I love people that are hustlers. Those that are willing to get in the trenches and do the hard work necessary to make things happen. Those that don’t make excuses but instead do whatever it takes to get the job done. 
The Unstrappd crew have gained my admiration for the exact same things I just mentioned above. A group of 7 guys and one gal (Gabe Strom, Bradley Will, Arthur Tubman, Chris & Vanessa Record, Kyle Garrett, Russell Yermal and Ben Dixon) moved from across various parts of the country to come together and create a social media company like no other.
A few months ago I stopped by their San Clemente mansion and had a chance to hear their vision and goals. What these guys are attempting to put together is quite special. And it’s pretty sweet that they are filming it as a reality show called Unstrapp’d so you can watch along.
There are three main reasons for me making this blog post.
1. The Unstrappd crew wants to give you a FREE BLOG! Yes, I said free.
If you’re anything like me, you have no clue how to upload and tweet a WordPress blog. Yep, I’m a total dunce when it comes to stuff like that. I always pay someone else to do it for me. Fortunately for you, the Unstrappd guys will build you a blog for FREE!
All you have to do is click here and follow the instructions to get your free blog.
2. Episodes of the reality show Unstrappd on YouTube.
Their episodes of Unstrappd on You Tube are definitely worth a watch. I’ve included the trailer for their show and links to each of the episodes below.
You can see the rest of the episodes below…
Episode 1 of Unstrappd
Episode 2 of Unstrappd
Episode 3 of Unstrappd
Episode 4 of Unstrappd
Episode 5 of Unstrappd
Episode 6 of Unstrappd
Episode 7 of Unstrappd
Episode 8 of Unstrappd
3. Become an affiliate and make simple commissions for just giving away a free blog.
If you’d like to be an affiliate and promote a dead simple offer of giving away a free blog, here’s what you need to do.
Just click here to sign up as an affiliate and you’ll get all the info you need from Ben Dixon.
Very Inspiring dude, and i mean very inspiring. Im setting up a company in the UK with friends also and can totally relate to the highs and lows these guys are going through..the life on an entrepreneur 😉 ..Bring it on !!!!
Peace Z
Damn, I have a competing site and I REALLY need to get my affiliate program set up for it now! :s
I have read you blog for a while now Erica and absolutely love your stuff. You are a rockstar girl!
There is plenty of abundance here. Let’s partner up 🙂 We have invested a lot into this system AND are about to roll out a whole new list of features. We pay $50 for each blog you give away. Shoot me an email and we can discuss some potential collaboration.
bradley will
ceo, free blog factory
bradley@freeblogfactory.com
Awesome my man, love the whole concept behind it. If you can dream it you can do it. You will always come up against adversity but it is how your deal with taht adversity that makes you a winner. Thanks for teh inspiration.
Big Love
Ciaran
They are not giving away blogs, they are selling hosting. At least it says so at the bottom of their page:
Only one blog per customer and available only for customers who purchase blog hosting through this website.
My question is why anyone thinks misleading potential customers is a good way to establish a long term client relationship?
Jason,
You must have hosting for your blog to be visible unless you use the Free WordPress platform (which I don’t recommend as you don’t own it). Everyone needs hosting, and I see no problem with giving these guys the commission for it since they are helping to install and customize the blog for you.
So yes, they are giving away blogs. And yes, they are providing a link to sell hosting. I see nothing misleading at all. It’s plain and simple.
Sorry Jason, it’s just another way of selling a hosting package. Installing a blog is basically a 30 second job with a script. The problem is that it ties you into their hosting program (do you have to buy your domain name through them as well?) and what if the hosting is rubbish? There are quite a few of these “get a free website – oh sorry, but only if we get the commission on the hosting” programs around, nothing new or special about this one 🙁
Isobel –
You’re right. It’s a lame attempt to sell hosting. Hell, we all have that.
Hey, JoMo… NoMo please. Give us something real.
