I got an email this morning from an unnamed person
saying that the first step to success in this business
is to attend an internet marketing seminar.

I’m here to tell you that the first step to success
is

NOT

attending an internet marketing seminar.

What a load of garbage.

You go to a seminar where some of the best successes
in the world “teach” you a bunch of hype, and then try to
sell you a 6,000 “coaching” package.

You pay $2k to get to the seminar, and then pay
$6k to learn what you really wanted to learn.

Blah, garbage, blah, garbage, blah, garbage.

This is NOT the way to success.

The way to success is to find someone you trust.

Someone who speaks what resonates to you.
Someone who you can feel tells the truth (not who you THINK
tells the truth. Who you FEEL tells the truth.)
Someone who is reasonable.
Someone who will tell it like it really is, without
caving in to sell pure crap to people just to make a buck.
Someone who has done what they’re preaching.

Someone who is willing to start you off at the beginning
and hold your hand through the process from A to Z and
not assume you already know everything.

You listen to them, and then you take ACTION!

Next Tuesday this will come to fruition.

Scott Boulch and I have created a step-by-step apprenticeship
program that will start you off at A, and take you through all
the steps to Z…

FORCING you to take action and build your business.

Think about all the money you’ve spent on ebooks that
sounded great, and made sense, but didn’t cause you to
take action.

Think about the software you’ve bought and not used
because you didn’t really know why it was important.

Think about all the time you’ve wasted because you had
some mental block to getting something done.

Think about the seminars you’ve attended that got you
all hyped up (that’s how they sell you stuff) but didn’t
really help you or your business progress.

On Tuesday, that all changes.

Start by taking ACTION now.

Go here and listen to a call that Scott and I did:

==> http://www.StepByStepProfit.com

And then take the survey after you listen.

It will change the way you think when you get emails
like the one I got this morning about the FIRST step
being attending an “internet marketing” seminar.

I prefer to call it a “pitch fest”.

Here’s to Whats Crap…and Whats Not!

I haven’t used it yet, but it looks really good
based on the videos. It looks like it will be
really helpful to all affiliates out there.

I mean, why wouldn’t it be really good, Chris had
two really, really good examples of software
to model it after in UnderCoverProfits and ClickFlipping.

In fact, I think the concepts Chris used to build
his stuff are going to become vitally important to
anyone who wants to be successful as an affiliate
online. If you don’t have software to do these
things for you, you’re basically dead.

It has become so tedious and time consuming finding
profitable affiliate programs that I believe only
affiliates with softwares like this will survive
in the future.

Having said that, and, in the spirit of WhatsCrapAndWhatsNot.com
I want to warn you of some problems you might encounter
after buying GCD (Google Cash Detective) or any
software that tells you it identifies which affiliate
programs are profitable:

1. Installing and maintaining a server
GCD runs on your own server that you have to pay for.
After 7 years of building web systems, I have come to
realize that softwares like this are not small, simple
programs to install/maintain/run.
Be sure you’re prepared to maintain your server and the
problems that might arise from running software like this.

2. Getting Banned From Google
If you search google too many times from a single
IP address too quickly, Google will ban you from
searching ever again. If software is server based (on
your own server, or desktop based, you need to know
google’s limits and be careful to not get banned.
If you get your server banned, your software is
basically worthless.

3. Google Changing Code
Google changes their html code on their search results
pages from time to time. When they do, software that is
dependant on Google’s code (like GCD) is very
likely to break on your server because it’s code will
need to be updated to match Googles changes (remember
“Good Keywords” and how it broke when Overture changed the
code in it’s results?)
When this happens, your software could be down for weeks while you
wait for your programmer to fix the code and for you to
download and re-install the software.

***(I know this is the case because over the course of 3
months Google has changed their code 2 times and we’ve
had to fix it at UCP. Fortunately for us and our customers,
it only takes us a few minutes to fix the code and everyone
is automatically updated. No Down Time.)***

4. Hidden Monthly Costs
If the software is gathering click data or cost per click (cpc)
data, beware of the costs to gather that data.
CPC data comes from the Google Adwords API, which takes
weeks to get access to (if google will give it to you) and
then costs you each time you look something up.

Just be sure to do your research before relying on data like this.
I’ve seen data like this (from google) cost as much as $0.25
per keyword. If you were to look up 500 keywords per month, it
could cost you $125/month to do that.

