Affiliate Jump was launched last week with usual launch fanfare i.e. lots of affiliates aggressively mailing their lists, seemingly desperate to get to the top of the “leaderboard” of JV partners.

It seems to be some kind of CPA network – CPA meaning “Cost Per Action” – where you basically earn commission by getting people to fill in forms. Sadly it also usually involves “free trials” and forced continuity as the money has to come from somewhere to pay for all those forms people fill in.

CPA has been a buzz topic for months now and it’s no surprise that Filsaime has decided to jump onboard the trend. I am slightly surprised though to see that there is no guarantee to this opportunity and some CPA experts aren’t convinced that it’s worthwhile.

It seems that Affiliate Jump is pretty much just a CPA network that you have to pay $200+ to join whereas most CPA networks are free to join.

Also, you share any commission you make with Mike and his partners which is not ideal.

I’ve read some reviews by some very disappointed people who have, quite rightly, asked for their money back because they aren’t satisfied with the quality of the product. Those same customers are also complaining that they are being refused refunds.

One was kind enough to post the response from the Affiliate Jump support desk:

“Please note that there are no refunds for Account Activation fees or your first month of service. Because of this, we’d encourage you not to cancel and to stick with the program.”

The “Account Activation” fee is $200. The “first month of service” could be $39.95, $89.95 or $99.95 depending on the level chosen by the customer and is an ongoing monthly fee.

Therefore any disappointed customer who wants a refund and is refused it will be out of pocket to the tune of between $239 and $299.

In my opinion, this is unacceptable.

According to the small print during sign-up, the $200 fee is refundable only when (if?) you earn $1000 through the program. On the affiliate signup page, potential affiliates are told that until the 23rd of August they will earn $200 for each new member they introduce.

So it seems that the $200 “Account Activation” fee is actually the affiliate commission which may go some way to explain why it is non-refundable.

I was under the impression that best practice for marketers is to refund immediately whenever there is a complaint. It’s extremely disappointing to see that a well-known marketer like Mike Filsaime is putting his name to a product where unhappy customers are denied a refund.

Please heed this warning if you were looking at Affiliate Jump with an intention to buy – if you are unhappy with the quality of the product you may find it difficult to get a refund…

** UPDATE 19/08/09 **

There are rumours on certain forums that people are now being issued refunds so perhaps the marketers behind this product have decided to retract their “no refunds” policy. Let’s hope so!

Big news this week as the popular URL shortening service tr.im announced it was going to stop forwarding links from the end of the year.

In addition, it stopped allowing people to create new shortened links and prevented existing members from logging in to see what links they had made.

For those people that had used the service extensively it was a huge blow because, basically, they lost a load of links at the click of a mouse. There was no way to discover what links they had made and where they pointed to.

The reason for the closure given by the owners was that they were finding it difficult to make any money and were feeling hobbled by the fact that flavour-of-the-month social networking site Twitter.com pushed bit.ly to its users rather than their site.

Predictably there was a bit of a backlash from tr.im users – many who had plastered their shortened links everywhere – as their links would become redundant at the end of 2009.

The decision to close the website was reversed yesterday due to the owner feeling “absolutely overwhelmed by the popular response, and the countless public and private appeals I have received to keep tr.im alive“.

So it looks like tr.im will live on for the moment. However, this whole show (whether staged or not) teaches us a couple of lessons…

Lesson 1: Never rely on a free service to provide an important function for your business. These sites can disappear with no warning – or just shut up shop as we saw with tr.im.

Lesson 2: Not every website makes money on the internet, even if it is very popular. Even Twitter doesn’t seem to have any kind of monetisation in place and it intrigues me as to what they plan to do in the long-term to make any money. At some point if they are still not making any profit, they are also likely to close…

18 months or so ago I launched a URL shortening service using one of my domains – kliq.com – which I thought was perfect for the task (kliq, it’s like “click“, get it?).

