Don't waste your money on the World Internet Summit
I rarely go to internet marketing related conferences, but I happened to be in Melbourne when the World Internet Summit was on, so I thought I would attend. The four day event was five hundred dollars, which for me wasn't cheap. While I wouldn't go so far as calling it a scam, I think these kind of seminars can be a real waste of money for people wanting to learn about internet marketing and making money from the internet.
The World Internet Summit is run by Brett McFall and Tom Hua who are both pretty successful internet marketers. The website's homepage is your typical Internet Marketers' sales page, with lots of promises of learning the "secrets" and testimonials. Some of the people who have testimonials on the website attended the event. They are pretty much all well established internet marketers already and spent little time actually listening to the presenters. Most of the time they sat up at the back of the room working on their laptops.
"For 4 days you will witness a proven training system that teaches you the latest and most cutting edge secrets for creating and running a profitable business on the internet", reads their website. One thing I know to life and making money is that there is no "secret" to making money, losing weight etc. To be honest I learned very little from the four days of "training".
One of the speakers was Mike Filsaime who was probably one of the most well known internet marketers at the event. I thought he was one of the better speakers. All of the speakers followed a similar format - a story about their life, how they were in debt, sick or out of work. Their life then turned around after they discovered some particular aspect of making money on the internet.
The personal stories are obviously used to appeal to the audience, who mostly are looking for some kind of change in their life and increase in wealth. Then began a demonstration of how they make money on the internet and how they discovered "unlimited wealth" - pictures of Ferraris and beach resorts. I am sure you get the idea.
The presenters were good at building up a sense of excitement with their products. Everyone could relate to the story of either not having a job, being in debt or just wanting more money. You could see some people in the audience who just couldn't wait to sign up to the presenter's internet marketing program. All of the courses were around $2000 - $3000 and towards the end sales pitch they gave away some kind of special bonus to the first 10 or 20 people to sign up.
The next thing that happened was a complete surprise to me. People jumped up from their seats and ran to the back of the room where they could make their purchase. When this started happening other people also followed suit. It was like, "I really don't know if this program is good or will work, but it must be good if other people are running to get it".
I couldn't help wondering if they paid some people in the audience to be the first movers and create the ongoing rush! I heard that when they ran the show in Singapore that a guy bought every single internet marketing course using his credit cards. I think it would have at least cost him $30-$40,000!
The people that I spoke to were either all very new to internet marketing, or they were people with a lot of experience who were there to promote their own products. One lady I spoke to was still thinking about buying one particular course. I suggested she should just start reading the forum webmasterworld.com That's basically how I learned about domains, SEO and affiliates.
Another person I spoke to. told me how she was still doing a course she bought from last year's event! She complained that there was just too much work to do. I asked her if she had made any money yet, and she shook her head sadly and replied "no". She then piped up again and said how great the guru's new course looked! I couldn't believe that even though she hadn't made any money from doing the course, she still wanted to buy it again! Some people will never learn. I felt a bit sorry for her.
That speaker, who is a fairly well known internet marketer and great sales person, while he was on stage, he couldn't even remember his password to get into his own site which contained all of the teaching materials. I was a bit dumbfounded, but most people weren't bothered by it at all.
Every speaker had one or two snippets of useful knowledge, but they were basically all sales presentations. I had spent a few hundred dollars on the event, so it was disappointing having to pay to listen people who were just selling their products. While it was an interesting experience, I don't think I will ever bother attending again.
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Hi, this is Brett McFall, the co-founder of the event that the author is criticising above.
So obviously, I don't like to hear it. But everyone is entitled to their view, and have no issue with that.
What I do have an issue with (and something which I believe you the reader should be aware of) is that the author above is making an income from putting us down (using advertisements within the article) - hmmm... strange that he doesn't like the experts doing their thing and making an income, but doesn't mind doing it for his own gain.
And of course, he uses the tags too so that he gets traffic on the back of our World Internet Summit name, and even Tom and my names.
Again, all standard practice. But slightly hypocritical no?
Anyway, no-one forced him to stay for the whole event, so it mustn't have been too bad I guess. Wish he could have enjoyed it more of course.
Regardless, our events come with a money back guarantee, and less than a handful of people have ever wanted one - and we've taught over 10,000.
So while some are cynical and find it easier to criticise, most love what we teach and get incredible value from it.
And yes, we even have people who have made lots of money from what we teach too. They proof never lies.
Regardless, I wish you the best of internet success.
Warmly
Brett McFall
LOL Mike I can relate to this somewhat! I went to Brett McFall's free all day seminar a few months ago in Perth (he runs them in all the Australian capitals) - it sounds exactly like you described except he basically did the seminar around his book. His book is a "7 step method" of find a niche/create a prodcut/write excellent salescopy/get traffic/build a list/develop an affiliate network. Its not a bad system and I have no reason to doubt that it makes him and many others a lot of money.
