Update Mass Money Makers Is NOW Closed.

Mass Money Makers Is CLOSED. It appears to have closed sometime between 2/14/2011 and 2/28/2011. The last cached sales page for it in bing is dated 2/28/2011.

I have left the previous review of the sales tactics and launch process Mass Money Makers used.

I’ve developed this Mass Money Makers review of sales tactics because I find the sales process very interesting. I know there will be many people who don’t agree with doing a Mass Money Makers review that only focuses on sales tactics, but I noticed in some discussions there was quite a bit of controversy over some of the tactics used by Mass Money Makers so I thought it was worth exploring.

Also, since the launch of Mass Money Makers seems to have broken the ClickBank Gravity record (and maybe some others) it seems reasonable to take a look at how all that was accomplished.

Some people are calling the claims in the sales copy outright lies, while others in certain forum conversations such as Doiron refer to some of the statements as “inaccuracies in the sales copy” and Willie Crawford states, “Matt does market more aggressively than I do and as a result he makes more sales than I do. I respect him as a person, and his marketing prowess”

So in addition too peeking more deeply into how far the line might go when it comes to “aggressive marketing tactics”, another good reason to do this Mass Money Makers review of the sales tactics as well as some of the sales process is because the product has seems to have an incredible amount of people promoting it.  So it’s also interesting to review from a product launch perspective.

I. Mass Money Makers Review Of Main (Non-Affiliate) Page

The first section (section I) covers some of the product launch aspects of Mass Money Makers.

Mass Money Makers’ Tactic For Increasing ClickBank Gravity

While I don’t know the exact formula for ClickBank Gravity – a significant part of it has to do with how many unique affiliates have sold at least one copy of the product within the past 60 days (although the actual number is weighted based on how recent the sales were according to ClickBank’s own words:

“For each affiliate paid in the last 8 weeks we add an amount between 0.1 and 1.0 to the total. The more recent the last referral, the higher the value added. ”

Keep in mind, that some affiliates (i.e., ones with HUGE mailing lists or doing aggressive paid advertising) will sell SIGNIFICANTLY more than one copy of the product. It’s not unheard of for an affiliate skilled in paid advertising (such as PPC/PPV) to sell 50-100 copies of a product per day…or more.

The below chart shows the history of Mass Money Maker’s ClickBank Gravity. The high to date was 1,975.45 as of 1/13/2011.

If you arrive at the Mass Money Makers site without an affiliate referral, you are greeted with a page encouraging you to become an affiliate of Mass Money Makers. It’s an interesting idea because it should help to increase the ClickBank gravity which is something many affiliates look at (whether right or wrong) when considering whether or not to promote a product. Thus this particular tactic can actual create a snowball effect when it comes to getting more and more affiliates to promote a product.

The other interesting piece of that tactic is that it facilitates affiliates purchasing the product through their own affiliate link which as you can see would also increase the ClickBank gravity.

One other thing I thought about was the fact that the last claim in the ClickBank vendor listing history states that it’s been “Proven to convert by over 7,551 affiliates” as you can see in the diagram below.

However, as you may have noticed in Diagram 1. the highest gravity that Mass Money Makers achieved from 12/17/2010 through 1/31/2011 was 1,975.45. Diagram 2 above is a history of “Proven to convert by over” (number affiliates) which shows that as of 1/8/2011 Mass Money Makers claimed that it had been proven to convert by over 7,551 affiliates.

So it would seem that based on the ClickBank gravity formula that if 7,551 affiliates made at least one sale between 12/28/2011 (the actual launch date of Mass Money Makers) and 1/8/2011 that the highest historical ClickBank Gravity number for Mass Money Makers would have been well over 1,975.45.  However, since nobody except ClickBank knows the exact manner in which ClickBank Gravity is calculated, it’s not possible to prove that potential inconsistency.

Mass Money Makers And “Exclusivity”

The controversy surrounding the Mass Money Makers sales tactics starts right on the first (non-affiiate page) which claims:

“We have to make MassMoneyMakers.com exclusive and by invite only. This will ensure that this breakthrough money making method continues to work.”

However, as you can see in Diagram 3. above, Mass Money Makers doesn’t seem to be exclusive at all, based on the following factors (numbers correspond to the numbers in the above diagram):

1. It quickly became the 1,023 most visited website overall according to Alexa.
2. It quickly became the 350th most visited website in the United States according to Alexa.
3. Mass Money Makers claims that 7,551 affiliate have proven that it converts (as noted previously, the 7,551 is questionable).
4. According to Mass Money Maker’s itself 2,734,631 unique visitors had visited the site as of the date of the above diagram (2/6/2011 or before). It’s hard to tell how accurate that number might be at this time, but should become clearer over time as Compete.com – one of the more accurate sites when it comes to calculating unique vistors – updates over the next couple of months.
5. It has one of the highest ClickBank Gravity ratings of all time.

