There’s nearly always a catch with business opportunities online. If you take a step back and “remove the blinkers” before buying them you can usually see it yourself.

Michael Cheney’s latest online business opportunities

In the past week I have been bombarded by emails telling me about a well-known gurus “shady” past. I received the same email five times in two days and thought I’d go and check out the product. I clicked on the link and once again came up against one of those bloomin video “sales letters”. They must work or you wouldn’t get the big guns using them, but I hate having to sit there for half an hour just to find out what is being sold and at what price. Quite frankly I was bored sitting there listening to Michael Cheney talk about his past waiting for him to get to the point.

When he does eventually get to the point you find out that Michael is selling resell licences to new products, ready-to-go marketing materials, training videos showing you how to set up the web sites and then training videos showing you how to get traffic.

Now on the face of it this looks like an ok deal. For four hundred and seventy seven dollars you are getting a lot of information.

But something didn’t quite smell right to me…

Michael started talking about the fact when you bought he would feature you on his web sites and send you tons of traffic. He then started talking about how he was only selling a limited number of licenses for this reason.

A few days later I received an email saying how he had grossed over four hundred thousand. Which means he has sold a hell of a lot of these licenses. This causes a few problems. It was time to remove the blinkers and have a good think about the offer.

Firstly, how will he feature hundreds of people on his web pages and send you traffic? Well it’s actually very clever if you sign up you’ll see you can do that by offering him a testimonial and be featured on his sites. Whilst I think this is really clever of Michael, even if you did do that don’t expect any serious traffic. In fact I’d be stunned if you got any traffic at all. So that’s not really a reason to sign up.

Secondly, if he’s sold hundreds of these products, that means a hell of a lot of competition. Even if you follow Michael’s training, so many people will be going after the same kind of traffic you’ll struggle to differentiate yourself.

Is this a complete waste of money? Well Michael throws in personal coaching with the package and that is probably worth something. Without question he is a very, very good marketer so this alone could be worth an investment.

The training products, apart from one or two, he sells separately at www.clickbank.com for a lot less. They’re ok, nothing spectacular though.

All in all I can’t recommend this to be honest. I respect that guy immensely for where he has come from to where he is now and he comes across as a likeable chap. But I think this offer is a bit hyped up and the only reason so many are promoting is for the high commissions.

Now there’s a surprise.

Mike Filsaime’s Seven Figure Secrets

Another heavily promoted product last week was http://the7figuresecrets.com/ from marketing guru Mike Filsaime.

Not too long ago Mike launched his DVD set called The Seven Figure Code which was the recordings of a seminar he held which showed people how to start a seven figure online business. It wasn’t really about the basics like web site building or anything like that, more about business strategies. I bought it as soon as it came out and it was certainly a good purchase. I enjoyed it, learnt a lot and was pretty happy with what I’d bought.

So last week when I heard that a Mike had hired a copywriter to take notes of the entire seminar and turn it into a big manual I was surprised. I was even more surprised when I found out Mike was going to send it to as many people that wanted it and it wouldn’t cost them a penny. Apart from shipping and handling that is.

On top of the manual you also get eighteen mind maps which outline what was said in the seminar, or the manual I this case. Also you get Mike’s Butterfly Marketing Manuscripts which I also bought myself when it originally came out two years ago. Again a good manual, but without the software that you need it becomes redundant so expect an up sell for over a grand on that one.

So what’s the big question here? Why should you remove your blinkers?

Well it’s why on earth would Mike send you this without any payment apart from shipping and handling? It’s not because he’s a nice chap, although I think he is.

Well it’s a proven business model that works time and time again. Take a look at Andrew Reynolds’ Cash On Demand course that has been heavily promoted in the UK for a couple of years. He’ll send you the first module without you parting with a penny, and if you choose to stay on you’ll pay a fixed monthly fee. Very, very few people will cancel.

It’s all about inertia and a few years back I learned it at a seminar from legendary UK publisher Stuart Goldsmith who made a fortune with the same model.

It’s the same with this offer. You only see that if you check out the order form properly, which many people won’t because they’ll be hungrily filling in their details to get Mike’s manuals shipped to them. You get charged twenty-nine dollars a month for a subscription to Mike’s monthly printed newsletter “The Best Damn Newsletter”. Can’t say it’s the best name of a newsletter I’ve ever heard, but the marketing behind this one is genius.

Personally I really like Mike Filsaime. I think his marketing is second to none, his products are great and I think he’s a genuine guy.

Will the newsletter be any good? That I can’t tell you. But if Mike’s past products are anything to go by it should be of a high standard.

Personally I would sign up, pay the six dollars just to get the manual and then if you’re really not interested in the newsletters cancel. The manual I’m sure will be a corker.

Four Tier Annihilation

You’re going to see everyone promoting this product later today. It’s called Four Tier Annihilation and is promoted by Alex Goad, the guy behind Players With Money that I reviewed last year. This guy is another really clever marketer who likes to launch products in a big way.

Yesterday I received an email about this product being launched so I went over to this site, watched the short video and downloaded a “report” (brilliant product launch strategy) that basically talked about the death of making money online. You read dramatic sentences like “driving a stake through the heart of the gurus” and “this is the realm of the guru vampires and where they live” and other such hype that, to be frank, I find slightly patronising. We’re entrepreneurs not movie critics.

You read about how “the second a new money making system is discovered the gurus jump into it, suck it dry and then don’t leave any cash on the table for the rest of us”.

So what is the big question here? What do you see when you remove your blinkers?

Well the question is positioning? Why would a product make those kinds of claims? I mean it’s a ludicrous claim to make. The internet is too vast for a “pool of gurus” to stop people earning from it, no matter what the system (providing the system worked in the first place that is). So why would the guys behind the product say this?

Simple. Because this new product has nothing to do with the normal stuff you’ll read about online. It’s to do with eBay, from what I can make from the screenshots, and is meant to be a new way to earn from the site. Note the words “meant to be”: I have no idea if this will be any good at all. So let me buy it up and I’ll review it next week.

Save your cash until then.

What can you learn from this? Well position yourself by doing things differently. Go the other way. Whilst everyone is promoting products about ebooks, blogs, affiliate marketing in this niche very few are promoting eBay stuff so Alex Goad has decided to create a product around that and bring it to market. Good, clever, proven way to stand out from the crowd. Brian Tracy calls it “having the big idea”.

As I said it may be a poor product, I’ll let you know next week, but you can’t fault the guys behind it for creativity.

A proven life changer

Last Friday I told you about a life-changing new product that is genuinely changing people’s lives. No hyperbole or rubbish this one is a killer. You know by now it takes a lot to impress me, and I can’t remember a product that has excited me as much as this one.

It’s something brand new, very exciting and could make you a serious tax-free income from home very quickly.

You know me well enough by now, I’m slightly obsessive when it comes to uncovering new and proven ways to make money online – wherever they might be.

Seriously, this could be THE BIG ONE! But a word of warning: this isn’t our usual online marketing or website-building business.

It’s something altogether different . . .

Check out full details here: http://www.canonburypublishing.com/ufxp/