The Keyword Academy Review: Learn How To Make Money Online

The Keyword Academy (TKA) is basically a step by step guide put together by internet marketing and SEO specialist Courtney Tuttle and his protégé Mark Butler. The reason that I’m writing a Keyword Academy review is because I’ve personally been using the program for roughly 2 years now and wanted to break it down for people that are interested in learning how to make money online with legitimate methods.

Most people want to make money online, but most people start out and don’t have a clue what they are doing. These guys put together a straightforward plan to help people learn how they can build websites and work from the comfort of their own home. If you are interested in learning how you can make some extra cash, you may want to read this review and see what you think. This TKA review reflects my personal experience (Andrew Pavelski) with this program and all that I know about the system.

What is The Keyword Academy?

The Keyword Academy is a system that was developed by internet marketer Courtney Tuttle a.k.a. Court back in 2009. Originally it was called “Keyword Sniper” but he decided to change the name because the name didn’t really fit the company well. He put together a system of step by step videos with the intention of helping people make money online by selecting appropriate keywords. What exactly is a keyword? It’s basically a specific word or phrase that people use when they are searching the internet.

The Keyword Academy Diagram (Simple Explanation)

So if I wanted to find out about kitchen table sets, I would likely search for “kitchen table sets” in Google. If I was using the method that he taught, I would try to buy the domain name “KitchenTableSets.com” and put up all content related to “kitchen table sets.” Then I would link to that website from as many other websites as possible with targeted anchor texts. The whole idea was that getting enough links (or backlinks) to the website with proper anchor texts would increase its positioning in the Google search engine.

Basically once you have a good positioning in the search engine and are getting enough traffic from people searching for “kitchen table sets,” you can put up either Google AdSense, an affiliate program, or a link to a store selling the keyword that you are promoting. In this case it would make the most sense to put up a store link selling actual “kitchen table sets” because that’s probably what people would be searching for if they ended up on the website “KitchenTableSets.com.” Once you have the website set up, properly optimized for the search engines, and are getting enough traffic, you will profit.

The concept is pretty simple which is why many people are drawn to The Keyword Academy. Additionally, Courtney Tuttle has made a lot of money by using this method himself and has done a lot of hard work helping people replicate the results that he’s gotten over the years. He also has his sidekick and business partner Mark Butler helping teach people how it’s done.

My Personal Experience with The Keyword Academy

In 2009 I couldn’t find a summer job…

I had originally found out about The Keyword Academy in the summer of 2009 when I was looking for a job to help support my college tuition. I had applied at various places around town, but hadn’t heard back from any companies and knew that finding jobs in my community was going to be a total bitch. Although I probably would have taken a job if I would have been offered one, I decided to look online and see what was available. I ended up searching some random blogs about making money online and then just randomly stopped by Courtney Tuttle’s personal website where he talks about Internet Marketing.

Randomly finding an eBook

I saw that he had released a new eBook about making money online and saw that it was available for free. I decided that I had nothing to lose by downloading and checking out his eBook. All of the methods and techniques outlined in the eBook made total sense to me. I wasn’t familiar with SEO or internet marketing, but using targeted keywords and getting an explanation of how the search engines worked is something that I really liked. I decided to check out The Keyword Academy and see what it was all about.

Signing up for a free trial

On The Keyword Academy website, I noticed that the cost to join the program was about $30 per month, but I could get full access to the program for just $1 my first month, plus I could cancel my membership at any time. I figured that for one dollar I had nothing to lose and everything to gain so I splurged and spent a buck to see if this site was legitimate. They had set up a step by step video system that literally walked me through how to make a website, how to target keywords, how to market posts, and how to earn money. Now, they don’t even charge the dollar, you simply get it free for your first month without having to pay anything (pretty damn good deal if you ask me).

At first I loved the program…

I loved every bit of the program and what I had been learning at the time back in the summer of 2009. When I first joined, I was pretty much an amateur at this make money online stuff and didn’t really know much about what I was doing. I ended up buying probably over 50 different domains and currently run about 10 of those 50 domains that I purchased back in 2009. They are all doing well right now and all have potential for growth which I like.