Mass Money Makers “In The News”

Mass Money Makers claims that, “Yahoo News got word of what we’re up to online…”. And also shows a diagram of the site “Red Orbit” and states that, “Another news publication reporting on this powerful money making method”. However, you’ll also notice that those so-called “news stories” show that they are from PRWeb – an extremely popular Press Release distribution service.

Now what you may or may not know is that PRWeb distributes Press Releases that the companies do themselves to Yahoo News, Google News, and sites like Red Orbit. And when this happens, the news source isn’t necessarily “reporting on” anything…it’s distributing a Press Release that the company itself submitted. You can see how that works by looking at the information from PRWeb itself which I’ve placed below:

In fact, it’s highly likely that this is exactly what is going on with these so-called “news stories” about Mass Money Makers since you can see that they are stories that were distributed by PRWeb.

Mass Money Makers Gives The Following Reasons For An Affiliate To Promote Mass Money Makers

1. Reason Number 1 to Promote Mass Money Makers: Money. Mass Money Makers states that affiliates can earn up to $314 per sale – and $27,000 in prize money for top performing affiliates.
2. Reason Number 2 to Promote Mass Money Makers: Power. Mass Money Maker states, “It can be intoxicating…power. It’s what we all want, isn’t it? Well along with money and respect, and that’s why this launch will show once and for all who has power in our market.”

Mass Money Makers List Of Affiliates Promoting Their Product

Mass Money Makers’ JV area shows a huge list of internet marketers they claim are promoting their product. There’s no doubt that many affiliates put together their own huge Mass Money Makers bonus to try to claim one of the prizes mentioned earlier.

There was some discussion within the Warrior Forum about whether all of the affiliates on the list actually agreed to promote the product. But that would be pretty tough to determine without contacting every person on the list individually, although towards the end of the review I have provided a list of people I’ve verified/confirmed to have promoted Mass Money Makers.

It’s not clear to me why people want to know this, but since there seems to be a demand for the list I’ve started constructing it.

However, one thing that was interesting as I was researching information for this write-up about why people might be interested in this information was a section of the FTC’s “Advertising FAQ’s: A Guide for Small Business” which states:

“Advertising Agencies
Are advertising agencies subject to the FTC Act?

Yes. In addition to the advertiser, the advertising agency also may be held legally responsible for misleading claims in ads. Advertising agencies have a duty to make an independent check on the information used to substantiate ad claims. They may not rely on an advertiser’s assurance that the claims are substantiated. In determining whether an ad agency should be held liable, the FTC looks at:

• The extent of the agency’s participation in the preparation of the challenged ad; and
• Whether the agency knew or should have known that the ad included false or deceptive claims.”

This is interesting to me, because after spending weeks on the phone with the FTC helping them with the In Deep Services case I spent time (at their request) talking to them about affiliate marketing. One thing I mentioned to them was that I thought they should try to focus more on the advertising networks if possible since the advertising networks are a major facilitator of distribution of products and services within affiliate marketing.

However, at the time I really had the feeling that they had no interest in that (or didn’t believe there was a way they could make a good case in such situations). So I was surprised to see that this statement of advertising accountability for advertising agencies was included in their “Advertising FAQ’s: A Guide for Small Business”.

It also called to mind a post that commercial litigation attorney Michael Webster did back in November of 2009 called MoneyGram Scam and Gatekeeper Liability in which he noted:

“This is an important change in emphasis by the FTC. In seeking to stop those who enable fraud from profiting, the FTC has signaled its willingness to go beyond simply getting unenforceable default judgments against con criminals who have skipped on to the next con project.”

This new FTC emphasis means that traditional affiliate networks as well as Joint Venture Brokers may grow to be under increasing scrutiny by the FTC.

In fact, within the FTC’s  Advertising and Marketing on the Internet: Rules of the Road the FTC specifically states the following:

“Sellers are responsible for claims they make about their products and services. Third parties – such as advertising agencies or website designers and catalog marketers – also may be liable for making or disseminating deceptive representations if they participate in the preparation or distribution of the advertising, or know about the deceptive claims.

