Mass Money Makers review of sales tactics

Mass Money Makers or Magic Money Makers?

Mass Money Makers or Magic Money Makers?

Update Mass Money Makers Is NOW Closed.

Mass Money Makers Is CLOSED. It appears to have closed sometime between 2/14/2011 and 2/28/2011. The last cached sales page for it in bing is dated 2/28/2011.

I have left the previous review of the sales tactics and launch process Mass Money Makers used.

I’ve developed this Mass Money Makers review of sales tactics because I find the sales process very interesting. I know there will be many people who don’t agree with doing a Mass Money Makers review that only focuses on sales tactics, but I noticed in some discussions there was quite a bit of controversy over some of the tactics used by Mass Money Makers so I thought it was worth exploring.

Also, since the launch of Mass Money Makers seems to have broken the ClickBank Gravity record (and maybe some others) it seems reasonable to take a look at how all that was accomplished.

Some people are calling the claims in the sales copy outright lies, while others in certain forum conversations such as Doiron refer to some of the statements as “inaccuracies in the sales copy” and Willie Crawford states, “Matt does market more aggressively than I do and as a result he makes more sales than I do. I respect him as a person, and his marketing prowess”

So in addition too peeking more deeply into how far the line might go when it comes to “aggressive marketing tactics”, another good reason to do this Mass Money Makers review of the sales tactics as well as some of the sales process is because the product has seems to have an incredible amount of people promoting it.  So it’s also interesting to review from a product launch perspective.

Mass Money Makers Taught Me About

Mass Money Makers Taught Me About "Scarcity Plays"

I. Mass Money Makers Review Of Main (Non-Affiliate) Page

The first section (section I) covers some of the product launch aspects of Mass Money Makers.

Mass Money Makers’ Tactic For Increasing ClickBank Gravity

While I don’t know the exact formula for ClickBank Gravity – a significant part of it has to do with how many unique affiliates have sold at least one copy of the product within the past 60 days (although the actual number is weighted based on how recent the sales were according to ClickBank’s own words:

“For each affiliate paid in the last 8 weeks we add an amount between 0.1 and 1.0 to the total. The more recent the last referral, the higher the value added. ”

Keep in mind, that some affiliates (i.e., ones with HUGE mailing lists or doing aggressive paid advertising) will sell SIGNIFICANTLY more than one copy of the product. It’s not unheard of for an affiliate skilled in paid advertising (such as PPC/PPV) to sell 50-100 copies of a product per day…or more.

The below chart shows the history of Mass Money Maker’s ClickBank Gravity. The high to date was 1,975.45 as of 1/13/2011.

Mass Money Makers' ClickBank Gravity History

Diagram 1. Mass Money Makers' ClickBank Gravity History

If you arrive at the Mass Money Makers site without an affiliate referral, you are greeted with a page encouraging you to become an affiliate of Mass Money Makers. It’s an interesting idea because it should help to increase the ClickBank gravity which is something many affiliates look at (whether right or wrong) when considering whether or not to promote a product. Thus this particular tactic can actual create a snowball effect when it comes to getting more and more affiliates to promote a product.

The other interesting piece of that tactic is that it facilitates affiliates purchasing the product through their own affiliate link which as you can see would also increase the ClickBank gravity.

One other thing I thought about was the fact that the last claim in the ClickBank vendor listing history states that it’s been “Proven to convert by over 7,551 affiliates” as you can see in the diagram below.

Mass Money Makers - Proven To Convert by # of Affiliates

Diagram 3. Mass Money Makers - Proven To Convert by # of Affiliates

However, as you may have noticed in Diagram 1. the highest gravity that Mass Money Makers achieved from 12/17/2010 through 1/31/2011 was 1,975.45. Diagram 2 above is a history of “Proven to convert by over” (number affiliates) which shows that as of 1/8/2011 Mass Money Makers claimed that it had been proven to convert by over 7,551 affiliates.

