the truth is things aren't gonna be easy
you're gonna do make mistakes in being
successful means saying okay well if
this isn't working and I did something
wrong well then I'll try something else
because other people obviously can do it
that's true you can't - hey what's going
on this is the Doug show my name is Doug
Huntington that was my friend Marty
McLeod and he is a student in five
figure niche site which is my course
around creating an Amazon affiliate site
in this episode I talked to Marty we
talked about the age of the site in the
traffic stats we talked about the role
of hard work and motivation the power of
the keyword golden ratio why low search
volume keywords are still great and
quality of content and why it's so
important one of the best things that we
get into are some of the mistakes that
Marty made and how you can learn from
those mistakes this interview was done
back in like July of 2018 so I have no
idea when you'll actually be listening
to this episode but I can tell you that
Marty is still doing well I'm recording
this I'm releasing this in January of
2019 and at this point Marty has
increased his income he's making about
$1,000 a month from his Amazon affiliate
site the sexy headline for this episode
is creating a five-figure niche site
with Marty McCloud and I think it is
important for us to talk about the
definition of a five-figure niche site
now from a branding perspective I had a
decision to make right so I called my
course 5 figure niche site and some
people immediately think hey that means
you're making five figures per month
some other people may think hey the
value of a website is 5 figures and that
means that you have a fight for your
niche site and I allow you to create
whatever sort of image you want in your
mind so my definition
is to have a site valued at five figures
and for a lot of people that is
significant the way you would come up
with a valuation is to understand how
much you could sell the site for that
said it means you need to backtrack you
need to understand how much a site could
be sold for and then understand the
monthly earnings and when you do that
you realize that making about $500 a
month would give you even at a very low
valuation of twenty times the monthly
profit if you make five hundred dollars
of profit per month that means that your
site would be worth about ten thousand
dollars at that very low valuation more
likely the valuation would be
potentially 25 X or 30x and that would
be that much more so operating at that
very conservative valuation if you have
a site making about $500 a month it'll
definitely be worth about five figures
and even more impressive definition
would be making five figures per month
and that is a lot and that would take
quite a bit of time for someone to build
up to in fact if I if just some person
came up to me and asked how long it
would take to build up that kind of
revenue if you have let's say very
little to no experience in affiliate
marketing
it's probably gonna take you at least
one year if you're working on it full
time and potentially if this is a side
project maybe it's gonna take you
eighteen months or two years something
like that if you're brand new you have a
that you can make that you probably will
make along the way and you can learn
from those mistakes almost everything is
something that you can recover from
learn from and move forward however that
said if you want to make five figures
per month ten thousand dollars or more
per month it's going to take some time
and I think I mean really anything
worthwhile is gonna take a little time
for
this episode I'm going to kick it over
to the interview in just a second
and then I'm gonna tell you a story
about my beer journey so I allude to it
here and there occasionally if you
follow me on Instagram you may see a
beer picture posted and on some of the
YouTube videos I may have a beer in my
hand there's a reason for that so I'm
gonna tell you a little bit about my
beer journey and then finally at the end
I'm going to answer a few questions some
common questions that I hear about
affiliate marketing the questions for
this week are going to be what is the
best WordPress theme for Amazon
affiliate sites what is the keyword
golden ratio and how often should I post
content for my niche site or authority
site or whatever so those are the those
are the three we're going to answer
today and I will tell you right now
I will publish a couple episodes
specifically about the key word golden
ratio as I mentioned marty is a student
in a five-figure niche site course so he
has access to the framework and all the
over-the-shoulder lessons and sort of
the mindset that you need to have if
you're starting out building a site if
you're not a member of the course that
is okay in fact it takes some time to
make such an investment and commit the
time to it but if you're just looking to
get an idea and maybe get a hand your
hands on some of the templates and the
process I'll put a link in the show
notes or you can go to niche site
project com click the green button and
then you can enter your name and email
address and you'll be able to get access
to all that stuff there's even like a 90
page PDF that kind of walks you through
the entire process it's at a higher
level than the course but it's enough to
get you started on the right track
[Music]
hey what's up I'm Doug Huntington I'm
sitting with my friend Marty how are you
doing today
really good dog and I'm really flattered
to be here really appreciate it