• Advertising agencies or website designers are responsible for reviewing the information used to substantiate ad claims. They may not simply rely on an advertiser’s assurance that the claims are substantiated. In determining whether an ad agency should be held liable, the FTC looks at the extent of the agency’s participation in the preparation of the challenged ad, and whether the agency knew or should have known that the ad included false or deceptive claims.
• To protect themselves, catalog marketers should ask for material to back up claims rather than repeat what the manufacturer says about the product. If the manufacturer doesn’t come forward with proof or turns over proof that looks questionable, the catalog marketer should see a yellow “caution light” and proceed appropriately, especially when it comes to extravagant performance claims, health or weight loss promises, or earnings guarantees. In writing ad copy, catalogers should stick to claims that can be supported. Most important, catalog marketers should trust their instincts when a product sounds too good to be true.”

So what about affiliate marketers? It seems reasonable that OFTEN affiliate marketers could be construed as “Advertising Agencies” and/or “Website designer”.

II. Mass Money Makers Review Of Sales Page 1

The video is the most obvious element of the first part of the Mass Money Makers sales process.  However, what stood out for me more was the statement, “Next 183 Downloads Available”.

It’s extremely unclear as to what that even means. Some have claimed it doesn’t mean that ONLY the next 183 Downloads will be available. But if that statement isn’t intended to imply there, then why have it at all?

III. Mass Money Makers Review Of Sales Page 2

One of the most hotly debated and controversial elements of the Mass Money Maker’s sales process is it’s claim about how many copies of a certain piece of software it will be making available.  As of today, the sales page claims:

“Thousands of people will see this page, but only the next 200 individuals will get access to this software. After we reach the next 200 downloads, we’ll be forced to pull the software off the market.”

However, as you can see in the video below, the sales page has been making this same claim since at least January 16th, so considering how many visitors the site has recieved, it seems highly likely that SIGNIFICANTLY more than 200 copies of the software have been made available:

You can see in the following video of part of a Warrior Forum conversation how controversial this “Only 200 Copies Left” claim has been:

Note that the date of the post that on 12/28/2010 someone quotes this from the Mass Money Makers sales page:

“We’re only making a total of 200 copies available – they will be gone in a matter of minutes – not days – not months.”

So now we have the “200 Copies Available” going all the way back to the date that Mass Money Makers launched (12/28/2010) and continuing on through today.

Mass Money Makers Review Of “200 Copies Available” Claim Versus “20,000 Front-End Unit Sales In 7 Days Goal”

There seems to be a fairly large discrepency between the only “200 Copies Available” claim made about software mentioned in the Mass Money Makers sales letter, the goal of 20,000 Front-End Unit Sales within 7 days of launch…and of course, the fact that the sales letter for Mass Money Makers still claims that only 200 copies of the software mentioned since day 1 of the launch will ever be available:

Mass Money Makers review of “13 Clicks (Press 1 Button)” Controversy

One of the controversies about Mass Money Makers has to do with headlines…

Netafile at Warrior Forum stated:

“So I think anyone watching this would be left with the impression that the results were created overnight using “13 clicks,” which of course is B.S. He did say “using the techniques you’re about to learn,” so maybe he did use this method to create the income. Maybe. I think this is certainly misleading. And personally, I don’t think misleading is “good marketing.”

But “Gary_The_Ace” stated:

“I don’t recall Matt saying that the software was “turned on” and them boom… instant money. I clearly recall Matt saying that his strategy, and the technology were used to take this new ClickBank account from nothing, to a lot of money per day.”

Gary then seems to go on to suggest that the advertising in Mass Money Makers is no different than McDonald’s advertising in which doesn’t use “a disclaimer saying that the food on screen is made of plastic, has been worked on by a food artist, and is not likely to look anything like what you’re ever going to get when you place an order…”.

I’ll explain why that particular statement is likely irrelevant in a subsequent section called “Mass Money Makers’ Advertising Is NOT McDonald’s Advertising”.

But for now, let’s see if the sales copy of Mass Money Makers does or does not suggest the software can be “turned on” and then boom…instant money.

So let’s take a look at the BIG PROMISE the Mass Money Makers sales letter actually uses in the video below…

Of note is text from an FTC presentation back in February of 2009 in which Professor Robert Hillman of Cornell Law School; and Jens Grossklags, a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Information at the University of California at Berkeley (at the time) cited research which indicated that:

A “characteristic of people online involves what Professor Hillman and Mr. Grossklags described as “click happy” or exuberant Internet use. Specifically, users click through webpages quickly, without paying much attention because they want to complete a given transaction. Professor Hillman cited research finding that online shoppers “enter a seamless sequence of responses, a flow state in which their sense of time and reality become distorted and their self-control is diminished.”

And of course if you combine that “state of flow” and “click happiness” with any sort of time-based scarcity device (such as “200 copies” left) then it would seem that the consumer would be even LESS likely to carefully read the sales message and instead rely on the BIG CLUES the sales letter gives such states as:

“Let’s Start Talking About How You Can Start Making Money In Just 13 Clicks.”

or the closing line…

“Know this: The ONLY thing easier would be if you had someone else watch the 4 videos, clicked the mouse 13 times, and pushed 1 button to activate it.”