So it would seem that based on the ClickBank gravity formula that if 7,551 affiliates made at least one sale between 12/28/2011 (the actual launch date of Mass Money Makers) and 1/8/2011 that the highest historical ClickBank Gravity number for Mass Money Makers would have been well over 1,975.45.  However, since nobody except ClickBank knows the exact manner in which ClickBank Gravity is calculated, it’s not possible to prove that potential inconsistency.

Mass Money Makers And “Exclusivity”

The controversy surrounding the Mass Money Makers sales tactics starts right on the first (non-affiiate page) which claims:

“We have to make MassMoneyMakers.com exclusive and by invite only. This will ensure that this breakthrough money making method continues to work.”

Mass Money Makers & Exclusivity

Diagram 3. Mass Money Makers & Exclusivity

However, as you can see in Diagram 3. above, Mass Money Makers doesn’t seem to be exclusive at all, based on the following factors (numbers correspond to the numbers in the above diagram):

  1. It quickly became the 1,023 most visited website overall according to Alexa.
  2. It quickly became the 350th most visited website in the United States according to Alexa.
  3. Mass Money Makers claims that 7,551 affiliate have proven that it converts (as noted previously, the 7,551 is questionable).
  4. According to Mass Money Maker’s itself 2,734,631 unique visitors had visited the site as of the date of the above diagram (2/6/2011 or before). It’s hard to tell how accurate that number might be at this time, but should become clearer over time as Compete.com – one of the more accurate sites when it comes to calculating unique vistors – updates over the next couple of months.
  5. It has one of the highest ClickBank Gravity ratings of all time.

Mass Money Makers “In The News”

Mass Money Makers claims that, “Yahoo News got word of what we’re up to online…”. And also shows a diagram of the site “Red Orbit” and states that, “Another news publication reporting on this powerful money making method”. However, you’ll also notice that those so-called “news stories” show that they are from PRWeb – an extremely popular Press Release distribution service.

Now what you may or may not know is that PRWeb distributes Press Releases that the companies do themselves to Yahoo News, Google News, and sites like Red Orbit. And when this happens, the news source isn’t necessarily “reporting on” anything…it’s distributing a Press Release that the company itself submitted. You can see how that works by looking at the information from PRWeb itself which I’ve placed below:

PRWeb Distributes to Yahoo News, Google News, Bing News, & More

PRWeb Distributes to Yahoo News, Google News, Bing News, & More

In fact, it’s highly likely that this is exactly what is going on with these so-called “news stories” about Mass Money Makers since you can see that they are stories that were distributed by PRWeb.

Mass Money Makers Gives The Following Reasons For An Affiliate To Promote Mass Money Makers

  1. Reason Number 1 to Promote Mass Money Makers: Money. Mass Money Makers states that affiliates can earn up to $314 per sale – and $27,000 in prize money for top performing affiliates.
  2. Reason Number 2 to Promote Mass Money Makers: Power. Mass Money Maker states, “It can be intoxicating…power. It’s what we all want, isn’t it? Well along with money and respect, and that’s why this launch will show once and for all who has power in our market.”

Mass Money Makers List Of Affiliates Promoting Their Product

Mass Money Makers’ JV area shows a huge list of internet marketers they claim are promoting their product. There’s no doubt that many affiliates put together their own huge Mass Money Makers bonus to try to claim one of the prizes mentioned earlier.

There was some discussion within the Warrior Forum about whether all of the affiliates on the list actually agreed to promote the product. But that would be pretty tough to determine without contacting every person on the list individually, although towards the end of the review I have provided a list of people I’ve verified/confirmed to have promoted Mass Money Makers.

It’s not clear to me why people want to know this, but since there seems to be a demand for the list I’ve started constructing it.

However, one thing that was interesting as I was researching information for this write-up about why people might be interested in this information was a section of the FTC’s “Advertising FAQ’s: A Guide for Small Business” which states:

“Advertising Agencies
Are advertising agencies subject to the FTC Act?