Making money online wasn’t as easy as I thought

Originally, I was all about making money online and as much money as possible. Unfortunately, making money wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be with this method. It actually took a lot of hard work and a fairly long time before I saw some results. Starting out and not seeing instant results is something that’s psychologically tough for any internet marketer to overcome. When you put in a lot of work and aren’t earning from it right away, you can get frustrated. Fortunately, I stuck with the program and am currently making over $1000 per month with the methods that were outlined over at The Keyword Academy.

HubPages and InfoBarrel experiments to make money online

When I first was starting out, I was all gung-ho about various keywords like car insurance, loans, lawyers, and all of the keywords that had the biggest AdSense payouts. I participated in writing keyword targeted articles on my own websites and have written over 200 articles on HubPages as well as over 500 articles on InfoBarrel. At the time it was a great learning experience even though I currently only make about $5 to $10 from about 600 total articles today on those websites. Although it may seem like a lot of articles on those sites, at one point they were making me about $1000 per month, but earnings dropped off significantly with search engine modifications that have been made.

Surviving college without debt or loans

The Keyword Academy’s methods have helped me survive college debt free and with plenty of money in the bank. I could afford to pay my apartment bills each month as well as get through a 4 year degree without taking out any loans or going into debt. Although I had some help from my family with making payments, the recurring monthly income from my little online business that I set up with The Keyword Academy really helped me stay financially afloat and it’s something that I’m definitely proud of.

My earnings with The Keyword Academy methods

My earnings with the methods taught by The Keyword Academy have fluctuated significantly since I first started. When I first started, I was making money from websites that currently are out of commission because they got swatted out of the search engines. Originally my focus was to make money by setting up a ton of smaller websites, but that method didn’t work very well because smaller spammy sites got weeded out of the search engines. My websites that are doing really well generally have awesome articles on them that people really like.

Going from $0 per day to $33 per day ($1000 per month)

It has not been easy to go from making literally jack shit (pennies) per day on Google AdSense to over $1000 per month. Now that I know what I’m doing, I literally could help anyone (that was willing to work hard) make a lot of money online with these methods. In my first month with The Keyword Academy, my earnings increased from about $2 per day to around $10 per day which was impressive. I remember when I hit $16 on a random day with Google AdSense and thought I was some kind of earnings God. Just that single day of earning $16 pumped me up to continue what I was doing.

At the end of July 2009, I had earned about $500 and was super amped. My earnings per day had increased again to average of around $15. At the end of August 2009, I had earned over $800 and was impressed that my hard work was really paying off. It’s important to note that I was seriously working my ass off though. I literally was working for 10 hours straight and some days typing 15 or more articles each over 600 words. One day in July 2009, I typed 20 articles each that were over 600 words and they were all really well written. At the end of every day I had a headache because I worked so freaking hard writing content.

Currently I’m making $1200+ per month online

Although I’m not some hot shot earner making six figures on the internet, I am making enough money to support myself. Plus, I’m in full control of my job which I like and I know that all I have to do in order to increase my earnings is to put in more work; it’s a simple concept. I think of each of my websites as a piece of digital real estate that I own and can work on to increase my profits. I like the fact that I have a recurring income and that I can increase my online earnings by just adding content and links to the websites that I already own.

My primary focus isn’t really on just making money online anymore

The thing is that even though The Keyword Academy taught me strategies that I could use to make major bank online, I don’t really even care about the money anymore. Obviously I need enough money to support myself and what I want to do, but I don’t want to write about loans, insurance, and lawyers because honestly, I don’t give two flying fucks about any of those topics. Instead, I run some websites that I’m actually passionate about even though they don’t really pay as much for advertising. One website that I own gets well over 40,000 unique visitors per month and the advertisement clicks don’t pay shit. The reason that I work on it is because I’m so interested in the topic that I can’t even stop myself from working on the website.

With this website at AndrewPavelski.com, my intent was to share my personal experiences and journey with others. I like to keep track of what I’ve done and share what I’ve learned with other people, which is pretty much why I started this website. There are three websites that I currently spend most of my time working on these days. With that said, I do still have about 10 other websites in my arsenal that are either currently making money for me or could be in the future. I have had days this year where I’ve made over $180 just from Google AdSense in a single day. One of my articles was linked to by Bing.com news and others have been linked by the Huffington Post.

