My Thoughts on Arbitrage Conspiracy Launch, Details On New Membership Site
December 13, 2008 by fladlien
Filed under Uncategorized
Did you guys follow the launch for arbitrage conspiracy?
I did. Strategically speaking, I think it was horrible, from start to finish. Not even taking into account the fact they missed their launch deadline, left all their JV partners out to dry, and then didn’t even address the issue publicly.
But let’s start from the beginning. We have an “unknown” cranking up to 100K everyday (of which I have no doubt is completely true). And now he wants to share his strategies with you.
So what launch strategy was used? One I call “Massive Proof”. In general, this is an excellent product launch strategy. You start by showing how your stuff works. Then you show how other people got great results with it. Then, you show how those who have seen your system have been blown away. You get a million comments on your blog showing proof that people are interested, and you use that to launch you product.
But in this particular instance, I think it was a bad decision. When you have someone who is pulling around 35 million a year, you don’t need massive proof. In fact, it works to your disadvantage. Why? Because it appears you’re trying too hard to prove yourself. You shouldn’t have to prove yourself at all.
Instead, you should you my technique called “I’ll guess I’ll take your money”. First, you make the launch low key. The main reason for this is because it instantly is different than how the standard product launches are done. People take notice — “wow, he’s not following the same pattern… I wonder why?” And so you’ve switched the dynamics of the relationship from the start.
Then, you plan into it. You explain that you’re not going to do a standard launch, and actually make fun of the standard launch.. this further differentiates you from the pack, and really gets you some attention, and causes of a lot of discussion in the internet marketing community.
This allows you to take the position of saying: “look, I don’t need a fancy launch. My stuff works. In fact, I’m really only interested in working with people who get it – I don’t want to have to try to convince you. I don’t have to, because I make way more money doing this than teaching it anyway. So this is only for people who are serious…”
Now everybody is watching your every move. What will you say next? You’re unpredictable, because you’re not following the standard cookie cutter launch sequence.
Then, you have to address the biggest issue – reason why. In this case, it’s such a crazy story, you need multiple reasons why you’re doing the launch. The main reason given in this case was that he wanted to create a massive network of CPA affiliates, to strengthen his own power in the CPA industry.
Superficially, that’s not a bad reason. But I think instead he should’ve taken the following reasons why.
Reason #1: “Entrepreneurial Boredom”. When you get good at something, it starts to get boring. And now I’m at a point where money is secondary to stuff that excites me and my passions. So I want to get more into teaching, and see if I can rise to the top with that skill.
Reason #2: I’m tired of being unknown. I’ve made my money behind the scenes. It’s lonely. I really want to be a part of a community, and find more people who’s values reflect mine, and make more friends.
Reason #3: I want to retire soon and I have a certain dollar figure I want to get in the bank before I retire. This will be a good revenue stream for me to help accomplish that, and wont’ take a lot of work on my part to get it.
Naturally, you have to expand on these reasons, and that should’ve been the main focal point of the launch… the proof should’ve been secondary, and in my opinion scaled down. Use a technique I call “journey momentum”. You start with a smaller, yet extremely desirable number. Then you show a bigger number. And a bigger number. That way when you present the 100k a day, it now looks believable. It’s akin to first asking someone on a date, courting them for a while and then asking for their hand in marriage, instead of walking up to a stranger and proposing.
Of course, it’s easy for me to “arm chair quarterback” this. Having participated in over 15 launches in the past year, I know that when you’re “in the shit” sometimes it’s better just to move forward half-assed than try to make it perfect.
And no doubt this was a very successful launch, from a financial point of view. Way bigger than any I’ve done, that’s for sure.
Anyway, I have a ton more insights into internet marketing just like this. A lot of them don’t fit into any “sexy product” but are extremely valuable. In fact, I’ve shot over 17 videos, or what I call “min-seminars” and my friend and business partner Robert Plank has done the same. We’ve put those in a membership area, and we’re going to launch our membership site on Monday, the 15th.
I think it’s got way more value than any other internet marketing membership site on the net. And in order to get you involved with it, I am going to offer two of the products I’ve recently just finished as bonuses if you say yes to the membership site on Monday.
They are “poor man’s product launch” — all the strategies I’ve used in the past year to orchestrate over 15 successful product launches (some outside the internet marketing niche). And the second is “Objection Manipulation”. I have proven a theory recently with certain product launches I’ve orchestrated behind the scenes and it’s this – a prospect can really only carry 3 to 5 objections in their mind at once. So what you do is subtly plant the seeds so that you control what those 3 to 5 objections are… and they are the exact ones yo have the perfect answers to. Then, when you go about answering them, the prospect naturally concludes that your solution is the ideal and only one for giving them relief.
I’m going to sell each of these products on their own, but their yours for free when you happily involve yourself in me and Robert’s membership site.