Yes. In addition to the advertiser, the advertising agency also may be held legally responsible for misleading claims in ads. Advertising agencies have a duty to make an independent check on the information used to substantiate ad claims. They may not rely on an advertiser’s assurance that the claims are substantiated. In determining whether an ad agency should be held liable, the FTC looks at:

  • The extent of the agency’s participation in the preparation of the challenged ad; and
  • Whether the agency knew or should have known that the ad included false or deceptive claims.”

This is interesting to me, because after spending weeks on the phone with the FTC helping them with the In Deep Services case I spent time (at their request) talking to them about affiliate marketing. One thing I mentioned to them was that I thought they should try to focus more on the advertising networks if possible since the advertising networks are a major facilitator of distribution of products and services within affiliate marketing.

However, at the time I really had the feeling that they had no interest in that (or didn’t believe there was a way they could make a good case in such situations). So I was surprised to see that this statement of advertising accountability for advertising agencies was included in their “Advertising FAQ’s: A Guide for Small Business”.

It also called to mind a post that commercial litigation attorney Michael Webster did back in November of 2009 called MoneyGram Scam and Gatekeeper Liability in which he noted:

“This is an important change in emphasis by the FTC. In seeking to stop those who enable fraud from profiting, the FTC has signaled its willingness to go beyond simply getting unenforceable default judgments against con criminals who have skipped on to the next con project.”

This new FTC emphasis means that traditional affiliate networks as well as Joint Venture Brokers may grow to be under increasing scrutiny by the FTC.

In fact, within the FTC’s  Advertising and Marketing on the Internet: Rules of the Road the FTC specifically states the following:

“Sellers are responsible for claims they make about their products and services. Third parties – such as advertising agencies or website designers and catalog marketers – also may be liable for making or disseminating deceptive representations if they participate in the preparation or distribution of the advertising, or know about the deceptive claims.

  • Advertising agencies or website designers are responsible for reviewing the information used to substantiate ad claims. They may not simply rely on an advertiser’s assurance that the claims are substantiated. In determining whether an ad agency should be held liable, the FTC looks at the extent of the agency’s participation in the preparation of the challenged ad, and whether the agency knew or should have known that the ad included false or deceptive claims.
  • To protect themselves, catalog marketers should ask for material to back up claims rather than repeat what the manufacturer says about the product. If the manufacturer doesn’t come forward with proof or turns over proof that looks questionable, the catalog marketer should see a yellow “caution light” and proceed appropriately, especially when it comes to extravagant performance claims, health or weight loss promises, or earnings guarantees. In writing ad copy, catalogers should stick to claims that can be supported. Most important, catalog marketers should trust their instincts when a product sounds too good to be true.”

So what about affiliate marketers? It seems reasonable that OFTEN affiliate marketers could be construed as “Advertising Agencies” and/or “Website designer”.

II. Mass Money Makers Review Of Sales Page 1

The video is the most obvious element of the first part of the Mass Money Makers sales process.  However, what stood out for me more was the statement, “Next 183 Downloads Available”.

It’s extremely unclear as to what that even means. Some have claimed it doesn’t mean that ONLY the next 183 Downloads will be available. But if that statement isn’t intended to imply there, then why have it at all?

III. Mass Money Makers Review Of Sales Page 2

One of the most hotly debated and controversial elements of the Mass Money Maker’s sales process is it’s claim about how many copies of a certain piece of software it will be making available.  As of today, the sales page claims:

“Thousands of people will see this page, but only the next 200 individuals will get access to this software. After we reach the next 200 downloads, we’ll be forced to pull the software off the market.”

However, as you can see in the video below, the sales page has been making this same claim since at least January 16th, so considering how many visitors the site has recieved, it seems highly likely that SIGNIFICANTLY more than 200 copies of the software have been made available:

You can see in the following video of part of a Warrior Forum conversation how controversial this “Only 200 Copies Left” claim has been:

Note that the date of the post that on 12/28/2010 someone quotes this from the Mass Money Makers sales page:

We’re only making a total of 200 copies available – they will be gone in a matter of minutes – not days – not months.”

So now we have the “200 Copies Available” going all the way back to the date that Mass Money Makers launched (12/28/2010) and continuing on through today.

