UPDATE: This review is now outdated, and I do NOT recommend this product any longer. Additionally, the feedback I received from my readers who purchased this product was generally negative. Apparently the sellers did not deliver what was promised. I initially supported this product after attending their live presentation in Vegas, which in my opinion was high quality. I even went so far as to defend it in some of my comments below. But these guys let me down, so I’m sorry I recommended it. I am leaving this review here for informational purposes only. I have removed links to their site from this review.
12/09/2008
While we’ve seen a handful of “big” product launches in the Internet Marketing arena in 2008, this one will probably be remembered as the biggest.
It’s got a bigger “hook” ($100k a day) and more gurus promoting it than anything I’ve ever seen.
So before I jump into the nitty gritty, let me make a few things clear…
1) I was at the Vegas “invite only” event, where they unveiled Arbitrage Conspiracy. No I didn’t pay $10k to be there, but I could see why they would have charged that much.
2) There is no way to review the product in its entirety, because it’s going to be a 12 week course. In other words, no one has actually “seen” the product. So I can only base this review upon the content that was presented in Vegas, combined with what they are saying the product is going to be.
3) Everyone at the Vegas event signed an NDA, so I can’t reveal many of the details. However, some of the details have now been made public by the makers of the product, so I can talk about those things. Also, I am certainly able to give you my opinions about the content I received in Vegas, without revealing specifics.
OK, so I’m actually going to start with the bottom line, and then I’m going to go into more depth to justify my opinion…
Bottom line: I am fully recommending the Arbitrage Conspiracy product/program for anyone who understands what it’s about and is interested in scaling their PPC campaigns to high levels.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let me tell you the good, the bad, and how I came to my conclusion.
In case you’re not yet familiar with the Arbitrage Conspiracy story, and the characters behind it, let me fill you in…
It’s about a guy named Aymen (last name withheld), who is reportedly making between $50k-$100k per day NET profit using PPC (pay per click). His main method is promoting offers from CPA (cost per action/acquisition) networks which pay per lead generated.
Aymen works with two other guys on this business, one of whom is a partner in the business. They have requested to remain anonymous, but I did meet one of them in Vegas. He was a very nice Christian guy… I wish I could tell you more about him, as he is proof positive that this business can be conducted with integrity.
The guy who is essentially “bringing” the Arbitrage Conspiracy to the world is Brad Fallon, a recognizable name in the Internet Marketing world. You may know him from such things as StomperNet, Free IQ, etc.
The first question a lot of people may have is… is this for real? After all, $100k per day is a lot, right?
And IF it’s real… then why would Aymen be revealing his methods to the world?
To answer the first question, I will say yes it’s real. I’ve seen their commission statements with my own eyes. But more than that, it’s really not as unbelievable as a lot of people may think. There are a lot of people making that much money; there are just not very many who are teaching how to do it.
A couple months ago, a product was launched by a guru who made $2 Million last year from PPC. It was touted as the greatest PPC revelation of all time. Now these guys come along who are making more than that every month. It’s only a matter of time before the next PPC guru comes along and says he’s making over $1M per day. The Internet IS that big, and it will happen.
To answer the second part of the question (why would he teach it?) is a little more complicated. The most frequent answer you’ll likely find is: because he wants to give back.
I’m sure that’s true, as Aymen and his associates are nice guys… but this obviously isn’t merely a philanthropic endeavor. After all, there are plenty of ways to give back to the world, other than revealing your trade secrets to your competitors.
The obvious ulterior motive is to make more money selling the program. And with a launch of this magnitude, plenty of money will be made.
The other ulterior motive (although publicly mentioned by Amen in an interview) may be less obvious: Aymen is starting a CPA network and wants to train an army of super affiliates to promote his offers.
So hopefully that satisfies everyone’s desire for a reason why.
Now, the most important part…
Can they really teach you how to replicate their success?
