Stack That Money is an affiliate marketing forum that offers a paid membership. Some people swear that this place is as good as it gets, but is it really? Is STM worth the money? Or is Stack That Money a scam that you should be avoiding?
In the days of the Internet we have access to an abundance of information right at our fingertips. A lot of information that people pay big money for can easily be found for free. In fact, you could become successful with affiliate marketing without paying for any sort of training, forum access, or anything like that. The nice thing about having a training program or a quality for them to guide you in the right direction, is that the information is well put together and will help get you to the end goal faster and without all the trial and error.
In this review of STM I will be going over what I like most, the community, the cost of being a member and whether it is worth it, who it is most suitable for and more.
Stack That Money Review
STM (at stmforum.com) is an affiliate marketing community, a.k.a. forum, that claims is for people at all levels of experience. It is true that it contains useful information for people at any level, however, I would not recommend it for everyone and you will see why later in this review.
But anyway… They say that whether you are an IM veteran or a newbie looking to launch your first campaign this is the place for you.
STM was started in 2011 with the goal of being a networking hub for veteran affiliate marketers. Since then they have evolved to be more newbie friendly in because of this have a lot more members that are just getting into the whole IM thing.
STM actually provides more than just education on the forum. They also host a live events although the large majority of members aren’t going to be attending them.
The Cost of Being a Member
The cost of being a member is $99 a month. Now is this really worth it when you can go join one of many other free Internet marketing forums? This is the big question that really needs to be answered before buying in. There are plenty other sites, such as Warrior Forum that allow members to join for free.
Is It Worth The Cost?
It appears that the quality of this forum is going downhill. They still do have a lot of good content, ranging from newbie to expert, but things seem to be taking a turn for the worse.
I was not a member of the site back in the glory days, but I have read a lot of reviews saying that it was better back in the old days. What seems to be happening is that there are a lot more newbie members on the forum that basically just ask questions and don’t really help out much. They don’t really add any value to the community because they don’t have any experience and really anything valuable they can share.
What I Like Most
You will find tutorials, campaign walk-throughs, answers to simple questions, and a bunch of other postings on this forum. My favorite is probably the campaign walk-throughs.
Why?
Well because I think getting a detailed look at people’s campaigns can be a big help. You will find ones that have been successful in once I have failed. I think all too much people are guided with what to do but aren’t told or shown enough of what not to do, learning from other people’s failures can be a big help, sometimes I think even a bear help then being shown what to do.
You won’t find many case studies on free forums like you do at STM and this really makes a big difference. There is no doubt that there is some serious value in this.
Major Focus On Paid Traffic
One of the major focuses at STM is paid traffic.
Paid traffic often gets a bad rap because… Well of course you have to pay for it, however it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sure, it can be a bad thing if you are inexperienced and don’t know what you’re doing because you can really blow through money fast, but you also can get fast and good quality traffic if you do know what you’re doing.
The Community
Like I mentioned earlier, the form seems to be dying down a bit when it comes to quality and valuable advice, teachings, conversation, etc. There seems to be an increase in repetitive questions being asked by newbies and this really decreases the value of the forum overall in my opinion.
That said, I might be talking a little too harsh about STM. At any given time you can log on and be connected with hundreds of other affiliate marketers, so it obviously does still have life.
Another good thing is that, unlike free forums, people don’t just join and then sit on their hands. They just paid $99 to become a member so naturally they are going to be more active to make it worth it.
There are supposedly even some top level affiliates like Charles Ngo and John Chow, who makes over $40k per month (or should I say used to make $40,000 a month… Since MOBE has been shut down), although I don’t know this for certain.
Who STM Is Most Suitable For
As they tell you on the website, they do have information for everybody. They have guides for newbies and they have info for intermediate and advanced affiliate marketers. That said… I would say that is probably a better choice for people who already know a thing or two and have some experience under their belts.
Not That Great for Beginners
Cost
One big reason why I wouldn’t recommend it for beginners is because of the cost. $99 per month is a fairly large price and there is no real reason for a beginner to need to pay a price like this. Beginner information and guides can easily be found for free online.
Information Overload
Back in 2015 I didn’t even know about this place but I’m sure it would have felt very overwhelming to me. There is a lot of info and not all that much guidance, which can make it difficult to know what you should be doing and when.
You would think the more information the better, but there is such a thing as there being too much.
They do have the 40 day newbie guide that beginners can go through but I don’t know… it’s good but I feel there is better available. It is definitely better than nothing though. It’s better than going at it on your own.
Paid Traffic
As I said, paid traffic gets a bad rap a lot of the times although it is not necessarily a bad thing. However… I do usually recommend free traffic methods for beginners, at least when you’re just starting out. This way there is less risk involved.
Final Thoughts – Should You Join?
STM is in no way a scam. This is a legitimate forum that also provides some good training. Is it worth the $99 per month? This is debatable but too many people it is.
There are lots of little nuggets of golden information here, one of the downsides being that you have to sift through a lot of other information to possibly find these golden nuggets. Forum style websites like this come with their pros and cons. They encourage people to share whatever they want on the various subjects, and this is great, but things can also get a bit messy and sometimes disorganized.
If you are a newbie and looking for some good guidance to get started in affiliate marketing, I would really suggest taking a look at Wealthy Affiliate. Wealthy Affiliate is in affiliate marketing training program that provides very clear step-by-step training. And what is nice is that they also provide the tools necessary to get started, such as a keyword research tool, two free websites, etc.
Wealthy Affiliate is actually the place I started with back in 2015 when I first started looking for ways to make money online, so I know that it works based on my experience. You can click the button below if you want to read my review to learn more…
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my review and found it helpful to some degree. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please leave them below and I will get back to you as soon as I can 🙂
My Make Money Online Guide
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