Archive for the ‘eCommerce’ Category

Internet Profits in Your PJs? – Review: Don’t waste your time

Saturday, December 12th, 2009

The Holly Cotter Story

Holly Cotter’s rags to riches story is inspirational. There’s no doubt about that. But I’m sorry about this …

"Internet Profits in Your PJs – 36 Secrets to Creating Multiple Income Streams … on Autopilot"

Out of respect for Holly, I would like to put this politely, "This book is drivel."

A total waste of your time. Let’s say you value your time at minimum wage (I hope your time is worth more than that, at least to you, but let’s just say.). The 2-4 hours you might spend reading every word of this book costs you between $16 and $32 roughly speaking. That means the book is not FREE.

Out of Date and Out of Link

The book is copyright 2006. I found that most of the links don’t work and those that do are obvious shills for stuff that Holly sold off.

36 Secrets – Are You Kidding Me?

Here are some stunning samples of these amazing "Closely-Guarded Multiple Income Stream Secrets".

Secret #1 – There is a HUGE difference between “owning a business” and “being self-employed.” — Bet you didn’t know that.

Secret #5 – You must generate steady profits with one income stream before adding another income stream. — Geez, why didn’t I think of that.

SECRET #16 – It’s easier to make ONE sale than it is to make two sales. — Wow, this is almost mystical.

Secret #34 – To successfully build multiple passive streams of income, you must focus on building only one income stream at a time. — Oh wait a minute, wasn’t that Secret #5?

SECRET #35 – Patience is the key to your success. — Now that is REALLY a helpful secret – please don’t spread this around or everybody will know and we’ll lose our competitive advantage.

Sorry for the sarcastic comments, I couldn’t help it.

There’s No Substance

After you have read and absorbed every word of this book, you will know how to do … nothing! The book tells you what worked for Holly in a general sort of way, but not how any of it was actually done. There’s no step-by-step to duplicate.

Aha! That’s why all those almost functional links at the end of the book – you have to buy more stuff to make Internet Profits in Your PJs. And that’s the real point of this book. Holly sold a lot of her websites and changed her business model which you can see here.

An Impressive List of Testimonials – Huh?

When I reviewed the names of the "experts" whose testimonials appear at the front of this book, I actually learned something about internet marketers. A lot of well-known names are there, and I am having a hard time with that. Maybe they didn’t actually read the book. The alternatives are 1. they produce the same kind of internet marketing vaporware and so think this book is marvelous, or 2. they don’t actually know anything and have testified to their ignorance by giving these testimonials.

The Bottom Line

You won’t learn anything useful from this book. Let the buyer beware .

 

FTC to Internet Marketing Bloggers – Are you paid for your endorsements? — ‘Fess up

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Important news for internet marketers – Honest disclosure matters

How many times have you read a review and didn’t know the person who wrote it was paid for it? Would that affect your opinion of the product? How about all those internet marketers who trade mailing lists and get paid if you buy from their link? Are they telling you they are getting paid? Maybe you would want to know that. Probably wouldn’t make a difference to your buying decision – if everybody was providing us with full disclosure and leveling the playing field.

FTC Sets Endorsement Rules for Blogs

"Bloggers who offer endorsements must disclose any payments they have received from the subjects of their reviews or face penalties of up to $11,000 per violation, the Federal Trade Commission said Monday."

By Cecilia Kang
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Here’s the full Washington Post Article.

 

Under the heading of "But Wait There’s More"

More about the FTC Ruling from Frank Kern

More about the FTC Ruling from 1Automation Wizard

 

PS I explain my position on the Disclosure Policy page of this blog.

 

Marketing Tutorials from Armand Morin

Friday, October 31st, 2008

Armand Morin is at it again with Marketing Tutorials. He sent this note to me and I am forwarding it to you for your consideration.



Last night hundreds of people became members of a special club.

Did you?

It’s a club where they are taken behind the scenes and they are shown videos of the most up-to-date strategies currently being used in a company that’s on pace to do $20 million this year.

These aren’t just 3-5 minute videos.

We’re talking about step-by-step, "here’s what to do" 45-60min videos giving you the specifics of succeeding online.

For example, right now there is a sample 28 minute video you can get absolutely FREE. The best part about this private club is YOU have a say in what videos are produced.

Where else would you be able to get personal advice from someone who’s sold over $54 million dollars in their business? It’s certainly rare and what might surprise you is the price.

Check it out.

Enjoy!

