So I've just finished checking out Forever Affiliate by Andrew Hansen, and my first thoughts were screaming “Scam!”, based on my own prejudices. I have to say though that once I got inside the program, past all the sales and upsells, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the content inside.
While most products like this are all hype and no content of value, Andrew's training is not only very much in-line with some of the things I personally believe in, but he is refreshingly upfront about them.
If you're looking to get involved with making money online, through affiliate marketing, then this Forever Affiliate review is going to help you in your steps to finding something that can work for you. However, I would say that this is not entirely suitable for complete beginners (you'll see why below), so bear in mind that it might not be the program for you.
Update: What I Recommend Instead
I used to recommend checking out Forever Affiliate, but it is now almost 2 years out of date. Instead, I recommend AmaSuite, because it is 100% in line with how I make money online. I know without a doubt that the methods in AmaSuite will make you money.
My Forever Affiliate Review – Is It Real?
Yes, I believe it is.
You're going to have to do some work if you want to succeed with Forever Affiliate, but rest assured that it's not a scam. His methods are based on realistic expectations, “white hat” SEO (nothing spammy or unfriendly to Google), and up to date.
If you've ever seen a landing page similar to his, you'll know what I'm talking about. You think “Oh man this sounds awesome!”, but when you get inside, there's nothing but some or all of the following:
- Outdated information
- Wrong information
- False promises
- Outright lies
- BS
While I didn't really like Andrew's landing page or the way he presented his program, when I got inside I WAS surprised to find I agreed with a lot of his training. There I was, all prepared to start listing the faults with his program and start saying why they wouldn't work, and in truth, his methods will work, and his presentation style is refreshing.
Obviously the landing page he used is just because this type of sales page is known to work. Unlike most of them, his product backs up his claims. I'm glad I decided to check it out, and here's why:
Today's world of online business is FULL of misinformation and lies. Andrew shows you how many methods still work, but shows you what is wrong, and what is right.
How Forever Affiliate Works
The focus is on building mini-sites in profitable niches. This is nothing new, and many people hailed the end of this type of business in 2012 when Google updated its algorithms. Forever Affiliate shows that it's still possible to succeed with this model, and shows you how to do so. While a lot of mini-sites are indeed no longer viable business models, Andrew has done the research to find new models, based on the same principles.
You build multiple sites, you keep the ones that work, and forget that ones that fail. It sounds like hard work, and it is, but it's something that might only take a few months, and is straightforward to follow.
I've long suspected that micro-sites still work (there is evidence all over Google search results), but I also KNEW that many of the old school methods to succeed with them definitely did not work anymore. Andrew uses Forever Affiliate techniques to show how to continue to succeed.
By the way, since so many people have written off micro-sites and instead go for authority sites, there is no less competition than before.
For the most part, Andrew puts emphasis on providing quality content, useful reviews, and outsourcing where you can. He always recommends outsourcing to quality providers, and warns that a lot of methods and techniques will get you into a lot of trouble with Google.
Essentially, Andrew has developed a technique for using back links successfully, in spite of the Google algorithm updates. This is where it potentially gets interesting.
Backlinks – Unjustly Taboo?
Many people abused backlinking before. A backlink is a link from another site to yours. In the past, that showed Google that your site was good, and got high rankings. Because it was so badly abused, Google punished millions of sites and reduced the emphasis that backlinks had on a site's rankings.
Now everybody screams and cries “No way!” when it comes to backlinks.
The thing is though, natural backlinks built-up over time aren't going to hurt a site, and are still going to tell Google that your site is worth checking out.
There are plenty of other signals which are more significant (Andrew goes into more details), but the Forever Affiliate method approaches backlinks in a very mature and practical way, and that's what I found the most refreshing.
However, I was unsure whether building natural backlinks was really going to work – which is why I've decided to give it a try on one of my own experimental sites to see if Forever Affiliate really is what it claims to be.
I've always wanted to investigate this for myself, so consider this my chance.
The Real Question – Does It Work?
I've not seen anything to suggest that it doesn't. I was first put onto this product by somebody I knew telling me it worked. I was skeptical, but decided to try anyway.
My own results suggested that it can work for everyone. I got not one, but TWO websites ranking within a few weeks, and as time goes by, money always follows traffic (Andrew will help you with this too).
- All the red flags I would have raised for someone talking about mini-sites were missing (no spamming or single-page sites present in Andrew's strategy).
- Everything I have suspected about ranking mini-sites is mentioned by Andrew.
- Forever Affiliate puts emphasis on quality content and patience, the two most important things for succeeding online.
- There's no hype, or guarantees that anything will work. Andrew even points out that some things will fail.
That has at least given me the confidence that his method will succeed. Whether or not I will prefer it to building out large authority sites remains to be seen, but I will let you know my results.
Why It Might Not Be For Beginners
Now, Andrew definitely walks beginners through the ropes. However, his training will go over the heads of people with zero exposure to Internet Marketing. Could they succeed despite that? Maybe. If you know nothing, but follow all his instructions to the letter, you might well succeed, but I think most of you would become too confused, and give up, or go off course. Complete beginners would be better off heading to Wealthy Affiliate and getting free basic training first.
If you DO know some things about Internet Marketing, then this product could well be something for you. As long as you don't mind creating simple mini sites several times a month.
What I Didn't Like
So there are some things I didn't like about this. Mainly, the emphasis on backlinks. This could just be my personal bias though. I've been “brought up” online to believe that backlinks are evil and don't work, but the thing is, Google must put some sort of stock in natural backlinks, because that's one small way of determining a site's success.
Personally, I think user engagement, quality content, thorough articles, and TIME, are what Google will reward the most, so it will be interesting to see how far I can get just testing out this method of ForeverAffiliate. Probably I will be able to maintain some page one rankings, after that, who knows?
What I Did Like
The training is split into bite-sized videos and is easy to follow. Andrew is very clear when telling you what sort of thing Google considers spam, so he minimizes the risk.
If you like the idea of just building up a healthy backlink portfolio over time (rather than focusing on writing and blogging), then this training probably is the thing for you.
I'll let you know how it goes my end.
What Do I Recommend Instead?
After checking out Forever Affiliate, my conclusion was that it WAS worth the money. Emphasis on WAS.
I wrote this review in early 2014, and have to say that the methods are now mostly out of date. On the other hand, a program I reviewed last month is exactly what I teach people on my site. I couldn't recommend it more. Check out AmaSuite today.
Interesting article.
I look forward to seeing how you get on, be interesting to see.
Hope it goes well.
Thanks Colm. So far I’d say it looks like the info Andrew provides is good and legitimate, but it’s too early to say for sure. I’ll post my progress again in February or end of Jan.
Interesting that Andrew feels building backlinks will improve rankings. I was told that backlinking to sites you don’t own is good but linking to site you do own is bad.
So building micro sites and linking them together would appear to Google as a tool to impress its algorithm which it basically is. However backlinks to other sites improve your position on the web.
I would be interested in your findings on this.
Yeah I was kinda surprised too, but his argument makes sense, so I’m going to at least check it out. He does say that for authority sites you shouldn’t touch anything like this and just build links naturally and slowly.