a social experiment

photo credit: <a href=i’m starting a twitter experiment today. i’m tired of readingย upstart blogger and listening to all the tales of how great his new product twitter rocket is.

i’ve no doubt it works.

however, i am left with a lingering skepticism: as great as the product may be, and as fantastic as a 50% payout on his affiliate program is (it’s actually unbelievably good), that still makes 50% in ashley morgan’s pocket. his recentย @sixfigureluke campaign to promote a random schmoe to generate a six figure income in six months just means that ashley morgan will also be on a six figure payroll in that time. i can’t help but be skeptical.

but i’m left with a lingering doubt about generating even a modest amount of steady, passive income — am i doing the wrong thing by listening to the skeptic in me?

i’ve tried following upstart blogger’s example and find out how twitter rocket works without actually buying it. he himself did that with Twitter Traffic Machine and Brute Force Twitter. i didn’t have much hope in accomplishing anything in my searches, but i figured i had to at least look.

then i tried another tack – with ourย @ArcanePalette twitter account, i tried outย Tweepular. lots of people use it, right? it suggests followers and reveals people who you follow who aren’t following back and vice versa. so i followed everyone who was following me, and unfollowed some people who weren’t and then added the first 200 (and some change) recommendations. huge mistake. my inbox was suddenly spammed with worthless marketing zombies and porn bots. i regretted what i did within 2 hours of doing it.

it can’t be that hard, right?

here’s the thing: like i said, i have no doubt twitter rocket works. way too many people are preaching its virtues for all of them to be creatures of ashley morgan’s imagination (as was accused by others ofย @BloggingHannah – she literally spends just about all day tweeting about Twitter Rocket). but i’m unwilling to shell out cash on anything that’s promoted that hard. it sounds too much like a scam. what i know of twitter rocket is:

  • it’s a process (as opposed to a software).
  • you spend about 30 minutes a day on it.
  • you can find targeted people to follow (and followers) that are in your niche.
  • you can pretty much tweet naturally as you would otherwise.
  • it’s easy.

my experiment: reverse engineer twitter rocket (or something close).

i’m a smart guy. i’ve been around the net for a long time. i also know how upstart blogger approaches things and what he’s good at, having read his blog for a while. i am a twitter rocket affiliate. mostly this is an experiment to see if i can figure out how twitter rocket works. or, failing that, at least figure out a process that i can use — let’s call it twitter schoolbus (my 4 year old loves Magic Schoolbus, and a schoolbus that can turn into an airplane, a spaceship, and an alagator is a good enough metaphor for my experiment).

i am going to create a new twitter account and try my theories. as soon as i test them, i will post what i’m doing. because i’m also sick of everyone saying “i’m letting you in on my secrets” without actually letting anyone in on anything (without paying, that is). and if i can generate at least $97 through twitter rocket affiliate links, then i will buy twitter rocket just to appease my curiosity.

what’s my real goal? this blog gets very little traffic. ย i think it could do better. ย the theory is that if your twitter following is big enough, you can drive a good amount of that to your blog and generate your passive income if you have well placed ads. ย at this point, i’m not concerned about making money, although it would be nice. ย all i’m trying to do right now is to drive some traffic to my site without feeling like a spammer, or part of some crazy pyramid scheme, or using black hat seo techniques. ย if i do make money, well, so much the better.

let the experiment begin:ย @teh_s3quence

Comments

16 responses to “a social experiment”

  1. Ian W. Parker Avatar

    Well, you've just earned yourself another reader. If nothing else, the buzz surrounding Twitter Rocket led me to find your site via a comment on another site via a comment on another site via… you get the idea.

    NOTE: I did not find your site via Twitter. However, I am in the skeptic boat with you, especially as I had a sneaking suspicion that Avon Blake (who was heavily marketed by Upstart Blogger when avonblake.com launched about that same time that Hannah Solo did, but who's site is now a parking page) and Hannah Solo are either friends or alternate identities that Morgan uses to market UB and affiliate products.

    I may just try the Twitter Rocket affiliate technique and purchase it if I make enough money from it. Then again, I'm not so sure I really want to market a product that I cannot trust as being quality.

    In any case, I will definitely be reading your site and your updates on the experiment.

    1. jazzs3quence Avatar

      thanks ian. i guess i'm inadvertently riding the twitter rocket wave since i'm getting all these new hits since i've been blogging about it.
      I've had the "are-these-people-real" debate with myself (http://jazzsequence.com/geek-of-technology/ar… and ultimately i think they are. it's a difficult sell if you're trying to sell something you don't use and aren't even sure about. and then the other debate is: if i *was* getting 1000 followers a week, what would i do with that following and would that turn me into an evil marketer?