Mass Money Makers Review Of “200 Copies Available” Claim Versus “20,000 Front-End Unit Sales In 7 Days Goal”

There seems to be a fairly large discrepency between the only “200 Copies Available” claim made about software mentioned in the Mass Money Makers sales letter, the goal of 20,000 Front-End Unit Sales within 7 days of launch…and of course, the fact that the sales letter for Mass Money Makers still claims that only 200 copies of the software mentioned since day 1 of the launch will ever be available:

Mass Money Makers review of “13 Clicks (Press 1 Button)” Controversy

One of the controversies about Mass Money Makers has to do with headlines…

Netafile at Warrior Forum stated:

“So I think anyone watching this would be left with the impression that the results were created overnight using “13 clicks,” which of course is B.S. He did say “using the techniques you’re about to learn,” so maybe he did use this method to create the income. Maybe. I think this is certainly misleading. And personally, I don’t think misleading is “good marketing.”

But “Gary_The_Ace” stated:

“I don’t recall Matt saying that the software was “turned on” and them boom… instant money. I clearly recall Matt saying that his strategy, and the technology were used to take this new ClickBank account from nothing, to a lot of money per day.”

Gary then seems to go on to suggest that the advertising in Mass Money Makers is no different than McDonald’s advertising in which doesn’t use “a disclaimer saying that the food on screen is made of plastic, has been worked on by a food artist, and is not likely to look anything like what you’re ever going to get when you place an order…”.

I’ll explain why that particular statement is likely irrelevant in a subsequent section called “Mass Money Makers’ Advertising Is NOT McDonald’s Advertising”.

But for now, let’s see if the sales copy of Mass Money Makers does or does not suggest the software can be “turned on” and then boom…instant money.

So let’s take a look at the BIG PROMISE the Mass Money Makers sales letter actually uses in the video below…

Of note is text from an FTC presentation back in February of 2009 in which Professor Robert Hillman of Cornell Law School; and Jens Grossklags, a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Information at the University of California at Berkeley (at the time) cited research which indicated that:

A “characteristic of people online involves what Professor Hillman and Mr. Grossklags described as “click happy” or exuberant Internet use. Specifically, users click through webpages quickly, without paying much attention because they want to complete a given transaction. Professor Hillman cited research finding that online shoppers “enter a seamless sequence of responses, a flow state in which their sense of time and reality become distorted and their self-control is diminished.”

And of course if you combine that “state of flow” and “click happiness” with any sort of time-based scarcity device (such as “200 copies” left) then it would seem that the consumer would be even LESS likely to carefully read the sales message and instead rely on the BIG CLUES the sales letter gives such states as:

“Let’s Start Talking About How You Can Start Making Money In Just 13 Clicks.”

or the closing line…

“Know this: The ONLY thing easier would be if you had someone else watch the 4 videos, clicked the mouse 13 times, and pushed 1 button to activate it.”

Mass Money Makers’ Advertising Is NOT McDonald’s Advertising

You’ll recall that earlier in this write up I mentioned that Gary_The_Ace at Warrior Forum seemed to suggest that the advertising in Mass Money Makers is no different than McDonald’s advertising in which doesn’t use “a disclaimer saying that the food on screen is made of plastic, has been worked on by a food artist, and is not likely to look anything like what you’re ever going to get when you place an order…”.

However, if he were to read the FTC’s Policy Statement On Deception he would know immediately that this statement isn’t necessarily true.

Note the following from the FTC Policy Statement:

“Finally, as a matter of policy, when consumers can easily evaluate the product or service, it is inexpensive, and it is frequently purchased, the Commission will examine the practice closely before issuing a complaint based on deception. There is little incentive for sellers to misrepresent (either by an explicit false statement or a deliberate false implied statement) in these circumstances since they normally would seek to encourage repeat purchases. Where, as here, market incentives place strong constraints on the likelihood of deception, the Commission will examine a practice closely before proceeding.”

