In January 2012, I reviewed Jimmy Brown's iBusinessOwner membership product. At $10 per month, it offered monthly training manuals, marketing toolkits, and member perks including a $10 credit toward Jimmy's other products. I bought it with my own money and was genuinely impressed with the value for the price.

What iBusinessOwner Offered

The product was structured as three components in one membership:

• iBusiness Owner's Manual — A monthly guide of 35-50 pages covering specific strategies for growing an internet business
• iBusiness Owner's Toolkit — Training articles, swipe files, templates, and checklists
• iBusiness Owner's Club — Member perks including matching credits and free products

Jimmy positioned it as his primary resource site, and the quality of the training reflected his years of experience in internet marketing. The 60-day money-back guarantee through ClickBank made it a low-risk purchase.

What Happened to iBusinessOwner

Like many internet marketing membership sites from the early 2010s, iBusinessOwner is no longer active. The internet marketing education space has consolidated significantly since then, with platforms like Teachable, Kajabi, and Thinkific enabling creators to build more robust and scalable membership experiences.

Evaluating Internet Marketing Memberships in 2026

The membership model that iBusinessOwner represented is alive and well, but the landscape has matured considerably. Here is what to look for when evaluating a membership site today.

Community Over Content

In 2012, the primary value of a membership was the training content itself. In 2026, content is abundant and often free. The real value of a paid membership is access to a curated community of practitioners, direct access to the instructor, and accountability structures that free content cannot provide.

Track Record Matters

Look for membership creators who practice what they teach. Jimmy Brown was credible because he was actively doing internet marketing, not just talking about it. The same standard applies today. Be wary of teachers whose primary income appears to come from selling courses about making money, rather than from the strategies they teach.

Monthly Value Must Be Ongoing

A membership that frontloads all its value in the first month and then delivers marginal updates is essentially a course with a subscription payment model. Legitimate memberships provide ongoing value through new content, live events, community interaction, and updated resources that reflect the current landscape.

Calculate the True Cost

A $10 monthly membership seems cheap until you realize you have been paying it for three years and barely logged in after month two. Audit your subscriptions regularly. If a membership is not actively contributing to your business growth, cancel it and redirect that money toward something that is.

Jimmy Brown's Lasting Influence

Jimmy was one of the internet marketing educators I respected most in the early 2010s. His focus on practical, actionable strategies over hype was refreshing in a space dominated by product launches and income claims. He also ran a notable charitable initiative, aiming to sell one million $3 eBooks to help orphans in Mexico, which demonstrated that internet marketing skills can be applied toward meaningful causes beyond personal profit.