It wasn’t hard to get some software to run it, or to install it.

I didn’t even promote the site and yet still got quite a few people to use it.

One problem was that sites like this attract spammers. After all, they can simply use your site to shorten a website address and then send that address in emails to hide their real website address from spam filters and blacklists.

Another problem is that it’s very difficult to include any sort of monetisation on a URL shortening site.

You can provide advertising on the front page such as Google AdSense or banner ads but they don’t tend to attract many clicks as visitors are there for a purpose – to shorten a link.

Some URL shortening services include a short delay in forwarding where they show an advert. Not many do this though, as it tends to put people off using their service. Let’s face it, if I want to use a shortened URL, I want the person clicking the URL to go to the website I specify. I don’t want them distracted by adverts. This is why using frames will not work either.

If you try to use advertising or frames, you’ll suffer a loss in users because there are plenty of services that don’t inflict this on visitors.

In short (no pun intended), URL shorteners are a great idea in practise but apart from hoping for another company to buy you out, it’s difficult to make any money from them.

And if you’re planning on using one to shorten a link, remember that the link could be useless tomorrow if the service decides to shut up shop on you. In many cases you’d be better off creating a redirect link using your own website so you control it.

Back in the good old days it was possible to sell digital products on eBay. In fact, I know of one particular marketer who made a fortune selling on that site alone.

eBay then went and changed the rules and banned digital products which pretty much instantly ruined some businesses and made some great software almost completely redundant (I’m thinking about MyDD but there were others).

Over the years I’ve made some good money from eBay.

One trick was to buy old business opportunity manuals which had been listed incorrectly and then flip them for profit.

One I remember quite well had been listed with the title “To be Wealthy in simpl way” and no picture.

Reading the description I discovered that it was a second hand copy of Vince Stanzione’s “Making Money From Financial Spread Trading” course.

I won the item for £17.49 (which included postage) and then as soon as I received it I created a new listing, dressed it up a bit with a good photo, decent description and a very descriptive title and set it up as a Buy It Now item.

That item sold after a couple of days for £80 and I made a quick £35 profit after fees and postage. It was a simple way of making a few pounds profit without doing much work.

Another trick I used was to search for misspellings of a UK marketer’s name. One search term I used was “Goheler” which will tell you immediately who I was searching for. It was often possible to buy his products cheaply because the seller had spelt his surname wrong, and then create a good listing with a reasonable Buy It Now price and ‘flip’ the item for a nice profit.

I’m sure this still works if you are willing to put the time in although I’ve not sold much on eBay in quite a while and if I do I tend to just use eBay to clear out items that I don’t use anymore.

However (didn’t you figure I was leading up to something?)… I’ve just listed some biz opp items on eBay as I’m clearing out some DVDs etc I haven’t watched in a while.

It’d be nice to see them go to someone who will use them and if you’re reading this you obviously have some interest in making more money.

The first item is Mike Filsaime’s “7 Figure Code” seminar which includes 16 DVDs showing unedited footage of his $5,000 seminar held in February 2007.

You can find more details of that auction here:

[Link removed as item has now sold]

The second item is an 8 DVD set of Andrew Fox’s “Millionaire MEGA Yacht” seminar/brainstorming session with Dave Miz, Jeff Walker and Ewen Chia.

Like the 7 Figure Code DVDs, this starts at just 99p:

[Link removed as item has now sold]

The third set is 4 DVDs and a CD from Sean Roach’s Rip2it company. These materials are only given to members of Rip2it and are not available to purchase separately.

They also start at just 99p (can you see a trend here?):

[Link removed as item has now sold]

I’ll be listing more items over the next few days so make sure to keep an eye on the main site where there is a list of all the items I am selling:

Business Opportunity Manuals, DVDs and Videos For Sale

This is a clearout meaning I’m not looking for a huge profit, I just want to see them go to someone who will use them. In effect, these business opportunity courses could go for just 99p so make sure you don’t miss out!

