Are You Too Smart for Your Own Good?

Short and sweet – If you haven't read Mark Widawer's ebook The Triumph of the Stupid, DO IT NOW!

Go ahead, what are you waiting for? It's 26 pages of the best advice you are going to get about being successful in internet marketing and online business.

Cheers,

Ed

 

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Out of Date and Out of Link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 .

 

I know it’s been a long time since I mentioned Affiliate Silver Bullet – but I hope Better Late Than Never applies here.

     Here’s the previous Affiliate Silver Bullet article.

Whoever runs Affiliate Silver Bullet doesn’t seem to pay attention to the products they are selling and that is a good enough reason to avoid this program.

Reported Attack Site!

One of the products being sold as a silver bullet leads visitors to a website that Google thinks is an attack site. That by itself rules out Affiliate Silver Bullet as something you want to get involved with.

To check out the product, I followed the process to get the free email course. When the first email came, I clicked the link at the bottom of the email, something like this: Just visit adomainname.com. The web page opened in my browser and immediately changed to the Reported Attack Site! alert What’s up with that? Shoddy product management or worse.

Cry Baby?

I gave my first name and email address to one of the silver bullets to check out the customer experience. I followed the process to get the free email course. When the first email came, I clicked the link at the bottom of the email, something like this: Just visit adomainname.com. The web page opened in my browser and when it had finished loading, the sound of a baby crying played for a few seconds. What’s up with that? Shoddy product management.

It Gets Worse!

I went to the support site and made out a ticket to report the problem with the Reported Attack Site. ASB sent me an auto-response email advising me to check the faq.

"Hello Edward Rykiel,

Thank you very much for your interest in the Affiliate Silver Bullet System!

Please take a quick look at these frequently asked questions, as they will most likely cover your inquiry. If your question is not covered below, you will receive a personal response within 24 – 48 hours (usually sooner)."

No response sooner, and none within 24 hours. You would think they would want to take care of a problem like that sooner rather than later. I also reported the baby crying thing, and got the same non response.

Don’t Ruin Your Online Reputation

Especially as a newbie, you don’t want to start off by ruining your reputation by promoting not just shoddy products but actual harmful products. There are too many hidden tricks and quality issues with Affiliate Silver Bullet. Your customers should NEVER get a ‘Reported Attack Site!’ web page with a product you are marketing. END OF STORY!

Comments?

Do you have experience with Affiiliate Silver Bullet? Add your comments here.

 

 Nothing Happening at ZeroTo500

This will be my last update on Eric Graham’s ZeroTo500 internet marketing course because

A. the program went dead at week 2, which by the way started and ended about 5 weeks late,

B. no response from Eric Graham or his support, and

C. I called my credit card company to dispute the charge for the product. 

Dispute the Charge

If you used a credit card to purchase this program and are having trouble getting a refund, do this.

Call the Customer Service telephone number on the back of your credit card or found on your monthly statement, and tell them you want to dispute the charge, most likely listed as Graham Advantage. Explain the situation to them and they will most likely credit the charge and start an investigation.

You might also find a telephone number for Graham Advantage listed on your credit card statement. No answer when I called.

Where is Eric?

I don’t know what happened to Eric Graham. Maybe he got sick in which case he should have informed us. Or maybe something more serious happened to him. If you know, please post a comment.

 

A 7 Day Trial Sounded OK

I signed up for a 7 day trial of this product on February 13 so I could evaluate it and advise you about it. It didn’t take me long to see that the product was worthless.

First Cancellation Request Ignored

So on February 17 I made my first attempt to cancel the account. Now one of the characteristics of a scam is that it is difficult to cancel an account and especially to get a refund. My cancellation request was ignored. But I didn’t know that until I got my next credit card statement on March 17.

Credit Card Charged $47

My credit card was charged for a recurring monthly payment of $47. Yikes!