Matt
That’s if you know how to do it Isobel. There are tons of people like me that have no idea how to install scripts or blogs. Not everyone is as smart as you Isobel. The fact remains, you still need hosting with a WordPress blog. So, why not give these guys a commission for helping to set it up? I like to reward people that help me out, not nit pick the fact that they are trying to make a buck for honest work.
Guys,
I have been in internet marketing for 10 years. When it came time to get my personal blog going, I knew without a doubt that I wanted a self-branded WordPress blog. So I put out messages on Facebook and Twitter to see who had connections. After weeding through dozens of referrals, I found a guy who would install and hook my blog up with a premium design for only $500. I scored! He said it would take only one week.
Three weeks later I found myself pulling out my hair stressed over the fact that my blog was still not completed, and I had missed my deadline that my followers were expecting for my new blog launch. I was devastated.
So I decided to watch some videos and install it all myself. I am very technical with a background in search engine optimization as well. It took me a total of 40 hours to build my blog (http://chrisrecord.com). I was happy that it was finally completed, but after that painful experience I went on a mission to figure out a better solution for my fellow entrepreneurs.
Then in December, 2009 I connected with the guys at Free Blog Factory and they had put together a solution where they would install your blog, give it a premium theme, personalize it for you, customize 20+ plugins, search engine optimize it, and offer dozens of free training videos full of support. All someone needs to do is host their site with them. Free for the first month and less than $10/mo.
This is by far the best opportunity that I know of anywhere on the web to get a premium WordPress theme blog installed. It freakin’ rocks!
If someone can install their own WordPress blog, and wants to purchase a premium theme, and install all the plugins themselves, and figure it all out, then go for it. But they still need to pay for hosting from a good provider. I would challenge someone to find a deal significantly better than free for the first month and less than $10/mo after. So at the end of the day, even if someone did it all themselves, it would still cost the same. That’s what makes it a no-brainer.
So as you look closer at this deal, it is a true win-win scenario, which is why Jason has taken the time to write about it on his blog. He consistently puts out quality stuff to his followers, and this service obviously impressed him enough to share it.,,
Jason, are you an affiliate? I have to wonder since Isobel and others have made very valid points. How much is this hosting the Unstrapp’d guys are selling? I am quite sure it won’t be cheap. I can go to Godaddy and get quality blog hosting and support for a lot less than these guys are offering.
Yes I’m an affiliate. Dolph, I’d suggest you spend your time doing something more productive then trying to worry about getting hosed with Hostgator hosting. They’ve been around forever and are one of the best hosting providers known. I wouldn’t of created this blog post or directed anyone to the offer if there was anything dubious about it.
Jason,
I appreciate the support. You have some really intelligent followers dude and I love to see this type of debate. In regards to the “free blog” comment by Jason…
Jason, you are absolutely right that we make money on hosting. I feel just like in affiliate marketing, we all deserve to get paid if we endorse or refer business to another. Is that a fair statement?
For example, if you refer your network to buy a Kindle from Amazon, I think you should get paid from it. In fact, Amazon built in a commission into their business model to compensate people for referrals.
If you want a self-branded WordPress blogs, what are 2 things you must have.
1. A domain name.
2. Web-hosting.
My question for you: What is your solution for someone coming to you to get started on WordPress? You have agreed that someone should have their own web hosting. Where do they go from here?
This is where we come in play to hold their hand. You obviously have experience in this internet marketing game. Therefore I respect your opinion. Free Blog Factory is for all those people in your network that have no clue on how to get started. That is why we created a generous affiliate program where WE PAY $50 per referral.
Here is the cool thing. You don’t have to send someone to godaddy to get their domain, somewhere else to get their hosting, wordpress to get their blog and Google to figure it all out 🙂 WE DO IT ALL!
We invested thousands of dollars building out customizable themes, researching top plug-ins and creating free training to help the learning curve for newbies online.
