At the start of 2013, Mark laid out three goals for Late Night Internet Marketing. This post, originally recorded as a car video, captures the strategic thinking of a part-time internet marketer planning his year. While the specific tools and courses are dated, the goal-setting framework and strategic reasoning remain instructive.<\/p>\n
Mark's vision was to make LateNightIM.com a comprehensive free resource for learning affiliate marketing, organized well enough to rival paid courses. The plan centered on a structured content architecture:<\/p>\n
Mark committed to a weekly publishing schedule with a four-episode monthly rotation:<\/p>\n
The unannounced stretch goal: reach Episode 100 by January 1, 2014, requiring approximately 60 episodes in the year.<\/p>\n
Rather than just teaching affiliate marketing, Mark planned to actively build new sites and share the results transparently. He would follow two courses he was evaluating:<\/p>\n
Expected results ranged from $50 to $1,000 per month per site. Mark explicitly decided not to launch his own paid course in 2013, choosing instead to focus on free content and active affiliate marketing practice.<\/p>\n
Mark published this in January 2013. The goal-setting approach offers useful lessons regardless of the dated tactics.<\/p>\n
The siloed content architecture Mark described became standard practice.<\/strong> What he called an “inverted pyramid” is now widely known as a pillar-and-cluster content strategy. Modern SEO frameworks recommend exactly this approach: comprehensive pillar pages supported by detailed subtopic articles, all internally linked. Mark was ahead of the curve on content architecture.<\/p>\n Both courses mentioned are no longer available.<\/strong> Micro Site Profits and Forever Affiliate were products of the 2012-2013 era of micro niche sites. The Internet Business Mastery brand has wound down, and Andrew Hansen has moved on from the Forever Affiliate product. The thin niche site model these courses taught has been largely invalidated by Google's subsequent algorithm updates.<\/p>\n Weekly podcasting has become the minimum viable cadence<\/strong> for growing a podcast audience. Mark's commitment to weekly episodes and a four-episode rotation format was solid strategy in 2013 and remains good advice. Many successful podcasters now publish two or more episodes per week.<\/p>\n The decision to practice what you teach remains one of the strongest credibility signals<\/strong> in internet marketing. Mark's plan to build sites and share results publicly is exactly the kind of demonstrated experience that Google's E-E-A-T framework now rewards.<\/p>\n