awesome well thank you it's my pleasure
to speak with you you are a student from
five-figure niche sites so I'm happy to
you know bring you out and like show you
off so let's get to the results like
real quick right here so can you share
your you know recent earnings and
traffic over you know the past couple
months or so right so when I took this
morning my in Amazon I looked to my is
given per 30 days for the last month 30
days was just about like I think it's
five hundred thirty dollars in fees I
still get more coming because it's not
all paid yet but in the traffic is I
it's getting closer just under 7,000
visitors a month a month now so it's by
1600 or something right now all right
cool and how old's the site so it's
right at a year so as of June that made
a year since I started a course you know
awesome well congratulations I know to
work on any project for a full year is
like it's a pretty long time so it's an
accomplishment all by itself and I know
in the last you know really in the last
30 days like it sort of been a milestone
for you so can you tell us a little bit
about that like what it means to you oh
yeah you know and actually I even had
the original post-it note where I wrote
down my goal that you suggested you know
my goal was pretty moderate pretty
modest I think I make hundred five five
hundred dollars a month and I didn't
even expect for us to be talking about
me having achieved that goal right now I
thought it would take even more time but
just this last week I happened to log
into my Amazon affiliate fees account
trap you know and lo and behold I
couldn't believe it there was a it
exactly exceeded five hundred dollars
and it's just kind of hard to describe
he was just it's like when you make your
very first sell but multiply that times
ten and I had to almost actually just
stop for a minute
because I didn't expect it but it felt
so warm inside and it really just wow I
was it's just like it's hard to describe
to be honest with you it's just like a
like a like a wonderful surprise that
make you just feel good for all the hard
work you put in and so forth
excellent well and you have put in a lot
of hard work we'll get into a lot of the
details of the site and well not too
many of the details but your process of
going through it before we get there
though what's your background what do
you do for your day job education all
that kind of stuff right so actually by
day my day job I'm an electrical
engineer and I live and work here in
Georgia United States and actually we've
spoken before about I work where you
used to work a long time ago yeah that's
so right in the same area excuse me
my background is similar to that before
I got out of Auburn University I was
doing electronics and other things like
that
I periodically while working at jobs
before just in general I I just saw I
had seen other guys online who were like
living a good life and they're they're
able to travel and making money online
it's blew me away because I always had
this strange feeling inside that the
everyday routine that there should be
more to life possible than that and I
can remember some very specific moments
in which it just bothered me that I
would have to do the same routine to
risk my life yeah and that's why I was
interested in this topic of sedate
marketing and how I found you
cool and do you remember when you first
heard about like niche sites or
affiliate marketing or anything like
that I gosh
I've bent there's so much stuff looking
at so many things I do remember I'm
pretty sure I don't remember the very
first time I do remember having been on
those sites because I bought a pair of
earphones headphones one time and I
think that was one of my first
introductions and it over the time more
websites I was on it became obvious that
they were I saw the disclaimer about
being in an affiliate I an Amazon site
and then I read more about it that's how
I found you and I understood more about
what it actually
is kind hopefully that explains a little
bit more yeah so it seems a couple few
years or something like that yeah
exactly
okay and you built like other sites in
the past just in general or yes I did
actually
I before I knew about you I knew what a
legitimate course was I I built a
website related to a man's health
supplement and started off in the wrong
foot and there was no way I was gonna
succeed and that was very discouraging
but I actually learned quite a bit from
that yeah so it flopped and it didn't
last long
all right and so you found me not too
long ago you got the five figure niche
site course like a year ago hazards in
any or have there been other influences
who were some other people that you
follow and you know got value from oh
definitely so I either I there's a guy
who goes by the name of Kyle trouble
he's a he's not in Amazon affiliate
marker but he's a really smart guy who's
actually giving me some helpful
information about how I write my content
my links and just some general stuff as
well as I learned quite a bit from some
of the SEO articles and videos and
webinars from companies like sem rush
and aah refs Stewart Walker and nice
hacks human proof designs especially
them they're they've had some great info
I don't know you know them as well
people like that tend to give you sure a
lot of real actionable information that
helps beginners that's that's been a big
influence on McTeer cool and well we'll
link up all this stuff in the
description I think that's key you can
sort of tell like after you see enough
information you could tell the people