The coolest thing about what we do is that we have a free tech support team. Not even WordPress has that. People that obtain a free blog from us can email our tech team with and problems that face with their blog. We are able to provide all of this with our partnership with one of the top hosting companies in the world.
Look Jason and Isobel, I know that you both may be advanced in your internet game, but I promise you that we have a business model intended to serve and provide value to people online. We are creating systems to make their lives easier for those that are not as fortunate as us.
I would be happy to clear any questions up with a personal phone call to each of you to explain to you how this system works. Thanks so much for taking the time to create a great discussion for this post and I wish you both the best of luck in your businesses. Cheers to your success!
bradley will
ceo, free blog factory
bradley@freeblogfactory.com
Bradley, I have no problem clicking on affiliate links. Although I have to say I would never buy my domain name through my hosting company (or vice versa). There are far too many things that can go wrong.
Offering an incentive for buying hosting through you – great idea! All power to you. But sell it that way “buy hosting from us and we’ll put up a blog for you yada yada”, not “here’s a free blog – oh btw you have to have our hosting.” I can name you at least two scammers who do exactly that and it makes you sound like them, even though you’re not. It might be effective, but is that the kind of business model you want to align yourselves with?
Hey, I’m not trying to tell you how to run your business (or maybe I am! lol) Just giving some feedback, thanks to JoMo who doesn’t moderate his comments (and I appreciate that). I also appreciate your taking the time to respond and I really wish you all the best – I’ve watched all the episodes of your reality show so far and it’s great.
Hey Isobel,
Thanks for the compliments on the show. : )
We actually do not require purchases of domain names through our site. Many of our users actually use GoDaddy for their domain names. We are partnered with one the best hosting companies, HostGator.
We have many happy users who are more than happy to take our recommendation on hosting in exchange having us do all the leg work for them.
The user MUST have a hosting account or the setup process will not work.
The word “scam” cannot even be placed in a sentence with anything we do. I have my reputation backing that. We are very upfront in the whole process and videos. That logic would make SquareSpace a scam too.
I have looked at this business from all angles and based on the feedback from our user, they are very happy with our service and support.
I appreciate the feedback (very valuable to see thing through your eyes).
-bw
Who votes that we have uncle MOFO make a guest appearance on the reality show???
Jason Moffatt… man, listen.
Who reads your blog?
Generally speaking, it’s online “entrepreneurs” — or hobbyists who know a lot even if they don’t actually do jack shit with that knowledge. You know, people who swim around the Internet marketing fishbowl.
You should have anticipated the kinds of comments you got from people like Isobel, Matt, the “other” Jason, etc…
Here’s what I would have said…
…….
Do you know someone who wants to get involved online but isn’t sure how to get stated? Without a doubt, having a blog is a quick and easy way to establish an online presence.
Trouble is, it’s not as quick and easy for most people as it is for those of us who do this stuff every day. A word of caution… you do NOT want to host your blog on one of those free blog platforms.
Just the other day 73,000 blogs were taken offline when one of those free platforms got shut down. Aside from that, some free blog platforms make you agree not to use their site for commercial purposes. Not good! So avoid those.
The people over at Free Blog Factory have a deal where they get people setup with a free blog that’s customized and actually looks awesome. It’s not one of those lame out-of-the-box WordPress sites with the boring blue header.
All the end user has to pay for is a domain name (unless they already own the domain they want to use) and a cheap Hostgator hosting account. The hosting is only 1 penny for the first month, and less than $9 per month after that. Free Blog Factory collects a $100+ affiliate commission for hooking up the end user with Hostgator, but you will get a flat $50 payout from Free Blog Factory for referring the end user.
These guys make it so easy you can literally refer this to your mom and she’ll be up and running with a blog of her own in no time. To make an easy $50, sign up for the Free Blog Factory affiliate program here (link).
…….
