If this is you you should definitely not even consider buying this product.
You know that piece of music by Carl Orff – ‘O Fortuna’, from his epic Carmina Burana? Even if you don’t know the name, you’re bound to know the piece of music. It’s a very famous dramatic track that is often played on shows like The X Factor but once upon a time would accompany apocalyptic and nightmare-ish style drama on film and TV. Well, it popped into my head as I watched the doom-and-gloom introduction to the sales video for a product called Carbon Copy Commissions.
Over scenes from the news about the global recession and America’s approach to bankruptcy, an almost sneering American-accented voice builds up the worst possible scenario imaginable (lost job, no income, rising bills, eviction) and climaxes with: ‘And there you are: sitting in the corner of your living room with your head in your hands, trying to figure out how to explain to your five-year-old why you can’t come home anymore.’
I hate fear-mongering, with the passion of Joan of Arc (incidentally, the ‘O Fortuna’ music was used in a film about her – probably when she gets burned at the stake). I cannot abide it. It’s all over our news and newspapers, which is just about bearable because it’s all about entertainment and sensationalism nowadays, but using it as a sales tactic is unforgivable in my eyes.
This product is basically sold to you with a sneer. They’re gleeful in your proposed downfall and might as well be saying: ‘You need to think about what you’re gonna do when it all inevitably goes wrong – before it gets too late and you find yourself pacing up and down the Golden Gate Bridge in despair.’ (NB – they don’t actually say this, but it’s in the same vein).
So what is this product they’re scaring you into buying with all the fire and brimstone of the Old Testament? Because, it’s bound to be the answer to my forthcoming depression. Oh, no – silly me! It’s just another training course about how to make money from affiliate marketing.
For $37 ($27 if you try to leave the page), you get access to Justin Michie’s new course delivered through videos, ebooks, reports, templates and most importantly, copy-and-paste campaigns. He claims that if you can copy and paste, you can make money from Carbon Copy Commissions, through emulating his ‘success’.
There are five subsections to the course: using YouTube for traffic building; outsourcing daily tasks; developing microsites for particular targeted strategies; using paid advert slots to increase your income; and instructions on how to sell more to your best buyers. (I’m sure your best buyers will appreciate that.)
So far, so similar to a hundred products out there. Only, a lot of those products have more information, plus they offer you support without it being an upsell.
Yes, as soon as you’ve bought into Carbon Copy Commissions, you’re slammed with an upsell to benefit from their members’ area and support. If you don’t shell out $197 for this, you’re left to your own devices in navigating and understanding all the training. It’s like when you’re at school and the teacher is ill, so a supply-teacher puts a video on and goes off to do the crossword.
Ultimately, there was nowhere near enough decent information in their product to warrant my recommendation. And they committed the cardinal sin in pushing it upon the prospective buyer by means of scare-mongering. Don’t get me wrong – if the product was much better than it is, I’d have recommended it despite the sales technique, but it isn’t, so I won’t.
All together now: ‘O Fortuna, velut luna, statu variabilis…’