So, the results are in, and as I predicted (though I think Jay had a sneaking suspicion that this would happen): Jamie beat out Charles Trippy. Viral Video Fever made $39,000 in the first week, while Jamie’s book made $79,000. Technically, that means that I was right in my predictions… but let’s cut through the crap and look at the real results.
In seven days, Jamie and Charles earned Joel and Co. over six figures. I’m sure there were a lot of expenses involved in this, but if the books were laid open, I’m sure Joel made more net profit than the commissions they paid / will pay out. This doesn’t even take into account their “Secret Classroom” package that will be released in just under a week.
There is very little information, but the Secret Classroom is probably just another one of those high-priced online video tutorial products that rehashes all the same information that’s been floating around the net for a while. The ‘Gurus’ will get richer (I guarantee every one of the teachers will be getting a cut of the profits), while poor shmucks who just want to make a living online will get sucked in by unrealistic promises.
I am still willing to bet that, with the amount of exposure NIM provided, the 10k seed money and an all-star backup team, any one with half a brain could make just about anything a successful product. Think: “Hobo Dan’s ‘Begging for Dollars’ e-book - Earn up to 500,000 a year, making your own hours! Be your own boss!” or “Jojo the Blogging Circus Monkey - Nonsense Words = Adsense Profits!” or maybe even “Bag-O-Poo.com - $49.99 for your own bag of fresh poo”.
Just listen to the pitch at the end of the last episode, where Joel tells the viewers that this is the exact information that Jamie and Charles used to make their first products wildly successful… notice how he fails to mention the $10,000 seed money each of them received, and the arguably more valuable support services from Joel’s company which is made up of veteran Internet Marketers.
Don’t get me wrong, there is money to be earned online… a lot of it, but an expensive training package isn’t going to teach you anything you won’t learn from a less expensive product like SEO book, which is really just a collection of the knowledge from industry publications and forums. If you’re really resourceful, you can probably learn all you need to know without spending a dime… and resourcefulness will serve you 10 times better than an over-priced training package.
Good Profits.