that are practicing and like they're
practitioners of whatever you know craft
they're yeah talking about versus people
that are just regurgitating it's very
easy to get into you know the habit of
like regurgitating content from other
sources and you know you know if you're
just you know if you're doing internet
marketing you're just getting started
sometimes you
you have to like reference other case
studies but it becomes really clear when
people just don't know what they're
talking about that's true yes very cool
so as far as like finding a niche so it
sounds like you've had a variety of
sources shifting like recommendations
for maybe beginners who haven't picked
the niche or maybe they're not sure if
the niche that they're thinking of is a
good profitable one yeah I definitely do
I have several thoughts on that because
that's so critical especially giving how
many how much competition there is out
there these days I would say you don't
always look at just the first things
that pop into your head because probably
everybody else is too so you can try to
think sideways like steak sort of
thinking about toasters thinking about
some other kind of specialty I am that
similar but there maybe there's an
opportunity with something else related
to your first idea but also over time
I've learned that because of how much
timing money you're going to invest
what's not it's not necessarily a lot of
money but the amount of time and effort
those are resources to it would people
would do well to buy in just an hour of
time from from you for example to get a
second opinion before they really go
all-in because you're it's hard to put a
price on somebody else's experience and
their perspective of how they can shoot
you don't say hey this is not a good
idea or yeah you know I have a good
feeling all the things line up right you
should do this because I can save people
and it's an enormous amount of grief and
possibly eating trying to climb a
mountain they shouldn't climb you know
and that's a really good point someone
that I'm coaching right now they hired
me for a one-off you know just hour to
analyze a nod at their site and
unfortunately they've been spending a
lot of time and money on it over the
last six months and if they just would
have met with me first they would have
saved you know thousands of dollars and
it's expensive to hire me for an hour
but it's cheaper than if
definitely up for six months so it's
really really key to I guess understand
that maybe it's an investment to hear
that you've made a bad decision before
you invest like so much more time and
then you have this sunk cost fallacy
where you know if you're in you're like
well I better just keep going and then
you maybe yep just yes it's never
exactly so very good point
well that's said are there any mistakes
that you made along the way in your
journey that maybe we can learn from
your mistakes so we don't make them yeah
I'm sure there's a whole list well I've
had to cut it down to the the biggest
ones so I am guilty when I started I was
like a lot of people I got discouraged
and they were periods of time where I
let this the site sit and didn't keep
putting in effort in building content
and links so I was also at the same time
I was guilty of the what people call
shiny object syndrome where the next
little thing that you might read about
hey I think I'll try this and I dipped
my toes and other things and they ended
up actually hurting my progress for a
couple just a few months a lot maybe or
roughly two months or so and that's a
terrible feeling so I would say don't do
any of that stay focused keep working on
it even when you're as courage you know
take it just take a day we're in a bad
mood and then come back the next day and
get back on track and stay focused look
at you know also when I started off my
content was weak and that was a really
bad idea I wasn't really putting my
heart into it and so my content wasn't
long enough it also wasn't as good of a
quality if I as if I really as I really
could have done so what that meant was
when I got my act together later I had
to go back and redo a bunch of it so if
I done it right better job the first
time there would have been mistakes but
it would have started off stronger sure
also when I started I was kind of led to
believe that I had to buy a an Amazon
specific thing and while that it was
gonna make a big difference in a while
they're nice and they have some pros but
it turned out that just starting
starting with a simple platform
it looked good in helped present my
content in a good way and gave a good
impression people I would have been
better off of that then having to go
back again
later and fix everything up revamp
everything again and understand
especially the themes a little tough and
actually I'm going back and revising
that portion of the course
Marty partially from feedback from you
but just in general as I'm moving
learning more about more things themes
I'm not a theme person myself I just I
think that's part of like why you know I
maybe made a recommendation or two for a
couple specific things because people
really you know like some of the
functionality but at the same time it's
like if you could just get something
that looks good enough and you could put
your I'm in content you know rewrite
focusing on the content so and just to
quickly summarize so you mentioned high
quality content upfront and then
additionally probably the biggest thing
is like you're gonna have some down days
your motivations gonna waver
you're gonna think yeah unfortunately