Yes, I believe they can. When I produced The Next Internet Millionaire, I learned from Kris Jones (founder of PepperJam), that a successful Internet business can be built in three steps:
1) Find something that works. (period)
2) Replicate it. (period)
3) Scale it. (period)
It’s an ancient formula, and it’s been applied by many people to PPC since its inception. For example, Kris made $1M in one year from PPC arbitrage before starting the Pepperjam Network to scale his business to the next level.
So the CONCEPT is not new. All Aymen has done is taken a successful PPC model (developed largely by his own trial and error), replicated it, and scaled it into a $100k/day business.
And generally speaking, the business model is not new either. In fact, PPC arbitrage has been one of the most taught methods in this niche for the past several years. There are countless ebooks on ClickBank teaching it (I was initiated into it by Chris Carpenter’s Google Cash ebook years ago).
So what’s different about this?
It really comes down to the specific combination of tools and techniques that they are using to thrive in today’s market. Research is fundamental to their success.
Aymen and his team are truly on the bleeding edge of technology as it applies to their business. They have formulated a systematic approach to research, PPC implementation, landing pages, conversion, and every other element.
They’ve been able to leverage their system to the point that they only work part time (a few hours a day) in order to achieve the results they are getting. In my opinion, that’s impressive!
Their system is so good that it caused virtually everyone in attendance (including myself) to drop their jaws in awe of what they had presented to us.
OK so now it’s time for me to tell you what I DON’T like…
This is somewhat difficult to say, because I don’t want to tick off my friends who are launching this product. However, if I didn’t say it, this wouldn’t be Eric’s Tips. 🙂 If all I said were the same things as all the other “gurus” then you might was well unsubscribe from my newsletter right now, because you obviously don’t need more of the same hype.
I have a problem with the way they are positioning the course for newbies. For example, these are the top 3 bullet points on their current landing page:
“How he got started with a mere $50!”
“How to get completely set up and open for business in 24 hours!”
“How To Make Massive profits with No Website, No Product and No List”
I understand that a newbie can follow this system, but I do not believe those points are representative of the course as a whole. Although the business is fairly simplistic in nature (buy clicks to earn profits), I think their systems are more complex than they may realize.
Yes, Aymen got started with $50, but he also spent millions of dollars testing and developing his methods. There are also a handful of software and memberships that you will need to buy to implement all the methods.
Yes, you could get a PPC campaign up and running in 24 hours (or 24 minutes for that matter), but that barely scratches the surface of the Arbitrage Conspiracy methods. I consider myself to be an EXPERT, and it would take me a matter of weeks to implement all their techniques.
Yes you could make profits with no website, no product, and no list… but that’s not the emphasis of the program. A lot of their methods use landing pages, and landing pages are part of a website.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that if THOSE are the things that you want to do (start a business with no more than $50 investment, set it up in 24 hours, and make money with no website), then Arbitrage Conspiracy is NOT for you!
You don’t need to invest in a 12-week content-packed course to learn how to do that. You could go buy a $47 ebook on ClickBank and learn the basics of PPC.
So who is this for?
In my opinion, Arbitrage Conspiracy is for anyone who wants to go BEYOND the level I just described above.
It’s for marketers who understand that they have to spend more money on PPC in order to make more profits.
It’s for marketers who are not afraid of embracing new technology and methods.
It’s for marketers who can imagine themselves making $100k a day.
And it’s especially for marketers who already know how to create a profitable PPC campaign. If you fit that description, Arbitrage Conspiracy is a good choice for you, because it will show you how to take those same campaigns and crank them up to the next level, and then to the next level, etc.
Without a doubt, I would say this is the highest level of PPC education ever offered.
Whether you’re an intermediate PPC user, looking to ramp up to the next level, or a Fortune 500 CEO looking to figure out how these Internet geeks are making more money than your entire company… I recommend this course for you.
As always, you are welcome to leave your comments here on the blog.
Have a great day!