I like you was really bermused to see the crowd reaction. The venue was booked out - it was backed with a mainly 40-60 year old crowd - who in foyer were discussing their property investements and share market ventures - I suspect this is the list he was selling to - I saw the ad in the paper but many were there from a property flipper guru's list.
I hazard a guess that most of these people would consider setting up a wordpress blog as "difficult" - he had them entranced by the idea that they could subscribe to his site-builder software which did it all for them *sigh*.
The content part of the talk - which mirrored the book (which I subsequently bought) - went from 9-1 - not bad for free I thought. Then we went into the sales pitch - I think the initial price point was $4k - but only for the first 50? then of course the upsell/downsale went from there.
I was fascinated as I have only ever seen this done on websites - now I saw the crowd in action - just like you- and the closest I've seen is a evangagelic type youth camp I went to (a very long time ago) where we had the chance to commit to Christ - I was one of maybe 10% of the audience who didn't - it was very,very hard to sit there and be in the minority.
I'd say the Perth audience about 50% of them committed with their credit card. The power of crowds and the feeling of urgency and that this was their last chance to be in on something special was really, really amazing
Brett is an excellent copywriter and speaker and he used the techniques he's promoting to work the crowd I was in very, very well. I learned a lot about the psychology of desparate people and how to make money from them - I'm just not sure that I like that as a business model!
I think I have mentioned it before, but when it comes to internet marketing gurus then I prefer the following approach: Learn how they do it and don't buy what they tell you to buy. Only by observing how successful internet marketers run their campaigns one can learn a lot ;-)
One additional question, as I wasn't at the event described: Did people had to pay $500 to be able to pay / buy more products or did they actually got something in return for their initial investment of $500??? SY
The 4 day course was actually $1000 Aussie dollars. If you brought a friend they got in for free. I managed to find someone who wanted to go and we split the cost.
It was held at an expensive hotel and they did provide nice food and drinks throughout the event which was nice. The support staff were all volunteers.
I can't see how I am being hypocritical of writing a review of the event, by running Google ads on the article. A problem of finding real reviews of internet marketing products is that most of the people writing the review get paid for the people they refer, through affiliate links.
No-one forced me to stay, I agree, but I did miss the last day. The biggest issue I had with the summit that it is basically advertised as "training" but the presentations are basically just teasers to get you to sign up to their courses, all of which are several thousand dollars.
If you have some kind of internet marketing product to sell the event could be worth attending as there are lots of newbies attending. Doing a joint venture with anyone of the speakers at these events, could make you hundreds of thousands of dollars.
If you have your own product and you are a great speaker, it is also worth attending to see how you can also copy the tactics these guys use.
If you know nothing about the internet or internet marketing, are easily influenced by late night infomercials, stay away or at least leave your credit card at home.
Mike,
David Cavanagh here - you might have heard about me before, then again you may not have, I'm not sure!
I read your article... read it again... then I thought to myself "you know what, Mike's got some valid points".... then I re-read it and thought "but isn't he being hypocritical saying all this, getting click-thru's through Google and all of the personal gain he's trying to gather from association to the WIS?"
Mike, I've spoken at most of the major internet summits and conferences around the World. I've worked alongside Brett and Tom at the World Internet Summit from 2004 to 2007 and watched them build their seminar into a huge success.
You're right in saying that some of the attendees will buy without thinking... yes... but does Brett and Tom twist their arms and make them commit to an investment on the day?
Is it manipulative of McDonalds to put mouth watering tv ads on just when you're about to sit at the dinner table? Or shall we call this "very intelligent and persuasive marketing"?
We're all entitled to our opinions... we've all got one... probably several... but to stay for the whole event, suck up the information like you did, then come in here slagging off the event just for your own personal gain... it's "interesting" I shall say :)
Mike, I run 10 day live events in Thailand... I do this 5 times a year... my students make money... should I say, "the ones who implement what they learn"... what are you implementing right now that's getting you closer to your dream?
After all, you attended the World Internet Summit for some reason did you not?
Yours In Success & Nothing Less,
David Cavanagh
What a WEAK ARGUMENT!
Brett & David, you guys just sound like scammers, dissing this review because it has 'paid' ads within it. Seriously, that is your best angle? Can't you come up with something better?
Anyone who has been in the world of IM for a while can see what you guys are doing. Sucking in Noobies and charging them $1000 for advice they can find out for themselves. I'm self taught and make a living of IM fulltime. Never needed a Guru Course.
It's saddening that you are making a living from other peoples ignorance. The crowd reactions to RUN RUN RUN to get your course speak more of the effort you put into controlling people and creating scarcity then anything else.
I only found this page because someone i've never heard from before spam emailed me about your conference. A guy i knew told me he went to the wealth seminar with Richard Branson (talk abou piggybacking, you should look at your recent promotion where you piggyback of bransons name), and how completely disappointed he was to find out what you were selling for $$$ was nothing but crap software.
People, people like this need you to be ignorant and unaware. Do yourself a favour and research things before buying. You're not missing out by not buying these people's products, believe me.