you're gonna think why are these other
people doing better I should be able to
do right but you can only compare
yourself to like you a week ago yes is
like anyone else
absolutely agree I've heard that said
before it is true
yeah don't or guilty sometimes of being
our own worst critics critics and we
just have to be able to wake up in the
morning saying that we gave our best
effort and whatever we did whatever is
not right we'll figure it out later
we'll learn we'll fix it won't get
better you know it's one thing I've
learned that it seems to be critical in
general about trying to make money
online even though I realized on the
road to the beginner is that my mindset
has changed a lot what I didn't
understand was we live in a world where
weather who tempted to think and we're
sort of we almost grew up here in the
United States thinking well if it didn't
work first I guess this is just not
gonna work and I shouldn't be Minette
but that's but the truth is things
aren't going to be easy you're gonna do
makes
in the way being successful means saying
okay well if this isn't working and I
did something wrong well then I'll try
something else because other people
obviously can do it in that that's true
you can too you just have to accept that
you just have to keep going basically
you know you have to have everybody's
gonna have those moments I've you know
even just two months ago for some weird
reason one afternoon I was just thinking
Manish just don't fill out don't feel so
great about this war you know you get
these feeling these strange fees like
wow I get you know I could have stopped
in to be a whole lot easier but then I I
said no that's the old way of thinking
that's a failure mindset and that's not
how I well not what I want I have my
dream so my goals and I have a hunger
for it as Tony Robbins says the hunger
is what drives people to succeed and go
beyond their original expectations and
achieve great things so I knew what I
wanted and I said do I want it badly
enough yes or no that's simple yes just
keep going keep learning and that's one
reason I joined your chorus was because
you know I heard great things about you
and you have legitimate information
which unfortunately can be hard to find
these days there's so much noise out
there and and I forget who said it but
someone said that you need two things to
succeed you need a good blueprint and
you need act to take action
consistently and I believe a five-figure
niche site chorus is a great blueprint
and it works in s legit and there's no
smoke and mirrors just no tricks it's
just good good old-fashioned you know
good good old-fashioned guidelines and
here's what you do and you know and
here's how things work and this will
help you nice appreciate you saying that
as well let's get until some more
tactical stuff people really enjoy that
so ok we'll hit a few areas keyword
research and just reviewing keywords do
you have any specific tips to give or
any insights that you learned over the
past you know year or so yeah I think at
this point
I I've changed the tools I use but
that's not necessarily always a critical
thing the biggest thing is I keep I have
several small ideas so for example if
I'm out and about I might be either in a
restaurant or a store and I might get an
I might see an object that's somewhat
related to my niche and I'll write it
down and I'll keep it the back of my
mind and later I'll put it in my keyword
tool and start seeing what pops out also
I've gotten more and more thorough about
evaluating keywords so I get a huge list
the biggest I can within reason within
the guidelines that you teach people and
then I sort through those and if those
don't always work out so usually I'll
find something related to those and
that'll spur off a whole nother list of
keywords also I try to keep focused in
not worrying so much about hey is this a
high number of average searches per
month even if it's a very small number
I've learned that it's a lot of those
are still good especially if they're low
competition right because later on some
of my posts that were based on these
with tiny numbers they rank for other
keywords as well and they did well so
don't don't think that something's too
small you know low-hanging fruit as we
say yeah that's it still has value yeah
cool what what tools do you use if you
want to mention yes I progressed through
several over time but now I'm using
mainly a H Refs
but I do still use SEM rush occasionally
and it may also go back to using both of
them at the same time so I really enjoy
yeah that's helped me like do you feel
like one of them has a more accurate
keyword search volume or do you just not
really care about the search why I'm so
much I know that they're both supposed
to be pretty good according to industry
people who actually test them and
articles I've read supposedly aah rouse
is is slightly better but you know
there's nobody no really knows for
percent right but I feel pretty
confident about either one of those two
tools yes sir you know and I used to
think summer
was a little bit further off but when I
started looking at more of the
documentation for any of the tools
they'll usually tell you like the number
of months that they average out right so
depending on like whether it's like 12
months or 30 months or whether it's a
growing trend or a declining trend like
it could look a little bit different but
like you said this is the search volume
doesn't matter as much is like
identifying like a need there and if
it's a low search volume it could still