Nice analogy Ron! 🙂
I have no idea what the support will be like. If it’s like most of these launches, it will be chaotic for the first couple weeks because they were unprepared (even though these guys like Brad have done it several times)… then they will hire a bunch of people and staff up. And after a month or two the support will be good. Hopefully they will learn from past launches and staff up ahead of time 🙂
Hey Eric,
NICE!! Your comments have probably saved me from the bank taking the house, HoHo! It’s great to know someone who gives the good and the bad about what really Works or Not out there. An honest opinion… WOW! This is definitely helpful when these kinds of programs arise, especially for us newbie’s that try be the next millionaire…
Keep It Real*
Thanks a Million,
Tom Lancaster
I would guess that a newbie with the means and the motivation can use this course to start from square one. I don’t know what level of support they will provide for newbies. Obviously at the Vegas event, they basically skipped the newbie section because everyone there was a successful internet marketer already.
Since they’re marketing it so heavily TO newbies, I can only assume they will be starting with the basics before jumping into the real methods.
But the reason I can’t really recommend it for newbies is because I’ve been in this business long enough to know that MOST newbies will lack the motivation and (perceived lack of) finances to carry any plan to completion. And because of that, I think a lot of newbies will be wasting money. If they’re going to waste money on something they’re not going to use, they might as well waste a smaller amount.
So it’s not so much that newbies CAN’T benefit from the course. They can. It’s more a matter that they WON’T benefit because they’ll fall through the cracks like 95% of newbies do before making their first dollar online.
On the flipside, someone who has already made their first dollar with PPC is in a totally different place than the average newbie. Although they are only one step ahead of the rank beginners, they are lightyears ahead in their liklihood of being able to implement stuff.
So in a way, I am totally stereotyping “newbies” in my review, in an effort to screen out those who won’t be able to handle the course.
If you’re not a “stereotypical” newbie, you’ll know it. You’ll have the vision to succeed with the program, and you should try it.
Will these techniques be made available at “newbie” prices someday? Maybe, maybe not.
If it runs the life cycle of most “secret information” in this business, it will be available in some form or another at a cheaper price at some point in the future.
One question is… will that information be on the cutting edge at that time? Maybe, but probably not.
My belief is that if you’re able to get TO the bleeding edge… you’ll have a better chance of staying there, simply by adapting. But if you’re constantly CHASING the bleeding edge with old information, you may never get there.
I will tell you that this course is absolutely not the equivilent of some ebook, nor will its content EVER fit into a simple ebook.
I was lucky enough to get a copy of the powerpoint presentation from the Vegas event, and it contains 164 pages of amazing content.
And those are just the bullet points, and that’s just a scaled down version of the full course.
I would have paid thousands of dollars for the powerpoint if I had to.
When you consider the price of an average PPC ebook to be $47 – $97…
This information is easily 100X more potent, and thus I think the price is justified.
Also I see a paradox within the complaints in these comments.
On the one hand, people think that this information is going to be too widely disbursed and flood the market.
On the other hand, people think that this information should be sold for under $100.
But the higher price point will naturally mean fewer customers.
Thanks Mike.
Haha actually my sister in law cuts it, but she is finishing hair school now and has improved drastically! 🙂
Happy holidays Robert, and never lose hope 🙂
I will be giving some PPC tips later on in my lessons, but obviously it won’t be anything like the depth of Arbitrage Conspiracy. your Question # 2 is not so simple. Just putting a CPA offer on your site is not going to make you money, unless you’re getting traffic. I would suggest keep learning everything you can about internet marketing, and if you want to manage your own websites, learn HTML.
For someone like you who has some PPC experience, but not much overall internet marketing experience… I’d say go with your gut, whatever that may be (unless your gut is usually wrong).
find a CPA network with less strict requirements, and prove yourself with them. Then you’ll have what it takes to get approved with others.
I never said I would be doing zero product promos. I said very few, and I have scaled back significantly. Over the past several months, I have been promoting an average of ONE product launch per month.
One thing I found is that I do have a contingency of subscribers who would rather get product reviews than lessons. Maybe someday I’ll try to make seperate lists.
