I just tweeted this pet peeve, but it’s big enough (to me) that I need more than 140 characters to really vent about it. I’ve titled this blog post #1 because I’m sure there are bound to be more pet peeves that pop up along the way and I couldn’t leave it unnumbered and then be stuck for a completely new post title next time around. See, I think ahead.

Ok, so my first pet peeve has to do with the video sales letter. I get that they are all the rage and that they work, but I personally don’t like them. I’ve mentioned this fact before and I know I’m not alone as I’ve read many other posts from people who feel the same way. But the video works and so people will keep using them. That’s not the annoyance for me.

My pet peeve with the video sales page are the ones that you can’t control. You can’t fast forward to skip past the “personal story” that is probably a big fat lie anyway, and more importantly, you can’t skip to the PRICE. THE only important factor for me at the moment.

I don’t care if you’re selling a money printing machine, if the price is out of my range, I’m not buying. Twice last year I forked over more money that we could really afford because of a hyped up sales letter promising to make me rich. And these days, nearly everything I come across sets my bullshit meter off, so unless you can give me a price right off the bat, or allow me to fast forward your video to find out, I’m not going to spend what precious time I have looking at something I most likely won’t be able to afford.

So yes, while the video sales letter might work, I personally switch off as soon as I see that I can’t fast forward or even work out how long it’s going to be. If I’m just one person, then nobody has anything to worry about, but you have to ask yourself, am I the only one that feels this way?

When I wrote last Tuesday’s blog post, it was after seeing people promoting a page that really wasn’t being truthful in what it was selling. It used the ‘hype method’ to claim itself as a Ferrari when in reality, it was barely a Ford. But what happens when you have a sales page that doesn’t use the hype method but still doesn’t really speak the truth either – instead, they go out of their way to just NOT say what it’s about. It’s a verbal (or in this case written) way of going the long way around instead of direct to the point.

Today’s example is: My Online Income System (I know, the originality of the name blew me away too…)

The tactic here is the old ’sob story’ sales pitch – the woe is me, I had such a hard life before something or someone helped me see the light and whammo, I am now living a life of luxury. Oh yes, and of course now YOU can copy the methods that all of a sudden turned the tables and start living the life you deserve too!

The thing is, there is nothing new being offered here, in fact, when you read between the lines you will see it’s nothing more than a ‘How to’ for Affiliate Marketing. Yes I know, another one. My problem isn’t that it’s yet another ebook trying to tell you that Affiliate Marketing is the way to millions, it’s that the sales letter purposely goes out of it’s way to NOT tell you that. I mean really, just look at some of the points:

… “from a single website promoting just 3 products I was already making over a $100 per day” = That’s called a Review Site. A (usually) single webpage where you pitch three similar products against each other and recommend one… usually the one with the higher commission.

… “What’s more, I didn’t have to create a product, sell a product, and handle customer queries or any such stuff” = Otherwise called an Affiliate Marketer.

… “How to sell hundreds of thousands of products you never have to see, store or even ship.” Again! It’s just Affiliate Marketing!

… “you’ll get a free website that does all the heavy lifting for you.” Yes, that’s called a sales page, it’s what the product author creates! It’s not like you’re given a website of your own!

… “commission checks up to 75%” *COUGH* Clickbank *COUGH*

… “You’ll uncover the goldmine hidden on Google, Yahoo and MSN that could literally explode your earnings overnight!” My personal favourite of the page. Hello people that’s just Pay Per Click and is going to cost you a lot of money! Hardly a “goldmine” and in no way “hidden”

Don’t get me wrong, affiliate marketing works and I have no problem with people wanting to learn it, but I’m sure this woman worked harder making sure her sales letter didn’t say what it was than she did on the affiliate marketing in the first place. When you’re looking at enough “my product is the answer’ sales pages, it becomes very easy to pick out roughly what it’s about. Of course, this page is relying on the “oh wow it sounds so easy” factor present in newbies to making money online.

