Avoid the scams, find out which Business Opportunities actually work
7th May 2008
Filed under: Domain Names,Internet Marketing — Ben @ 7:36 pm

Today I want to talk to you about 4,000% returns.

Not make believe or “possible” returns but genuine profits I have made over the past year.

In fact, these are returns I have made since I had breakfast with two smart young guys at a seminar last April.

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve become a little jaded with the business opportunity world and this is one of the reasons why.

Another is that I’ve come to realise that I’ve no real interest in copywriting or product creation or information marketing.

Which is what the vast majority of biz opps are about at the moment.

No doubt that info marketing is highly lucrative for the right person, but I don’t have enough enthusiasm for it.

What I have been getting into, more and more, is domain trading – domain name speculation.

Which is what has given me up to 4,000% profit in one transaction.

It’s also given me many smaller percentage profits such as 150% per domain over and over again.

How?

Easy – grabbing expired domain names that the original registrant doesn’t want and then selling them on to others who do want them.

Or buying domains in auctions and then selling them on for big profits.

Best of all, whilst I am waiting to sell the domains I “rent” out the space for ongoing revenue.

Trading on the domain name aftermarket is a relatively untapped opportunity which I have been using successfully since I met Andy and Paul last year.

Why am I telling you all this now?

The answer is because they have just relaunched their book – The Domain Profit Guide and it’s better than ever.

It’s been very, very lucrative for me and I owe it to them to spread the word after they introduced me to domain investing.

You can check it out here:

http://www.DomainProfitGuide.com

Let me know if you have any questions.

17th April 2008
Filed under: General Opportunities,Internet Marketing — Ben @ 8:12 pm

Yesterday I sent an email out that pointed out Joel Comm’s latest promotion – his $97 AdSense book for just $9.95.

Tongue firmly in cheek, I suggested it might be because Joel has had an unexpectedly large tax bill. It’s not uncommon for people to do specials around tax time…

Below is the email I sent:

“Hi,

Just a quick email because you may wish to take advantage of what looks like a “I-need-money-for-my-tax-bill” sale.

Joel Comm’s just released the 4th Edition of his New York Best Seller AdSense Guide and he’s priced it at $9.95 which is about £5 at the current exchange rate.

I don’t know the real reason why he is selling it so cheap…

Could it be that it is tax time in the US?

Maybe that’s just me being cynical…

If you’re interested in using AdSense on any of your websites, or creating websites especially to use AdSense (Virtual Real Estate as it is known) then Joel is recognised as the “industry expert” in this field.

So $9.95 is a bit of a bargain if you ask me!

Be aware that should you buy the book you will get an offer – a “MASSIVE AdSense Premier home training” as he puts it – at a 75% discount on the usual price.

I can vouch that it is at a huge discount, I saw Joel speak at a seminar some time ago and his Premier package was several thousand dollars.

It’s very good value but not essential by any means.

For most people the book will be more than adequate to explain advanced AdSense strategies in detail.

The offer can be found at:

[Link removed]

Hope that’s of use to you!

Thanks,

Ben”

I’ve since discovered that buyers were automatically signed up to a continuity program when they bought the eBook. It’s a membership at just under $30 a month and you get the first month free – after that you must cancel if you do not want to receive any more issues.

Now this WAS mentioned in the sales letter but not highlighted on the order form.

So, if like me, you have bought Joel’s book without realising you’ve been signed up to a monthly continuity program then make sure to remember to cancel the newsletter subscription if you do not like the first issue.

I will be ensuring that I do not get charged unless the newsletter contains 100% superb information.

After all, I did not specifically request this membership and I doubt I would’ve ordered it if had had a choice!

So, my apologies for suggesting this was a great buy at $10 – I honestly did think it was a good buy – which is why I bought it myself.

However, if I had realised that there was a forced continuity program contained in the offer, I probably wouldn’t have promoted this book.

If you have any issues whatsoever cancelling the monthly charge, then please let me know. I will let you know how I go on cancelling it – I really hope they don’t force me to phone the US.

Very sneaky Joel, very sneaky. I’m not impressed.

24th March 2008
Filed under: Internet Marketing — Ben @ 4:27 pm

Andrew Fox launched a reasonably high-priced product last week which he has called the “Affiliate X Factor“.

It’s a 200 dollar product which consists of a 6 week video coaching course.

In reality, it’s 6 Camtasia videos dished out at the rate of one a week.

We got the first video on launch via a password protected blog. It’s 30 minutes of content and then 10 minutes of Andrew showing viewers how to put an Aweber opt-in form onto a website.

The 30 minutes of content is standard stuff – how to look through Clickbank to find products to promote as an affiliate.

Experts call it “researching a niche” but it’s truly boring stuff if you’ve ever read anything about niche research in the past.

As you can probably tell, I wasn’t overly impressed with this first video but there are 5 more to go and I’m hoping the quality increases significantly.

I don’t like to bash anyone’s product without good reason but I feel that I am always going to be sceptical of “Foxy” due to the last product of his I read – the extremely poor “Guru Slayer”.

I’ll add more after the next video is released so if you’re interested please stay tuned for more details…

20th March 2008
Filed under: Internet Marketing,Useful Tools — Ben @ 11:25 pm

I’ve got to take my hat off to the creators of this one – Peel Away Ads.