I am still doing the vids. As I’ve mentioned a couple times in emails and in one blog post, I’ve had to reassess my own timeline due to personal priorities and time constraints. I AM still doing the videos, and my wife will attest that I am doing them as often as I can. I’ve posted 28 videos so far (I’d say that’s a “bunch”)… and I’ve already outlined up to 100.
One thing I’ve found is that they’re taking me a lot longer than I expected, because I’m not willing to breeze my way through them. I want to make sure each of them are accurate and consistant quality. When I started, I thought I’d be able to just press record and whip out a few videos a day. But the more I saw how seriously people were taking the videos, the more I realized I have an obligation to make them good.
Do I fail to walk my talk at times? Absolutely.
I’ve also apologized multiple times, and I’ve adjusted my “talk” to try to more realistically reflect my walk.
But I am sorry for not living up to my initial expectations I had set for myself. And I’m serious about that, I hate to let people down.
Thank you Eric for an honest review. I appreciate your advise to us newbies. I have bought a lot of programs, trainings and ebooks because the salesletter says it’s so easy for a newbie,you work only 1 hour, you don’t need a website…etc. and most of the time I end up buying more stuff, learning more stuff that I end up studying how to use a tool or a software that I never get the chance to make money.
Susan
http://www.bestbuyelmolive.com/
http://www.bodyacne.uloveyourbody.com/
Hi Eric,
You seem to be a good and patient man! I’m sort of thinking that dealing with all the skeptics might start taking a toll on you.
Didn’t you just come back from a vacation? Maybe another will be needed in the near future ; – )
I find the jealous folks out there who are struggling to win online and are coming up short, tend to be the biggest critics.
Thanks for your honest review of this program. Many have a hard time spotting honesty when they see it, but if you’ll keep helping them along we’d all appreciate it mate!
All the Best,
Bill
If you’re just looking for some basic info about PPC to see what it is and how it works, there’s plenty of free info online.
If you’re looking for an inexpensive course to learn some real techniques, you could try Google Cash which is what got me into affiliate marketing years ago.
But if you’re set on learning the cutting edge Arbitrage Conspiracy techniques, then you might as well just buy the course and let them teach you from square one.
If you’re a newbie and you’re not intimidated by my review or the comments above, then perhaps you’ve got what it takes 🙂
I can see it clearly; 1st they are developing their own CPA Networks, 2nd Train others to fill it 3rd Make some capital, but mostly publicity for his CPA Network and Training Program, Personally I believe Aymen would probably give the program away, it’s The “Others” that are fishing for profits Good or Bad. Just my 2 cents.
Joe
Hi Eric and Everybody!
Even though I have not made a penny in internet yet, however, I felt I am going somewhere after reading Eric’s above review page and thinking how amazingly his thoughts and my comments ( just before I started reading Eric’s review I completed drafting my comment on arbitrage conspiracy to type it on their blog ) has lot of similarity.
I am really feeling good now by thinking that atleast I have learned something, after all my review or thinking has got some touch with a guru like Eric.
Thanks Everybody and Eric.
Kamrul
Hey once again Eric I love the position you take for yourself and understand that it is a fine line that you have to walk to keep strong relations and stand out from the money hungry gurus that slam your inbox everday with “oh my buddy is launching the greatest ever”
Thanks for being honest and standing strong
Rich
Hi
After reading all these comments I think Eric will NOT make many sales out of this ober-hyped gurues launch. Eric, your customer list is full of people like me – fed up of gurues millking money out of our pockets. I am shure you can find some other way to turn all of us into HAPPY customers.
Regards
Zoran
Eric, In your reply you say “I do make good money on the internet, and I spend a considerable amount of time teaching it… mostly for free!”
I won’t doubt that you put considerable effort into your lessons, and that they are helping many people.
However, I think it’s a little disingenuous (although not untrue) to wave the “for free” flag because the last time I looked there were an awful lot of recommendations after each lesson that included affiliate links, from which I have little doubt you are now deriving a healthy passive income. I also checked out the stats just after you launched your ‘free lessons’ and the hits on ericstips.com had gone up by a factor of 20 in a matter of days, as you will be well aware. Congratulations on such a successful viral promotion because I have little doubt that many people have referred their friends to your site to read your lessons, and so it will continue.
