My friends and mentors Andrew Hansen and Collen Slater just released a free video promoting their new product — Niche Blogging Institute. The video is great. Andrew reveals three important keys to niche marketing. I recommend that you take a few minutes to watch it. It is a promotional video, but it is great content and you don't even have to opt-in. You can even skip the first 4 minutes if you want to jump straight to the content.
Anyway, seeing that video made me think about Andrew's other products — specifically Firepow. I use Firepow, I have promoted it, and I get a lot of questions about the Firepow software. Specifically, and specifically whether or not it is worth the cost.
When I am asked this question, I usually tell people that it depends on your business model. I often think in terms of “wide” business models and “narrow” business models. A wide business model would imply that you have lots of streams of revenue, and this probably means lots of web sites (and lots of blogs).
If you have a narrow business model, then you might only have a few streams of revenue and a couple of blogs.
I like wide business models because they are well suited to passive income and can allow you to diversify easily in many cases. Nothing wrong with narrow business models — I am just a fan of wide.
When you have a wide business model, Firepow is easy to justify in a lot of ways.
Here is a simple one. Check out this image from inside of FirePow.
As you can see, at this writing, I have 74 blogs live inside of Firepow. Most of them have something that needs to be updated. These updates are critical for security and blog functionality. What a pain.
Let's say that without Firepow, it takes just 15 minutes once a month to update the plugins and WordPress software on a blog. (It takes me much longer some days, LOL). If I have 74 blogs that means I need to spend something like 18 hours updating sites every month.
With Firepow, I just click the big green button.
If my time is only worth $10 an hour, that simple task “costs me” $180. Now, I know don't actually have to spend $180 out of my pocket that day — but in reality my time is worth more. If I take that 18 hours and invest it in another Firepow blog, it will be worth a lot more than $180 to me.
So, Firepow is totally worth it to me — that's my answer.
Wondering if it is worth it for you? Andrew let's you try Firepow for a dollar. But whatever you do, make sure your investments in your business make sense for your business model.
Thanks,
Mark
I think my jaw about fell off when you said you have 74 blogs …. holy schmoley.
Thanks Mark good points. I love Firepow but have some issues with it. Its great as long as you stick to the default themes. But I tend to tweak my themes have them layout in a way that suites me.
It never fails I have had trouble with firepow re-writing my blog code and totally hosing up my blogs. (just my experience – and a frustrating one)
If I were to create a lot of generic blogs this is a fantastic tool to use and well worth the month
I had never heard of Firepow. I will definitely check in out. As someone who updates lots of blogs for all of my clients, this could come in handy! Thank you!
74 blogs? That’s a lot to keep up with. My little 2 keep me busy and somedays I think i need help with them. Great post Mark . Thanks for the information.
Gail J Richardson
Hi Mark, just wanted to make you some questions regarding Firepow:
I want to “attack” the spanish market too as I’m Mexican and know some business opportunities on this language, is Firepow able to help me using spanish content and adding it to it’s blog network?.
Could you say what’s your avg income fromfirepow’s blogs?
Does Firepow Features any kind of “niche shopping” blogs like the ones created with “wordpress mage” or “build a niche store” ??
Could you share any thoughts about wordpress mage vs firepow?
Rogelio;
Thanks for your comment. As far as I know, the auto content features of Firepow are limited to English. Income from FP blogs varies depending on the business model and your level of effort. People make anywhere from zero to thousands per month with blogs that are on Firepow. In my opinion, your first goal should be to make enough from the service to make it pay for itself. Then it does not matter….
Regarding niche stores, no. I personally use phpbay for that.
I am not familiar with Mage in detail.
Hope that helps.
you never explained if it is worth getting firepow if you have only a few blogs? I only have 4 blogs as of now. I do not mind updating my info. I do see your point with the many you have but is this software truly worth getting if you are happy with 4 blogs. will it make a difference.?