I know it’s pretty old news as far as internet marketing goes but if you haven’t seen it in action before, take a look at the sales page:

Peel Away Ads Salespage (opens in new window)

See in the top left hand corner?

Hover over that little triangle and the corner just “peels” away to reveal an advert.

Click on it and you are taken to whichever page the advertiser wants to show you.

It’s eye-catching, innovative and looks great…

Problem is, it isn’t advertised very well in some cases.

For example, check this screenshot I found on somebody’s blog today:

Peel Away Ads screenshot

It says “Currently 250% Off Standard Price“.

Fair enough, you may say – until you think about it.

How can something be 250% off? Isn’t that impossible? Surely the most you can discount a price by is 100%?

Without getting too technical, let’s consider the maths:

Example -> 50% off £250

£250 x ((100 – 50) / 100) = £250 x 0.5 = £125

Another example -> 75% off £250

£250 x ((100 – 75) / 100) = £250 x 0.25 = £62.50

So, it follows that 250% off £250 would be:

£250 x ((100 – 250) / 100) = £250 x -1.5 = -£375

Minus £375?

Unless I’m completely wrong, does that not mean that to give a discount of 250% on a price of £250, you would have to give the customer £375 in cash?

Peel Away Ads, brilliant advertising idea let down by poor maths!

Peel Away Ads

18th March 2008
Filed under: General Opportunities,Internet Marketing — Ben @ 2:29 pm

I don’t mind people acting as joint venture brokers – matching seller with promoter – and taking a percentage of the sale for arranging it all.

In fact, I could see it as a pretty good earner if you do it correctly.

What I don’t like is this new trend of finding a series of sites in a particular niche and then spamming the email addresses listed in the WHOIS with an affiliate link for a 2-tier affiliate program.

Take, for example, this email I got to the address I have listed in the WHOIS on one of my domains:

Subject: A Quick Question About [My Website URL]

Hi there,

My name is James Max.

I was recently reviewing forex trading sites in some of the major search engines and I came across your web site: [My Website URL]

Out of all the sites I came across yours really stood out for me and If you could please spare me just two minutes I have a business proposition for you as you are in the same market as I am. After reviewing your site I found that we are both targeting the exact same market, though we are not in competition with each other. I have been studying this target market for quite some time and would like to present you with the opportunity to increase your income for five minutes work. You will be provided with the marketing materials, all you need do is sending out an email to your ezine list or adding a graphic to your web site, and you can make money!

You can do this by signing up to the affiliate program found here: [affiliate link masked using TinyURL]. By promoting this product you can earn a commission without ever having to handle customer service or ship any products. It’s a fantastic way to make money pretty much out of thin air! By working together, we have the potential to create an additional revenue source for both of us — without investing any money or even any time. Because we share the same target market, your customers are guaranteed to be interested in the product. An affiliate arrangement is a sure-fire way to make that interest work to our mutual benefit. To sign up to this affiliate program visit: [affiliate link masked using TinyURL]

I offer this partnership very selectively, so please do act fast if you wish to go ahead with this. Also please feel free to email me if you have any questions. Finally I know you’re a busy person and I’d like to thank you for reading this email whether you choose to promote and make some extra cash or not. Keep up the good work! By the way, you’ll be paid by 10th business day of every month, for the preceding month’s earnings. [affiliate link masked using TinyURL]

Sincerely, James Max

P.S. I hope you don’t mind me emailing you it’s just your forex trading web site really stood out from the others I came across during my research.”

Unfortunately for “James Max”, I very much did mind that he sent me this email.

What really got on my nerves is that it was completely obvious that this was either an automated email or a quick edit of a template email to stuff in my email address and website address.

He couldn’t even be bothered to take 5 minutes to rewrite the email slightly to include my name or anything else even slightly personal.

I don’t actively ask for people to suggest products to promote anywhere on this website and I certainly do not expect people to just pluck my name from the WHOIS records and send this junk. It is unsolicited commercial email – it is spam.

Sadly I think that this practice is going to get worse and more and more of these emails will be received by webmasters who simply aren’t interested in the slightest.

Just last month this “technique” was provided in detail as a suggested business blueprint by a UK marketer in his new monthly “snail mail” newsletter.

I used to respect him as a good guy before he suggested to all his readers that they go out and spam people with affiliate links for 2 tier programs.

Anyway, to wrap up this rant, here’s the reply I sent to “James Max”:

Nice “template” email.

I’d appreciate it if you didn’t try and treat me like a complete idiot. This is a well known “technique” which is likely to mark you out as somebody not to be trusted.

Have a word with whoever urged you to send emails like this and ask them why they suggested you ruin your reputation by spamming email addresses you find via WHOIS.

Tip: If you want to be taken seriously in this business, don’t try to trick people, don’t use privacy protected WHOIS records and offer value – not dodgy 2 tier affiliate programs.

Oh, and don’t use template emails.”

Just another example of so-called internet marketers trying to trick people.

Is it just me or is the whole business opportunity/internet marketing field becoming more and more seedy and dishonest?

I’ve already had:

(a) Keith Wellman go back on his promise of bonuses (see Keith Wellman of FX Marketing Inc and Everyday Wealth LLC),

(b) the Global Pension Plan slowly disappearing (bizoppsuk.com/global_pension_plan.php) and

(c) another marketer has yet to send out some DVDs I ordered from him over a month ago.

Is it any wonder that the general public sees internet marketers as a bunch of scammers?

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