Second Cancellation Request Ticketed

I called again to cancel the account and to demand a refund. And I was once again assured that my account was cancelled and the charge to my account would be reversed. They wouldn’t send another email confirmation and instead told me to make out a ticket at customerproductsupport.com. Then they sent me an email in response the ticket I filed telling they needed me to call and give them the information that I had already given them twice. I’m not holding my breath, but I did …

Dispute the Charge !!!

Call the customer service department at the number listed on your credit card and dispute the charge. Might also be called the Claims Department. The fact that the vendor ignored your cancellation and refund requests may be sufficient for the card company to reverse the charge.

Visit the Complaints Board

Go to the ComplaintsBoard and search for emillionaire, or other vendor to see if complaints have been filed about them. Then choose wisely. emillionaire may also be known as googlepayday, googlecash, or some variant of google. Maybe Google should look into internet marketers using their name.

Sometimes I ignore my own advice – if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

PS For your protection, the only clickable link in this sad story is the one to the ComplaintsBoard and the link to Google Notebook. 

The Rest of the Story …

I didn’t mean for this post to go on and on, but if you are interested, here’s more details of what happened to me.

I found this on Facebook and thought I would check it out. Should have known it was bogus when I read the sales letter on the site. Question: Does Facebook know about this scam site?

I’m Happy I Lost My Job
http://www.richstudent.net/

Kevin’s Money Matters
Learn How I Make $5,000+ a Month Posting Links on Google
Get paid $5 to $30 for every website link that you post on Google. No one needs to buy anything from you or Google in order to get paid. Weekly paychecks. Can work from home computer.

 Step 1: Google Profit System  Pay $1.00 for shipping. This link goes to https://secure.eznetincome.com/g5/?cid=3384&subid=0&red=1, which tells you to "Hurry, There are only 46 slots open". I have checked this link many times and it always says there are only 46 slots open.

* Step 1 Go to this link, fill out a basic online form and hit submit at Earn Cash With Google Only pay the $1.00 for shipping.
    * Step 2 Follow the directions on Earn Cash With Google and set up a Google account. Then they will give you the website links to post. Start posting those links. Google tracks everything.
    * Step 3 Google will start sending their first check to you in about 48 hours. Or you can start to have them wire directly into your checking account. (Your first checks will be about $500 to $1,500 a week. Then it goes up from there. Depends on how many links you posted online.)

You are led to think that you are going to get money from Google in 48 hours. Guess what? NOT!

Warning: The sales letter is unethical and grossly misleading which you have probably figured out just from reading the above and will find out the hard way if you keep going with it.

The copy says that you can get a 7 day trial for $1.00. On the very same page on the right side, it says, "First see if you qualify. If you qualify, just pay $1.99 for S+H." When I went to the site, I found that the 7 day trial was $1.95 s/h. That’s a clue for you if you are really alert, which says something about me I’m sorry to say. But that misstatement wasn’t even the half of the scam. It turns out that the product is actually a membership site and you will be charged $47 a month if you don’t cancel in 7 days. I figured 7 days was sufficient time so (foolishly) I gave my credit card number for the $1.95 trial and followed the directions to the sign-up page for eMillionaire.com.

[You did read the Terms and Conditions before you gave away your credit card information, right? See Note 2 below. I didn't read them til afterward - when will I ever learn.]

Says, “Rush me my kit!”  – What kit? is the question. Guess what? There is no kit!

Please note, you will receive your exclusive membership information for the eMillionaire Google Money System™ by email. Guess what? No email!

googmoney is the name that will show up on your credit card statement. You may contact us at any time either by emailing googlesupport@emillionaire.com or by calling 800-309-6980 Monday-Saturday 9am-9pm EST.

Module 1 – A poor telephone call recording.
Says he will go into market research in more detail.
Advises using Google Notebook – See Note 2 below.