I’ll have more details for you tomorrow.
For now post your comments, and thoughts about arbitrage conspiracy launch. And also if you have any questions about the membership site, post that as well in this thread.
Thanks,
Jason
Hello,Terrific blog post dude! i am Fed up with using RSS feeds and do you use twitter?so i can follow you there:D.
PS:Do you thought putting video to this web site to keep the visitors more entertained?I think it works.Kind regards, Mason Harmsen
hey,this is Earle Liukkonen,just identified your Blog on google and i must say this blog is great.may I quote some of the writing found in the web site to my local friends?i am not sure and what you think?in either case,Thanks!
hey,Superb article dude! i am just Fed up with using RSS feeds and do you use twitter?so i can follow you there:D.
PS:Have you thought to be putting video to the blog to keep the readers more interested?I think it works.Sincerely, Alec Burruss
I have joined and paid for the Arbitage conspirancy my concerns are I receive all sorts of material from different people and am unable to get anyone to answer my question as to who actually is running the show.
We are due to comence on the 5th of Jan so we shall see.
Hi Jason,
Why does jasonfladlien.com resolve to Robert Plank’s blog?
Best regards, Gren.
Dear Jason,
Congratulations on your new blog. We all need to pay attention to the fundamentals, building a solid foundation for lift-off or the next level. CPA is not where most of us belong right now, regardless of the quality of any CPA product.
I’ve watched the rapid rise you and Robert Plank have experienced with interest, admiration, and pride. I’m proud to associate my name with anything you do.
All the best,
Mary Greene
Rich Motivation
Hi Jason,
Glad you to see you have started a blog. I am adding a comment to give encouragement. I’ve now bought several of your products.
Your observations about the arbitrage conspiracy are interesting. I found their launch a time consuming waste and circus rather than an exciting and involving experience that drew me in. I gave up on it. The concept will be there to exploit in a month or two, or it IS a waste of time.
FYI, David Vallieres is launching a new $47 mini-product on the back of their bungling giving what he believes to be an overview of their approach.
Thought you might be interested in the following received from Charles Heflin of SEO2020.com and highly respected in the internet marketing world.:
Hi Joe Watson,
This is just a warning to steer far and clear from a promotion
going around the IM industry called The Arbitrage Conspiracy.
I used to be heavily involved in CPA marketing and arbitrage…
This is not an easy business, it used to be extremely profitable
for me. I was making over $200k some months.
I got out of it for a reason … the reason is simple … It’s too
competitive. There are only a “finite” number of products that work
through this strategy and 10 times out of 10, the products that DO
work already have someone running arbitrage so then you have to
compete with that person which lowers your profit margin.
Multiply that times 3 – 5 people and you’re having price wars for
pennies… Not worth the effort anymore. There are tools that you
can use to optimize your performance and locate areas of untapped
opportunity so be prepared for deep research before getting into
arbitrage.
Another issue is that you need a lump sum of cash to finance your
PPC costs for 30 – 60 days before you get paid by the major CPA
networks. Be prepared to have a significant sum of cash on hand to
bankroll your exploration and research. It will likely cost you a
good bit of money to discover areas of opportunity.
NOW … with this guy releasing The Arbitrage Conspiracy it will
make matters worse. More competition, lower profit margins, etc.
When I was making good money with arbitrage back in 2005 – 2007,
nobody knew what I was doing and I didn’t care to tell anyone about
it either. You have to immediately question why a person
“supposedly” making 100k per day would want to ruin it for
themselves for the peanuts they will receive from unsuspecting
IMers. My guess is that they came to the same conclusion I did …
you could probably make more money selling information about
arbitrage than you could practicing it.
Now multiply that times the number of gurus promoting it and you
could get a fair idea of how quickly the release of this material
will ruin the industry.
This is just a heads up…
Charles Heflin
SEO20/20
I found this to be very enlightening.
Joe
Congrats on the blog. Undoubtedly, even more opportunities for the world to become exposed to the wisdom of Jason.
I have to say how much I appreciate your emails, your ideas and your prowess.
So glad I am part of your list.
Keep up the excellent work.
~Carin
Jason:
It is amazing what you see when you look at these launches from a “new” perspective. One thing that I have noticed as an affiliate for a lot of these bigger launches (I was not promoting this particular product) is the repeated lack of responsibility that is taken for problems that occur around and during the launch.
I know that there are a few that I were extremely profitable (for me) that I will not promote in the future just because of that.
Can you give some info on the Poor Man’s Launch product? Is this going to be actual case studies of the launches with analysis (ala the Halbert Swipe videos)?
Mindmaps of each launch/strategy?
I think I need this…
Lance
Jason,
Looks like you made the ten posts
.