Now I know you’re not charging, so in that sense the lessons are indeed “for free”, but as I said I do think it’s a little disingeuous to wave that particular flag in a manner that deliberately implies your motives to be purely philanthropic, and that you are making nothing from the lessons, because that simply isn’t true.
I will continue to read your blog, not least because your reviews include fact to go with the hype and I like to be kept informed, but I must confess that (like some others here) I am tiring a little of the gurus who seemingly all get together as pals and decide how best to divide up the spoils.
I think you gave the best lesson of all so far for IM success in your review though:
1) Find something that works;
2) Repeat.
The only thing I would add – and that the gurus never seem to mention – is that very few of them actually do all the work themselves, much of it is outsourced because otherwise step 2 isn’t scalable.
Oh and that if you can devise something under point 1 that generates a recurring monthly income (however small) and is viral (i.e. it grows by itself) then that is the ultimate recipe for long-term success. I’ve not seen any guru mention that detail though!
Eric,
Great review. But I have a couple questions for you:
If I am understanding correctly, you are saying that this is possibly the best course on PPC that you’ve ever seen. You’ve also stated that you are using some of the techniques in your own business (I’m assuming that’s not based on promoting CPA offers). This leads me to my question:
Would you recommend this to someone who is not intersted in using this model to promote CPA offers? I own an ecommerce store and PPC is a major part of my business. I consider myself to be pretty skilled at PPC and I buy just about any serious PPC info I can get my hands on – Perry Marshall, Mr X, Adwords Agency Elite, PPC Classroom, etc.
I’ve noticed the “magic bullet” spin that’s been put on this launch and it’s made it difficult to gage the level of the PPC info. I know there are different strategies for different business models….
In your opinion, would this course be worth the price tag for me if I plan to use the info in an ecommerce business model. I’m having a very hard time believing that the CPA opportunity is so great that I should just drop everything I’m currently doing. After the seminar, have you diverted any attention from your current projects to pursue this CPA arbitrage business model? If not, do you plan to?
Sorry for the barage of questions Eric, but this review has given me more insight than the entire launch up until now…so I’m digging for a bit more…lol..
Thanks Eric!
Chris
Hallo Eric
Thanks for all the great information about arbitrage conspiracy and your honest opinion about it. Newbies are literally eaten alive. Although I have little experience even I am sucked in by marketing hype sometimes..
Keep it up!
Marion
I wish to remain anonymous.
I know Aymen from the fact we started on the SAME course called Pay Per Click Formula Launched in 2007. I am still a member, so is he and his partner.
Its all true about his sales. He started off not knowing anything about PPC to CPA. His threads on the PPCF show his progression and rising results/mistakes.
NOW THE TRUTH.
What I don’t like about this whole thing is the pitch to newbies.
WHY?
DO NOT BUY this course unless you are willing to spend A LOT of money testing what works. You will need to run it as a Full time business with massive commitment to time (so get the family support or forget it). You will eventually need a line of credit either c/cards or Bank overdraft (I currently work on a $70,000 LOC). You need to know at least the basics in Adwords, MSN, YSM (TOC), ftp, basic webdesign/WP Installing, basic php & scripting, copywriting, PPC tracking and Excel spreadsheets. These are the minimums. They are not difficult to learn but the poor newbies that throw themselves into the deep end NOT knowing this will be devoured.
Bottom line IF you’ve got a lot of profit swishing around from your IM success AND are an experienced IM’er AND are willing to forget about EVERY other aspect of your business model to make the system work (for the next 12-18 months)…go for it.
Finally I am also a Christian but that has proven to mean NOTHING when it comes to greed within the heart (and choosing to do the right thing.)
I am appaled and sickened when I see large “Guru” types grab every last penny out of the families of those struggling to survive.