On top of all that, there’s quite a few holes in the “story” that make me question the truth behind it all. (If she’s even a ‘her’ at all… yeah I said it!)

Let’s see… she hated her job, hated her boss and wanted to work from home. She jumps on Google and does a search ‘work at home opportunity’ only to be presented with thousands of offers. No surprise there, but then she racks up nearly four and a half thousand dollars buying ebooks, courses and seminars yet didn’t learn about affiliate marketing until she went and cried on a forum and the gentle guiding hand of a complete stranger finally switched on the light bulb?

I mean give me a break, there are so many products out there teaching affiliate marketing that I find it way too hard to believe she didn’t know about it prior to Shelly coming to her rescue.

Then of course, she wants to ‘pay it forward’ (actually Shelly says she should) and she returns to the forum to spread the good news of her success. Only now, she can’t help everyone individually so what is a girl to do? She writes up an ebook to sell. That way everyone benefits – she helps those just like she was (yeah right) and she continues to help her own hip pocket at the same time. Quick learner this one, how she didn’t manage success after spending $4,500 on products is beyond me.

She does help people however… over six thousand of them! Whoooey that’s a lot of people. But wait, 6,308 people didn’t “make their first money online” because of Kimberly as she claims, that’s just how many copies she sold. (or at least claim to) I bet 50% of the buyers didn’t even OPEN your ebook – it’s almost fact that a large majority of people buy but don’t take action. You can hardly take credit for six THOUSAND people being transformed into internet business pros! I mean my goodness! How quickly she makes that jump too!

The three leaps to a big head:

1. To this day I’ve had over 6,308 people invest in my training course. (Invest is another word for buy)
2. I’m sure you’ll agree that any program which helped over 6,300 people make their first income online is nothing to sneeze at. (Now she knows they all made income online because of her)
3. You get my proven 60-day action plan which has transformed over 6,308 ordinary people into internet business pros! (See, now they’re PROS because of her! Amazing!)

How quickly the sales page subtly works it’s way to making you think that she’s “transformed” all these people and they are now living the life you want. For someone who used to be a waitress, she produced a pretty convincing pitch.

And let’s not forget all the highlighted yellow areas, because, as a newly discovered kindred blogger states: Highlighting something means it’s super important. I wouldn’t want you to miss the super important stuff! Like the price, you sooo don’t want to miss the price! Normally $97, but today only you can pick it up for $47. And remember:

P.S. I can’t promise how long I’ll keep the price this low. If you return after “thinking about it” and find that I’ve raised the price back to $97, please don’t blame me. The only way to lock in this low price is to order right away, while you’re still thinking about it. Order now!

I looked into the domain name – it was registered on the 3rd of June 2008. I know you’re wondering how long that price will last? My guess is almost 2 years. One of the recent emails was from Steven Johnson who has been pushing the EXACT SAME EMAIL (no seriously, word-for-word) on me since June of 2009, and you know what, back then it was still offered at the discount price of $47.

Click to enlarge the image and take note of all the “today only” emails…

A lot of daily specials or marketing ploy busted? It’s just so hard to figure out!

Oh yes, and when you go to close the sales page you get a special “I only offer this to family and friend’s” pop up that let’s you buy for $17. I guess this would qualify me as a friend then? Although wait, I do have family out there I’ve never met before. Oh my goodness the message MUST be for me!!

I do so love the request to “Please don’t give this link out to anyone, it’s by invite only ” – I guess ‘close window’ means ‘invite’ in her world…

I have no doubt that who ever is behind this product is making a lot of money – and not only from the 6,000 people who have apparently purchased it. Their affiliate page states that they have a “biz opp list in excess of 25,000 subscribers and have quickly become known for how well our list converts” and that this list is open for joint ventures (you show me your list and I’ll show you mine) either as a once off or as a monthly recurring event.