By selling the affiliate program, you’re appealing to the desire by most of your blog readers to make some money. Some might even be intrigued enough to sign up to have a blog of their own made. But I would have put the emphasis on the affiliate program and been 1000% transparent about what was going on between Free Blog Factory and Hostgator, etc in your blog post.
Sure, that sounds great buddy. Sometimes I got other shit to do like watching baseball & enjoying the summer. Great response though. Very smart.
Jason says:
“There are tons of people like me that have no idea how to install scripts or blogs. Not everyone is as smart as you Isobel. The fact remains, you still need hosting with a WordPress blog. So, why not give these guys a commission for helping to set it up?”
You asked…
Why not give these guys a commission?
Because you and they, said it was FREE! Here I am thinking you just made my day, and that I am getting a free blog… nope, knew it was too good to be true, you need to purchase hosting.
Then I remembered…
I have hosting!! Great! I purchased bluehost via the prelaunch of list control for (good kamra list machine). Then I read on their page…
“Only one blog per customer and available only for customers who purchase blog hosting through this website.”
I am like you Jason, I don’t know how to setup a blog and make it all pretty. As you said: “The fact remains, you still need hosting with a WordPress blog”
I have hosting, but they want me to PURCHASE hosting through them (do I really need to hosting accounts?? NO!).
… to be honest this marketing like this makes me sick… like to the point of wanting to throw up directly on the keyboard that I am typing on.
Marketers who are strappd for cash (pun intended) trying to nickel and dime every corner of a transaction.
Jason says:
“So yes, they are giving away blogs. And yes, they are providing a link to sell hosting. I see nothing misleading at all. It’s plain and simple.”
Dude, I have a decent understanding of who you are, from your blogs, videos, even live events that I have seen you at.
If you honestly believe in your heart that there is “NOTHING MISLEADING AT ALL” about what is going on here. I don’t know the real you.
Let’s imagine for a minute if the big companies did this…
“Free Jamba Juice, this Tuesday!”
… you get there on Tuesday… Must purchase a cup ($1) and straw ($.50)… hey everybody needs a cup and a straw anyways right?
juice = blog
cup = hosting
you get what I’m saying… I know you do.
Just imagine the outrage, on twitter, facebook, in the blogosphere. They would be flaming Jamaba.
Anyways, the reason I write this super long reply is because at the end of the day… you’re one of my favs IMers.
Stay strong… keep it real… and never “fake the funk” on a nasty dunk.
– Sam
P.S. I’m over here critizing their plays, and almost didn’t offer any possible solutions. Here’s a few: “Free blog, with the purchase of hosting”. Or, “$100 dollar blogs”.
The blog & installation is free. Hosting is not. Anyone who can’t understand the difference between the two or is busy worrying about being scammed out of $8 a month for hosting is just too much of a hassle for me to deal with. I’d rather they just move on. The entire process is very clear. If you don’t like the offer, move on. However, I still don’t see it as deceptive. They are providing a service and a product for free. There is no way for them to give you hosting for free with Hostgator, which should be obvious.
I seriously doubt it’s $8 a month. There is a catch, everything has a catch.
Dolph,
No catch. They can purchase any hosting they wish at Hostgator: http://www.hostgator.com/shared.shtml
The most common plan is the Baby plan for for less than $10/mo. The reason that it is popular is that they can host unlimited domain names for less than $10/mo. Very competitive service.
Both GoDaddy and HostGator will offer you the chance to be an affiliate. They will give you a percentage of whatever business you refer, and the customer still pays the same price. So there is no catch. They are simply paying their advertising dollars to you. Pretty straight forward.
So the idea of Free Blog Factory is that if you host through their affiliate link, they get the referral fee without costing you more money. In exchange, they will install your blog for free. They will also provide a customized theme and give you the opportunity to personalize the blog to fit your needs. They will also pre-install 20+ plugins for you and provide some training videos teaching you how to use WordPress and edit your blog.
