Such is the way with some products that you buy, only to be sold something else additionally, I’m going to look at two different items today.
Frances Kousokalis’ Work At Home Insider is a free 25-page ebook guide to making money at home through being a virtual assistant or by writing articles. There’s a strong emphasis on the latter, so if you have a strong command of language and grammar, and fancy yourself as a bit of a writer, then this is a viable business opportunity for you. Obviously being free, the value for money is excellent, and the report provides good links for finding high-paying freelance work in this arena. The ‘how to’ approach is thorough and well-written and the links are sound (although some are just to forums where other freelance writers hang out). We have business blueprints here on What Biz Opp that are as good, and would complement the ebook. However, if you do not want to share your email address – and in this instance, perhaps it would be wise not to (more on that in a minute) – then the information we supply is all you need.
I wouldn’t have minded had the free ebook been issued so that Kousokalis could build up an email list. It’s a good swopsie to receive that ebook in return for my precious email address (actually, I gave him my spam email address – the one which I never check). However, no sooner have you signed up for the ebook than you’re transported to a site selling a traffic-generating system called Set and Forget. After a polite diversion page featuring a picture of Kousokalis the family man (ahhh), like Dorothy on her way to Oz, we’re sent unapologetically into the whirlwind of the sales page for the Set and Forget system (NOT to be confused with the Set and Forget Traffic system from nichereaper.com – that’s a different product from different authors).
The Set and Forget system sales-page basically consists of a video – and nothing else. There is nothing about who the authors even are. The video is one of those annoying ones that doesn’t tell you how long it’s running for and I’ve never seen such a desperate use of the scarcity tactic. If I’m going to sit there for an age hearing time and time again how this product will make you tens of thousands in two months, how it will bring a tidal wave of targeted traffic to my site, how it is only on sale for so long and at this price and that I should snap it up before it’s removed completely and that they’re only going to sell so-many copies of the product (deep breath), I want to know how long I have to bear it. I’m only human. The video does not really tell you what you get. My tolerance levels have a limit.
I got so annoyed I thought they don’t deserve my time or custom and clicked off. I repeatedly tried to click off until the price was down from $37 to $7. So I bought it, just so I could review it.
Once you’ve bought it, you are (annoyingly) immediately offered a series of up-sells. You’re offered access to the ‘VIP Members’ Area’, which makes me think ‘What have I just paid $7 for?!’. Of course, I declined, and was immediately offered ANOTHER up-sell: for $67 I can access the ‘big secrets’ behind the product. Just what am I getting?! I thought I’d be granted all the ‘secrets’! I click on ‘No’ and envisage getting my money back. Low and behold, we get another up-sell! By now, it’s like someone’s rubbed a cheese-grater against my skin, I am that agitated.
Finally, a name: Mark Christianson. So, he’s the man behind it. I cannot find anything about him. And now I’m told that the product I bought is a money-making website worth $1995, which they have given me for ‘free’. Oh, how kind! (How gracious am I?). What they’re really peddling is web hosting (through brainhost.com) for a monthly fee – and this ‘free’ website can only be hosted through them. So, I have to spend more money before I get anything back.
Next, you’re instructed to submit your website to all the major search engines (of which they maintain there is 500 of!!). What are they thinking? You never have to submit your website to any search engines to get them listed there! It’s preposterous! It now feels like they’ve donned their authoritative caps and tried to hoodwink unsuspecting novices.
Three modules follow about auto-responders, squeeze pages and list-building. This kind of information can be found elsewhere for free on What Biz Opp and on other sites. Also, more annoyance in this: either they’re targeting partially-sighted people, or the font is really massive so it looks like you’re getting a lot of content.
Thank heavens this product is available through ClickBank because by now, I’d had enough and was requesting my $7 back.
I didn’t even get to see what the website you’ve spent money on looks like, but this person on Warrior Forum reports the following: ‘Today I received a notice from Shopzilla that they would not approve my application because the site was below their standards. (Mine too!) I have never, ever had the quality of my site content impugned before…not a nice feeling, but thankfully my name was in no way associated with it. Shame on them for publishing such a garbagey, spammy site! Sites like this are causing us all to suffer with these repeated Google slaps. I took it down for ethical reasons…such a site hurts us all. However, Brainhost was easy to deal with and gave me no problems at all.’
Get the free Work At Home Insider ebook if you’re interested in making money from writing articles, but do not even consider the affiliate diversion to the Set and Forget System.