Also, just yesterday Google changed their API again breaking
many pieces of software that relied on their data.

5. Software Becoming Obsolete
Anytime you buy a piece of software, if it’s not updated, it
becomes obsolete. This is especially true with internet
based software.
If someone doesn’t have an incentive to update their software,
they let it sit and it becomes obsolete (remember Traffic Equalizer???).
When someone sells a one-time fee software, they don’t have
an incentive to improve the software. This is a huge risk
to a consumer, especially when the software is very expensive
up front.

You might also want to see if software you’re buying
will look at MSN and Yahoo, as well as Google. MSN
and Yahoo are almost always less competitive and easier
for you to make money.

Also, see if it’s going to look at international markets
for you. Remember what Chris said in DayJobKiller about
how profitable international markets are?

Just trying to keep you informed.

Now, UCP does do msn/yahoo tracking and international
tracking, and is constantly updated. Sales to UCP are
currently closed, but we are working through our waiting
list so if you are still interested, you might be able to
purchase UCP soon.

Remember, right now none of these programs are publicly
available. I haven’t used them. Do your research before
you buy and make sure you know what you’re getting. As they
become available, I’ll buy them and try to use them and let
you know what they do well and what their problems are so
you can make a better informed buying decision.

John
http://www.UnderCoverProfits.com

Seriously…it took me 7 minutes to read the 63
page book.

You should buy this book only if today was the first
time you heard the word “affiliate”.

You should buy this book if you’re wondering:

- what clickbank is
- what adwords is
- what a mailing list is
- what a one-time offer is

Otherwise, pass on it.

The only way for me to describe what the ebook
was is a summary of the chapter headings of every ebook
that has been published on internet marketing
over the past 6 years.

I haven’t listened to the audio “bonuses” yet, but they
seem to cover every topic imaginable.

Save your money.

John
http://www.WhatsCrapAndWhatsNot.com

Recently there was a sales page released that
claims that you can get adwords clicks for free.

Pure Garbage!

The dude’s sales page says that he never pays
for his adwords clicks no matter what he bids.

He says that you can fearlessly bid whatever you
want, bid to the number 1 position, and not have to
worry about it because you are going to get the
clicks for free.

Unbelievable.

#1, it’s just not possible.

#2, it’s just not true.

#3, after you buy his system, he actually tells you
that he pays for his clicks just like everyone else does.

His system (just to take the suspense out of it) tells
you to bid on adwords clicks, and send them to your own
site, and then sell ad space on your site.

Yeah, that’s right, he tells you to sell banners on your site.

Now, this is feasable. It’s possible, and it can be profitable,
but have you tried to sell banner space recently?

When was the last time you clicked on a banner advertisement?

It’s just not what it used to be.

So, I’m just sending this email to save you the time
of buying and reading how to “get all your clicks for free.”

It’s just not possible.

John
http://www.WhatsCrapAndWhatsNot.com

PS. If you’re interested, here’s the website:
http://www1.whatscrapandwhatsnot.com/getgoogleadsfree

Rarely do I see a product come out that will actually
help most affiliates make money.

Most things I see are garbage for 95% of people, and
only useful for the other 5%.

This one is the exact opposite. It’s going to be useful
to 95% of affiliates (the lazy ones), and not real useful
to the affiliates who are already doing what they’re supposed
to be doing.

If you’ve read the Adwords Black Book, or Day Job Killer,
or something similar, you’ll know that as an affiliate, once you’ve
found a profitable affiliate program, you should be collecting those
buyers email addresses with a squeeze page. This allows you to
send the customers emails on the back end so you can continue
to make money after they buy.

You make money on the back end.

This is how you become a super affiliate.

Repeat customers. (you already know the adage about it being
easier to retain a customer than it is to attain a new customer).

The problem is, NOBODY actually does it.

Why?

Because it takes work to create a squeeze page and collect the
emails. Plus, if you write a bad squeeze page, you will likely
kill your conversion rate on your adwords clicks because people
are no longer clicking through to the sales page.

Enter the Clickbank Power Affiliate Script.

http://www1.whatscrapandwhatsnot.com/cb_power_affiliate

I’ve been waiting years for something like this.