When you buy hosting from GoDaddy or Hostgator, someone is getting credit. Either an affiliate or the company itself. Many affiliates out there will offer cool incentives if you click on their link to buy the hosting, so definitely feel free to shop around…
The deal is pretty simple to understand.
Free blog installed.
Free premium theme.
Free personalization of theme.
Free installation and customization of plugins.
Free seo optimization.
Free WordPress training videos.
Free month of hosting with Hostgator.
It’s all free.
The only cost is the hosting starting at the second month which is less than $10/mo which is extremely competitive for all hosting plans out there.
So there are really only 3 basic options if someone was looking for a self-hosted WordPress blog.
1) Install it yourself and pay around $10/mo for hosting.
2) Pay someone to install it for you and pay around $10/mo for hosting.
3) Have Free Blog Factory install it all for you for free and pay around $10/mo for hosting.
It would be misleading if there was something shady about the deal here. But there clearly isn’t. There is not really a cheaper way to do it. Most professionals that I personally know have paid well over $1000+ for their blogs, many of which fall short of the quality created at Free Blog Factory…
————
“Free Jamba Juice, this Tuesday!”
…you get there on Tuesday… Must purchase a cup ($1) and straw ($.50)… hey everybody needs a cup and a straw anyways right?
juice = blog
cup = hosting
————
Okay, that’s good. 🙂 I like that analogy.
And you’re right, in a scenario like that, most people would be thinking WTF?!?! —
But listen, ultimately, VERY few people reading this blog are the “real” target market. It’s like going to a programmers convention and trying to sell them some “cookie cutter” tool that lets them “make software” with the push of a a few mouse clicks. Totally wrong market for the tool.
I honestly think the Free Blog Factory thing is awesome – I do wish they’d hook up with an affiliate network like Commission Junction though.
Anyway… (btw – lol – Jason, you made me laugh, yeah, I totally hear what you’re saying about it being summer and stuff like that, etc etc… your blog post was fine, I think I was “thinking out loud” about how I might have created it differently, but whatever..”)
Your idea was genius bro. Had I not of been so mentally lazy, I might have done something like that.
I think what these dudes are doing is badass.
I already paid for 3 years of hosting, or I’d go with ’em — if nothing else, they’re providing extremely valuable (and entertaining) content with their show. They’re making the expensive mistakes for you in business. I say good for them if they get paid for taking the risks, and living the life.
I’d couchsurf there 🙂
One problem….they are making mistakes on somebody else’s dime and trying to sell it as a business. From watching the videos it appears they have an investor or two. Sorry, when I give somebody money to make a movie, I expect them to do their jobs and get the final product delivered with zero mistakes. In my line of work, mistakes = more money lost.
Why is it that anybody calls themselves an “entrepreneur” nowadays? In ye olden days, an entrepreneur was somebody with success at selling a tangible, real product with value to the consumer, the community (see: jobs) and shareholders. Warren Buffett is an entrepreneur. So is Mark Cuban. These guys? I am not convinced. They might be trying to become successful but until then they are not entrepreneurs since not one of them appears to be risking much living in a cozy mansion and using OPM.
I see some of the points about it being misleading, because it is. In my opinion the “with purchase of hosting” should be more prominent and part of the deal. Also the price of hosting should be mentioned before the customer has to “sign up” But even though, still a great deal and way to grab some customers in the crowded world of websites. I’m suspect of the claim that they get $100 for the connect to hostgator then give $50 to affiliates. Doesn’t seem like enough compensation for what they provide, although premium themes these days make things very easy on the end user.
If I ever leave blog factory who owns the templates and themes I use?
you do Don
I looked at the TOS/privacy policy. I’d say buyer beware. Apparently signing up with Freeblogfactory means they can sell your information 10 ways to sunday with no regard for who buys it.
Sorry, I’ll stick to Godaddy for my needs.
