I am not buying this crap. What, every month we are going to get some kind PPC/affiliate marketing loophole that is going to bring us massive amounts of money? Sounds like the author is the one that is going to make $7K a month selling this report. We’ve had “killing your day job”. Project X. Death of Adsense. Life after Adsense. Click flipping. More shitty reports than you could possibly read proclaiming your riches with PPC affiliate marketing. Want to make money with PPC? It’s not rocket science. Do some keyword research. Find a product to sell that people might want to buy. Use the keywords to purchase traffic to drive them to the product you’re selling. Hope that your sales copy is worth a damn and that they buy your stupid little Crapbank book, because you told the buyer how much they can’t live without it.
Learn to sell and you can do PPC. There is no magic to this. Just people who make you think there are secrets to making the big bucks. And selling you those secrets. The only secret is hard work. Go ahead and try to do their black hat methods. You can. But why risk getting busted? You know, I bought Project X. I thought it was a pretty good read. Had some good ideas. Great to get you started. But all these ebooks/courses that follow are just rehashed crap. Actually Project X was just rehash of Google Cash or The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords.
Good product + keyword research + good sales copy = a sale
That will make you money. PPC can be a money maker.
So sick of the hype. Here is part of the email for Project Black Mask:
- The price *will* increase sometime later today, possibly by the time you hit this link… (really? no shit? big surprise!)
- Remember, the guide exposes a massive loophole in Google, and will show you how to siphon free clicks. (by the time you read this whatever “massive loophole” will be plugged by Google. Do you really think you are smarter than a mult-billion dollar company with unlimited resources.)
- It’s been created by some of the darkest, most underground minds on the planet under my supervision… (sounds fierce! Must be a winner since dark underground minds came up with it. Um, why is it that these guys have to make you think that it’s so badass to be anonymous, underground? I’d be more impressed if I could know the people behind the madness. Sounds like they are hiding something. When was the last time you wanted to buy something when you had no idea who was behind it? I’m not with that.)
- AND this is officially your last chance to join several thousand of your competitors and discover how to make as much as $7,000 a month following the step-by-step methods (Why $7K. Why not $10K. Why is 7 the only number available to internet marketers? $47, $97. Oh stop with the “studies show…blah, blah, blah”. I don’t care about “studies”. If the only number used to sell something is something 7, and it is . Then it is a self fulfilling study. Try thinking “outside the box”. Argh, I hate that saying too. But DO IT anyway. Sell something for $33. Oh, and last chance? Whatever.)
- I advise you *not* to miss out on this narrow window of opportunity if you want to build wealth as an affiliate or with AdSense. (I’m not taking this advise. I believe that I will be able to build wealth as an affiliate or with Adsense if I put my mind to it with or without a Black Mask.)
I have no doubt this bad boy will be a big seller. We’ve all gotten the emails from our favorite guberu. Ask yourself if they are really using it or just talking shit out the side of their neck. My guess is they have already moved on to the next big thing to pimp while you waste time with this “course.”
You want a course? Try something real like 20/20 University.
16 responses so far ↓
april1 // Jun 22, 2007 at 1:46 pm
These days, more and more jokers are overloading the market with more and more claims, that it is no longer funny.
There are so many craps in the internet already and the modus operandi for these fly by night programmes must be, first show them you know something that everybody dont, be it dog shit or seo. Then claim that you are the authority and that you got some expensive craps to sell. Implant the thought that you may do without this untested crap at your own peril as you will definitely be left behind or worse, finished in your IM business as time goes by.
What makes these jokers so sure their unproven stuff is the right stuff while every other stuffs must be either inferior or unworkable? The real truth is that other people are making tonnes and will continue to make tonnes of money from the other stuff and s/w tools in the mkt that may be free or much less costly.
So beware of those slick marketeers selling snake oils among our midst.
GiGi // Jun 22, 2007 at 7:21 pm
How is University2020 working out for you so far? I’m also a fellow student and enjoying it a lot, although the proof will be if it actuallly becomes a “profitable website”.
But I do feel I’ve actually done “the right thing” for once in my internet marketing.
Splork // Jun 22, 2007 at 7:27 pm
I like it a lot. It’s top value and I feel that I’m learning the right way. I’ve spent way more for bullshit that doesn’t come close to U2020.
TranceMaker // Jun 23, 2007 at 12:34 pm
I didn’t buy this one either.
So tired of the hype and broken promises.
Bryan
Wan // Jun 24, 2007 at 8:43 am
Hi Splork,
I have to agree with April1 on some points. Why pay for something that you can get for free? For example why buy CMS Infusion ($4,000) when you have free Wordpress with hundreds of plugins (and support) to turn any website into publishing powerhouse? You need great content though.
I do not understand why Chris wrote Project Black Mask. Is it because the millions he made from Affiliate Project X and Day Job Killer not enough? And why are guberus praising this crap even without reading the book? Greed?
In internet marketing, why are there so many secrets? Aren’t secrets meant to be selfishly kept to oneself to fully exploit the riches? I do not see Bill Gates revealing Windows or Office source codes to the masses. Or Warren Buffet revealing his stock picking secrets. Or for that matter Google revealing SERPS algorithms secrets. Then why the hell are guberus revealing secrets after secrets?
Like you said Splork, there are no secrets. Good Product + Keyword Research + Good Sales Copy = Sale. And plenty of hard work.