be just fine so yeah one quick note
about keywords I've always got to be
careful to instead of rushing in and
putting a lot of time into good content
about a specific keyword I need to check
the competition and say you know it
needs to pass a test you need to be it
which you show people how to to do that
in your chorus of course that's very
important because when you're starting
off and you're beginner wow it's very
discouraging if you never rank well for
something is if you fail to check it
right now that's part of it you've got
to look at the big picture correct
for sure now moving on to content okay
you said that you you realize your
content wasn't like as good as you can
do so yes you have any tips on content
or like improving or anything like yeah
absolutely I do because I've gotten a
lot of comments about mine and I'm
really happy happy to say that people
both readers and people who I know that
know my sites they like it I at this
point I'll say my first mistake was when
I felt like I couldn't write long enough
content in the beginning I went about it
the wrong way so what I figured out was
instead of just saying this is the best
product and some some details also now
I'll add value by putting in more about
how that kind of product works the pros
and cons of it a lot of helpful
information because not everybody knows
the stuff on it when they find your site
and your post it is legitimate it's not
just enough not just putting in some
some fluff and putting in something that
actually contributes and then I go on to
did the pros and cons of my buyer
keyword the product information will
have you
also there are some really good free
resources what I'd like to do now was
I've learned that in some cases
infographics can help contribute to
really good content as well and you can
do a lot of that for free in canva and
they look really sharp also I use Google
drawings which is free for some of my
diagrams when it's technical information
to help give really good clear diagrams
that help people to understand something
to do something themselves or to see how
something works things like that and
there's tools out there also to check
your grammar and things like that
my Yoast SEO plugin it highlights some
of the readability scoring that's
another thing that helps also it helps
keep me in line and I've noticed that
I've gotten better at writing content
because if I see if I check my work
I'll find mistakes and I learned from
that innocent keeps improving it's a
process you know nice very good and then
you mentioned infographics in there so
do you create an infographic for like
every piece of content or how do you how
do you decide not every piece I try to
do it where I feel like it's gonna
benefit it for example of course I have
buyer keyword posts and info posts as
well
info posts a lot of times I do use those
if it's something where I can add some
facts explain how some quick tips and
things summer is a way of summarizing it
presenting it and it looks clear
professional if it's a product what's a
buyer post well might want to know more
about it and see some quick facts I'll
use one there if I think is if I think
it's relevant and helpful cool yeah and
as far as the link building have you
done much much link building for your
site can you take us through your
process and stuff I have done I did
quite a bit of commenting which I used
what I would do was I was following the
steps in the course I would make my big
master spreadsheet and would go through
all the little the websites that I we we
were able to generate and I go through
each one who we're
could I would leave a comment I used to
get up in the morning early before work
and do say 10 or 12 every day and go
through that that built up a lot and
then also I I've done a few real guest
posts but most I have bought some but I
tried I II had to be very careful with
that kind of stuff I did only that to
try to make the best use of my time
because there's also trying to make more
content because I write it myself it's
hard to juggle two things sometimes for
me that full-time job so I did do I
bought some I did some of the natural
way and then the blog commenting as well
yeah about how many links would you say
you have as far as they get or yeah like
they do follow guest post not the blog
tell me okay yeah the do follow I think
are 15 - I think it's 15 to 20 I very
probably uh okay yeah okay so pretty
much like prescribed as in the course
yes cool very good right exactly
alright and do you have any other like
sort of overall tips for people that are
like hey I want to do what Marty's done
here just in a general sense to follow
in your footsteps yeah I really do I
think one of the first things and I
would tell people is you need to look at
it from the perspective that it's not
gonna happen in just a few weeks it's a
progressive thing and you're it starts
off very slowly and you really need to
start off the right way put in the real
effort and you had to be consistent
every week you need to be doing
something and you need to understand
that you just need to keep working on it
and stay strong and get to the first
point where you start getting traffic
and then what you do and you get that
first cell it's very rewarding and it'll
build upon itself over time you keep
seeing it rise you know you just just
understand you need to be patient very
good yeah I think you know the further
you go along the more you realize you
don't know anything even though you're
accumulating knowledge so like I bet