Oh yes, and let’s not skip past the last eye-opener: “We work heavily and exclusively in the biz opp niche and pretty much know whats going down in just about any area of the internet in regards to this niche.” (Yo, at least she be down with the lingo ya biz opp! Aww yeah, they know what’s going down bra!)

That’s some talented waitress right there!

All in all I found it really hard to think anything positive when reading the sales page. Between all the different ways of not saying it was affiliate marketing, and the holes in the sob story, I have to put this down as another internet marketer caring more about their profits than actually helping people like they claim.

Upon further research, I found people who were unhappy that it was just another affiliate marketing product, and those that raved about how awesome it is. Posts like this:

Notice the signature link? It’s greyed out because I clicked on it, and this is what I saw…

A website promoting three different products *cough review site cough* and look at what is number one. And that’s not the only ‘rave review’ of the product that has a similar link in their signature, at least 50% of the replies to a four page thread, ironically on the supposed same forum she got her big break from, contained links to similar sites.

/Facepalm

Anyone who has looked at enough internet marketing emails or sales pages lately will most likely be sick of the same thing I am – the hype! Sorry, THE TOTALLY AWESOME, MUST PAY ATTENTION TO ME RIGHT NOW BECAUSE IT WILL BE GONE TOMORROW HYPE!!!

Although I can feel myself becoming more and more jaded as I work through the thousands of inbox suffocating sales pitches, I’m not the only one that’s sick of it. I’m also not the only one noticing two things:

1. Hype is being used more and more with every sales letter being created. And,
2. It’s becoming a ‘one-up’ competition of who can hype the most.

When does the hype go too far however? What has to be claimed to make even the average reader looking for their online meal ticket to go “yeah right”? I mean, anyone who’s been researching the IM world for a while is aware of some of the tactics used to sell a product and hopefully realises that 95% of the sales letters out there are just that, sales letters. But what about the other people out there, the ones that are just looking to make money online via what ever latest method is being pushed and is not an affiliate, ebook creator, IM Mastermind or Guru? The average Tom, Dick or Harry just wanting to quit a job they hate by finding a way to make money online? They still fall for the over the top, no experience necessary, don’t have to lift a finger yet make a million dollars a year lies.

What has to be shouted in big red letters in order for these guys to sit back and go hang on a minute… I don’t think this car salesman is telling me the whole truth here? A thousand dollars a day? Ten thousand dollars a week? Or perhaps $549,784.82 in a two week period from just one of the multiple accounts the seller occupies?

That screenshot is courtesy of Ewen Chia’s Autopilot Profits. Half a million dollars in profit? Nice! Made in just two weeks? Um… well I can’t actually figure out how to type the sound a siren makes, but if I could I would because my BS Meter is deafening. I mean seriously?! HALF a million dollars every TWO weeks?! Right, and when a female asks “does my bum look big in this” she’s really asking for your honest opinion.

Now apparently, in the marketing circles, Ewen Chia is (or was) referred to as a “Superaffiliate”. Supposedly he has a track record of success and he claims to have made millions of dollars through affiliate marketing on the Internet. However being able to make millions through affiliate marketing and creating a worthwhile product don’t necessarily go hand in hand, and from everything I have read so far this is another example of that. This is why researching before you buy anything is imperative!

Autopilot Profits is marketed as a plug-and-play, in-a-box system. I’ve yet to come across any PAPIABS that works.  (See what I did there? Let’s see if that acronym takes off!) Right off the bat my mouse is hovering over the close tab box, and it only gets worse with the “just plug in the traffic” comment which right away should tell you that this isn’t going to be as easy as people think because getting traffic takes work, even if you are given “killer strategies for getting more traffic than Manhattan at rush hour”…

Don’t need a website, don’t need to spend time hunting for a winning product (read: any crap will do), no need to spend money on sales copy, I’ll do it all for you, you just sit back and try to catch all the money bills. Right… and I can eat all the junk food  I want while still losing weight by simply adding this ‘found at home herb’ to each meal. (I really need to find a good eye rolling smiley to insert here…)

The Truth?

