First of all, let me say that we still use SEO Elite extensively and it is from Bryxen software, Brad’s company… We’ve also used Linkmetro a lot in the past, even though it has become a dirty word around us recently. So, while you read this thread, keep in mind that he does develop some useful software in my opinion.
This post has been brewing for both Jay and I for quite some time, for Jay longer than me by far. The catalyst was this: a mass mail he sent out to all existing clients the other day. It was basically written as if he was emailing a friend to let him know that Stompernet was opening its sign-ups again for a limited time, and he (the “friend”) should sign up without delay. Obviously the letter was sent to everyone on his mailing list, and I can’t help but wonder…do people who are actually making some sort of income online fall for this crap?
It’s not that there’s nothing of value in Stompernet; Jay said it was kind of bare when he started and he didn’t stick around because of this, but from what he’s heard the service is okay right now (though, it had better be amazing for $800 a month), and really Stompernet isn’t the problem. What really irks us is how Brad has gone from a respectable Internet marketer to someone who just pimps products for other people… badly. All the lame marketing techniques that you think “how would anyone ever fall for this?” seem to work very well for him, because one thing we CAN’T say is that he isn’t very successful.
These days when I think of Brad Callen, I have visions of a short guy with a spiky black hair going on about how all it takes is “millions and millions of tiny little classified ads in millions and millions of newspapers”. This latest “Oh noes! I sent a private email for my buddy ‘mike’ to my entire market mailing list, whatever shall I do (good thing I remembered to put my affiliate link in)” really took the cake and inspired us to take our discussions about what Brad has become into an actual post on our blog.
Unfortunately, the measuring stick in this industry is your paycheck, and while I’m sure ours comes up very short when compared to his, I just can’t believe some of the methods he uses are successful. I guess a sucker really is born every minute.
When someone is trying to sell you the latest money-making guide, keep this in mind: no one is going to give away a super-secret web technique that hasn’t been discussed or thought of by anyone else before (and in most cases is freely available with a bit of Google Fu).
When someone does come up with something new, they aren’t going to write about it and share their newfound ticket to wealth online with you. They are going to use it to make money. This isn’t just well formulated logic, this comes from personal experience. When we found a method to basically “game” the system and get newly registered domains to page one of MSN (and sometimes Google) in under a month for fairly high traffic terms, we didn’t try and sell people an e-book on how we did it. We made money while the money making was good and kept our lips sealed. Now that the money-train is over, it may be time for us to benevolently share our knowledge with the Internet masses (for a small fee). How altruistic we are!
There are very few e-books worth purchasing. You want to learn how to make money online, and you don’t need some stupid e-book to teach you how to do it. You just need determination, perseverance and Google / free SEO resources/forums.
Good Profits.
May 3rd, 2007 at 4:14 pm
I was a member of Stompernet and let me tell you, it is NOT WORTH $800 a month. If you are a beginner web marketer and you have lots of extra money, then maybe it’s for you, otherwise, forget it.
And Andy Jenkins acts unbelievably pompous and arrogant in the way he communicates to the ’students’.
The forum is one of the things they say is so great, but only other clueless students answer forum posts, so you really don’t get a lot of actual coaching. And they try to sell you stuff after you’ve joined, pimping ‘faculty members’ stuff.
Don’t believe the hype.
May 3rd, 2007 at 10:16 pm
This reminds me of all the Late night eBay infomercials that tell you that you “can make $5k a month, with only a few hours work!”. In reality, you end up paying drop shippers $30/mo to maybe to ship some cheap knock-off out, all while the negative feedback rolls in because your drop shipper took 3 weeks to put the item in the mail, and even then it was on a boat from China…
You are very right, there is a sucker born every minute, and I despise the people who claim to give away “million dollar secrets” for only “$29.99″.
May 4th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Well I don’t think anyone would give any million dollar secrets away mostly because I don’t think any secret like that truly exists… I like this post but I think the comparissons people are throwing out there are a bit out of line with Brad Callen.
He makes solid products of his own, though I think everyone has a different idea on the prices he charges, the problem is when your on his news letter you don’t get useful information, you just get the occasional product endorsement letter using every bulls*it marketing tactic in the book..
Sadly we really can’t say to many bad things about Brad because he has earned us alot of money in the past.. I’m sure its going on $30k by now.. However his guides and tactics have gone old and he hasn’t updated them to be applicable in the current marketplace.
I can’t say I blame him really but I think his status will likely only decline in the coming years as the people who were around when his ideas worked move on and the new people realise its all BS..
May 22nd, 2007 at 6:54 pm
[…] about this industry is how get-rich-quick it’s become. I talked about this briefly in the Brad Callen post, and everywhere you look these days some ‘guru’ or expert is selling some e-book […]