So is the sales of  inexpensive McDonald’s products designed to attract repeat purchases the equivalent of the Mass Money Maker’s launch of a $37 product with upsells/one-time offers that according to the Mass Money Makers JV page totals out to be up to $628 per sale.

It’s seems to me that it would be quite difficult to claim that those two are equivalent.

Mass Money Makers review of One-Time $47 Discount For The Next 50 People

Towards the end of the Mass Money Makers sales letter, the following statement is made:

“So if you’re one of the next 50 to get access to this powerful technology – you can grab it for just $47.”

I’m not sure how long this “One-Time” discount has been going on for, but it’s definitely been going on since 2/7/2011 as you can see in the video below:

Believe or not, this review of the Mass Money Makers sales process has only just started. There will be MUCH more coming over the next week.

I’ll be tracking how long this particular claim continues.

I’m also curious about (although I don’t know) whether or not this type of limited offer is possibly what the FTC had in the following section from §233.5 Miscellaneous price comparisons – within the FTC Guides Against Deceptive Pricing, which states:

“They should not offer an advance sale under circumstances where they do not in good faith expect to increase the price at a later date, or make a “limited'” offer which, in fact, is not limited. In all of these situations, as well as in others too numerous to mention, advertisers should make certain that the bargain offer is genuine and truthful. Doing so will serve their own interest as well as that of the public.”

The other question I have about pricing is the valuation the software. The Mass Money Makers sales page states, “The software itself alone is worth $197.” So I initially assumed that the software must have been sold at some point for $197.

However, the sales page states at one point states:

“Now, tell me:

Who ELSE Has Generated Over
$2,427,441.31
All From 100% FREE Traffic?

No one. Why? Because no one else has access to this secret software (other than Alen and me).”

So it’s not clear to me how they determined that the software alone was worth $197.  It’s also not clear to me whether it would fall under the category of Former price comparisons guidelines at the FTC.

I suppose this is the same point The Salty Droid was getting at in his February 9, 2011 post in which he alleges that Matt contrived the value of his newsletter.

Affiliates Promoting Mass Money Makers

Fore some reason, there seemed to be a lot of intrigue and controversy over which affiliates promoted Mass Money Makers. I’m not sure why that is, but since there seems to have been so much fascination about this, I decided to go ahead and put a list of ones that I’ve confirmed/verified that promoted Mass Money Makers here.

IMPORTANT: Just because they promoted the product, does NOT necessarily mean they agreed with the way the product was advertised.

Affiliates That Sent Emails Out Promoting Mass Money Makers

I maintain email accounts exclusively to collect promotions, so the following are the names (or pseudonyms) of people who sent emails promoting Mass Money Makers to at least one of those email accounts:

Anik Singal BIG John Bill McRea Brett Ingram David Lockley
Jack Henderson Jason Parker Jeff Dedrick John Carter Justin Michie
Reed Floren Ritoban C John Delavera Mark Patricks Marty Rozmanith
Dan Briffa Alex Gates Alex Sysoef Steven Johnson Charles Kirkland
Mike B. Soren Jordansen Steven Johnson Chris Cobb Soren Jordansen
Cindy Battye Philip Mansour Steven Lee Jones Sean Donahoe placeholder

Alen Sultanic, one of the marketers behind Mass Money Makers has a new product called Click Copy Cash.

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Comments

  1. Where is the facebook like button ?

  2. Camille Accardi says:

    Dear Paul,
    Right before reading your email about Mass Money Makers, I had just finished sending an angry email to Scott Bacak, not about Mass Money Makers, but about his annoying and abusive advertising tactics. I recently purchased another one of his programs,and barely had a chance to even look at or study his materials,when I am bombarded with tricky emails that appear to be related to my purchase, but are just about trying to get me to buy his next, even better program. This doesn’t exactly make him or his programs seem very credible.(I realize he is not the only one guilty of this.) But what really INFURIATES me is that once you click on the links to view these video ads you CANNOT close them down or escape them if you are not interested in what they’re selling. I often have to end up shutting my computer down. I think this should be made illegal! Have you heard other complaints about this?

