I undid it

I don’t know if you remember that I started this particular adventure with "Ed, don’t tell me you bought another one of these things." Yeah, I did.

As I worked through the system, I found that I could not view important videos on my Mac. Michael Cheney’s support desk wasn’t any help with that. So the product should have been labelled from the first as a Windows product.

So I did what I’ve been advising you to do with any product that doesn’t live up to your expectations. I got a refund.

PLR Dump

PLR (private label rights) means that YOU didn’t write the ebook or produce the video, or make whatever the product happens to be. Some of the products in this package are PLR pass-throughs and not Michael Cheney’s products.

Personally I don’t like passing off someone else’s work as my own. Probably my science background holding me back.

Despite my personal view on this, a flourishing PLR industry exists and a lot of people sell PLR products on the premise that you will resell it and make your money that way. What they generally leave out is all the work you have to do to be successful at this strategy.

"Automatic" – Not

The advertising sales pitch for this product overhyped the potential to generate "automatic" income. It turns out that you have to do a helluva lot of work, not the least of which is build an online reputation, before anything even close to automatic income materializes.

I’m not dissing work. Work is good. The "internet life style" takes a lot of work. I’m knocking the sales pitches that claim to minimize or even eliminate the work required to make money.

Remember, no matter what they want you to believe, it’s their day job. All the internet marketing "gurus" I know worked for years to get where they are today. And they are working pretty hard to stay where they are.

Still want to Start Your Profits Today?

Here’s my sales pitch to you if you think Michael Cheney has a better product for newbies (I think he does and it costs $97, not $497). The product is called Start Your Profits Today.

Click that link and you get 8 FREE videos to help you decide if Start Your Profits Today is just what you need to get your internet money making venture off the ground.

Oh, and that Today part? Be realistic, it’s not happening for beginners in one day no matter what anybody says. But you can get started today.

In any case, I think you’ll find the FREE videos helpful.

PS When you click the link to Start Your Profits Today, you will be taken to a "squeeze page", which means that you have to enter your name and email address to get to the FREE videos. For the name part, I always enter just my first name (and sometimes I make up a name – don’t tell on me – autoresponders don’t know who you are). You can always Unsubscribe from Michael Cheney’s autoresponder whenever you wish.

 

I haven’t completed the work yet, but I have looked over the entire program, and here’s my recommendation.

Recommended - If you are an internet marketing beginner (otherwise known as a newbie), the Automatic Income System has all the information you need to get your feet wet. Given that you have 60 days to ask all the questions you can think of, Michael Cheney’s program is as complete as any I’ve seen, and with a money-back guarantee, you can’t really go wrong.

If you are more experienced, and you just want to be able to sell the 4 products to get 100% of the income, you might want to give this a try.

Not Recommended – If you already know how to set up a website and a WordPress blog and have already sold something on the internet, you will be annoyed by the handholding that is appropriate for newbies (scrolls, messengers, and castles, oh my!), but doesn’t add anything to what you already know. If you know how to find products at ClickBank and you want to promote Michael Cheney’s products, you don’t need the Automatic Income System to do that.

Caveat emptor: Some of the components of the Automatic Income System are Windows-only (actually the entire program is Windows-oriented). So if you are a Mac person, be prepared for that.

If you purchased the Automatic Income System, please share your experiences with it here.

 

NEWS FLASH !!!

You’ll notice below that I felt that the sales letters could use some editing so I opened a ticket at Automatic Income System.

Michael Cheney responded to let me know that you are free to do whatever editing you wish on the 4 products that you get in the Automatic Income System, and I wanted to pass that on to you. You don’t have to do any more editing then the videos require so I’ll leave it up to you how much editing you want to do.

PS I’ve found that his support system is responsive and has answered all the questions I’ve asked thus far.

OK, I’ve got the "money" websites online now. Took me a little longer than I expected. You can see them here:

1. MichaelCheneyRevealsAffiliateMillions.com
2. WebmasterTrafficTactics.com
3. ClickBankCashExplosion.com
4. MichaelCheneysInternetMarketingSecrets.com

Please let me know if you notice any problems with these websites (and remember if you buy any of these products, you are buying them from me.). I might make more changes to them, but for now I’m moving on to the blog part.

Here’s a few issues I came across getting the websites set up.

What I Liked

1. The videos guide you along quite well. I advise that you watch the videos before you actually try to get things set up, and watch them again as you are working on the project so you can refer to them as often as you need. Michael Cheney does a good job of explaining just what you have to do, although I don’t think it is "brain-dead simple".

2. The explanations apply to any website hosting that uses cPanel so you understand what to do even if you are not using Kiosk.ws.

3. The pricing of the money products is reasonable in comparison to similar products.

4. The sales letters are attractive, although sometimes challenged by verb tenses and subject-verb number relation.

What I Didn’t Like

Traffic Tactics

1. Traffic Tactics salesletter is written as if I developed all these tactics. The ethics of passing off someone else’s work as your own is a subject for another day. Suffice it to say that I would prefer to edit the sales letter to say something like "I had these developed and thought they were good enough to pass on to you" (or words to that effect).

2. This product was apparently developed by Edmund Loh who is selling the PLR  (private  label  rights) and  Michael  Cheney has  resold  this  product to me. If you know something about PLR, you’ll realize that this is a common practice for internet marketers. No telling how much money has been made this way, but it’s a lot. In any case, I would have liked to know up front that I was getting a PLR  product.

3. In the members folder, which is where a buyer will go to download their purchase, there is an index.html file that has no support information. If a person bought the product and had a problem, they would have to go back to the sales page for contact information, and they would probably be really annoyed at that point. I suppose you can edit the html code to add whatever contact info you want to provide, and I recommend that you do that if you can.

Cash Creators

1. These are email text messages meant to be used in an autoresponder. The text messages pitch ClickBank products in the Business- to-Business and Health-Fitness categories. It’s not clear if you can use the text in other ways if you don’t have an email list.

2. This is also a PLR product.

3. The members folder has an index.html file with no support information.

Fortune with 500

1. I had some trouble figuring out what this product is. The sales letter just says that Michael Cheney is going tell you something important if you buy it.

2. This is a Windows-only product (a .exe file) and will not work on a Mac (unless you running Windows on your Mac), but that is not mentioned in the sales letter.

3. The members folder has an index.html file which you should edit because it has placeholders for your name and contact info. I don’t remember that being mentioned in the video (but I could be wrong about that).

What I Did Differently

 1. I edited the index files in the members folders to add my name and/or contact info for support purposes.

2. I bought all 5 domain names at GoDaddy. The total cost was $49.95. My hosting at HostGator cost $9.95 (I’m on a monthly basis because I didn’t want to buy a year’s worth of hosting to evaluate a new product that I might not stick with.). So I have spent an additional $59.90 so far.

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What’s Next? – I’m plugging ahead to the blog videos. There are 9 of them.

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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.