It gathers customers emails from clickbank automatically
for you so you don’t need to use a squeeze page.

Yeah, customers who buy through your affiliate link, you can
get their emails from clickbank and send them back end emails.

Back end emails = more money for you.

http://www1.whatscrapandwhatsnot.com/cb_power_affiliate

This one is for the lazy affiliate. It’s for people who don’t
want to write a squeeze page, but who still want to get the
profits from it.

Now, you can start building your targeted opt-in mailing list
automatically, and turn your efforts into a real online business.

http://www1.whatscrapandwhatsnot.com/cb_power_affiliate

Now, a disclaimer.

If you have no intention of using this thing, don’t buy it.
If you aren’t doing affiliate marketing, don’t buy it.
If you’re not using clickbank to make money, don’t buy it.

If you are doing affiliate marketing, and you’re promoting clickbank
products, CB Power Affliate will help you make more money.

Here’s to your success.

John
http://www.WhatsCrapAndWhatsNot.com

About a week ago the guy who did Day Job Killer
and Affiliate Project X released a product called
Affiliate Commandments.

It’s about being an affiliate in 2007 and it’s really
good.

So, this email is to tell you how to get it for $3
instead of $10.

You can do this with any clickbank product you
ever want to buy.

If you know how to buy through your own affiliate
link already, here’s the product, go to work:

http://www1.whatscrapandwhatsnot.com/affiliatecommandments

If you don’t, basically, you can buy this product through
your own affiliate link and you get paid the commission
on it.

So, you pay $10 for the ebook, and then clickbank gives
you the commission back, which, on this product is
75% (about $7.50).

All you have to do is find out what the products hoplink
is and visit your own hoplink for it.

Here’s how it works:

On http://www1.whatscrapandwhatsnot.com/affiliatecommandments

scroll to the bottom.

The last link is the purchase link, it’s:

http://1.affcommand.pay.clickbank.net

Replace the 1 and the pay with:

http://hjuan99.affcommand.hop.clickbank.net

where “hjuan99″ is your clickbank nickname.

Do this and you just got a $10 product for $3.

You can also get many $100 products for $50
doing this.

So why hasn’t anyone else told you this before?

Because why in the world would another big name
affiliate tell you this? Telling you this costs them
money because you’re not buying through their
affiliate link anymore. They’re not making money
off you.

Just beware when doing this with affiliate programs
that aren’t going through clickbank. Not all affiliate
programs will pay affiliates who buy through their own
affiliate link.

Just another way I’m trying to save you some
money online.

Here’s to saving you money.

John

Click Here to Listen to the Call With Scott Boulch (right click and select “save as” to download it)

Ok, so maybe it’s not a review…
I can’t exactly do an honest review of my own product.

What I can tell you is that about 85%
of the beta users I’ve had using
UnderCoverProfits are now profitable,
where they previously were not.

So, what is UnderCoverProfits?

Well, it’s a web based system that figures out
profitable affiliate programs for you to promote with PPC.

The biggest question I get from people who are trying
to promote affiliate programs with adwords is
“what do I promote?”
They want to know what affiliate program is going to be
profitable for them, before they promote it.

UnderCoverProfits answers that question by figuring
out what other people are successfully promoting and
letting you move into that market.

The difference between UnderCoverProfits and all
the keyword conversion tracking tools that are out
there (like the “Rich Jerk’s X-ray domination” stuff
and the “extreme conversions” stuff) is that with
those programs, you have to do the testing of affiliate
programs with your own money. You pay to figure out if
a program is profitable.

UnderCoverProfits lets you test affiliate programs
with other people’s money. It uses other people’s
research (their time and their money) to figure out
which affiliate programs are profitable, and with
which keywords, and with which ads.

Now, I’m not saying this is a magic bullet, but I
think it’s as close to a magic adwords bullet as I’ve seen.

Here’s a phone call that Scott Boulch
(from “The Death of Adsense” fame)
and I did about UnderCoverProfits upcoming launch.

UnderCoverProfits.mp3 (right click and select “save as” to download it)

If you’re trying to promote affiliate programs
using Google Adwords, I think this will be worth
your time to listen to.

UnderCoverProfits will be available Tuesday March 27, Noon Eastern Time

UnderCoverProfits.com

July 21, 2006

I got an email today from someone that said:

Heh Heh,

To add to your Joel Comm misery....