  2. Ian W. Parker Avatar

    Well, you've just earned yourself another reader. If nothing else, the buzz surrounding Twitter Rocket led me to find your site via a comment on another site via a comment on another site via… you get the idea.

    NOTE: I did not find your site via Twitter. However, I am in the skeptic boat with you, especially as I had a sneaking suspicion that Avon Blake (who was heavily marketed by Upstart Blogger when avonblake.com launched about that same time that Hannah Solo did, but who's site is now a parking page) and Hannah Solo are either friends or alternate identities that Morgan uses to market UB and affiliate products.

    I may just try the Twitter Rocket affiliate technique and purchase it if I make enough money from it. Then again, I'm not so sure I really want to market a product that I cannot trust as being quality.

    In any case, I will definitely be reading your site and your updates on the experiment.

    1. jazzs3quence Avatar

      thanks ian. i guess i'm inadvertently riding the twitter rocket wave since i'm getting all these new hits since i've been blogging about it.
      I've had the "are-these-people-real" debate with myself (http://jazzsequence.com/geek-of-technology/ar… and ultimately i think they are. it's a difficult sell if you're trying to sell something you don't use and aren't even sure about. and then the other debate is: if i *was* getting 1000 followers a week, what would i do with that following and would that turn me into an evil marketer?

  3. James Fielding Avatar
    James Fielding

    Interesting stuff. Have you seen this?

    http://www.upstartblogger.com/the-method-behind-m

    I do find something odd about your last comment Chris. If you purchased the product, and it got you over 1000 targeted followers every week, why would it be evil to market it to other people?

    Surely it's only evil to market something that doesn't work, isn't it?

    1. jazzs3quence Avatar

      i wasn't saying it was evil to market twitter rocket. i'm saying i didn't want to turn into an "evil marketer." big difference. there's a whole circle of folks on twitter that chat amongst themselves with their various schemes and affiliate programs and make themselves out to be huge bigshots, but in the real world, they're normal joes struggling to make rent like the rest of us. i hate them, and i refuse to spam whatever twitter following i have with useless junk that no one wants.

  4. James Fielding Avatar
    James Fielding

    Interesting stuff. Have you seen this?

    http://www.upstartblogger.com/the-method-behind-m

    I do find something odd about your last comment Chris. If you purchased the product, and it got you over 1000 targeted followers every week, why would it be evil to market it to other people?

    Surely it's only evil to market something that doesn't work, isn't it?

    1. jazzs3quence Avatar

      i wasn't saying it was evil to market twitter rocket. i'm saying i didn't want to turn into an "evil marketer." big difference. there's a whole circle of folks on twitter that chat amongst themselves with their various schemes and affiliate programs and make themselves out to be huge bigshots, but in the real world, they're normal joes struggling to make rent like the rest of us. i hate them, and i refuse to spam whatever twitter following i have with useless junk that no one wants.

  5. glorybug Avatar
    glorybug

    Let me know how that works for you. I have been writing about the Twitter Rocket here- -link removed-
    I'll be interested in finding out how your experiment goes.

    1. jazzs3quence Avatar

      thanks for the comment, glorybug, i'll be sure to check out your blog, too. as i said, i've been following ashley's blog since before the twitter rocket thing. and i've looked at the blogs of other twitter rocket users that he's linked to or retweeted. i'm also a twitter rocket affiliate (as you can see from the link on my sidebar). personally, i haven't made a dime but i attribute that to two things: 1) i don't get a lot of traffic, and 2) i don't push it hard. a passive link and an occasional namedrop is about all i can really stomach — i hate sounding like a salesman (the way hannah does). hannah posted a while back a screenshot of how much money she made through the affiliate program and, yes, while that could be doctored in photoshop, knowing what the affiliate site looks like, i can vouch that it actually came from there, at least. as i've said, i have no doubt that it works — it's in ashley morgan's best interest for it to actually work, because if he can actually sell a product that actually works he's poised to make a whole lot more money than if he's trying to scam people.

      the thing i get suspicious about it the amounts of cash flowing to him, and the way all his peeps all sound the same. anything that sounds too good to be true, probably is, although that's exactly the type of thing that Chris Anderson's FREE argues against. my goal isn't to "out" twitter rocket, mostly i'm just trying to see if i can do something similar and put my experiences out there publicly. as my wife's aunt said to us the other week "redwood trees grow best when they're in competition with each other."

