Reading business books on running an online business is something you will rarely see me doing, but after checking out Silent Sales Machine and giving it a chance, I’m glad I did.
And that’s because this is one of the few books I’ll ever recommend on the subject of having an online business, because it talks about starting it correctly and in this review you’ll get a summary of it.
Quick Report on Silent Sales Machine:
Creator: Jim Cockrum.
Price: $5.
Overall Rating: 7 stars out of 10.
I enjoyed reading this book even though most of the information was obvious. Yet anyone, especially beginners will get a lot of value out of it and I totally did, even though I’m not a beginner at this.
Silent Sales Machine in a nutshell:
It’s a long eBook on everything involving internet marketing which I have a lot of history with.
There are 201 pages worth of very valuable content readers will get a ton of information out of it. Anyone who is a beginner to internet marketing will enjoy this book and have a ton of ideas (or start here and see how I do it).
I downplayed Silent Sales Machine before reading it but:
Then I actually did read it and everything changed:
Even though most of the content within the book wasn’t new to me, one reason I purchased it was because I expected to only see repeat information and nothing new in which case I’d write a review and say it wasn’t worth $5.
Unfortunately I run into that a lot as many people give away or sell cheap eBooks and rarely explain anything, only pitch their other products. A very unfortunate example of that is Alex Jeffreys who tells more stories on making money than actually giving good advice in my personal opinion.
Fortunately Jim’s book was not like that.
There was a lot of story telling yes, and even linking to other resources some of which offer other products from Jim, but the way he pitches it is not in my opinion pushy. He provides a ton of great resources and tells you exactly what you need to do to utilize his tips.
I also want to mention other similar books I’ve read which are equally good, one of which is 10 Pillars of Wealth. That is probably the best book on business I’ve read so far, and it’s by Alex Becker.
And there’s also Dan Lok’s FU Money which is another example, but it isn’t as good as Silent Sales Machine or 10 Pillars of Wealth and honestly, if you already know who Dan Lok is, I will recommend that book, but not his program High Ticket Closer, because it’s too expensive. Just an FYI.
The summary and topics covered in Silent Sales Machine:
It’s very difficult to completely go over everything that is involved with internet marketing because if you tried to compile everything, you’d have a very long book to write.
But hey, look at this: Jim’s book is over 200 pages long and actually tries to do this. Pretty much everything important is covered with this book. Topics as such:
1) Email marketing (The one which Jim is the biggest proponent of).
2) PPC (He advises against this if you’re new and I agree with him completely!).
3) SEO (Ok, so before I read about his tips/thoughts on the subject, SEO was under the “Where you should NOT start” section, which at first glance was surprising since this is where I believe you should get started, but as I read through the chapter, it just showed I can’t be too quick to judge.
Basically Jim talks about many of the same things I’ve been endorsing myself such as only focusing on writing high quality content to help readers and that will be what takes off your business.
Jim mentions how he doesn’t focus on rankings and that he only aims to provide content that people will then share and also focuses on having his sites linked to by other high PR (page rank) websites.
I’m not too focused on the PR part, only on the content as well in my articles here, but the way Jim describes it is very spot on. This part of the book also link to a blog post he wrote about SEO success.
I clicked on it expecting to read a long article. Instead, it was just one paragraph which basically said the same thing I just explained above.
So short, so clear and yet so meaningful.
Again, more points to Jim for doing this. He does NOT endorse anything black hat or chasing cheap tricks. He focuses on creating a real business.
That’s not something you’ll hear gurus talk about since their main purpose is to build an empire selling their programs which really keep people locked in a never ending loop (but here are legitimate internet marketing gurus). Eventually they all crumble and go on to the next product and even worse, a lot of their old followers go there with them chasing that never to be dream.
And that’s one other thing I really liked and that was how Jim also criticizes many of the “experts” in this business who should be held to higher accountability with their low quality products (he also endorses having people hold him to higher value which is very humble).
He actually makes a comparison to NOT following everyone whose behind a lot of what he calls celebrity gurus because that’s going to end up badly. I’m glad to see someone other than a handful of people calling out the internet marketing community for this taboo topic!
I know I strayed a bit from the other topics and while there’s many, here’s just some which stood out to me:
- Ways to write content (interviewing professionals, outsourcing, blogging, ect…). Here’s my tips on what to blog and write content on.
- Making money helping small businesses with writing their content or marketing for them. This is called local marketing.
- Marketing on eBay, Amazon (being an Amazon affiliate too) and making money through other similar places.
There’s just a TON of different stuff all squeezed into the book and I don’t recommend if you’re new trying to read this whole book in one sitting. Your head will explode with all of the information and you’re probably going to retain very little. You should read this book little by little and absorb the knowledge in increments.
Pros:
- Turns out Jim is a really good marketer, but not a sleazy way. He’s honest and up-front.
- There is a ton of great information within the book just about anyone will enjoy.
- Book gets updated which is good considering times change in this online world. The current version is 8.0.
Cons:
- This isn’t really about the book, but I read through his blog and Jim charges $1,000 per hour for private coaching. I don’t like this sort of pricing even though I don’t doubt Jim offers great services. I prefer and believe you can get the same kind of attention and training from cheaper yet still high quality programs that teach this stuff and Wealthy Affiliate would be the first and best choice if you asked me what I recommend.
- A lot of crammed information. This is common with these sorts of books but too much information might leave you confused on where to go. That’s why I said, read it slowly.
Final Rating: Silent Sales Machine
Green Light!
7 out of 10 stars. The book alone was well worth it. I can’t speak for his other products/services, but now that I know about this guy, I’m very interested to see what else he has to offer.
This just goes to show that providing helpful content and opening people’s eyes is still the best way to build a trustworthy business.
My final thoughts:
I’m glad there’s still good people out there in the marketing world. Jim, you’ve just gained a new fan and everyone who reads this should check out his book if they get the chance or at least his blog. Just Google Jim Cockrum.
Have any thoughts on Jim, his programs or teachings? Let me know your thoughts!