Mike Filsaime just launched....

http://500InternetMarketers.com

I mean, what a freaking joke.  I can't say that Mike caused it,
because I don't know.

But...you know what I do see?

I see a bunch of recognizable names like Armand Morin, John Reese,
Derek Gehl, Rich Schefren, ...

And each of them is an AFFILIATE LINK!!!

This is so dumb.  My first impression was that Mike put up this site
and then put big names on there with affiliate programs as the links
just to make all the rest of us "suckers" buy into it like those guys
thought this was a great thing!

After a minute I realized that any idiot could have bought those links
so I can't blame Mike for it.

But...in the end...I think you know my feelings on this site.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, a word about the "black hat" thing that's going around right now.

It's called GoTryTHIS.com

I'm not really sure that protecting your links is "black hat".

In fact, I'm not even really sure what you're paying $247 for.

I looked at it and watched the 3 videos and read some of the bogus
testimonials (I also know some of the testimonials are correct because
I know some of the guys giving them...not that I have any respect
for those people...but I know they're real people).

I still don't know what it is you're buying.  I think it's software...but I'm
not sure.  And if it is software, I think all it does is make it so people
can't "steal" your links.

Trust me, if someone in this business wants to make the commission
off something you refered them to, they're going to do it.

If the person isn't already familiar with this business, they don't know
anything about it and they're not going to steal your commissions.

Now...I do know that GoTryThis does a really good job of tracking links.
It lets you set up tracking links that you can put into emails or on
websites, which it will track for you and do a good job of reporting
the stats.

If you're looking for stat tracking, then GoTryThis is a good program.

John

This is an apology.

In my last email I told you that CompetitionDominator
was for real.

I had bought it but I hadn’t used it yet.

Boy was I wrong.

I have to be way more careful with what I say
before I use something.

See, the CompetitionDominator sales page said that
it would tell you “exactly which keywords your
competition is using in adwords”.

What a load of crap!

This ticks me off so much it’s hard to write a
coherant email about it.

Ok…calm down…

The sales page lead me to believe (and led my
friends to believe) that you could tell it a competitor
and CD would figure out all the keywords that
website was bidding on on adwords.

With this knowledge, you could let other people do the
fringe keyword research for you and you could
“catapult your profits”, like the stupid sales page said.

Well, you want to know what it really does?

You input a list of keywords and CD will tell you
who is bidding on those keywords.

Yeah, that’s right.

It will tell you which words your “competition” is
bidding on IF YOU ALREADY KNOW THOSE KEYWORDS!

Ridiculous.

I don’t care to know which of the keywords I already
know about some other moron is bidding on. I can very
easily test those keywords myself to see if they convert.

And, it gets worse.

I looked at an industry I’m particularly interested in to
see which affiliate programs are being promoted and
by who.

Well…SORRY!

CD won’t tell you that. It groups everything based
on the display url on adwords.

That means that if an affiliate is promoting a product
with a particular keyword, but the website owner himself
isn’t, it will tell you the website owner is promoting with
that keyword.

If there are 5 different affiliates promoting a product,
it will only tell you that that website has ads for it, not
that the ads are affiliate ads!

WORTHLESS!!!

The real value in something that monitors adwords
ads is to tell me who is making money as an affiliate
so I can copy them and promote the same affiliate
program, with the same keywords.

That’s what I thought CD was going to do. If you can
monitor a keyword over a month, and the same affiliate
ad shows up every single time you do that search, you
can be pretty darn sure that person is making money
with that affiliate program, with that ad, at that position
on google.

Copy them.

————–
Ok, now that my rant is over, and I’ve told you the real
value in a tool that monitors adwords, give me about
a week and I’m going to show you how you can gather
the unbelievably valuable data I’m talking about.

I haven’t released my tool that does this yet, but I will
within a week.

This morning I was looking at some of the data it’s
giving me and I couldn’t believe it.

It found 8 affiliate programs for me that I KNOW
are profitable using adwords.

It’s sooooo easy for me to copy them now.

I KNOW they are making money because other people
are promoting them…

…over a long period of time!

Give me a week.

John
http://www.whatscrapandwhatsnot.com

PS. I got a refund for CompetitionDominator.
Go try it and then get your refund too.