Freeblogfactory TOS:
PRIVACY POLICY
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Its not that I don’t understand that you are selling hosting or that everyone has to have hosting to have a website, I get that part. It’s that if you are giving away a free blog, give one away. If you are selling hosting, sell hosting and give a away a free blog as a bonus. That is quite cool.
I do not think you are a scammer, Brad, I don’t even know you. What I do know is that the fine print is below the fold, just like the cc rebills. That doesn’t mean I think you are doing anything illegal or shady or anything, but a logical question would be, OK, what’s the next upsell.
What links are going into the footer, like with HG installing that plugin that you have to manually deactivate, who owns the rights to the theme if you want to change hosts, can I sell the blog without buying a dev license, those are pretty logical questions.
Jason, why were the responses posted by the guys at Free Blog Factory deleted?
Their responses were very articulate and helped explain things.
In fact, now some of the OTHER comments to this blog post look out of place because people are replying to comments that aren’t even there anymore.
It seems a bit unfair you’d delete the posts made by these guys sticking up for their product — what’s up with that??!
Hey, this is Jason. I don’t edit or delete comments. They must have done so themselves or my blog is drleting them somehow. I’ll ask the guys.
Not sure what happened. WordPress for some reason threw all their comments into the spam folder and had to be reapproved. I definitely don’t like to censor discussion.
the reason the comments have disappeared is because they’ve gone into disaster mode. over the past few days, all the principals of Unstrapp’d have been deleting, removing, and altering their online profiles and distancing themselves from Unstrapp’d.
they haven’t shut down to ‘retool’. if they were re-tooling, why would they remove access to earlier videos? why would bradley will remove any reference to the show from his website? they’re embarrassed, plain and simple.
Not sure where you are getting that info, but the situation here was simply a hiccup with WordPress. There was no deletion of anything here and your suggestions that there was are ill informed. As for your other accusations I’m clueless. Your comments would have much more weight if you weren’t commenting anonymously too. I have a hard time putting much effort or thought into anonymous comments.
Hell of a hiccup with wordpress there, it removed videos from youtube.
My thoughts? Someone just found out the whole Unstrapp’d team should count as employees receiving benefits like housing and the IRS and the state of CA wants it cut. So, which of the “entrepreneurs” is responsible for that?
k.t. and Arthur are (i think) referring to the fact that the show (Unstrappd) has evidently been pulled off the air. I actually liked watching it a lot, and was honestly a bit pissed they’d yank it. The show had crazy-high production values and was really entertaining.
Jason, if you have a line to those guys, you should ask them what’s up with the show. It honestly WAS very entertaining and extremely well produced.
The thing is, and this is a guess… but if they’re not doing so well as a company, it kinda sucks to have to document that. Seriously guys, do you want a camera in your face all the time while the company you’re a part of is either losing money or not making enough to stay afloat,etc etc? I give these people a lot of respect for doing the show in the first place.
I noticed my affiliate link to FreeBlogFactory was down as a ‘holding, watch this space’ type page.
I contacted their Support and got this:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Clive,
I apologize but the beta for freeblogfactory.com is no longer active. Do not worry because we are releasing a new version on Sept 1st. Keep an eye of the new freeblogfactory.com.
—–
Sincerely,
Adam Robles
Tech III
Free Blog Factory
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I will be checking up on this on the day as it’s a great idea, if well implemented, and something my sites visitors would benefit from.
Seems kind of odd they haven’t used this popular blog as a platform to give us all a ‘heads up’. Any contact with them Jason?
This month, (dic. 2011) I´m closing my Free Blog Factory account because they customer service is horrible and disrespectful and almost non-existent actually.
And because I´m paying 9.97 a month for nothing except for a hosting that now I got it for 4.97 with the same features.
Some time I used to chat with customer service asking about how to fix some issues with WordPress and the answer I got from the rep was I don´t know how to do that LOL.
FBF support is good for nothing!