PLEASE Eric be REALLY honest and make it clear here, those who are struggling to pay their bills right now should NOT get this course but should start out doing FREE bum marketing, costing them nothing and if done methodicly can reap a good auto income in 3-6 months thus funding the bigger course(and paying off their debts first).
I wish all my fellow IM’ers a Very Happy and Peaceful Christmas.
anonymous from the UK
the landing page can be the affiliate link..so u dont need a website
I think this program is going to use yahoo ppc because its cheaper and less competition
Yah!, your right, but don’t make yourself sick over this stuff, because it’s more of the same and something that you and I haven’t already heard.
This for the most part is not for newbies, given the price and experience you need, unless you can sit in a classroom with them for hours and weeks until you know what your doing and be advise on each campaign until your successful. And we know that’s not going to happen.
But, it’s up to each person to check it out or not to check it out for themselves.
Raul
Aymen says he uses three tools.I think one could be a keyword research tool
Some time back i tried to get into this game.
The problem is that i got rejected from all 25 CPA networks over a period of 2 months that i applied for.
Does anyone have an answer?
before we start jumping into “$100k” a day???
Hi Ron – I love your analogy about the Congo – and as always – it depends on what shoes you’ve got for sale. People in Congo will buy maybe cheap sandals- but not Manolo Blanik like Carrie Bradshaw (In Sex in the City) for $550/a pair- or maybe the few corrupt leaders of the country will buy a few pairs- the others simply have NO CASH. Will you enter a HUGE Market like the Congo with all its market-entry cost for a 10 pair of Blanik potential or 5000 sandals?
I bought the Affiliate Payload of Saj P + Alex Goad which – by the way – is a good training – and I studied it carefully. I did NOT ask for a refund, since the info provided therein was useful in MANY other sections of research and marketing, that I thought it’s WELL worth the money- I can use this in many other campaigns etc…. and those tactics were never spelled out as clearly+honestly and good as in many OTHER programs I bought for more money!
But at this moment in my IM career I decided not to follow-up with the program – for the same reason I don’t go to the casino (unless it’s for fun and lose 50 bucks + get free drinks for that!); you have to have PLAY-money to do CPA – and if you’re not tech-savvy enough to flip-up a site within 10 minutes – you’ll spend many hours – or money on outsourcing – for campaigns that just don’t make profit. Even Saj P. admits that only 3 out of 10 campaigns “make” it.
Admittedly, this is better chances than roulette grants you – but imagine your frustration level when you spend all those hours + money for NADA !!
On the other hand – if you can afford the program – go ahead and get in – as it certainly pays off to get all this top notch knowledge in PPC – you can use it for ANYTHING – as Eric says!!
Or you can still buy Affiliate Payload and spend those 2k on trial+error with Google ! It will get you through the initial weeks – for sure!!
Eric, I don’t remember how I came across your website a little while back, or what made me sign up for yet another e-newsletter… but thank God I did. The honesty is so refreshing… not to mention the great free content.
This product is not for me — at least not right now — but I’ll be looking to you first for any new product launch review before I buy anything from now on.
When I compare your product review to the nauseating hype from other lists for the same product, there’s no question that I’ve come to value your opinion more than most.
Thanks,
Michael
Hi Eric,
As usual you always have the alternative perspective although I must admit I printed all your post and read it thoroughly as I am a CPA mad hatter.
I’ve doing this stuff for over 2 years and unless you say otherwise, there is always work involved in doing PPC to CPA and a lot more than $50.00 startup.
I have to say I was expecting you to reveal a little more about the course though, I can appreciate the NDA you signed.
Many thanks for your honest thoughts
Take care
Hamant
Hi Eric,
I like your old haircut:-)
Thanks for the honest review and all the comments. I have been reading your blog for a little while off and on….always interesting and always trustworthy.
I won’t be buying the product. I’m too scared to use adwords.
One thing that really put me off, was a closing comment at the end of Brad Fallon’s Video, (prelaunch). He mentioned something about the gurus…and my next thought was…”now the gurus are guru bashing” What is it with these guys? Are they egomanic?
