As an affiliate marketer, I am always curious about the different types of programs that are out there, teaching people how to start an online business. So, in today’s review, I’ll be discussing one that is seldom heard of – The Challenge by Ed Dale. What’s in the program and who is it catered for?
I had the opportunity to try it out and here are my honest opinions.
What Is The Challenge All About
The Challenge is created by Ed Dale, a long time internet marketer from Australia who also conduct private workshops. It’s a solo course that is broken down into 5 modules, one bonus bootcamp and live show (where you get to submit your questions personally to Ed) – so that’s like 7 classes altogether.
The topics that he covered will teach you from niche selection to creating an email funnel. Each module comes with video presentations, PDF tutorials and some task based exercises.
What I Like About The Course
(1) Although it sounds like a crash course, the learning process is very much self-paced, but Ed encourages you to take at least one class per day. The topics are well organized and the media quality is also quite good considering that this is a free course.
(2) Unlike other programs that teach you to hunt for ‘hot niches’, Ed believes that nothing is too small to become a profitable market. This is crucial when finding a business niche because people tend to chase after ‘what’s making money’ and forgotten that there are other products with the same opportunity too – just less hype.
(3) The techniques that he teaches are flexible and can be used for affiliate marketing or if you are interested in selling your own digital products.
(4) Ed also encourages you to write good quality content (instead of using PLR articles), how to write it and how to repurpose the content into PDFs and videos.
(5) For those who aren’t familiar with the list building technique, Module 4 will walk you through some of the basics using Aweber as the recommended autoresponder tool.
(6) In the last Module, Ed will show you ways to search for affiliate programs and it’s eye opening for beginners to know that there are many opportunities out there besides the Clickbank Marketplace.
What I Dislike About The Course
(1) Firstly, to implement what you learned from the course, you are steered towards using their own web publishing platform called the Market Pro Max, in which they believe has ALL the features you need to market a successful business online.
For a 14 day free trial, the team will connect your custom domain to the platform and the website will be ready in about 24 to 48 hours. However, there are limitations – there are only so much template that you can use AND you are NOT ALLOWED to do any customization to the ready made site.
(2) Should you decide to use this platform anyway, it will cost you $197/month or $1597/year to maintain the site. That’s a lot of investment, if you asked me and how good is the builder exactly?
Well, I couldn’t find a single user review online so there’s no way of knowing until you commit to the costly plan. 
(3) Secondly, they don’t teach you about doing keyword research, which is one of the most fundamental techniques in acquiring (free and massive) online traffic. Let’s put this into perspective; before you can grow an email list, you need to have REAL people coming to your site.
And the way people land on websites these days is through search queries which are actually valuable keywords that you are missing out. If you don’t have content targeting these keywords, no one is going to discover your product much less, signing up for your offer.
Does that make sense?
(4) Third – At some point of the module, they recommend using Fiverr for helping you build the online business. To those of you who don’t know, this is a service place where you can hire gigs (small tasks) for as low as $5. The problem is that, you usually get what you pay for.
From personal experience, you can’t expect a good quality job done for $5. Of course, there are talented and skillful people on Fiverr, but you really need to spend time searching and trying out, before you take their word for it. By the end of the day, you might be better off doing the task yourself.
My Final Thoughts About The Challenge
Ed and his team are pretty enthusiastic when it comes to sharing what they know and they don’t try to up sell too many products. However, I don’t see why you need to pay for a unique publisher when there’s the free WordPress platform available for use. Even a good hosting service wouldn’t cost you more than a couple of hundred dollars per year.
A quick visit to Ed’s website clearly shows that he does what he preached. For example, his content is quite genuine, but he focuses more on creating YouTube videos. So, if video marketing is your style, you could learn a thing or two from him.
Another thing that I want to point out is that outsourcing is a great idea, but only when you’ve mastered the basics AND actually have the budget for doing so. Otherwise, if you add up the fee from the publishing platform (Market Pro Max), custom domain, autoresponder plan (Aweber) and outsourcing tasks (Fiverr), you could end up spending outrageously than you think.
The truth is, there’s no need for all these and there are ways that you can bootstrapped.
How To Bootstrap For An Online Business
There may be a lot of marketing hype out there, but you only need three things when it comes to starting an online business – a website, a keyword tool and a good training course. Most resources would direct you to three different places to acquire them and you need to pay three different prices without knowing if they would integrate nicely with one another.
Fortunately, all of them can be found easily within Wealthy Affiliate, at a fraction of the price. You see, back in 2014, I knew nothing about building a website or driving online traffic. But when I joined this community of online entrepreneurs, I learned so much about affiliate marketing that I didn’t even have to crack my savings to earn my first dollar online.
What they teach is so fundamental and so effective that the results can be very long lasting. In case you are wondering, here are just some of the tools and training that are all included within Wealthy Affiliate.
Alright there. I hope that this review has given you a good idea what The Challenge by Ed Dale is all about. If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to leave them in the comment below and I’ll respond as soon as I can.
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How to Find a Niche Product to Sell Online
Very interesting post, Cathy. I like how you describe the Ed Dale program and then compare it to Wealthy Affiliate. I am new to web business however I am not new with online jobs.
I have heard about Fiverr and as a freelancer, I do not like their program. UpWork is way more resourceful and offers so many different options to the employers as well as the freelancers.
Enough said about online jobs. I much prefer starting my own business online – it is far more interesting.
Thanks for the heads up, Cathy!
The Ed Dale price tag of $1,600 if a bit hefty to maintain a site, learn to create a digital product, use keywords, and outsource things to Fiverr. I suppose people pay for these things and it is good you are being honest with your readers. I think for most budding entrepreneurs and hopeful bloggers, your “bootstrap” suggestion of Wealthy Affiliate is a much more reasonable solution.
I have to agree with Chazz. The Challenge does look interesting until you added up all the associated costs! And while Fiverr may have its uses, it seems like your right about getting what you pay for. To charge five dollars for a task the seller can’t be spending much time on each gig. If you are working on something that you like, it’s not hard to write your own articles instead of outsourcing.
The challenge was looking interesting until I saw the price. For that kind of money, you could buy an existing website with a proven track record.
You’re absolutely right that Wealthy Affiliate is the best place for affiliate marketing training. Most likely the training they give you in the trial period is equivalent (or better) than what you would get from Mr. Dale. I know for a fact they cover keyword research techniques.
Great post Cathy! Thank you for this valuable information.
For someone that is new to online business, it is so easy to get the shinny object syndrome, where you buy the next great program promising fancy homes and fast cars. Just like you said, master the basics before you try something else. I totally agree with that and I love the Wealthy Affiliate community. You gain so much knowledge and I truly like the interaction with everyone.