Additionally, this year I was averaging $50+ per day from one website through an affiliate program. My goal isn’t to come across like some guy pretending to be a make money online guru, because I’m not a “guru” – I just have learned strategies that work and I know what I’m doing. As of late though, I did some soul searching and asked myself how I could do something that I loved and was passionate about while still making money from it. I got back to my roots and started working on stuff I cared about like this website, a music website, and another.

The point of me sharing my entire story with you is that if you want to make money online, I really think that the methods taught over at The Keyword Academy will do the trick. In my experience, making money online isn’t rocket science, but like any job, you have to be willing to work at it. If you don’t have much experience, it’s probably not going to come easy. Unfortunately, you don’t get to sit around and watch YouTube videos all day or sit back in a chair and watch the profits come in; that’s not how it works. It takes serious hard work to actually earn money from this program.

CLICK HERE TO TRY THE KEYWORD ACADEMY NOW FREE

Goal of The Keyword Academy: Make Money Online with SEO, Keywords, and Link Building

The goal of The Keyword Academy is to help people Make Money Online through SEO (Search Engine Optimization), targeted keyword selection, and link building (e.g. backlinks). In an economy where people are looking for jobs and don’t know where they are going to make their next dollar, turning to the internet for earnings is a smart idea. The internet is global and people from all different countries can reach your website. Therefore, you aren’t just reaching a local audience, but one that is worldwide. The cool thing is that you have a chance to profit from all of the worldwide visitors as well; not something most businesses can claim.

SEO – They teach SEO a.k.a. Search Engine Optimization through your keyword selection, process of getting backlinks, and have created a guide to help you set your website up so that it’s fully optimized. If you don’t know much about SEO, this program will teach you the basics of what you need to know in order to successfully get your website ranked in the search engines.

Keyword Selection – The Keyword Academy places a huge emphasis on targeted keyword selection when deciding to set up a website. They have a formula that helps you select keywords based on your ability to profit from them. Obviously nobody wants to put in a lot of work and have nothing to show for it because they selected the wrong keywords. Have you ever seen a blogger write a lot of content that literally nobody cares about and then complains that they make only pennies from AdSense? I have and TKA will help you avoid falling into this trap and help you to determine whether your keywords have potential to make you money.

Link Building – This is the bread and butter of the program and something that I hate doing. It involves writing articles on other websites and linking to main articles that are featured on your own website. They have a program (formerly called the Guest Posting System) now called PostRunner which is a network of websites that allows you to get links to your website by writing small 300 word articles. There are hundreds of websites in the PostRunner system of varying PageRanks and ages. Basically the more links that you have pointing to your website, the more traffic you are going to get and the more money you are going to earn; it’s a simple concept.

Google AdSense – They teach you how to get a Google AdSense account and provide instructions as to how you can get AdSense set up on your website and earn money. They talk about the best placements for your ads, the types of ads that end up converting the best, the color of the link text, and more. They really go into detail about how you can start a business that allows you to make a lot of money by using none other than AdSense.

CLICK HERE TO TRY THE KEYWORD ACADEMY FOR 1 MONTH FREE

Advantages of The Keyword Academy

If you want to make money online but don’t yet have a game plan, The Keyword Academy is a great place to start. In my personal experience, the advantages and benefits that you get from your subscription outweigh the drawbacks. Okay, so let’s break it down more extensively for the people that are actually interested in The Keyword Academy. What are some of the reasons that people like this system?

Full time job – There are plenty of people using The Keyword Academy that have turned this system into a full time job. Seriously, there are tons of members that are earning over $3000 USD per month. There are people that have proven that they are making up to $20000 per month with this system; they have literally proved their earnings. What I’m trying to say is that if you master the system, you can turn it into a full time income. Obviously this type of thing isn’t for everyone and I’d be willing to bet that the majority of people that are subscribers will never even crack $1000 per month.

Part time job – If you’re looking for a part time way to make money online, then The Keyword Academy is perfect. If you already have a job and/or aren’t worried about earnings, you can use it for a little experiment or to just test out. I actually think that it’s kind of fun because you can set an income goal and work towards it. Treat it like a little side job or money making experiment and I guarantee that you will have success if you follow the methods that are outlined. Sure you may not be making $10,000 per month, but you will build up a nice passive income.