right now Marty
like oh man I know so much more so much
more like real experience than last year
and now you're thinking well there's so
much more I don't know that hasn't even
know was there right absolutely in that
to add to moniker vias comment you've
got to be proactive and go learn stuff
you can't just sit up sit in the chair
and expect the information to fall into
your lap if you really want to get
better and keep improving you really
need to go out there and use the
resources that are free and they're out
there sitting there you know and yeah
what you just said is very true I when
the more you learn the more you learn
you don't know and that there's more
even more to learn but it you you'll
grow as a person and you'll you even
look back and say wow I I used to do
things so differently and I feel so much
more confident now and I can go back and
improve my mistakes and get even more
efficient and do things keep hitting
heading towards even bigger milestones
you know yep and just another thing to
add in there with the learning is like
you know I've been doing this for about
five years so kind of a long time but
also not that long I'm constantly trying
to learn and already haven't mentioned
it to you but like when I'm in say our
Facebook group right right I'm like
looking for information like everyone in
the course is like someone I could learn
from because you all have different
experiences and different sources where
you're getting information so it's I
mean I'm constantly trying to learn
still because I know that I don't know
everything and as soon as I think that I
don't need to learn anything that's when
I got trouble so it's very interesting
you know just once you get some level of
knowledge you're like oh I need to learn
a lot more so very interesting so the
success of the site it sounds like it's
an upwards trajectory like what's the
impact on your life anything like
specific and concrete yeah it's like it
I was already motivated very driven to
succeed I have my dream is to be free
one day to work for myself that's my
ultimate dream freedom but when this
happened and it hit up that that goal
that milestone it's like
it's like it's it's like something is
saying this is not just possible that
you're definitely gonna do it as long as
you just keep going it's like an
affirmation it's sort of an affirmation
and a reward at the same time it's a as
a person you feel like you're it's kind
of hard to ascribe but it's a person
feels like you're you've got more wind
behind you it's gonna be a little bit
easier now and I've even been told after
you get to this point it's gonna be
easier you just keep going yeah and your
motivation is probably like rising and
like yeah Deborah's you're like I can do
it and like your you have the the proof
now right like you thought you might do
it but now yes absolutely like the real
results they're exactly it's exactly I
feel even more motivated to keep going
in learning and improving fixing
everything I can and just just keep
working keep doing what's working stay
focus and keep doing doing what's
working
Barty thanks a lot really appreciate you
spending some time with us in the niche
site project community today yeah thank
you so much Doggett it's been a
wonderful experience and they're happy
to be here awesome thanks a lot to Marty
I really appreciate him taking the time
out and the cool thing is that I will be
scheduling an update with him so again
this interview that you just listened to
was from about six months ago and more
things have happened so I want to catch
up with Marty soon so I'll be publishing
that in the future one thing that I want
to point out is that Marty didn't leave
any contact info and that was
intentional I gave them a heads up and I
just let him know hey have people you
know catch you on live streams whenever
I do a live stream a lot of times marty
is actually in the chat room and stuff
or you may see him commenting on some of
the YouTube videos or if you are in the
five figure niche site course he's
fairly active within the Facebook group
there which is good because me
personally I don't love Facebook I kind
of hate
so I don't spend too much time there so
good people like Marty and some other
folks within the course they step up and
they provide that community aspect beer
let's talk about it so if you've been
around my brand a little bit in the chai
project or you've seen some YouTube
videos you probably have seen me
reference beer a lot and that's because
I love beer in fact I like most all
alcoholic beverages
I enjoy wine I enjoy spirits a lot of
times all you know all opt for a beer if
that if I'm given the choice I'm usually
gonna go for a beer and then like my
second choice would be some kind of
whiskey not like all sorts of whiskies
but beer first and whiskey wine if the
you know occasion is right if it matches
the food or the people that I'm with
really enjoy wine wine maybe the
beverage of choice
so why beer how did I get into beer well
if we rewind back to my much younger
days when I had like a full head of hair
and a day job I drank
Coors Light or Bud Light most often and
if I drink liquor I basically would do
shots of something like vodka or
something like that
I should also mentioned sort of the
rough years and a timeline so I guess
basically anywhere up until about 2006 I
was drinking Coors Light and and
actually let me defend those domestic
light beers just for a moment so even
now where I am I guess many people would
consider me a beer snob I think there's