Ed

P.S  Remember, even if you don’t plan on
joining the club, it’s worth opting in for
the
FREE 28 minute video – especially if you
have your own optin page.

 

UPDATE – Stomping the Search Engines 2 and the Net Effect

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

UPDATE – 2 pm EST Thursday September 4

Due to technical difficulties (that beginners almost never have to worry about), it didn’t happen today as you surely know if you were waiting to get Stomping the Search Engines 2. But that may be a benefit because you’ll get some things that weren’t included in the original offer. Keep at it.

 


5:30 pm EST September 3 (TODAY)

 

—>  Stomping the Search Engines 2   <—

 

Everybody and her sister is telling you that you gotta have Stomping the Search Engines 2, and that it’s FREE! Well, what can I say – I agree it could be a big help to you. And the price is right. So I’m recommending that you get this package.

Just remember: it actually is NOT free, you have to pay some shipping and handling fee, plus you have to sign up for a free trial to a monthly subscription to the Net Effect. That could cost you $39/month unless you cancel in 30 days. If you don’t like the Net Effect or you just don’t want it for whatever reason – CANCEL.

Get it !

Good luck and good day.

FREE for 30 Days – 1AutomationWiz.com

Sunday, July 6th, 2008

Finally!!! 

A complete autoresponder/shopping cart/ecommerce package I can recommend to beginners (and even experienced ecommerce marketers) without reservation.

Do you need an autoresponder that really works with you and not against you?

Do you need a shopping cart that is easy to get up and running?

Do want to put internet home business on autopilot (as much as possible)?

 

1AutomationWiz

Then 1AutomationWiz might be the solution to your problems.

I lucked into a 2 month free trial through StomperNet, but YOU can still get 1 month FREE without being a StomperNet member. StomperNet can be expensive for newbies, and besides they aren’t taking members at this time. Anyway, 30 days FREE will give you the time you need to see if 1AutomationWiz is right for your business.

 

FREE! 1-on-1 phone technical support during regular office hours ($75 Per Hour Value)
FREE! Unlimited autoresponder messages for fast and effortless follow-up sales. ($70 Value)
FREE! Revenue tracking system to measure my advertising results quickly and easily.($50 Value)
FREE! Automated UPS/USPS/DHL/Canada Post/FedEx shipping and pricing integration in "real-time". ($200 Value)
FREE! 31 custom fields for ultra-personalized email messages to convert more prospects into customers.($25 Value)

 

If you just want a really good autoresponder package, you can get that too, but why not take the 30 day FREE trial before deciding?

 

 

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How to Waste Money on SEO

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

I really hate to admit that I wasted over $2,000 on SEO (search engine optimization). Take a lesson from me if you’re smart ,and DON’T DO WHAT I DID.

I had a start-up ecommerce website selling bird houses(that’s a story for another time). One day, I got a call from a person who said they represented Web Marketing Source.com (a division of Captures.com), and they just happened to notice that my website wasn’t working as well as it should. They proposed to greatly improve my results and of course they just happened to have a special deal for me that included all these items:

  • Meta analysis and recreation of clients tags and keywords
  • Automated search engine submissions for quick indexing
  • Manual search engine submissions for non-automated engines
  • Auto and manual site maps submissions for faster site map indexing
  • Submissions tracking reports "upon request"
  • Simple maintenance and updating of tags "upon request"
  • HTML site map which helps your pages to be indexed quickly

 

Well, honestly I wasn’t selling that many bird houses so I let myself get sweet talked into signing a contract for their "services".

I was too new at internet business to understand that all the "services" they were going to provide are pretty easy to do yourself for almost nothing. So I took the bait, and the contract set the hook.

Basically I got nothing, OK well I did get poor customer service. As near as I can tell, all they did for $2K was generate a Google site map. After they got my money, the sound of silence from them was deafening, and I was too stupid to know what to do. They offered no help whatsoever.

What I did notice is that their services provided absolutely no detectable improvement in my website. What did change was my bottom line – it got worse. Thanks to that contract I signed, I had to keep paying them for 3 more months after I tried to cancel the deal. So I lived up to my part of the bargain – I gave them a lot of money for a few minutes of work.

If you have a website, keep in mind that there are people trolling the internet looking for website owners to call on the phone to sell them SEO. It’s a good bet you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars for a Google site map!

Here’s my advice

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES buy anything from anybody who calls you out of the blue to tell you that they noticed your website wasn’t optimized and they’re going to help you get those rankings that you deserve. And for sure don’t sign a contract with someone you don’t know.

– End of Story –