      1. James Fielding Avatar
        James Fielding

        I can tell you why you haven't made any money! It's because people are reading your blog and thinking "I won't buy it because this guy is going to reverse engineer it and tell us all how it works for free"

        As an affiliate who does make money – not a huge amount but easily a sale or 2 a day – I find posts like this funny but potentially destructive to everyone since you are (and I know you are not the kind of guy to do this intentionally) giving people a reason NOT to buy it.

        Anyone who learns about the product will figure out that it can't be reverse engineered because the bulk of it's power comes from what Ashley calls a network push. He pushes traffic to his customers to make sure they gain enough quality momentum.

        But what I find most interesting is that you keep saying positive things about Ashley and Twitter Rocket and that you have "no doubt that it works" whilst trying to find a way around buying it.

      2. jazzs3quence Avatar

        while that's entirely possible, i don't think that's the case. here's why:
        my business – <a href="http://www.arcanepalette.com” target=”_blank”>www.arcanepalette.com – gets maybe 3-400 hits a week. most major sites and blogs can claim more than that in a day.
        this blog? i get significantly less traffic to this site than arcane palette, even given the recent posts about twitter rocket.
        i think the issue is traffic (or lack thereof) more so than content.

        my reluctance to purchase twitter rocket has more to do with my own stubbornness, and my determination to solve the above problems myself, on my own terms, rather than have to use someone else's method to get there. i may still end up getting a copy for myself, but only after i have tried out some theories of my own.

  6. glorybug Avatar
    glorybug

    Let me know how that works for you. I have been writing about the Twitter Rocket here- -link removed-
    I’ll be interested in finding out how your experiment goes.

    1. jazzs3quence Avatar

      thanks for the comment, glorybug, i'll be sure to check out your blog, too. as i said, i've been following ashley's blog since before the twitter rocket thing. and i've looked at the blogs of other twitter rocket users that he's linked to or retweeted. i'm also a twitter rocket affiliate (as you can see from the link on my sidebar). personally, i haven't made a dime but i attribute that to two things: 1) i don't get a lot of traffic, and 2) i don't push it hard. a passive link and an occasional namedrop is about all i can really stomach — i hate sounding like a salesman (the way hannah does). hannah posted a while back a screenshot of how much money she made through the affiliate program and, yes, while that could be doctored in photoshop, knowing what the affiliate site looks like, i can vouch that it actually came from there, at least. as i've said, i have no doubt that it works — it's in ashley morgan's best interest for it to actually work, because if he can actually sell a product that actually works he's poised to make a whole lot more money than if he's trying to scam people.

      the thing i get suspicious about it the amounts of cash flowing to him, and the way all his peeps all sound the same. anything that sounds too good to be true, probably is, although that's exactly the type of thing that Chris Anderson's FREE argues against. my goal isn't to "out" twitter rocket, mostly i'm just trying to see if i can do something similar and put my experiences out there publicly. as my wife's aunt said to us the other week "redwood trees grow best when they're in competition with each other."

      1. James Fielding Avatar
        James Fielding

        I can tell you why you haven't made any money! It's because people are reading your blog and thinking "I won't buy it because this guy is going to reverse engineer it and tell us all how it works for free"

        As an affiliate who does make money – not a huge amount but easily a sale or 2 a day – I find posts like this funny but potentially destructive to everyone since you are (and I know you are not the kind of guy to do this intentionally) giving people a reason NOT to buy it.

        Anyone who learns about the product will figure out that it can't be reverse engineered because the bulk of it's power comes from what Ashley calls a network push. He pushes traffic to his customers to make sure they gain enough quality momentum.

        But what I find most interesting is that you keep saying positive things about Ashley and Twitter Rocket and that you have "no doubt that it works" whilst trying to find a way around buying it.

      2. jazzs3quence Avatar

        while that's entirely possible, i don't think that's the case. here's why:
        my business – http://www.arcanepalette.com – gets maybe 3-400 hits a week. most major sites and blogs can claim more than that in a day.
        this blog? i get significantly less traffic to this site than arcane palette, even given the recent posts about twitter rocket.
        i think the issue is traffic (or lack thereof) more so than content.

        my reluctance to purchase twitter rocket has more to do with my own stubbornness, and my determination to solve the above problems myself, on my own terms, rather than have to use someone else's method to get there. i may still end up getting a copy for myself, but only after i have tried out some theories of my own.

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