Community – The community and sense of camaraderie among the members is second to none. If you are contributing, asking questions, trying to help other people, and are doing your best to learn from others, you will love this community. They even have a “karma system” where you can give someone positive karma (+) or negative karma (-) for their posts. Most people contribute a lot of information and you can quickly learn from the experts. There will be people of all skill levels in the community so you won’t have to worry about being new. I know that you will get the help that you need; most people are willing to help.

Support – Court and Mark have hired a whole team of people to help you out once you subscribe. There are moderators on the forums, programmers, and is a tech support team. Although it may take about one business day for you to get emails back from the support team, most of the time they will respond within one business day. If you need any questions answered, people on the forums are usually willing to help. In my experience, there has been adequate support for everything I’ve needed.

Price (Cost) – At around $33 per month, this program is a great deal. I think that the pricing is perfect, especially if you are just starting out. It’s not too expensive, but it’s not too high either. At one point they bumped their price up to $67 per month or something and kept it $33 for current members. However, they decided that it would be fairer to just keep the program at $33 for everyone. I think that they made the right decision there because it’s affordable and isn’t too steep for new people that want to join.

Forums – The Keyword Academy forums are really one of the best ways to learn how to make money online. There are people of all skill levels coming together and sharing their personal experiences. You can share your struggles, triumphs, and read about how others achieved success with the methods that are taught. There is an option to get the membership for $30 per month, but for $3 extra (at $33) you get the forums. It’s really a no brainer to make sure you get your membership with the forums. At one point I got the basic $30 and upgraded to the $33 per month so that I could see what the community was all about. The extra few bucks was well worth it because I could read about what the people making serious bank were doing and implement those strategies.

Free backlinks network – The Keyword Academy supplies all members with a free network of websites called “PostRunner.” Post Runner allows you to market your website through the art of link building. Basically once you set up a website, you will write smaller 300 word articles to post up on websites that you do not own. In exchange, you get links pointing back at your website which helps it move up in the search engine rankings, which ultimately increases its total traffic and earning potential.

Badge system – In the forums, they devised what is referred to as a “badge system.” Each person is capable of applying for badges by showing Mark (co-founder of TKA) their earnings. Initially, there won’t be a badge by your name. But all you need to do is take a screenshot of your AdSense earnings, upload it to your username, and Mark will review it and approve your badge. The reason that there is approval is so that the badge is actually legitimate… In other words, you cannot just say, “I make $10K per month” and get the $10K badge – you have to actually prove it. There are other types of badges though including focus badges, words published badges, and more. The whole system is really cool that they have set up.

Motivational challenges – In order to encourage people to always do their best and stay motivated, they usually run challenges from time to time. The last challenge I remember was called like the Spicy Habanero Salsa challenge or something weird like that. It sounded like something off of the Taco Bell menu, but it was cool because they gave away $1000 to the winner as well as free memberships to other people that did well. These challenges motivate people to work harder and be more productive which I think is another good idea.

Step by step instructions – The whole program is so simplified that they have step by step instructions with a guided checklist for you to cross off when you are done with each step. I don’t think that they could have made it any simpler. I personally preferred a more advanced method and just watching the “core videos” back when they had them, but a lot has changed since I first joined. Now they have text instructions as well as videos to accompany the text. If you take it slow and follow their step by step instructional guide, you should have no problem setting up a website and making money from it, period.

Monthly webinars – Although there already is plenty of information in the forums and instructional guide that they’ve put together, they typically always do a monthly webinar highlighting a new aspect of internet marketing. Basically they want to teach you the methods that are working for them. Some examples of topics that they’ve covered in the past include: outsourcing, stages of link building, choosing the right keywords, and being successful online. What else is cool is that they do these webinars live and if you’re a member, you can see them as they are being recorded. If you happen to miss a webinar, you can download them from the database and save them on your computer to watch as many times as you need. Additionally, if you are signed up for a webinar, there is usually a segment near the end where they take questions from members. So if you need some questions answered, they are usually willing to break them down and help. I think that they do an awesome job with these and are providing tons of helpful advice to their members.