Back in June of 2009 this was labelled as an “old” product with resell rights (here), that gives it away immediately that this isn’t going to be cutting edge information. Apart from the obvious date (if it’s labelled as ‘old’ in June last year, when was it created?!), it’s also a resell rights product. Which means you’re more likely to make money selling someone else this system that you will using the methods it teaches, and apparently, Ewen works hard to convert you over to one of his affiliates for this product.

So what exactly is taught? The package you purchase includes a 59 page ebook and a seven part video series, covering the following:

• How to find a ”Desperate and Hungry Buyers” who will buy almost anything you offer them;
• Finding the right product to sell;
• How to market that product to your audience;
• Secret tactics for generating a surge of laser targeted traffic to your site in less than 24 hours;
• How to get paid automatically twice a month;
• A ‘lazy’ way to automate the entire online process to start earning money now;

Sounds good right? For an information product, but this is a ’straight out of the box, plug it in and go Turnkey System… isn’t it?

Well this is where the researching side comes into play. My first step is off to the Warrior Forums to see who else has bought it and what they think. That’s also how I found out it was an old resell rights product. From threads in there I discovered this is not a Turnkey anything but instead, a case of “basic” affiliate marketing information being hyped up into something it’s not. What it does cover is:

• What is an affiliate program
• Finding a niche
• Choosing the keywords
• Using PPC, Forum, article marketing
• etc…

If you’re a wet behind the ears newbie wanting to get stated, then it might be helpful to you. Does that mean you should buy it? No way because you can learn everything it teaches and more via free websites such as the warrior forum if you’re really serious or by Googling each step. Hell even I could teach you some bits with what I’ve learned over the past year…

But hang on a minute, the sales page doesn’t tell you it’s a “Learn Affiliate Marketing” ebook… this is a PAPIABS!! I mean even Tellman Knudson’s email tells me this is a “hands-free, while-you-wait, while you golf, or whatever… exact simple system that gives KILLER results!”

Half a million dollars of autopilot profits. That’s a million dollars a month! Twelve million dollars a year. A plug-and-play turnkey machine that deposits instant profits into your bank account 24/7!  All you’ve to do is set it up and it runs automatically to suck in mega wads of cash for you. How exactly does that then become an ebook and video series giving you an overview of affiliate marketing?

Where is the turnkey part of it? The system? The plug and play aspect? Ooh I know, the Hype Monster sat on it. And this is one BIG hype monster. Sort of like the IM’s Abominal snowman… so it’s probably all hiding under one ass cheek!

I get hype, I do. No one’s going to buy a product from a sales letter telling you it’s an ok product that might teach you something new even if you already know most on what ever topic it’s teaching. That you will generate mediocre, frustrating results IF you work extremely hard, swapping your nine to five desk job for a nine to midnight at home lifestyle. If you want to get people to buy from you, you need to sell a cinnamon donut as a sweet circle of ecstasy covered in fat free sugary goodness designed to give your taste buds orgasms.

When does the ‘hype’ become a lie though? Yes cinnamon donuts can be sweet circles of goodness, especially if they’re fresh and even better if they’re still warm, but they’re hardly fat free. And yes, affiliate marketing does work, but you could hardly label it as a plug and play system that automatically fills your pockets with cash. If I had purchased Autopilot Profits prior to researching, I would be mighty ticked off and trying not to click my mouse too hard requesting a refund.

Oh yeah, and how much is this life altering, money making system going to cost you? Well normally it’s $1997, but since the day it launched until goodness knows when, you can pick it up for a just $27. That’s a massive saving of $1970 (or a 97.3% discount)! Just in case though, you better go buy it right now! Don’t wait because the price could go up tomorrow!

P.S. For a product created in 2007 and considered old in 2009, I got emailed on the 24th of January and 11am this morning.