The first business opportunity I ever bought was Vince Stanzione’s home study course – and it was all down to an article I saw in the Sunday Observer.

Vince was the main subject in a fascinating two-page feature about spread betting the financial markets.

The article described how he had made a fortune trading a mining share (Antofagasta) and also trading the price of Gold.

The article quoted profits of several hundred thousand pounds in just three months.

I remember taking the page out of the paper and carrying it around with me, reading it and showing it to people in the pub. It struck a chord with me as I was reminded of a story I heard in the late 90s of an investment club making a fortune by spread betting the markets rather than just buying shares.

To cut a long story short, I eventually sent off for more details and received a sales letter. I then proceeded to read that letter over and over again – getting more and more excited about the possibilities of trading.

And one day, finally, I faxed off the order for Vince’s course. A couple of days later it arrived and I spent hours reading through the manual and watching the DVD.

At the beginning of this month I reloaded my trading account and started again afresh.

My last ‘try’ ended well, with me getting a 10% return on my capital over just 6 months. I had to cut it short as I was buying a house and needed all spare cash for the deposit.

So, I dug out my 2004 Stanzione course and read through it, watched the DVD and made notes. Then I decided to get an up-to-date version which just arrived today. And, well, it’s certainly been updated over the past 5 years.

Now containing 2 DVDs and a manual of well over 200 pages of quality information, this is going to keep me busy for a while.

I’ll be updating the site soon with more details but if you are interested in finding out more about Vince, check out the review at

Vince Stanzione, Spread Betting and First Information.

Making Money from Financial Spread Trading is the course I recommend for people who want to get into trading the markets but, like me, don’t want to be stuck in front of a computer monitor all day watching charts.

Vince’s methods are simple and take just a few minutes a day which suits me down to the ground and the results I have had have made it a very worthwhile investment.

Can someone explain this to me because I can’t understand how this can benefit me…

Late 2006 I sign up for a printed newsletter which gets good reviews. It’s a yearly subscription, priced at (for arguement’s sake) $127 per year.

2007 I renew, again paying $127 for a full year.

Fast forward to late 2008 and I receive a subscription request letter saying:

“The current monthly membership fee is $24.95 per month however… [as you are already a member]… your membership is kept at the original low level of $19.95 [per month]”

Erm, no, that’s not quite right.

My YEARLY fee is $127 – why would I want to pay $19.95 a month? That’s almost TWICE what I pay now!

I would prefer it if the person(s) in question were upfront about wanting to increase the price – but to try and make out I am getting a good deal by signing up again at double the price doesn’t make sense.

So, no thanks, I’ll leave it I think.

I was going to sit down and write a long blog post about why I dumped Aweber and several thousand subscribers but I decided against it.

Blog posts are better when they are short and to the point.

So, if you were interested, here’s why I closed my account on the 2nd January 2009…

(1) I haven’t sent an email since September 2008 and sent perhaps 10 in total in 2008

(2) I’ve lost all interest in email marketing and copywriting (incidentally I never had any interest in product development). It was a major hassle for me to compose, load and send an email broadcast. That may have been reflected in the tone of my emails. Sorry if you detected that!

(3) In the last couple of years it has become evident that the marketplace has changed. The barriers are lower and now, in my opinion, the whole ’email newsletter’ thing has been harmed because anyone can send out emails just by getting an autoresponder account. In other words, there are lots of people sending out complete junk and marketing jibberish which harms the rest of us.

In addition, I just wanted to take this opportunity to answer some questions I received when I told my list I would not be emailing them again.

Q: “Ben have you lost your marbles? Your getting rid of your aweber account? WHY? Is your list not making any money?”

A: The list always made money – some promotions were far better than others. Seminars rarely ever sold which was always disappointing because I find seminars to be the most valuable ‘product’ you can buy. I’ve not lost my marbles but thanks for checking! I figure that I can always start again in the future if I want. I built one list and could do it afresh whenever I like. Next time I probably won’t use Aweber though – far too complicated for what I need (great service though).

Q: “Sorry to hear you’re putting the newsletter to bed. I thought I should suggest an alternative that you could offer your other subscribers. Using FeedBurner to syndicate your blog’s RSS feed, you can also offer updates via e-mail. I see your blog uses WordPress so it should be as easy as adding the FeedBurner plugin to your WordPress installation and then pointing subscribers in the direction of the e-mail signup page.”

A: Thanks Philip! Great advice. (Check out Philip’s blog at: http://philipjohn.co.uk/)

Q: “hi ben… it was always an interesting read… not of late they were few and far between… hope all is well, might bump in to you at one of them seminars at the late night bar… wonder if you had any info on this: (webprosperity.com)”

A: Hope to see you at a seminar too! As for ‘Web Prosperity’ – not 100% sure. I see it as a gimmick where a lot of people are pushing it expecting to be at the top of a huge matrix, earning lots of money. In my opinion, if you see the word ‘matrix’ on a website and it isn’t advertising a Keanu Reeves film, run the other way.

Q: “Would it be possible to make an offer for your mailing list?”

A: Sorry but no. When I collected the names I specifically promised that subscribers’ names would never be sold or shared. The list dies with the Aweber account I’m afraid!

Q: “This is sad, it your your site that I first joined since I started my search as an Internet Marketer. It would be nice to know if you have been successful with your list (selling backends etc).”

A: Thanks for the email Mo. The list was definitely successful. It was built mostly via PPC advertising. I spent about £2,500 on PPC over the years and then sold tens of thousands of pounds of resale rights and affiliate products. I made multiple times my expenditure in profits. Of course, this was when I was still motivated to earn from an email list. Sadly that motivation has now gone. Don’t let that put you off though, email marketing can be very lucrative.

Q: “Sorry you are pulling out. Hope the reason is that you have made your millions?”

A: Not quite Andy but I am happy with how that particular venture turned out. Thanks for the email.

So thanks for the emails everybody.

I only got one nasty remark:

“Thank god at least one piece of useless spam will not darken my inbox again”

So thank you, Howard, for making me laugh. I assume you are serious which saddens me a little.

Happy New Year everybody.