I ignored the whole thing because it sound like a scam to me. Unknown making a zillion dollars in ten days and wants to tell the world how he does it already. What for? With the big guru names signing on it appears to be usual back slapping party and everyone wins except……….
At risk of being redundant, you are the real deal. Thanks for keeping your integrity in world of greed.
Keep up the good work.
I stayed away from this launched because of the email I received from Charles Heflin of SEO2020…
“This is just a warning to steer far and clear from a promotion
going around the IM industry called The Arbitrage Conspiracy.
I used to be heavily involved in CPA marketing and arbitrage…
This is not an easy business, it used to be extremely profitable
for me. I was making over $200k some months.
I got out of it for a reason … the reason is simple … It’s too
competitive. There are only a “finite” number of products that work
through this strategy and 10 times out of 10, the products that DO
work already have someone running arbitrage so then you have to
compete with that person which lowers your profit margin.
Multiply that times 3 – 5 people and you’re having price wars for
pennies… Not worth the effort anymore. There are tools that you
can use to optimize your performance and locate areas of untapped
opportunity so be prepared for deep research before getting into
arbitrage.
Another issue is that you need a lump sum of cash to finance your
PPC costs for 30 – 60 days before you get paid by the major CPA
networks. Be prepared to have a significant sum of cash on hand to
bankroll your exploration and research. It will likely cost you a
good bit of money to discover areas of opportunity.
NOW … with this guy releasing The Arbitrage Conspiracy it will
make matters worse. More competition, lower profit margins, etc.
When I was making good money with arbitrage back in 2005 – 2007,
nobody knew what I was doing and I didn’t care to tell anyone about
it either. You have to immediately question why a person
“supposedly” making 100k per day would want to ruin it for
themselves for the peanuts they will receive from unsuspecting
IMers. My guess is that they came to the same conclusion I did …
you could probably make more money selling information about
arbitrage than you could practicing it.
Now multiply that times the number of gurus promoting it and you
could get a fair idea of how quickly the release of this material
will ruin the industry.
This is just a heads up…”
Looks like the blog continues… 10+ posts
Excellent!
This launch left me totally cold and I wasn’t sure why but after Jason’s post Im thinking that the reason was the incongruency between the price they where asking and their motives behind offering the product.
Im glad you finally got a blog up Jason. Looking foward to lots of thought provoking posts.
Glenn
Got a question for you Jason, sorry its not related to the abitrage conspiracy report, that didn’t interest me for the same reason as Jude said (I would prefer to provide real value to people for a nice profit so its win win.)
I was listening to your instant expert program and I decided to master forum posting/relationship building as the first skill I learn. As you said people are more important than information so what do you think makes a good forum poster and I’m guessing its alot more than giving useful actionable content.
thanks
Matt
Hi Jason,
Thanks for sharing your opinions about various products and for raising the bar by offering us such fantastic products.
I read another interesting post by Jerry West who was bagging the Arbitrage Product.
http://www.johncow.com/dont-buy-cpa-arbitrage-conspiracy/
Enjoy.
Jason,
your insight on the arbitrage launch is a good summary for beginners to learn from. as a beginner who is fascinated by all things “internet marketing”, I always enjoy reflections/analysis of events in the IM world. the more I read your emails, and delve into your product, “IM Time Management System”, the more I realize you’re an IM thinker very much worth listening to.
i think a lot of us will be pointing to your blog now for insight/advice.
cheers,
carmelita
Well, for me I wasn’t really interested with Arbitrage methodology.
Let me see I have this right…
You purchase Pay Per Click ads, which in turn advertise Cost-Per-Action opportunities (A CPA is a company willing to pay you, the affiliate, for a certain action, such as a sign up for more info, or someone purchasing a ‘trial subscription).
To make this work, you spend *less* advertising than you make with the CPA, thus making a nice profit in the end…
Well, to me this is moreover than not helping the companies more than the people paying or signing up in the end. Sure, maybe someone would like cheaper insurance, or information on an online college – but many of the methods used to make this work seem unethical to me…
Such as “Win a FREE XXX (XBox 360, Wii, iPhone, you name it…) when you sign up or follow through with (3, 5, 7) of our ‘partners’!”
Now, let me be clear: I have not purchased the Arbitrage Conspiracy, and what I said above could be far from what they teach. But from my personal experience, this is what I have come to know as the ‘Arbitrage Truth’.
In the end, I feel creating products or performing services that answers a true need for the people is the way to go. No ‘Black Hat’ techniques – just honestly wanting to help and serve your customers.
That is why I love buying from Jason Fladlien — He never leads us astray, and he really does help us with what we need to know.
{Stepping off of my soapbox now…}
I am looking forward to your membership site, Jason. And I am excited to see your next blog post!
–Jude–
Since I bought one your first product I felt you were someone different
in the IM market and one I anticipated a successful a career.