At the very least…it’s unncessary from Brad Fallon and insulting to the general IM public.
I belong to a membership where the owner has shown us his accounts in real time promoting CPA network products, using PPC and easily netting $260,000 a month for ONE low cost product. So yes, others are doing it big time.
I think they usually have staff or outsoucers to hit $K100 a day in any business plan. I’m not sure about that tho.
I was interested to know how this product compares to PPC Classroom if you bought in, taking into consideration the cost(s) only. Is PPC Classroom a better product for newbies to begin their PPC adventure? rather than a the huge cost of AC?
Thanks again Eric
Thanks Rodney.
Eric, it’s clear that arbitrage is a dying business and time to sell it out for the last fistful of cash. I’ve seen it on PPC. The costs have quintupled in our business in the last 24 months. We are dropping what were some of our most profitable keywords.
Same thing must be happening in arbitrage – sell the dying nag to the city sucker at the country fair.
Eric, the only thing which makes you substantially different from the other gurus is that you have the strength to publish our criticism. What keeps me reading is the community, like Rodney and Jaisne Blue Sexton. I admire your fortitude in publishing our comments.
I pray that your subscribers are heeding the players in the comments and not following the Pied Piper to the river.
Mike,
LOVING the shout out for the “Mom and Pop” businesses on the net! What a wonderful story, I’m going to check out your website and see what else you’ve heard yourself type!
-Sabrina
Hey Eric,
Here’s the big question…when can anyone say they’ve passed the point of being a newbie? (I suppose if you have to ask, then it’s an indication that you still are!)
Specifically, I’ve run some PPC campaigns, (the overwhelming majority of them having lost money with a few successes sprinkled in.) I’ve maintained several decent websites over the last six years. And know just enough HTML to get myself into trouble.
But does that mean someone like me would be a candidate for Arbitrage Conspiracy? I know enough to realize that if I buy it, I’d better be certain to block of the time in my schedule to learn it and implement it FAST, before it loses it’s edge.
And two weeks before Christmas, in the middle of a recession, allocating that kind of time and money towards something that I may or may not even have the patience, skill or temperament to implement gives me pause…Nevertheless I realize I’ve got to invest in my business and ongoing eduction if I intend to make this a lasting career.
Hence the quandary…would you say Arbitrage Conspiracy would be helpful for someone like me? A low-level technical, time-pressed individual, with a poor track record for PPC?
“If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” James 1:5
So I’ll pray about it. But I’d also like your opinion about a case such as mine…
-Sabrina
Thanks Bill. Honestly taking criticism and dealing with skeptics is probably the least enjoyable thing I do in this business, but I think it’s an important part of what makes me different and keeps my product reviews interesting 🙂
And in general, I think you’re right about the toughest critics. It’s often the people who have been burned and/or failed in the past. They may have good intentions of helping others avoid their mistakes. But just because someone else failed, that doesn’t mean everyone will fail. It try to temper “hope” with a dose of reality. We obviously don’t want to tarnish any dreams, because the Internet opportunity is REAL. I’m living proof of it. But at the same time, I want to see people making wise choices for their individual situation.
You could be right. It’s a good “reason why”.
Since you said…
“PPC is a major part of my business”
Chris, yes I would definitely recommend this course for someone like you. Their methods can be used for your own products/ecommerce.
There may be a few weeks of the 12 weeks course that would not apply to you. But I’d be confident in assuming that you are not using all the tools that they are using. Applying a few of their advanced strategies could definitely make up for the price of the course very quickly.
Yes I plan to divert some attention away from my current projects to focus more on PPC. But actually I plan on primarily using the Arbitrage Conspiracy methods to generate leads for my own business, rather than getting paid per lead by a CPA network. There’s also ways to do both at the same time (keep the lead for yourself AND get paid for it by CPA network), which they cover.
Hello! Sabrina, you gave the right questions.