Video 1: Unprofessional presentation with useless information
Video 2: Do you know what “lipsum” text is?  “Um, I mean, I’m not gonna totally go into everything about WordPress , oops, excuse me … um …Hopefully, you guys learned something.”
Video 3: The key would be in the Manage area … I did this in Dreamweaver … all you do is to edit things from the visual area … excuse me … and you just write what you want, write over the lipsum text … ah um … this area is pretty self -explanatory … Hopefully, you enjoyed this video.

Since the product is so bad, I wanted to cancel the account before the 7 day trial was up. Note this part – even though the product is inconceivably bad, it might be sufficient for the vendor to claim that you received value for your money.

<googlesupport@emillionaire.com>: Guess what? The link doesn’t work.
209.85.217.36 does not like recipient.
Remote host said: 550-5.1.1 The email account that you tried to reach does not exist.

Since the email bounced, I cancelled by telephone. 800-309-6980. Lot of echo in the voice line of eMillionaire and transfer to a call center somewhere unknown. I was assured that my account was cancelled and would not be charged again. I also received this email response.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009 4:29 PM
From: “eMillionaire Support” <support@emillionaire.com>

To: my email address

Your request have been executed. You have been successfully been deleted to the eMillionaire  Program. We are sorry to hear that you have cancelled your membershp with us. Many members have been satisfied with the benefits they get monthly. If there are anything we can further to assist you with, please feel free to get back to us. Thank you!

Guess what? My credit card was charged $47 on March 6, which I discovered on March 17 when I got my credit card statement.

Since I could not get satisfaction from the vendor, I called the Claims Department of my credit card company and filed a dispute. They asked me for necessary information and told me the charge would be reversed (or a credit issued). They also analyze the transaction and can refuse further charges from the vendor.

Note 1 Terms and Conditions you agreed to but probably don’t know what you agreed to

If you have not cancelled the free bonus within the free trial period, you agreei to purchase the bonus material and/or service at a monthly reoccurring cost. This can be cancelled by calling the customer service number provided in the confirmation email [Ed. note: which you probably didn't receive] between the hours of 9AM and 9PM EST M-F and stating your desire to cancel said bonus material and/or monthly service. However, in order to not be charged any future reoccurring cost, please give ample time (2 business days) to be cancelled out of any reoccurring billing system before the next scheduled charge to your account (this does not apply during any trial period). Not canceling trial programs constitutes authorization by you for any charges for the associated bonus service until your request to cancel has been received by our customer service staff.  By not canceling the bonus program during the trial period or prior to two days before a scheduled billing cycle, you agree that any reoccurring charges billed to you will be non-refundable.

Note 2  Google Notebook

Stopping development on Google Notebook

Wednesday, January 14, 2009 6:30 PM

Posted by Raj Krishnan, Product Manager, Google Notebook

At Google, we’re constantly working to innovate and improve our products so people can easily find and manage information. At times though, we have to decide where to focus our efforts and which technologies we expect will yield the most benefit to users in the long run.

Starting next week, we plan to stop active development on Google Notebook. This means we’ll no longer be adding features or offer Notebook for new users.

 

200 Unique Articles in 14 Seconds ???

Do you really think that you can generate 200 unique articles in 14 seconds from one single article? Well, you can't. What you can do is futz around with synonyms and phrase inversions using a dictionary and a thesaurus to make it seem that each article is somehow distinctly different from all the rest. But all the articles are essentially the same, meaning that the actual cognitive content is identical.

Who Is the Author?

It isn't you! I think it is unethical to let a computer program generate article content for you and then claim that you wrote the article with the implication that you are some sort of expert on the topic of the article. I know some internet marketers are not troubled by that, but I feel that it is dishonest. Especially if they are selling you the content and you think they wrote it. They probably didn't write the original article either. Even if they are giving it away and your only connection with it is reading it, you still got scammed because you were misled about authorship (unless, of course, they tell you that the article was manipulated by a computer program).

WARNING !

I strongly recommend against using any word replacement software based on dictionary and thesaurus substitutions to generate faux uniqueness. Google has this tactic figured out already, and it isn't worth your reputation to be caught in this particular trap.