Any questions, please either leave a comment on this post or ask me a question through eBay’s “Ask the Seller” feature.

I still remember the first time I was really sucked in by a sales letter.

It was in 2003 when I got a mailing I’d requested from Vince Stanzione for his spread betting course.

I received a large envelope full of sales material and read it over and over again. After a week or so I sent off the money (£297) for the course and looked forward to receiving my new product.

The sales letter had certainly done its job. It had sold me superbly and coaxed me into spending more than I ever imagined I would on a home study course.

That whole experience led me into the business opportunity world and resulted in the creation of this blog and my main review site, BizOppsUK.com.

In the 6 years since I read that first mailing piece, I have read hundreds of sales letters.

Most have been mediocre, some terrible and a select few have been excellent. However, in many of these sales letters there has been one common theme – the copywriter exaggerating the truth somewhat.

Plenty of sales letters contain a story to hook the reader in and I guess you could say that some copywriters, as my friend Sam would say, “don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story“.

I was reminded of this a couple of weeks ago after viewing a website for a Clickbank product, a successful one, which had been created by somebody who I often see at seminars. He’s a great bloke and we tend to catch up over a few beers each time we bump into each other.

This sales letter was telling the story about how my seminar friend had become a successful internet marketer.

Apparently, after listening attentively at a seminar a couple of years ago, he found a secret group having a mastermind session and gatecrashed their little gathering. After that meeting he had all the knowledge he needed to get started on his way to becoming a marketing superstar.

A great story, no doubt, but slightly different to the version of events that I recall.

My recollection of that seminar was that this particular fella was usually found sat on the back row with myself and several other semi-successful marketers, watching (and picking holes in) the various presentations and pitches (taking the mickey, basically).

When we weren’t in the seminar room for the scheduled presentations, we were at the bar.

The only “mastermind” session that I remember from that particular seminar was the downing of shots at the bar and the drunken arguments in the smoking area.

Perhaps the most successful marketer who was there (one who you would imagine would be in a mastermind group) was more interested in drinking than masterminding and we usually found him slumped over the bar come breakfast time. I don’t think he surfaced from his room unless there were other marketers at the bar.

Don’t get me wrong, the Clickbank vendor telling the story is successful and well worth listening to, but the events were slightly different to the professional sheen he put on the story in the sales letter.

The other story that didn’t quite ring true got me into a bit of trouble with one successful UK marketer.

This particular fella had written a story about a chance meeting with a millionaire who then basically taught him everything he knew.

Unfortunately in my review of this marketer I told a different version of events – one I had gleaned from a talk the marketer gave at one of his seminars.

At the seminar he said that he had been chasing the dream for years, attending lots of different events and paying for all kinds of mentoring packages when one day it just ‘clicked’. In the sales letter he told this completely different story that clashed with the truth, as I understood it.

Obviously this caused problems. Customers would see his sales letter, decide to do some research and come across my site. On my site I told a different story (don’t forget, the one he told in front of a camera i.e. a primary source) and so these customers became confused and confronted him.

The first I knew of it was when I received an email basically saying “what the &%#@! Please take that stuff down ASAP you’re confusing my customers!”

So much for the down-to-earth, honest, ex-minimum wage slave!

Of course, telling lies in a sales letter can get you into a lot of trouble if you step over the line.

Adding a couple of little white lies to a sales letter is usually considered fine, probably to be expected but once you start creating fake Clickbank screenshots or faking testimonials then you’re into fraud territory.

Sadly I’ve seen plenty of those types of sales letters too and I’m sure they’ll keep on coming…

One internet marketing forum closed just this week with the owner basically blaming it on ridiculous amounts of spam and lack of interest.

The big internet marketing forum – perhaps the most popular – is noticeably going down in quality week on week.