    Camille Accardi

    • Camille,

      I haven’t specifically seen those types of complaints, although I haven’t looked for them either. I’ll do a little digging and see what I find. That does sound INCREDIBLY annoying.

      Btw, do you mean Matt Bacak Or Scott Bacak? This post is about Matt Bacak.

      What was the other program you purchased? Then I’d know if it’s the same person. It certainly sounds like it might be.

      • Camille Accardi says:

        Dear Paul,

        Yes, I did mean Matt Bacak, not Scott. The program I recently purchased is called Auto Click Profits. Even after I purchased the program, I kept getting more ads for it, (although I did not realize it at first) plus other ads from him. Once I clicked on the link, I COULD NOT shut it down. This seems to be a trend with some of these marketers. Not a good one.

        Camille Accardi

        • Sounds pretty typical of some of these guys. I heard with some people who bought his “Premium Blog” upgrade to his Blogging To The Bank “product” they couldn’t get any support for over a week – meanwhile they were being bombarded with advertising for OTHER products!

          Unfortunately, unless people complain to the FTC and other authorities, then typically those entities don’t even have the problems on their radar.

          • Camille Accardi says:

            Hi, Camille Accardi again regarding my purchase of one of Matt Bacak’s newest promotions–Auto Click Profits by Daniel Owens.Well,things really got scary this morning when I Googled “Daniel Owens scam.” I could not find even one negative comment or even a credible sounding review. They were all glowing recommendations, and everyone seemed to be selling it. It even seemed some things were being blocked. Also, once again his ad kept popping up everywhere and I could not shut it down. I don’t know what’s going on here– wether he bought all those reviews and/or wether he implanted some type of spyware in the software I purchased from him! I’d appreciate it if you could look into it. Camille Accardi

          • Camille,

            I can tell you what’s going on. Because many of these products offer huge commissions to affiliates (online sales people) to sell them, those people spend a GREAT deal of time and money to get their “reviews” listed in the search engines. And many of these products also offer HUGE prizes to their affiliates as well. So yes, you’re right, you are finding those reviews because the people doing those “reviews” are selling the product.

            There are a few sites that tell it like it is. Here’s a great review of it you might appreciate (WARNING! R-rated language…although I’m sure what he wrote is what MANY people are thinking):

            Auto Click Profits review

            ALSO. Don & Jeremy push the envelope with their marketing as well and I’m actually not always comfortable with THEIR marketing techniques either. The big difference though is that they will TELL you when their pushing the envelope – and they truly SUPPORT their customers.

  3. Paul:

    A great article. I would recommend that anyone, knowing how important marketing is to their success, needs to read your article.

    I hate getting these sales pitches that promoise the moon, but deliver swiss cheese. To me, marketing pitches go a lot further if they are honest and have integrity. My personal opinion is you should promise less and deliver more. If you do, you will be a huge success because only a few, and I mean only a few, are doing it today. And if you do, your satsified customers will do your markeing for you…free!

    As Camille said, before having had a chance to even read the material she ordered, she was being asked to buy the new and improved version. My first question would have been: why did you sell me the outdated version in the first place if there is a better product for me to have purchased? That is what I mean by honesty and integrity.

    I am not sure if any of this made sense, but it is just my two cents worth.

  4. Wow… Great write-up. I almost bought this pile of trite. Glad i didn’t. Thanks for the heads up!

  5. Guess I can jump on this bandwagon since in the past I have also been subjected to the same and similar sales tactics. People are finally starting to take notice of these people that only want to sell, sell, sell and not service.

    One day they will be brought up in front of the world and their underhanded tactics finally revealed. Until then though, buyer beware, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

  6. Thanks for the write up on these. I get a half-dozen “get rich QUICK on the internet” emails a day. They always looked too good to be true. It’s nice to know someone is doing the research on these people and informing the public. Keep up the good work.