I just attended Brett Mc Falls summit at the ShangriLa in Sydney. I went there with an open mind looking for that magic piece of the puzzle that will pull it all together.
I have invested in countless affiliate programs that im sure many of us have done & burned a lot of money
I dont confess to be an expert in affiliate marketing but i know there are people making serious money online.
I love the idea of having a system that will automate most of the manual work that needs to be done bearing in mind that its impossible to make money overnight without putting in a huge effort & even then it takes many weeks before you see results.
I thought the software was great how it can pull all those tasks together in one very easy to use system however there were some glaring anomolies.
1. In the clickbank example Brett selected a product with a 75% commission but a gravity of only 2, anyone who kows anything about clickbank will not select a product with a gravity under 5, it simply means there is not enough demand for that product.
2. In the amazon.com example he mentioned that they pay a commission of arond 16% from memory, no they dont!! amozon pay a commission of 4% but if you have a more than a certain no of ads with them or a sitestripe they will pay 6%
3. The secret im going to share with you that noone else knows about ie expired domains, this is no secret & many affiliate marketers have been usuing this for a long time. Yes expired domains are good even great especially for backlinks.
Be Warned! they will not generate anything like the kind of serious traffic you need to generate real income
The 4/5 examples shown were generating approx 15, 20 or 30 visits per day, as we all know traffic is the key!! You need hundreds or thousands of visitors every day, without enough traffic you will be lucky to make $50 per month
You can have a great product with low traffic & sell nothing, (poor conversion rate) conversly but you can have a crap product & have huge traffic & someone will buy
After the individual examples of visits from expired domains the slide gives an exmple of approx 179,000 visits & $25,000 income approx, im going from memory here & the figures might be a bit out
It does not say if this is from 1 site or the 100 or so sites that Brett does not know the exact no he has.
Now here is the big hitter, if you or I owned this software why would you not employ a team of people to duplicate that process across thousands of sites?
Why book a five star hotel & sell to a few when you could make a hundred times more by doing it yourself?
Yea you guessed it, im doing this because I really care & I want to help you acheive the huge success I had
Finally at the end of the presentation where he showed the software that automates everything, why not show the income that site with the expired domain generated? After all they been working on it for months
Please dont give that privacy stuff, you could easily block out the items & only show the $$ generated & domain name used.
We all know that different niches & different products generate vastly different results & even if the results not great for this example, why not show it? It would give the audience an idea that they can actually make money & would have everyone in the room rushing for their credit cards
I would love to see comments here from anyone who has had success or otherwise especially success.
I will invest any amount of money in something if someone can show me that it actually works, who wouldnt?
I have attended numerous "evangelical" style marketing events, and some of the audience traits and reactions described above are typical across all of them. This would be evident particularly to anyone who has even a cursory knowledge of social psychology ... the power or crowds, etc.
The basic question that you should always ask yourself is: if this person/organisation has found/developed such a good way to make money, why do they need or want to tell others about it. Surely the more people that know about it, the more common and therefore the less valuable the idea becomes. Unless ... they need you (and other schmucks like you) to assist them in making money, typically at your expense. Or worse, they actually just make money by preying on the desperate hopes of people like you.
A couple of examples that come to mind were seminars arranged by the Accor Premier Vacation Club, and a similar one by TrendWest. Some inducement was offered to get me there, and the slick sales pitch was accompanied by feelgood stories and images designed to lower resistance and make you drool. Indeed, this is powerful, successful marketing at its best. Then there are the techniques of whipping the crowd into a frenzy, almost hysteria. Hitler was particularly good at this :) The problem is that the product or service being marketed rarely if ever provides what it claims to. The crunch comes when you start asking questions and wanting more detail .. how is such and such regulated, what if x or y. They usually bring out the big guns, the uber-salesmen who are smooth as a baby's bottom and slippery as a bagful of eels. Trouble is, even these guys are wanting you to play to a script, and most importantly they don't want your skepticism and questions to "infect" the others in the audience. At that point they quickly shuffle you out of the event and usher you to a side exit into a back alley. I've considered myself very fortunate to find that exit with my wallet no lighter. Caveat emptor ... buyer beware. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Ask yourself what their motivations are. Nobody who knows how to make money genuinely wants to help others learn the same secrets. It would take away their competitive advantage. Anyone who claims otherwise is simply trying to make money out of your optimism, hope, and ignorance. Any sign of some of the tactics listed above is a surefire confirmation of this.
Wow.
This is a serious concern. I agree that the response by Brett was a smokescreen. Attack the messenger - and add spin. Brett should honestly address the issues - and the fact that so many people share in a delusion (making money in your sleep) is not evidence of the truth or value of the system. Read "The Madness of Crowds)
I completely agree that it is all about psychology of desperate and using sense of exitement.I recently attended the summit in London and was intrigued by the crowd and bought and paid first installment.But always had some doubt in my mind why would they share this secret if it is already very lucrative.Thanks for warning and hoping to be refunded my first installment which is 777pounds(package costs 2,777pounds)
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