It’s a far cry from the good old days where you could go to any one of a number of forums and get good advice, chat freely about the industry and perhaps even ‘rub shoulders’ with some of the more successful marketers.

You’ve probably noticed, and I have too because it’s obvious, but many of the ‘big boys’ of IM – the ones really making money online – are keeping clear of the well-known public forums.

But they aren’t steering clear of forums altogether.

Instead you’ll find that a lot of marketers are posting in places where they know constructive, useful information is being exchanged.

Forums where they know they can share great info, meet other people who can help them and, I like this phrase, “form powerful strategic alliances“. Yes it’s a bit corny but it’s true.

In short, the experts are spending less time in the large popular forums and more in forums that can still be considered professional. Forums where they can avoid all the numpties who ruin most public message boards with spam, deceptive promoting and whining.

So where do you find these forums?

Easy – usually by recommendation from someone you trust.

For example, I’ve often mentioned that I’m in a mastermind group that meets once a month in a hotel central to where we all live in the north west of England.

When somebody in that group recommends something to me, I take notice.

So when one of the group started talking about a particular script, raving about how great it was, I took a good look at it and eventually bought it. And he’s right, it is great and it’s worked well for me.

Another member was telling us about a great membership site – so I checked it out (more on this in a second).

I also give back – I tell them what’s working for me and help them if they have problems. I’m always raving about the offline seminars I attend and finally I managed to convince several of my fellow mastermind group members to come to one. They all agreed it was a terrifically useful weekend.

In my opinion it’s fine to take advice from a big, public forum – if you trust the person giving advice.

But when the forum allows any Tom, Dick or Harry to join, you can never be sure you’re getting good advice. And because the forum lets anybody become a member it can suffer from problem members who end up driving away a lot of the good members.

Let’s face it, a public forum is usually only created to make money for the owner who may dot AdSense ads throughout the threads or charge people to sell products on the forum.

It’s in his or her interest to attract as many people as possible so that he makes lots of money.

Consider a different forum which doesn’t suffer from these problems. It is part of a membership site which charges a monthly fee for access. That stumbling block immediately stops the ‘chancers’ from joining and posting rubbish on the forum – they aren’t willing to pay $37 a month to try and pitch their junk schemes in every thread.

Instead you have a membership that is more willing to share and learn because this membership fee is an investment, and they realise that the more you put in, the more you get out.

The forum I am talking about is the one which is joined on to Willie Crawford’s Internet Marketing Inner Circle membership site.

Over the last three years or so, Willie has managed to build a great forum full of industry experts who talk shop and share ideas in a professional setting – without the usual internet marketing idiots and the spammers.

New members don’t just get the forum but they also get a whole host of bonuses including a load of interviews that Willie has recorded with other internet marketing experts. Experts including Yanik Silver, Dr Mani, Mike Filsaime, Stephen Pierce, Marlon Sanders, Ray Edwards and many more (see the sales page for more names).

[Link removed – site no longer live]

I’ve been a member of IMIC since March 2008, paying $37 a month. For some reason I decided to pay monthly rather than the one-off fee for Platinum Membership ($497).

Recently (May 2009) I changed my mind and paid to become a platinum member simply because I knew that I was going to stay a member and it would be cheaper in the long term.

I wouldn’t have paid so much money if I didn’t think this was a superb resource.

But don’t take my word for it, check out the testimonials on the sales page:

[Link removed – site no longer live]

And, to get a feel for the kind of advice you’ll get, check out this report that Willie put together for potential members – free of charge and no email address needed – just the straight download link:

http://www.BizOppsUK.com/TheOneThing.pdf

When you become a member, come say hello in the forum.

I’m positive you won’t regret it.

** Update 3rd July 2011 **

Having been ignored by Willie Crawford for many months now I can no longer promote his Inner Circle site so please ignore the above post.

If you’d like to know why I am withdrawing my support for Willie, see the following report:

Willie Crawford and the Internet Marketing Inner Circle