This is my first report on Michael Cheney’s Automatic Income System which costs $497. When you buy into this system, you become a member of automaticincomevip.com (If you try this website, it will take you to his sales pitch page www.getincomesystem.com.).
DID IT AGAIN!
I know, I know, you’re saying, "Ed, don’t tell me you bought another one of these things. But it’s OK. It comes with a 60 day money-back guarantee and I’ve still got plenty of time to evaluate it before I decide if I made a good investment or not.
The member’s area is packed with quite a few instructional videos so it’s going to take some time to work through all that. So I am just going to follow the instructions more or less to the letter and take it one step at a time and try to maintain my focus until I get it done.
The Automatic Income System comes with 4 products that are already developed for you. Michael Cheney’s Affiliate Millions is the first product and it is a video series on affiliate marketing (duh! ). You have to set this product up first because setting up the next 3 products follows the same pattern. Here’s how I did it.
After you pay your way in, you get an email that tells you how to login to the members area. You watch the Welcome video from Michael Cheney. Then you proceed to the step by step guide to set up the Affiliate Millions website. Six steps are clearly described with videos.
STEP BY STEP
Step #1 is a Getting Started guide that runs for 7:50 minutes. Michael Cheney gives an overview of the whole Automatic Income System process and reveals information that you didn’t get in the sales pitch. Some of this information surprised me, but he gave reassurances that his system really works – "Don’t worry, be happy" he says. OK, I plunged ahead (although I wasn’t entirely happy at this point).
Step #2 is Download the Files; the video runs 4:11 minutes. The Affiliate Millions website files are provided for you. The files for the Affiliate Millions website are over 177 MB so downloading can take a good while. Take a break or do something else productive while the files are downloading. There is a link to a free download tool if you need it, but it is Windows-only (I’m using an iMac) from FlashGet. You save and unzip the files. Then you edit the sales letter to put in a Buy Now button and the contact information. The video clearly describes how to make these edits to the index file.
Step #3 is Get Your Website Hosting Account & Domain Name; the video runs 10:11 minutes. He describes in detail how to set hosting and get a domain name – if you use Kiosk.ws which is where you will be taken if you click on the links he provides in this step. One thing he leaves out is that it can take 24 – 72 hours to propagate your domain name before your website will appear on the internet reliably.
Step #4 is Get Your Buy Now Button So You Can Accept Payments; the video runs 4:06 minutes. He walks through the steps to set up a PayPal Premier account and how to generate the code for a Buy Now button. This is an essential step of course to have money deposited into your PayPal account when someone buys your product. A Premier account is for "Casual Online Sellers". The video shows how to get the Buy Now button code and where to paste it in the sales letter (index) file.
Step #5 is Edit Your Salesletter To Put In Your "Buy Now" Button And Contact Info: the video runs 6:29 minutes. The link takes you to CoffeeCup software where you can download a free trial copy of an html editor, which is Windows-only. Basically, you have to be able to edit the index.html file, but in reality you can edit in any basic plain text editor. Notepad will work for Windows and TextEdit will work for Mac OS X. For Contact Info, you put in your own email address because you are responsible for customer service. This is not difficult because his instructions are detailed.
Step #6 is Put Your Edited Files Onto Your Website And Start Making The Money!; this video runs 8:26 minutes. You’re gonna need an FTP program. He guides to CoffeeCup software for that, but it is Windows-only. He shows you how to upload your files to your website. If you use some other FTP program, the instructions won’t apply to you, but the general ideas still apply.
So in theory, you could have Affiliate Millions live on the internet in less than 42 minutes. It actually took about 2 days to get all the steps right and go live, the biggest delay being propagating my domain name.
First Report Summary
What I Liked
1. The sales pitch (www.getincomesystem.com) convinced me to give this a try because it indicates that you are going to get everything you need and all you have to do is follow the step by step process – "ready-made for you", "no hidden costs", "you’re going to make $3000 per month", "I’m going to build it for you". You get to keep 100% of the profits. "I’m giving you absolutely everything you need…" Your website and your name are going to be on my home pages. You’re getting a list of red-hot buyers. I guide you by the hand …" But wait – there’s more! "I am going to personally coach you for 60 days." 100% risk-free money back guarantee – you are totally covered.
2. If a 14-year old kid can make $18,000 in 3 days, I should be able to do this too – that was the convincer for me!. The files for the 4 product websites are provided for you, in addition to lots more instructional videos, content, and more. You can contact Michael Cheney at any time to get help.
3. The sales pitch says you can get one free domain name and 2 months of free hosting.
What I Didn’t Like
I don’t like to be surprised with critical information that you only get after you’ve paid!
1. The Sales Pitch (www.getincomesystem.com) – didn’t mention anything about the difference between money sites and traffic sites, and that you need to set up a blog to drive traffic to the 4 product "money sites" as described in the Step #1 Getting Started video. No, you don’t get the blog; you have to make that yourself – but I haven’t gotten to that step yet.
2. Didn’t mention the cost of the hosting account and domain names, which is in addition to the money invested in the product. You are going to need 5 domain names that will cost between $50-$75. [You only get reimbursed for a domain name and the 2 months of free hosting if you use the Kiosk.ws platinum hosting package that Michael Cheney recommends at $24.95/month and the domain names cost $15 each (he's an affiliate and gets a small commission if you use Kiosk.ws).]
3. Contact information? Oh, now he tells me that I am responsible for customer service on the products if purchased from my website. Wasn’t I supposed to get "everything you need"? I guess support for customer service isn’t one of the things you need.
4. Step #6 would lead you to believe that you are going to start making money as soon as your website is live, but in Step 1 he already warned you that the "money" sites won’t get much traffic. Don’t expect to start making money right off the bat.
5. It wasn’t so easy to get a domain name with the words ‘affiliate millions’ in it because many of the possibilities were already taken and because I discovered that someone else had written a book titled "Affiliate Millions" that is selling on Amazon.com. If you google affiliate millions, that book is likely to dominate the first page of search results. So you will probably have to come up either with a very long domain name or something that doesn’t have affiliate millions in it.
What I Did Differently
I got the Baby hosting package from HostGator for $9.95/month and a domain name from GoDaddy for $9.19/year.
Onward
Not being deterred by the revelations cited above, I will now proceed to the next step in the system, the second product. So hang on for more on the Automatic Income System.
Disclosure – The links in this report take you to the website that I set up. If you purchase Affiliate Millions, you will be buying from me.
