help a fellow indie hacker. Thanks for sharing this interview.
Seems really cool, and seems like you have found a really nice business model as well. I'm working on building a similar community and have a few questions.
Did you ever consider having the community be free (like IH or HN), and then monetizing with ads or other partnerships? Given your success with the subscription model, I'm sure that selling ads would be a much more painful and less profitable monetization strategy, but did you consider it? Is there a point at which the increased community size you'd get from a free offering would tip the scales in favor of an ad vs subscription model?
You mention Kajabi, email newsletter and FB groups didn't work that well for you but Slack has been great, and that you've built custom integrations. Did you ever consider writing your own platform?
We offer a significant amount of exclusive content (over 300 hours of videos for example) and we're providing templates and expert level processes that are currently working. While I'm a fan of the "giveaway all your best content" model, I think there's simply too much value to give this all away for free.
We haven't considered creating our own platform but instead we are currently working to build a more formal LMS into the website to standardize the learning modules and some of the specific step-by-step courses that are already available in slack, for example we have a 7 part course called "Money Site From Scratch" that's an over the should look at building a money-making affiliate site from start to finish.
Seems good but still....
Don't understand how it works really?
Why i am paying ? (to just join a slack group?)
What things would be taught there?
You pay a monthly membership to join a private members only slack channel.
The slack channel has different channels related to digital marketing. Such as conversion, QA, SEO, Analytics, Link building, Paid etc.
You can post any question related to digital marketing, and someone will answer you. From what I have seen most of the answers are pretty accurate and useful. The questions can be basic, intermediate or advanced. Nick, Matt and Ian are available if you want to send a DM and ask something privately. They are super polite and will put you in the right direction.
You can participate in various discussions, and there are monthly QA sessions via Zoom. You can ask questions, learn and teach others. You will also get direct access to some of the experts in the field, and if you're kind enough, they will even reply you.
Since joining, I’ve learned a lot of new things and made a tonne of connections.
The group is full of smart people with a range of skillsets. Best investment I ever made.
Imagine you have access to all of the smartest people in the SEO community to ask questions, network, etc. That's easily worth it.
/>smart people
/>SEO
looks like this meme will never end
@brendanhufford
al the SEO things knowledge are openly distributed over the internet.
Brian Dean, Neil Patel, Stuart Walker, Matt Digity and many more SEO experts who are experts of this shit and on their blog you can almost learn anything without paying a dime.
I'm a member of TTT. Yep... there's definitely a lot of info on the web - and therein lies the problem!
My time is valuable. I don't have the desire to sift thru countless regurgitated articles... most of which is generic, and based on supposition & conjecture.
Instead, I need to network with people who are serving & satisfying clients, and not trying to one-up each other while hiding behind avatars (or, trying to upsell me something at every turn).
It's nice to be able to get real world advice from real people who've navigated similar situations. AND of equal importance, it's nice to share my own experiences/feedback among folks who will appreciate it.
Matt here (co-founder of TTT). Yes, you're right, there's a LOT of information out there on SEO. There's also a lot of BAD information out there on SEO. There's one aspect to the community that is all about learning the fundamentals, as well as the stuff that doesn't get shared publicly, but then there's the more valuable element: getting answers to your very specific problems.
There are a lot of times when things go wrong or you're stuck for ideas and simply reading an article doesn't help. You need someone to go in, check out the data and give tailored advice. The community does this every day.
Not only that, but a lot of our members work in a team of 1 so they don't get the opportunity to bounce ideas off of people - this is another big value prop of the community.
Absolutely agree with Matt, here. I can go read an article about something and it'll take 90 minutes. Or I can drop a thread in TTT and come back 90 minutes later and learn from absolutely pros in the space. It takes 3 minutes of my time in total.
BAHAHAHA. Brian Dean and Neil Patel? Maybe follow them if you want to rank for "backlinks" or "online marketing." But what if you want to rank for New York City divorce attorney? There are 50+ niches out there more competitive than online marketing. I'm not there for the knowledge. I'm there for the access. When I have a problem on a client's site or my site, I can chat with an expert. Don't know a ton about local citations? Sure, I can spend 15 hours reading it for free, or I can ask my guy in TTT and it'll take 15 minutes.
I'd also add that for any in-house marketer who could potentially rely on some agency or consultant help, the cost of TTT is way more affordable and is like having consultants on the side to answer specific questions. Plus, when I do need a consultant, I have a trusted community to draw from, ex: Joel KIettke.
I can learn about what others are doing, get clarity on subjects that I'm still learning about (from a lot of blogs), and get to know others in the space. Agree with Suganthan - best investment in career growth I've made.
You can learn anything on your own, that doesn't invalidate the usefulness of direct access to experts and community.
If you want to move quickly, don't limit yourself to one method of acquiring a new skill. And of course different paths work better for different people.
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