It really works – The best part about The Keyword Academy is that it’s not a scam or a sketchy company like most that are in the make money online business. They aren’t trying to scam you or sell you something that doesn’t work. They don’t have big long ugly sales letters and won’t spam your email inbox full of bullshit products. The thing with TKA is that the methods that they preach do work and have worked. Plus, if something doesn’t work, they will come up with a new strategy to share with the community that does work. So you pretty much won’t need to worry about whether or not you’ll make money with it, because you will. I have had personal success with it, and countless other people have as well, it definitely does work.

CLICK HERE TO TRY THE KEYWORD ACADEMY FOR 30 DAYS FREE

Drawbacks of The Keyword Academy

Although my experience with The Keyword Academy has been a positive one, there are a few aspects of the program that aren’t perfect. In fact, I personally wish that they would change a few elements because I think that it could improve. So below I’ve listed a few drawbacks from my direct experience over at The Keyword Academy.

Forums – As you can see above, the forums are a huge advantage and something that I recommend. However, they can be really addicting and feel like information overload at times. There are all kinds of people posting up information in there and some of them literally have no clue what they are talking about. Although you can read about what the major earners are doing, some people get so caught up in the forums that they forget to actually do work. The wealth of advice in these forums is worth the extra money, but make sure you don’t get too caught up reading about what the $1 per month earners are up to or constantly subscribing to every single update.

Not enough emphasis on passions – The primary focus of The Keyword Academy is to teach people how to make money online, and that’s totally fine. However, my problem with it is that it doesn’t place nearly enough emphasis on telling people to choose topics that they actually give a damn about. Sure you can write about loans and bad credit all day until your blue in the face and make some money, but is that seriously what you want to do with your life? Probably not. Will making a lot of money make you happy? No. Will making money online by writing about something you care about make you happy? Yes. I think they’ve got to do a better job at helping people find things they care about, and then taking it from there to see what’s actually profitable and what can be used to keep the person happy, earning money, and not caught in a soulless trap.

Content creation – The way that The Keyword Academy tells people to write content is to pretty much take an article, reword it, and make it about 400 words. Although posting 10000 articles at 400 words is probably going to get you some traffic, I just think that it’s a pretty weak method. If you are writing 400 words and are literally just rewording articles all day, I don’t think you’ll like your job very much; it will be boring as hell. I think that articles should be at least 500 words with some personality… What would you rather read, a reworded Squidoo Lens or original content that someone used their own brain to write? The answer is obvious.

Earnings aren’t instant – If you are expecting to make a ton of money instantly or even within the first month, you should probably go apply at Wal-Mart as a greeter or something because they will be making more than you. I guess if you get a good aged domain and know what you’re doing you could make a fair amount of money in your first 30 days, but you aren’t going to make a quantum leap in the financial aspect of your life. Although I don’t want to be discouraging, I wouldn’t expect to make over $1000 per month with this method until you’ve put in at least 6 months work – and that’s just being realistic.

Courtney Tuttle hiatus – I don’t check out the forums or website every day, heck I’m a busy guy and probably check it out once a month or even less. With that said, I have noticed that Court pretty much turned the business over to Mark and his helpers to run. I think Mark is fairly cool and obviously has had success with the methods, but I always liked hearing from Court. Now that he’s either moved on to bigger and better things or out in Europe partying or renting private yachts, I haven’t heard from him in the forums in awhile. It would definitely be cool to have him back in the community, but as of now things aren’t looking like he’s going to return.

The Keyword Academy Cost: How much is a monthly subscription?

The Keyword Academy Pro Membership: $33 per month (Free First Month)

At the price of $33 per month, I’d say that The Keyword Academy is a good deal. Plus you get your first month of the program for free. You don’t have to continue if you don’t like it and since your first month is free, you have nothing to lose at all. Back in the day they used to charge a dollar for the first month, but figured that it was better to give a people the full experience without them having to pay anything so that they could see what it was all about… When you have to start paying $33 per month, you will be on track to paying it off probably by your third month.

Note: There is also an option to get a membership for $29, but you don’t get access to the forums or downloadable webinars. I have had both memberships and it makes way more sense to get the $33 a month pro membership because the forums are so damn valuable.