still a place for like a domestic light
lager something like the Coors Light or
Bud Light tailgating for example or
maybe you're fishing or floating down
the river or doing something like that
or maybe you're at a cabin with some
friends or something like that and
you're hanging out and maybe you want to
have a beverage but you don't want to
have like double IPA to drink all day
maybe you just want a Coors Light
because it's almost water right anyway
the point is 2006
or so anytime before that Coors Light
was kind of my go-to in fact if you
rewind back and well if I rewind back
and to think about traveling out to the
Rockies traveling out to Colorado for
the first few times I actually made it a
point to go to the Coors brewery and
golden so it's pretty cool and I enjoy
well I enjoy all that stuff the
mountains the you know the cool mountain
water the snowmelt all that kind of
stuff so I enjoyed just the idea of
Coors Light anyway fast forward to 2007
I was working that corporate job in fact
it was a consulting so the way the
schedule worked a lot of my friends we
we worked out of town for most of the
week so we'd fly out on Monday we'd come
back on Thursday evening and on Friday
we would sometimes go to like the Home
Office for maybe like half a day there
sometimes we would work from home if we
had maybe like client conference calls
or meetings or something like that
and then a lot of times we would like
take like Friday afternoon off and just
be available via email because during
the week I mean we worked a lot of hours
so Friday a lot of times it was a little
bit of a slower day the reason why I'm
telling you that is some of my friends
and I we would get together on like
Friday afternoon maybe play a round of
golf
we drank beer Coors Light at the time or
we would do some other activity maybe go
for a hike or something like that my
friend a few years before that maybe
like 2005 he got a beer brewing kit from
his parents and it was just sort of like
one of the standard kits maybe it cost
about a hundred bucks and it sat in his
closet for a couple years well I had a
house at the time and my other buddies
they they had apartments and they also
were married so they had a little bit
more bed more restrictions about brewing
in the house cuz it can make a mess and
we didn't know what we were doing so by
default because I had the extra freedom
we brewed up my place and I actually
have a video I need to go back and
but I have a video of the first time we
brewed my brother-in-law Sam he actually
joined us because he had brewed a couple
times with some of his friends or
roommates or something in college so we
invited him over to sort of show us what
to do it was a complete show
we made all sorts of mistakes but we
really loved the process and again I was
back in I think like February of 2007 or
something like that and we loved the
process so much that we brewed like a
couple more batches of beer before the
first batch was even ready to drink
that's important because we actually the
beer wasn't that good I'll be honest
with you the first few batches of beer
they were not good at all
and again we loved the process so we
went ahead and brewed more beer before
the first batch was ready to know that
it didn't taste good and we had a few
more batches in the queue ready to drink
and cool thing is my friends we all
still brew like I think there were two
of my other friends plus my
brother-in-law Sam we all still brew now
some some of us Brut more often than
others and some of us got into it a
little bit more it was me I was the
person who got into it the most some of
the first few batches of beer that we
brewed we entered into the Sam Adams
longshots homebrew competition which
anyone can enter I think it was I think
it's free to enter you just have to send
in your entry and if your beer wins then
Sam Adams will like brew the beer and
distribute it across the nation funny
fact someone from my first homebrew club
back in the Atlanta one so right when I
was getting involved in like homebrew a
person I knew that would I would hang
out with him and drink beers with him he
actually won and his beer was
distributed somewhere in like 2010
something like that so in that timeframe
anyway the point is we entered a few of
those beers and they were not very good
however I was very in
with the process of like brewing the
beer entering it getting feedback and
having to adapt and do better so after a
couple competitions that I entered on my
own I wanted to get better and one of
the recommendations when I talked to
more experienced Brewers and judges and
stuff they were like hey you should
become a beer judge and then you'll
understand what the judges are ranking
so I really don't intubate judging so
over the period of I think it was like I
can't remember maybe I got my beer judge
certification program credentials in
like 2009 I think that sounds right so
back in 2009 I took the test which is a
very difficult test and I started
judging a bunch so I started judging all
the time and back in the day I was doing
maybe like four or five competitions a
year and I would spend you know
something like twelve or sixteen hours
over the course of a weekend judging
beer hanging out with other beer judges
talking about beer drinking beer and it
was all very educational and fun I mean
after all you're literally drinking beer
now the tough part is sometimes you had
to wake up really early and start
judging beer and like 9:00 in the
morning or something so that was a
little yeah you have to adjust but you
