The Arbitrage Conspiracy
This post is so MONEY, and it doesn’t even know it! 
All humor aside, I have been focusing on the wealth node of my life more and more frequently as of late. I have made improvements to the website, increased and made more efficient its monetization, and made myself more easily accessible via social media and Web 2.0(add me on Twitter!).
I have been working on some other web projects for family, and have also been studying my butt off reading and consuming every piece of material I can get my hands on to learn more and be better at internet marketing, SEO, affiliate marketing, and the like. Why you may ask? Because I am transitioning my involvement on the web from a glorified hobby to be a full-time passion in 2009. More about that to come.
For now, I want to talk about the Arbitrage Conspiracy. I came across this program by being on the email lists of some big name internet marketers. I saw emails come through my inbox from Mike Filsaime and Eben Pagan about a “no-name” guy who makes $50k-$100k PER DAY off of his PPC affiliate marketing activities online and who was now coming out with a course on how he does it. Needless to say, my curiosity was piqued. So I checked out the website and downloaded the free report being offered. The difference between this guy and the “gurus” is that instead of doing mostly Clickbank/digital product affiliate marketing, he uses PPC(Google Adwords, Yahoo, etc.) to direct traffic to CPA or “cost per action” offers. These are ad pages where sometimes the smallest piece of information needed to be entered by a prospect in order for the affiliate to get paid is a zip code. After reading this, I went from piqued curiosity to intrigued.
I got in a conference call where the CPA affiliate guru, Aymen, was being questioned by all the big name internet marketing gurus about his new course and how he does what he does. After listening in, I was very interested in the course. I had recently decided anyway that I want to increase my online knowledge and involvement as a marketer by starting out as an affiliate and go from there towards creating my own product at some point in the coming year. The offering of this program really got me excited because I realized it could be the difference in me coming out of the gates fast or dragging along forming bad habits and taking a lot longer if ever to figure out a successful model.
The course launched two days after the call and I signed up for it. At a hefty $1997 fee for a 12-week course, I realized this was a big investment of time and money to make. But given that I know I will give nothing less than 100% effort to learning and implementing what I will be taught, and that Aymen is offering a 100% + $500 money-back guarantee, I realized there are only three possible outcomes:
1. I totally suck at the affiliate marketing game. I bust my butt and don’t make my money back. At least I tried my best and I ask for my money back.
2. I make my money back if not a little extra. I’m not rolling in it but I’m pretty excited with my gains and I have learned a LOT of cool stuff. It was worth its cost.
3. I make a nice chunk of change in a very short time and become a budding star at the PPC to CPA game. I am very good it and the rewards of the course exceed the cost.
Upon realizing these three outcomes, I lost all fear of dropping the $2k. I really CAN’T LOSE and stand to learn a lot in return. I know a lot of people are very skeptical about paying this much for a program like this, but that’s also another thing that influenced me. I know from experience that when you take a high-end seminar you will probably get as much if not more value than you paid. The guys that are giving these things HAVE to make it as valuable as possible or they won’t be in business very long. Couple that with the fact that a lot of very successful marketers took a one day condensed version of Aymen’s course and walked out very impressed with what they had learned. I respect very much the opinion of guys like Eben Pagan, who’s free trainings online I have learned SO much from.
Also, being that I want to be in this inner circle of the top internet marketers some day, I realize that they are all seminar, book, and knowledge junkies themselves. By continually renewing, upgrading, and refining their knowledge and frame of reference on their models of success, they stay a step ahead of the game and this stuff just becomes easier. They are where I want to be, I recognize that, and I’m doing something about it.
The first week of 12 officially starts in January 2009, but the doors to the course site open tomorrow to get a head start on things. I’m looking forward to it and I will post regular updates on how things are going and my progress through the material.
If you are interested in getting a look at what the AC is all about and checking out the free report, then go here.
Clark
p.s. I have to give a shout out to Loozianajay. I must give an honorable mention to his website, The Partisan Report. Even though it didn’t make my 5 favorite Personal Development blogs (I felt politics was a little outside the realm of Personal Development), it is an EXCELLENT website. Jay is very knowledgeable and has very strong opinions about the state of conservative politics in our country. It’s in my Google reader and I recommend it for yours.
Update**Jan 2009** Jay has currently moved his writing efforts to The Western Experience.
Rich Jerk ebook
Rich Jerk’s guide to internet marketing is interesting to say the least. The guy is exactly what he says he is. Some of his techniques could be called questionable by many. But the point is, he lays it all out on the line and holds nothing back. He says he’s going to describe exactly what he does to make money online and that’s what he does, no holds barred. I’ve read other reviews saying that all of this information is available online for free, but I challenge that claim. It may be stunningly obvious to internet marketers that have been around and played the game for a while, but what about the green newbies like myself? This information is very useful and there is also a section geared towards beginners. The time I saved by buying the book was worth not having to look everywhere on the internet for answers and possibly not finding any. I’ve already followed many of the techniques and I am setting up to do even more with Rich Jerk’s system in the near future. Anybody who’s looking to have a career in internet marketing can definitely gain something from this. I wouldn’t describe it as a perfect beginner’s guide. It IS more geared to someone with a little bit more experience, but it also wasn’t beyond my understanding. I had no trouble grasping the concepts and seeing the potential of the various techniques. A book I also bought which is probably the perfect BEGINNER’s guide to internet marketing is Holly Mann’s Honest Riches. I also got a lot from Holly’s book and I will do a review on it in the near future. But I feel like Rich Jerk is a perfect companion to Honest Riches and the two are an awesome starter set for any aspiring internet marketing entrepreneur.
Clark