  7. Mr. Schlegel, you’ve really gone the extra mile on helping your readers and viewers to “read between the lines.” (As always)

    Here is an incredible comparison. A while ago I was introduced to a website called “IM Product Reviewed.com”…the so called review was about this website:
    http://www.improductreviewed.com/rob-benwell-blogging-to-the-bank-2011-review/
    Now, I remember your excellent review not so long ago about the same site: /not-recommended/2010/11/17/blogging-to-the-bank-review-avoid/ You actually saved an untold number of viewers and readers out there from making another costly and wasteful investment.

    Now, the same aforementioned website has also submitted his (or her, or their) opinion about: http://www.improductreviewed.com/mass-money-makers-review-invitation-matt-bacak/

    When comparing that review with yours on this page, the differences are astounding…once again. This tells us that there are “reviews,” and then there are so-called “reviews.” We viewers and readers sitting on the sidelines watching the unfolding of such reviews are the fortunate ones who didn’t jump into the bandwagon just because “everybody else seems to have and is presumably making money…so maybe something is wrong with you because you missed out…”

    It’s a good thing that there will always be two sides to every coin, or two versions to almost every story, and therefore, by logic, reviews based on “vested interest” vs. one with no ties to “influential parties”(like yours).

    By the way, if you will allow me please, Mr. Schlegel, I’d like to make a small suggestion for those folks who get caught when they find they can’t log out of a site. They could either strengthen their anti-virus and anti-spyware blockers in their PC, or use a proxy service. Shutting down a PC after being “hooked” is like closing the barn door after the horse has left.

    Thank you, Mr. Schlegel.

  8. I do not get it. How come the FTC doesn’t shut this crap down? It’s getting impossible to find a decent way to make money online because of this junk.

  9. im really sick of all the affiliate programs and their bs, how is it that u can get your own site and get all the traffic u need to make money, but so many people are doing the same thing. if a person is the creator of a site and can get non-stop traffic to that site and make money, and lets say he had people all over the world going to this site just to see whats their only for look see, why the hell would any person go to various sites with the same thang just for look see. so what im say is one guy could have mass traffic for his site and tell u to do everything he did but why would those millions of people go to your site when they can just keep going to the one they have already been going to, and if you get any traffic it will not be as much as some one who did it before you. becaus people dnt suff the net like that anyway.

    • Travis,

      That exactly why it’s MUCH better to find training on:

      1) How to pinpoint niche markets (there are RIDICULOUS amounts of niche markets…but of course the people with the “cookie cutter sites” won’t tell you that.
      2) How to determine how HARD it will be to get traffic in a particular market.
      3) How to figure out if people are SPENDING MONEY in a particular market.
      4) And how to generate traffic within that market to attract people that will buy the product.

      I would suspect that Mass Money Makers actually does cover some of that – the problem is that they make it seem like you can press a magic button – and BOOM…instant money. Obviously it doesn’t work that way, so once people actually learn what it DOES take to succeed they aren’t very happy that they were sold the idea of an imaginary magic bullet that doesn’t exist.

  10. Wow, just wow. ‘Website designers are responsible for reviewing the information used to substantiate ad claims’?! And claiming the 200 available since january 16th?

    Just flat-out lying.

    Great detective work. Thanks a lot.

  11. Paul, excellent article, i loved the way you “outted” the guys promoting this junk. i know ryan healy has done this and a few others so i hope this is a trend.

    • Thanks Chris,

      There always seems to be a big debate about “using names” or “not using names”. I understand that “ideas” and “general practices” are important, but it doesn’t add to the accountability factor.

      On the other hand I wanted to make sure that I was clear that some of the people promoting the product may have thought it was a good product and may have warned their readers about the sales practices. That’s why I put a HUGE disclaimer above the list of names stating that the people who promoted the product didn’t necessarily agree with the sales practices (although I know many if not most on that list just sent the “copy and paste” emails from the affiliate section).

      But I thought it was incredibly interesting how the FTC has shifted it’s focus to include advertising agencies and website designers as having a duty to review the sales process that they are facilitating through their influence on distribution channels. It’s easy to see how the FTC could easily classify “affiliate networks”, “affiliates’, and JV Brokers as advertising agencies – and of course much of the time affiliates could be construed as “website designers” as well.