Regards
Wan
Tom // Jun 24, 2007 at 11:55 am
All these eBooks may sell well, but calculate the refund rates of some of the better known ones on Crapbank. Some have refund rates of 50% or more…
Now, taking that into consideration, it really puts the gurus’ income claims into perspective: They may be grossing 100k on launch, but after refunds it’s down to 50k and 75% of that goes to affiliates. So we’re talking 12.5k before taxes…bummer.
I guess Michael Cheney’s Ferrari (he drives one in the promo video of his latest video product) must be leased, better yet, rented for the day.
Tom
Tom // Jun 25, 2007 at 9:39 am
Wan,
actually, Warren Buffet’s investing “secrets” have been revealed, many times.
Tom
Simon // Jun 25, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Absolutely, Warren Buffett is my hero. I have made a lot of money using his methods and it’s a hell of a lot easier than this internet marketing stuff. I’ve been trying IM for five months now and wasted thousands on some useless mentoring and all the usual ebooks, software etc.
I highly recommend the book “The Warren Buffett Way”, a brilliant read!
Splork // Jun 25, 2007 at 7:56 pm
I hear ya Simon. I follow one of Buffett’s “disciples” and have made a ton of money in my retirement accounts following his trades to the letter.
It’s bizarre. If I had, say $100K, outside of a retirement account, I could make FAR more in the market following the advice of my favorite picker than I ever would writing an article, SEO, building sites, yawn….
Wan // Jun 26, 2007 at 5:07 am
Hi Tom, Simon & Splork
Instead of buying and listening to guberus ebook craps at $x7, why not invest in this book:
Warren E. Buffett & Bill Gates: How to Get Rich by Warren E. Buffett and Bill Gates. Sold by Amazon for $19.99.
If Warren Buffett & Bill Gates combined billionaires’ knowledge could be available for less than $20, why are guberus charging $97, $997, $1997 etc? Surely they are far less knowledgeable than the 2 billionaires. Moreover the information is rehashed most of the time.
Regards
Wan
Splork // Jun 26, 2007 at 7:01 am
It’s a good book but it all comes down to having ideas and doing a lot of homework.
We could all take a lesson of Buffett’s style of investing in that he never buys anything he doesn’t know. He’s taken a lot of shit for that style as you’d see him buying Dairy Queen but never a tech company. Perhaps we should never build a site on something we don’t know or care about. Build one, invest in, a site that holds your interest. Something that you know.
Imgiver // Jun 27, 2007 at 5:09 am
Hey Splork, another great post. Tom’s right on the refund rates. Here’s what the clickbank tool on wealthyaffiliates gives the project X guy.
Day Job Killer. 34.70% refund rate
affiliate project X :14.72% refund rate
adwords miracle: 19.87% refund rate
This high refund rate doesn’t just affect the guru’s income. Imagine promoting their products and getting that kind of refund rate on your sales. Forget to factor that into your PPC costs and you could end up losing a whack of cash promoting their crap.
I’m a Buffett fan too.
Splork // Jun 27, 2007 at 8:31 am
Interesting stats on the returns. Project X didn’t do too bad. I’m not surprised. It was actually pretty good.
Simon // Jun 29, 2007 at 10:00 am
The beauty of Warren Buffett’s system, I think, is that it’s a very methodical system and you don’t need to be creative and have ideas like you do when writing sales letters, PPC ads etc. I’m rubbish at internet marketing because I’m not at all creative and I hate writing articles (or I should say re-writing other people’s re-written articles, lol) and doing keyword research and I’m sick of having to worship at the alter of the Google gods all the time.
The version of Warren Buffett’s methods I use goes like this:
I hold the shares of no more than 5 companies at any one time so that I can keep a sufficient eye on their performance without spending too much time on it. And I spread the small amount of risk that their is without spreading the possible rewards too thinly.
I choose companies to invest in based on the following criteria:
PEG less than 0.75
PER less than 10
EPS growth greater than 10%
One year relative strength greater than zero
Dividend yield greater than one.
Cash flow per share/EPS greater than one
And that’s basically it, simple!
On the rare occassion that a company in my portfolio starts performing badly, I have a rolling stop loss limit in place to automatically sell if they fall more than 15% from their highest point.
I use a service that we have here in the UK called Company REFS which does all the company research and calculations for all the companies on the UK stockmarkets. It lays out the information in such a way that I can immediately see which companies are worth investing in. So I can do all the reaserch, call my broker and buy the shares in less than an hour. I only do this if one of the companies starts to do badly and needs replacing with a better one or I spot a really good oppertunity. It sure beats spending hours every day on writing articles, keyword research, building sites etc.
Let’s all forget about this scammy IM business and start an investment club!
Jonathan Castro // Jul 9, 2007 at 4:10 pm
I was so angry when I bought Project Black Mask that I created my own webpage to expose it - just take a look at boycottscams.com. It was complete rubbish and I will never buy any of these e-books again.
Simon // Jul 10, 2007 at 4:22 am
Nice try Jonathan
I’ve been a member of Wealthy Affiliates for about a month now and I have to say that I’m a little disappointed that the lessons in the 6 week course, IMHO, are a very short and lacking in detail. And it really annoys me that they keep telling us to buy their other products to fill in the gaps and the way that the whole thing is structured to persuade us to promote their other products.
I’m glad to hear that they are re-working the 6 week course. Don’t get me wrong, WA is very good value for $30 a month (especially since it now includes hosting), but I think it could be so much better.
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