can judge a beer just drinking like 1 to
2 ounces of it something like that
and you know once you get used to it you
can judge really quick and you don't
have to drink that much of it so you got
to keep it under control
of course I even got so into the judging
that I ended up teaching other people
how to judge so I guess I sort of
progressed in the BJCP the beer judge
certification program far enough where I
could grade exams now think about this
this is a beer judging test and it
sounds like it should be easy right you
just drink some beer however
it's a fairly complicated you have a lot
of different beer styles and it's not
just hey is this good or not it's very
specific you look at the appearance you
look at the aroma
I guess you look at the appearance and
you smell the aroma you taste the flavor
you talk about the mouthfeel and then
you're you're judging it against a
specific criteria for this style so
again it's not just hey is this beer
good or not you're actually judging it
against a fixed style so if you think
about I guess one of the good analogies
that maybe some people are familiar with
it's like dog breeds so you have what is
it the Westminster Dog Show and they
judge a dog against how the breed is
supposed to look now I'm not a huge fan
of that I have a border collie they're
they're bred for their intelligence not
how they look exactly but that's another
story for another day anyway the point
is when you're judging beer it's a very
an academic sort of process and further
you may have a very good and excellent
delicious beer that you love to drink
however if it doesn't fit the proper
style that the person entered it into
well it's not going to score as well
because it's not what it was intended to
be for example let's say you brew a
stout and it's a it's a dark beer or
something like in Guinness right but you
entered it into the pale ale category
those are very different beers so you
could you could imagine if you if you
were expecting to get a pale ale and you
ended up with a stout even if it was an
excellent stout that is not a good
example of a pale ale
hence it wouldn't do that while in
competition so that's how I got started
into being a beer geek and a beer judge
and at this point most of my friends are
somehow either home brewers they work at
breweries they're associated with the
alcohol industry or something like that
and it turns out that works out pretty
well for me because if I like to drink
beer I'm probably not gonna hang out
with people that don't like to drink
beer oh my god with some people right
but if we're like hey you wanna you know
grab a beer after work or something like
that
well if you're not drinking beer it's
not as much fun so I'll leave it at that
I got a million stories about beer and
I'm sure in future episodes I'll talk
more about it let's get to the three
questions for today the first question
is what is the best the very best
WordPress theme for affiliate sites now
this one is a little bit it's a little
tough to answer but I'll just tell you
straight up at first and then I'll give
you all the details around it so it
really doesn't matter you can use
basically whatever theme you want to use
if you hear someone telling you that you
have to use a specific theme because
whatever reason they fill in there
whatever great features or formatting or
whatever they're usually an affiliate
for that theme so their incentives and
their priorities are much different than
yours they're making a recommendation so
that they get a commission now I am NOT
above that I'm not above making a
recommendation so at some point in this
conversation here we are going to talk
about some themes that I would recommend
and I am indeed affiliates for them but
I will tell you straight up you can use
whatever theme you want and it will
probably be fine the main thing for me
is I want the theme to stay out of my
way and load fairly fast I want this
site to look clean and I want it to be
easy to read I want to communicate I
don't care if there are boxes or little
checkmarks instead of a you know an
unordered list a little bullet point it
doesn't really matter that much
the other portion of it is I don't want
to struggle with the settings on the
theme when you get a new theme
it's usually a little complicated there
are our options there are decisions to
be made if you're starting a new site
you don't want to waste your time trying
to figure out the settings and I can
tell you it's very frustrating and
you're trying to do a good job you're
trying to make your site look
presentable you want it to look perfect
even which is almost impossible to do
the point is the fewer options the
better now let me give you an example I
know some people may be thinking hey I
see many sites out there and I see the
ones that look formatted nice and I'm
more impressed with those my argument is
that's not really necessary as long as
you could communicate clearly so if you
look at a site like medium.com you'll
notice that it's just black text on a
white background that's it it's just
clean and it's plain and they let the
content speak for itself that's what I
want to do now generally I just tell
people the theme doesn't matter that
much as long as it looks okay as long as
it looks good enough so it doesn't have
to look perfect it doesn't need to be a
custom design or anything like that
you do want it to load fast there are
some themes that are just big and
bloated and they load slow they're
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