Mass Money Makers’ Advertising Is NOT McDonald’s Advertising

You’ll recall that earlier in this write up I mentioned that Gary_The_Ace at Warrior Forum seemed to suggest that the advertising in Mass Money Makers is no different than McDonald’s advertising in which doesn’t use “a disclaimer saying that the food on screen is made of plastic, has been worked on by a food artist, and is not likely to look anything like what you’re ever going to get when you place an order…”.

However, if he were to read the FTC’s Policy Statement On Deception he would know immediately that this statement isn’t necessarily true.

Note the following from the FTC Policy Statement:

“Finally, as a matter of policy, when consumers can easily evaluate the product or service, it is inexpensive, and it is frequently purchased, the Commission will examine the practice closely before issuing a complaint based on deception. There is little incentive for sellers to misrepresent (either by an explicit false statement or a deliberate false implied statement) in these circumstances since they normally would seek to encourage repeat purchases. Where, as here, market incentives place strong constraints on the likelihood of deception, the Commission will examine a practice closely before proceeding.”

So is the sales of  inexpensive McDonald’s products designed to attract repeat purchases the equivalent of the Mass Money Maker’s launch of a $37 product with upsells/one-time offers that according to the Mass Money Makers JV page totals out to be up to $628 per sale.

It’s seems to me that it would be quite difficult to claim that those two are equivalent.

Mass Money Makers review of One-Time $47 Discount For The Next 50 People

Towards the end of the Mass Money Makers sales letter, the following statement is made:

“So if you’re one of the next 50 to get access to this powerful technology – you can grab it for just $47.”

I’m not sure how long this “One-Time” discount has been going on for, but it’s definitely been going on since 2/7/2011 as you can see in the video below:

Believe or not, this review of the Mass Money Makers sales process has only just started. There will be MUCH more coming over the next week.

I’ll be tracking how long this particular claim continues.

I’m also curious about (although I don’t know) whether or not this type of limited offer is possibly what the FTC had in the following section from §233.5 Miscellaneous price comparisons – within the FTC Guides Against Deceptive Pricing, which states:

“They should not offer an advance sale under circumstances where they do not in good faith expect to increase the price at a later date, or make a “limited’” offer which, in fact, is not limited. In all of these situations, as well as in others too numerous to mention, advertisers should make certain that the bargain offer is genuine and truthful. Doing so will serve their own interest as well as that of the public.”

The other question I have about pricing is the valuation the software. The Mass Money Makers sales page states, “The software itself alone is worth $197.” So I initially assumed that the software must have been sold at some point for $197.

However, the sales page states at one point states:

“Now, tell me:

Who ELSE Has Generated Over
$2,427,441.31
All From 100% FREE Traffic?

No one. Why? Because no one else has access to this secret software (other than Alen and me).”

So it’s not clear to me how they determined that the software alone was worth $197.  It’s also not clear to me whether it would fall under the category of Former price comparisons guidelines at the FTC.

I suppose this is the same point The Salty Droid was getting at in his February 9, 2011 post in which he alleges that Matt contrived the value of his newsletter.

Affiliates Promoting Mass Money Makers

Fore some reason, there seemed to be a lot of intrigue and controversy over which affiliates promoted Mass Money Makers. I’m not sure why that is, but since there seems to have been so much fascination about this, I decided to go ahead and put a list of ones that I’ve confirmed/verified that promoted Mass Money Makers here.

IMPORTANT: Just because they promoted the product, does NOT necessarily mean they agreed with the way the product was advertised.

Affiliates That Sent Emails Out Promoting Mass Money Makers

I maintain email accounts exclusively to collect promotions, so the following are the names (or pseudonyms) of people who sent emails promoting Mass Money Makers to at least one of those email accounts:

Anik Singal	BIG John	Bill McRea	Brett Ingram	David Lockley
Jack Henderson	Jason Parker	Jeff Dedrick	John Carter	Justin Michie
Reed Floren	Ritoban C	John Delavera	Mark Patricks	Marty Rozmanith
Dan Briffa	Alex Gates	Alex Sysoef	Steven Johnson	Charles Kirkland
Mike B.	Soren Jordansen	Steven Johnson	Chris Cobb	Soren Jordansen
Cindy Battye	Philip Mansour	Steven Lee Jones	Sean Donahoe	placeholder

Alen Sultanic, one of the marketers behind Mass Money Makers has a new product called Click Copy Cash.

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