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My Personal Experience with Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind

On Monday, September 17th, 2008 at 11:19pm I downloaded Yaro Starak’s free eBook “Blog Profits Blueprint“. At first I was highly skeptical because I didn’t want to be added to yet another email list for some cheesy 3 page report filled with useless re-cycled advice I’ve already heard a zillion times.

However, something about Yaro’s Blog and his crazy hair and big smile made me decide to trust him with my email address. Worst case scenario I could always unsubscribe.

The “Blog Profits Blueprint” arrived moments after and the first thing I did was to look at the size of it. Fifty-four pages! Not bad for a free report/eBook and scrolling up and down in my Acrobat Reader I saw that it wasn’t just filler crap either. This looked like some pretty decent content, so I fired up my printed and printed the sucker out.

I grabbed the printout, got comfortable on the couch in my living room and began reading.

I won’t go into too much detail on the “Blog Profits Blueprint” since you can just download it for free yourself to see what it’s all about, but basically after I finished reading it the question that was on my mind at the time was “Why is this guy giving away all this good info for free?!” I mean, holy crap, he just tells you all the ’secrets’ of making money by blogging.

In March 2007 Yaro made $6549.42 from his Blog, so he definitely knows what he’s talking about. That’s Blog income, not income made selling “How to Make Money Blogging” courses. That’s extra, on top of his Blogging income.

By the time I was finished reading the “Blog Profits Blueprint” I definitely had a good feeling about Yaro and his personality was clearly shining through in the report. I could totally tell that he’s one of those people that loves to give to others long before ever asking for anything in return. People like that are not always easy to find and I was really excited that I finally found someone who over-delivers on his promises.

The “Blog Profits Blueprint” covers everything from Blogging basics to things like writing Pillar Articles and learning how to open up Communication Channels, as well as techniques for Marketing your Blog. Yaro also dives into Peer Relationships, Networking, and Monetization Methods.

Overcoming Information Overload

One of the most important aspects of the Blog Profits Blueprint is that once you get through it, Yaro introduces you to a unique private members program designed by Yaro called the Blog Mastermind. The Blog Mastermind is a membership website with 300+ members which teaches bloggers how to make a full time income by Blogging part time. The great thing about the Blog Mastermind is that it breaks through the problem of information overload by delivering easy to follow, weekly lessons you can follow along with while building your full time income Blog.

I must say that if I hadn’t first read the Blog Profits Blueprint I probably would have never signed up for the Blog Mastermind program because I would have probably thought it was just another get-rich-quick scam on the Internet. But since Yaro already proved to me that he was a person that over-delivers on his promises I actually read the sales page for the Blog Mastermind.

However, I didn’t sign up for the program as I didn’t feel ready for it yet. I was right in the middle of starting to work with my Nitro Marketing mentor and I hadn’t yet decided what direction I wanted to take my Blogging in. InspiredMoneyMaker.com wasn’t even registered by then; I was still blogging on my old Blog (SelfHelpWisdom.com).

On October 1st I launched InspiredMoneyMaker.com and after the initial setup and getting everything organized I finally signed up for the Blog Mastermind program on October 26th, 2007.

The Program Begins

My first lesson arrived and I logged in all excited to see what secrets lay behind the curtain. I read the first lesson, listened to the 27 minute audio from Yaro and checked out the lesson plans. I must say that at first I was disappointed.

I was disappointed because the first lesson was for total beginners. Here are some topics Yaro goes through in the first lesson:

• Blog Mastermind Forums - How to connect with the other members in the program
• What to do if you don’t yet have a Blog
• What to do if your Blog is not on Wordpress
• Choosing a Domain Name
• Technical Solutions such as how to pick a web-host and where to find techies to help you out
• Wordpress Installation Services

This is great for people who are just getting into Blogging, but I’ve been programming computers since before people even knew the word Internet, and I already had a domain, a host, a Wordpress site and about a year and a half worth of part-time Blogging experience. I wanted the JUICY stuff, not the basic beginner stuff.