      This line is especially interesting to me where the FTC talks about advertising agencies’ accountability under the FTC act:
      “Whether the agency knew or should have known that the ad included false or deceptive claims.”

  12. Dear Paul,
    Thank you so much for writing this article to tell us all about what is really going on out there. There is this thin line between good marketing and aggressive marketing and some people have really crossed the line. Plus, it is getting more and more difficult for people wanting to earn via the internet with so many get rich quick schemes, which usually and sadly make false claims. I am really annoyed and don’t know who to trust anymore.

  13. Paul, I thought I would wait to see what your audience thought of your review before chiming in.

    I believe that your observation, taken from the FTC’s Staff Report on Negative options is key.

    “The panelists revealed that many online consumers exhibit certain characteristics, including inattention, unwarranted confidence, exuberance, and a desire for immediate gratification, which make them less likely to see and read disclosures.

    Panelists further explained that, as result of these online characteristics, consumers become “click-happy” and quickly navigate through webpages, without paying much attention because they believe nothing will go wrong and want to complete the transaction as rapidly as possible.”

    The faster the con criminal can get you clicking on links and not thinking, the more likely it is that you will not be paying attention to the copy or disclaimers with a critical or skeptical eye.

    The traffic on this launch does not indicate, to me, that this launch was wildly successful – despite the number of psychological hooks.

    Now for more specific remarks on the review.

    1. The ClickBank misrepresentation is important and I would not back off of it. Either 1700 people sold or 7,000+ sold. Which is it, why is there this discrepancy, and what does “proven by an affiliate” mean anyways?

    2. The scarcity claims are absurd, as usual – but they are there to promote click happy tendencies. How do you pull software “off the market” after 200 copies if 7,000 affiliates have sold at least one copy?

    3. The reference to why the FTC treats McDonald’s advertising, or advertising directed at repeat business, is a good point. (Although, I always wonder how pointing out that X lies somehow justifies your own lie.)

    I am sensing a certain amount of fatigue amongst the IM launches. Or perhaps I have just seen too many!

    • Thanks for the insights, Michael

      One thing I’ve thought about a great deal is your MoneyGram post – and the idea of channel distribution disruption – which is why I thought it was interesting that the FTC seems to be TRYING to shift some of the accountability on to the advertising agencies and website designers.

      Brian Kindsvater noted the following about the recent FTC vs Media Innovations Case:

      “(*** THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT – THE FTC LAWSUIT CLAIMS A VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW BECAUSE THE AFFILIATE DID NOT SUBSTANTIATE THE MERCHANT’S CLAIMS – REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE CLAIM WAS ACTUALLY TRUE OR FALSE ***)”

  14. Hi, I just want to know your direct contact either email or phone number just incase i am interested in the things that you are endorsing online. Thanks

  15. I purchase and use just about every product that I intend to promote to my list. Is it me, or are all of the recent product launch sales pages written by the same hyped-up author?

  16. Paul, great writeup, there’s a saying about you are who you hang with, maybe for IM it should be.. you are who you promote. i have unsubscribed from numerous well known marketers list bc of the crap they promote. there should be a imhallofshame.com website for someone to start :)

  17. Hello Paul and others,

    I just thought I’d drop by and mention an article I just did on these get rich quick schemers, and my experiences with the Mass Money Makers program as well. It’s a rather long in depth posting with a link to this page as well, and everything I know relating to the program, the tactics, and unfortunately explaining why many of these such programs always wind up looking so good and credible online. I feel it’s a must read for anyone bitten by the get rich quick bug, or thinking about buying some guru’s info product. Paul, I hope you don’t mind, and I’m also waiting on your reply email as to wether you still have screen shots of the initial sales page or not =)

    Post is at http://www.howtomakemoneyonlines.org/how-to-make-money-online-blog/how-to-make-money-online/alen-sultanic-guru-get-rich-quick-schemer/

  18. One of the people behind Mass Money Makers has launched a new product called Click Copy Cash

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