CLICK HERE TO TRY THE KEYWORD ACADEMY FOR FREE

What you get with your $33 TKA Membership…

PostRunner – As I already mentioned this is a network of hundreds of websites (maybe thousands now) that you will have access to for free. You can use these websites to help promote articles on your money making sites. To use the system, you write a small article at around 300 words and then post it up on one of these websites to get backlinks to your main money site. The more links that you get, the more traffic you’ll likely get, and the more money you’ll end up making online. Post Runner is a key part of the system and something that gets talked about a lot in the forums.

Access to the forums – In the forums there are members helping other members learn what they can do to increase their earnings. Most people are willing to share their advice, trials and tribulations, as well as their success stories. One team of guys shared how they went from $0 to $15000 per month in just 6 months. They are a pretty rare exception, but it just goes to show you that anything is possible with the right amount of hard work and intelligence.

Live webinars – You’ll also get access to live webinars that are held once per month by Mark Butler, the co-founder of TKA. He answers questions that members have and tries to explain new concepts to help people stay focused and improve their strategies. If you are a member, you can sign up to attend one of these digital meetings and ask questions that you may have. They are a pretty cool experience and each one is usually over 60 minutes in length.

Downloadable webinars – If you don’t attend the webinars live, you will have access to them later to download. You can save them right to your hard drive and watch them as many times as you need to. They are good quality and the nice thing about them is that they are outlined so you can quickly get a general idea of what each one is going to be about. The great thing about these is that you can take notes on where you can improve your strategies and work to always get better at what you’re doing.

Step by step guide to making money online – Obviously the easiest way to make money online is if you have someone showing you the blueprint. These guys couldn’t have laid out a much clearer plan. They have videos as well as extensive written text to help people not get sidetracked. If you just follow what they have outlined, you will likely experience success with learning how to increase website traffic and with making money.

Streamline – Streamline is a feature that they implemented over a year ago that allows you to easily manage your link building process and timeline. I think it is pretty sweet that they are going digital even though I prefer my old school spreadsheets. If you’re new to joining the program, they explain how you can take advantage of Streamline to easily keep track of your progress.

Niche Refinery – The Niche Refinery system was developed to help you sort out profitable keywords from those that won’t make jack shit. Now there is a tool that they recommend called “Keyword Tool Dominator” which is not part of their system, but was invented by a member. I was actually part of the beta trial and have to say that it works awesome. If you are going to become a member of TKA, remember to check out “Keyword Tool Dominator” because it will save you a lot of time.

Tools and Updates – If you’re a member, you’ll also have lifetime access to any updates and tools that they add to the system. They are always looking to expand on what they currently have, and make at least one big update per year. All of the updates and tools have made being a member of The Keyword Academy a great experience thus far.

Freedom to cancel at anytime – When you sign up either via PayPal or credit card, you have the option to cancel your membership at anytime. I ended up cancelling mine for a few months because I was at college mostly focusing on schoolwork and didn’t want to get billed for something that I wasn’t actively using. I ended up rejoining and starting my make money online experiment once again when I had the time. So don’t think that you’re locked in for life or that there is some shiesty billing tactics being used because there definitely isn’t.

Conclusion

I know a lot of people are searching for legitimate ways to make money online and end up getting scammed and suckered into buying eBooks, systems, and courses that really don’t work. If you have already been scammed trying to find ways to make money online, maybe it’s because you’re looking for a way to get rich quick. What I know based on my 22 years here is that you get out of your life what you put into it. If you aren’t willing to put in actual work, you aren’t going to make any money and may end up getting scammed.

However, if you really want to create a low-maintenance steady passive income on the side, then I think you may want to consider The Keyword Academy. I tried to be as thorough as possible with this review because I have been a user for awhile now. I also wanted to share my experience so that people know that just by signing up the money isn’t going to fall out of the sky into their bank accounts. Although I’m not going to guarantee that you will be successful with TKA, I will say that if you actually follow the instructions, stay focused, and work hard, you will make money with it.

If you don’t know what to expect, you can get a trial membership for free your first month and you’ll have access to everything. You can cancel at anytime if it seems too complicated or you don’t like the system. For people that cannot find a job and want to learn about building websites using WordPress, setting up a blog, targeting keywords, SEO, and internet marketing, The Keyword Academy will teach you the basics. Ultimately though, you are going to need to be the one who puts in the work to make money online…

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