After buying many of your products I have not changed my mind (yet.)
I´m sure you can reach anything you set your mind into, Jason.
All the best!
Paulo
Thanks Jason,
I enjoyed your post.
Personally I ignored all of the emails from the Arbitrage Conspiracy. At this point I think I have most of the information I need. Quite a few of them coming from you actually.
Now it’s just a matter of implementing and mastering these concepts I already have.
Keep up the great work,
Roger Haeske
41-Year-Old Mind – Teenage Body
Jason,
What a thought provoking post. You absolutely hit the nail on the head with something I failed to mention about — you’re right: their reason why did not connect with the price point.
My opinion is that their reason why was “manufactured”. Being smart marketers, they knew they had to have a reason why — so they thought real long and hard and came up with something to justify making this product available.
Just goes to show you can do something that’s technically correct, but still doesn’t work. There’s more of an “art” to product launches than a science or a formula. That’s why I’ve been big on coaching — I was helping a copywriting client with their hook and headline. Technically, it was a correct headline, but I showed them how to really make on a deeper, more emotional level. Sometimes technique actually gets in your way, which was the case here.
There was a complete emotional disconnect from the reason why to the price offered… it doesn’t didn’t make sense. The rush was launched, came across as amateurish, but in the end it goes to show you that if you get a huge number of Joint venture partners to sing your praise, and have a good story, you can still make a really good pay day.
This follows my point I made in my “8 mistakes” report that people are more important than information. Which is another reason I’m working hard on a membership site, because it can create a tight knit community where people can help each other out, not just with information but with connections, resources and collaborative effort.
Thanks!
Jason Fladlien
Jason,
Those were excellent points. However, there was one point which I feel that you kind of touched on, but wasn’t what enraged me about this launch.
I’m used to big product launches by now. I’m used to seeing the high $ amount attached to these types of big products. What really pissed me off most about this product, was in fact the price point.
The creator supposedly makes $50,000 a day on a bad day. As you stated, the excuse they gave for launching this product, was so they could launch their own CPA network, and have a small army ready to promote their products.
It was for this very reason they gave, that I was expecting a price tag more in line with $97-$147. Not the sticker shocking price they had.
I’m being honest, when I say, this really did PISS me off. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that the price they were asking was a fair price, considering you could probably take their methods, apply them, and have your purchase price back fairly quickly and easily.
However, as you said in your post, the reasoning they gave for launching this product did not equal the expectation of the pricing point.
When someone tells me they want to help train me so I can better help them sell more copies of their product, or get them more traffic, or get them more clout, that, to me, implies that I will pay a small amount, for said training. I don’t expect it to be free, because then you just wind up with tire kickers and people who won’t really help you at all.
On the same token, I don’t expect to pay thousands when your reasoning behind the product is that you are helping me, to help you fatten your wallet (besides fattening your wallet because I’m buying your product, which if they used the reasons you mentioned, then the price tag would have made more sense. )
I agree, these big launch big priced products are getting out of control and the excuses and “server crashes” bull shit are very annoying to me. I long for the days when you would be scoffed at if you asked for anything more than $250 for a quality product. The very people these big launches are claiming they want to help, are the very people they are alienating with their credit card maxing price tags.
It really is no wonder why new people in IM, or even outsiders looking at it, think of “snake oil salesman”
Jason
Jason,
It’s not at jasonfladlien.com?
I’d recommend that you change your permalinks to something custom like %postname%.
I agree. I’m not at all impressed with the execution of this launch.
Jason,
Interesting thoughts on Arbitrage Conspiracy. I certainly agree that they should have done more work on the “why” part. My starting point, when I read their copy, was to think “Why would someone earning this much bother with all this?”. You’ve suggested some reasons for why they might be doing this and I can see that these are possible but they should have spelt them out more clearly.
I’m interested in the membership site certainly. Your material is of great quality. The think the biggest challenge for you both will be to keep up the quality of the material. You’ve both produced a lot recently and it’s not always easy to keep up the quality.
Looking forward to seeing more detail.
Thanks
Andrew
On the button as usual Jason! look forward to joining the new Fladlien-Plant Membership World Tour!
I will write more but am under the weather today..
Good fortune to you both,
Robin
Hello Jason,
Congrats on your BLOG !! its looks simple and clear from clutter
I agree with your thoughts on Launch…it appeared as though sales copy was done by an amateur..
could u give more info on the membership site which u are planning… and i hope it would be affordable!!
Pavan
I remember the arbitrage conspiracy vaguely. I wasn’t impressed. However, I am impressed to learn more about your venture with Robert and of course your freebies. I would love to read how you have successfully created your products and marketed them. You have a fascinating mind. I’m glad you don’t mind sharing it with the rest of us.
Take care and I hope you get your 10 because we wouldn’t want to miss your meanderings. . .