The thought of having to wait another 7 days for my next lesson made me want to scream. You see, I’m the kind of guy who gets a Tony Robbins 30 Day Personal Power program and does it in a weekend. I love total immersion. I didn’t like the idea of having to wait another week to get the next installment of the program. Especially since I had nothing to do from this lesson as I was already way past this point.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s a great first lesson for beginners, but I wanted to get into the more advanced stuff. So I checked out some of the resources in the forum and found that there is an Advanced Path available as well which you can take simultaneously along with the beginner path if you’re an advanced user. Normally you can get access to the advanced lessons after a certain number of lessons, but I wanted to get access to it quicker. I sent an email to Yaro, pleading to let me get access to the advanced lessons as I was bored out of my mind with the beginner stuff.

Success!

Yaro was nice enough to put me on the advanced track and I finally had some homework to work on for the week. As the weeks went by, the regular lessons quickly caught up to where I was in the process and by the time the regular lesson #3 came in I was learning new stuff.

For example, in lesson three I learned about RSS feeds and Social Proof. I used to have my Feedburner chiclet showing my subscriber count from day one of launching this Blog even when I had only like 2 subscribers. I didn’t really think that was a bad thing, I just figured it would slowly grow over time as more and more people subscribed.

In Lesson 3, Yaro teaches that people tend to follow the crowd and the most powerful influence over a person is other people. So if you have a Feedburner chiclet showing 100 people already signed up, people see that as social proof that the Blog must be a good resource and so it’s easy for them to add themselves to the list.

If, however, your chiclet is showing 4 subscribers, people are going to be more hesitant. It doesn’t mean they won’t sign up eventually, but their thinking might be “Well, I’ll wait until I see more people sign up” or they might not even think that far, they just won’t be motivated to click that “ADD RSS” button.

I thought about that for a while and I agreed with Yaro, because I’ve done that myself a few times. I’ve visited some blogs which had RSS Feed counts of like 3 or 5 or 14 and I didn’t add myself to the RSS Feed, but when I went to a new Blog with an RSS Feed count of +500 I just added myself to the RSS feed without hesitation because 500 people can’t be wrong, right?

So, anyways, that little tip in Lesson 3 helped me to remove my Feedburner chiclet counter until I got to about 50 subscribers which took me about 3 months. On December 20th when I put the chiclet back into my site design and even wrote up a short little blog post about it. ( Reaching 50 RSS Readers Gives Your Site Social Proof ). As of today my RSS feed count is hovering at about 200 subscribers and I have to say that the first 50 were the hardest to get. After that it becomes easier to get new subscribers because the social proof sets in and people begin to trust you faster.

Some of the other topics covered in that lesson were basic Search Engine Optimization, Tags and Tagging, and Encouraging Comments.

What else is in this course?

There’s just way too much “stuff” to talk about regarding what’s covered in the Blog Mastermind Lessons but I have to say that besides the first lesson which targets beginners, the rest of it contains really good advice broken down into achievable, weekly lessons anyone can follow to build their Blog into a successful, money-making business.

Can you find the information elsewhere? If you had nothing but time on your hands and hung out in forums and read free eBooks and studied successful Bloggers you could probably figured out most of the stuff on your own eventually, but is it really worth it? There is so much mis-information out there about how to make money online with people regurgitating untested techniques they haven’t even tried themselves in an effort to pass themselves as online marketing experts that it can get really frustrating trying to determine who to listen to.

Not only that, but what’s really required is a recipe for success which is followed in the right order to achieve results. That’s what Blog Mastermind delivers. I mean, you’ve got a successful Blogger teaching you, step-by-step, what you need to do in order to succeed. What else can you ask for?

I know that one of the questions you may be asking yourself is “If he teaches everything required to be a successful blogger, does that mean everyone in Blog Mastermind is making big money Blogging?”

