Copy Paste Systems featuring Paul Ponna as the "Reassuring Voice"

I've been trying out the Copy Paste System during the refund period and I've made a few discoveries.

The OTO Gauntlet – Many Times

First, the whole system is designed to sell you OTOs so when you buy in to get Copy Paste Systems, you get to run the one-time-offer gauntlet that could cost you a couple of hundred bucks if you bought it all.

But don't worry – if you pass them up the first time through, you will get emails constantly reminding you that you can still get them. Maybe they should be called MTOs – many time offers.

Support is Poor

The second thing I discovered is that you shouldn't count on quality support, especially if you are a newbie and need more than a 1-sentence reply to a question. I was working my way through the "Famous Automatic Cash Machine" – how secret could that be if it's Famous, but I digress – part of the Copy Paste website when I had some questions I wanted help with.

I sent an email with my question to support@copypastesystems.com on January 22, 2010. Then on January 25, I sent another email adding a different question. The first answer came back on January 31, that's about 9 days late, consisted of 6 words, and ignored my second question totally.

On February 2, I got another support email answering part of my second question with a nearly unintelligible reply. Soldiering on I've sent another email to support asking if they could please send me an answer I can understand and please answer the entire question.

Good Luck with That

So if you want to give the Copy Paste Systems a try, let me know how that worked. Maybe you will have better luck with support than has been my experience thus far.

Have fun,
Ed

 

NO PRODUCT, NO SALE!

I can't tell you how many times I've been baited with that line about No Product – No Problem. Yeah, I've tried more than my share, and guess what. If you don't have a product, you don't make any sales. It's simple – You have NOTHING to sell!

Here's an example. This product is advertised with the "No list, No experience, No technical skills, No product – No problem" marketing mantra by Matt Bacak, who is by the way, a really enthusiastic marketer who talks really fast.

"This Secret Money Getting Method Is Your Shortcut To Success – It's The Only Way I Know How Anyone Can Make Sales In the Shortest Amount Of Time. Faster Than Anything I’ve Ever Seen!”

• Can you really do this without a list – Yes you can.
• Can you do this without experience? Yes it's so easy, experience comes naturally.
• Can you do this without technical skills – Yes you can.
• Can you really do this without a product – No you can't.
• Is it really no problem? No problem to list a product. Making money is another issue.

WHAT ARE PRODUCTS?

Most of the time when I see the claim that you don't need a product, it generally means the product isn't something physical. You could be selling yourself, your knowledge, your expertise. Well, those are all products in the business sense of having something to sell. But the product here is physical stuff … namely – YOUR STUFF!

MAKE YOUR FIRST SALE ONLINE

What's the "secret" Matt is selling for a measly $17? How to sell products on Amazon.com. Here's the link.

And Yes you must have a product to sell or you aren't going to make any money. Here's the funny part – I didn't know that selling products with Amazon was a secret!

Well if you just listen to Matt's marketing video, you won't know he's talking about Amazon until after you charge the $17 on your credit card and find out the secret to how his young daughter made her first sale in 24 hours and continues to make 1-3 sales almost every day. But don't worry – it's easy to get a refund. You just have to wait til your next credit card statement. The refund guarantee is good for 90 days.

THE 8th STEP

Matt gives you 7 incredibly easy steps to sell your books with Amazon. The 7th step is to click the Submit button. What that does is complete the listing process. You're not done yet, assuming someone buys the book you listed.

You are responsible for "fulfillment" – you have to package it and post it. Matt's product gives you details about how to conduct the 8th Step though his product doesn't list it as one of the steps you have to do. I guess Matt thought it was just too obvious.

THE 9th STEP

Oh yeah, you are responsible for refunds and adjustments and keeping your customers happy just as in any other business transaction.

TAXES

 Matt doesn't give any guidance about whether you have to collect taxes on your sales. Amazon's guidance – it's your problem.

DOES IT WORK?

I was not registered to sell on Amazon and I found the registration process pretty easy. The fill-in-the-blanks kind of easy. Following directions just to try out the process, I pulled "Podcasting for Dummies" from my bookshelf, entered the ISBN number and … no results. Amazon couldn't find my book. Short story – the current edition is the 2nd edition and mine is the 1st edition so Amazon didn't have it.

Second try. I grabbed "Damn! Why Didn't I Write That?" and entered the ISBN number. Amazon searched and returned … the updated 2nd edition. Amazon didn't have my 1st edition copy. Matt Bacak didn't mention this problem.

ALERT If you give selling books with Amazon a try following the directions in the Get Your First Sale Online product, be aware of the multiple editions problem.

Third try, I listed Mark Joyner's "The Irresistible Offer" and that one worked as predicted. Fortunately, Mark hasn't published an updated 2nd edition!

Passive Selling

This approach to making money online is what I call "passive selling". You list the product and then wait for someone to buy it. You don't do any marketing so don't need any marketing skills. First you list, then you wait, then if you are lucky you ship and get paid.

DID I MAKE ANY MONEY?

Not Yet —- Amazon's calculations said I could make $7.92 if someone bought Mark Joyner's book from my Amazon listing. If I could just sell one book a day for a profit of $8, I could make about $240 a month. I listed "The Irresistible Offer" on November 13. It's November 15 and the Mark Joyner book hasn't sold even though I got the green check mark for lowest price. I guess I'm not as lucky as Matt's daughter Taylor. I'll try some more books and I'll let you know what happens.

DON'T EMAIL MATT

I tried that and one of his support people sent me this message in reply.

"No problem. I have forwarded your email to
him. I won't promise he will respond becasue
he gets tons of emails every single day."
 

Recommendation - Not Recommended

I could not detect any "secrets" exposed by Matt despite his contention that his way is better than anybody else's way to sell books or whatever with Amazon. But if you need or just want hand-holding to learn this process, $17 is probably not too much to risk. Just skip the more expensive One Time Offers.

My guess is you can make the $17 back if you sell 3 or 4 books (Amazon is after all a DISCOUNT book seller). The message is, "If Matt's daughter Taylor, a 12 year old, can make money doing this, then surely you can too." It's just a question of when and how much (hope springs eternal).

If you want to sell with Amazon, go here Sell Your Stuff. You don't really need Matt's product, Amazon's instructions are easy to follow, and Matt's Tips are trivial so I don't recommend this product.

 

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.

 

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.