In adition that PPC cost a lot, the course will cost a lot, the tools, domains will cost as well:
– I don’t like this lock of information, we don’t know his name, his face, from where he is comming from
– a comment here on eric’s tips which come to back him up, is “anonymous”, we are not anonymous, aren’t we?
Last night, he didn’t give enough details, without details it look like hype, Mark J. put very good questions and he didn’t convince me with his answer.
My experience with PPC is like yours, you depend on a lot of unknown parameters, and when you finally are an expert on PPC, Google changes the algorithm. 2006 was a good lesson for me, I stoped doing PPC in 2006, and I am dedicated now to the web 2.0 traffic, which is a lot of work but is free.
Michaela
I think I’ve made it very clear that I disagree with the same part as you… the pitch to newbies.
I’ve now heard that they are only selling 500 memberships. If that’s the case, there’s no reason to go after the newbies. There are thousands of qualified marketers who would buy it.
I agree that you should not go into debt to buy this course or any course for that matter. It could be a risk that pays off, but I’ve always recommended bootstrapping it in this business and build it using your profits.
I don’t think you need to forget about all aspects of your business to focus on their methods, unless you intend to quickly build to their level. There are definitely techniques in this course that could be applied to an existing business, or started at a lower level part time and scaled gradually.
True… those who aren’t able to pay the bills are probably not good candidates for success with it. But some newbie out there is the next Aymen waiting to happen, and that person or persons may very well be on my list. So I don’t want to quench all hope.
Right… you don’t need a website. You can use direct linking. There is definitely an important direct linking component in their systems. But that’s not how they make $100k a day.
I will say that they do use other PPC providers such as Yahoo, and it is a VERY important part of their business. That is all covered in the course.
Maybe he means three categories of tools, because there were definitely more than 3 tools covered.
Start with one of the well known ones that won’t reject you, like Commission Junction (CJ is sort of like a a hybrid CPA network/Aff program provider).
And as I’ve said… you can’t jump to $100k/day. You have to start with $1/day, $10/day, $100/day… it’s all about scaling it up.
Thanks. Yes there’s work involved.
That’s a good question. From what I know about PPC Classroom it’s good. But I can’t compare it to AC, because I haven’t fully reviewed PPCC. My buddy Anik wanted me to, but it was launched during a time that I just wasn’t able to find time to review it.
Thank you for your reply. Glad to hear you agree. People will always read these posts as long as they are unbiased.
I must also add I have been working full time in the PPC to CPA marketplace for quite a while now and each day gets harder (many reasons why). I have seen a fantastic ROI but its not a part time effort. Please people understand this will only work if you give it your 110%…Bon Voyage…
hi
Although your arbitrage business may be dying… the business model is not! It’s just changed. As PPC evolves, so will the most profitable way of doing it. Obviously you’re no longer on the bleeding edge of the profit model.
As long as PPC lives, arbitrage will be viable. If it weren’t possible to monetize PPC traffic, PPC would die.
Good to hear from you though Alec, even if your measure of value in my blog comes from the haters and not me 😉 You are welcome any time
Hi Eric,
I am extremely appreciative of your review here, very helpful. I will not be signing up for this. Keep up your good work and honesty.
-Jayme
It’s a tough call for someone like you Sabrina. The fact that you’ve had a “few” PPC successes definitely makes you a candidate, because if you can create a profitable PPC campaign, you can scale it into something much bigger using their methods. However this worries me:
“A low-level technical, time-pressed individual, with a poor track record for PPC”
If your technical aptitude were a little higher I’d say go for it. But as it is, I’d be worried about you synthesizing all those software, scripts, and research tools into your business.
I know for a fact that you possess the potential to make it work, but being “time pressed” AND lacking the skills are a bad combination. I think you would need to be able to devote considerable time to deepening your skills.
Like you said… “I’d better be certain to block of the time in my schedule to learn it and implement it FAST, before it loses it’s edge.”
I just don’t know if that’s realistic for you. If you can make it happen, go for it. If not, forget about it 🙂