The answer is no. The reality is that most people are too lazy to make money online, blogging or otherwise. Their lives get in their way and they stop following the process outlined and they stop getting results. Blog Mastermind isn’t for everyone. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme, and it’s not for people who aren’t ready to make money online yet. It does require work. I’m sorry, but that’s just the truth.

Even with me, I ended up getting really busy during the first three months of this year in my personal life and I didn’t have a lot of time to devote to my Blog or the Blog Mastermind program and so my results started to taper off. I built up my RSS Feed count from 0 to 50 from October to December and then when I got busy and I wasn’t following the plan or posting much between January and March, my numbers stagnated.

The great news is that when April hit and I made the decision to get really committed to my Blog I just logged back into my Blog Mastermind lessons and picked up right where I left off in January. My RSS Count has grown from 50 to almost 200 subscribers in the last 40 days and my traffic is growing exponentially.

Since I was ready to work the system, the system began working for me.

Another quick example of something else Yaro taught me in Lesson 5 was how to setup a proper “About Me” page. His advice helped me to understand what readers want to know about me and how to use pictures to build a stronger connection and relationship with my reader base.

I hope that gives you a fairly detailed first impression and review of my experience with the Blog Mastermind Program. I could go on for pages and pages, but I figure that if you’re not considering this thing by this point in the article, chances are this thing is probably not for you yet.

In either case, let me just quickly cover everything you need to know about this thing in point form.

Everything You Need to Know About Blog Mastermind

What is Blog Mastermind, how much does it cost and where do I find it?

Blog Mastermind is a step-by-step online membership site created by Professional Blogger Yaro Starak delivered in a weekly lesson plan format which teaches you how to earn a full time income from your Blog working on it part time. The program costs $97/month and is worth every penny.

The program has been closed to new members for a while now but is re-opening it’s doors this month in May 2008. To get on the notification list to reserve a spot for yourself follow this link: Blog Mastermind

Yaro’s free eBook “Blog Profits Bluprints” is available for download here: Blog Profits Blueprint

What is the Blog Mastermind for?

The Blog Mastermind program is for serious bloggers who want to learn how to make a full time income from part-time blogging. It is not a get-rich-quick scheme, and it does require you to work to achieve the results.

What results have I gotten from it?

As described above, there are many things I have learned from Yaro and his Blog Mastermind program. Applying his strategies I have grown my Blog from 0 to 50 RSS subscribers in less than 3 months. Then after a three month break to focus on non-Blog related issues in my personal life I re-committed myself to Blogging and the program on April 7th of this year.

Within just 38 days I’ve grown my RSS subscriber list from 50 to just under 200 readers and it continues to grow. The highest income earning month on my blog prior to April 2008 was January when I made a whopping $7.83 from AdSense. My income in April jumped to $279.55 and I am confident that in May I will blow past my target of doubling my income to $560. These are not huge income levels yet, but that’s not bad considering my Blog has only been around for 6 months and 3 of those months I was busy with something in my personal life.

What’s the best thing about the Blog Mastermind?

Eliminated information overload. Gives you simple, step-by-step lessons to follow every week. Everything is explained and support is provided. If you don’t follow the lessons it’s only because you’re lazy or busy with other stuff.

What’s would I improve about the program?

I would allow advanced users to choose a slightly different path for receiving the content, at least allowing them to skip through the first few lessons of just getting a Blog setup. This could just be me though since I can be impatient with this kind of stuff. When Blog Mastermind re-opens there might be an option to do this, I’m not sure.

What other alternatives are there out there?

I honestly haven’t found any good alternatives to this program. There are programs on Affiliate Marketing, and Membership Sites, but as far as professional blogging for a living is concerned I haven’t seen anything else out there that even comes close to what Yaro has put together here, especially at such a reasonable price.

What if I have other questions?

If you have any other questions, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll attempt to answer as best I can. I’m not Yaro, and this isn’t my program but I have been a student for quite a while now so I do know quite a bit about the program.

How do I sign up?

Free eBook: Blog Profits Blueprint

Membership Course:Blog Mastermind